Mood J - Looking Further, Looking Forward

  • House primed for summer dance floors.
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  • The Guardian ran a piece recently that looked into the formula behind hit summer pop songs. It suggested that things like big, simple choruses, "novelty factors" and, over the last couple years, Latin American rhythms were all popular characteristics. What would some of these characteristics be in summer dance tracks? Well, Mood J's Looking Further, Looking Forward is a good case study. Nothing here is aiming for anything as cynical as "big tune of the summer," but these four tracks have all the classic hallmarks of house music for the warmer months. On "Looking Forward," it's the chords, a balmy, swirling organ line that plays out over a punchy beat. Mood J seems to sense that this melody is sufficient, and adds only a hi-hat and a string part to the arrangement. With "Looking Further," it's those chords again, plus the sort of bassline that French artists like Daft Punk were using with such success in the late '90s. The diva vocal hook and tasteful string stabs of "Don't Cha" would make for a more reflective moment at a Croatian festival, while "Tribute (To The B3)" has the sort of hand percussion that powered so much of the so-called Latin house sound of the early 2000s. Any house DJ playing an open-air gathering this summer should give Looking Further, Looking Forward some attention.
  • Tracklist
      A1 Looking Further A2 Looking Forward B1 Don't Cha B2 Tribute (To The B3)
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