Danish label Music For Dreams have been serving up some delights this year and I've selected half a dozen from their self-described 'danceable Balearic' end of the range.
All released within the last couple of months, and a few in the past week, just in time for tomorrow's Bandcamp Friday. If you get yourself on the Music For Dreams mailing list, you may also be in time to bag a hefty discount code.
Proceedings commence with Charlotte & Reinhard aka Charlotte Caluwaerts and Reinhard Vanbergen from Rheinzand. Anthem Song is the third single from a forthcoming and as yet untitled album, rippling with synth pulses, humming voices and Charlotte's sweet lead singing, "Nobody's free...until they are".
Heaven is another blossoming partnership between label boss Kenneth Bager and York-born, Brooklyn-based singer songwriter Findlay Brown. I particularly like the funky, synthetic strings of Dub Mix, coming on like it's 1983 with Findlay's vocals condensed to the refrain, "Everything else is a lie...heaven is a state of mind." Sweet.
Subnesia aka Anders Ponsaing and Michael Rune swap Copenhagen for Ibiza with Our Fried Chad, featuring Chad Ashley's musings on "Ibeeza...what a beautiful place" enlivened with a brightly coloured musical palette. It runs to six and three quarter minutes, but feels like it's over in half that time and will have you reaching to replay.
Another relatively new duo, this time WALTHER and Linda Romanazzi with Sameyeh. The title is an Arabic word which roughly translates as pure, clear or innocent. The music itself carries some of those flavours, especially with the squalling guitar link and Linda's vocal tones, coupled with a heavy, propulsive rhythm coming in waves.
I'm assuming Walther Skytte Bager is related to Kenneth (his son?) and they've certainly worked together on previous MFD releases. I really like this one and will be looking out for the album to come.
Hess Is More (Mikkel Hess to his folks)'s album CÆKE came out in April and You Don't Dance was a sweet little three-minute dance pop song with gentle vocals. Kenneth Bager returns (well, he is the boss after all) to remix the song, transforming it into an eight minute banger, cowbells and hefty beats, acoustic snippets and the synthy flute carrying the choral vocal of "You don’t dance because you’re happy...you’re happy because you dance.” This makes me happy and it makes me dance. Mission accomplished.
Exotronic by Pepe Link arrived on Tuesday and it's a beauty. Featuring guitarist Santino Surfers aka Jonas Krag (who also features on the WALTHER and Linda Romanazzi track), Exotronic comes over like a 21st Century remake of On The Beach by Chris Rea, mashed with synths that hint at Echo Beach by Martha & The Muffins. Whichever beach this music evokes, it's a place you'd want to be. Lovely stuff.
Balearic on the day of German unity. Wow. Now we live in times in which unity and certainty are increasingly being lost. For me, Balearic is always the sound of summer, but also a sound of hope and the idea that there can be a good life for all of us, whatever that means for the individual. I've been planning to finally record a Balearic mix for years. I probably fail because of the number of good tracks. But if the mix were a national team, Music for Dreams would probably be Bayern Munich and would provide a variety of players, ähm, tracks. Greetings Alex (EAR/BTG)
ReplyDeleteThanks Alex, good to hear from you! Yeah, I went a bit crazy last Bandcamp Friday and bought tonnes of MFD releases, including a belated catch up with several Rheinzand back catalogue albums that I hadn't got around to buying. I loved the MFD/Bayern Munich comparison at the end!
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