Champagne And A Chocolate Ice Cream Cake

Cristina “Mamma Mia” – Cristina Monet was the product of an extraordinarily glamorous lifestyle – a beautiful, Harvard-educated rich girl who made the scene in New York, London, and Paris in the late 70s and early 80s. She was the girlfriend and eventual wife of Ze Records owner Michael Zilkha, who released her two albums and a handful of singles on his label between 1980 and 1984. “Mamma Mia” is a selection from her self-titled debut, which has now been retroactively retitled Doll In The Box as a cd reissue. The record is a campy, cabaret-flavored disco masterpiece, produced and written primarily by August “Kid Creole” Darnell, who would go on to become Ze’s house producer. I can’t recommend Doll In The Box highly enough; it’s by far one of the best albums that I’ve heard in months. It’s the sort of record which maintains an unusually high level of quality from start to finish and is not even slightly diminished by the addition of bonus tracks from period singles, such as her distinctive versions of Peggy Lee’s “Is That All There Is?” and The Beatles’ “Drive My Car.” (The latter of which can be downloaded from this Cristina website.)

Cristina “What’s A Girl To Do?” – On her second and final album Sleep It Off, Cristina left disco and Kid Creole behind to make a punky new wave album with Don Was. Unlike the first record, Cristina wrote the majority of the lyrics for Sleep It Off, resulting in an album of wry, ironic, self-deprecating songs about upscale decadence and jetset sleaze set to Was’ bouncey new wave pop. Fans of Ladytron might recognize “What’s A Girl To Do” from their recent mix compilation Softcore Jukebox, though for some reason I did not, which is sort of amazing given how immediately memorable this song is. (Click here to buy Doll In The Box and/or Sleep It Off from the Ze Records Shop.)

Elsewhere: Kylie fans ought to check out Enthusiastic But Mediocre, which has her latest single “Giving You Up” available as an mp3 for a limited time. This song is the obligatory new single on her newest greatest hits collection, and will probably not be released in the United States, so snap it up now unless you’re eager to pay through the nose for the import.

Contest Winners!

Thanks to everyone who sent in answers to the survey. Since I might not be able to do all of the math necessary to make sense of the results until next week, you can feel free to send in top ten lists to fluxblog @ gmail.com if you haven’t already, but the contest is over. I will contact the winners via email for mailing addresses, etc.

The winners are:

Remote #4: Scott Arthur

Sumosonic 29: Chris Clark

Sumosonic 28: Heather Young

Maxi Geil & Playcolt: Caroline McKusick