You’re So Special, Let Me Know Where You Live

Rework “Not Quite Like Any Other” – I’m such a sucker for songs like this – woozy, hazy, romantic, melancholy, ridiculously European. Perhaps my mind is too trained by film and music videos, but it’s hard for me to hear this song without thinking of old European cities shot in stark black and white with some stunning woman with pale skin, dark hair, and sunglasses walking around looking distant and disaffected. It’s just that kind of song. This is taken from Rework’s new album Fall Right Now on the German label Playhouse.

Rabbi Haywire “Real” – In what could be the strangest of all of the new home recorded music to surface so far in 2004, Rabbi Haywire (who is not actually a rabbi, but instead a “Jewish female freak machine” according to her website) sings lyrics about the nature of reality, cybersexuality, and living in a post-apocalyptic dystopia over samples and beats in a little girl voice, like something out of a Philip K Dick fan’s jailbait fantasy. Of the six songs that she’s posted on her site, “Real” is the most mellow and mature, but those of you who would like to hear something far less restrained and much more mental should check out the bizarre “Hot Cybergoth Bitches,” in which she raps like some kind of cross between Strawberry Shortcake and Thurston Moore.

Elsewhere: Boom Selection has the brand new Soulwax single “This Is The Excuse” available for download. Snap it up quickly, it’s pretty incredible, and it features Nancy Whang from LCD Soundsystem.