Friday Dance Music Guide: The Week’s Best New Tracks From Chase & Status and Stormzy, Loud Luxury and Bobby Shmurda & More
This week in dance music: Empire of the Sun touched down in the Billboard News studio to talk about their new album, Ask That God; we announced that a refurbished Los Angeles grocery store will soon host sets by artists including Floating Points and Orbital, we spoke with Fred again..’s team at Wasserman Music about the artist’s “hugely risky” and wildly successful touring strategy, we reported from this year’s edition of Electric Forest and passed details on how to watch the debut of breakdancing at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
And, of course, it all comes back to the music. These are the best new dance tracks of the week.
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Chase & Status Feat. Stormzy, “Backbone”
Still riding high on the career-renaissance whipped up by their 2023 Flowdan collab “Baddadan,” d’n’b legends Chase & Status return with what’s essentially a companion piece. Featuring U.K. grime royalty Stormzy, “Backbone” is basically a diss track directed at “p—y MCs” lacking in the titular department, with the rapper’s lyrical bullets matched by a crisp, walloping, characteristically booming production from the duo. The release comes nearly four months after Chase & Status brought Stormzy out during their Coachella performance for “Backbone”s debut.
Loud Luxury feat. Bobby Shmurda, “Cool Like That”
There’s a dance music love story embedded into the beats of this collab from Loud Luxury and Bobby Shmurda, with the rapper reaching out to the duo after getting into dance music while serving time, as he wasn’t able to listen to music with explicit lyrics while incarcerated. Drawn to the positivity and euphoric tendencies of dance, Shmurda subsequently linked with Canadian producers in the studio for “Cool Like That,” a driving tech house-meets-big room track with layers of tough percussion that are built around Shmurda’s commanding, rapidfire flow. The trio recently stopped by the Billboard News studio to tell us the backstory behind the single, which they also performed last weekend at Lollapalooza last weekend, and which is out now on Armada.
Jayda G, “Feeling Alive”
The feel of the song is right there in its name, with this sublime house track from Jayda G giving that feeling of joy and aliveness that so much of dance music specializes in. Out via Ninja Tune, the song comes amid a big summer for the UK producer, who’s coming hot off big performances at Tomorrowland, Glastonbury and Pacha Ibiza, and who’s also doing it all while pregnant. “’Guy’ was really me exploring and, you know, pushing my sound to the next level,” the artist says of her 2023 album. “‘Feeling Alive’ is me kind of taking that into a real pure dance music form. Knowing that my album was largely about loss and grief and death, this is me focussing on the joyful celebratory part of my life, because I know I have a lot of things to be happy for!” Turn this one up, because we assure it’s going to make you pretty happy, too.
Kelly Lee Owens, “Sunshine”
Welsh producer Kelly Lee Owens delivers textural IDM as warm as its title suggests. That’s not to say that “Sunshine” doesn’t also hit hard, however — with the track ramping up to a lush, danceable swirl on which Owens’ own spare vocals add an extra flourish. The song comes in tandem with the announcement that she’s going on tour in Europe and the U.K. this fall.
Laidback Luke feat. Marlonbeats, “One On One”
For “One On One,” Laidback Luke links with the producer marlonbeats, with the duo’s respective techniques likely syncing so well because they’re father and son. This undeniably effective house track marks Luke’s return to Dim Mak after a seven year absence, with the Dutch pioneer calling the song “my birthday gift to my son Marlonbeats for his 21st Birthday.”
He goes on to say his son is “what you would call a ‘Daddy’s Boy,’ but because of my intense career and abundant traveling, he has missed me most of his childhood. I’ve always tried to balance being a good dad with my DJ career, and it’s always been a juggling act. Interestingly, he started producing a few years ago and while figuring this out by himself, he soon realized his dad is a real producer. Furthermore, he also started to DJ recently and is only grasping now why I was always gone.”
Christoph x Sandy Rivera feat. Hayze, “Changes”
U.K. producer Christoph links with the house legend Sandy Rivera (whose work you may also know from his Kings of Tomorrow project) as part of Defected Records’ Together project, which pairs newer artists with scene veterans as part of the label’s 25 year anniversary celebrations. The outcome here is the hypnotic, moody “Changes,” a track made for that moment when the dancefloor transitions from peaktime to cool down while still maintaining muscle.
