Tom: DJ Fresh, purveyor of top-quality dance CHOONS. Dizzee Rascal, one of the most energetic live performers I’ve ever seen. Surely this can’t be anything other than spectacularly good?
Tom: Okay, that’s not the best start, but I’m sure it’ll pick up… huh. That’s… well. That’s two very different songs jammed together. One’s an 80s-inspired synth singalong, and the other’s a bassline-fuelled Dizzee rap track. And it keeps switching between the two.
Tim: Yes, it does, doesn’t it?
Tom: And I like it.
Tim: Ah, a difference of opinion.
Tom: Here’s the thing: I can’t explain why I like it. Maybe it’s just because these two are clearly so damned good; even when it seems a bit disjointed, the various parts are still so energetic and danceable that they just work anyway.
Tim: You think? Yes, they’re energetic and danceable, but whenever Mr Rascal’s doing his stuff, I’m thinking, “Hurry up, bring back the other bit,” but when they do bring back the other bit I think that Dizzee needs to come back or it’ll get annoying. And then he does come back, and I want him to go away again. Oh, I DON’T KNOW.
Out go the drums and synthy stuff, in come the pianos and tinkly stuff.
Tim: ELEVEN YEARS AGO: iiO released their track ‘Rapture‘ which was massive pretty much everywhere that had nightclubs. Or, more accurately, music in general.
A FEW YEARS BACK: Nadia Ali, who did the singing, split from producer Markus Moser.
ABOUT EIGHTEEN MONTHS AGO: she re-recorded the song, got it remixed by everyone’s favourite Swedish bloke called Tim, Avicii, and then re-released it.
IN FEBRUARY: it suddenly started getting radio airplay here, apropos of nothing in particular.
NOW: it’s June and therefore SUMMER(ish), so we’ll listen to it.
Tom: My word, that’s either excellent genes, excellent makeup, or she was ten years old when she sang the original of this. Not that it matters, of course, but, well, yes.
Tim: So, out go the drums and synthy stuff, in come the pianos and tinkly stuff. And then fairly different drums and synthy stuff, because they’re like a legal obligation or something. And to be honest, I’m not sure about this. I first looked it up because Dev, Satan’s gift to Radio 1, talked about it on the radio a while back.
Tom: I do wonder why you listen to Radio 1 if all you’re going to do is come up with witty insults about it. …wait, never mind.
Tim: I never heard Dev play it, and now I’ve listened to it – it’s less of a remix and more a completely different track.
Tom: For those of us who listen to a lot of mashups – in other words, me – that’s not a problem. Let’s not forget Tiesto’s ‘He’s A Pirate‘, which is pretty much the record-setter for how little of an original you can include to still qualify as a remix. I rather like it.
Tim: Oh, I don’t think it’s bad. It’s just that, well, the vocals are there, sure, although I’ve got to say I don’t recognise the second verse she sings. Underneath them, though, is standard ‘hurry up and finish so we can get to the epic breakdown’ piano stuff, and after that, well, like I say, a completely different track.
Like I said, I don’t dislike it – I’d probably really enjoy it if I’d not heard the original, or if it had some other vocals on it. It’s just not remotely was I was expecting, or, I suppose, hoping it would be, and that puts me off it.
Tom: It works for me. And after all, it could’ve been worse. It could’ve been dubstep.
Tim: Brace yourself, because if I heard this on the radio my initial instinct would be to throw the radio out of the window. It is, on first hearing, roughly as far out of our comfort zone as we could go short of ending up in Miss Trunchbull’s chokey.
Tom: Have you seen Matilda the Musical recently, by any chance?
Tim: It’s BRILLIANT. They make CHALK WRITE ON A BLACKBOARD.
Tom: Doesn’t all chalk do that? Oh, wait. On its own. Right.
Tom: Blimey, I’d have hated this last year. Dubstep – and all the associated electro genres that it’s dragged with it, ‘cos this sure as hell isn’t pure dubstep – has got its way into my head.
Tim: It first appeared as an interval act in a Melodifestivalen heat earlier this year, and was the point at which I realised I needed the loo. But on hearing this again three months later, my musical tastes have been mushed around enough that I actually like it. I know I said last week that I was bored of SUMMER ANTHEM CHOONS, but this is (currently) so far away from generic that I think it’s great.
Tom: I wouldn’t have counted it as an anthem until it goes to traditional four-on-the-floor at 1:45 – at which point I reckon I could dance to it.
Tim: Underneath the dubstep, every now and again you can hear echoes of the original Electric by Leila K from 1995 that this is a vague cover of (made slightly obvious by the somewhat misleading shout of ‘Leila K in the house’), and, well, that sounded quite ahead of its time back then, much as this sounds today. To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if a lot of next year’s club tunes sounded like this. That’s not a bad thing, mind – as long as they’re not almost exactly like this.
Tom: I’ve got to admit, though: I don’t really like the track. I love the backing and the style, but the vocals and melody do nothing for me. Which is a shame, because there’s a great song in there waiting to come out.
Tim: Well, give it twelve months. By the way, I don’t suppose you can tell me which early-00s dance tune the backing not-drum bit that occasionally occurs, including 3:18-3:21, reminds me of, can you? It’s annoying me.
That’s neither arctic nor Balearic. It’s possibly Celtic.
Tim: Remember Beatrice Eli last week who described her song as big and small and the same time and stuff and we thought it was a bit of a weird description until we heard it? Well, in a not-dissimilar vein, this band’s description of this track is “cool arctic indietronika in combination with the balearic sunshine”.
Tom: No, no. That’s too far. That’s just putting words together in no particular order.
Tim: Here, I’m less inclined to agree with the artist. For a start, “indietronika” is a pointlessly stupid word made up by people too lazy to type “elec” and I do hope it doesn’t catch on. As for the rest, well, there’s not much of a combination, is there?
Tom: “Cool arctic indietronika” means something that would get played on SomaFM. Yes, I kind of see where they’re going with that during the first verse, but as soon as the whistling kicks in? No. That’s neither arctic nor Balearic. It’s possibly Celtic.
Tim: Well, the whistly bits feel quite summery, but it’s the combination thing I have an issue with – that would imply parts that are one and parts that are another, and towards the end they come together a bit. This is just – not particularly heavy summer dance. Though I suppose that wouldn’t make for quite the right tone PR people try to make.
Tom: Some genre mashups are brilliant. This is not one of them.
Tim: Now I’ve finished the marketing whine, though, I can enjoy the music, which is a good variant of not particularly heavy summer dance.
Tom: Not nearly heavy enough for me: can you really dance to this? I mean, really? It’s a listenable-enough electronica piece – and fans of the genre will no doubt like it – but it sure as hell ain’t mainstream.
Tim: Well, it’s the sort of dance stuff that gets put on chillout mixes, for the early hours of the morning when you don’t want to go to bed but you do fancy lying on the beach after a night in the club. All in all, I think it’s a decent track lumbered with some crap PR e-mails.
I don’t know why we’ve not featured Adrian Lux here before.
Tom: Ooh. Basshunter cover? No. Not a Basshunter cover.
Tim: I don’t know why we’ve not featured Adrian Lux here before – he’s a Swedish bloke who puts out some cracking dance tracks every now and again. Take this, for example, his current track.
Tom: Ooh, it’s like the Killers went all dance-y. Well, more dance-y. Less human, anyway.
Tim: This is actually what I’d have liked the new Swedish House Mafia track to be like. Not only does it have a great dance melody to it (which appears early on rather than thirty seconds before the end), but it has decent vocals to it as well, with a good chorus tune to get going to.
Tom: The dark, growing voice means it’s probably not going to be a massively commercial club hit – but it’ll be appreciated by those who do hear it.
Tim: Yes, and it’s not an anthem anyone would be singing along to, but it does give it that little bit extra that helps people think ‘Oh yeah, I liked that one’, which can only be a good thing.
A healthy dollop of autotune and plenty of woah-oh-oohs.
Tim: This came out at the end of last year and we missed it, but it’s got a video now so there’s an excuse to discuss it. Although actually, I’m not going to put the video here, because (a) it features him looking like a pillock and (b) it’s far too downbeat for a day like today.
Tom: I should point out: we wrote this during that recent period of glorious sunshine. If it’s ended by the time you read this, I can only apologise for being so chipper.
Tim: Fairly good vocal dance track here, with a healthy Taio Cruz-sized dollop of autotune and plenty of woah-oh-oohs to get everybody pumping.
Tom: Pumping?
Tim: Oh, I don’t know, it’s written now.
It’s pretty much everything you need to put into a dance track to get it played on an average night out in The Club, as it were.
Tom: And I’m fairly sure all of those things are “inspired” by other, similar dance tracks – it’s almost like someone’s amalgamated everything on one of the big “euphoric dance” compilation CDs into one track.
Tim: Yes, so quite why it was released in December is a bit of a mystery, and a shame because it almost deserves to do well. Still, it’ll probably feature on a couple of end-of-year compilations, and maybe he’s saving up a proper BANGER for later in the year. Let’s wait and see.
Tom: To be fair, this is pretty close to having BANGER status anyway. If he can beat it, I’m looking forward to it.
“You just buy into all this marketing stuff, don’t you?”
Tim: New track that also accompanies a vodka advert.
Tom: Bleh.
Tim: Not sure what came first, but the full seven-minute cut of the track is here, but let’s watch the advert because it’s quite fun. (If you get bored, you can skip to about 1:30 and you won’t miss much.)
Tom: Yeah, I’m going to skip the one you’ve embedded here and just listen to the actual track. Let’s not forget this has a decent pedigree – no pun intended – Swedish House Mafia have had plenty of hits, and Axwell’s made a name for himself on his own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CmlRK8Da6GE
Tim: No idea what brings greyhounds and vodka together, but it’s such a weird video that I don’t much care. Lengthy build-up, yes, but then dance tracks generally come with such a thing and get chopped up and remixed – in fact, that link at the end takes you to a thing on Facebook where you can do just that, and it’s quite fun to play around with.
Tom: You just buy into all this marketing stuff, don’t you?
Tim: To buy vodka, no; to waste half an hour on the internet, hell yeah.
Tom: I think I should call you a “sell-out” now.
Tim: Well, that’s just not fair. If I was, I’d have mentioned the vodka right at the start, and probably chosen to concentrate more on the adv—ooh, here’s an idea! Let’s talk about the song.
This video doesn’t display it to its best – the aforementioned intro and the main melody only appearing properly a minute or so before the end – but that main melody, when it does appear, is really good, and I think if I heard a radio edit of this I’d like it a lot. Bring it, please.
Tom: As ever, it’s when the synths come in and we get an actual melody line that it really starts to work for me. It’s difficult to remember, sometimes, that these tracks shouldn’t be taken in isolation – they’re meant to be mixed together on a dance floor. And this would be pretty much perfect for getting me dancing.
Tim: UPDATE: I’ve just heard the radio edit, on the radio (duh), and it is pretty good. So there you go.
Tim: It’s not been long sine we last covered them, but here’s their first track of 2012.
Tom: YES.
Tom: OH DEAR.
Tim: Indeed. It’s really not the best song they’ve done – in fact, I’d say it’s a considerable dip below the average, with a few things I’m not so keen on.
Tom: All the component parts of Scooter are there, but somehow they just don’t work together this time. It’s not happy enough. It’s not mad enough. It’s not high-pitched enough.
Tim: In a nut-shell, yes. There’s the auto-tune, say. I can sort of understand them auto-tuning the chorus (although I’d have preferred it if they’d record original vocals), but why stick auto-tune on the main man himself? It doesn’t seem right.
Tom: It sounds like a track “featuring Scooter”. The emphasis isn’t on them – it’s on that lead vocal.
Tim: Yes, that’s just it, actually. Also, it’s just struck me that the best Scooter tracks have started out higher-pitched – that is, started with singing, or with some of the upbeat tuney bits. This, though, starts out heavy with HP giving it all he’s got, and it doesn’t really give you much time to duck out or get a bit warmed up. Is that a valid criticism? It seems a bit silly, but I think I’d prefer this if we went straight to the chorus at the start.
If you’re a fan of bad puns and unusual haircuts, you’re halfway to liking this lady.
Tim: If you’re a fan of bad puns and unusual haircuts, you’re halfway to liking this lady.
Tom: I like both of those things.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lC61ugCwqj4
Tim: And by now, you should be all the way there. I’d not heard of her before I saw a link to this video, but I wish I had because she’s actually done quite a few good tracks, including this one. The ooo-oo-oo-ooo bits in the chorus strike me as particularly good.
Tom: I’m not sure I have anything to add to that. It’s a decent track, although after playing it through once I’m not sure I can remember it all that well. It’s a good chorus, but it’s not a catchy one. I’d dance to it – I probably wouldn’t sing along.
Tim: On the other hand, I have trouble paying attention to this – good as it is, I keep getting bored halfway through, and moving on to other stuff. Perhaps it’s not lively and varied enough to keep my attention, and yet it clearly is. Maybe it’s too lively, and I keep wanting to get up and do things. Your thoughts?
Tom: Is it anywhere near as good as “We No Speak Americano”?
Tim: Prediction: no.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vP9UJdZlYww
Tom: No.
Tim: Good good – I love being right.
Tom: It starts badly. Then you get the rising synth in the background, and you think it might turn brilliant, and… it doesn’t. Then you’ve got the retro gramophone-type music coming out the back, another euphoric build… an extra bit on the end…
…and still nothing.
Tim: It’s sort of, let’s do roughly what we did when we had that successful track and hope it turns out good. And then let’s release it without bothering to check if it is good. Lets ignore the fact the four-bar-repeating-thing here is nowhere near as a catchy or vibrant as the four-bar-repeating-thing was last time – let’s just assume that people will buy this on the back of our other success.
Tom: This isn’t good dance. It isn’t good electroswing. It’s existing somewhere in the middle, trying to be both but managing neither.
