KAVINSKY NIGHTCALL

I haven't yet seen Drive, but if some of the music blasting out of the essences of the by-mouth reviews and praise of that film is anything to go by, it's safe to say that it'd be a good idea to go and see it. And of the music, the sound that seems to be in the air at the moment permeating the brain of anybody/everybody who went to see the film is the distinctly brilliant 'Nightcall' by Kavinsky.

Real name Vincent Belorgey, Kavinsky is one of the children of the Parisian electro house family, having toured with the likes of Daft Punk, Justice and The Rapture, delivering high energy tunes based on that 2005-7 fuzzy electronic aesthetic. And that's not everyone. Aside from being mates with one of my favourite French artists, Mr. Oizo, he's also called upon the talents of fellow electro-honeymooner Lovefoxxx (of CSS) to lend her lovely vocal stylings to the creeping cat of a track that is 'Nightcall'.



And what a creeping cat this track is. If Kavinsky here is trying to evoke a kind of night feeling, of the dark air and rushing blank road orange streetlights, the quiet and cold if it all, then he has done it very very well. The slow house beat whisks you away like an urban dreamtime rowboat into a kind of 80s alternate reality where everything resounds with a kind of computerised nostalgia. The altered machine-like voice offset against Lovefoxxx's vocals is the perfect contrast. All I can say is that I love the tempo and I love the feel. It's the kind of thing that suits night much more than morning, like I said. Like a creeping night cat. And this song, by the way, comes from Kavinsky's 7-song 2010 EP, Nightcall.

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• Listen to more Kavinsky on his SoundCloud
• Or Myspace
• And here is Kavinsky on Bandcamp
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NO ARTIFICIAL COLOURS IN THE DEEP

Completely loving this sound at the moment I could just sink in sublime and explore these super melodies like a scuba diver in some coral or the deepest waters man I love it. It's house (House) but not as it has always been. This is No Articifical Colours.

Laden with heaps of groove, the song below 'In The Deep' is but a mere taster of their beat-driven sensibilities. When not being No Artificial Colours, the two people that make it up are known in the real world as Ryan Ellis (23) and Lewis Wright (26). Both relatively young, to an old tree or the earth perhaps, they started making music when they started playing the same nights ("We should stop meeting like this" - that kind of thing), after which they realised their musical tastes were pretty in synch. With a debut EP, Welcome To The Jungle, out at the beginning of this year, they have another one out tomorrow but technically today (25th October) which is called Street Knowledge.

'In The Deep' is actually not on the EP but is a great song nonetheless. Perfect for night time. And it got put up only a few hours ago too.



The groove is created by the simplest of things, things which take a very fine-tuned ear to figure out sometimes - there's just that extra tap on the hi-hat at the end of each bar that is the equivalent of a spring in someone's step. Not that you see someone walking down the road looking particularly happy and say "Wow they sure are grooving today" - not at all, but you must understand what I mean. The sample is unidentifiable which in my mind makes it better.

It's house, it's deep, there are some modulating synths and samples popping up like friendly ghosts, and there is a progression towards a final segment that adds in yet more depth. Perfect for chilling, but perfect for dancing too. Like chicken - perfect for a salad, but also great for a ceylon curry. But please don't think I equate these two things together; it's just an analogy.

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You can catch No Artificial Colours playing FABRIC on 6th November
• Listen to much more No Artificial Colours on SoundCloud
• Also you should follow them on Twitter
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DAISUKE TANABE GHOST & CUCULUS CANORUS

Always up for something new; here is something new. For me anyway. For you perhaps not. If it is new, all the better. These are the lovely jazztronic glitchive triphopular sounds of Japanese producer, Daisuke Tanabe. Hailing from Chiba with an art degree and a pretty clear vision of the sound he would be crafting, Daisuke Tanabe has been going for a while, living and working in London for a while before settling back in Japan - Tokyo to be exact - to make beautiful beautiful music. He comes from a background working especially in the techno and breakbeat genre, explaining why his forays into the now with music taking elements of jazz, hiphop, folk and electronica have that hard dancey edge. You start with something, you can't get away from it. But in Daisuke's case, it doesn't seem to be a problem whatsoever.

Let's start with the irreverently chilled 'Ghost' (below). It's a handsome shard of a song, containing all the parts of Four Tet glitchdom you've ever loved. This edgy throwing out and pulling back of sounds, as if constantly casting out a line, as in fishing line - the fluidity of the song and the nearly wind-shook electro bells running through give a totally nature-inspired feel to the sound.

Add this with some cute major scale synth sounds and you have yourself a pretty trippy number with a slow nearly-disappeared beat. To beef the song up, he adds some thin cymbals to crash lightly over everything, as the ongoing ringing clacking twisting ghost beat grasshoppers staccato to the end.



See what I mean?

But you get something a little different with the much more offbeat trip-hop tripstyles of the jazz-electro-glitchfunk of 'Cuculus Canorus' (below). It starts with a totally stripped down beat, bitcrushed moderately to give it an 8bit feel in all its swagger-inducing glory. Here, everything gets a bit loungey, though with a killer clean bass foundation to stop you the chill from being just pure lounge and pure sit back. Again, we have a near-trademark cutesy melody in some high-pitched synth blips, and a breakdown featuring open-hi-hat sounds. Nothing wrong with sticking to your guns.



That SUB BASS at the end! Shudderingly ice cold.

So that is Daisuke Tanabe - no doubt you'll hear more from him one day. Hopefully he will be gracing the world with some new stuff very soon. But at the moment, there's so much on his SoundCloud that we're not exactly wanting. I urge you to listen to this man's creations whenever you feel like you need to. At work, walking places, or during an afternoon's worth of chill.

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• Please listen to more Daisuke Tanabe on his SoundCloud
• And here is his profile at Discogs
• But you may be more interested in following him on Twitter
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ISA GT LEYENDA VIDEO

Ever heard of Isa GT? I hadn't. And I feel like I've missed out on a little bit, because this kind of discovery is most certainly the good kind. I'm not about to not bother to feature this London-based Colombian and her new track 'Leyenda', which comes hot-launched like a foil airplane from upcoming EP Leyenda, due for release in November on Isa GT's very-own-brand-new label, Etoro Records.

I am fond of a good beat, and if there are ever any good beats to be had, you find these in the places you'd perhaps least expect them, which I guess is in traditional music. And this is kind of the first thing you notice about 'Leyenda' - its entirely based on this infectious minimal beat which doesn't explode with any ridiculous over-the-topness, and at most feeds you some grooving shakers and a nicely timed sub-bass kick that really gets to you in a good way. Without further description, here is the track:



It's a teleportive number, something hot and sweaty about it, something floorboards and mosquitos and sunshine, something flamboyantly intoxicated. It features chill with just that right amount of near-threatening potential to go somewhere unnecessary and insane - and it stays necessary and sane, and as a result, it's a good one. It's a mix of traditional flavours and electronic modern methods, a complete cocktail of spicy content and execution. Naturally, there'll be a review of the EP in its entirety here soon.

Also, if you're interested, 'Leyenda' is the alternative name of the classical guitar piece, 'Asturias' (or the prelude to Chants d'Espagne). You'll recognise it if you heard it. In fact, here it is played to utter perfection by classical guitar legend, Andrés Segovia.


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• Check out Isa GT's official site
• Her label, Etoro Records
• And Etoro's SoundCloud
• And why not follow her on Twitter?
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BLISSED OUT MIDNIGHT WITH †‡† RITUALZ

A quick one. Ritualz (or in the proper lexicon, †‡†) has teamed up with Blissed Out to produce the track 'Midnight'. I've written about Ritualz before - bizarre to some, terrible to others, amazing to a few - and this won't be the last time I do, either.



Typified by its dark ambience, the track pummels you with that 16th note hi-hat a little too much perhaps, but then again it's part of it. The thin snare is washed out and understated. The synth is distorted, pulled apart, and fed back into the air like the constant noise it is. I like Ritualz in general, but I don't know much by Blissed Out (and I now probably will get to know). Hopefully this is the start of a beautiful partnership. It's strange music, but what's the world without it?

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• Blissed Out on SoundCloud
• Ritualz is on SoundCloud
• (He does not use Myspace, but has an account)
• Blissed Out on Twitter
• Ritualz on Twitter
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