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:  ‘Dusk In Parts’ by Pale Blue feat. Jana Hunter

There we go, ride that thing! Pale Blue immediately set the pace with a delicious rhythm sound. There’s just so much mood in just that rhythm bit, I totally love it. For some extra structure there is a little snare drum added, just to make sure you’ve got something to hang your coat on. In the meantime, the vocals are delivering their story in a kind of alienated, spaced out tone. At one point, the lads take away the rhythm for a moment, and add some haunting auxiliary sounds to go with a light little piano, appearing so fragile as it is floating in the air. After that you get a little beat going, adding some oomph to the song. There is this lovely vocal ooooooh angelic/ghost like thing in the background, which together with the piano just lays it all down there. You can hear these guys are no rookies, with Pale Blue consisting of the masters Mike Simonetti and Mike Sniper. So no wonder  you can actually “feel” this track, with atmosphere there in spades.

‘Fernandez’ by Moscoman

How about some bass on the Cosmo Vitelli label, eh? Moscoman struts his stuff with some nifty bass lines, adding some guitar and drums to help out a tad. The guitar, especially, has a sort of western movie flick tinge to it, which definitely helps out with the overall mood. After about a minute in you get some extra auxiliary sounds, from synths to percussion to what to me sounds like a flute sound. Then the track slides into a quick-paced synth line, but like The Supremes, they always come back to the one microphone, whichever dance moves they are doing. And here, that is the bass, which is always the main motif in the track. Moscoman keeps adding different things on top of that bass base (…) though, going for some spoken word in the second part of this track as well. And, more of that gunslinger guitar, which is just an ace addition. If you like some of that bass, this is definitely one to be listening to. That I’m a Cliché label just keeps churning them out like that, apparently, like babies out of an animal that makes lots of babies. You know.

‘Feel on Fire’ by Waze & Odyssey

Waze & Odyssey go for that tough vibe with that deep, rough beat laying down the ground works from the get go. You do hear the synth come in from way back there though, providing a nice juxtaposition to the beat, especially in combination with that more floating synth sound the lads throw in. And so this one climbs to the heavens, going higher and higher in pitch and louder and louder in volume, summoning the vocals to get through that wall of synth bliss. First, relatively inaudible, but soon the soulful male voice gets free range to strut his stuff, saying that he feels Like I’m on fire. There is a fair stretch where the beat has been dialed down, providing first the vocals, then the synth rhythm line followed by the aerial synth sound to do their thing for a good minute or so. After that, obviously, the beat gets back in, the pace is turned up, and the boys bring this baby home. Different vocal turns and all.

‘Can U Feel It’ by Lo-Fi-Fnk feat. Duvchi (Rome Fortune Remix)

How about a little snippet from the boys from Lo-Fi-Fnk? It sure has been a while. This is a remix by Rome Fortune of a track they released not too long ago (after quite the hiatus, mind you). This one starts with one of those buzzing synths as the canvas, on top of which vocals and a little, tingly piano can be heard. After that, some of those lazy drums come in to help the boys narrate their little tale. It’s not a synth-pop happy dance tune, though later on you do get a little bit of a house piano thing coming through, but that one is quickly discarded for some darker, more menacing sounds, after which some rap comes in, giving it this hip-hop feel (not only in terms of vocal delivery, but also in sound). Is this a new line of clothing for the Swedes? Maybe we’ll find out when hopefully they are going to come with a new album one of these years.

‘Keep it Up’ by 78 Edits

How about some of that loopy dance music eh? 78 Edits get the loops turning on this one, giving it this techy/computer flavor which gets juxtaposed by the bass but, especially, that piano sound that comes in. After the minute mark they add another new layer to the loop, and they keep on doing that, even to the point you get some of those vocals appearing and re-appearing to do their thing. I love looping house like this, continuously working that momentum and weaving loops in and out and constantly adding new ones to the proceeding, this way changing up the mood, pace, and the sound whilst keeping that whole mojo in working order. At about 3:45 the loop they mix out is the beat, slowing the thing down and going piano and guitar primarily, before coming back with a more irregular beat sound again at about 4:25. I’m always pretty chuffed to hear whatever 78 Edits come up with, and this is no different.

‘Shanghouse’ by Max Skiba

I really like the start to this one, with the aaaahhh vocal bits and the bass, that’s some serious vibe that this one brings from about the thirty second mark on. There’s some woodwork percussion to get a bit of that rhythm going, with the piano following suit after about one minute in. This track has one of those groove flows that is just so easy-on-the-ear, with some nifty synth lines in there that suddenly crop up. The tone is light and airy, but with plenty to hang on to in terms of doing a little dance, having a little fun. There are some nice change-ups (like the one at 3:38), mixing up the vibe just a little bit as to not bore you to death. I especially just love the interplay between the vocals and the keys, really creates some momentum there as well. One of those things that just rolls ever so nicely, and not because it’s the same bass line all the time, but because he ties all those change-ups together so brilliantly and in exactly the right order, creating some of those euphoria moments while he’s at it.