‘SUP caught up with Swedish pop maestro Erik Hassle as the sun set on Tompkins Square Park to discuss matters of Mika fans, visas, the London pop mafia, and glitter. Twenty-four hours later we caught his live performance at Soho House – where shit got meta when he covered Otis Redding covering Sam Cooke’s “A Change Is Gonna Come” with aplomb. Final verdict? Keep an eye out for this one. A change is most definitely gonna come, albeit via a red headed Scandinavian. Download Penguin Prison’s ace remix of Erik’s debut single “Hurtful” below.

Hurtful – Erik Hassle vs Penguin Prison Remix by supabz

Check the hell out of this – at Butlin’s holiday park in Minehead in the west of England this weekend, Mix Master Mike (yep), Salt-n-Pepa (I know!), Grandmaster Flash (nice), Omar-S (first time playing in the UK) and Flying Lotus will be joining Roots Manuva, Wiley, DJ Rush, Tippa and Crazy D and about a thousand other super names, including ‘SUP friends and favourites Girlcore featuring Isa GT and Naomi // bringing their own brand of mayhem to proceedings, for the BLOC Weekend.

This weekend is gonna be insane… literally insane.

And we can’t wait.

Check out the full rundown of what’s going on here…

If you happen to be stretching out your sweater sleeves in anticipation of Marina and the Diamonds‘ stateside arrival, you’re probably aware that she’s about to hit our fair shores to play NYC before messing with Texas next week. What you might not know is that ‘SUP is giving away some coveted guestlist spots to the event, courtesy of Le Poisson Rouge. Just follow us on Twitter and retweet the good news, and winners will be chosen from the lot to attend the March 15th show. Tickets are in short supply, so we do recommend picking ‘em up regardless of the contest. Surely the bragging rights of seeing her first shows here are worth the price!

PS: Marina we think that Pink Chihuahua and Sizzling Chorizo would make swell Jelly Belly flavors. America awaits you with open arms. Well to clarify, with one hand on our hip and one behind our head. STRIKE A POSE.

Man, and we were having such a good day.

The weird thing about living in the age of superfast information swapping is that you know that someone is dead the SECOND it’s announced–the concept of casually finding out someone you admire has passed has been eliminated with the birth of Twitter and TMZ. With the exception of Michael Jackson, it’s difficult to be shocked by anything. It’s difficult to find reverence and hallowed moments.

We’re truthfully bummed by the news of the suicide of Mark Linkous, Sparklehorse’s somber frontman (who, in all fairness, made Nick Cave look like someone you’d want to bring home to your parents). As to not lose the moment under an avalanche of new tweets or Google Reader articles, we’re just taking a moment to remember the last time we saw Sparklehorse perform, which was a blisteringly torrid day at Grant Park in Chicago, at Lollapalooza 2007. It was the best performance we saw that day (we were in awe as Abbey snapped the photo above), because it was a special, understated little show that took us to another place, away from the enormity of an event like Lollapalooza (and away from the girl who barfed next to us from heat exhaustion, real talk). It was one of those shows that, for one reason or another, stays with you. So thanks for that, Mark.

The soulful Motown vibes of Brooklyn’s finest has been twisted into a laid back electro groove worthy of either trans-Atlantic shore.

So, here for your musical enchantment is the resulting remix:

Baby (Clock Opera Remix 192) by SUPMAG

We’ve got a last minute pair of tickets to catch the amazing Plaid live at KOKO in London this Saturday, with a Scintilli preview and a Classics AV set, ably supported by Ninja Tune’s King Cannibal, Luk eVilbert and DMX Krew…

As one of the original acts signed to Warp, (as The Black Dog), Plaid have been one of the most influential electronic acts of the past 20 years, constantly experimenting and pushing boundaries, both sonically and visually.
This show is a preview of their ELEVENTH album – how many electronica acts can say that?

Send me a mail to get them. The winner will be notified by email by the end of Thursday.

Before they head off to the sunny sights of Austin, Texas and play a host of shows at SXSW, ‘SUP got hold of English four-piece Everything Everything while they were recording their David Kosten (Bat For Lashes) produced new album, half in a studio in the wild Welsh countryside, and half of it back in London, and got them to take some pictures of what they could see.

The studio in Wales was way more interesting than the London one and was set in a beautiful location on the north coast of the country, surrounded by the mountains of Snowdonia. It’s pretty isolated, though there are plenty of semi-wild horses and ponies knocking about. John the singer found a robin in the bathroom once.

The band told us, “After about 5 days we realised that it was probably the longest period any of us had gone without seeing a female human at all… It was also haunted, apparently. The ghosts didn’t make themselves known to us, yet, but our engineer David Wrench claims to have had a phantom dog bark into his ear at night time. James Yorkeston has recorded there and apparently “had his legged pulled by a ghoul”, although this is difficult to envisage. The only odd thing that did happen was that we found an old tape machine from the 1930’s which had some strange, strangled sounds on the tape that was still on it. Could be ghosts? We stuck some of that on the album for ‘vibe’.”

‘SUP would like to give a shoutout to everyone who attended our Issue #21 release party at SubMercer in NYC last month. There were over 800 RSVPs for a space that fits 80 so needless to say it felt a tad snug at times! We say all the better to feel the love. A very special thank you to our DJs Mike Servito, Justin Miller and Jacques Renault; also Gabby Mejia for making it happen. We can’t thank Corban enough for pics of the secret den behind the dj booth (blissfully free of incriminating evidence). Cheers to Issue #22!

Ah, New Rave. We remember the halcyon days, smearing ourselves in UV paint, running around in ridiculous fluorescent clothing around Shoreditch, trying to outdo each other with ketamine infused tales of ironicness.

But what of the bands? Well, the less said about East-London irritants Trash Fashion, the better. Klaxons, still even now struggling on that elusive second album, despite star turns from James Ford, Erol Alkan and Tony Visconti as passing producers. CSS – got bored of being sexy and it showed in their follow up number. And New Young Pony Club – yeah, they’re probably still singing about Ice Cream, in a hilarious land of rainbow colours and brands paying them big dollar to soundtrack adverts, right?

Er, wrong. Despite the London-based four-piece’s album title, The Optimist, sounding like it’s ready to pick up from where the Pony left off in 2007 with Fantastic Playroom, the new sound reveals the much darker side to the band. Gone are the cutesy, wink-wink knowing rhymes and instead is an altogether deeper, angstier sound, like the comedown after the rave, complete with guilt and constant self doubt.

Opening track “Lost A Girl” still contains the unmistakably heavy electro bass of NYPC and the dulcet tones of lead singer Tahita, but by taking her register deeper, gives an extra sadness and wistfulness to the song. She scolds herself for getting sucked back into something she shouldn’t: “I’m kissing your hand/I’m making you smile/Why am I doing that?” But snapping her back to reality –  ”Hey! Looks like you lost a girl” – is the skipped beat and insistent, uptempo beat with the attitude we remember from the band previously.

Title track “The Optimist” opens with a Joy Division-esque bass layered with synths and suggests the song is going to be anything from the positive title it’s named. The lead vocals echo in and out, like a cautionary tale or an anxiety dream. “Before The Light” has a similar ethereal quality, hazy soprano vocals making it one of the stand out tracks from the album. Dealing with themes of “a lost one” – like “Lost A Girl” – again highlight the feeling of absence or the end of a relationship  – something lead singer Tahita has commented that personally influenced her for this album.

Chaos – the current single with excellent remixes by Rory Phillips and Manic Street Preachers – is a step back to old school NYPC , with Tahita, Lou and Sarah’s harmonies creating the catchy line “you got the moment, tell me what’s the answer?”. “We Want To” and “Dolls” are the upbeat numbers that lift the album from getting too dark and bring edgy, dancefloor-bound sounds back to the listener.

Lo-fi lament “Architect Of Love” questions if there can be hope for love when it’s “broken from the start” – listen carefully for the drills on the fade out, a witty touch to finish the album - did a next door neighbour’s annoying home improvements spark some inner soulsearching for a Pony member?

More poetic and heartfelt than Fantastic Playroom, The Optimist is the album that deals with the inevitable lows that follow the highs. It’s wiser, more reflective than it’s annoying younger brother New Rave, dealing with the emotions that weren’t relevent at the time, but now surely will lead the way in showing where great electro-pop can go when it grows up.

Aww. Nothing better we like to see than cover ‘SUP stars getting a bit of recognition. Mainly because we get to be a bit smug and all: “Well, when WE interviewed them half a year ago…”

And it was the Drums that were on the receiving end of that accolade when they picked up the Philip Hall Radar award (AKA the you’re so hot right now gong) at the NME awards, held last night in Brixton.

We caught up with the guys backstage as they looked a little bemused by the win.

Wooo – a real live award. What was it like to win?
It was pretty amazing. It was the first and last award we’ve ever won.

Surely not the last you’ve ever won?
Ah, I don’t know. It was amazing, really unexpected. Especially as strangely there wasn’t any other nominees. It came up on the screen and we were really shocked, we were waiting for the others to come up and no-one did. We didn’t know if it was a malfunction or something. We were just really confused.

Over in the UK, you’ve been touted as a “buzz band” for 2010 – were you aware of this?
It’s flattering and exciting but you try not to let it really affect how you operate.

You’re from what seems to be like a glut of great bands hailing from Brooklyn at the moment – what do you think about the music scene there at the moment?
I think it’s pretty awful. We don’t really feel like we’re part of it. We’re not really from Brooklyn, we just moved there when we started the band and we wanted to put all of our effort into it. It’s kind of the American dream of moving to New York City to try and do something.

Living the dream?
Yeah, so everything else there we think is pretty dismal, except a handful of bands like the Pains of Being Pure Of Heart and stuff like that.

And what’s next for you award-winners?
Well we’re back here in two months, doing a tour with Florence and the Machine then we’re doing a bunch of festivals, I’m not sure which, but we’ll be around.

Looks like the fans agree too – their 11 date tour in May is already a sell-out. And that, boys, is what they call the golden touch.