It’s Friday, and chances are you’re going clubhopping this weekend. So we’d like to help. Each week, we’ll be selecting three hot current dance jams for you — tracks to add to your weekend playlist, or to ID when you’re moving to them on a crowded dance floor. Just to make it a little easier, we’ve added YouTube embeds for each song, as well as some notes on what they mean in the larger scheme of things.
Radio Slave, “I Don’t Need a Cure For This” (Rekids)
Brighton’s Matt Edwards has made himself a dance-music MVP with a diverse catalog that includes the downtempo exotica of Quiet Village (a collaboration with Joel Martin) and the more forceful, stripped down house and techno of Radio Slave. This 10-minute-plus 12-inch is a sterling example of why: hypnotic and icy, “Cure” takes its sweet time getting where it’s going, and the vocal that pops up regularly throughout is just mush-mouthed enough to make you crane your neck, trying to figure out precisely what’s being said. (Bonus: The B-side, the children’s-chanting “N.I.N.A.,” is nearly as ace.)
DJ Koze, “Rue Burnout” (Pampa)
Hamburg’s finest DJ-producer is also one of dance music’s most experimental. But as his assured, deep house-rooted recent set at Brooklyn’s Sunday Best demonstrated, Koze doesn’t have to tweak everything till it giggles to make his mark. Granted, the perky piano line and repeated, soulful “oooh” vocal sample of “Rue Burnout” shift noticeably over its nearly 12 minutes. But Koze’s more relaxed approach lets the record gather its own momentum, and the result is like a long, cool drink of water.
James T. Cotton, “On Time (Rick Wade’s Grimetime Remix)” (Spectral Sound)
Like Matt Edwards above, Tadd Mullinix makes music under a number of pseudonyms, and James T. Cotton is his outlet for freaky acid house. So it’s nice to hear that hammering approach cut with the warm organs and filtered kick drums of Mullinix’s fellow Detroiter Rick Wade, a longtime deep-house legend who’s finally starting to get his due.
Image via icunha on Flickr