Recent News

Adrian Younge – The American Negro Out Now

March 1st, 2021

Music is an emotional release with a rhythmic vernacular, designed to communicate with an intended audience.  In essence, a form of communication to integrate shared experience and semantics, thereby excluding those that do not share common ground; The American Negro is not for the faint of heart.  The album is a powerful, multifaceted statement that reflects perennial injustices and serves to act as a lever of change during a time of mass disillusionment: an album for the people.

To better explain the intricacies of Adrian Younge’s message, The American Negro not only includes an album, but also an Amazon Original podcast (Invisible Blackness) and short film (TAN).  Listen to the title track from the album, “The American Negro,” today.  The song cultivates a bold balance between melancholy and pure joy, with melodic grooves; it captures the poetic spirits of black luminaries like Gil-Scott Heron, Curtis Mayfield and Marvin Gaye (Listen HERE).

Altin Gün on Soundcheck: Turkish-Folk Meets Psych-Funk-Rock and Beyond

March 1st, 2021

Amsterdam-based Altin Gün plays songs rooted in traditional Turkish folk tunes and Anatolian rock that have fallen down the rabbit hole of psychedelic funk, combining baglama/saz riffs, vocal melodies, fuzzy bass, wah-wah guitars and analogue organs. On their latest, Yol (Road), the band (whose name means “golden day”, sort of like a rent party involving gold pieces) has expanded its retro sound world to include dreamy 80’s synth-pop instruments like Omnichord, and vintage drum machines that ought to be wearing sequins. Altin Gün plays a set for us with their full sound and light set up. – Caryn Havlik

NEW! CHAI ft Ric Wilson – Maybe Chocolate Chips + VIDEO

February 28th, 2021

Japanese rock band CHAI have shared a video for their new single, “Maybe Chocolate Chips,” which features Chicago rapper Ric Wilson. The song will be featured on their upcoming album, WINK, set to drop on May 21 via Sub Pop. Check out the video, animated and directed by Callum Scott-Dyson, below.

Bassist/lyricist Yuuki explains the song in a press release: “Things that we want to hold on to, things that we wished went away. A lot of things happen as we age and with that for me, is new moles! But I love them! My moles are like the chocolate chips on a cookie, the more you have, the happier you become! and before you know it, you’re an original.

The band previously shared the songs “ACTION” and “Donuts Mind If I Do” from their upcoming album. – Read More Via Under The Radar Mag

WATCH – Bicep “Lido” – New Album Isles Out Now

February 27th, 2021

In the years since the rise of their 2009-born, disco-gem-uncovering Feel My Bicep blog and 2012’s pumping breakthrough EP ‘Vision Of Love’, Bicep have transformed from underground house-head favourites to festival-headlining daytime-radio-infiltrating sculptors of emotive electronic anthems. Really, though, it’s what Andrew Ferguson and Matthew McBriar had always been building towards.

The London-based Belfast duo’s melodious 2015 single ‘Just’ teased at a more expansive style. But it was their multi-textured debut album – released two years later via Ninja Tune and an unexpected top-20 chart hit – that certified these deep-digging studio heads’ growing reputation as architects of introspective yet kaleidoscopic anthems.

Fast forward to 2021 and, with clubs still shut for obvious reasons, they’ve retooled their second album to suit lockdown listening at home ahead of, they’ve said, a “much harder” live version. What’s new this time around, though, is that the boys worked with other live singers and instrumentalists, adding another layer to their tried-and-tested formula.

Icy-toned labelmate Clara La San appears twice: the London-based R&B star lends her voice to the movingly nostalgic trip of ‘Saku’ and the heavy and futuristic ‘X’. Created in their keyboard and drum-filled London studio, ‘Isles’ finds the DJs and producers again fusing atmosphere-building bleeps (the melancholic ‘Cazenove’) with infectious synth lines – ‘Fir’ elicits the eyes-glued rush of watching an edge-of-your-seat epic and feels as though it could explode at any moment. – Read More via NME HERE

WATCH – Flock Of Dimes “Two” + New Album

February 26th, 2021

Wye Oak’s Jenn Wasner has announced her second Flock of Dimes full-length: Head of Roses is the follow-up to 2016’s If You See Me, Say Yes and it comes out on April 2 via Sub Pop. The record is led by “Two,” which arrives with a music video directed by Lola B. Pierson and Cricket Arrison, who also stars in the clip alongside Wasner.

“‘Two’ is about trying to find a kind of balance between independence and interdependence, and the multitudes within ourselves,” Wasner said in a statement. “It’s about trying to reconcile the desire to maintain a sense of personal autonomy and freedom with the need to connect deeply with others. And it’s about struggling to feel at home in a body, and learning how to accept that the projection of self that you show to others will always be incomplete.”

Jenn Wasner co-produced Head of Roses with Sylvan Esso’s Nick Sanborn at Betty’s in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Contributors to the record include Meg Duffy, Matt McCaughan of Bon Iver, Adam Schatz of Landlady, and Wasner’s Wye Oak bandmate Andy Stack. Watch the video below + read more via Pitchfork.

Har Mar Superstar Announces New Album

February 8th, 2021

Sean Tillman, who you may know as his nom de alter ego, Har Mar Superstar, was in the middle of touring with Heart Bones (his project with Sweet Spirit/A Giant Dog singer Sabrina Ellis) when the pandemic forced the cessation of their outing. Stuck at home in Minneapolis, he found himself doing what he could to help those suffering financially, and even picking up a regular gig as a mail carrier to fill the days. But all the while, he was busy writing new music—music that spoke to his experience being back home for an extended period after so many years on the road. Roseville, the resulting album, continues in the tradition of the artist’s retro-soul/pop/kitchen sink approach to songwriting, while still doing something brand new.

That newness comes from his digging back into the music that influenced him throughout his life: The infectious ’70s soft pop and brass-assisted jams of artists like Elton John, Carole King, Todd Rundgren, and more. Recorded with each musician from his band performing remotely in their home studios (not to mention a bevy of guest artists), it nonetheless sounds as full-bodied and expansive as anything Har Mar Superstar has ever done—a true reflection of where he’s at, both musically and geographically. But perhaps he can tell you better himself: The musician recorded a short welcome for all of you curious to hear the new tunes (and wondering how you can go about ordering some of that delicious limited-edition vinyl he’ll be releasing for the true heads).

Roseville, Har Mar Superstar’s seventh studio album, will be available digitally everywhere on March 5. Enjoy an exclusive listen of its debut single, “Where We Began,” below.

WATCH – NEW Valerie June single ft Carla Thomas

February 8th, 2021

Valerie June has announced her first new album in four years The Moon and Stars: Prescriptions For Dreamers, out March 12th, 2021 via Fantasy Records. Produced by Jack Splash (Kendrick Lamar, Alicia Keys, John Legend) and Valerie June, the new album is sweeping and ambitious with earthy R&B production and a touch of psychedelia amidst its astral folk-pop orchestration, the pair arrived at a sound that is elegant and endlessly surprising. At the center is June’s spellbinding vocals and infectious sense of wonder that finds the Brooklyn-via-Memphis artist narrating the often-precarious journey to joyful possibility.

The album’s first official single “Call Me A Fool” is a marvelous preview of her upcoming LP, a delicious slice of Memphis soul that features Stax legend Carla Thomas on background vocals.

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