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Spotlight Feature: The Bermuda House Icon Korie Minors is Infectiously Euphoric in His Latest Hit, The Way We Used to Be, ft. JaySoulO

Posted on 20 October 2023

For his latest polished to the nth degree progressive Afro-house production, The Way We Used to Be, the Bermuda-born, internationally-raised DJ and producer Korie Minors collaborated with JaySoulO to deliver the ultimate hit of tropic indie pop reminiscence.

There are few things as bitter-sweet as taking a retrospective view of someone you never wanted to leave in the rearview mirror. The smooth crescendos in The Way We Used to Be, which runs with a flood of tenderly hued euphoria in the pulsating basslines and indie guitar hooks, will efficaciously take the edge off as the sun-bleached melodicism proves that even when love is lost, that’s no excuse to let optimism fade into obscurity. If you want to supplement your EDM playlists with sonic serotonin, you know where to turn.

Korie Minors said: 

“For The Way We Used to Be, I wanted to create something that exudes cross-over radio-ready appeal while never letting go of what makes my sound unique; the incorporation of my house influences and infusion of guitar melodies and afro percussion into a solid song structure enabled me to fulfil that goal.

The single communicates that sometimes you have to let relationships go for you to grow, regardless of how much it may hurt to make that decision and leave someone behind.”

Korie Minors started his DJ career in the UK while studying architecture, when taking his academic work to Istanbul and Hong Kong, he also shared his gift of making crowds move. In 2015, he became a full-time DJ in Bermuda and was voted Bermuda’s best DJ in 2019. When COVID put the brakes on his DJ career, he started to hone his production skills, which has seen him working with internationally revered artists and filmmakers and affiliated with brands, including Bacardi and Louis Vuitton.

The Way We Used to Be was officially released on September 22; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Riley Rex took her staunch fanbase to ‘The Shadowy Place’ in her hyper-pop Halloween floor-filler

Posted on 6 October 2023

The dance-pop icon Riley Rex asserted her claim to the LA pop crown with her infectiously flawless Halloween hit, The Shadowy Place. It may just be the biggest Halloween hit since Kernkraft 400 delivered Zombie Nation in 1999. It at least stands up to the debauched decadence in Emerge by Fischerspooner while incorporating the contemporary magnetism of Dua Lipa, Ava Max, and Charli XCX.

By contrasting the dark lyrical themes with the hypersonic textures and upbeat pace in the polished production, Rex extended euphoria to those who need it most with The Shadowy Place, which breaks EDM pop boundaries in definitively sensuous style.

The single, which was written while she was enrolled on a course with One Republic’s Ryan Tedder, is a narration of the escapist ideation which consumes you when you’re stuck in a pit of anxiety and depression. The bass-driven electro-pop hit may not have what it takes to cure mental illness, but you couldn’t ask for a more potent sonic serotonin source.

The Shadowy Place hit the airwaves on October 6; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The existential indie dance pop icon Saynt Ego augmented grief in ‘Big Mad World’

Posted on 19 September 2023

The indietronica icon in the making, Saynt Ego, strengthened the foundations that his legacy will undoubtedly rest upon with his double A-side single, Looking 4 U – Big Mad World.

While the vocals sing a bitter-sweet goodbye, the augmented-with-funk melodic lines pull you to transcendence and acceptance in Big Mad World. The chaos of the universe is efficaciously encapsulated in the hypersonic soundscape, and all the assurance you will need that you can overcome any obstacle on your healing journey lingers in the lyricism, which rings with melancholy standing alone. Within the anthemics of the indie dance-pop hit, the candour-fuelled verses are awakening poetry, which alludes to the tragedy of obsession with earthly escapism.

Penned after losing his best friend to suicide, Big Mad World tracks cosmic themes while being underpinned by the grief of knowing that the human experience can’t always be traversed with resilience alone.

Occupying a middle ground between Cigarettes After Sex and ABBA, Saynt Ego found plenty of room to assert his authenticity in the self-produced release, which was written by Will Retherford and the airwaves on September 8th.

Stream Big Mad World on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Ecuadorian Pop Priestess NÍNIVE alchemised explosively ethereal ingenuity in ‘Solo En Ti’

Posted on 16 September 2023
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Following the spiritually beguiling prelude of ethereal vocals and minimalist electronic melodicism, the transition into the high-octane installation of fierce feminine energy with body-slamming beats to boot you into rhythmic arrest is a broadsiding testament to the boundless ingenuity of the one and only NÍNIVE.

For her seminal single, Solo En Ti, NÍNIVE collaborated with the world-renowned music producer Enrique Gonzalez, who has worked with everyone from Metallica to Tina Turner to Nine Inch Nails; together, they sonically solidified the Ecuadorian alternative artist’s claim to the pop throne.

Put her on your radar and watch her ascend even further with her forthcoming album; the ingenuity that the LP will breathe was teased by the explosive alchemy within Solo En Ti. If Mitski swallowed an atom bomb, her avant-garde stylings still wouldn’t come close to this scintillating Tour De Force.

Clearly, her strong musical background has served her well. NÍNIVE began her musical education at a young age at the National Conservatory of Quito and furthered her vocal studies at the College of Music at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (a Berklee Global Partner). She also holds a Masters of Music in Songwriting from Bath Spa University.

Solo En Ti will break ground on the airwaves on September 15; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Decadence is in Vogue in the Subversive Debut Music Video of Video Director Indiana Roma Voss

Posted on 7 September 2023

After affixing her attention and endlessly multifaceted creativity to subversive art forms from a young age, theNYC-born visual trailblazer Indiana Roma Voss has been raising the aesthetic profile of Amsterdam as a stylist, concept developer, and art developer and enriching the nightclub scene with her nightclub performance group, Nightclub Disaster.

In 2016, she won the Elle Styling Award for her fashion concept which saw the convergence of the underground techno and punk scenes, and in 2023 she made her debut as a music video director by allowing Westwood-esque Haute Couture to meet the queerness of the NYC Club Kid scene, in elevated decadent style.

Known for her editorial Avant-Garde work, Voss exceeded all expectation with her music video for the danceable new wave post-punk outfit Baby’s Berserk. The mise en scene in the video for the entrancingly atmospheric indietronica earworm, Accessories, is a melting pot of the dark, seedy and glam nature of Amsterdam’s club scene, with references to the obscure cult classic film Gummo, thrown in for cultural measure.

Whether her video debut is the start of her illustrious career as a video director or she takes her innovatory eye for experimental art in another direction, Indiana Roma Voss is undoubtedly a name that will remain integral to the international art and fashion world.

The official music video premiered on September 4th; stream it on YouTube.

Follow Indiana Roma Voss on Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Goshok explored the pleasure-pain parallel in his visceral EDM single, Reach You, ft Otto Palmborg

Posted on 3 September 2023

For his latest single, Reach You, the independent Czech music producer, DJ, and songwriter Goshok teamed up with Otto Palmborg to reach the pinnacle of electronica fervour.

Ironically, we couldn’t get his last single, On My Mind, off ours; if Reach You is anything to go by, his talents in infusing his momentous Kygo-inspired tracks with visceral emotions have become superlatively honed. Once you hit play, you’ll be immersed in a bitter-sweet hit that errs on the side of affectionate rapture. If you know how it feels to be caught in the middle of a relationship that forces you to explore the pleasure-pain parallel, the resonance in Reach You will be phenomenal.

By pulling in elements from across the EDM spectrum to enliven his tropical house edge and augment his pop hooks until they’re ensnaringly sharp, Goshok created a hit that could facilitate his dream to become the first producer from Czechia to feature on the line-ups at Tomorrowland, Coachella, and Balaton Sound.

Reach You hit the airwaves on August 25; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gee Beanie spoke in fluent ‘Body Language’ in his Reggaetronic debut single.

Posted on 2 September 2023

The pan-African singer-songwriter Gee Beanie sent the sensuality in the EDM genre through the roof with his cultural tapestry of a Reggaetronic debut single, Body Language, which dropped on August 25.

With his soulfully smooth vocal lines adding a sultry veneer over kicking and vibrant house-meets-afro-pop beats that bolster the intricate indie staccato melodies, Body Language is intoxicating and arrests the rhythmic pulses as well as a track with such a title should.

His ability to infuse his laid-back attitude into an exhilarating yet intimately enticing production that could enliven any dancefloor is sure to seal his successful fate in the industry.

It isn’t every day that an artist who can revolutionise a genre comes around. Save a spot on your radar for the pioneering song crafter; we have no doubts that even bigger beats are in the pipeline, especially with the promise of his debut LP, Be My Alibi?, which will be released in Spring 2024.

Stream Body Language on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Wrap yourself up in nasir mf.’s latest exhilaratingly illusory single, twine

Posted on 31 August 2023

After contorting genres to his creative whim and distorting soundscapes beyond previously conceived limits while still maintaining exhilarating earworm appeal, the Brooklyn-based independent artist and DJ, nasir mf., arrived at the epiphany that music is as boundless as the artist orchestrating it. His latest single, twine, is the ultimate manifestation of his limitlessness.

By evading the hallmarks of the perfect pop track and arriving at a far more decadently illusory sonic place via his experimentalism, nasir mf. created a portal of hyper-surreal escapism with twine. The chiptune-EDM-pop amalgam twists with every progressive turn to ensure your senses are electrifyingly heightened while you’re experiencing the ambient melodicism evolve into hardstyle momentum.

This is far from the first time we’ve found ourselves obsessed about the Brooklyn icon’s ingenuity, and something tells us he’s got plenty left in the tank to arrest us with.

twine hit the airwaves on August 22; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Belle reworked an iconic Beats International hit for her latest EDM single, Just Be Good to Me

Posted on 27 August 2023

Pump it up to the tune of the latest slamming hit from the euphoria emissary, Belle. Her reworking of Dub Be Good to Me from the iconic act Beats International augments the earwormy grooves and feeds the mix all the staples of a seminal future house anthem.

Dancefloors won’t know what has hit them when the sonic session in bass-driven hedonist transcendence is underway; with the way that the original has been polished and anthemised to the nth degree, the Grammy-nominated Cali native ensured that the track has a place in the future of EDM. It is enough to make the original sound positively lo-fi; that will only sound like blasphemy before you’ve realised how much the Future Rave remix of Just Be Good to Me will push your speakers to the limit.

The Future Rave Version of Just Be Good to Me dropped on August 18th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

UK producer, James Urquhart, delivered a transcendent EDM anthem with Fire on the Track

Posted on 23 August 2023
James Urquhart

While some artists and producers need an entire discography to demonstrate their versatility, the Chichester, UK-based electronica chameleon James Urquhart only needed one blazingly high-octane dance hit, Fire on the Track.

With grime and pop vocals adrenalizing the mix and enhancing the eclecticism of the EDM earworm that defies the laws of gravity with the transcendence it provides, you only need one hit of Fire on the Track before you’re obsessed with the progressively exhilarating groove-oriented mix that would make even the most rational crowd lose their mind on the dance floor.

Even though it has been a while since James Urquhart delivered his latest mix, as he has focused on honing his talents, he’s released on labels including Duffnote, Let There Be House, INK, and Soulful Evolution. He has also worked with everyone from Amanda Wilson to Amy Pearson to Everette Peters to Meshach Broderik. If Fire on the Track is anything to go by, his hard-hitting house production skills have been well and truly honed.

Fire on the Track hasn’t hit the airwaves yet; follow James Urquhart on SoundCloud and Instagram to be the first to know when it drops.

Review by Amelia Vandergast