Evening Fog Special: The Knocks Remix Goldroom

The Knocks gave us a real treat with their remix of Goldroom feat. Mereki Beach's "Only You Can Show Me." It's a bouncing disco ditty with some fading in and out and a sing-along vocal hook. Per the usual with the Manhattan duo, (who themselves admit "Hey, we got the magic"), the synthesizer that carries the beat has such an edible texture. This ain't no fluff.

Goldroom, aka LA's Josh Legg, has made quite a name for himself both in and outside the blogosphere in recent months. Be sure to give his mixes a listen as the above link, too.

Alright! New "Tonight" From Shook

I'm telling you! Stick with this sound, and the people will dance. Shook dropped his latest, "Tonight," just three days ago, and it's well worth a blasting. It's got:

1) the vocoded "baby"
2) the slap bass
3) the synth strings
4) the claptrack
5) the heavy stick on the one and the three.

As Eddie Izzard famously spoke in the 1999 classic Mystery Men: "Disco is not dead! Disco is life!"

"Let me love you tonight, I know it's alright."

NLNL 7 - Right Back to Lemâitre

It's getting very difficult for me to ignore the explosive hype around Oslo's Lemâitre, so I'm throwing up back to back Nordic Late Night Lounges featuring the work of Ulrik and Ketil. Last time - lest I were to miss the boat - Prom Sawyer featured the breakout "Continuum," which on Soundcloud racked up several thousand plays within just a few hours of the Norwegian duo's release.

This time I want to grab a spoon and scoop up the disco soup that is "Iron Pyrite." I hear the best of Phoenix here, I hear the best of Ed Banger - and somehow, it all took shape 11 degrees of latitude North of Paris.

Chaz Bundick's Streak Continues

Chaz Bundick's side project Les Sins packs in the funk where the mellower Toro Y Moi does not. He's been exercising his dance muscles under Jiaolong, a label run by Caribou's Dan Smith. The recently dropped "Grind" reminisces of 2011's Underneath the Pine - the slow buildup, the muted magic hi-hat beat, etc. It's also got some R&B flare and a whole lot of fun. Given the North Carolina producer's virtuosity in the last half-decade, there's guaranteed to be more where this came from.

NLNL 6 - Lemaitre

Norwegian electrofunk duo Lemaitre, aka Ulrik and Ketil of Oslo, just handed out a real treat. "Continuum" landed in the blogosphere with a big splash four days ago, and has earned the rare Sunday Nordic Late Night Lounge post.

And we should expect such a funky track from an outfit whose tagline is "We is discodudes." Three cheers for Norwegian electro. 

From Brooklyn, Reptilian: Sensual Harassment

What I want. Rather, what's most important to me, is that the Electric Mississippi gets ear of the latest in "intergalactic love amidst a glossy pastiche of late-’70s-era disco," as CMJ lovingly referred to the latest from Brookyln's Sensual Harassment. I'm in for all things disco, but here the duo goes the extra mile.
"Make Me Human Again," the flagship track off of their recent EP Escape from Alpha Draconis (up for full-stream here), recalls the best of Cut Copy and Bag Raiders. But it doesn't settle for a draw - wait for the drop about 15 seconds in. The bassline takes it for a walk, check. It backs down during the verse - wait for that little snare hit to bring you back into the chorus, where the vocals follow that main synth line. The topic? Mysterious, mystical, crepuscular love exploits that fit better in Brooklyn, and along the Mississippi, as well as anywhere.

"I need your friction all the time.."

There's diverse artistry behind Sensual Harassment, too. Check out their rework of the Beastie Boys' classic below.

Dream Pop from Manila: No Rome

The Electric Mississippi flows to the Philippines today, where 17-year-old synthpop prodigy Rome Gomez, aka No Rome, just released the catchiest little critter that I've heard in weeks, "Dance With Me." He began pencilling music at age twelve - five years later, this single is priming to blow up the blogosphere.

To me, this is textbook dreamy dance pop - every element is there, though it in no way feels pre-prepared. You have the off-beat kick to push the piano through. You have the xylophone sitting on top of hi-hat. You have a pre-chorus breakdown to catch your breath. The piano evokes French nu-disco, but the vocals have an echoey effect and a pacing that might even make for a dancefloor singalong. I'm a sucker for innocent, happy pop about dancing - remember "Digital Love"? I'll put this on a playlist with that, for Friday nights when a friend says they're looking for a fling.

No Rome hails from Number Line Records, a Manila-based label with a deep bench of electro and shoegaze well worth delving into (check out Tarsius, "E.S.P.").

Down to Love?

You might look to tomorrow with great anticipation - Romeo trotting through the dark, the balcony around the next corner. Or your sentiments might be akin to Jeru the Damaja's - "my name ain't Puff, I ain't got time to waste."

Either way, February the 14th cometh, and Prom Sawyer decided to try to make a heart out of beer caps. I didn't drink enough beers first.

But the Electric Mississippi's been needing a dance track with love in the title. Ain't no fiends coming in between Henry Krinkle and his dreams. The Wellington, South Florida producer has ambitions, and if statistics mean anything, he's realizing them now. His remix of Hot Toddy's "Down to Love" racks up the plays. Listen to the cutoff on that synth line - crisp, but with a buttery finish, like a good chocolate chip cookie. When the deeper line comes in to back up the beat, it goes right where a dancer wants it to, a little behind the beat with a few little slaps. Make sure to check out his latest EP, The Lush Haus Remixes, with work done on Gold Panda and Kimbra.

Slam Funk: Jupiter Remixes "Mauvaise Mine"

This is the stuff of legend - Jupiter, French/English electro duo, Paris-based (aren't all the good ones these days?), reportedly met on a dancefloor in 2008. Their influences include reggae rhythmic staples Sly & Robbie. Hold them, Marcus, hold them. They dig nothing but the deep tracks among the oldies, which they convert into electro hits. Just goes to show, what's good is always good.

Jupiter has made some noise in years past, which I have faithfully included below for reminiscence - or because "Starlighter" is a boss track that not be eclipsed by electro-pop since.

To be brutally honest, I hadn't heard it before all the blogs mentioned it as a mainstay. Let's get down and boogie, to Jupiter's latest album, Juicy Lucy, but mostly to their remix of Lafayette's "Mauvaise Mine," Soundclouded below.

Believe the Hype: New Onra and Breakbot

Brooklyn's Hypemachine, Boulder's ThisSongIsSick, OnSmash, Gorilla vs. Bear, Best of Hypem, and dozens of other bold, music-loving perusers of the interwebs have taken up these torches in the last day and a half. Prom Sawyer doesn't usually like to reblog things that have already floated their way down the Electric Mississippi, but none wish to see a good beat go unnoticed. So here's the latest from Parisian producer Arnaud Bernard (Onra) and his fellow French national Thibaut Berland, better known as Breakbot.

Onra sliced up Second Chance in 2011, but only released it yesterday:

Breakbot's respin of Defiant Order sounds like a perfected Karate Kid soundtrack in all the right ways:

Bass Kick of the Week: "Give Me One Reason" Remix

The Tailors, aka Jesse Vrede and Bastiaan Buesink, are a house DJ outfit from The Hague. They turned a slower rocky R&B track made famous by Tracy Chapman and gave it a four-on-the-floor beat.




And it works well. Warm your feet with a dance as the snow turns ashy outside with the wind chill.

One Year, One Song

The Ball drops in Times Square, which is the following distances from the following settlements on the Electric Mississippi:

St. Paul: 1,192 miles
St. Louis: 954 miles
Dubuque, IA: 969 miles
Clarksville, MO: 1019 miles

Truth is, Prom Sawyer's never had a particularly reminiscent New Years. It gets cold outside. People reflect, and the predict, too, which is something I can't help but do constantly.

For music on the Electric Mississippi, I will say this. People like to dance, and they like to feel good, and 2012 saw a resurgence in both of these things. There's a newfound earnestness at work in music, and with it, a desire for the simple, the relatable, and above all, the catchy. So against my nature, I can predict that we'll see more of such songs in 2012. And posted below is a song that epitomizes these qualities - the Atlanta-based Felix Da Housecat's remix of RAC and Penguin Prison's "Hollywood."

Lee Webster's Pursuit of the Boogie

Lee Webster has plenty of something the grimiest of house musicians often lack: talent. But he's got a whole lot of what every house musicians champions: attitude. Tongue in cheek is one way of putting it when he writes on his SoundCloud page "I make vagina music <3." And check out the album cover on the left.

But Lee Webster is all business when it comes to genre and sampling. "Adventures In Disco Vol. 1" could have easily come from the early '80s, or the Ed Banger feature Prom Sawyer posted earlier this week. "Those Styles" wanders out of Scotland and into the LA scene. And more than anything, the Glasgow-Underground signee makes people want to dance dirty with strangers. And is that not the goal here? Dig these tracks.

The Epic of Gigamesh

Gigamesh has by now carved his niche - the Minneapolis-based Matthew Masurka has cast more than a few ripples in the last few years, and if his remix of Theme Park's "Jamaica" keeps playing, he's sure to make some more. I'm featuring this track because its among his lesser known - Masurka was also the producer behind Mike Posner's "Cooler Than Me" and an oft-aired remix of "Pumped Up Kicks."
I'm a fan of the ambient party sounds in the background - why force your listeners to find the party themselves, when it's right here? Gigamesh also shows a keen sense of rhythm and an ear for the nuances of nu-disco with the syncopated bells and clicks behind the beat. And beside the point -  check out his flashy website. 

Evening Fog Special - Toyboy & Robin

The Evening Fog Special takes its fog from London - perhaps from a fog machine in a crowded dancefloor. Prom Sawyer is daring to venture into uncharted waters on the electric Mississippi this week - with a dancy, thick, uncompromising house set. Trying to get a little strange on a Monday. Emotions are running high - we've seen warm weather across the Mississippi Valley this week.

London's Toyboy & Robin have a strong sense of production - and a keen sense of what house and nu-disco have been up to as a genre in the last few years. The effected R&B alludes to Starslinger - but the house beats drop hard and fast, like Starslinger playing in a concrete basement rave in Berlin or our very own Grinnell. Check out the bass on "In Need." And dig the sample of Sunshine Anderson's "Heard It All Before" on "No More Sunshine."

House To Put The Lights In You

DJ duo Niconé and Sascha Braemer return one year after Broken Thrills to put some emotion into four-on-the-floor Berlin house. United Colors of Languages, their recent EP, has made some noise in the last week across the quiet November waters of the Mississippi. Signed to Stil vor Talent, the growing nervous system of the Berlin house scene, Niconé and Sascha Braemer dropped "Rej Senhor" earlier this month alongside vocalist Narra to the delight of romantic house fans up and down America's electric valley.