State Champ Radio Dance
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A dance classic of the late aughts has been pushed back onto the charts by a pair of recent plays.
On the Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart dated Sept. 7, La Roux‘s 2009 hit “Bulletproof” sits at No. 13 amid its fifth week on the chart, down from a peak position at No. 10.
The 15-year old song arrived on this chart due to a recent streaming surge caused by two unrelated uses. The first was a February commercial for the allergy medication Allegra, in which a woman sings the song acapella in an ode to how it apparently makes her bulletproof against allergens.
Streaming then surged enough for the song to chart after July 21, when Kodak Black posted a TikTok of himself vibing (and also brushing his teeth) to the track in a viral video that’s since been liked more then three million times.
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This Tiktok caused a “Bulletproof” streaming jump from 707,000 to 1.8 million in the week ending July 25, and then to 3.5 million in the week ending Aug. 1, according to Luminate. The most recent comments on the 2010 “Bulletproof” music video on YouTube state that viewers arrived to the clip because of Black’s influence. (“The culture came back to this after Kodak Black,” one commenter wrote. “S–t was a banger back then.”)
While the bubbly, defiant song by the English duo was a hit on the Billboard Hot 100 upon its release on June 21, 2009, this current run marks its first appearance on Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, which launched in 2013, four years after the track’s release.
Initially a hit in the United Kingdom, “Bulletproof” first reached a U.S. Billboard chart on Aug. 1, 2009, when it entered Dance Club Songs at No. 38, ultimately hitting No. 1 on the chart that September. The synth pop anthem also soared on the Hot 100, cracking the top 10 in March of 2010 when it reached No. 8. It went on to spend a whopping 27 weeks on the chart. The song was also a hit on Dance/Mix Show Airplay, where it spent 14 weeks in 2009/2010, peaking at No. 10.
The song came from the duo’s 2009 self-titled debut album, which also contained the hit “In It For the Kill.” This past June, La Roux’s Elly Jackson recently acknowledged the album’s 15-year anniversary, writing on Instagram that “this album is complex for me… without it life would be very different but it took a lot out of me that’s taken years to get back. Never thought it would take this long, so weird to think it’s fifteen years ago… I’m not even sure I can process that but here we are. Thank you to everyone that’s loved and still loves this record. My deep cuts are ‘quicksand’ and ‘colourless colour,’ let me know yours.”
This week in dance music: A new compilation of music of rare disco and funk from the former USSR was released via Ostinato Records, Charli XCX teased a new project, the DJ Awards announced that they’re coming back after a four year hiatus with an October ceremony in Ibiza and a sprawling pool of nominees, Kaytranada, Ravyn Lenae and Channel Tres performed on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert and Clean Bandit and Zara Larsson’s “Symphony” spent a second week at No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
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And, on a singularly busy release day, here are the best new dance projects of the week.
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Fred again.., Ten Days
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Before Fred again.. embarks on his North American tour, he’s shared his fourth studio album, ten days. A follow-up to his Grammy award-winning Actual Life 3 (January 1 – September 23, 2022), the new LP is similarly diaristic, comprising “ten songs about ten days,” as he writes on Instagram. Fred shines in his ability to make his music feel infinitely emotional, simultaneously larger-than-life and intimate – where a song played to a stadium-sized crowd touches everyone on a personal level, as if it were made specifically for them. Where songs like “Fear Less” and “Just Saw You” offer a soft but powerful slow burn, others like “Places to Be” and “Glow” — a seven-and-a-half-minute joyride made with with old pals Skrillex and Four Tet, along British producer Duskus — are more outwardly energetic, a fast-pass to euphoria.
“There’s been a lot of biggg mad crazy moments in the last year but basically all of these are about really very small quiet intimate moments,” Fred writes. “Some of them are like the most intensely joyful things I have felt, and some of them are the other side of things. And some days i don’t want to speak about loads cos I’m not the only person it was an important day for it that makes sense.” — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Nero, The Unknown
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EDM era titans Nero return with their first album in nine years, Into the Unknown, a 13-track demonstration that the trio’s still got it. Via a coalescence of jungle, drum ‘n’ bass, UKG, bass and genres beyond, the sleek, pristinely produced album explores themes of apocalypse, global disconnection, the growing influence of technology and nothing less than the progression of humanity itself, a sizeable message for a sizable, powerful project. Coming nine years after their last album Between II Words, Into The Unknown completes a trilogy started with the group’s 2011 debut Welcome Reality, and longtime fans will certainly recognize the epic sound and style (and Alana Watson’s umistakable voice) that first brought Nero to the fore. — KATIE BAIN
The Chainsmokers with Kim Petras, “Don’t Lie”
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There’s something absolutely breezy about The Chainsmokers new Kim Petras collab, “Don’t Like,” with the duo shooting off a slinky, infectious production that trades big drops for a more tempered but very effective garage-y IDM vibe. Petras pulls her weight here as well, with her breathy vocals giving a classic Kylie vibe with the song’s earworm melody. And the video, about a deliciously messy renegade desert party (starring The Chains behind the deck and Petras as the mini-skirted star of the dancefloor), is just eye-candy fun. — K.B.
Aluna & Aqutie, “Ghostin“
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Hailing from the deluxe edition of Aqutie’s Coolest in the City EP, “Ghostin” has the feel of the city itself, with a siren going off over a scintillating beat that conjures a vibe of subway tunnels and dark alleyways. Vocals here are from Aluna, who’s also releasing the project on her Noir Fever label, with the the two artists recently taking part in the label’s first writing camp at Empire’s San Francisco headquarters. Of pairing up with Aluna, New York City based Aqutie advised that “when two queens link up honey, and the combos communicate, unstoppable.” Meanwhile, the next Noir Fever showcase will feature artists including Aluna and Coco & Breezy next month in Brooklyn.
Ninajirachi & MGNA Crrrta, girl EDM
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Australian producer Ninajirachi releases her full length project girl EDM (disc 1), a 10-track package on which she synthesizes the 2000s and 2010s electronic music that influenced her and puts it through her own crunchy, ephemeral, but also quirky and also hyperpop influenced filter. To that end, standout “Angel Music” is the 2024 female equivalent to Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites-era Skrillex, with Ninajirachi taking the pummeling vibe of that era, updating it and making it her own. — K.B.
Alan Walker, Joe Jonas & Julia Michaels, “Thick of It All”
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Sometimes you just want to get lost in a big, hooky, feel-good, tearjerky anthem — which Joe Jonas, Julia Michaels and Norwegian electronic giant Alan Walker deftly deliver on “Thick of it All.” Walker laces the pop-forward singalong with a light drum ‘n’ bass influence, a foundation for Jonas and Michaels to belt globally relatable lyrics like “One, there’s no one to blame/ Two hearts don’t break the same way/ I know we’re in the thick of it all,” which swell to a climax of pretty harmonies. The song is out now on Monstercat. — K.B.
Microfilm, Futureproof
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Portland electronic music duo Microfilm achieve a major milestone with the release of their tenth studio album Chimeraz. Packing 11 songs into just over a half-hour, it’s an exploration of what the pair call “mutant pop,” trekking across frenetic soundscapes that touch upon styles like footwork, electro and techno. “The impetus was to make a collection of tracks something like ‘George Michael on Warp Records’ or ‘Modeselektor producing the Pet Shop Boys,’” says member Matt Keppel. On songs like “Quaaludes,” “Collabz” and “Shade,” brash beats meet prismatic melodies and vocals like bubblegum pop thrown in a blender, while “Rabbitholez” gleams with the ominous atmosphere of a full moon on Halloween. Chimeraz’ many textures and layers make it a brain-tickler in the best way. — K.R.
Yunè Pinku, “Half Alive”
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In the leadup to her Scarlet Lamb EP, yunè pinku shares her latest single “Half Alive.” It’s a bittersweet affair, where dense breakbeats cast a shadow against the lightness of dreamy synths above. pinku’s falsetto floats even higher overhead; her reflections on experiences with anxiety and depression imparting a deep wistfulness. The Billboard 2023 emerging dance artist has been expanding her sonic universe on this project, with her previous offering “Believe” leaning into something more alternative-indie. Scarlet Lamb is due out on October 4 via Method 808. Following its release, pinku will join Caribou on a North American tour, which includes stops in L.A., Brooklyn, and Toronto. — K.R.
Mat Zo, “Disco Boy”
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Skinny jeans, EDC in L.A., EDM’s infancy and all things neon: Mat Zo’s latest single is an instant portal to the late 2000s in all their maximal glory. Marking the London-based producer’s return to deadmau5’s mau5trap label, “Disco Boy” is a raucous shape-shifter of a track, moving from frayed-out electro-house to shimmering disco with Animorphs ease. The groove is gritty and head-thrashing, peaking with a hoovering build that threatens to suck out your soul and leave you whirling into the night. (And, if you listen to it three times in a row, Cobrasnake shows up to snap your photo.) — K.R.
On a warm Friday August afternoon, in an Italianate mansion in the hilliest (read: gatedest) part of Beverly Hills, Paris Hilton breezes into the room. The assembled label reps and journalists were politely asked to take our shoes off in the marble-floored foyer of the estate that serves as the office of Hilton’s 11:11 Media, a content company for brands and creators. Upstairs in this white carpeted room, the lady of the house wears stilettos.
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The occasion for this gathering is Hilton’s new album, Infinite Icon, out today (Sept. 6), 18 years after the release of her self-titled debut. The album is a dance–pop hybrid that finds Hilton in full pop mode, with a group of collaborators that includes Meghan Thee Stallion, Rina Sawayama, Sia and Meghan Trainor. Paris set a precedent for success with its “Stars Are Blind,” which spent 12 weeks on the Hot 100 in 2006, peaked at No. 18 — and, to this day, bangs.
The house/office is decorated to remind onlookers of what Hilton has accomplished. There are posters on the wall for her show The Simple Life, a Y2K-era ratings juggernaut that helped make Hilton and co-star Nicole Richie household names. Her 2021 reality program Paris in Love tracked her wedding to now-husband Carter Reum, who welcomes us into the house and offers Diet Coke and a tour of the “Sliving Spa,” a collection of amenities that includes hyperbaric and cryotherapy chambers set up in what used to be the garage. There’s a display of pink purses and a neon wall sign proclaiming “That’s Hot,” the catchphrase Hilton trademarked in 2004, long before “very demure” became the patent-pending slogan of the summer.
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As an assistant leads up upstairs, we pass racks (and racks) of clothing (bright, bedazzled, feathery) pulled for, among other things, an upcoming music video shoot for Infinite Icon‘s “Bad Bitch Academy.” A mood board for the video, among other very fierce, very empowering imagery, has a picture of the famous 2006 photo of Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan that the New York Post published with the headline “Bimbo Summit,” which on the moodboard has been swapped for “Bad Bitch Summit.”
But much of the clothing will not ultimately appear in the video; it will instead be incinerated in an RV fire that will happen outside the L.A. video set a week from now. An accident triggered by what Hilton assumes was an electrical issue, the fire started just after they shot the first scene and destroyed nearly everything inside the RV, among it Hilton’s clothes, shoes, hair extensions, 300 pairs of sunglasses, and other more irreplaceable ephemera.
“With my ADHD, I have notepads where I have like, thousands of notes, and all of that burned along with all my journals,” Hilton tells Billboard in the wake of the fire. “It’s just been heartbreaking, really.”
But even with the tamed blaze still smoldering, Hilton and the team carried on with the shoot. “A lot of people thought it was going to be over,” she says. ” I’m like, ‘No, no, we’re powering through.’” You can genuinely say that actual fire can’t stop Paris Hilton from her pop star dreams.
Certainly a second album laden with hooks and household names guests might help her get there. But in a way, with the fame, the wealth , the outfits and the pre-existing Hot 100 hit, Hilton has always been a kind of pop queen — now she just has more music to go with it. “I’ve always had that attitude and vibe and feel,” she agrees. “Even when I go to my perfume line [release] signings and all of these things around the world, my products, my books, I feel like a pop star all the time. So this is just the next level, with this album.”
The project finds her in what’s always seemed to be her comfort zone: surrounded by a gaggle of gal pals. Infinite Icon was executive produced by Sia, a turn of events that happened after Hilton appeared with the singer and Miley Cyrus to perform “Stars Are Blind” on Cyrus’ on NBC’s 2022 Miley’s New Year’s Eve Party special. The day after, Hilton flew home with Sia on the latter’s private jet and divulged her dream of making more pop music, which Sia encouraged into existence with sessions at her house.
“The first time I sang in front of her, I was, like, freaking out,” says Hilton. “I’m like this is the greatest songwriter, singer of our time, and I’m singing in front of her — and I’m so shy, but she literally brought out something in me that I didn’t even know I had. Before I was more in the baby voice and being very breathy and kind of like, Marilyn [Monroe] vibes. And then with this album, I just felt like a woman.”
Infinite Icon was recorded at Sia’s place, L.A.’s Sunset Studios and the studios Hilton had built in this house and her other house not far from here.
The general vibe is that everyone who worked on it is a bff. Sia is “my guardian angel, my fairy godmother. I love her so much.” Meghan Trainor — “such a sweetheart. I love her. She is my sis for life” — wrote two Infinite Icon songs, which she also sings on. Co-producer Jesse Shatkin, who produced Sia’s “Chandelier” among many other things is “amazing,” while music video director Hannah Lux Davis is “such a badass.” The album takes inspiration from pop stars that made the mold — “I’ve always looked up to Madonna” — including those Hilton has been actual friends with: “I always loved Britney.”
The project is also influenced by Hilton’s longtime love of dance music, a relationship cultivated by attending many of the world’s greatest parties over the years. (“All my friends are like, begging me to go [to Burning Man], and I’m like, ‘Guys, I have an album coming out next week. I cannot be there,” she says when we speak during Burning Man week.) She is also, of course, a longtime DJ herself.
“My DJ career has definitely had a massive influence on me and my life and making this album,” she says. “Performing all around the world at music festivals, for thousands of people and being on stage and just really paying attention to what makes people move and how to create those unforgettable dancefloor moments — I wanted to bring that same energy into the album.” To that end, Infinite Icon‘s “Infinity” is pure fist-pumping Tomorrowland fare.
Other songs traverse more nuanced topics like her ADHD diagnosis, bad relationships, the love she says she’s now found with Reum and their two young children (son Phoenix is 19 months, daughter London will be one in November) the emptiness of fame and even death. These themes further the expansion of Hilton’s public image that started in 2020 with the release of her documentary, This Is Paris.
In it, she disclosed her experiences at Provo Canyon School, an involuntary residential center for young people where she was taken against her will in 1997, when she was 16. The mental and physical abuse she experienced there was revealed in the doc, which has been viewed 80 million times on YouTube alone. The film fell squarely into the broader public reassessment of the misogynistic and often abusive treatment many female celebrities (Britney Spears, Pamela Anderson, Janet Jackson, etc.) received from the media and culture at large in the Perez Hlton era.
Hilton went deeper into her story in her 2023 memoir, which an assistant hands out copies of after the mansion office album listening session. The book details adventures like the time she and photographer David LaChapelle snuck into her grandparents’ house for an impromptu photo shoot (the grandparents were asleep upstairs) — and thornier subjects, like how the release of a private sex tape against her will by an ex-partner derailed her rising career when she was 19 years old. (One might, for example, read the first half in one sitting on a Friday night in August.)
“That was just such a therapeutic experience,” Hilton says of the documentary, “delving into my life and really taking that time just to reflect on my life and everything I’d been through, and just seeing how strong I am, and resilient, and just what I’ve had to endure. Then with the book, it took it to the next level, where I even started going even deeper, and then through the music. So, yeah, I don’t think the album would have been as deep as it is if it wasn’t for doing the documentary and then that book.”
She’s got a few live shows behind the album lined up and says while her main focus is her family and her business empire she’d love to play Coachella (“that would be iconic”) and make music with Charli XCX. “I’m the original brat,” she says matter of factly.
“Every time I’ve spoken with [Charli],” she continues, “she’s like, ‘You’ve always been such an inspiration to my music.’ So I just think it just makes so much sense for us to do a song together.” Luckily, the few things that didn’t burn up in the fire included a notebook with ideas for her third album.
All in all, the impression one gets is that Paris Hilton is indeed — in a phrase she trademarked in 2022 — “sliving.” Given the intoxicating but also often toxic realm of celebrity that she emerged from, it’s easy to see how things could have gone differently for her. Instead, she’s got her family, a global business, and now, the album she’s spent nearly 20 years dreaming about. She’s sweet, and she seems happy.
“Being the blueprint for modern celebrity, and really redefining what it means and pioneering a new kind of celebrity, and being someone that blends fashion and media and business and pop culture into a powerful personal brand — I feel proud of that,” she says. “I love seeing so many people now who can follow in my footsteps and take that blueprint and be able to create their own brands and their own businesses and create a beautiful life to support themselves.”
It’s perhaps not the future even she’d dreamed for herself back when “Stars are Blind” was on the charts.
“It just makes me happy anytime I meet someone who says like, ‘Thank you so much. You’re the reason that I do what I do,’” she says. “Or, ‘If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be doing what I’m doing.’ Or, ‘Thank you so much for always being my role model.’ Growing up as a teenager and everything I went through, I never thought I would ever hear that. So it’s just been very validating to me.”
The top two of the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart remains the same, with Clean Bandit’s “Symphony” and Surf Curse’s “Disco” at Nos. 1 and 2, while Sabrina Carpenter’s “Taste” nears the top by jumping 9-3 on the ranking dated Sept. 7.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity from Aug. 26 to Sept. 1. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Symphony,” which features Zara Larsson, logs a second week at No. 1 after debuting at the top of the Aug. 31 tally. That’s as streams of the 2017 track continue to rise, accruing 1.5 million official U.S. streams in the week ending Aug. 29, up 84%, according to Luminate. (The song reached No. 10 on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart in 2017.)
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As mentioned in the article announcing the Aug. 31-dated TikTok Billboard Top 50, “Symphony” is driven on TikTok by a trend using a meme featuring colorful dolphins, often with captions that go against the lively photos and videos and take a darker tone. Larsson herself eventually used the meme in the background during one of her concerts as a nod to the trend.
Surf Curse’s “Disco” remains at No. 2 via a two-person trend, begetting yet another rise in streams to 2.8 million in the week ending Aug. 29 (up 67%).
Carpenter’s “Taste” sports a big gain at No. 3, up from its No. 9 debut Aug. 31 that occurred despite just three days of tracking following its Aug. 23 release. With a full week of data, it rises to No. 3, concurrent with its No. 2 debut on the Billboard Hot 100, as previously reported.
“Taste” benefits from a feature in which users can create a custom frame by using the song, as well as lip-synch clips and content reposting the song’s music video.
Overall, Carpenter sports three appearances on the latest TikTok Billboard Top 50. “Bed Chem” debuts at No. 18, while “Please Please Please,” which peaked at No. 2 in June, ranks at No. 36.
“Die With a Smile,” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars, and Alphaville’s “Forever Young” round out the top five, both reaching the region for the first time. The former, which debuted at No. 3 on the Hot 100 and currently appears at No. 6 on the multimetric survey, is largely driven by romance-themed uploads (homecoming proposals, edits of popular TV shows and movies, lip-synchs, etc.). “Forever Young,” No. 65 on the Hot 100 in 1988, is similarly buoyed by fictional character edits, plus clips reminiscing about the passage of time.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Kaytranada, Ravyn Lenae and Channel Tres brought serious swagger to The Late Show With Stephen Colbert while performing a two-track medley on Tuesday (Sept. 3).
The night’s musical performance started with Kaytra and a crew of dancers turning up the energy on stage before Lenae delivered her silky vocals on “Pressure,” the opening track from Kaytranada’s June album, Timeless. The dancers then drop it for the camera, before Tres bounds on stage to deliver his own Timeless collab, “Drip Sweat.”
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In a highlight, Kaytra comes out from behind the decks to do a choreographed dance alongside Tres and the dancers, drawing a cheer from the crowd.
The late-night guest spot comes ahead of the 15-date Timeless tour Kaytranada and Tres are embarking on later this month. The run starts in Vancouver, B.C., on Sept. 15, then hits venues across the U.S. and Canada before closing with a Nov. 15 performance at the Desert Air festival in Palm Springs, Calif.
“When the Kaytranada tour offer came it was just like, ‘Wow, this is exactly what I need right now,’ Tres recently told Billboard. “I was excited to go on tour by myself, but then I was like, ‘Nah, Kaytranada and I together on a tour is just going to be the biggest dance party of the year.’”
“[My team and I] are so locked in to capitalize on the things I’ve already done,” he continued. “My routine is better. Me and creative partner, we’ve gotten better. I’m open to learning, but I’m also coming with fire. I’ve been rehearsing, and I’m honing in on things I haven’t before. Even if it’s just a dance move I want to add to my repertoire. I’ve been watching a lot of Broadway shows like The Wiz. Now I’m walking around in the house, but I’m doing it in a Broadway fashion.”
Watch the Late Show performance below:
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After a four year hiatus, the DJ Awards are back.
A collection of DJs both famous and rising were recently announced as nominees in the awards’ nine music categories: house, Afro, techno, tech house, drum & bass, organic house, progressive house, breakthrough artist, live act and international DJ. Nominated artists include Peggy Gou, Martin Garrix, Blond:ish, Michael Bibi, Mochakk, Barry Can’t Swim, Francis Mercier, Rüfüs du Sol, Black Coffee and more.
See the complete list of genre nominees below. Voting for the awards is open to the public via the DJ Awards website.
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Beyond the genre awards, categories include a group of industry-focused awards, with the Ibiza Icon award being given as, the awards state, “a tribute to the legendary figures who have shaped Ibiza’s music scene, leaving an indelible mark on the island’s rich club culture and in our hearts.” The Ibiza Track of The Summer award will go to the song that most powerfully soundtracked the summer of 2024 on the island, and a number of awards will acknowledge achievements in the industry and live music space outside of Europe. These awards will be be voted for by dance industry execs from the Association For Electronic Music (AFEM).
The ceremony is set for Oct. 2 at the island’s Club Chinois. Tickets for the event go on sale Sept. 13, the same day that public voting closes. 2024 marks the 23rd year for the DJ Awards, with the ceremony founded in 1998 by Ibiza residents José Pascual and Lenny Krarup.
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The Awards are now under new ownership after being taken over earlier this year by Andy Grant, who recently told Mixmag that in 2024 “the most important outcome being to gain the respect of the global dance community as the new trusted guardians of this responsibility. Beyond that everything is on the table, and my vision is nothing short of positioning the DJ Awards alongside the Oscars and the Brit Awards in terms of scale, reach and recognition.”
2024 DJ Awards Music Categories & Nominees:
House
Gorgon City
Honey Dijon
Kerri Chandler
Sam Divine
Seth Troxler
Syreeta
TSHA
Trance
Armin van Buuren
Astrix
Dash Berlin
Infected Mushroom
Paul Van Dyk
Tiësto
Vini Vici
Techno
Amelie Lens
Charlotte de Witte
Indira Paganotto
Paco Osuna
Nico Moreno
Sara Landry
Sven Väth
Progressive House
ARTBAT
CamelPhat
Cristoph
Eli & Fur
Eric Prydz
Franky Wah
Hernán Cattáneo
Tale of Us
Organic House
Bedouin
BLOND:ISH
Jan Blomqvist
Monolink
Patrice Bäumel
Robag Wruhme
WhoMadeWho
Tech House
Jamie Jones
Joseph Capriati
Marco Carola
The Martinez Brothers
Michael Bibi
Mochakk
PAWSA
Solomun
Vintage Culture
Afro
Black Coffee
Francis Mercier
Kelvin Momo
KILIMANJARO
Kitty Amor
Major League DJz
Pablo Fierro
Themba
Live Act
Barry Can’t Swim
Ben Böhmer
Bicep
Fred Again..
Mathew Jonson
Róisín Murphy
Rüfüs du Sol
Drum & Bass
Bou
Chase & Status
Hedex
Nia Archives
Sub Focus
Wilkinson
The Riot Noise Breakthrough Artist
Archie Hamilton
Ben Sterling
Desiree
Fleur Shore
James Hype
Miss Monique
Sammy Virji
Wade
International DJ
Calvin Harris
David Guetta
Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike
Fisher
Martin Garrix
Peggy Gou
Swedish House Mafia
Just one day after declaring that Brat summer was dead (long live Brat summer), Charli XCX is already teasing something new. In a post on X on Instagram Tuesday (Sept. 3), Charli shared a cropped photo of two figures — one of which appears to be herself — wearing white tank tops that read “about […]
The former USSR might not be considered a musical hotbed, but a new compilation of rare music from the Soviet Union lifts the veil on the vibrant, dance-focused scene that existed there in the 1980s.
Synthesizing the Silk Roads: Uzbek Disco, Tajik Folktronica, Uyghur Rock & Crimean Tatar Jazz from 1980s Soviet Central Asia, offers 15 ’80s-era songs from the region, with the project made after deadstock vinyl was discovered at a Soviet-era vinyl plant in Uzbekistan capital of Tashkent.
This rarely heard music — including loads of funk and Moroder-adjacent disco — is out digitally this week and will be available in physical formats on Sept. 24, via Ostinato Records.
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The music contained on the compilation came to life as a function of world events. In 1941, Stalin ordered a mass evacuation as the Nazis invaded the USSR, with 16 million people boarding trains to Central Asia. Many of them landed in Tashkent, with this group including the engineers who, four years later, would found the Tashkent Gramplastinok factory.
The 15-track compilation is forged primarily of vinyl discovered at this plant, with groups from all over Soviet Central Asia — Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, the Crimean Peninsula and beyond — traveling to Tashkent to record music.
By the mid-’70s, the Soviet disco scene was in full swing, with Latvian DJ Hardijs Lediņš writing a widely read manifesto urging, the album’s liner notes recount, that “greater professionalism amongst musicians was necessary because ‘like mushrooms after the rain, like the rain after a hot day, that’s how discos are springing up today.’ Lediņš echoed the sentiment of many young people who believed these clubs should play more than music imported from the West, where disco was exploded after being born in the clubs of New York City.
“Recognizing the futility of banning disco clubs outright,” the liner notes explain, “the authorities, ever mindful of ideological control, opened dance spaces exclusively through Komsomols (state youth leagues), requiring partygoers to sit through a one-hour lecture on the Soviet worldview before the music dropped”
The U.S.-born genre became so popular in the USSR that by 1976, the Latvian capital of Riga hosted the first week-long USSR-wide disco festival, with artists flying in from across the region to perform. “Almost 200 disco clubs were soon registered with the local Komsomol in Moscow and 300 in Riga,” the liner notes continue, “and eventually, according to data pieced together during our research, about 20,000 public discos were attended by 30 million people a year across all 15 republics in the union.
With discos raking in money, “Dances were now allowing black market trading to fester. ‘Western clothes and other hard-to-get items—vinyl, jeans, foreign cigarettes—were literally being sold under the table. Discos had become a space for early alternative culture, as well as private commerce.’”
Meanwhile, a so-called “disco mafia” emerged in many Soviet cities including Tashkent, with these entities controlling “a lucrative business model with multiple revenue streams. Propaganda and ideology officials began accepting bribes to turn away from clubs indulging in ‘bourgeois’ extravagance or music viewed as ideologically adversarial.
“But the impact of this music went beyond just entertainment or cultural showcases,” the notes conclude. “From the opening of these clubs in the 1960s onwards, the political ranks drew from what historian Sergei Zhuk called ‘The Deep Purple Generation.’ Disco and rock in the Soviet Union played a not insignificant role in the USSR’s unraveling, steering youth leagues and, in turn, future leadership towards attitudes far removed from Soviet gospel.”
The Soviet Union was dissolved in 1991, with Synthesizing the Silk Roads offering a relic from this perhaps unlikely moment in music history.
This week in dance music: An all-star collection of French electronic artists including Jean-Michel Jarre, Breakbot, Busy P and Alan Braxe were announced as performers for the closing ceremony of the 2024 Paralympics Games in Paris; Chase & Status’ Stormzy collab “Backbone” continued its run at the top of the U.K. Official Singles Chart; we spoke with The Blessed Madonna about her forthcoming album and aspiring to be “a little shard of glass in the industry’s foot”; Charli XCX teased a new project; artists including Tokimonsta and Louie Vega offered free music in exchange for participating in democracy; we spoke with producer Clams Casino; Clean Bandit & Zara Larsson’s “Symphony” hit No. 1 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50; ADE 2024 expanded its program; and we talked to the CEO of Burning Man, which is happening this week, about the more than 100 other official Burning Man events that happen around the world.
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And of course, there’s the music. These are the best new dance projects of the week.
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Zedd, Telos
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There’s a barrage of different styles and influences on Zedd’s new album, Telos, but on every single one of the 10 tracks, you can hear the great ambition embedded in the project, and also the achievement of its lofty aspirations. The long-awaited follow-up to the producer’s 2015 sophomore album, True Colors — which along with his 2012 debut Clarity set him up as a wunderkind of the EDM era, with a special dexterity in that genre’s pop impulses that delivered a string of hits to the Hot 100 — Telos finds the artist born Anton Zaslavski flexing every one of his musical muscles. The project shows off his classical training and good taste across productions that span classical, jazz, cinematic maximalism, Middle Eastern sounds and electronic party music that nods to the EDM origins of Zaslavski’s career, but evolves his sound into a sophisticated, nuanced (but yes, still danceable) place.
The album features an all-star collection of collaborators, including Bea Miller, who’s on both lead single “Out of Time” and the hooky, punchy “Tangerine Rays”; John Mayer, who adds his singular laidback cool to the jazz fusion influenced “Automatic Yes”; stadium rock stars Muse, who lend operatic grandiosity to the album-closing, spiritual “Epos”; and even Jeff Buckley, who Zaslavski reinterprets with style and grace on his version of the late artist’s 1994 “Dream Brother,” which leans into Radiohead territory without being reductive and hits hard with its string-drenched drops. Altogether, Telos just doesn’t sound like anything else produced recently in the electronic world or, arguably, beyond.
But the artist explains the guiding principles here best, with Zaslavski saying that the Greek word “telos” has multiple meanings, one of them being “accomplishment” or “completion of human art. I’ve always dreamed of creating an album that, 30 years on, I can look back and be incredibly proud of. That will be just as amazing then as it is right now, because it’s not based on trends or sound design that might fall off — it’s based on music, just like the albums that shaped me growing up that I still adore to this day. With Telos, I created something I didn’t think I was capable of — it just took a bit of time to get there.”
Zedd soon to bring the album to a live format with a fall North American tour that includes shows at the L.A. State Historic Park, Bill Graham Civic Auditorium and Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Tycho, Infinite Health
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Few producers capture the heady, sun-soaked psychedelia of NorCal as well as Tycho, who again takes us up the coast and into the redwoods with his seventh studio album, Infinite Health. The project is classic Tycho, offering tracks that are clean yet emotive and sophisticated while still getting the blood pumping, simultaneously capturing brightness and melancholy through often hazy, lo-fi IDM that contains thematic multitudes.
“‘Green’ and ‘Devices’ represent the conceptual bookends of the…album,” the artist Scott Hansen writes. “‘Green’ is an elegy to my childhood home, a once-rural town on the outskirts of Sacramento where I spent my youth forging a deep connection with nature. ‘Devices’ represents the struggle to stay connected to nature and our own humanity in the modern world. I wanted to illustrate this tension with a set of sonically contrasting songs.” The album is out via Mom + Pop Records in the U.S and through Ninja Tune in the rest of the world, and the 27-date Infinite Health tour will take Hansen across North America this fall.
Swedish House Mafia & Alicia Keys, “Finally”
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Having woven their edit of Kings of Tomorrow classic into their sets for years now, it follows that Swedish House Mafia have now fully revamped the 2001 house anthem, bringing in none other than Alicia Keys for vocals and trading the brightly bumping bassline, hi-hat and warm keyboards of the original for a much bigger and more urgent swirl of strings. The track extends the XXL house vibe of their 2022 album Paradise Again, and nods to that album’s ambition to lean harder into the genre that the trio were so influenced by that they in fact name themselves after it.
Jon Hopkins, “part ii – palace/illusion“
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Following his 2021 album Music For Psychedelic Therapy (the intention of which was stated right there in the title), English maestro Jon Hopkins returns with an album so deep and soothing that it could very well be used for the same purpose. “Designed,” Hopkins says, “to reconnect you to the deepest part of yourself,” Ritual is subtle, deep and often profound, with the project first sparking to life in 2022 when Hopkins was commissioned to work on an immersive experience, Dreammachine, that set the celestial sonic and visual aesthetic for the eight-track Ritual. The album is out now on Domino Records.
Caribou, “Come Find Me”
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Other DJs might party harder, but is anyone having more fun that Caribou? The artist brings the playfulness that’s always defined the Canadian artist’s visual aesthetic to the video for his latest, “Come Find Me,” which finds a dancer in a tracksuit and oversized Snaith mask dancing alone in settings that include the bus, a city sidewalk and an open field. (Watch for a cameo from Snaith himself at the end.) The track itself is warm, gently building IDM — in other words, classic Caribou — and comes from the artist’s sixth studio album, Honey, coming Oct. 4 on Merge Records.
Andy C & Becky Hill, “Indestructable”
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As drum ‘n’ bass extends its position on the U.K. charts, two of the genre’s key players link for the predictably walloping “Indestructible,” which gets an official release today on Astralwerks but dates back almost ten years, when Andy C first included an early version in his sets. With Hill possessing one of the defining voices of the genre and Andy C being one of its architects, the result is an acutely powerful meeting of the mninds, with Hill’s lyrics pointing to the success of genre itself.
“’How did we end up here, look how far we’ve come,’ say it all,” Andy C says. “It sums up my relationship with DnB, how popular the genre is right now as well as how huge Becky’s career is. It’s just so magical.”
With just a month and a half before the 2024 edition of ADE, organizers have announced a new slew of names for the 2024 program.
Joining the lineup for the annual dance music industry conference in Amsterdam are SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton, who will take part in a conversation with Dutch producer Mau P to talk about the producer’s success and the role SoundCloud has played in supporting him and other artists.
Representatives from Bandcamp are joining the program for a session that will focus on the company’s artist payment model, maximizing revenue in a challenging landscape and why fan engagement and diversified income streams are important for the success of artists.
Also new to the program is a conversation with German producer Ellen Allien and Dimitri Hegemann, the founder of the nightclub and record label Tresor Berlin, who will talk about the UNESCO cultural heritage designation of the Berlin techno scene. Talks from artists including Don Diablo and Laidback Luke, Smallgod, Jaguar, Miss Nine and OVO Sound’s Naomi Sharon and her manager Jasper ‘Djosa’ Cremers will also be featured at the event. Representatives from Warner Music, Hospital Records, Glastonbury, ID&T, Primary Talent, SiriusXM and more have all also been newly added to the program.
This group joins already announced participants including Empire president Tina Davis, Spotify’s head of music for Sub-Saharan Africa Phiona Okumu, Grimes’ manager Daouda Leonard, Believe’s global head of music Romain Vivien and TuneCore CEO Andreea Gleeson. Previously announced speakers include Timbaland, Martin Garrix, Laurent Garnier, music executive Grace Ladoja and representatives from fabric London, Armada Music, WME and UTA.
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Additional programming includes Australia House, an initiative from Sounds Australia, an organization that helps Australian artists develop their careers abroad. For the duration of ADE, Australia House will take over the city’s Box Sociaal cafe to host execs from around the world for morning coffee, lunch and dinner and to present events by Australian artists on Oct. 16-17.
ADE 2024 will take place at locations throughout Amsterdam and again be divided into Lab and Pro programming, with Lab content tailored for people trying to get into or just starting out in the industry and Pro programming designed for established managers, label execs, artists, streamers, marketers, promoters and more.
The conference also offers consumer-facing events, with last year’s musical offerings happening in more than 200 venues around the city.
