This week in dance music: Legendary dance vocalist Evelyn Thomas died at age 70; we trekked to Belgium for Tomorrowland and recapped its best moment and ten most played tracks; Anyma reported selling an incredible 100,000 tickets in less than 24 hours for his six sold out shows in Sphere in Las Vegas this December and Meduza shared the secrets of “Italian touch” for the latest cover of Billboard Italy.
And we’ve got the goods, too. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
Gordo, Diamante
Think of Diamante, the debut album from Gordo, as the companion piece to Drake’s Honestly Nevermind, with Gordo producing that 2022 album and Drake featuring on two tracks on this new project by his longtime friend. The connective tissue extends well beyond credits, as Diamante picks up and in many ways extends Honestly Nevermind‘s underground house terrain, with its 16 tracks embodying simmering, sophisticated and in many cases sensual dancefloor music that folds in elements of reggaeton, pop, indie, jazz and hip-hop, altogether sounding like any given afterhours in Miami, Tulum, Berlin or Ibiza. The album features not just the two Drake collabs, but a crew of other guests including Fuerza Regida, T-Pain, Maluma, Nicki Nicole, Feid, Leon Bridges, &ME and Rampa of Keinemusik and Young Dolph.
Gordo is of course the producer formerly known as Carnage, with the Nicaraguan-American artist born Diamanté Blackmon abandoning the Carnage project in 2022, telling us that it was making him “miserable.” With Diamante, out via Ultra Records, he’s clearly found and gotten comfortable in a new, more mature groove. Blackmon spent four years making the project, and dedicates it to his grandmother and his other nearest and dearest.
“I called in every favor I could for this body of work….,” he writes. “It’s really really beautiful….I have never been so nervous in my life… I guess that’s a good sign??? To be honest with you all… I thought about calling it quits after I dropped this album…i felt a bit lost when I finished it because i couldn’t fathom something better than this… everything I’ve dreamed of is right here in this project… all of my dreams collab came true…so many talented people helped with this project… I’m so grateful… this isn’t a gordo album… it’s a diamante album… from carnage to gordo… it’s been a wild ride… i hope I make you guys proud.” — KATIE BAIN
Calvin Harris & Ellie Goulding, “Free”
After nabbing a No. 1 hit in the U.K. last year with “Miracle,” Calvin Harris and Ellie Goulding return with what could be its successful sequel, “Free.” The Scottish producer has been rinsing the new track in his recent DJ sets, including one earlier this week at Ibiza mega-club Ushuaïa, where Goulding popped in for a live performance. Like its predecessor, “Free” is high in energy and steeped in ‘90s-era sounds, but it leaves the trance route in favor of euphoric piano house with cascading breaks and waves of warm, glowing synths. Goulding’s vocals float above, her gossamer timbre naturally capturing the song’s vulnerable but hopeful lyrics: “Eyes closed, holding on/ Alone no more/ I’m free when I’m with you.” —KRYSTAL RODRIGUEZ
Sophie, “Berlin Nightmare”
Ahead of Sophie’s final album release, two new tracks from the late Scottish producer have emerged: “One More Time” featuring Popstar and “Berlin Nightmare” featuring Evita Manji. “Berlin Nightmare” is delightfully dark and grimy, with multiple synth lines squelching and skipping across unrelenting percussion, culminating in a last-second speedup that yanks you out of their trance. It evokes images of hazy warehouse parties, where in the dim-lit space the dancefloor looks like a single mass of writhing limbs, and dried puddles of spilled drinks occasionally glue your shoes to the concrete. The two tracks follow lead single “Reason Why,” released last month. Sophie is due out on September 27. — K.R.
Hayla, “Freefall”
As one of current electronic music’s most in-demand vocalists, Hayla has been omnipresent on the dance floor and on the charts, logging recent collaborations with Kx5, John Summit and Kygo. High-profile as they may be, the British singer/songwriter is fierce all on her own as shown on her latest solo single “Freefall.” It’s an atmospheric yet hard-hitting affair, with rumbling and swirling synths echoing the duality of Hayla’s love conundrum, and her drawn-out chorus pulls you into a state of weightlessness.
“I wrote this song in L.A. about a year and a half ago with Carl Ryden,” says Hayla. “The track was one that I always loved and when we were thinking about what to put on the album this track really stuck out as a stand alone single release. This song’s story happens after the love has gone – when the realization hits that no matter how hard you try to make something work you can’t. The chorus however asks the question of gravitational pull … maybe in another time it would bring you back together.” “Freefall” is Hayla’s final single release ahead of her debut album, which is slated for a November release. — K.R.
Mochakk feat. VTSS “Locomotiva Ibiza 2099”
Brazilian phenom Mochakk (of “Jealous” fame) further proves he’s got the goods to stay in it for the long haul with his latest, “Locomotiva Ibiza 2099.” The title track from of the producer’s new three-song EP, the nearly seven-minute clubland opus takes its time warming up, then shifts into high gear with the sound of an actual locomotive and a cascade of acid-soaked synths that capture the heady, warm, happily weird vibes of going for it in the club at 5 a.m. on the song’s namesake island.
A collaboration with producer/vocalist Vtss (whose Boys Noize collab “Steady Pace” was a 2023 favorite), “Locomotiva Ibiza 2099” is out via Circo Loco Records and comes from the first installment of a two part EP, with the second installment coming in September. Both are out via CircoLoco Records, the label birthed from Ibiza’s DC10 where Mochakk is a current resident. He’ll play his own Mochakk Calling event in São Paulo this Saturday, July 27, along with upcoming festivals including Lollapalooza, Osheaga and Hard Summer. — K.B.
Boys Noize, “Fvkvrvnd”
Ahead of Hard Summer next weekend, the festival’s namesake label is setting the tone for the event with this, the latest from German fav Boys Noize. Clocking in at a throttling, threatening 148 BPM, the track is all kickdrum and relentless buzzaw bassline, adding up to a happily hectic, cathartically tough song that sounds like it’s got your head in a vice in the best kind of way. Naturally, Boys Noize plays Hard Summer on the first day of the August 3-4 festival in Los Angeles. — K.B.
David Guetta x Oliver Heldens x Fast Boy, “Chills (Feel My Love)”
This past week has yielded something of a stylistic whiplash for Oliver Heldens. Last Friday, the Dutch producer released the dark and absolutely drilling single “Baddadan Bad” under his Hi-Lo alias, and today he teams up with David Guetta and Fast Boy on “Chills (Feel My Love),” an uplifting summer anthem that invites hands-in-the-air festival moments. The powerful combination of skyward builds, stadium-sized synths and Fast Boy’s impassioned vocals must sound like how it feels when you experience a love so strong that your heart threatens to burst out of your chest.
“Earlier last year, I was looking for some uplifting vocals, and Fast Boy sent me a few vocal demos,” Heldens says. “One of them, ‘Chills,’ really stood out to me, and I was immediately drawn to its emotional and melancholic vibes, so I started working on it. In the summer of 2023, I tested an early demo at some of my shows but felt it wasn’t totally right, so I went into the studio and kept re-working, and during a session in Amsterdam during ADE where I actually met Fast Boy for the first time, we got it to a place where it sounded so big and fresh! The new version reminded us a lot of some of David Guetta’s older hits, like ‘When Love Takes Over,’ so we had to send it to him. He loved it and put his touch on it, and we all finished it up together!” — K.R.
