🐣 NITEROOMS — HEADWAY

One of our favourite tracks of 2017 so far now and yeah that's 100% sincere and it's this track by South Wales trio Niterooms. What makes it so interesting? Well, there it isn't just the atmosphere of the track—that in itself is intriguing, a swirl of a picture so melancholy so swooning sad, but at the same time so interestingly done, so nuanced, that it cannot be called simply sad but needs to be addressed for its tight and stylistic attention to detail. The drums tap and tick, thump and thud with all the laid-back authority that trap-infused percussion commands, helped into a realm of oozing monochrome and disappointment by fantasy guitar that twangs and resonates all liquid oblivion. The basic effective dynamic achieved by removing the hi-hats and letting the beat click naked in a tide of sub, the structural ease of it calms the spirit, nothing to remember, nothing to challenge, only a story to hear, a painting to be engulfed in.

Niterooms are from Brithdir, "a small forgotten mining town in South Wales," and fittingly their music sounds like that of something forgotten, something discarded, something glittering and vital left at the bottom of an empty well, the tatters of a dream now whipped into some semblance of being by sheer emotive energy. Whilst a "band" they manage to create the same soundscapes that you'd hear in Drakean pop, that sort of post-R&B trap-flavoured sound with confessional lyrics, a candid soul laid bare in the whirls of something dreamy and unreal. The vocals croon low on the brink of despair and in various meters, quick triplets mixed in with slow lines. A clear lament of lost love, sorrow as old as time, like the story of Orpheus that moved even ghosts as he ventured to find his wife in the Underworld.

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• 🔔 'Headway' is taken from the band's debut self-titled EP, which you can stream on Spotify (recommended).
• 🔔 The suitably hazy visuals for the video above were conceived and created by Ed Townend.

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🐣 ELMARI — YOU KNOW ME

Taken on some sort of spacewalk now, the long weightless sway into starry void, the cosmic vacuum just existing there and a figure slowly spinning into some oblivion, it's not loneliness they feel as they drift but more a sense of solitary contentment, the secret mystery of oneness unfolding itself in the expanse. That is what it feels like anyway, 'You Know Me' by East London producer ElMari, it feels very space-destined, future-aligned, and that is first and foremost down to the nature of those synth chords: stripes of the heavens swipe in thin fizzing neon swathes of sound. But of course it's not just the actual quality of the sound itself, it's how that sound progresses that gives it this windingly slow velocity.

It's also the decreased attack and relatively low sustain of the synth which gives it that slow-motion feeling, along with the sparse beat, well placed clusters of hi-hat ticks and clacking snares as well as the syncopated solidity of the robust kicks, this lack of accentuation minimal nature summon that galactic feel, the simple melodic twinkling of synth mirrors the sparkle of distant celestial bodies, and the rumble of modulated bass in the middle gives intensity and power. But within there is something human, the vocal sample, stammering and effusing a sultry R&B flavour, and suddenly it wasn't a solitary spacewalk but an low-gravity airlock sex scene that this track conjures. Or maybe it's both.

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• 🔔 More of ElMari's releases can be found over on his Bandcamp for download and listening purposes.

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🐣 ELMARI X GREG WANDERS X MUDCHUTE — WHATEVER [初演 • PREMIERE]

The feeling of romance sweeps through this track like a, like a bank of clouds making their gradual way across a sun-filled deep blue sky, present and washing over you in swathes of delicious textures and soulful nuances. Clonking chimes summon this glorious naive love, a certain innocence in their gleaming golden chords, each resounding with canyons of space between, the moments drawn out lusciously like the longing between liaisons with a lover, not lust exactly but lovesickness, a deep crush, the beat slow and swaying, the atmosphere sultry yet fresh. Greg Wanders, who is behind the vocals on this collaborative track, was inspired by that feeling.

"I listened to it a couple times and the general vibe was something I could imagine listening to with that special someone," he tells us, "so I decided to direct my energy towards that field." He croons accordingly with a feeling of gentle detachment, floating above the world, heart fluttering, suiting the almost sleepy vibe in the instrumental.

'Whatever' also features fellow Londoner, producer ElMari, as well as Liverpool-based musicmaker Mudchute, and was the product, as ElMari wrote to us in an email, of a meeting between the three artists in London in the summer: "We got in the studio one day in September and we vibed and then we made this." The rhythm, the space, and the textures of this track combine beautifully together, the space hanging between sounds bristling with energy and strewn with muttering vocal samples and fizzy sounds. Lounge-flavoured synth chords paint a sense of utter chillment, the slow nodding motion of them bouncing along with the warm bass bloops, the percussion keeping time with a crunch of snare and gloopy kicks. And let us not forget that guitar, adding an instant heat to the track with its muffled but scorching virtuosity.

Part lullaby, part slow jam, 'Whatever' is a dreamy, brightly glistening send-off into the arms of a fellow human being who wants to spend a large portion of their time with you.

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🐣 IMONI — MONEY

In a world of swirling neo-noir, a place of hazy soft synth chords modulating subtly, London singer IMONI weaves her vocal amidst the offbeat stutters of a drumtrack that swings with nocturnal cool, thudding kicks and sumptuous clacking snares and the sharp popping hi-hats that skip and skitter alternately. 'Money' verges on melancholic, a moody whirl of music that utilises the chilled and stifled nature of the muffled synths to conjure a breezy sort of seriousness, whilst bass with electric bounce exercises its future-leaning sound on the atmosphere for stark colour against the gloom, spots on neon-pastel on a near-black charred grey void, a stark sense of being by yourself in vast space.

"I was always in the habit of writing sad songs, but recently I’ve started writing about what makes me feel good and it’s been empowering for me," explains the musicmaker in a press release. "‘Money’ is about me not letting other people’s negativity affect me, being care-free and focusing on myself as I begin my music career." There is certainly an aloof feel to IMONI's vocal, the lilting soul acrobatics switching between a crooning voice in the dark and spoken word calm in full control: "think i'm gonna settle down / boy don't mess around / it's about time that i let you down a little bit / but can you handle it." Reverb drips from the words, whether creaking and colloquial or singing out emotive and fluttering, giving the track a sense of expanse, of endless possibilities, the apprehensive but hopeful feeling of the first step on a journey, the brink of a waterfall.

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• 🔔 IMONI is currently working on her debut Serendipity EP.

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SAMUEL – THESE DAYS

Ever since I first heard Samuel's debut EP, Falling Star I was hooked. Here was a very fresh, very haunting new voice seeping into the music world. The EP was produced by Okzharp (of London-based outfit LV) and paired Samuel's aching vocals with a futuristic post-R&B sort of sound to a stunning degree of hypnotic clarity – though his voice, both then and now, feels as if it transcends any association with "dat future bass". Just like Samuel as a person, his voice is unique.

So thankfully this rare voice, this anti-commonplace set of vocal chords and their unconventional owner, is back for your ears to enjoy, beaming themselves into a new morsel of music called 'These Days'. Produced by London producer Kwes, it's a different sound to the type that graced the Falling Star EP – the cold, glacial, future-forward sounds are gone. However, the minimalism, which basically translates to the producer's careful consideration with Samuel's voice, is still there.

The production is bright, summerful and sunny, soft and soothing synth chords cushioning the vocals, with pockmarking plunks of bass left to peddle their simple subtleties below the meandering croons of Samuel rather than rumbling in-your-face. Clusters of homemade-sounding DIY-esque percussion clink and clankle in the chorus alongside shakers and the lonely thud of a kick as Samuel sings the cryptic hook, "These days are brighter than the sun, so tell me what you want / tell me what you want" – a sentiment reflected in the dripping innocence of this heat-warped music.

What else is good about this? The soaring vibe, the delicious synth sounds, the whole atmospheric, far-off feeling, the spirit of new romance, the deepness of the vocals coated in rich textures snaking through this cloud of production like a lone bird hovering silhouetted against vast blue, or even a the fleeting glint of a passenger plane caught by shards of sunlight amidst nonchalant clouds as it flies lonely and steady out of sight.

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• Please feel free to pre-order 'These Days' from Ninja Tune online shop (the Ninjashop) – or from Bandcamp. It gets released on 31st July via Ninja Tune subsidiary Big Dada.

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EVY JANE – CLOSER [VIDEO]

This is the brand new video from Vancouver-dwelling Canadian duo, Evy Jane, comprising of Evelyn Jane, whose voice you will hear ghostly smooth throughout the track, and Jeremiah Klein, who provides the thicket of sounds through which you follow the vocals like faint lights in a pulsing gloomy forest. It's an awesome pairing, one which has seen a self-titled release on lovely Canadian label King Deluxe, and now one that has led them to London's Ninja Tune with an upcoming EP, Closer, from which this track is clearly taken.

I was hooked from the start: that rat-tat-tat on the snare & the instantaneous dive into this plunge pool of never-static sounds – it's always fluid, always in motion as if itching for action, as if in anticipation. The synths groan and intonate in languorous pitch bends as slow arpeggios fade in and out like patches of dappled sunlight through gnarled tree boughs; all the while the beat sways in slow-jam consideration, the languid metronome for this distorted subversion of R&B, where Evelyn herself is not a diva but a phantom of diva-essence, drawing you into the glowing mist of her voice.

A soaring yet sludgy post-R&B number, the video comes courtesy of Kyle Bowman, aka Strawberry Jacuzzis, whose vision for the track was one "seen through a kaleidoscopic lens of fuzzy hallucinogens". It fits the narcotic warpings and distortions at work in the music, lo-fi, garbled with static and uncontrollable glitching layers of itself. Beautiful, in tandem with the sounds.

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VOYAGER – PARSEC

Just to clear things up to begin with, a parsec is "A parsec is an astronomical unit of distance derived by the theoretical annual parallax of one arc second, and is found as the inverse of that measured parallax" (thanks Wikipedia), wherein 1 parsec is equal to 3.08567758 × 10^16 metres – of course. Duh. What else is new?

It's a pretty big distance. Big distance for a big place: SPACE. I wonder if it's longer than a light year… (just looked it up, IT IS). So it's like... just a different measurement. Even in space there's a metric/imperial-style confusion and conflict at work. We never learn.

So anyway, now that that's outta the way we can have a listen to 'Parsec' by VOYAGER, or stylised V O Y A G E R (but it's too much effort to write every time) on his actual SoundCloud, the moniker of musicmaker Paco Santos from Manila. 'Parsec' is a basically a groovesome piece of music that finds its feet in funk as much as it does in the slow sensuality of R&B.

Beginning with a glorious palm-muted guitar intro, suggesting that we will be delving into a wholly funky number, we soon find out that we're in something else entirely, something a bit more intergalactic or spacey, suiting the track's name. This is a soaring morsel, deliciously rich with ever-reverbing piano chords that provide a beautiful blanket of noise on top of which everything else sits quite nicely – below this, the bassline ascends and descends, supporting the slow, R&B-style beat. There's something ultimately chilled about this, laid-back, barely sung vocals echoing amidst the smart synth arpeggios and lead guitar-esque melodies.

It's basically like a cross between a pop song and a vision of what indie music might actually be in the future – without going as far as saying it's outright funk, R&B (not least with the "future-" prefix), chillwave, whatever. Really genuinely beautiful & catchy stuff here.

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FAST BOO TIMES SQUARE [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Something for you from Spain (or Catalonia, depends on your view), or more specifically, Barcelona. It arrives in the form of a new project from duo RCA Flacos (a union between DJ/producers Jai el Flaco and RCA Victor, named after the blues, jazz & world music label of the same name) – a brand new, project in fact, named Fast Boo. Whether or not it references a particularly zippy ghost from Mario, they released their very latest, newest and only single last month in the form of 'Times Square'.

A medley of instruments and vocals – with the voices of B. Gina, Crizz Vazz & Rico Smith, Quim Muns on bass and Roger Martínez providing saxophone – the track was ultimately conceived by Fast Boo. It's a futuristic track that plays with the current intergalactic style of R&B floating around now, the kind of thing that sheds its shackles to the Earth and soars out into space with a pair of shutter shades and all the surgical sheen of a neat, catwalk-born astronaut. The deep bass kicks, sometimes accompanied by a gently distorted slice of bass, underpin a phasing set of synth chords that glisten in waves of climactic vibration.

With this, the vocals follow the same melody as the saxophone in a slow pattern that exudes the wonderment of witnessing some landscape for the first time, or recalling the slow nostalgia of such a memory, as is the case here (I assume) with regards to the bustling lightshow of Times Square. Altered sometimes into vocoder spaceman style wordings, the vocals add a human element to the track that keeps it, whilst in space, at least in orbit around our little planet. It's a sumptuous song that drips modernity, alongside small snippets of memory in the form of 80s snare-drum smashes, with a sensual groove that has you swaying in swirls of indefinable bliss.

If this is the first thing that Fast Boo are offering to the world – a post-R&B, slo-swing pop number – we probably have many more treats in store from these guys as time goes on.

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LAZY INTERVIEW #16: SAMUEL

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← #15: ARISTOPHANES 貍貓 #17: BOTANY →

Here's a thing. It's time. Time for another Lazy Interview. The series is coming along nicely now. Sure is. You could, if you wanted to, actually have a flick back through past Q&As in the series - you can do that literally by just clicking where it says "INTERVIEWS" above. That's only if you want to. No one is forcing you. Hmmm.

So anyway yeah this is the latest one. It was a relatively quick turnaround. From pitching this guy to Dummy, getting a glowing green-light, writing about his Falling Star EP for them, and then writing about it for me (here), and then actually sending him the below questions, it's been a week since I first heard Samuel's music. Who is he? Well, this no-surnamed enigma of a man is a singer who recently released an EP, co-produced by Okzharp, that not only pushed boundaries musically - with a super smooth intergalactic post-R&B feel - but that also acted as a showcase for Samuel's voice; it has dynamic fluidity and capacity for expression that feels fresh at all times.

In any case, let us read.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
I am Samuel and I make music bits. I live in Lewisham, from the green shores of Ireland.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
Just to feel better, really. Sadder, funn-er, detached-er-er, hopefuller. Lovinger. All the er's.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
I find it hard to process many things at once. I am loyal. I like clear bits. To hear fucking beautiful sounds and not want to overcrowd that beauty. Space to let the bits breathe. Milky. Milk with edge. Gangsta milk. Um, I don't know that it stands out. I don't know that it's good. I know that I am in it and that I feel that it is probably me within it, by the time I get to you hearing it.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
At night. When your body settles and your mind starts to close out, in a field with a scotch egg and folk that you love.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
Love.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
Growing up in catholic convents, singing to the Jesus doll. If you allow yourself to believe in him, singing to him can blow your fucking heart out.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
Tramp and Tom Waits - Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet
The Abyssinian Baptist Choir - I Want To Ride That Glory Train
+ I really gotta settle on the third coz the finality of this is making me palpitate.

Who do you most admire in the music world?
I try to keep my blinkers in place. I guess music for me is glued into a therapeutic need/want/mess. I make it because I need to. I don't need to share it or have it dazzle out my ego but I do need it. So I find it hard to listen to other peoples music. I would like to have music friends but I can't. Ha! It's painful, doll.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
I don't care to know this. Who could care? If I could know the face of my first born froglette, I'd probably just wait. Or the day to die. Yea, some things should be care-less.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
I hope to keep making it. Maybe I could share it, or perform it to folk who like it. To keep making music.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
Hair. I know a day will come when it shall leave me and that makes me sad. But then, there are sadder things to feel sad about.

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Samuel seems to have appeared from nowhere, with nothing but the beautiful Falling Star EP under his belt - a mystery as much as he is a talent. The above at least sheds a little more light on him. A little more. He seems genuine - wanting to create music to enhance everything: to "feel better" in every respect. In some ways, excluding himself from the current music world by keeping his "blinkers" in place, it not only allows him to concentrate on his own development as an artist, but it also allows his sound to be unpolluted by anything as fickle as fashion, the transient trends in music not affecting his sound.

And what about his sound? Well, you'd better check out the EP if you haven't done so already. Then you'll see that he pretty much sticks to what he says about not wanting to overcrowd beauty - it is a stark collection of sounds, something that allows each note to breathe, each element of each song never goes too far, never suffocates other elements, everything growing organically together in stunning simplicity. All he is concentrated on is his sound, his music, or rather the process of making music, being able to leave part of himself behind in each song without worrying too much about the result, or even the future at large - doing things in the moment. He said it best: "I make it because I need to." When something is this necessary to a person, no real influence can be made on it. It's pure.

Losing one's hair is also a sobering thought.

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← #15: ARISTOPHANES 貍貓 #17: BOTANY → - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
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SAMUEL FALLING STAR EP

Sparks of brilliance sometimes just come from nowhere without any forewarning. Such is the case with London-based Samuel, an enigmatic no-surnamed Irish-born singer & songmaker. Recently he has worked with Gervase Gordon, aka Okzharp - 1/3 of London trio LV - to produce this brand new Falling Star EP.

It's a collection of sounds that have really put a spin on the world of R&B, falling much more into a kind of swirling post-R&B protoplasma, a place where all the form and style of "urban" music is taken from the streets and blasted into far-flung galaxies where physicality is something dreamt-up. Much of this is owing to the noises that in all their careful minimalism make for an enormous atmosphere of a futuristic space-age of music. There are distorted delayed synths in the menacing subby sea of 'Death Star Wonder', sounds of lasers rippling by like a neon-tinged dogfight in space - which is kinda perfect as the song is an intergalactic vision of dancehall-flavoured music, a club night orbiting Earth where there is no day, only the eternally danceable night.

Likewise, in 'Boom Boom Boom', the ultra-clean snapping beat of "present-day" R&B becomes an otherwordly, liquidly-distorted bounce, the romantic pizzicato strings become ultra-computerised beeps. Hip hop faces the future in the short-n-sweet title track 'Falling Star', its shuffling rhythm combining sharp synth chords with fidgeting lead bleeps that become more and more paranoiac towards the end of the song. Here also, Samuel's vocals themselves go through a change with a Jamaican lilt that he clearly seems to enjoy singing with, feeling each note with a longing ache.

One of the crucial elements of all good R&B is of course the voice and it's no different here. Samuel's soulful vocals change to suit each track; they're clean and almost sing-along in 'Death Star Wonder', holding up against the harsh sounds of the song; then there's his tongue-in-cheek parody of contemporary R&B with some of the lines in 'Boom Boom Boom' - "Errbody say hey, hey", mentioning "East Coast" and "West Coast", and declaiming "I'm not a fighter. I'm a lover, baby" halfway through. But in 'Steam Train' his vocals are softer, wrapped in a thin mist of hush that totally suits the slow chill of the song - it's a perfect start to the EP, one that instantly introduces the glistening melodies of imagined planets before going into a gloriously minimalistic verse: each sound is left to resound by itself, Samuel's voice given space to reverb heavenly over everything else.

I wrote about this EP for Dummy magazine at the end of last week. It's difficult to sum it up using different words than I used in that article, so I think what I'll do is just copy and paste them here. Yeah, it's lazy, I know, but, well, maybe there's just no other way to say what I think, ever consider that? "These are isolated idylls of romance; all of it holds reminders of traditional modern pop music, yet its far-flung progressive sound makes it something much more exciting." Pretty much. Where will we find Samuel's voice next? Singing in a pod slowly making its way across the universe... Perhaps not, but if ever there was a sound to remember when the sound of R&B music begins turning its head towards the endless chasm of the future, it's this Falling Star EP.

PS. This is released on Ninjatune affiliate, Technicolour.

PPS. Check out my interview with Samuel!

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