First Spin: The Week’s Best New Dance Tracks From Sofi Tukker, TEED, Flume, Hardwell & More
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This week in dance music: Hardwell performed his big comeback show at Ultra Music Festival in Miami and, naturally, immediately followed that by announcing a world tour. Swedish House Mafia got in on the Ultra fun by revealing that they’ll headline the festival next year, and we broke down the 10 reasons why this year’s event marked a return to form for the fest. Meanwhile, Above & Beyond announced that they’ll celebrate the 500th episode of their Group Therapy radio show with an October show in Los Angeles. Stockholm’s Pophouse Entertainment announced that it’s acquired the right to the Swedish House Mafia catalog, Tampa’s Sunset Music Festival announced the addition of Alesso, John Summit and more to its Memorial Day Weekend event, and the Do Lab announced the lineups for its stage at Coachella.
“More?” you say. Okay. Charli XCX saw her track “Beg for You” hit the top of Dance/Electronic Songs, we spoke with Ólafur Arnalds about his surprise Grammy nomination, with Marshmello about his also surprise Grammy nomination, with Ten City about their historic nomination and with Richie Hawtin about his sublime new project with Chilly Gonzales.
More from Billboard
“Even more?” you say. Definitely. Let’s dig into the best new dance music of the week.
Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, “Blood in the Snow”
This week is an eventful one for Orlando Higginbottom, the U.K. producer known as Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs. Ahead of Sunday’s Grammy Awards, for which his Bonobo collaboration “Heartbreak” is nominated for best electronic/dance recording, he has announced a new album When The Lights Go. It’s his first LP in 10 years (though to be fair, his 2012 LP Trouble is timeless in this writer’s ears). Lead single “Blood in the Snow” is more ballad than banger. Soft and subtle, its sparse production allows Higginbottom’s distinct voice and wistful harmonies to fill the spotlight over rippling synths, icy cymbals and a barely-there beat. “This song,” Higginbottom says, “is about melting glaciers and wanting a daughter, where to put love in this tailspin.” — KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Hardwell, “Into the Unknown”
Who’s in the mood for drama? Hardwell is back, and he is serving high tension with his first original singles since 2019. If you weren’t there for his big Ultra Music Festival return, this is your chance to experience the deep, thumping darkness that is the Dutch man’s new chapter. And even if you were there, listening to these tunes without the screams of thousands in your ear welcomes a more minimalist experience. It starts with the monologue track “Broken Mirror” that served as his set opener this past Sunday, then moves to “Into the Unknown,” which played immediately after. Out now on his own Revealed Recordings, this is definitely Hardwell like you’ve never heard him before. – KAT BEIN
Sofi Tukker, “Kakee”
And now for something a little more…moist. Sofi Tukker are back with a brilliant dose of guitar funk and machine drum groove. “Kakee” is a tasty little ditty that’s as nasty as it sounds. “‘Kakee’ is an ode to the persimmon and the power of the p–sy,” the duo writes on YouTube. “May this video inspire you to turn yourself on with whatever does it for you.” “Kakee” is the first single from the duo’s forthcoming sophomore album Wet Tennis, out April 29 via Ultra Records. The video was filmed in humid Hawaii, and it’s about as fun, and hot, as it gets. – K. Bein
Barry Can’t Swim feat. Taite Imogen, “God is the Space Between Us”
After debuting on Ninja Tune’s Technicolour imprint last year with Anish Kumar collaboration “Blackpool Boulevard,” Barry Can’t Swim – one of Billboard’s 10 dance artists to watch in 2022 – has shared his first solo single for the label, “God is the Space Between Us,” ahead of a new EP, More Content (out June 24). A step away from Barry’s usual sun-kissed, jazzy house fare, this track is spiritually heavier, more melancholy and introspective, with wintry breakbeats and snow-crunching percussion while singer Taite Imogen’s voice cuts through the production like sharp gusts of wind.
Barry calls “God Is the Space Between Us” a continuation of his 2021 track “Lone Raver,” having written both during the isolation of lockdown. A more direct inspiration for the song, he adds, is a quote from the 1995 film Before Sunrise: “You know I believe if there’s any kind of God, it wouldn’t be in any of us. Not you or me, but just, this little space in between.” Says Barry: “I love that quote. I think what she’s saying is that God and love isn’t something you can own or acquire, but something that exists in empty space that connects people. It’s always been there, and we tap in and out of it at various points in our lives. That was something I really wanted to articulate with the sound of this song”. — K.R.
Flume feat. Caroline Polachek, “Sirens”
All hail the return of the mighty Flume. This time, the Aussie king is joined by his friends Caroline Polachek and Danny L. Harle on a haunting, trudging piece of ghostly sonics that is somehow delicate and horrifying all at once. “I was living by myself in London, and it was the darkest time in the pandemic,” Polachek says. “I was really going through it, feeling so small, unable to control anything in the world, and the lyric ‘sirens’ was in reference to the constant ambulances I was hearing.”
“Caroline and I had known each other for years, but she’d just moved to L.A. and we bumped into each other living down the street,” Flume says. “We started playing weekly games of Magic: The Gathering with A.G. Cook and a few friends. We started doing a session, and Danny L Harle showed me a voice note from Caroline with some very early stages of vocals. I loved it and went back in on it during the pandemic.”
“Sirens” is the second single from a forthcoming Flume album, Palaces, due out May 20 and featuring collabs with Damon Albarn, Vergen Maria, Oklou and Kučka. – K. Bein
Confidence Man, “Luvin U is Easy”
“Luvin U is Easy,” the new song from Australian group Confidence Man’s second album Tilt (out now on I Oh You), is the type of song that will make you fall in love with your partner all over again. It’s a full-on house music serenade: among the buoyant bassline, swirling synth chords and bright piano keys, frontwoman Janet Planet delivers lyrical nuggets that hit the sweet spot between between adoring someone and being adored: “Don’t wait for me in heaven, too beautiful for that/ If you do right by me, I’ll do you right back.” The chorus, in which she sings of feeling their love grow by the day, brims with an infectiously puppy-love-type energy punctuated by punches of “yeah!” throughout. “It feels so real,” Janet sings, as if such a love could only be a dream. Who says the honeymoon period has to end? — K.R.
Liquid Stranger, “LOW”
In this era of anxiety, it’s important to partake in life’s simple pleasures, like dropping it down low. Turn the latest from Swedish bass don Liquid Stranger all the up and do just that, letting the world rhythms and sinewy bass reverberate through your brain like sonic Ativan. The track is the third single from the producer’s forthcoming LP, B A L A N C E. “When I made ‘LOW,’ I wanted to create something unique in the soundscape,” says the producer. “This has been one of my personal favorite songs to play out on the B A L A N C E Tour because of the energy it’s created on the dancefloor, it just hits.” Find an opportunity to let it hit you during upcoming Liquid Stranger tour stops including Sunset Music Festival, Summer Camp, Imagine Festival, Elements, and the second edition of his own flagship festival, WAKAAN Music Festival, happening this September in Arkanas. — KATIE BAIN
