The Weekly Froth! With 78Edits, Fryars and Hercules And Love Affair

78Edits - Think

By Stef Siepel

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: ‘Think’ by 78Edits

If 78 Edits hit the spot, boy, watch out. And they hit the spot with this one. Good tunes, especially ones sans vocals like this is up to 3:30, in my opinion need to roll on and then somehow keep increasing momentum as they hit the dancefloor. And this one does exactly that. That lovely rolling beat and bass, those slight change ups until the two minute mark, and then the real hit with some additional sounds whilst keeping the base going; just a classic example of how to keep those dancing shoes dancing. Then the vocals come in as well, and they’re these classic funk vocals, and to emphasize that 78 Edits throw some vintage funk and disco sounds in there so you know for sure where it’s coming from. Then it gets to a nice percussion bit at 4:30, then a pause for dramatic effect, and under that pause the new beat cheekily slides in to get to 5:20 when they go full throttle again. I’d love to drop this in any set, any place, any time. My kind of dancefloor music this.

‘Love So Cold’ by Fryars

You might remember Fryars (pretty ace) debut from a few years back, which featured lyrically driven synth songs, including one with Mr. Depeche Mode himself. This sees him returning to the musical field, but not to that sound. This is more in that minimalist field of Nicolas Jaar last year, or John Talabot this year. A sound which I, for one, adore, and I am happy to see him tackle that (one of my favorite albums, and a terrific example of this sort of music, is Circlesquare’s Songs About Dancing and Drugs). I always refer to this as music perfectly suited for when you’re walking through the city at night, and I’m happy that I can say this and now add “like in that Fryars vid”. Happy I’m not the only one feeling that vibe there. I love the music, really bringing out that atmosphere, and I like how he sometimes turns that down for purely the vocals, which suit the vibe nicely indeed. If you like that type of sound, or if you liked his debut and want to know what he can do in a different setting (doing the same thing over and over is overrated anyway), then be sure to check this prelude to, I assume, an album.

‘Stop Out’ by B-Jam

Those cats at Superbreak sure have class, that’s a given. You want house, they’ll deliver, and this is no different. From the This is Superbreak LP, this just has the groove, that kind of thing you expect to come out when you go to one of them loft parties in Brooklyn or something. The vocals are absolutely amazing, and that lazy beat, helped by all kinds of secondary sounds that give it its flavour; they all make sure you can do a little boogie to this. The reason I love this is the patience it has. It never feels forced or sped up or anything, it always feels just like this organic entity that you just expect to hear when you go clubbing. It just epitomizes that to me. And as said, when you’re using these kinds of vocals, that’s a battle half won already.

‘Disconazi’ by Khan (Hard Ton remix)

Oh boy, that’s one blunt beat you’ve got there Hard Ton, that’s a bit too crude for me personally. The vocals singing XTC already indicate this is not going to be a Kierkegaard inspired monologue, so at that point you’re just hoping that what happens at the one minute mark will actually happen. And what happens is, throw the beat out, put the piano in, have a better beat/drums return, and just make a fun house track out of it. And normally, Hard Ton knows fun (and high vocals). So from the two minute mark on, you just have this lovely house track you can dance to whilst he sings about giving him love and XTC. Though, by the time that is repeated to the point you start to feel kind of guilty about liking it, hopefully you are already dancing your ass off so you’re not hearing it anymore anyway. At 3:50 some of the sounds are stripped down to give Hard Ton’s vocals some room to work it (and he has the tendency to do that hard style, make no mistake about that), and then naturally, after an initial hesitation, the beat returns and the dancefloor can go at it again. So yeah, not going to win any prizes this one, but if you have the club dancing and you want to keep that momentum going, safe bet this I reckon.

‘When the Present was the Past’ by John Talabot (Pachange Boys Purple Remix)

You know this is a remix of a John Talabot song when that amazingly obtuse beat comes out of your surround set. That deeper beat that appears just a while after is kind of nice and gives it some body, and when that altered Talabot sound comes in around the minute mark; that’s a nice change-up. So by the time you come at the two minute mark, it has kind of flowed into a deeper house song that is okay, though just seconds later new sounds come in which I feel kind of obstruct the flow more than they help accelerate it. Around the three minute mark I’m happy to hear some sounds again from the original, but that in itself says enough; if with a remix I’m happy to be hearing “original” sounds as opposed to the contributions of the remixer, probably I’m better off listening to the base track. Though that flow they’ve got going after the four minute mark, that I do like, and I must say the second part I much prefer to the first. So it’s not all bad (except for the beginning, which, for me, kind of is), but I’ll listen to that Talabot album any day, and this not so much I’m afraid.

‘Release Me’ by Hercules and Love Affair (Andrew Butler & Mark Pistel Remix)

Andrew Butler and Mark Pistel are the two guys behind the decks of Hercules and Love Affair, and here they take on their own new song ‘Release Me’. And they do so making it this vintage house track with all those old schools sounds that I know so well from any ’80s house compilation album. They have a gift for finding good vocalists (Antony Hegarty, Aerea Negrot, Nomi Ruiz, etcetera), so I’m sure that the upcoming album will feature plenty of good singers again. This track already hints at that, with a kind of deep female voice singing that she wants you to release her. After the third minute mark the voice gets a break as the song starts winding down to its close. Some day, I’m pretty sure a remix will pop up that gives it the eight minutes that will make it an ace option for any house set, as this tune has all the characteristics of a song that’ll fit perfectly there. Including, naturally, the most important one, and that is that you can dance to it just fine.