NERVO feat. Frida – Hurt

“See, for the first verse, it’s a typical Frida Sundemo track.”

Tim: For some reason, ‘Frida’ isn’t getting a full name credit, so your average listener doesn’t necessarily have any real idea who it is. On the other hand, we intelligent and cultured people recognise the voice and know exactly who it is.

Tom: Yes. Absolutely. I can 100% remember the Frida we’ve talked about before. Sure.

Tim: 1t’s an interesting one, this. Or at least, that ‘feat.’ is. See, for the first verse, it’s a typical Frida Sundemo track.

Tom: Frida Sundemo! Right. Yes. I do actually remember her name now, although I don’t think I could have placed that voice.

Tim: Low on the instrumental, but very definitely a dance track, carried solely by her vocal. Chorus comes along, and again it’s a straight up Frida track – her vocal, good melodic dance beat.

Tom: Which is fine, I guess? I’ll be honest, there’s not much here that makes me feel… well, anything, to be honest. It is a Generic Dance Number with a good vocal.

Tim: But that second verse, that’s different, that’s not something we’ve heard before from her, with that darker backing. That’s straight up NERVO. That’s where the ‘feat’ comes in, where she basically does what they’re telling her to do. Not necessarily a bad thing, mind, but I will say I’m happy it doesn’t last all that long. Because after that? Again, that’s an energetic Frida track.

Tom: And if that’s your thing — which is seems to be — then I guess that’ll do nicely.

Tim: And so for everything except that second verse, that ‘feat.’ could be an ‘&’. And you know, I love that. Shame she doesn’t get full credit, really.

Pegboard Nerds feat. NERVO – Crying Shame

“Pegboard Nerds! I’ve heard of them!”

Tom: Pegboard Nerds! I’ve heard of them! Back in 2014, when one of their sorta-chiptune-sorta-dubstep tracks was featured on this video. 2014 was before drones became mainstream, and that video — and its soundtrack — absolutely blew me away.

Tim: Fabulous! I had not heard of them, but part of me wanted to feature this based purely on the artwork; some more of me wanted to because of their name (Danish/Norwegian, if you weren’t aware, and NERVO are Australian); then I heard the verse and then the chorus, and by the time we got to the post-chorus there was no option whatsoever.

Tom: See! Sorta-chiptune, sorta-dubstep. I mean, they’ve moved on, and I’m sure there’s a different and more formal genre title for it, but yes, this is definitely their style.

Tim: So, I’m not going to excitedly yell ‘HAPPY HARDCORE’ because it isn’t, but that build certainly promises something special and I’m fairly sure it delivers.

Tom: It’s probably the closest you can reasonably get to happy hardcore in this century.

This song starts out fairly sensible, admittedly, but turns to slight ridiculousness after not too short a time. As ever, back to normal, ish, for the second verse, then we build up throughout the second chorus, a middle eight which brings us a euphoric section out of absolutely nowhere, and from then on we’ve a triumphant mess of everything, and it sounds glorious. Am I wrong?

Tom: You’re not wrong.

Nicky Romero & NERVO – Like Home

MORE.

Tom: Piano dance with vocals. A cracking intro. It’s going to take a long time to build. A very long time. Long enough that you’ll want it to be properly BANGING when it kicks in. And…

Tom: OH YES DOES IT DELIVER. For a few seconds. And then it stops.

Tim: I don’t know – you’ve got a decent twenty seconds in there, which is a fairly standard post-chorus, especially when you’ve got a motorbike on top of it.

Tom: I have no idea what to say about this one. It’s nearly all build, slowly edging its way towards being massive, but never staying there for nearly long enough.

Tim: I suppose you’re right – to keep people dancing it does need more.

Tom: This desperately needs a remix. It desperately needs MORE BASS.

Tim: Or just looping that last minute a couple of times.

Tom: Hell, even a dubstep breakdown would do well here – they’ve gone out of fashion again now, though. It just needs MORE.