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!

Porter Robinson & Mat Zo - Easy

#EuphoricDance #ProgressiveHouse

After Porter Robinson's almighty "Language" tore it up in 2012, I predict his glorious collaboration with Mat Zo "Easy", will do the same for 2013. Like Daft Punk's "One More Time" but with an even bigger euphoric-drop payoff. 

Chloe Howl - Rumour (Unicorn Kid Remix)

#House #Rave #Chiptune

There's no mistaking a Unicorn Kid Remix, all 90s rave beats, Inner City pianos and occasional chiptune flourishes, and his bonkers but addictive remix of Chloe Howl's "Rumour" delivers on all accounts, like a Inner City's "Good Life" played through a Game Boy soundcard.

Shift K3y - WIggle With It

#Dubstep #Trap #2Step

Shift K3y's modern take on 2 Step takes from Dubstep and Trap, making it probably the coolest music on the planet. Thunderous brass hits and shimmering whining synth take centre stage before dropping to a gritty garage bass and then to a Skrillex-esque wall of synth, before the whole thing starts again.