New Music Friday is intense. Hundreds of songs drop from artists around the world, and you're supposed to somehow find the best ones. It's fun work, but it's time-consuming -- so we at Billboard Dance want to give you a hand. Each week, we sift through the streams and dig in the digital crates to present the absolute must-hears from the wide breadth of jams.
It's Friday...again! Another week and another new delivery of sounds have arrived from the wildly eclectic dance scene. In addition to the first new music from Pendulum in 10 years (!!), we also got the first solo album from Crosstown Rebels boss Damian Lazarus since 2009 and the first-ever Essential Mix from techno pioneer Kevin Saunderson.
That's a lot, and it comes in addition to the fresh crop of hot new tunes below. Let's dig in.
Holly feat. Baauer, "Just Enough"
Portuguese phenom Holly again links with Baauer for the very glitchy, delightfully frenetic bass bomb "Just Enough." After first bonding over their shared Portuguese heritage, the duo worked together extensively earlier this year, with Holly getting co-producing credits on eight tracks on Baauer’s Planet’s Mad LP. They've got a good thing going on, and by good we mean totally freaking heavy in all the right ways.
Donna Summer, "Hot Stuff" (Kygo Remix)
Kygo just won't stop, can't stop, remixing legendary divas -- with his July take on Tina Turner's all-time classic "What's Love Got To Do With It" now getting a followup via his new edit of Donna Summer's 1979 disco jam "Hot Stuff." The Norwegian producer's touches on this one are fairly light, with the updates largely coming in the form of a mid-track breakdown built out of vocal samples. Really, we're just grateful that he's reintroducing this still-extremely-high-temperature banger to the dance scene.
Gorgon City feat. Evan Giia, "Burning"
The U.K. duo returns with an assist from vocalist Evan Giia, who delivers lyrics about that hot hot heat you feel in the presence of someone special. Gorgon City, always good for a vibey deep house jam, maintain that track record with this one, which gets extra points for raising temperatures even in the era of social distancing.
Sofi Tukker, Novak & YAX.X, "Emergency"
Count on Sofi Tukker to make even bodily harm sound scintillating, with their latest single "Emergency" paying homage to a 2019 incident in which the duo's Sophie Hawley-Weld broke her foot while dancing onstage during a 2019 Australian tour stop. "Call the ambulance," Tucker Halpern advises over a delightfully raunchy beat, while Hawley-Weld breathily announces "emergency" in a way that actually makes the scenario sound kind of great.
Franky Wah, "You Don't Know"
U.K. upstart and Ministry of Sound rising star Franky Wah lifts us to some pretty euphoric highs on "You Don't Know," which samples the vocals from Kings of Tomorrow's 2000 house classic "Finally" and makes strength in the face of struggle sound positively pretty. The producer calls the single "another record I hold close to my heart, mainly because of the emotion I feel when I listen to it. The chords bring an emotional but uplifting vibe to the record, and it definitely feels like that set-closing, hug your friend at the end of the night kind of track. We’ve all experienced very testing times lately and I really hope people can resonate with the lyrics on this one as much as I do.” Franky, we do.
Kaleena Zanders, Bright Lights & Kandy, "War For Love"
On "War For Love," Bright Lights, Kaleena Zanders and Kandy fight the good fight with an anthemic house jam espousing love as a basic human necessity. Betwixt co-production from Kandy and undeniable melodies from Bright Lights and Zanders, the track balances the effervescence of clubland with the weight of the current cultural moment, closing with a sample of protesters shouting "no justice, no peace." "Everyone deserves love and human rights," Bright Lights says in a statement. To that we say, amen.
