Swick & King Doudou – Haloumi Drums
An absolutely giddy little heater from Melbourne’s Swick (Danny Omerhodic) and Lyon’s King Dou Dou (Hugo Douster). Both of these guys have been hustling for many years and used to make regular appearances in my sets — and on the blog — in the early and mid-aughts. Both handed in excellent remixes for releases on Palms Out too; unfortunately, Swick’s never ended up coming out (because the release was unfortunately pulled and released in Sweden only on Universal, leaving Swick’s great remix on the cutting room floor). Both artists have continued unabated in the years since, developing healthy fanbases and securing placements and releases on all manner of significant projects. Together, they’ve released a handful of stellar collaborative singles and EPs. The latest is the Digi Mangal EP, on which this beaut is the closer. While much of the EP focuses more on the duo’s bread and butter current styles of dancehall-adjacent and vocal reggaeton stuff, this one harkens back to the days I was first introduced to these two, with uptempo dembow-inspired drums and a fidgety Dutch house-style hi-tom lead. It’s joyful, ecstatic, and soft around the edges. Impossible not to bop to. Swick and Doudou are kind as ever to let me share the mp3 on the blog, but go grab the EP on bandcamp (incl. in a nice vinyl package) or stream it to your heart’s content.
Swick & King Doudou – “Haloumi Drums”
Badjokes – Hold On
Next up, more dancefloor ammo, this time a dusky wub-heavy roller from another Frenchman, Marseille’s Badjokes. Historically, Badjokes has stayed further into the harder and grindier sides of bassline house, but this one sees him getting a touch deeper and dubbier. He also does this a bit on his latest album, Rewind, which he released earlier this year on his own Snack Time imprint — but today’s track is a single on LA’s Nightmode label. Unfortunately Nightmode doesn’t do bandcamp releases for some reason, but you can find this on all the streaming outlets instead. You can, however, grab Badjokes’s Rewind LP on bandcamp, which you should absolutely do.
Badjokes – “Hold On”
KLP – 2AM
Coming full circle today is a slice of perfectly digestible ear candy from Sydney’s Kristy Lee Peters (aka KLP). That makes two Australians and two Frenchmen today. It’s also nicely fitting that Peters does publishing and A&R work for Australian label Sweat It Out, which happened to have released several Swick records way back when (the label also released a very early remix of mine on one of their first releases, prior to labelhead DJ Ajax’s tragic accidental death in 2013). As the name alludes to, this track by KLP is full of headliner energy, presumably built for the night’s peak. Centered around a vocal hook that is perfectly familiar, KLP nonetheless manages to find a balance here that bridges full-on bigroom pop house energy and slightly more emotive sunset vibes. Not the kind of thing I usually cover here these days, but I couldn’t resist this as I begin to miss the summer days. No bandcamp for this one either, I’m afraid — but you can find it on all the streamers.
KLP – “2AM”