Arling & Cameron
Arling & Cameron excel at making everything-but-the-kitchen-sink, pop-savvy dance music. Kitsch, clever influences abound, some of them retro, some contemporary, coming at you so fast and furious most don't have time to register. But with their impeccable style and smirking humor, this dynamic Dutch duo makes all styles their own.
We Are A & C
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2001
Buffalo Daughter
This vibrant and fresh Tokyo trio has been reinventing music for close to a decade, shaping colorful rock chimeras out of a reverence for '70s gonzo electronics, lots of feisty garage rock energy, a fascination for modern club and hip hop beats, and plenty more. There's lots of cultural appropriation here, but it comes in the service of a new and compelling musical vision.
I
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2002
Bertrand Burgalat
Talk about music for the jet set. Esteemed French producer Bertrand Burgalat -- called by some the Phil Spector of Europe -- crafts lush, exotic, electronic pop with heavy hints of the Cocktail Nation ethos, spy soundtrack melodrama, drum and bass tension, and modern synth-loving indie rock. Grab your martini and get ready to get decadent.
The SSSound of MMMusic
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2001
Call and Response
Lighter than cotton candy, and sweeter too. Call and Response (aka C.A.R.) get right down to the essence of California summer with their delightfully playful pop songs. Endlessly cheerful, kaleidoscopic, and groovy, with harmonies that never quit and keyboard lines that go on for miles.
Call and Response
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2001
Cato Salsa Experience
Righteous and frenzied garage rock that's a near dead ringer for the bombastic proto-punk and proto-metal of late '60s England and America, but which actually comes from a present-day Norwegian quartet.
A Good Tip for a Good Time
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2002
Daedelus
Santa Monica-based Daedelus is a representative of the new breed of bedroom artists, a cut-and-paste wizard with his thumb on the pulse of the future. His whimsical brand of abstract electronic is deeply nostalgic for bygone eras while maintaining a stunning originality that looks decades ahead.
Dublab Presents: Freeways
The Quiet Party
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2003
Golden Boy with Miss Kittin
When he's working under his Golden Boy guise, Swiss artist and photographer Stefan Altenburger delivers sleek electro-pop that's stylish, seductive, and very European.
Or
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2002
The Maxwell Implosion
This German DJ and his international stable of assistants sets the laidback, sensual mood for the ultimate hipster's cocktail ball with a swanky signature style that encompasses funk, bossa nova, soul, jazz, downtempo, and more.
Small Circle of Friends
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2002
Mellow
French electro-pop trio Mellow crafts contemporary homages to '60s psychedelia and '70s progressive with 21st Century instrumentation and studio tools. If Syd Barrett were still making music, it might sound like this.
Another Mellow Spring
CQ
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2002
Money Mark
Unofficial fourth Beastie Boy Money Mark gets hips swingin' with his smooth flowin', mostly instrumental, style-shuffling organ-happy soul-jazz funkdowns.
Change Is Coming
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2001
Mount Sims
Mount Sims's electro-infused take on "techno-sexuality" emerges from a confluence of performance art, barrier-free carnality, and a none-too-healthy admiration for all things mechanical.
Ultra Sex
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2002
The Olivia Tremor Control
The granddaddy of the sprawling, amorphous Elephant 6 Collective, the now more-or-less defunct Olivia Tremor Control married the progressive sounds of the latter-day Beatles with Krautrock, psychedelia, musique concrete, free noise, and pretty much everything else they could get their hands on, to create dense, labyrinthine, and utterly magical experimental pop opuses.
Presents: Singles and Beyond
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2000
The Sunshine Fix
One of the two pop geniuses behind the Olivia Tremor Control, Bill Doss has moved on to a more straightforward brand of giddy psychedelic pop with The Sunshine Fix, which substitutes mellow soul and country influences for obtuse experimentalism. Lush, relaxed, and optimistic California pop.
Age of the Sun
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2001
Mia Doi Todd
Mia Doi Todd rarely comes at you with more than her lovely voice and an acoustic guitar, but her approach is miles away from the legions of voice-and-guitar singer-songwriters roaming the earth. Her stark, haunting, nakedly poetic material cuts right to the emotional quick.
Dublab Presents: Freeways
