Sundays Expansive Alternative Take
DVN - About them - Nileskog & Anton Stjärnqvist are DVN. At just 22 & 23 years-old, DVN have been have been hard at work in their studio for three years now, and with a big with a side-dish of DJing which in the past have had them open for a few big domestic names in the form of, Sebjak, Mikael Wermeets and Alex Moreno. They now have honed their skills to a point where they are ready to release their soulful deep-house influenced first single Oblivion feat. Duncan. DVN hail from Landskrona, in the southernmost part of Sweden. A place that has shaped them musically and where they work daily in their production-lab.
Passionately sung vocals over a refreshing soundtrack take it in turns to dominate this piece, all to good effect.
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Afternoons in Stereo - Tells us - It's been ten years since my first Afternoons in Stereo release and I'm celebrating by sharing my new album 'Retrospective'. 'Retrospective' compiles 10 years of the funkier, club-driven side of the my work, featuring two new tracks. This new collection is the perfect bookend to last year's 'A Jazz Odyssey', which assembled the more jazz-oriented side of my output.
This is an outstanding selection of music, the jazz influences are there along with so much more. A couple of videos (Here) and (here) and the impressive 'Galaxina' below, if you like any of these the album is definitely worth your time.
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Royal Disco - Background - After taking almost a year long break, Tel Aviv trio Royal Disco is back and better than ever with their new EP titled Dark Energy. Beginning with their EP titled "Dark Energy", you're welcomed into a spatial, atmospheric void filled with melodic keys as you're bombarded with sawing laser-esque synths and deep sub bass and thrown down the worm hole that is Dark Energy. As you begin to come up from said ride, you're greeted with soft horns and canorous keys as "Sensei" begins.
Just as quick, you're smacked in the face with an aggressive hook as you nose dive into a bass laden drop filled with unsympathetic synths leaving you hyped and wanting more. Luckily, there's one last hill to climb as the final track "Welcome to the Universe" beings with an epic drum intro leading into electro keys, reminiscent of an old John Hughes flick. The harmonious vocals uplift the track, then gets torn back as you fall into merciless drop after drop.
As you can tell by their words above the enthusiasm is most definitely there and rightly so with this power house of sounds, prepare to be bombarded and treated to energy driven layers, you will not stay still!
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Ooah & M!NT - Going back one week - Over last weekend, The Glitch Mob’s Ooah and Brooklyn-based producer M!nt released an unexpected collaboration called 'If The Smoke Clears'. This atmospheric single combines house and hip hop influences, and Ooah says of its creation “We didn't over think it or over cook it, randomly we started messing around in the studio and next thing we knew we had put together this song. This moody yet dancey break beat type of song we thought would be a good addition to your late night summer feels.”
With its hypnotic house atmosphere and grooving hip hop break beats, “If The Smoke Clears” is a great example of the higher creativity that results from artists working together spontaneously.
Trying hard to avoid the 'well if this is what you can do spontaneously' route is difficult, as it does beg the question of what else this pair might achieve. Anyway all power to spontaneity and long may it continue as this piece proves the case.
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Moonlapse - The story so far - Moonlapse is the electronic, progressive rock project by 21-year-old composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Strick, who is releasing his intoxicating and transcendent nine-song debut release in May 2015.
Strick came by his love of progressive rock at age 14 via classic bands such as Genesis and King Crimson. Soon he moved on to more contemporary prog metal like Dream Theater, Opeth and Porcupine Tree. “I studied them and learned to play their music,” Strick says. “In doing so, I was introduced to a lot of strange and beautiful chord progressions, which I didn’t hear in other music. Gradually, I began to compose my own songs using a lot of those chords and scales.” Strick, who studies computer science at North western University, recorded all of his guitar tracks on a computer using MIDI and a plug in called Omnisphere.
“Omniphere is really useful because it has tons of electronic instruments that are designed to sound like the real thing, and you can manipulate the tones and frequencies in some really cool ways.” Strick says. “I could never get guitar tracks to sound the way I wanted using a real instrument, but by orchestrating them digitally, they sounded new and original. For drums, I used Battery 4. Everything, including mixing, was done on my computer.”
This was a pleasing listen and one that I hope gets a larger audience. Ben Strick has a talent both in constructing music, but more importantly in composing highly listenable pieces, play and enjoy. Website Here.
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Loksop - Background - Loskop’s new single entitled “These Sparks (Featuring Maiya Sykes)” showcases their acutely refined deep house, techno and pop sensibilities, sharpened by spending years DJ’ing in the unique and gritty underground club scene of post-Apartheid Johannesburg. The result is a deeply satisfying, genre-bending track that is made that much more striking with the addition of the massive vocals of Maiya Sykes, who was a 2014 finalist on “The Voice.” The song was released last month on their home turf, and it’s already in Top 40 rotation on 5FM, South Africa’s biggest national radio station.
You can watch the video (here), however it was Loksop's remixes on Soundcloud that gained my interest the most and the one below is just one example and if you like that, or the latest release go have a listen to the other remixes, you are in for a nice surprise.
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BECOME X XYLO - Keeping it very short (and sweet) we are told - Please enjoy our sophomore release -- BECOME x XYLO 'Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea' -- currently making people dance everywhere!
So we will keep it short and sweet, listen up! it's a good one!
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Danny Darko ft Lulu Falemara - The words - Silent Cries is a new chilly trap revamp of Danny Darko's song "Silent Cries". Silent Cries is a meaningful song against animal cruelty conceived by Danny and performed by british singer Lulu' Falemara.
I featured Danny Darko back on May 8th, his work continues to astound. This only came my way today and is to good to miss out. Website here.
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Passionately sung vocals over a refreshing soundtrack take it in turns to dominate this piece, all to good effect.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Afternoons in Stereo - Tells us - It's been ten years since my first Afternoons in Stereo release and I'm celebrating by sharing my new album 'Retrospective'. 'Retrospective' compiles 10 years of the funkier, club-driven side of the my work, featuring two new tracks. This new collection is the perfect bookend to last year's 'A Jazz Odyssey', which assembled the more jazz-oriented side of my output.
This is an outstanding selection of music, the jazz influences are there along with so much more. A couple of videos (Here) and (here) and the impressive 'Galaxina' below, if you like any of these the album is definitely worth your time.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Royal Disco - Background - After taking almost a year long break, Tel Aviv trio Royal Disco is back and better than ever with their new EP titled Dark Energy. Beginning with their EP titled "Dark Energy", you're welcomed into a spatial, atmospheric void filled with melodic keys as you're bombarded with sawing laser-esque synths and deep sub bass and thrown down the worm hole that is Dark Energy. As you begin to come up from said ride, you're greeted with soft horns and canorous keys as "Sensei" begins.
Just as quick, you're smacked in the face with an aggressive hook as you nose dive into a bass laden drop filled with unsympathetic synths leaving you hyped and wanting more. Luckily, there's one last hill to climb as the final track "Welcome to the Universe" beings with an epic drum intro leading into electro keys, reminiscent of an old John Hughes flick. The harmonious vocals uplift the track, then gets torn back as you fall into merciless drop after drop.
As you can tell by their words above the enthusiasm is most definitely there and rightly so with this power house of sounds, prepare to be bombarded and treated to energy driven layers, you will not stay still!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ooah & M!NT - Going back one week - Over last weekend, The Glitch Mob’s Ooah and Brooklyn-based producer M!nt released an unexpected collaboration called 'If The Smoke Clears'. This atmospheric single combines house and hip hop influences, and Ooah says of its creation “We didn't over think it or over cook it, randomly we started messing around in the studio and next thing we knew we had put together this song. This moody yet dancey break beat type of song we thought would be a good addition to your late night summer feels.”
With its hypnotic house atmosphere and grooving hip hop break beats, “If The Smoke Clears” is a great example of the higher creativity that results from artists working together spontaneously.
Trying hard to avoid the 'well if this is what you can do spontaneously' route is difficult, as it does beg the question of what else this pair might achieve. Anyway all power to spontaneity and long may it continue as this piece proves the case.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Moonlapse - The story so far - Moonlapse is the electronic, progressive rock project by 21-year-old composer/producer/multi-instrumentalist Ben Strick, who is releasing his intoxicating and transcendent nine-song debut release in May 2015.
Strick came by his love of progressive rock at age 14 via classic bands such as Genesis and King Crimson. Soon he moved on to more contemporary prog metal like Dream Theater, Opeth and Porcupine Tree. “I studied them and learned to play their music,” Strick says. “In doing so, I was introduced to a lot of strange and beautiful chord progressions, which I didn’t hear in other music. Gradually, I began to compose my own songs using a lot of those chords and scales.” Strick, who studies computer science at North western University, recorded all of his guitar tracks on a computer using MIDI and a plug in called Omnisphere.
“Omniphere is really useful because it has tons of electronic instruments that are designed to sound like the real thing, and you can manipulate the tones and frequencies in some really cool ways.” Strick says. “I could never get guitar tracks to sound the way I wanted using a real instrument, but by orchestrating them digitally, they sounded new and original. For drums, I used Battery 4. Everything, including mixing, was done on my computer.”
This was a pleasing listen and one that I hope gets a larger audience. Ben Strick has a talent both in constructing music, but more importantly in composing highly listenable pieces, play and enjoy. Website Here.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Loksop - Background - Loskop’s new single entitled “These Sparks (Featuring Maiya Sykes)” showcases their acutely refined deep house, techno and pop sensibilities, sharpened by spending years DJ’ing in the unique and gritty underground club scene of post-Apartheid Johannesburg. The result is a deeply satisfying, genre-bending track that is made that much more striking with the addition of the massive vocals of Maiya Sykes, who was a 2014 finalist on “The Voice.” The song was released last month on their home turf, and it’s already in Top 40 rotation on 5FM, South Africa’s biggest national radio station.
You can watch the video (here), however it was Loksop's remixes on Soundcloud that gained my interest the most and the one below is just one example and if you like that, or the latest release go have a listen to the other remixes, you are in for a nice surprise.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
BECOME X XYLO - Keeping it very short (and sweet) we are told - Please enjoy our sophomore release -- BECOME x XYLO 'Between The Devil And The Deep Blue Sea' -- currently making people dance everywhere!
So we will keep it short and sweet, listen up! it's a good one!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Danny Darko ft Lulu Falemara - The words - Silent Cries is a new chilly trap revamp of Danny Darko's song "Silent Cries". Silent Cries is a meaningful song against animal cruelty conceived by Danny and performed by british singer Lulu' Falemara.
I featured Danny Darko back on May 8th, his work continues to astound. This only came my way today and is to good to miss out. Website here.
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