Yes, I've Been Black But When I Come Back

To begin with, I was a firm supporter of Frankmusik and tried to force his early Frankisum EP release on anybody that crossed my path.

However, the majority of his releases since then have fallen short of that standard, with the exception of his excellent collaboration with Computer Club, 'Losing Streak'. When his debut album, Complete Me, finally surfaced, the magic from his early demos was strangely absent and the whole project seemed a little overcooked.

Earlier today, however, he unleashed his 'Long Live Frankmusik' EP, which you can download free of charge here.

The EP's four tracks remind me of the reasons why I first took to his music so enthusiastically and suggest that album number two might be the one that changes everything:

Frankmusik - Warrior by thebubbleboy

Frankmusik - Our Discovery (Tribute to Daft Punk) by thebubbleboy

This is an older track I stumbled across in my iTunes today. Probably not to everyone's tastes, but I kind of dig it.

Frankmusik - Rehab (Amy Winehouse Cover) by thebubbleboy

Imagine None Of This Is Real

Last weekend, at the Pukkelpop festival in Belgium, a misjudged stage-dive by Charles Haddon of London-based synthpop outfit Ou Est Le Swimming Pool resulted in the serious injury of a female fan.

It's been reported that, following the incident, members of the band were embroiled in a furious argument backstage. Hours later, Haddon was found dead in a car park, having commit suicide.

As a tribute to the late singer, whose promising career has been cut cruelly short, Frankmusik recorded this impassioned acoustic cover of the band's debut single, Dance The Way I Feel.

Frankmusik - Dance The Way I Feel



The dubiously-monikored eMDeeeMA have re-jigged Frankmusik's cover, setting it to some bleeps and squelches. The raw intensity of the acoustic version is blunted somewhat, but it's still pretty lovely.

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool - Dance the Way I Feel (FRANKMUSIK cover) (eMDeeeMA Remix) by eMDeeeMA

Ou Est Le Swimming Pool will release their debut album, The Golden Year, in October.

Just Like A Pill

An artist I've watched with keen interest since first being introduced to him by Illegal Tender in early 2009 is electro whizz-kid The Aspirins For My Children.

Eimear and I played some of his earlier tracks like 'Hollow Out' and 'Cutter' to death but then, after a clutch of great remixes for the likes of Frankmusik and Marina & The Diamonds, it all got very quiet and seemed as though The Aspirins had been, um, swallowed.

Thankfully, in the past couple of months, TAFMC (aka 23-year-old Daniel Barker) has returned with a clutch of new material, including collaborations with the rather brilliant Talking Pictures.

Here's a couple of my picks of his stuff but I'd seriously encourage delving into his Tumblr and SoundCloud account.

TAFMC featuring Talking Pictures - Someone Else by theaspirinsformychildren

TAFMC - Confusion Girl (FrankMusik Remix) by theaspirinsformychildren

The Good Natured - Your Body Is A Machine (The Aspirins For My Children Remix)

Hear The Bass, Skinny Waist, Now Let's Copy Poker Face...

Have been a tad infatuated with this parody of Ke$ha's 'Tik Tok' since Kelly drew my attention to it a few days ago.

The Midnight Beast Feat. St£fan - Tik Tok



Not-so-interesting fact: Stefan was one half of slightly-cheesy pop duo The Clik Clik who probably should have had a decent-sized hit with this Frankmusik remix of their song 'Did You Wrong'.

Stars In Her Eyes

It comes as no major surprise that Brit Award Critics' Choice winner Ellie Goulding has topped the BBC's 'Sound of 2010' poll of music industry gurus in the UK.

Since being alerted to her considerable talents by The Guardian's 'New Band of the Day' writer Ellie Goulding last February, Eimear and I have been devoted fans and it's been fascinating to watch her ascent to the big league.

Until shortly before then, Ellie had been performing folksy songs on her guitar but, after boldly asking Frankmusik via Myspace to produce her songs, she wound up recording 'Wish I Stayed'.

Teaming Ellie's ethereal warbling with shimmering synths and spluttering beats, Frankmusik crafted something quite fresh-sounding that soon had bloggers getting all hot and bothered.

Ellie was still unsigned when Frankmusik introduced her to producer Fin Dow Smith (aka Starsmith) in January 2009 but, within days of meeting, the pair began recording tracks what were to form the basis of her solo album, which was completed earlier this week.

Here's hoping that Ellie copes with the hype and isn't as burdened by the 'Sound of 2010' tag as Little Boots seemed to be by the 'Sound of 2009' one. Her album is due out on the 1st of March but, in the meantime, expect to hear 'Starry Eyed' played A LOT.

Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed - free MP3 download



Meanwhile, this dubstep remix by the utterly superb Jakwob might just be 2010's answer to Skream's 'Lets Get Ravey' remix of La Roux's 'In For The Kill'. i.e. HUGE

Ellie Goulding - Starry Eyed (Jakwob Remix) - free MP3 download

Mary Poppins Moment

This shot from Vincent Frank's forthcoming video for 'Confusion Girl' is great. The track has been re-swizzed for Frank's forthcoming album 'Complete Me'. The new edit is a bit crisper but, personally, I still prefer the original demo:



'Confusion Girl' will be available from July 6th.

Frankmusik vs. Wino

I had kind of lost interest in Frankmusik until his recent 'Live and Lost' project, whereby he hitch-hikes his way from one end of Great Britain to the other, performing along the way and documenting his exploits on Myspace and Twitter.

Now comes a fantastic cover version of Amy Winehouse's 'Rehab', which you can download from here courtesy of Pretty Much Amazing.

I realise 'Rehab' has been done to death and appreciate that anyone averse to electropop will despise this but I, for one, think it's marvellous.

Frankly, My Dear...

I've been an ardent supporter of Frankmusik ever since Popjustice brought the lovely Vincent Frank to my attention about eighteen months ago.

Since then, he's signed to a major record label, released a couple of EP's, and been shortlisted for the BBC 'Sound of 2009'. In recent months, he's worked with producer Stuart Price on tracks for his imminent album release. Price rarely delivers anything short of brilliant but I can't help but feel that many of the re-recordings of the Frankmusik tracks that have begun surfacing on his Myspace are a little over-cooked and inferior to the original demos.

After hearing the Frankmusik remix of Lady Gaga's 'Eh, Eh', which manages the difficult task of making a dud of a track even worse, I was beginning to suspect that Frankmusik had gone off the boil. Then I stumbled across this video for his next single 'Better Off as Two' today and it has allayed my doubts somewhat.

The track is relatively untouched from the original demo and the video is a lot less cringe-inducing than his last effort for 'Three Little Words'. (Frankmusik: Human. Definitely not dancer.)



If the team behind Frank have any sense at all, they'll follow this release with the Boys Noize remix of 'When You're Around'.

Oh, Crystal Ball

Following on from the last post, BBC have unveiled those in the race to be The Next Big Thing in 2009. The good news is that a couple of artists I've been championing have made the cut (Lady Gaga, Frankmusik). There are a couple of others I've heard promising stuff from (Little Boots, La Roux) and plenty I will be checking out over the next few days (er... everyone else.)

Here's the BBC Sound of 2009 list in full and a nice collage of the artists:

The Big Pink
Dan Black
VV Brown
Empire of the Sun
Florence and the Machine
Frankmusik
Kid Cudi
La Roux
Lady Gaga
Little Boots
Master Shortie
Mumford & Sons
Passion Pit
The Temper Trap
White Lies


Courtesy of: Persona Sauna

Even if he doesn't figure in the shortlist when it's announced over the next few weeks, at least Dan Black wins the prize for most boring name.

More info on Sound of 2009 here.