Shake your groove thang: “Fixed On You” by @HotelGaruda featuring @VioletDaysband

HOTEL GARUDA featuring VIOLET DAYS, “Fixed On You”

Like the best songs this year that leave their groove all over the dance floor, rising duo Hotel Garuda are out to slay with “Fixed On You”.  Featuring a vocal by Violet Days that also leaves no prisoners, “Fixed On You” is all about that burbling bass synth undercurrent which will empower even the loftiest of dancers to strike a pose or two.  In some ways this one reminds me musically of Madonna’s “Into The Groove” – for inspiration 😛  It’s no wonder that Hotel Garuda – consisting of Manila Killa and Candleweather – are getting rave reviews from audiences and peers alike.  Listen above to “Fixed On You”, it’s a hard one to resist, so you best click that mouse on over to your favourite digital store to get it.

Snazzy jazzy future bass rhythms carry “Halo” by @SMLEmusic featuring @HelenTessmusic

SMLE featuring HELEN TESS, “Halo”

“Halo” is a flirty, playful track that takes different sidesteps into hip hop-tinged jazzy future bass rhythms for an ear-catching experience.  It’s brought to you by new Miami duo SMLE, who like to ensure that you have a feast for your ears happening, and fellow Floridian Helen Tess provides a sometimes sassy pop vocal that totally suits the song.  This means that it’s easy to get wrapped up in “Halo” and the song flows by so quickly you’ll just want to hear it more than a few more times.  Check out “Halo” above and pick it up on any digital platform.

Another Canadian to watch: @Fambamusic nails classic house with a twist with “Right Here Right Now”

FAMBA, “Right Here Right Now” (extended version)

The folks at Armada have brought us some great new talent this year, and one is under my own Canadian doorstep, although in Halifax.  Famba’s extended version of “Right Here Right Now” is a real treat that club DJ’s should immediately embrace.  It’s definitely rooted in 90’s and early 2000’s house music but if any influence might be prominent it’s Armand Van Helden.  The groove in “Right Here” kicks in early but it’s got these cool spoken word passages that will really draw people in.  And not only this, but the extended version sustains its 7 minute + length, allowing DJ’s to watch the fun that unfolds in front of them.  Famba’s “Right Here Right Now” is one of those finds you’ll want to put on repeat as hear more from what the young producer/DJ has coming up.  Give a solid listen at the link above.

“Key To Life” is a unique floor-filler from L.A.’s @Kaufaudio

KAUF, “Key To Life”

L.A.’s Ronald Kaufman is definitely on the upward swing these days, having held a recent residency at an L.A. club which saw capacity crowds.  Shifting from more experimental cinematic sounds, Kauf’s latest is a dance-floor filler called “Key To Life”.  And that’s not to say that he’s leaving what he’s built behind for something simple.  On the contrary – “Key To Life” is beautifully complex electronica, full of percussive and slighter sounds along with a prominent bass undercurrent, drawing from influences like Björk and James Blake, but embracing a resilient groove that his audiences have appreciated in his live performances.  So here we have a vivid variation of progressive disco, continuing to be well-suited to his voice and yet more accessible at the same time.  That’s a hard place to find and be successful at it but Kauf has nailed it with this one.  “Key To Life” comes from Kauf’s forthcoming album Regrowth and I’m looking forward to hearing more.  Check it out at the link above.

On a roll: @theDiscoFries and @Shanahanmusic bring us “Is It Over” featuring #ShyMartin

THE DISCO FRIES & SHANAHAN featuring SHY MARTIN, “Is It Over”

Following up the effervescent and anthemic “Born Ready” and “Day By Day”, NYC duo The Disco Fries are back to offer up “Is It Over”.  The song is in partnership with US trio Shanahan and featuring vocalist Shy Martin, who is best known as the voice behind Mike Perry’s recent international hit “The Ocean”.  It perhaps is slighter overall lyrically from other Disco Fries songs, and goes by in a flash at only 3:16, but with their work with Shanahan they have found a more happy marriage to the pop/dance side of the electronic genre.  And as always the quality here is immense, with ear-catching and buoyant rhythms and a stellar vocal to make “Is It Over” well worth your while.  It’s The Disco Fries’ first for Tritonal’s new label Enhanced too, and you can check it out at the link above.

#TheVoice’s season 10 soul powerhouse @JoeMaye_ scores with inspired and emotional cover of “Complicated” by @AvrilLavigne

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JOE MAYE, “Complicated” (free DL)

Baltimore’s Joe Maye is one of the rare contestants on the US edition of “The Voice” who got a second chance.  In Season 9 his fine performance was, to the aghast of many viewers, dismissed by the coaches because he got too wrapped up in dancing which they said affected his singing.  But returning in Season 10, his performance was more refined and he ended up on Christina Aguilera’s excellent team – to me he would have finished in the Top 10 had her team not been so strong.  But in the aftermath, Joe has now made his cover of my fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne’s classic 2002 hit “Complicated” available for free download.  And it’s a fine introduction for those who did not see his performances on “The Voice”.  “Complicated” shows how Joe can take a song everyone knows, and then run with it in his own style.  Thus he removes the gritty, rebellious aspects of the original and replaces them with a convincing, emotional, soulful side completely unlike the original.  It’s a great choice to cover after 14 years and should continue to send Joe Maye on his way as someone with unique talents to offer.  Listen below and download it for free!

Le langage and la musique: @DavidUsher and @MarieMaireal give “Black Black Heart” a redux en français

DAVID USHER featuring MARIE-MAI, “Black Black Heart”

After reuniting with Moist in 2014 for an album and a cross-Canada tour – including a top-notch show that I saw in Toronto – David Usher returns to recording his own music by reintroducing one of his most famous songs, but in French.  This rerecording of “Black Black Heart” – my favourite song by him – with reknown Quebec singer Marie-Mai (who recorded an alternate version of it previously with him) is a terrific idea, which will help you ponder how language can affect and perhaps alter a song.  For this version of “Black Black Heart” is not a direct translation of the original, it has new lyrics written by Marie-Mai and Fred St-Gelais, and I’m going to have to brush off the rust on my own bilingual skills to try and tackle what they are singing about.  And this is key to David’s upcoming album Let It Play, where he is releasing English adaptations of songs recorded in French.  It sounds fascinating and he tells you all about it on his website right here.  I can’t wait to hear it, and in the meantime we now have another version of “Black Black Heart” to dazzle us.

Welcome back to Toronto’s Nathan John & @TheMidwayState with “Crystallized”

NATHAN JOHN & THE MIDWAY STATE, “Crystallized”

I’ve long felt that Toronto’s The Midway State were one of the finest, most sincere and approachable bands from Toronto to acquire some national success between 2008 and 2012 with the release of two solid albums, and I’ve written about them extensively.  That time frame also saw them perform with Lady Gaga on the MuchMusic Video Awards and singer/songwriter Nathan John Ferraro to be nominated for a Juno Award for songwriter of the year.  The quartet – also consisting of Mike Wise, Mike Kirsh and Daenon Kael – performed regularly throughout Canada, and after 2012 everything about The Midway State on social media went quiet.  So I was surprised to find that a new song, “Crystallized”, had surfaced inauspiciously with the band rebranded as Nathan John & The Midway State.  The deeper, electronic sound marries successfully with the anthemic qualities that the band lend to many of their songs, while not being as understated as some of the songs from their 2011 release, the Coldplay-ish Paris Or India.  With songs like “Crystallized”, I don’t think previous fans will waste any time welcoming back and spreading the word about the music of Nathan John & The Midway State, and I hope some live shows will be forthcoming soon. 

Toronto octet @GoldComplexband fires up rich soulful jazzy pop with “Backbone”

GOLD COMPLEX, “Backbone”

It’s hard enough alone to keep eight members of a band in sync and focused on a consistent overall sound, but when it’s as tight and polished as what Toronto’s Gold Complex brings us with “Backbone” then you know you will have a great time with it.  I can’t say what they offer is new – jazzy soulful pop – but it’s exceptionally well done.  Lead singer Will Bowes has one of those riveting voices that makes his songs more powerful than if someone else sang them.  The instrumentation, including all of those luscious horns, is all on-point, and “Backbone” is a fine example of a song about staying true in relationships that will resonate with the most casual listener.  Watch the video above to get a flavour of what Gold Complex might be like in concert.  “Backbone” comes from the recent deluxe edition of Gold Complex’s self-titled EP.

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“Under The Grave” is another pop score for @ROZESsounds

ROZES, “Under The Grave”

About a year ago, “Roses” by The Chainsmokers featuring Rozes started a slow journey to become one of 2016’s biggest and most surprising worldwide pop hits.  And the singer of that song of course has continued with a number of most worthy pop and EDM records that spiral out of that journey with her now highly recognizable voice and style.  “Under The Grave” is most reminiscent of Pink from Rozes’ other songs, a song about disillusionment with a relationship to the point that you’re numb.  It’s a winning performance right up to the last note that has the makings of a pop radio hit, following Rozes’ earlier EP Burn Wild and a recent featured vocal for Electric Bodega in “Hangin’ On”.  When 2016 is over, pop fans will not forget about Rozes any time soon!  Listen to “Under The Grave” at the above link.