Category: Dance

Saturday Reject: In Fusion – Nothing Ever Knocked Us Over

“RAVE ON!”

Tim: Another one from Norway, another one that got knocked out in the first round, but for entirely different reasons. RAVE ON!

Tom: I’ll admit to being surprised by that sudden RAVE. And by the bold hair choice from the middle singer, there. Who are they all?

Tim: From what I can find out (or rather, from the total lack of anything about them to be found), it seems as though In Fusion are a group made specifically for this, which would go some way to explain the slightly iffy vocals here and there, which is both a shame and a relief, really.

Tom: To be fair, the harmonies aren’t all that bad. Why do you say it’s a shame?

Tim: Because it’s a good song, and deserves better than being mauled on stage by a group whose personal looks are entirely at odds with everything else that’s going on – would it kill you to smile as you sing one of the most upbeat songs to grace the stage that evening?

Tom: That’s what seemed wrong! Part of that’s because there’s only so much you can do while holding a smoke flare in one hand and a microphone in the other, but yes. Why a relief?

Tim: Because as with all non-Loreen EDM, this would tank miserably if it did get through – looking at you, almost last Cascada and dead last Ryan Dolan.

Tom: That’s fair. As someone who generally likes EDM, I think that’s the real shame here. Well, that and the complete missed opportunity for a key change. I’d be happy with more songs like this in Eurovision.

Tim: I’ll take the studio version, though – many, many times over, because that’s just lovely. Though you’re right – that would have made a golden key change.

Galantis – Rich Boy

“This can be summed up quickly: it’s a bit of a mess.”

Tim: GIG DROP: I saw Galantis on Saturday night, and as I write this on Sunday afternoon I am still on something of a high from it as it was the best gig I’ve been to in a long long time. Here is their current track.

Tim: This can be summed up quickly: it’s a bit of a mess.

Tom: Yep. By one minute in, it’s pretty much shot its bolt; it’s just doomed to repeat those sections twice, and squeeze a middle eight in there somewhere.

Tim: It doesn’t really ever settle down into one particular groove, but instead flits from style to style – the vocal is regular in some parts, distorted upwards for others and way down low for others. Musically it can just about squeeze into the broad tropical spectrum, but it’s pushing at the edges each and every way trying to get out and jumping around in between. Video reinforces this, veering between typical lyric video, standard filmed stuff, cartoons, pictures flashing around. Utter mess.

Tom: Full marks to the designer for putting all that together, though; that’s a lot of effort and time for a lyric video.

Tim: And yet despite all that: it works. For all the messiness, it’s got a good tune, a decent chorus, and is still pretty catchy. So many reasons that this shouldn’t work, and yet it does. It’s good.

Karl X Johan – Twisted Up

“That’s what you’ve got to show, after three years of working a song to perfection?”

Tim: Says the PR guff for this, the Swedish duo’s first track since 2014: “We’ve made a lot of music since ‘A Better Tomorrow’ in 2014. Or a lot of different versions of a few songs to be exact. That’s how we usually work,” and they go on to talk about a “slow but top-quality release timeline dotted but a new track every couple years.” So, guess we should be prepared to be blown away in astonishment by this. Strap in.

Tim: Oh.

It’s…okay? Thing is, I’ve never been one for writing music, and I don’t know exactly what style they’re going for, so I don’t want to be too harsh criticising them here, but…really? That’s what you’ve got to show, after three years of working a song to perfection?

Tom: To be fair, I know people who spent years on a dissertation, only for a big chunk of the work to be done in the last few days before the deadline.

Tim: HIYA.

Tom: Maybe that’s what happened, and they just had to use whatever they came up with?

Tim: A fairly drab beat, minimal variety in the lyrics, and a melody that I’ve trouble remembering even though I’m still listening to the song? I know I said I don’t want to be harsh, but I’m really not sure there’s much to be nice about. Maybe in 2020, though.

Joakim Lundell feat. Arrhult – All I Need

“I did not expect that track to be any good.”

Tim: According to Wikipedia, Joakim also goes by the name Jockiboi and is a fairly prolific YouTuber; he’s branching out a bit, so here’s a dance track.

Tom: Based on your paragraph there, Tim, I did not expect this track to be any good. But… it is.

Tim: Isn’t it? For me, that hits quite a lot of the necessary buttons. Nice vocals, good melody, and even the twiddles and twirls, beeps and boops in the chorus sound good.

Tom: Right! Sure, it’s got the modern EDM overcompression problem, but those staccato synth pads mean it almost fits. Every part’s audible.

Tim: In fact, I’ve only really got one problem with it, which it that it finishes too early. Two verse/chorus pairings for a decent tune is just not right, so sort it out.

Samlight feat. Neea – Let Me Know

“DANCE!”

Tim: DANCE!

Tom: Bloody hell, Tim, I’m jetlagged and I’m tired, and I…

Tom: …huh.

Tim: Nice, right? Samlight’s a Finnish guy, Neea is harder to track down – I’m assuming she isn’t, as a standard web search would have me believe, the Northwest Energy Efficiency Alliance based in Portland, as she’s got much better vocals than they’d probably have.

Tom: That’s the sort of quality music writing that our reader keeps coming back for.

Tim: I like this a fair bit – it’s really quite jump aroundy, the music going around and about and inviting the listener to do so as well.

Tom: That chorus melody line is really very nice, and while I’m fairly sure that’s a synth patch I’ve heard somewhere before, it’s still a really good one. It’s got your Standard Euphoric Build in it, too, but the little touches here are what makes it: the resampled vocals, the little right-channel keyboard twitches.

Tim: In a DJ set I reckon it’d do very well as a “keep people going on the dancefloor” track, and frequently, that’s enough, so good work.

Sondr feat. Peg Parnevik – Live Love Learn

“In case you’ve been missing Avicii…”

Tim: In case you’ve been missing Avicii, Britain’s Sondr have teamed up with Sweden’s Peg to bring us something approximating that.

Tom: Sondr and Peg sound like a Nordic comedy duo.

Tom: Blimey, never mind, Sondr and Peg sound like Avicii. Or at least, everyone else that did Avicii-esque tracks a couple of years ago.

Tim: Verses with a gentle instrumental, yes. Chorus vocals over a building backing, yes. A post-chorus that then proceeds to GO OFF, oh, very much so. Deviation from the formula slightly in the first chorus, but otherwise it’s all there, and all behaving very, very nicely.

Tom: And there’s even the beautifully-directed road-trip video, too.

Tim: Ooh, I hadn’t even thought of that, but yes. And not only all those tropes, but we’ve also got the lyric “roll with the punches and twist with the turns, you live, you love, you learn”, which could be my favourite line yet this year. I will very much take this, that you very much, and stick it right on my GOING OUT playlist.

Tom: Just don’t jump into a freezing-cold lake. I don’t recommend it clothed, I can only imagine that naked would be worse.

Tim: Ah, but how will you learn if you’ve never lived?

Hats feat. Diana Golbi – Take It Away

“What the hell is going on in that video”

Tim: This was sent in by our reader, Emma, who simply writes “I LOVE IT!” Hats are an Israeli production duo who’ve been going a few years, and this is their latest.

Tim: So the first time I heard it I fund it difficult to pay much attention to the song because I was trying to work out just what the hell is going on in that video, but apparently it’s won loads of awards and stuff, so that’s something.

Tom: I’m going to file that video under “extended metaphor”. Not sure it’s suitable for this, though.

Tim: Listening to it again without the video they’ve chosen to accompany it, though, and it’s a pretty good dance track.

Tom: It is, although a lot of the sounds in here sound like they’re from about ten years ago — which is perhaps why I like it as well. All the this-year trends of single-instrument synth pads and messed-about lyric samples are absent. This could fit on a compilation CD from the 2000s. Which is fine by me, but I’ve no idea how well the rest of the world will look at it.

Tim: They’ve certainly got the big post-chorus nailed, with a great melody and mix of instruments – that last minute is just fantastic. I wouldn’t go as a far as “I LOVE IT!”, but I’d certainly play it again, quite a good few times.

Future Duper feat. Hilde – Fever

“Takes a turn for the strange at the pre-chorus”

Tim: Certainly a strong attempt a pun from this new Norwegian act; it just about works…

Tom: Pun?

Tim: Off Super Duper, surely, otherwise it means nothing, surely? But even if the pun doesn’t work, does the music?

Tom: Well, that takes a turn for the strange at the pre-chorus, doesn’t it? Sounds almost like a video game, gets really excited, and then drops down again. I think you’re right when you say it “just about works”.

Tim: Sort of, but I’d rather it had a bit more melody in places. In particular, coming out of the middle eight feels like it’s really missing a trick, as there could be something memorable with a decent tune there, rather than a few sentences said at us fairly quickly.

Tom: I think it’ll take a few listens — or, rather, a few tracks like this — before I can actually get the hang of this. Right now, it sounds like a rather more experimental genre than it should.

Tim: To me it feels like a natural progression of the Alan Walker sound – the same squeaks and squeals, but faster and a bit heavier, and that I quite like. Seven a half out of ten, then, or possibly an eight if I’m feeling generous.

Smorgasbord – Let It Go On

Tim: Smorgasbord, because it’s lots of different bits, like the three members of this band, apparently, with “different, but solid, musical backgrounds.” With this debut, they’re providing “an exotic tempting sound, a hybrid with sticky choruses”. How fun. Or gross, something anyway.

Tom: It’s a stock footage music video! I didn’t think those were still a thing! But more importantly: it’s actually a proper dance track. It… it does go on and on a bit, though, doesn’t it?

Tim: I do like a song where they don’t let you, ever, forget what it’s called. Sure, you have your Unchained Melody and your Bohemian Rhapsody, but that’s hard to remember and sometimes you just need it drilling right down into you. Eiffel 65 knew it, Alexandra Burke knew it, and now Smorgasbord know it as well.

Tom: Even the instrumental bit of the chorus follows the same rhythm, so I keep singing it anyway. At some point I’ve got to admire that, but it does get old. I actually said “yes, I get it” out loud at one point.

Tim: I suppose I could take it as part of the song, the forceful nature of the instruction that it must never, ever, under any circumstances be allowed to stop. Or just slightly lazy lyrics, I don’t know.

Tom: I mean, I could at least sing the chorus after one listen. I’m not sure I wanted to, though.

Tim: As for the rest of it: it’s a solid debut as a dance track, with that intense repetition presumably mainly intended to get stuck in your head, wanting to dance and keep dancing to it. And for that, it kind of works, though I can’t help feeling they think it’s going to be bigger and more anthemic than it probably will be. Still a good start, though.

Martin Jensen – Solo Dance

“Hey, it’s another Galantis-a-like!”

Tim: Hey, it’s another Galantis-a-like! Ish, take a listen.

Tim: Curious video given the song’s message, really, showing at is a whole load of people all very happily dancing in a group, but never mind that.

Tom: It’s not like they’re all doing their own choreography, either. I mean, it’s still impressive dancing, but yes, you’re right.

Also, full marks to Martin for managing to pretend he’s actually doing something on the decks all the way through the video.

Tim: It’s a fun song, and who won’t like that? It is, really, a song that you might want to dance in a group to, so maybe the entire song’s wrong OH I DON’T KNOW. Either way, it’s danceable, it’s a good style, and all round I don’t think I’ll complain.

Tom: And it’s basically Galantis. They’ve had a lot of influence.