2012 Dance Party

Holy Ghost! - Some Children

The Crystal Ark - Touch

Even as a member of Chairlift, the band he co-founded in 2006 and exited in 2010, Aaron Pfenning pulled double (and triple) duty – playing multiple instruments, writing songs and occasionally contributing vocals. That comfort with musical multitasking – and a cache of songs he’d written that didn’t seem to fit his main project – made a new solo effort seem like the natural and logical next step to take.  And so Pfenning took on the name Rewards, spent the better part of last year touring with We Are Scientists, Brandon Flowers and Warpaint, and released three broodingly romantic singles (“I Used To,” “What a Loser” and the achingly beautiful “Two Cardinals”) that made a host of listeners take sudden notice. 

But Rewards is no one trick pony, and his newest output is brighter than those previous cuts might lead you to expect. Less opaque and murky than its predecessors, “Equal Dreams” starts with upbeat percussion, great big handclaps and a creeping bassline that sounds anything but melancholic. The synths he weaves in – they flicker around Solange Knowles’s silky, sultry vocals – give the track a palpable sensuality. An instrumental version accompanies it, and rounds out side A. 

“Asleep With the Lights On,” with its classic synth pop arrangements, wouldn’t be out of place on a shelf between OMD and Psychedelic Furs. Rewards half-sings, half-whispers huskily and breathily, then stacks his vocals on the hooky chorus. This is the stuff of ‘80s teen dreams and timeless broken hearts. It seems fitting, then, that a reverb soaked guitar – provided by Lightspeed Champion, aka Blood Orange – plays the song out in a sequence of jangly, echoing, vaguely lonesome tones.


- Kali Holloway

Rewards - Equal Dreams (Feat. Solange Knowles)

Delroy Edwards-4 Club Use Only (LIES-015)
To be released Sept. 2012 

Delroy Edwards-4 Club Use Only (L.I.E.S. 015)

Discodeine - Synchronize (Extended)

Shit Robot - Take Em Up (Original)

Download:  https://gigameshmusic.com/music/dont-stop-2

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Gigamesh - Don't Stop ft. Jana Nyberg (Version 2.0) [DL link in description]

Video Edit for The City Never Sleeps http://vimeo.com/17302388

2012 Dance Party

digitalmikey