TARA CAROSIELLI DISCO LIGHTS

Here's something. Well, usually there's always something, but here is actually something. What does that even mean? I don't know. But what I can be sure of is that it is a good song that deserves a little more recognition. It's the kind of thing that could be very easily played on the radio all day every day for a long while and that is not a bad thing cause generally that means that it's a) a good song, and/or b) catering to popular tastes of the day. That's kind of exactly what 'Disco Lights' by London singer-songwriter Tara Carosielli is. Yep it's got this delicious feel to it that's not only catchy but danceable too.

I stumbled across this by chance, as with most things, but what I found out just now is that, despite this being the only song on her SoundCloud, Tara also has also uploaded a number of other R&B-flavoured jams that include the played-quite-a-lot 'Resistance', which is very nice indeed. For me, she's kinda come out of nowhere but I suppose she has to have come from somewhere, and from that somewhere she has been releasing music all the time. All of it is characterised by her own smoky soulful voice, an element in her music that is lilting with melody and the tinge of a London accent: quite beautiful.

Co-written and produced by Seton Daunt (a songwriter + producer for Sony/ATV - sorry if I'm wrong) the song is a futuristic post-R&B vehicle for Tara Carosielli's wonderful voice, which here seems to have its own special spotlight, picked out in all its clarity. Her vocals are also layered at some points with a low-register version - an added treat that brings a late-night dance feel to the song. Her voice decorates the song in other ways, reverbing after the chorus and providing part-of-the-music ornamentations of "Mmm-mm-mmmm", all of it dripping with attitude.

Essentially it's a pop song, but with its leanings toward garage and perhaps moreso drumstep - thanks to the bustling beat pummeling out a slow rhythm, the subby gloss of simplistic bass and waves of distorted cyclical synth - it's a pop song with a nocturnal attitudinal edge and a lovely hook: "Why are you so cruel to me?" - it's pretty sumptuous. There are a number of reasons why this could become a big success and the talent of Tara Carosielli is certainly one of the most crucial.

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BOT'OX BASEMENT LOVE

As much as I love hearing music in general that I like, I love more to hear music that is not only fresh but wholly loveable at the same time. Often, and this is something I wrote about today in fact, music is reminiscent of something else or is directly derivative, but there is a uniqueness lacking that - for me personally - is something that I crave when it comes to all things in life (not just music). Call that 'hipster' and I'll blow your fucking brains out - I'm sick of that word.

You can imagine my relative joy, then, when I came across this tasty morsel from Paris-based band Bot'Ox called 'Basement Love'; released yesterday (10th Dec) as an EP, the entirety of which you can listen to on SoundCloud or download here, the song comes out as the first of a series of EPs or 'chapters' (released every two months apparently) leading up to an album, expected later in 2013: Sans Dormir, which itself comes two years after debut album Babylon by Car.

'Basement Love' starts as a flies-buzzing-round-a-window build up from a barely heard saw-wave synth into something surprising, a bassline almost like dub and a drumstep rhythm that captivates you from the very first beat. With popping synth arpeggios, a disconcerting voice comes in - the voice of Foremost Poets (or jOHNNYDANGEROUs, who also featured in Bot’Ox’s Perfect Pair EP in 2011) - a voice that is twisted with effects and comes ghostly from the centre of this dirge-paced basement anthem. Playing with dynamics, the distorted synth comes back and rises, flooding your ears with inescapable, raucous sound, scraping and noisy, near-unbearable - then it breaks off, revealing that calm dub and clear-toned guitar chords, small and different after all that loudness.

Reminding me of a cross between alt-J and TOYS (who we wrote about the other day), these guys cover a new, dark ground that still sounds like it has a lot to give. Listen below.

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