News / #HOUSE
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1 min read
Joel Corry - Whisper
Read more . . . →Joel Corry is a producer I want to dislike on principle, and “Whisper” keeps ruining that plan. The man makes chart-house engineered in a lab for maximum radio penetration, and yet the hook here burrows in within one listen and refuses to leave. It’s built around a breathy vocal sample that gives the track its name, looped over a piano-house bounce that would sound at home in 1994 and on daytime radio tomorrow morning. There’s zero risk in it and I weirdly respect the sheer efficiency; every element is there to make you move, nothing is there by accident. The...
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1 min read
Tomorrowland is in Belgium and the locals still run the place
Read more . . . →Reminder that Tomorrowland happens in Boom, a Belgian town of about 18,000 that swells to festival-sized every July and then goes quiet again. The polite thing is to respect the home team, and Belgium’s dance roster punches so far above the country’s weight it’s almost unfair. Four locals worth your time, running from radio-friendly to genuinely frightening. 1. Lost Frequencies - Are You With Me Felix De Laet was still a teenager when this became the first Belgian track to top the UK singles chart. It’s a country sample turned into a sunset anthem, and it should be corny, but...
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1 min read
The one genuinely new thing at Tomorrowland this year
Read more . . . →Here’s the actual news out of this year’s lineup, buried under the headliner circus: on opening Friday, Tomorrowland is running its first full afro house day at the Melodia stage. Not one token DJ shoved into an afternoon slot, a whole bill of South African producers who’ve spent years turning drum patterns into something closer to church. If you only know this festival as big-room fireworks, this is the corner worth walking to. 1. Caiiro - The Akan Caiiro builds tracks like they’re supposed to run twenty minutes, and you resent it when they don’t. The Akan is all rolling...
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1 min read
Charles D x TMPR x Inner City - Good Life
Rebooting Inner City's untouchable Good Life is a bold swing. Charles D x TMPR mostly get away with it, keeping Paris Grey's vocal front and centre.Read more . . . →Get the tee →Support the blogSome shirts are statements. This one is a verdict. -
1 min read
Tomorrowland turns 20 and the hype is insufferable and mostly earned
Read more . . . →Four days out and my feeds are 90% people you’ll never see again posting the same drone shot of the mainstage. Tomorrowland hits its 20th edition this year, they’ve branded it Consciencia, and yes, most of it is a very expensive Instagram backdrop with a castle stuck on top. But the thing didn’t get this big on nothing. Five tracks that will actually go off in Boom and won’t make you feel stupid for humming them on the flight home. 1. Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike vs Ummet Ozcan - The Hum The Belgian duo are basically Tomorrowland’s house band,...
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1 min read
Five days to Tomorrowland: the anthems doing laps in your head
Read more . . . →Five days out. This is the part of the run-up where the packing lists appear and the Mainstage anthems start doing laps in your head at 3am. Two records built for the exact moment the fireworks go off over the castle: 1. Hardwell - Spaceman The 2012 anthem that basically invented the modern Tomorrowland mainstage drop. That siren lead is pure adrenaline and the build is engineered to launch an entire field off the ground on the same beat. Hardwell is back on the bill this year stepping in for Guetta on the second Friday, and this is the one...
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1 min read
Vluarr - Steppin'
Read more . . . →The vocal chop in Steppin’ hits like a hiccup on the offbeat and immediately makes the track impossible to sit still through. Vluarr works the bass-house end of things, and this is a lean, mean little groove: no wasted sounds, just a bouncing bassline, that stuttered vocal, and a drop at 1:00 that arrives fast and gets straight to business. House this functional can feel anonymous, faceless festival filler you forget by the next track, but Steppin’ has enough personality in that one hook to actually stand out on a big system. It’s built for a specific job, making a...
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1 min read
jonty - off2
Read more . . . →NCS is where a certain kind of listener goes for copyright-free energy, and most of it blurs together, so it’s worth stopping when something arrives with an actual identity. off2 has one. jonty builds it around a chopped vocal that’s been pitched and stuttered until it’s basically another synth, and the groove underneath has a bounce closer to UK garage than the usual NCS big-room fare. The drop at 1:15 is deceptively light, no massive wall of sound, just a springy bassline and that vocal doing gymnastics, and it’s more fun for the restraint. Lowercase-titled tracks by lowercase-named producers usually...
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4 min read
Afro House, Explained (Yes, Black Coffee Won)
Afro house, explained: the 120 BPM groove that took over the main stage, why Black Coffee won, and how it's different from amapiano.Read more . . . →Get the tee →Support the blogWhat if your laundry was also a personality? -
1 min read
Ferreck Dawn - Lost At The End
Read more . . . →There’s a warmth to proper Toolroom house that a lot of the streaming-optimized stuff has sanded off completely, and Lost At The End has it in spades. Ferreck Dawn writes house that actually grooves, that slightly loose, organic swing that gets you nodding before you’ve consciously decided to, and this rides a piano stab and a rubbery bassline into a chorus almost too pretty for the club. The vocal hook lodged immediately; I had it going round my head on the walk to get coffee this morning, a full day after one play the night before. It builds without ever...
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