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10LEC6 have been kicking around the French label for a few years now, but the addition of singer/MC Nicole has seen the group develop a new sound that they describe as ‘Bulupunk’.

The ‘Bulu’ part comes from the Bantou dialect Nicole sings/raps/shouts in, while the ‘punk’ bit leans more towards the party-starting post-punk of ESG, Liquid Liquid et al. 

Renaissance was written for the inner headspace as much as the dancefloor—convenient in a year where those are empty. “Don’t Hit My Line” hammers exes back into the woodwork to a four-to-the-floor beat, but complicates itself: percussion interludes and Francis’s staccato vocal turn the beat polyrhythmic, and the melody leans hard into “I think of you,” like a “New Rules” by someone not totally ready to let go of the old.

Lead lead single “Body Pump,” written with Josh Lloyd-Watson of Jungle, is built like a house-diva showcase, from the torchy first verse to the drop to the triumphant close. But there’s a scrappiness to it, in the froth of handclaps on the bridge—a studio accident, left in—and the way Aluna pushes her voice into the red, frayed and vulnerable.

Their shortest album yet, ‘ENERGY’ is a rough-and-ready bender that evokes their house and garage-revival beginnings while sprinkling in some new flavours: turn-of-the-century French-touch (‘Lavender’), alternative hip-hop (‘Reverie’) and bustling samba beats (‘ENERGY’).

Speaking to NME for this week’s cover story, Howard admitted that they perhaps “tried to be too clever” with and “overthought” parts of their previous record – this collection encouraged them to follow their instincts and embrace the melodies, choruses and beats that arrived the fastest.

The result is brilliant, bruising dance music right from the gut.

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Cook hasn’t given up the dance-floor stomps that made him a million-seller with “The Rockafeller Skank,” “Praise You” and the 1998 album that held them, You’ve Come a Long Way, Baby. His new album has its own catch phrases - “What the fuck,” “Push the tempo,” “Retox the freak in me” — with happy, gimmicky tracks to match, full of giddy anachronisms that could be called “retronica.”

Late night feelings is refreshingly candid. “Find U Again,” performed and co-written by Cabello, is wildly endearing for the sheer, unapologetic 22-year-old-ness of its perspective. “This crush is kind of crushing me,” she sings, and follows the line with: “I do therapy at least twice a week.” The lyric is no less effective for its clumsiness, an honest expression of anguish that resists the urge to slap a pretty, poetic bow on weeping on the sofa in a psychotherapist’s office.

“Nothing Breaks Like a Heart,” a Miley Cyrus contribution that aims to recapture the magic of her “Jolene” cover, also stands out as a floor-fliller.