Category: Dance

Saturday Flashback: Sash – Stay

“I had a dream last night.”

Tim: There’s nothing to say about this track, decent dance track and all, so you might wonder why I want to put it here.

Tom: Well, I have one thing – even now, the “tear down these walls” section stands out as a rarity for me: a lyric in a dance track that actually seems to contain a big pile of emotion. Something about how it shifts an octave (and, I think, into an odd key) gives an effect you don’t normally find.

Anyway: what was it you were wanting to say?

Tim: Well, you know how ages back we said we’d like a thing where you could push a button in response to someone saying “it’s all about you” and a snippet of McFly would play? I have another one, and yesterday I remembered what song it was from.

Tom: Wait, what would this be in response to?

Tim: It would be in response to “I had a dream last night.” Aside from amusing me somewhat, this would also have the effect of possibly stopping their probably fairly dull dream story before it got started, which would be handy.

That’s all I have to say, really, expect that I’ve just realised that some of the shots in the Jason Bourne films seem to be frame-by-frame copies of parts of that video.

Tom: I’d be willing to bet that’s not deliberate – they’re just “generic action movie” shots. Decent budget and quality for a video like this, though.

Tim: Yes, but despite what you say I do hope Sash got royalties or something. Maybe a mention in the film’s credits.

The Storm – Raver

“I’m expecting Scooter levels of intensity here, albeit with a bit less SHOUTING.”

Tim: With an act called The Storm and a song entitled Raver, you’ve probably got a few expectations about this track, and while I won’t spoil anything before hand, I will say that anyone with photo-sensitive epilepsy may wish to turn away before pushing the play button.

Tom: Let’s put it this way: I’m expecting Scooter levels of intensity here, albeit with a bit less SHOUTING.

Tim: And be honest: that met them, didn’t it?

Tom: I’m not sure my headphones could cope with that. I’m not sure YouTube compression can cope with that. I’m not sure speakers can cope with that. They’ve thrown everything at that chorus – it’s a shame they couldn’t have dipped the verses by a couple of decibels so it wasn’t all so distorted, but that’s not how music works these days. That’s a minor technical complaint though: it’s not like I’d notice that in a club. I’d be too busy danc– WHOA! dubstep out of nowhere!

Tim: It has everything (everything) a modern dance rave number needs, up to and including the dubstep breakdown. Wonder if we’ll ever stop mentioning those?

Tom: Not when they’re as startling as this one. Dubstep breaks your dance up like very little else – you can’t just put your hands up in the air to it, it’s too rhythmic for that, but it’s too slow for club dancing. I’m sure people manage it, but I can’t think how.

Tim: MOVEMENTS. As in, hands up and sway with occasional sudden sweeps, almost interpretative dance style. At least, that’s how I do it.

And even the video sets the scene nicely, going with the lengthy post-chorus thrash-your-head-around-until-your-neck-hurts. And of course there’s the chorus, which starts off on a triumphant note and then brings in a great melody and lyrics that just sound great.

Tom: And the last chorus in particular is gorgeous – how the piano synth is still audible under that wall of sound, I’ve no idea.

Tim: PURE VOLUME. But actually, those lyrics only really sound great provided you don’t listen too closely, because if you do you’ll find out that this beat-heavy jump-all-over-the-place number is in fact a fairly soppy “I’m leaving you” track in very heavy make-up, and to be honest I don’t know if that spoils it a bit or makes it even more awesome. I think it’s the latter, so super.

Saturday Flashback: Flip & Fill – Shooting Star

Oh man. This brings back memories.

Tim: Back on Wednesday, we had a vague callback to the good days of Eurotrance. Good timing, really, because 10 years ago today, this fantastic example of the genre entered the UK charts at number 3.

Tom: Oh man. This brings back memories. Specifically, a memory of being in Barry Island in Wales.

Tim: Now you know I’m not going to let you leave it there. Keep talking, boy.

Tom: UK Dance Dance Revolution championships. I was still a teenager. This was one of the songs on whichever DDR machine it was – and one of the songs that, to our brief confusion, was blasting out from a car parked at some nearby traffic lights. I guess you had to be there.

Tim: Oh, isn’t it lovely? The build under the first verse up to something great, the drop for the pre-chorus bit as the dancers start to sway their arms in the air from side to side and then that brilliant chorus.

Tom: Sing it! Go on, sing it. That’s what I’d be doing if I wasn’t currently working in a fairly quiet, library-type place.

Tim: Oh, I will SING IT. I will SHOUT IT VERY LOUD along with whoever the hired vocalist is, fists pumping with everyone else in the club*, before we calm down a bit for the second verse but then do it all over again twenty seconds later. Keep going for the middle eight, and then the final chorus where there’s really no point dragging out the ‘shooooting’ bit because let’s face it, it’s going too hard** to really be slowed down by that, so you write a few more words, fill in the gaps, and just keep going. Tell me I’m wrong, Tom. Tell me this isn’t a fantastic club tune. I don’t reckon you can.

* Can’t think of a way not to make that sound dirty, sorry.
** Again, yes.

Tom: I wouldn’t try to. It is a fantastic club tune. Are there retro-90s clubs yet? Because they should play this.

Tim: They really should. Finally, it’s also worth noting that this same week had Scooter at number 2 with The Logical Song*. I MISS THIS MUSIC BEING MAINSTREAM. Why can’t we bring it back, Tom? WHY CAN’T WE?

* It may or may not have been held off the top spot by Gareth Gates’s Anyone Of Us, but that’s not important.

Madeon – Finale

The first music in ages that has made me actively sit up and take notice.

Tom: Ah! Madeon. Best known amongst internet types, incidentally, for his astonishingly good live-mashup “Pop Culture“.

Tim: Ooh, that is good, but I first heard this when I woke up to it recently and grouchily thought “why the hell is Radio 1 playing this is the daytime, when they should be playing Ed Sheeran or someone equally dull?” Then, when I was more awake, I heard it properly, and enjoyed it. (Oh, and if you’re wondering, it’s pronounced mad-ee-on. French, you see.)

Tim: It occasionally verges near territory where I’m thinking “Oh God, what a racket,” but it stays fairly melodic throughout so I actually find it more of a fairly good, fairly aggressive, dance tune. The vocal bits strike me as a bit odd, though, or at least the second batch does.

Tom: Oh, they worked so well for me. That first vocal section reminds me – and this is perhaps the highest compliment I’ve ever paid on this blog – of the legendary Rob Dougan‘s Furious Angels. It’s the first music in ages that has made me actively sit up and take notice. When the beat kicks back in, not so much: but that threatening, moody, building vocal section is just incredible.

Tim: The singer’s from an American indie band, for no particular reason that I can discern, and while the first bit, like you say, is pretty good, the sudden near-muting of the massive triumphant instrumental stuff for a dull-sounding voice to jump in and close the track sounds like a bit of an anti-climax, really.

Tom: It really is. I was expecting one last repeat there. I was, quite literally, bracing myself. That’s a shame.

Tim: That aside, though, it’s lovely to thrash around drunkenly to.

Tom: It’s the kind of track you throw your hands up for even though no-one’s telling you to.

Johanna – Alive

Listen to this, and be taken back ten years to the glory days of Eurotrance.

Tim: Listen to this, and be taken back ten years to the glory days of Eurotrance.

Tom: I am SOLD.

Tim: This is a remix by Moreno & Shane Deether, whoever they may be, but it’s out there as the official version which is good because it’s flipping marvellous. Hands in the air, fists pumping, jump up and down like a maniac, who cares what you look like because you’re HAVING FUN. Unfortunately, it’s a decade too late, but that doesn’t mean we can’t review it as though it were 2002. Let’s begin.

Tom: Hmm. Well, it may be the glory days of Eurodance in 2002, but it certainly isn’t one of the glorious tunes.

Tim: At the moment, no – it’s a middle-of-the-compilation-album track rather than a lead-in tune, but it’s safe to say that the “glad I’m feeling alive” would be the line chosen to finish the TV advert off.

Tom: Over a shot of generic Ayia Napa beach shots and pictures of attractive women dancing, no doubt.

Tim: Well, obviously. If it gets picked up by Dave Pearce, though, I can easily see this being another Castles in the Sky or Heaven, so let’s hope. And if you find the ringtone composer notes for it, let me know.

Tom: Wow. I think I just got slapped in the face by nostalgia.

Hampenberg feat. Jesper Nohrstedt – Glorious

“My word, does this bounce around a bit.”

Tim: Hampenberg, a producer, Jesper, the singer we last saw trying to represent Denmark at Eurovision. And my word, does this bounce around a bit.

Tom: That video’s a wonderful combination of high-budget studio work and low-budget graphics. All the scenes without video work are wonderfully produced… and then a stock NASA image steadily zooms in. How bizarre.

Tim: They’ve also chosen to bring old iPod adverts into the mix, which is nice because I liked those adverts.

Musically, we start off with a gentle piano ballad, quickly move into standard club beat-heavy mode, before settling into lovely Avicii/Swedish House Mafia style dance, whilst taking a brief (but apparently currently mandatory) break into the dubstep arena, and to be honest I’d be hard-pressed to criticise it. Everything just seems to work together and fit well, really, and the beginning of the first chorus, with the one note at a time piano behind it, is just fantastic.

Tom: The technical term there for that ‘one note at a time’ is ‘arpeggiated’. But yes, I can’t disagree with that: it builds properly, ends wonderfully, and is eminently danceable.

Tim: And regarding the dubstep: I’ve checked, and the first time we mentioned it was about eighteen months ago, when you described it quite simply as “awful”. A week later, I said I couldn’t stand it. But now, 26 mentions of it later? Well, used carefully, as it is here, it’s brilliant. The echoing voice and remnants of what came previously blend in well with the vwhomp vwhomp (will there ever be a proper way to spell that?) bits, and it just…works.

Tom: That’s because it’s gone pop. The old-school dubstep fanboys bemoan the commercialisation and sanitisation of the genre they love, and say it’s not “true dubstep” – but the fact remains that now it’s been cleaned up for the public at large, and now our ears have had a chance to get used to it… well, yes. It just works.

Tim: Though you still won’t find me shopping for Skrillex tracks.

Tom: You can get those at B&Q.

Saturday Flashback: DJ Antoine – Ma Cherie

Properly French. It’s got an accordion and everything.

Tim: Finally from France, this one from last summer is properly French. Really – it’s got an accordion and everything.

Tim: Well, I say properly French, the lyrics are mostly English but still. ACCORDION.

Tom: Disco accordion! Easily overused outside the genre of Serbian turbo-folk, but it works here.

Tim: Anyway, I’m writing about it now I’m back and it’s actually not as good as I remember. But that video’s quite fun to watch, so there is at least that. I don’t blame him for giving up on that party after the third time, personally, especially since he could quite easily go back ten minutes rather than the full two hours back to the shop.

Tom: Frankly, if you’ve got that kind of time-resetting power and you’re using it for something as simple as that, you haven’t got nearly enough imagination. I was rather hoping that, in the last loop, the bottle would point at one of the men on the table and “COMPATIBILITY: PERFECT” would show up, but never mind.

Tim: HANG ON. Who the hell goes to a party in a club and takes a bottle of vodka with them? House party, sure, but a club? Oh, I don’t know. I suppose I should be happy that it’s not just a three minute advert for a particular brand of vo—OH WAIT IT IS. Sod this, I’m off.

Tom: There’s something rare: Tim getting angry about product placement before I’ve even had a chance to measure it.

Tim: No, I generally don’t like it, but sometimes without it true works of art just wouldn’t exist.

Tom: I know what that link is, and I’m not clicking it.

Tim: Oh, COME ON. They are AS ONE with the COUNTRYSIDE. They ride on SHINY TRACTORS. And they have HAPPY FRIESIANS.

Tom: GET OUT.

Saturday Flashback: PULS – Ingen Som Du

Ooh, it’s Promising and Earnest Piano Intro Time.

Tim: Remember Icona Pop from a few weeks back, where I first heard the song and didn’t like it, but then I heard it again and I sort of did? Well, that, with this from a couple of months ago, but more extreme.

Tom: Ooh, it’s Promising and Earnest Piano Intro Time, isn’t it? This had better pay off.

Tom: I WANT TO DANCE. Wait, hang on, you like all of this?

Tim: Yes, even the rapping. I’m in the mood to MOVE, and the music underneath it complements it in just the right way that it works. And as for the singing and the rest of the musical bit, well that’s just great as well, from the piano opening and fairly speedy build-up, through that big drop, chorus and ever onwards.

Tom: They’re saved by a good backing melody – it’s no Penguin, but it ain’t bad.

Tim: My only complaint is the sudden quiet chorus after the build-up at about 2:20, because my instinct there is to put my hands in the air, pump my fists and go for it, but then I suddenly feel misled. MISLED, and I don’t like that. But I do like everything else about this, so I’m not so bothered.

Saturday Flashback: SIRPAUL – Going Down in La-La Land

A tad repetitive, but otherwise worthwhile.

Tim: I know nothing about this artist or track, except that it came from the same compilation album I mentioned last week.

Tom: That’s why we’ve got the readers, Tim: solid research. Oh, wait. Never mind.

Tim: As a track, it’s pretty good – a tad repetitive, but otherwise worthwhile. But what I really want to talk about is the lyrics. Because when I put this on at work, one of my colleagues asked if I knew what they meant, and I had to say, “Not a bloody clue.” So, naturally, a discussion evolved, and at the end of it, there were two main theories. The first was that it was a commentary on social mobility in Los Angeles and the surrounding area; the other (proposed by your truly) was that La-La Land is a club for grown-ups, and this is a song dedicated to fellatio. Any other theories?

Tom: My current working theory is that you’re wrong.

Tim: Hang on, wait a sec… OH. HA! I’M NOT! I’ve done some research, and it turns out that actually (genuinely) it’s a combination of both of those.

Tom: No. No, you’re kidding. There’s no way…

Tim: The song is from a 2011 film of the same name, where the protagonist is an aspiring actor, La-La Land does indeed refer to Los Angeles and Hollywood, and going down refers to what said protagonist is willing to do to get ahead (haha) in his career. So, well done me, sucks to be you.

Tom: Damn it, Tim.

Avicii – Silhouettes

“This is brilliant, this is.”

Tim: This is brilliant, this is.

Tim: By quite some way his best work since Bromance.

Tom: Really? I have to disagree: that synth melody seems to be the opposite of catchy. It seems almost like a kid playing random notes on a keyboard. I can still hum “Bromance”. This one? Not so much.

Tim: Well, I think you’re wrong. It’s not as good as Bromance, sure, but it’s still good, dancey, and it’s got a good vocal, which some of his have missed.

I do have one issue, though: that break in the middle. Yes, it stops people ripping it off YouTube, but bloody hell, is that really the best way they could fit something like that in?

Tom: The more disturbing it is, the better, as far as the labels are concerned. Admittedly it just means people will search for “aviicy siluetts mp3” and find it anyway, but still.

Tim: True. The only benefit is that if this gets into the top 10, it’ll sound lovely coming out of Radio 1 who, since they’ve started playing the videos on the website during the chart show, have to broadcast the video edits over the radio so it all syncs up properly. Somehow, every single person involved forgot about videos like this. Numpties.

Tom: First of all – that’s a silly idea. And second of all – surely they’ll have an edited version just for that?

Tim: No, or at least they didn’t when they did it with the whole top 100 singles since 2000 or whatever it was a few weeks back – I remember quite vividly Scott Mills deciding to talk over bits like that and inform the listener what was going on, so they wouldn’t miss out. But anyway, bloody good track.

Tom: Maybe I’m not hearing the same one you are.