The Magician – Magic Tape Twenty-Two = ‘Magic Tape’ time of the month comes around so fast! What have we got in here then. Some nice Tropical Disco, some nice ‘90’s vibe. Is that the new Yuksek reMix I hear? Chris Malinchak? Some TEED? Let the guessing games begin.
♫ The Magician – Magic Tape Twenty-Two
Buy The Magician’s music from:
This week sees the release of Dutch Nu-Disco & SynthWave producer L’Equipe Du Son’s début album. ‘Supersonic’ is, in part, a compilation of all the awesome stuff he’s been releasing over the past couple of years, but with a few surprises thrown in for good measure. Prepare for ten track of some of the slickest retro Disco around.
The album kicks off with the smooth Disco primer and possible L’Equipe Du Son’s best known track, ‘Lesson 1’. It had to really, and it makes a rad into peice as well as being cool laid back Disco in it;s own right. It sets up the album nicely for a collection that swings between early 80’s Funk numbers like ‘What You Do To Me’, the sweet electronic Soul of ‘Do You Want Me’ and ‘Love Will Find a Way’ and flat out SynthWave gems in the form of ‘Gina’ and of course, one of our favourite tracks of the month, the breakin’ ‘Playground Rebels’. Taken as a whole, and a document of L’Equipe Du Son’s recent output it’s hard not to wonder why he isn’t a bigger name, there’s a lot of bigger producers who couldn’t fill an album so consistently, to such a high quality. And whilst the album is quite varied in it’s approach to Nu-Disco, from smooth Funk to full on abrasive Electro, there’s an across the board sound too. L’Equipe Du Son likes to drop some 8-bit sounds into the mix and favours big retro chord stabs in combination with Italo basslines. All amazing elements that in, L’Equipe Du Son’s hands become SynthWave gold. If you’re into Nu-Disco or SynthWave you might well already have many of these tracks, but they are definitely worth revisiting as a complete body of work.
♫ L’Equipe Du Son – Flashdance
♫ L’Equipe Du Son – Playground Rebels
♫ L’Equipe Du Son – Gina
♫ L’Equipe Du Son – Do You Want Me?
L’Equipe Du Son’s ‘Supersonic’ is out now on Silhouette Music.
Buy L’Equipe Du Son’s music from:
Punks Jump Up’s ‘Mr. Overtime’ has already provided us with one of the best tracks of the year so far, and some of the best reMixes of the year too. Now, completing the hat-trick, it provides us with one of the best videos of the year.
Maxime Bruneel directs this neon soaked, retro styled, animated exploration of utter cool. We wish life looked like this!
‘Mr. Overtime’ is released 30th April on Moda.
Buy Punks Jump Up’s music from:
Panda People are a German Indie-DiscoPop trio that we featured on Pop-Fu 08, way back in 2010, they’ve been pretty quiet of late but are about to finish up their forthcoming new single ‘Two Sinners’ and release it to the world.
Apparently there are a few mixing tweaks that still need to be made ‘Two Sinners’ before the formal release, but the guys have let us share with you the song in it’s pretty-much-finished form. ‘Two Sinners’ just reminds us of everything we loved about ‘Sophisticated Girl’, it’s breezy vocals, lush synths and catchy chorus that just compels you to join in. There a hint of new York IndiePop about the track, a bit of Passion Pit, and a bit of Miike Snow but with a electronic Disco groove. Slick Indie licks rubs shoulder with shimmering synths and a carefree singing style. Sumer hit? With enough exposure it would a just the thing for a summer of fun.
♫ Panda People – Two Sinners (Demo.)
‘Two Sinners’ will be out soon.
Buy Panda People’s music from:
Sam Sparro, the man with the croonyest voice in electronic Pop music is back with the second, and lead-in, single taken from his forthcoming ‘Return To Paradise’. It’s more classic Pop, less Disco, than the previous single ‘Happiness’. Actually more like the Sam Sparro of old, but slightly more musically mature.
The single comes complete with an eclectic reMix package, the reaction to which I have found interesting and a little bewildering. The music blog world is awash with the Azari & III reMix, which has the typically deep, stripped down Chicago House vibe you’d expect from them. It’s actually a really cool track with a sweet hypnotic pulse, but it’s not the best reMix on the single. A fewer number of blogs have picked up on the Stereogamous mix, with it’s robo Disco groove that highlights the emotion of the vocals, also an very nice track, but not the best reMix on the single either. The standout reMix comes from Devil’s Gun, and that’s a massive surprise. When I think of Devil’s Gun I usually think of something dark and gritty. Even on their collaboration with future Pop starlet Queen Of Hearts they kept things grinding and doom laden, but with their reMix of ‘I Wish I Never Met You’ they go positively Dreamwave. It got a huge Disco sound with layers and layers of chunky synths that give it a touch of that grit, alongside a solid retro Disco flavour. It’s big and funky and fun and I have no idea why it’s been largely overlooked by the music blog world. I suppose Devil’s Gun don’t drive the same kind of traffic as Azari & III though, not yet anyway…
♫ Sam Sparro – I Wish I Never Met You (Devil’s Gun reMix)
♫ Sam Sparro – I Wish I Never Met You (Azari & III reMix)
♫ Sam Sparro – I Wish I Never Met You (Stereogamous reMix)
‘I Wish I Never Met You’ is taken from Sam Sparro’s forthcoming new album, ‘Return To Paradise’, out 27th May.
Buy Sam Sparro’s music from:
From the opening notes of the heavy synth bassline of the title track of ‘Burning Feeling’, the début album from Lovelock, you know something synthetically special is happening. Lovelock is one of the many monikers of Synth legend Steve Moore. I say ‘legend’ because the man has a prolific and consistently amazing out put. Whether it’s as in Zombi or Miracle or as Gianna Rossi or just himself you know that with the Moore stamp on it, you’re in for some amazing, emotional synth work.
His latest release, Lovelock’s ‘Burning Feeling’ is in part a collection of his work under this pseudonym to date, some of the tracks, including the title, date back a couple of years and will be familiar to most fans of synth music, whist some are brand new, and the two sit side by side effortlessly. maybe du in part to Moore’s retro influences, maybe just due to the sheer quality of the songs, nothing on the album sound dated (or at least, not dated in the bad sense of the word). The album is loaded with futuristic Sci-Fi soundscapes and Cosmic Disco grooves, robotic Italo basslines and heartfelt Funk. ‘Burning Feeling’ itself is one of the most powerful SynthPop tracks you’ll hear in a while. Punchy EBM basslines and jackhammer drums mix with epic power ballad vocals to create a weird, but utterly amazing Industrial/Pop crossover. Elsewhere on the album Lovelock presents a more boogie laden Moroder-esque analog Disco vibe with track like ‘New Age Christ’ .Maybe Tonight’ and ‘The Fog’, albeit with his trademark warbling synth solos along for the ride. Mainly, though, ‘Burning Feeling’ is like the best collection of ‘80’s TV themes that never existed. ‘Deco District’ channels a more New York Disco version of Jan Hammer, as does ‘Love Reaction’ which ups the ante with some sweet female vocals. And in the middle of all this future funk and soundtrack majesty sits ‘South beach Sunrise’, a chilled out respite from the energy of the rest of the record, complete with a beautiful sax solo. ‘Burning Feeling’ truly is a masterpiece, an amazingly good album that impresses right from the moment you put it on. An electronic music fan’s record collection is just not complete without this album.
♫ Lovelock – Don’t Turn Away (From My Love)
♫ Lovelock – Love Reaction
♫ Lovelock – Maybe Tonight
♫ Lovelock – South Beach Sunrise
Lovelock’s ‘Burning Feeling’ is released 26th April on Prins Thomas’s Internasjonal imprint.
Buy Lovelock’s music from:
Mjolnir are back! It’s been a while since we heard from this Indonesian trio of Nu-Disco gurus, but their latest reMix for, Brazilian artist Strausz, sows they have only spent their time getting better and better.
The original version of the track is, well, a bit weird. Big synths and various peices of ethnic instrumentation from various cultures in a mix mixing pot. But that’s why we have slick Disco remixes, right? And Mjolnir deliver 100%, with a bouncy bassline and Tropical chimes to set the scene and lush synths and a smooth ‘90’s House piano line to get the party going. This track is Tropical in the truest sense of the word, exotic percussion and floaty eastern melodies capture the imagination and transport you to a more equatorial climate. Pure beach-party good times, with a nice not to the legacy of Chicago House music in there too.
♫ Strausz – Garoto Nacional (Mjolnir Dub Mix)
You can pick up Strausz’s whole ‘Garoto Nacional’ EP for free from here.
Check out more from Strausz on SoundCloud.
Cosmonauts – April Top Ten = London’s most cosmic Disco double act, Cosmonauts, drop their favorite tracks of the month. Expect an hour of retro space-age grooves, deep synth Funk and the smoothest of House track. This mix has been workin’ our weekend!
Buy Cosmonauts’ music from:
So, we already established that French ElectroPopsters Jupiter’s ‘One O Six’ is probably an ode to the Roland Juno 106 synthesizer when we wrote about the fantastic A.N.D.Y. reMix of the track. The whole single, including the B-Side is a pretty special collection of tracks that definitely deserves further investigation.
‘One O Six’ is a deep analog bass funkin’, synth stabbin’, dreamy vocal croonin’ slice of DiscoPop. Musically imbued with a particular French sense of humour, this is exactly the kind of bouncing quirky SynthPop we’ve come to expect from this twosome in the last few years. The B-Side, ‘Multicolorising’, many not have the catchy vocal hook of ‘One O Six’, but my word does it make up for it in tons of Cosmic Funk. Vocodered robot vocals chant melodically over thick Moog-esque bass and laser synth zaps. This is late ‘70’s/early ‘80’s electronic Disco amazingness and, to be honest, is the stand out track on the EP. We’ve already heard the stunning A.N.D.Y. reMix, the other reMixes on the single come courtesy of Juveniles with laid back French Disco mix, T.E.E.’s deep Acid track, and The Supermen Lovers with two reMixes, the ‘Classic’ mix which lays on the ‘70’s Disco hard, and this ‘Basic’ mix. A growling House cut lead by some intense percussion that takes the track deep and dark while retaining the groove. The ‘One O Six’ single is a top quality taster of what to expect from Jupiter’s forthcoming, and long awaited ‘Juicy Lucy’ album. We’ve heard it, it is seriously good. More on that later though.
♫ Jupiter – One O Six
♫ Jupiter – Multicolorising
♫ One O Six (The Supermen Lovers Basic reMix)
♫ Jupiter – One O Six (A.N.D.Y. reMix)
Jupiter’s ‘One O Six’ is out now.
Buy Jupiter’s music from:
We had a look at the video for Rebeka’s new single ‘Stars’ earlier this week. The single is out today on Discotexas and hold a whole host to crazy reMixes. Quirky ElectroPop, on the whole, has been pretty quiet for a couple of years so we’re really diggin’ this resurgence in eclectic, interesting electronic Pop bands. Discotexas seems to be pretty into it too with more and more of their releases bringing a BedroomPop flavour to their Disco.
‘Stars’ is a great introduction to this Polish duo, (yes, Rebeka is a duo) is a classic DiscoPop track with a sultry cabaret quality and an extra helping of eastern European bizarreness. Fun and funky is a heady combination. The reMix package is, as you’d expect from Discotexas, top quality. Punks Jump Up, who after a couple of years being the coolest of the underground seem to be gaining momentum recently, bring their abrasive London Disco style to the track with building Acidic lines and a peak time vibe. Discotexas’ own Mirror People also deliver a slick as hell mix, working things a bit deeper with their Club Mix. Mirror People’s version retains the cabaret flow and presents it for the dark corners of seedy Electro clubs.
♫ Rebeka – Stars (Original Mix)
♫ Rebeka – Stars (Punks Jump Up reMix)
♫ Rebeka – Stars (Mirror People Club Mix)
‘Stars’ is released 20th April on Discotexas with reMixes from Punks Jump Up.
Check out more from Rebeka on SoundCloud.
electronic rumors 