Wrené “Trib Al”
Wrené, the queen of experimental dark pop brings forth “Trib Al,” a track quite unimaginable to exist. In there, the bewitching force experience a sensual awakening as it shatters the illusions of a broken world. “Trib Al” features an unconventional song structure as Toronto-based artist Wrené walks us through the unraveling of a lustful yet pure and sensitive passage under the dark night through her entrancing yet intimate vocal delivery.
“Trib Al“ sees the undertone of a wicked, nocturnal bassline, projecting a hypnotic chant underneath the lead vocal. The silence and the quietness forms a deep void in contrast to the unraveling storytelling that blossoms in our ears. It’s like finding something you always wanted at the place you least unexpected, while the experience itself seems to transform your perception and all established understanding.
“Trib Al” feels intimate as if it understands you. At the same time, the track feels so different than all others as if it takes place in a darker, more truthful realm. It seems to hit you harder that a secret. As the ever-changing soundscape and wild beats take you by the hand, the listening experience can be described as becoming a part of the music, like your whole being melt into it.
Wrené’s music is translucent like that. It awakens a new sense that you didn’t know exist. It guides you to a beautiful blossom that is as pure as it is powerful and glorious. “Trib Al” is a secret in a hushed tone.
Romain Gutsy “My Only Love
Speaking about a love deep as the ocean, Romain Gutsy brings to our ears a haunting, captivating tune, “My Only Love.” The longing and the passion have become the flame that consumes and burns. It’s intense and immediate, but there’s also the immersive beauty about it that makes you can’t look away.
“My Only Love” is a tune like that. It’s expressive and intriguing, like a sound poem. Its weight and emotion expand beyond the song form, searching for something more personal. In a way, the track is very dramatic and theatrical. It tells a story with nuance, ebbs and flows. Rumbling guitar soundscapes tune the listeners in with reoccurring lyrics whisper into their ears. It becomes a memory, a dream, something that is hauntingly beautiful and surreal.
Like a fine wine, the tune from Romain Gutsy is rich and complex. It’s full of personality, as if it has become tangible in its music format. It keeps drawing you in with its fiery, intense desire and longing, while at the same time, keeping a distance, like the water and wind, shifting in shapes. “My Only Love” is the kind of song that fall madly in love with. The melodies are entrancing and poised. They are easily to become the smooth, romantic whispers hummed in the wind that vocalize the love and passion.
Gutsy surely knows his way around romance and music. The French-born singer songwriter spent the last three decades as a touring musician. His solo project is always something that has a little more soul and heart in them that make them special.
Ricky Jamaraz “arrogant CDs”
Ricky Jamaraz is a young indie artist from Nottingham, UK, and his latest release, Arrogant CDs, is a two-song EP that storms in with immersive emotion soundscapes and punk-rock splashing energies that instantly change your mind about this young man. Jamaraz’s music is the proof that you can accomplish so much with only one man, two guitars, a laptop and a smile.
B-side “CDs! NOODLES!” gives you the very first impression about this two-song EP. It’s restless, fast-paced, and enthusiastic. The carefree punk-rock track tunes into a state of mind that is clear, cloudless and intuitive. At the same time, the melodic structures and everchanging soundscapes tell a story. Without any word, the emotions in the track is highly relatable. It seems to tell more and dive into those feelings even deeper, compare to songs with lyrics.
A-side “am I arrogant!?” On the other side is dazzling and psychedelic. Compare to the high energy B-side, it’s more textural and spacious. The track tackles the stress and anxiety induced by other’s opinion and expectation, being overly self-conscious. Although young adults and adolescents may find themselves relate to the track the most, the topic is essentially universal.
Ricky Jamaraz represents the new emerging sound of the music scene that is daring, refreshing, and fearless to be who they are. There’s no expectation or stress in his sound or any attempt to try to be any other artists than himself. He does his own thing and he makes his name for it. That’s something invaluable and so unique in the music scene.
LaVo “Roller”
LaVo’s “Roller” is the artist’s most intense and sophisticated release to date. The track opens with a hard-hitting retro beat and bewitching bass that recall the intoxicating vibes from the 80s. LaVo’s vocal introduces a momentary distance and stillness, the it fully explodes into your ears with wrenching emotions. It’s like a drastic primal scream that wants to tear up the restraints. It’s tangible and incredible. Like a firework that gives you goosebumps, and that’s only the beginning of “Roller.”
The track is relatively high energy, but it’s also reverberant and illusive. LaVo’s smooth vocal in the track not only provides the emotional strength needed but also proves to be a textural, atmospheric addition to the instrumentation. It balances the contrast and tension and gives listeners space to fully immerse themselves emotionally and physically without being burned or drained.
The best part of a song is always in the details. “Roller” takes listeners on an emotional roller coaster. The song explores and examines frustration, hopelessness, disappointment and anger in a high aesthetic sonic environment. The backdrop, in fact, never stops transforming from one imagery to another. The Radio edit is a lot more Radiohead than the original version, which sees more punches and 80s elements flying high in there.
The only thing that seems to be really desiring from “Roller” is an electric guitar solo, but the dynamic bassline provided something more imaginative and vivid in various patterns. Speaking of the song, LaVo revealed the context of “Roller.” “The lyrics deal with the hurt and predatory nature of modern day ‘holy rollers,” the artist commented. “I was trying to express that while they’ve gotten away with so much that I and no one else should continue to turn a blind eye.”
Quarter Black “Why Must I Be Alone”
There are so many things to love in “Why Must I Be Alone,” but the song itself doesn’t really get too complicated. The track opens with a hypnotic guitar strumming that draws you in. Quarter Black’s storming vocal immediately immerses you further into the sensitive and emotional sonic environment. It’s raw and imperfect, but it seems to be the exact reason why listeners would want to come back to it again and again.
The flaws compresses more storytelling than a polished sound that hits perfectly on every take, especially in a song that talks about the stages in life where you’re feeling lost and confused. The uncertainty storms in with frustration and solitude. Contemplation and loneliness seems to be desiring but yet to make peace in the storm. Black articulates an experience that every 20 something could relate to. It’s a crossroad, where all directions meet.
“Why Must I Be Alone” feels like a hurricane or a reoccurring tide that splashes onto the rocky shore, again and again. It’s immersive. It swallows you in its complication. Quarter Black’s melancholy, moody guitar soundscapes seem to read you mind. His vocal, on the other hand, feels so cathartic and immediate. It’s a primal scream for rescue and release. From the visual aspect, the song speaks like an artistic movie scene that make you ache as he takes you through this phase in life.
Quarter Black has something very special in his music. It’s still at a budding stage, but it doesn’t lack anything that a seasoned musician has. On the contrary, he exposes the vulnerable, messy, and sensitive side of himself so purely in his music. An artistic sense that is unique to youth.
It’s hard to decide which to love just little more — his guitar or his vocal. They are equally amazing. Quarter Black has a very special vocal tone that when he sings, it feels like the electricity is running through your skin, and then the shifting soundscapes gives you at times the melancholia, the darkness, and hope and light that are always interchangeable. Like the lighthouse in a storm, it explores the darkest chaos but it also brings you a peace of mind.
Bad Blood “A Birthmark On My Hip”
It’s not everyday when you hear a song that begins with “I was born with a birthmark on my hips in the shape of a pistol, yeah!” Bad Blood is humorous, unapologetic, and edgy. At the same time, he’s a brilliant artist who’s able to articulate the strangest experiences that others wouldn’t be able to do. Bad Blood creates a very unique sense of mesmerizing imageries and sonic palettes in your head. His music may come as a shock at first, but you’ll find it strangely charming at last.
There’s no label yet to exist that could really summarize what Bad Blood’s music is like. He simply makes his own sets of rules and dares you to try it. His music is wicked, murky, darkly entrancing with an outlaw’s attitude and a rocker’s seriousness. He‘s the type of musician that seizes the day but not in a way that people normally anticipate.
“A Birthmark on My Hip” is a bit of everything without adhering to one particular style, which opens the sound and structure to a new range of possibilities. There’s a lot of freedom in Bad Blood’s choice of instrumentation and form. He channels those primal yet vivid imageries that interconnected to the cover art and expands beyond that.
Flying high up between rap and rock, the track is a little naughty yet very aesthetic. Every sound builds up to forming a particular impression in listeners’ head. The melodies are catchy, but they always seem to step right on the line between two opposite things. There’s risk involved, of course, but the rush of adrenaline and the liberty to not being cornered or boxed in becomes the beauty of Bad Blood’s music.
He’s like a gangster with a heroic sense, or a hero who acts like a villain. That’s the wicked charm that you simply can’t get enough.
Chapell “Beyond the Blue Sky”
“Beyond the Blue Sky” revisits a time in Chapell’s life when the band he was in had broken up on a side of the road before they even reached the first destination of the tour. It followed Chapell’s footsteps hitch hiking all the way back to New York City alone — an experience that would always feel slightly different when you look back at various stages in life, but it’s an unforgettable one that Chapell is now opening to share with us.
In 1989, just upon crossing the border to Canada, their drummer had a mental broke down and drove off with the van that filled with their entire equipment. At that moment, they realized that the tour was canceled and the band has broken up. The unfortunate and sudden experience was then followed by months of solitude on the road while making the way back to the city.
Chapell concentrates the core feelings of that experience in the mood-filled reoccurring theme. As Chapell sings, screams, and whispers, “I will fly,” the theme comes back as well carrying the complex feelings and weight of that experience, but the song also leaves the details and the experience up to the listeners, in which, everyone could explore in their own ways.
“Beyond the Blue Sky” holds the same emotional value as a full-length movie. Of course, the stories behind it would probably already make a good movie. The song form draws you in, engaging you on a pure emotional level without going too much in-depth about everything yet it compresses everything. You could feel the freedom and the positivities, but also there’s the cruel twist of destiny that makes you curse and laugh at the same time. Things would have turned out very differently if one detail was different.
“Gotta get away, gotta get away,” speaking about the strong desire to escape a less fortunate situation. The body might be in physical hell, but the mind seeks the beyond. At the same time, it’s also about moving forward and freeing oneself from a situation that might not even be the best scenario.
Confidential “Slipping Away”
Inspired by the break down of a relationship during the pandemic, Confidential’s “Slipping Away” is an intimate track about witnessing someone you cared deeply about slipping through your fingertips but there was nothing you could do to avoid the inevitable.
After years of playing in hard rock and alternative metal band as a guitarist, Confidential, aka George Wakerley re-imagined himself as a lo-fi hip hop solo artist and embarked a different direction in his creative pursuit. With less than a handful of releases, his intricate, lo-fi instrumental tracks rapidly gained traction around the world. His work connects to listeners in such a profound yet traceless way. It draws you in and understands what you’re going through without realizing that the experience has deepened so much through listening to Confidential’s music.
George Wakerley makes a vocal debut in “Slipping Away.” The song again takes on a different creative direction with something entirely new to offer for listeners while adhering to a lo-fi hip hop aesthetic. “Slipping Away” is intimate and highly relatable. It dives deep into the powerlessness of watching the break down of a relationship when you could feel the person you care deeply about is slipping away. It’s not due to the lack of the effort, but people are simply drifting apart into different directions.
The song isn’t about a deep pain or wrenching heartbreak, but more of an acknowledgement of the complex feelings. It’s almost in a mindset of letting go something that not longer works. It’s so artistically articulate an experience that are usually summed up in a long gaze into the horizon, lighting up a cigarette. It feels like a sigh, something that you can’t pinpoint but everyone could understand.
George Wakerley’s voice is pure with the natural moodiness and raw emotions. The tender yet revolving soundscapes that lifts the vocal up paints the atmosphere while allowing listeners to be fully immersed with the lead. The instrumentation simply breathes and flows alongside, putting a distance between the backdrop and the listener, so that the song can be fully emotive and intimate without being emotional overwhelming.
N4November “Mistakes and Heartbreak”
“Mistakes and Heartbreak” is probably the best N4November has to offer so far. The raw but time-gazed track was the very first song the artist composed as a musician when he was 16. Back then, he didn’t exactly picture himself as a musician, however the lyrics poured out of him in those moments that you’ll never forget. “Mistakes and Heartbreak” reads like a page from his diary, however, the perspective that N4November had on heartbreak as a 16-year-old articulates so well of that experience.
Maybe because back then, he wouldn’t shy away from vocalizing the pain and defeat that older adults would try to avoid. The honesty in his lyrics recall the broken hearted experience when a relationship doesn’t work out even though you have found true intimacy and love in each other and give the other person all your heart. Nobody likes to acknowledge the blame they had on themselves when it happened, especially when the world is so unkind for the broken hearted, but here in the first song from N4November, he would spill out “my heart mistaken, am I not enough?”
His music is so easy to relate to. The honesty in his music feels nostalgic and special because every adult was once like that, vulnerable, unprepared but fully-hearted in love, but over time, this seems to be a remote memory that many longs to connect to again. That’s what makes “Mistakes and Heartbreak” such a powerful track. It’s confrontational, with no reservation. It tell the truth from a perspective that has a secret healing power.
N4November is known to deliver rich lyrical melodies and lush yet sensitive soundscapes. His music connects listeners on a human level with nothing overly fancy but a passionate heart.
City Circuits “Anybody Else”
There’s way too many depressing breakup songs in the music scene that we are beginning to lose the grasp of the good side of an ending. As rare as it can be, City Circuits comes to the rescue, bringing listeners a brand new feel-good breakup song that totally changes your perspective about breakups.
Their energy shines through the heavy clouds and lift you up from whatever emotional hell you’re in. The charm and supporting warmth is something transformative and healing. By the end of the song (or even just the halfway through), you won’t even remember why you were sad the first place. That’s the magic of City Circuits.
Dipped into the best of the 80s, soaked in the glamorous best of modern day production, City Circuits’ music is made of pure magic. “Anybody Else” is a soul food that anyone could digest under any circumstance, especially on a rainy day. The rich yet lighthearted take on retro style is simply hard to hate.
They bring back the best of the last century, stirring them a little more with their unique personality and influences with smooth, warm vocals and luscious yet breathable soundscapes, always charged with a ray of sunshine that is ready to change your way about life and love.
Why be so sad about breakup? It’s an experience that frees you from a relationship that isn’t right anyway. It’s freedom and new possibilities. City Circuits work their magic to heal your broken heart. They create a mood so sweet that you just want to dive into their song log, tracing down the band’s history to previous release.
Like treasure hunting, their previous releases are all in one way or another, provides a fresh takes on the retro 80s style and alternative rock. “VHS” radiates a summer beach vibe with a drive down the highway in the 80s. “Talk to Me” sinks even deeper into the ballroom atmosphere with introspection that feels like a good movie.
Nobody's Wolf Child “Green Fires”
Nobody’s Wolf Child’s music is no less than a full-length fantasy novel or epic cinematic project such as the Games of Thorns. The storytelling is so rich between the lyrics, intricately woven imagination and visual elements together. Nobody’s Wolf Child’s vocal is just as powerful as her music production, painting a fictional world with nuance and texture. All the magic of her art is within the details. Nobody’s Wolf Child delivers a listening experience that stays fresh and engaging no matter how many times a listener choose to revisits.
“Green Fires” delivers the haunting Hunger Game type of storyline, where the symbolism of fire is fully explored in different dimensions and layers. “Burn, Burn on Fire, Rage across the land.” It paints a picture of the night before a Great War, going into full action within hours. Fire sparks splattering, sharpening the swords. Then there’s the quietness and ghostly hollows that chant in the undertone. The sound of metal clanging, vocals echoing between each other, the scream, rage and determination, sweat becomes something invisible yet so tangible in your visualization.
Nobody’s Wolf Child is so good at articulating the story she aims to tell with visual aids and sonic environment that truly feel like magic. She solidifies the impossible and makes sound tangible in listener’s mind. Only in her music will you ever be thinking a sound that feels like the chilling wind cutting your skin.
“Green Fires” takes a darker turn at the beginning of a new trilogy, as part of an even bigger project of Nobody’s Wolf Child. In the previous trilogy, “Lost Among The Pines” sets its scene in a forest of ice, “The Devil’s God” then taps into mystery and greed with a distinct ancient and nostalgic feeling that reminds you of Lana Del Ray. It’s undoubtedly exciting to follow through her work and see the full project unraveling before you eyes.
Nobody’s Wolf Child is gearing up for a full-length album.
Harpa “Hollow”
The first thing that catches your attention is the introspective, mesmerizing fingerpicking on an acoustic guitar that smoothes in with emotional depth. Harpa’s vocal is soft and melancholy with the kind of vision that sheds a somber and vulnerable light on “Hollow.”
Cinematic soundscapes recalls the intimate and epic moments that listeners usually see on a big screen, but this isn’t the retell of another story. Harpa’s unique and sensuous vocal tells her perspective and experience that is more impressive and unforgettable. It seems to add another layer of storytelling and depth to those humanly relatable feelings.
“Hollow” tells the story about the kind of love that burns and consumes and the experience of loving someone even if it takes all your strength. There’s danger in passion, toxicity in addiction, emptiness in the epic romance. Between what burns and what attracts, Harpa channels the wrenching, opposite force that is tearing her apart in the drastic build-up of the song. From the softly whispered moments to the cathartic scream, she so perfectly channels the experience. Then the light vocal harmonies tell the loneliness and somber.
On the other hand, Harpa’s vocal has something really special that seems to go beyond the experience of a love song. Her vocal has the folkloric entrancement and the highly relatable, touching capacity of a pop artist. “Hollow,” overall, creates an immersive listening experience. She brings a level of imagination to her love-centered storytelling that is quite unlike others. The use of guitar in her music, whether it’s the acoustic or the electric, are textural and melodic. The strong melodic presence urges on the emotive strength, providing an aesthetic storytelling.
Blake Baker “Sunday Evening”
Like most people who don’t want their weekend to end as Sunday again brings back the unavoidable Monday, Blake Baker’s “Sunday blues” takes on a jazzy mix in his groovy, moody “Sunday Evening.” Just a little moment to stay goofy and relaxed. Just for the good mood to last a little longer where you’re free from responsibilities, worries, work related anxiety and all the reality craziness. “Sunday Evening” solidifies all the complex feeling just the moment before reality sinks in.
Baker’s voice is of a cool mixture of bossa nova, pop and blues. It’s charismatic and electric in a warm and rich tone, but it also naturally carries a lightheartedness and atmospheric vibe that sheds a new light to the fuzzy electric guitar. There’s no heaviness in “Sunday Evening,” no worry or over-thinking. Just a glow of brightness and warmth that radiates and expands in Baker’s captivating vocal and highly relatable lyricism.
It’s a joy to listen to Blake Baker. Surely there’s some melancholia and moodiness but the desire to stay in that chill and healing Sunday vibe is so much stronger. It seems to overcome all the obstacles that stand in the way. Blake Baker’s singer-songwriter style brings a coffee house mood that feels natural and effortless. There’s a Taylor Swift type of entrancement and Ed Sheeran’s storytelling that blends Blake Baker’s personality.
FireBug “Change”
There’s immense love and spirituality in FireBug’s music. They are within the arrangement, every note from the electric guitar and in front woman Juliette Tworsey’s unique voice. FireBug taps into a kind of surreality that is connected to our collective memory. The immediate retro 70s feel reminds you of liberation and celebration, where folk and rock joins hand in a meaningful way.
It seems like a really good way to describe FireBug’s music. “Change” is a tune that contemplate on the very subject of change — the shock and disassociation, the lingering nostalgia, the loss and grief that naturally emerge in the process, and the embrace and acceptance. Despite the storming, shocking nature of change that shakes up everything, the way “change” is echoed and chanted throughout the piece has an almost symbolic underlying meaning.
In “Change,” FireBug brings back a classic, nostalgic backdrop: piano and electric guitars echos and responses to each other, bass and drum complete the warm, wholesome feeling. Juliette Tworsey’s voice is full of personality and rebellion but not without the classic rock and blues twangs. The love for nature and spirituality naturally comes in strong through the music in a lighthearted Waltz rhythm. It takes you to a dive bar, where the light is dim and the atmosphere is rich.
“Change“ is mesmerizing and thought provoking. The piece also embraces the ideation of change within its arrangement. The bridge and the built up shakes up the ground and rebuilt. This chaos might seems a little disoriented and messy at first, but there’s beauty and new order that naturally emerges again. arrangement also embraces the ideation of change. Then the lingering nostalgia seems to find a new meaning in appreciation.
Pete Campbell “Bring to the Dawn”
With introspective lyrics that document the thoughts between dusk and dawn, Pete Campbell draws you into a mood where his warm vocal and emotive guitar evoke a rich, moody blend of country, Americana, blues, folk and rock. “Bring to the Dawn” is the kind of song that makes you pause and listen.
The track brings a campfire warmth and entrancement that is hard to forget. His intimate storytelling on the other hand evokes a cinematic keenness. Soft vocal harmonies add the nuance and light. As a lifelong musician who has been playing live in bars, cafe houses, and various settings, Campbell’s music always carry an intoxicating groove and mood-fill vibe that continues to move the listeners through his studio recordings.
His guitar playing, simple but they are alive, with soul fire in them. Every song felt close to the heart. There’s reflection, sighs, and thinking in the lyrics that make his songs always worth your time. Campbell’s music also feels extremely fitting with whiskey and coffee. It’s the vibe where being a little more awake wouldn’t hurt and being goofy would still be fun.
“Bring to the Dawn” is like a parallel universe that understands you and hear your struggle and pain. Campbell’s music offers some comfort to the listeners. It create an environment, a vibe, an atmosphere that makes you feel safe to explore the thoughts and emotions within his storytelling.
Pete Campbell is set to release his debut EP on July 4, 2022.
Myky “The One”
Following the success of Gemini (Part I Caster), MySky is returning with a glamouring music video for the title track “The One.” Being the more vulnerable and imaginative track on the album, “The One” carries deep underlying meaning and understanding about love through a beautifully orchestrated artistic twist, where the sensuous star sky meets ground-shaking EDM.
The booming bass that sneaks into the scene brings life to the present moment as Myky’s voice flows through the track. Deep lyrics that contain the finest imaginations melt and beats with the vibrant rhythm that breathes along the night. The message of unity, communication, love and connection is the energy in the room — the motion within motionless. The music video captures that through the depiction of a motionless dance club with only Myky and the music being the one that’s “alive.”
There’s an overall glistening and flamboyant colorism in “The One” that feels dreamy, a little distant and deep — like the night sky. It seems coherent through the Gemini (Part I Caster) album. Myky creates the type of music that reminds you of the galaxy — beautiful and makes you in awe even though it’s always there when you look up. His music doesn’t lack of metaphors and deeper meanings, and there’s the imagination that always seems to be reaching a little further with each track.
Myky wields the perfect sonic palette for his music — a cosmic cocktail with a little 80s ballroom nostalgia, synth and dream pop mixing into K-pop and dance music that is just the right amount to lose yourself.
Step into the Kitchen “The Cream of Portland's Gourmet Set”
Santa Clause is ringing in summer this year and he’s bringing a big bag of Step Into the Kitchen. “The Cream of Portland’s Gourmet Set” is their most vibrant track to date with a mixture of sultry summertime festive celebration in the wild untamed where the genre “world” seems to lose in its meanings. The sensation that Step Into the Kitchen evokes is unlike others. They have covered multiple grounds here, but everything only sound like their homemade secret recipe — from funk to psychedelic to rock, soul and world — they have a little bit of everything in there but the flavor is still their own creation.
That’s a good way to sum up the type of music Step Into the Kitchen makes. The marvelous band takes pleasure in taking audiences to somewhere out of everyone’s imagination, but it’s not a galaxy far, far away type of adventure. It’s more like, an Eden on earth — wealth, abundance, vibration, never-ending celebration, fruity suns and deep blue ocean. That’s “The Cream of Portland’s Gourmet Set,” a bright ray of light that seems to reveal what’s hidden behind their nocturnal soundscapes.
Step Into the Kitchen’s past releases have mostly been revolving around a darker tone and a nocturnal passage. They are experimental and sensational. Less festive but more introspective, intriguing listeners to learn more about the fictional world that seems to slowly unravel through Step Into the Kitchen’s catalogue. Ethereal vocals, shimmering soundscapes, otherworldly sonic palette and fruity sensations.
Ten Dollar Recording Co has been collecting a rooster of artists that seem like the hidden gems scattered deep under the ocean. They are rare to come by, but somehow, they are discovered and gathered at one place where those wildest dreams and daring tales all come to the light.
See Tai “Fun Now”
See Tai’s “Fun Now” evokes a suburban feel with lo-fi yet hip edge that feels keen to the current indie-pop genre. The track embraces obscurity and a lighthearted color palette but at the same time, does not lack the sensitivity and melodic charm. See Tai seems to know exactly where to navigate the atmospheric mix of surf and dreamy texture without losing the edge. His smooth vocal gives out a cool, distant sensation like the ocean waves in a summer afternoon.
There’s reverberant soundscapes in “Fun Now” as well as echoes that push the track further down the imagination lane, but what really attracts listeners is the vocal-led melodies that stay fresh and unique, not resolving to the mainstream ear candy. His melodies are special enough that you won’t be thinking about another artist while you listen to him. At the same time, it’s totally compelling and mesmerizing that keeps the attention there, with the surroundings filling in more translucent, chill waves.
It’s not a surprise how well See Tai navigates the track with a level of complexity that may or may not be immediate obvious at first listen. There’s so much depth in his music when listeners revisit multiple times. The atmospheric sensational mix is part of the signature that See Tai has been developing over the years. In 2019, the artist released “Neon Dream,” evoking a warm, melancholy dreamscape. Going a little further, his 2017 track “Glass Canyon” seems to step on the first rise of dream pop with a refreshing, lo-fi take.
Discovering See Tai is like discovering a treasure box, one that bears more invaluable finding than tangible jewels.
DANNY BELL AND HIS DISAPPOINTMENTS “Killing Birds”
Danny Bell and His Disappointments built on the early 1920s mystery nostalgia with accordion-led folk tune, “Killing Birds,” revolving around the traces left behind by a caregiver at an abandoned sawmill. The song carries out a similar wondrous and haunting experience when you visit a ghost town, searching for clues in what was previous residents left behind. But “Killing Birds” is less haunted but warm and glorious as a cultural museum, where the past is preserved and celebrated.
Danny Bell came from a small, blue-collar town in British Columbia. His tunes are characteristically regional. But this creative choice of embracing a smaller sound seems to form a strong connection with listeners. It’s mysterious, artistically witty and grounding. It seems that Danny Bell discovered something invaluable and unique in those seemingly insignificant part of our life. Others are always chasing the next big goals, but Bell returns to the basics and sheds light on the fundamentals of our society and life itself — the past we abandoned, the people we don’t ask for opinions, the towns that stayed nameless, which makes his music so special.
“Killing Birds” may have connected listeners to Danny Bell’s simpler retro folk side with goofy visual aids and bouncy accordions, the artist has established a variety combination of sonic palettes in his past releases. Some of them are rock-infused and messy, while some are warm and laid-back (like “Old Toyota”). The cartoon-like characteristic also seems to have a chemistry when connected to the artist’s cultural roots in “Riverbank.”
Whether this is your first time listening to Danny Bell’s music, he always has something else in store for you to explore. Like a book full of wisdom and surprise, his music is something that can be digested on various occasions and survive time’s decay.
Antonin De Bemels “Marée Haute”
Antonin De Bemels’ “Maree Haute” presents a combination of tangible and obscure sounds that are spotlighted through a film noire environment. The bouncing of a ball, a constant straight line noise, a close-up breathing is joined with hand drums, marrinba, among other percussive instruments and a soft glow of ambient. This unique sonic cocktail enables an intimate, cinematic experience that expands our perception on reality and surreality.
“Maree Haute” isn’t a surprise since Antonin De Bemels specializes in producing soundtracks for modern dance piece. The artistic influences from other art forms, such as visual and dance can be observed throughout “Maree Haute.” World percussion from non-western cultural backgrounds is being reimagined through the track’s ritual portrayal, while at the same time, the familiar, daily-life inspired elements bring the audiences closer to motions and environments that the track fictionally create.
It’s also interesting to point out how “Maree Haute” progresses through its eight minutes runtime. At first, ideas are splattered, presenting audience with a range of emotions, sound environments to allow a free form imagination. Some of those elements evolve and continue, while some slowly dim into the background. Then the ideas are formed and repetition seek out to a meditative trance-like state. However, this state doesn’t just stay still. It embraces change while establishing its stable, unshakable quality.
Spontaneity and improvisation first appear as signs, sparsely testing out the water. The track sees them progress with each instrument’s own characteristically aggressively become vulnerable and full. Eventually, it arrives at a high point where the ritual ambient seems to exist in multi-dimensional space.
“Maree Haute” from the very talented and seasoned artist Antonin De Bemels is undoubtedly an interesting track. It would be amazing to see future collaboration involves this particular track.