The PC Music member boosts his pop acumen with this new collaboration.
Danny L Harle is one of PC Music’s most profound members, crafting pristine pop that has grabbed attention beyond the underground. (His ‘Broken Flowers’ was a BBC1 mainstay.) And while he’s currently riding the wave, including collaborating with Carly Rae Jepsen, he’s released loose ‘Ashes of Love’ with Chairlift’s Caroline Polachek.
Polachek has her own pop music pedigree, not only with Charlift’s latest Moth, the follow-up to the duo’s excellent but underrated Something, and her solo work as Ramona Lisa, but with a writing credit on ‘No Angel’ from Beyoncé’s 2014 self-titled LP.
On collaborating with Polachek, Harle tells Pitchfork: “Caroline has a completely unique melodic style. It sounds like a kind of perfect, organic, distorted symmetry. I was so excited to work with her as I love her music, particularly Chairlift’s “I Belong in Your Arms,” which I think is one of the best pop tunes I have ever heard in my life… I am so excited about ‘Ashes of Love,’ it has a forward thrust and a sense of hyper-emotion to it that I really love in music. It has a nostalgic and romantic heart but is positioned very much in the present day.”
Polachek shares his love of happy hardcore – which he spoke to FACT about at this year’s SXSW – and loved revisiting it during their work together: “I love the whole crazy puzzle-box of his musical world, and this was one of the most fun collaborations I’ve ever been part of. We listened to Miami freestyle music while making the song, we wanted that fiery angst. In 2001-2002 I hung out with crew of boys who tuned cars for street racing, and we listened to happy hardcore and trance. I got to sort of relive those memories while writing ‘Ashes of Love.'”
Watch FACT TV’s interview with Harle below.
