Foaming at the mouth with a lovely bounce, Klingande offers a pleasant and whimsical feeling to his variation of what is basically trance rock. Klingande is Cédric Steinmyller, but that means little in the world of dance. He holds his influences proudly. You can’t get far without hearing the deep house impression of Kascade or the pop-oriented metallic sheen of Disclosure. You even hear that delicate percussive hop from Studioheist or Clean Bandit underlying the tunes.
Klingande’s most impressive feat to date is giving us “Losing U.” it is the kind of pounding trance-jam that blesses dance halls all across the globe in huge fashion. He even harbors a seismic vocal hook to keep it all almost too comfortable. The synths blister along appropriately in the verse, but it is the accenting harp and saxophone sounds that channel the hook to a palpitating conclusion.
Offering the obligatory R&B-esque hook is Daylight. He’s serviceable and warm, not trying to outshine a hook that is a little bigger than him by sheer scale. He bobs along it subtly, and without his presence, the song would just slide right into the “hall of fun hooks with little substance.” Fortunately, Klingande and his protégé on the track both know exactly what they are making and its purpose. It is elevated into a jam that deserves recognition because it manages to be almost shockingly upbeat and happy. It is no coincidence that Klingande fits right into another long-list of recently made-up dance sub-genres. He is tropical house, a variation on deep house that captures the trance-like elements of dance repetition with the whimsied hooks of R&B.
It is damn hard to write a hook as pleasantly invigorating as “Losing U.” Any 16-year-old with a laptop and an exaggerated undercut should know- though damn it, they tried. Klingande is a vehicle for Cédric Steinmyller to lather the dance floor in music that is dripping in sugary saccharine sweet sounds. “Losing U” is just the spring/summer jam that can light up crowds and be remixed to infinity. Because as it is, music is always evolving and changing. The dance floor needs style with a bit of beauty. Klingande manages that, while replicating a smile in musical form.
