Soundclouds of the Underground: Dance Party from the Future Edition
ABOVE: LIDO
These days, music truly lives online, with an infinite number of websites dedicated to hosting tunes for the laptop-wielding masses. However, the web’s bottomless pit of blogs isn’t the only place to troll for mp3 treasures—some of the newest and most exciting (Internet-friendly) artists can be sought out via Soundcloud, the online stage that allows musicians to promote and distribute their music to fans and friends across the globe. In this weekly column, expert Internet sleuth Alex Chapman goes into the depths of the music-sharing site, in hopes of shedding light on emerging acts, as well as sharing some digital diamonds in the rough.
Club music culture is changing: what once was a night of top 40 jams with the occasional ’90s throwback and slightly eccentric remix is morphing into a far more varied palette. We’ve picked three jams that we’d like to hear on future-friendly dancefloors across the globe.
Jeremiah Meece, Schwarz, & Kilbourne: “The Special”
Who: Jeremiah, Schwarz, and Kilbourne are three of music’s most cutting-edge producers. Jersey’s Kilbourne creates aggressively fun club music, while Chicago’s Jeremiah (one half of ambient R&B-inclined collective The Drum) teeters between hard and soft genres. Baltimore’s Schwarz has worked with Lil B and recently released Already, a hard-hitting collaboration with Abdu Ali.
The Song: The talented trio make a perfect team on “The Special,” an eerie, shadowy banger that moves with a swiftness akin to a character from Kill Bill slicing through their enemies in the blink of an eye.
Current Project: Keep up with Kilbourne, Jeremiah, and Schwarz via their Facebook pages.
Alt-J: “Left Hand Free” (Lido Remix)
Who: Norway’s Lido has earned fans through both his high-profile remixes—see his take on Bank’s “Drowning” and his stripped down edit of Yung Lean’s “Gatorade“—and his original production, like his great work on Liz’s “Y2K“ and solo tracks.
The Song: Alt-J’s “Left Hand Free” maintains its grit thanks to Lido, who turns the track into something funky, club-friendly, and catchy, while never staying stagnant for too long.
Current Project: More on Lido on his Facebook page.
AGLORY: “Panther”
Who: Hailing from Paris, AGLORY makes music fitting for a haunted house/nightclub hybrid that doesn’t exist yet but probably should. The duo has plenty of ammo for the job: their twisted takes on Die Antwoord’s “This Is Why I’m Hot“ and A$AP Rocky and Gessaffelstein’s “In Distress“ are dark dancefloor heaters.
The Song: “My legs, my nose, my back, my toes, my arms, my eyes, my chest,” the vocal sample repeats in a loop, anchoring AGLORY’s steamy beat and its industrial soundscape. The result is what one commenter describes as “pure sex”—a thick, dirty beat that’s minimal in materials and large in scale.
Current Project: More on the guys via their Facebook page.
Soundclouds of the Underground runs every Thursday. For more, click here.
