Dreamtrak: "Contemporary"

As far as dance music nostalgia is concerned, the mid-aughts are patently off limits. It was an era of excess, the debaucherous afterparty following DFA‘s and Modular‘s indie-dance explosion; everyone experimented with nu-rave and fidget house at least once back then, so it’s no surprise we’re a bit embarrassed in the harsh light of a new decade. Truthfully, though, the music wasn’t all bad, and there are still producers filtering the mid-aughts’ best assets into radiant nuggets of effective dancefloor fare. Londoner Dreamtrak does a bit of this on his latest single, “Contemporary”, a rubbery tune largely built around one big synth patch and a simplistic beat that might as well be labeled Default Electro-House.

But “Contemporary” only continues to expand its palette, and gracefully so. There’s a vibrant musicality that creeps into the mix, bringing to mind the cosmic-disco synthscapes of Lindstrøm retrofitted with Mylo’s ebullient bassline from “Drop the Pressure”. By no means is Dreamtrak attempting to revive dance music’s awkwardly turnt up phase, but he does make quick work of capturing the qualities that made it a party worth attending in the first place.

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