Lucky Number Music

We’re delighted to premiere this remix by Brooklyn’s Teenage Desert, who have significantly upped the UV-factor of the first UK offering from Caged Animals, “Girls On Medication.” 

Teenage Desert’s main-man Z. Cole Smith, a long time friend of the Caged crew, was actually the person who introduced us to the band, via their limited 2010 cassette release, and was an original member of Caged Animal Vincent Cacchione’s alter-ego, Soft Black. He’s also known internationally for his relentless onstage energy and much-loved dreamy guitar drama as a member of both Darwin Deez’s and Beach Fossils’s touring ensemble. We’re delighted he has found time between recording his debut album and his duties on electric guitar in Beach Fossils to turn in this somehow upbeat, sun-baked, and psychedelic remix. 

Hold tight also for a forthcoming remix from Hyperdub’s LV, and also the official Girls On Medication video.

Thank’s Cole!

Thee Loving Hand, aka long-time LCD Soundsystem cohort, Tim Goldsworthy, and producer/engineer extraordinaire Bruno Ellingham (New Order/Goldfrapp), have flipped ‘Radar Detector’s’ madcap energy into an accentuated slo-mo syncopation, and imparted it with a powerfully contemporised Balearic languidity. The Balearic genre is often maligned with images of Euro-cheese and m.o.r. tendencies, and indeed it walks a fine line between cool and crass, but this mix is reminiscent of classics of the genre, especially 1989’s ‘Sueno Latino’, sampling Krautrock guru Manuel Gottsching, and also of DJ History’s no 1 Balearic tune of all-time, Tullio Di Piscopo’s 1983 Euro-hit ‘Stop Bajon (Primavera)’, and also The Cure’s ‘Lullaby’, a dreamlike groove, if ever there was one.

As ever with the Balearic tag the mix takes influence from several genres, this time threading the song loosely between dub-disco effects & elements of ‘tropicool’, mixing surreal steel drums, not to mention the tonne of funky timbales as the groove reaches a tumultuous climax, and adding esoteric voice affectation, as if from a space-age David Lynch production.

With the Summer upon us it’s undoubtedly the perfect ‘up’ tune for some seasonal sunshine fun, and we are delighted to offer it to you free in celebration of a wonderful 18 months for Darwin Deez and our label. Enjoy.

Radar Detector (Thee Loving Hand Remix)

At a time when wan wallpaper pap, not pop, is relentlessly sold as a never-ending nirvana of supposedly exciting and alternative culture it’s refreshing to find a pop persona whose ideas are truly inspired by the detail of counter-culture Americana. Caged Animals is a wired world, but, simultaneously, an innocent version of darker concepts, mixing lyric and melody to create the sweetest sensation. It’s a world inhabited by Raymond Carver vignettes and exhibitions of raw Neil Rough portraiture, or Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’ (1959), and it could be sound tracked by ‘The Elephant 6’ collective playing Dion covers, Sun Ra’s future-jazz moogs and grooves, no wave’s awkward ‘DNA’, or the Captain Beefheart, that we are recently so bereft of, at his most playful. Philosophical accompaniment references Lao Tzu, THC, New Jersey’s radio heroes, WFMU, and beyond; cryptic and apocalyptic in almost equal measure, the vision is certainly as important as the lyrical content.

We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Caged Animals to the Lucky Number family.  An incredible album, Eat Their Own, is to be released in September but first here’s “Girls on Medication”. 

“Girls On Medication” will be available w-wide on July 4th, 2011, on beautiful white vinyl (limited to just 500 copies).  Cover artwork below and further details here. Pre-order 7″ Vinyl here.

Friends’ debut single Friend Crush was released today. We sold out of the limited 7″ single on pre-orders but you should be able to get from Rough Trade or Pure Groove if you’re quick.  Digitally it’s available from ourselves and iTunes and all usual digital providers.

Here is the b-side Feelin Dank:
Feelin Dank

Boomkat “This is the kind of debut single most pop-eyed acts would kill their mates for”

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