Aussie house man Mall Grab is releasing a new EP on March 11 on Church and the 3 AM sound of “Sun Ra” is the release’s title track. “Sun Ra” follows-up the very good Alicia-sampling “Can’t” which is also included in the EP.
Mall Grab
Aussie house man Mall Grab is releasing a new EP on March 11 on Church and the 3 AM sound of “Sun Ra” is the release’s title track. “Sun Ra” follows-up the very good Alicia-sampling “Can’t” which is also included in the EP.
B3 blog featured Canadian producer/vocalist and self-professed beat-crusher Four Lore wows us again with another gem “Linear”, a perfectly punctuated (light hearted) unique-sultry electronic beats instrumental that excels for its divinely positive conglomeration of whimsical percussion, whispery vocals, and bright barely-tangible keyboard notes (which really adds a subtle drama). Excellent. Reviewed by Erin Shay.
C Y G N. (featured here most recently for his quiet thriller “Place of Peace” an exquisitely-composed jazz-tinged experimental-beats-punctuated TheeReal joint collaboration) pays a simple-vibe tribute to J Dilla on his latest potently-creative synth-chord-drenched horn-tempered dub-enhanced beat-scape “For Dilla”. Reviewed by Erin Shay.
New to the blog, Inland Empire (So Cal) producer Nick Pacoli remixes Joyce Wrice track “Take It Easy” to highly listenable results (we last covered Joyce Wrice for her Jay Prince “Beautiful Mercy” EP collaboration “Afrofunk”). We love how he maintains the focus on the original vocals (beautiful) while embellishing Joyce’s distinct vocal flair with a slightly more upbeat up-tempo dance sentiment (ie. subtle-vitality beats, classic symbol percussion and mellow minimalist synth accents). Reviewed by Erin Shay.
Sirenida-ceous Melbourne AU producer Dugong Jr. suits up a slick R&B-tinged new dance track featuring vocalist Tashka on new one “Secrets”. The stunner sounds of Galimatias and Alina Baraz are a good reference point for “Secrets”, the track’s deviation from the G & AB style comes from it’s more direct hook writing and more beefed up beats. Give “Secrets” a spin below.
We’re enjoying the piano-driven glittery atmospheric French-flavored disco dance spin on B3 featured Roman Kouder/ Patawawa track “Fly” from Glasgow Bebop Cowboy Disco artist Go Go Bizkitt (or Tom Nelson). We like how Go Go Bizkitt (new to B3) uses various layers of synth (including robust dramatic chords) to frame up the song and we also dig how he keeps the pace up-tempo (in the vein of the original) with a fun selection of disco beats and vivid accompanying metallic percussion (in our opinion “Fly” is meant to be a dance jam). Fantastic! Reviewed by Erin Shay.
We’re revisiting “Matter” from B3 all-time fave electronic duo Kenton Slash Demon (rock stars!!!), who created two of the best tracks and compilations of 2015 “Harpe” and “Psyco” (absolutely goregous). Although the timeless subtle-vibe techno song is from 5 years ago it still resonates at a high frequency and captivates us immeasurably. A stellar blend of stacatto metallic atmospherics, enchanting vibe-y vocal clips, and quietly driven techno rhythms, “Matter” has us listening on repeat. Five years on, we’re amazed at the strength of “Matter”. Vibe out with it here. Reviewed by Erin Shay.
B3 recently covered Jerusalem-based producer SwuM. for his uniquely-creative dreamy beat-punctuated atmospheric hip-hop beauty “Lucid”. We are psyched to recommend to you his stupendously catchy hip-hop jam “Finesse”; a xylophone melody driven beat track that features a dynamic set of melodic tones and playful, terrifically blunt lyrics. We’re enjoying this song (almost) too much and its cover art is fabulous! Reviewed by Erin Shay.
Talented Parisian (French touch) artist Thomas Fontana (covered here for tracks “Somewhere” or “Changes”) creates a bright energetic co-mingle of elements on “Confused”; a soul-based diddy which we like for its fluttery trap rhythms, natural hand percussion (cow bell!), and golden guitar-laced instrumental feels (which he mixes beautifully with contrasting scratchy synth textures and a saucy sashe of reverberant vintage-vibe female hip-hop vocal theatrics). Be sure to check out how he tops off ”Confused” with the sound of waves. A stunning end. Great song! Reviewed by Erin Shay.
One of the latest tunes to drop on XLR8R (one of our faves from them lately) is named “Mind”; an immensely creepy creation of Rubi (Barcelona) artist M.A.D!. “Mind” is a capricious and dramatic tune, a mellow helter skelter with lots of room to breathe into the amazing mood it sets. Over the course of 7:34 minutes M.A.D! (Mutual Assured Distortion) develops an intense nail-biting atmospheric basically just on synth alone and towards the end he throws in bongos for a calming effect. Scary! This needs to be in a sci-fi thriller. M.A.D! does a wonderful job at drawing the listener into a completely different, creatively unique electro terrain that peaks and ebbs into emotive chaos yet also manages to taper off into nothing for a finish. Rad stuff M.A.D!! Reviewed by Erin Shay.
B3-featured Ian Ewing wows us with his heavenly beat-drenched synth-centered Asian vibe instrumental jam “Oakland” which is a free song off the Rootnote (label) artist compilation. We like Ian’s sultry beats, mesh of vocal styles, and positively simple lyrics on the track and hope to peruse the compilation this weekend! Reviewed by Erin Shay.
Get acquainted with Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based artist Artifakts, the “ever-evolving, electronic hip-hop project” of Garret Meyer. We highly recommend his latest tune “Up Up” and would go so far as to say its brilliant. A soul-based mix of jaunty beats and groovy guitar riffing, juxtaposed with a scratchy trance-y synth and distorted vocals “Up Up” is top on our list of tracks for the week. Extremely cool song. Stream it below. Reviewed by Erin Shay.
