GivePopAChance's Summer 2013 Playlist.

So the year's first perfect sunny weekend bids a hopeful farewell to a miserable 7 month winter, and as May approaches, festival season begins to rear its defiant head. Visions of cider drenched, Diplo-worshipping, scantily clad music lovers passing out in fields, outside clubs and on stony beaches seem so much closer.

It seems like the perfect time to share a dance-heavy Summer playlist of sure fire hits and lesser known, but equally deserved ones, that you can expect to be on heavy rotation throughout the summer. If GivePopAChance had its own radio station, you would indeed expect these tracks to be A-listed until October.



The return of Daft Punk is perfectly timed, and sets the tone worldwide for a summer of chilling out, partying and getting lucky. In the UK, Duke Dumont led the 2012/13 House revival to the the top of the charts a couple of weeks ago, and Basement Jaxx's crazy comeback tune is a defiant "anything goes" statement.

If anything really does go this year in dance music, hopefully DJ Snake's bizarre tweet-trap (quite literally) number "Bird Machine" will make its way to your confused but welcoming ears, and if that's too way out, Major Lazer is bringing Jamaica back through the medium of crushing dancehall beats and hyperactive synths.

Watch out for Moon Boots, whose soulful, irresistibly funky 80s take on the new wave of House music has sported two of the years most effective, sun-kissed remixes. They morph Singer/songwriter Alison Valentine's "Peanut Butter" into something altogether more blissful and euphoric, and their take on Bondax's "Gold" drags the track back to 1991, where it clearly belongs. Miaoux Miaoux's glorious, synth-laden take on CHVRCHES' "The Mother We Share" occupies similar airspace, so bright and grin-inducing it's almost impossible to look directly at.

After the huge,anthemic electronic dance of Swedish House Mafia and Madeon dominated dancefloors and dance festivals last year, 2013 has its fair share of big dance tunes. After his godly, life-affirming "Language", Porter Robinson teams up with Mat Zo, to bring something just as breathtaking for 2013, in the form of "Easy", Kat Krazy comes down hard on Bastille's hit indie single "Pompeii", transforming it into this year's "Don't You Worry Child", and Russ Chimes' stunning "Turn Me Out" is fist pumping, Balearic heaven.

Also queued up is the D&B anthem of the summer, Drumsound & Bassline Smith's "One in A Million", the dark Gold Panda-produced electro of goth-flecked starlet Charli XCX's "You (Ha Ha Ha)", the similarly quirky and groove-laden vibes of Flume's "Sleepless", the drunken, woozy beats of the UK hip hop tune of the summer, Dream McLean's "Sloe Gin" and perhaps the sunniest of them all, Mausi's carefree piano house ditty "Move", graduating straight from the 2003 school of blissed-out house.

Whatever the weather, dance music in 2013 seems to have one defiant goal, to have fun, not take itself too seriously, and to party harder than ever. And judging by the gradual lean towards dance music that the Top 40 is beginning to show, looks like we're all on the same page.

Party Tracks of the Week!

Basement Jaxx - Back 2 The Wild
#BigBeat #Dance #House

After the colourful, urban-flecked "Scars", Basement Jaxx are indeed going back to the wild big beat dance of their debut "Remedy" with their latest single. A quirky tribal banger with playful vocals popping up left, right and centre over an irresistible sunkissed bass line, the track has festival favourite written all over it.



Major Lazer - Jet Blue Jet (feat. Leftside, GTA, Razz & Biggy)
#Dancehall #Moombahton

I could have easily chosen any one of the 14 tracks on Major Lazer's phenomenal instant-classic sophomore album "Free The Universe", but the crazy carnival vibe of the entire record is easily surmised by this crazy supernova of a tune. On "Jet Blue Jet", chopped up vocals ricochet off the walls, sirens screech and beats pound as if we even needed reminding - in a cliquey worldwide underground dance scene, Major Lazer run the show.



Amplify Dot - Kurt Cobain
#HipHop #Rap #Grime

"Live Fast, Die Young like Kurt Cobain" goes the main hook of this slick hip hop number from UK female rapper newcomer Amplify Dot, and her cocky flow combined with a snake charmer synth and crushing kick drum provide a convincing case, as least for a Friday night.



Branko - (One More) Silly Bitch (feat. Njena Reddd Foxxx)
#Dancehall #HipHop

Buraka Som Sistema's Branko one of the latest Diplo proteges, and despite "Drums, Slums and Hums" mainly consisting of Slums and the occasional hum, "(One More) Silly Bitch" is a defiant drum-driven hip hop/dancehall number that would suit both Missy Elliot and Azealia Banks, but Njena Reddd Foxx's tongue-twisting flow does the track remarkable justice.