Party Tracks of the Week!

Chase & Status - Count On Me (ft. Moko)
#Rave #DnB

Making the transition from Drum & Bass front-runners to 90s rave will be a cop out to some and a clever move to others, but there's no denying that C&S bring the breakbeats and piano hooks just as hard as they brought their sharp D&B beats and roaring basslines, and a gutsy top line by crazy-voiced singer Moko seals the deal.
 

Sub Focus - Turn it Around (ft. Kele)
#Dubstep

Sub Focus' upcoming album Torus is a gift that keeps on giving before it's even been dropped. Final single to drop before the album, "Turn It Around" is, much like the rest of Sub Focus' string of singles over the past year and a half, unconcerned with it's shamelessly melodic and commercial nature. The track follows "Tidal Wave" in structure, beginning as a dreamy dubstep number before exploding into full blown D&B euphoria. Kele's angsty voice is a revelation on the track as well, hopefully opening the door to many more D&B guest spots.

Friend Within - The Renegade
#Garage #House

Updating Wildchild's "Renegade Master" for yet another generation, up and coming garage revivalists Friend Within are fast becoming house music elite in 2013, and this bass heavy interpretation of a classic dancefloor hit is sure to cement this status.

Dillon Francis & Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs - Without You

Seemingly from two different dance music worlds, Moombahton pioneer Dillon Francis and humble 90s techno knob twiddler TEED form an unlikely yet perfect alliance on "Without You". It sounds exactly how you would expect a mix of their two styles to sound, essentially TEED's "Garden" at a Moombahton tempo with a harder melodic drop.

Claiming to be singing about Dillon Francis' "relationship problems" TEED's top line is one of the best he's ever written, and is further proof that his vocal presence is just as strong as his distinct production.

The track is available to download from August 6.

FOR FANS OF: Deadmau5, Calvin Harris, Hot Chip

Top 10 Tracks of July 2013.

10

Heartbeat Overdrive

Ballet School

"Heartbeat Overdrive", the debut single from Berlin new wavers Ballet School, is a triumphant and glorious track that sounds delirious and atmospheric enough to please shoegazers and funky and danceable enough to please synthpoppers. 

9

Airglow Fires

Lone

Lone brings his gorgeous slightly wonky ethereal sound to the house playground, and judging by it's swanky beats and sleek 90s chords, it's an area he was born to play in.

8
Martial Law
Venkman

The debut single by Midlands newcomers Venkman, "Martial Law", mixes jittery guitars and a fiddly rhythm section with the playful yet disarming dual vocal of band mastermind James Sutton and lead vocalist Kate McQuaide. Yet despite the chaos, the track restrains itself just enough to carry a masterful pop melody and a gorgeous tapestry of vocal and guitar-peggios at its climax.

7
Sinners
Lauren Aquilina

18 year old UK singer/songwriter Lauren Aquilina has a charm that more cryptic and pretentious songwriters could never hope to exhude. On latest single "Sinners", Lauren is lyrically very raw and sometimes charmingly clumsy - "let's be sinners to be saints" - but her earnest, youthful voice makes every awkward rhyming pair sound feasible and even as poignant as intended.

6
Thinking Of You
The Night VI

Melancholic and majestic indie lament from UK's The Night VI. Lying somewhere between the hooks of Haim and the sophisticated post rock tapestries of London Grammar, "Thinking Of You"'s heartbreaking yet incidental refrain "I lay low in my hotel room, thinking of you" is one that's hard to shift from your brain once you've had your heart broken by it.

5
I'll Be Around
Empire Of The Sun

Returning with a lush sophomore album, Empire Of The Sun nearly reach the peak of "Walking On A Dream" for a second time with the ethereal, Balearic "I'll Be Around". Slide guitars swoon and beats humbly shuffle in the background, as Luke Steele conversationally assures "I've made up my mind, I will be around for a while". As long as we get at least one song as gorgeous as this per album, let's hope he's true to his word.

4
Global Concepts
Robert Delong

The bubbly verses of Robert Delong's latest single "Global Concepts" seem relatively tame and full of self doubting questions, but when DeLong vows to "make you fucking dance" all hell breaks loose. An obnoxiously loud Moombahton synth lead squirms like an earthworm on the pavement, and a raw, tribal drum beat pounds until it causes cracks to form.

3
Sober
Elli Ingram

Elli Ingram would seem to tick a suspicious amount of boxes - the seductive brassy vocal stylings of Delilah, the ultra-cool sophistighetto demenour of Lana, and the honest and gritty lyrical flair of Adele - but still manages to come out on top with her own distinct identity. "Sober", and indeed the entire EP that this titular track leads, is light and casually soulful on the surface, with some charming brass licks here and there, but is undercut with dark subby bass and hip hop beats. Expect to hear much more from her in the coming 12 months.

2
Strong
London Grammar

On London Grammar's latest masterpiece (5 and counting) "Strong", singer Hannah Reid's voice carries the track much in the way that it carried the impossibly but blissfully sparse "Hey Now". Whilst "Hey Now" sounded like a distant cry for help, "Strong" picks up where that track left off - yearning and desperate - but is much more confident. "I might seem so strong, I might speak so long, I've never been so wrong" laments Reid, and we feel bit by bit, her and her band are gradually letting us into the flaws in their cautious but perfect world.

1
Wake Me Up
Avicii

If you were searching for this year's definitive dance anthem, you could do a lot worse than to stop your search here. Dropping the huge slamming chords in favour of happy-go-lucky strumming and deliriously cheery country melodies, "Wake Me Up" is where EDM meets Country, and the risk couldn't have paid off more perfectly. Aloe Blacc's voice is totally reinvented as a tool of country crooning, for which it couldn't be more suited.

Lauren Aquilina - Sinners

18 year old UK singer/songwriter Lauren Aquilina has a charm that more cryptic and pretentious songwriters could never hope to exhude. On latest single "Sinners", Lauren is lyrically very raw and sometimes charmingly clumsy - "let's be sinners to be saints" - but her earnest, youthful voice makes every awkward rhyming pair sound feasible and even as poignant as intended.

Genre-wise, Lauren touches on the atmospheric piano-power-balladry of Birdy and Gabrielle Aplin, but her delivery trumps both for sheer believe-ability. Unlike a lot of her peers, she sounds as if she is listening to what she is singing, rather than spending 3 minutes forming vowel sounds out of cracked teen girl angst. It gives her a personality, a platform to deliver a message, and potentially long term career growth. And it makes every elegiac piano chord and distant vocal flourish sound twice as beautiful as a result.

Her Sinners EP is out now on iTunes.

FOR FANS OF: Birdy, Gabrielle Aplin, Ellie Goulding

Party Tracks of the Week!

Disclosure - F for You (Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs Remix)
#House #Rave

Injecting Disclosure's pretty middle-of-the-road new single with a bit of T-E-E-D magic, this mix begins like tubular bells on the dancefloor, twinkling synths abound, before delivering a Fake Blood esque dirty bass drop.



Dr Meaker feat. Romaine Smith - Don't Think It's Love (TS7 Remix)
#House #Garage

Bristolian D&B upstarts Dr Meaker hand their latest apocalyptic breakbeat number over to TS7, who impressively transform it into 90s garage, with its sped up vocal hook providing a real old school high.



A-Minor - Thinking Bout The Things
#House #Rave

London newcomer A-Minor sounds like he's fully prepared to join nu rave elite like Duke Dumont and DEvolution with this debut track, which comes across as a darker, more soulful "Need U 100%" thanks to the husky, seductive vocals of London singer Bow Promise.

Claire - Games

German quintet Claire are the next in a long line of acts putting a singer/songwriter edge on European dancepop. With their debut single "Games", a convincingly cracked British accent from lead singer Josie Claire carries a sultry pop melody over a sugary Balearic dance backdrop. A male and female vocal duet towards the end, bringing to mind both Mausi and Friendly Fires at once, and the track is a perfect love song to lazy summer afternoons.

The debut EP Broken Promise Land is out in September.

FOR FANS OF: Chloe Howl, Mausi, Friendly Fires

Party Tracks of the Week!

Kill Paris - Falling In Love Again (ft. Marty Rod & Alma)
#Electro #Dubstep

Future funk producer Kill Paris goes all gooey-eyed on his latest single "Falling In Love Again", with a lovesick duet no less between two sugary voiced singers. How does it pull it off? With a snarling bassline and earworm synth lead at the incredibly satisfying drop.



Drums of Death - True (ft. Yasmin)
#Garage #House

Token deep house number of the week, "True" ticks all the boxes to please your average house fun, and enough of the extra-curricular atmospheric boxes to please your more picky house fan.



TEED & Eats Everything - Lion, The Lion
#Electro #Garage #House

Two of the UK's more eccentric producers come together to make this somewhat unfriendly but thoroughly hypnotic dance track. A suitable growl of a bassline flattens all in its path, and TEED can be heard in the occasional speck of sunshine in the odd bright conga and shy synth chord.

Ballet School - Heartbeat Overdrive

Berlin new kids on the synth-block Ballet School manage to merge a spectrum of (predominantly 80s) influences on their debut single "Heartbeat Overdrive". The result is a triumphant and glorious track that sounds delirious and atmospheric enough to please shoegazers and funky and danceable enough to please synthpoppers. Singer Rosie Blair's confident, hiccuping voice sounds like Grimes after rehab, or Alison Goldfrapp just before.

Sign up to see the band's debut London show at The Shaklewell Arms for FREE on August 23rd by clicking on the image to the left.


FOR FANS OF: Goldfrapp, CHVRCHES, Grimes

Jake Emlyn - The Wonka Hath Landed (FREE DOWNLOAD)

Anyone who's familiar with eccentric London rapper Jake Emlyn will know that he's been rapping for several years now. It could be argued that his lack of mainstream attention is down to his androgynous and occasionally effeminate style, and his lack of interest in hip hop trends and standards. But what fans of Jake most love about him is that despite the criticism and confusion surrounding his identity, style and genre, he never changes anything about himself and his music.

"The Wonka Hath Landed", lead track and single off his Scandinavian Alien mixtape, is probably his most outlandish and controversial offering to date. Rapping over a Robyn-esque synthpop pulse, Jake Emlyn on "Wonka..." is self-deprecating, crude, tongue-in-cheek yet a lot more confident than the comparatively subdued and dark "My Name's Jake", his previous calling card track.

He paints a defiantly non-gangster image of himself, drolly referring to himself as "white trash like Kate Nash" wearing "skinny jeans so tight that my penis can't breathe". He also makes his outsider status patently clear, spitting at the climax "my spaceship crashed, I'm stranded, the wonka hath landed." It's an opaque metaphor, one that will continue to confound Jake's growing crowd of picketing nay-sayers. But the apocalyptic Vangelis synth lead and grandiose choirs that follow the statement couldn't make the message clearer - Jake's ambitions are considerable, and he's on a mission that cannot be thwarted. As the man himself says in the second verse: "just when you was about to stop listening to rap, I came back with the wickedest track."

Download Jake's brilliant (and free) Scandinavian Alien mixtape by clicking on the cover above.

FOR FANS OF: Robyn, Brooke Candy

MØ - Waste of Time

Danish alternative pop singer MØ, real name Karen Marie Ørsted, showcases a defiant anti-glamourous image in her videos, and an assured emotional rawness in her music. This endearing lack of pretense makes it much easier to see past the 'front' other artists might put up, and see the distinct personality from MØ herself. 

MØ's lyrics and voice are gritty and turbulent, much like her music, which is a crisp yet organic sounding mesh of alternative R&B and electropop favoured by her peers MS MR, the most obvious initial comparison. Arresting vocal stabs punctuate the industrial-flecked verse, and an unusual chorus melody is made memorable by MØ's delirious vocal. In a European alt-pop scene fairly saturated with indie female singers in this field, MØ looks like a keeper.

FOR FANS OF: MS MR, Charli XCX, Purity Ring

Party Tracks of the Week! (FREE DOWNLOADS)

Avicii - Wake Me Up (ft. Aloe Blacc)
#EDM #Country

If you were searching for this year's definitive dance anthem, you could do a lot worse than to stop your search here. Dropping the huge slamming chords in favour of happy-go-lucky strumming and deliriously cheery country melodies, "Wake Me Up" is where EDM meets Country, and the risk couldn't have paid off more perfectly.



Blackstreet - No Diggity (Bondax Remix)
#RnB #Bass #FREEDOWNLOAD

After a relatively quiet few months, Bondax have dropped their long awaited "No Diggity" remix, and it's quite possibly their strongest release to date. Their trademark slip and slide mid tempo beats and chiming chords make Blackstreet's sleazy R&B classic sound as if it was released yesterday. DOWNLOAD FOR FREE BELOW!



Lone - Airglow Fires
#Synth #House #Wonky

Lone brings his gorgeous slightly wonky ethereal sound to the house playground, and judging by it's swanky beats and sleek 90s chords, it's an area he was born to play in. Begging for a topline though. Any takers?

Venkman - Martial Law / Tricking

It's not often an ambitious rock band can mix crazy with melody and pull it off with panache and wide appeal. A prime example is Everything Everything - the ultimate headache band one minute, and inspired melodists the next. Lichfield newbie's Venkman seem to have the secret formula that EE never quite concocted.

Debut single "Martial Law" mixes jittery guitars and a fiddly rhythm section with the playful yet disarming dual vocal of band mastermind James Sutton and lead vocalist Kate McQuaide. Yet despite the chaos, the tracks restrains itself just enough to carry a masterful pop melody and a gorgeous tapestry of vocal and guitar-peggios at its climax.

B-side "Tricking" is even catchier and speedier, at times bringing to mind Paramore with its earworm chorus, but these comparisons are shattered once ethereal pads and distant reverb-laden guitar lines creep in and blissfully wrap the track in a similarly tasteful tapestry as its A-side. In just 2 tracks, Venkman put more cards on the table than most bands would dare in 2013, and yet somehow pull off a more distinct and engrossing sound then most, if not all of their peers.

Expect a debut album to drop in Autumn. It's a safe bet that we haven't seen half of what Venkman are capable of.

FOR FANS OF: Everything Everything, Bloc Party, The Mars Volta

London Grammar - Strong

In 2013, London Grammar provide a rare brand of unpretentious and unaffected atmospheric rock. It's a sound that has a timeless quality, one that distances itself effortlessly from the two-a-penny atmo-folk and alt. indie crowds. And the best thing is that, 5 songs down the line, there are no duffs - each one is an emotional knockout.

Of course this is heavily down to the phenomenal voice of Hannah Reid, which cannot be praised enough. Even bringing a heart and soul to a Disclosure track last month (a difficult feat - as great as the boys are, emotion is not their forte), Reid's voice carries "Strong" much in the way that it carried the impossibly but blissfully sparse "Hey Now". Whilst "Hey Now" sounded like a distant cry for help, "Strong" picks up where that track left off - yearning and desperate - but is much more confident. "I might seem so strong, I might speak so long, I never been so wrong" laments Reid.

Bit by bit, track by track, London Grammar are getting their message across, gradually breaking out of their withdrawn, mysterious shell. You can hear it in the music - more muscular and textured - in Reid's voice - stronger diction and confident phrasing - and of course, in the words. With each passing track that emerges, the band are gradually beginning to paint a clearer picture of what they are really all about.

FOR FANS OF: Massive Attack, Mt Wolf, Daughter

Party Tracks of the Week!

Le Youth - C O O L
#House #Funk #Cassie

A deep and seductive house tune based around an iconic R&B hook, taken from Cassie's "Me & You" and morphed into an androgynous and ethereal vocal, this track is Cyril Hahn meets Bondax, and just as "C O O L" and funky as either act.



John Newman - Love Me Again (Kove Remix)
#DrumAndBass #Rave #Soul

As catchy as "Love Me Again" is on it's own, for those who miss John's bluesy voice on a high octane track, Kove gives the singer's debut single a euphoric D&B rework, and true to form, John's voice suits the style so much you could be fooled into believing he'd hooked up with Rudimental again.



DJ Fresh & Diplo feat. Dominique Young Unique - Earthquake (Golden Boy Remix)
#House #90s #HipHop

From one dance trend to another, Golden Boy's early 90s house rave vibe miraculously transforms the trappy hip hop of the original "Earthquake" into something that brings to mind a grainy music video of boys and girls in dark glasses, tie-dye and platform shoes voguing round a psychadelically decorated room.

Robert DeLong - Global Concepts

Who knew such a pretty skinny blonde boy could make such a goliath track? The bubbly verses of "Global Concepts" seem relatively tame and full of self doubting questions, but when DeLong vows to "make you fucking dance" all hell breaks loose. An obnoxiously loud Moombahton synth lead squirms like an earthworm on the pavement, and a raw, tribal drum beat pounds until it causes cracks to form (DeLong is a drummer and he doesn't hide it, despite his electro leanings). The song has the kind of genre-fucking semi-electronic vibe of Tom Vek, but the aggressive pounding of "Global Concepts" would most certainly knock Mr Vek's glasses right off. Robert DeLong's debut album Just Movement came out this week, and there's plenty more jittery electronics and schizophrenic beats to be found there.

FOR FANS OF: Tom Vek, Frankmusik, The Presets

Top 10 Tracks of June 2013.

10
You & I
Crystal Fighters

In characteristically chirpy form, "You & I" has "festival favourite" written all over it, as much as it sounds like there is moss growing on the instruments. A sunny synth hook lifts the track at its climax and it stays at that level of euphoria for its duration.

9
Music Is Life
Elliphant

Something a bit more commercial from our favourite eccentric rasta-Swedish female rapper. It's a bit Gwen Stefani, a bit Nicki Minaj, very 90s and very catchy. Elliphant is the very definition of an artist - she doesn't limit herself to one style of music, because she's lucky enough that whatever she touches will sound like her. Heir to M.I.A?

8
You Changed (feat. Beyonce & Michelle)
Kelly Rowland

"Ladies y'all wanna do it again?" chirps up Beyonce playfully as the ridiculously fun "You've Changed" kicks in. The answer is resolutely yes, and although the "Love On Top" soul/funk swagger of the song suits Ms Carter the best, hearing the three of them lampoon the same man, as three independent strong black woman, rather than the girls of their DC heyday, serves as a much better swansong than the dull "Nuclear".

7
Pendulum
Pure Bathing Culture

A lot of shoegazey dreampop makes the rounds every summer, but Pure Bathing Culture actually live up to their name. Unafraid to be anthemic, the song vaguely recalls Beach House's emotional last two records, but unlike that band, PBC aren't afraid to drop the melancholy altogether, and "Pendulum"'s tapestry of guitars is nothing less than euphoric.

6
Tongues feat. Kopps
Joywave

Bringing some swagger to a Hot Chip-esque disco sound, Joywave's "Tongues" has a jagged electropop beat and a quirky and instantly recognisable vocal hook that has "advert phenomenon" written all over it. There are only a handful of tracks that can boast "indie classic" before time has passed, but this is one track that instantly declares it's here to stay.

5
Help Me Lose My Mind feat. London Grammar
Disclosure

Say what you like about Disclosure, they've got their finger right on the zeitgeist's pulse. 2013 newcomers London Grammar are absurdly talented songwriters with an absurdly talented singer, Hannah Reid. The band released the time-stands-still-while-it-plays ballad "Hey Now" in January, built up a crazy amount of online and underground hype, but not enough to warrant having "made it" (but enough to suggest they probably will), and lo-and-behold, just 6 months later, men of the moment Disclosure have got that ethereal, haunting voice on the closing track of their record. It's a collaboration that luckily benefits them both. Hannah's voice is always wonderful, goes without saying, but Disclosure drop a silky yet subdued beat and liquid bassline that Ms Reid soars gently above, and the track is amoungst the best of both groups' catalogues.

4
Chasing Shadows
Frankmusik

After his tamer US-friendly sophomore effort, Frankmusik's third record "Between" is a glorious return to crazy. Back are the slightly unhinged Freddie Mercury excursions into ridiculously high falsetto, back are the hypertechnopop beats and burbling synths, and most importantly, back is the fun. Sporting a Passion Pit-esque cutesy vocal sample and probably the most joyous chorus of his since "Confusion Girl", "Did Love" is my personal favourite off the record, BUT the real emotional peak of the record comes with it's opening track, the melodramatic, thunderously over the top power ballad "Chasing Shadows", which is one of the most poignant tracks the man has ever written.

3
American Girl
Bonnie McKee

Singer/songwriter Bonnie McKee's cheesy powerpop anthem "American Girl" sounds a lot like Katy Perry and Ke$ha. And so it should. She's been writing for them for years. "American Girl", free to download by the way, unheard of for a song of this calibre (at least in terms of $$$), is a greatest hits of every hook she has (most likely) been behind over the last 5 years. "I'll never say that I'm sorry, I am an American Girl" she yells at the climax, and knowing how long the 29-year old has been working behind the scenes, it's impossible not to be won over. She's written so many big "Teenage Dream" style songs over the years, she deserves to keep one for herself. And it's a belter. And if that's not enough, check out the cameo-saturated video - she's certainly not short on popstar references.

2
Defeated No More feat. Ed Macfarlane
Disclosure

Something a little experimental but thoroughly brilliant from the Disclosure boys. Friendly Fires' Ed Macfarlane's performance on the slightly slower and lustrous "Defeated No More" is so distinct that the track feels like a full blown Friendly Fires collaboration. It's warm pulsating pads and tropical, soulful vibe meshes with the dance duo's deep house basslines and crisp beats like a match made in Ibiza heaven. The longest track on the album, and appropriately so, as its glorious "Pala" groove gets the time to breathe it deserves.

1
High Society
Betty Who

Hailing from Australia, who seem to be doing pretty well for themselves economically whilst the rest of us weep into our Poundland Rice Krispies, it's no wonder Betty Who sounds so elated. But the dramatic synthpop Ms Who brings overseas is downright infectious, and "High Society" has the euphoric energy to make even the most dreary of us feel high on life. But in fact, it's the burbling basslines taken from Robyn's best shouts, hooks the size of China and a rally for us all to drink "Chardonnay through the day". It's a joyous slice of pop heaven that'll make any europop fan's heart skip a beat, and there's plenty more where that came from on her FREE "The Movement" EP, available to download on her website.