Azari & III announce self-titled debut album

The first album's always tricky, they say. But it's also that vital calling card, that initial impression - the one that can quite often make or break you, the one that - if all goes well - will reel in a host of new fans to the cause.

Toronto electro outfit Azari & III have laid all the key foundations with critical acclaim rushing in for them from the likes of NME and Mixmag - now it's time to see if the house will stand. Giving their self-titled debut its proper UK release (it was previously only available on import), 2012 will also see them taking to the stage at Heaven in February to delight audiences with their esteemed live experience.

We loved their single Reckless With Your Love, it encapsulated everything missing in dance music these days - dipping into 90s house influences with glorious results. The full album promises yet more electro-delights, and that's good enough for us.

Azari & III release their self-titled debut album on the 19th February.

Azari & III - Reckless With Your Love

If more dance music these days sounded like Reckless With Your Love, the world would be a better place. Azari & III's latest single harks back so much to the days of early 90s house you'd be forgiven for thinking you had actually clambered into a time machine and gone back to those hazy days yourself.

For the Toronto producers, Show Me Love-esque synths and a big soulful chorus hook are all you need. No cement mixer churning of a hundred synth parts, no endless references to being 'in the club'. Reckless feels darkly soulful, the magic of a truly empowered dancefloor, and a production duo with the power to fill it.

Reckless With Your Love is available to download on iTunes now.

Austra - Feel It Break

Toronto based trio Austra are a delicate creature - lead singer Katie Stelmanis coming very much from the Florence & The Machine line of affairs, her vocals imbued with that same capacity for intense power; that almost spiritual quality.

The band's music couldn't be further away from good old Florence and Co. though - enter sparkling, energetic synth workouts that sound like they've been conjured up on old eighties hardware dug out of someone's attic. There's mystique here aplenty, an almost baroque, hand-crafted quality - have a listen to standout track Lose It from the band's debut Feel It Break and you'll hear it straight away.

As the titles make clear, this is a record centred around loss and things falling apart - every part of Lose It feeling so tender and like it could shatter in a stiff breeze, only for Katie's vocal to blast through, reinforcing and strengthening again. Mixed by Damian Taylor of Bjork and UNKLE fame, it bears a similar richness and air of innovation as these artists.

It's well worth checking out the mix of her track Beat and the Pulse available to download freely on her website too - all atmospheric, darkly pulsating electronics, it's dance it its most moody and intense. The vocals are kept to a minimum, tweaked into haunting siren-like calls that snake their way around the rubbery bassline.

There's a sense of space, of a vast expanse longing to be filled with emotion - this is a cold, almost icy record; but those vocals come almost as a cry for human contact, a longing to be touched and manipulated.

Feel It Break is out now and available to purchase here.


Austra - Beat and the Pulse (Steffi Bass Break Dub) by DominoRecordCo