The Weekly Froth! - 20160212

The Weekly Froth! A weekly take on six tracks, most of which have recently popped up somewhere in the blogosphere. Bit of a mixed bag with a slight leaning towards house, disco, and remixes, but generally just anything that for some reason tickled the writer’s fancy.

Track of the Week: ‘Cost To Love’ by Rare Cuts

Lovely slow burning start here, getting into that looping business a bit, increasing it in volume slightly, setting the rhythm and pace immediately by repetition. And so they loop their way forward, sometimes hinting at changing it up, but then settling back down a bit again. That is, up until the 1:20 mark, where we get those lovely disco strings and sounds that also put some atmosphere in there. And, after two minutes, we get the vocals, those lovely ol’ disco vocals full of love yearning and the heart burning. Then the girls in the back start to help out a bit with the chorus, singing Rising, rising close to love, then adding that, oh boy, how that is costing her. In the mean time the loops are still churning as wheels to drive this one forward, with the disco strings and the old vocals giving it its heart. Lovely slow burner this one right here.

‘Love Train’ by PillowTalk & Soul Clap feat. Greg Paulus & Crew Love

The people of PillowTalk and Soul Clap get the party  started in here, first with a clear beat and some percussion help, and after that you get a nice little bass sound in there. That deeper sound gets juxtaposed by a nifty bit of piano playing, as in the mean time the percussion still gives it all the rhythm you need. After the minute mark we get the vocals, announcing that they Wake up every morning (ehrm…), but obviously in a specific sort of way. At the 1:40 mark the piano gets back as they hit the chorus, saying that they’re Riding on that love train, love train. So spreading the good vibes there, and the piano certainly helps with that. Shortly after, a moment of mostly just vocals, and then the bass comes back in to ride along with the percussion and beat, waiting for the vocals to come back in again. At the three minute mark we get some Caribbean horns in there to vary it up a bit, even more giving the feel that we’re there to party and love. There’s some nice interplay with deep and lighter sounds, there’s plenty of rhythm, and the vocals and piano finish it off nicely. Just a good vibes tune to get dancing to.

‘Little Bird’ by Annie Lennox (Du Tonc Rework)

Du Tonc gets it on the road with the deep sounds, getting the deep beat in which then gets juxtaposed with a slightly lighter woodwork percussion sound. The synths start to arrive, followed by a rapid-firing percussion sound, which pace gets juxtaposed by a deeper, mellower synth sound which brings some calmness to the proceedings. The beat and quick percussion then gets hold back a bit by some of the sounds on the foreground, including a slower, deep synth sound to move it a bit more into the pop realm. Shortly after, Annie Lennox walks in, singing that she wishes she was a little bird and could fly. After that Du Tonc gets into dance mode a bit, getting the electronics in there, but soon the more atmospheric, calmer sounds arrive back in to juxtapose all of that. Around the 3:45 mark Lennox gets back, and with her some more of those non-dance sounds. So there is a definite mix going on here of the beat, the rapid fire percussion—  in short all those dance sounds— with Lennox and the original song’s sounds on top of it all to get a little bit of both world’s goodness in there.

‘Keep The Fire Burning’ by Gwen McCrae (Joey Negro Feed The Flame remix)

Joey Negro put out an album that showcases some of his edits, like his versions of tunes by Grace Jones, Patti LaBelle, Thelma Houston and also including this old tune by Gwen McCrae. First he makes sure he gets the dancefloor going, but soon he gets the naughty in there by immediately entering McCrae asking you if You can feel it (and, oehmmm, it feels so good). Then she starts giving us some instructions on how to move to all of this, as Joey keeps the rhythm going in the back, only stopping for a moment when the girls in the back sing to us that we need to Keep the fire burning. After that demand the bass starts riding his ol’ horsey, and Gwen McRae starts singing on top of some of the original sounds, like a nifty little guitar riff. McRae sings that You need to give it all you got, and she certainly does, doing the works here as the disco strings calm us down in the mean time. It is just one of those ace disco edits giving you that dancing with the big love and big vocals that go with it. The SoundCloud is just a snippet, the entire track running over six minutes, so that means plenty to work with in that discotheque.

‘Girl On The Wire’ by Tweaks

Tweaks is gearing up to release their EP later this month, and with ‘Girl On The Wire’ they give another sample of their nocturnal sound (they’re even denoting the time there, 4 in the morning, there you go). First you get the more dreamy vocals, though that switches to a more immediate voice demanding to know, Girl, why are you keeping me up. There are some nifty sounds to help out there, a pretty sweet (what I believe to be a) guitar riff, and the drums have this nice, soft and deep sound. I love the layering of the vocals, that’s pretty nice right there, and the lighter sounds pierce through the blanket of the night nicely, to make it not too much of anything the same. If you like this kind of late-night-under-the-city-lights sound, that EP coming out might be worth giving a spin.

‘No More Talking’ by Tiger & Woods

I pretty much love the looping business that Tiger & Woods have set up, and they start this one out by looping a bit of that bass action that actually reminded me a bit of that ol’ The Jones Girls tune. It’s super funky, has got a bit of attitude to it, and Tiger & Woods give it this more modern, mechanical slant for that Berlin dancefloor. They also bring back the old times though, not only with that rhythmic thrust, but also when the old school disco vocals come in. These vocals are of the feminine variety, not one of those strong powerhouse kind of things, and that juxtaposes the looping of the beat and bass action nicely. The vocals, by the way, also being looped, with one line being repeated over and over (and over and on top of each other as well), after which that punchy bass comes in to set the dancefloor alight again. Tiger & Woods are so good at doing that, and I, for one, am glad they’re back in action again with this burner of a tune.