With The Music I Die – EP – Wynter Gordon

In 2009, “Sugar” a 90′s revival, bubblegum-tech reinvent of Eiffel 65′s classic “I’m Blue” was given a hip hop makeover by rap enthusiast Flo-Rida. Flo-Rida’s verses are directly forgettable but the hook that attacked you all spring long wouldn’t have inflicted any pleasure without its laser beam equipped weapon Wynter Gordon. After Wynter’s animated drop on “Sugar,” she crashed the viral waves with “Dirty Talk,” a fictional trance fix that gets twisted with XXX world play, and “Toyfriend,” an underrated club hit on French-House producer David Guetta’s commercial record One Love.

Wynter Gordon should be considered as one of the most exciting new-wave dance acts from the last decade. She proves this statement, never failing to charm a listener for a second, on her With The Music I Die –  EP, a chemically approved combination of European big-beat dance production, sticky-sweet pop poetics, and a voice that was born to live on the dance floor. “Till Death” should be placed as the 2012′s “ten minutes ’till midnight” song as it kindly mirrors statements on how music is the coolest drug around and how dancing should be one of the last things we do before we die. New blood producer Tom Neville entrances a hands-up-in-the-air pop grime that ceases to be aggressively simple in the dance production, apart from when Gordon’s murky vocals have a tempting drop before each chorus, when we hear “Till death do we party, with the music I die.”

If you really want a retro throwback to the heyday of 80′s floor-shakers and early 90′s alternative dance, you just get Swedish House Mafia member Axwelll to deliver a little number for ya!  When was the last time, you heard the term “shabang” in a dance record? “Buy My Love” is straight fun, energizing jaunty xylophone snaps, and 80′s style electro synths with a warble of “oohs” that never want to stop, don’t crackle and do nothing but pop. In the chorus, Gordon’s cartoony melodious jubilee may animate images of her rolling her eyes and batting her eyelashes while fearlessly playing the role as a gold digger at the local diner in the year 1985. “Give me shoes! Give me roses! Give me romance!” The xylophones dominate the track  as Gordon politely performs a roar of profound vocals in the bridge.

“Don’t Stop Me” captivates a sound that is a  pathway of nebulous house balancing over streaks of plucked electronica piano and a spectrum of sun soaked beams. “Uhhh! You want it, You’ve done it now!” she guiltily admits –a “your love!” vocal-pant that re-appears throughout the chorus and easily recalls the early 2000s era of bubble gum effects found in  Dream, Christina Aguilera and Jessica Simpson production. The Middle 8 shuts it down when she swiftly gets through a final verse where she counts in full swagger  “5, 6, 7,8.. You going to make it home late!” building up to a beat drop leading to a bundle of vocal stutters declaring this is almost the end.

“Empire Of The Sun” takes us back to the beginning pre-evolved Giorgio Moroder house music in the 80′s. ‘Still Getting Younger” has Gordon crying about a summer romance that grows to become more and alive day-by-day. “Don’t want no other baby, I got you covered, our love is growing and getting younger” as the choral piece glides into an extraterrestrial sounding chime that feels light years away, this frizzy pin point is the EP’s biggest share.