DNCEtothis: “Sunny” by L.A.-based duo @itsPapaYa

PAPA YA, “Sunny” (free DL)

A year ago at this time I was all over DNCE’s “Cake By The Ocean”, which even with Joe Jonas’ star power fronting the record could have died a simple death on the pop charts had it not been such a grower of an earworm.  In a mighty similar vein comes L.A.-based duo Papa Ya – nothing to do with papayas here unless they want to use it as their trademark 😛 – with “Sunny”.  The song simply gets better as it goes along and as some of us move into colder months we relish being transported to gorgeous L.A. beaches.  “Sunny” has a really dynamic hook, a playful tone, and a slick vocal to make it very much worth your while.  Like with that DNCE song – now one of 2016’s biggest and most memorable hits – do not let this sleeper “Sunny” by Papa Ya go unnoticed.  Start off by downloading it for free at the above link.

Next Level: “Why” by @weareSkylife in a remix by @TheDiscoFries featuring @iamSummerRayne

SKYLIFE featuring SUMMER RAYNE, “Why” (The Disco Fries remix)

They are busy guys, those Disco Fries guys, but they keep on rolling out some of the most ear-catching dance music of 2016.  In the mix now, instead of an original, is their take on “Why” by Skylife featuring new singer Summer Rayne, which sends the song into a completely different direction than the original.  Gone is the heavier pop influence that seemed particularly reliant on a lot of ‘la la la’s’ to carry the song.  The Disco Fries keep that infectious element, but in moderation, as a luscious mix of synths and guitars wash through the melody and support the solid vocal that makes the original.  And hey when did you hear a talkbox work in such a versatile mix?  Check it all out at the link above.

Start that fire: “Ignite” by @AashMehtamusic featuring @theJeanLucmusic

https://soundcloud.com/aash-mehta/ignite

AASH MEHTA featuring JEAN-LUC, “Ignite”

California-based Aash Mehta has released some beautifully consistent songs this year that emphasize a lot of quality along with some highly appealing voices to make the songs memorable.  After a bit of a break, Aash continues with the pop-tinged futuristic (but not too busy) sound of “Ignite”, which again is a gorgeous song lyrically about escaping the past for a true and powerful love.  Aash employs New York vocalist Jean-Luc to great effect, taking time for “Ignite” to build using his soaring range to perk up your ears while leaving some parts imperfectly rough-around-the-edges which gives the song a grounded feel at times.  All-in-all “Ignite” has so many positives that you should give it a listen above and then pick it up at your favourite digital store.

Germany’s @JPBofficial riddles “For You”full of emotion featuring @LukeCusatomusic

https://soundcloud.com/heroicrecordings/jpb-for-you-ft-luke-cusato

JPB featuring LUKE CUSATO, “For You” (free DL)

Young German producer JPB has a contender with the vibrantly emotional “For You”, the title song from his 3-song EP, which features a powerful vocal by British singer Luke Cusato.  Picture if you will a playful first date where you’re trying to impress and the music in your head moves from punchy to rhythmic with some Caribbean flourishes.  But ultimately the emotion overtakes you and you end up pouring your heart out, and that’s when it becomes less about you and more about your date…  There’s an infectious pop vibe about “For You” that would make it sound great on the radio despite a lot of deep dives into future bass trickery which will keep clubs happy.  Definitely one to watch!  Give it a listen at the link above and download it for free.

Take a crazy ride with “Yerba” by @FarandFewmusic x #LOA

https://soundcloud.com/farandfewmusic/yerba

FAR & FEW x LOA, “Yerba” (free DL)

“Yerba” is one wild and crazy ride courtesy of Austin duo Far & Few as paired up with Warsaw’s LOA.  Trap and dubstep can often get really messy and then it becomes this unappealing blurry amalgam of sounds and voices.  The artists here rely on a frenetic start, and bring it up and down a few times along with some interesting melodic shifts.  Cue creepy vocal and you have a song that’s meant as much for clubs as it is for inclusion in a video game full of monstrous creatures 😛  My only complaint is that it could have lost the linear last minute but club DJ’s will enjoy the rest.  Download “Yerba” for free at the link above.

#BILLCSTop30 #495 – October 31/16

The only thing scary about this Hallowe’en edition of the BILLCS Top 30 is that songs 4 to 18 are all bulleted, which means that songs are patiently waiting their turns to rise faster up the chart.  You should also know that the BILLCS Top 30 is strictly my list of favourites and the rankings are purely subjective.  Even better, these 30 songs form part of a regular 60 to 70 song playlist on my iPod – yes I have lots of faves even if they aren’t on the chart!

The Top 10

  • The Top 3 are some of my favourite songs of 2016, all holding steady, with Gramatik and Leo Napier once again holding court at #1 with the Jenaux remix of “Native Son Prequel” from Gramatik’s album Epigram.  But will it stay on top next week or relinquish it to another song?
  • I don’t know when I’ve ever had two songs from Norway in my Top 10, but the first of those is “High” by Jesper Jenset in a punchy Young Bombs remix.  It climbs 8-4 – will it be enough to get the song to the top in two weeks?
  • Songs #5 and #6 have been bookends for weeks and they continue to climb – Tritonal & Jenaux’s “Broken”, featuring Adam Lambert (ab0ve), giving NYC producer/remixer two songs in the Top 5 🙂 and Norwegian #2 Matoma & Becky Hill’s “False Alarm” (below – the Steve Void remix), which is at last making inroads at US Dance Radio.
  • Zipping into the Top 10 13-7 with eyes towards the top is “Plans” by Elephante featuring Brandyn Burnette, neither of whom are strangers to the Top 10 this year.  Elephante’s “Closer” peaked at #3, while Brandyn has visited four times solo and once featured as part of Cosmos & Creature (his side project with Molly Moore), but first time as a featured solo artist!
  • Toronto’s Chet Porter brings his show back to home territory on Tuesday November 8 opening up for Lemaitre at the Velvet Underground.  His current single “Stay”, featuring Chelsea Cutler, continues to move up, 10-8 🙂
  • Also new to the Top 10 are two tremendous slices of EDM:  “In My Head” by Steve James featuring RKCB (above) rises 11-9, while “In The Name Of Love” by Martin Garrix & Bebe Rexha (below) leaps 14-10.  It becomes Martin’s 4th Top Tenner following #1’s “Animals” and “Proxy” and #3 “Gold Skies”.

Movin’ On Up

  • It looks like Brandyn Burnette may land three times in the Top 10 in two weeks – which he has done before solo 🙂 – as “Closer” (from his EP State I’m In, above) glides 15-11 in a crunchy Sean Turk remix.  He also features on Molly Moore’s hypnotic “Just A Dream” (below), which is the chart’s fastest riser, vaulting 20-13.

  • It’ll take a lot for me to get sick of Torontonian The Weeknd’s epic “Starboy”, featuring Daft Punk, which jumps 18-12.
  • Bright Light Bright Light and Scissor Sisters’ Ana Matronic climb 19-16 with “I Only Want To Please You” (above) from BLx2’s album Choreography.  Not to be outdone, BLx2 follows it up with an EP of cover versions called Cinematography, featuring his rendition of Michael Sembello’s #1 song from the film “Flashdance”, “Maniac”, which you can hear below 🙂

  • Cole Plante looks to be headed for another Billboard Club Play #1 with “Teardrops” (featuring Bobi) as it approaches that chart’s Top 5.  “Teardrops” swiftly moves up this chart 27-21 too!
  • The only appropriate Hallowe’en song on the chart is “Skeleton” by  NYC’s Stefan Alexander, and I understand that a video is forthcoming 🙂  “Skeleton” climbs 28-22.

Three Debuts – Fun and Funky, Fun and Wacky, Fun and Dirty

  • L.A.-based producer/DJ Bobby Nourmand has outdone himself with a rework of one of his own songs.  “D E E P  In NY” takes his deep house instrumental “Deep” and adds fantastic fun and funky hip hop rhythm and rhyme courtesy of D.O.C. and Goodmorning.  It’s a striking original all over again and bows on the chart at #25.  Bobby has some fantastic news coming soon as well.  
  • Halifax EDM artist Famba has a fun and wacky debut on this chart with “Right Here, Right Now” at #26.  The extended version is a must hear for the track’s long, enjoyable patter – point of reference for me is Eric Burdon & War’s “Spill The Wine”,  combined with 90’s house rhythms similar to classics like “Push The Feeling On” and “The Bomb! (These Sounds Fall Into My Mind)”.  It totally sustains its 7 minute length so check it out above!

https://soundcloud.com/snowmassmusic/convex-ft-titus-bad-kids-snowmass-remix

  • The second song with hip hop sharing space with EDM is Convex & Titus’ “Bad Kids”, which unto itself is a pretty cool track.  But creative Chicago remixer Snøwmass takes it several steps further making it even more fun and dirty.  “Bad Kids” arrives at #27.

View the full BILLCS Top 30 right here, and be sure to click on the photos to hear all of the songs.

Listen to the BILLCS Top 30 Songs on Spotify!  Click on this link to take you there, and follow me on Spotify:  BILLCS Top 30 Songs

Listen for me with my Pick of the Week at 2:20/6:20/10:20 AM/PM EST on http://www.planetradio.ca most days Monday through Sunday, and my flashbacks to a Toronto Top 10 of yesteryear Tuesday at 9pm EST! :)

Cheers to friendship and original songs like “Brothers” by @Saxity featuring #Strøm

SAXITY featuring STRØM, “Brothers”

Cologne, Germany-based duo Saxity have been noted this year for a variety of cover versions – from “Closer” and “In The Name Of Love” to “Can’t Stop The Feeling” and “Renegades” – and remixes.  They also successfully flourish separately, as Koni and Stan Sax, and with Saxity they bring out a happy collaboration of EDM songs that infuses live instruments, particularly guitar and saxophone.  So when I got asked – you read that right – if I knew any songwriters that might be interesting for Saxity to work with, the first one to come to mind was the illustrious Charlie Mason, about whose songs I’ve written too many times to count.  And while working with someone whose song (“Rise Like A Phoenix”) won Eurovision in 2014 might have not been on their radar, the extended collaboration, which also brought in the equally amazing Daniel Volpe, has worked like a charm.  And I don’t use that adage lightly here, because “Brothers” is loaded with charm, an ode to friendship and good ol’ brotherly love, enhanced even one step further by the gritty but sincere vocal by Strøm.  So this is where the suggestion has led (cue big cheesy grin) 😀 “Brothers” has everything that pop and dance music fans will adore – an unintrusive deep house rhythm, guitar, saxophone, contemporary lyrics that sink in deep, and a melody that simply gleams.  “Brothers” will make you smile and/or dance as it should.  Saxity has a real winner – not to be missed.  Listen to it at the Spotify link above and download it from your favourite digital store.

“Devil” pushes the envelope for multi-talented @AntonEwald

ANTON, “Devil”

The sincere hard-working young singer, dancer and choreographer who won over many of us three years ago at Sweden’s Melodifestivalen with “Begging” returns simply as Anton with the 80’s-influenced R&B/ dance/pop of “Devil”.  And while the song is a few shades of naughty that we hadn’t seen yet in one of Anton’s previous songs, along with some significant Michael Jackson inspiration, the video for “Devil” (above, which includes a well-shot but brief dance segment) definitely pushes the envelope for younger fans but will intrigue older ones.  So is Anton’s character in the video the innocent thrust into a kinky world of play and lust, or is he the willing participant?  Well only his producer/director knows for sure, and that happens to be his beautiful fiancĂŠe Victoria Fajardo!  “Devil” is a risky experiment and I hope it will tease Anton’s audience enough until his next release.  

Chilled out romanticism: New Songs by @TheOddsin x @BronzeWhale “Best” and @Cloudchord (featuring Furious) “Forever For Now”

THE ODDS x BRONZE WHALE, “Best” (free DL)

CLOUDCHORD featuring FURIOUS, “Forever For Now”

I don’t usually dedicate posts to two songs or more as I did in the long past, but these two are both originals out of Austin, and so similar yet so different that you can dare to compare and enjoy each one!

New singer The Odds pairs up with producers/remixers Bronze Whale for “Best” from their EP Million.  The Odds has one of these deep down soulful, restrained voices that could break loose and bring down the house.  For the romantic “Best”, it’s more of the former as Bronze Whale unleashes some spectacularly laid out beats and rhythm so that it’s not too much of a chilled out affair.  “Best” is cool and collected and then dashing and entertaining as it needs to be.  It will definitely get under your skin and stay there!  It’s also a free download 🙂

Producer/remixer Cloudchord has one of his best releases of the year with “Forever For Now”, his most laid back song to date, which also features a soulful newcomer named Furious as the vocalist.  “Forever For Now” strikes you with the classic romantic simplicity of the lyrics, with a rich vocal by Furious that shows a lot of promise.  Kudos to Cloudchord for not letting this one stay too mellow, which might not allow the lyrics to sink in.  “Forever For Now” is perfect for lights down low and a slow dance or two, and to me has as much pop potential as it would for clubs.

Be sure to give both of these songs some of your time as two of the best toned-down pop/EDM songs for Autumn at the links above.

Hallowe’en stylin’: “Dead End Love” by @weareXYLO in a @TELYKast remix

XYLØ, “Dead End Love” (TELYKast remix) (free DL)

L.A. producers/remixers TELYKast meet L.A. sibling duo XYLØ for a song about the kind of romance that lives forever, whether you want it to or not, in “Dead End Love”.  It follows up TELYKast’s equally pensive remix of Rico & Miella’s “Worth Fighting For”.  A compelling story leads us into a perfect companion song for the upcoming Hallowe’en weekend.  “Dead End Love” takes its time to build slowly to feel you out, saving a key suspenseful drop for much later in a song than usual, with some excellent guitar work that may cause you to pull out your air guitar 😛  Because of its balanced and enjoyable song structure, “Dead End Love” more than sustains its 4+ minutes; there’s lots to hear and it can’t all be absorbed on one listen.  Alternately touching and just creepy enough for Hallowe’en, check out “Dead End Love” at the link above and download it for free.