Sunday Swank + Hot Promo Action

THE SWANK
Solange - This BirdIf you didn't already know it, Solange is Beyonce's wacky little sister. While professionally she definitely benefits from that relationship she has chosen a different musical path from big sis. Instead of club bangers and blinging ballads she experiments with retro soul, from '60s Motown girl groups to '70s Marvin Gaye jams. There is also a collaboration with Thievery Corporation, one with The Neptunes, a couple of songs written by Cee-lo and a tune produced by Mark Ronson. The one that really got me? This Bird, which is built around a big chunk of Slow This Bird Down by Boards Of Canada (from 2005's The Campfire Headphase). Yes, that Boards Of Canada - the reclusive Scottish electronic duo. What sounds kind of wacky on paper works really well and the result is experimental, soulful,dreamy goodness.
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THE HOT PROMO ACTION

TIRK02
The world was a slightly different place in 2006, the last time Tirk put out a label comp (TIRK01). Obama had just become a Senator. Merchant bankers still had their snouts in their each others’ troughs, not the taxpayers pockets. Deamau5 didn’t exist and three times as many record shops did. Minimal still sounded vaguely edgy and interesting, disco was the preserve of thirty year old men with beards and Annie Mac was about to discover Dubstep…

Now we’re got Radio One jocks devoting half of their shows to Aeroplane mixes, and “edits” are in danger of becoming a genre itself. Just as record sales head ever closer to what must finally be the bottom of the sales curve, the spirit of disco finally rises again.

It’s here in Todd Terje chopping Chaz Jankel up into piano scream up heaven, or new Russian lads Acos Coolkas creating ice cool electronic house. Prins Thomas adds Scando swing to Sorcerer’s West Coast lounge tackle and Richard Sen goes disco-psyche on Brad Vachal. Kelpe takes Architeq’s glistening glitchtronica for a warm and fuzzy slo-mo bath, Hercules&LA gets tracky on another Jankel track and Forty Thieves add West Coast bump to Morten Sorensen's timeless Start Something. We’ve again been lucky to work with some of the worlds better artists over the last couple of years, and couldn’t be more happy to round em’ up and show them off as a 2XCD set - TIRK02 (out March 16th) - before striding off into what promises to be an, um, “challenging” 2009.
Morten Sorensen - Start Something
Monomusique - Fog's Light (Hedford Vachal Redux)
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The label is also running a little remix competition where you can d/l song parts and rearrange them. TIRK02 Remix Competition