Tyler Roper is a young talent emerging from Long Island whose take on dance music is playful and energetic. His sample choices are smart, often marrying classic feel-good music with the styles and textures reminiscent of a more innovative time in EDM music.
EDM music is not over, of course, but that particularly exhausting strain of EDM-infused pop – the buzzing synths, wobbling bass, and predictable moment of tension before the whole arrangement crashes down in euphoric grandeur – which dominated much of the music scene between 2011 and 2013 is on the decline. Now a tiresome trope on the level of late 90's rock singers emulating Eddie Vedder, the landscape has again opened wide with unpredictable diversity filling the void as pop necessarily sheds its molly-soaked skin.
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This also makes room for DJ's like Roper and others keen to the activities that are going on around them, who have rooted themselves in being able to create a good song first and foremost. "New Groove Shoes" samples the legendary Earth, Wind & Fire song "Let's Groove" – a record that was released via Sony Music Entertainment way back in 1981 (yes, we're getting old). The original garnered mixed reviews from music critics, but overtime has (to few's surprise) been dubbed a disco classic.
Roper does a great job in giving it an up-to-date revamp, building off the original energy to create something that will undoubtably fit into a playlist during these upcoming summer months. Stream above.
