In the not too distant past, from a far away land, we received a song submission from a band we had never heard of, in fact getting any kind of info on them was difficult. So at first i was like totes meh? I looked it up on the internet, Lumi, ….means snow in estonian or something?

Then I discovered that they were from Beirut, and we were like “what could we offer an artist from Beirut?!!!”. Sure Its the Paris of the East, but it ain’t Paris. I felt i was entitled to this opinion being from Australia, the cultural capital of the universe where every day is a high art apocalypse! Yep my own bias and cultural cringe had got the better of me and, to be honest, I showed little interest. If Kraftwerk hadn’t name checked their city we were not interested.

Still hadn’t heard the song at this stage, just looked to see if they were not from Estonia instead.

Must say when i found out over the course of a few weeks they were looked after by Maceo Plex and Popof’s manager my interest sparked up a little being that we drop names big time here at Sweat Hq.

Then I heard the song ! Instantly I thought this was The Cardigan’s “Love Fool” for the 21st century. I loved it, its indie club swing, popish cardianesque (wont work on scrabble) hooks and its kinda sleazy optimism. I though” taste of Life”… what a fucking cool slice of edgy pop.

Problem was their story wasn’t very pr spin-able. They were from an area that has seen much war over the years, from a culture very often marginalised. (Even some of their press shots featured a high usage of gun props). Sure they where with Emi at one stage, had worked alot in Berlin and Paris, but regardless of how good the song is it was a tough pitch.

Stuff it, we stated adamantly! its great music regardless of the anti story. And so here it is in all its brazen non glory .

Lumi “A Taste of Life”

features a hot Yolanda be Cool remix in a wonky uk tech fashion! (album and singles coming out real soon)

and AJAX remix (felt compelled to do a remix to cleanse me of my own misgivings) , for lovers of metro area and booka (ep coming finally out in september)