Jain
Hope
Jain's light, sing-song voice, her own drum programming and Yodelice's bass and trombone carry a small, sunny plea for a better world, the title track of her first EP in 2015.
Genre
electro-pop
10 tracks.
Jain
Come
Jain's debut hit hides a lovesick lyric under a happy bounce: chugging guitar, bashful horns and double-tracked vocals, under three minutes of Afro-pop lightness that went to number one in France.
Jain
City
The closing song of Jain's 2015 Hope EP, produced by Yodelice: her bright, slightly mischievous voice riding a homemade-sounding beat that mixes pop simplicity with the rhythmic colours of a childhood spent between Dubai, Congo and Abu Dhabi.
Ivy Levan, CADRÉ
Like A Glove
Ivy Levan's smoky, swaggering vocal slinks over a sleek, bass-heavy pop beat, with a rap verse from Cadre: a track from her 2015 'swamp-hop' debut that fits its title, tight, dark and made to measure.
Broken Back
Happiest Man on Earth (Radio Edit)
Bright acoustic strumming over a gentle electronic beat, Broken Back's first single sounds like optimism earned the hard way.
ayokay, Quinn XCII
Kings of Summer
Bright synths and Quinn XCII's easy vocal paint a memory of summers when you and your friends felt untouchable: the 2016 breakthrough of two school friends from Michigan.
Northern Lite
Trusting Blind
The 2001 debut single of Erfurt's Northern Lite, released on their own 1st Decade Records: techno roots turning into electronic pop, with ambient pads, a steady bassline and a slow build toward a driving finish.
Ultraísta
Smalltalk
'Smalltalk' is the 2012 lead single of Ultraísta, the trio of Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich, drummer Joey Waronker and singer Laura Bettinson: layered synthesizers and afrobeat-minded drums under a plea to stop the small talk, heard here in Four Tet's garage-shuffle remix.
Fischerspooner
Emerge
'Emerge' is Fischerspooner's debut single and one of the defining records of electroclash: a pounding, theatrical electro-pop anthem from a New York duo that began as a performance art piece about entertainment.
Ladytron
Seventeen
Ladytron's 2002 single: whirring synthesizers, two cool, interlocking voices and a minimal lyric that takes a swipe at an industry obsessed with youth, shiny and throwaway on the surface and dark underneath.