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The Weekly Froth - October #2

  • Written by  Stef Siepel

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: ‘Big Foot’ by Ilya Santana (Rayko remix)

These two people together can only be good news. Ilya Santana knows how to put the Space in Space Disco, and Rayko sure as hell knows how to put in the latter. So what you get is a nice drum rhythm, and when the synths come in after about forty seconds you get the space vibe no doubt. At 1:10 you get that fist-in-the-air-bump moment when there’s another rhythm element added to give it a nice little boost, and about half a minute later you get some extra synths to add some extra space to the atmosphere. What I love is that Rayko just builds to those change-ups. The music, very naturally, lets your brain know when he’s going to alter the song, so you get that sweet anticipation. At the three minute mark, that’s just a stretch that I just love. You have the drums, the more rhythmic synths, but also the atmospheric synths to make sure there’s plenty of that vibe in there. It certainly is plenty danceable, and it manages to be both catchy as well as hypnotic. I must say, this instrumental track actually kind of exceeded my expectations, no small feat considering these guys are really up there in my mind.

 

‘Vicious Love’ by Midnight Magic

Midnight Magic is about to release an EP, and this is the title track off of that. This one starts nice and boogie, with the deep bass being contrasted by the horns that come in. The diva vocals are certainly present again, including a bit of echo to give them even more of a range. It really starts out as a lovely slow jam, just dreamy and sad enough for the star crossed lovers with darts in their eyes. She sings that she can’t conceal it anymore, as after all, love is vicious, though it certainly is time to take a chance. It certainly is a track with a narrative and lots of vocals, and for me that’s never a bad thing, especially as there is enough variety in them between the chorus and the verses. In the mean time, the instrumentals are keeping it slow jam disco, with the bass there, but also plenty of auxiliary sounds to set the mood as the drums and bass set the pace. At about 3:50 they put in the big guns with the horns, which get some lovely play to end the track.

‘Desire’ by Years & Years

Years & Years are really working towards an ace debut. They’re touring with Sam Smith, but more importantly they’ve released two killer singles already with ‘Real’ and ‘Take Shelter’, which are really top notch. This is perhaps their most overt attempt to pop out, with the other two leaning perhaps more heavily on the R&B side of things. This one seems slightly more up-tempo, especially the quick rhythm part that comes at the start of the chorus, that screams big pop track maybe a bit too much. Still, like the other two, it’s got some great vocals (not to mention multiple vocal layers on top of each other), some interesting drums, and it still has a high catchiness factor. No, I’m not as enamoured with it as with the previous two (they seem to have a bit more “air” and “space” in them, if you know what I mean, not as foot-on-the-pedal as this one), then again, that album is still being played the first day it hits the shelves no doubt (and certainly hoping to see them live well before that). The energy and those vocals just have me hooked, what can I say?

 

‘Supernatural’ by AlunaGeorge

AlunaGeorge certainly made some waves last year with their album, and based on this track I would say deservedly so. I love the whole rhythm behind the track, it’s so darn catchy and it’s got such a good pace on it. I also love the different layers, they complement each other nicely, with the rhythm in the back, and then the sparser dum---dum----dum in front of it. The female vocals slide the song nicely into the chorus, where the pace picks up and where she sings that it is all so supernatural, and her more soulful vocals contrast nicely with the altered male vocals, which are made to sound more mechanical. It’s a lovely, catchy slice of electro pop, the kind that actually makes me curious about what a whole album would sound like.

‘Down From The Rafters’ by Hundred Waters (The Field remix)

I’ve seen The Field live a couple of times, so it’s no surprise to me what’s coming next. You’ll get plenty of chilled out atmosphere, with a real hypnotic backbone that keeps the track in place and that will keep you entranced whilst doing some of that eyes-to-the-floor shuffling. There are enough subtle changes to keep this from becoming monotone, from little additions to the percussion to changes in the atmospherical synths that certainly paint the landscape you’re meandering in within your mind. The looping of certain elements, he does that so effectively, especially with that higher percussion sound, which is amazing, and then those haunting synths that keep floating over the beat throughout the whole song. Certainly, if you allow it to do so, this is one that will take you by the hand and lead you to this alternate world somewhere.

 

‘Don’t Wanna Dance’ Deep & Disco rework

If something is named ‘Don’t Wanna Dance’, and behind that you see that it’s reworked by Deep & Disco, you can be pretty sure that they’re gonna make you, no matter what. The build-up is splendid, from the funky guitar to the drums to the bass they slide in after about forty seconds: that’s how to get the catchy wanna-move-vibe in there. After about a minute you get a little break, but slowly you hear the track come back in, and the horns announce the return to full volume. Later in the track you get these lovely ol’ school vocals, asking you how you’re gonna do it if you really don’t want to dance. I love that moment at 3:26, when those soulful vocals come through full throttle announcing his advice with an “I say people” yelp. The cherry on the cake is when the song slides into the familiar “get down on it” sequence, which is just this fabulous moment where the dancefloor will either recognize the reference or will recognize the fact that it is just a killa’ moment to keep dancing to. Again, just a lovely, funky, catchy rework with the right amount of attitude to pull it all off.

 

 

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