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About that 'nu' thing
Sep. 13th, 2011 04:20 pmFor once I'm actually going to follow up on a promise I made in a music post. Don't all faint at once.
"Nu disco" is a term that I hadn't heard before now but apparently has been around for at least the last few years (Wikipedia claims as early as 2002). It's generally a way to identify music that is either directly lifted from 1970s disco or that draws its themes from that era, but with a 21st-century spin. In particular, the production values on nu disco tend to be high, and the BPM and familiar riffs you'll find are more like techno/house dance music. The style is much more popular in Europe than in the US, and it tends to have europop and eurojazz influences. Like a lot of labels it's easier to identify by example than by talking about, so:
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/09/glass-candy-warm-in-the-winter-beautiful-object.html
APC calls Glass Candy (http://www.facebook.com/GLASSCANDY) "legends" of nu disco. I don't know about legends, particularly since the band hails from Portland OR, but these two tracks do typify the style as I understand it. Both are light, danceable, melodic, and have that fast-patter underlying rhythm. The vocals from Ida No are are pleasant enough but a little overproduced.
http://simoniddol.com/post/9742229326
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjSLzqNISHA
Simon Iddol posted a mix with a heavy nu feel. I like most of the tracks, but since we're focusing on nu disco here, you may want to jump ahead to Golden Bug - Sex Beat (Jad and the Ladyboy Remix) which is the most nu of the tracks in the mix, I think. Golden Bug (www.gomma.de/goldenbug/) put this track out on a German EP and it has several remixes you can find on YouTube and elsewhere. This remix in particular has a lot of the dirty funk influences that nu disco uses. Dig that bass line! All it needs for perfection is a phat horn section. It's interesting to compare this track with the Glass Candy tracks. This one is down and dirty where theirs are lighter and cleaner, but both get filed as "nu disco". Go figure.
http://soundcloud.com/copycat/bergman-copycat-sometimes-1
A mellow track from Copycat and Bergman. It's labeled as electro-disco and it definitely trends farther over into electro than nu but you can definitely see how close a cousin this is to the Glass Candy stylings.
"Nu disco" is a term that I hadn't heard before now but apparently has been around for at least the last few years (Wikipedia claims as early as 2002). It's generally a way to identify music that is either directly lifted from 1970s disco or that draws its themes from that era, but with a 21st-century spin. In particular, the production values on nu disco tend to be high, and the BPM and familiar riffs you'll find are more like techno/house dance music. The style is much more popular in Europe than in the US, and it tends to have europop and eurojazz influences. Like a lot of labels it's easier to identify by example than by talking about, so:
http://audioporncentral.com/2011/09/glass-candy-warm-in-the-winter-beautiful-object.html
APC calls Glass Candy (http://www.facebook.com/GLASSCANDY) "legends" of nu disco. I don't know about legends, particularly since the band hails from Portland OR, but these two tracks do typify the style as I understand it. Both are light, danceable, melodic, and have that fast-patter underlying rhythm. The vocals from Ida No are are pleasant enough but a little overproduced.
http://simoniddol.com/post/9742229326
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjSLzqNISHA
Simon Iddol posted a mix with a heavy nu feel. I like most of the tracks, but since we're focusing on nu disco here, you may want to jump ahead to Golden Bug - Sex Beat (Jad and the Ladyboy Remix) which is the most nu of the tracks in the mix, I think. Golden Bug (www.gomma.de/goldenbug/) put this track out on a German EP and it has several remixes you can find on YouTube and elsewhere. This remix in particular has a lot of the dirty funk influences that nu disco uses. Dig that bass line! All it needs for perfection is a phat horn section. It's interesting to compare this track with the Glass Candy tracks. This one is down and dirty where theirs are lighter and cleaner, but both get filed as "nu disco". Go figure.
http://soundcloud.com/copycat/bergman-copycat-sometimes-1
A mellow track from Copycat and Bergman. It's labeled as electro-disco and it definitely trends farther over into electro than nu but you can definitely see how close a cousin this is to the Glass Candy stylings.
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