Unlikely Summer Jams 2007: Daft Punk

la vermine, originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

In a year without any new Daft releases, it seems odd that Daft Punk finds its way through my summery speakers daily in an almost non-nostalgic way. Apart from the plethora of supersharp recent remixes of their classic singles (try the allknowing Hype Machine for some of the latest ones), it seems odd how the band's french touch has trickled down anew on dancefloors worldwide. It seems odd that their music feels as timely as the other artists sampled by Kanye West on his new mixtape, Thom Yorke, and the omnipresent Peter, Bjorn and John. It definitely seems odd that it has taken me 6 years to rediscover, ahem, Daft Punk's epic pop masterpiece, Discovery.

Unlikely Summer Jams 2007: Bang Gang

lostmarbles, originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

"Inside, we got to know girls who had never considered taking their own lives. We fed them drinks, danced with them until they became unsteady, and led them out to the screened-in veranda. They lost their high heels on the way, kissed us in the humid darkness, and then slipped away to throw up demurely in the outside bushes. Some of us held their heads as they vomited, then let them rinse their mouths with beer, after which we got back to kissing again. The girls were monstrous in their formal dresses, each built around a wire cage. Pounds of hair were secured atop their heads. Drunk, and kissing us, or passing out in chairs, they were bound for college, husbands, child-rearing, unhappiness only dimly perceived--bound in other words, for life." (1993, p. 235)

Like Sofia Coppola's dreamier adaptation, Jeffrey Eugenides' novel The Virgin Suicides very vividly evokes the dull, slow-burning boredom of a teenage summer. Air's soundtrack to the film magically matched the flowy seventies shots of Kirrsten Dunst and her onscreen sisters, adding a lush layer of sensuality to the tragic tale of teen ennui. For their second album, Icelandic ex-triphoppers Bang Gang seem to have followed Air's lead, creating tracks that are more soundtrack than song. Sure they have vocals and even choruses, but they lack the comfort a song's climax and resolution offers, instead presenting us with swaths of atmosphere.

Unlikely Summer Jams 2007: Kids Rap

fence me in, originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

For this second set of summer jams, I picked Rappers Delight Club and Wilcannia Mob, two acts that are not just singalongably sunny, but also hilariously honest. Both come from the peculiar and wonderful genre of kids' rap, but manage to stay far from the glossy Lil' clones so familiar from MTV (excepting the aforeblogged lipgloss-genius Lil' Mama, and with one honorably surreal mention of seven-year-old reggeaton sensation Miguelito, whose video for Boom Boom disturbingly alternates between cute kids at the zoo and gyrating mamas at a racetrack).

Unlikely Summer Jams 2007: The Go Find

go find, originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

Now that summer has hit New York in all its sweaty humid glory, I have immediately started to look for this year's summer jams. Not only the hits popping loud from every corner deli or Humm-ousine, but songs that can define a season and become inextricably enwrapped with its memories: In short, a soundtrack for summer '07. In my next few posts, I'll suggest a few tracks that either through their sheer rhythmic heat, or their poptastic choruses should make their way onto your picnic boomboxes or roadtripping iPods.

The likeliest options are obviously Rihanna's twirly emo-r'n'b hit Umbrella, or Lil' Mama's feisty minimalist handclapfest Lip Gloss (and they surely deserve their own posts), but my first suggestion is a little more farfetched. In fact, it is fetched all the way from my exotic, and sometimes sunny motherland, Belgium.

bird on a montreal branch

bird, originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

squirreling

squirrel, originally uploaded by nyresolutions.

montreal at night

night, originally uploaded by nyresolutions.