Tirzah – Gladly

Tirzah is never not a breath of fresh air, from her casual delivery to the mellow rasp of her tone. This week, the Essex singer announced her debut album, Devotion, which she made in collaboration with her longtime friend, the composer Mica Levi (aka Micachu). The first single, “Gladly,” is a warm embrace of a song that clocks in at a leisurely 65 bpm—incidentally, the resting heartbeat rate that indicates tip-top physical condition.

Back in 2013, Taz and Meeks—the pair’s nicknames, which they alsooccasionally record under—charmed with a hyper-minimalist take on euphoric dance-pop called “I’m Not Dancing.” “Gladly” performs a not dissimilar trick with the concept of the soul ballad. “I don’t want/To sound so serious,” sings Tirzah, adopting the gentle back-and-forth swing of Micachu’s spare, piano-led melody. “But you are taking me away from all this hate/All it takes, all it takes/Is your arms, your smile.” It’s a song that creates space to contemplate the overwhelming generosity of love in its simplest gestures: the rush of feelings that the touch of your lover’s skin can stir, the contentment that only a cuddle can bring. That Devotion hints at a full-length exploration of a relationship’s many facets, through Tirzah and Micachu’s singular lens, only sweetens the deal.

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Usually, Gabe Gurnsey is fifty percent of acclaimed techno outfit Factory Floor which is mostly known for its pumping and eclectic way of designing efficient dance music. It’s probably no surprise that Gurnsey would sooner or later get interested in exploring different structures. His forthcoming solo debut Physical does exactly that as he’s heading for more traditional songwriting territory. Gurnsey remains in electronic territory though. His debut single Ultra Clear Sound is a sharp piece of 80s-infected synthpop but it’s more than just a simple ‘retro’ affair as it definitely feels like a 2018 record. The one and only Erol Alkan produced the album, so you can be sure to expect high quality dance sounds when the LP Physical hits the stores on August 3.

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Luboku – Without You

We’ve covered Luboku before, back last year when he was releasing his moody single The Surface. Now, he’s well and truly one to keep an eye on in 2018, with the Melbourne musician following it up with something a bit more colourful and vibrant in Without You. Following on from his more moody and subdued productions, Without You is a lot bolder and more in-the-spotlight, uniting his typically intricate productions with a sound a touch more brighter than his previous work to create a magical track which you can just see will get a hammering late at night. “My interest in electronic music was first kindled in ’08 when there was a certain vibrancy to the scene,” he says on the single. “On Without You, it felt important to pay tribute to these roots, I wanted to create something different from anything I had done before, I wanted it to be BOLD, grating, and full of tension – splicing those colourful trance elements with a more contemporary feel.” Check out the single below, and get to know the musician a little better before he continues his Australian onslaught with more music to come in 2018:

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The DJ/producer Todd Terry once called house not just a style of music but a feeling itself. If this holds true, Peggy Gou is hooked up to house music’s beating heart. “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane),” from the Korea-via-Berlin producer’s forthcoming EP Once, is inspired, according to Gou, by the rush of mind cleansing emotions she experiences when creating music. It’s a sleek, invigorating piece of 1990s-influenced house, with a simple, earworm melody and subtle production touches.

Over the past two years, Gou has molded influences from electro to disco and broken beat into cerebral yet dance floor-friendly songs. “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)” is the first time she has sung on a record, which she does in her native Korean, and the laid-back control of her vocals makes the song. Far from the sonorous disco stylings of the typical house diva, Gou’s understated emotion as a singer is reminiscent of Hot Chip’s Alexis Taylor, and her nonchalant melodies stick like glitter glue. These sit on a slick production bed of burbling acid licks, polished synth riffs, and syncopated percussion that skips like vintage Masters at Work. “It Makes You Forget (Itgehane)” is fresh, stylish, and full of depth, a winning example of Todd Terry’s vision of house as borderless feeling made flesh.

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