Friendly Fires and Azari & III

Released to accompany Friendly Fires’ ‘Bugged Out! Present Suck My Deck’ compilation this track is a carnival-esque collaboration with Toronto based house heads Azari & III. On first listen it sounds as if Prince is being played in the background amidst Mardi Gras in full swing. This soon levels out with spacey beats sparring with a frenetic cowbell over eighties synths. To be honest there’s a lot going on in this track and it gets even more confusing as it goes on.

Just as the song has found a nice groove a voiceover begins, muttering about a cold world or something equally mundane that soon gets lost in a sea of strange sound effects. Some seem like sirens while others sound like whale-song but then a huge chorus comes in courtesy of Azari’s Cedric Gasiada which lifts the whole thing to a joyful slab of house fusion. The Fires are certainly burning bright at the moment as they straddle that mythical place between dance ‘n’ indie and while sitting on the fence is usually abhorred this time it is actively encouraged.