Welcome back, welcome back! Our latest round-up of fire fresh sounds might be running a little late this fortnight, but consider this our excuse to deliver some dope new music to you on this fatigued Monday and get those brain cells a-working!
Australian ambient electro talent cln is back with another intuitive creation inspired by his and his father’s shared love of Depeche Mode, but framed within his atmospheric production. The synths here are light and airy so that they compliment the delicate vocals of collaborator Eilish Gilligan. It’s a splendid track for winding down to.
“Depeche Mode was probably the main musical inspiration for the production on ‘Into The Night’. My dad always used to put their records on when I was younger, and their music has always really stood out to me. Their synthesizer sounds were always so well selected and mixed. Their hooks were so catchy (they have so many hits) but they also had this unique grit to their sound. Their songs really hit you. I tried to channel some of that as much as I could. […] I wrote the chorus and sent it to Eilish (who I have been a fan of for a long time). I was honestly blown away by the verses that she sent back. Her writing is so clever and relatable. The second verse really stands out to me and still gives me goosebumps, even though I have heard it a thousand times! She is an exceptionally talented musician andI feel privileged to have her on this song.”
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Ahead of the release of MULAY’s sophomore IVORY EP, the talented artist releases ‘twc’, which is an abbreviation for “toxic ways to cope”, a song that conveys a moment of realisation amongst a sea of denial, regret and just getting through it. Her style is always innovative and we can really hear those early 2000s R&B elements peeking through, but soon that choppy production becomes more serene as we head towards to the song’s resolution.
“It’s the showdown for my inner confrontation. It’s about calling yourself out and accepting responsibility; and by nailing down those feelings, by facing and naming them, you reclaim the power they have over you.”
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Continuing the theme of toxicity we have ‘Venom’ from the Haitian-American, Los Angeles-based artist MyCompiledThoughts who poured those musings into his newest single. With his expressive voice, the creative let’s all the pent up feelings loose on this luscious alternative funk number.
“The song Venom simply speaks about how toxic love can sometimes feel so good. It was created after realizing how toxic the love for my ex was. I was at a point in time where I wanted to feel her love and didn’t mind being burned.”
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SD The God’s new cross-genre track ‘Believe’ is all about keeping the faith in yourself. Not only is it a motivational listen, but it also presents a cross-section of the artist’s various influences, whether that’s the slick R&B melodies from his life American, the fresh production from the UK, or the afrobeat rhythms connected to his roots in Sierra Leone – it’s all there for the listener to hear and enjoy.
“Sometimes you gotta think the unimaginable…then chase it by any means. ‘Cause the only thing you got Is you, and your wildest dreams…”
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‘Trust Fall’ is the gorgeously vulnerable piece of songwriting from Oklahoma-via-Minnesota artist Casii Stephan. It’s a beautiful and dramatic song that unpicks the wounds of past heartbreak in order to open oneself up again for the possibility of love. Her soulful vocal is a rapture on the reverberated rock instrumentation, which pivots back and forth in a pendulum-esque motion. This is such an evocative and awe-inducing track.
“When you know how badly it can hurt to have your heart broken and you still open yourself up to love and trust someone, it can be one of the bravest things you can do. That’s what this song is all about – learning to love again when it’s easier to keep your walls up.”
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In a spell of serendipity, we have another track all about making that trust fall into love, this time from the self-proclaimed “Italian glam-pop volcano” aka Nevada Red, whose emotions flow over like hot lava into the steamy single ‘Until I’ll Cease To Be’. With an bopping dance beat, this unconventional love song could easily be a summer hit, but it’s one with a deeper and more meaningful backstory than many of those usual chart-toppers.
“After a painful break-up which led me to finding out who I was – a transgender woman – I met a guy who turned my world upside down and loved me from the first day we met. I wrote this song for him. I managed to fall in love once more, after hurting for so long, and this song is the redemption of that pain, the beauty of a fresh love when you think it’s impossible to love again.”
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We’re clearly feeling this love this week, because now we have another romantic little ditty which shows the softer, more subtle ways that one may express affection for another. ‘Cloudships (Paino Version)’ is the stripped-back version of Australian musician and songwriter Riley Pearce’s original song, which features on his debut album, The Water & The Rough. The stunning calm of this track was inspired by a moment in nature when new hope seems most present.
“I love when after a cold winter, on the first nice sunny day of spring, everyone emerges outside, everyone is in nature, everyone is happy and appreciative and soaking in the sunlight and seeing the world in a new light.”
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Our next ode to love comes into the form of ‘remy’s song’, an acoustic pop collaboration between Los Angeles-based singer-songwriter Maddy Brown and multi-talented producer/singer-songwriter Andres Owens. They wanted to capture the childlike wonder and innocence of early love and so it makes sense to keep thing simple – it’s all gently rising and falling notes, unfiltered strings and Brown’s lullaby-esque vocal melodies.
“‘remy’s song’ is especially important to me because I wrote it with my Andres at the start of the pandemic when everything felt so uncertain and scary, but it kickstarted my solo project adventure. I love each piece of the song: the ukulele gives a feeling of simplicity and renewal, the intertwined harmonies are an ode to my choral background, and the ending ties to my background in jazz. I see it as a song of love, confidence, and purity throughout all seasons; it was a moment of peace and beauty in a time of uncertainty. This song captures the purity and almost childlike feeling in a relationship, leaving behind fear and worries and stepping into the beauty of a budding new relationship.”
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Now that we’ve had a couple of acoustic tunes, it’s time to bring the heat back up and we have just the track to do that. Step aside and make way for 19-year-old Romania rising star Francis On My Mind whose single ‘Functional Kind Of Love’ is a club-ready dance track about a reciprocal situationship. The song might keep her lovers at arms length, but it welcomes everyone to the dancefloor with those Latin-inspired beats and spectral synths.
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PURPLE MELON 