Electroqueer

Electrowoman: frYars' Green Eyes Are Not A Problem Of Mine...

It’s probable you may not have been acquainted with London songster Ben Garrett AKA FrYars before. I stumbled upon "Olive Eyes" from his soon to be released EP "Perfidy" (out March 17th) on one of My-Spaceland adventures last week. Let’s just say that once my Extra Virgin "Olive Eyes" cherry was popped, every subsequent listening experience has been down right pleasurable.

This melodious offering isn’t indicative of FrYars other material. If you were to put essences of Patrick Wolf, Nick Cave and Royksopp into a great big melting pot – stir add a slosh of "Radioheadness" - well then you would have something that resembles the electronica/alternative/Indie stew that FrYars is really all about.

If I’m honest it’s a hotpot that’s in need of a little bit more seasoning of keyboard wizardry, but that’s just my preference – as I feel "Olive Eyes" is far superior.  Wanna here some of the FrYars broth for yourself? Well slide your cursor over here to be teleported over the the space page in a mere soupcon.

For yet more FrYars tuck, get yourselves down to one of Goldfrapp’s show's in June - where this maestro of keys is being served up as the "Frapp’s" entrée. (Yeah I know the pun’s are real real bad but I just got a bit carried away!)

"Olive Eyes"

Guestblogger Electrowoman Gets Her Fix On Hot Chip!

   

The most hyped electro offering of 2008 thus far, hit the high street shelves a few weeks ago.  Yeah you know what I’m referring to is Hot Chip's new album 'Made In The Dark' – only monkeys on the moon have probably avoided the media promotion surrounding this release.  Since lil ol EW had a burning curiosity about it, I managed to bag myself a purchase at a barginous £5.  But it now looks like the fiver now seems to have inflated to £7.99 and I have therefore, been listening it all week.

It occurred to me that Mr. Blogstar Rajabulous has NOT a single day off blogging in months, so I thought I’d give the owner of the EQ Empire an opportunity to tools down for the day whilst I’ll attempt to occupy you EQs with my usual "banter-cum-review" style on Hot Chip's latest...

The album opener "Out At The Pictures" has one of the longest intros in the history of electro me thinks! A synthesized drone of 1min 10 secs no less!  If you can however, wait out the full 2 minutes until Alexis Taylor entertains with his comical lyrics based around the UK’s No 1 value for money hostely "Wetherspoons" then it does turn out a teensy bit exciting after all.

"Shake A Fist" see’s the boyz really playing with their keys – glorious rhythmic pulses make way for a "sounds of the studio" interlude – crazee but genius – sorta Chemical Brothers-cum-Space Invaders. Other tracks "Bendable Poseable"/"Don’t Dance" all very similar in style – as Alexis instructs "Crank up those headphones EQ’s!"

Without doubt the kookies fabbiest track of the collection is the current single release "Ready For The Floor". I don’t think I need to elaborate more as for once the Great British public and I see eye-to-eye and have sent this track spinning faster than a mirrorball into a top 10 position in our hit-parade.
If however, you are an EQ-er not from our little plot on the planet or are from Britannia but have had your woolly hat pulled too tightly over your ears during the last 2 months and haven’t heard, then you can check out "The Chips" live performance on the Jonathan Ross Show at the end of this summary.

"Ready For The Floor" is by no means the only quirksome lil ditty on offer here. "Touch Too Much" -has a flava reminiscent to that of New Order, whereas "Wrestlers" although rather plinkety plonk in it’s notation has the lyrical repetition that previous Hot Chip smash "Over and Over" had back on their 2006 album release "The Warning".

Amongst the throbbing throng of electro-beatz nestles a smattering of introspective electronica ballads. My personal favourite being the trancy dreamy "Were Looking For A Lot Of Love" – for me this is on the of the best electro lurve toones I’ve heard since EQ Royale member Darren Hayes – "The Only One".
The next single release is slated as being "One Pure Thought" a more guitar infused offering that makes EW ponder how well it will fair after the pure electrofest of "Ready For The Floor".

All in all there’s been enough dancy keyboard fabulousity to satisfy EW’s music whore hunger and to justify the fiver I spent. 

Finally a few other interesting "Chips facts" for you...

• Did you know that Kylie approached them for contributions for her "X" album?
• Guitarist Al Doyle tours with LCD Soundsystem!
• Vocalist Alexis is recording an album with Green Gartside AKA 80’s Scritti Politti!

Well if that isn’t enough "Chips" info to quell your curious EQ’s requirements then you might likey to take a looky looky at their myspazzage. Or alternatively just enter "Hot Chip" into that "Gurgle" search engine thingy and it’ll be ever so obliging and reward you with links galore to clicky clicky on.

Hot Chip - Ready for the Floor (Live on Jonathan Ross 2008)

Electrowoman: Let Us Introduce You To Electrovamp…

Kally (17) and Tammy (18) Jay are not only sisters but are probably the youngest sassiest electro/pop chicks with attitude on the planet right now. Their debut single 'I Don't Like The Vibe In the VIP', is guaranteed to get you shaking your peaches and cream or even your bananas – dependent upon what kind of fruity persuasion you are!.

This is a FUN little ditty that you're gonna dance to at the office party once you've consumed lots of festive spirits – and a few days later it'll probably bore the fruity thangs right off of ya – but it is Christmas after all - a time for fun, frivolity and frolics!

Electrowoman, whose a lurver particularly of down right dirty electro beats couldn't resist the pounding bassline and "Luciana" (Body Rox – Yeah Yeah) style vocals. She's been pogoing and shaking her peachy thangs to it so much that she's turned herself into a fruit smoothie.

Go show your patronage over at the "Vamps" MySpace – where you'll not only find some rather tasty remixes but also a fun little "Electrovamp" game where you can brush up on your pillow fighting, chandelier swinging and TV trashing techniques. TIP: I find that your score improves tenfold if you conjure up the imagine of the popstar you absolutely detest – in my case it's James Blunt and it works well I tell you! 

Downloadable from 21st December or in the shops on New Years Eve, it's not such a bad way to spend your gift card from dear old Aunty Mavis. In fact it's the perfect tune to burn off your Christmas Day gluttony to, getting your bod all trim again for New Year – EW says hoorah for the gurlies!

From EQ:  Thanks EW for this one and check out Worrapolava's blog on them last November!  We even hear Electrovamp will be supporting Booty Luv at G-A-Y on New Years Eve too!  Megs darling, I am expecting that you will have a good comment on these sexy ladies... 

Electrowoman: A Little Bit O Sugar At Bedtime...

Howdy EQs – tis Mrs. Electrowoman here once more, this time on the sly hee hee…I've managed to crack EQ's blog password and have wormed myself into his oh so lovely blogworld.  So whilst I'm here rummaging through all his heels and hot-pants, I'm tying to locate his golden envelope with the all important names of Electroqueer Of The Year 2007 contained within.  But whilst I'm doing that, maybe you will allow me to indulge you with a little electro pop tidbit that is currently cartwheeling around my crazy little ol brain.

Now let me tell you EQs there’s nothing Mrs. EW likes better than to partake in a bit of musical channel hopping and bopping before I snuggle myself up in my duvet for the evening.  I was doing just that a few weeks back, when I suddenly became very perky and alert after I stumbled upon this rather twinkly electro tune 'Chelsea Girls' by David E. Sugar.

Unfortunately Mr Sugar’s MySpace profile doesn't give too much low down on the chap, but it does have 'Chelsea Girls' playing along with a track entitled 'Fingers On The Button', that I’m also quite partial too!Not being deterred by the lack of knowledge on MySpace, I went further trawling through the interweb and I've managed to unearth a BBC interview with Mr. Sugar (David and not Alan!) and I can tell you this:

Apparently he has been playing to large European crowds since 2004.  His early tunes were created by a process called "circuit bending", which involves hacking into chips and software in gayboys… (whoops that’s not quite right - correction: gameboys) …mmmm on second thoughts probably one and the same. Mmm…intriguingly sounds odd? – but really is rather clever.  Oh, and he toured this year with the Scrawny Scottish chap whose into "pop music but not sorta like pop dance electro music (That’s what Tina of Dragonette refers to him as) Calvin Harris. It would appear a bit of Calvin rubbed off on David if you listen to 'Chelsea Girls' - ha ha yeah!

Oh, looky looky here I found the envelope!  And EW is well excited as she now knows who is EQ of the Year 2007!  Oooh really Raj, that’s altogether a rather marvelous choice!  Take note EQs, EW will not be bribed to divulge the info – not for a bar full of Smirnoff Ice and not even for a signed Darren Hayes CD!  I'm off now to tidy up my window box, prune my wilting weeds and plant some winter pansies, I’ll bid you adieu for the duration with the video for 'Chelsea Girls' courtesy of YouTube.  - EW

Are We Overpowered By - Roisin Murphy?...

Raj says:  Say hello to one of our favourite ladies who I have come to know and love - let's call her 'Electrowoman' shall we?!  Electrowoman is a huge part of my blog and if it wasn't for her, it's hard to say that EQ would have gotten any hits at all.  It's true.  She's an adorable little gal and completely gets everything that I go on about.  If I were to get hit by a bus tomorrow, only she could take over this blog for me.  So having said that, Electrowoman has written up a little diddy for us on the one and only Roisin Murphy who has blown up so big now, that even she can't quite believe it and has banged her little nogin up in disbelief.  Take it away EW...

You may have noticed EQ has had quite a liking for Roisin Murphy lately, both 'Overpowered' and 'Let Me Know' have been featured in the EQ Chart with the funky ladies videos currently available for you to oogle over in our EQ TV section.

So what’s the low down on the long player?  Well in a nutshell it’s a heady mix of soulful electronic funk, all encasing some rather well thought out lyrics.  Roisin has taken on board a very credible band of producers with the workmanship of Andy Cato (Groove Armada), Seiji (Bugz In The Attic) and Richard X all being being present on this soul driven, glittery disco stomper.

The quirkier sounding tracks such as 'Dear Miami' , 'Tell Everybody', and 'Body Language' all interweave their way quite effortlessly around the more dancier tracks 'Cry Baby' and 'Movie Star'.  The later being quite Goldfrapp-esque it has to be said.  Notably the album version of 'Let Me Know' has a breathtaking acoustic vocal intro that we could quite easily have had more of.  It’s not always good to hear some tracks stripped raw but this would have been welcome purchase amongst all those 'Let Me Know' remixes on iTunes.

Other than the two releases to date, hopefully Roisin will endulge us by releasing 'You Know Me Better' as a future single, we can but hope!  So to answer the question "Are we Overpowered by Roisin Murphy?"

Yes Roisin you get a triumphant thumbs up from EQ.

More Roisin Murphy...

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/roisinmurphy

Roisin performs 'Overpowered' for Gucci - Live at Swarovski Fashion Rocks for The Prince's Trust.