Orange Alert's Music Minute

Lowfish, a.k.a. Toronto’s Gregory De Rocher is one of my favorite electronic producers and I was very pleased to get word of his lastest album frozen&broken. He style is clear, crisp, and beautifully retro. With six albums and a stack of singles behind him, 2008 see’s Lowfish aggressively pushing his sound forward. He’s been hard at work distilling his pristine electro and throbbing analog buzz into a new techno variant. The playfulness of yesteryear is somewhere deep in the background with the fine detail of machinery and staccato bass lines taking the fore. The result is frozen&broken on Noise Factory Records. Ten brand new tracks of edgy analog electronica reminiscent of Lowfish’s famed Suction Records era IDM and an aberrant dance floor sound built from his most deviant sound palette to date.

Listen to: frozen&broken (mp3) and Things Fall Apart (mp3)

Two big and brief items of news to from Portland's Super XX Man. First, their entire catalog of music is now streaming at their website. Second, they have sent me two new remixes of the song Medication (mp3) from their latest album There'll Be Diamonds (Tender Loving Empire). Also, for everyone still working in an office building, check out Crazy People (mp3).

Listen to: Medication (Poddington Bear Remix) (mp3) and Medication (Eric Metronome Remix) (mp3).

The duo of DA Wallach and Maxwell Drummey more commonly known as Chester French are gearing up to release their debut EP, She Loves Everybody, digitally on November 11th and in traditional record stores on November 18ththrough Star Trak/Interscope. Discovered by Pharrell Williams of the Neptunes and N.E.R.D., Chester French has already won over critics and fans alike with their originality and pop sensibility as exhibited by their amazing performance at the 2008 CMJ Festival. See what the buzz is about and check them out on tour this month with Matisyahu.

Listen to: She Loves Everybody (mp3)

Fires of Rome are an exciting new band out of New York who just released their first digital ep called Set in Stone on Nov. 4th. They have an infectious dance pop sound, and some big name friends who can create perfect remixes. Check them out today!

François Virot is from Lyon, France, and he recently released his debut album Yes or No. When faced with this question, when it comes to Virot's music I scream "YES!". It brillant, simple, infectious, and just a great deal of fun. Any young musician from France who mentions The Jesus Lizard in his bio has to be worth listening to.

Listen to: Not the One (mp3)

Speaking of new singer/songwriters whose names I cannot pronounce, Juliette Commagere has an instantly recognizable voice. She has lent her siren of a voice to Maynard James Keenan’s Tool side project Puscifer, the latest self-titled record from road metal baddies Avenged Sevenfold, and, of course, her own band Hello Stranger, who’ve spent the past few months opening for the Foo Fighters across America. She is no stranger to the spotlight, but deserves every bit of attention.

Listen to: Overcome (mp3)

Viewzi provides Internet users a way to visually experience the best results for music, picture, video and top search engines and make search more fun. Viewzi delivers search results as "views", uniquely designed to showcase different types of content such as music, video and photos as well as topics including news, weather, shopping, and gadgets – all in an a highly interactive and visual way. At present, Viewzi provides users eighteen unique views. This is one of the coolest search engines that I have ever seen.

The Peel Back: Figurine Transportation + Communication = Love (December, 1999)

Before he was propelled into the spotlight as half of The Postal Service, Jimmy Tamborello (aka James Figurine) was one third of the group Figurine. Their debut album Transportation + Communication = Love was released in 1999, and it was so retro it was new. The casio beats, the robotic and distant vocals, the whole feel of the band and album, it was almost a novelty. "An Electronic Address" is fun exchange about dating in a mondern era, and with the detailed, but classic electro-swirls it is a perfect pop song.

"I Wait for You (By the Telephone)/"F>I>G>U>R>I>N>E"/"New Mate"/"An Electronic Address"/"S.O.S.""Batteries (Can't Help Me Now)""Robots"/"My First UFO"/"The European Beauty"/"Tired Eyes" "Digits"/"Eurodiscoteque"/"New Millennium Song"/"International Space Station"/"Lifelike" (hidden track)/"You" (recorded Live in Berlin)