The Weekly Froth!

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:  ‘What You Won’t Do For Love’ by Denie Corbett (Jesse Rudoy remix)

The always amazing Let’s Play House label is back in business again with a free download, this time a Jesse Rudoy edit of the old school disco tune ‘What You Won’t Do For Love’ by Denie Corbett. It starts out with a dancefloor beat, there are some bell-like sounds there in the mix, but the real going on starts after the minute mark, when the bass comes in. After about 1:30 you get the quintessential disco moan (because it’s all about that ol’ love making, ain’t it?), as in the mean time the bass and the beat keep this one danceable. At about 2:15 you get the horns in, which is always a good sign as usually that indicates the vocals are about half a minute away. After those 30 seconds, first, he kicks the pace up with a fast drum, and the vocals come in half a minute after that one. And they are those sassy, disco vocals you remember from the genre, singing that She gets down on her knees, with the chorus girls singing “What you won’t do for love”, which is lovely cheeky and so fitting for that ol’ disco. From this point on monsieur Rudoy just keeps this one moving, with the vocals, the fast-paced drum, the strings, just the whole thing really. At about 5:20 he returns to the bass, letting that one grind it out, finishing this lovely edit that makes any old disco song into a modern day dancefloor tune with how danceable it is combined with the vocals and sass you want on a night out.

‘Undercover’ by Lane 8 feat. Matthew Dear

Lane 8 is readying the release of his upcoming album Rise, and on this track he has enlisted Matthew Dear and his deep, melancholic vocals to do the singing over the more summery synth lines he himself churns out. Though especially the secondary synth and the drums form a nice bridge between the main synth and the vocals. At 1:28 Lane 8 picks up the pace with a fast drum, giving the song its uplifting party feel to counterbalance the sense of blues eminating from the vocals of Dear, asking whomever to Let it feel, that it is real. So even in those lines there’s this sense of hope, that goes with the way Lane 8 has constructed the instrumentals for the song. Lane 8 really builds this track up nicely, from the synths to the drums, and how he structures those throughout the song, that’s why you get this sense of momentum. For the ending he dials it down a bit, going with just the vocals and a piano to round it all out. The album is shaping up to be well-worth giving a go, and if you have never seen Matthew Dear live, be sure to catch him the next time he’s coming to a town near you.

‘Turn Off The Lights (Who’s Afraid Of The Ark)’ by Kerri Chandler

Kerri Chandler wastes no time laying down the works with that fast paced, hard hitting beat, accompanying them with some of those classic house synth sounds. In the mean time you’ve got those deep, talky male vocals asking (nay, demanding to know) Whose afraid of the lights?. At 1:20 you get this lighter synth entering, making sure no one is mistaking this for anything else than that sweet ol’ house music. Just before the 2:30 mark Chandler throws a little bass in there as well to get things really cooking, mixing it with some percussion to sweeten the deal. In the mean time the vocals are still of the opinion that we should Turn off the lights, because, well, who knows what will happen then, eh? Chandler makes sure you have bits like at 3:20, where he dials down the beat for a moment to then let it back in again, at which points all y’all on the dancefloor can pull out your fiercest move/look/pose out of the bag to get back in it again. I mean, this is house for the dancefloor, a tune to be pulling out DJing at the club during the wee hours of the night to let them all get down to. Chandler knows a thing or to about that, and it’s on display again here, just old school night clubbing.

‘Our Muzic’ by Glenn Crocker feat. Harold Big Ed Matthews

In this track Harold Big Ed Matthews says that it is a Celebration of a nation, and the fun bassline sure makes there’s a celebratory vibe in this danceable jazz tune from Chicago’s Glenn Crocker. The bass and drums take care of the rhythm part, with some piano free roaming on top as the spoken word is poetically giving an ode to, especially, music, saying that people are living to blend in with the music, and that this is Our music. In the mean time the bass and drums keep the song rolling on, giving the people out there something to shake their shoulders to. At one point Glenn Crocker slides this thing into an instrumental part with primarily the drums, but soon he brings that bass back to add a bit of oomph to it. After that, roaming on top, first some piano, then some lovely floating sounds I can’t quite recognize the instrument of (do help my ailing mind in the comments). It is just a fun track, with especially the bass giving it this party line, and with all the jazz sounds and the spoken word giving it some (musical) poeticness.

‘Rays’ by Telespazio (Harvey Sutherland remix)

Wow, how about those light, sunny synths that Sutherland starts out with. As if Apollo 26 is counting down for lift off during sunrise. You hear the kickpad in the background doing some work as well, though it are those synthesizers that lay down the atmosphere. That is, before the actual lift off commences, with Sutherland getting the rhythm in there with a bassy synth line and some percussion sounds to add some sugar to the bowl. After about a minute of just rhythm, those atmospheric synth sounds come back in again, just to remind you what you were getting in to in the first place. Later on in the track he strips the rhythm instruments for a minute, but obviously he gets them back in there again with some extra auxiliary sounds to give it this sense of oomph. What Sutherland has created here kind of works twofold, with the bass rhythm doing it’s thing so you can do a little shuffle dance to it, but what he’s created around it gives it this sense of beauty (on which he builds on in the second part of the track). Telespazio released an album with this song on it earlier in the year, so if you liked this one you might want to give that one a spin as well.

‘Gloria’ by Santa Esmeralda (Future Feelings edit)

Sure, we know ‘Gloria’ from Patti Smith’s iconic album Horses, but in essence it’s a Van Morrison (Them) tune that was also covered (and perhaps more closely so) by Santa Esmeralda for Santa’s also relatively-but-not-quite-so iconic Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood album. Future Feelings take on that one to edit, having a nice kick drum there as bass to move it forward alongside that well-known guitar line. At about the fifty second mark the party kind of comes in with some extra instruments, giving it this uplifting vibe that’s always good for dancing. Soon enough we get the vocals, singing that She makes me feel so good, which gets looped for a moment before the traditional spelling of the title name comes in. In the mean time the bass in the background keeps it going along with the drums, giving all those dancers something to hang their hat on. At 3:33 they slide the song into this nice bit of guitar soloing, still with the rhythm section doing their thing, putting together a nice little combo there. They smartly bring back the vocals after a prolonged instrumental passage, primarily focussing on those two lines + chorus that they did earlier as well. As said, the track (and especially its chorus) have this nice uplifting feel, and with the rhythm and the occassional guitar solo in there it is a fun little take on a much covered tune.