Probably one of my most played out records of the past couple of years was the ‘Follow The Bears‘ EP by The 2 Bears, every single track on it was essential, in fact its rule over my record box was only finally usurped when its follow up, the ridiculously good ‘Church‘, came out becoming my number one record of choice.

Well it looks like it’s time to make space in the old bag again as the bears are back with a new record, ‘The Bear Hug’ EP, and it’s as predictably amazing as you’d expect. Admittedly it doesn’t quite reach the almost transcendental heights of ‘Church’, but the new EP still contains 4 Grade A house cuts, ranging from the sublime ‘Take A Look Around’ to the ridiculous ‘Bear Hug’.

There should be an album at some point soon which can’t come soon enough frankly, but in the meantime check out the new EP below (buy it here) or check out their ‘Balearic Bashment‘ podcast for Clash.

The 2 Bears – Bear Hug EP by The 2 Bears

Earlier this year we released a rather unbelievably good 12″ featuring the Drop Out Orchestra‘s remixes of :Kinema:s ‘My Beautiful Machines‘. It was clearly one of the best things to have happened in 2011 and if you haven’ already got a copy then there’s a few left in our shop.

Anyway fast forward a couple of months and Drop Out got :Kinema: to return the favour and make a guest appearance on the new HNDA release ‘Cosmonaut’, a majestically uptempo slice of blue eyed pop/rock/soul, that would have sounded great on the Ferris Bueller soundtrack.

The “John Hughes Beat EP” is out now, with a special disco remix EP out in a couple of weeks time. As an added bonus we’ve been given an extra treat for you in the shape of HNDA’s edit of Rational Youth’s ‘Saturdays in Silesia’.

Download: Rational Youth – Saturdays In Silesia (HNDA Edit)

This weekend East London will reverberate to the sound of Slutty Fringe as we drop by various hot spots to play quality records.

First up on Friday, Flora and I will be at The Old Blue Last for the Dollop 7th Birthday party, it’s free in and for that you get us, DJs from the likes of Dummy and live sets from Laurel Halo and Family. Dollop’s Arne Blackman has done a mix to get you ready, click the pic above to get on it.

Then on Saturday we’re teaming up with our friends from The Beat and Legendary Children for Beat Generation at The Shacklewell Arms in Dalston, probably one of my favourite venues in London right now.

Again it’s completely free to get in, kicks off at 8pm and finishes at 2, and we’ll be playing all manner of disco, balearic sounds and synth pop. Get involved.

Over the last three years Off Modern have been putting on one of the best monthly’s south of the river. Drunk, disorderly and crammed with a mix of genre bashing artists, musicians and DJ’s.

Alas, as we’ve all seen good nights come and go it’s time to say goodbye to the monthly Corsica affair with Off Modern set to go out with a bang this Friday. The Modern will be back with other events, exhibitions, appearances and hopefully further publications but for now at least, it’s over.

So clear your plans – This Friday, Corsica Studios, Elephant & Castle – Off Modern. Featuring Fair Ohs, Pseudo Nippon, Body Hammer alongside DJ’s Secret Guest, Paul B. Davis, Lixo, Bradley Zero, Holy Ghost, Meg Woof plus residents, Tomfoolery and Nasty McQuaid

“IT’S BEEN A GREAT THREE YEARS AT CORSICA, COME AND SEE IT OFF WITH US!”

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Off Modern.com

Last night Niki and The Dove sold out Electrowerkz in London, and they were magnificent in a kind of Kate Bush meets ‘Kings of The Wild Frontier’ era Adam & The Ants meets something with the words -scene or -wave appended as a suffix.

Anyway as pointless as it sometimes feels for us to talk about bands who are already being slavishly hyped by grown up media people there’s still a chance you’ve somehow managed to avoid them, in which case check out this wonderful Mylo remix of Gentle Roar taken from their new Sub Pop EP ‘The Fox’.

They may be incapable of forming any kind of government but it seems the Belgians are still on point when it comes to knocking out beautiful music, as perfectly illustrated by  the new 10″ EP from Cupp Cave (i keep reading that as Cake…) released on the 13th June on Vlek Records

The Dice Pool EP contains four tracks of sublime lo-fi chillwave meets Chicago house, Chi-Wave if you will (© Slutty Fringe 2011), washed out rave stabs and nimbus like pads that shroud each track in a blissed out haze of E nostalgia.

You’ll have to be quick though as there’s only 300 being pressed up, and with each sleeve individually screen printed and looking absolutely amazing, they’re not going to hang around for long, especially priced at just 9 euro.

So here we have a new video for Gomma darlings The KDMS’ latest single Tonight, winning our approval through the gratuitous amounts of naked flesh on display and what I think is a pop video first of a rather fruity gentleman attempting to throw a sausage up a woman’s vagina.

If I’d known it was going to be that kind of party…

The East Coast multimedia enclave of smart young things known as Doplar descend on the excellently named House Of Yes in Brookyln later this month for Doplar Sensebox.

Doplar is an evolving art form and Sensebox is their plaything – running from 9pm to 4am each area of the House Of Yes will be designated to one of the five sensations experienced by sentient beings with perhaps the pleasant sensation your ears operate for the most relevant to these here pages.

Both Wolf + Lamb and the boy Jaar’s Clown N Sunset imprint are well represented with Voices of Black and Pavla & Noura on the bill and there’s some transatlantic DJ backing in the form of Gallic spinette Clara3000 and NYC fixture DJ Ecks.

Further reason to attend comes in the shape of a free custom made popsicle for the first 200 arrivals as well as food from Funkism’s Sindy! Further details can be found at the Doplar facebook page.

If you could distill all the qualities that made up the epic Hackney Wick warehouse party I went to recently into just four minutes, it might sound something like this – soon come on R & S.

If you didn’t indulge in the recent Tropical Discotheque compilation curated by the Sofrito dudes then the six minutes of magic that make up the A Side of their new edit twelve inch should be sufficient persuasion to do the right thing.

This is the post where we bask in the news of a forthcoming Crackboy release on Tigersushi with this Smuggles approved edit of Vince Taylor & Jac Berrocal.

Download: Vince Taylor & Jac Berrocal – Rock N Roll Station (Crackboy Edit)

Mark E has an album out soon called Stone Breaker which veers between the brilliant on tracks such as the epic “Got To Get Me There” and the instro hip hop bump of “Black Country Saga” and lots of tracks that go chug chug bump whoosh chug chug for around 8 minutes which probably sound a lot better at 3am in a basement somewhere as opposed to the morning journey on the Northern Line.

Anyway, to celebrate it’s release Mark E has put together this thumpingly excellent mix for the Ghostly Intl GhostlyCast which includes a smattering of vinyl records that I have been enjoying in recent months (I do believe I described that fckn ace John Swing track as twisting inside itself as it progressed amidst a rollercoaster of percussion when the chance came to review it) as well as a raft of music I am happy I now know the names of.

If mixes were beasts this mix would be as big as the Number 8 bus with giant cleavers for teeth, it would bleed napalm jelly and dine on Great Whites for breakfast.

Mark E Stone Breaker Mix Tracklist:

Agoria – Heartbeating (Mark E un-released version)
Chicken Lips – For Ava (Mark E remix
Dressvn – Sex Tags
Blagger – Strange Beahviour (Koze mix)
The Untouchables – Something Bugged
Naomi Daniel – Stars
Pascal Bongo Massive – Pere Cochon
John Swing – Rollin
Edward – Maxa
Relative – Vinylog
Function – Immolare
Skatebard – Ta Ta Arr
James T. Cotton – On Time
Mark E – Oranges
Miles Sagnia – Relativity
Edward – Naxa
Ghost Town – Motor Booty

First we had The Young & Lost Club overseen with craft and vigour by Nadia and Sarah.

Now there is  the Young & High Club.

Echoing in reverse how I largely spent my teenage years.

The Young & High Club are a London based collective of bright young things on the cusp of releasing a mixtape of untapped musical talent – and they drop a taste of what you can expect via the delicate sludgey tones of Gracie, a young beat maker and vocalist all the way from Philly.

Download: Gracie – For Dylan, from Africa