Breaking Away is an immense joy to escape within. The sort of song that begs for you to turn up the volume, and quickly becomes addictive and close to impossible to forget about.
Alt Pop
By the Way of the Devil is flat out weird, but it’s also genius. Pete Murphy has proven once again that his experimental and unapologetic artistry is truly one of a kind.
Thousand Times’ return this year brings a gorgeously ambient and smooth RnB-fusion track with a softly soulful backbone. Seductively gritty vocals leads the way lyrically and melodically, running alongside a down-pouring of colourful synths and a sort of lightly throbbing energy level.
The Live Sessions is music for music’s sake, and if mainstream culture has made you forget what that sounds like, Torelli and the Fuse are here to remind you.
A fascinating album – enjoyable at all times yet also unique and unusual enough to really hold your interest. Superb production skills fuse with unlimited creativity and help cement Drearia as an impressively artistic and enchanting artist.
naldooo puts a whole lot of modern life into this album – the result is something surprisingly eclectic, endlessly melodic & consistently impressive. Rather than allowing himself to be pigeonholed, naldooo takes full advantage of the album format, introducing his varied influences from the offset.
The song’s latter half builds up brilliantly, the energy multiples and sweeps you away in the process – making for that perfect musical escapism and providing the necessary energy levels to fill the room and motivate even the tiredest of listeners.
It is absolutely possible to write original songs in this era, the sort that draw no comparisons but feel completely expressive and fresh. Chantitown proves that consistently with this project.
Vapor Brain by Zora Graves is a grooving, melodic, existential masterwork. Equal parts bubbly and melancholic, with a solid exhibition of instrumental genius.
Jony Shelby gets impressively creative throughout this EP Mango. His production style and his use of melody with dashes of hip hop all fuses well to create something atmospheric and appealing on a number of levels.
In the way that songs like Where Have All The Cowboys Gone? offer unexpected melodic strength & power, The River utilises contrast in an equally clever & effective fashion. This is not purely a relationship song, with a basic, familiar story-line. On the contrary, this is poetic & expressive – inspiring travel & deeper realms of thought.
Austin’s Jony Shelby & Mad Nice collaborate to become DRK Sharlo this year. Changes brings through a melodic brightness and a simultaneously mellow vibe – not unlike the recent sound of the mainstream, but done in a fairly emotional, personal manner.