SONG OF THE DAY: Bart Claessen – “Showtime”

Aggressive electro and glitch mixed with touches of classic rave samples and elements of stadium house is the formula for “Showtime.” The new big room track from Dutch DJ/producer Bart Claessen is in the mold of Zedd’s “Spectrum,” notable for the seamless blending of multiple divergent genres and sounds into a cohesively flowing track. With its vocal effects as well as mood and energy changes, “Showtime” works well as a primetime focus for any big room set. I saw that Bart has 4 more tracks coming out in the next 3 months and if “Showtime” is any indication of where Bart is going, I will definitely be watching for them.

Image courtesy of Big & Dirty.

SONG OF THE DAY: Armin van Buuren ft Fiora – “Waiting For the Night”

Following in the footsteps of fellow Dutchman Junkie XL, ?Armin van Buuren is adding film scores to his c.v.? For the upcoming Dutch movie “Verliefd op Ibiza” (translated as In Love With Ibiza), Armin scored a third of the movie and produced the single “Waiting for the Night.”? A pretty and energetic trance pop song with catchy vocals, “Waiting for the Night” is cool enough for clubs and commercial enough for radio without going into cheese pop land.? DJs wanting a more aggressive mix can reach for Clinton VanSciver’s electrodisco take or Beat Service’s progressive rethink.? The video is the typical cliche soundtrack formula, film scenes interspersed with singer Fiora – who looks as beautiful as she sounds – performing with scenes from the film projected onto her.? The film looks fun and for someone who will probably never make it to Ibiza, I definitely hope that an English-subtitled version of the film finds it way for rental on Netflix quite soon.

Image courtesy of Armada.

SONG OF THE DAY: Wolfwolf ft Alianah – “High”

Am I the only one who thinks that artists wearing masks is just as cliched as replacing the letter E with a 3 in your name?? Luckily, Aussie nu-disco producer Wolfwolf transcends that with his new track “High,” featuring the vocals of Alianah. It’s as if someone snagged Tina and Chris from Tom Tom Club and told them to start making hipster electropop.? Alianah has a Roisin Murphy-esque quality to her voice – present and cinematic, but kinda stoned in her delivery.? Both the Vanilla and Bronx remixes sound straight out of the early ’80s, at a similar BPM to the original, while the Lee M Kelsall remix speeds things up with a bit of a 2-step garage flavor.? Apparently there is also a trap remix floating around that Diplo and the Mad Decent crew have championed as well.? Lovers of the ’80s will also dig the video clip which is true to the era, save for all the cool MIDI controllers that Wolfwolf plays with.? Big props to heritage house/hip-hop label Nervous records for keeping up with the times and the sounds that the EDM kids are into these days.

Image courtesy of Nurvous.