When is there never time for more guitar-fuelled sex-synth? Chromeo’s first new single release since 2007, ‘Night by Night’ was released as a free download over the weekend and as always, it doesn’t fail to hit the spot. Grab our mirror below or check out the Green Label site.

The track’s ID3 is listed as Track 1 of 3 so here’s hoping an official release comes later (perhaps with a b-side? pretty please?)

MP3 Download: Chromeo – Night by Night

myspace.com/chromeo

facebook.com/chromeo

‘Night by Night’ is out now on the Green Label Sound.

Shall we call this ‘Classics Friday’ ? I think so.

Take this one from Feist and Chromeo, I remember hearing this on Myspace before Feist had hit it big with ‘1234′ and before ‘Fancy Footwork‘ had arrived. I hope they both come back with new material soon.

I love the disco twinge which Chromeo do so well. It’s been so inspirational to many acts today, perhaps not as much as the first time around! But still pretty big.

MP3 Download: Feist – Sealion (Chromeo Remix)

myspace.com/feist

facebook.com/feist

myspace.com/chromeo

facebook.com/pages/Chromeo/24628319484

Feist’s debut album ‘The Reminder’, is out now. Chromeo’s fantastic sophomore release ‘Fancy Footwork’ is again, out now. Both come in lovely deluxe editions packed with a second CD filled with remixes.

One man band Alan Wilkis has been on my A-list for quite some time now. Pop may well be eating itself, but there’s no harm in having a dance along the way right?

I picked up latest EP ‘Pink And Purple‘ for its attractive and exciting cover art, but what was behind it was an impressionable beast waiting to be uncovered. At 6 tracks strong, the EP works in a way that makes it self contained, but there are so many varying styles and sounds covered here.

Straight out of Brooklyn, Alan Wilkis is an extremely talented multi-instrumentalist. From the funky guitar lines to the high-pitch vocal hook-lines, it’s all here. Often compared to acts like Chromeo and Jamie Lidell, Wilkis’ inspiration is drawn purely from the golden age of pop with acts like Prince, Rick James, The Pointer Sisters (if you’re listening Alan, I’ll be your best friend if you performed a cover of ‘Automatic’), Madonna and Phil Collins making up his repertoire of sound.

Each track has so many various different styles and covers a lot of ground. Opening with ‘Snuggle Up To Nail Down’ is a cheesy pop-fest including a clever chorus and some sexface pulling guitar riffs. If this track doesn’t hook you I’m not sure what will. ‘N.I.C.E’ is like the Sesame Street tribute to Electro Funk with its sing along spelling lessons, Sega Mega Drive nostalgia and tongue-in-cheek irony-laced lyrics, a perfect juxtaposition to the opener. Third track ‘Gotta Get You Back’ oddly enough really reminds me of the Scissor Sisters vocalist Jake Shears, and I swear Wilkis is playing a Gameboy somewhere in here. Title track ‘Pink And Purple’ is the perfect late-night driving track with some of the best synth solos I’ve heard in years. The EP finishes off with ‘Time Machine’, a fantastic voyage into emotionally driven pop-rock, this really reminds me of the amazing Tangerine Dream soundtrack to the Ridley Scott film ‘Legend’, switching into something quite Pink Floyd like when that guitar kicks in – scrumptious!

With vintage synths, an 808, vocoders and many a handclap, ‘Pink and Purple‘ is a wonderful homage to the history of pop, and music itself. Buy. This. Now.

MP3 Download: Alan Wilkis – Pink And Purple

myspace.com/alanwilkis

facebook.com/pages/Alan-Wilkis/19859288720

Alan Wilkis on Spotify

Alan Wilkis’ second release ‘Pink And Purple’ is out now. You can pick it up on CD from BigCartel or digitally via iTunes. Rumours are escalating about a colab. release between Wilkis and fellow Brookly-based act Project Jenny, Project Jan is on the cards. We’ll keep you updated.

The show in question is called ‘Yo Gabba Gabba‘ and does seem to be the coolest kids show out there. With guest appearances from Datarock, the Ting Tings, Jack Black, Jimmy Eat World, Shiny Toy Guns, Tony Hawk AND Chromeo, I wish they had stuff like this when I was young.

Notice how David NEVER even pretends to be using that guitar? Amazing.

Yeah Yeah, I too saw the adverts posted all around the blogosphere and immediately wrote it off as a gimmick which would probably use some sort of peer to peer system to determine what track length and waveform your mp3 is usually tagged as.

I didn’t believe in the tech behind it, and I was right. I downloaded the trial last night which promised 500 retags before you have to pay for it. I reorganised my iTunes library to put music at the bottom which wasn’t tagged with an album, I thought that way that all my remixes and obscure singles should get filed away nicely like the rest of it.

It didn’t quite do that.

As I was throwing some really obscure stuff into the program, it searched and matched up my mp3s in a database and came out by tagging them all as African chants or obscure Thai ballad singers. It was lucky I had a backup of my entire music folder on a hard drive, otherwise I’d have lost that Crystal Castles mix of Klaxons forever.

On the plus side, I tried some more mainstream releases than you can probably find in the iTunes store and they worked a treat. It also did a great job of renaming most of the remixes I had as the actual title of the song, so rather than having lots of remixes for Chromeo’s Fancy Footwork, I had about 20 copies of the same song.

I had the feeling it wouldn’t work properly, and funnily enough it didn’t. So yeah, don’t expect any adverts for this broken program to be filling up this blog too soon.

MP3 Download: Chromeo – Needy Girl

I think it was her boyfriend calling from the studio.