What do you get when you mix the quirky dance appeal of the Tom Tom club, the eccentric capriciousness of the Animal Collective and the mythical sounds of enchanted forest life? You get Australian outfit Architecture In Helsinki, a unisex music collective that uniquely fuses dance music with whimsical elements like pixie-ish vocal utterances and musical appropriations of the natural world. With a sound that’s impossible to pin down, an ever-evolving sonic aesthetic and multitudinous remixes thanks to dance heavy-hitters like Hot Chip (see Melissa’s blog Hot and Bothered), you never know what their latest musical (ad)venture may bring. Their new single “Heart It Races” (out June 5 on Polyvinyl Records) is a sign of great things to come. With tribal drumming, steel drums, a high-energy dancehall flavor and an infectious chorus (“Boom da da da da da da”), “Heart It Races” is destined to be the dance song of the summer. The Heart It Races EP also boasts four remixes of the single that vary from the mellow dancehall of DJ Rupture’s Hymn Mix featuring Mr. Lee G, to San Francisco’s own Hey Willpower’s pop confection and Yacht’s easy listening reinterpretation. Hear “Heart It Races” along with material from their anticipated new album Places Like This when Architecture In Helsinki plays at Bimbo’s 365 Club June 16 with Still Flyin’ and Yacht.
