Seeing Hooks By: DJ reach even further with his uninhibited creativity, this collaboration with singer Danielle Hollobaugh makes for a smooth, shoulder-swaying alternative hip hop track with equal parts delicacy and weight.
Pop
A lovely lullaby of country pop, sung gently and with its heart on its sleeve. It’s grown up, and measured, but also moving and emotional – as the honesty behind the piece glows through.
As existential crises go, this is a tasty slab of Scandinavian-flavoured electro-pop with heft and emotion, wrapped up in some committed vocals and a healthy dose of intellect.
Cruel Mistress is a great piece of work and pays homage to its musical forebears in all the right ways. It’s recorded in a timeless and sympathetic way, and lives and dies by the trials and tribulations of our companion for the journey – Scarlett Siren.
Strong is an interesting song for many reasons – not least the refusal to adhere to the usual trappings of work in this genre. It’s classic songwriting that has enough spice to mark it out as a thoughtful development on Mark’s previous releases.
Try to imagine what it would sound like if Depeche Mode made a love song. Then go a step further and imagine that Dave Gahan suggested that it should be a duet, sharing vocal duties with an elfin Scandinavian vocalist that had an ethereal sensibility when it came to crafting melody.
It’s epic, sounds effortless, and almost certainly wasn’t! Click on the link for a multi-layered and satisfying listen that’s full of hooks and character.
The Keymakers are consistently perfecting their craft, working on those qualities that already come naturally to them, and that’s why every release they present leads its listeners down an enchanting and endlessly impressive pathway
Rare Blend’s Ritz Murphy branches off into the solo world to present music fans with this impressively retro and colourful new track – one that effectively fuses classic boy-band tones with a notably more experimental, industrial style beat and set-up.
Maxime fuses an organic folk sound with a mildly theatrical performance style for this EP, paying tribute to effective and raw musicality as much as his family background in theatre.
The humble nature of this piece, the natural sound, combined with the poetic undertones and purpose of the performance, all helps make it a notably unique and striking release for 2019
Containing the slightly punky spirit of bands like Dr. Feelgood, it’s well produced, performed and presented – and hooky. It deserves to do well.