Carlita Ryan Sarajdola
This week in dance music: Lightning In a Bottle announced a 2024 lineup lead by Skrillex, Labrinth and James Blake, Boiler Room announced its 2024 world tour city stops, Movement 2024 announced its phase one lineup, Tomorrowland announced a lineup for its July festival featuring more than 400 artists, Justice announced the release date for their fourth studio album, Hyperdrama, Michael Bibi announced a comeback show after beating cancer that’s being billed as the biggest ever electronic music show in London and the Super Bowl announced that Tiësto (who also released a track with his pal Heidi Klum this week) will be the first ever in-game DJ for the game in February.
That’s a whole lot of announcements, and there’s new music too. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Carlita, “Cash for Love’
Turkish-born producer Carlita had a very big 2023, racking up streams and touring the world playing shows and festivals including Coachella, Glastonbury and Burning Man. (Many of them alongside DJ Tennis, who she plays with as Astra Club.) Now she’s aiming for a similarly massive 2024, with those efforts including “Cash For Love,” a deep house trip of a track built around vocals finely chopped into a hooky melody which altogether demonstrates Carlita’s penchant for lush, hypnotic productions that balance depth, toughness and a cool sort of beauty. The track is out via CircoLoco Records. Astra Club is headlining Space in Miami on Feb. 3, and Carlita will return to Coachella in April.
Purple Disco Machine & ÁSDÍS, “Beat of Your Heart”
German disco maestro Purple Disco Machine does it again with “Beat of Your Heart,” a collab with velvet-voiced Icelandic singer ÁSDIS. Like so much of the producer’s work, the track manages to heavily incorporate pop-forward ’80s synth without veering into pastiche. Recorded in the producer’s Dresden studio, the song comes with a music video situated on both a nightclub dancefloor and within the vital organ referenced in the title. The producer will play Coachella this April and launch a European tour in the fall.
The Temper Trap, “Sweet Disposition” (John Summit & Silver Panda Remix)
Many producers have successfully — often epically, sometimes tearjerkingly — remixed The Temper Trap’s 2008 indie pop classic “Sweet Disposition” (we’re looking at you, Swedish House Mafia). But John Summit and Israeli melodic techno duo Silver Panda prove that there’s still juice to be squeezed here with their own fresh edit. Out on Summit’s Experts Only label, the remix (unsurprisingly) takes the song in a melodic house direction, with the trio in moments paring the production down to only its most essential parts before ramping the whole the back up to a dark, pummeling place that gives the now 16-year-old hit a very current sound of dance music update.
Rinzen feat. Shallou, “Burnin’”
Los Angeles-based producer Rinzen has been releasing meticulously made house and techno with soul for upwards of seven years, in the process having caught the attention of Richie Hawtin, Rüfüs du Sol and deadmau5, all of whom Rinzen has supported during live shows. He’s releasing his debut album, Bend To The Light, on April 5 through Lane 8’s label This Never Happened, with the album’s lead single “Burnin” — a steamy, sleek melodic house collaboration with L.A.-based singer/producer Shallou — setting a high bar for the rest of the project.
Bad Tuner, “24 Hours”
New York City-based producer Bad Tuner makes his debut on Foreign Family Collective / Ninja Tune with “24 Hours.” Evoking the acid-soaked sounds of peak era Chemical Brothers, the song achieves a thrilling, hectic kind of grittiness, but holds a deep message about connectedness. Says the producer: “Social media can create a false sense of connection in the sense that you’re seeing snippets of everyone’s lives from a one-sided lens… Music on the other hand — through public performance, through community, and group listening is a universal language — it is a means to connect and share. It is both the musician and the fans that make a show special, they feed on each other’s energy. In the crowd you dance with a stranger, you look over and see your friends enjoying the song you love, and when there is nothing to say you can just listen!”
