Self-professed suburbanites (London by the way of Staines, Surrey) Hard-Fi sure have fluidly shifted from taking out Mom’s trash to stacking stadiums as openers for Green Day’s English outing. The group’s ska-inflected rhythms and picket-fence leanings have never been as cogent than on new single “Suburban Knights.”
And yet, that’s not enough for the swaggering foursome. Enlisting the help of fellow Londoner Alex Metric — known for dissolving hits to their basest, most danceable elements (his remix of Metric’s “Monster Hospital” eventually cascades the electric-pop tune to pure beats and breaths) — “Suburban Knights” becomes an iron-clad combination of distended guitar fuzz and a gyrating, bleeding synth that sounds like the buzzing of bees. “We rock the satellites!” exclaims singer Richard Archer to a beat your booty can only understand. Just don’t pump that stereo too loudly folks, the neighbors are only a noise complaint away. Hard-Fi’s sophomore effort, Once Upon a Time in the West, drops Sept. 18 via Necessary/Atlantic.
Now Hear This:
Hard-Fi – “Suburban Knights (Alex Metric Mix)” WINDOWS MEDIA | REAL
On the Web:
Hard-Fi at MySpace
us.hard-fi.com
Talk: Is Alex Metric’s remix worthy of being knighted?
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