Hot butter is toast
A while back, a loooong while back I grabbed one of my favorite MP3-blog songs of all time on Fluxblog: Heartbeats by The Knife. Since then, I've been uber-frustrated, since the Swedish brother-sister team's label, Rabid Records, distributes only in Sweden & the UK, and only recently struck up a deal with the larger but still euro-only V2 Records for a wider distribution deal, e.g. import-only pricing on their albums. Le sigh.
BUT! The miracle of the internet (and an itchy online shopping trigger-finger) prevailed, and their awesome LPs finally came within reach, or at least more so then they were in 2004. Their 2003 full length release, now a 2004 UK re-release Deep Cuts is available as a pricey Amazon import (click the image above for the link), but UK juggernaught Juno Records carries a special version which you can [buy for a measley $12!] (and shipping is cheap too!), and it comes with three bonus tracks not on the original release and a bonus DVD with five music videos. In short, it's a deal.
For those of you who prefer the domestic market, in addition to Amazon's imports, their earlier self-titled full length is now available on the iTunes music store [click to listen or download], and has been in heavy rotation on my iPod for the past week.
Here's the thing - Deep Cuts is a great electro-pop album, maybe even close to being as shortlist-y for last year as Annie's Anniemal. But their first release is utterly amazing. It's been hiding in Sweden since 2001, and snuck onto the US iTunes only recently, and this thing is a true hidden gem. The music is wispy, dark, ethereal, and rich with the same type of breathy vocals that made us all fall in love with Björk's first two LPs. You've got huge electronic crashes, subtle keys, melodies both light and heavy - I wish this thing would see a proper US release, even this late in the game.
I'm as happy as a pig at high tide. As a clam in shit. Unless you've been hitting record shops in Sweden and this is old news, both of these are worth picking up.