Cover Art: Cherry Glazerr “Rabbit Hole”
Courtesy Photo
February is here, so that means it’s time to look back to what we missed in both December and January. I like to include both months in the January chart, because December’s releases are so often overlooked. Indie Discotheque has put together a fantastic collection of indie dance songs for you this month, so queue this up on your loudest speakers and let’s get that living room dance party going in full swing.
We bring you not just this Indie Dance chart, but the Disco/Funk and Synth charts as well. Take time to enjoy the sounds below, and feel free to explore the Spotify playlist if you want to dive into this music even more.
1. Cherry Glazerr – Rabbit Hole
This is hands down the best Cherry Glazerr song to date. It’s perfect for the dancefloor, with an electric palette, drum machine, and unmistakable vocals. The tempo and pacing on “Rabbit Hole” is peak hour music that you’ll be singing along with.
2. Kunzite – Saturn
Another classic from Kunzite, featuring the trademark songwriting style we first became accustomed to with Ratatat. I am always impressed with the layering of the guitar work in these tracks, and “Saturn” is right in line with what we’ve come to expect.
3. Freedom Fry – Le Point Zero
Ahead of the release of Freedom Fry’s new collection of French language tracks, “Le Point Zero” highlights the dancier side of this project. The duo tends to fluctuate between dance and acoustic, but I much prefer this sound of the project.
4. Smallpools – Simulation
There are tracks that make their way to my ears that I instantly want to learn to sing along to, and “Simulation” from Smallpools is definitely one of those. There is an impressive melodic range happening vocally, and meshes beautifully with the multi-layered soundtrack.
5. Mint Julep – Chariot
Awash in vocal beauty, “Chariot” by Mint Julep brings a danceable hybrid of shoegaze and ethereal bliss. This wife-husband duo has really made an impact on me over the last couple of years. This is a track with a wall of sound, steady rhythmic guitar and processed percussion.
6. Sports – The Look
The bass guitar is funky and the percussion is compressed, but it’s the vocal processing that gives “The Look” extra shine. Sports is a band of wizards from Tulsa, who I first discovered with their track “Cadillac” two years ago.
7. Twin XL – Lemonade
Twin XL is great at writing extremely catchy sing-alongs about the simplest of topics, and wanting sugar in your lemonade is a metaphor that could act as a stand-in for a number of personal situations. “Lemonade” gets right into it, cutting out extended intros or outros.
8. Viagra Boys – Girls & Boys
When you want to rock out on the dancefloor with some wild saxophone playing, while simultaneously singing “blublublublubulbubbb,” then “Girls & Boys” from the Viagra Boys is definitely the song for you. You’ll be screaming along to this one. Turn it up to eleven.
9. Black Honey – Believer
Danceable acoustic guitar, a bit of twang, and singing with religious confidence, you’ll be a “Believer” in Black Honey after getting down with the powerful percussion and the hands in the air chanting you’ll be doing while dancing to this track in a crowd.
10. Mackintosh – Back to School
I may have mentioned this before, but the production style of Mackintosh is always tops. “Back to School” is another crisp, indie dance gem. The processing of the bass and the plucking of the strings that repeat across the composition are highlights.
11. Aly & AJ – Listen!!!
If the atmospheric intent is to take me back to the heyday of danceable alternative in the 90s, and Aly & AJ have mastered that experience in the production of “Listen!!!” However, the title of the track (three exclamations!!!) had me thinking this would get a bit more aggressive in the end.
12. Slowride – I Feel Like You
It’s time for a quick paced, feel good track from Slowride. The band has some catchy guitar and piano work going on in “I Feel Like You,” with a bit of a mysterious side in the inquisitiveness and assumptions made in these parties being into each other.
13. Joseph Milauskas – Sunshine
It’s the middle of winter right now, and for many of us, “Sunshine” is exactly what we’re daydreaming about. We want everything to be alright and have some daylight. Joseph Milauskas accomplishes this well, with an upbeat sound that even includes brass.
14. Middle Part – & Cry!
Beauty in mid-tempo. The vocal processing is just right on “& Cry!” with atmospheric, whistling electronics behind a powerful percussion arrangement. The passion and want in this song is overflowing and amplified by the accompanying guitar textures.
15. Hotel – Loose Change feat. Obi Ill Terrors
I have been singing this song in my head a lot lately, and it says a lot for those of us who don’t need to be swimming in cash, we just need enough to get by. This is expressed perfectly in the lyrics, “How many moneys is enough money, ‘cause I got no money, and that’s not enough!”
Let’s hear this month’s tracks together:
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