LINDSAY LOWEND – BODY PARTY INSTRUMENTAL (SNES VERSION) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

You can pretty much always trust or at least count on Lindsay Lowend to create very good songs. That's basically a given. Yep, this is the Washington DC-based producer dropping in again with more sumptuous VGM-(videogame music if u please)-inspired music, and what's more he's made this casually whilst he's on tour in Europe. Just dropping genius joints offhand and nonchalant – it's loveable.

Using SNES soundfonts, which are basically just instruments used in SNES games, for chords played in whimsical story-telling patterns, LL offers up a new and particularly wonderful rendition of Ciara's 'Body Party'. I've been burned before for posting on Twitter about a Ciara remix that was available for free download, so there's this underlying feeling of dread as I write this. In any case, aside from the crystal clear samples of the original, this may as well be a totally new song, which it kind of is.

Crunchy 16-bit bass carves out curving tunnels beneath the totally winsome chords, nostalgically fresh, as a metronomic beat keeps time in a simple bop from kick to snare. Later on it's as if KK Slider from Animal Crossing has joined in, the bwee-bwee-bwayy-bwoo noises later on basically summoning KK from his digital plane to this earthly world, sharing the stage with Ciara, and with Lindsay on keys. An ideal fantasy line-up in the world of fantasy line-ups.

The three tags that accompany this song on SoundCloud basically sum it up: #CIARA, #SNES, #SILLY_SHIT. And even if it IS silly shit, it's some of the best silly shit I've heard – perhaps it's better just being called "a fun song." And with that, he's also being rather pioneering in the pairing of seemingly disparate styles: SNES-era sounds &... Ciara. Usually a joke song is also kiiiind of rubbish (most things by Flight of the Conchords exempt), but Lindsay Lowend is clearly a musician through and through – even though it's silly, he can't help but make it oh— so— good.

• Yeah, this is a free download (clicketh).
• PS. WHERE does that funny little "Oh…" noise in the song come from? I recognise it but I've been going crazy trying to think where it comes from. If you know please tell me. Thank you.

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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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