ARCADIAN FAMILY PORTRAIT: To My Boy (with Mixtape)

To My Boy have been very good to Arcadia. They were one of the first bands (followed by the likes of Frankmusik, Black Ghosts, SMD, GTA, etc) to give us exclusive "big name" tracks before anyone else had posted them and for that we're eternally grateful!

They're presumably working on the follow up to their amazing "Messages" album... but they've got a little treat for you! A nice new mixtape with fantastic tracks... here's the tracklisting...

Robyn vs The Cure - Close To Konichiwa
Micachu - Golden Phone
MIA vs Annie Lennox
SebastiAn - Momy
Walter Murphy + The Big Apple Band - A Fifth of Beethoven (Soulwax Remix)
Mr Oizo - Hun
Jupiter - I Love America
Jay Z ft Don Rimini - Jockin Jay Z
Sparks - Music You Can Dance To
Santogold - Lights Out (Kid Gloves Remix)
Moby - I Love To Move In Here (Crookers Remix)
Empire Of The Sun - Walking On A Dream (Van She Tech Remix)
MGMT - Kids (Soulwax Remix)
Klaxons - Gravitys Rainbow (Nightmoves Remix)
Metronomy - The End Of You Too
BPA (David Byrne, Dizzee Rascal + Fatboy Slim) - Toe Jam

And here's the mix...
To My Boy October 2008 Mixtape

Just in case you need the update, here's the To My Boy biography...
"Liverpool duo To My Boy make their full-length debut with Messages, an album of synth pop pastiche unapologetically inspired by pre-Dare! Human League, Vince Clarke-era Depeche Mode, early Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark, and the rest of the early-'80s U.K. synth pop scene. They're not genre purists: the booming, heavily reverbed drumbeats of songs like "Eureka" are a stylistic anachronism (outside of Phil Collins, that sound tended to become more omnipresent later in the '80s), they're not afraid of using guitars as well as electronics, and these songs have an almost punky energy level that was anathema to the studied Roxy Music-inspired cool of the original synth pop bands. That's nitpicking, however, because Messages is great fun for anyone who ever coveted a Phil Oakey-style asymmetric haircut. The Sparks-like quirkiness of the hiccupping "Model" ("I have a model for you that I made on my computer") and the propulsive forward drive of the opening "Tell Me, Computer" are particular highlights, as is the tightly wound herky-jerky dance-rock of "Game Over," the album's one homage to the more stylized American form of synth pop à la Devo."

So that's that for now... I hope you enjoy the tape and I'll be back asap!