This week in dance music: The long-awaited reopening of Brooklyn Mirage has been delayed “indefinitely” after permitting issues ahead of the club’s opening weekend. This delay forced the cancellation of Sara Landry’s back-to-back opening weekend shows, with the hard techno producer and her team scrambling to relocate the performances and the 12,000 people meant to attend them.
“There was never going to be an option where I sat in my hotel room without doing anything, knowing that thousands of people spent money in this economy to buy tickets and fly in,” Landry told Billboard earlier this week in a story about how she and her team ultimately put on four replacement shows for 15,000 people in at Brooklyn Storehouse and Knockdown Center in New York.
Meanwhile, we spoke with English-born, Australia-based producer Mark Pritchard about his haunting new album, Tall Tales, made with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. “They’re quite heavy songs,” Pritchard says. “There’s playful things happening in some of the [accompanying videos, but there’s a lot of heavy dystopian-feeling things.”
Additionally in the dance realm, longstanding Canada-based indie electronic label Monstercat was acquired by Create Music Group, Beyoncé’s 2022 dance-oriented album Renaissance rose from 8-5 on the Top Dance Albums chart in tandem with the kickoff of her Cowboy Carter tour, Illenium announced that he’s signed with Republic Records after a stint at Warner, telling us that he “just felt a family sort of love” when meeting with his new label, John Summit announced that his biggest solo headline show to date will happen this October in Boulder, Co. and PinkPantheress dropped a new nine-track mixtape, Fancy.
And last but never least, these are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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Calvin Harris & Clementine Douglas, “Blessings”
One of modern dance music’s most crucial voices Clementine Douglas warms up the latest production by Scottish hero (and first time dad to be) Calvin Harris. “Blessings” is balances lightness and urgency, with the production built around a stabby synth and layered up with Clementine’s bittersweet lyrics about leaving someone behind, declaring “though it hurts, I only wish you blessings.” While Harris himself has been quiet in regard to the release, the comments section on his IG post announcing it are a chorus of praise, with David Guetta writing, “Ibiza vibe at its best!” To wit, Harris’ massive summer residency at Ushuaïa Ibiza begins on May 30.
Listen to “Blessings” here.
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Parcels, “Yougotmefeeling”
It’s spring, the flowers are blooming, the trees are coming back to life, the sun is out and Parcels’ latest is summing this warm vibe up just right with their latest, “Yougotmefeeling.” Counterintuitively to the breezy production, the lyrics are about a complicated relationship that’s maybe better off left. In any case, the funky electrop track is the third single from the Australian group’s third studio album, Loved, coming September 12 on Because Music.
“It’s very internal for all of us, so personal and so deep, which is sometimes quite uncomfortable” the five-man group says in a joint statement. “But I guess that’s what Parcels is — at least at the moment — all of us having that individual journey, then trying to make a space so we can funnel everybody’s experiences into the same world and express it as a celebration.”
Following Parcels’ performance at Coachella last month, the band has upcoming shows at marquee European festivals including Primavera Sound, We Love Green and Glastonbury.
Listen to “Yougotmefeeling” here.
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Patrick Topping & Camden Cox, “Walk on Air”
English star Patrick Topping releases the latest from his venerable Trick imprint with “Walk on Air.” The slinky club heater finds Camden Cox going full come-hither as she declares “I don’t really care if you’re alone” in a steamy vocal delivery reminiscent of Anabel Englund on the 2013 Hot Natured classic “Reverse Skydiving.” Topping notes that he started the song “in Ibiza last year and spent months perfecting it (at one point it was 145 bpm techno and I thought wtf am I doing). Camden performed this version with me at Trick Drumsheds for the first time and we knew it was the one.” We agree.
Listen to the “Walk on Air” here.
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Duke Dumont, “Your Loving”
The master Duke Dumont releases his first single of the year with “Your Loving,” an urgent club track with the cerebral, inventive and pristinely produced approach we’ve come to expect from the English artist. The track builds to a hypnotic and grandly sized place in its second half and altogether functions as the first single from Dumont’s forthcoming album Union, coming July 25 on Astralwerks.
“I’ve come to realize there aren’t many things in life that bring people together on one level,” Dumont says. “My album Union is a homage to this unique experience. The entire essence of the album is channeled to create that feeling. Each song was made with the live experience in mind. The album was made to be listened to in its entirety – from start to finish – and absorbed in a live music environment. It was not made to appease playlists or radio. It’s intended to take the listener on a journey, not provide a quick fix.”
Listen to “Your Loving” here.
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Borne, “Go Again”
Rising Montreal-born producer Borne demonstrates why he’s one worth watching with his coolly ferocious “Go Again,” a tight, winding slice of bass that goes hard in its brief two-minute and ten seconds. True to the song’s name, this one bears repeating and is out now on Nightmode, an imprint under Insomniac Music Group.
Listen to “Go Again” here.
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