I am not a man of half measures.
If I decide to take something on, it must be done as fully and completely as possible, or I don’t see the point in bothering at all.
While this gung ho, take-no-prisoners does get lots done, it can also mean I ended feel stressed beyond belief at the sheer number of things churning away in me, begging, nay demanding, to see the light of day.
That can include all the music I listen to, which now arrives in tsunami-like quantities thanks to this glorious social media age in which we live in which everything everywhere is immediately accessible by pretty much anyone.
The solution to all this unnecessary #firstworldproblems stress?
Why some music, of course, and here are the five songs I think will help you dance all your troubles away this week.
“Falling in Love Again” (feat. Marty Rod and Alma) by Kill Paris
This here is some damn fine R & B funk.
LA native Kill Paris, better known as Corey Barker, who has been producing some amazing electronic music under his catchy musical moniker since he was 16, has put together an instantly addictive song that perfectly captures the giddy feeling of falling in love again with your lover after the heartbreak of thinking you have lost them.
With the stunningly talented Marty Rod and Alma onboard for vocal duties, both passionately singing of this intoxicatingly new love over a loping, bass-heavy dance beat that dips and swells at all the right places and carrie you along on this wonderful journey between two newly renewed lovers.
It’s giddy, it’s joyous, it’s celebratory and it will have you clapping along and moving your feet, caught up in the euphoria.
This is one love that won’t be ending anytime soon.
* Here’s an awesome interview with Kill Paris. Enjoy!
“Jennie” by Cape Lion
Jennie fairly blasts out of your speakers the first time you hear it, its sense of urgent energy given life by the impassioned vocals of Carl-Johan Svedag and Martin Wiklund and it’s sheen of bouncy, endlessly upbeat art pop.
It envelops you the moment you hear it, one of those songs that overhwlems and consumes in the best possible way.
I found myself calling out to Jennie just as enthusiastically as the Swedish duo who have released one other song before this, “You Kept Dreaming” in advance of their forthcoming EP and album.
I can help but agree with scandipop‘s passionate review of the song:
“It’s a glittering and hyper homage to the 90s. The synths have been tuned to disco house, and the vocals have been spliced and diced into an adhd warning symptom. The production is tres magnifique. That Jennie is a fool for letting go of these guys. But chances are, the resulting song is better than her anyway.”
It’s a glistening mass of distorted vocals, synth beats and frissons of emotional excitement and bound to have you yelling out this mysterious woman’s name over and over.
“Dance Apocalyptic” by Janelle Monáe
Now if this is the soundtrack for the apocalypse, any apocalypse, then bring on the zombies, aliens, mutant bug-eyed three toed sloths now please!
Rather than cower away in a dark room somewhere hoping the end of humanity will happen far away from you, I think it best that you join Janelle Monáe, an American R&B and soul musician, now and dance your way through the end of civilisation.
Or at least the one that Janelle so finely envisages and brings to dance floor-filled tub-thumping life all dressed in white in a video that looks like a gorgeous piece of conceptual art work and takes place in an alternate version of America.
It is in fact the lead piece of visuals for a short film also called The Dance Apocalyptic and an impressive way to herald the release of her album The Electric Lady which drops in September.
So let loose, get on up, and join all manner of end of times beasties in the dance to end all dances.
Let the funk begin my people!
“Take a Look at the World” (feat. Annie) by Ralph Myerz
It has been far too long between drinks for this Norwegian talented DJ and singer who jumped back into the zeitgeist with a vengeance in April with the beguiling, catchy ” Tube Stops and Broken Hearts”.
Now she’s back on a killer track by fellow Norwegian electronica artists Ralph Myerz, which, in the words of Annie is a “sunny travelogue – a dreamy escape from icy fjords, snowmen and the cold north wind. This is a sunny winter song about distant shores, beaches and parties elsewhere on the planet”. (source: popjustice.com)
What particularly thrills me about he track is that is reference Byron Bay, Australia’s most easterly point and very close to my parents’ home on the far north coast of New South Wales.
It’s a bright sunny relaxed place by the beach that is full to the brim of European travellers in the southern summer and I could easily see Annie and Ralph Myerz soaking up the sun with this joyously breezy dance track providing the perfect soundtrack.
Now if I could just get my hands on the magical car in which Annie travels the world in this clip, I’d be set!
“Only You can Show Me” (feat. Mereki Beach) by Goldroom
Oh my lordy this is fun!
FUN … FUN … FUN!
It’s can’t-keep-the-smile-off-your-face kick up your heels fun and I can completely identify with the people in the clip who are bopping, grooving and bouncing along with the kind of unalloyed joy that only an infectious dance track like this can give you.
Goldroom aka Josh Legg, who hails from the endlessly sunny climes of Los Angeles which no doubt inspired the bright energetic “Only You can Show Me” which moves along with simple joyous abandon to the happier things in life.
I think the way that earmilk.com describes his music captures the way it feels perfectly:
“Lush as any rain forest, Goldroom produces tunes with tropical flavors and choruses that will bound to get your body grooving. Synth arrays cut through your ears as infectious beats slowly take you over. He has undoubtedly found a great combination of styles that he mashes into one. Nu-disco, indie electronic, dreamwave, you name it. “
Whatever it is, it is some of most bliss-inducing danceable fun you’ll ever have and I can’t stop listening to it..
So what tune/s got you on the dancefloor?