Artist: Sneaky Sound System

Album: Sneaky Sound System

Released: December '06

Label: Whack; Bondi Beach, Australia

Style: Indie, Electro, Dance Punk

Tracklist:

1. I Love It
2. Thin Disguise
3. UFO
4. Pictures
5. I D E W 2 L U
6. You Should Have Told Me You Were Gonna Change
7. Goodbye
8. Hip Hip Hooray
9. It's Over
10. You're Hot
11. Tease Me
12. Maybe

To quote the perceptive and inspiring words of Ton Loc, "This cut is on fire." I can't believe I missed this album for over a year, it's the hottest shit I've heard in years. I really can't remember the last time I heard an album and just loved it so much. I've been playing it for months now and it keeps bangin' like the first time I heard it; none of it ever gets old and there's no filler. It's all Grade-A material, and excellently produced I'll add. Every song is meticulously put together for crowd-pushing, hip-jerking, indie-dance-party instigation!

Sneaky Sound System bring some serious hotness to the table for the rest of the loosly-defined, indie-electro genre. Nobody, imo, is making anything as bass-thumping, speaker-knocking, and DJ-friendly as this. The closest thing I'm hearing right now (and I'm strictly talking in terms of extreme sexiness combined with deep, thumping beats) is french electro, like people on Ed Banger Records (Justice, Sebastian, Mr Oizo) or maybe The Knife on their more pop-sensible tracks like Heartbeats, but that was two years ago. Digitalism is exactly who I'd say is closest to Sneaky Sound System in music right now, except they're not quite electro, or not the same kind of electro as Sneaky. But their album consistently comes with big beats and interesting song concepts. Big beats doesn't even begin to describe it, it's just huge. Sneaky Soundsystem doesn't have as big a beat as Digitalism; they're more electro, bordering on disco and funk.

The 00's are going to be remembered as saviors of the electronic scene, which I personally feel (some, not all) pretentious DJs are ruining for everyone. You don't have to have expensive tables and a huge record collection to throw a tight show anymore. And you don't have to play techno just because you're a deejay. Likewise, there's no shame in showing up with a laptop, portable hard-drive and Serato, and using the house tables. The idea is to get people on the floor, by whatever means necessary.

Every show or bar or whatever I've been to where the music was provided by someone with a laptop, whether on stage or not (wuddup Ruby Room, Oakland) there's always extremely good music on the speakers. I saw The Show is the Rainbow with Mindless Self Indulgence in Little Rock a few years back; his entire set is based on the laptop, even down to the visuals he had on a projector. And that show was mad awesome! The dude was totally all over the place, like down in the audience singing and going nuts. All he had to do the whole time was cover the microphone and work the crowd. It was totally fun for everyone, and a great opening act for MSI I'll add.

I almost prefer to go to shows with laptops really. You can walk up to the guy and he's not way too busy to talk to you, and you can see his playlist (if he's cool) and request songs and the dude probably has it and doesn't mind playing it, and if you're especially fortunate - and you have your handy, portable-media stick - you could score some really hot jams to add to your own digital collection.

I won't get too much into detail on meaningful lyrics, because I don't think it's the type of album intended to be thought provoking. It's just hooks, from start to back; "Hip Hip, Hip Hip Hooray / I'm lookin' for love, of the one-night varie-tay"; "Keep me on, don't switch me off"; "Your hot girl"; all that kind of stuff, some of those are the entire chorus, you know? It's great though, I mean you can't beat the simplicity of lyrics sometimes. Look at Soulja Boy's Crank Dat Soul; that shit is so simple, then they put it on a dope beat and everybody bumps it.

I really like this quote from IDEW2LU, "I'd never seen someone that looked like that before. She's like a Dreeeaam. I was totally, totally mesmerized." I mean, that's hot, seriously. This element adds so much more fun to the record. It's super sexy the whole way through. It makes me feel like I'm sexy. I like to feel sexy, personally. I'm sure that if I hadn't been so severely impaired by being born half-man, and half-bike... I would dance a fine jig. The finest, if only it weren't for these cursed, wheel legs!

Anyway, in conclusion: This album is hot like the sun. If you have the means, please get it. You will not regret this decision.