Back In The Habit

Welcome back, NovelliFans!

I hope you’ve had a wonderful couple of weeks while I’ve been away & if you’re new around here, welcome! I’m thrilled that you’ve found your way to my little corner of the net!

To catch you up, I took a brief hiatus at the end of June to host my dearest friend in the entire world, Ricky (aka @stewdippin) who came for his first IRL visit all the way from Texas!

Between our adventures with my other bestie, Camilla (aka @camilla_tracy),our nightly Gilmore Girls marathons & our trip to DinoTown, the whole week was an oh-so-full feast of joy that whipped by faster than the Flash.

And while I was terribly sad to see him go, I’m excited to be back here with all of you, Ricky included , rounding up the latest in vocal dance magnificence that the Muse Music team (and their contemporaries) have to offer.

So let’s get to it shall we?

🎵🎵🎵

Ready For A Fall

Our first fresh release received its debut spin on Enhanced Sessions 756, Farius’ fantabulous Pride Special, which steamed live on YouTube on June 28.

Coming to us on the Enhanced Recordings imprint Colorize, ‘Dominoes’ is the second Susie Ledge & Modera collab to be released this year, following the moody, breakbeat BARELO remix of ‘Lifeline’, which dropped back on April 12.

For their latest release, Modera & Susie have enlisted British-born, Florida-based producer (and Certified 107 Drone Pilot ) Andrew Burrow*, who has worked previously with Modera — most recently on ‘Stand Alone’, a collab with JOSEFINA that was also released on Colorize back on June 7.

Another co-write with the masterful Sue McLaren (which makes for the second of hopefully many Sue & Susie collabs this year ) — ‘Dominoes’ pairs Susie’s rich vocals with crisp beats, sunny synths and finger snaps(!!!) to create a track that wraps itself around you like a warm hug, making it feel that much safer to “release control” and “fall like dominoes.”

& coming from an Enneagram Six, that’s saying something!

So if you’re looking for a heartening track to add to your ‘Be Here Now’ playlist, def give ‘Dominoes’ a spin.

Buy / Stream ‘Dominoes’

*Burrow also contributed a delightfully vibey remix of the Modera & Camp 8 track ‘I’ll Be Home’ to the same album that featured BARELO’s ‘Lifeline’ remix, so if you haven’t checked out ‘From Walks of Life (Remixes)’ yet, now you have another reason to do so.

Find Your Way Out

Next up we have another track that received its debut on Farius’ Enhanced Sessions Pride Special, episode 756, the progressive house “floorfiller” ‘Breathe Again’ by Linney and Billboard Top 40 Dance regular Morgin Madison.

Coming to us on Enhanced Recordings, ‘Breathe Again’ is the third collaboration for this dynamic duo, following the 2022 release of their single ‘Time’ on deadmau5’s label mau5trap, and the 2023 release ‘With You’, which appeared on ‘Desert Dream’, Linney’s most recent solo EP on Helix Records.

The last of five singles Madison has released in anticipation of his forthcoming full-length album ‘Odyssey’ (which is dropping on July 19), ‘Breathe Again’ is the perfect track to put on when you need to pick yourself up AFTER a fall.

Co-written with Linney’s ‘Champagne Eyes’ collaborator Jamison — & lyrically reminiscent of phoenix rising anthems like Katy Perry’s ‘Roar’ — ‘Breathe Again’ trades jaunty pop vibes for thick bass and atmospheric synths, taking a step back in the recovery timeline to that moment of initial relief, when the weight finally begins to lift, but there’s still a long way to go before we’re where we want to be.

Pairing Linney’s resonant vocals with a pulsing beat and swift melodic line, which only pauses to make space for a beautiful wubs-y breakdown, ‘Breathe Again’ will be there to carry you through the messy middle, whenever you’re ready to start “building castles from the wreckage”.

& if things are on an upswing for you rn, turn this one up and celebrate! There’s a reason Farius named it his weekly “floorfiller” after all.

Buy / Stream ‘Breathe Again’

& if you’re looking for another track to keep the wubs wubs-ing, Owen Norton’s remix of ‘Echoes’, Linney’s collab with Hektor Mass & ILVS, dropped a couple weeks back and its wubs just won’t quit. #turnitup

No Other

If you’re a regular around here, it will def come as no surprise that just b/c I took a break last week that doesn’t mean Sarah de Warren did.

In fact, Friday, June 28 saw the release of one of Sarah’s most anticipated collabs of the year, ‘Love Takes Over’, an ID that Dutch DJ/producer Maddix first debuted at Ultra Miami back in March, and has now officially dropped on his label EXTATIC Records [XTTC].

Underscoring Sarah’s evocative vocals (which she recorded in her bedroom, btw) with his signature mix of techno & trance, Maddix has created a fevered sound that pairs perfectly with the track’s seductive lyrics.

& if the track itself wasn’t enough, the duo were so excited for this release that they enlisted production company Protocol to film an official music video, which stars a cast of 15 beautiful people — led by none other than SdW herself.

Directed by London-based filmmaker, Kassandra Powell, who’s received multiple award nominations for her previous work, the ‘Love Takes Over’ music video clearly taps into Powell’s experience “documenting East London’s subculture club scene” and is def NSFW — unless of course you work in the club scene or somewhere club scene adjacent.

& if not, the audio-only version is available now wherever you like to listen.

Buy / Stream ‘Love Takes Over’

Ofc, that still leaves us with Sarah’s release from this past week, ‘Like You’, her second collab with “top tier” trance master (and co-creator of the v. first Christina Novelli track I ever heard), the one and only, Richard Durand.

A follow-up to their 2021 Muse Music Records release, ‘Made of Stone’, (and co-written with Susie Ledge(!!!)), ‘Like You’ opens with a similarly atmospheric introduction, to which Durand adds a layer of crisp synths and what sounds like straight up lasers(!!!), before rounding back into the darkness for Sarah’s second verse.

Our stay in the dark doesn’t last long tho, as piano > strings > Sarah break through like the rising sun, and before you know it the synths have built to a full-on ‘hands in the air, feet off the ground, how is it already over’ trance-perience.

Thankfully there’s an Extended Mix that adds an additional 3 minutes to the original’s 4:15, in case you need more time to bask in the brilliance.

Grab both versions of ‘Like You’ on your favourite platform now.

Buy / Stream ‘Like You’

Synths Like Lynch

One final track that I didn’t have time to write about before my break last week was, ‘Fades To Nothing’ — the latest release from E.V Palmer, the UK vocalist I was introduced to via ‘Sky Falls Down’, her spectacular collab with Maratone that came out on Black Hole Recordings back in April.

For this new track, E.V has teamed up with Romanian producer Demeter, whose moody synths and rich, syncopated percussion create an organic house mood that’s hardcore giving Angelo Badalamenti, Twin Peaks vibes. (Think opening of Laura Palmer’s Theme before the piano kicks in.)

Released on June 22, 2024, on Demeter’s label NinetyNine, ‘Fades to Nothing was co-written with Tim Gosden, who E.V has worked with previously on her solo singles ‘Hate That I Love You’ (2022), ‘Overthinking’ (2022) & ‘Play Me’ (2022), & her collab with 4 Strings, ‘Welcome To Paradise’ (2023).

An atmospheric elegy to the kind of love that makes everything else pale in comparison, ‘Fades to Nothing’ is a track I’ll def be adding to my Synthwave Faves playlist.

Give it a spin, and let me know if you’ll be doing the same.

Buy / Stream ‘Fades To Nothing’

& a big thanks to Andrea Palmer for putting me on to this track; I would have been bummed to miss it! (Word of mouth is still a v. powerful thing, Fam, regardless of how fiercely the algorithm tries to convince us otherwise. )

That’s what I’ve been spinning this week. What about you? Drop the tracks you’ve had on repeat in the comments below, and let’s make some more word of mouth magic happen for the musicians we love best.

I hope your week is off to a wonderful start!Thanks so much for stopping by!