FE039: Isaac Tichauer - Changes

More goodies coming your way courtesy of French Express, and it's from another familiar name. Isaac Tichauer's wonderfully soulful track "Changes", which I can only assume is a song about going through menopause, drops April 15.

Eli & Fur + Shadow Child

We think that Shadow Child's upcoming collaboration with Eli & Fur has the potential to become a hit. Dat bassline!

FE038: Jonas Rathsman - Hope I'm Wrong

In case you have lived under a rock for the last week and a half, you might have missed the wonderful news that Jonas Rathsman returns with a new single on French Express next week!



Jonas recently made a mix for i-D that you might want to check out.

[Free download] Kings of the Universe - To Where You Are

As you may have noticed, we post a lot of dance music here on Tracasseur. Usually dance tunes are only made to make people dance and not so much to make people philosophize over the state of the universe. So other than requests for the listener to move their body in some way, which usually are more or less thinly veiled sexual suggestions, focus is more on rhythm than the content of the lyrics.

But there are exceptions to this, both of course with specific songs, especially remixes of non-dance music, but also with certain sub-genres. If one of the feet of house music stands on funk and disco music which lyrics-wise are centered around dancing and sex, the other foot stands on soul and R'n'b which usually have deeper lyrics. And just like soul and R'n'b, especially the early house music had a lot of influences from gospel which is where many of the soul divas came from. So songs about spirituality, empowerment and awareness was nothing unusual in the early days.

House connoisseurs Kings of the Universe are of course very aware of this history, so it makes perfect sense that Loffe makes an old-school house track when dealing with a loss, even if it may seem as a bit of a heavy topic for a house tune. It's a powerful song, and you can tell that it means a lot for its writer. Great stuff as usual from the guys, but this time with an added dimension, and hopefully this song can add some strength to someone else going through something tough.

Moto Boy + Copycat

Swedish wonder-boy Moto Boy is back with some new music after a couple of years silence. Moto Boy, who got great recognition due to his wonderful voice along with his melancholic and romantic music. I'm glad that he's back with new good tunes and especially his second new single "Too Young To Know", that once again shows his great talent in making beautiful music.



The single was released earlier in March with three remixes, all of them good. But my biggest attention went to the remix by Copycat, another interesting Swede. His balearic nu disco remix adds another thing to the Moto Boy original that I like a lot.



The other two remixes by Niko Stoessl and CANVAS are also great pieces, take a listen over at Spotify. Buy the whole release over at iTunes and get ready for Moto Boy's upcoming album "Keep Your Darkness Secret" out March 26.

Bontan's new "Move On Out" is out now!

Bontan's new awesome "Move On Out" is finally out, get it exclusively at Beatport. After a huge 2013 with the smashing remix of "Got A Feeling" we love to hear new stuff from this UK producer.

Nice new Solomun remix of Broken Bells

One of our fave producers Solomun has just given us a new remix of the American indie rock band Broken Bells, who released their second studio album in the end of January. I hold Broken Bells high as one of the most interesting bands after their first well acclaimed album "Broken Bells" from 2010.

This Solomun remix is a really nice one that take good care of the original "Holding on for Life", that was the first single from the new album released in November last year. The release date for this new remix is March 24 and along with this slower remix there will also be a Club Version, very interesting we say!

Funny fact also; Solomun has 354.000 followers on Facebook and exactly so do Broken Bells, how about that?!

Ji Nilsson & Marlene ∞ - Love You Anyway

Our beloved friend Marlene ∞ has done this new superb collaboration with another talented Swede named Ji Nilsson. They did it together to celebrate the International Women's Day, that was the other day. It's a beautiful piece of music about female friendship.



And it also comes with a video made by SIKOW.

Duke Dumont + Jonas Rathsman

A quickie, just to say that the remix EP of Duke Dumont's "I Got U" featuring Jax Jones will be released on March 16. The line-up includes some interesting names in Tensnake, MK and Jonas Rathsman. While we're slighly underwhelmed by the Tensnake remix, and the MK remix hasn't surfaced yet, Rathsman's is of his usual high standard. Even if it's a little faster and a little less deep than, say, "Feel What I Feel".



The original is great, and already out.



While I have to say that Tensnake's take is a solid but unspectacular piece of UK house.



The day before the release (Saturday the 15), Rathsman and Duke Dumont are playing at XOYO Loves in London together with great people like Waze & Odyssey, The Magician and Du Tonc. I'd try to get in even if tickets seem to be sold out.

Cavaliers of Fun - Camp COF EP

We just realized we turned five years old last month. That's quite a respectable age, and yet there were no parades or gala nights in our honour, at least none that we were invited to. There were no fighter jets flying in formation, no confetti rain, and no squares or streets named after us.

I'm joking of course. As we've written many times, even if we know that there are thousands reading what we write, we are still just a couple of guys who write a couple of lines about some music we happen to like at the moment. Sometimes we play that music to other people too, but it's not that we're these rock stars or important journalists or anything. So every time we meet someone we haven't met before who say that they read our blog, or we get nice mails or comments from fans, we really appreciate it. And if a band or producer or singer writes lyrics about us, we get really honoured and humbled too.

That's one reason that we like Cavalier of Fun's new tune "Anoraak, Pegase and RAC". It's about Ricco Vitali's nostalgic memories of listening to the great synthpop and nu disco movement around the turn of the decade and how that's still a point of reference and a source of inspiration even today. An homage to his histories as he describes it.

We have fond memories of those times too, as like Ricco sings, that kind of music "was seen on Tracasseur", especially during our earlier days, and getting mentioned together with Anoraak, Pegase and RAC is a great honour. Those were all guys that we read about on blogs like Valérie that Anoraak and Pegase were part of, and that we listened to and wrote about in our turn. So we thank Ricco for the perfect birthday gift of a nice shout-out and a trip down memory lane!

There's an air of nostalgia over the whole EP "Camp COF", which isn't that strange as it draws so much inspiration from the nu italo and nu disco movement that was very nostalgic to begin with. That said, the whole EP ranges between more introverted indie pop and rock influences and the catchier part of nu disco. While we have a soft spot for "Anoraak..." for obvious reasons, "Valey of Dreams" is a favourite.

"Camp COF" is out tomorrow on Holographic People, but the video of "Anoraak, Pegase and RAC" is already live.