On January 7th of 2016 I discovered this song. Large Music had put a preview or something on SoundCloud and my knee-jerk reaction was to dance to it and show all of Instagram that I was dancing, too. My shameless video is still there. I'm not going to tell you how to find it because, who cares. My point is, I loved this track then, and I just stumbled on it again a few days ago when Large put out a very large "Best of 2017" playlist (and oh my goodness is it good.)
I'd sort of forgotten about Ivan Latyshev (St. Petersburg, Russia), "I Wanna Dance," and Saison (London) because that can happen when you hear previews months in advance of a release but alas, here it is. Consider it Indie Shuffled.
Much like January 7th of last year, I'm feeling all kinds of spunky today, too. There is a full moon tomorrow that's already working its moony magic so... what am I saying? Timing? Moon vibes? House music is the coolest? This track is cosmic? Yes. All of the above.
"I Wanna Dance" seems so simple. Too simple. It's a classic house track overlaid with a lyric that is stating a fact, but there's something vulnerable about the beat. I can't put my tongue on it, but... picture this scene in a movie: our hero is someone who is a bit downtrodden. Female, male, doesn't matter. They're at their wits end, they've just been fired, broken up with, their car broke down and they've come home to find all their shit stolen – whatever. Our hero heads out to the club sure of only one thing – either death or magic is taking them. Love or hate, high road or low, sage or charlatan, they're open, but the choice is happening now, tonight – sides will be chosen.
It's like that, "Fuck you life" moment. Like, "I put in my best, I did all the things, and all I get is shit in return so maybe I'll just become shitty," right? But the secret ingredient to this story and our hero, within all this mental and physical chaos, is integrity, which our hero has. It's a given – they're the hero.
So they get to the club, they're with their best mate, significant other, hopeless love interest - doesn't matter, they're so lucid they're almost disintegrating before our eyes. Our hero wears a white fleece over-sized jacket, but not much underneath. They have a shaved head and a dangerous mix of disillusionment and hope in their eyes. They pull this very special other person along by the hand, leading them like a life-line through the threshold of the club, house music enveloping them both like water, and our hero looks back, pauses, comes in close, intimately close, and says, "I wanna dance before I die."
End scene.
Whatever happens next is your call. Endings aren't my forte. But who needs endings when you have music. House music.
With the new year right around the corner, let's all find a way to dance before we die. No, that's not morbid - it's realistic. Live your life. Find a way to make it feel like living. Become the sage or the charlatan, but get the fuck off the fence and make a choice. It's time.
Enjoy.
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