Nocturnal Tapes Channel Disco and the End of Summer in ‘Wake Up’ [Premiere]

Today Nocturnal Tapes released a track that perfectly captures the feeling of August. “Wake Up” is restless, carefree, and reveling in the type of haze that only comes from sweating through two months of outdoor happy hours and beach-y day trips only to find yourself with a bizarre mix of anticipation, dread, and nostalgia about the impending end of the summer months. Most succinctly, it’s a disco track, equipped with a catchy, driven beat that crescendos around the third minute mark to a Madonna-esque dizzying high. It sort of makes you want to reenact a scene from Dirty Dancing, but on a hazy neon-lit dance floor at 3 in the morning. The background sound of hand claps – which the Australian duo used just as effectively with “Pattern” back in 2016 – help snap the rhythm into a trance-like spiral of pure dance bliss. Mysterious lyrics chanted sotto voce in multiple voices, alternated with lilting feminine vocals, enhance the ‘80s nostalgia of the psychedelic track.

You can listen to “Wake Up” above. If you play it during your commute to work, it will make you feel like you’re having your own personal disco party. But be warned – you may find yourself publicly breaking into dance.