FADER PREMIERE
Maybe a month ago, the Edmonton producer Dylan Khotin-Foote tweeted a link to what was, at the time, Amateur Dance's only song, "What I Had 2 Do," embedded below. It cribs Death Cab for Cutie's piano intro to "Brothers on a Hotel Bed" into a fantastically chill, deepish house song, then samples a weightlifter’s monologue that goes something like: “I wanted to be the baddest motherfucker on planet earth, stop traffic, crack the sidewalk with every step… I wanted to be the king of the jungle because that’s what I felt like I had to do." Essentially, my ideal song, lol.
Download: Amateur Dance, "What I Had 2 Do"
So I messaged Amateur Dance, who's Joseph Cookson from Melbourne IRL, and lo and behold, he was itching to fire off two new tracks. Like that first cut, his Keep It Up EP thrives with a sort of self-deprication—which you might expect from a dance produced who bills himself as Amateur. On the first song, "Still Amateur," a woman laughs and says, "My life isn't that interesting," and on the excellent "B Tru 2 U," another sampled speaker says, "I considered just quitting… I can't produce." The message, though, since Cookson has shown he really can produce, is totally uplifting: you put stuff out; you make more; you do you, honestly; and for somebody, it's gonna resonate. Stream his debut EP below and pick it up at his Bandcamp. Keep it up, dude.
Stream: Amateur Dance's Keep It Up EP