🐣 POLES — MOTION FT. SOFT JAW

⌾ LISTEN TO POLES, MOTION FEAT JAW ⌾

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The elastic instruments of 'Motion' is something that gives it the dynamic energy that absorbs you and then bounces you away, the rubber sway of the stumbling-down-a-corridor synths, an intoxicated sound that feels like a twirling mind. Not just the flapping synth, but the zooming acceleration and then dead stops of the bass give it this kineticism. It's a minimalist, leftfield approach to R&B, as producer Poles explains over email.

"I knew I wanted my music to continue in that direction as opposed to the more poppy, future bass music I was writing," he writes. "'Motion' draws from my history in hip-hop, but incorporates my love of odd, bass-hitting electronic music. The fusion gave us something really unique."

Not just the plasma synths, nor the taffy heft of the bass, or the punchball training thuds of bass drum that pummel throughout, but the twisted musicbox clinks, the phantomatic chords that squeak across the glossy surface of 'Motion' like a disjointed dancer, add to that definitively unconventional approach to musicmaking.

A slice of normality comes at the end, the piano, damaged and dusty, like the sun rising after club sojourns, the haze of alcohol exorcising itself from the spirit; Poles' hazy full stop to vocalist Soft Jaw's pitch shifted croons that gave this track its sultry, nocturnal character.

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• 🔔 Download and stream the Poles and Soft Jaw collaboration 'Motion' via your fav platform.

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🐣 THE ENTREPRENEURS — JOAQUIN

⌾ LISTEN TO JOAQUIN BY THE ENTREPRENEURS ⌾

The open road tumbling ahead, the scenery struggling to appear correctly because of just how quickly you're moving along it. This is the sense of wild freedom that explodes out of 'Joaquin' by Danish band The Entrepreneurs; thick bass and guitars with frazzled distortion play rumbling and loose with drums thumping out a frolicking heartbeat. It's a galloping horse, a rushing train, a dog with its head out the window as a car speeds on an open highway.

But you soon realise the song isn't a pure celebration of freedom—it's a yearning for it, tearing a space for yourself in the fabric of the world. The vocals suddenly yell out:

"Feels like / We should / Take a trip outside / See what’s all around / In this part of town / Where the lights are out / And the doors are unlocked at night / And time flies right on by..."

From that moment, 'Joaquin' is more than just a powering engine: it's a heartfelt casting off of a hometown, like shedding skin. It's painful, though it's something that feels necessary. It explodes poetically with the desire for moving onwards, with almost childlike imagery that evokes absurd visions: "Get away / I might just get away / This place is way too small / Standing 8 feet tall in an 18th century hall."

That childlike nature continues into the instrumental itself: the guitar and bass guitar turn playful, pedalling over each other in twists and turns of math rock style arpeggios as the song becomes quiet and introspective as singer Mathias Bertelsen asks, "What comes to the one who stays around?"

And as much as the dreary feeling of trapped in a small town courses through your veins, there's an unending nostalgia attached to it that chills your heart to think you ever wanted to leave in the first place. And this is the romantic soundscape The Entrepreneurs have created: the crushing joy of running free from the only thing you've ever known.

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• 🔔 You can stream and/or purchase the lovely 'Joaquin' by new indie rock trio The Entrepreneurs over on their their Bandcamp. It's taken from their upcoming album Noise & Romance scheduled for release on 1st February 2019. Pre-order also on Bandcamp if you like what you hear.

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☟ The Entrepreneurs Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 CLAIRO — 2 HOLD U

Aiii, this song floats with all the optimism of a hopeful romantic, as much as a cute comic strip as a beautiful tract of balladic understatement, the pounds and ounces of a crush fall hard in your hard, the weight of it visible in the happysadness of those chords—those chords, broad and breezy, stuck in a cycle of major-minor grief and grandiose hope, not robust and oaky like a real piano, but stripped-back electronic and lo-fi and tinny and small-sounding like a toy piano, but which gives it this feeling of an impromptu burst of feeling, like if a livelong is getting played now then now it will be and with any instrument I have to hand. There is a spontaneity in Boston artist Claire Cottrill aka Clairo's internetty love letter '2 Hold U', a sudden dazzling flare from the warmth of fond feelings for another human, and one that exudes true versatility and originality as much as being highly relatable.

As the drum machine click and thud of the beat drives the song along, the rhythm of a half-depressed window-gazing gold of a rainy day spent pining and yearning, Clairo's vocal seems to effuse from the music, almost ghostly in effect but vital and current, the sweet tone of it lilting in subtle curves as it spins simple lines like "everywhere i go i just see you, i see you"—glorious down-to-earth listicle lyrics like, "i wrote it down, i told my mom, my friends all know we get along / i want you to want me too." And as if to counter this romance, slices of chiptune-tinged electronica find their way into the track, one such being a descending melodic breakdown in the middle the flavour of lightly salted gloominess; and the other, the song's finale, dramatic melancholy 16-bit chords that crumble the song's otherwise sunny outlook, beneath its breeziness the truth swirls solemn and serious.

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• 🔔 This is one of many great tracks taken from Clairo's SoundCloud, and also tracks that are reposted which she features in. Her most current original track 'Flamin' Hot Cheetos' is an endearing minimalist's dream of lo-fi beats-and-vocals only.

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🐣 GIRAFFAGE — SLOWLY FEAT. MATOSIC

The freefall bounce of this track, the fun of it, the joy of it, the muted sparkle of its soft pastel ping pong arpeggios, the thick modulating synths, the glooping subtle heartbeat boom of the kicks, the unexpected switches that it goes through, the undeniable romance effusing from it. The first dynamic twist, the staccato chords alongside acrobatic synth bassline, the vocals panning left to right with each word, the fizzling catapulting energy of this part, and the chorus launching like a jet ski on sapphire teal seas, the simple French touch feel of the beat allowing those rich synths and the croon of the vocals to truly sparkle, tropical summer atmosphere bubbling up like heat distortion.

And! Another dramatic turn, the energy toning down from this azure beachtime clarity to something tinged with much more slow, much more ache, Giraffage and co-producing feature-spot Matosic opening up a glittering dreamworld halfway through 'Slowly', the glisten of digital synth keys and the gorgeous major-minor jazz-lounge chords in their complexity glassy wonderful in this new quiet space of the track, exuding a very vintage R&B atmosphere, with its snapping fingerclicks and pitch-shifted vocal and tinkling chimes, the texture made even more nuanced with the sound of birdsong trickling in, a sprinkle of nature in the midst of this cradle of loving electronics, the whole thing a physiological heart-pumping reaction to a crush and the idealist hopeful infatuated thoughts that go with it.

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• 🔔 'Slowly', featuring New York-based producer Michael Matosic aka Matosic, is taken from Giraffage's upcoming debut album, Too Real, scheduled for release on 20th October via Counter Records.

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☟ Giraffage Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 SHUNYA — MOUNTAIN GAZER

Atmospheric, chilled, this is a Romantic piece of swaying electronica crossed with actual instruments, a morsel of music as stark and fresh as a cold Spring day with the sun out and the sky blue dotted with white tufts of cloud. It comes from Irish musicmaker Alan Keary aka Shunya, who adds the muted glitter of plucked guitar and soaring lilts of violin freely; flute, chilled and jazz-tinged, blows through airily, and saxophone adds peals of soul later on, a whole host of tones and timbres, representing the very non-uniform variety of mountain slopes and escarpments. This Bonobo-flavoured track is called 'Mountain Gazer'.

Succulent percussion layered and rich clicks and tick-tocks sumptuously, providing that texture like a stream rippletrickling around rocks and breezed leaves sheafing and rustling together creaking trees footsteps crunch-scraping on pathway gravel all at once—lovely organic instinctual noises. The explosive handclaps, thuds, clunking noises, snare hits, hi-hats, rainsticks, shakers, all of this adds its rhythmic ambience to the wavy segments of sidechained sound, the rumble of bass and warm chords, fading in and out. This sonic scenery, its mix of instruments, the culmination of it all, feels just like the detached drama of looking at a mountain landscape—ridges into the distance, peaks into the sky, between the green earth and vaulting blue.

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• 🔔 This track comes from Shunya's Mountain Gazer pt.2 EP, available for listening and purchasing on Bandcamp.

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🐣 SMTHN — INTERFERENCE [初演 • PREMIERE]

Something special arrives today. It's literally draped in pulchritude, a slo-mo slam-dunk, homerun into a deep cloudless blue, b-e-a-u-t-i-f-u-l, do you get it? smthn graces us with 'interference', freshly farmed, just juiced, poured up and here it is in this milkshake glass of a site—here, you can taste it. The track has already been wrapped in superlatives but let's give it some more.

This soundular item bumps and bubbles, contrasting pools deep with calm where a sparse beat staggers along, all mellow sub and drip-drop, where a vocal sample urges plaintively "I'll be the one for you", contrasting this with segments where the kick thumps hard booming and the hi-hats t--t--t-t-ttt-tt-tick and the snare snaps and the synth flutters like a nervous heartbeat, the sliced vocal stutters and pops. It all feels somewhat frosty, like being able to see your breath on a school morning in winter.

The clarion call of the synths is difficult to ignore, the agility of their alterations, the bass-to-treble slide into the chorus like an awakening, exciting, instantly addictive; on the other hand: the gorgeous room to breathe throughout gives the song a precious delicate feel, as if the sounds created do not wish to say more than they feel they deserve, echoing the statement made by that aching vocal again and again.

What is said, in this case, is as valuable as what isn't said, and the spaces between the luscious noises that vibrate in this vessel are bristling with energy and emotion, like the silence after a secret whisper.

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• 🔔 smthn is a new new musicmaker, having uploaded just two tracks to SoundCloud. Listen to 'pale', also emotive, icy, breathy—another beautiful exercise in sound and silence.
• 🔔 Both 'pale' and 'interference' are available to download for free. Do it and play it to your friends and tell them it's smthn.

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☟ smthn Internet Presence ☟
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EEVEE – FORGET YUR NAME

The first I heard from this Netherlands-based (is it Netherlands or the Netherlands and if so WHY does it need a definitive article, like Ukraine and the Ukraine, what's the difference? Is it an area? Is it a country?) beatmaker was a track called 'Opium'. And I was gonna write about it too; the gloomy rain-washed synth sounds of its Japanese scale melody really sounded like the theme for the Ruins of Alph in Pokémon Gold/Silver, though I don't think they're exactly the same. But I was totally hooked on the watercolour dripping half-decayed evaporating quality of the synth sounds, like listening to an ancient cassette tape with fresh beats laid beneath it for support and clarification.

That was until I heard 'Forgot yur name' and then I knew I had to write about this one because it's just so ... wow. It's a tract of minimalism in beatmaking, an exercise in polished antiquity in music, of creating fossilised music from a fresh mind and body and giving it those hairline fissures and lo-fi anti-gloss of authenticity.

[The beatmaker is stylistically called E e v e e but I'ma type Eevee; also I think it's short for Eveline but there's no surname, and it seems that she's from Dordrecht, Netherlands and that's all we know.]

The beats on this track thud with authoritative intensity, the kicks full and dust-disturbing, the snares clacking and crushed, with the hint of other percussion haunting the spaces between sounds of this track the whiff of golden age noir nostalgia permeating the air like rare perfume balmy nights balcony the nearby seashore whispering in the luxury-lit gloam surrounding the white stucco walls of the hotel. It's that kinda vibe you get me?

Then there's that sampled string insturment, a romantic tone and melody but played with as if listened to when high or drunk or both, the frequency dropping in and out of perfect pitch, the speed also fluctuating minutely, both adding to a sense of reality but as viewed through a film, of the romantic setting of 1950s Tangiers (forgive the colonial overtones) and live music and cocktails but as heard through a radio, life, but viewed through memories. All of that sort of thing maybe. Maybe.

But the point is: the beat is real, it is soaked in atmosphere, is emotive, and cleverly reflective of its title (which a) suggests that a memory of past love has finally faded, b) suggests some sort of intoxication or laissez-faire nonchalance with the misspelling of 'your' as "yur") with the old-school sounds further warped and wobbling out of sight and out of mind. A haunted and inspired too-short-too-sweet number; luckily Eevee makes a lot of music a lot of the time.

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☟ Eevee Social Media Presence ☟
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BIEBER – SAINT PEPSI

First, Saint Pepsi – the Long Island producer with his roots in the familial vibe of vaporwave – took care of Carly Rae Jepsen's 'Call Me Maybe' in a steamy, slow edit of the track; now, especially for Valentine's Day – or V-Day like some dotty old war veteran – he's remixed a Justin Bieber track; yep that's right – BIEBER. Taking vocals from the troubled Canadian child star's 'Boyfriend', Saint Pepsi (real name Ryan DeRobertis) has created a wonderful slow jam simply called 'Bieber'.

There's something wonderful about the track, something unique despite its apparent simplicity; but in the vein of the new punk that he is (and many affiliated with vaporwave in general, or more specifically with the collective New Generation), samples come from everywhere and anywhere, are used in any which way, and the intent of the song is contentious or as innocent as you want it to be. So there. Now listen up to 'Bieber' if you haven't already and share it with all of your friends because I'm sure they'll like it. Despite the utter meh-ness of the original, this takes Bieber's best feature (his voice) with none of the putrid production that goes with it and turns it into something fun AND good.

Beginning with a sparklingly cheesy intro, we're led into a world of slow-jam heaven with choral voices singing as you saunter along the way. Bieber's voice appears altered, low-register, at first, crooning over percussion and warm muffled synths that gradually thicken as the song goes on, rolling R&B snares skittering over thumping kicks. Even Bieber's rap is in there, the end of which includes his own catchphrase "swaggie" – and which Saint Pepsi throws at you again later. What the hell swaggie? Jesus H. Some aching synth solo beeps towards the end of the track – notes bending with an almost sarcastic lilt – adding candy-coloured electro fun.

So whether you think this is a joke or whether it's serious or if it angers you and you want to shove your own head through your laptop and jump out your window – that's up to you. The facts here are these: firstly, the song is a vast improvement on its original; secondly, it's clear that Saint Pepsi is going to continue to sample whatever takes his fancy – whether it's an emo band, Mariah Carey, Justin Bieber, or anything else in the public domain. Not only is it simply about doing what you want, sticking to no genre and feeling free to capture any mood or summon any feeling, but also the truth is, copyright laws aside, everything in the public eye ceases to belong to its owner the moment it is released to the masses. So just enjoy it or don't – it's your life.

PSSST… Saint Pepsi plays his debut West Coast (USA) show in San Francisco on 15th February, can you make it?

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AVAY MIRACLE

Just open your eyes and click more things than usual and embrace curiosity and be inquisitive and you'll soon find yourself discovering some pretty cool music. That's literally all there is to it. As such, I've been clickin around like a madman in the last couple of days, sometimes until I realise I'm very deep into the unholy early hours of the morning. So it happens. In any case, the fruits of this labour produces some really nice new sounds to listen to.

This track is obviously one of them. It's the kind of thing that you can be instantly drawn to just from the first few seconds of listening. It is called 'Miracle' and comes from a Russian producer who usually goes by the name MAD-B but has eschewed this moniker for the less-in-your-face AVAY; he accompanied the track with a note: Meet my new project named "AVAY". And what a happy meeting it was. Therefore, I would also like to introduce to you the deeply delicious sounds of this soulful number.

Being relatively minimalistic perhaps makes this an even more captivating experience. Softly caressed electric piano sounds sit atop driving tunnels of bass punctuated with heart-stopping kicks. Ornamental synth bleeps drop like glistening icicles into the deep of the track. After a mid-section sampling some Russian dialogue, the beat comes in with renewed gusto, adding dragging-wind-up hi-hats into the equation and occasional cymbal crashes. Its finish is stark and lonely, leaving you with the kick and ambient fizzes after what was an emotive, even moving, song.

The star of the show here, besides the beautiful production, is the singing. It's a sample, a slowed-down, low-register version of the vocals in The Temper Trap's song, also called 'Miracle'. What's clear is that it is gloriously layered and pockmarked with lilts of romance scintillating like some religious revelation of love, the words "And I may not always believe / But you're nothing short of a miracle" taking a new significance in the hear-thumping slo-house electronica of AVAY's rendition of the track. Watch out for this guy: he could be on to a winner.

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CIARA BODY PARTY (BOYS GET HURT REMIX) [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Right, firstly, in like every post I've written about Boys Get Hurt I've called it a duo. Two people. That is, Yuki and Takumi. Due to I don't know what reasons, Takumi "quit" at the start of this summer. So basically, everything I've written about these guys has been wrong. Well, this guy. It's just Yuki Abe now. If you'd like to have a quick refresher course on his music, then please be my guest.

So this is just a singular project. Anyway that's enough of that. Mr Abe emailed me the other day notifying me of his new song, a remix of Ciara's 'Body Party'. The original is a downtempo pool of sultry slow-jamz R&B that positively steams with tip-of-the-tongue sexuality - obvious, but not obvious enough to be outrageous. It's just the kind of song that Boys Get Hurt would remix and he's done a good job of it, too. Yep, it drips with disco sensibilities with an uptempo beat, taking the slow heart out of the original and replacing it with a ticker that is pre-wound-up and ready to move.

Giving Ciara's vocals from the original a lot of room to breathe, running the course of the song instead of cutting it too much, this fast-paced rendition takes you from the velvet-clad bedrooms of slow-jams to a disco hut on a beach somewhere. Marimba chords support other tuned percussion melodies, little glockenspiel loops, that lend a joyous vibe to the tune - that feeling of endless summer which Boys Get Hurt gets absolutely spot on every time. There's a little string melody in here as well that sounds familiar, like it could be the same decorative cluster of sounds that graced Madonna's 'Holiday'. The spirit of the song is just that though: holiday. Fun in the sun. Beach dancing until sunrise.

It's always fun listening to Boys Get Hurt. This kind of dance music, a collection of sounds that recalls the soul of early 90s pop with emotive recollections of summer and a beat that's always buzzing with energy and busy with percussion, is lovely. You can always rely on Yuki Abe to deliver this friendly familiarity that in every new track bursts with freshness. And this is FREE TO DOWNLOAD as with most of his songs. Woo!

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