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CULTURE | MUSIC<br />
Burn Up the Dancefloor<br />
Put on your dancing shoes and raise the roof.<br />
MEMORIES…<br />
DO NOT OPEN<br />
THE CHAINSMOKERS<br />
US production duo Alex<br />
Pall and Andrew Taggart<br />
– aka The Chainsmokers<br />
– first shot to fame on<br />
the back of viral single<br />
#Selfie. Considered a<br />
novelty track even by the<br />
pair, their first album<br />
released in 2017 was their<br />
way of demonstrating to<br />
the world they weren’t<br />
just a flash in the pan.<br />
Memories…Do Not<br />
Open is something<br />
of a departure in style, preoccupied with heartaches and breakups. Funk,<br />
wobble synth and sounds you’d usually associate with a peak-time festival are<br />
ingeniously wrought with agonised beats. ‘Break Up Every Night’ and Coldplay<br />
collaboration Something Just Like This are the few stadium-sized dance cuts<br />
of the output. Taggart steps up to the mic, occasionally giving way to female<br />
vocalists including songwriter Emily Warren, The Voice French edition<br />
finalist Louane, and Jhené Aiko.<br />
Our Pick...<br />
KIDS IN LOVE<br />
KYGO<br />
After the release<br />
of Stargazing,<br />
Norwegian<br />
producer Kygo is<br />
back with another<br />
masterpiece.<br />
Unmistakable<br />
in its detailing<br />
despite the<br />
appearance of<br />
many a guest<br />
artist, Kids in<br />
Love is an album<br />
of tropical house<br />
music with eight<br />
tracks, each worthy of being a single in its own right. Vocals<br />
are everything and John Newman’s sumptuous stylings make a<br />
melodic aria of Never Let You Go. The same can be said of JHart’s<br />
Permanent and Jason Walker’s woozily optimistic Sunrise. The<br />
overall effect is one of relaxing vibes and feel-good pop with a<br />
side of EDM sunny-side up.<br />
SKIN<br />
FLUME<br />
Upselling his atmospheric formula, Flume draws from<br />
the talents of multiple artists including Beck, Little<br />
Dragon, Raekwon and Aluna George for his sophomore<br />
album, Skin. In the hands of someone less capable<br />
that would spell disaster, yet the young Australian<br />
DJ/producer pulls off an effort so coherent it bagged<br />
him a Grammy. Rattling future bass and undulating<br />
synths swell into a crescendo of percussive detail over<br />
this melodic 16-track output. The glossy downtempo<br />
pop of Never Be Like You has a well-orchestrated<br />
groove and was the album’s breakout track. It’s not<br />
characteristic of the album, which, despite its slick<br />
crossover aspirations and commercial success, still<br />
retains Flume’s twisted electronic soundscapes.<br />
Album opener Helix sets that pace.<br />
MOTION<br />
CALVIN<br />
HARRIS<br />
It’s not easy<br />
finding<br />
time in<br />
the studio<br />
when<br />
you’re the<br />
highest<br />
paid DJ in<br />
the world,<br />
but Calvin<br />
Harris<br />
manages<br />
to tear himself away from the decks long enough to bust<br />
out his genre-melding fourth studio album, Motion. The<br />
album features commercially driven EDM beats, and<br />
Harris stays true to his pop structured tracks, featuring<br />
A-list artists like Rihanna and Ellie Goulding. Motion is a<br />
crowd pleaser with few surprise elements thrown in – the<br />
skittering steel drum effect in electro-pop track Dollar<br />
Sign comes to mind. Among the standout tracks is We<br />
Found Love, which features some addictive hyperactive<br />
house beats, and Summer, which sees Harris lay down his<br />
own vocals on the album’s best-known single.<br />
CURATED BY TRACY CELINE<br />
TM | JULY/AUGUST <strong>2018</strong><br />
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