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The Weekly Froth!

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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: ‘We Know How To Work It’ by Ron Basejam feat. Danielle Moore

Ron Basejam gets the rhythm working from the get go with the percussion, and a bit later you get a nice rhythm synth in there to complete this dancefloor feel. Shortly after the male vocals come in, telling us that they know How to work it. And a bit of bass, like that one that comes in a bit later, sure helps with working it on the dancefloor. At about 1:40 we hear Danielle Moore for the first time, a singer that Basejam has worked with before and who kind of fits the R&B kind of style this slow burning house tune has. There’s a nice little change of pace at about 2:30, seeing a nice little beat come in along with Moore actually doing some singing this time around. She gets some help from the male backing vocals, still telling us that they know how to work it, and I’m sure people on the dancefloor will eagerly follow their lead. Especially when, as a finishing touch, there’s also a little bit of guitar thrown in there as well. It’s easy on the ear, catchy, and just the right pace to get the dancefloor shaking their hips to with this R&B flavoured house track.

‘White Light’ by Shura

This one starts real urban cold like, with what I gather to be some city street noises (or perhaps it is just noise, but that is the connotation I get from it) accompanying a lonely piano. Don’t be fooled though, about a minute in the track shows its true colours (they come shining through), with a disco-lite R&B rhythm keeping this one danceable and rhythmic, as Shura does her thing on top of it. The chorus is pretty big, with Shura’s dreamy vocals being juxtaposed by the almost pop brashness of it. At about 3:20 the track slides from the chorus into a percussion heavy kind of bridge that eventually leads up to another chorus. The track lets us get our breath back a bit around the five minute mark, where it dials it all down to let some of the instruments create some atmosphere before it goes back to the catchy, dancey popness of before, this time in the shape of a proper jam out with guitars, drums, and all that jazz. A lovely, seven minute behemoth that combines quite silent moments with those that make you want to dance in the sunlight.

 

‘Reach’ by Jasper Street Company (Kenny Carpenter & Dimitri From Paris remix)

Dimitri From Paris takes us to church, starting with some organ and major gospel singing as he takes an older Kenny Carpenter edit of this tune and makes it this slice of Dimitri disco that I, for one, love. The first minute introduces us to the gospel, and after that the piano and horns come in first, and then the aforementioned piano gets its little moment after the break to slide this one into a verse, with the female vocals singing that you have to Use what you’ve got, to get what you want. Though, admittedly, the line after (that His light is shining through) makes that way less sexual than any disco connotation I usually can come up with for a line like that. No denying the major vocal work that this company/choir is laying out there though, with some nifty piano playing and handclap sounds to keep this one flowing (and the organ to keep this one in the church). Just before the five minute mark the spirit enters the building, with Dimitri upping the pace with a drumkick and handclaps to keep up with the male vocals doing the works. After that he eases it back down a bit again with the piano. If you like yourself a bit of gospel house, this is an all-out, no bars hold example of that.

 

‘I Can’t Dance’ by Wayward

The image accompanying this track on soundcloud shows some serious diva vogueness, so that sure heightens the expectations here. And, with some piano and deep vocals, it delivers a short, fast-paced burst of it. The male vocals say that You broke my heart, because I couldn’t dance, and you didn’t even want me around. But the man apparently took some classes, practiced some in front of the mirror, and now is back to proof them all wrong. The drum certainly makes this an easy track to show them how wrong they were, having this house vibe going on. The piano certainly helps to create the right mood as well, and some of the auxiliary sounds round it all out. Near the end the bass comes in too for that extra bit of oomph just before closing time. The track is taken from the lads second EP called Embroider, which will be released in not too long.

 

‘The Ruined Map’ by CFCF

If you like yourself a bit of atmospherical music that is expertly crafted, than young fella CFCF and his next album is the place to be. He’s got a real good ear for tone, and in this little, very minimal track he once again manages to display this quality. It has perhaps a singer-songwriter feel to it, moreso than his previous output I find. It leans heavily on the dreamy vocals and the acoustic guitar, but the way it distances itself from the crowd is the piano and other assorted sounds that lie beneath that surface. That is what really creates this sense of mood (just listen to how the song subtly shifts between 2:10 and 2:30), and what makes it such a joy to listen to. Again, it’s a short one this, but despite its short lifespan certainly manages to get me excited for that summer album that’s coming up.

 

‘Backchat’ by The Revenge

The Revenge makes sure this one hits home from the start, coming up with this hard beat to make himself perfectly clear. It takes a while, about up to the minute mark, for the song to break lose from the iron grip of the beat, and it does so with a bit of bass action. The way he slides this track into what it eventually becomes is pretty stellar, it is so natural how this one progresses, and not with the “here’s another instrument half a minute later” that is so often used (or maybe he uses it here as well, but then he hides it better). He makes good use of volume to build momentum, and there are some moments that he uses to add a bit of oomph. Repetition and the way he slowly adds a low volume new sound to the main element he is repeating, that’s one of the keys here. Plus how he glides some disco/jazzy sounds in there after the three minute mark, turning this one from a deep-ish house track with primarily dance sounds to something that exhumes a bit more fun. Which is epitomized by the sudden vocal outburst around 4:15, which makes the transformation complete. And just before the five minute mark we even get some strings to juxtapose the more loop-like structure of the dance elements of this track. The first and last minutes of this one belie what it actually becomes and was, and the middle part is quite the thing to listen to.

 

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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: ‘Shelter Me’ by Late Nite Tuff Guy

Oh honey, are you kidding me? Late Nite Tuff Guy comes out with a free download to thank people for their support, and surely there are not many better ways to have ended 2014 with. All your Christmas presents be damned, who doesn’t want this lounge tearjerker of Sade turned into this melancholic, heart-broken disco track to dance your sorrows away to? LNTG gets the vibe right from the get go, especially when that hit of piano comes in at about 30 seconds (the end of the track will see that smooth jazz saxophone sound of the original come in as well). So you’re dancing now (not too fast, mind you, this is not that kind of dancefloor killer), on the beat, on the percussion, and so forth, and then, at one point, she comes in. Sade, with her smooth voice and lovelorny singing that "you’ve shed a shadow on my life, shed a shadow on my love, took the shelter out of my life, took the shelter of a lie". And when she then sings she could "see it in your restless eyes (the truth that I was hiding and you could not disguise)", LNTG slides that beat underneath to support her exclamation, and that works so well. He does that a number of times to perfection, having this slight change in his sounds to aid Sade’s singing, which enhances the emotional punch of this track. And, at one point, she will pathetically admit that I wish you could shelter me, and then that saxophone comes in from the original 1988 track, and that’s the ball game.

 

‘Same Town, Same Story’ by Interpol (The Field remix)

I’m not going to lie, I just haven’t been on the return-to-form bandwagon that some have been riding concerning Interpol last year. I loved their first two, I think ‘Pioneer To The Falls’ was the most fab thing they’ve ever done, and everything after that track was just downhill for me. The last album, to my ears, didn’t have the peace, the moments of quiet, the spaciness of that debut of theirs that I fell so in love with. Enter The Field though, Mr. Loop knows how to create his minimal, Scandinavian beat that he then expertely rides into oblivion. Here, too, you’ve just got this rhythm line, sounding a bit like a heavily distorted bass sound, which gets help from some light percussion elements and a tingly piano to contrast the heavy vibe with the light. Somewhere in the middle of the mix you have Paul Banks' vocals, which do fit (and provide some of) the melancholic vibe of this atmospheric behemoth. Don’t expect them to be the focal point though, as the vocals kind of are entrapped somewhere in between the layers that The Field expertedly both keeps sounding the same, yet deviates from slighlty. He is always so in control and patient. At the five minute mark, for instance, he keeps he main elements, but adds this kind of military drum percussion and that does shake the track up, but because the main sounds are still there you do get that hypnotic vibe The Field always brings to the table. So if you were disappointed with the Interpol album just like I was, then be comforted that this sounds more like The Field doing his thing, aided by some Interpol elements that do fit the cold Scandinavian air.

 

‘Noth’ by HNNY

HNNY always knows how to get some of that funk and some of that more contemporary R&B vibe in there. Here, no different, it’s already playing that funk from the get go with that beat, and that secondary sound is awesomely fun. Just before the minute mark you get the first female yelp in the vocals, and he always knows which vocals to use. They’re nice and soulful, and even get some room to strut their stuff as HNNY dials down the beat for a minute. And thus we can hear her sing that "Nothing can keep me, keep me from youuuuu", after which he slides the beat back in (along with some additional percussion). It’s a 3:18 snippet of a thingy, so cannot enjoy it too long, but the repeated beat and secondary sound are just lovely, along with the repetition of the resilient/pathethic/however-you-want-to interpret it line she sings over and over, making it stronger/less believable with each utterance. So how do you like your one-sided 12” releases, eh?

 

‘Oil’ by CFCF

If you like your atmospheric pieces, CFCF is definitely one guy doing it right in my opinion. He has just got this knack for finding the right sounds to go together, and here the start is pretty immediate, with some momentum building sounds that promise more to come. He builds on that for a good while before he adds the beat at about 1:15, which immediately makes it this thing suitable for the dancefloor. And even though the big, bad bass is heavily throbbing away, there’s still so much atmosphere there which keeps on taking the cake until about 2:30, after which he switches it up again, ditching the main sound and adding some more traditional beat sounds to go with a beautiful little bit of piano that does keep that whole vibe intact. The whole track is layered, littered with switch-ups, and constantly there are instruments there that make this one stand out above the fray. It are all those semi-classical components combined with that heavy base layer that makes this one so intriguing to listen to.

 

‘The Boy Who Thought it Was A Good Idea To Cry” by Johan Agebjorn feat. Shally Shapiro

How about that one for a title, eh? Agebjorn and Shapiro are no strangers to each other, and usually they collaborate on the italo-disco sounds Shapiro is known for. Not on this one though, with Agebjorn going all cinematic on us with this beautiful piece of work. It's just one of those things that manages to conjure up all these visual images as if soundtracking a montage in a film or something. Definitely high on atmospherics, though obviously you shouldn’t be expecting the dancey Shapiro & Agebjorn stuff. Shapiro does make an appearance though, but she sounds more ghostly/angelic than ever, with her whispery vocals doing some ah-haaaa lines over the layers of piano that Agebjorn has filled the track with (though not to worry, there are some strings and a bass as well). Don’t go in here with the wrong expectations, but if you know about Agebjorn’s upcoming album Notes and are intrigued by the style he’s going for, this is well worth the listen.

 

‘Dare Me’ by Gorillaz (Rayko Dirty Discoteca Edit)

My goodness, I do remember dancing to this in the indie disco in my teenage years (might be smuggling a year or two there, but whatever). The original by the Gorillaz that is, not this Rayko edit, which makes this dancefloor-ready for the dance crowd, as opposed to the gangly indie kids who are more professed at jumping (don’t worry, you’ll get the hang of how your body works later on lovies!). It still keeps that “daring” aspect of the original, that energetic punch that made so many people fall in love with it in the first place. Naturally Rayko also plays around with the stripping away of layers, the beat, and what not, to really make use of all that dancefloor expertise he has. Just listen to from about 2:30 to like the three minute mark, and everything that happens in between there before he slides it back to the main sound at the latter end of that spectrum. It’s just one of those amazingly fun things that makes you jump up in recognition when it’s played, but that keeps the vibe of the disco/house set going so you can keep moving your body whilst singing along with this cheeky little bugger.

 

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