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Music

14 Tracks to #TurnUp (Your Thermostat) To

Baby it's cold outside.

"The snow doesn't give a soft white damn whom it touches," waxes E. E. Cummings, one of the 20th century's Great American Poets.

Indeed not one soft white damn was given on this morning in January when a blizzard descended upon the Northeastern United States and made it that much harder for us to get to work (I'll let you in on a secret: I'm still in my underwear typing this on my living room couch).

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A 17th century haiku by the legendary Matsuo Basho has a much more charming perspective: "Winter solitude / in a world of one color / the sound of wind." Well, the wind is definitely whipping those spindly elm trees against my kitchen window, and there's certainly a lot of cold white stuff out there, and solitude would be great but my roommate has Beyoncé turnt up to 11 down the hall, so…

What I'm trying to say is that many of us are finding it difficult to appreciate the more lovely aspects of winter storm Hercules. So THUMP has prescribed this playlist of heart-warmers to get you (and possibly your boo, with whom you are wrapped in a down comforter) through the next couple of days—everything from sexy deep house rollers to emo-tronica ballads that will have you swimming in a cathartic bath of your own tears. Dig in!

Have you ever dated someone who doesn't like electronic music? I know, I know. It's a deal-breaker. But hey—compromises, right? Luckily you can play this for your technophobic boo and they'll be like, "Oh, what is this?" and you'll be glad for the crossover appeal.

This track has all the components for full-on bone warming. First, you got some luscious crooning from vocalist Banks, who could literally turn the Arctic circle into a pool of hot springs, plus some extra pep from the mysterious production group Snakehips to get those thermal juices circulating.


More #sadstep in 2014 please. Pro tip: don't miss Blackedout's mix for THUMP.

This feathery Chicago classic is like the best kind of elevator music (some old house head is gonna get mad at me for saying that, I'm sure). But really, there's nothing that could possibly offend you about this jam except maybe it's outright jazzy exuberance. You mad, gothboi?

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I'm sobbing silently and this song doesn't even have any lyrics. I certainly wouldn't call it uplifting but it will get you in touch with your sensitive side.

I'm still rocking dance parties with this eight months after homie posted it to Soundcloud, and that's, like, 12 years in Internet time. This song is so posi that I once saw an entire club full of vampire kids hold hands in a circle and rock slowly in unison for its entire four-minute duration.

Such sexy. Many slow. Wow.

Every time I want to feel like I'm on a cruise ship doing the conga line with a bunch of hot boy-skeletons I throw on "Bejan" and let the tropical vibes wash over me while I pretend my duvet is a giant roti.

In 2011, before Scuba's soul became completely black from hating on everyone and everything, he wrung from his loins this positively lush UK funky charmer that samples Brandy & Monica, probably to impress some girl. Isn't love (not to mention sub bass) grand?

You shouldn't need a road map to figure this one out. It's the kind of track that will push your inner radiator all the way up into the red and might even cause you to start grinding up on people at the local Rite Aid as your stock up on rations to get you through the tundra going on outside your window.


Hey, what if Shlohmo sounded even more like Timbaland? Homie's from Ann Arbor Michigan but definitely sounds like the Bay Areaaaaaaa.

This track by Maribou State has nothing to do with a Caribou, a reindeer-like creature native to Arctic and Tundra regions in North America—aka places where it's hella brick outside. Just hit play and get lost in the slow burning twangyness of this cozy cut.


If you had to attribute different types of weather to genres of electronic music there would be a couple basic truths of auditory meteorology: dark German techno? Cold like Charlie Manson. Grooving deep house? Steamy like a Turkish bath house. Enter Justin Jay.

Right now I'm seeing lush green forests with little squirrels and fuzzy caterpillars and all that jazz. But that's just my screensaver. Sadly I'll have to settle for frigid Brooklyn sidewalks.