New Music Friday is intense. Hundreds of songs drop from artists around the world, and you’re supposed to somehow find the best ones. It’s fun work, but it’s time-consuming — so we at Billboard Dance want to give you a hand. Each week, we sift through the streams and dig in the digital crates to present five absolute must-hears from the wide breadth of jams.
This week was a big one, as dance music royalty Porter Robinson turned up with “Get Your Wish,” the first single from his forthcoming and hotly anticipated LP, Nurture. Meanwhile, composer/producer Ólafur Arnalds and vibey Los Angeles vocalist Ry X collaborated on the dreamy tune, “Oceans,” TCTS and Maya B dropped a video for their 2019 smash “Not Ready For Love,” and Cheat Codes
All of that’s in addition to the boatload of fresh music out today from the newly reunited Duck Sauce, Tycho, David Guetta‘s alter-ego Jack Back, Will Clarke and more. Let’s dig in.
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Tycho, “Outer Sunset”
Just three days after attending the Grammys as a nominee for his 2019 LP Weather, Tycho dropped a gorgeous new single, “Outer Sunset.” The song lands squarely in the soothing/immersive sonic template the producer born Scott Hansen has been working in for the duration of his career, with the song playing like a long float out to sea during magic hour. That is to say, we like it. Along with the previously released single “Stress” — a song that sounds nothing like its namesake — “Outer Sunset” comes from Tycho’s forthcoming LP, Simulcast, out on Feb. 28 via Mom + Pop/Ninja Tune. — Katie Bain
Will Clarke, “U Take Me Higher”
Techno is great when you want to hear and feel music so dark and big it’ll repeatedly pound you into the floor like a round of rave whack-a-mole — but sometimes, you want your techno to feel less like a beating and more like a bear hug, warm and uplifting.
When Clarke decided to launch his own label, All We Have is Now, he did it with the intention of releasing the music he’d been waiting years to make: music with melodies and vocals to make people feel. That journey begins today with the label’s first release, a single from Clarke called “U Take Me Higher.” It still stomps like its Berghain-aspiring brethren, but does so with a simultaneous melancholy and euphoria via somber synth melodies and a transcendent vocal. Catch it, and Clarke, on his ongoing open-to-close U.S. tour. — Krystal Rodriguez
Duck Sauce, “Smiley Face”
“Make someone feel happy today.” This is the mantra going into 2020, and A-Trak and Armand Van Helden are off to a great start. The iconic super-disco-duo has revived its Duck Sauce collaboration, dropping a euphoric, climbing groove that catches all the joy of throwing your hands in the air and shouting “yeah!” With a groovin’ bassline, a rapturous vocal sample and an upward-running melodic progression, it’s got the same rainbow-colored elation of Daft Punk cuts “Crescendolls” or even “Burnin’,” which is a compliment, for sure. It’s the first Duck Sauce single in six years, so let that catchy tune bounce in your brain with merry abandon and keep a keen eye for more to come — Kat Bein
Arty Feat. Griff Clawson, “You’re Not Alone”
Listen, life can be hard and most of us just need a nice, long hug. While Arty cannot wrap his arms around each one of us individually, today (Jan. 31) the Russian producer delivers the sonic equivalent of a warm embrace via “You’re Not Alone,” a collaboration with Los Angeles-based vocalist Griff Clawson. The song is a soaring affirmation about carrying on — even when loves takes a turn, when it hurts too much or when you’ve had enough — an accomplishment easier to pull off after listening to the soaring anthen that’s likely to become one of the summer’s favored mainstage anthems. “You’re Not Alone” is out now via Armada Music. — K. Bain
Sébastien Tellier, “A Ballet”
French touch maven Sébastien Tellier is so sensual on the synths, he can turn a chore like dishes into a boudoir brooder – and he did on “A Ballet,” his first solo release since 2014. Tellier whispers his words through a heavy filter, layering drum machine ticks and sexy sax riffs over languishing guitar and textural touches, but it’s the song’s video, directed by Valentine Reinhardt, that cinches the surreal beauty. “‘A Ballet’ is a dreamlike vision of domestic life,” Reinhardt is quoted in a press release. “Out of the limelight, Sébastien is so engrossed in household chores that he starts hallucinating. Reduced to a miniature state in his own home, his character wanders and rummages through all the rooms, frightened and amazed at what his daily life has become. Sébastien, the artist, cohabits now with Sébastien, the domestic fairy.” It’s freaking adorable, is what it is, making a quite day in with the family look like quite the adventure. — K. Bein
Against All Logic, “Aluciano”
Last December, FKA Twigs was the guest on Rick Rubin’s Broken Record podcast and gushed about working with Nicolas Jaar on her 2019 LP Magdalene, calling the producer an “artist’s artist.” It seems the creative process was similarly ripe for Jaar, as today he returns under his Against All Logic alias with a pair of new tracks — one featuring former collaborator Lydia Lunch and the other featuring Twigs, whose voice gets pitched down low for the cacophonous “Aluciano.” While a bit more in line with Jaar’s work on his 2016 album Sirens rather than the previous Against All Logic album, 2012-2017, the pair of tracks are excellent and Jaar’s return is welcome, as is the news that he’ll release the sophomore Against All Logic LP, 2017-2019, on Feb. 7 via his label, Other People. — K. Bain
Gorillaz, “Momentary Bliss” Feat. Slowthai and Slaves
Give it up to the world’s greatest animated band and their lovely brand of open format funk. Gorillaz is back with a punk-inspired jam that’ll have you wondering if breakout UK rapper Slowthai is actually related to Joe Strummer. This hook really plays like a long-lost song by The Clash, and we’re so glad to discover it. Additional intrumentation from British punk duo Slaves pushed the alt-rock mood, while Gorillaz’ characteristically electronic atmopshere grounds “Momentary Bliss” in the group canon. It’s the first single from Gorillaz’s forthcoming album Song Machine. Don’t blink and miss “lovely” Beatles shout-out. — K. Bein