🐣 YMIR — STAIR [初演 • PREMIERE]

⌾ LISTEN TO YMIR - STAIR ⌾

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Space. The final frontier. Well, not in this instance — 'Stair' by Los Angeles-based producer Ymir just sounds as though it's in space. That's because in this dramatic piece of ambient music, he's rising above and looking at from afar what was (at the time) "a new urban environment" — a new resident in an alien city.

"I'd never been somewhere that never sleeps before," Ymir tells yes/no by email. Originally from North Dakota, moving to Los Angeles was an eye-opening experience; he reveals that its particular sense of "decay" was soemthing that interested him.

"I think that was sparked by the more run-down areas of the city, and how different that was from what I was used to in my (relatively) small town," he says.

Suitably, the track hums with unsteady resonance, touched with lo-fi scratches and imperfections — a sense of sonic wear-and-tear that makes it feel as though this track has been around for years, floating in the air. Most noticeable are the wheeling changes in pitch, dynamic and flighty, continuing well into the swampy drone that drenches the track's final minute.

Giant bassy notes twang out a dirge of vast Western proportions, emanating from the depths of the city for miles around, a sense of classic instrumentation yet muffled under the waves of cosmic drama; far-off pines bristle against grid systems, someone huddles beneath an overpass.

Part far more gritty alternative soundtrack to 'Space Junk Road' from Super Mario Galaxy, part out-of-body experience looking out over the countless street lights and shuffling people of LA's urban sprawl, 'Stair' is a balanced, considered view of something new. Space — and tender, detached feeling — tempered into sound.

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• 🔔 Listen to 'Stair' on Spotify, or check out more of Ymir's unreleased electronic work on his SoundCloud.

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🐣 JONIE — SQUUUEZE

⌾ LISTEN TO JONIE, SQUUUEZE ⌾

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The cut-up collage of sound that stutters through 'Squuueze' flows softly and stays knife-edge sharp — testament to how LA-based producer Jonie digs the "unique energy and musicality" of '90s West Coast funk and hip-hop.

"Producers like Dre and Dilla used sampling in a way that was really musical, playing it like an instrument and composing with it," Jonie tells y/n. "I got into making electronic music a few years ago, and in the beginning it felt very stale and cookie-cutter, so I wanted to see if I could loosen the tie and emulate that musicality in my own may."

Accordingly, 'Squuueze' verges on virtuosic — and at times reminiscent of the 'Battle Against A Weird Opponent' theme from '90s SNES classic Earthbound. Bustling in the beginning, with varying textures, tones and colours jostling for space (people, cars, city sights), the track plays out the sun-drenched day and fades towards pastel evening in its second half; that West Coast lilt comes into play, a drawling high-pitched synth the herald of heat-warped tarmac and palms, the landscape of an idealised summer.

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• 🔔 Like what you hear? Check out more from Jonie over on SoundCloud.

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🐣 BRIAN FENDER — RUNNING OUTTA TIME FEAT. TXTHEWAY

⌾ LISTEN TO BRIAN FENDER AND TXTHEWAY, RUNNING OUTTA TIME ⌾

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"Hands up, don't shoot, I can't breathe: Famous last words when you look like me." One of the many lines in 'Running Outta Time' that show raw emotion, effortless flow, rhythm and rhyme — an emotive response from LA-based TxTHEWAY to the murder of George Floyd by police officers.

"My brother Brian is busy marching today but he's really the catalyst for this song," he tells y/n via email. "Since social distancing went into place he started diving head first into music and would send me several beats and scratch ideas every couple of days."

'Running Outta Time', with its simplicity, its gleaming yet careworn feel, is one of those ideas. The nebulous vibe of the instrumental, the delicate skittering beat, feels soft — comfortable even — and paints a gentle, intricate backdrop to a track already laced lyrically with tenderness. Though it's a "space to not be okay", TxTHEWAY explains further what is at the heart of 'Running Outta Time'.

"This song is us processing," he says. "It's us asking for understanding while letting our brothers and sisters know that we understand. If people leave from this moment with nothing else, we hope they take that understanding and share it among friends, family members, and coworkers."

Both from Broward County, Florida — TxTHEWAY now based in LA, Brian Fender in New York — the track artwork depicts a childhood photo of the brothers with added crosshairs: a harrowing reminder of the reality, and a reflection of the humanity, and inhumanity, explored in the track; notably the interruption of a gunshot as Brian Fender delivers the hook: "Many things in this life of mine that I survived / Many wrongs I wanna right, I hope don't run outta time."

"Even though the music came to us easy, the subject matter did not," says TxTHEWAY. "The more we watched the news it became clear that even in this new world, even as humanity fights Covid-19 (our invisible enemy) there is another enemy in front of us that is older and just as sinister... racism."

"As we watched the life slip away from George Floyd we saw ourselves, we saw our own mortality, we recognized how easily that could be any person of color. We, like George in his last moments, are running out of time."

From Brian Fender's bouncing, optimist flow and TxTHEWAY's imploring and melodic "Someone say a prayer for me / Promise you'll be there for me", to the detached determination of the instrumental, the softness of 'Running Outta Time' makes digestible the hard-to-swallow reality, bitter hardships delivered from the heart.

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• 🔔 Purchase or stream 'Running Outta Time' via your favourite service, or support Brian Fender and TxTHEWAY's message by sharing.

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🐣 MOON TALK — JACARANDA

A crazy overwhelming burst of vibrant flavour in ‘Jacaranda’ by moon talk, a morsel of music that ushers you into a bright world, harmonious and harsh simultaneously, a veil of dynamic electricity scorching the threads hat tumble their melodies in the upper reaches of the track. With these far-off crackling effects and close-knit distorted delay, the crunchy ambience here is metallic and glittering, shreds of regularity pierced by incessant sunlight, or it’s a descriptor for a not-too-distant future, the cracked utopia of tomorrow; the simple humming bass carves a humble and homely foundation, and is simple and human, is birdsong, is cup of coffee, slow traffic, carrying shopping, comfort, love.

moon talk tells us that he wrote the track after moving to LA, and is titled after the jacaranda tree . “They bloom for a couple weeks and that's it,” he says via email. “Most of the time they just look like insignificant normal trees but when they bloom they turn this surreal shade of purple.” The blooming, bursting-into-flower sound of ‘Jacaranda’ suits and echoes its namesake – honestly if you haven’t seen these trees at their fullest and most indigo, you should really Google them. Ticking abrasive hi-hats and clattering beats in the track sound out the triumphal rhythmic march in celebration of the jacaranda's beauty; later a vocal sample pitch-shifted and swimming in the crackle of the track seems to sing joyfully.

Talking about LA, moon talk explains further: “It’s a garden in the desert, a perpetual post-apocalyptic paradise,” he writes. “I wanted to try and capture that exciting contradiction at the core of the city.”

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• 🔔 'Jacaranda' is out now and it's taken from moon talk's upcoming a piece of the sky EP, set for release on 22nd March.

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☟ Moon Talk Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 GEO — MÁGICA FEAT. CARO PIEROTTO

Last time we heard from GEO it was a glittering trail of intricate percussion and chimes in the form of lovely sound-sonnet ‘For You’. This time around the LA-based musicmaker gives us an insight into what makes him tick musically with a slice of sound that celebrates the rhythms of latin music.

“I sat down and wrote this one in an attempt to pay tribute to my love for the way latin makes me feel,” he tells us via email. And what a homage it is. Rather than pursuing one genre or another, and attempting to make something that is bossa nova, or samba, or whatever, ‘Mágica’ really does feel like a celebration: a rhythm that winds and sashays, more of that texturising percussion we’re used to that gives it some lush depth, and breezy chords that conjure cool scapes by the sea, instantly capitvating satin Ipenema vocals.

“To help pay homage to my roots,” GEO explains, “ Caro Pierotto graced this song with a beautiful Portuguese verse about finding magic in a new love.” Graced is definitely the right word, with this vocal and its pitch-shifted iterations adding beauty to the track.

This is not a typical bossa nova track, or a song that is typically anything. It’s a creation inspired by latin music, and as such it has taken interesting tangents from elsewhere, encompassing flavours like future funk – with that thudding groove and upbeat atmosphere – and even the somewhat-disco feel reminiscent of Japanese city pop. The lead synth-brass melody that refrained throughout reminded me of the 2 player version of the Casino Night level on Sonic 2. ‘Mágica’ is a versatile track that defies expectations in a modern cosmopolitan retelling of traditional sounds.

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• 🔔 Have a look-see at 'Mágica' on HypeM.

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☟ GEO Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 PASTEL — CLOSE

The space afforded by this track, the expansiveness of it, how it manages to put you in this swirling realm of love, yet also retain this very intimate feeling, as if your ears are being privately whispered into, is testament to pastel's efforts as a musicmaker. And not only this, but this atmosphere is summoned with great simplicity, a seeming effortless swathe of sound that utilises sparse elements to maximum effect: mainly a simple beat, a bit of soft synth, and voice. The difference between the sense of space and intimacy is best illustrated in this song by the big rush of sound that is the chorus, the only moment where there is any sort of loudness, representing a swell of feeling. Still there is an underlying mist of loneliness here, a distant wind that is like a sadness that cannot be shaken.

But, that said, 'close' is a lovesong, that's for sure (it's dedicated to Valentine's Day, so it'd better be). And as such it's full of lovely moments, small parts like the sudden downturned chord change at 1:15, the constant fluttering heartbeat of the kicks as they propel the song nervously forward, the sparing use of a little soft melody that gently bloops on-and-off in this gorgeous minimalist morsel. Last time we heard from pastel it was a different story: the sandstorm ambient abrasions of 'stammer' from absent, just dust summoned an almost inexpressible sadness and isolation. His vocals were lost in the noise.

Here, however, the vocals are clear, liquid, bravely at the forefront and completely a capella sometimes: long tracts of the vocal begin the unexpected hook, "Do you think about my body? ..." Warm harmonies abound. It's beautifully honest, heart-on-sleeve songwriting sung with caramel smoothness, touching moments treated with gorgeous simplicity – "you held me a little longer than the last time we met" – inspire real images of real romance, and stealing your own heart in the process.

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• 🔔 This Valentine's Day special arrives courtesy of Very Jazzed (part of Frenchkiss Label Group)

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☟ pastel Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 OH MY MUU — WORTHY

There is something beautifully sad about this song—even before you learn of its origins, which makes it sadder still, there is an air of farewellness to it, the slumping gentle feeling of the plucked synth that weaves through, the poignant space left between each resonation: the emotion behind it rather than the melody itself, which itself is wistful in its slow cheeriness, like bright blurry eyed melancholy. And the title: 'Worthy'. It hits the heart, combining with the music – the frustrated whispering glitch of percussion, the close intimate feeling of the beat, the warmth and welling-up of the thicker synth and bass, the watery outdoors samples symbolic of life and living – to summon this small heroic hope in the downtrodden swirl of depression.

But in 'Worthy' its creator, LA-based producer James Im aka oh my muu, is not only building this emotive and inspirational soundscape in and of itself; rather it has been created as a tribute to Kim Jong-hyun, the K-pop star who committed suicide on 18th December 2017. As such the song takes on a whole different persona, and becomes bigger than it is: especially when it is imbued as it is with Jonghyun's spirit—a sample from the singer's 2015 song 'I'm Sorry' crackles throughout, broken and decayed, as if heard from an unknown elsewhere, uncovered by you personally amidst digital debris; a truly touching, intense element of the track that feels instantly timeless; a sweet swansong.

After more soft, playful synth, the track ends on a crescendo of fluttering grainy synth chords atop columns of bass, like tears and pain mingling with determination; or, having felt devoured by despair, it's the shock of having someone tell you, "it's ok, you are worthy." Catharsis and letting go.

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• 🔔 More excellent production from oh my muu over on his SoundCloud.

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☟ oh my muu Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 CITY FATHER — COQUETTE

A tumbling drumkit and a set of disembodied hands engaged in a rapture of rhythm, the hammering and clatter-tshh of the virtousic fills and thuds that trill and flood the air with hard bristling organic sound, the ultimate in percussive propellant, summoning the speed of rolling down inclines and speeding around corners late at night with dim street lights thumping your peripheral vision. The beat in 'Coquette' by LA producer City Father is full of life, both by extension of its sense of movement and also by its intimate, sound-coming-from-the-room-next-door aesthetic, ostensibly real sounds that breathe and scrape with robust physicality.

It begins thin, just this thunder-and-lightning of percussion bumping the track along on a backdrop of nocturnal void, as well as this sampled panting whispering and sheafing through the track like turning the page of a dusty book, the regular breathing of a late-night rendez-vous, but harshly cutting through the sound, a particular detail of memory on loop. The track morphs via scintillating synth details, fibrous and plasma-like, into something with more body, sludgy synth bass rising like a tide towards the end – something like a vocal hooting and crooning wordlessly colourful in the monochrome of it all – heating the track up into a scathing crescendo before it cuts off and fades into forlorn quiet, the empty feeling of despondence.

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• 🔔 This track arrives courtesy of LA-based label and artist collective Mateo Sound. You can download it for free via The Artist Union.

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☟ City Father Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 SARO — LOOKING (CITY FATHER REMIX)

The bristling insectoid sounds of night, the found sounds of the world, the swirls of dust and debris in our everyday waking hours come to life and trickling nocturnal with a moon hanging in the sky seeming to swing like a pendulum. This track certainly is night, unsociable and filled with bustling beats like the unkempt untamed thoughts of a restless mind in the body of a human out walking to put themselves at ease. It's a remix of LA singer Saro's track 'Looking', a much slower number that booms along with heavy walls of synth, as opposed to this frantic and clattering juke-ish rework by fellow LA resident and producer City Father; "I wanted this remix to be like a distorted reflection of the original work," CF tells us in an email. "I tried to respond to its ideas with sounds and textures that would tell the same story, like samples of Saro's breath and field recordings I made wandering around downtown LA in the middle of the night."

And in the new nighttime feel the vocal from the original – "hope you find... what you're looking for" – is the main refrain in this interpretation, now rapid and repeated, bright and hopeful amidst tumbling angular polyhedrons of percussion clacking and bursting for that tarmac pavement (asphalt sidewalk) concrete glass, hard urban materials that give a harshness to the cityscape as much as the beats lend their polisve clatterings to a harshness in the soundscape. Inspired by the "dark" undertones of the original, City Father explains that he wanted to give everything a "hazy, metallic, solitary color" in order to represent the "subtle messages within the original song." So there are bristling impersonal samples, unclaimed and writhing and ambient, the cold textures of the city—and the synth chords, which do not respond to any offerings of company or social gatherings but wait and then walk alone, melancholy and resolute.

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• 🔔 This remix was released in association with Mateo Sound, an artist collective located in LA.

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☟ City Father Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 PASTEL — SILHOUETTE

This is a mind-cleanse, a slow sandstorm that wraps you up in it, a feeling of being lost with no way out and not knowing which way to turn, but it's not closed-in and claustrophobic like a labyrinth, more the feeling of being small in a huge expanse, a greyscale desert of sound that leaves you speck-like in its centre and the rippling dunes drift off distantly and the sky is hard and stony and the landscape looms towering all around: the giant them, the insignificant us. Ambient yet noisy, the hypnotising sounds of it all are instantly emotive.

LA-based Gabriel Brenner aka pastel crafts a leviathan of sound in 'silhouette', the touching tracts of synth swirling misty, melancholic watercolours that veil the heavy reverberations of the vocals, a haunted voice low and descending, lines ending with gentle vibrato, speaking from a lonely distance of Native American identity in its early refrain "the skin doesn't lay quite right, does it?" and later there are enigmatic descriptions of moments where the self in this regard is questioned—"gave me a card: painting of a woman with a feather in her hair." A gradual crescendo fades out, the booming of a drum, the gentle noise subsides like something forgotten and out of reach.

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• 🔔 'silhouette' is taken from pastel's upcoming absent, just dust EP, due for self-release on 25th August; download this first track and pre-order the EP on Bandcamp. Half the proceeds taken from its sales will be given to FreshestCollective.org, "who have provided continued legal support to water protectors since the founding of the Sacred Stone Camp."

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☟ pastel Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 PRINCIPLEASURE — HYSTERICAL O

This kinetic vessel takes us on a voyage through fizzing retro electric seas, sloshing and foaming grey-blue, cutting through it all smoothly and simply, a vision of the future from the past, looking forward from the analogue age, the modulating synths airbrushing complexity with their warm wide tone, their breezy ascending pattern. Outstandingly simple, Principleasure's thumping 'Hysterical O' crackles with residual feedback from a bygone era, yet quivers with minimalism and negative space, simultaneously rich and lo-fi yet sparse and considered—"I wanted to create something that sat between club and soundtrack," the producer told us.

The kick drum bumps below, working with the addition and subtraction of driving razor-sharp gleaming hi-hats to effect dynamism into the track, the white noise resonation of these drum machine percussives adding rounded muffled texture to the plosive sounds, nuancing the basic beat with that groovesome squelch of a synth bass stepping constructivist throughout. Created using only vintage synthesisers, 'Hysterical O' doesn't ape a retro style but is rather a reincarnation of it, an anachronism: the creation of a modern minimal house track with tools and materials we no longer use.

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• 🔔 'Hysterical O' is taken from Principleasure's debut four-track EP, Hexagonal Dab, which you can listen to over on SoundCloud or acquire it via Bandcamp if you like.

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☟ Principleasure Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 CUESTA LOEB — GRASS IT GROWS

'Grass It Grows'? Well, the title of this "anthem to self-acceptance and individualism" can be explained by Cuesta Loeb, its creator. "No one tells grass how to grow," she says. "It just does, free of any force or pressure." The lyrics in the song are wonderful, speaking of grass that isn't under obligation "to be tall and green", and "travelling at the speed of me" amongst other things. It's an individualistic song alright, but written with simplicity, adorned only with this analogy of grass growing, a quality that impacts and aids its message of freedom.

And aside from the lyrics, how it's done, the sludgy bass underpinning palm-muted guitars in a basic riff, the slackeresque melodies, the dripping distortion, the fuzzy chorus, the combined dreamy lo-fi pop grunge of it all, where Weezer meets Warpaint—it's how it's done. Cristina Cuesta Loeb's voice range from the track's softly spoken verses to singalong chorus, the vocals firstly sidling and coy before launching into a sky of sound, layered and rich and uplifting, suiting both the instrumental and the journey of the song's words: from the innocuous grass on the ground, a leap up into the boundless feeling of freedom. W-o-w.

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• 🔔 The supreme loveliness of 'Grass It Grows' is taken from Cuesta Loeb's EP, out later this year.

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🐣 MACHINEDRUM — U BETTA

Starting out on a gently fizzing backdrop, muffled vocal samples that reverb into infinite space, and percussive marimba clonks, LA musicmaker Machinedrum continues to carve out an energetic space in this dynamo of a track 'U Betta'. It's so named for the vocal samples that wobble and cascade throughout, otherdimensional and multifaceted sometimes and lucid at others. Mellow sections with delicate noises – where wide open spaces are ornamented with ascending guitar that warbles in spaghetti western dust and desertification – contrast with lasershot parts of maximalist intensity.

These segments are raked by plasma beam synths that cut into the enormity of space, left intact for the most part and utilised dynamically by Machinedrum as he pockmarks the void with rollicking booming drums, and siphoning into it the glare of the synths, thin and iridescent above and columning robustly below like some futuristic machine, these sounds interchanging with smooth cloudy synthetic vox that rise up in a robotic call-and-response between hard and smooth. All the while glassy chiming and pizzicato strings adorn these synthetic theatrics, ornamenting the surrealistic mirror surfaces and intergalactic noir feel of the track.

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• 🔔 Machinedrum released Human Energy in September of last year. You can listen to some selections from the album on SoundCloud.

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☟ Machinedrum Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 MARK REDITO – YOU'LL ONLY LOVE ME WHEN I'M GONE

Skiffing through the twlight between on and offline ever further from his Spazzkid moniker of summers past, Mark Redito continues as he has always done to evolve as an artist. His latest foray into the ether of music, 'You'll Only Love Me When I'm Gone' swells effortlessly with energy and displays a characteristic change in style that feels organic. Flavoured with dancehall humidity, the track swirls between fluid cute electro and a sparse yammering beatscape, notably lacking in Redito's usually present voice and instead heading heavily onto garbled, voiceless dancefloors.

The track's title, however, does make an appearance in the music as a sampled lyric, chewed up, emotional and intoxicated, flinging its vague electronic lyricism like elastic through the lurid synth. This then repeats rapid-fire after gear-shifting booming bass build-up, stammering high-pitched above hefty kicks and not menacing but business-meaning beat punching syncopated one-twos into the less crowded space, sounds feeling more poignant pummelling away with room to breathe.

But let us not forget that a simple body-moving beat and the manipulation thereof has always been a staple of the way Mark Redito makes music; energy spiced with elation. Here and now, as ever, he incorporates new exciting sounds into his repertoire, with style fluctuating but substance remaining a constant, keeping as fresh as the first whiff of 'Getting To Know You' when it was love at first listen.

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• You can grab 'You'll Only Love Me When I'm Gone' for just $1 on Bandcamp. A full-length album is on the cards for next year.
• The original artwork for the track was created by kikkujo, whose characteristic pen-and-pencil illustrations often depict people weighed down by weltschmerz, their bodies and expressions fine-tuned to display this subtle painful weariness.
• Earlier this year, Mark Redito set up Likido, a series of curated events that provides a platform for female, POC and LGBTQ+ artists, aiming to celebrate and nurture these communities.

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☟ Mark Redito's Internet Presence ☟
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MEISHI SMILE – BLANK OCEAN

Meishi Smile has shared a song via Ryan Hemsworth friends-only-not-a-label Secret Songs. Who is Meishi Smile? I hear you cry. Don't worry. His real name is Garrett Yim and he is from California and he makes music so sweet you'll want to cry, so bleakly sad that you'll want to smile. At the beginning of last year he released his debut album, LUST, which I really enjoyed – a high-energy whirlwind of J-pop flavours that was as wistful and introverted as it was all-encompassing and euphoric. A lovely mix, in short. Oh and he is also the head of alternative pop label/collective, Zoom Lens.

Anyway, the track is called 'Blank Ocean' (the title alone is the first tearjerker – even that speaks to me) and it's really good, basically. The intro is a real killer, a 27-second gradual slide into the track's candy-coloured bounce featuring cold, fizzing synth with hints of the Amen-style breaks. The main body of this track is all breakbeats, with zithery plucked instruments plaintively echoing the melody of the vocals, which are vocodered to good effect, almost as a detachment from the true emotion of what they're singing.

Mr. Meishi Smile has kindly provided the lyrics and with lines like, "let's end our lives in a sentimental way / let's echo our youth like death in poetry," the fearsome despair and hopelessness at the heart of this song become more evident.

In true Meishi style, he's also added some brilliant pan flute sounds, the hollow quirky sound of them conjuring the otherworldliness of one of his influences, the soundtrack of Bomberman 64. Add to this the blooping (almost like Sonic jumping circa 1991) synth hook and breezy guitar chords, and you have a whole lot of disparate and perhaps even conflicting elements.

But Meishi Smile weaves them all together with a finesse that not only results in a well-crafted piece of sugary and emotive pop, but that also, in its loud and bustling way, harks back to Meishi's roots in harsh noise music. Top marks!

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• Meishi Smile made a guest mix for YES/NO last year – Valentine's Day-themed, too! It's really good! Go listen! And download it~!
• Also I interviewed Mr. Meishi for Red Bull Music Academy magazine regarding Zoom Lens. Go read!

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☟ Meishi Smile Social Media Presence ☟
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Y/N GUEST MIX 023 :: GOODNIGHT CODY

HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's 2015! Imagine that! We made it! We're still here! And to kick-start this year – whose numbers, if you're into numerology, add up to 8 (v lucky number) – we have an exclusive tasty guest mix from a producer whom I admire quite a bit. What a New Year's surprise this is!

First time I stumbled across music created by this man he went under the name Snorlax. As any good Pokémon fan, I followed my nose and leapt into his pool of music and found it to be like, well, just a delight, if I'm allowed to say so. Now creating music under Goodnight Cody, a moniker little closer to real life (his name is Cody Farwell) this producer and bass-player from Los Angeles creates music that at once introduces groove and atmosphere in scene-setting unions, tracks that jiggle your body and your mind at the same time – take, for instance, the wonder that is 'Full Count (Bases Loaded!)', it conjures an actual baseball game, a cartoony, Peanuts-esque baseball game. And that bass, right?!

And yes: he plays bass, has been since age 12, soon after realising he was "a horrible drummer" (which he started playing when he was 8). Then he started writing songs on guitar and piano at 15. "I've always been drawn to music," he tells me, "and I believe that is what started me to create it."

Coming from a punk background, the first electronic music that attracted him was that of Squarepusher; Cody "fell in love with his extreme sounds." Afterwards it was a case of "digging deeper and deeper for new sounds & styles, looking for inspiration."

After I asked nicely, he very kindly agreed to make a mix for YES/NO. And what a mix. Self-confessedly "constantly digging for timeless music from all over the world," it really shows in the collection he's put together for us.

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I think what continues to inspire me is the search for the perfect song for the perfect moment

CODY FARWELL

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"These tracks in the mix are very important to me," he explains, "as they are all by artists that have changed the way I perceive music." He tells me he never understood or enjoyed electro-pop until he heard Sonic Coaster Pop a few years back, and likewise with blues or gospel – "I didn't think [it] was very interesting, or that it would eventually change my life." He divulges it was listening to Blind Wille McTell that changed all that for him: "I found it to be an experience like no other."

This selection of music – "a good look" into the sounds Cody loves, an international hotch-potch ("I also love hearing a melody or an instrument and knowing what country or region it's from," he says) – is a pick-'n'-mix of wildly different flavours, from the soul-elating gospel of 'It's Been a Mighty Good Day', penned by Dr. Maceo Woods, and its sleepy, acoustic-guitar-laden neighbour 'Doçura Forte' by Brazilian singer Joyce, to the frenetic 'Amscray' by LA producer / boss of label Magical Properties, Daedelus, and the sugary hyperactivity of international J-pop phenomenon Perfume on their track 'ポイント'.

That's not to mention two gems from the brain of Yann Tomita, namely the heart-melting 'Some Day, That Place In Time' (by Doopees) and mix opener by Astro Age Steel Orchestra, 'Living Message From Pan Yard #2', or the v famous 1928 song 'Statesboro Blues' by Blind Willie McTell, or a spot of raï singing in 'El Fermlia' from Algerian artist Boutaiba Sghir – it's all lovingly patched together with Goodnight Cody's mixing skills, a mélange of seemingly disparate genres, jarring time periods and contrasting artists, all united with heart and soul.

So, now it's time for you to enjoy this, the longest mix ever made for Y/N! Have fun! :)

• T R A C K L I S T •

1. Astro Age Steel Orchestra - Living Message From Pan Yard #2
2. Sonic Coaster Pop - Spiral Neo Wave
3. Sonic Coaster Pop - SOCOPOGOGO
4. Gangpol & Mit - la comptine
5. Gorillaz - Dub Dumb
6. naivepop or petitfool - Chopstick Rest -休息は大事だよ-
7. Harpo Marx - They Say That Falling In Love Is Wonderful
8. 800 Cherries - Frozen
9. Hello Astronaut, Goodby Television - Masterpiece Backwards
10. Oleg Kostrow - Falling Dreams
11. Daedelus - Amscray
12. YMCK - 左折して右折して
13. Soundmurderer - Awamori
14. Bells Of Joy - There'll Be No More Sorrow
15. Perfume - ポイント
16. Boutaiba Sghir - El Fermlia
17. Itsutsu No Akai Fusen - I will kick a pebble
18. Squarepusher - Rebus
19. Hazel Nuts Chocolate - Kitten's Breaks Dub
20. Mount Kimbie - Maybes (James Blake Remix)
21. Blind Willie McTell - Statesboro Blues
22. Doopees - Some Day, That Place In Time
23. Sam Cooke - (I Love You) For Sentimental Reasons
24. Dr. Maceo Woods - It's Been a Mighty Good Day
25. Joyce - Doçura Forte / Água e Luz

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• Mr Cody is a part of beat collective Team Supreme – go check 'em out!

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☟ Goodnight Cody Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter

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Y/N GUEST MIX 017 :: MEMORY CARDS PROJECT DREAM MIX

It's that time again. Another guest mix from an artist we like. This time around it's the turn of Memory Cards. He's a musicmaker who began making music in LA but currently resides in Arizona who makes super dreamy trap-flavoured music. The kind of thing that has been labelled "otaku trap" (kinda for good reason, in that much of the music is at least anime-inspired, with some out-and-out covers/remixes of anime themes, etc.) of late. But labels are for card catalogues.

"If I had to pick a season for this," Mr Memory Cards (irl name Jonathan) tells me via email, "I think this suits the beginning of fall more." And right now, as I write this listening to the mix for severalth time, looking out the window at grey-white sky and permanent rain, I can safely say that I totally agree. So this is when it's happening. Listen to this mix and kick up some dead leaves.

Why is it called Project Dream? And why is the artwork like it is? Both are inspired by Initial D, a manga/anime that is centred around the world of illegal street racing in Japan, of which Memory Cards had just started watching the final season at the time of making this mix.

I ask him what inspires his own music. "Nostalgia," he says. "For me, a vital part of the music making process involves introspection and seeing how my recollections can be incorporated into the work I make. Since for the most part the music I make doesn't really have words (or at least my own words) it's difficult to explicitly articulate these concepts. However, I try and draw inspiration from forms of media and popular culture that have brought me joy in the past. By doing so, I hope that I can at least partially convey who I am, where I've been and where I'm going not just as a producer or a musician but as a person as well.

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I dream a lot

MEMORY CARDS

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And what about the mix itself? "Really the only unifying theme with this mix is that they're all tracks that I've been very much enjoying lately," he explains. "Some of the tracks have a sort of eerie menace to them while some have a more jubilant nature to them. Others still carry an air of sweetness tinged with a shade of melancholy, so there's a variation in what I consider to be the themes of the songs I chose." He then adds something that seems to be an overriding theme of internet music: "I would also like to say that I consider myself friends with or at least acquaintances of a good portion of the producers featured here."

It's solidarity, a support network of artists who are at least right now eternally collaborating with each other, bigging each other up, and generally just being nice to one another. Since it's not a local scene, you don't have to "put up" with people, you choose your friend group based mainly and firstly on similar interests rather than spatial limitations; these pockets collect online, attract more people. Soon enough you have a veritable movement.

So from the stand-out electronic atmospherics of the Sonic Adventure-inspired indoors track 'Mystic Ruins' made for the pretty cool CHAO GARDEN compilation (curated by collective MECHA YURI and Memory Cards' own floating cloud sparkling euphoria in 'Fantasia Arc', to the glitzy ambient/future funk crossover in 'SUMMER VI', a collaboration between Bansheebeat and Yung Bae, to Shoujo Eyes and his track 'My Magical Girl' playing us out with gorgeous chiptune melodies, this mix is as varied and evocative as Memory Cards said it'd be, bristling with thickets of machine gun hi-hats and videogame samples (Link swinging his sword in ☆ＩＣＥＡＧＥ☆ by allegedly 14yo producer, manitee, or original Smash Bros. "choose your character" sounds in Cosmastly & Heavy Hearts collab, 'Fighting Polygon Team') – a great showcase of young producers making music right now.

Plus I think I finally got Memory Cards' name – it's all about recollections, memories… memory cards… store memories… of games.

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• T R A C K L I S T •

1. 32jnqwn-_-_-_ - ECSTATIC CLARITY
2. memory cards - Fantasia Arc
3. Childish Gambino – candler road (memory cards Chopped & Screwed Edit)
4. indoors - mystic ruins
5. Oliver~ - <3 Sosa Screwx
6. Howlings - What We Could Have Been
7. mizukage - OG Bobby
8. tones_ - heal 
9. HiGHBRiD - N E X U S
10. grèg - 水族館 (将来)
11. highbrid x memory cards - bandana . witta . mullet
12. // Hydro // - ~ R E A C H ~
13. manitee - ☆ＩＣＥＡＧＥ☆ (1.5k special free dl)
14. ║丂ｲ乇√乇刀 ۩ d乇乃ﾚﾑƬ║ - ｃｌｅｍｅｎｔｉｎｅ// ありがとう『feat. NET WORTHY』 
15. d o w n s † a † e - i c e ` g r a v e
16. ║丂ｲ乇√乇刀 ۩ d乇乃ﾚﾑƬ║ -ｉ ｄｏｎｔ ｕｎｄｅｒｓｔａｎｄ… (•̩̩̩̩＿•̩̩̩̩) ……╔ feat. H i G H B R i D ☥╗ 
17. [bansheebeat + yung bae] - SUMMER VI 
18. COSMASTLY ✗ HEAVY HEARTS - FIGHTING POLYGON TEAM
19. A$AP Rocky - Wassup (LOSTSVUND Remix)
20. ILOVEMAKONNEN - Tuesday (ft. Drake) (MXRA & LOSTSVUND Remix)
21. Shoujo Eyes - My Magical Girl

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☟ Memory Cards Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter • Tumblr

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Y/N GUEST MIX 016 :: USHUA X NA RADHI

It's that time again. Someone donates a hefty portion of their time in order to create a nice little mix for anybody who wants to hear it. There is no exclusivity here, no whatever, we just asked whether Ushua would wanna make a mix for YES/NO or not and he said yes. Here we are. Recently this LA-based producer remixed a track by Jaust called 'Feel The Smoke Rise' with some seriously pugilistic footwork zing. Other than that, there's not much else to say.

With the mix he was gonna put together, he said he wanted to represent or at least showcase his collective, Na Radhi (like Ulzzang Pistol did with his mix a couple of months back). I learnt that "Na radhi" means "with pleasure" in Swahili; "We like to take that thought into our production and just make music we enjoy listening to ourselves," explains Ushua. "Our goal as a collective is to release as much good content as possible and grow." Alongside fellow member, Lo Key Dst, they want to connect with other likeminded musicmakers, release their creations and collaborate with them.

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We have studios set up where we live so it's our goal to create as much as possible. Bedroom producers as most would say.

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A recent discovery will also be the debut release for the collective-slash-label: "Forthcoming on Na Radhi our debut will feature DJ Unlimited Breadsticks' Grissinni Ghost EP," Ushua tells me. "We met him over the internet and he wanted to put out a release, and Lo Key and I remixed a track also." It's this combo of connectivity and communication that seems to be at the heart of this collective – it is rooted wholly in the internet: a tool for deep, wide searches on SoundCloud for new & unique music, and a way to share these and other things. "Lo Key and I bounce ideas off each other with different aspects of our production. We help each other grow as artists which is a really good thing," says Ushua. "Having similar influences in beats and other types of music, always good to trade files with someone who has a good iTunes..."

His mix is a testament to all things big and beautiful in a world built with bricks of trap and footwork, from the quasi-religious experience of Fatima Al Qadiri's track 'Szechuan', where traditional Chinese sounds meet a kind of mystical grime from under the ground in some desert somewhere, to the synth-soaked breakbeats-in-space of Lockah and Eloq's coproduction, 'Jupiter', and everything in between – Young Triforce Cat Baron's heartbreaking 'Usagi Sadness' and the clever electronic chill of the actually brilliant 'Dayum' by cln.

Ushua talks about it. "The mix is a wide variety of styles from halftime to footwork/cinematic and everything in between, much like Na Radhi there is a nice variety spanning all types of influences and genres," he says. "There are [also] a couple unreleased bootlegs/reworks and a recent release from Na Radhi's Old Ransom for ILoveMakonnen."

But I think you've probably read enough for now. Big thanks to Ushua. Please enjoy the mix.

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• T R A C K L I S T •

1. Ringatone - I'm Sprung (Joey Edit)
2. Vybz Kartel - My Crew
3. Ushua – SeanDaWhite (Demo)
4. dd elle – Kind 2 U (Demo)
5. Mr. Carmack - Extra
6. Young Triforce Cat Baron – Usagi Sadness
7. Ba-kuura – Dream Sim
8. ILoveMakonnen – I Mix My (Ushua Adn Edit)
9. Fatima Al Qadiri – Szechuan
10. Arnold – IDC
11. cln – Dayum
12. DJ Paypal X Ticklish – Worst Behavior
13. DJ Unlimited Breadsticks – ??? (Ushua X Lo Key Dst Remix) Forthcoming on Na Radhi
14. Lockah & Eloq – Jupiter
15. Ryan Hemsworth – Weird Life (Druid Cloak Remix)
16. Jagged Edge – He Can't Love You (Ticklish Reboot)
17. T-Pain – Drankin' Patna (Ushua Remix)
18. ILoveMakonnen – Club Going Up on a Tuesday (Old Ransom Bootleg)

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☟ Ushua Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Twitter • Na Radhi

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STARLIT EVERGLADES – PRETTY ARCADE EP

It was many moons ago, many many moons ago, that I first encountered this particular musicmaker. In fact, I think the last time I wrote about him was back in July 2013. Since then, well – everything has been a whirlwind of uncontrollable speed. It's impossible to keep up with everything all the time. But who cares? Whatever right? RIGHT? So, anyway, this is Starlit Everglades and a long time ago I found his music, wrote about it – in particular his tune 'Mylotic' – enjoyed it. He made a kind of soaring lo-fi dreamscape, a majestic unearthly sound that seemed to gallop through your mind with all the relaxing intensity of a phantom horse.

But now, now now now – now is a different story. Fast forward for um however many months it's been and we arrive here, where Starlit Everglades is releasing a new EP that sounds gloriously different to his earlier stuff. It's quite incredible, the development that's gone on here. Hip hop influences abound, perhaps more trip hop, and the quality is higher than ever – he's clearly improved as a producer and it's really great to hear it. The EP is called Pretty Arcade and it sounds a bit like this (although I think this is just a preview).

It works as a series of three connected tracks. In title, it moves from a 'Pretty Arcade', to asking somebody 'Twirl For Me', and finally the command 'Undress' – as if on a date, the mood becomes one that is hungry for romance, if not outright lustful. In sound, too, it feels as if this is a journey from the realistic, grounded beats of 'Pretty Arcade', with its bubblesome electronics, coin-grabbing samples and recordings of real-life public places (maybe an arcade, and perhaps even a pretty one); through 'Twirl For Me' whose playful romance and dreamy sensuality – in the super-reverbing breathy vocal samples, glistening glockenspiels, tick-tocking almost urgent beat and filmic strings – echo that post-date feeling, if everything has gone well, of walking together, wandering, meandering the streets with no particular inclination or even care as to where you're heading.

And then there's the end: 'Undress'. It's a blanket of hyper nostalgia with an intro of crackles that make it seem as if the hairs on the back of your neck are sticking up, a pre-sexual out-of-body experience, a sense of wonder at what you're beholding – waves of thick synth like rose-tinted visions pulse in time with the heart-thudding catch-your-breath kicks, with breathless vocal samples whispering pleasure into the starry void of the track.

In another sense, these 3 illustrations hide as if under a haze of nostalgic memory, a set of sounds that seem to have encased heady remembrances forever behind their dreamlike mists, as if perhaps they look better – more idealised – through this fog of time and creativity, or as if memories themselves promote this hazy sound thanks to their intoxicating nature. So basically, this is Starlit Everglades, these are his sounds: a surprise EP that will whisk you away to somewhere beautiful, either imagined or real, on a cloud of hushed, lo-fi synth powered by gently intricate yet firm beats.

• This is out on UK label Slime Recordings 21st April (& you can probably get it from their site)
• Here's an interview with Starlit Everglades exclusively for YES/NO (mmmhmmmmmmmmmm)

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Like Starlit Everglades on Facebook
Listen to Starlit Everglades on Soundcloud
Hear more Starlit Everglades on Myspace
Follow Starlit Everglades on Twitter
Check Starlit Everglades on Tumblr
Watch Starlit Everglades on YouTube

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WOOLFY – CITY LIGHTS EP

Waking up waking up is difficult especially on a Monday morning soooo why not go on a disco odyssey for 8 minutes 11 seconds? And this ain't no sweaty throwback New York dopamine-enhanced disco club disco, this is like the slow jam of disco, slo-disco, and as such it's perfect for a brain that doesn't want anything faster right now. Perfect for a brain that like, wants to wake up, but not suddenly, and definitely not anytime soon; this kind of quasi-sleep in the early morning is quite nice its own horrible little way.

And what track pray tell am I chatting about? Well, it's come aaall the way from LA and it's by a guy named Woolfy (real name Simon James) and the track is called '17' which is one of those Great Ages – others being 18, 19, 21, 23, 27 or something (this is what happens when you write early in the morning, you make shit up) – that everyone loves so much. Anyway, like I said earlier this is like slo-disco, slo-house, chilled kinda sound, and it reminded me of the sort of sounds I heard once on one of German (Munich) label Permanent Vacation's If This Is House I Want My Money Back compilations – there've only been two so far so it's one of those – which is funny cause this other track at least ostensibly has something to do with Perm Vac. After some reading, I've found that he first released music under his alter-alias Woolfy vs Projections (his The Astral Projections of Starlight album) on Permanent Vacation, so there you go.

Anyway, it comes from his newly released (14th April) City Lights EP which features two original tracks and two remixes. Here you go it's right below uh so you can listen to it.

At the beginning and at the heart of '17' the main riff is provided quite unusually by a ukelele or mandolin or something, a little toy-esque riff that gives the track a cutesy earthiness, grounding it something entirely different from what the funkily popping slightly slap-bassline and rich piano chords will have you believe. Combine this with misty swooshing tides of synth, scattered tumblings of lead blips and ever-so-often saw-wave chord stutterings, you have quite the soundscape – a mix of Del Mar flavours, coastal indie pop and late-night lounge music. Glassy organ solos enhance the atmosphere, draping it in classy inebriation; and that's not to mention the singing, which talks of some kind of romance and being 17 years old ("And when you grow up grow up to be the woman that you are / you're gonna appreciate the fact that I / kept myself away / cause you were seventeen"). Ghostly, synth-punk vocals reverbing into space with the slacker refrain that mentions sex, cigarettes, Ford Cortinas (¿¿¿ or am I deaf ???): "Couldn't care less."

It comes as the late-late-night sequel song to the first track of the EP, the eponymous 'City Lights'. It's a nicely bouncy track, a slapdash acoustic guitar riff being the foundation of the track, packed with organic percussion like shakers and gently muffled kicks and this one fluid sound that sounds like a cross between a delayed sample of water simultaneously dripping into and draining out of a sink, and tasty woodblock cloppings. This roots-indie flavour is strengthened by two additional things: a xylophone that gives the track a airily cute appeal, and of course the vocals which appear endearingly unpolished and campfiery. In fact, campfire is very much the vibe here. A beach campfire. WHICH is strange considering the song's title and its lyrics: it's about city lights. Being in the city. So in some ways, instead of making "the city" out to be this archetypal hazy, scary, hard-edged, blocky place, the magnitude of its impact is brought down a peg or two thanks to Woolfy's treatment of it – it becomes pretty and quaint, essentially having been observed from a different angle. The finishing refrain, "We live to love you…" – a perfect sing-along – tops it off as a lovesong, the so-often-done love-letter to a city, but with a refreshingly down-to-earth difference.

But wait there's more! Two remixes of '17' grace this EP, too. One by fellow LA-ppl Split Secs is a slow-builder into a synth odyssey, sawtooth boops bouncing along with retro intent in place of the more organic bassline of the original. The vocals, reverbing and dreamy before, are now much trippier, blasting off into the void with heavy delay and reverb like a weird cloud passing above. Synth lead roars into life and explodes with the same trajectory as a cosmic boiling kettle amidst the warm chords and popping clusters of melody. Francis Inferno Orchestra, from Melbourne, makes it a more intense ride, however, with clearer synths playing cosmically over the hard pulse of kicks, waves of phased-out sound blanketing it all. The second half of the track is pockmarked with laser-like synths and a mash of sounds from crashing disco hi-hats and cymbals to booming toms and thickening chords. Both remixes do different things, one is low-key and the other is imbued with much more of a sense of head-spinnery than the other, but both are excellent treatments of the original.

Soooo yeah that was Woolfy. And it will maybe (maybe) surprise you to learn that this has graced your ears today courtesy of Australian label Future Classic, who've been putting out great stuff for ages, wonderfully diverse all the way from the surgical synth of Charles Murdoch to the Drive-inspired sounds of Touch Sensitive, and this most recent release with Woolfy (his debut with the label) continues a much-loved series of sounds with dance/electronic-leanings that ooze originality as much as they do quality and loveable quirks.

• Grab this if u like it from iTunes now or just stream it forever on SoundCloud
• Or hang on if you like vinyls it exists in 10" form too

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Like Woolfy on Facebook
Listen to Woolfy on SoundCloud

Like Split Secs on Facebook
Listen to Split Secs on SoundCloud

Like Francis Inferno Orchestra on Facebook
Listen to Francis Inferno Orchestra on SoundCloud

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