🐣 EAUXMAR & CAIUS — HURT U

⌾ LISTEN TO HURT U BY EAUXMAR & CAIUS ⌾

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

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

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

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🐣 RUBY FRANCIS — RUSH (INITIAL TALK REMIX)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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🐣 MILAN RING — 2063

The slowest sway ever swings in the liquid bliss created in the effortless backdrop that ripples in this song’s glorious electrified crystalline flavours, piano chords that fuzz and envelop you warmly in their all-encompassing sound, and resounding chilled guitars lightly tread a line between staccato soul and flighty resolute arpeggios. This is ‘2063’ by Australian producer and singer Milan Ring, a song that is so futuristic nouveau soul that it’s based 45 years from now, referenced in the lyrics too, which speak of 5G (already a thing) and the iPhone 17.

The musicmaker herself calls the track “essentially a love song about focusing on the important things and not getting caught up in the negative chatter"—perhaps reflected in the resounding laissez-faire swirl of the instrumental. "But it also plays upon the telepathic connection I believe we can have with our loved ones," Milan Ring continues. "Like when you think of someone right before they call.”

And the lyrics that spin this story of farflung temporal love get delivered in aching soulful lines of vocal, merging with the sultry atmosphere of the trarck, or else they’re sent into the air of this world in rapid syllable clusters, laid-back and intoxicated-feeling and popping out thanks to the multiple layers here, and to the poised minimalism here, the bump of the beat dancing with negative space; it’s this dual aroma softly soulful vs. snappy and angular, that gives ‘2063’ its delicious stylistic blend that draws you into its otherworld of foresight and connected minds.

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• 🔔 '2063' by Milan Ring can be streamed and purchased variously from the options at the other end of this hyperlink.

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☟ Milan Ring Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 SHAWN KINGSBERRY — INTO TOMORROW

The smoothness of this track lies not only in its late-night jazz style, the softer dimensions of noir, the aching limbs at the end of the day feeling, the starless sky and the angular buildings of a nameless city – ‘Into Tomorrow’ is undeniably smooth, carved into its twinkling lounge shape by musician Shawn Kingsberry. The saxophone plays a languid melody; the long drawn-out notes are the motif of the track, like a lone voice chanting a wordless song. Piano trickles in, adding structure and opulence to the satin soul of the sax, its keys rich and robust yet light and chiming. But all that soothing sound would be for nothing if it weren’t for the beat and bass, a sparse rhythm like a slow walk upstairs, or the empty feeling of watching blurred city lights from the rainy window of a taxi: space, and room to think.

But as with much that effuses noir sentiment, there is a darker side. ‘Into Tomorrow’, even in its name, suggests that wherever this gentle soundscape is located in time, it is night, pathetic fallacy creeping in with the danger and ignorance of the dark and nocturnal activities – but at least it seems to be signifying a transitory moment, as the melody reaches gradually upwards, as uplifting as it is the sound of sinking into exhaustion and despair. Where there is hope, there is a reason to hope.

Kingsberry himself describes the track’s origin: “2017 was a year of reflection on where we are today,” he writes. “As we wake up every day watching the news, listening to the radio, or reading the news feeds, we cannot escape the sadness, negativity, and violence surrounding us.” Though hopeful, though relaxing, these truths leave their mark on the worn soul, the warm emptiness, of this music.

~

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• 🔔 ‘Into Tomorrow’ is taken from Shawn Kingsberry’s current album, Peace Love and Happiness, which you can purchase here. “Peace Love & Happiness is my attempt to escape the world by creating a place of music, soul, and happiness to bring joy to my listeners.”
• 🔔 Interestingly, Shawn Kingsberry is actually VP, Digital Government and Citizen Services, at global IT company Unisys, where he “[guides] public sector consumers to adopt cloud computing, data analytics and other digital government platforms​.”

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🐣 NELYLAND — SUNRISE

It’s an added bonus when a piece of music sounds like its title, or more correctly evokes its title with sound, and that is the case with Nigerian artist Nelyland. His track ‘Sunrise’ is a nod to the subtle feeling of pre-dawn, the muted sky washed in a gradual brightening and lightening of colour, dark clouds becoming white, purple skies becoming blue – the soft synth rising up in the subtle afrobeat rhythm of the track represent that tone, those dark pastel shades when day still cannot yet shake the night, nor take the sleep from its eyes.

Speaking of that afrobeat rhythm, it’s a sparse semblance of a beat that propels this track forward, with robust thudding kicks like a gradual step towards the proverbial light, and softer percussion popping alongside in an angular, fragmented cluster of beats that gets smooth shaker and hi-hat accents. Nelyland’s soulful vocal itself calls out fringed with autotuned brightness, telling his story: “I been through the storm and the hurricane / Searching for love but it never came.” These lamenting yet determined verses are contrasted with the gradual hope that rises up in the hook: “Sunrise, sunrise, they pray for my downfall but I’m praying for my sunrise…”

It represents that dark side of hope, when you realise that by the very act of living in hope you are without something, struggling, and could be on a long journey to realise your dreams. And yet the slow, steady pace of ‘Sunrise’ feels like a march, a tenacious beeline set for what Nelyland wants to achieve: tell his story to the world.

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• 🔔 The description for 'Sunrise', a track written by Nelyland following the loss of his mother, reads as follows:

  "I'm sure there are a couple of people out there still trying to find the light. I want to help you realize that your light is already within you and that you should just let it shine! RISE UP LIKE THE SUN !"

  The track is out now courtesy of Afrocentric independent label Sufferings & Offerings and you can listen to it on SoundCloud as above, or via Spotify if you like.

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☟ Nelyland Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 JESSI LEE — NEVER NOT [初演 • PREMIERE]

This song has a very easy way of draping itself around your head and enveloping you in its softness, in its blanket of silken sound that is evident from the very first depth-charge sub-gloop bass, synthetic yet with this deep organic tenderness, a classic feel, that seems as though it could be a plucked double bass. And adding further softness to 'Never Not', Jessi Lee spins aching vocals, whisper-crooning from far-off, taut and quavering with memories, or as the producer-singer herself calls them, "those ghostly things that stay with us."

"And even though they're still there, we can move forward and look back on those things from afar as lessons learned fondly."

The NYC-based musicmaker takes us through the song via email. "'Never Not' is about love that endures even after it has been lost," she explains. "[It's] a dreamy experimental take on deconstructing a '50s style doo-wop ballad."

Self-admittedly more a producer than a singer, Jessi Lee tells us that this song – a minimalist exercise in experimental yet familiar styles – is quite personal to her: "I felt like I really had to be the one to vocalize it," she says, "and honestly use this music as a device to come to terms with my own love lost. It was very cathartic to say the least."

The twirling modern imaginary ballroom of 'Never Not' is realised in a video directed by Frankie Leroux>, which uses Coney Island as the backdrop—"a location personal to the story behind the song," says Jessi Lee; "Everything was very deliberately placed," she continues, "from the setting sun to using Coney Island as a character itself."

The slow steps of the bass underpin the fabric of the song, this intense rumble, these notes each one a cloud of pastel fog slo-mo exploded from thin air. Simple drum machine aesthetics make up the rest of the beat, an electronic tom keeping gloriously slow time. Chords like a mist sweep their way through. Ticking percussion peeps out at the chorus, warm and dreamy, it embraces you, the illustration of closeness.

Equally, it is distance, the miasma of feelings that float in the air after a relationship ends, a sultry sashay of tragic proportions, a slow dance till the lights go out.

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• 🔔 'Never Not' is taken from Jessi Lee's Deep Rest EP.
• 🔔 Jessi Lee plays saxophone in The Love Experiment and also is a sometime writer and performer with future soul duo, Broken Luxury.

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☟ Jessi Lee Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 GREG WANDERS — SINES

The sound of comfort, the sound of homely embrace, warmth and familiarity, the steps stepped a thousand times before, the furnace of love simmering the blood and the hot eyes of side-by-sideness, the cradled-by-someone feeling, enveloped enwrapped blanketed with safety and solace. 'Sines' by London-based Greg Wanders seems to fill your ears with gratitude and grace, a tract of soft sounds that conjure scenes of homecoming and fitting in, a heavy organ-esque synth sound that bubbles voraciously, squeezing up and down in pitch with theremin smoothness, an airship sailing through the clouds as the sun sparkles on the vessel. Because there is also this grand sense of expansiveness here, of skyward destinations, that oozing synth, the twinkling string sounds that seem to come from far afield, the glints of sun on long-distance travel.

Greg Wanders tells us via email that the creation of the song came "at a time of unease with song writing and my life-situation." Walking into the studio, he had low expectations of what would happen, "moving in circles of self-doubt and spending too much time in my own thoughts." But eventually the first line of the song that he sings with a soulful heartfelt croon – "Sines everywhere that I go" – the truncated echo of a cosy room, and the sine chords followed, warm, like a gurgling bath of sound, a slow beat punctuating, sometime vocal samples creeping in with virtuosity and the skipping-mind fizz of anticipation.

"The song is focused around human connection," he concluded, "which has been a topic I’ve wanted to write about for a while so it felt good to finally find the words, it felt completely natural."

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• 🔔 You may if you choose to do so stream and/or download this from your favourite streaming service.

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☟ Greg Wanders Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 DRESAGE — CENTER

At first listen this seems like a regular indie pop sort of song, you know, but there are touches to it that are unexpected, gorgeously so, and that's when you realise that actually there's a lot going on here—it's a cocktail of sound, a blend of different flavours that help to create this delicious unpredictable morsel of music. Called 'Center' it is this word that indeed places itself at the centre of this song, the word skipping in the choruses as sung by its creator, the LA-based Dresage. It's her vocal that adds one seemingly ill-fitting element to the bounce of the track, with her bright tone and swing rhythms and flitting melody, it is the epitome of breezy soul, best accompanied you may think by slapdash sixths and sevenths on a nylon string guitar.

But that is not the case here. The carefree spirit of her vocal pirouettes and leaps through the French touch infusion of the slow simple beat – the same robust kicks, the same semi-abrasive snares – through the rounded gloops of bass synth that nod in syncopation, simplistic and VGM-conjuring. It has this happy-go-lucky dewy green grass feel. Yet more elements subvert this: cuts of her own vocal breathy and whooshing rise up and down like a boat jostled by choppy waves, an inkling of glitch; and the most brilliant touch, a cluster of high-pitched tumbling piano, instant frosty chill in its twinkling notes, its far-reaching reverb garnishing the track with airs of melancholy; bright synth chord stabs that shock you awake with their plasma beam stridulation. 'Center' doesn't actually inhabit a central point, but instead is the things that orbit it, the influences and audiophilia on and of the musicmaker herself evident in the different moods it can conjure.

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• 🔔 Little bit of trivia for you: Dresage is also human person Keeley Bumford who has, amongst other things, contributed to the Bayonetta 2 soundtrack with the official theme for the game 'Tomorrow Is Mine', so there you go.

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☟ Dresage Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 SCOOBERT DOOBERT — MY SCOOBERT SNACK

This track has a very melting away feeling, the quality of chocolate bars split in half to reveal oozing caramel and various other fillings gloop their way down, the soundtrack for filming an ad for the latest and greatest chocolate bar, the gooey fable of this track, its undeniable sweetness and slacker gluttony, the delicate elegance of it like the gold foil that coils off eager to get your greedy mitts further into the confectionary. That is at least sort of what this track sounds like. The laid-back beat, clacking snares and chilled tapping of hi-hats, the occasional bodyslam of a kick drum full-bodied and thudding, gives 'My Scoobert Snack' the wonky foundation that it needs to continue in that vein, bass guitar blaring deep pockets of robust rumble for that extra horizontal funk.

The Encinitas, California-based multi-instrumental musicmaker Scoobert Doobert has centred the sleepy haphazardly creeping entirety of this track on the guitar however—which is named Scoobert and which may or may not be perceived as a dog also. So there's that: this crunching liquid heavily effected low wah-wah crooning from the guitar, strains of soulful sound that evoke slouching chill, hefty compared to the tiptoeing glassy arpeggios, the dawning glitter of an electric piano, the single synth string rising putting poignancy and sprinkling spookiness into the midst of this half-stoned reverie, the holding-back-laughter giggliness of it, the rising tension sauntering sleepily downstairs, a journey to the fridge in the middle of the night.

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• 🔔 The video for this track – presumably also created by Scoobert Doobert is spliced together snippets of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! made so it looks like the characters are singing the guitar. After a few seconds in this clip really does become the essence of this song.

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☟ Scoobert Doobert Internet Presence ☟
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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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☟ IMONI Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 EXMAG — TEN THOUSAND CHAINS

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

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

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

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☟ Exmag Internet Presence ☟
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VENTUREX – TALK TO ME

How does VentureX keep making such lovely music? Last I heard from him was his very funky and very danceable track, 'Do You Remember' – it's been a while since then (also, and unfortunately, as usual) but I've just been magnetised to his brand new track 'Talk To Me'. It was the bass that got me at first.

The bass! The bass is fat and a little fuzzy. Sound is made of vibrations. Sound rather is vibrations. But it's not that often you actually physically feel those vibrations in your ear, in your brain, in your corneas – the world exists in a puzzle of slightly shuddering shapes.

These robust bassplosions are submerged beneath a shuffling beat whose hi-hat ticks impatiently, or lashes out into the open with cutting sharpness. An original track, dissected for inspection and chopped expertly finds itself strewn across VentureX's track; guitar appears in golden truncated chords, or else it peeks in with glints of funk. A vocal sample adds its warm soul to the mix, washed with clarity; the track ends with a cascade of chiming cosmic rainstick and the treble is gently removed, leaving you with that ever-satisfying vacuum that is only achingly good bass rumblings.

• This comes as the second in very, very, very cool label / collective Stratford CT.'s Secret Selection, a series of surprise singles.
• They also released a VentureX album which is one of my actual favourite releases of this year ever. It's called Together and it's genuinely and flawlessly superb. Listen to it here.

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☟ VentureX Social Media Presence ☟
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Y/N GUEST MIX 015 :: JOLLY MARE

I saw a person on Twitter like last week say something like, "There are too many mixes therefore they are obsolete" – when questioned they cited "inflation" but I think they meant "saturation" maybe. Anyway, it's a ridiculous statement: replace "mixes" with any other thing of which there might too many or too much – food, videogames, paintings – and you can see how. I just thought that would be a nice thing to say cause, like, here's another mix. But I'd really hate to be the one to push you over the edge, so if you think you've heard one mix too many, then go take a cold shower, talk it through with a loved one.

This guest mix is from Fabrizio Faberismi, aka Jolly Mare: an Italian DJ, producer, and a participant in the Red Bull Music Academy 2013. I've also read that he has a PhD in Vibration Dynamics, something that led me to stare at gifs of wobbling catilevered L-beams on the wiki page for 'Vibration'; this might be why in an email he sent to me he described himself as "Something in between a gone-bad scientist and a musician." He also loves old music, and if this mix is anything to go by it's obscure old music in particular that is his penchant.

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I got good taste in music

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Self-confessedly inspired by a "groove, any kind of" when it comes to his own music, it also seems to lead his choices for this wondrous guest mix, itself a lil' under half-an-hour of groovesome entities. Mostly taken from the 1980s, and most you've probably never heard OF let alone actually heard, it runs from the sultry 'Marinero' by Spanish singer Lucía who also provided the Spanish entry, 'Él', for the 1982 Eurovision Song Contest, held in the UK at Harrogate (really weird choice), to the synth-disco of 'Histoire D'un Soir' by Bibi Flash, aka Brigitte Gasté, a French singer active in the '80s. The song really really sounds like Blondie's 'Rapture' – mainly in the rap-singing, the bassline (almost note-for-note), etc.

"There is some freakness in every one of them," says Jolly Mare of the tracks in the mix – and it's true: from the first vital, note-hopping bassline of 'Use My Body' by the unknown Mavis John, through the stretched out, night-anticipating 'Sunset' (L33 and Sven Atterton) and the effortlessly cool remix by Luke Million of The Swiss's summery 'In The City', to the Italo disco of Big Ben Tribe's 'Tarzan Loves The Summer Nights' and the indefatigable soulfunk of 'Better By The Minute' by unlocatable group Glass Pyramid, it's an amalgamation of genres and styles that basically utilise "freakness" as their foundations, namely funk, disco (regular & Italo), soul, boogie, R&B.

What does it demonstrate? "That I got good taste in music," replies Jolly Mare. I mean, well, yeah, these are good songs. And for those of you who are looking for some obscure tracks to boogie the fuck on down to, chill to, do your taxes to, stir fry some noodles to, fix that thing in your car to, clean your living quarters to, whatever to, then don't worry cause this crate-digging mix has done it for you.

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• T R A C K L I S T •

1. Mavis John - Use My Body (1980)
2. L33 & Sven Atterton - Sunset (2013)
3. Lucía - Marinero (1986)
4. The Swiss - In The City (Luke Million Remix) (2014)
5. Desi - I Want To Be With You (1984)
6. Gladys Knight & The Pips - Save the Overtime (For Me) (1983)
7. Big Ben Tribe - Tarzan Loves The Summer Nights (1984)
8. Bibi Flash - Histoire D'un Soir (1983)
9. The McCrarys - Love On A Summer Night (1982)
10. Glass Pyramid - Better By The Minute (1984)

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☟ Jolly Mare Social Media Presence ☟
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JANETTE KING – DUSK

For a song called 'Dusk' to sound like actual dusk is, well, you'd kinda expect that to be the case. But somehow not as accurately as Janette King has done it. The track perfectly captures the stuttering fade-out of evening, the slow grudging descent into night as the air fills with twilit sounds, part unnervingly evocative of our mortality, part beautiful.

This is a grand piece of ambience crossed with off-kilter hip-hop style beats, following a seemingly arrhythmic pattern, with the fizzing punch of its snares and somehow urgently ticking hi-hats, pulverising kicks with that thud leaving poignant trails of dust having been disturbed.

All the while, piano plays in jazz slant, dark-world lounge bar melodies tinkling beside aching synth strings, squelchy bass underpinning this in no small part, with this fantastically stark BIP noise every now and again. What with the truncated synth solo at the end, a resonant, soulful snippet describing the sun hitting the horizon, throwing its last oranges and pinks across a serene and sea.

Janette King herself is a musicmaker from Vancouver, with an as-yet-unnamed EP apparently on its way. With stuff this good, it'll be nice to see what she's got in store for us next.

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☟ Janette King Social Media Presence ☟
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LAZY INTERVIEW #25: TROPES

← #24: BO EN #26: KERO KERO BONITO →

This is the next in YES/NO's ongoing Lazy Interview series – a set of questions, all the same every single time, sent out to various artists that YES/NO particularly digs. It may be small-time, but it's still a chance to peek behind the curtain, crack the shell, or otherwise reveal something previously unrevealed about an artist. Basically: it's a Q&A.

Here for the twenty-fifth in the series is Tropes, an American beatcrafter who salvages hip hop and rap, new and old, flipping these already existing things into things that have never existed before, resulting in abstract, often mind-bending, chill-inducing, sun-laden beats that shine as bright – if not brighter – than the original source material. In this sense, he is not dissimilar to – but distinct from – vaporwave artists: our URL punks who take anybody's music, slow it down, speed it up, chop it up, make collages in homage of music they love, inadvertently (or ad…vertently…?) creating a whole ill-defined genre at the same time. It's great.

Recently, Tropes had the pleasure of playing a set at Boiler Room NYC, as part of their collaboration with cassette-only label, Dirty Tapes, officially known in this capacity as Dirty Tapes Radio 002. 26 minutes of beats that illustrate some alternative reality – you'd better check it out (you can also watch it with your eyes).

Without further whatevers though, please prepare to meet the jolly nice and down-to-earth man behind the moniker.

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Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
I'm Keaton. I grew up in Iowa. I work as a graphic designer and enjoy making music.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
I've always had an interest, it started with percussion as a kid and moved to melody after that. Now I find myself doing both. I really just enjoy the act of creating and sharing music.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
Soulful, slightly smoke-infused, organic, maybe circular.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
I'm not sure really, I think it can go with different moods or times of day depending on the feel of the track.

What inspires you most when writing a song?
I'm always following my ear so I get inspired by the melodies that are created by whittling away at an idea for a while. If I'm working with some samples, the majority of the time the end result will sound pretty far from the sample source, so I'm inspired by the whole process from the beginning to the end result.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
Definitely last July, visiting Brooklyn and meeting some really awesome people while getting to play some music.

What are your three favourite songs at the moment?
[omitted; hey – it's a tough choice!]

Who do you most admire in the music world?
People who are doing their thing whenever they can, without connects or an audience.

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
More and more music is becoming a mixture of the past, present and interpretations of what the future is and will/can be, with fuller sound and all. I think the future of music is going to be really diverse because of our urge to partake and draw inspiration from culture, and the internet makes sharing it simple.

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
I really just hope to keep doing what I've been doing. I feel blessed and I hope to keep enjoying it and hopefully play out.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
Staying grounded by friends, family and the outdoors whenever possible.

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• Also, DO check out Tropes's Boiler Room set. Big thumbs up; double, if anything.
• Check out a load of other artists answering questions in the Lazy Interview series.

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← #24: BO EN #26: KERO KERO BONITO →

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Tropes on • Facebook • SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter • Tumblr

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ROLLERGIRL – I LOVE YOU, ROLLERGIRL! EP

So I'm behind on what I'm supposed to be writing about. So what? u wanna fite irl about it? No? Didn't think so. In that case, we'll just forget all about any of this: my tardiness, my bellicosity, my etc. And we'll get straight on to it.

Rollergirl (or Rollergirl!, either way, but for the sake of ease I'm gonna drop that exclamation mark, sorry) is from the USA and makes wonderful music. My first taste of this fun-filled breed of music was the Rollergirl remix of Summer Twins' year-old track 'Forget Me', treating the original with a healthy drop of fuzzy funk stylings. Well, now there's a whole EP to enjoy.

The cutely titled I Love You, Rollergirl! EP inhabits that addictive zone of music called future funk; if you know what it is, then whatever, good for you, but if you don't, well… it's not so much futuristic as remodelled cuts of classic funk, soul and disco, blent into gorgeous cocktails of sound with all the accoutrements of modern day production to benefit the style. This is where Rollergirl seems to thrive.

But as this EP shows, it's not just straight up slow-down samples and muffled edits; each track is instead a variation on that overarching theme. Take the particularly punchy 'Do You Wanna Dance?', for instance – it is a huge track, featuring all the gigantic energy of carnival tracks, with syncopated percussion dropping in and out with the aggressive call of samba whistles like the cry of some dance-obsessed creature. Then you have something quite different in the slow sway of 'Eve' (featuring the talent of Chicagoan musicmaker, Harris Cole), where in the second half 80s synths filter through a foundational membrane of stuttering slap-bass – a mystical, nocturnal kind of sound.

For the most part, however, Rollergirl's EP booms with disco intensity. 'I Love You' is an especially good example of this; beginning with a sample taken from dialogue in the classic film Dirty Dancing ("I'm scared of everything..."), its sharp hi-hats swish above a frenzy-inducing two note bassline, intense loops leading to more and different intense loops towards the end, funk guitar hatching its undeniable groove all the way. In much the same vein, second track 'Vanilla Coke' rattles along with the raucous sound of racing hi-hats, a clattering example of disco, injected with dynamism by creating bassless voids with old-car-radio-esque tinniness, then flooding these with French-Touch-style bass, working the muscles in your ears to a surprisingly satisfying degree.

Pop hooks show themselves throughout, like in EP-closer 'Last Night', whose shivering chops of guitar jump in aching, catchy melody, providing a mesmerising mist that hangs over lightly overdriven bulges of bass; in the last quarter or so of this track it jumps into a slower rhythm, somehow becoming even more addictive. And of course, in opener 'Boogie Down' – which begins with a snippet of dialogue from 1979 film Roller Boogie – this catchiness extends from the disco-ball sheen of the chords and its supporting bassline, to the vocals supplied by Rollergirl himself, singing "Live it up, live it up!" … and personally I think this has in it snippets of Toro y Moi-style chillwave. But the style of chillwave in general included nods to many genres of music, including funk; perhaps future funk is merely a natural offshoot of this particular sound. Maybe not. You discuss it yourselves.

God, um, well that's it really. Can be chilled to, can be danced to; can be engaged with, can be background sound. I Love You, Rollergirl! is nostalgic deep pan pizza of sound; totally doughy and heavy with delicious beats, but still featuring the tomato-and-pepperoni zing of exciting chops and near-virtuosic versatility. And it's yet another sterling release from undeniably cool label/collective, KEATS//COLLECTIVE.

• You can actually download this for free because Rollergirl is such a nice guy
• And could this be the inspiration for the Rollergirl moniker…?

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Like Rollergirl! on Facebook
Listen to Rollergirl! on SoundCloud
Follow Rollergirl! on Twitter
Check Rollergirl! on Tumblr
Hear more Rollergirl! on Bandcamp

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COOL TRIPS – GIVE ME THE LIGHT

I heard this a while ago, it got sent to me, I dug/dig'd it, I still dig it, but I never got around to writing about it. Why? I dunno. Literals don't know. Just one of those things that just escapes the mind. Sievelike stuff, I know. But the important thing is that I'm here rn writing this. To tell you the truth, I've actually been getting this song, or at least parts of it, stuck in my head in a kind of occasional earworm that lasts for as long as it lasts for (it would be really difficult to measure how long a song is stuck in your head for – somebody needs to do some more research on this). Anyway, that's a good sign isn't it? So, getting it in my head just a few minutes ago, I finally relented and just thought to damn well sit down and do some damn writing about it.

So what is this and who is it by? It's by Cool Trips who is from Portland and who is actually called Matthew (maybe Matt) Scott and he's uploaded just one song to SoundCloud called 'Give Me The Light' but it's a very good song. Like I said, it's been in and out of my head since I first heard it a couple of weeks ago. Let's listen.

It's a total mix: funky with wah-wah guitar twiddlings, yet there's a dub reggae feel thanks to its slow offbeat rhythm and the syncopated piano chords, and an overriding feel of what is basically post-chillwave with a smooth fluidity that is wholly conducive to a laid-back vibe. Cutesy blips appear as ornamentations throughout as the vocals do their thing, their very catchy thing (yeah that's where all the hooks are at), singing soulfully in a faraway manner, almost lamenting at times – especially when the near-shiver-inducing chorus kicks in with the elastically pleading "I don't want it to be over / Is there nothing I can do?", and the fatalistic "It's not me… It's not you" simultaneously full of feeling and style.

So that was that. How do you feel about it? I really like it. He's doing something new with pop, with indie, putting hooks in amongst thickets of styles and sounds and letting you go in yourself and have a look for them without being obvious at all – exciting! And for a first song (ever?) it is even more impressive. Hopefully there will be more to come from Cool Trips – keep yer ears open!!

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Listen to Cool Trips on SoundCloud
Follow Cool Trips on Twitter

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RANDOM HERO – MORE, MORE, MORE // CLOUD NINE

These are the sultry and let's say quite frankly nicely addictive sounds of nowhere-based musicmaker Random Hero. With their SoundCloud back catalogue full to the brim with bootleg remixes and regular remixes and bootlegs by themselves, this up-and-coming artist has just – well, I say just, but it was over two weeks ago – uploaded two original songs. Both are different, yet both contain lashings of samples, positively crowded with the sounds of yore in glossy modern surroundings.

Perhaps inspired by the success or the widespread nature of future funk or the phantom adherents of vaporwave, there are, like I said, a load of samples in both. The first, however 'More, More, More' is packed with ghost noises from three sonic relics: 'More, More, More' (you coulda guessed that kinda though) by Andre True Connection, 'Mr. Funky Samba' by Banda Black Rio, and 'I'm Your Boogie Man' by KC & The Sunshine Band.

Obviously, the overriding sample here, the refrain, the riff, is the iconic "More, more, more… set to a swaying disco beat – shuffling and shaking along with slow intensity – stuttering oooo's and looped trumpets shoot through like a mist of funk as huge bass booms with a muffled synth squelch underneath it all. It's sunny and carefree, looking back to mould a new vision for the future, melding the happy sounds of these three songs into one seamless entity.

It's in 'Cloud Nine' where things are a little bit different. Although it could still be called future funk, because by its nature, its sounds – the fluttering rhythm guitar chords, the keyless octave-skipping bassline, the jittering lead funk guitar – it is extremely funky. Funk funk funk. But there is something else in its up-tempo sounds, too fast for disco, but just about catching the tailcoat of early 00's pop – the type inspired by UK garage.

When dance music spoke of getting home to get ready, still innocent to the actual act of dancing and going out and getting completely drunk, with a sensibility for sugarcoating the whole affair; dancing in the mirror, traffic jams in the fading evening summer sun, speaking to friends on the chunky ancestors of cordless phones, gaudy clothes-ridden bedrooms.

All in all, what more can I say than what I've already said? These are instantly likeable songs, ones that take old sounds and frame them in glossy new surroundings. Random Hero has offered up these two very well produced morsels, like perfectly barbecued meat, for us and I can confirm that they smell damn good and they're tasty, too: simple, not overcomplicated, and done with style.

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Listen to Random Hero on SoundCloud

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ONRA – GONNA MAKE YOU MINE

Hmm… you know those days that just seem to float like a nothing-mist, yet zip hastily to their own sunsets? Today is one of those days, and before I've even finished one cup of coffee it seems as though hours have passed by without my noticing their disappearance. Deary deary me. Anyway, we're not here to talk about that. We're here to talk about music. And in particular, we're here to talk about Onra.

Who is Onra? A maker of music of Vietnamese descent who lives in Paris; is that specific enough for you? I wrote about him before, when he created an awesomely slowdown-dreamy remix of Disclosure's 'F For You'. Only checking out his stuff when it appears in front of me, rather than actively seeking it out, I'm surprised that I don't indeed search it out – cause it's real nice yo. This time around we have a tasty little number from a compilation by "brick-and-click" clothing-etc. store Colette called French Kisses; essentially it's a Valentine's Day compilation. 'Gonna Make You Mine' – a romantic title, of course – is Onra's offering to this compilation.

Fading into your mind with a future funk feel – carried by a beat with plunging kicks, crashing snare, skiffly rush of hi-hats – the song is an instant body-mover. At least, for me it is. Maybe I'm just impressionable. But with that bass, bulging and pulsing along with the accented bass drum, it's difficult not to be dragged onto the virtual dancefloor. Minimalist funk chords in popping palm-mutedness whistle by, with occasional saxophone aching into the mix with supreme nocturnal romance flavours — cut-up vocal samples seem to be set to flanger, sounding like a synchronised crowd of voices. That's before the vocal samples proper come in (after a break with sharp-sharp cymbals), singing soulfully with reverb added, dew-dropped with glistens of icy synth.

It's a heavenly sound that takes the "piracy" of hip hop and sets it to work in a less brutal way, preserving sounds and snippets in order to build a neo-soulfunk track, rather than cutting sounds to insert above an equally cut-up beat; this – and some other recent tracks of Onra – suggest that this musicmaker, usually associated with hip hop, is taking a swerving towards something different. Not necessarily something new – just look at the vaporwave pirate-punks and Keats Collective's future funk, for instance – but certainly something full of life and worthy of a larger audience. Also, it just so happens to be a perfect sound for a Valentine's Day compilation: smooth, dance-inducing, flavourful.

You can buy Colette's French Kisses compilation over at their online store (click-click!)

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Like Onra on Facebook
Listen to Onra on Soundcloud
Follow Onra on Twitter

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SIMON – 城市車手 [CITY RIDERS] (PRODUCED BY LONG NEK)

For your viewing and listening pleasure, here is something all the way from Taiwan. "Taiwan?" I hear you say, "But what's going on in Taiwan?" Good question. The actual answer to this is that there's a very nice underground rap/hip hop scene, to which the YES/NO-featured beatmaker Luviia and rapper Aristophanes貍貓 both belong; producers work with each other, MCs try their skills with different producers, live performances abound.

It's from out of this scene, pretty much like a circle of friends, that the two artists who make up this song appear: Simon, full name Simon Chen, is an MC who's a part of Lantown (part-creative-collective, part-rappers, part-videomakers, part-local-culture-promoters based in Yilan City); and Long Nek, a producer from Kaohsiung, a city on the south-coast of Taiwan. Together these two have forged a pretty awesome track called '城市車手' (chéngshì chēshǒu) or simply 'City Riders' in English.

Obviously – well, actually maybe it's not too obvious – I don't understand Mandarin. But thankfully Simon has provided the lyrics to the track in the video's description: perfect for google translating. However, google translate isn't that great and you can only get a vague gist of the song. With that said, it's better to sit back and listen to Simon's flow; it's chilled, confident, and clearly skilled as he skips over words in doubletime like it was nothing. Arguably, before anything else, a natural sound on the microphone is the best thing – after this, everything falls into place easy-peasy. The rap sounds great, clear and crisp, thanks to Long Nek's production, which has also given the track a blissfully soulful vibe – thanks to the funk-flavoured guitar, late-nite aching romance saxophone, simple yet accented bassline – with skittering boom-bap hi-hats and undoctored beat reverbing underneath.

It's the first I've heard from either of these two, and hopefully it's not the last. It seems as though, after a brief look around, that both Simon and Long Nek are pretty active anyway, so there's bound to be something more soon. Check the links below and get involved in this exciting underground scene.

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Watch Simon on YouTube

Like Long Nek on Facebook
Listen to Long Nek on SoundCloud
Follow Long Nek on Twitter
Watch Long Nek on YouTube

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