The Hundred In The Hands

In 2010, pop music sure isn’t what it used to be…especially in Brooklyn, New York. While the direct energy of punk still pervades the landscape and the ghosts of hip-hop’s past still haunt it’s streets, these are now but cells making up a larger organism, almost infinite in scope – case in point, The Hundred In The Hands.

In the interest of introductions, the epic voice you hear rippling from “Dressed in Dresden” is Eleanore Everdell, while the man behind the precision guitar lines and percussive bombast is Jason Friedman…that’s right, it’s but a duo making all that magnificent noise. Emotionally charged and intensely driving it harks back to the most classic of dance songs from NYC’s storied underground. The Hundred In The Hand’s self-description of “summertime gothic” belies more than just a dance band, and it is true that this debut single only scratches the surface of what’s to come from their imminent EP for Warp.

Calling on everything from the elegant French pop of Serge Gainsbourg and Jane Birkin to classic dub, house and post-punk it’s no wonder that a similarly far-reaching group of fellow genre-hoppers would be invited to try their hands at remixing. Detroit’s young Kyle Hall proves once again why he’s so hotly tipped to be big in 2010 by kicking up a flurry of Motor City rhythms and nimble-fingered synth work. London’s Various (aka Various Production) always make a good case for why the city is the epicenter of global bass music and their low-slung take on paranoid jeep beats is perfected here. Rounding out the overstuffed single is NYC-via-Paris party monster Maxime who flips Eleanore’s vocals into a vintage synthesizer run and aims squarely for the dancefloor.

Just don’t wear yourself out dancing to “Dressed In Dresden”, there’s plenty more to come.