Candy Crush - a podcast by Keith a.k.a. K j A M

Candy Crush is the first electronic dance music set of 2018 and boy oh boy is it a winner! I was dreading the thought of having to slap together another reggaeton set with indistinguishable vocalists but quickly changed my point of view after pouring through 100's of promos to decide the winners and losers. Once I started putting it together, I knew I had something special with a little bit of something for everyone to keep things interesting.



Charts are used as a jump-off point when putting these commercial dance sets together but most of it is created through intuition and instinct or basically what I'm getting into.



The first time I heard Bruno Mars' latest "Finesse" I was all over this shit. From the Cardi B rap to the early 90's R&B sound that harkens back to BBD (Bel Biv Devoe) to Bruno's effortless adaptability to virtually everything he tackles, this song is just perfect! In fact, I much prefer it to "Versace on the Floor" which was difficult for me really get into. Because it is so stylistically different, I used it as a transition 2/3 of the way into the set, which worked better than expected. Let's just say it was gonna be included if it killed me.



Charlie Puth's latest "How Long" is a given and comes packed with a wide variety of remixes; many of which you'll be hearing as the year goes on. Sofi Tukker's "Best Friend" is catchy as hell and sticks in your head long after hearing it. Martin Garrix's "So Far Away" featuring vocalist Jamie Scott & Romy Dya is quite possibly the best thing he's put out since his departure from Spinnin. Olivia Holt (another product of the Disney machine) is coming out strong with "Generous" as are the bevy of remixes included in its remix package.



Skylar Stecker continues to impress with "Blame." Dave Audé gives the song that "French Kiss" touch separating it from his standard remixes that virtually guarantees a number one club hit, while his remix of April Diamond's "Lose Control" has serious "Run the World (Girls)" streaming through its veins. So much so, that I've already created a mashup which I may release into the wild later on if the song lands in the top spot as I expect it to do.



The remake of the Ultra Naté classic "Free" by Sean Finn, Terri B and Peter Brown has a multitude of remixes that accompanied it but not one of them really offered anything special to the song compared to the original until the KC Anderson remix dropped. This housed-up version without all the tricks and gimmicks finally does justice to the song that's about to hit the top in a couple of weeks and is something I can sink my teeth into.



Probably the biggest song in this set belongs to a pair called NAATIONS. Their song "Want Me More" grabs my attention like no other. The lyrics are well-written (almost unheard of these days) and accompanied by fantastic vocals by Nicky Routledge with a catchy deep bass sound provided by Nat Dunn. Folks, this is real life music set to a dance beat and I expect bigger things for this duo because they're doing it better than practically any other major act out there now. My only advice to Nicky; waiting for someone to want you more is a fool's game. Trust from someone who's been there.

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