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The Weekly Froth! - 20160624

  • Published in Columns

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: ‘Rise’ by Herb Alpert (Late Nite Tuff Guy Remix)

It’s been a while since Late Nite Tuff Guy uploaded something to his SoundCloud, and his first in months is a remix of Jazz great Herb Alpert. LNTG is really good at delivering a smooth disco ride, and here, too, he sets the rhythm immediately, giving you that delicious dancing feel. He throws in a little riff, and at 1:20 he dials it down a bit to get the piano and the jazzy horns in. Then the percussion, to come back to the bass and the riff again for those on the dancefloor. The next segment sees those melancholic horns again, conjuring up the image of Bogart and Bergman saying goodbye at the airport. It’s a lovely mixture of a smooth disco ride with the rhythm, and the jazzy sounds of Herb Alpert giving you all the mood and vibe you want for a lovelorn night of disco dancing.

 

‘Just A Lover’ by Hayden James

Hayden James doesn’t waste any time, immediately coming in with the vocals, the beat, percussion, and bass. The vocals are nice and deep, fitting for this kind of sound. The rhythm sounds, too, are relatively deep, though at about the 50 second mark he adds some lighter sounds to shift. Just before the 1:30 mark he strips the real deep sounds, even adds some piano, before bringing those rhythm instruments back (though having put the brakes on the pace a tad compared to the beginning). The vocals let you know that You were temporary, you were just a lover (just a prop to occupy your time?). It’s a nice, catchy tune that takes the deep road with the rhythm, at the end switching it up and finishing it all off on some higher piano notes.

 

‘Thrills’ by JMII (John Talabot’s Early Edit)

John Talabot gets the pace going from the start, using the beat to provide the steadiness of a dance track before adding a relatively deep sound on top of it to balance the lighter sounds he had already put in before and the one coming in after. About ten seconds before the two minute mark he changes the track up, even adding some warped vocals (which say a whole lot of nothing) on top of this synth heavy part. Obviously, one expects him to return to the deep rhythms of before, though he does take his sweet time to build up the suspense. The drop comes at the three minute mark, though he keeps the sounds of the previous part as well, making sure that it’s a completely new chapter in the track. It’s another quality tune by the man, exactly the kind of thing one has come to expect from his hand.

 

‘Boipeba’ by Joakim

Joakim starts this one with a bit of percussion, adds some sounds of the sea, but above all keeps the feel exotic, also by the choice of instruments. A bass beat is added just after the minute mark, sliding underneath the sounds he introduced some moments before. There are some ethereal sounds in the background, which kind of get juxtaposed (if not replaced) by a slow, deeper rhythm sound that is put in. Joakim is going for a lovely deep cut here, providing us with a hypnotic, slow rhythm but also plenty of mood to keep this one on your mind. After some thunder, he moves to a deep beat again, adding a sort of military drum to move it a bit more to the old school house vibe. Then he adds that slow, deep bass sound again, just to let you know you’re not out of the woods yet. It’s a lovely, deep mood piece that shows the ear Joakim has, being able to compose a thing like this.

‘Phreeky’ by Eli Escobar feat. Vanessa Daou & Nomi Ruiz

Eli Escobar knows how to get the most out of his tracks, surrounding himself with Vanessa Daou and Nomi Ruiz for this up tempo house cracker. It’s got the beat going, the percussion on top, and then he yells out that he needs a Phreek as the track stays true to its house vibe. Then he slides more to the disco side of the equation with the piano and bass, introduced by a female voice saying Aaaaah, come on (le phreek). After a moment without he puts the beat back in, and at 2:12 he ups the pace again, adding some soulful vocals to the whole proceeding as well. Just before the three minute mark we get a du-du-du-du line from the female vocals, first without anything else, and then the percussion steps in to get dat rhythm right. The track is really easy on the ear, and I love the different segments and the transitions to them. He keeps the pace up high, making sure there’s no one there regretting bringing their dancing shoes.

‘Tresor’ by Flavien Berger (Paradis Shuffle Mix)

I always love Paradis’ stuff, here starting it off with some jazz horns in tranquility, with the synths providing a subtle backdrop for them to shine on. Then, after about forty seconds, they add a sharp beat, a little piano riff, and then the spoken word. It is a voice with some gravitas in it, though in a foreign language you can have me believe anything I suppose. In the mean time, underneath, some dancefloor elements come in, before transitioning to a rather trippy synth track. Even with the trippier moments there are still the tranquil synth sounds that add a bit of sanity to it to balance it all out. And then, at about the halfway mark, the horns again, this time on top of the trippier sounds, but because of that providing it with perhaps a more important function. And I do love that combination, giving you the Paradis feel with a bit of an edge this time around.

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The Weekly Froth!

  • Published in Columns


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: ‘The Man Inside You’ by Thodoris Triantafillou feat. Nomi Ruiz

Greek electro artist Thodoris Triantafillou is on the verge of releasing the first chapter of what is apparently going to be a trilogy of albums, and who better to help than Nomi Ruiz, who has helped out on some terrific tracks throughout the past few years. For this one, she’s definitely the right choice, with the music and the voice being such a perfect combination here. Thodoris has himself a lovely build-up in this track here, and Ruiz knows how to add to that in the vocal department, getting the timing and tone just right. All the instruments come in at exactly the right time, and I like the synths that are doing their thing underneath Nomi’s vocals. There’s a theatrical vibe to this, which maybe is there especially thanks to the way they work together to build up this momentum, especially during the latter part where the chorus is repeated several times. Definitely has me intrigued for the rest of the album.

‘Deceiver’ by Munk (Purple Disco Machine remix)

Sometimes you just kind of know that it’s going to be good. Munk’s piano-led house sensibilities combined with something that is called the Purple Disco Machine? That’s two of my fav worlds colliding it seems. I just love that rolling little bass at the start, that just basically says get those rollerblades on and be ready to look '80s fab. Slowly they come in with the beat, and just before the minute mark you get the first synth sounds. After the first minute you’ve got the beat and a deeper synth sound that do the work, and soon you get some muffled vocals in there that become more audible and audible with every loop that goes by, really opening up when they strip away the deeper synth in favor of some lighter keys. After that the piano really starts to come in, and that piano increases in volume, with its peak being the cue for some of the deeper rhythm elements to come back, too. And so you’ve got these sounds, but still the light piano as well, and the vocals start doing their thing again, coming from way down in the mix back to the forefront for the second time. At that point they dial back the beat for a reasonable lengthy time, as they don’t rush the build-up, giving us all kinds of sweet piano and vocal sounds along the way. It’s just one of those fun tracks to get some dancing done to, throwing some serious 80s shizzle in there around the 6:25 mark to make it all complete.

 

‘Used To Be Me’ by Casino Times

I just love the boys of Casino Times, they just bring the house right down to the dancefloor. This one starts with all kinds of bleepy sounds, and then you get that melancholic synth sound which comes in floating on the air. A deeper synth sound then starts to play, so they are definitely setting the scene here before the inevitable beat comes in. First, though, a lighter synth sound cuts through the deeper sounds, giving it this sense of light and hope instead of just the broodiness of the start. And whaddayaknow, there it is, the beat, and some added percussion to add punch to it. Then the boys quickly build this one up with all kinds of percussion and synth elements, reaching probably its peak between the four and five minute mark. What keeps this one high up there are these lovely high sounds, those work really well and give you that kind of epiphany feeling, that momentum that you just love to have on the dancefloor. Lots of patience in the build-up, but halfway through they flick the switch to the beat and it just keeps getting better from there.

 

‘Something About You’ by Hayden James

Oh heck yeah, lets about we just start with the vocals and the percussion and get the whole friggin’ party started, eh? Just love those soulful vocals that this one has, which work both in combination with the beat, but they also do the business when the rhythm elements are stripped and they need to carry the whole track. I like the variety in this short burst of a tune, with the second time they dial down the rhythm elements, that part is totally different than the first time they do that. Not only that, the way they get the track back in there is different as well, with some different sounds being thrown in there to function as the rhythm section. It does end with the old beat and percussion, which I like as it ties it all together pretty well. And as said, love the vocals as well, lots of emotion and soul in there.

 

‘King’ by Years & Years

These guys have been popping up on numerous Ones-To-Watch-in-2015 lists this year, so I’m feeling pretty chuffed I’ve already seen them live so that, if they do get so very big, I don’t have to cram myself in between way too many people in too big a venue. This track is a good example of why people have taken such a liking to them (better than ‘Desire’ ever did, in my opinion). It’s catchy, it has that nice bridge around the two minute mark, and you can do a little dance to it. The chorus is a bit too big in terms of sound for me personally, but I do love those vocals, again singing about love or something like it. I like the vocals, because they are both pretty powerful and fragile at the same time, and that’s a nifty combination as far as I’m concerned. So if you crave a slice of (synth)pop and are not too put off by a too-big-yo chorus sound, then this might just have you wobbling in your chair just as it did to me.

 

‘Renewal’ by Alkalino

The Alkalino SoundCloud page is just a treasure trove of all kinds of lovely edits and remixes that he puts on there, this time going for that old Gino Soccio synth sound with the classic ‘So Lonely’, which dates back from the '70s. Major piano action on this one, getting this lovely vibe in before the vocals enter to repeat the loneliness that is in the heart. In the mean time we’ve got the beat working underneath to keep this thing moving forward and on the dancefloor, and we’ve got this lovely piano jazz thing going on to lend it some extra flavor and goodness. It’s got this nice dreamy vibe going on, also thanks to the voice and the repetition of that title line combined with that jazzy piano and the inobtrusive rhythm part of the track. There is some nice, subtle variety, for example in the beat (around 4:30 I believe the transition kind of sets in), which makes this 6 minute affair definitely worth the listen to.

 

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