Elegant club music | Madonna

Combining the terms ‘elegant’ and ‘club’ is nothing short of extremely dangerous, some might be tempted to believe that combining the terms ‘club’ and ‘music’ might be preposterous enough as it is, much of the time I’m one of them.

While there are fewer if any at all clubs that indeed do play elegant music these days, at least around the city I live in, the fact doesn’t prevent me from finding and playing some stunning dance music at high volumes in the comfort of my own home and bouncing around like a 2 AM reveller. Good dance music also often serves as good driving music, but the nature of the dance is in there, always.

The track in question that inspired me to combine such dangerously flammable terms together is Tears after the rainbow by Planet Funk from their second album, The Illogical Consequence. This is a straight-out dance-floor tune, directly intended to be spun by DJs during the peaking, momentum-driven bracket of the set, and it’s absolutely gorgeous. I am of-course as always ever-impressed by the standard of mixing and engineering to be found in Planet Funk’s material, but this is hardly an element important to the average clubber, though it isn’t the average clubber that this track is intended for. Fours-dance-floor in nature it may be, but the sound is much more refined than that. If anything, this track is crafted for true music appreciators, even musicians, who also dance, not just dancers who get into anything that moves them.
In-case you were wondering, I haven’t stopped being an elitist at all.
Tears after the rain of-course appears in the illustrious and hyperactive Up playlist that I made for my time in Japan, two and a half hours into the three and a half hour set, after the centrepiece ‘September/The Joker’ by Earth, Wind and Fire/Fatboy Slim, and leading into ‘Hey boy hey girl’ by The Chemical Brothers, tracks which I would also place squarely into the realm of elegance. I now just can’t help but mention the three following tracks – Planet Funk’s own ‘Chase the sun’ extended club mix, The Chemical Brothers’ ‘Star Guitar’ and the always euphoric ‘Digital Love’ by Daft Punk.
Absolutely champion, every track.

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On the weekend Chibi-R was kind enough to introduce me to Madonna’s recent contribution to recorded live-music with the DVD for The Confessions Tour Live in London, which I of-course promptly purchased at the next opportunity. While never a strong fan, I’ve always admired Madonna’s performing abilities, most notably that while she may have once been a teen-queen, and still remains to this day a solo pop-artist chameleon like many pop-artists, she began her career long before the invention of Antares Auto-tune, the handy little plug-in that audio-engineers now use to make good looking but horribly talentless pop-stars sound like they can sing in tune. Fair enough, engineers have always had the tools available to them to doctor the human voice, but Madonna still had to be able to sing when she was a young lass, and for that I admire her. I also admire her amazing ability to prance around the stage for two hours and sing, all at the lovely age of 48. Sure, the concert has more than its fair-share of trappings, including a very elaborate stage-set, a healthy dose of very talented dancers, and Madonna playing extremely basic guitar chords just for the look, but it all works. It all combines to do exactly what live-performances should – look and sound amazing. The Confessions Tour is a magnificent show from start to finish, minus one or two flatter bits, but they’re not very long, perhaps two songs/one or two filler features in total.

As far as elegant club music goes, the stand-out tracks for me are Like a virgin, Jump, Ray of light, Erotica, Lucky star and the closer, Hung up – not a favourite track, but a great performance full of hype to finish the show. The biggest highlight is Chibi-R and my favourite track, Drowned world/Substitute for love, but alas it isn’t a dance-floor spinner, so unfortunately veers from the focus of this piece – nevertheless it is a stunning performance of the song and shouldn’t be missed, especially after a rather nice thank-you speech by the Madonna to her crew, fellow performers and musicians, and the fans.
What is perhaps the most amazing evolutions in Madonna’s most recent offering are the electro-disco versions of Like a virgin, La Isla Bonita, Erotica and Lucky star that were performed – absolutely mind-blowing. Erotica, as one of my more favoured Madonna tracks is absolutely stunning in its reworked form, and it’s amazing that these tracks sound so good in their new incarnations, fitting perfectly in with the context of Madonna’s new electro-themed chameleon colour. Whoever produces her music now is still exhibiting the exceptional skills and talent of being among the best in the business. Not only are the tracks technically and musically brilliant, they just sound great and fun and make you shake your ass and put your hands in the air.

It’s a shame she didn’t come all the way out here to Australia, but having a child and being the age she is, it’s fair enough. The DVD is a great production, and though the editing and post-work can be slightly on the hammy side, still has its own charm in context to the product that’s on sale. While Madonna has never had much to contribute to what I consider my essential music history, I appreciate her continuing role in shaping the pop-music industry. She hasn’t always had winners, and some of her work is down-right silly, but this concert shows that when it matters, Madonna can come out and deliver a high-quality of pop-culture flavour, easily showing some of the younger and far less talented up-starts how it’s done; at 48 years old, she knocks ’em dead.