The Weekly Froth - November #1

The Weekly Froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the week: ‘Lies’ by Kasper Bjorke feat. Nomi Ruiz

When Kasper Bjorke is on, he is ON! He’s always had these amazing singles on his albums, which he usually mixed with a B-side full of deep house tracks. This time it seems to sway more towards the vocal electronical side of things, with guest bits by, amongst others, Tobias Buch, Sisy Ey, Jaakko Eino Kalevi, and the former Hercules And Love Affair singer Nomi Ruiz. The lovelorn Ruiz is perfect here as she, in the opening bits, paints a scene of broken bottles and broken glass, and asks“what do you want me to do?”. Bjorke’s synth & percussion combo is perfect here, he’s just got this amazing talent to keep it both dancey whilst putting in loads of atmosphere. Here, too, even though most of the sounds are pretty light it still has this air of melancholia, which is perfectly capped off by Ruiz and her narration of love, lust, but certainly not unrivalled happiness. Bjorke works those vocals to perfection, and adds the auxiliary sounds at the exact right times, not to mention the switch-ups like at 2:29, which he has a knack for doing them right. That album is streaming on soundcloud in its entirety as I’m typing this (and has been for a while), and it is definitely a worthwhile listen. And, dare I say it, perhaps the man’s best album yet. And you bet I have that last LP of his on vinyl too!

‘Beats Of Love’ by The Supermen Lovers (altered version)

How about that for coming out of the gates eh? Not holding back in this '80s do-over, with the funk coming in after 20 seconds with that nifty little guitar and that bass doing the groundwork. The vocals come in at about the 50 second mark, and they are delightfully theatrical in delivery. Love the synth that comes in at the exact moment he sings the title of the track for the first time. Totally fits. Love how that guitar comes in now and again, but also how easily The Supermen Lovers just leave it for a moment to focus on something else. The track stays funky and catchy, and totally worth dancing to. It still has that '80s cabaret kind of tinge, that overly theatrical, but I like that. Again, that guitar that comes in at about 3:25, just lovely bit of funky they throw in there. After the guitar gets some burn, they let the track explode again, to just as easily pull some sounds again to come back with the vocals. That’s what I really like here, the way they just play with pace and loudness. Add to that the theatrics and the funk, and you’ve got a killer track as far as I’m concerned.

‘I Believe’ by Bicep and Hammer

Bicep and Hammer start out with some factory sounds (or whatever) on this one, and they keep that up for an annoyingly long time. But after about thirty seconds you get a glimpse of the real sounds that are going to make this one, and twenty seconds later you get the percussion and some vocal work. Add to that a deep bass sound and an increasingly soulful voice, and this track is finally getting somewhere (and that they leave that annoying start sound in, I can forgive them for that). Just love the slow drawl that the bass dictates, and how that is juxtaposed by the soulful vocals just going at it. After about two minutes you get an atmospheric, light synth sound that gives a bit of a counterweight to the bass. That synth also gives it something hypnotic and dreamy, which is nice and which works well with the vocals. The synths also round the track off, one which I like for it’s vibe and the mixture of that voice, the bass, and that synth sound that adds to it from about halfway on.

‘Left Hand Free’ by alt-J (Lido remix)

I like the vocal start of this one, that gives it a nice and funny vibe. Especially when it then slides into this slow piano & whistling combo with the vocals before those dubby beats come in. Again, then, the shooting-you-down-bang-bang with the altered vocals hastily talking you through it come in, which makes the contrast even bigger when the actual singing vocals enter. And that’s what they play with so lovely here, just the contrast between the talking-vocals and the actual singing ones, the piano with the big drums and beats, and the soft and the loud. I just like the creative variety here, on the one hand with this anything goes feel, but on the other hand all the things so calculatedly contrasting each other. Also, during the stretches of one kind of sound, all the instruments and vocals in that stretch fit that specific stretch very well. And that makes it an intriguing listen, though admittedly for some it might be too much, too all over.

‘Running’ by Cassian feat. Cleopold

This one gets going with a synth and beat combo, and after about fifteen seconds the party is on when the drums come in. First though, he retreats the drum to introduce the vocals, but soon you already hear percussion coming back in underneath the vocals, which then get banging again with those tropical vibed synths. At the two minute mark most things get stripped away, with the beat, a minimal synth, and whoo-hooing vocals remaining. Slowly Cassian adds some more sounds, like a bit of horns, before letting the vocals return, from which point on they’re clearly working towards the moment the beat and synths come in again. It’s a fun and catchy track, which get a certain light heartedness from the tropical sounding synths, though that belies the lyrics a bit I feel, with the narrator singing that he’s been Running, all night. Catchy synth tune though, this one, ending it all with a bit of beat and drums.

‘Have Some Fun’ by Tosca (FaltyDL remix)

The title already says it, doesn’t it? Even though this one does start in a lovely, smokey-jazz club kind of way. Which is fun, and even when the catchy elements come in with the drums and bass, it still feels you’re at some jam session at a club with some guys on stage that are all smiling as they try to create something a bit catchy-yet-understated for the cocktail wives to do some dancing to. Obviously, at one point, the track becomes a bit too complex to keep that scenario up, with all kinds of production trickery going on. Though at about 2:40 there’s this moment of bliss where that suddenly is all turned down to get back into that classical mode of the song again, and that’s just wonderful right there. That moment alone makes this track worth those five minutes of your life.