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.
Previewed below is “The Sheboygan Left”, the lead single from RJD2 upcoming new LP Dame Fortune. Dame Fortune will be the Philly-based RJ’s first album in three years and “Sheboygan” sets a best/soulful foot forward with its feel good classic soul samples and an airtight rhythmic production. Give it a listen below.
Disco-bented (synth pop) gem “Yeah!” is a highly recommendable song to get you up and moving onto the dance floor. Created by Sydney (Australia) artist LIF, “Yeah!” is an extremely likable dance track with a technicolor melange of synth-y vibrance and straightforward minimalist pop vocals (with a catchy hook). If this song won’t get you out on the dance floor shaking your thing (lyrics are classic disco) nothing will! Reviewed by Erin Shay.
Polydor will release Arthur Beatrice’s sophomore LP Keeping The Peace on May 20th. “Real Life” the album’s latest stream finds an added immediacy almost ecstatic quality to the Arthur Beatrice sound that enhances and elevates the band’s already stunning writing and songs to a level/position ripe for a wide-scale breakthrough.
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.
Turn yourself onto the soulfully-delivered, drop dead gorgeous vocals and tender-hearted sensational-vulnerability poetic warm-hug lyrics of “Fragile”; a recent melodic b-side down-tempo slow burner produced by Deventer, Netherlads artist Wantigga. Featuring the gentle sweetly-expressive vocals of Amsterdam artist Mar., the very lovely “Fragile” follows a-side gem “Stonecold” ft. Sasha Vee on Wantigga’s “Pillow Tal”k EP (out now via Roche Musique). Reviewed by Erin Shay.
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.
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.
” I suppose I’ll be taking orders from Dinah next.” Melbourne AU artist Annika Schmarsel a/k/a Alice Ivy spins an inventive mix of “Alice in Wonderland” spoken samples around a vocal from Georgia Van Etten to very listenable results on cool beat track “Touch”. We are listening!
LA-based future boogie trio Cannons (featured here for excellent tracks “Down on Love”, “Evening Star” and “Touch”) are an accomplished bunch of musicians on the rise (they have only been around on Soundcloud for roughly one year). We’re listening to the group’s super catchy new song called “Call You Out” and it’s quite an impeccable earful. With its simple combination of a technicolor synth line, ticky-tacky trap beats, and Michelle’s complex emotive vocal feels, we can easily say that this is our favorite Cannons tune so far! After hearing it a dozen or so times and reviewing the duo’s other songs we are reminded why we like Cannons so much. Out via MANIMAL “Call You Out” is just resonant enough to reiterate that Cannons are clearly floating on a rising star trajectory on its way up to mass exposure. Reviewed by Erin Shay.
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