Following the release of a string of stunning songs last year, New Portals were championed in a number of high profile end of year lists and tips for 2017, including The Guardian who listed their single “Stay Here Tonight” in their ‘Top Tracks Of 2016’ critic’s choice selection. They’ve made a host of playlists at Spotify, receive regular in-store rotation at a number of leading UK high street brands and recently featured in the soundtrack for feature film She Has A Name. New Portals have developed into one of the most promising and highly acclaimed new acts to come from Ireland today. With the forthcoming release of their debut EP Stereo, the band are set to cement themselves as one of the Emerald Island’s most cherished exports.
“Stereo” is the title track and lead single from New Portals’ debut EP, due out on March 10th — check out the video below.
“Overflow” marks the first official release of Rondo Mo, the pseudonym of South-Londoner Robbie Redway. With his distinctive blend of dark, soulful electronica, this is unmistakably the sound of a promising new artist. The vocalist, producer and instrumentalist excels in creating a mood that can appeal to both dance lovers and a more indie audience, with even a nod to a darker R&B form. Reminiscent of acts such as Caribou, LCD Soundsystem and Bob Moses, this style of connecting electronic and acoustic sensibilities is having somewhat of a renaissance period and Rondo Mo reveals himself to be a very welcome addition to the fold. He manages to channel the sound, rather than imitate, and completely envelopes the listener in his world of shadowy synths and melodies.
The track begins with a deep bass pulse heard far in the distance, before Redway’s voice creates a light for the listener to use to navigate. The sultry vocals and growing instrumentals build on a track that begins in darkness, while maintaining a sense of danger with lyrics of going in “way above my head”. The spacious washes and lone piano keys add a level of anticipation before the listener is hit with the beat. “Overflow” offers an eclectic mixture of sounds throughout, juxtaposing a darker subject matter with a groovy bassline and snaps. There are also moments where Redway’s driven production is punctuated with more emotive breakdowns, the airy textures giving space for the vocals to take control, and the track ultimately ending with the appropriate emotional climax.
The story of Rondo Mo begins in Cornwall rather than his native London. After a wide range of collaborative work, from releasing an album with house don Midland to touring as a session member of alt-folk band To Kill A King, Redway found himself in a ‘stylistic bewilderment’ and took to the reclusive Bodmin Moor in Cornwall. Setting up in a remote barn, with no human contact and only the bleak moorland landscape for company for six weeks, he began working to reign in on a sound influenced by the limited vinyl collection he brought with him. Redway integrated the best elements of seventies’ soul and contemporary house music with a more cyncial vibe of eighties electronica, culminating in a sound delicately positioned between a confident dance sound and a moody underlay of indie music. “Overflow” is a striking introduction to Rondo Mo, and a piece of music that affirms the intrigue surrounding this artist.
“Simply the perfect tropi-pop party soundtrack” – VICE’s Noisey “There is nothing more alive or energetic than Crystal Fighters” – Dazed
Following the release of their third studio album Everything Is My Family which garnered acclaim from the likes of NPR and Noisey, London-based Crystal Fightersshare the virtual reality inspired, disco-flecked video for “Good Girls.”
Everything Is My Family embodies the band’s ecstatic lust for life and as singer Sebastian ‘Bast’ Pringle says, the album is “more dance-floor, more psychedelic, more tropical, more rave, more sunshine, more pretty much everything” than anything they have done before.
Since the release of acclaimed second album Cave Rave in 2013, Bast has spent time living in the Basque Country, The Canary Islands, and Central America – a field recording of tropical wise-men in conversation from Costa Rica opens the album – and says his time away from the overpowering buzz of modern civilization has given him a new perspective.
Meanwhile, bandmate Graham lived “up a mountain” in Maine before traveling down to Peru in a modern life-provoked quest for otherness. He says that the time they each individually spent exploring the world has helped them come to terms with some of the highs and tragic lows the band has already experienced. Stay tuned for U.S. tour news coming soon!
Everything Is My Family LP Out Now via Play It Again Sam
French electronic artist and producer Uppermost has been busy preparing for the release of his new album Origins (2011-2016) coming February 2017. In anticipation, he has already released two brand new tracks – “Thousand Colors” and “Constellation”. Today, he releases a never-before-seen live video of his cult single “Reminder” and announces his career-defining track “Beautiful Light” will be available as an immediate download with album pre-order.
In-line with the important conversation that’s taking place currently in the electronic music scene about live performance, the video gives viewers some insight into the various instruments and technologies that are part of making some of our favorite jams come to life.
Uppermost says of the video:
“The live video was shot in the Musée de l’Air et de l’Espace, located in Paris-Le Bourget airport – a beautiful and inspiring place for space lovers like myself. The guitar player is Mathias Di Gusto. I really love his instinctive creativity when it comes to efficient funky riffs. He’s also the player of famous french rapper Maitre Gims, playing on France’s biggest stages such as Paris Bercy. The bass player is Klem Aubert, a very talented slap bass monster and member of the awesome band Minuit.
The idea of a live performance grew in my mind after I started to feel constrained by the limitations I’d meet in my DJ sets. I wanted to be able to change the structure of my tracks on the fly, to create a beautiful interaction between every part in my mix.
So I’ve decided to build the live performance in a way that I can rearrange my tracks live but most importantly sample, loop and apply effects on what the guitar and bass players are doing at any moment. It took a lot of time to build the right workflow, and a lot of repetitions with the players in order to set up specific effects racks on each instruments according to which section of the track I trigger on the midi controller. For example, the guitar player instantly knows that whenever I trigger an atmospheric section of the track, his guitar will be going through a huge reverb and delay. The creative possibilities are really endless and that’s what makes the performance so exciting!”
The sick track is played using various instruments and controllers, including electronic music tools such as a Behringer BCR-2000 and iRig Keys 37Pro, as well as some more traditional instruments including a Fender Precision bass and a Gibson SG guitar.
“Reminder” will be featured on the new LP along with “Beautiful Light”, available as an instant download with pre-order today, and “Mistakes”. Combined, these songs have over 30 million streams. Also featured will be Uppermost’s recently released singles “Thousand Colors” and “Constellation”.
Since their inception ten years ago, Mad Decent has quickly established itself as a global hotspot for budding talent and the Diplo-led imprint has become home to several of the electronic industry’s brightest talents. Their newest release titled “Easy Go,” comes from the dynamic pairing of certified remix king Grandtheftand singer/songwriter Delaney Jane.
“Grandtheft and I have been working on this track for about a year now and I’m super excited to finally put it out, especially with a fellow artist from Toronto. This song is about living in the fast lane, kinda just going through the motions of every day life while not really feeling alive… That is, until meeting someone who changes it all. I’m in love with this track and I hope it speaks to people like it does to us!” – Delaney Jane
From the start, “Easy Go” has the makings of a chart-topper: Irresistable vocals, whimsical lyrics, and an addictive melody that one may expect from a Grandtheft production. The chemistry between these two Toronto-based artists is on full display throughout the single, with Delaney Jane providing the perfect touch of vocal gloss to match with Grandtheft’s creative output.
“The song has notes of The New Pornographers, and the harmonies during the hook are heavenly. A pretty voice over a grimy guitar? Yeah. That’s good.” – USA Today“
…soothing on a surface level, like latter-day Yo La Tengo…the subject matter is much deeper and darker” – Stereogum
A few years ago, Johnny Solomon was a fixture in the tight knit Twin Cities music scene, forming the angular indie pop band Friends Like These and touring extensively, receiving critical praise from far-flung sources that looked like the beginning of a promising career. The rising success masked his struggle with addiction and mental health problems and quickly eclipsed his career, landing him in jail and treatment facilities across the country. By the end of that whirlwind, he retreated to a small town across the border in Wisconsin where he assumed his music days were over.
However, when he moved out of the city, his demons followed him and he spent his nights writing and recording what he thought would be his eulogy: songs about lost love and lost chances, He recruited some friends to come out and put it all to tape. Calling his new band Communist Daughter, they released their debut album Soundtrack to the End in 2010. As they gained national attention, Johnny once again had to put it all on hold and checked himself in to rehab.
In 2012, Communist Daughter returned with a clear-eyed John, his now-wife Molly Solomon, bassist Adam Switlick, Steven Yasgar on drums, Al Weirs on guitar and Dillon Marchus on keys. They released an EP, Lions & Lambs, and began touring the country again and gaining national attention.
By 2014, they had entered the studio to spend the next two years crafting their sophomore release. Working with producer Kevin Bowe (Replacements, Meat Puppets), they recorded in and out of studios trying to capture the deeply personal songs in a much more deliberate style. Going from studio to bedroom to studio again, they created an album with 11 songs running the gambit from high peaks to dark lows. They took the finished tracks to Nashville where Andrija Tokic (Alabama Shakes, Benjamin Booker) put the final mix together, and had Heba Kadry (Future Islands, And You Will Know Us…) master the final product in NYC.
And now, here we are — celebrating the release of their highly anticipated sophomore album The Cracks That Built the Wall. Check out the video below for their track, “Hold Back”.
Tour Dates:
11/7 Lexington KY – The Burl
11/8 Madison – The Frequency
11/9 Iowa City – Yacht Club
11/10 UW Platteville – Platteville, WI
11/11 Minneapolis – First Avenue
On 11/11, Bergen, Norway-based band The Megaphonic Thrift will release their album Få meg til verden i tide via Old Flame Records. The band has premiered their track “Pilene,” which you can check out now:
Last monthSPIN Magazine premiered the album’s first track “Hendene,” calling it “pulverizing noise rock.” Earlier this year, the band won a Spellemann Award (equivelant of a Norwegian GRAMMY Award) for best indie album. Få meg til verden i tide is The Megaphonic Thrift’s fourth album, and it’s the band’s first to feature lyrics in Norwegian. Much less guitar orientated than previous albums, Få meg til verden i tide is filled with synthesizers, and it’s their first with new collaborators Njål Paulsberg (neo Tokyo/Young Dreams) and Emil Nikolaisen (Serena-Maneesh).
“The four members in Megaphonic have become more unison for each record we’ve made together,” says guitarist and vocalist Richard Myklebust. “After the third record, making new music felt like giving each other a hug. We wanted to bring in someone who had a more radical approach to making music. We needed disagreement, and boy did we get it.”
A lot has happened since the summer of 2015 when The Megaphonic Thrift filled a car with synths and boxed wine, isolating themselves in a cabin far up in the Norwegian desolate mountains to write what would become Få meg til verden i tide.
“We thought we were just heading into the studio to make the final adjustments and thought it was going to be easy. All the songs were ready. It didn’t turn out easy at all,” says bassist and vocalist Linn Frøkedal.
The band describes the studio process as a long road trip, where a new driver can take the wheel at any moment. “Nikolaisen is based in Oslo (on the other side of the mountains), and guitarist Clementsen was on a Japanese tour with his other band Electric Eye, so sketches and new ideas were thrown back and forth on seemingly endless mail threads,” says guitarist Njål Clementsen. “This record is proof that it is possible to make a really cool record in a really hard way. It doesn’t have to be easy!”
Following the success of her “Where Are U Now” by JACK U and “Taken Back” by Twofold remixes, Leah Culver is back with a new, original release – “Slow Motion” – just in time for the autumn season.
“This song is about the hopeless romantic inside all of us – in slow motion. I wanted to write about what it feels like to be in a relationship that takes us and traps us in time. We all know what it’s like to be with someone we know we have to let go. This song is about those stories, and how it affects us as people.” – Leah Culver on her inspiration behind “Slow Motion”
Since 2011, Leah Culver has been a dynamic presence for the dance floor, impressing her fans and peers time and time again with her multi-talents. Singer, songwriter, DJ and producer – Leah is an artist who personally cultivates her music from scratch and gives it a voice. Having performed on the stages of TomorrowWorld, Counterpoint Music Festival and Imagine Music Festival, she has garnered the support from industry heavy-hitters including Adventure Club, The Chainsmokers, Steve Aoki, Benny Benassi, Porter Robinson, Seven Lions and more.
An Atlanta native, Leah Culver carved out a local following under her original moniker, MK Ultra, and has been turning heads ever since. Whether she is playing with a live band or operating from coast to coast, Leah’s main mission is to share her musical message with the world.
Byron Nash, a Pittsburgh based musician, has been doing this music thing for a long time. While playing lead guitar of the band Formula412, he worked on writing and recording some ideas and keeping them on the “back-burner” you could say. This “back-burner” was called ‘Plan B’.
After collecting over 10 years of songs and ideas, Nash took some music production courses and eventually started his own music company, BNDEEPendent Music. He and his friend Evan Thorsen had been jamming and hanging out together for years; when they finally decided to play some of their songs live in 2014. After great reception, they were asked the following year to play at Kayafest, a restaurant that was having it’s 20th Year Anniversary block party. They put together a makeshift band of talented musicians and again were met with great praise…enough that they finally decided to go forth full throttle as a band.
All they had to do was come up with their name. It was suggested that their name simply be ‘Nash’, but Byron felt weird about it being just his name. So — ta-da!!! Byron Nash & Plan B it is!
And they’ve got a little bit of something for everyone, too! The band is “a well-balanced fusion of rocking dual-guitars, funk-and-soul, straight-forward and emotional vocals, simple songwriting, and a little bit of jam-band and fusion mixed in there.”
The band is having a very special release party for their very first EP, The Late Bloomer, this Friday at The Funhouse at Mr. Smalls.
Musically Amusing 