Allez-Allez’s guide to good dance music

Allez-Allez’s guide to good dance music

11 November, 2009 | 8.29AM

• Written by: allez-allez
• Filed under: Music News: allez-allez, amazing sounds, dj charts, kompakt

Allow us to introduce ourselves. We are Sam Willis and Steve Nolan aka Allez-Allez. We’ve been invited by Beatportal to share some of our favourite tracks with you guys, but first we thought we’d write a little about the ideas behind our blog, remixes, music and most recently, our new label Amazing Sounds. 

Allez-Allez was born three years ago out of a frustration of playing music for other people in bars or clubs and a desire to be utterly uncompromising in our quest to play what we feel to be the best music in our collection.

Mostly electronic, but as often not, our podcast has given us an outlet to mix up Can with Isolee or Nick Cave with Chris Liebing, and not have to worry about clearing a dancefloor.

We’ve also invited guests such as Nathan Fake, Ewan Pearson, Lindstrom, Hot Chip, and Animal Collective amongst others to share their favourite tracks in a good old fashioned mixtape style.

In our opinion dance music is often far too quick to forget classic material, in the perpetual head long rush towards new production styles and innovation.

Too many DJs are obsessed with the playlists of others. They wait with baited breath for the next Luciano or Ricardo approved classic house track, or botched mp3 sliced from the radio to add to their box, rather than just play what makes them, and hopefully by extension, the dancefloor, feel good.

There are too many great tracks from three or four years ago that very few DJs play now, that we believe are future classics. Some of them you may well already know.

But it’s not always about picking the most obscure music (sometimes it’s obscure for a reason).

Too often dance music can seem like a impenetrable club to the casual observer, with no road map to the good stuff from recent times, save for trawling through old compilations and DJ charts which few people have the time for.

So, here are our selections, please feel free to share your favourite or overlooked picks in the comments section too!

DJ Koze ‘The Gelkoppen Continues’ [Kompakt]

Way back in 2003, before Koze became the poster boy of alternative techno, this trippy, gnarled lump of bass and beats jacked any dancefloor into submission. Who needs dubstep with squidgy techno bass like this?!

John Tejada ‘Sweat On The Walls’ [Poker Flat Recordings]

Ok, so this was pretty big at the time, but it still sounds so good! One of the most hypnotic, and sleazy tracks ever, this goes to show that minimal music doesn’t need to be boring!

Tejada is an absolute production master, the pacing and drama are spot on. No need for 10 minute plus plodders, as Tejada can do so much with just 5 minutes and 40 seconds.

Harmonia & Eno ‘76 ‘Sometimes In Autumn’ (Shackleton Remix) [Amazing Sounds]

This is the first release on our new label, and we are very excited to bring together such legendary names (Eno ‘76 and Harmonia) with one of the most exciting and distinctive producers of recent times (Shackleton).

The results are nothing less than sublime - Shackleton treats the original ambient excursion with respect, adding a motorik dubstep pulse, cavernous reverb and emphasises the melancholy feel with his characteristic eastern twinge, all combined into an unforgetable ride.

Ada ‘I Love Asphalt’ [Areal Records]

Another bass heavy stormer, this time from Kompakt’s first lady of pop, Ada. A relentless modulated bass tone is buffeted by steamroller percussion and a leering vocal tone that adds to the feeling of wild abandon - never fails to get a big reaction.

Egoexpress ‘Aranda’ [Ladomat 2000]

More of a downtempo choice this one, it’s a beautiful track with jangling acoustic guitars and a plaintive vocal, perfect choice for an after party - the Lawrence mix is also worth a look!

The MFA ‘The Difference That It Makes’ [Kompakt]

One of my absolute favourite all time tracks - the wooshing side-chained pads, insistent bass line and heartbreaking vocodered vocal are like a big warm hug on the dancefloor.

Guaranteed to get the whole club rolling around on the floor in ecstatic bliss - mixing Animal Collective’s ‘My Girls’ into this may well cause a rift in the space time continuum!

Kalabrese ‘Auf Dem Hof’ [Stattmusik]

Zurich’s Kalabrese is a sorely overlooked artist, his funky, brave take on dance music here sees him combine strident trumpets with an infectious groove and pitch bent synth stabs, in what sounds like a late night jam session in a Swiss fondue basement.

With vocal lines like “I’m moving, I’m dancing, in a chicken farm”, you can’t loose.

Nathan Fake ‘Underberg’ [Saw Recordings]

An early outing for Norfolk synth boffin Nathan Fake, which shows you just how precociously talented this young chap was even back in 2004.

Jacking beats, scything percussion, bass wobble, and a mournful child’s vocal adds an eerie air to proceedings, leading to a peak time devastator!

Mikkel Metal ‘Nepal’ [Kompakt]

A hugely atmospheric piece of schaffel techno from Kompakt’s Danish technician Mikkel Metal - undulating pads, skronking guitar and skittering percussion conjure visions of the misty mountaintops of Tibet.

Khan feat. Julee Cruise ‘Say Goodbye’ [Playhouse]

How this wasn’t an international hit I’ll never know, but then, the world’s loss is our gain!

‘Say Goodbye’ is the best thing Kylie Minogue never did - a truly haunting electronic ballad from Khan, featuring a beautiful vocal from Julee Cruise, who notably sang the theme song ‘Falling’ for Twin Peaks with Angelo Badalamenti.

And lastly...

Allez-Allez ‘Defeatist’ [Kickboxer Recordings]

We’ve just dropped our debut single ‘Defeatist’ on Kickboxer Recordings, a melodic, kraut-rock-tinged techno track, with DJ support from Laurent Garnier, Four Tet, DJ Hell and Frankie Flowerz amongst others.

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