Matthew Koma – Page 6 – BILLCSMUSIC BLOG

BILLCS Top 30 #390, October 22/12

This edition of my personal chart is top heavy with activity, which means only two debuts and a number of songs which will exit the chart in two weeks (including DATABOY’s magnificent #1 “Dreams Are Gold” (#10), which is at its maximum 10 appearances – 20 weeks).

“Spectrum” by Zedd featuring Matthew Koma slides comfortably into #1 as the German producer continues his tour (stopping here in Toronto on November 2) to promote his new album Clarity. But the song will be battling it out in two weeks with the insanely catchy “Music Makes Me Lose Control” by Portugal’s Carlos Nóbrega, which has been itching to bust a move up the chart these past few weeks, and finally does so, vaulting 6 to 2. This leaves “Remember When (Push Rewind)” by Chris Wallace at #3, “Go For Gold” by Kyle Patrick at #4, and the Green Children remix of “Houdini” by Foster The People at #5.

And there’s no shortage of movement in the rest of the Top 10. “Long Time” by Sweden’s John De Sohn featuring Andreas Moe climbs to #6, “Anything Could Happen” by Ellie Goulding (below) jumps 10-7 despite getting lost in the extended success of “Lights”, and “Feel It” by Bright Light Bright Light featuring Mikal Kilgore is the only new addition to the Top 10 at #9.

You can view the full chart using the link under ***BILL’S PERSONAL CHART*** to the right, or you can click right here. You can hear all of the songs on the chart or watch their videos by clicking on the pics on the chart page. Any free downloads that are identified are sanctioned by the performer. There’s always a tiny place at the bottom of the blog post with tags and the statement “Leave A Comment” – please feel free to do so

There’s a bit of a log jam just outside of the Top 10, with “Unheard” by Jeronimo bumped up to #11, and Bim’s “Lights Out” rising to #12. But then we have the fastest riser, “Don’t You Worry Child” by Swedish House Mafia featuring John Martin soaring 24-14 and bound to be a contender for #1 in the coming weeks. Jane Badler’s sensational drama of “Yesterday’s Tomorrows” moves to #15, “Evolved” by Vague-à-bonde (below) climbs to #16 – the lady herself is opening for Diamond Rings in Minneapolis soon – with “It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons and “Between The Raindrops” by Lifehouse featuring Natasha Bedingfield right behind. Lifehouse announced the title of its new album this week, which is called Almeria.

Last week’s debuts make bountiful moves. “Your Body” by Christina Aguilera zips up to #19, with Mika’s “Popular Song” immediately after, and Matt & Kim’s rollicking “Let’s Go” (official lyrics video below) bounding 30-22.

The two debuts this week are guaranteed to make your feet move. The renown BT has teamed up with young Russian DJ/producer Arty and the always marvelous Nadia Ali for “Must Be The Love” at #24. It’s a dandy hybrid of trance and house made even more conspicuous by Nadia’s signature voice, and resonates in the original 12″ version at the top of this page. Both BT and Nadia Ali are no strangers to my chart. Here are their respective chart histories:

Simply Being Loved (Somnambulist), #1, 2003

Superfabulous (featuring Rose McGowan), #1, 2003

The Force Of Gravity (featuring JC Chasez), #3, 2003

Love Comes Again (with Tiesto), #5, 2004

Break My Fall (with Tiesto), #6, 2007

Suddenly (with Christian Burns), #6, 2010

The Emergency, #17, 2011

Nadia Ali and iio

Rapture (Tastes So Sweet) (iio), #3, 2002

At The End (iio), #2, 2003

Smooth (iio), #5, 2003

Is It Love (iio), #21, 2005

Love Story, #3, 2009

Believe It (with Spencer & Hill), #12, 2012

The remaining debut is “Good Girlfriend” by Danish producer/DJ Kid Massive featuring the one and only DATABOY at #25. This song takes a little time to catch on and will finally be available digitally in the coming two weeks. All kids of remixes abound with Alex Van Alff’s currently available as a free download. Do check out the video at the top of the blog. Not only does the song flow really well with the story, you get to see DATABOY’s Cameron and Adam performing (and you can match up the voices to the guys now ;).

Autumn Popervescence #1 featuring Girls Aloud, Rogue, Matthew Koma, Pip, Gentlemen Hall, Lawson, Alphabeat, Tao Hypah, and Ruby Rose

GIRLS ALOUD, “Something New”

It’s interesting that after the solo success of Cheryl Cole and the critical acclaim received by Nicola Roberts for her record that the English-Irish five have reunited for their 10^th anniversary, with a new hits compilation called Ten on deck. But perhaps with some improvements to their vocals over the years along with some contemporary creativity, now is the time to reinvent Girls Aloud. And they’ve done just that with “Something New”, a plush-sounding house-influenced song (also, by the way, a charity single for Children In Need) that is pretty much irresistible, this coming from someone who has been hard to convince that these gals were more than just Spice Girls-lite. “Something New” puts all of those thoughts aside and North American attention should be more than forthcoming this time around. Kudos to the gals and their team for going big, hard and international this time!

ROGUE, “Girls Anthem”

You take a look at Girls Aloud nouvelles and then see another UK foursome called Rogue knocking on the same door, and you wonder what Rogue might sound like in 10 years. “Girls Anthem” is a great start because it comes on huge from the get-go, both with sound, vocals, and personality. And that’s pretty critical when this gal-pop sound can sound so similar from group to group. Watch below and be convinced.

MATTHEW KOMA, “Parachute”

In the guy-pop department, New York’s Matthew Koma has it made in spades. Outside of a number of Swedish male vocalists, Matthew is the go-to-guy for a captivating featured vocal on electronic dance songs like Zedd’s massive “Spectrum”, Fedde LeGrand’s “Sparks”, and Alesso’s “Years”. But that’s not enough, because aside from these rich productions, the music of Matthew Koma is rooted in pop, and “Parachute” is Major Pop 2012, a fantastic Fall love song that should be all over radio in the coming months. You can also get another delight as a free download from Matthew’s website called “Neon Red” when you subscribe to his mailing list. This is one singer headed for superstardom.

PIP, “Who Cares”

I’m quite convinced that while the TV show “The Voice” is a great showcase for new voices, too many singers get sabotaged by song choices that don’t focus on their real vocal appeal. I’m interested to see how this affects this season’s crew, but last year fine singers like Brian Fuente, Jamar Rogers, and Pip among others did not go perhaps as far as they should have. Pip (aka 20 year old Phillip Andrew Arnold from Georgia), he of the trademark white suspenders, bowtie, and sneakers, arrives with a soulful and punchy song with a smart lyrical video called “Who Cares”. It’s a real ear-opener for those who enjoyed his performances on “The Voice”, and perhaps the untied bowtie is a sign of some great and unexpected flavour to come.

LAWSON, “Standing In The Dark”

In these days of global accessibility to music, I just don’t understand the barriers with releasing music, at least in the western part of the hemisphere. So this week we see the long-awaited UK release of the album Chapman Square by UK quartet Lawson, who have already had significant success in the UK with “When She Was Mine” and “Taking Over Me”. But despite opening for The Wanted on some US dates earlier this year, Chapman Square does not appear slated for North American release. And while the band deserves high UK chart debuts, they don’t deserve the quick vanishing acts from the charts that might characterize them with an overly loyal fanbase like other UK acts such as McFly and Busted. “Standing In The Dark” is another refreshing slice of pop that shows that Lawson is a tight unit with a great way with words, and whose music has broad appeal, more like Graffiti6 or Lifehouse for example. Watch the video below.

GENTLEMEN HALL, “Golden Age”

Since catching Gentlemen Hall in concert earlier this year, they have become one of my most-played bands with their diverse harmonies, thoughtful lyrics, and astute musicianship. “Golden Age”, now available to hear on Soundcloud, joins “Makes Me Feel Alive” in whetting your appetite for the Boston sextet’s next release. This one has progressive rock trappings mixed with electronic pop, with lots of room for a flute solo/breakdown midway – a kind of out-of-nowhere mix of styles that truly draws you in and keeps you listening. Listen below and keep your eyes on their Soundcloud page for more new songs. This song will be large and in charge in live performance.

ALPHABEAT, “Love Sea”

Danish electronic collective Alphabeat have been finding many fans since 2007, but to me their music seems to be coming into its own at last with the release of “Love Sea”, from their forthcoming third album Express Non-Stop. It’s a precious blast of happy pop to brighten up your Autumn, boosted by an entertaining travelogue of a video featuring many of my favourite places that I’ve visited over the years. “Love Sea” is also available for free download in various remixes by the likes of FrankMusik, Android Orchestra (a sunny “tropical” mix), and Sound Of Arrows, who tackle the songs in some quite unanticipated interpretations. Overall this is splendid pop deserving of international success.

TAO HYPAH, “Play The Girl”

Raj at EQMusic Blog has unmistakeable great taste in music and has been touting Amsterdam-based singer Tao Hypah for some time now. After appearing on the essential This Beat Is…Poptronik Volume One compilation earlier this year with “Celeb” (which got to #3 on my chart), Tao Hypah is back with the highly provocative “Play The Girl”. And it’s not just the gender-bending lyrics which will grab your attention. The well-directed video below with all of its colours, style and choreography, along with the melody which has a positively massive hook, leave “Play The Girl” embedded in your head so that multiple viewings and listens are required. In some ways it reminds me of Kyle Brylin’s equally suggestive “Everything I’m Missing” from last year – no matter what your personal preferences, you can’t help but listen and watch. This is a great showcase for the talented Tao Hypah – can’t wait for more!

RUBY ROSE featuring GARY GO, “Guilty Pleasure” (Young Skeeter remix)

Australian VJ, model and singer Ruby Rose is in the process of recording her debut album, and our introduction to it is “Guilty Pleasure”, featuring versatile UK singer Gary Go, he of 2009’s gorgeous “Wonderful” and last year’s Grammy-winning Benny Benassi collabo “Cinema”. Their voices create a lovely bit of vocal foreplay here before the song bursts wide open into spun-out dancefloor bliss. Listen below and play loud.

BILLCS Top 30 #389 – October 8/12

While the rest of my personal chart is stunted with pent-up activity from songs on the rise, the songs at the top of the chart pretty much stay intact. So that means we have the very talented Chris Wallace gracing #1 for a fourth time with “Remember When (Push Rewind)”, and you can watch for another song from the Push Rewind album to debut in these parts in two weeks.

Zedd has been on Lady GaGa’s lips a lot lately, if you happened to miss the “High Princess/Stache” mashup on the weekend (it’s below). So featuring Matthew Koma’s dulcet boyish tones, the German producer claims #2 with “Spectrum”, which looks to succeed “Remember When” at the top.

“Go For Gold” holds steady at #3 for Kyle Patrick, while “Dreams Are Gold” by DATABOY (#4) continues to hang in the Top 5 – where it has been for all of its appearances but one (it debuted at #8) – while the loveable “Genius” continues to rise at #8. “Houdini” by Foster The People holds tight at #5 with the free download of the Green Children remix, which is just cause for lots of random dancing.

There’s a long stretch of songs on hold or rising between #5 and #15, so I’ll touch on the bigger moves. “Music Makes You Lose Control” by Carlos Nóbrega (below) moves 8-6, hovering just below the Top 5 in anticipation of a bigger move in two weeks – can it get to #1? I have been saying it since I first heard it – Hallowe’en dance parties, this is YOUR song!

Vaulting 12-7 is the emotional Swedish dance music that is currently so appealing by way of “Long Time” by John De Sohn featuring Andreas Moe. Another dance floor filler is Markus Riva’s “We Dance 4 Reason”, holding at #9. And then Ellie Goulding’s “Anything Can Happen” arrives at #10 just as her Halcyon album hits stores tomorrow in North America. Let’s get those remixes onto iTunes as well, shall we?

The fastest riser of the lot is “Feel It” by Bright Light Bright Light featuring Mykal Kilgore, which soars 18-11. Bright Light Bright Light has scored opening UK concert dates for Scissor Sisters, which I hope will translate into a second go round for the Sisters in North America. Their “Let’s Have A Kiki” is still on the pulse of dance clubs right now, and BLx2’s own mashup of it and “Feel It” (“Let’s Have A Feel”) continues to put a smile on my face, prompting me to want to lock the door and lower the blinds… Listen below.

While we do not have a video for Colin Munroe’s triumphant “Over It” (up 17-13), we do have one for previous Top 5 single “The Fight Of My Life” from his mixtape Unsung Hero, so give it a view below. There’s some intriguing imagery completely befitting of the song. Well done!

That smashing duo from the UK, Bim, currently has “Lights Out” climbing the chart, moving 19-14, but in preparation for their stunning Lifelines EP (now on pre-order on iTunes – you can read my initial thoughts on it right here), the pair have a new video on deck below for next single “Burn”, which remembers those fond days when we as children could be superheroes for just one day. There’s some pretty impressive graphic artistry, see the poster below as well.

“Yesterday’s Tomorrows” by Jane Badler climbs 21-17, but that captivating Stormby’s Drama mix of the song is now also featured on the compilation Kiss My Lipstick Off, now available on iTunes and featuring other fine folks like Liz Primo, Spray, and Nathalie Archangel. Last week’s debuts all get stuck together temporarily at songs #20-22, waiting for a gap in the chart to occur (likely in two weeks), so be sure to check out indie release “Evolved” by Vague-a-bonde (watch for the video soon but in the meantime listen to the song below), Imagine Dragons’ “It’s Time”, and “Between The Raindrops” by Lifehouse featuring Natasha Bedingfield (video also due soon).

You can watch the video for the lead debut on the chart (#24) at the top of this post. While I’ve enjoyed the music of Axwell, Sebastian Ingrosso and Steve Angello over the years in solo and various other projects, their Swedish House Mafia project never really got on my radar till this year. And apparently their album Until Now and sell out tour represent an end to the project. I never believe ‘never’ in the music business, but in the meantime we can all enjoy “Don’t You Worry Child”, once again featuring outstanding urgent and emotional vocals by another of Sweden’s go-to-guys, John Martin.

I’ve long appreciated the powerful and soulful voice of Christina Aguilera, though her songs have not always been consistent and therefore haven’t appeared in this chart until more recently. But every time a song has charted (this is the 7th time), it has reached my Top 10. We’ll see if that happens with the outrageous but fun “Your Body”, which bows at #25 with the accompanying entertaining video. It’s from her upcoming 5th studio set (excluding Latin, Christmas, and Best Of compilation) called Lotus.

I recently wrote about Mika’s The Origin Of Love album, which is a diverse collection that may take a few listens to grow on you. One aspect of the record that is very appealing is how it lets loose on a couple of the songs. So two songs debut on this chart, the quirky “Wicked” inspired “Popular Song” at #26, and then his duet with Pharrell Williams (himself no stranger to the chart, having appeared with Snoop Dogg on “Beautiful” and Robin Thicke on “Wanna Love U Girl”, as well as with his trio N.E.R.D. on the #1 “Rock Star” and “Hypnotize U”) on “Celebrate” at #29. These songs mark Mika’s 7th and 8th appearances, with his most successful being in 2009-10 when “Rain” got to #1 and “Blame It On The Girls” and “We Are Golden” reached #2 and #3 respectively. Watch the joyous video for “Celebrate” below.

And at #30 is “Let’s Go” by Matt & Kim, the lead single from their fourth album Lightning, which hit stores last week. I caught them in concert last week and will have my thoughts about that show and their album in the coming week. The duo have worked exceptionally hard to make all of their music accessible in various formats, and have created lyrics videos for each song on the new album. Watch the video for “Let’s Go” below – I’m sure we’ll be seeing and hearing more from Matt & Kim as their tour progresses. The Brooklyn, NY duo have previously reached the Top 5 on the chart with “Daylight” and “Block After Block”.

15th Anniversary Edition: BILLCS Top 30 #388 – September 24/12

In some ways it seems like a lifetime ago, in other ways it’s like yesterday. 15 years ago this week I began posting my personal chart online on a regular basis.

As I was discovering the ‘Net through our dial-up connection in 1996/97, I was able to find message boards and chart sites where, yes, there were actually music chart geeks like me, who created their own lists of favourites, or sometimes a list of songs that were heavily influenced by radio play of the day. I had compiled my own charts back in the 70’s, but abandoned that when I joined my university radio station, where I influenced their chart and my fellow DJ’s, and eventually became in charge of producing their chart! I continued to assist with this well past graduation and into my free-lance writing days. After that, I still produced my own lists but they weren’t charts, just a way to keep track of what I liked and what was current.

So the rabid presence of all kinds of music on the Internet has been and will continue to be a blessing for me, and I’ll keep on producing my chart as long as people are interested in reading it and chatting with me about it and its songs. I posted charts now and again throughout 1997 online, but I don’t have copies of any of those charts until January 1998 when I began saving them and documenting them, because I just knew this wasn’t going to go away, though “Turn My Head” by Live was my #1 in September 1997. So I’m 388 bi-weekly editions in (the first 8 months had a Top 10 only), and here’s what’s happening 🙂

His Push Rewind album goes several songs deeper, but “Remember When (Push Rewind)” by Chris Wallace holds at #1 for a 3rd appearance (6th week), with “Dreams Are Gold” by DATABOY not giving up second place yet. This makes it difficult when two fun and engaging songs, “Go For Gold” by Kyle Patrick, and “Spectrum” by Zedd & Matthew Koma, each advance within the Top 5. They are joined by “Houdini” by Foster the People, making it 3 for 3 for the trio following fellow Top Fivers “Pumped Up Kicks” and “Call It What You Want”. Also – Mark Foster’s tweets under @FosterThePeople are so worth following. He’s definitely got interesting opinions but also tweets about great things, including the challenge he gave to a photographer to lose weight over a number of months, with the reward being a financial amount from Mark himself. Inspiring!

You’ll notice that “Spectrum” by Florence & The Machine is now out of the Top 5 at #7 and “Timebomb” by Kylie Minogue rests at #14. But despite reaching #3 and #4 respectively, both songs will rank highly at year’s ends, possibly higher than some of my #1’s! We’ll see! Markus Riva’s “We Dance 4 Reason” climbs to a new peak at #9.

The fastest riser on the chart, for a second time, is the completely crazy and irresistible “Music Makes You Lose Control” by Carlos Nóbrega, which leaps over his own “Turn It Up” (at #11), to move 17-8. You can listen to the full song near the top of this post or below on Soundcloud. Once “MMYLC” grabs you, it doesn’t let go, so you can find it on iTunes – and right now I’m waiting for remixes! Carlos is just finishing off his album, and you’ll know more about that from me as it happens. Joining “MMYLC” in the Top 10 for the first time is the irrepressible “Genius” by DATABOY at #10. That song can also be found on the duo’s Dreams Are Gold album.

Lots of great new songs continue to move up. A massive hit in Sweden, “Long Time” by John De Sohn & Andreas Moe climbs to #12. Andreas also recorded an acoustic version on his Collecting Sunlight EP which I wrote about a while back. “Anything Could Happen” by Ellie Goulding is whetting fans’ appetites while she’s on tour in anticipation of the Halcyon album, and rises to #13. Jeronimo’s “Unheard” isn’t released as a single anywhere, but it’s my next favourite song to the title track of his album One Kiss and jumps to #15. “Unheard” is just one of those singalongs where the lyrics just find their way easily into your mouth. Jeronimo is starring in a new movie called “My Dad’s A Detective – The Battle”, and a video for his beautiful ballad “Firefly” includes snippets of scenes from that movie. I’m not sure if we’ll see this movie in North America, but our young Netherlander is obviously a double threat! Watch the video below.

Songs 16 through 21 keep the chart looking busy – as they should because every song on this chart is a winner regardless of where it peaks. The offbeat melodies and lyrics of songs on Saint Motel’s Voyeur album are really appealing to me, and the clarinet-sample-led “Benny Goodman” is at #16. “Over It” by Colin Munroe looks to follow “The Fight Of My Life” into the Top 10 and rises to #17. “Feel It” is the latest single by Bright Light Bright Light, featuring Mykal Kilgore, and soars to #18. Of course, Rod Thomas (aka BLx2) has double-whammied us once again with a new video for the song, and a mashup for free download called “Let’s Have A Feel”, which has great fun in setting Scissor Sisters’ #1 club hit “Let’s Have A Kiki” to the music of “Feel It”. Watch the video and listen to the mashup below.

UK duo Bim are busy working on an album, and you’ll find out more when you go to their website and download “Lights Out”, which resides at #19. Despite the blond look on the cover of his EP We Should, Kyle Brylin has returned to short brown hair for a new single, the piano ballad “Ain’t The Same” (which you can hear below and download for free from Soundcloud right here). In the meantime, the chart sticks to the electro-house of the poignant “Hurricane”, which climbs to #20. There’s always a place for a theatrical sound on my chart from time to time, and “Yesterday’s Tomorrows” by Jane Badler nails it in spades and rises to #21.

Rounding out the chart are three debuts. I wrote about “Evolved” by Minnesota singer Vague-à-bonde (aka Nicole Brenny) a little while back. The combination of soft, genuine vocals and one of the best chorus hooks you’ll hear this year sends the song into the chart at an impressive #24. You can download it for free right here. It’s taken a little longer than usual for “It’s Time” by Imagine Dragons to sink in, but the opening episode of this season’s “Glee” has kept the song in my head (especially in its Penguin Prison remix, which you can get on iTunes). “It’s Time” bows at #26 (watch the video at the bottom of the post if you’re not yet familiar with it). And this past week I wrote about “Between The Raindrops”, the single from the upcoming new Lifehouse album, which features Natasha Bedingfield in a well-placed guest appearance. The song arrives at #27 and is Lifehouse’s 9th entry on the chart since debuting back at the end of 2000 with one of my all time favourite songs, “Hanging By A Moment”. Here’s the complete list:

“Hanging By A Moment”, #1, 2001
“Sick Cycle Carousel”, #20, 2001
“Everything”, #3, 2001
“Spin” #1, 2002
“You And Me”, #3, 2005
“Halfway Gone”, #3, 2010
“Had Enough” (with Chris Daughtry), “#11, 2010
“All In”, #8, 2010

BILLCS Chart #387 – September 10/12

I often refer to my bi-weekly chart as a list of my favourite songs of the moment, but it also serves as a recap of what I’ve been listening to over the last few weeks.

Suffice it to say, my last week has been filled with Chris Wallace songs from his solo album Push Rewind, which was released last Monday, and I posted my thoughts about it in the week. Lead single “Remember When (Push Rewind)” holds on to #1 on my chart quite handily, the first of what I expect will be a few appearances for Chris on the chart in the coming months. With three songs on the chart, DATABOY is hardly out of the picture, with “Dreams Are Gold” ranking #2 and the fun “Genius” rising to #13. Both “Spectrum”s on the chart now surround “Go For Gold” by Kyle Patrick, which rises to #4. Florence & The Machine stay at #3 with the Calvin Harris remix, and Zedd & Matthew Koma soar to #5 (the video is below if you’ve missed it). Who will succeed Chris Wallace at #1. Frankly, I just don’t know yet!

Also climbing within the Top 10 is Bright Light Bright Light with “Moves” from Make Me Believe In Hope at #6 – though it’s not the second single from the album (more on that below). Right below is “Houdini” in a free download Green Children remix by Foster The People. New to the Top 10 are Baiyu’s “Hunter” at #9 and “We Dance 4 Reason” from Markus Riva at #10. Baiyu may get a wild card spot on “The Next” TV show in coming episodes due to her strong performance in the New York City round. Markus has another single up his sleeve, with a video being shot soon for “Chase”. The video for “Reason” is below.

Portugal’s Carlos Nóbrega is close to descending on the Top 10 with two songs, “Turn It Up”, which rises to #11, and the big, bouncy anthem “Music Makes Me Lose Control”, which is the fastest riser, vaulting 23-17. The trance-oriented “Long Time” by Sweden’s John De Sohn featuring Andreas Moe on vocals moves up to #14 (strange but eye-catching video below), Ellie Goulding’s infectious single “Anything Could Happen” from her upcoming Halcyon album rises to 16, “Benny Goodman” by Saint Motel is up to #19, “Lights Out” by UK duo Bim jumps to #22 as a free download, and “Hurricane” by Kyle Brylin is at #25.

Three familiar faces comprise 3/4 of our debuts. My next favourite song from young Netherlands singer Jeronimo’s album One Kiss after the title track is the jaunty “Unheard” (listen below), which bows at #20 as “One Kiss” spends its last appearance on the chart after a maximum of 10 (20 weeks). Then, Toronto’s Colin Munroe unleashed his latest mixtape Unsung Hero mid-last week, and I’ll have some detailed words on that in the week. In the meantime, his free download of the empowering “Over It”, which I wrote about last week, arrives at #23. The second official single from Bright Light Bright Light’s Make Me Believe In Hope is in fact the tailored-for-clubs “Feel It”, featuring Mykal Kilgore in a shimmering remix below, at #26. The last debut, if you didn’t guess it from yesterday’s blog post, is “Yesterday’s Tomorrows” by Jane Badler at #28.

BILLCS Chart #386 – August 27/12 – Be Kind, Push Rewind!

The top of my personal chart is tighter than ever, as DATABOY’s “Dreams Are Gold” gives way ever so slightly to “Remember When (Push Rewind)” by Indiana-born Chris Wallace, which advances to #1 just before the release date of his album Push Rewind (album cover art above, reprise of the video below). There’s a lot of the Top 10 that stays the same – with good reason, the songs on this chart are especially strong – but in the midst there is some notable movement.

Kyle Patrick has been to Singapore, the Philippines, and Malaysia these past few weeks. The house that The Click Five built over there is significant, and Kyle’s “Go For Gold” is making great strides on their charts. From his self-titled EP, “Gold” is definitely winning, and climbs to #6 on the chart. Down further there are two new entries to the Top 10. The spry Green Children remix of Foster The People’s “Houdini” works its magic at #9, while fastest riser “Spectrum” by Zedd featuring Matthew Koma is headed for the upper reaches, advancing 21-10.

Mark Thursday, August 30 on your calendar to watch the New York episode of The CW network’s new show “The Next”. The supremely talented Baiyu is one of four contestants – and her competition had better be on their game! Best of luck to Baiyu 🙂 Her song “Hunter” climbs to #11 on my chart. Her coach on the show is none other than Nelly.

Several other upwardly mobile songs continue towards the Top 10. “We Dance 4 Reason” by Latvian dancer, model, DJ/producer, and singer, Poptronik performer Markus Riva vaults 20-14, followed directly by the long-lasting “When She Was Mine” by Lawson at #15. Watch their video for the UK Top 5 hit “Taking Over Me” below. The third chart entry for DATABOY, the splendiforous “Genius”, jumps to #16, with “Long Time” by Sweden’s John De Sohn and singer/songwriter Andreas Moe (also still residing at #7 with “Collecting Sunlight” himself) rising to #17. The feel good vibe of L.A.’s Saint Motel continues at #22 with the swinging “Benny Goodman”, while “Emergency” by Audio Playground with Snoop Dogg is up to #24.

All of our new entries are by performers who have already visited the chart, some more recently than others. We’ll start with a couple of doubles, please. The highest new entry at #20 is the instantaneously ear-pleasing pop of Ellie Goulding with her first single from the upcoming Halcyon album (artwork above) with “Anything Could Happen”. While “Lights” took its sweet time getting to the upper reaches of the international charts, the response to “Anything” should be swifter. Ellie’s free download cover of The Weeknd’s “High For This” continues to climb at #19. Then we have the good natured dance floor fun brought to us by Portugal’s Carlos Nóbrega, whose latest song “Music Makes You Lose Control” (#23) will be sure to inspire much dancing at those upcoming Hallowe’en parties. The anthemic “Turn It Up” is lifted to #12 as well.

After “Scream” from this past Spring, one could see that UK duo Bim are headed in the right direction as they create songs for their upcoming sophomore album. Their latest single, “Lights Out” (video reprise below), is a free download that combines the emotion of the songs from Scatterheart and some wickedly powerful vocals to create a song that is completely captivating and arrives at #27. Their “Head Over Heels” got to #3 on my chart in 2010. Lastly Kyle Brylin is back with some slick electronica featuring catchy melodies and hooks like we heard last year in “Everything I’m Missing” (#5) and “Never Love A DJ” (#8). From his latest 4 song EP comes the emotional house track “Hurricane” at #28. So that makes Kyle (Patrick), Kyle (Brylin), and Kylie on the chart – a nice triple play 🙂

AND DON’T FORGET: A year in the making, the Poptronik festival in Sitges, Spain will be a dream come true for electronica fans on September 1 and 2. Needless to say I’m jealous of all those who can party on the beach to some great performers, including Andy Bell of Erasure, Markus Riva, Adam Tyler, SIRPAUL, Garcon Garcon, and many more. Best of luck to all involved!

REEEE-CAP… and a Dance Popervescence Mix for You!

Zedd featuring Matthew Koma “Spectrum”

One of my current songs of the moment is Zedd’s irresistible “Spectrum”. A truly captivating, feel good (despite the end) video, featuring “Sons of Anarchy”‘s Taryn Manning, makes it one of the best views and listens around. Look fast for both Zedd and Matthew!

Kyle Brylin “Hurricane”

Our Kyle keeps the electronica comin’ on his new 4 song EP We Should, which features this rich emotional house song, which keeps you thinking while you get your work out. This is Kyle’s most promising original effort since last year’s similarly clubby “Never Love A DJ”. Other songs include the biting title track, “Making Memories”, and “Inferno”. Do blonds have more fun? Get it on iTunes.

Kid Massive featuring DATABOY “Good Girlfriend”

We all know what happened when fave duo DATABOY went Danish and met up with DJ/producer Rune RK – we got the mesmerizing “Memorize Me”. Fellow Dane DJ/producer Kid Massive (aka Benjamin Pedersen) brings the boys into the mix for his upcoming release with the new single “Good Girlfriend”, which is a rollicking and slamming good time, and we would expect absolutely nothing less.

Marco “Heartbeat”

18 year old Marco Santarlasci is the latest young buck from NYC to cause young hearts to flutter with his earnest and soulful debut single “Heartbeat”. He’s got a lovely imperfectly charming voice that carries the genteel video storyboard along. Watch for great things from Marco – put him about halfway between Conor Maynard and Jesse McCartney.

Ross Lynch “Heard It On The Radio”

I don’t normally slide over to the Disney side of the fence to write about one of their performers too often, but 16 year old Ross Lynch (Austin on TV’s “Austin & Ally”) has a natural screen presence, and seems to have the musical chops as well, playing guitar, drums, bass and keyboards. So his debut single “Heard It On The Radio” is a breezy and joyous summer day on the beach whose chorus stays in your head afterwards. He’s also in the band R5, featuring his brother Ryder, who is one of the Warblers on TV’s “Glee”.

And here’s a new dance mix for you, featuring excerpts of 18 songs in 39 minutes. This is what you’re getting into 😉 : The Zedd/Matthew Koma and Kyle Brylin songs above, plus others (many on my current chart – shameless plug) by RAC/Penguin Prison, Baiyu, Foster The People, Florence & The Machine, The Knocks/Mandy Lee, Bright Light Bright Light, Darren Hayes, Lana Del Rey, Markus Riva, John De Sohn/Andreas Moe, Nina, DATABOY, Ellie Goulding, Bim, Sky Santos/Carlos Nóbrega, and The Weeknd. Guaranteed to make you move in all kinds of different ways! Let me know what you think – I’m particularly proud of a couple of the mixes, since I haven’t done this in a while 🙂

BILLCS Chart #385 – August 13, 2012 – Might Be My Favourite Top 4 of ’12!

Here’s the list of my current Top 30 favourites, published bi-weekly in these pages, but currently subject to a bit of technical difficulty as I move to new software for formatting purposes. EDIT: The prettier web version of the chart is available by clicking right here 🙂

01 01 DREAMS ARE GOLD DATABOY
02 02 REMEMBER WHEN (PUSH REWIND) Chris Wallace
07 03 SPECTRUM (Calvin Harris remix) Florence & The Machine
04 04 TIME BOMB Kylie Minogue
06 05 HOLLYWOOD RAC F/ Penguin Prison
08 06 LOTION DATABOY
09 07 COLLECTING SUNLIGHT Andreas Moe
11 08 MOVES Bright Light Bright Light
14 09 GO FOR GOLD Kyle Patrick
03 10 ONE KISS Jeronimo
12 11 ANGEL Darren Hayes
05 12 SECRET FEAR Daniel Bedingfield
15 13 HUNTER Baiyu
19 14 TURN IT UP Carlos Nóbrega
23 15 HOUDINI (Green Children remix) Foster The People
16 16 CHASING THE SUN The Wanted
17 17 TURN UP YOUR RADIO Monti Montañez
10 18 ALL OUR LOVE Gentlemen Hall
20 19 WHEN SHE WAS MINE Lawson
24 20 WE DANCE 4 REASON Markus Riva F/ Ralph (PER)
New 21 SPECTRUM Zedd F/ Matthew Koma
26 22 HIGH FOR THIS Ellie Goulding
New 23 GENIUS DATABOY
New 24 LONG TIME John De Sohn F/ Andreas Moe
New 25 BENNY GOODMAN Saint Motel
28 26 EMERGENCY Audio Playground F/ Snoop Dogg
13 27 THESE ARE CENTURIES River Tiber
18 28 WAITING FOR THE FEELING Bright Light Bright Light
21 29 NOTICE ME Vincent Did It F/ Quigley
25 30 CELEB Tao Hypah

My current Top 4 songs are going to be hard to dislodge. This could in fact be my favourite Top 4 of ’12, and only a few other songs released earlier in the year – including Rune RK & DATABOY’S “Memorize Me”, Eric Saade & Dev’s “Hotter Than Fire”, and “Someday” by River Tiber – would be in the mix with them! What’s going to be interesting is to see who gets a turn at #1, which could happen as early as two weeks from now! Stay tuned 🙂 PS Chris Wallace’s debut album Push Rewind will be out September 4 as “Remember When” starts to crack radio airplay!!

Fleshing out the Top 10 are some joyous tunes by RAC & Penguin Prison, DATABOY (making it two out of three), former #1 Jeronimo, and Andreas “he’s everywhere (including elsewhere on the chart)” Moe, with new Top Tenners not surprisingly from Bright Light Bright Light (currently kicking it in France – so jealous!) and Kyle Patrick (coping with massive Singapore love).

Special mentions outside of the Top 10 must go to Baiyu, with the title song of her Hunter mixtape resting at #13, as she appears on The CW Network’s new show “The Next” starting Thursday. Best of luck, love 😀 Then there’s the ever-so-busy Carlos Nóbrega, whose powerful dancefloor filler “Turn It Up” climbs to #14 as he releases yet another new song, “Music Makes You Lose Control”. This one is Carlos at his best, fun and dramatic at the same time! Listen to the snippet below – you won’t want to miss out on the full song, so get it on iTunes!

Foster The People’s Green Children remix of “Houdini” magically becomes the fastest riser, leaping 23-15 while singer Mark journeys through India. Also on the rise are Darren Hayes’ delightful take on Madonna’s “Angel”, “When She Was Mine” by rising UK quartet Lawson, and “We Dance 4 Reason” by Latvian star and radio DJ Markus Riva. You won’t be able to go anywhere soon without hearing Ellie Goulding’s magnificent new “Anything Could Happen”, as I wrote about on the weekend, but in the meantime her rendition of The Weeknd’s “High For This” is up to #22.

A common theme throughout 2012 has been a series of unique voices. One such young man, who, like Andreas Moe, is popping up everywhere especially in dance music circles, is Matthew Koma (ab0ve), who hails from Long Island and was once in a group called Bandcamp. One of the brightest songs of ’12 and a current Top 5 Dance Club Play hit is the second song in the chart called “Spectrum” by German DJ Zedd, featuring Matthew’s ear-catching vocals that sound like nothing this year has had to offer, as well as some dreamy lyrics (“breathing you in when I want you out…”). He’s also featured in Alesso’s latest club hit “Years”, and will be touring some upcoming dates with Owl City. You can hear both songs below plus excerpts of Matthew’s EP Parachute, available on iTunes.

The next debut is of course more from DATABOY, whose Dreams Are Gold album is the full length release that is resonating with me most throughout the year. Its emotional content, smart stories, and of course amazing beats and rhythms put smiles on my face each time I hear it. I’ve grown a bit attached to opening song “Genius” – it’s simply a fun song to listen to in the car, and it definitely throws people for a loop the first time they hear it. I humbly suggest you keep in mind the TV show The Big Bang Theory and a certain animated self-proclaimed genius when listening 🙂 But you’ll have to give it a preview on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Genius/dp/B008F9FV7U and buy it there or on iTunes!

At #24 is “Long Time” by John De Sohn, featuring Sweden’s Andreas Moe, and currently in the Billboard Top 25 of the Dance Club Play chart. I had some comments about it in a recent blog post. The full length version appears on Tiësto’s Club Life Volume 2: Miami compilation. You’ll hear a lot more from Andreas before the year is out!

Lastly at #25 is the quirky “Benny Goodman” by L.A.’s Saint Motel, currently touring their album Voyeur, which I wrote about recently. Below is a video of the band jazzing up the song and swinging along in a studio performance. They also released an equally quirky video for “1997”, which you can also check out below. The band has this neat way of making you watch… 😉