If I wasn’t one of the many to decamp to Barcelona for this weekend’s Sonar Festival you would probably find me at The Lexington on Friday where the monumental Demdike Stare will putting the heebeejeebees into the attending crowd as the headline act on the 7,932nd God Don’t Like It show of 2011.

Complementing the pagan thump of the aforementioned is Ghosting Season, the newly minted moniker of Worriedaboutsatan – who will be performing their bewitching blend of techno witchcraft and dubby scaretronica ahead of the release of their debut EP suitably entitled Far End Of The Graveyard.

Check this Spatial Dub of the title track for an idea of what to expect and check here for ticket deets.

Day 1 of my descent into codeine dependency has been largely soundtracked by the new Coupons remix of Lazydisco’s new single ‘More Tigers’ which thanks to the power of the internet you can enjoy too now.

Listen and download to the woozy synth house refix below and then go check out the whole EP on Discotexas‘ soundcloud page where you’ll find remixes by the likes of In Flagranti, C90s and Mirror People.

The EP is out Monday. Buy!

Download: Lazydisco – More Tigers (Coupons Remix)

London residing Paraguayan future boogie types Lopez – part of the beat collective Keepup! – deliver some fresh produce from their cooking labs in the form of this vibed out, oven ready, beatdown sex take on Miss Jill Scott.

Download: Jill Scott – Whatever (Lopez Remix)

Those that like their sounds refined can download the remix in rich WAV format from the Lopez Soundcloud.

Channeling all of the sunshine and fun, but none of the mugginess that permeated my recent sojourn to NYC are Lovesport, a reclusive duo who reside somewhere in those Five Boroughs.

After an extended period of hibernation mostly spent guffawing at the permanent queues outside Lombardi’s, Lovesport return with “Chase” an expert slice of backwards leaning analogue funk.

Lovesport are offering the track for download via soundcloud for one hundred lucky internet traversers.

Those not snappy enough on their figurative heels should be advised to contact Lovesport via Soundcloud with reasons why you deserve an mp3 in less than 200 words.

Retro/Grade‘s new EP ‘Mindfighter’ is not only about as monstrously good a piece of prime time italo house as you’re likely to hear this summer, but it also comes with a remix from Boy 8-Bit that sounds like some long lost Joyce Sims backing track, essential stuff really.

Anyway it’s not out till July 17th, but in the meantime Tom & Serge have been busy sneaking out some cheeky bootleg vinyl and putting together a series of mixtapes, the 1st of which Grade/1 has just dropped today.

Fruity as you like it’s perfect for a hot steamy workout whether that’s the gym, club or spa…

Retro/Grade – Grade/1 by Retro/Grade

The debate over vinyl vs digital will rage on as long as people still make records – which I hope is a very long time!

Personally, one of the  many joys of record purchasing is ambling through the discarded records in second hand stores and marvelling at the artwork of vinyl from days gone by. A recent spare hour or so in Brighton was spent rifling through the record boxes of the excellent Snoopers Paradise thrift store, with the surrounding images the most memorable finds.

Whilst we’re sad Ford & Lopatin did not warm to our suggestion that they rebrand themselves No More Games, we can’t help but be impressed by their debut album Channel Pressure which is released next Monday. The duo descend on Dalston tommorow for only their second London show to headline the latest BLeeD show at Shacklewell Arms that has DJ support from Casper C and Hippos That Drive Tanks.

For an idea of what to expect you should marvel at the new video for “World Of Regret” from the wondrous Thunderhorse which mostly makes me miss all the fine food I consumed in NYC last week. The FACT dudes are streaming Channel Pressure in its entirety too.

Further details on tommorow’s gig can be found here.

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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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.