Seven Sleeps To Go

Never one to shy away from shoehorning in a theme, however tenuous the link, here are some 2024 releases relating to sleep.

Peirons has remixed Eels' 2004 song I Need Some Sleep, mashing it with a video edit of Steve Cutts' 2017 animated short Happiness (you can see the original version here), adding some Italian rapping (presumably his own) over the top. I love it all.

There was a time when I would buy anything that had Moby's name on, whether his own albums or singles, or his remixes for everyone from The B-52's to Metallica, Aerosmith to O.M.D. That time is long past, but I do occasionally dip into his new releases.

Moby's umpteenth album, Always Centered At Night, came out in June. I referenced it in a post about lead-in single Dark Days back in March...and then it completely passed me by. 

An album of remixes - 58 of them! - has emerged this month, good value at $25 but again not on my essential purchase list. However, Prins Thomas offers up a couple of remixes of Should Sleep which I was immediately drawn to.

The 5-minute Diskomix appeared on a previous single release, but this is the first time I've heard the 9-minute Extended Mix and it's the pick of the two for me. Both feature J.P. Bimeni's vocals left pretty much intact and used to great effect. 

Several tracks from Kito Jempere aka Kirill Sergeev's Part Time Chaos Part Time Calmness have featured in previous posts and selections. The album has marked an evolution in the Russian's musical journey, moving away from the house music that established him into a much broader span of styles and genres. Sleeping With The TV On is more of a jump than a (quantum) leap, but it's an intriguing 4 minutes of samples and beats.

Branching out from Rheinzand, hubby and wife duo Charlotte & Reinhard dropped the Guardian Of Sleep EP as a prescursor to a full length album. Sensuous, sexy disco... it ticks all the boxes.

 

Sensuous, sexy disco is not a phrase that you would use to describe a song by Field Music and I'm not about to start now. However, they've got a song called The Guardian Of Sleep which appeared on their latest album Levels Of Language in October. And it's one of their funkier ones, for sure. That bassline!

 

Another artist that I've revisited this year via a new album is Denmark's finest, Hess Is More. The album CÆKE is a sparse, minmalist treat, packed with melodies and nonchalant vocals, and Are You Sleeping is a prime example. Difficult to resist humming or whistling along to any of these, which is recommendation enough, surely?

But for those of you who can't sleep, rest assured that pretty much every week of the year, some have-a-go, would-be superstar DJ will post yet another remix of Insomnia by Faithless.

December's offering is by DJ Coruja from Brazil. Whereas most contemporary remixers seem obsessed with upping the BPMs, dropping 'mad' breaks and adding far too many bells, whistles and parps than the brain can hope to process, this one happily goes the other way. 

Lifting an electro rhythm - I'd like to say with confidence that it's Scorpio by Grandmaster Flash & The Furious Five, but I'm not sure - the rest is positively restrained and, better still, complements Maxi Jazz's sublime vocal delivery throughout. At 11 minutes, it's more than a match for the original version and might be a tad too long, but it's head and shoulders above any of the other efforts that I've heard this year.

You Don't Dance...Except At The Weekend

2024 has served up it's fair share of top notch electronic music and remixes and here's another eight reasons why.

Just over an hour of tunes that have been pumping on my stereo, a mix of well-known names and artists that I've heard for the first time on my many online shopping runs this year. 

All of today's selections are available to purchase digitally (links included in the song title), if you're considering a gift to yourself as a thank you for buying presents for all those other people.

1) Like This (Mindbender Remix By Mårten Attling): Stylic

2) You Don't Dance (Kenneth Bager Remix): Hess Is More

3) Ecce Homo (Apparition Remix By Michael Heffernan): Gavin Friday

4) Blind On A Galloping Horse (Sons Of Slough Remix By Duncan Gray & Ian Weatherall): David Holmes ft. Raven Violet

5) Aerodromes (David Holmes Remix): Acid Klaus ft. Philly Piper

6) Weekend Machines (Shubostar Remix By Jiyoung Bak): Jezebell

7) End Of Times (Rude Audio's Protean Remix By Mark Ratcliff): David Harrow + Little Annie

8) Real Magnificent (sLEdger Remix By Robin Dallison): Fluke ft. Leah Cleaver

You Don't Dance...Except At The Weekend (1:01:13) (KF) (Mega)

Dreams Don't Complicate My Life

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.