Princeton, New Jersey producer Com Truise first grabbed my attention about a year ago with a wonky, neuvo-eighties remix of a neon indian song. This was in the wake of that whole chillwave thing, so neo synth pop was everywhere, but that tune stood out. This more recent effort is in another league. Almost completely devoid of vocal samples, the tune still grabs your attention with meticulously designed and layered synths, which possess a fat, analog quality and an utterly space age vibe at once. The sounds develop and morph throughout the song, and the structure defies convention in a wonderful way. This song is miles away from trap music, a rare and fantastic quality these days. Stream it at the Ghostly soundcloud, and check out his forthcoming LP, In Decay, here.

MMM. I remember this vocal, or some iteration of it, from Jamie xx’s tour de force of an essential mix and I’m so glad to hear it pop up again. Redlight puts the vocal smack dab in the center of the mix and builds a wonderful, housey jam around it. The bass is deep, the synths have vibes for days and the drums shuffle and pop in an utterly danceable manner. And Annie Mac is down. She claims to be giving the song away for free, but the downloadlink is non-existent on the soudcloud page :(. Regardless, please give this song a rinse below, I doubt you will regret it.

It’s hard for me not to press play on a song with a genre of “Ratchet”. This instinct paid off, as this jawn from Florida producer C.Z. is one of the most puzzling little slappers I’ve come across in a cool minute. It’s decidedly trappy, but in a surprisingly original way. Tuned percussion stutters about the midrange in a strange, completely unique manner, and C.Z. sets it up with a tasty little vocal sample. The decidedly left-field take on the Lex Luger paradigm works wonders, and Baauer is down, seeing as he featured this track in his Diplo & Friends release. No word on an official release, but as of now you can grab this one as a free download.

http://soundcloud.com/colbytown/doin-what-i-do

One of these days I’m gonna post about something substantive, something beautiful. But 2 me, making a club banger is becoming more and more important these days and is an art form in itself. I’m a little late to the party, but this track has been making some serious waves on the cloud of sound, and for good reason.  Lunice’s rework of Flosstradamus and Danny Brown has all that I need on the dancefloor: a deeeep 808, snares/claps/whoops that stutter along perfectly with a nasty hook of a vocal sample, and some dark, wavy vibes. This is the kind of track that a casual listener might write off as cheap and dirty, but I see it as careful and focused. It’s focused on a subject material and sound that would immediately scare off most listeners over 25, but as far as something that fits into the hip-hop/club tradition, I love this track. It’s out now as a remix track on Flosstradamus’ Jubilation 2.0 EP, released through Fools Gold Records.

Wow, this is the first I’ve heard of this Swiss house wizard, but the vibes got me from the start. A bouncy four on the floor riddim complements a tuned down Missy Elliot like peanut butter and jelly.  Please give this tune a spin; its fun, smart, and portends more good things to come.

http://soundcloud.com/looklikemusic/1-2-step-look-like-remix

Man I don’t even like video games that much but yaow!zers this track goes. I’ve found I can always count on 5kin&bone5 to produce some fantastic future beats and Sinden shares the dark space age vibe. Many shots out to Unknown to the Unknown, really doing their thing over there.

http://soundcloud.com/sinden/sinden-x-5kinandbone5-coin

What up readers, if you’ve made it this far it’s clear you already know what it is. Allow me to explain. My name’s Jeremy, I grew up in San Francisco and have long been an aficionado of thought-provoking electronic tunes. In recent years, my eyes/ears have been turned towards the burgeoning UK bass scene spearheaded by Jamie xx (among others) and by labels like Night Slugs and 50 Weapons. Artists like Nicolas Jaar, Cedaa, Claude Vonstroke and Diplo, however, leave me plenty of reason to be excited about of the current state American electronic music. But enough about me, on to the music.

JEFF019, the newest installment of Mad Decent’s free-to-download Jeffree’s imprint–which in the past has brought us releases from producers like Baauer, Bwana and Flosstradamus, as well as Diplo, himself–comes by way of Branko. Once called J-Wow, Branko apparently ceded his original moniker to “a certain Italian-American from Jersey with the same name.” Guido beef aside, a couple of these remixes BANG. French Fries lowers the intensity of the original without sacrificing anything in the way of quality. Wait for that first bass hit and you’ll be hooked. French electroheads Beataucue also go frikin IN on Branko’s “Going In Hard,” which features up and coming Tampa rapper Dominique Young Unique. You can download the whole EP here (though I’ll warn you Mediafire’s been sketching me out lately): http://www.mediafire.com/?ccwuxac3wqti5l3
The tracks are also available for individual download on the Mad Decent Soundcloud page.