If you love arpeggios and high end as much as I do, then you will be swooning over “Care For Me”, a Canada-meets-Sweden collaboration of Julian Dzeko & Luis Torres and the red hot Hellberg! It’s progressive house at its best, taking lots of cues from popular emotional EDM over the years by the likes of Hardwell, Swedish House Mafia and Avicii. The affecting vocals and gentle melody get spiked up by a chorus and hook in a post-relationship song that just won’t let go of you. “Care For Me” is a major contender out of the gate – the BILLCS Top 30 awaits! – and you can download it for free using the Soundcloud link above.
ELEPHANTE featuring TROUZE and DAMON SHARPE, “Age Of Innocence” (free download)
L.A.-based producer/DJ Elephante (aka Tim Wu) is on a real roll as of late with remixes of Mako’s “Smoke-Filled Room” and Nathan Sykes’ “Over And Over Again” leading the way. This time he pairs up with fellow L.A. producers Trouze (a duo) and Damon Sharpe (you know him best from Jennifer Lopez’s “Love Don’t Cost A Thing”, among many others!!) to make a huge-sounding song with immense positive appeal, “Age Of Innocence”. It’s songs like these that get us through our darkest personal or societal moments, and I suppose the best comparison might be to either Zedd’s “Clarity” or “Find You”, equally feel-good songs into which you can just lose yourself. “Age Of Innocence” (also in a spiffy Hellberg remix below) is riveting progressive house that you’ll want to hear again and again. Good thing that – it’s a free download at the above link! Enjoy!!
This week’s new chart sees one of my most favourite songs of 2015 yielding to another. Either way, both songs have a lock on the Top 2. And strangely enough many songs stay still – probably because I can’t get enough of them, as well as the songs above them on the chart, which also explains why there is so much activity in the Top 10. There are no bad songs ever on this chart. Even if a song lands on the chart for one appearance at #30, I still enjoy will enjoy it evermore 🙂 So on to the new chart…
The Top 10
Years & Years score their second #1 with the brilliant “Shine” from the album that is currently stuck in my head, Communion. Their September 14 Toronto show cannot come soon enough, I’m itching to hear all of what they have to offer in concert. Watch the excellent video above.
Brandyn Burnette’s EP Made of Dreams is coming soon, but “I Wanna Be (Free)” is one of my most played songs right now, and has left #1 after 4 appearances (8 weeks). It is really in an ongoing battle with “Shine” for the top.
“Guilty As Sin” by Dan Talevski has a lot of immediate competition to face below, but still hangs on to #3 for another chart. I write about Dan’s new song “My Religion” the other day and the intriguing and sexy video has also landed at the top of the Music page at http://www.much.com.
In just about any other year, the very hot “Kiss Me Quick” by Nathan Sykes would be at the top of my chart, but currently advances 6-4.
Also new to the Top 5, but no surprise, is “Show Me The Way” by Penguin Prison from the sophomore album Lost In New York. The last time PP was in the Top 5 was three years ago as featured in RAC’s “Hollywood”.
Francesco Yates’ debut EP, featuring production and co-writes with Pharrell Williams, is due September 11, also featuring new Canadian single “Call” and another new song “Honey I’m Home” (also below – you can get it instantly when ordering the EP on iTunes). In the meantime, the well-served “Better To Be Loved” climbs 9-6, and Francesco also features in another song on the chart.
“Take Out Of Me” is a soulful slice of energetic R&B Britpop by Martin Luke Brown, and it moves up 11-8.
The fastest riser on the chart is the propulsive club-banging Tiesto remix of “Let You Go” by NYC’s The Chainsmokers, featuring fellow NYCers Great Good Fine OK, vaulting 22-9. The Chainsmokers have launched a new tour which will hit Toronto on November 7, featuring many special guests. Great Good Fine OK also debuts on this chart with one of their own songs!
The last new Top 10 entry belongs to L.A.-based producer Mi Disguise with his unique east side/west side story for dance clubs, “East Side Bay”, up 12-10.
Movin’ On Up
Slinking up the chart is “Uma Thurman” by Fall Out Boy (14-11), which is definitely a grower that will stick with you, and that riff from “The Munsters” TV show is a hoot.
Despite a lot of the songs in holding below, “Walking Through The Fire” by Cobi Mike climbs a notch up to #12, while his fellow former members of Gentlemen Hall also debut with their new band name.
It’s only a very temporary thing when you see the songs by Eric Saade, Janet, Trevor Guthrie, Molly Moore, and J-Mi & Midi-D all holding steady, but it’s also a very good thing! We’ll see who continues to advance in two weeks.
Meanwhile, NERVO’s “The Other Boys” gets stuck as well, moving up 23-20, so look for their guest-filled collaboration – with Kylie Minogue, Scissor Sisters’ Jake Shears, and Nile Rodgers – to get un-stuck in two weeks.
Both Robin Schulz & Francesco Yates’ “Sugar” and Disclosure & Sam Smith’s “Omen” advance four positions to #23 and #24 – seems like a small start, but watch the chart in two weeks to see what might happen!
Debuts
Watch for great things from these debuts in the coming weeks!
I’m not quite sure why Island Records hasn’t dove into this song as a single release, so perhaps it’s a matter of time. But “Pain Told Love” is the emotional centrepiece and standout on Tribe Society’s debut EP Lucid Dreams, and has Kiesza no less on featured vocal. The rest of the former Gentlemen Hall have a winner here and it bows at #25. As the song’s lyrics sink in, expect to find yourself reaching for a tissue every now and then!
Arriving at #26 is “Something To Believe In” by Great Good Fine OK from their EP 2M2H (‘too much to handle’ – also a song on the EP). The song also features the Brooklyn-based (but South Africa born) electronica performer St. Lucia (who is also due for a new record of his own!). It’s a fine blend of voices and style, the key song on the EP.
The last debut marks the third appearance on the chart for the actress, and also singer, Jane Badler. The original version is from last year’s album Opus (also featuring “Losing You”), but producer/DJ Eel Eye has sparkled up “Dead Eyes” with some early 90’s dance club flavour, which enhances the sinewy, mysterious lyric of the song. “Dead Eyes” premieres at #28.
The Full Chart
Listen to the songs or watch the videos using the links on the pictures on the pretty and detailed web edition of my chart. Go on, have a look and listen/watch 🙂
You can hear me online onhttp://www.planetradio.ca every Monday at 10:00 pm EST counting down a Toronto Top 10 chart from yesteryear!
Italian producer/DJ by-way-of-the-U.S. Antonio Giacca landed on my chart earlier this year with the pop/dancetastic “Ignited”, which peaked at #6. The prolific Antonio has certainly grabbed my attention with “Sensation”, which is essentially an instrumental with some soulful vocals which almost sound like they were from the 80’s Loleatta Holloway heyday. It’s a unique, standout highly percussive-sounding track that’s accompanied by a real odd duck of a video that you’ll need to watch about three times before it makes sense, if that at all is the intention. It reminds me in some ways of Martin Scorcese’s 80’s movie “After Hours” (one of my faves). But I digress! Regardless, dance club DJ’s will revel in this one and definitely anyone who’s interested in a truly modern sounding progressive house track will have a blast with it. “Sensation” is available to buy on iTunes.
DAVID HOPPERMAN & XANTRA featuring DATABOY, “Spiral”
If there’s any surprise shocker heading out of left field and straight onto the dance floor, it’s this mashup from Austin’s more-than-just-clever duo Adam and Cameron aka DATABOY. Yup, Miley Cyrus meets Lana Del Rey – and it evolves into an emotional end-of-summer anthem in what actually features one of the guys’ finest vocals. You get it all in afree download right here. And – we get to seem them throughout the entire video, at last! But, in total adoration of last year’s Dreams Are Gold album, I know that DATABOY has some fine, fine music coming which will build another project. And I want to see a club show one of these days again (2011 is getting long ago!). The duo also recently collaborated and provided gorgeous vocals on some splash progressive house by France’s David Hopperman and Xantra called “Spiral” (below), which has been making the rounds in dance clubs, deservedly so.
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