Snow In June!

While it's entirely too hot for the white stuff in Winnipeg right now, my ears have been treated to some snow recently. I've been listening to the self-titled album from Miike Snow quite a bit in the last little while and it has been challenging Mos Def's The Ecstatic for top spot in the rotation.

Miike Snow - despite being named after a person (Takashi Miike) - is a group.
For a while there was some mystery (a la Clutchy Hopkins) about who or what Miike Snow was, but it has now come out that the group is a collaboration amongst Andrew Wyatt, Christian Karlsson, and Pontus Winnberg. The latter two have produced under the name Bloodshy & Avant for the likes of Madonna and Kylie Minogue, but teaming up with Wyatt they elevate the electro-pop-production they've employed in the past to create a crisp record that truly pops.

Rather than simply take someone else's material and spit polish it, on Miike Snow the trio build these shiny tunes from the ground up. Drum tracks pulse while the noise effects that dance around on the beat are crucial to the mix and not mere embellishments. Speaking of the mix, this album rewards a close headphone listen as there is so much going on within it. Engineers and producers-in-training would be wise to study tracks like "Black & Blue" when things take off near the 45-second mark. Out of control.

In addition to recording their own material, Miike Snow have been busy with remixes and collabos with the likes of Passion Pit, Peter Bjorn & John and Vampire Weekend (how's that for a hipster's who's-who?) and others have been returning the remix favour. Check out the Fake Blood remix of lead-off album track "Animal" here.

You can hear the original and more where that came from.
And don't forget to check out the Miike Snow Myspace page.

Thanks for reading, now start listening...