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CANNONS – Call You Out

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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.

Cannons (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-12-16

John Looke – Dab Fingers

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The lead single off the 8-track “Rocks n’ Gems” EP (out via Hot Record Société), recent tune “Dab Fingers” is a dynamic sweetly-melodic jazz diddy with a deep and compelling loung-y groove. Beautiful. From new-to-B3 Austin artist John Looke (named for Jean-Luc Picard), the track is a sumptuous blend of barely audible spacey synth accents, low-touch jazzy metallic percussion and Looke’s perfectly punctuating sultry staccato beats. New release “Dab Fingers” (which on the EP accompanies tracks “No Alliance w/ Contour”, “Discipline 99” and “Headz”), is a finely wrought electronic jazz gem to help you jump-start your weekend. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

John Looke (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-11-16

Elènne – Ruthless Bloom

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We like the tender-hearted fastidiously-wrought dance-driven groove-centric quirky-vibe-percussion-tempered minimalist-vocals-tinged synth-infused electro jam from B3 featured Stuttgart artist Elènne called “Ruthless Bloom”. Great tune! Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Elenne (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-10-16

Ghost Loft – Daily Demo 2 (2/2/2016)

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B3 favorite Koreatown (Los Angeles) producer Ghost Loft returns from a year long hiatus with a plan to release a daily demo on Soundcloud (we’re not sure for how long). At his 9th tune in the series as of today, Ghost Loft has us totally compelled after hearing just two tunes from it (we are psyched to check out more from the set). At the moment, we’re listening to #2 and #7 from the group of songs. A soulful array of sensationally suave chill beats, crystal clear keyboard melodics and a brilliant, entrancing mesh of vocal harmonies, we think # 2 is outrageously good. Such a beautiful song! The very lovely and atmospheric #7, a totally different animal with its pleasant folk guitar riffing, largely instrumental style and dreamy tone-infused melodics, also warrants a listen. Just based on these two and a quick listen of the rest, we can say this compilation is indeed a work of art; try to to hear it in one sitting to get the full effect (if you tally up the tracks it’s practically 30 minutes in duration so give you some time). Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Ghost Loft (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-09-16

Weird Inside – Breathing

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On the 11th of this month B3 favorite instrumentals-only electro producer Weird Inside is set to release his debut “As We Know” EP. “Breathing”, the latest wonder to release from it (following B3 covered tunes “No More Heroes” and “Who Knows”), is a highly recommendable melodic slow burn that captivates the imagination with its tone-centric melody-enhancing instrumental perspective and stylish understated dynamic simplicity. We’re catching a great vibe from “Breathing” and hope you like it too! Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Weird Inside (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-08-16

Emma Louise – Underflow (Little Dragon Remix)

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Tune into the austere array of finely-laced percussion and cosmic reverb-y synth accents of B3-fave group Little Dragon on their radient new spin on “Underflow” the tremendously emotive plaintive-poetic vocals-led recent track from talented Aussie songstress Emma Louise. Reviewed by Erin Shay

Emma Louise (Facebook)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-08-16

Astronomyy – Something About U (Artlife Remix)

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New-to-B3 artist Artlife are the electronic duo of Casper Jansen & Benjamin Brommer (two close friends who currently live in Amsterdam, Netherlands). We’re jamming out to the duo’s new highly recommendable up-tempo piano-melody-infused remix of Astronomy tune “Something About You” (and totally loving it). According to the Artlife Soundcloud page, after being asked to remix the song by Astronomyy himself the pair set out to create a mix that “keep[s] the deep chords and cool vocal lines while making it more up-tempo and energetic”. Artlife does a beautiful job at highlighting the melody and texturing the remix with their signature multi-dimensional piano-led instrumental touches and phenomenally enhancing guided guitar riff. Our very favorite part of the remix is the euphoric dramatic pause-y portion around 1:25 where there is a perfectly enchanting cohesion of instrumental elements. This is a fantastic remix, we actually like it better than the original. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Artlife (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-05-16

Kickflip Mike – Vanilla Seibt

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World renowned London Underground music show The Boiler Room debuts new track “Vanilla Selbt”, a uniquely spun instrumental deep house beauty from European producer Kickflip Mike, a.k.a. Joschka Seibt, who (according to TBR) is best known for being at the right-hand of vet Euro producer/musician Max Graef. “Vanilla Selbt”, the fifth original track to release off Money $ex Records “005” EP, is The Boiler Room’s top choice out of the five tracks (we agree). We’re totally compelled by Kickflip Mike’s outstanding chime-y effulgence on the track and also love how he masterfully weaves an inventive mix of beautifully garish distorted drum sonics into the track to act as a kind of stormy-side grounding balance to the chipper melodic scales. Awesome tune. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Kickflip Mike (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-04-16

Rave’s Fave: The Record Company – Off the Ground

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A well-deserving trio is starting to see the national light of day. The Record Company, headed up by Chris Vos, have become major players in the LA scene since their 2011 formation. Just back from a European trek, they’ve toured with such diverse luminaries as Brian Setzer, Buddy Guy, B. B. King, and Social Distortion. They sound fresh, and I think of it as hard, blusey roots-rock. They cite influences from John Lee Hooker to punk bands to the Rollling Stones. You’ve probably heard their tunes on TV over the years. “Off the Ground” is already getting radio love around the country. It’s a grimy mid-tempo track that features Chris’ smooth, deep pipes and slide guitar in front of a killer rhythm section as he prods himself to “pick myself up off the ground.” The Record Company can also rock it uptempo with the best of them and should definitely be seen live. Their Give It Back to You album is out February 12. Reviewed by Bruce Rave.

Check out Bruce’s weekly “Go Deep” radio show; air dates and times for “Go Deep” as well archived past shows can be found on Bruce’sblog. Don’t forget to follow Bruce on Twitter too!

The Record Company (Facebook)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-02-16

4am – More

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“More” the debut track from shrouded-in-anonymity newcomers 4am is beautiful. A terrific piece of melodic writing, that bit around 0:16 when the “give me more” turn in the tune first happens is one of those brief moments of magic that makes this whole music blogging thing a bit more worthwhile. We hope that’s a strong enough endorsement of “More”.

4am (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-02-16

Eets – Blue Lights

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B3 Alaskan beat-maker fave .eets follows up his recent terrific melodic hip-hop tune “Flying High” (covered here) with new gem “Blue Lights”, a beautiful beat-laden vocals-led number which samples DJ Shadow’s Little Dragon-vocals-led tune “Scale it Back”. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Eets (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-01-16

Atolla – Life

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Young multi-genre producer, guitarist and solo artist Atolla gives a shout out to Nas and samples “Life’s A Bitch” on his latest bass-heavy hip-hop production called “Life”. We like how Atolla (who’s new to B3) mixes up the classic tune with a timeless meld of syrupy beats, snappy technicolor chord-heavy instrumentals, and velvety vocal flow. Great track. Reviewed by Erin Shay.

Atolla (Soundcloud)
Track Reviews
reviewed by
02-01-16