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: ‘Big Foot’ by Ilya Santana (Rayko remix)

These two people together can only be good news. Ilya Santana knows how to put the Space in Space Disco, and Rayko sure as hell knows how to put in the latter. So what you get is a nice drum rhythm, and when the synths come in after about forty seconds you get the space vibe no doubt. At 1:10 you get that fist-in-the-air-bump moment when there’s another rhythm element added to give it a nice little boost, and about half a minute later you get some extra synths to add some extra space to the atmosphere. What I love is that Rayko just builds to those change-ups. The music, very naturally, lets your brain know when he’s going to alter the song, so you get that sweet anticipation. At the three minute mark, that’s just a stretch that I just love. You have the drums, the more rhythmic synths, but also the atmospheric synths to make sure there’s plenty of that vibe in there. It certainly is plenty danceable, and it manages to be both catchy as well as hypnotic. I must say, this instrumental track actually kind of exceeded my expectations, no small feat considering these guys are really up there in my mind.

‘Vicious Love’ by Midnight Magic

Midnight Magic is about to release an EP, and this is the title track off of that. This one starts nice and boogie, with the deep bass being contrasted by the horns that come in. The diva vocals are certainly present again, including a bit of echo to give them even more of a range. It really starts out as a lovely slow jam, just dreamy and sad enough for the star crossed lovers with darts in their eyes. She sings that she can’t conceal it anymore, as after all, love is vicious, though it certainly is time to take a chance. It certainly is a track with a narrative and lots of vocals, and for me that’s never a bad thing, especially as there is enough variety in them between the chorus and the verses. In the mean time, the instrumentals are keeping it slow jam disco, with the bass there, but also plenty of auxiliary sounds to set the mood as the drums and bass set the pace. At about 3:50 they put in the big guns with the horns, which get some lovely play to end the track.

‘Desire’ by Years & Years

Years & Years are really working towards an ace debut. They’re touring with Sam Smith, but more importantly they’ve released two killer singles already with ‘Real’ and ‘Take Shelter’, which are really top notch. This is perhaps their most overt attempt to pop out, with the other two leaning perhaps more heavily on the R&B side of things. This one seems slightly more up-tempo, especially the quick rhythm part that comes at the start of the chorus, that screams big pop track maybe a bit too much. Still, like the other two, it’s got some great vocals (not to mention multiple vocal layers on top of each other), some interesting drums, and it still has a high catchiness factor. No, I’m not as enamoured with it as with the previous two (they seem to have a bit more “air” and “space” in them, if you know what I mean, not as foot-on-the-pedal as this one), then again, that album is still being played the first day it hits the shelves no doubt (and certainly hoping to see them live well before that). The energy and those vocals just have me hooked, what can I say?

‘Supernatural’ by AlunaGeorge

AlunaGeorge certainly made some waves last year with their album, and based on this track I would say deservedly so. I love the whole rhythm behind the track, it’s so darn catchy and it’s got such a good pace on it. I also love the different layers, they complement each other nicely, with the rhythm in the back, and then the sparser dum---dum----dum in front of it. The female vocals slide the song nicely into the chorus, where the pace picks up and where she sings that it is all so supernatural, and her more soulful vocals contrast nicely with the altered male vocals, which are made to sound more mechanical. It’s a lovely, catchy slice of electro pop, the kind that actually makes me curious about what a whole album would sound like.

‘Down From The Rafters’ by Hundred Waters (The Field remix)

I’ve seen The Field live a couple of times, so it’s no surprise to me what’s coming next. You’ll get plenty of chilled out atmosphere, with a real hypnotic backbone that keeps the track in place and that will keep you entranced whilst doing some of that eyes-to-the-floor shuffling. There are enough subtle changes to keep this from becoming monotone, from little additions to the percussion to changes in the atmospherical synths that certainly paint the landscape you’re meandering in within your mind. The looping of certain elements, he does that so effectively, especially with that higher percussion sound, which is amazing, and then those haunting synths that keep floating over the beat throughout the whole song. Certainly, if you allow it to do so, this is one that will take you by the hand and lead you to this alternate world somewhere.

‘Don’t Wanna Dance’ Deep & Disco rework

If something is named ‘Don’t Wanna Dance’, and behind that you see that it’s reworked by Deep & Disco, you can be pretty sure that they’re gonna make you, no matter what. The build-up is splendid, from the funky guitar to the drums to the bass they slide in after about forty seconds: that’s how to get the catchy wanna-move-vibe in there. After about a minute you get a little break, but slowly you hear the track come back in, and the horns announce the return to full volume. Later in the track you get these lovely ol’ school vocals, asking you how you’re gonna do it if you really don’t want to dance. I love that moment at 3:26, when those soulful vocals come through full throttle announcing his advice with an “I say people” yelp. The cherry on the cake is when the song slides into the familiar “get down on it” sequence, which is just this fabulous moment where the dancefloor will either recognize the reference or will recognize the fact that it is just a killa’ moment to keep dancing to. Again, just a lovely, funky, catchy rework with the right amount of attitude to pull it all off.

The Hot Five – My favourite new tracks of the week, usually rounded off with a classic, obscure or alternate track from my music collection.

Track of the week: Southern – ‘Where The Wild Are’

As with a number of fantastic tracks that I’ve reviewed in my time with Muso’s Guide, ‘Where The Wild Are’ took my by surprise when it came on randomly after the Ting Tings’ track you’ll hear below. The Belfast trio, who are based in Liverpool, consists of brother and sister Thom and Lucy Southern, and drummer Eoghan Clifford. The bluesy slide guitar riff that you hear in the track is fantastic, and the arrangement and sound of the song is absolutely spot on as it stomps its way into your life. The southern style blues that these guys are creating is mature and clever; this is exciting new music from an exciting new band. Southern are currently touring, and you can see them across the UK and Ireland this month.

Note: If you like this track, check out ‘World Don’t Shine’ here.

The Ting Tings – ‘Do It Again’

The Ting Tings – one of those bands that you either love or hate. The duo are set to release their third album, Super Critical, at the end of the month and have released the track ‘Do It Again’ in the run up to the album release. ‘Do It Again’ contains the funky guitar rhythms that featured in some of the more successful tracks in The Ting Tings’ back catalogue (I’m thinking ‘Shut Up and Let Me Go’), whilst the vocals of Katie White and great work from producer Andy Taylor also help to make the track a captivating listen. You can catch The Ting Tings live in the UK at the end of November.

New Build – ‘Look In Vain’

A Fantastically catchy dance track, ‘Look In Vain’ is taken from Hot Chip offshoot New Build’s new album Pour It On, which is set to be released on October 20 via Sunday Best. Directed by Jason Bradbury, the unsettling new video for New Build's second single explores themes of religion, retribution and idolatry worship. 'I’m an extremely lapsed Catholic and a literature student, so inevitably a lot of the King James Bible gets mixed into my socialist-secularist thinking' explains vocalist Al Doyle.

Bass Drum of Death – ‘Left For Dead’

Any band that calls themselves Bass Drum of Death deserves three minutes of my time to listen to their latest track. It turns out that the attitude-filled garage rock of John Barrett’s project was well worth investing time in. Yes, the video is a little weird, but the track itself is filled with great guitar riffs and a great, punky vocal performance. ‘Left For Dead’ is taken from the new album, Rip This, which was released on Monday.

Hidden track of the week: Thom Yorke – ‘House of Cards’

It’s Tuesday as I’m sat here, so here’s my happy birthday to Thom Yorke: ‘House of Cards’ taken from the band’s fantastic 2007 album In Rainbows. The video for ‘House of Cards’ was filmed with no lights or cameras, but instead utilised 3D plotting technologies to collect information about the shapes and relative distances of objects. The video was created entirely from visualisations of that data.

Any excuse to play a bit of Radiohead.

You can follow Tom on twitter @tom_fake.

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: ‘Cut Chop Roll Skate’ by Eddie C

Love the drums at the start, and the percussion rack is send off the bench pretty quickly with more of all that coming in, giving you multiple tempos and rhythms. That’s basically true for the entire song by the way, even when other instruments have already started coming in. It’s not the drums themselves that change their pace, but it is the adding and substracting of other percussion elements that does that trick, which is quite clever. At about the two minute mark you get a nifty little guitar in, and about thirty seconds later there’s a pretty major change-up when first the bass comes in, and then the talky vocals, along with all the laser sounds you kind of remember from days of yore. Love the change-up at about 3:20, when all the instruments have to make way for that deep bass and that funky little guitar they throw in there. I just love stuff like this, it’s got an old school swagger to it that I really enjoy, especially when, ever so briefly, those horns come in at about 4:30. It’s got plenty of variety, loads of old school sounds, and they just give you that cool cat vibe that is just so nice.

 ‘If You Say So’ by Escort

Are you ready for the disco? Escort has been releasing some lovely disco tracks for some years now, and this one sounds even more throwback than a lot of the others. Not in the least because of it’s slow-to-mid paced tempo and the higher pitched vocals that anchor it. Naturally, there’s a little bass line that’s just catchy enough that you want to wiggle that body a bit, and the drum gives it a bit of an extra backbone in that regard. The lyrics, in good disco fashion, will ask you to Give it up, and they do so in a slightly dreamy, alluring fashion. At 3:20 most of the auxiliary sounds are stripped, leaving the drums to dictate the pace, which gives the illusion of the song speeding up. It’s a lovely, wistful disco tune, which fits the genre as a glove.

‘Happiness’ by Chris Malinchak feat. MNEK

I always like myself some Chris Malinchak, as this guy always manages to put the right amount of vibe into a track. Here, it’s not the thudding beat that does it, but it are the synths and, especially, those Soulful vocals. Yessir, capital S. If that voice doesn’t add some feel to this than I don’t know what does. Malinchak is never one to overcrowd his tunes, and here again he manages to let the vocals shine. He keeps the beat as the backbone, the synths for some extra flavor, and he adds some percussion that, in terms of tone, fit the rest of the track just right. At about the two minute mark he dials it down for a moment, leaving in some of that piano, before coming back to that beat again. It’s a short ride, barely clearing the three minute mark, but when it clears that mark with just the synth and those vocals you’ll only be thinking about how sweet it is, really.

‘Scale Those Heights’ by New York Endless

This one isn’t afraid to build it up, taking a while to get the full volume out there. But from about thirty seconds in you already start getting where this is going with that synth rhythm they put out there, and when the beat comes in as the backbone to this track it’s off and running. They go for that hypnotic vibe, but keeping a little bit of a raw edge to it. You’ve got the beat and that fast, simmering synth, but you also have that atmospheric synth that kind of floats over the track in its deep, whale-exhaling sound. At about the three minute mark you get a light, springy synth which changes that whole feel up though, and there’s some woodwork percussion for some extra rhythm. That deeper synth does come back in combination with the new synth sound, showing they can co-exist. At this point, every twenty seconds or so, they throw in some changes to get some slight variation going, and the second half of the track sure brings out the summer again. At the end, when the synths are kind of stripped away to make it easier to mix, you even get a good idea of how much percussion there was actually in there.

‘Pleasure Principle’ by THUMP (Eli Escobar remix)

Eli Escobar knows how to get stuff dancefloor ready, and from the get go you already get the feeling this track is just waiting to explode at any time, which happens thirty seconds in. Love the double vocals here, which get even more momentum because of that speedy beat that he has put underneath there. There’s also this lovely rhythm synth in there, and at 1:20 you get a delicious piano line which just completes the total house vibe of this track. In the mean time Escobar is still working the double vocals without any of those two actually doing any singing, but as a musical layer they do fit in really well with the beat and the piano and the like. At 2:35 he strips down some essentials up to the point where, around 2:50, even the beat is gone. But despite all that, you know it’s all coming back, and the first step he takes in that direction is bringing the synth back in. After that you finally get some actual vocals doing some actual singing, which gets accompanied by a singular kick beat. After a minute or so the whole works return, though slightly altered, now having a slightly more botched feel than the high paced beginning. That piano though, which gets re-introduced as well, that makes sure everything keeps being linked together. For those party people, this one.

‘Works Like Magic’ by YACHT

YACHT is really firing on all cylinders again, and here is yet another track by the duo. Although, apparently, this one is courtesy of not only Yona and Claire, but of the extended family as well. Surely, from the get go, they make use of the whole array of instruments they’ve got available, so in that sense it does sure sound like it. That what they do at about 0:30, to me that is so lovely, quirkily YACHT, and that is what keeps you wanting to come back to them as they always manage to throw that ball at you with that curve of theirs. It is a really short, but also really energetic and fast paced affair, never letting up and really throwing it all in there. So if you like your songs clean and streamlined, this is not the YACHT tune that will put an end to that craving. However, if you like it slightly chaotic, with loads of little fun elements that come together like all those one hundred ideas you get when you let some kids try and organize the school dance, then this will get you flailing your arms about while jumping or dancing around, no doubt.

The Hot Five – My favourite new tracks of the week, usually rounded off with a classic, obscure or alternate track from my music collection.

Track of the week: Thom Yorke – ‘A Brain In A Bottle’

Thom Yorke clearly doesn’t lead a boring life. There I was, sat watching the Ryder Cup on relaxing Friday when the news breaks: there’s a new Thom Yorke album, it’s called Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, and it’s out now via BitTorrent. With a recent history of unusual album releases and a series of mysterious tweets from the studio where Radiohead have recently regrouped, many fans were right to be on their guard. Thom Yorke’s solo material generally takes a slightly different route to that of Radiohead. Sometimes this more electronic-based composition style is unfairly criticized, but Thom Yorke will demonstrate time and time again his natural talent for creating delicate melodies over a variety of innovative sonic backdrops.

Lorde – ‘Yellow Flicker Beat’

I can’t imagine there are many people that haven’t heard of The Hunger Games or Lorde, so I’ll keep this one short and sweet. ‘Yellow Flicker Beat’ is the lead song from the soundtrack to The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1. It’s been 12 months since Lorde’s critically acclaimed debut Pure Heroine. In that time she has firmly established herself as one of the most vibrant and current female artists in music today, with her latest track only adding to a reputation that I’m sure will continue to grow.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 will be released in cinemas worldwide on November 21, 2014.

The Who – ‘Be Lucky’

The Who are kicking off their 50^th anniversary celebrations with ‘Be Lucky’, their first new track since 2006. With WHO HITS 50, the new greatest hits album, being released on 3rd November to coincide with the band’s anniversary tour of the same name, it’s sure to be a big year for The Who. ‘Be Lucky’ is an old school track with modern cultural references to Daft Punk and AC/DC. The track was produced by Dave Eringa, who recently worked with Roger Daltrey on his 2014 album with Wilko Johnson, Going Back Home. In keeping with their ongoing support for Teenage Cancer charities, the band have donated their royalties from the song to Teen Cancer America, a charity founded in 2011 by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend.

ETCHES – ‘Ice Cream Dream Machine’

‘Ice Cream Dream Machine’ is the brand new second single from Liverpool band ETCHES. I’m going to be frank for a minute: The song title is weird. The video is a bit weird. The music? Well, it’s bloody great. The vocal has character, and I love the atmospheric production of the track. ETCHES are demonstrating great potential, it’ll be good to see what they come up with next. ‘Ice Cream Dream Machine’ is released on October 13^th via CLUB.THE.MAMMOTH with supporting shows at St Pancras Old Church, London (Oct 1) and East Village Arts Club, Liverpool (Oct 2).

Hidden track of the week: Nine Below Zero – ‘Eleven Plus Eleven’

To mark the re-release of their two critically acclaimed A&M studio albums from the 1980s, Don’t Point Your Finger and Third Degree, the original line-up of Nine Below Zero have reformed for a special UK tour this autumn. The original band line-up famously appeared on the very first episode of BBC sitcom The Young Ones, which starred Rik Mayall and Ade Edmundson. ‘Eleven Plus Eleven’ was released in 1982 and appeared on Third Degree. Nine Below Zero will be touring the UK until the end of November, performing songs from the band’s first three albums only.

You can follow Tom on twitter @tom_fake.