BOYS GET HURT – S P L A S H

Unexpectedly! And with incredible aplomb, Tokyo producer Boys Get Hurt, aka Yuki Abe, graces the internet with a new song that moves far, far away from his usual domain of emotional, romantic house music, entering that ever so addictive and on-trend sound that is juke (or footwork, or ghetto house). It's not something I thought would happen, but then again: Why stick to one genre? Or, with less focus on bloody-bloody genre— Why stick to one type of sound? Explore! Go! Create! Enjoy the mountain of sounds that lived before you! Be inspired! Never get stuck!

Anyway, last time we heard from Yukiさん he'd created a song called 'Elegance', an indie-discotèchque classic that dripped with temporary nocturnal romance. It could be, in some degree of likelihood, the last BGH track that will follow this endless summer theme of disco-house that he has pursued with gusto since I first stumbled across his music at the start of last summer. Maybe it won't be, maybe this is just a blip, an anomaly, but either way his latest offering 's p l a s h' is lovely.

Still infected with the warm, nostalgia-summoning synth chords that softened the relentless beat of his house-flavoured offerings, this new track instead jiggles with the foot-tapping brain-candy of juke. Featuring as a recurring sound, the eponymous 'splash' is more a drop of water that bwips no less than six times in as many dynamic cuts in the bounce of the rhythm. The song winds itself up, an automaton of the upbeat, the sweet, as hi-hats rattle-rage and snares roll virtuosic for maximum impact. Thin yet triumphal synth leads ring out with glistening sun-glint intensity, the soft chords get chopped syncopatedly, all in a sharp convocation of the beachside fun and dancefloor-matic atmosphere that endeared the music of Boys Get Hurt to its listeners in the first place.

So whether this colourful beachstep marks a permanent change or not remains to be seen, but whatever the weather you're guaranteed – as always – a free download of the song from this fun-loving Tokyo DJ. Also, if you want a little more insight into the world of Yuki Abe, please check out this Lazy Interview (a Q&A) he did with yours truly for YES/NO.

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BOYS GET HURT ELEGANCE [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Here is something quite nicely magical for the collective Friday Feeling, provided of course that everybody is happy about today being Friday. In some places it might already be not Friday – I believe that's called Saturday – and if so, sorry to get your hopes up. Perhaps you could or might re-listen to this song on a future Friday somewhen. But what is this exactly? It comes from the Tokyo-dwelling emotional dance wonder himself, Yuki Abe – aka Boys Get Hurt. I've been supporting his cause for a while now (even getting a tweet taken down because apparently this song [click!] was a copyright infringement) and it seems with each new track things get a bit more refined, richer – you could even say more elegant. Ha ha.

Yes and it's no different with this track, 'Elegance'. Taking us with each of his songs into the very heart of the endless summer (well if it's endless technically there is no "very heart", no middle to speak of, but I'm sure you can understand what I mean), he conjures dancefloor romance, naïveté housed within a clean club setting, insta-crushes based on fleeting glimpses of beauty and all the carefree youthful happiness that goes with all that. Pop on over to his latest indie-discothèque soundtrack and have yourself a little dance.

Inviting us in via a chiming curtain, sturdy house piano chords and an evocative if not slightly solemn brass melody, we plunge headfirst into a disco beat with occasional but satisfying variety on the hi-hat, where the chords are supported by synth variations and a plunking bulge of bass synth bounces along with a funky jaunt. The vocal sample – or are they original, I'm not sure – lends its now-or-never sense of nocturnal temporary romance with lines like "spend all night with me", beautifully retro-ised with welcome interruptions from two note string melodies and the ever-tropical glockenspiel on loop, the synth widening towards the end, helped along its way by brief bursts of white noise fizz.

This feels different to many other Boys Get Hurt tracks simply because of the purity of the brass melody that comes in, there's something sensible about it, a maturity, a knowing resignation to certain facts or factors – and it's this gradual change in the music of Yuki Abe that makes me want to keep listening to everything he puts out. No matter what, though, you're always safe in the knowledge that he's gonna give you some real danceable and instantly likeable disco vibes every single time.

Pssst... you can also download this for free from BGH's SC page...

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DCUP MAGIC

One of the many cool things about the world is that it's always gonna be summer somewhere. Whilst we freeze and shiver here in the arctic Northern Hemisphere, our Southern counterparts enjoy hot days and warm nights, and vice versa of course. As such, it means that the music of summer never stops being produced, never dies, so there's always something to get your blood up to temperature and whisk you away to tropical shores, rosasite seas, waves breaking slowly on the reef, still lagoons, breadfruit for breakfast... long live our tropics.

Why do I speak this way? It's because of this song by Melbourne producer DCUP, 'Magic'. Just one day old right now, the song comes from a legacy of hot-blooded tracks including the very nice 'Don't Be Shy', which included a remix by Japanese purveyor of emotional and retro house, Boys Get Hurt. I was touched by the message that DCUP, aka real person Duncan MacLennan, left as a description for the song, saying its purpose was "...to not only keep you dancing through these beautiful summer nights down in Oz, but to keep our friends in the North warm on their chilling winter eve's." That's what I like to hear. A bit of togetherness. Global community spirit.

True to its name, 'Magic' is a little goûter of magic. Within seconds of the track starting an unbeatable bassline pops in with a funky bounce, soon joined with samba type piano chords, augmented with excitable bweeps and the occasional flash of synth chords. That samba rhythm in the music gives the track a hot and sweaty atmosphere, something sensually calling out with a wink in a where-will-this-lead manner in the midst of the driving slo-house, disco-evoking beat. The sample of some husky voice saying "Magic..." is a great touch, beautifully placed dynamic punctuation in this exciting sentence of music.

The mix of funk, latin and disco in 'Magic' lands in the cradle of your ears like something retroactive, a time capsule dusted off and polished with modern tools to give it a zeitgeistical familiarity whilst it shines with its own lustre: the sheen of nostalgic novelty alien past. It feels fresh, especially with those varying elements, and clearly comes from a mind that loves to create music for people to dance to.

Fun fact: DCUP collaborated with Australian band Yolanda Be Cool for 2010 hit 'We No Speak Americano'; now that Latin lilt to 'Magic' makes more sense and I love DCUP all the more for it.

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CIARA BODY PARTY (BOYS GET HURT REMIX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Right, firstly, in like every post I've written about Boys Get Hurt I've called it a duo. Two people. That is, Yuki and Takumi. Due to I don't know what reasons, Takumi "quit" at the start of this summer. So basically, everything I've written about these guys has been wrong. Well, this guy. It's just Yuki Abe now. If you'd like to have a quick refresher course on his music, then please be my guest.

So this is just a singular project. Anyway that's enough of that. Mr Abe emailed me the other day notifying me of his new song, a remix of Ciara's 'Body Party'. The original is a downtempo pool of sultry slow-jamz R&B that positively steams with tip-of-the-tongue sexuality - obvious, but not obvious enough to be outrageous. It's just the kind of song that Boys Get Hurt would remix and he's done a good job of it, too. Yep, it drips with disco sensibilities with an uptempo beat, taking the slow heart out of the original and replacing it with a ticker that is pre-wound-up and ready to move.

Giving Ciara's vocals from the original a lot of room to breathe, running the course of the song instead of cutting it too much, this fast-paced rendition takes you from the velvet-clad bedrooms of slow-jams to a disco hut on a beach somewhere. Marimba chords support other tuned percussion melodies, little glockenspiel loops, that lend a joyous vibe to the tune - that feeling of endless summer which Boys Get Hurt gets absolutely spot on every time. There's a little string melody in here as well that sounds familiar, like it could be the same decorative cluster of sounds that graced Madonna's 'Holiday'. The spirit of the song is just that though: holiday. Fun in the sun. Beach dancing until sunrise.

It's always fun listening to Boys Get Hurt. This kind of dance music, a collection of sounds that recalls the soul of early 90s pop with emotive recollections of summer and a beat that's always buzzing with energy and busy with percussion, is lovely. You can always rely on Yuki Abe to deliver this friendly familiarity that in every new track bursts with freshness. And this is FREE TO DOWNLOAD as with most of his songs. Woo!

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CHELA ROMANTICISE (BOYS GET HURT REMIX)

So I'll start this one by saying that I haven't actually heard the original of this song. Usually with a remix I like to hear the original version. But in this case, since I can't do that, I won't do that, and I'll just judge the song on what it is. A song, in and of itself.

It comes from a new EP, Romanticise, by Melbourne-based artist Chela released on freewheeling endless-2005-honeymoon French label Kitsuné. And as they often do, they've put a lot of remixes on the album too. Which is nice because it's a way to prolong the tastiest elements of an enjoyable song without just sticking it on repeat and risk damaging its freshness - plus it's also nice to give some exposure to those lesser known producers who "do" the remixes. In this instance, it's Japanese duo Boys Get Hurt.

Labelling themselves as emotional dance music - even "sea disco" - they create some really nice tracks that evoke sunshine and romance with a hint of nostalgia. I've even done a Q&A with one half of the duo, Yuki Abe. Their remix of Chela's 'Romanticise' exhibits that same brand of fresh, comfortable indie dance which first attracted me to them.

There's nothing really futuristic about it. Like I said, they seem to inject a sense of nostalgia into their tracks and this one's no different, despite being a remix. Perhaps it's that tropical vibe of theirs. Is that nostalgic? I suppose its of a certain time - mid-1990s, but then again what do I know. There's a beach-destined melody on the xylophone counterpointed with a marimba kinda sound that floats playfully within the beat, the new-pair-of-trainers-squeaking-across-a-polished-floor synth sound that bwips and bweeps, the bongo drumming that tribalises the atmosphere at the start. It's all delicious and catchy.

The vocals from Chela sing out with catchy emotion, moving from stretched high to low and confidential; they follow a nice stop-start pattern in the chorus that Boys Get Hurt have followed with a combined synth chord/bass off-beat rhythm. A slice of the vocal has been sampled and lowered, appearing towards the end, alongside a variously scatty hi-hat pinging - falling finally to reverberating piano chords, a shaker, that glockenspiel sound, and a clap. How else could you have wished the song to finish? It's nice. A real sunset ending.

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BOYS GET HURT LOVE THE WAY U FEEL

Totally love these guys. They always have such a nice sound in their songs that it's like nigh-on impossible to not like them. If you haven't been introduced yet, "these guys" refers to Boys Get Hurt - a Tokyo DJ/producer duo who make emotional dance music and try to have a fun time whilst doing it.

I interviewed Yuki Abe, one half of the BGH (the other half being Takumi Kawahori), a while ago so go have a read of that if you want to know more. You also might like to check out one of their earlier songs, a Justin Timberlake-sampling wonder called 'b e a c h'. But for the moment, right here and right now, we will focus on a new song of theirs that has appeared: 'Love The Way U Feel' - romantically themed, as always.

The pair have a knack for capturing an end-of-summer vibe, or else it's an endless summer vibe, within their songs. I'm happy to say that it's absolutely no different with their new track. Though it's slower than what I've heard before, falling within the "slow jams" category, this just serves to heighten the emotive atmosphere of the track - it's certainly illustrated very well with the gorgeous female vocals that fall like petals throughout the song, or in the smooth transitions between each changing dynamic.

Pounding bouncy bass kicks resound, sumptuously painted over with popping synth melodies that are arranged in such a way as to give it a tropical beach-party vibe. It sounds akin to some nameless house disco track of yesteryear - the sound that BGH go for. The romance is there, too - I get images of heart-aching dancefloors, longing bodies grooving to the beat, soaking up the rich house-piano and synth chords that flesh out the sound. A sense of sweaty bodies approaching each other, knowing each other through the music, caressing from afar. Maybe a bit deep but it's a DEEP song with a disco soul, made with love and care.

I like this song, in other words. It comes from a really nice mixtape called THE VIBE GUIDE Vol. 2, which you should check out. As ever, I am looking forward to more summer-infused Boys Get Hurt new songs.

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YUKI ABE (BOYS GET HURT) INTERVIEW

Who doesn't like dancing? You don't have to be a dancing freak to be classed as someone who likes dancing. You could dance once a year, love it, and be called someone who likes dancing. You could dance once a week. Whatever whatever, you get the point. Like it or not, it's actually quite a big part of society. If it wasn't, there wouldn't even be such a word as 'dance', nor a kind of music. But to actually make music that makes people dance, that must be pretty exciting.

That is certainly the vibe I get from Yuki Abe, Tokyo-based electro-dance producer, and one half of dance outfit Boys Get Hurt alongside Takumi Kawahori. I've written about both him, under the moniker Body Fantasy, (song: 'In In') and Boys Get Hurt (song: 'b e a c h') Yuki was kind enough to answer this lazy interview, much to my happiness and gratitude. Read on and learn a little bit.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
Yuki. Born and raised up in Tokyo.
I do Boys Get Hurt and some music producing.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
When I was a teen, I started hearing some different genres.
I thought I could mix it up better than usual.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
Boys Get Hurt is just emotional dance music.
I think we mostly influenced by "The Get Up Kids".
Now our musical style is called basically Nu Disco, Sea Disco.
Our DJ/Label friends are mostly based in LA or French.
So we feel it's not major.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
Beach-side air controlled inside a club in Hawaii.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
When I get hurt by good music.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
08/10/2011 "Summer House" @ WOMB
Our party's 1st time in Tokyo.
It's mid weekday but massive, people dance around.
Awesome experience.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
Moonboots - Love Strong

Para One ft. Irfane & Teki Latex - Every Little Thing (Plastic Plates Remix)

Jacques Greene ft. How To Dress Well - On Your Side

Who do you most admire in the music world?
Death Cab For Cutie

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
Always repeating to change.
Gonna melt with other stuff. eg. Visual, Environment, Smell or something, to become new package.
it's time to get through from old system.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
We will keep collaborating with many talented guys in the world.
Release from the label, remixing the stuff, touring, etc.
We keep doing the party in Tokyo.
Keep fresh and comfy. :)

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
Coffee, movies and trips.

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Well, there you have it. That's Yuki Abe and Boys Get Hurt. (Sea Disco is kinda retro 90s dance with modern flair btw just so you know). I like very much the idea of "repeating to change", and I like even more the idea of keeping it "fresh and comfy" - what a nice sentiment! Anyway, the people of Tokyo are lucky for having such a talented guy, along with Takumi, right on their doorsteps to play them very fresh and chilled sunshine disco for a very good time indeed. THANKS YUKI!

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BOYS GET HURT B E A C H [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Really quite enjoying this song at the moment. Like more than enjoying - loving, even. It's got a fantastic vibe that kinda gets into your head and almost forces you to get on a pair of bermuda shorts and go do some jumping jacks on a beach interspersed with dancing like a kind of madman/sultry person. Maybe I'm only thinking beach because the song is called 'beach' or 'b e a c h' if we want to go with the stylised version, which is the way it's written down so maybe we should go with that. It makes the 'beach' l o n g e r , y o u s e e ?

Anyway, this song can be half-credited to Yuki Abe - whom I wrote about a few days ago - and it can also be half-credited to Takumi Kawahori; together these two make up the producer/DJ duo called Boys Get Hurt and they make some pretty nice music together. It's thanks to this pretty-nice-music-ness that this post exists because I do believe that 'b e a c h' is a very very nice song indeed. Please listen to the song below under the bottom of this paragraph.

Just here.

The clean melodies that trip in time above the perfect house beat are tasty - you can almost feel them on your tongue, those blippy synths. They're layered with light xylophonic sounds that tickle your ears, but not too much otherwise that would be well uncomfortable. Thankfully nothing about this song is uncomfortable. And the sample... aieee it's great! Justin Timberlake's girl-sensualising tones from 'My Love' are sampled to great success. The 'beach' part of the lyrics is what gives the song its name, I think. Makes sense. Anyway. Big dancey housey vibe that I really like.

Warm as the sun, cool as slathered sun cream.

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BODY FANTASY (YUKI ABE) IN IN

You know I keep saying how yeah it's fine whatever doesn't matter how old something is it's still new if it's the first time you've heard it? You know? Well, that kinda backfired with this song.

It's two years old and unfortunately between then and now the guy behind it, upcoming Tokyo-based DJ/producer Yuki Abe, has since moved from the moniker of Body Fantasy to work alongside a guy called Takumi Kawahori on new project Boys Get Hurt (more on them at a later date in the near near future). But for now for seriously, it's all about Yuki Abe and this lovely song of his, 'In In'. It's still a song and we can still listen to it so it's like totally valid no? Yes.

It starts off sounding a lot meaner than it actually turns out, a high-tempo electro house tune that sinks into sounding like an up-to-date Mylo tune with a cut-up synthesised vocal sample. It's a pretty glorious sound, with a euphoric melody playing over the top - the last two minutes of the song is a total mélange of sounds, layered and energised. Hot stuff.

Summery vibe, big summery vibe, big dancey dance-a-thon. Feel-good-stick-it-on-and-get-moving vibe. The dynamics of the song are great too, really nice keeping you on your toes and your ears suitably pleased and sated with the differing levels and layers and whatnot throughout this quite exciting song. Shame it kind of... doesn't exist anymore. Such is the permanent impermanence of the internet! Ho ho ho!

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