CHORUS!

Of Montreal were very awesome last Monday. They had a whole heap of technical problems and after two false starts, instead of abandoning the gig, they went out back and got some acoustic guitars, and played an acoustic set instead! It was one of the loveliest gigs I've been to for some time. Kevin Barnes didn't get naked though, more's the pity (warning: NSFW). Afterwards, I had a chat to Brian the guitarist, who told me they didn't have a British record deal at the moment... That's absolutely criminal.

Anyway, today I'm going to talk about two electro tracks with good choruses. The power of the chorus in a dance song is absolute. There's something very special about being on a dancefloor when everyone's singing along too. In the cases of both these songs, they've been remixed from the originals. There's a bit of a dull verse to get through before you get to the real gold, so be prepared to potentially not like these songs for about 30 seconds before you adore them.

Under The Influence Of Giants - Mamas Room (Weird Science Mix)

(Edit: Bizarrely when you use the little play clicky thing, this plays really slowly. The MP3 itself is fine when downloaded, so I dunno what it's all about. I'd recommend you download this one, rather than playing it on the website.)

This remix was constructed from a remarkably slow original (which can be heard on the band's MySpace if you're so inclined). Weird Science's remix has pretty much doubled the speed and introduced squelchy bits that make things sublime. There's not a lot they can do about the verses, but the chorus twinkles and sparkles like a glitterball.

Snowden - Black Eyes (Le Castle Vania Remix)

Snowden are another band who I don't really get excited about until they issue remixes. Le Castle Vania have done an awesome job here - they've pretty much injected an awesome chorus that wasn't even in the original song. It's half crafted out of the outro on the original fed through a vocoder, and half pretty much entirely new. Check out the original on Snowden's Myspace.

Finally, on a sneaky side plug, I put together a mix the other day and posted it up on RAD!O ED!T. It's got both the above tracks on, as well as some other awesome tracks, and is about 45 minutes long. If you're into your internet DJ mixes, especially good electro stuff, then have a look and a listen. :)

- Duncan