Send "The Tough Alliance " Ringtones to your Cell 
| Pitchfork |
 "We have a world of pleasure to win, and nothing to lose but boredom." That manifesto shows up a few times on the Tough Alliance-run Sincerely Yours label's website. As is the Gothenburg, Sweden-based electronic pop duo's habit, the words are borrowed, in this case from Belgian author and Situationist International member Raoul Vaneigem. You could think of TTA's music as sort of a living shrine to pleasure: unabashedly catchy, defiantly emotional, with gaudy synthetic beats and fuck-you bravado. But nobody can stave off boredom forever.In fact, TTA have been conspicuously quiet lately. Since releasing A New Chance, their second full-fledged album, in 2007, co-conspirators Eric Berglund and Henning Fürst have put out precious little new material under the TTA name: a pair of covers, a remix of Victoria Bergsman's Taken by Trees, and various remixes by other people of their own songs. The six TTA remixes collected on the mp3-only Prison Break EP are uniformly solid and occasionally revelatory dancefloor fare, well worth any Swede-head's $5.35. But Prison Break is an exceptionally weird release. As good as it is, this EP should have the duo's fans growing only more and more impatient for the next album or single-- unknown pleasures, still. In early November, Sincerely Yours mailing list subscribers received a typically enigmatic message, with one link to a new track by jj, and another to information about this EP. "Better late than never," the linked page says; digital music seller Klicktrack lists Prison Break's release date as Oct. 31, 2008. The fuck? What's more, these remixes don't change the title of the original track, a naming convention that's usually standard for the Sincerely Yours crew ("Now That's What I Call Indulgence", not "Indulgence (The Tough Alliance Remix)"; "The Sweetness of Air France", not "Sweetness (Air France Remix)"). One possible clue: Two of these remixes, a ravey "Neo Violence" by Dutch DJ/producer Laidback Luke (grab his remix of Robin S.'s "Show Me Love" with Sweden's Steve Angello) and a dubby space-disco "Neo Violence" by L.A.-based DFA/Rong signee Woolfy, came out in 2008 on Modular-- not Sincerely Yours. Regardless, rounding out a trio of "Neo Violence" takes here is a fine Daft Punk-style electro-house reworking by Perth-based Shazam....full text |
| Regator |
| The Tough Alliance: "A New Chance (The Juan Maclean Remix)" Pitchfork: Forkcast (2 months ago) Been a while since we heard from these Swedes, but the Tough Alliance have a new remix EP out, titled Prison Break, featuring handiwork from El Guincho, ...full text |
The Tough Alliance lyrics
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