First Listen is the part of Musos' Guide where we tempt you in with lesser played tracks from the recent past or this very minute. Enjoy.

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: ‘Loner’ by Mykki Blanco feat. Jean Deaux

The track starts out with some stabbing synths, haunting vocals in the back, before Mykki Blanco comes in firing and guns blazing, announcing he is going Grizzly in the head. The chorus features the singing, courtesy of Jean Deaux, hitting home that I’m alone, so alone, I’m a loner. The synths indicate the start to the chorus, though it is the drum and other percussion that lead the rest of the way. After they have fired all their rounds, the synths come back in, giving it that lighter touch that goes really well with the track. In that sense, the drum, the synths, the singing, and the rapping all balance each other out into what, for me, is a great song. Coming from someone who rarely listens to someone rapping twice, that’s about as good as it gets really. So, hurry up now, before I take it back all blushing and embarrassed.

‘Und Da Stehen Fremde Menschen’ by Michael Meyer & Barnt

Lets get those house sounds in right from the get go, taking up the characteristics of the genre with that beat and that delicious bass synth to get jackin’ to. More and more atmospherics are poured in though, as if they first lured you onto the dancefloor, to then hook you with the feel of the track. Until, at about the two minute mark, as at that point you’re only hearing your heartbeat. That lasts for a reasonable while, before the detached vocals sing in German that Und da stehen fremde menschen, and then something else. Then the track first lets you go through some 80s computing sounds, an Atari tilting I reckon, before they bring back da house at the 3:30 mark with the bass and kick. I love how he then starts to slide the atmosphere in again, starting at about 4:10, and then adding those hypnotic vocals singing the title line of the track. Released on the always interesting !K7 label.

 ‘Far Away from A Distance’ by Simian Mobile Disco

Simian Mobile Disco are back, moving to the depths with the beat that they’re starting this one out with. The electro engineering sounds that come in at the 18 second mark, as well as the more woodwork percussion sounding rhythm bit, juxtapose it slightly, though not bringing it out of deepness entirely. At the minute mark they up the tempo, a fast drum sets the pace along with all kinds of quick synth work, giving you the nighttime angst right there. The lads keep that up for a while, though around 2:10 they steady out, moving it more towards the rhythm side of it all. At the three minute mark they’ve dialled it all the way down, even removing the rhythm parts. That’s where the build up starts, lasting a minute or so, before diving back into the deep beat and getting the dancefloor working again. The single has just been released, so you can snatch up a copy plus remix right about now … (check it out now).

‘Be There’ by SWIM

This one starts out with a wall of chilly synths, though about ten seconds in the bass enters the scene to provide the steady rhythm, with some percussion work to help out a bit. There are some haunty sounds giving you the atmospherics, and a little synth riff as lighter sound as well. Then the vocals come in, dreamy and alienated. When the vocals stop, a new little synth riff is added on top of a steady drum, which then is replaced by the bass again as the vocals start, singing that they want to Be there, and announcing that they want To care. Even so much so that they basically strip everything aside from the vocals for just a second, then moving back to the bass and synth to ride this one out. It has a nice nocturnal feel to it, both in terms of feel, pace, and it’s approach, giving you something for that midnight train to Georgia.

‘IM U’ by Beacon (Tomas Barfod remix)

Beacon has some help from Tomas Barfod to start this one out deep and dirty, and the grainy industrial sound that comes in at about the twenty second mark only moves it further into those depths. To juxtapose that, the vocals soon appear, providing a certain light in the darkness. There’s a nice bass to keep it steady, and I love those almost ghostly sounds (which is no reference to the label at all) that move through the song, which then get a brief relief from the vocals, doing a little Ah-ha-ha-ha-ha line. At the 2:20 mark Barfod strips it down, after which the track primarily goes for some harsher percussion sounds, giving it a different tone than at the start. Barfod then builds it up again until just before the four minute mark, when he lets the vocals soften it up as it starts moving to the end of the track. Barfod, again, shows his feel for both tone and percussion, which he proves year in year out with WhoMadeWho but definitely also solo as well, for example with the ace ‘Happy’ (if you’ve never heard that one before, be sure to give it a whirl).

’S_Balkavuk’ Ilya Santana instr. edit

This one starts out like a clockwork, but then, ten seconds in, there is the bass and the wobbly synth sound riffing it up. And it’s all on the up from there, adding little touches and sounds before the vocals come in all dressed in that disco choir fashion. After that, there’s a short prelude to the next dancing bit, with a bit of drums doing their little thing, but soon the bass comes in again, this time accompanied by a variety of horns that start getting it down. Around the two mark there’s another stop moment, but this time it’s a really brief one, and by the time 2:30 rolls by that bass is dictating the boogie again, soon being helped out by those vocals that re-enter the scene. Ilya Santana always knows how to get that groove in place, and though he gives it a twist with sounding a bit more disco and with those little pitstops scattered throughout the song, it definitely is on display here again as well. It’s an exotic free download for sure.