Floated Ideas By Apollo...

Ghost Exits - She Is Beyond Good & Evil.mp3

GHOST EXITS are a New York duo, on the Social Registry label who are here witnessed taking a more prozaic electro-drone approach to the Pop Group's She Is Beyond Good & Evil. Ghost Exits have something of a similarity to the toothless ARE Weapons, and I actually enjoyed that group's first EP (one of the only decent things to receive some publicity from the mire and muck of the oft-reviled electroclash "thing" that happened a couple of years back), so though it's a back-handed compliment, it's still complimentary. Mark Stewart's howls here have been artfully replaced with a Jagger-Vega hybrid that serves the song well, I think.

I don't know if this band is still around or not, and given some stories circulating regarding disastrous and embarassing live performances in their hometown, it may be safe to say they've packed it in and are off working on other projects now.

Ponies In The Surf - Government Brand.mp3

Former GHOST EXITS organist Alexander McGregor, a sensitive soul, eventually grew out of the straight-jacket of staged confrontation and post-punk piss-take, moved to Boston, spent some time with his sister Camille and formed the duo Ponies In The Surf, which presented a 180 degree turn away from aforementioned shennanigans to a more humane musical vision, one that embraces the Sunday brunch crossword puzzle fans (such as myself), the grandmothers, and thankfully, it's not too precious. It reminds me a lot of the husband-wife duo of Puerto Muerto or some of the stuff done by Victoria's PantyBoy (and friends) - cinematic lo-fi pop swashes, dreamy harmonizing and most of all, tenderness! Go buy their stuff, or check out some more mp3s on their website.

Alexander McGregor - Aviary In The Snow / X-M-A-S.mp3
Alexander McGregor - White Caribou

Young McGregor also spends some time away from his sister, which is healthy, which is good: working on his own music and perhaps having tea. The first track is from a Christmas compilation: a bold step in the direction of headphone friendly dub-pop: McGregor marries Badalamenti-esque guitar with overlayed chiming saloon piano and overdubbed vocal-lines in an evocative and spacey film.

The second song is from his own Aguirre Returns EP, which, we've been helpfully told, is titled after his grandmother, not the Herzog film with that spectacular panning monkey river-raft scene. "Love is not the answer, it's just a joke... from France."

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BONUS XENOPHOBIC COMMENTARY WITH MP3!
Gang Gang Dance - Untitled (Track 6).mp3

Brooklynn's Gang Gang Dance didn't make an impression on Stypod with God's Money - fetishism of the exotic, over-sexed moaning vocals, the inverted mirror of post-colonial cultural masturbation and all that - better than Gehry, but it ain't real, it ain't authentic, it ain't fourty Guineans flopping about on the compressed dirt floor of a mud-hut, exorcising the demons and cursing the tribe of flesh-eating savages who live down the road... Did Torontonian mayor Mel Lastman know of what he spoke when he professed a fear of dreadful happenings prior to an official visit to the Dark Continent?