Category: Dance

Alan Walker – Faded

“It’s like 2010 got some slightly updated synths.”

Tim: Norwegian producer Alan had a bit of success about eighteen months ago with Fade, an instrumental dance track; now he’s gone and done an Avicii on it, presumably hoping for similar levels of success.

Tim: And I do like that a lot, actually.

Tom: Crikey, it’s like 2010 got some slightly updated synths. I’m not sure whether that’s an insult or not, though, because it’s really quite listenable.

Tim: I agree – very listenable indeed. It appears to be tricky, adding vocals onto a track that was originally designed as an instrumental – the places you’d put the attention-seeking chorus are the ones where you’ve already got the attention-seeking main dance melody. Like Bromance, though, a very good compromise seems to have been made, and this works really, really well.

Tom: I’m not a fan of the compression that’s on there as they try to fit everything in: there’s some weird volume-fading going on that’s unfamiliar enough to my ears to sound like error rather than deliberate choice. That said, it might just be coming into fashion and I haven’t heard it enough: that’s what I thought about dubstep.

Tim: Ah, dubstep.

Tom: Huh. What happened to dubstep? I remember it being The New Thing We Didn’t Like, and then it was The Current Thing We Enjoy Now, and now it’s The Old Thing We’re Not Using Any More.

Tim: Oh, I’m sure something equally divisive will come along soon enough. Back to this, though, and weirdly the quiet piano line bits on this remind of me exactly the same song that Bromance reminded you of – Lisa Miskovsky’s Still Alive. Whether that’s coincidence, deliberate theft or possibly even homage I don’t know, but I do know that the more I hear it, the more I love this track, and here’s hoping he does succeed.

John De Sohn feat. Sigrid Bernson – Happy Hours

“That got unexpectedly confessional.”

Tim: Big new tune for you from dance producer John, with vocals supplied by, erm, one the dancers on Swedish Strictly.

Tim: “Why wait for the happy ending, when all you need is the happy hours?” An attitude, I suspect, that most people have but would be less than happy to admit to – sod the future, so what if it doesn’t work out for the best, let’s just enjoy right now. That was, in fact, pretty much the attitude that got me through university, and much as my dad keeps telling me not to, basically how I’m currently going with any sort of career.

Tom: Wow. That got unexpectedly confessional.

Tim: It did, didn’t it? Let’s move on, because on top of that: what a banging tune, no?

Tom: The pitch-twisted vocals certainly made me sit up and listen. Big drums, big production — that first build promised a lot, and it even managed to deliver. I’m not sure that chorus, despite the truths it apparently reveals, it quite as good or clever as it wants to be — and even at 3:36 it overstays its welcome a bit.

Tim: I particularly like the big bells that are all over the place, and the vocal layered on top of itself so that by the end we’re almost in Icona Pop territory – I LOVE IT.

Tom: Tighten it up a bit, go somewhere interesting with that middle eight, and you’d have a truly great track.

Kygo feat. Maty Noyes – Stayed

“And that is…well, that’s Kygo, really.”

Tim: New one off Kygo, who you may or may not have noticed is still enjoying considerable amounts of success.

Tom: Which is impressive. I thought tropical house would be over by now, but no: he’s codified a genre and continues to make it work. Well done him. Who’s Maty Noyes?

Tim: New guest vocalist, who previously has worked with The Weeknd.

Tim: And that is…well, that’s Kygo, really. Well, Kygo with a very pretty lyric video, at any rate.

Tom: Yep. Similar instrumentation, perhaps a bit more chilled-out but still roughly the same. Kicked in exactly how I wanted it to, exactly when I wanted it to. It’s from the textbook, yes, but it’s a textbook that Kygo wrote.

Tim: It’s already hit top 5 in Norway and Sweden and is now getting a push elsewhere in the world; to be honest, though, I’m not as much of a fan of it as I have been previously. I’m not sure why – maybe I just want something a bit new, rather than the same synthy chorus and female vocals. It’s perfectly listenable – just sounds like more of an album track, really.

Tom: Agreed. Still, regression towards the mean and all that: he was bound to have a duff track eventually. And if his duff album track is this good, well…

Tim: Though I would quite like to hear a Kygo album, so can we have one soon, please?

David Guetta feat. Sia & Fetty Wap – Bang My Head

“Fetty Wap is a ridiculous name”

Tim: Last time David Guetta & Sia teamed up, we got the immortal Titanium; how will this measure up?

Tim: Well for start it’d be nice if we could bin off that ludicrously named Fetty Wap, because what we have from the other two is the duly expected excellence – fantastic vocals from Sia, brilliant production from David.

Tom: It’s okay, but excellence? Let’s face it: the vocals and the melody, while good, just aren’t on the same level as Titanium.

Tim: No, it isn’t, that’s fair. I’ve no idea what’s going on in the video, or at least what relevance gambling and futuristic horse races have to the song, but the two main things are this: first, Fetty Wap is a ridiculous name (I know I’ve said that already but it needs repeating as many times as possible) and secondly that chorus is very good indeed, but not quite good enough to knock Titanium off the top spot.

Tom: Yep. That repeated “bang your head against the wall” grates for me, but then I think that just repeating lines for a chorus is generally a poor choice.

Tim: Hmm, you’re possibly right. Regardless, Fetty Wap is an idiotic name.

Tom: I tried to disprove you by trying to find that it had some deep and meaningful origin story for him, but, er, never mind.

Sigala – Easy Love

“It’s unpretentious, it’s simple, and it’s amazingly fun.”

Tom: I know I’m a little late to the party on this one, but it’s still current enough to be getting airplay everywhere. And I absolutely love it.

Tim: Good, because you should.

Tom: This is an amazing remix. It’s unpretentious, it’s simple, and it’s amazingly fun. Remind you of anything?

Tim: A few things, but I’m guessing you’ve got something particular in mind?

Tom: Take the catchy bit from a popular song, speed it up a bit, add some new instrumentation and a strong beat behind it. Heck, if it had someone shouting over it in a German accent, this could almost be Scooter.

Tim: Well…

Tom: Okay, maybe Scooter feat Kygo. Which, incidentally, would be INCREDIBLE too now I think of it.

Tim: Yes. Yes, that’d be a whole of wonderful. Let’s MAKE IT HAPPEN. Somehow. I don’t know.

Saturday Flashback: Infernal – From Paris To Berlin

“Everybody should know the video.”

Tim: Everybody knows the song; not everybody knows the video. And everybody should know the video.

Tim: Because…oh, so many reasons. So many great reasons, if only because it turns the rather dull lyrics into an actual narrative, chasing around nightclubs trying to find this one guy, and so what if he turns out to be a hologram and ends up merging with you? You can still get back on your Tron bikes and zoom off.

Tom: I think it’s what’s technically called a “homage”.

Tim: Particular highlights for me include actually including the channel tunnel, the random billboard advertising EUROPEMAN and them adding over 980 miles to their journey by randomly stopping off in Bordeaux. To be honest, I haven’t seen a music video this ridiculously entertaining in quite a while (suggestions on a postcard, please), so LOVELY.

Tom: I don’t have a postcard, but if you want the same level of ridiculous bluescreen effects only with more than a decade’s earlier technology: Eiffel 65 don’t disappoint.

Tim: Oh, they certainly don’t. Good work, sir.

Galantis – In My Head

“It doesn’t quite have that undefinable thing”

Tim: You & I was a worldwide(ish) smash, Peanut Butter Jelly went top ten in the UK and Australia; how’ll this do? We won’t predict, because we’re terrible at that.

Tom: Ben Haenow’s at 18 in the midweek charts. Can’t believe it’s that low.

Tim: Ouch. Well, let’s check this out anyway.

Tim: Hmm. Well, unlike what would appear to be the average consumer I vastly preferred Peanut Butter Jelly to their debut, so maybe it’s a good thing for the duo that I don’t like this one as much?

Tom: Agreed on both counts. Peanut Butter Jelly was brilliant; this is… well, a bit more generic.

Tim: It’s still good, it’s still recognisably Galantis with the trademark dance and distorted vocal, but for me it doesn’t quite have that undefinable thing that made their last track so great.

Tom: I believe that’s technically called the “X Factor”.

Tim: True, although the TV show seems to have drained the original phrase of any form of utility. It took me a few listens to really get Peanut Butter Jelly, though, so maybe this’ll improve on me. I do hope so – like I said, it’s still good, and I’d love it if I soon came to think of it as great, but for now: not quite.

Devon Seven – The Real One

“Kitchen knife raised and waiting to be plunged.”

Tom: Landed in the inbox, this is “150bpm rave-pop” from Denmark, so take a minutes to get you glowsticks out, then press play below.

https://soundcloud.com/devon-seven/the-real-one

Tim: And, erm, yeah. Quite something.

Tom: There’s a lot of bass synth there. Possibly too much? I think that might get close to a brown note if it was played out of club speakers.

Tim: Now, I can’t be certain, but I think – I *think* – she’s trying to tell us something about being the real one, and, if it didn’t sound quite so desperate I’d almost believe her. As it is, with this intensity and level of repetition, I can’t really help but imagine her as the ex-girlfriend who’s thirty seconds away from watching the ex and his new love going at it, kitchen knife raised and waiting to be plunged.

Tom: Right. That said, that level of repetition is about normal for the genre, so I can’t ding it too many points for that.

Tim: Okay, perhaps not, so then how does it stand out as a rave tune? Well, it ticks the boxes but doesn’t do that much else. It possibly doesn’t help that we don’t feature much in this neighbourhood, so the good stuff is all I have to compare it to, but can’t help being disappointed that this has a lot of untapped potential.

Tom: I sometimes listen to music like this as a background for working — and yep, that pretty much sums it up. Weirdly, the verses sound much better than the choruses to me: that odd octave and vocal timbre really do start to grate.

Tim: Well, there’s an EP out soon, so I guess we’ll see if that potential ever comes to something.

Galantis – Peanut Butter Jelly

“Yes. This is good.”

Tim: TAKE TWO: I scribbled something about this while you were away a few weeks back, but not much about the music, and (a) I’ve heard it a lot more and particularly (b) I’d like to know your thoughts on it please.

Tom: Given that I started tapping my feet along with it even before the drop: yes. This is good. It’s a song that can get away with an airhorn sample and four-on-the-floor claps, for crying out loud, that’s rare.

Tim: WHAT A TUNE. Galantis, previously best known for their track Runaway that you hear in the opening of this video, but hopefully soon to be known as “those guys behind that brilliant peanut butter jelly one”. I suspect it may be something of a grower, but that’s fine because recently it has been getting ALL THE PLAYS and now I flipping love it.

Tom: Not for me: this worked on the very first listen.

Tim: The video helps, of course, what with the immense amount of sheer joy that is present, but damn if it isn’t one of the most enjoyable songs of the summer. Repetitive? Oh hell yes. But brilliant and wonderful? Oh, even more so. AIRHORNS, dammit, and it just never lets up, even for a second. You dance to this, and you dance and dance and just keep dancing, and sing to the lyrics that mean absolutely nothing whatsoever.

Watermät, Becky Hill & TAI – All My Love

“It ticks all the boxes required of a track like this.”

Tim: It is SUMMER, Tom. SUMMER.

Tom: I’ll avoid the cliché British complaining.

Tim: Watermät is a French DJ, Becky Hill was a semi-finalist on The Voice UK (first contestant to score a number 1, as it happens) —

Tom: Wait, anyone scored a Number 1 after being on The Voice?

Tim: Well, a semi-finalist did – no winners have made it yet. TAI, meanwhile is an English/German DJ; nice bit of variety for you, so what do you think of the emergent product?

Tom: It ticks all the boxes required of a track like this, but I can’t say there’s much beyond that.

Tim: I was quite surprised, given the intro, how far back that initial summery/beachy vibe was pushed – this starts out as something unusual, straight out to beach clubbers, then ditches that entirely becoming becoming a fairly standard house track.

Tom: And only 2:40 for the radio edit, which is about all I think I could take of it before wanting it to get crossfaded into something else. You’re right: it’s fairly standard.

Tim: Not necessarily a bad thing, as it’s a very good standard house track, but I can’t help thinking that if it hadn’t had that initial intro I wouldn’t have bothered sticking with it. Quite glad I did stick with it, though, but I wouldn’t have minded more of that intro style.