Poolside – If We Make It

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Quintessential summertime music makers Poolside are back with a new single “If We Make It,” and just in time too. It’s been nearly a year since the release of their debut album, Pacific Standard Time, and it doesn’t feel like summer until we’ve heard their dreamy daytime disco beats. With its airy vocals and vintage 80’s disco beat, “If We Make It” would not be out of place in the closing credits of a John Hughes movie. It’s the perfect track for a taking it easy on long, hot summer night. Stream it below.

Poolside’s “If We Make It” is part of the Scion 10 Series Music Releaseavailable for download on Soundcloud.

PREMIERE: Night Drive – Drones

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This weekend we had the distinct pleasure of speaking with two secret agents who were sent from the past to recalibrate the future of electro pop music. Night Drive, as the time traveling duo is known, have just released their first track “Drones” (via Robot Dance Records). The track is energetic, rich in sound and engenders an ambience fitting for a sci-fi dystopian society. If Blade Runner and Drive had a baby, common sense would necessitate that Night Drive score the film.

Night Drive also has a forthcoming 5 track EP, and if “Drones” is any indication, the album will be a perfectly synthy summer soundtrack whether you are road tripping or hunting replicants.

Stream “Drones,” along with its own Bit Funk remix, below and see what Night Drive had to say about time travel, sci-fi and working with a real drone for their music video after the jump.

STREAM: Night Drive – “Drones”

STREAM: Night Drive – “Drones (Bit Funk Remix)”

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Phoenix – Trying To Be Cool (Breakbot Remix)

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Since Phoenix’s Bankrupt came out last month, a veritable deluge of remixes has flooded the music world. Few, though, will be able to stand above Breakbot‘s spin on “Trying To Be Cool.” The Ed Banger artist takes the light and wistful original and adds a funky groove that nabs you from the first measure. Thomas Mars’ recognizable voice hops and skips above Breakbot’s upbeat disco, springy guitar riffs and a rubbery bassline. Stream it below.

STREAM: Phoenix – “Trying To Be Cool (Breakbot Remix)”

Holy Ghost! – Dumb Disco Ideas

Holy Ghost! have given us a sneak peek of LP #2 with a simple, beautiful video for their latest single “Dumb Disco Ideas.” Alex and Nick treat us to an eight minute epic of pure disco glory whose sound epitomizes the DFA aesthetic; tight, boozy grooves build and grow as the sun descends behind the towering modular synths and the New York City skyline. Like the City, the music never sleeps; it pulses through the night and greets the rising sun with a crescendo of bustling sounds and harmonizing voices.

If you were wise enough to catch their live set at Sweetlife, give yourself a pat on the back. If you missed out then be sure to catch the duo live on their tour with New Order this summer so you, too, can bask in the chocolatey glory of live disco.

INTRODUCING: Germans

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Germans is a sugary sweet moody disco collaboration between songwriter Julia Kwamya and producer Kurt Feldman (of Ice Choir fame). The Brooklynites’ debut track “Cruel” is a glistening throwback to the ultra smooth, pure synthetic pop of Madonna, Cyndi Lauper and Donna Summer. At the same time, bittersweet folk ballad undertones and glitsy modern production introduce some unusual elements into the mix, giving the track a unique and haunting feel. It sounds a bit like the beautiful lovechild that might result if Chairlift and Karen Carpenter got together via timewarp to produce pensive new wave disco.

Kurt and Julia first bonded over their mutual affinity for a dinky MIDI keyboard called the Miracle Piano Teaching System, first marketed as an add-on to the original Nintendo Entertainment System in the early 90s. Fittingly, the duo’s music is a playful tribute to the exploration of warm, sparkling electronic sounds like the ones that drew them to the Miracle when they were just a pair of curious tots. Yet lurking beneath “Cruel’s” blissful nostalgic timbres lies a poignant grownup heartbreak track.

Stay tuned for more singles and a full EP from Germans, due out this summer.

STREAM: Germans – “Cruel”

Flight Facilities – I Didn’t Believe (Ft. Elizabeth Rose)

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Aussie duo Flight Facilities are known for their disco-tinged sound, a deep-rooted appreciation of music history (as showcased by their all-spanning decade mixes for triple j) and patience in production that is simply unmatched in the current state of Soundcloud overload. Their Claude Debussy inspired “Clair De Lune” took them a year of work before release. It’s hypnotic, beautiful and complex – drawing from a place few artists in the electronic music world tap into these days.

Flight Facilities’ latest single, “I Didn’t Believe”, flows from a similar vein, though the sound couldn’t be more different. Taking over two years to produce, “I Didn’t Believe” sports a funky bassline, flickering guitar chords, uplifting disco strings and vocals from Elizabeth Rose that would’ve sounded right at home on 2001 Odyssey’s dancefloor. While it may be a little while before another original production comes out from these two, “I Didn’t Believe” should keep you satisfied for some time.

“I Didn’t Believe” is available via Future Classic/Glassnote Entertainment.

STREAM: Flight Facilities – “I Didn’t Believe (Ft. Elizabeth Rose)”

Goldroom – Only You Can Show me (Ft. Mereki)

HUMANS OF THE WORLD UNITE! Pretty sure if you played Goldroom’s new video for “Only You Can Show Me” at the UN, it would solve that whole world peace thing. These feel-good visuals, featuring the angel-voiced Mereki and co. dancing in front of some colorful backdrops, will wash your worries away in a heartbeat. Start enjoying life and watch the video above.

STREAM: Goldroom – “Only You Can Show Me (Ft. Mereki)”

Giraffage – Music Sounds Better With You

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The amount of awesome that converges in this one track threatens to tear a rift in the very fabric of the discosphere. Giraffage‘s remix of 1998 French Touch classic “Music Sounds Better With You” simultaneously takes me back to middle school – when I was just starting to fall in love with electronic music – and to a dazzling cosmic disco future.

The original track from Stardust — a collaboration between Alan Braxe, Benjamin Diamond and Daft Punk’s Thomas Bangalter — helped popularize the French house sound a few years before the international success of Daft Punk’s Discovery. In retrospect, “Music Sounds Better With You” almost feels like a prototype of that album and its hit single “One More Time,” with it’s simple, soulful vocal and space age filter funk.

Giraffage made an assertive power move in remixing what’s widely regarded as one of the classic dance tracks of the Nineties, but the Bay Area producer’s gorgeous reinterpretation easily deserves the almost 25k SoundCloud plays it’s already accumulated in just under a day. Woozy staccato snares and cymbal clicks flutter over a thick blanket of warm synths that evoke another classic track, Télépopmusik’s “Breathe.” It almost sounds like an inspired new twist on some of the more laid-back, starry-eyed Daft Punk deep cuts like “Verdis Quo” and “Make Love.” Sit back, relax and prepare to embark on a mystical journey through electro paradise.

STREAM: Giraffage – “Music Sounds Better With You”

Du Tonc – Surging Memories

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Du Tonc – the new disco-pop group consisting of Mighty Mouse and Matt Van Schie (Van She) – have followed up the well-received “Darkness” with their sophomore single, “Surging Memories.” The track echoes some of the themes of “Darkness” and seamlessly mates Van She’s pop rock sensibilities with Mighty Mouse’s disco-laden production. Paced by a warm bassline, uplifting chord progressions, Van Schie’s dreamy vocals and light disco strings, “Surging Memories” further establishes this new pairing as something worth following. Fortunately for us, Du Tonc have begun to announce tour dates for this summer and intend to release more music before the end of May. Stream it below.

Du Tonc’s “Surging Memories” is available now on Cheap Thrills.

STREAM: Du Tonc – “Surging Memories”

PREMIERE: WALLA – No Time

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LA indie disco quartet WALLA made waves last year with their single “Rising Tide,” which racked up over 100,000 plays on SoundCloud. Now they’re back with “No Time,” the first glimpse of their forthcoming Nature EP. This diverse ensemble – hailing from far flung locales including Korea, Brazil, El Salvador and Indonesia – has a sharp, vocal-driven sound that combines electronica and live instrumentation, in the style of artists like Cut Copy, Work Drugs, Panama and Mitzi. The production and arrangement perfectionism of these pop fusionists shines through in the track’s crisp drums, shimmering vocals and retro house synth lines. This aptly titled anthem – WALLA are racing to coax as much musical goodness out of the project as possible before their student visas start to expire – will appear on Nature, out June 4th.

STREAM: WALLA – “No Time”