This track is going to sound familiar to a lot of you. If you watched the movie about the Ultra Music Festival’s 15th edition, “Don’t Give Up” is THAT track that has been unavailable. Set to be released at the start of the Winter Music Conference/Miami Music Week on March 24th, it will definitely be heard all week. The big room festival anthem combines the aggressive electro beats with a pretty, anthemic and uplifting interlude. Since the track is being set up to be quite massive, it seems inimitable that there will be a vocal version as well. It is quite funny that there are already mashups of the track floating around – like the solid one with Hardwell & W&W “Jumper.” While there is rarely a single song that defines the WMC anymore, this could possibly be the one. It also makes me wonder how this track fits into Fedde’s long-awaited follow-up album to ‘Output’ from back in 2009.
Fedde Le Grand – Don’t Give Up
Category: Song Of The Day
SONG OF THE DAY: Gabriel and Dresden – Rise Up
Last week when I wrote up the Duke Dumont, Arches, and Second City tracks, I received really varied responses varying from absolute love to sheer boredom with cliched sampled tracks. It seems that the most successful of the NuHouse tracks will be the ones that use elements of classic ’90s house and updates with a modern sensibility. It seems that Gabriel and Dresden got that memo and expanded on the journey they started with “Play it Back.” Their new release “Rise Up” is a progressive house track which sounds completely modern with elements of ’90s synth-pop and a bassline reminiscent of classic New Order. Listening closely, you can dissect these parts, but it’s just as easy to enjoy the track for what it is – a happy, uplifting track which changes moods and energy throughout its development. Seemingly the only thing missing is a vocal, so here’s hoping they bring “Back” Betsie Larkin or get vocalists Sean Ryan or Neil Ormandy to sing a topline. I must say that it is also quite refreshing to hear something that sounds completely different and stands out from the multitude of current electronic releases.
Image Courtesy of Organized Nature.
gabriel and dresden rise up
SONG OF THE DAY (SUNDAY FUNDAY): Kylie Minogue – Sexercize
It is kind of wonderful when a pop song can inspire enough discourse to fill a dissertation. “Sexercize” is a dubstep-influenced pop song with overtly sexual lyrics that walk the fine line between playful and sleazy. The fact that it was written by Sia Furler makes me imagine that she and Kylie were drinking wine one night and were inspired to do a raunchy 2014 version of Olivia Newton John’s “Physical” as it would be performed by Rihanna or Beyonce. Is it pop or is it porn? Listening to the lyrics and watching the second version of the video (a hard-R Cinemax lesbian version of the “Physical” video) leans it more to the porn direction. Yet, somehow it seems somewhat classy amongst its sleaze (like maybe porn made by women for women) and that might be because a 45 year-old pop artist performing this material comes off differently than a 20-something R&B singer would. Some might say that this song and video smacks of the same desperation of 2010s era Madonna, pushing sex and drug references that are neither edgy or cool but lame and out of touch, but since this is the first material of this type from Miss Minogue, she gets a pass. It would be quite interesting to see if “Sexercize” gets expanded into a full 45-minute workout a la the infamous Eric Prydz “Call On Me” workout, as it would work perfectly as a warm up for the athletic pole dancing classes that seem to be de rigeur at gyms around the country.
Image courtesy of Parlophone and Roc Nation.