LIFE & LIMB FOOL'S NEST (LIES "PROMISES" REMIX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Hello. Remixes, not always but often, are really fun. It's not just a re-tweaking of a finished song, it's a whole new song, a whole new person's creative vision based on the original elements launched into the world by the original creator of said elements. It goes to show not only how interesting it is to have somebody else's take on things every once in a while, but also that "art" - yeah that includes music - can never be finished. Even Marcel Duchamp "remixed" the Mona Lisa by drawing a moustache on the original and calling it L.H.O.O.Q (which is a pun cause in French, the reading sounds like elle a chaud au cul). As long as remixers are out there in the world, art of any kind can never be considered utterly finished. In anything's contemporary, original format, however, it is difficult to see a new beginning - that is, unless you are the kind of person who can remix things.

But I'm talkin' too much! About stuff! Stuff!

So let's talk about this song. It is, as you may have guessed by now, a remix. And it is a very nice example of a kind of completely different take on the original. In this instance, the track - 'Fool's Nest' - is originally by a one-half-Italian, one-half-New-Yorker duo called Life & Limb. It's a nice chunky slice of synthpop that is buzzing with saw-waves and sentimental overtones.

Enter LIES. This Italian duo - Oscar Cini and Piero... something - (whom I've written about a couple of times before) have essentially softened the original and turned into something more dreamy, more intangible in a way, than the structured original. They've sped up the pulsing lead synths of the original, teasing with the hint of tumbling hi-hats in the background as the vocals come in ghostishly looped on one syllable with forever-eternal glassy synth chords sweeping the whole song with their ambience.

It's the kind of thing that makes you drift off a little; LIES' style of embedding an addictive, cyclical beat in amongst a bristling thicket of noise has that kind of effect on a person. Thin snares pummel the offbeat with minimal hi-hats riding high above a constant click and the steady, sometime-rolling thump of the kick. A wonderful take on a song which is now similar to this one in title, and a bit in sound, only: even the atmosphere changed from sentimental and slightly sad to one of feelingless dreaminess. Hooray for the (good) remixers of the world!

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LIES FT JUNO// ORIENTE [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Last time I wrote about Italian duo LIES and their song 'Escape I/S/M' it was thanks to them, or one of them at least, sending me a message. Now I'm writing about them again and it's down to the same fact of their sending a message. It's difficult to keep tabs on everything at once so to have lovely music delivered right to you is very nice indeed. So, thank you!

This time around, however, they have teamed up with fellow Italian producer JUNO// to create a very nice song indeed: 'Oriente'. I've gotta admit I was quite surprised at the result. It's a pretty intense sounding song, with a very solid beat and some very solid bass, all tied together with some wonderful crackling synth arpeggios. It's a veritable electro playground, having all the fun of retro music crossed with the nice production methods of the modern day. You'll find it difficult not to bop your head, wiggle your toes, tap your fingers, raise your eyebrows or whatever it is you happen to do when you find rhythmic solace in music.

Those bass synths are something else, aren't they? Really get under your skin and into your body. Very loud. Those along with that slo-house beat give it an epic feel - especially with the occasional battering of tom drums. There's a dose of the tropical in there, too, with some beach-friendly tubular bell-type things, heavily accented with reverb and other things, making them seem a little unearthly. Screaming synth streams over the top in some places, heavily modulated and sounding like a waterbeam (a Pokémon move for those who don't know) or something similar. Javelins of neon electricity.

Add to this a laid-back, 1990s-songstress-type vocal sample and you have a pretty interesting sound. The dynamic breaks are really nice too - the one at 2:49 for example that only lasts for seconds is perfect; it's just a small break from the intense rumblings of the song, but it's enough to give those same rumblings some massive "oomph" when they come back in. Nice sounds all nicely composed. In fact it actually reminds me of something... kind of a slowed down version of 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)' by Eurythmics. Get what I mean? Similar synth. Anyway.

You can download this song for free. FREE. Download it and put it on your iPod/Phone or whatever other device you happen to own for listening to music on-the-go and just wait till it pops up. Imagine it would be especially cool if you listened to this on a crowded rush-hour tube train on the way home. I don't usually give recommendations like this so I don't think I'll make it a regular thing.

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LIES ESCAPE I/S/M/ [VIDEO]

Music arrives from all corners of the world, and it takes you to as many places as well (depending where in the music industry you fit), but as for the former it's certainly true. Music can come from anywhere. And it can surprise you. Especially if you think "cool" music "only" comes from "America" or "England". Cause that ain't true at all. And I think with the last couple of months' worth of music on this site, I think I've proven that good music can come from anywhere. Yep. Even Italy, as I showed last week with FOR's 'Lemme Burn', which is where Lies come from (the music group, not the exponents of mendacity themselves).

Lies is yet another duo, comprised of Oscar Cini and Piero (no surname?), who are from Irpinia, southern Italy - a lovely sunny place, I imagine, far from the struggling summer of the UK. Mr Cini, specifically, sent me some of their music and I was rather taken aback with their hypnotic track 'Escape I/S/M/'. Long story short: I like the song, and here it is.

You could say that I was swayed by the video, but that ain't true. Whilst it provides a perfectly mesmerising visual perspective of the song, it is not integral to its existence. No video is. I like this song's steady beat, sounding like a heart working in chill-mode, with far-off snare claps sounding like slaps of the sea against rock with all their washing reverb. Equally steady is the slow and simple bassline running under everything like a reliable cheesecake base.

Gradually the beat becomes more complex, more components added in, clicks, dinks, hi-hats, and as this happens the song is gradually suffused with ambient synth sounds - alongside the founding two note soft synth begins to fly a more soaring fizz. And the samples put the icing on this cake, especially considering the mesmerising side of things; the endless repetition of these wordless vocals spin round and round your head. Yet it's not intense, it's totally chill.

Anyways, this song comes from Lies' latest album Escaping Colours, out on StrikeBack. Recordings.

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BURNS LIES

It doesn't matter whether it's Burns as in 3rd degree burns or if it's Burns as in Mr. Burns from The Simpsons (officially the best character), this particular Burns is better than the 3rd degree kind and roundabout on-par with the Simpsons kind: this is Burns.

So, exhaustive introduction over with, let's get onto the music.

The song is 'Lies' and it was uploaded to YouTube like two days ago. There's this great euphoric club vibe to the whole song, like something you'd hear halfway through a night out and one of the only things you'd remember the next morning. Complete with a nice bit of snare roll every now and again, Burns totally ramps up the energy in this track until it's near fever-pitch towards the end.


Yeah, it's really nice, isn't it? A sound-of-summer kind of song. The female vocal is pretty powerful, evocative, and goes very well with the trance-like synth chords that blast at you as if all creation hinged on their being sent to your ears as fast as possible.

Along with the slightly dancehall-ish skewed beat the track makes for you like some anonymous dancefloor dweller who leads you through the crowds, clears a space in the middle of it all, and starts twirling you around like a spinning top, lights flashing all around in an epileptic's nightmare of carouseling neon lasers. That's exactly what it's like.

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• Here is more Burns on SoundCloud
• Here is Burns on Facebook
• Here is Burns on Twitter
• Here is the official site of Burns
• Here is Burns not on Myspace
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