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| Photo by Aishah Rahman |
Scasca - Glue (feat. Talipes Valgus)
downtempo
Serbian electronic composer and producer Scasca has a gentle touch on his recent single "Glue", which features the transcendent vocals of St. Petersburg resident Talipes Valgus. The Belgrade-based artist uses lo-fi textures to colour his spluttery and precise percussive elements as he splices up various tones that ruminate over simple melodies. The result is an absorbing track full of starry-eyed wonder, staunch allegiance to an introspective mood, and auditory quirks that keep the ear attentive from start to finish.
Matt Wilde - Savvy
jazz fusion
Mancunian nu-jazz artist Matt Wilde is decidedly funky and carefree on his recent single, the aptly-titled "Savvy". Blending erratic arrangements with enlivening percussion, the third single from Wilde's forthcoming debut album, Hello World, is simultaneously complicated and straightforward. When focusing on the sum of its parts, the patterns seem attractive but unpredictable and aloof, but when you look at the bigger picture, there's nothing too challenging about this accessible and enjoyable music, no matter how loose-goosey it can get with recognisable structures. Rhodes chords and expressive saxophone lines give this track its ebullient sheen, but its light-hearted demeanour makes the biggest impression.
The Cry - Seven Days
jazz fusion
Taken from their upcoming debut album, "Seven Days" sees the curious instrumental French ensemble The Cry ruminate on perplexingly low tones and sepulchral musical sentiments. Based around the stunted piano lines of Mathieu Gabry, the scatter-shot cymbal strikes of drummer Pierre-Loïc Le Bliguet, and the delicately waveringly tones of ondist Christine Ott, the single doesn't answer as many questions as it asks, so can leave the listener with an inquisitive state of mind, if not one in need of a pick-me-up.
figure eight - altar
shoegaze
This writer has never been to Davis, California, though a quick internet search shows me it's a picturesque and seemingly idyllic slice of Sunny West Coast, US of A. My interest in the abundantly treed Davis stems from being introduced to figure eight, a band formed in that city that plays an instantly likeable brand of shoegaze. While scant biographical information on the group is available, we know they are now Oakland-based, their most recent single, "altar", is taken from the EP your cry for eternity, and that their music is blissed out and carries distorted grit below its sugary exterior as it struts along with the indifferent nonchalance of someone living the easy life in suburban California.
Mali Hâf - SHWSH!
alternative
Welsh alternative pop artist Mali Hâf confidently expresses intellectually-driven musical ideas in her recent single "SHWSH!". The music here is innocuous, though expertly produced by collaborator Minas; electronic drum loops, stereo-filling bass lines, and low-in-the-mix melodic manipulations play out without demanding attention. However, Mali Hâf's vocals do the heavy lifting, effortlessly catapulting this track about identity and the importance of self-expression into the stratosphere with forward-thinking panache.