This week in dance music: Skrillex, Flowdan, Fred again.. and Kylie Minogue all won dance Grammys, demonstrating the efficacy of the awards’ new pop dance category, Elements 2024 released a phase one lineup lead by Illenium, Slander, Liquid Stranger, Sophie Ellis-Bextor enlisted Pnau for a remix of her viral hit “Murder On The Danceflloor,” we shared exclusive Countdown 2024 sets and Tiësto dropped out of his Super Bowl in-game DJ gig this weekend and was swiftly replaced by Kaskade.
And also, these were the best new dance tracks of the week.
Anyma, “Pictures Of You”
Matteo Milleri, who is one half of Tale of Us and also makes music as Anyma, today drops “Pictures Of You,” a three-minute slice of music that very much falls in the dark, machinistic but also somehow very emotive realm that Tale Of Us has carved out and which Anyma’s work expands upon. The track is out via Tale Of Us’ Afterlife Records and comes ahead of Anyma plays at Ultra Music Festival in Miami next month and at Coachella in April.
Shygirl, Club Shy
Cool, pulsing, sophisticated and often ecstatic, Shygirl’s new Club Shy EP is of course literally music for the club, but the title also has a figurative quality, with the English artist packing this metaphorical venue with collaborators including Boys Noize (who delivers on the previously released “tell me”), along with Empress Of, SG Lewis, Kingdom, Cosha and Lola Zouaï. Each artists brings their own respective flavor, but the six-track project is ultimately lead by Shygirl’s strobe-lit vision. The project is out via Because Music.
Above & Beyond feat. Zoe Johnson, “Crazy Love”
Two years after debuting the song in front of 20,000 fans at a show in Los Angeles, Above & Beyond’s “Crazy Love” gets an official release via Anjunabeats. The song is everything there is to love about Above & Beyond compressed into four minutes, with the trio building the same type of soaring trance production that have made them favorites for nearly 25 years years and infusing it with the same depth of a emotion that’s allowed the the guys to officially title their their radio show and live sets “group therapy.” The not-so-secret weapon on “Crazy Love” is Zoë Johnston, a longtime collaborator who’s voice brings the song to another level of tearjerk impact.
Louis the Child feat. Memba, “I’m Not Giving Up”
The gentlemen of Louis The Child dip their toes into the pop punk revival with emo-evoking vocals that juxtapose against a thick synth build and breakdown that, the pair say, “feels very signature to us, it’s big and hits you like a ton of bricks.” A collab with New York City-based duo Memba — who LTC calls “some of the most talented producers we’ve ever worked with” — “I’m Not Giving Up” is out on Interscope Records.
DJ Minx, “Taking It Back”
Detroit icon DJ Minx returns to Diplo’s Higher Ground label with “Taking It Back,” a sonic and lyrical crash course on the back in the day dance underground. With deadpan delivery, Minx declares that “we’re taking it back to the old school” before going on about “techno and house under one roof, underground raves, ground rules, acid house, bold moves, no cell phones, we were just cool” over a tough, stuttering synth line. Minx will play Detroit’s Movement festival in May and other summer stops in Portugal and the U.K.