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Premiere: Bright – Doing Things

Scandinavia’s latest and greatest R&B export is Oslo export Bright. “Doing Things”, which we are very pleased to premiere at B3, is outfitted expertly with a Drake to Trey Songz melange of A+ hook-writing and US radio-ready production and arranging. A featured artist at this year By:Larm festival in Oslo, a #1 track on his home country’s Spotify viral chart and tour support for Nelly, Bright is most definitely on his way up. Spin the B3 Premiere of “Doing Things” below.

reviewed by
07-15-16

SwuM – Owls

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Favorite ambience-setting hip-hop producer SwuM. keeps the excellent songs coming with a sublimely smooth r&b-vibe vocals-led Drake-sampling hip-hop diddy named “Owls”. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

SwuM
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-24-16

B3SCI Best of 2015: Artists of the Year

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Thank you for reading.

adele

Adele

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Catfish & The Bottlemen

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Courtney Barnett

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Dr. Dre

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Drake

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Fetty Wap

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Future

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Jamie xx

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Justin Bieber

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Kendrick Lamar

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Leon Bridges

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Oh Wonder

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Tame Impala

theweeknd

The Weeknd

reviewed by
01-07-16

B3SCI Best of 2015: Staff Favorite Songs

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Hello 2016. Goodbye 2015. 2015 was a year. We’ve elected at B3 this year that in lieu of arbitrarily ranking a list of top x-number tracks that we’d prefer to share lists of the favorite songs of the year of each main B3SCI writer. Following later this week will be B3’s choices for top artists of the year and our picks for artists to watch for 2016. Thanks for reading.

Troy

1 Drake – Hotline Bling
2 Drake / Future – Jumpman
3 Kendrick Lamar – How Much A Dollar Cost
4 Justin Bieber – What Do You Mean
5 Major Lazer / DJ Snake & MO – Lean On
6 SG Lewis – Warm
7 Kanye West – All Day
8 Florence + The Machine – What Kind of Man
9 Alabama Shakes – Don’t Wanna Fight
10 NoMBe – California Girls

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Mike

1 Deerhunter – Breaker
2 Moses Sumney – Seeds
3 Gallant – Weight in gold
4 Kurt Vile – Pretty Pimpin
5 Midnight to Monaco – Suicide
6 Blur – Go Out
7 Green Buzzard – Zoo Fly
8 Spring King – City
9 Noel Gallagher – Ballad of the Might I
10 Sjowgren – Seventeen

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Bruce

1 Nathaniel Rateliff & the Night Sweats – S.O.B.
2 Courtney Barnett – Pedestrian At Best
3 Alabama Shakes – Miss You
4 Death Cab For Cutie – Everything’s A Ceiling
5 FFS – Piss Off
6 The Struts – Could Have Been Me
7 The Maccabees – Marks To Prove It
8 Frank Turner – Mittens
9 The Libertines – Anthems For Doomed Youth
10 Hippo Campus – Suicide Saturday

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Erin

1 Kenton Slash Demon – Harpe
2 Darius & FKJ – O
3 Lettuce – Phyllis
4 Sango – Dias Melhores
5 J.Louis – Camarillo
6 Rick Ross – Amazing Grace
7 Superhumanoids – Anxious in Venice
8 Egyptian Art- She’s Lovely
9 NoMBe – California Girls
10 HONNE – No Place Like Home

reviewed by
01-07-16

TENDER – Hotline Bling

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We’re entranced with the uniquely stellar calm and centered vocal style, minimalist percussion, and catchy bass-line grooves of UK producer collaborative newcomer-act Tender (who are immensely talented and in our pool of consideration of artists to watch in 2016). We like the group’s latest cover of ubiquitous remix-friendly 2015 Drake hit “Hotline Bling”; a track which you may recall Marian Hill producer Jeremy (1/2 of the act) remixed beautifully back in September (he chose a twist on the Kehlani/Charlie version). Even though we have only showcased two tracks from Tender their style is so quietly appealing (especially strong Beck-vibe vocals) we think the group is potentially unstoppable. We look forward to more of Tender’s graciously simple brand of music. Superb cover. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

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

Majid Jordan – Something About You

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The Torontonian Drake affiliates Majid Jordan stream new fire flame “Something About You”. The new track does a cool job of juxtaposing a urgent immediate vocal and a icy space-chase style of production. “Something About You” is previewed from MJ’s forthcoming debut LP. A+++++++.
Majid Jordan (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
12-10-15

Review: Flume with River Tiber @ Mayan Theater, L.A. on 11/12

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Review: Tony Perkis / Photos: Russ Ramos

Red Bull Sound Select should just run for mayor of Los Angeles this of November as they are already running this town… Thursday’s Mayan Theater edition of RBSS was another stellar showing (topped off with free pizza and cookies to those in attendance, well played!)

Freshly minted signee to Boysnoize Records, Taskforce brought the beats to start the night off. The Minneapolis drum machine wizard conjured the crowd into a dance party highlighted by personal favorite, “Police Brace For Violence”.

Heading up north, Toronto native, River Tiber, hit the stage next. Vibey and chill, this Canadian (liked by BADBADNOTGOOD and Drake) laid an emotional haze out and over the packed Mayan.

Finally, Aussie DJ/producer Flume (Harley Streten) who is no stranger to B3SCI or myself (seeing him 4 times now). Flume’s 2013 self-titled LP was outstanding and considered widely one of that year’s best. For the set, Flume played all the hits, some new stuff and a delivered a very special guest; bringing out Andrew Wyatt (of Miike Snow) for an incredible performance of new single “Some Minds”. Flume always brings it (light show, mix, overall production). It was one giant party in DTLA.

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reviewed by
11-20-15

MED BLU MADLIB – Finer Things (Feat. Phonte & Likewise)

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The dream is real! A Justice League of West Coast underground rap MED, BLU and MADLIB connect on the A+ “Finer Things”. Featuring the ultramelodic vocal stylings of Phonte (the Little Brother/Foreign Exchange rapper to home Drake owes a good chunk of his rap palette), “Finer Things” picks excellently right up in the heyday of this crew of artists. WE NEED MORE. Look for Bad Neighbor on October 30th.

reviewed by
10-16-15

Premiere: Summer Heart – Nothing Can Stop Us Now

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Nobody does sunny infectious indie pop like a Swede. Summer Heart the project of musician and Swedish person David Alexander is back today with a new single and a new North American tour. “Nothing Can Stop Us Now” is the fresh song in question and it is very sunny and very infectious; the track is a hopeful jaunt through neat jangly guitars and a set of sing-a-long melodies that immediately pull you into them. Sample the B3 Premiere of “Nothing Can Stop Us Now” and look for the release at retail on October 16.

9/8/2015 – Toronto, ON. Canada @ The Drake
9/9/2015 – Lansing, MI. US @ Mac’s Bar
9/10/2015 – Upland, IN. US @ Taylor University
9/11/2015 – Chicago, IL. US @ Schubas
9/14/2015 – New York City, NY. US @ Mercury Lounge
9/18/2015 – Los Angeles, CA. US @ Bootleg Bar
9/20/2015 – San Francisco, CA. US @ Rickshaw Stop
9/30/2015 – Esch-Alzette, Luxembourg @ Rockhal
11/18/2015 – Caen, France @ Boreales Festival, Cargö Club
11/20/2015 – London, UK @ Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen

Summer Heart sweden (Soundcloud)

reviewed by
09-03-15

Tinashe – Days In The West (Kastle Remix)

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We like the intense-natured high-brow minimalism, syrupy-shuffled pace and deeply emotive synth-heavy metallic-percussion-centered instrumental dynamic of LA’s genre-defying producer Kastle on his beautifully steely new late-night zone-out dance-floor-creeper remix of Tinashe’s hit Drake cover “Days in the West”. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Kastle california (Soundcloud)

reviewed by
07-31-15

R I T U A L – Amnesia (Feat. Chester Watson)

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The 40-esque minimalist beat pop of “Amnesia” is the third and final track from London newcomers R I T U A L’s “The Fall” EP. “Amnesia”, which features a verse from American rapper Chester Watson, exists in a spacious piano stab-soundtrack nexus between Nothing Was The Same-vintage Drake and UK R&B-derived indie like Bondax.

R I T U A L england (Soundcloud)

reviewed by
12-03-14

Luui – With You (Prod. Stwo)

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We loved earlier this year Stwo’s Drake-directed beat “With You”. Here, Bristol UK emcee Luui speaks through a set of cadence-perfect bars creating a stunning intersection of narrative and instrumental.

Luui england (Soundcloud)

reviewed by
12-02-14