Top 2024 (Part 4)
10-6. This group is for the gays!
Bouffant Bouffant - ‘Colinda’ [Nervous]
The first of two tracks on this list taken from The Carry Nation’s second Full Tilt Carry compilation, ‘Colinda’ was one of the tunes I played the most this year, fitting into all sorts of settings and always taking people with it. I wouldn’t call it an entirely straightforward banger, though. Sure, the bongos and congas instil an ostensibly carnival atmosphere right from the start, as do the almost comically big fanfare stabs. But the overall mood established by the harmonies is more complex than that, and the carefully controlled arrangement consistently refuses to provide an easy pay-off: in fact it’s a long arc that keeps building and building until the final release 5 minutes in, and even then the release is not exactly a gratifying ‘drop’. We could call it GAY TENSION MUSIC if we really wanted to, but basically it’s party music for grown-ups, and it also sounds totally like Brett’s hometown of New Orleans.
(Brett also just blessed us with more of the same on his remix of Jacob Meehan & Physical Therapy ‘Deeesire’.)
ELO - ‘The Feeling When’ [Nervous]
The other track I played a lot from Full Tilt Carry Vol. 2 was this one by ELO aka Leeon, which I first heard Prosumer playing at Horst back in May. A gay acid + poppers fantasy, it opens with a dark bassline, rustling hihats and a dreamlike spoken monologue (taken from the book Deep Sniff) that runs through the whole arrangement. The energy builds and mutates as the voice conjures a mental picture of that “momentary world/the few seconds of rush” and connects the experience to its earlier life: “every day brought an opportunity for a different version of me/sometimes I think about that”. It’s queer, it’s intense, it’s mysterious: GAY TENSION MUSIC par excellence. And once the rush is over, you feel ready for the next one.
Julio Victoria - ‘Peninsula (ELO Remix)’ [Bandcamp]
I have to include this ELO remix as well since it’s such a good example of someone taking the individual elements of an existing track and flipping them into something new. The bassline on the original ‘Peninsula’ is reborn as a sparkling acid motif, set off by the strings (plucked and sustained), dramatic synth riff and big dubby pads in the background. Is it electro? Italo? Cold wave? It sounds like a modern amalgamation of all of them, and it’s glorious.
Hannah Holland - The Visitor OST [Spotlight]
Reviewed in full here.
This year, from this film soundtrack, I played out ‘The Screamer’, ‘Glass Lin’ , ‘Japonica’ and the beats mix of ‘Oilpella’, each providing its own curious mood on the dancefloor. The one I wanted to play but haven’t yet found the right moment for is ‘Animal’ — it’s fast and doesn’t sound so good slowed down. I’ll get there one day.
Hannah had a great year, also releasing an EP on Super Rhythm Trax (‘Roller’ was the one I played and heard out the most) and, just in the past couple of weeks, remixes of Fi McCluskey (‘Die Young’) and The Blessed Madonna feat. Kylie (‘Edge Of Saturday Night’). Now that’s what I call range.
Love Letters - ‘Let The Bass Go (Mike Servito’s 313 Bass Mix)’ [Interdimensional Transmissions]
Mike Servito’s remixes are always so satisfying to play, principally because they contain exactly what I imagine he himself looks for as a DJ: long intros, fine-tuned arrangements, each individual element cutting through the mix, primed to interact with whatever other track is playing out or in. His remix of ‘Let The Bass Go’ is no exception, a textbook electro bass tune on an 8 bar schedule running like clockwork. It’s not flashy, there are no blatant build-ups or drops, but every single moment hits exactly as intended, and that freaky synth riff never lets up. (I also often reached for Love Letters’ original acid stomper ‘Tore’ on the same EP.)
Chico Blanco - Forever 21 (Vol. 2) EP [Mareo]
Another year, another top tunes list with Chico Blanco in it. From ‘tyy’ in 2022 (still playing it btw) to the first volume of Forever 21 in 2023 (reviewed here), Chico’s been a fixture in my sets and in my headphones, soundtracking both euphoric dancefloors and solitary late night journeys.
After Forever 21 (Vol. 1) saw him break out of his angst-of-not-forgetting and dive into hedonism (I guess, in fact, to forget), Vol. 2 sees him come out the other side into a more adult kind of peace. Indeed, the first track is named ‘Okey’, a driving big-room house banger that nonetheless strikes a reflective, inward-looking note. The break, and in particular that moment of silence before the drop, reveal a maturity in Chico’s production that can be heard across the whole EP.
The other tune you could describe as ‘club’ is ‘Todos Los Dias’, though it’s about as mellow as a club tune comes. Playing it during my last set at Pbar was a year highlight (reviewed here). The instrumental ‘SOLO... >.<’ sounds like an Early Day Miners outtake; ‘Mayor Q Ayer’, meanwhile, a nostalgic love song in fractured reggaeton, with Chico sounding uncertain about where he stands but not exactly bothered either: “I can’t promise you anything”.
‘Haz Lo Que Quieras’ acts as an integration of the pop and club leanings of both EPs, its atmospheric vocal first half — all about understanding and moving on — leading into an expressionistic 2-step instrumental second half.
Yo voy a correr porque yo sé que nadie me espera
Siguiendo pa'lante para ver a dónde me lleva
I can’t wait to see either.
oof cant edit or delete to fix the typos, i am ok with it. context should be more than enough, but it does detract from my narrative image.
i had a similar reaction to the first time i hear prosumer deliver a set as well - was fucking lovely btw. it just had this kind of precision not often heard. it demonstrated both intent as well as simply prowess of the artist / performer themself. it was love. it was lovely. and lives in memory like proust's madeleine.
READ AT YOUR OWN PERIL THIS TOOK ON SOMEWHAT OF AN OP-ED/LIVEJOURNAL/RIVERRUN* ok ok ok, imma let you own the "Gay Tension Music" as a the genre nomme de guerre but this emotion SPECIFICALLY is one of my fav's , and thus warrants further dissection by me: the joke explainer. however today i will be: the insistent upon stating out loud the things we all have previously deduced in our own minds but again, I insist, and so it must be said out loud (or digitally typed for all). Its like if you open the instruction manual to assemble complciated and step 1 is "Open the box" Yes yes yes, you understand now right? Good, lets fuckin go:
Soooooo haha! bit of a game but the above .... maaaaaaybe could be a literary version of the emotion that Gay Tension Music is so perfectly describing.
...I sense disbelief?
Ok its not, but i was hoping i could save myself a lil bit from the above. Good eye, you are indeed clever.
Ok enough around the hedges, lets get into the bramble: UN-RESOLVED THEMATIC REPITITION. Fucking love this stuff. Its like peanut butter. Its the nectar of the gods. Its EDGING me. I am wound up. Give me resolution, give me a kernal of truth. Tell me something objectively true i dont know! horn stab, thematic musical idea starts again or not? lets just stay here. i love the longing. i love the sense of "expectation" like im going to get the treat? like hallway to the door I eventually open WILL exist... it just might not be within the confines of this 6 minute musical selection.
its equivalent to when you, a wonderful intelligent artistic DJ, cuts the low end out. And the music reaches a point and the crowd starts nodding "yes, this DJ will RETURN those frequencies to the speaker outputs, and my body - the song approaches the point hwere this happens"
See me? I like to make em wait at this point. But only after i established the relationship wherein i DO provide at expected point. But later in the later night, it changes... I change. I am interested in the power dynamics established, and I want to flex that control over you. So at one point, unexpectedly, I dont bring the subs back in when most expected.
GAY TENSION MUSIC?
Ok, I'm in to it. Its not so much a musical genre as much it is an aesthetic practice. Like ascetism. Or stoicism. its an ethos.
*clever jame joyce refernce
I'm obsessed with this too, Chris, and you put it into words much better than I ever could. Thank you! I love the analogy to the DJ at work too, that having earnt the audience's trust you can then play with it. That's a huge part of the whole thing for me.
GAY TENSION MUSIC as aesthetic practice is basically where I'm at. Glad you're with me.
YES! the trust of the audience and then the meta game / interaction with the dance floor that follow truly IS "the dance" - its that point you strive to reach where we now converse with each other, we ebb and flow and respond and interact. it really is magic. i long for those hours in the booth always.