Sleep Deprivation
Simian Mobile Disco

It's a digital offering this week, one that reminds me of mid-90s Berlin techno and record labels like EyeQ and deejays like a young Sven Vath. I must take a weekend off to go and find my youth one of these days. I quite like this one, its not the kind of thing I'd buy but I thank them for the nostalgia. This is the Attack Decay Sustain Release 'bonus version' of the track. It's an instrumental electro track that flanges in from a fast heartbeat-like bass start and layers minimalist percussion and twiddly elements into fatter base before cashing in with euphoric strings. The tempo breaks here and there with plenty of knob noodling, panning and fading on the mixing board to give depth and texture. Its doesn't really go anywhere but would provide a good soundtrack to a night in a field or dancing around the Brandenburg Gate. Just a shame about those synth-y strings, which come across as rather obvious emotional manipulation; mind you, its meant for dancers frantically empathising with everything so perhaps it does its job.

Click here to download this week's free song from the iTunes store*.

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About this entry
Every week, Apple gives away a song from one of the artists on its roster at iTunes, but while we like this generous bit of marketing, there are two problems. First, Apple doesn't provide an RSS feed alerting you to the free single of the week, but more importantly, there's no way or knowing if the track is any good. MacFormat is here to solve both problems with our new Single of the week category here on macformat.co.uk.

* Even though these songs are free, you'll need to have a valid iTunes Store account. You'll also need to have iTunes installed; though the link above should prompt you to install iTunes if it's not already there on your Mac or PC, you can click here to download iTunes manually.