Weekly Column: The Froth!

Track of the week: ‘Call Girl’ by The Right Now (Dicky Trisco version)

Also remixed by Hot Toddy and JKriv this, so you know that’s a single you might want to get. Dicky Trisco starts it off with a delightfully slow bass before he gets the cymbals in, and that bass really lays down the vibe and how you should dance to it, not for the people who want the security of the beat, but more for those who don’t mind playing it up a little I think. At least, that’s how I envision the dancefloor on this one. The light synth sounds prelude the female vocals, after which a little bit of that guitar plucking comes in to counteract that melancholic keys sound. At 2:30 he mixes it up a bit just to get that bass in there again with some tribal drums, which is very nice indeed. All this time we are waiting for the vocals to actually come through, which is shortly thereafter as they go “You’re pulling him away from me, baby” with some sort of hazy layer over them. That line, by the way, is something which nicely goes with that melancholic vibe that occassionally portrudes this track. The last minute gets some more of that guitar sound and that rather punchy bass, bringing to an end this lovely low-mid tempo track with a vibe of its own.

‘Plans’ by DJ Koze feat. Matthew Dear

Matthew Dear has been on a roll for a few years now, not in the least thanks to that delicious live rendition of ‘Her Fantasy’ that he has been playing since his last release. DJ Koze normally is a bit off my path to be honest, but from the fifteen seconds on it already starts with more atmosphere than I was thinking it could possibly have. After half a minute you get a beat that goes three times, then a stop, then three times again. Dear takes to the vocals with his trademark rhythm voice (don’t expect diva belt-outs here, obviously) as he talks about snakes and other such things. Funnily this track is kind of a mixture between colder electronics and occassionally soul-esque sounds, which Koze botches up and puts in there. So that makes for an interesting contrast, the way Koze puts these two together in this idiosyncratic way. Not everyone will love this, but I find that he’s put together a rather intriguing mixture, even if I’m not that much of a fan of that start-stop rhythm that is sometimes on display here.

‘Machines’ by Mirror People

On the label Discotexas comes this new release by Mirror People, which starts with this kind of distorted beat which I guess goes with the title of this song, though at first it might not necessarily be the most beautiful sound blasting out of your speakers. After a minute they ditch that noise layer, after which they start focussing more on that what they slide underneath, namely a very dancey base for the rest of the song to do their thing to. And if you have that main sound that makes people dance and that is catchy, then you can get away with so much as the “atmospheric” or auxiliary sounds (or whatever). And the one they throw in at around the 2:30 mark is a very nice complement to that base sound indeed. Just before the third minute arrives they go exactly there where I was hoping they would go, namely they change it up a tad for a moment, taking away that base sound in favour of a very nice interlude (with even a smidgen of cowbell thrown in there I believe). After that people can start working it again, now with additional help of that cowbell (which valiantly survives the change-up). Aside from the start, nice song on which I’m sure plenty will be able to dance to.

‘Grind’ by Les Sins

Les Sins is the more dancey moniker of Toro Y Moi, aka Chaz Bundick. Though with “dancey” it does not necessarily mean all-out-house-hit-at-125-bpm or something. Kind of low tempo with the bass and all, but it has got the loops that give you the repetition that is needed for people to wiggle to. It is funny, because at the start you hear those deep male vocals like those old soul singers, so that made me think he would work with one of those. However, the “real” vocals that actually do the singing/talking are heavily distorted, in a variety of ways actually. This while you hear those deep, soul-y “yeahs” and “ha-has” in the background. So from vintage elements you quickly go to more contemporary ones, like that sound that comes immediately after the first batch of vocals, which could’ve been actual horns I suppose, but instead it is this way more contemporary sound. While the bass keeps going on below, Bundick gets some of the beauty in with all these extra sounds that are simply lovely. These two combined make it nothing to sneeze at, though I would’ve been a sucker for those “original vocals” to have been used, I have to admit that. Then again, maybe that totally wouldn’t have fit the feel of the rest of the song, so yeah. 

‘Baby Don’t Go’ by Haze M (Him Self Her Remix)

This one starts a bit too clubby for my liking, but those vocals are ace, and after sixteen seconds when they get combined with that piano, that’s a really lovely part right there. After fifty seconds they get the beat in, but what makes it so “clubby” is that guy talking/rapping/going on/whatever in the “background” (which honestly, doesn’t feel like the background at all), and that kind of makes this sound like something that could be played at a more generic club, though it does have some nice house vibes going on at times. And you can definitely dance to this. After three minutes you again get just the vocals and the piano, which slowly gets build-up. But even in the build-up there’s something that feels just a bit more club-oriented than what I normally enjoy listening to. I guess that in that realm it is not a bad track at all, but it is just outside the kind of vibe and aesthetic I would go for, though I wouldn’t mind dancing to it if I happen to chance upon it.

‘Take Me’ by Rufus (Cassian remix)

I like the start of it. It has got this nice mid-tempo percussion going on, and slowly but surely you hear some high pitched backing vocals come in. After about thirty seconds it kind of abruptly goes up a notch, though soon they strip the percussion away for the build-up to the main sound; a catchy synth-pop song with a nice bassline to do some dancing to. The vocals are nice, in the verses they kind of have this raspy thing going on, and in the choruses they are far smoother. Which I guess on some level is kind of logical, because these are two things with totally different functions. So after one of the choruses, the bass is stripped and you get those “verse vocals” again with, at first, some handclaps, though soon other instruments chime in to help them on the way of not the return of the bassline, but the return of the beat. So there’s some nice variety there in this six minute tune. If you like your electro pop, this is definitely a nice one to be listening to.