THEO ALEXANDER — BRIGHT-EYED HUNGER

⌾ LISTEN TO BRIGHT-EYED HUNGER BY THEO ALEXANDER ⌾

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Wild and skittering, the melodies weaving into each other in London composer Theo Alexander’s ‘Bright-eyed Hunger’ at first appear nursery rhyme in nature. They skip and dance in a sort of random uniformity, naturalistic but synthetic. Piano glides in, cool and glassy, counteracting the frenzied woodwinds; gradually this set of jovial intricacies becomes a cohesive whole.

Beneath it all, beneath the dappled light on leaves and insects tumbling in the air, an unknown something looms large — the “hunger” to the otherwise “bright-eyed” sentiment of the song — organic and growling, a carnivorous spirit shuddering inside the body of a double bass (played by George Cremaschi). As light and playful as Alexander makes this track seem on the surface, underneath it is positively snarling.

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• 🔔 'Bright-eyed Hunger' is the first track taken from Theo Alexander's upcoming Sunbathing Through A Glass Screen, out 21st May on Canadian label Arts & Crafts. You can pre-order it on limited edition 12" vinyl on Bandcamp now.

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☟ Theo Alexander Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ bandcamp ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram

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🐣 MOON BOOTS — THE LIFE AQUATIC

Diving right into the watery depths now is Moon Boots, whose latest track 'The Life Aquatic' is alive with liquid-leaning sounds, a sensation of floating through an undersea expanse, the mystery and panic of below the waves illustrated with just a few simple elements. Keeping momentum, bravery as the light is almost dim around you, a well crafted kick drum thuds through it all with sheafing hi-hats shaking alongside, a thin snare counting down the time you've been in this submarine world. An arpeggio of modulating synth, sometimes soft and muted, other times sharp and abrasive, plays a bubblesome melody, supplemented by steel drum pings at certain points, the notes shifting dramatically with a baroque chord change, lending a sense of majestic urgency, of being very small in a very big place.

Downcast almost gloomy synth javelins through with ambience, laserlike, futuristic, reflecting the alien nature of our obscure oceans—according to the USA's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association, humans have explored only 5% of this territory, though it makes up 70% of the earth's surface. It might as well be a different galaxy. Further allusions to the secretive seas are made in the synth vox that seems to call into the distance, illustrating the vast underwater world with reverb fizzling into the furthest stretches of vision in the big blue of it all.

Perhaps being titled 'The Life Aquatic' (probably named after that film) helps with all this imagery, but still the track suits it very well, you can imagine the slow-moving wetsuited diver in the cover art above, uncovering unknown places in the deep, fear as much as wonder summoned in the glorious melody that does not cut out or fade out but achingly beautifully slows down, the ending of a symphony, halting with realisation: is it a marvel of a discovery or unimaginable peril that looms in that final note?

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• 🔔 You who are reading this can download 'The Life Aquatic' if you choose to do so. The track arrives on independent label Anjunadeep.

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📠
☟ Moon Boots Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ songkick ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ youtube ⚘ instagram

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NO ROME – I SPEND ENDLESS DAYS THINKING OF DIFFERENT WAYS

Last time Philippines-based artist No Rome featured on YES/NO was quite a while ago – it was his emotive song 'Heaven', written about the tragic and untimely passing away of a friend, that not only caught the attention of the brain connected to the ears that live on the same body as the fingers typing these words, but that also provided an earworming melody that is still hummed and sung infrequently to this day. If that's what counts as a successful song, then 'Heaven' was a huge success indeed.

This time around he has surprise-dropped a track with a nice long title that also rhymes: 'i spend endless days thinking of different ways'. Sampling Trey Songz and referencing Slowdive in the lyrics, No Rome once again displays his knack for creating a thick blanket of sounds, luscious and floating, textured and bristling with gently merging melodic mists; ostensibly this begins as an ultra-chilled version of an R&B slow jam, chiming clouds of sound and his indomitable talent for pop vocal patterns helping the surge of flavours all the more tasty.

Hints of percussion and fragmented beats appear but it's not until halfway that snappy, understated beat appears alongside interwoven pitch-shifted vocal sample clusters — then inexplicably and without warning, the song shifts up a gear and becomes a rollicking cycle of much faster breakbeats, all of it smashed out and abrasive with sparkles of hardcore winking in the crunchy overdriven drums; samples continue to chipmunk-chatter, synths continue to wash and glisten, all until the track fades abruptly into a harsh velcro of actual wall of scathing white noise for the finale.

A massive surprise and a welcome switch between genres that not only keeps the listener on their toes, but shows huge potential for an artist who has already shown himself to be (seemingly) effortlessly multi-styled – and all without it jarring. It blends – and that's what we like.

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• No Rome is part of Philippines collective YoungLiquidGang, which also counts amongst its members Ulzzang Pistol, Local Disk (C:) and Valiant Vermin.

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☟ No Rome Social Media Presence ☟
Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter • Tumblr

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