SONG OF THE DAY: Carlos Gallardo & Peyton – “Desert Rose”

with Sting’s blue-eyed soulful voice. Spanish producer Carlos Gallardo enlists the massive vocal talents of Peyton for this classy and modern update. Blending electro and tribal beats, the track is big room friendly -you can totally imagine clubbers singing along to the “yele yele” chants. Peyton sounds amazing, as always, which comes as no surprise as he embraces the feel of Sting’s original performance and enhances with his gospel-like emotional execution. The video, filmed in a desert, is definitely inspired by the original, though I wonder where they found a power source to plug Carlos’ DJ gear into. It makes you wonder, just like if a tree falling in the forest makes a sound, does a DJ spinning in the desert get bottle service?


Image Courtesy of Blanco Y Negro.

SONG OF THE DAY: Menini & Viani ft Roz Brown – “It’s On Tonight (Ankamassa)”

Being a trainspotter (one who spots samples in club records) can be torture sometimes.? At the Amsterdam Dance Event this year, I kept hearing this funky house track which I thought sampled “77 Strings” by Chamonix.? It’s been driving me nuts.? Finally a month later, I get from Adaptor records the very classy Menini & Viana ft Roz Brown “It’s On Tonight (Ankamassa)” and my question is answered.? Rather than sampling 77 Strings, the sample is lifted from the original source – “I Gotta Keep Dancin” by Carrie Lucas.? The disco strings are effortlessly blended with big room tribal for one of those wonderful fusions that flows perfectly.? The original track “Ankamassa” was released back in March and has been buzzing since.? For this new rerelease, they enlisted the talents of diva extraordinaire Inaya Day to write the top line “It’s On Tonight” which is sung effortlessly by Roz Brown.? The structure of the verse reminds me of another 70s pop hit “I’ve Never Been to Me” but that might just be my trainspotter ears trying to overcompensate.?? Nevertheless, “It’s On Tonight” is a club stomper which melds disco house and modern tribal beautifully – especially in the prime time mix by Jack and Joy.? DJs, if you are not on this yet, buy it now.

Image Courtesy of Adaptor.

SONG OF THE DAY: Sirah – “Up and Down”

Personal confession- I am a fan of vocalists.? So this current trend of producers/DJs/artists giving “featured” credit to the singers on their tracks is quite nice, letting us find out who they are and track down their other work.? When I first heard “Bangarang” by Skrillex, the chopped-up lyrics from Sirah were just as hooky as the scratched-out party beats.? The name rang a bell so I dug up “Weekends,” another tracks from Skrillex which featured Sirah from 2010. Off her latest mix tape “CULT Too Young To Die,” Sirah leads with “Up and Down,” an aggressive dubstep track that features her edgy rapping about her roots and where she’s going, contrasted with her?emotional vocals in the chorus. This is one of those tracks where the soft, pretty opening bears no resemblance to the remainder of the track.? With the success of “Bangarang” on rock radio and Jay-Z’s support of Sirah’s mixtape, it will be interesting to see how her following of “cult kids” develops.? Now if someone could only tell me why dancers throw flour at each other (as evidenced in the video)…?

Image Courtesy of Atlantic.