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Songwriter

Keiandra – Icing Sugar

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The dream-pop beauty “Icing Sugar” comes to us from 18 year old Newcastle UK songwriter Keiandra. Previewed here from her forthcoming “Empty Places” EP, “Icing Sugar” is a Cocteau Twins-esque styling of a hypnotic delay/reverb guitar/atmospheres symbiotically stretched to a deep groove with Keiandra’s sort of celestial singing floating atop the mix. Great track.

reviewed by
02-22-16

Alma Elste – Limitless

ALMA ELSTE 2016 PR

French artist Alma Elste stuns on new track for “Limitless”. Born and raised in Paris and musically trained at Berklee in Boston, Alma’s music explores a neat intersection of classical music’s broad and immense artistic weight with a melodic sensibility forged around modern hook writing masters like Phoenix. Listen below.

Alma Elste
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-18-16

HONNE – Woman

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2015 electric-soul hotlist duo HONNE have been on an exquisite streak of beautiful music since last year, with a slew of excellent singles. We’ve covered a number of their songs and rate them all as top notch in the pop, soul, and singer-songwriter genres (we placed HONNE on both of our 2014 year end lists and “No Place Like Home” made it to our staff top-10 lists for 2015). Their latest perfectly-pleasant sensitive-emotive singer-songwriter genius is apparent on their recent masterpiece “Woman”. The English duo’s vocals are so soulful and intimate (beautiful background melodies too) on the song that it honestly feels like they are singing directly at you (wouldn’t that be nice). You could also say that the sweet sentiment in the lyrics (love song) are exactly what any person might want to hear so therefore the track is anthemic. For anybody looking for a pick me up, the recent release has the steely emotive feel of their previous productions (maybe less sad and love-lorn) yet it manages to convey even more emotion and beauty. HONNE are indeed honing their style into a very classic sound. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

HONNE
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-16-16

Ardyn – The Garden

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In October, we discussed Gloucestershire UK brother-sister songwriter duo Rob and Katy Peterson (also affectionately known as Ardyn) for their mellow-lovely track “Help Me On My Way” which (at the time) was the second preview to drop off their November-released “Universe” EP. Give a listen to the EP’s outstanding vocals-led indie-pop dynamic-beauty “The Garden” (track #4) which we highly recommend for its alluringly whimsical folksy-Americana country-vibe old-fashioned Hollywood crooner vocals (Lana del Rey meets Patsy Cline) and soothing soulfully-melodic lyrical qualities. Very good vocals!! Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Ardyn (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
12-17-15

Merival – A Better Deal

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Merival is Toronto singer Anna Horvath. The spare “A Better Deal” is melodically very beautiful, Merival’s vocal choices in context of those great melodies are magnetic. We totally love it. Enough of us, just listen.
Merival (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
12-11-15

Avid Dancer – Under the Covers

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Refresh your vintage music memory bank with the recently released Under The Covers compilation; which is chock full of some very amazing classic covers from B3 fave singer-songwriter talent Avid Dancer (a.k.a. Jacob Summers). This is an epically good compilation and one of the best indie cover albums we have heard in years! We are impressed by HONNE’s terrific selection of classic tunes; from his sublimely-sunny nicely-understated hip and current sensitive-guy cover of Doors classic “Light My Fire”; to his rock solid vintage-vibe take on Kinks tune “Tired of Waiting”; to his subtle melodic-guitar-infused folk-vibe acoustic Elliot Smith wonder “Angel In the Snow”. Throw on top of that a far-out spacey, screechy electric-guitar-riffing indie-dance instrumental rip of 80’s-vintage Wang Chung hit “Everybody Have Fun Tonight” (which has an excellent quietly-electrifying slow-burner build-up to the epic chorus that we dig). We also really like the duo’s warpy-psychedelic bongo-infused cover of Curtis Mayfield classic “Move On Up” and his hazy reverb-y Queens of the Stone Age cover of “Make it Wit’ Chu”. In addition (last but not least) we also totally love Summers’s near perfect true-to-form cover of Tears For Fears’ 80’s epic “Mad World” (he slows down the original tempo and turns it from a broody vintage new-wave ballad into something quite amazing and even a bit Neil Young). The very catchy “Mad World” is our pic for the best of the bunch for its awesome sing-along qualities. We are enamored with the LA-based Alaskan’s outstanding production vision and versatile on-point vocals on the album and fully recommend Under The Covers. Dynamite album. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.
Reviewed by

Erin Shay

Avid Dancer
Track Reviews
reviewed by
12-04-15

Neil Thomas – Home

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Get acquainted with the distinctly catchy pop songwriting talents and dazzling velvety vocals of new-find London-based singer-songwriter Neil Thomas on his excellent new radio-ready guitar groove layered pop gem “Home”. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Neil Thomas (Soundcloud)

reviewed by
11-18-15

George Cosby – Vacant Grace

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In the blog biz, those instances where a track/artist completely stop you in a moment and cause you to pause right there and just listen are really really special. “Vacant Grace” by UK newcomer George Cosby was one of those moments for us. “Vacant Grace” is stunning song and a powerful listen. Listen.

George Cosby (Soundcloud)

reviewed by
11-05-15