Rave is coming back? (MFR certainly is anyway)

Codec & Flexor - I Wanna Give It To You

Hear the whistles?

Codec & Flexor are a couple of German dudes (Sven Zalac and Matthias Freund) from Köln (or "Cologne" as non German-speaking folks write it) via Frankfurt, who are clearly talented producers and they are also what I'd call survivors. Their previous album, Tubed, sort of got lumped into the electroclash camp of electronic dance music, since their sound is heavy on synths and guitars, most of the songs are pop-song-length, and feature predominant vocals. Now, I think their work is really quite good and plays well with other electro-house and techno, so this previous association shouldn't in any way tarnish a listener's opinion of them.

Moving on, C&F have a new record out, called Killermachine, which features twelve tracks of great, slightly hard-edged electro-techno-pop music. Every song on the album is a jam, with great basslines and guitar parts, that clearly reference early Depeche Mode, Human League and Gary Numan, but (in my opinion anyway) in the best of ways. I've been listening to a copy of Killermachine on and off for a month now and it still works for me - I actually put it on first thing this morning at work and it has definitely helped me wake up and feel kind of pumped for another day, so that's cool. A couple of other standouts for me are "My Arms Are Tired" and "Do What You Want" - visit their homepage and their myspace page for more info and songs.

The album was released by Berlin's Kitty-Yo last week or the week before, so you should be able to get your grubby hands on it now. It is available for download on iTunes, and physical copies can be had direct from the label, from our friends at Forced Exposure (US) or Boomkat (UK), or your favorite indie retailers. Recommended.