Ask and Ye Shall Receive Vol. 2: New Year Sun Bear

Now you know as much as I do

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I was approached, upon leaving Milk last week following an energetic set by The Soft Moon and an abominable one by Violet Tremors, by someone brandishing a small blue slip of paper. "Free music," he said. Music? On paper? Needless to say I was skeptical, but then the technological know-how of the entertainment class has wowed me more than once before.

Turns out, in any case, that the slip of paper (see above) bore a URL, which I was able to reproduce in the "location" field of my computer's Internet browser; this provided me access to a "web page" where -- okay, you get the idea. (The slip of paper also thanked me for throwing more dance parties, which was a little more legitimately puzzling.)

Anyway, New Year Sun Bear.

At the Cafe with Karyotakis is bright, bubbly, achingly earnest electro-pop, more professional-sounding than the creation myth ("This whole thing began as a final exam for a class I took in December") and distribution methods would suggest. Remy Cox comes across as an unabashed romantic, which mode suits him perfectly well: there's not a great deal of subtlety going around on this album, but who needs subtlety when you have hooks as insistent as those of "A Fossil Intact" or "Back from the Cosmos"? The name of Cox's game is sincerity, plus some obnoxiously cute song titles -- in particular, "An Antelope Eating, Can't Elope," which also turns out to be the Aphexiest number of the bunch. (On the other hand, his Facebook page lists his booking agent as "Booker T. Washington," which is positively winning.)

So check out the free album here, follow his exploits online to catch the next time he rocks a solo set for a room of swooning teenage girls, and, you know, throw more dance parties in 2011. Always more dance parties.

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