Browsing Tag

Jazz Pop

Ninali reached the pinnacle of ‘Smooth’ in her latest feat of jazzy soul pop nostalgia

Posted on 17 February 2023
Ninali

There was no forgetting Ninali after hearing her affectionately wanderlust track, Tokyo, which hit the airwaves at the end of 2022. To start 2023 with a sultry bang, she’s amalgamated a sentimentally demure cocktail of pop, jazz and RnB.

The mid-tempo piece, Smooth, was co-produced by the legendary producer M. Shanks, who also applied their deft touch to the tantalising timbres in Tokyo, which marked the first release for Ninali in over a decade.

With Smooth, sensuously 80s-nostalgia-soaked instrumentals swell and tropically groove around the aphoristically harmonised vocal lines, which simultaneously put you in the mood while facilitating the purer purpose of reminding you how sweet it is to meet someone that defines serendipity. It is worth falling in love just to fully appreciate this delicious track.

Smooth will officially release on February 17th. Hear it on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ninali took us to Tokyo in her synaesthesia-inducing hyper-pop comeback 

Posted on 23 November 2022
Feel the neon glow of Tokyo in Ninali’s synaesthesia-inducing slice of hyper pop, which lit up the airwaves on November 11th. After squeezing inspiration from her trips across the world, Ninali has made a comeback after her wanderlust hiatus. Now residing in Spain to focus on her music career and to study music production, she’s projecting her sultry vocal timbre into her jazzy feats of RnB pop to share the exotic flavours she sampled.
Ninali made her first venture into the music industry aged 18 when she took Belgium by storm with her single, Lovedrunk, which scored her an indie record deal, national airplay and a spot on a compilation album curated by one of the biggest Belgian radio stations. With her sophomore single, she reached number 34 in the Belgian Ultratip charts and secured plenty of live dates. We’re stoked to have her demure soul and uplifting sound vivifying the UK music industry for the first time. She’s certainly not one to sleep on, especially if you are partial to serotonin spilling across your synapses.
Head to Tokyo on Spotify. 
Review by Amelia Vandergast

Roc Flowers elevated the airwaves with his ground-breaking LP, Ovision

Posted on 3 November 2022

Roc Flowers became the Mike Patton of his generation with the launch of his genre-melding gospel album, Ovision, featuring various artists, including Fabrizio Bosso, Max Ionata, Stefano De Donato, Francesco Cherubini, Leonardo Volo, and Toti Panzanelli.

The opening single, God is Blue, starts with a quiescent neo-classic deliverance of jazzy pop tones, before hushed harmonic vocal lines and rap bars recontextualise the soundscape in scintillating fashion.

Not only would you be hard-pressed to find another artist delivering such a cathartic fusionist sound, but Roc Flowers also ensures that you’re left so sated that you’ll want for nothing while immersing yourself in this exploratory album which covers plenty of the tonal spectrum while indulging you in Gospel-Esque soul.

It’s easy listening as you’ve never known it before. The reference to Peaches in track 3 in the lyric “I can move the pussy like Peaches but I’d rather get our souls into deepness” was completely unexpected, but my god, it was appreciated. It truly is an LP that keeps on giving.

Ovision is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Elin Grace artfully enticed her listeners into meditation with the sophisticated tranquility of her alt-indie single, Breathe

Posted on 26 October 2022

Escape to the country with the rural poetry in Elin Grace’s latest quirky jazz-infused piano pop single, Breathe. With the same ephemeral grace of The Anchoress paired with her own celestially graceful beguile, the lullaby-esque single that artfully and unexpectedly entices you into meditation after a confessional outpour of emotion is a flawless triumph.

The mid-Wales-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who has mastered the piano, saxophone, cello, and ukulele, has been lauded by the likes of Adam Walton from BBC Radio Wales and has seen her music commissioned for London Fashion Week. Clearly, Elin Grace has a promising future ahead. She’s one of a kind, yet drinking in the tranquil sophistication of her melodies is, ironically, as easy as breathing.

Breathe is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Charlie O’Brien walks us through dreamy jazz pop nostalgia on ‘Ingrim Street’

Posted on 20 October 2022

Taken from his forthcoming fifth album, Fire and Foam, Charlie O’Brien’s mellow pop folk serenade, Ingrim Street, is a jazzy amble through sepia-tinged memories that allow you to revisit your own sentimental destinations of nostalgia.

His fifth album is Charlie O’Brien’s first departure from his trad Irish roots. The melodious ease of the dreamy soundscape has no obvious connotations of experimentalism through its delicious entrenchment in unbridled soul, noted through the lofty 50s pop vocals and the brass section, which came as a courtesy from the Mexico-hailing artists Luis Zautla and Alejandro Cristobal.

In a time of such rampant disillusion, records such as these are worth their weight in gold. We can’t wait to see where this album takes O’Brien and his achingly beautiful talent.

Ingrim Street will be available to stream from October 20th, along with the rest of his album, Fire and Foam. Catch it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Rachel Burns beat the odds in her theatrical retro-soul track, I Did It

Posted on 30 September 2022
https://soundcloud.com/user-833584567/i-did-it/s-6UmFsIbrglA?in=user-833584567/sets/rachel-burns-living-my-breast-life-ep/s-IriEnnKxT4F&si=2c05c690b2fc476f8e1252532534154c&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Slip into the retro soul of Rachel Burns’ latest pop single, I Did It, which spins a tale of triumph over trauma and adversity. The journey from surviving to overcoming to thriving is scarcely pretty; the Washington, DC-based singer-songwriter brought a profound amount of grace to the subject matter regardless.

The Gospel-Esque backing vocals take Burns’ soul-awakening vocal timbre to mind-blowingly celestial heights. When she stretches for those stridently high vocal notes, you’ll get a first-hand account of her resilience and the resilience that most of us have to muster to piece ourselves back together.

Inspired by Amy Winehouse, Nina Simone, Aretha Franklin and Tina Turner, Rachel Burns has exactly what it takes to become a legend in her own right with the theatrical twists to her signature sound, which plays with nuances of blues, country and jazz.

I Did It will officially release on September 30th. Check it out on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

World music goes pop in Paul Melia’s explosively artful single, Doctor in the Sky

Posted on 16 September 2022

Taken from the sophomore album, Moons Over Mountains, by the experimental artist Paul Melia, the standout single, Doctor in the Sky, is a fiery explosion of Avant Garde pop that breaks the monocultural mould with the exotic rhythms and jazz-derived world music synthetics.

Despite being in a strident league of his own, Paul Melia created the most visceral earworm of the year, complete with the capacity to allow you to transcend the drudgery of modernity. As for the music video, short of dropping acid, there is no better means of escapism as you explore a psychedelic world, complete with appearances from internet-famous cats riffing on keyboards and guitars and cringey moments from political pop culture. It is like the condensed version of Adam Curtis’ Hypernormalisation, with a soundscape that keeps on giving with every repeat hit.

The official music video for Doctor in the Sky will premiere on September 16th. Check it out on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Maysun reveals the dark side of the ‘Friends with Benefits’ arrangement in her latest jazz-pop serenade.

Posted on 16 August 2022

With a single as heart-wrenchingly stunning as Winehouse’s You Know I’m No Good, the LA sultry songstress, Maysun, has left us floored with her latest single, Friends with Benefits.

‘Who cares the least is the winner’ is straight-up lyrical gold; it carries as much wordsmith wit as it does harrowingly candid introspection. The friends with benefits arrangements are often synonymous with ‘fun’, but Maysun exposes the very real dark side with this jazzy pop jam.

Countering the sombre concept is the sweeter than honey instrumental arrangement, which gently sends soul carousing through this unforgettable triumph; produced by Arthur Pingrey.

Friends with Benefits will officially release on August 12th. Check it out for yourselves via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ozzie Aguilera is fresh from his seductively unapologetic Latin Jazz-Pop single, Nasty Boy

Posted on 15 August 2022

Here to prove there is little more awe-inspiring than someone completely embracing their autonomy is the Mexican American singer-songwriter, MUA and entrepreneur Ozzie Aguilera and his latest Latin Jazz-Pop single, Nasty Boy.

The soulfully unapologetic single delivers the eloquent reminder that everyone you meet will have their own narrative of you, but yours is the only one that is true and that carries any weight. The light year colour-seeped melodies give Nasty Boy an almost dream-like feel, while Ozzie Aguilera wraps his sultry vocal dynamism around the well-metered swoon-some canter of the lyrics.

Nasty Boy was officially released on August 12th. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Violet Nines brought the heat in their fiery soul-pop jam, Dancing with Fire

Posted on 12 August 2022

Seemingly, no genre was off-limits in The Violet Nines’ latest single, Dancing with Fire, which melds angular indie guitars with fiery soul-pop vocals, disco grooves, jazzy sax stabs and funk-to-the-core basslines.

It is rare to find an outfit that oozes talent and euphoria in equal measure; the rhythm-led Minneapolis-hailing ensemble is a dynamic exception to that rule. The record is rampant with that irreplicable live music feel; we can only imagine the energy when they are bringing their collaborative alchemy to life. It feels purely accidental that their sonic signature is so commercial, but that strips none of the gloss from their enlivening distinction.

The official video for Dancing with Fire will premiere on August 12th. Sample the funk for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast