DOWNLOAD: The Phenomenal Handclap Band - You'll Disappear
Our buddies from The Phenomenal Handclap Band, a collective of NY-based musicians that melds disco, funk, tambourine shaking, electronic swirls, and soulful vocal harmonies into one merry pot of juicy retro beats – tipped us off about a killer disco party at Santo's this Saturday. First off, The Phenomenal Handclap Band promises to overflow the stage. Then, Afrika Bambaataa will play. Plus, Farley Jackmaster Funk will be spinning down below. (Eamon Harkin, Justin Carter, James Friedman and The Twilite Tone will also be in house.) Wear your finest polyester leisure suit and get your sweaty groove on under Santo's heart-shaped discoball.
Sounds Like: Antibalas, Grandmaster Flash, Kutiman, Fela Kuti
EXCLUSIVE NEW DOWNLOAD: Kikumoto Allstars - House Music (Radio Edit)
Cam Farrar makes no bones about his retro-informed musical ambitions: this Aussie DJ/producer wants to make house music using same equipment and mold as the genre's founding fathers. Citing Chicago's Larry Heard and Marshall Jefferson as key influences and naming his project Kikumoto Allstars after the engineer who created the Roland 808s, 909s and 707s, Farrar's seriousness translates well in tracks like "House Music" from his debut EP for DJ Hell's International Deejay Gigolo Records. Behind frantic, twitching vocals repeating the tracks' title fizzes bold synth stabs and cheerful piano chords that whisk dancers onto the floor. Farrar may focus on the past, but his EP keeps new house music in focus in the present.
Sounds like: Mike Dunn, Farley "Jackmaster" Funk, DJ Hell
DOWNLOAD: Kelley Polar - Entropy Reigns
First introduced to the music world through his elegant and zestful string work on Metro Area's seminal singles, Kelley Polar has since bloomed as a brilliant solo artist. That he's done so isn't much of a surprise, as at age of three Polar was recognized as a violin prodigy and had been composing classical tunes ever since. But the classical mindset has hardly left his music stuffy, as evinced on his second and profusely diverse album, I Need You to Hold On While the Sky Is Falling (Environ Records).
Since up and moving to rural New Hampshire, Polar's eccentric pop tunes gained a manic confidence which lends more charge to his electro-styled beats and delightfully histrionic vocals. "Entropy Reigns," the album's first single, finds Polar and the talented Claire de Lune sharing neurotic love lines over trotting string lines and bubbly synth pop melodies. It's the kind of fun you'll dare to have even if the world is collapsing around you. DJs can rejoice, too, as the single includes two floor-filling remixes from the dynamic duo Ewan Pearson and Al Usher.
Sounds Like: Human League, Escort, Junior Boys
Download: Kelley Polar - Entropy Reigns (in the Celestial City)
DOWNLOAD: Nicole Atkins - Party's Over
This free Nicole Atkins jam is super melodramatic. Like if they were to make a virtual lower east side Aladdin, they should definitely have Nicole Atkins crooning this swooner to i don't know... James Levy? On a magic welcome mat? Can you picture him in those little shoes? Yeah, I'm comfortable with that casting. Anyway, this is some sweepy weepy '50s ballad in '90s fishnets and eyeliner. Do you disagree?
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