Category: Dance

Smith & Thell – Kill It With Love

This one already has vocals.

Tim: Yesterday, you’ll recall, we heard a piano dance track and discussed whether or not it needed vocals. Now, I’m going to ignore what you said about being bored of stuff, and will instead do, well not quite the same thing, because this one already has vocals.

Tom: About time.

Tim: This sounds great, and I think it backs up what I said.

Tom: Whereas I think it’s pretty much ripped my argument apart. ‘Cos I’m actually less enthused about this than yesterday’s repetitive piano track.

Tim: Really? The backing’s there to enjoy, and the vocals are on top in case it gets boring, which it certainly never does.

Tom: Is that backing really a melody on its own, though? It just sounds like regular background synth playing to me – no special little riffs being repeated there, just chords.

Tim: Yes, but they’re decent chords – they’ve got energy, vibrancy, something which yesterday’s didn’t have.

Tom: But that doesn’t make… “piano-dance” or whatever you call this genre. The piano’s not taking the lead melody, or even echoing it – it’s just a bit of the backing.

Tim: Well, it’s there enough to be notable. Though, in a weird twist, towards the end of the song I think it almost gets a bit too much. Like I said yesterday, you either need a complex melody or something like a vocal, but here we’ve got both. I’d certainly like to hear an instrumental version, just to compare the two.

Tom: I’d like to hear something… more. And I wish I could quantify that.

Nause – Mellow

I’ve now reached my limit of piano-dance tracks.

Tim: Second single, after last year’s not-covered-by-us-but-really-quite-good debut track Made Of.

Tom: Benny Benassi inspired much? Those synths sound awfully familiar, and it’s got a similar “concept” video as well, even if it’s not based around what is basically clothed porn.

Tim: It’s good, in a fairly similar manner to a lot of piano-y dance tracks that’ve been around recently – the simplicity of the melody on top is added to by the drum synth line, and it works nicely together. There’s one question that needs to be answered, though: does it needs a vocal?

Tom: I think I’ve now reached my limit of piano-dance tracks. I get it. You’ve found a piano riff. You’re going to repeat it for about three and a half minutes with various changes in instrumentation and volume. Well done. Let’s move on.

Tim: No – instead we’re going to have a discussion about vocals, and you can’t stop it. Eric Prydz’s Pjanoo worked very well on its own, and we both agreed that Bromance was better without a singer. On the other hand, Penguins was improved quite a bit, and I reckon this would be as well. Those first two had chords in them, something a decent pianist could play with emotion and energy. This, though, is just one note after another for the most part, and to be honest it just sounds a bit lonely.

Tom: It needs a vocal. It needs a defibrillator. It needs something.

Tim: On the other hand, when the video came to a close I realised that actually, it’s perfect for jogging or something to (if you’re into that sort of thing), so for a work-out mix CD this’d be fine.

Tom: True. But that’s damning with faint praise, surely?

Tim: Oh, very faint indeed – faint, in fact, like YOUR MUM after I’ve spent a night with her. OH YES. I WENT THERE. BRING IT.

Tom: What? Why? That doesn’t even make any sense.

Tim: Yeah, I have no idea where that came from.

Michel Telò – If I Catch You

This song makes me want to get up and dance like a total nutjob.

Tim: Last year this bloke covered Ai se eu te pego!, a 2008 Brazilian song, and his version got so big (200 million YouTube views big) that he’s done an English version so he can take over the resorts this summer.

Tom: All right, he’s opening with a cheering crowd. It’s a bold statement, but it might be justified.

Tim: And I think that just might happen, because let’s be honest this is great, isn’t it? I am actually typing this in time to the song. Even though that’s slower than usual, I just think that I need to.

Tom: Is it released too early for Ibiza? If it is, then it might still vanish without trace – but if they get a BANGING REMIX of this out at the right time for the clubs, it’s going to take the islands by storm.

Tim: Well, Loca People hit YouTube in February, and I’d reckon that if this song has just one desire, it’s to be this year’s equivalent. And I think it might succeed, because my God, this song makes me want to get up and dance like a total nutjob. I can see it splitting opinions (massively), but I love it. It is energy, it is jump around the room, it is brilliant. And anyone who says otherwise is just plain wrong.

Tom: It’s going to split, because ultimately it’s a pleasant summer pop song being released in – charitably – “early spring”. And he sounds like a laid-back Ricky Martin, which isn’t necessarily a good thing. If it goes big, good for him… but I’m not quite sure it will.

Tim: But…but…I really, really want to sing ‘nothing at all‘ to those four notes that crop up at the end of each line in the accordion bit, and my word that annoys me.

Sisse Marie – Kill For Your Love

We have here a dance track.

Tim: We have here a dance track. And I don’t really think it needs much of an introduction.

Tom: It does have a cracking introduction of its own.

Tim: It does – the opening notes are unusual, until you realise they aren’t actually anything to do with the song, but are instead just a title sequence, but after that we still have a good opening first verse for a poppy dance track. It ends, though, with what would ideally be a drop into a big and heavy chorus, but is actually comparatively something of a disappointment. It’s not dull, it’s just a bit let-downy.

Tom: After that brilliant first bit, I was really expecting a heavy chorus, but it wasn’t to be. The second chorus – after I’d got over that surprise – I like a lot more.

Tim: Yes, and on the other hand, that middle eight is pretty great – it’s got that type of synth in it that reminds me of eurotrance from ten years ago and it’s brilliant.

Tom: Not only that, but the video has the blatantly “not quite erotic enough to get banned” dancing from that era. And we’ve previously established that I’m a sucker for Americana videos, particularly ones set in deserts. In short: yes, I like it.

Tim: Me too, ish – towards the end it finally gets going properly, and it’s, well, pretty good. It finishes on a high, sure, but it’s a high that’s at the level the rest of the song should be at, and the closing bit should be even better. This wouldn’t get me to put down my drink and head onto the dancefloor; a heavy enough remix, though, definitely would.

Tom: Damn right.

Martin Solveig and Dragonette feat. Idoling!!! – Big in Japan

Less tennis, less sanity.

Tom: Last time we heard from Martin Solveig, he’d hit the big time with “Hello” and had a video of himself playing tennis against Bob Sinclar.

Tom: This time, there’s less tennis, less sanity, and a much less catchy track.

Tim: Same amount of bassline in fact. Or, more concisely, same bassline.

Tom: It’s still clearly Martin Solveig – it sounds like he’s just tweaking his synth settings a bit to create what is now his trademark sound. But the melody on top of it just isn’t the same.

Tim: No. What is it, actually? I can’t remember.

Tom: It doesn’t have that same kind of shout-along, dance-along quality that Hello did. It’s not bad – but if he’s going to put out something this close to his last big hit, then he’s got to be careful that the first thought you get isn’t “the last one was better”.

Tim: Actually, I reckon the first thought most people would have is ‘what’s this weird mash-up of Hello?’

It could be argued, though, that this is actually a very different song – the first was, let’s be honest, just a chorus (can you remember anything else of it?), whereas this one has nothing particularly memorable at all, much as a track without any chorus would likely be.

It’s not bad – danceable and all that – but with that intro, people (i.e. excited clubbers who love the big hits) will be disappointed it’s not what they were expecting.

Saturday Flashback: Lady Antebellum – Need You Now (Jason Nevins Elektrotek Radio Mix)

Needed a bit more oomph.

Tom: “Need You Now” is a good song. It really is.

Tim: Indeed. Story time: I first heard it in an advert for their album before the film Daybreakers, and to be perfectly honest, part of me wishes to this day that I’d been more enthused by that advert, got up and left the cinema to buy it right there and then.

Tom: That took me a second to work out, but I reckon it might be one of the best burns you’ve written in a while.

Tim: Thank you very much.

Tom: Anyway, I always thought the song needed a bit more… well, oomph. Jason Nevins provides.

Tim: Hmm – not sure about that.

Tom: Now here’s an odd thing: this is a track that I’ve liked less and less the more I heard it. The first time I listened, I was dancing in my chair. It went straight on my regular playlist. And then… then it got old.

Tim: See, I’m not sure about that at all. I never did think it needed more, and I think this goes some way towards showing it. It’s alright, and great should I want to dance to the song, but largely unnecessary.

Tom: There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a competent remix. I’d still love it if it appeared in a club. But that first moment of ‘wow, this is is brilliant’? I think I was wrong.

Tim: Nice to hear you admit it.

Saturday Flashback: Caravan Palace – Clash

It’s what would happen if someone took a sampler back to the 1920s.

Tom: Have you heard of electroswing, Tim?

Tim: I have not, no.

Tom: It’s what would happen if someone took a sampler back to the 1920s. Well, other than the massive sweeping timeline changes and destruction of modern history, of course.

Tim: Well, that’s something I’d never even thought I might one day end up imagining.

Tom: I’d previously dismissed retro-futuristic stuff like this as stuff for Shoreditch hipsters. Then I found myself dancing to it. Which means one of two things: either I was wrong, or I’m turning into a Shoreditch hipster.

Tim: Are you keen to admit to either of those two things?

Tom: Given the choice? I think I’d rather admit that I was wrong.

Tim: Figures.

Tom: Anyway, this is one track off one album from one band in what is becoming an increasingly crowded music genre. Arguably it started more than a decade ago with Mr Scruff and his ilk, and it’s only now turning into something bigger.

Tim: Oh actually, now you mention it, I have heard that one.

Tom: I once saw Mr Scruff at the Eden Project in Cornwall, by the way. He played a five-hour set, and if you got tired, you could go and wander through one of the biomes. It was amazing.

Scooter feat. Vicky Leandros – C’est Bleu

They know what to deliver, and they deliver it in spades.

Tim: Somehow, we’ve never featured Scooter doing a proper track, only a mash-up. Let’s change that, with a new(ish) song that starts out like something your grandparents might enjoy. That doesn’t last for long, though.

Tom: That is exactly what I expect, and want, from Scooter. I can’t fault it. They know what to deliver, and they deliver it in spades.

Tim: The best Scooter tunes have always combined some sort of singing with H. P. Baxxter’s (I promise you, I did not know that off-hand) yelling, and I think this isn’t much of an exception.

Tom: Incidentally, I did know that offhand.

Tim: What’s she singing about? Some sort of rubbish about love, it seems, but H. P. whatsisface soon interrupts which the far more appropriate ‘Turn it up! Yes!’.

Tom: There’s even a shoutout to the Sheffield Gang – a reference to their favourite jumpstyle crew.

Tim: This seems to be Scooter as we know and, well, toler– actually, you know what? I’ll say it – LOVE THEM.

Tom: Well, I’ve got good news for you, Tim. Because they’re – wait for it – BACK IN THE UK. Seriously. They’re playing London in May.

Tim: YES! And WE. WILL. SEE THEM.

The Logical Song was absolutely superb, and vastly better than the original (of whose existence I was entirely ignorant until eighteen months ago).

Tom: Wait, what? Really? I’m astonished by that – the original was a classic. Mind you, we’ve found in the past that we both have unexpected gaps in our music knowledge.

Tim: There’s Friends, a ridiculously over-enthusiastic song that would immediately end all wars if played to the world. There’s Endless Summer, which will get anyone up for partying, whatever their thoughts may have been thirty seconds previously.

I hereby declare that Scooter make fantastic tracks, perfect for any occasion. I’m just gutted that their tribute act, Moped, aren’t still going. Well, I say tribute, but I think it’s meant to be more of a parody; parody implies a greater level of absurdity, though, and here we have lyrics like ‘Boom boom, bang bang, slippy like banana man’ that remove all possibility of that.

Tom: They live on in our hearts, Tim.

SOJO – I Remember

It’s hard to shake off a massive feeling of resemblance

Tim: There’s not a saxophone in sight, but it’s hard to shake off a massive feeling of resemblance to Mr Saxobeat in this track from July.

Tom: Well, that’s because they’re basically the same track.

Tim: Yes – it’s such a massive feeling, in fact, that this could almost be accused of ripping it off entirely.

Tom: It’s the Jimmy Hart Version: they’ve gone “ooh, that was popular, let’s make something similar but make sure we don’t get sued”.

Tim: However, it does lack a couple of things Mr Saxobeat had, such as the male moaning about a minute in, which I always found a bit weird, and the saxophone, which to be honest I’ve been getting a bit bored of.

Tom: Really? I’m not sure it’s possible to get bored of the saxophOH WAIT YES IT IS.

Tim: Things it adds include whistling, which for some reason I seem to have started enjoying recently, like here, and her voice, which I prefer to Alexandra Stan’s, especially over the almost a capella bits. So basically, it’s like of the biggest tracks of the entire year, but a little bit better. That’s good, right?

Tom: Pity it didn’t get there a little earlier.

DJs From Mars feat. Fragma – Insane (In Da Brain)

Pretty much just hums along in the background.

Tom: My word, Fragma’s still releasing tracks? I was fairly sure that it’d be over for her by now. Well done her.

Tim: The video’s been around a couple of months, but we’re now getting a proper release. Well, according to stuff their record label sends out; it’s been available to buy on iTunes since the end of September.

ANYWAY, that’s not important. What is important is this video. Tell me, Tom, how do you rate your knowledge of popular music videos in general?

Tom: Well, not bad.

Tim: And now?

Tom: Not quite good enough.

Tim: Let’s be honest: the music pretty much just hums along in the background for most of that, because there isn’t really much to the verses, and the video’s far too interesting for that to matter.

Tom: I got a lot of those references – even the view from the train window – but I suspect about half of them were lost on me.

Tim: Having said that about the music, though – every now and again, when Kylie or Lady Gaga comes along, that chorus appears, and you realise that it’s a bloody brilliant chorus. Then there’s the second key-shifted part of the chorus with Rihanna or Britney, and it’s even better. And when it drops back to the verse? Well, you just concentrate on the video again.

Tom: I tried listening to it without the video. It wasn’t really worth it.

Tim: Perhaps not. But as a musical accompaniment to the video, I think it’s great.