🐣 PATH — WIDESCREEN TREMOLO

⌾ LISTEN TO PATH, WIDESCREEN TREMOLO ⌾

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Hazy and sunwarped, the grinding tremolo at work in aptly named 'Widescreen Tremolo' by UK musicmaker Path provides the jagged cradle which rocks the track into unseen oblivion. A gloopy bass groove hides in the background; so too does a shuffling scuttle of a haphazard beat.

Speaking to yes/no via email, Path talks about the track. "I wanted to try to get that early 90s indie vibe but only using synth drums and synth guitar," he says. "I’m pretty happy with how it turned out."

At the halfway mark, the track diverges into a stream of distortion, guitar stabs glittering and the whole thing a ghostly sort of Stone Roses revist meets HEALTH primitivism and self-destruction, plasma-like vocals crooning out from the drone and dust storm of it all.

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• 🔔 'Widescreen Tremolo' is taken from Path's 2019 album Pianoburger, which you can stream and/or download on Bandcamp if you feel like it.

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⚘ https://path2.bandcamp.com/ ⚘

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🐣 EAUXMAR & CAIUS — HURT U

⌾ LISTEN TO HURT U BY EAUXMAR & CAIUS ⌾

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It's the far-off vocal sample in 'Hurt U' that gives it a sense of instant feeling; stretched, pitch-shifted and flung into the distance, this scratchy, soulful voice gives the track its name. Partway between hearing somebody sing in the shower and listening to bootleg MP3 of your fav new pop song, the sample is all love and reminiscence—sometimes close to your ear, sometimes a ghostly recolletion.

Teaming up for this number, Caius and EAUXMAR lay warm classic chords on a bed of thick, clarified bass, seasoning it with sparkling ornamentations and gooey plasma synth. Layering the dusty grandeur of old-school funk and futurist glitter, it shifts between classic house piano desire lines and the robust fizz of mechanical bass with sweeps of chiptune sensibility. The aural equivalent to a mouthful of tangy, wholesome food, the production on 'Hurt U' is deliciously stodgy and packed full of textures.

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• 🔔 'Hurt U' by EAUXMAR and Caius is out now on STMPD RCRDS.

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☟ EAUXMAR Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 RUBY FRANCIS — RUSH (INITIAL TALK REMIX)

⊚ LISTEN TO RUBY FRANCIS, RUSH (INITIAL TALK REMIX) ⊚

This remix- with the soft bounce of its toy sized plasma chords, the virtuoso bass groove, the instant glitter of its glassy synths - oozes the blocky pastels of its late 20th century inspiration; it's a buffet of 1990s flavours served up by the Japan-based caretaker of nostalgia Initial Talk (whose credits also include a Dua Lipa 'New Rules' remix).

The original 'Rush' is minimal: all space and angular, squelchy synth. It feels contemporary for its sparseness and sub-bass, but equally retro-futuristic (sounding a little like Prince's 'Kiss' actually). So it makes sense that Initial Talk has transplanted the voice of Ruby Francis into decidedly retro surroundings. In fact, it feels as though this is the way it should have always been.

Like a safari through the aural landscape of twenty-something years ago, this remix of 'Rush' chimes, bounces and glistens with its purposefully timeworn elements. Ruby Francis' voice lilts soulfully in the verse, its echo weaving through the skipping rhythm—elsewhere it provides a sprinkle of jangling '90s ad-libs: "baby, why the rush?"

But the chorus is the centrepoint for this track's magic. The two distinct parts to the addictive vocal (the simple clarity of the first 4 bars and its playful vocal melody, and the rich, winding harmonies of the second 4), the step-up into it, the faroff sparkle of it, the warm, vibrant bass, the swaying beat. It's a cocktail of everything it should be: delicious escapism.

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• 🔔 Stream and/or download Initial Talk's remix of 'Rush' by Ruby Francis via your fav service

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☟ Ruby Francis Internet Presence ☟
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☟ Initial Talk Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 POLTRAGHOST — EXPOSURE

To a shuffling march of French touch style rounded meaty drum sounds, we enter into this disembodied club, a cube of strangeness spinning through space like an errant asteroid, an Enterprise of the stars that instead of going where no-one has ever gone before is instead spinning and spinning with this fever dream of dance firmly lodged in its prefrontal cortex. The familiarity of the track, that you know you can dance to it, lies in those sharp thumping kicks, the pugilistic bump of the snare, the thud and tang of it propelling tracts of pinprick starlight glitter and wobbling nebulous string samples across the mysterious expanse, the gloopy groovesome bass and its ascending notes casting a cloak of pioneering exploration over it all.

'Exposure' by sometime remotely conjoined duo Poltraghost lives in this interdimensional zone, a sort of blissful nowhere of its own creation. The alien nature of the track does not come from these regular elements – these tried-and-true tropes of 4/4 kick-snare electronic music: a regular foundation – but mostly from the pitch-shifted vocal that with a silken rumbling tone delineates something unintelligible, resonating richly into the stripped-back rhythmic body-pop space of the track. Theremin sounds call out into the universe searching for the right frequency on which to communicate; synth lead plays out airy and plasma, breezy blasts that colour the solidity of this track with modulating digitised lonely washes, the futurism of it feeling fleeting and ephemeral as it drifts fatefully through starfields and constellations.

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• 🔔 'Exposure' is taken from Poltraghost's debut album, Nineties Business Woman. This can be acquired digitally via the duo's Bandcamp.

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☟ Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 EXMAG — TEN THOUSAND CHAINS

Melting into the past and evaporating into the future. 'Ten Thousand Chains' is a track that teeters on a precipice between two worlds. Expansive futuristic synth chords sweep throughout, neon-flavoured and plasma-textured, ladling contemporary retrofuturistic visions into the track as the soulful modulations play out. On the other hand, these early '90s R&B herbs and spices in the sumptuous swing of the beat, the indefatigable groove of it all, the clifftop guitar solos saddling the slow-jam sway with sustained sultry wailing, a seasoned croon of virtuosity.

Created by musicmaking entity Exmag, the track begins with mellow horizontally inclined hip-hop shuffle, sheafing metallic hi-hats deliciously clacking snares thudthumping kicks. Lounge-leaning guitar chords lilting liquidly and the chill wobbly tones of an organ dim the lights and set the mood; uzi hi-hats and that screaming guitar power-up later on; staccato bass lays down immense groove. The track ends with shivering shaker shuffle, synth chords in syncopation, a jostling procession of energy. 'Ten Thousand Chains' is smooth and sleek with epic accoutrements, its twoness is effortlessly maintained, a combo track that anticipates the brimming potential of nightfall, prophecies and memories weaving together amidst a purple post-sunset dusk.

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• 🔔 'Ten Thousand Chains' is out now courtesy of Majestic Casual Records.

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☟ Exmag Internet Presence ☟
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LILY – BEACH GIRL

We're discovering Lily as Lily, rather than Lily as she was formerly/is still known (Ultrademon). It seems a good a time as any; recently she released her debut under this new moniker (her real name), Psychic Jealousy, and it's the first explosive opener from that album that's the focus here: 'Beach Girl'—an exciting swirl of ineffable fun. "Beach girl"... What does it connote? A girl at the beach. But Lily says much more than just this, painting a deeper picture of summer, holidaying, freedom, memories, broad and minute sonic brushstrokes forming an unending, relatable image. Partly, it's the polished late-90s-early-00s-party-music vibe that give it a quality of being somewhat unlocatable in time, lending a fantasy feel to it: or maybe that's just the internet talking.

Slap of snare shakes the track into life, different patterns of syncopated digital synth chords and plink-plonking boops make themselves known, some of these at one point or another becoming part of its frenzied refrain, uptempo beat pulsing pulsing with life beneath it all. These sumptuous and deeply toned sounds, clean and rounded, forming the main crux of the track, are decorated with thin synth arpeggiating down in misty rain, orchestra hits rapid-firing, all of it whirling together, melodies crossing over and changing dynamically throughout, the beat – with its punchy snare and precision hi-hats – dictating changes and keeping foot-tapping, head-nodding, heart-beating time.

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• As mentioned, 'Beach Girl' is the opening track to Lily's recent album Psychic Jealousy, released on Chicago label Deep Space Objects (for which Lily does A&R); listen + download over on the label's bandcamp.

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☟ Lily's Internet Presence ☟
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Y/N GUEST MIX 021 :: CLAS TUUTH

One day I will get better at creating the cover art for these guest mixes. For now, I will stick with making stuff on Paintbrush, a buggy port of Paint for Mac. If anybody has any suggestions, or can make art for free (some of the artists have done this themselves) please contact me. Thank you.

For now though, allow me to introduce Clas Tuuth. Well not so much introduce as meet him once more, as I did write about one of the tracks from his recent-ish 003 EP the other month. He's from London and he makes lovely organic-sounding electronic music, as if these electronics were plant matter or animal matter, and lived their own lives, living and breathing within the compositions with naturalistic ease. At the same time, they're filled with urban grit and a decidedly cold sense of loneliness – an almost melancholic feeling, yet content with itself, the soundtracks to solitary journeys and pensive moods.

But as for this mix itself. From the introspective ambience of Clas Tuuth's own intro in the form of his track 'Legion', it is a predominantly '90s-flavoured affair, a voyage through rave-inspired beats and heavenly dub. There's the cascade of beats in 'Hooligan 69' by Ragga Twins, containing within it a sample of Prince's 'Let's Go Crazy', the twisted synth fantasia in the Alley Cat remix of 'Charly' by The Prodigy, the dance-rap of Rebel MC's 'The Wickedest Sound' (featuring, I have discovered, the origin of the eponymous sample in DJ Fresh's 'Dibby Dibby Sound'), ending as it began with the beautiful life-of-its-own vinyl crackle.

It's real nice to hear some music that I didn't really grow up with, but that has inspired a whole generation of musicmakers with its unrelenting beats and simplistic approach to music. I hope you enjoy or at least appreciate :~)

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• T R A C K L I S T •

• 01. Clas Tuuth – Legion Intro
• 02. Manix – Stupid Dope Mix
• 03. Intelligent Hoodlum – Arrest The President
• 04. Clas Tuuth – Glass feat. Catriona Irving
• 05. Tek9 – Space 91
• 06. Shut Up and Dance – Derek Went Mad
• 07. Ragga Twins – 18" Speaker
• 08. Ragga Twins – Hooligan 69
• 09. SL2 – The Noise (Remix)
• 10. Eric B. & Rakim – I Know You Got Soul
• 11. 2 Bad Mice – Bombscare
• 12. The Prodigy – Charly (Alley Cat Mix)
• 13. Bug Khan & Plastic Jamm – Made In 2 Minutes
• 14. Rebel MC – The Wickedest Sound
• 15. 2 Bad Mice – Hold It Down
• 16. Clas Tuuth – Legion (version)

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☟ Clas Tuuth Social Media Presence ☟
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GUY AKIMOTO – BUG A BAE

Great cover art for this song. A bowl of somethings with a note that has a sad emoji on it. Being sad when there's cereal of that nature in front of you… well, it must mean that you're pretty, pretty, pretty, pretty sad. I'm not an art critic. I'm not a music critic. I'm… dunno. Not even a journalist. SUE ME.

Anyway, I stumbled across this and was 1) enamoured with the original source material – 'Bug a Boo' by Destiny's Child, from 1999 (and what a very 1999 sound it is) – 2) enamoured with the cover art, like I kinda suggested, and 3) enamoured with the netlabel that's released it, Manicure Records both in, 3a) aesthetics (its logo, at the moment at least, is the painting nails emoji) and 3b) its name. Plato had a theory about "ideal forms," which are he theorised so ideal that we may never know them (so like, there's the perfect form of a table out there somewhere, for a cat, for a mountain). What was I talking about? Everything just seems right. Yeah. Ideal.

As you can tell, it is essentially a remix of 'Bug a Boo' called 'Bug A Bae', the original vocals set like cascades of sapphires into the glittering platinum of its new housing of soft, euphoric trance. Pliable springboard judders of mid-range synth and buwow-buwow bass give way to gradual sharpening into wide laser sweep chords, sparkling in glorious syncopation to the energetic hi-hat shivering beat. There's a great little bridge, too, a beat solo as it were, where the the kick gloops with infra swampiness and there's spotlight on this metallic noise shining out occasionally like an extended version of the sound that plays when you get a coin in Mario.

It's tacky and loveable, mixing two completely disparate styles for a continued and welcome online renaissance of late-'90s flavours. ♥/10.

Oh wow— and it's by Guy Akimoto, forgot to say. He is from somewhere (was US? Now is Canada? I think?) and he makes music.

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☟ Guy Akimoto Social Media Presence ☟
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DE LA SOUL – STAKES IS HIGH (DEMICAT REMIX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Oh wow look it's Demicat. Do you know Demicat? It's like totally fine if you don't know Demicat. He's a producer from South Korea who makes nostalgia-infused electronic music, from heady wistful dance to the retro fumes effusing from his hip hop-style tracks. I've written about him before, in conjunction with another South Korean artist, the singer Neon Bunny, on collaborative track 'Singing Bird' – this appeared on his Out Loud EP, released last september. You can buy that for the decent sum of $5 (or more) from his Bandcamp page.

His penchant for the retro, namely the indomitable sunny sound of the 1990s, comes through totally in this new track he shared with the world a few days ago. Created to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the release of hip hop trio De La Soul's debut album, 3 Feet High and Rising, the track is a remix of one of De La Soul's tracks, 'Stakes Is High', from the 1996 album of the same name. The original clacks hard with boom bap, tangled with gloss tendrils of bass, but Demicat's remix is an entirely different beast.

Adding snappy rising-heat electronic chords, muffled with lounge-smart nonchalance, and the hard punchy beat of electro combined with its deliciously distorted squelch of bass, grabbing at your ears in its jaunty pattern, dynamically twisted the sound, blanketing sound with a vacuum of treble, building it up with thin whooshes of sound, the track's loudness subject to the excitement of a house track, all the while with the original vocals ringing crisp and clear in what could easily be a freshly squeezed piece of music from right here and now. But it isn't. It's a slice of the well-loved past, lovingly collaged with torn electro, scraps of house, framed with beats plosive in their bulging rigidity.

Free download via Demicat's Facebook page. What's not to like? Go go get it if you want want want it.

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BRETON ENVY

Majorly digging this. It's quite different to the last song I heard by British band Breton, 'Got Well Soon', a dark rumbling number, almost exclusively electronic in its sound. This new track 'Envy' is a beautiful change in direction, compared to the dark basement club feel to 'Got Well Soon' - here we're thrown into a swirling world of addictive, breezy rhythms that touch you in all the right places. It's got a tropico-indie-dance feel to it; pointing out the obvious like a child would be saying "sounds like Foals" but on the other hand, but looking at it with a bit more scrutiny gives more away. However, that's not to say that first impressions should be discarded: these delicious sounds are for real and they're in my ears right now and I love them.

I need to get a grip. I can't very well sit here listening to this song on repeat like a lunatic, can I? How would I ever finish my washing? Or make lunch? So I'm gonna purge myself of what I'm feeling about it. Syncopation plays a massive part, offbeat rhythms crossing over each other keeping your ears busy, giving a sense of the gloriously unexpected to the song. This repeated instrumental refrain, with steel pans, glockenspiel, synth beeps, bass guitar, drums and strings, is really dynamic, always feeling like it's leading into something, rather than remaining the mainstay of the song. The drums are real, played with gusto, and filled with delicate touches of the hi-hat - they keep to a general house or disco beat for longer, more driven parts of the track. Actually, I'm gonna stick with house, cause the rich piano chords that clomp down on the song from early on, and their pattern, really do conjure 90s house music. Just saying. It does.

The piano chords are just one part of the song's thick and richly populated orchestration. Strings and a brass section arise in the two more driven parts of the song, building up in the last section to a genuinely symphonic ending, with virtuoso bass sidewinding with little variations the whole time, the steel pans adding their sharp exotic lilt to the mix. The vocals are simple, raw, understated, yet yelled out in lush layers of natural harmony - perfect for sing-a-longs and by turns perfect for a live setting. They sit superbly comfy in the mix with everything else. Fast-paced indie-dance with an orchestral-yet-90s-house feel - that's what this is. And it's lovely - in composition, dynamic, and sound.

'Envy' is out properly on January 23rd 2014 as a single from upcoming second album War Room Stories, due for release on February 3th 2014 on Breton's own imprint label Cut Tooth, through Believe Recordings.

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SAINT PEPSI WE BELONG TOGETHER

It's basically like this guy just cannot stop making good music. Like, it's literally impossible. Who am I talking about? I'm talkin' 'bout Saint Pepsi (real life dude: Ryan DeRobertis). His style seems to be changing with pretty much every new song he releases and that is not a bad thing whatsoever. Not only does it show versatility in his own creative process, switching effortlessly from the emo-trap-wave of Fader-premiered breakthrough hit 'Unhappy' to the urban grooves of this lovely number: 'We Belong Together'.

The title gives it away, but this is basically a remix of Mariah Carey's POP CLASSIC of the same name. Mariah Carey is one of my favourite ladies of pop, so this song arrived as pretty much a bonus package for me.

It's the garage flavour of this song that really gets me though. There's a I'm-getting-ready-to-go-out-tonight-and-I'm-gonna-look-fabulous or maybe I'm-in-a-rush-to-get-home-and-I'm-stuck-in-traffic-but-I'm-dancing-in-my-car-so-it's-ok kinda vibe to the itchy hi-hat shakiness of the driving beat - an instant late night classic with all the trimmings. A jangly snippet of funky disco guitar adds a lovely flourish of spice to the tune - calling to mind Saint Pepsi's own roots in sampling classic-if-obscure disco and funk tunes to massively fun effect (when I first wrote about him, for instance) and also his past and current contributions to label/collective KEATS//COLLECTIVE - as does the ubiquitous but always nice to hear "Woo! Yeah!" James Brown sample and the occasional group chant of "PARTY!" - is this EVER a party song!

Then there's his treatment of the sample. As soon as Mariah's vocals come in, it's clear that this is like... an instant hit. If you don't like it then I dunno you must just like a certain type of music or something - because anyone with OPEN ears can hear the goodness here. Yes, it's from a classic song itself, but the way they have been treated, the different landscape, the new imagined vehicle for Mariah Carey's voice as ultra-urban and retro-futurist, are inventive and fun. Chopping that same sample up and throwing it around at the end like confetti is just the icing on the cake. Love it. Who doesn't?

This, by the way, comes from a compilation by entity STYLSS; it's the latest in a series of monthly collections of songs by likeminded artists: Suicide Pact. This is Volume 9 of that btw.

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DEMICAT FEAT NEON BUNNY SINGING BIRD

Last time I said anything about music from Korea it wasn't about Psy but actually Neon Bunny, whose song 'Oh My Prince' caught my attention. It is a nice bit of pop with a retro atmosphere coupled with super catchy vocals - very nice.

And there I was the other day, thinking, "I wonder if Neon Bunny has done anything new," but before I could bother looking (I am easily distracted, OK?) I got an email from Neon Bunny herself telling me that she had indeed done some new stuff. Namely, she features on 'Singing Bird', a track from Seoul producer Demicat's new EP, Out Loud, which is on the whole a big snub to the onset of Autumn, carrying on instead the humid 90s pop/dance flavours that dripped onto our tongues this summer. One of my favourite flavours, so the EP is WELL worth a listen; it crosses French-touch-style rock-electro guts with lighter electronic noises to provide the perfect correlation between hard and soft. Please do listen.

When I listen to 'Singing Bird', in particular, it is filled with that kind of atmosphere that is almost bursting with the potential energy that summer beams down upon us, and I feel as though the weather outside should be almost unbearably hot. There are noises in here, the occasional lead synth melody at the end of each couple of bars, for instance, that remind me of particular things: swimming pools come to mind - that feeling of lying on the grass in the sun after swimming. But that's not helping you is it?

But maybe it is. Because the song smells of summer. Its synth lead arpeggios glitter sultrily, like the sun on rippling pool, ambient synths fill the spaces between Demicat's funkily placed chord stabs as if a true summer haze wobbled down to the horizon, or heat warped the air above hot tarmac. Piano chords dot the song with a nice progression, as if each one could be a different cut in a film or... The beat is meaty, literally like chucking a hefty steak repeatedly on a kitchen worktop (if yo American or something else it's synonymous with your word 'counter'; counters are in shops here) - and a little touch that I like is the alternating sounds of the snare, heavier and lighter by turns.

Then of course, the cherry on top, the icing on the cake, the dot of the i and the cross of the t, is Neon Bunny's vocals - she breathes an extra breath of spirit into the song. She sings languorously, softly in contrast to some of the harsher edges of the song, decorating it with faint glimmers of pop aesthetic. Even her vocal melody sounds similar to something you would've heard on the radio as a younger person in the 90s. Lovely really.

Again: listen to the EP - especially if you liked this song.

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OKADADA SHIMIN POOL

A blast of summer as we head into the depths of Autumn, September engulfing us like a galaxy-sized blob of soggy days and slowly browning trees. Yep, a blast of summer. I think a blast of summer is what's needed right now. So I'm kinda glad I'm a month late for writing about this particular tune. It is by Osaka-based producer (or as they say, "DJ/Trackmaker" - I like "trackmaker", I'll use that one day) Okadada or okadada or OKADADA and it is called 'Shimin Pool'.

Which is funny, because it's kind of a pun. "Shimin pool" sounds a bit like "swimming pool" but also "shimin" in Japanese means citizen or community so it's "community pool" - hoho. In addition, it comes from a recent-ish compilation CD by netlabel Maltine Records called 市民プールサイド - or Community Poolside. Puns an' that - fun, no? Anyway it's cool and it's damn summery and I think I need to emigrate someplace warmer.

聴く〜　(Listen〜)

It begins with a rather funky selection of percussion - bongos and whatnot - which is the base of all good dance-a-thon: a few drums and you're well away, am I right? It's a lush blanket of beats that is a great warm-up to the rest of the song. Some modulating synth chords come in and lightly lead us to the house beat that accompanies us for the rest of the song. House piano chords make an appearance too, their warm timbre screaming "beach", "party", and "summer" and "summer beach party" all at once. The tempo here is also perfect. Just right for chilling or moving - you decide!

The lead string-synth on this song drip with liquid sunshine, it's like dappled light by an actual poolside or beachside as palm trees wave gently above. With an old-school twist to it - those kinds of strings just seem to have that vibe y'know? The vocals are cool too, faraway like a floating-and-melting-at-the-same-time pistachio ice cream in amongst the summery sounds. Then there's this groovy bass breakdown - yeah! - bwing boong de-ding bom bom... You know how a bass sounds anyway. Real organic sounding electric bass that taps yer bones. Nice dynamic when the vocals come back in - and a lead synth screeches in for the final part of the song. All in all: a much-needed dose of nostalgic 90s-esque funky slo-house that takes me away to a sunnier place for four minutes.

You can download the album on which 'Shimin Pool' appears, 市民プールサイド - or Community Poolside, on Maltine Records' site.

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VENTUREX KEEP ON & ON

O dang o damn. Feel da Funk. Can you feel it? If you haven't pressed play, then I doubt very much if you're feeling the funk at all at the moment - unless, that is, you happen to be listening to funk already; or perhaps you feel pretty funky anyway. Maybe you're a funky person generally. Well, whether you got the funk or you don't got the funk or you want to know what the shiz I'm talking about, then I'd read on.

Hi, it's me again. So here we have VentureX, a producer from Chicago, with the overtly funky vibrations of 'Keep On & On', one of his most recent songs. He's rather prolific on his SoundCloud so I'd check that out if I were you - there are tons of gems just like this one. I chose 'Keep On & On' cause it sounds grrrrreat, better than a bowl of Frosties. "What's cooler than being cool?" asked Andre 3000. "Ice cold!" the people respond. And this song is ice cold. Freezy.

The song seems to fade in from nowhere, just like all good future funk songs, and at once it explodes into a funk-tastic groove of a track. The bass digs deep into your spirit. The drums thud, glitching out every now and again in delicious clipping clops and delectable clopping clips - hi-hats tick and the snare is a vicious slap. Synth samples wash over your brain. A piano is in there too. The funk guitar or synth or whatever-it-is melody conduces a funk-flavoured dance-a-thon in your blood.

The vocal is a strong altered sample from somewhere (do you know where it's from? I don't); it's handled with care and stretched to dynamic proportions around the change of vibe in the song as it becomes a blast of energy aside from the head-nodding funk that cushions this section. Don't you just dig the the bongo rhythms at 3:05? And then the song fades out. It leaves as it arrived. A brief spark of stimulation for the brain and body, carrying with it the spirit of funk as well as the spirit of the radio on a Saturday afternoon in the 1990s. You can't deny that. Listen to more of this guy's songs.

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LIES FT JUNO// ORIENTE [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Last time I wrote about Italian duo LIES and their song 'Escape I/S/M' it was thanks to them, or one of them at least, sending me a message. Now I'm writing about them again and it's down to the same fact of their sending a message. It's difficult to keep tabs on everything at once so to have lovely music delivered right to you is very nice indeed. So, thank you!

This time around, however, they have teamed up with fellow Italian producer JUNO// to create a very nice song indeed: 'Oriente'. I've gotta admit I was quite surprised at the result. It's a pretty intense sounding song, with a very solid beat and some very solid bass, all tied together with some wonderful crackling synth arpeggios. It's a veritable electro playground, having all the fun of retro music crossed with the nice production methods of the modern day. You'll find it difficult not to bop your head, wiggle your toes, tap your fingers, raise your eyebrows or whatever it is you happen to do when you find rhythmic solace in music.

Those bass synths are something else, aren't they? Really get under your skin and into your body. Very loud. Those along with that slo-house beat give it an epic feel - especially with the occasional battering of tom drums. There's a dose of the tropical in there, too, with some beach-friendly tubular bell-type things, heavily accented with reverb and other things, making them seem a little unearthly. Screaming synth streams over the top in some places, heavily modulated and sounding like a waterbeam (a Pokémon move for those who don't know) or something similar. Javelins of neon electricity.

Add to this a laid-back, 1990s-songstress-type vocal sample and you have a pretty interesting sound. The dynamic breaks are really nice too - the one at 2:49 for example that only lasts for seconds is perfect; it's just a small break from the intense rumblings of the song, but it's enough to give those same rumblings some massive "oomph" when they come back in. Nice sounds all nicely composed. In fact it actually reminds me of something... kind of a slowed down version of 'Sweet Dreams (Are Made Of This)' by Eurythmics. Get what I mean? Similar synth. Anyway.

You can download this song for free. FREE. Download it and put it on your iPod/Phone or whatever other device you happen to own for listening to music on-the-go and just wait till it pops up. Imagine it would be especially cool if you listened to this on a crowded rush-hour tube train on the way home. I don't usually give recommendations like this so I don't think I'll make it a regular thing.

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2MORROWS VICTORY VOIR (JUSTUS)

Talk about a knock-on effect... from Gang Colours' mix, to Tropics' edit, to the guys themselves: yes, this is 2morrows Victory with a new (2 months-old) song called 'Voir (JustUs)'. When you go exploring, sometimes you really do find some lovely stuff. And this is precisely one of those sometimes. I had never heard of these guys before a couple of days ago, but as far as I can gather they're from London and they look - and most importantly SOUND - set for big things.

This song comes as a single from an upcoming "project" (an album or an EP, who knows) simply called SEVEN. Perhaps it will include 7 songs. Or be a concept album about the number 7. Any which way you look at it, and especially judging from the stuff I've heard before (including this live rendition of the beautiful 'Lift Off'), it will probably be a very fine-sounding record. Fine as in fiiiiiiiine - not as in "I'm fine thanks".

The song begins as a journey into another dimension, one where the breezes of the world become languid synths that seem to stretch off into infinity, where the earth is a quaking thick jelly of distorted saw-waves at the very deep end of the bass spectrum. Kicks punctuate this world like gentle stepping stones. Later on, snares crack-snap like supernovae.

It's a youthful collage of sounds that, as much as they seem to be ploughing ahead into the future, seems to hold dear to its heart the laid-back and somewhat retro tenets of skate music - it's a broad genre, not even a genre actually and more of a feeling that I get. But it has that long-days, sociable yet esoteric subculture vibe to it. If you know what I mean, you know what I mean. If you don't, then I'm sorry that I couldn't get my point across.

The spacey journey continues and before you know it, 2morrows Victory are treating you to 90s slow-jam like sounds, soulful vocals that seem to stroke your ears. This soon gives way to a slow and fluid rap before the final quarter melts into a wide sound incorporating everything that'd come before. A future sound that can't well be ignored. So naturally I'm looking forward to this new project - whenever it may come our way.

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MADPETE 省广奇兵 CANTONESE BOOM BAP

I go on like all the time about not understanding the lyrics of stuff. It's not the worst thing in the world to not understand what someone is saying in a song. Often, the way they're saying it is just as important - you tell skill from that much, I think. This is probably a dubious stance when it comes to rap, because it's basically all words (lol), but I stand by it. I just think all music, if you like it, deserves to be listened to, regardless of whether you understand it. I can GET a song, even if I can't UNDERSTAND it, if you GET what I mean (GET it?).

Anyway, my most recent thing that I can't understand is a sick new album from a couple of Chinese guys who together go by the name of Madepete. That's their conjoined-twin name. Otherwise, they're known as Petechan, producer extraordinaire, and Madprole, rapper extraordinaire. Whilst you can't listen to the whole album, called Cantonese Boom Bap (released on a new label in China Groove Bunny Records), you can definitely get a very good idea of how it sounds.

And my oh my does it sound good. Like seriously. It IS boom bap. These three songs do indeed show off the talents off both members of Madpete quite nicely. Beginning with 'Paper Plane', it smacks you right in the face - well perhaps it's not the right expression. It strokes your face, very gently, mainly with a sun-kissed guitar riff sampled and expertly looped throughout the song. Madprole's vocals swagger along almost egged on by the skipping beat, turning rich when they're doubled up in the bouncy chorus. I can't help but drift away to that dreamy guitar. Ah...

Samples play a big part in this retro hip hop sound, same goes for next song on the album 'Since We First Met', which glistens with the same languid attitude as 'Paper Planes'. Madprole has a real lazy style flow that is impossible not to fall in love with, despite not understanding a word of his Cantonese rhymes. Electronic blips bejewel the song for a little decoration, too. Perfect for stretching out in the sun.

And then we have 'Ghost Walk'.

Wow the bass. The bassline that Petechan here has conjured up is utterly groovesome, as strong and lasting as something set in stone. It reeks of attitude, becoming the heavy-slabbed pavement that Madprole's rap swaggers over. Again there's sampling, but here it's less pronounced, giving centre-stage to the beat, bass and baritone of the vocals.

It has almost a film noir pastiche air about it, something totally streetwise yet without taking itself too seriously. I don't know if that's what they were going for, but it's definitely the atmosphere that it gives off. Nothing wrong with that. I actually love it. It's like sailing through an old-school landscape in a 1970s style Mercedes or something.

Madpete's brand of hip hop is slow, simplistic and filled with groove - the offbeat rhythms with which their music saunters along are wholly catching. If you don't find yourself bopping your head then... well, I don't know. I can't judge. It's certainly a strong sound, with not even a sniff of overproduction in sight: everything is just so. And just as well. Because any tweaking would take away the really charming heart of these songs - even if you can't understand the lyrics.

This is their first album with Groove Bunny. I'd keep an eye on both these guys and the label - I'm sure there are exciting things to come. Also, if you want to hear more of Cantonese Boom Bap, check this album snippet.

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DILLON COOPER KUNG FOO [VIDEO]

It's really nice to find a fresh piece of music - something that isn't just new in the literal sense of the word, but something that also SOUNDS new, you know? It could be any kind of music, any genre, but for some reason to hear some new-new rap is quite a buzz - especially if it's GOOD. I think it's because of the amount of words that get thrown around in rap music: naturally, you get to know an artist quite intimately (well, as much as they want you to know) after just one song - I guess new combinations of words, fresh phrases, new and unpredictable flows are quite attention-grabbing.

And so it was that I got a bit giddy whilst listening to Dillon Cooper, a 20-year-old rapper from Crown Heights, Brooklyn who is dead-set on conquering his dreams. It's just as I said - new, GOOD, rap is exciting. And this stuff is fresh. Fresh is the right word. Fresh like... well, anything good is fresh, isn't it? Fresh food? Yeah, pass that my way. A fresh glass of apple juice? Yes please. Fresh rap in the form of 'Kung Foo' by Dillon Cooper? Of course.

Before you even begin to examine it any further than first impressions, you can tell - you can just tell. DC (can I call him that?) is a natural. You often hear rappers going on about how their rhymes are effortless like butter melting on perfectly crispy toast, but this really is just naturally smooth. It literally just sounds nice, like honey dripping into your ears but without the mess. It scans well - let's start saying that about rap, just as you'd say it about Virgil's Aeneid cause rap is kinda like the modern day version of those dusty Latin meant-to-be-read-aloud-anyway classics.

You better just watch the video and LISTEN more importantly to the song before I come out with any more bad similes or comparisons.

What I noticed first is the production, by Phenom (seem to be a few different "Phenoms" out there, so I won't link) - it's raw and reminiscent of 90s rap. The beat particularly is gloriously live: tight snare, swaggering kicks and nonchalantly hissing hi-hats. The faux-dirge of the horns, a sharp kazoo-like sound, adds jagged decoration to the already roughly hewn foundations; in other words, it's a great base on which to set some nice vocals.

These are indeed nice vocals - even the chorus is rapped, just like an old-school rap song (these days it tends to be sung by someone else other than the rapper). It's confident and brimming with an air of untouchability (i.e. "A lotta dudes I don't know claimin' that they don't like me - fight me") - that's I guess how his rap ends up sounding as good as it does, his words unfaltering as he seems to revel in the rhythm of them. It's clever, too, a clever boasting song - every rapper's gotta have one. The lyrics are bright with wit and bite, but even so there are some little gems that my ears caught more than others: "Physical lightweight but mentally I'm heavy" and "Puerto Rican cuties got Twitter names with an underscore" being just a couple.

If you like this, then you're in for a treat. Dilloon Cooper releases a mixtape, Cozmik, tomorrow.

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PIU PIU CREEP

I remember TLC songs being on the radio when I was younger. However I didn't quite realise that the TLC song in question, 'Creep', was out in 1994. What? Oh well, I guess that just means I'm super well old. Not that old really. It's just weird that things seem a lot further back in time than I thought they were. omglol right?

Why am I talking about TLC? It is because this song by Piu Piu is not only titled the same, but it is also a tribute to that song (and not the noise-angst-alt-rock of Radiohead's 'Creep'). I guess she quite likes TLC and this TLC song in particular. For those of you wondering, Piu Piu is a singer/songwriter/DJ from Paris who likes emojis and makes a lot of mixtapes. I really like the name Piu Piu. I am not sure if she is singing in this song (I guess so?) because it could be a really clever sample taken from the original song but who knows really. I sure don't.

This song has also been produced by scntst or SCNTST - now I'm not sure - whom I wrote about a few days ago. It doesn't sound anything like his actual music as far as I know but he still produced it. Also, the video was directed by Boston Bun - a Parisian DJ/producer.

It's almost an unsettling sound, this rendition - mainly the first half, because the sound kinda changes at the midway. Firstly it's a sub-bass-kick-heavy gangster vibe with a looping vocal sample and then it's a more chilled hip hop feeling with the vocal refrain from 'Creep' sultry-smooth over the top, complete with funky guitar stabs. Really, it's hip-hop through and through, with a laid-back, sure-shot attitude. The sounds nearly don't mix together, jar almost, but: it sounds right. And that's fine with me.

This song comes from Piu Piu's Nightintale mixtape, out 17th June.

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SAINT PEPSI I TRIED

As you can instantly see from the image for this post, the artist who is using this as an album cover has a pretty retro sound. The cover is great. It has a Saved By The Bell aesthetic, albeit with more muted tones.

So yeah, with that as an image, what on earth is the music going to be like? Well, retro, like I said. It harks back to the tack and sparkle of late-80s/early-90s and uses a few vocal samples that are absolutely soaked in soul. The song in any case is called 'I Tried' and comes from SAINT PEPSI, which is a bloody brilliant name if I may say so myself, who is actually called Ryan DeRobertis. He has been quite busy already in 2013, what with the multiplicity of songs on his SoundCloud and getting involved in the creation of an artist collective called New Generation: I read this somewhere, so I might be totally wrong. He is already being a part of (or signed to) Keats Collective - also KEATS//COLLECTIVE - alongside a number of likeminded artists including Spazzkid, whom I wrote about a few days ago. Is it a netlabel? A collective? I dunno.

There's not much else I could learn, even about where the guy is from, but what I've got is interesting enough. It seems that if "future funk" actually exists, then SAINT PEPSI is certainly one of the forerunners of this loveable and totally listenable genre of music. Lissun up yooo.

Smooooooth sailing, don't you think? It starts wonderfully soulful, a static-filled sample taken from 1970s R&B group Enchantment's hit song 'It's You That I Need', the lustrous vocal decoration that splashes the already-glistening surfaces of SAINT PEPSI's wonderfully crafted sound. Instead of a hip-hop vibe, which this R&B foundation could have decked up quite nicely, it's turned into a great bit of burning pavement chill, smooth-funky grooves and slow-dance sensitivities with all the epic glitter of 70s R&B which inspired this number. It's the kind of thing that I could leave on repeat all day. The tinkling bells, the percussion, the slow weave of the bass...

A very interesting sound though. It's like a modern reinvention of the past. Rather than being outright a copy of this or that era, it seems to have taken inspiration from a few different eras - a musical collage.

'I Tried' comes from Mr Ryan DeRobertis' new album Hit Vibes, available to download FOR FREE on bandcamp - I would certainly download it if I were you. What a damn good treat! Cause it's good, it's damn damn good yeah. Get it get it get it get it get it.

P.S. Ryan DeRobertis is also the mastermind behind The Cold Napoleons - listen to his multitalent on album Adversaries.

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