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(Photo: Nadav Kander)
It’s a poppy, idiosyncratic eye opener this fine day for Everything Everything’s “Cough Cough” via Xaphoon Jones (one half of rap party duo Chiddy Bang). A little bass crunch, a little indie vocal Doppler and a whole lot of strutting electronic enables this revise to exploit the original’s amped-up colonial boom while still steering into classic dance waters. Pre-order Everything Everything’s remix EP and discover more versions by Brometer and NCZA/LINES, plus the proper single itself.
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You may remember Yung Skeeter from his previous incarnation as DJ Skeet Skeet, the Dim Mak signee and seminal EDM champion who’s been enlisted by outlets like Spotify to be their resident selector or mags like Paper and Blackbook who’ve handed him DJ of the year titles. You may also remember That Work as the mellifluous NY dance team responsible for this killer nu-disco track. But if you do not, after listening to this kaleidoscope floor turn of “Soul On Fire,” the inky house stain of this redux will be permanently embedded into your brain. Here’s hoping these two do a lot more together.
(Photo: George Harvey)
This war cry remix of Swedish party pop queens Icona Pop’s “I Love It” splashes on every color in the dance spectrum wheelhouse: house, prog house, super prog house, tropical bass, club, rave and even a bastardization of moombahton. So if you were looking a way to blow out your eardrums fast, you’ve got it, kid! Here, Style of Eye’s die-cut lasers, bass booms, rattlesnake FX and mousy squeals will bring you to your knees before Icona’s riot shouts pull you back up by the scruff of your neck. More breakup anthems for dark hearts on The Iconic EP, out October 16.
What's your go-to nightmare? Waking up during surgery, cognizant enough to feel every snap and slice yet still too paralyzed by anesthesia to scream, is mine. But for The Antlers it's having their teeth fall out every night, for Florence and The Machine it's being deprived of sunlight and for Nicolas Jaar/When Saints Go Machine it's the nagging voice inside that insists they'll fail forever. Bands: they're just like us (sad and weird)! Lie down to our Nightmare Playlist and succumb to demented bass (The Toxic Avenger, Bassnectar), slick industrial (UNKLE) and forlorn indie rock (Two Wounded Birds, Caribou). We can't promise that it'll make your subconscious terrors subside. All we can do is assure you that whatever it is that poisons your sleep, you'll find it here.
How does one “Sleep and Swim (Like A Shark)”? Unknown Mortal Orchestra can’t provide the answer, only their personal motivation: to avoid crashing to the bottom, never to rise. They also provide the means: tumbling psych guitars, crisp drums and world-weary sighs that land upon your cochlea, as cooling as an autumn breeze. Gentle drones ahead for the Grizzly Bear tour mates, right here.
First one who tells us how to pronounce Greek dance producer George Bakalakos’ alter ego NTEIBINT gets a dollar. Everyone else gets a preview to the Kitsuné-signed minimal discoslayer’s new EP. Realigned by Gildas (one of the label’s founders), “Time” is major video game music, preferably one where you’ve got a Formula 1 engine under the hood of your hooptie to help you drag race the streets outside of Orly.
If there’s anything that silky pop star Ginuwine needs (besides an even smaller shirt to properly show off his eighty-pack), it’s a Blackbird Blackbird remix. One that gets housey, one that gets trappy, one that jitters with staccato drumkits, fingersnaps and righteous, moaning r’n’b samples. Maybe even a few laser squelches, a few pelvic-thrusting bass breaks, a few water droplets. Then, Ginuwine will have everything, pony and all.
No need to adjust your specs; that’s indeed Tricky behind the curtain on this Antlers track. How did this wonderful yet baffling team-up happen, you ask? Like all collabos, of course: the band was chilling backstage in Lisbon when they became entirely flummoxed with a Portuguese coffee press. Sensing that chill people were in need of chill help, out of the ether appeared the legendary dark-pop king, likely bathing the room in a deep red glow. He fiddled with the offending machine and then later fiddled with the non-offending “Crest,” massaging it into a drippy, global-beated swoonfest studded with a hoarse spoken word backdrop, too good for words. Download it for free, and then shell out a few for The Antlers’ latest, right here.
If there’s a better way to preview Dragonette’s third electro-pop studio album than by premiering this sugar-spun rework of “Live In This City,” we sure don’t know about it. Through an infusion of carnival static, punchy bass and kickstarter FX, Database does the impossible: ups the party ante while keeping the original's melodic core intact. A top-notch turn, indeed. More Toronto dance grooves for the cashmere set available on Bodyparts, out now.
The propulsive introduction to Coves’ “No Ladder” builds and builds to no avail in the hands of UK motoriks TOY. And the result? A hypnotic, atmospheric jam that stretches and contracts with each drum beat and fluttering synth-n-guitar psych wall. All instrumental, all great. A gentle primer for the Echo & The Bunnymen openers, if we ever heard one. Check Coves’ current EP here, with purchase options on their site now.
