It recently occurred to me that I don’t really listen to that much dance music anymore. But when I do, I generally notice that when I really like a track, the album isn’t that impressive. This isn’t always the case, but it’s becoming more often the case. Maybe it’s our limited attention spans in the 21 century, or the fact that the album (for various reasons) is a dying format (hell, you can even buy tracks individually).

I’m also in the habit of combing through global DJ playlists and see what’s being played and what’s not being played. So I want to start posting regular short reviews of single tracks (released within the past 2 years) that are missing from both DJ and media-player playlists. Now, be warned, I’m not looking for anything profound just tracks that should make you want to move. Also be warned most these tracks sound terrible, unless you have a good bass source.

1. Captive Six – The Job / Noizemaker (Crunch Pod Media)
2. Noorglo – Hypearchy / Hard Body Music (Rustblade Records)
3. Uberbyte – (Let’s Put the Fun In) Fundamentalist / Dos ((Crunch Pod Media)
4. Synth_etik – Fisher of Men (the Betrayer) / Waiting For Rapture (Hands Productions)
5. PNE feat Leather Strip – Smalltown Boy / VA: Alfa Matrix Re.connected 3.0 (Alfa Matrix)
6. Cygnosic – To Spread The Chaos / A Deity In Pain (BLC Productions)
7. Necro Facility – Tuxedo / The Room (Progress Productions)

1. Captive Six is a side project of Ben Arp of C/A/T fame. After a few complaints of the (vocal) direction of C/A/T, Ben decided to partition the project. This particular tracks can’t be called noizzzzey, but it’s vocaless, and uses a lot energy-trance lead loops.
2. Noorglo basically taps into the heavily looped and well produced sound that’s been going around lately, but seems to open up his filters more often. If you liked Soman, you should like this more.
3. Uberbyte has refined the TBM sound to its bare elements: strong percussion, amusing non-sensical samples, “dirty basslines” (ie. saw wave), and the fewer loops the better. The entire album is jam packed with dancefloor anthems, and “Funamentalist” is by far the most amusing track.
4. Synth_etik use to work mostly with making complex layered power noise and idm (with his side-project Totakeke). But as of late, he seems to have been giving a few of his tracks some trancie/electro loops, which are catchy as hell.
5. Most covers irritate me, but this cover of the Bronski Beat classic “Smalltown Boy” by two EBM legends is amazing. One of the few good efforts that Leather Strip and PNE have done in a while.
6. Cygnosic seemed to be have been practically ignored by DJs across the country. The track has a late-90s Zoth Ommog feel to it, but with much better production on the low end. There’s no tricks here, just a straightforward club track with vocals beautifully melded to the low end (not as gremlin-sounding as some of the latest efforts).
7. I recommend this band to everyone I know. They sound shockingly similar to golden-era Skinny Puppy, but with a much dancier bassline. “Tuxedo” was the catchy dance track of the album (also available in a tranced-sped-up version).