Bondax – Gold

Label:  Justus/ Relentless records

Score: 9/10

Whilst the column inches and the weighty royalties focus on the more obvious hits garnered by Avicii, Swedish House Mafia and David Guetta, dance music is in pretty rude health from an accessible point of view once more. Echoing the point at the turn of the century when daytime radio was filled with playful pop informed electronica, spearheaded by Daft Punk‘s colossus ‘Discovery’, the sample histrionics of the Avalanches, crystalline charm of Royksopp and the downright gleeful escapism of Junior Senior, we’ve got things good again.

Gold, the latest single from Bondax, is prime evidence of the delights of electronic music at the minute.  It’s got it all, an infectious vocal, a lightweight but nevertheless thoroughly danceable back-drop and a litany of production touches that make this sound the work of a veteran steeped in the game, not a Lancastrian teenage duo. The stabs that end the track will no doubt sound better when transformed into a fist pumping live rendition during festival season, whilst the clunking and clattering percussion is as heart-warming as anything the aforementioned producers created.

For all its history and heritage steeped in the paranoia of stark urbania, bass music is getting a colossal shot in the arm from this new wave of bright and breezy proponents.  The freshness that comes from Bondax not being long in the tooth disciples of rave is ridiculously evident and in terms of picking a title, they’ve shown nous for nailing it just as readily as they’ve done with their production format. One of the standout records of the year already.