whether it's feist and kings of convenience guesting on your album, or having long-tem friend devendra banhart play guitar at your home-town gigs, it's fair to say californian three-piece rubies are well connected ladies. signed to telle records for europe, rubies are three young californian ladies producing bedroom disco and danceable folk that ranges from huge, synth-led dance-floor fillers, to more intimate pop moments. the cosmopolitan sound of rubies is fast finding fans everywhere from avant-garde discotheques in nyc, motorik infused warehouse parties in berlin, and many a late night afterparty everywhere from big sur to bergen, norway. debut single 'i feel electric', certainly falls into the former category of dance-floor filler. opening like a hidden track from 'power, corruption and lies', layers of synth build and build over terri loewenthal's pounding bass line, before simone's effortlessly beautiful voice makes the track all their own. add amy cooper's shimmering guitar and the harmonies of all three rubies and the resultant track is pop perfection. an instance of double serendipity brought rubies to europe last year: leslie feist, who was based in paris at the time, asked long-time friend simone (rubies) to create the artwork for her recent album, 'the reminder'. simultaneously, swedish musician karl-jonas winqvist (blood music, first floor power), warmly demanded that rubies come to stockholm to record. with paris and stockholm on the agenda, it seemed only natural to enlist long-time friend and former label mate eirik glambek-be of kings of convenience, and book studio time in bergen, norway. during the scandinavian sessions, the magnetism of rubies attracted a small army of new and old friends including maria eriksson (the concretes) and lars skoglund (live drummer of peter, bjorn, and john). simone rubi and terri loewenthal have been playing together for 7 years. the melody-driven, infectious pop of rubies is a continuation of the chemistry they found in their first band, call and response. rubies release their debut album explode from the center in march 2008 on telle records. the single contains a special remix from max essa, adding a glossy nu-disco sheen and making the most of the trippy backing vocals, and a remix of the track 'room without a key' by swedish band studio. swedens's kings of 'scandolearic' have been in fine form, providing brilliant reworks of a mountain of one and, bizarrely, kylie (their '2 hearts' version made a pretty lame pop song sound fantastic). their version of rubies is one of their best releases yet, all multilayered balearic guitars, lazy beats, disconnected vocals and dubbed-out clarinets.