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Let's finally talk about the new Stargate (and Sia and Pink) single

So this is what's happening.

  • Stargate are launching an artist project.
  • Which is to say, after working on songs for Rihanna, Coldplay, Beyoncé, Charli XCX and everyone else, Tor Erik Hermansen and Mikkel Eriksen are doing their own thing.
  • The first single is out THIS FRIDAY. As in TOMORROW. As in TODAY BECAUSE OF THE WAY STREAMING SERVICES PUT THINGS ONLINE AT DIFFERENT TIMES.
  • It's called 'Waterfall' and it features both Sia and Pink.
  • But that's not all because Sia and Stargate co-wrote the song with Diplo and Jr Blender.
  • There are further songs to come with other artists you may or may not have heard of, the naming of whom would instantly trigger the launch of a land-air missile from Stargate's west London record label HQ, resulting in the destruc­tion of Popjustice's servers and everything Popjustice has ever stood for.

So is 'Waterfall' any good? Well, we heard it for the first time recently and con­sid­er­ing the talents involved it will come as a surprise to precisely nobody that 'Waterfall' is indeed a high quality music offering: Sia sounds like Sia, Pink also sounds like Sia, and Stargate do what Stargate do ie package the whole thing in a soph­ist­ic­ated pop parcel with a bow on top.

Describing the song isn't really necessary as Stargate have uploaded numerous clips to their Instagram account, one of which you can hear below, but it's basically really good.

View this post on Instagram

Big things coming 🔥🔥🔥 #WhoIsStargate

A post shared by StargateMusic (@stargatemusic) on

Most pro­duc­tion teams are tempted at some point to launch as artists in their own right (see also: launching an imprint with a major label, launching their own artists, launching a pub­lish­ing company and so on), and old people will remember that while 'Waterfall' is being billed as Stargate's debut single as artists, this isn't the first time Stargate have launched an artist project.

In the early 2000s they did a couple of singles (the first featuring Tyler James). This was during Stargate's first phase of success — when they were knocking out hits for S Club, Atomic Kitten and Blue, and around this time they were also bashing off a series of illegal and extremely good 'Hot Shit' mixtapes. Pop's moved on a lot since then but so have Stargate — in fact, it's Stargate who've been respons­ible for a lot of how pop has changed — and 'Waterfall' is a solid start to a far more con­vin­cing attempt to launch as artists.