rescuing musical virtue in distress.
Pop music is an ever-changing beast, something that quickly moves in and out of various shifting fads and fashions as taste dictates. But the smart pop creator knows that whilst they need to build something that is appealing to the audience of today, pop music is always built on some pretty strong basic tenets too.... Continue Reading →
Pop music doesn't generally have much to say in its lyrics, not beyond love lorn platitudes or euphoric sentiment. But that isn't pop music's job. Its main concern is engagement with the audience, lifting spirits (or perhaps sending the mood the other way) offering something immediate and of the moment. But what if pop could... Continue Reading →
Getting away from the day to day grind through the escapism which music provides is pretty much its main reason for existence. Break Free, as the name suggests, is a celebration of such an ethic. With the buoyant beats and addictive sonics of Funky Fool's music as a platform, the fantastically named Ciinderella Balthazar lays... Continue Reading →
As this small but perfectly formed EP rises out of some traditional piano sounds and beguiling electronica, you wonder where it might be going. Modern classic fusion? Indie-dance? Ambient electronica? And then the main body of Multitasking drops into earshot and you find yourself in high-octane, clubland heaven. Taking a low and hypnotic route through... Continue Reading →
What if indie music could be as infectious and attractive as its big sister, pop music? What if it could be as groovesome as the most addictive dancefloor offerings? What if it made clever sonic choices and had something to say? What if it oozed underground cool as easily as it vibed with all the... Continue Reading →
Above & Beyond's Thing Called Love rightly found a large audience amongst the pop pickers and denizens of the dance scene a decade ago, but just because a song already has such a firm following that doesn't mean that it isn't ripe for reinvention. And that is exactly what Lian Gold does with her latest... Continue Reading →
To most people "instrumental music," a term really too broad to have any significant or specific meaning, is the stuff of background listening, a mood enhancer or perhaps a soundtrack to something more engaging such as a film or a video game. Brain Bleach, the latest album from Samvridh, proves that it can be something... Continue Reading →
Not all art has to poignant or powerful, some of the most iconic and memorable is also fun and frivolous, this is especially true of music. Songwriter and producer, Only Child, certainly makes music which falls into such a category but to look down on such music would be to massively miss the point of... Continue Reading →
Mixing the Afro-pop vibes of their Nigerian upbringing with the more western sonic groove of The Bronx, the place that they now call home, Moonside is a chilled slice of dance music with a taste of the exotic. The song also draws on their experiences of life in both places, particularly their harrowing enforced stay... Continue Reading →
So much of today's music seems concerned with trying to create the "new sound", to build its own zeitgeists to surf or being seen as some sort of musical saviours, it is utterly refreshing when you come across artists that just revels in having fun. The songs on Head Fake Vs Dub Fu Masters may... Continue Reading →
It is difficult to capture the sheer breadth of the band sound with easy generic labels. Can you explain how the sound came together and how it has evolved into what we hear on this album? Nevaris A.C: The sound is built around the drums, bass and vocals more than anything else. Lockatron, Bill Laswell and I recorded... Continue Reading →
If the previous album, Alternate Realities, from which much of the core material for this follow-up is drawn, was an exercise in musical cross-pollination and genre-hoping, Into The Multiverse is doubly so. It takes the already eclectic nature of the original music and then re-imagines the songs through the prism of re-mixing. A process which,... Continue Reading →
You might not know the name but you’ve heard the voice. Even if you don’t realise it. As a Weather Girl, she helped give us “It’s Raining Men,” working with C&C Music Factory she was responsible for “Sweat (Everybody Dance Now)” and with Black Box’s album Dreamland, she added four number ones and three top... Continue Reading →
I’m sure we could all do with something to smile about. It’s been a tough year all-round, no matter who or where you are. Between the political turmoil and the pandemic's imposed angst and isolation, it is perhaps now more than ever that we need music to come to our rescue. And whilst 2020 seems... Continue Reading →
Stephanie Rodriguez trades in soulful grooves, R&B-infused pop, slow-burning torch songs and, occasionally, euphoric dance music. She seems to have found a way to marry the smooth sonics of the past with a more cutting-edge delivery and in doing so she delivers a sound which will appeal to the traditionalists as much as it will... Continue Reading →
Although Your Waist runs along on some confident grooves, it is flavoured by some neat additional sonic touches and it is these less-expected moves which make it stand out from the slew of bed-room rappers and identikit urban wannabes. At its heart is a joyous beat, one which seems to be a wonderful collision of... Continue Reading →
Words paint pictures. You hear words like Dance or terms such as EDM and your mind conjures images of packed clubland dance floors moving to euphoric and bombastic electronica. Hear the word ambient and you think of drifting minimalism and gossamer light sonic threads. Yet Present Paradox manages to blend both of these mutually exclusive... Continue Reading →
What happens when you take one of the most happening Dutch electronic music artists of the moment, the hottest Argentinian dance producer of the day and throw all of their skills and imagination into one track? Three and a half minutes of euphoria and bliss, energy and impulse called In My Head, that's what. Not... Continue Reading →
Having more than proved that it can hold its own in the modern electronic music scene with All Of My Love and a deft remix of To My Heart, RMA returns with another slice of incendiary dance music. Designated floor fillers need to be infectious and easy on the ear, groove-aware and full of life,... Continue Reading →
If dance music is built around intoxicating and hypnotic rhythms and pop music sass and addictive groove, then this latest song from Dejhare seems to exist at the point where those two sibling genres meet. Not only meet, but meld and merge, then mutate into a hybrid sound which is as likely to sooth the... Continue Reading →
Faith is a very personal thing but it is through the following of those individual paths which has been responsible for much of the art and culture which defines civilisation. From awe-inspiring, ancient architecture to painted renaissance masterpieces to the voices raised in musical celebration, all have played a part in shaping the world we... Continue Reading →
Never has a single been so perfectly titled. The spaciousness of the music and the soulful, not to mention tasteful, deliveries makes for a very opaque song, one that allows you to really appreciate the mechanics that it is built on…and it’s all groove.Very often artists write songs that has a sonic engine room full... Continue Reading →
Music has come a long way in such a short time. There was a time, even within my memory, where you accessed your music news via the printed word, listened to it via a physical, vinyl pressing and if you wanted to see music being played, you had to wait until a bunch of people... Continue Reading →
Perhaps, now more than at any other time in recent history, people are looking for a ray of hope, a long lost, sliver-lining, a glimmer of light breaking through the dark clouds which seem to be gathering at an ever increasing pace. Okay, we shouldn’t look to musicians to provide the solutions, that isn’t their... Continue Reading →
It has to be the sign of a good song that so many people wish to cover it. But perhaps it says even more about the song-writing if that song is robust enough to stand up to constant reinvention, that other artists are able to take the core elements and re-mix, re-invent, re-imagine and come... Continue Reading →
Music has always provided the perfect mechanism for an artist to get things off their chests, a way to exorcise demons and negative thoughts and as a way of connecting with others who might find themselves in similar situations. You Know Me Better does all these things and more. Not only that, it does it... Continue Reading →
It is safe to say that Ridin is as much a song infused with BASE's Lebanese roots as it is with by the influences of his current Los Angeles base. It certainly has all the hallmarks of music made for the US market but amongst its western grooves and four-four dance rhythms there is also... Continue Reading →
There has always been a sweet spot to be found between the exoticism of African music and the more direct nature of western musical approaches and that is exactly where you find KoKou Kah and his latest release Best Friend. Infused with some deep rooted grooves and dexterous bass lines, Best Friend is also light... Continue Reading →
There has, for obvious reasons, been a wave of artists making music reflecting the times of late. After all it is in times of adversity when the most interesting music is made. Rock 'n' Roll, Punk, Hip-Hop, Rave…all music born out of heady combinations of frustration, disenfranchisement, rebellion, a desire for cultural or political change... Continue Reading →
Africali make music which is the equivalent of cutting a sonic gemstone. Hold it up and it throws out all manner of different colours and patterns depending on how the light catches it. The same can be said of Daughters of The Sun. Turn it one way and pick up on Afro-rock rhythms and heady,... Continue Reading →