Two of the biggest producers — Florida’s Diplo and UK’s Mark Ronson — in the music industry have teamed up for what should be a can’t miss-collaboration. They have combined forces to create Silk City and now they have unveiled the first piece of music from the project. The song features Daniel Merriweather, an Australian R&B singer and is a pretty classic electronic dance track with a pulsating beat and deep, soulful vocals. Once the bass enters the mix, the dance party is on, with the two super-producers working their studio magic into a future anthem for the dance floor.
The video features visuals of the Downtown Los Angeles skyline, with additional imagery from the four freeways that surround the city’s urban core. A drive down Broadway reveals the tattered neon lights of its heyday. The flashing brake lights and glowing crown of the U.S. Bank Tower create a fascinating accompaniment to the music. It’s easy to imagine the myriad underground dance parties that are simultaneously going on that same late night in the downtown district’s many warehouses.
The nod to DTLA is no coincidence. The video’s notes point out that Ronson and Diplo formed Silk City to honor some of the greatest dance cities of the world, like Paris, Chicago, Detroit, London – and apparently, Los Angeles. The notes, which were written by Diplo, add that he met Ronson 20 years ago when the two were DJs. It’s been a long time coming for these two to work together on a project such as this. The wait was well worth it.
Ronson notably produced the new Queens of the Stone Age album, Villians, in 2017, giving the desert rock stars bit of a more danceable sheen without altering their trademark style. He even makes a bit of an appearance on the album’s cover, serving as the devil guiding Josh Homme astray towards the lusty allure of danceability (not that QOTSA couldn’t groove before they hired Ronson). Of course, his biggest accomplishment was likely producing Bruno Mars on his Grammy Record of the Year winning single “Uptown Funk.”
Meanwhile, Diplo continues to crank out one-off singles at a high rate. He recently teamed up with MØ for a song “Stay Open” and released an EP in March called California. As if that wasn’t enough, he formed another new group called LSD with Labrinth and Sia (get it?), who shared two new singles right off the bat – “Genius” and “Audio.” These songs have a lot more pop orientation to them, which is logical considering the collaborators.
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