Electric Feels: Our fave new electronic tunes this week

G’day m8s, welcome to another spick-and-span clean addition of Electric Feels – a recap of the week just gone in the realm of electronic music. This week was rather huge for the Australian electronic scene, with Jagwar Ma dropping their long-awaited second album amongst exciting extended plays by LANKS and triple j hostess, producer and DJ KLP. The international side of things was a little quieter however, especially in comparison to the past few weeks. That being said, Zeds Dead returned with a new curveball of an album that is sure to go down a treat later on in the year when they hit Australian shores for the HARD Presents tour. JAUZ and San Holo also teamed up for what’s set to be one of the biggest electronic collaborations of the year and on the topic of heavy, international trap don UZ casually teamed up with our home-grown hero Oski for a track on his latest EP Kid Chrome. Then, of course, came the two new edits from Kaytranada, a bouncy new track from NLV Records lord Swick and an extremely under-rated new cut from George Maple. Here’s our tips for the best electronic tracks of the week.

King IV - No One

The phrase “one of the most exciting debuts of the year” gets thrown around quite a lot in music journalism, but that’s not going to stop me saying that King IV’s debut track No One is one of the most exciting debut singles I have heard all year. Emerging from the Melbourne underground, No One is a dark and brooding slice of electro-pop that shines with its clean mix-down and polished feel. The whispering and enchanting vocals of King IV works extremely well with the track’s menacing production, which sports punching 808s, echoing percussion and some plucking melodies which craftily hover out of the limelight in favour of that stellar vocal line. The track is the first from her forthcoming EP (out early next year), which could prove to be an early winner if she keeps up the energy from her debut.

Third Floor - Can't Do This Alone

Third Floor is one of Sydney’s most promising electronic outfits, catching our attention with a four-part audio / visual EP earlier this year that blended laid-back house beats with a haunting visual accompaniment. His newest track Can’t Do This Alone carries on the excitement that arrived with his earlier releases, delighting with another chilled-out, funky house production that could easily set Third Floor up as 2017’s Running Touch. Opening with a clicking bass line, Can’t Do This Alone twinkles with its captivating vocal line, which soars above a care-free house production that could easily be confused with a restrained production from house heavyweight ZHU. Whilst 2016 saw the producer leave his mark with shows alongside Roland Tings and Rainbow Chan, I’m excited to see where 2017 takes the producer – especially if he continues to release music to this calibre.

Favulous - G I R L feat. DiRTY RADiO

Moving away from Australia for a quick moment is Favulous, an LA-based producer who originally has impressed with flips of Disclosure and Mija. His newest track seems him team up with Young Franco collaborators DiRTY RADiO for a disco-infused new original G I R L, which sees the producer release on the recently-killing-it Majestic Casual Records. G I R L is pumped full of that lively disco-house feel, with the guest vocalists opening up the track with a smooth, R&B-tinged vocal line that draws you in until the track’s vivacious breakdown hits. It’s got all the good stuff that I saw in early Disclosure work even to the point of DiRTY RADiO sounding a touch like Sam Smith on Latch, so let’s hope a similar career trajectory occurs for Favulous like the UK house brothers.

Polographia - Feels Alright feat. Looks Fade

I’m a bit late on this one, but Polographia are a bloody great duo who have been doing some bloody great things for the past half-a-dozen months so I’m going to include them anyway. The long-time Sweat It Out kids have returned for this year’s Friends EP (which is out this week), celebrating the EP’s release with a brand new track taken from the EP, featuring pysch-pop outfit Looks Fade. Entitled Feels Alright, the track really picks up on the light, summery sound Polographia have been championing for a very long time now, most recently with July’s Winston Surfshirt-featuring Sly. It’s got all the good stuff we’ve come to love from Polographia, whether it be the swirling piano melodies, the light, breezing vocals or that fresh and bouncy deep synth line. It’s got a touch of R&B to it too, which Polographia says stems from their inspiration of “corny 90s R&B love ballads”, just a little more funked up.

Boys Noize - Midnight (Boys Noize & Mr Oizo Handbraekes Remix)

This isn’t an Electric Feels playlist without those good ol’ bangers and what better way to 0 – 100 your week’s start with a new remix from Boys Noize and Ed Banger puppet maestro Mr Oizo. In what could possibly be the relaunching of their electronic super duo alias Handbraekes, the two esteemed house producers have re-collaborated to remix Boys Noize’s Midnight, taken from this year’s Mayday album. Whilst their recent collaboration on Mr Oizo’s All Wet LP was quite clean and polished, their Midnight remix is heavy and dirty, punching with onslaughts of bass and walls of synth that are well-suited to be played out early in the AM. In what’s said to be the reforming of their long-time project – which has remained inactive since 2014’s Handbraekes #2 – hopefully their Midnight remix will launch a whole new load of new Boys Noize and Mr Oizo this year – surprising when we have full-length albums from the two in 2016 already.

Baauer - Paauer

Whilst he’s already seen the release of his debut album Aa and a couple of other low-key tracks on the side (like last month’s experimental cut How Can You Tell When It’s Done?), 2016 isn’t quite over for Baauer just yet. With the trap mad man just leaving Australian shores the other week, he’s metaphorically returned in musical form with two new tracks blasting through our speakers – the most impressive of which being the cleverly-named PAAUER. Almost sounding like a trapped-up version of The Prodigy, PAAUER is gritty and raw, slamming with quick-firing percussion work, punches of bass and a swirling and twisted synth line that dominates for much of the song’s almost three-minute duration. It arrived alongside another track this week, which saw Baauer team up with Tokyo crew KEPHA, JB, kZm, PETZ and Chaki Zulu for a more hip-hop-leaning track titled Night Out.