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: ‘Calling Card’ by The Galleria

Morgan Geist knows how to mix danceability with some emotive vocals, and here he does so as The Galleria, which takes it’s cue more from '80s pop than the house or disco music that he has emulated as part of his other monikers. So here you’ve got some iconic synthesizer sounds, using the ticks, bleeps, and percussion hits well alongside the throwback sounds that one remembers from radios or discotheques past. Jessy Lanza is on vocal duties, putting in some emotion with her rhythmic delivery. At about four minutes in we get this bell solo (!), which then is followed by a more bass-synth line as he goes for an instrumental passage for the dancefloor, with Lanza doing some “oh-ho, yeah”s to get some sexy in there as well to end the track. I love a lot of Geist’s stuff (those Storm Queen singles are especially superb), and he knows how to mix dance with the vocal outings he gets from his leading men and women. This is more on the catchy and pop side, a nice supplement to his oeuvre I reckon.

‘Escape’ by Zimmer feat. Emilie Adams

Emilie Adams wastes no time entering the scene here, immediately putting her dreamy, far-off stamp on this undoubtedly catchy track by Zimmer (because, you know, that’s just what he does). So no wonder that you get this elegant beat and synth combo after just a few moments, which he halts at about the forty second mark to go just piano to help out his singer here for a moment. Just for that extra emotional touch. Soon the percussion elements come back in, with the guy obviously working his way back to, in this case, a new beat. And the occassional touch of horns, which is always a good addition (they’re horns, what do you want from me?). Again, he takes his foot off the pedal for a moment, but that beat is quick to come back, though this time it seems he combines the two different ones he’s already used to give us the full monty that he has been leading up to the whole track. It’s a track of his new, upcoming EP, one that will be an enjoyable listen no doubt.

‘The Formula’ by Eli Escobar

Eli Escobar seems to have recently put his whole album Up All Night on his soundcloud, so if you missed listening to it on release, here’s a way to preview it no strings attached. This track, ‘The Formula’, starts with some of those club sounds. Far away music, people talking, and other assorted sounds associated with a night out. The music, though, creeps to the front of the mix with a nice bit of piano house arriving first, with a soft percussion line still being a bit shy and taking a back seat at the start. The vocals then really come in again, repeating the line I’ve got something for you, which in the club can only mean one thing, really, can’t it? In the mean time the piano has been integrated into the more percussion based rhythm sounds, with a jazzy saxophone putting this in a smoking bar in NY before it takes you to town a short while later when the rhythm takes you out and wants to do some serious dancing with you. Doesn’t mean the saxophone can’t be there, cause by this point everyone wants to join the party in this catchy little number. Loads of atmosphere, super smooth, and loads of fun: if you’re working at home and you’re looking for something to stream to get your energy up a bit, his soundcloud is where it’s at.

‘Lucia’ by Ishinohana (John Talabot Sunset edit)

John Talabot is the master of atmosphere combined with deep beats, and here, from the get go, he shows you why. He starts with a nice, deep, bit African sounding percussion. Some extra hand percussion comes in, soon being combined with these lovely secondary sounds to really give you the feeling you’re watching the sun set over the plains and all that jazz. He adds a little bass sound in there too, and a lighter rhythmic percussion, though it is that guitar that really puts this one in the place where it needs to be. He is super in terms of building his tracks up, and here, too, the subtle transitions, the subtle changes in volume, the subtraction or addition of certain sounds; it’s all done with an expert ear. At 2:50, for instance, there’s little left in terms of rhythm sounds, but just over the three minute mark they come back in without overpowering the main instrument at all. Keeps you out there in sunglasses riding around the out-of-town roads, just because it feels like that’s what you gotta do listening to this one.

‘Fear the Night’ by Luke Million feat. Jesse Davidson

I’m more prone to fear mornings than nights, to be honest, but Luke Million certainly gets those italo synths blasting as if they’re doing a sci-fi soundtrack with the hero vs. baddies sequence coming up. Jesse Davidson puts in a rhythmic vocal turn, saying that You’ve got the right, to fear the night, a line followed by a nice, bordering-on-cheesy piano line from Million, with the synths and beat combo still hammering this one onto the dancefloor. At about the second minute mark Million comes with a new synth line, which is pretty catchy and awesome, as Davidson mentions that You’ve said that you’d never be unfaithful to me (Ha! We all know that was a lie!), so there’s a bit of an emotional thingy going on, which we dance away on the synths and cheesy-piano-chorus, turning it up a bit with a sort of male back-up choir near the end. As always, dancing the blues away on a catchy-little-tune like this one beats out dancing the blues away on a tearjerkingly-serious-affair, so don’t mind if I do it right here, right now.

‘You Got the Love’ by Candi Staton (Dr. Packer rework)

The bass gets this one rolling out of the gates, with some percussion and synths helping out after the initial few seconds. These sounds become more prominent as this one closes in on the coming of the vocals, which we all know at one point or another will arrive with a vengeance. First we get a few rounds of building up the instrumental structure of the track, with Dr. Packer adding sound for sound before dialling it all down a bit for some muted bass and vocals. Which he is wise enough to turn up quickly again, as he knows that, now we’ve heard it, we want it. It’s one of those tunes that everyone who has ever been on a dancefloor knows, with that big, all-out vocal turn by Candi Staton, exclaiming that Your love is real, and she does feel sometimes like putting her hands up in the air in praise of that. In the mean time the bass keeps rolling to provide that base for dancing, and at that point you just have to make sure you’re not in her way, because she is barreling through this ode to true love. Some subdued horns and a dash of piano can be heard as well, and this is just one of those feel good edits you can throw out there for just about every crowd. As, Lord knows, we all need a bit of that Staton real love every once in a while.

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: ‘Playground’ by Starving Yet Full

Starving Yet Full was one of the two vocalists with the house unit Azari & III, which unfortunately has ceased to be. SYF is not done housing though, and he’s readying a solo album which, from the sounds of it, will include at least one out-and-out house cut. So you’ve got the cymbals, the beat, the bass, all those rhythm elements you need to get jacking too old school. SYF has a lovely voice, which is plenty of soulful and which balances the deeper rhythmic elements. Around the 2:30 mark there’s a break where they lose the rhythm sounds and let the synth play out a bit, a sound he continues even when the beat and all that gets back in. In the mean time SYF is singing that gravity “brings him right down”, so I’m assuming it isn’t all going smooth and easy for the narrator. At about the four minute mark he throws in a slightly deeper beat to really get into underground dance mode, and truly this is the kind of house track I love to hear in the club. It’s got a deepness to it, it’s easy to dance to, and the vocals on there are great. What’s more to want, really?

‘Mighty Bloody Real’ Joey Negro’s special dub mix

Joey Negro always knows what to do with disco, and here he takes the classic high energy track ‘You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)’ by the symbol of the gay disco movement Sylvester, and he makes it into a dub. As in, from the start, this one gets its high energy restrained a bit by the beat and the other percussion elements, which provide you with the dancing opportunity, as opposed to the original. That original bass sound comes in at about 45 seconds though, with the high synths shortly following as well. It’s definitely not an unrecognizable affair, though especially the percussion causes this one to still sound plenty of different (and how that bass is used as well). Probably, whatever you are going to do with this one, it’s going to set disco dancefloors alight (unless you really botch it up, that is), it’s just that kind of a track, really. Leave it in the hands of a master like Joey Negro, and it’s dancing until you drop. The more original elements come in, the more high energy it starts to feel, though he always returns to the bass and the percussion to keep this thing grounded just a tad. In the mean time we are halfway, and it still is primarily that bass and those very recognizable sounds of the original that we hear, and we’ve yet to be treated to those trademark vocals, which he is saving up probably. And yessir, at 4:30, there they are, to just provide that dancefloor with that extra punch of recognition. The original is one of those tracks which is just going to make any disco dancefloor happy in whichever form it is presented to them, and this one is a good addition to that whole bag of Sylvester sounds and edits.

‘Ain’t No Way’ by Opal (Horse Meat Disco edit)

The new Horse Meat Disco compilation is out (Volume IV y’all!), and that’s the best that queer disco has to offer. And yes, maybe disco is a bit gay by default, though the “gayness” part of it sure gets amplified with the lads from Horse Meat Disco behind the decks. So you’ve got all that sass and camp that you want to play it all up, and this is another example of that. It already starts with just vocals, with Brenda Watts yelling out that you need to get “your hands off of my man” as there is “no way I’m gonna give you up”. Add that disco bass in there, those trademark disco sounds, and you’re off rolling. Those vocals are so lovely 45” disco single, they’ve just got that whole old school '70s vibe in them. So you’ve got the bass to dance to, the synth to keep it all sounding light and fresh, and then the lads change it up after the two minute mark. They dial down everything except the vocals, and after that they get some deeper, faster synths in to ramp up the pace and the dancing a bit, and they throw in a bit of guitar for good measure. So they show they can even keep the crowd dancing and the disco vibe up without the vocals (and they also show they can play a bit with pace and slide into different disco modes in one track, which with a running time of 8+ minutes is a huge plus). Obviously the vocals come back for another go around, as you just need the girl telling these skanks to keep away from her man, whilst also telling her boy that there’s no way he’s going anywhere. Those boys just really know how to put the fun back on the dancefloor.

‘Be Brave, Clench Fists’ by Leon Vynehall

To start this one off you get some percussion sounds, though from underneath all that you already get some deep moodiness, which is quickly balanced out by a higher pitched sound. It definitely goes for mood at the start, with this slow piano coming in just before the minute mark. And, just before the beat, which starts to play at about one minute in and which cranks the pace up a bit. That beat is definitely in the realm of deep house, and that beat is not the thing that makes this one special (though it is necessary to keep this one moving forward, and we’ve all learned from Woody Allen that has to happen otherwise the thing dies). It’s definitely not an all out party track this one, as what makes you want to listen to this are the atmospheric elements that keep on appearing right on top of the beat. So it’s all about mood and doing a little dance with your eyes closed, though when the second rhythm element comes in to bolster that beat a bit there’s definitely a tick upwards in the danceability department. I really like the vibe and richness of this one, definitely one I’d be happy to be listening to on my headphones as well. That very very last part I could’ve done without, I have to admit.

‘Girls on Film’ by Duran Duran (Luxxury edit)

Luxxury prides themselves in the write-up that in this edit they’ve almost exclusively used bits from the original multitrack stems, though listening to the original you can already spot a few immediate problems for the disco/house dancefloor (and the cowbell like percussion isn’t one of them, obviously). So, first thing to do is slow the fucker down, and Luxxury does that right from the start, with the percussion and drums leading the way and keeping things more danceable and rhythmic than the original ever was. Still plenty of Duran Duran 80s vibes there though, with that guitar still in there, and the overall synth new wave vibe pretty much represented. With that, this edit revolves around the bass sound most of all probably, which for a dancefloor edit is the thing to do really. Maybe I would say at times it’s a bit too crowded with all kinds of sounds thrown in there, but with the bass doing its thing and with plenty of Duran Duran still blasting out of the speakers, it’s an enjoyable entree in a series of edits from these boys.

‘Sensify Me’ by Zimmer feat. KLP

I like how this starts, especially with the finger snapping in there. Lovely vibe they throw out there, and plenty of room for the female vocals to set the tone. After the beginnings you do get the bass in, though it stays a relatively low paced affair. In the mean time there’s plenty of richness going on in the background, from atmospheric synths to what seem like bongo’s to a more poppy synth line. The rhythmic layer is there with the bass, and on top of it all are the vocals. These two instruments get plenty of room, and then what gives this track its own flavour and its tone are all the things that happen in between those two main elements. It is tagged on Soundcloud as “horizontal disco” and “slow house”, and I’m not even sure what that means, though it’s definitely got slices of synth and pop in there as well, and a bit of sensuality with the way those vocals deliver the lines.