It’s been a while since we had a new tune from Dutch Disco don Quinten 909, but here he is, to start you week boogieing, with a Funktastic reMix of Lifelike & Kris Menace‘s, now classic, Discopolis.
Squelching up that instantly recognisable bassline and giving the beat a little disco shuffle, give the tune a lighter, groovier feeling, as opposed to the dancefloor stomp of the original. Full of nice filter sweeps and popping rhythms, Quinten 909 does a nice job of turning a big room monster into a laid back, pool party, jam. Get ready for some tasty bass.
The latest artist on the Alt Pop R&B train is Arlissa. Having recently scored a hit with a track featuring NAS, she’s about to release her début solo single. Stick And Stones is actually a pretty endearing slice of ElectroFolkSoul, that tends to get stuck in your head, and comes backed with reMixes from MJ Cole, Friction, Wookie and Hot Chip’s Joe Goddard. Not bad for her first single.
Goddard whips up a little of Hot Chip’s quirky ElectroPop magic into the the track. Replacing the tracks bombastic Folk with shrill synths and toy town beats, Goddard reins in the song somewhat, allowing it to become less of a grandiose performance, more of a personal affair. A bouncy synth bassline follows the vocals like a faithful dog while all around them shining keys ring out. All-in-all, a really nice experience.
♫ Arlissa – Sticks And Stones (Joe Goddard reMix)
Arlissa’s Sticks And Stones is released 3rd March.
We were going to write about this track, Sweedish IcePop siblings The Knife’s long awaited return single, Full Of Fire, last week, Using the Juno stream of the track. Then the Juno stream got pulled and there hasn’t been a stream of the whole song from an official source since, so out words went to waste. Today, the video dropped, so we can present the song is all it’s glory. A beautiful and engaging nine minute epic and everything we’d want from a The Knife track. At points the track feels more like being privy to a special The Knife live jam session as the duo constantly evolve the popping drums and abrasive synths. More true to the original ethos of Industrial Music that anything released in the past two decades, this Coldwave oddessy is made all the more appealing by Karin Dreijer Andersson’s welcoming vocals.
The video is a short film by Stockholm and Berlin-based feminist director Marit Östberg, who had this to say “The film ‘Full Of Fire’ consists of a network of fates, fears, cravings, longings, losses, and promises. Fates that at first sight seem isolated from each other, but if we pay attention, we can see that everything essentially moves into each other. Our lives are intertwined and our eyes on each other, our sounds and smells, mean something. Our actions create reality, we create each other. We are never faceless, not even in the most grey anonymous streets of the city. We will never stop being responsible, being extensions, of one another. We will never stop longing for each other, and for something else.”
Full Of Fire is taken from The Knifes forthcoming album, Shaking The Habitual, released 8th April,
Suspension was one of the many highlights from Canadian ElectroPop goddess LIGHTS’s second album, Siberia. It’s been a while we heard anything from LIGHTS, we believer there is another acoustic EP in the offing, the hopefully a new record after that. In the meantime, here’s a reMix of Suspension that comes from Adam Weaver, who’s actually LIGHTS live synth player.
The original version is a strange and beautiful mixture of Acid Techno, EBM and LIGHTS sweet ElectroPop, and, as a song, is probably ripe for the reMixing. Weaver loads the track with an almost Balearic euphoria. Rising and falling with big Ibiza builds and a Melodic Trance flavour., Weaver delivers a classic dance mix of the track.
French Touch legend Alan Braxe is back and kicking off 2013 with a brand new single, not on his own Vulture Music imprint, but on the ever hip Scion Audio/Visual. Not only that, but the entire release is free too!
Once More Chance is a collaboration between Braxe and fellow Frenchmen The Spimes (what old school Kitsuné dude Romuald is doing now), and it’s not necessarily what you’d expect from the Nu-Disco pioneer. Slow and atmospheric, One More chance seems to share more common DNA with Chillwave that Braxe’s previous floorfillers. Don’t let that put you off though, it’s a beautiful, enveloping track that echoes with big reverby drums, swirling synths and Romuald hazy vocals. Oh, and there’s a Lifelike remix too. Boom. This sounds more like that track you were probably expecting. Gritty French Electro bass, and buzzsaw synths amidst a pounding beat. We could have probably done with a tiny bit less of the record flutter effect though, which gets a little tedious after three minutes. Still, you can’t say no to a rockin’ Lifelike reMix.
♫ Alan Braxe (With The Spimes) – One More Chance (Lifelike reMix)
♫ Alan Braxe (With The Spimes) – One More Chance
Alan Braxe (With The Spimes)’s One More Chance is free to download right here and also features a reMix from Memory Tapes.
We tried to fight it off, but we just couldn’t resist this one. Portuguese producer SirAiva has put together this fun filled reMix of Kajagoogoo‘s Too Shy. We just couldn’t help but like this mixture of early 80s Pop and early 90s House, with just a touch of Beach Disco.
We’re not really sure what more can be said on the matter. You all love Too Shy anyway (we know you do), add to that a robotic beat, Chicago basslines, Electro-House riffs, Disco licks. It’s like a melting pop of dance music, but somehow works. Well, it made us smile anyway.
We’ve been rocking to this track all week. Premièred last Friday on Pete Tong’s Radio 1 show, we first heard wind of it the week before. Back before we heard it we asked Josh to describe his reMix in three words, his reply was “heartbreaking, lush, neon”. What more can you ask for in a tune? This is Goldroom’s reMix of Charli XCX’s ‘You (Ha Ha Ha).
So, it’s a combination we have been pretty excited about. It no secret to regular readers that we are particularly enamoured with Charli, and we’ve been following Josh’s career since the good old NightWaves days. Both very different artists, but if there’s one thing we love, it’s two different styles that we are big fans of coming together. Charli’s Gold Panda sampling You (Ha Ha Ha) gets the prefect Dreamwave treatment. Goldroom takes an abrasive, intoxicating ElectroPop track and morphs it into a nostalgic dream. Sprinkled liberally with a Disco groove, the reMix becomes a rolling wave of lush beats, a swirling cloud of intricate sounds, pinned down with an infectious piano hook. All of which lends a new inflection to Charli’s vocals, stripping them of some of their angst, gently bringing out the lament and enhancing the longing. Stellar remix.
It’s that time again, Kitsuné Music are about to release their third Kitsuné Parisien compilation. Put together by Kitsuné main man Gildas and graffiti artist André to showcase French talent, and of course you can’t do that without including one of France’s premier SynthWave talents, Sci-Fi synth explorer Pyramid.
Wolf, Pyramid’s new track, is four minutes powered by chainsaw synths and wailing solos. But this is no harsh Electro tune, Pyramid uses his abrasive sounds not to create aggression, but to instil beauty and wonder. A pulsating Italo Disco bassline underpins the track, allowing Pyramid to concoct an enigmatic dark future soundtrack where machine stabs play against soaring melodies.Robotic and atmospheric dancefloor soundtrack stuff.
♫ Pyramid – Wolf
Kitsuné Parisien III is released 4th February, followed by a new EP from Pyramid.
This week lauded LA Dreamwave duo of Olivers, Oliver, released a brand new EP on A-Trak’s Fool’s Gold Records imprint. An EP that had been pretty polarising amongst fans of their smooth west coast Disco sound. The Oliver’s had been hinting that they would be branching out, style wise, for a while now, but delivering an EP containing hard hitting Electro tunes has raise as many eyebrows as it has smiles.
So, how is it really. Well, for a start it;s very good. even if it’s not to your taste, there’s no denying that it is an amazingly produced EP, these two are really at the top of their game, and on the whole, despite the odd cheesy Electro riff, Oliver’s should does shine through in the track. MYB is about 70% standard rave tune with the occasional glimpses of the Oliver brilliance we know and love. Similarly Night On My Mind promises to be a deep, moody, SynthWave tune, until the big early 2000’s Electro-House riff kicks in to ruin things. All is not lost though, the EP’s title track, Mechanical, is an absolutely beautiful, growling, synthetic ballad. Haunting vocals, lush synths, big retro drum fills, it;s an amazing tune. Alongside which sits Control, the track most people seem to have picked up on. A rapid fire, Funk laden, assault of arpeggios and vintage keys. Infectiously danceable and packed with more robo-boogie than a robo-boogie factory. Oliver’s Mechanical is a mighty fine EP, it just might not be the EP you were expecting.
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