Unofficial Video: Annie "Songs Remind Me Of You"

Perhaps you have missed the much written about fuss over Annie's sophomore album Don't Stop as it has been delayed for over a year since it leaked presumably because of politics that none of us can ever expect to understand which led to her moving to a new label and altering the track listing. It is something I have been aware of but Annie's puzzling popularity with the US indie crowd that so often rallies around the cry of anything anti-synth and anti-pop has created a distrust of her in me even if there is nothing to dislike in her music. So it was with some trepidation that I clicked through one of several links in my twitter stream to see the "unofficial" video for her latest single but the first listen demanded a second and soon I was hooked. After laying low over the past couple of years it is clear that Richard X has returned in a big way because his distinctive fingerprints are all over this italo flavored track that, if I may steal from wikipedia (or their source MuuMuse), "Songs Remind Me Of You" is a perfect blend of "lush disco, breathy vocals, and intergalactic swarms of electronica". Filmed at the album's new photo shoot this unofficial video released by her management is a rather fantastic example of stellar execution of a simple concept:



: Among Richard X's recent projects he has remixed Pet Shop Boys & Dragonette but very excitingly Chart Rigger pointed out that it has just been announced that he is remixing the entirety of Saint Etienne's 1991 debut Foxbase Alpha which will be released as Foxbase Beta. Thinking back I remember when Annie's second album was going to come out in 2006, the latest reports say Don't Stop is due in the US this November.

Flashback: Daft Punk "Revolution 909" (1996)

On this date in history: “There was an accident in our studio. We were working on our sampler, and at exactly 9:09 a.m. on September 9, 1999, it exploded. When we regained consciousness, we discovered that we had become robots."

While it has been ten years since tragedy turned Daft Punk robots there is something else on 9/09 that comes to mind. Released in 1998 "Revolution 909" was the last single to be pulled from Daft Punk's debut album Homework. Sirens and police demanding over a loudspeaker to "stop the music and go home" are only the beginning to this stomping dance track. The song even has a Roman Coppola directed video that takes an unexpected turn early on:



: Long before their robotic accident and finding their electronic way Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo were in an indie group Darlin' whose sole release was a joint limited edition single. Fortunately there is now an unofficial myspace page for the group that allows you to sample their entire recorded output. Perhaps they were human after all.