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DANCE PLAYLIST: Seasonal Affective Dance (S.A.D.)
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Everything is worse in the gray light of winter: your job sucks harder, your relationship jumps into the toilet, and to top it off, your chapped face is scaring small children. It’s called the sads, and you’ve got them. Fear not: a healthy dose of our Seasonal Affective Dance (S.A.D.) playlist and the world will be right again! Let your manically-excited friends Rusko, Unicorn Kid, Fool’s Gold, Eli Escobar, Canblaster and a masked Azealia Banks bring the bright with energetic, squiggly and smiley dance jams tailored-made to turn that frown upside down. Consider this list your well-deserved sonic light box. All you have to do is go turn up the hi-fi and let it shine.
DOWNLOAD: Example - Changed The Way You Kiss Me
Get acquainted with Example – the British rapper and singer who’s been steadily racking up hits on the UK Album Charts and is now building a following Stateside. His third album Playing In The Shadows debuted in September (at #1 on the UK charts) led by the hit single “Changed The Way You Kiss Me.” Over the bass and synth-heavy beat, the 29-year-old weaves a familiar tale of love and troubles with the opposite sex.
STREAM: Arthur Russell - That's Us/Wild Combination (Estate Remix)
There's only so much Arthur Russell and sometimes I feel pressure to take what I can get and try to relive the thrill of discovering his iconic original work for the first time. Here, though, Estate does a good '80s-infused spin on "That's Us/Wild Combination." It's welcome and very surprising that there was room for a keyboard with all the cocaine I presume was on the table when this was made. Ah, those vocals! Still!
DOWNLOAD: Teen Daze - Brooklyn Sunburn
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Truth be told, sunburns are pretty rare in Brooklyn. My brethren are a pasty bunch and take cabs everywhere. Teen Daze do their own thing, though. "Brooklyn Sunburn" continues the band's dance-meets-gauze trajectory that kicked off its year. There's strong keys, glacial sound shards and a disembodied female voice that leads the way. The duo's first proper LP, All Of Us, Together, drops May 22 on Lefse.
DOWNLOAD: oOoOO - NoWayBack (feat. Butterclock)
There's something weird about San Francisco – all the fog, potent medical flora and loose atmosphere result in a hazy city that's producing some strong experimentally-leaning artists. Take Christopher Dexter Greenspan, aka oOoOO, and this track "NoWayBack." It has a silky R&B element, but the creepy bed underneath might as well be filled with nails and fog. Butterclock, a German artist, comes on the co-writing assist, and I'm eager to check out more when the Hurting Us EP drops April 10 on the very good Tri Angle imprint.
PREMIERE: Kris Menace - Falling Star + Depeche Mode and Little Boots Remixes
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Today with Kris Menace, it’s three bounces for the price of one – and they are all major 'floor-lifters. First, the beat-tastic premiere of “Falling Star,” a towering piece of ‘90s-infused German house and spacey teaser to upcoming album Electric Horizon. Next, two more from the big name selector’s enormous back catalog: a bumping refit of Depeche Mode’s “Fragile Tension,” now reinforced by slickly-produced bass burps, and a twinkly stunting of Little Boots’ “Crescendo,” which buries her angelic voice beneath a sea of samples and pop synths.
DOWNLOAD: Salem - Better Off Alone (Alec Empire/Atari Teenage Riot Remix)
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Atari Teenage Riot have only ever done one remix before this, but it remains no surprise to find Salem shining in the sludge of it. For starters, ATR's Alec Empire and the Michigan drag trio are more than vaguely kindred spirits, reveling in the same musically murky and emotionally ambiguous spaces. And then there's the fact that Salem often sound like this by themselves anyway; pretty and horrible, weird and familiar, desperate and aloof all at the same time. Just like Alice Deejay.
STREAM: D'Angelo - Left & Right (James Blake Harmonimix)
D'Angelo, where have thou gone? I'd guess one of those old English bros from the Victorian era would have penned such a sentence if an artist of D'Angelo's caliber suddenly just disappeared for over a decade with no music to his name. Well, the world turns and now it appears that our man is back playing shows and previewing new material for eventual release in 2012. Yes! And what better way to modernize than with a James Blake remix. Spacy, tribal, intense, soulful, weird and welcome.
