Astro Nautico describe themselvs as Brooklyn's "serious record label". Their annual compilation Atlantics, dropped on 4/20 for the third time (4/20 or 4th of April refers to the consumption of cannabis day - a cannabis day). 32 tracks of very diverse music, captivating pretty much throughout, ranging from lounge house music like C.Z.'s "Mary J", Sesped's funky "Say You Are Gonna" or Dunes' bobbling "U Know How". An obligatory download.
I've been hunting down this edit since Krystal Klear dropped it in his Boiler Room set and Joy O finally made up his mind and just put it totally out of the blue on soundcloud. The super smooth edit flips the '99 classic r'n'b Donell Jones jam U Know What's Up. It's a freebie - in case you didn't, now you also know what's up.
Free download materials provided by the top quality Ghostly Int. are always worth a check. Premiered few days ago by FACT magazine Rubies EP by upstate New York producer, Lord Raja, is six strong new tracks, all of which live up to the heavy potential along with the fact that he signed to Ghostly. Stream and download here.
He Won't Pay Me - a track that you may recognize from Shigeto's stellar mix for BTS Radio
After being played by Gilles Peterson and featuring on XLR8R, we're also proud to present some quality polish electronic music in Klaves, the 21-old producer from Poznan w/ his more than solid debut EP released on Koh-I-Noor Records. Heartbeat works as the gentle opening to be followed by 3 great UK future garage/deep house bombs in the form of Closer, You and the best of all Hope It Gets To Love. Signature soulful vocal chops, lush pads and sparkling synths are all over the release, eagerly waiting for a 12'' and some new stuff - the talent's definately there.
We've slept on vol.2, so here is KEATS//COLLECTIVE vol.3 (if you recall, we blogged the first one somewhere in July last year). Colorado based label has put together a massive collection of new future funk and chill-wave beats some of them being perfect soundtracks for summer road trips with your beloved one. You can download Keats/Collective vol.3 for ... 50 cents!
Must say I'm really suprised that TOKiMONSTA's sophomore (after 3 year of wait) Half Shadows doesn't get favorable reviews but just doesn't get any recognition. Maybe it's the label change? Who's knows, but we still stand that it's a quality release where Jenny elevates her sound and pulls into new directions (one's I was really hoping for). Apart from the first 3 instrumentals the rest are great, thought out songs. The MNDR collab pulls into electronic pop while Kool Keith gives a classic TOKi hip-hop punch. Tracks w/ Gavin Turek and Andreya Triana remind a bit of Creature Dreams (same w/ the instrumental interludes inbetween) and Jesse.. well that's the best one of all- deep, glitchy and soulful at the same time.
"RBM followers have long known Spinnerty for his production work behind vocalist like Joy Jones, Miles Bonny, John Robinson and Replife. This time we find Spinnerty collaborating with Chicago-based drummer Farsheed Toosi to create lush jazzy instrumentals that stand alone as full compositions. They mark a giant step forward in Spinnerty's maturity as a producer and jazzer, letting the instrumentation do the talking.
While Spinnerty's original versions work well for home-listening, radio, and loungey dj sets - Uptempo remixes by J Boogie, lil' dave, and Mecca:83 provide some excellent choices for the dancefloor. As a special treat for the vinyl-faithful, we have included "Drumapella" versions available only on the wax itself - original drum breaks courtesy of Spinnerty and Tossi. "
We've must slept on this release from James Welsh hailing from Leeds. Air Valley EP was released in April 2012 and is (still) available on purple 12" as well as digital. Go and cop that thing.
Teoretically and pratically, we have watched this cat from Belgium since he for the first time emerged on the scene, and this was around one year ago. His phenomenal future funk tracks "Dans" and "Good Night Girl" left no doubt, that Pomrad was a producer to watch for.
This Belgian funkster is about to release a new EP on Earnest Endeavours that apparently want to carry on with releasing future funk records, after stunning EP from B.Bravo(Kiss N' Tell). The single from the forthcoming EP, entitled "Pomslap" was released around two weeks ago. This track is literally a slap in the face, totally free of charge, revealing of what's to come on April 15th when the EP drops. Keep your eyes open!
After last years massive and super limited Chips/Sweets edits on Funkineven's own Apron Records label, Mr. Even returns with the next installment packed in the big old school candy bag. The lead track Dreams is a lucid house slow-burner sampling Starchild. Ceefax on the flip incorporates some heavy bass and jazzy synth soundcapes whilst Coke is the most fun, synth driven house interlude we've heard in a while.
The 12'' is sold out almost everywhere, I still managed to snatch a copy at SOTU, but if you're not that lucky I've got some info from Funkineven that he'll have some copies at Apron's Bandcamp - it's only 250 copies, so watch out!
If you're not looking for that turn up tonight and instead want some soothing sounds to unwind to, French producer Dandy Teru and Quiet Dawn have exactly what you need. Brief, but effective, watch the OKP (Okayplayer) premiere of their new video "Waters"- check the visualizer. Video directed by GM. "Waters" will appear on Dandy's upcoming debut LP, Adventures, which will be out on April 23rd via Ubiquity Records. The LP is an eclectic mix of downtempo, Nu Jazz, beat music, soul, house, and hip-hop with contributions from Moka Only, Count Bass D, Tall Black Guy, and more.
Promise Ya was one of my favorite tracks of 2012 and We've been keeping an eye on Atu ever since. Snapped up by Soulection, the EP Pictures of Silence is out today and is classy as expected. The the 90's vocals are ridiculusly smooth, the bass is deep w/ the the gentle keys floating somewhere near slick drum patterns (not your usual over-used dull 808's). We can safely say: 'that's how you roll in 2013'. Would love to see this get properly mastered and released on vinyl (w/ that cover)!
1500 limited downloads, grab one if you still can:
New music from the man, Shafiq Husayn is always a cause to celebrate. A few days ago we got a new song from himself and his growing community of likeminded artists in Los Angeles, called The Dove Society. They all came together to form "Twelve" that landed on a new compilation for Giant Step, called Sonic Boom Vol.3 made by a lady Maiya Norton. Sonic Boom Vol.3 includes some of their favorite jams from the last couple months, and it spans a nice dose of music from artists who are not necessarily on folks' radars. Among the names that don't ring a bell, we can hear mentioned Shafiq Husayn, and MED's much loved "Burgundy Whip" with Blu and Jimetta Rose. All of this is definitely worth a free download.
Yesterday we wrote about Danish/Canadian duo, Rhye. Our focus remains on fresh new music comming out of Denmark. Some time I was invited to like Okapii fb fanpage, a name which didn't ring a bell. Simply put, a name, that I've never heard of before. Since they haven't posted any music, and maybe I was too lazy to look up their profile on souncloud, I simply forgot about them. Until about one week ago, where they put some visual and sonic dopeness on their facebook page. Mads Oustrup & Alex Rita hailing straight from Copenhagen served a beautiful piece of electronic pop, that deeply resembles Quadron vibes (yes, we are mentioning Quadron again). Video of Don't Mind The Rain was shot on gorgeous Barbados. This is a free download! We're eagerly waiting for MORE!
We've been watching the mysterious duo Rhye since the very beginning. The whole started when we first heard the seductively smooth single "Open", with breathy Sade-like vocals. It later turned out that the woman behind the vocal is not even a "she". The vocalist, in fact, is Mike Milosh who previously released three albums on well known Plug Research label based in LA.
More on the duo. It is a collaboration between Toronto native Milosh and Copenhagen descendant Robin Hannibal of Danish electro-soul duo Quadron (it's simply a must check if you don't know Quadron). Both of them live now in sunny L.A. in California and hooked up some time ago, when Milosh was asked to remix a Quadron song. One song turned into an EP, which in the end lead to Rhye's LP debut simply called "Woman", out on 4th of March on Innovative Leisure.
No doubt, this is one of our top releases since the very beginning of 2013.
Below, you can read Lauren Down speaking to Robin Hannibal, responsible for the sensual sonics of Rhye.
“It was really funny and for just a moment we thought, let’s see how far we can take this,” Rhye’s Robin Hannibal confesses over a crackling phone line when I ask him how he reacted to people mistaking the vocals on their new record ‘Woman’ for a woman’s.“We’re not that gimmicky though” he continues, “it was more a beautiful coincidence that emerged from the fact we wanted to keep things anonymous. I actually miss the time when you wouldn’t get the whole story surrounding a project. The internet has ruined things a little. Everyone is so over exposed. We weren’t really interested in selling our music based on our identities, we were very much interested in showing the music for what it was. We knew you could find out who we were in two minutes if you wanted to, but by not over exposing ourselves we were able to create imagery and a fantasy through the music, which can be music’s strongest ingredient.” The vocalist in question is actually of course the other half of Rhye, LA based producer Mike Milosh. “I think the way he approaches lyrics, the way they are stressed, the intent and the sentiment behind them is something you hear more from female singers. Not necessarily his actual vocals, but then I’ve always known it was him.” We of course have not had the same luxury, and listening to the soulful, pleading “oooh make love to me” vocals of ‘Open’ or ‘The Fall’ (the first track the two ever wrote together) you could totally be forgiven for thinking it was a woman singing. The smoky, sensual, husky manner in which they wrap themselves around the minimalist percussion and wonderfully simple piano refrains reinforcing that fallacy with every listen. “We wanted to highlight what the music was about through the songs, the videos and artwork. It’s titled ‘Woman’, it’s about women, the album art is abstracts of the female body and people thought it was a woman so I guess we succeeded on some level!” Delving a little deeper into the record’s core Robin explains “it is very much an homage or an ode to women in general but it is taken from personal experiences because we wanted to make something honest. Mike’s wife was definitely the lyrical muse, but through collaboration the sonics are imbued emotions that will resonate with everyone. I mean it’s love. It’s basically love. Without sounding too corny, hopefully!” A man with clear hankering for the past Robin talks about the artistic vision behind Rhye. “We may not be buying records the way we were maybe 20 years ago but I think that people still crave a full idea, one complete thought. That is what an album should be: A full conceptional idea that you put on to reveal more than any one track could. It’s just like any novel, and I think a lot of people forget or miss that. I would definitely say soundtracks and original movie scores were a big inspiration for the way I approach music. It’s the marriage of image and sentiment through a particular melodic theme, the fullness of the music and the emotional intensity they create through classical instruments and space.” “We talked a lot about making the record something that was relatable right now but that also had a classic and timeless feel. The way we went about that was to make sure there were elements of today’s landscape in that kind of minimalist electronic sound combined with classic instruments, orchestration and arrangements. I feel that that art of arrangement is a little bit lost in todays music because things have to happen so quickly and a lot people don’t spent that much time on a song. We spent over a year and a half on 10 songs. We only made those 10 songs so it was very important for us that they had enough ingredients for you to want to keep sitting through them.” I reassure him that there definitely are. Source: Planet Notion
Remix of Open by JT Donaldson (worth checking out as well)
A collaboration between Montreal-based producer Jacques Greene and Londoner Joe Coghill, who was involved with Glasgow's LuckyMe events, Vase is a cross-media platform for the creative arts whose only requirement is expression and innovation.
Music for the clip is taken from 'Minnow', a track by Samoyed, that featured on the previous Vase release (VSE07).
After 2 great EP's on MadTech and All City, Kleezy will releasing a pure 80's boogie burner on rinse.fm's label. Jenna G sings over the killer beat providing the perfect combination. If you need to fill the dancefloor it's a no brainer what you should spin.
We've been witnesses of several good releases from the Astronautico family. It is not different this time for once more we are witnessing a fresh LP drop, this time from Dane Chadwick. If you listened to Atlantics Vol.2 compilation, this was probably the first time you heard about him. His first full release on the label made me put this LP on a "repeat" mode. The remix of vowelS by Dap Hound that closes the release is like a cherry on a cake. Worth to have a listen, the LP is for free.
