dfa

[10] Shamir, ‘If It Wasn’t True’

shamir 2014

Each beat a little chip out of your skull, fidgety hooks, a slinky wriggly sexy vocal, all of these things make a great dance-pop record in 2014. I decided a few minutes ago that I’d call it ‘post-Disclosure’, in the sense that this has that early 90s Strictly Rhythm house kineticism but still feels ‘now’, but I think there’s some DFAism too – The Juan MacLean, Hercules & Love Affair, you know where I’m at. The insultingly young Shamir Bailey just adds another level, and considering the strength of the whole EP and the more recent ‘On The Regular’, he’s an exciting new proposition altogether.

Those hard, seductive beats get Juniors 1 and 2 robot-dancing around the kitchen table. “Awesome!” says Junior. “I’m imagining myself as a Cyberman.” Me too – even more when Shamir’s playing.

[8] Noah And The Whale, ‘Blue Skies (YACHT Remix)’

Everyone loves a good volte-face in music, particularly when it’s a rather wacky folk-pop outfit deciding to ditch the jarring ditties in favour of widescreen heartbreak-infused indie-country-soul. So imagine the world’s delight when Laura Marling dumped chief Noah head Charlie Fink, forcing him to lick his wounds and make an excellent album detailing his “I’m fine, really. Really, I am. OK, I’m not. But I will be” stance. That’s what The First Days Of Spring turned out to be, and lead single ‘Blue Skies’ was its ray of hope.

But we’re concerned with YACHT’s remix here. The DFA crew took Noah And The Whale’s big music, stripped it back and turned it Balearic – yet still retained the beaten-and-bruised hopefulness of the source material. Junior does jazz hands to it, and a lengthy impersonation of one squeaky vocal effect, sweetly undercutting any grand moodiness. I play her the original too, which she describes as “mad”. It’s what this blog’s all about: an unfathomable perspective.

This is a song for anyone with a broken heart: