Compiled by
Jonny Slut of the influential mid-week London club night Nag Nag Nag,
When the 2000s Clashed: Machine Music for a New Millennium anthologizes the hipster club scene of the decade, starting with the electroclash movement and moving through dance-punk revival on to blog-house. Electroclash stapes like
Peaches,
ADULT.,
Fischerspooner, and
Ladytron all appear on the first two discs, which also feature neo-electro classics like
Vitalic's vampire-rave bloodcurdler "Poney Pt. I" and
Legowelt's sublime "Disco Rout." The haunting vibes continue with a remix of
Golden Boy and
Miss Kittin's "Rippin Kittin" and
Pet Shop Boys' remix of
Atomizer's "Hooked on Radiation," while the likes of
Detroit Grand Pubahs' "Sandwiches" and
Avenue D's "Do I Look Like a Slut?" revel in sleaze. There's also a cool
Wire cover (
Adam Sky and
Crossover's "I Am the Fly"), industrial schaffel from
T.Raumschmiere, electro-disco from
Metro Area, and
Zombie Nation's stadium favorite "Kernkraft 400." The third disc moves toward the indie rock and post-punk side of club culture, with Pitchfork-approved hits from the likes of
LCD Soundsystem,
M.I.A.,
Franz Ferdinand,
Bloc Party, and
Hot Chip all present (though sometimes in remixed form, such as
Daft Punk's like-the-original-but-noisier version of "Take Me Out"). By the end of the disc, we've moved on to electro-house and fidget house, with
Kid Cudi vs.
Crookers' "Day 'n' Nite" and
the Count and Sinden's "Beeper." The fourth disc dips into
Ed Banger-style French electro and new rave, from
Justice vs.
Simian's "We Are Your Friends" to
Boys Noize's
Feist remix, plus other big hipster dance favorites of the era, like
New Young Pony Club's "Ice Cream" and
CSS' "Let's Make Love and Listen to Death from Above." For more left-field picks, there's a glitchy
Trentemøller remix of
Moby's "Go" that sounds like neither artist, a perky gem from
Battant called "Jump Up," and an electro-house track from drum'n'bass group
Noisia. The icing on the cake is the fifth disc, which compiles the types of new wave and post-punk tracks from the '70s and '80s that influenced the later movements anthologized on the previous discs. This includes minimal synth classics like
the Normal's "Warm Leatherette" and
Fad Gadget's "Ricky's Hand" as well as EBM from
A Split Second, throbbing dance-punk from
Spizzenergi, and NDW from
ZaZa and
Die Doraus und die Marinas. Not to mention selections from big names like
Kraftwerk,
New Order,
the Human League, and
Sparks.
Jimi Tenor's "Take Me Baby" seems like an outlier because it came out in 1994, and it would actually fit much better among the electroclash tunes on the first two discs. It all fittingly ends with the club night's namesake, the industrial synth punk anthem "Nag Nag Nag" by
Cabaret Voltaire, which never gets old and still sounds ahead of the time all these decades later. ~ Paul Simpson
