Browsing Tag

trip-hop

J Swave waxed lyrical on the cyclicality of capitalism with his soulfully smooth rap track, Round and Round

Posted on 19 December 2023

UK rapper J Swave is a conduit of soulful innovation in his latest track, Round and Round. With ethereal backing harmonies which resonate as though they’ve just been torn from the sunset of an ambiently exotic deep house track behind his steady and captivating canter, the track unravels as a profoundly melodious commentary on the unyielding demands of capitalism.

J Swave, with his Nigerian roots and diverse background, has consistently demonstrated his ability to resonate with a wide audience. His debut EP, III Styles, and the mixtape Catch the Swave have already set a high bar, but Round and Round elevates his artistry to new heights – far above the standard set for underground artists. The track’s cross-over commercial appeal is undeniable, with a melodic sonic signature almost hypnotic in its gravitational pull.

Going beyond the hot-headed anger and opting to verse emotionally charged poetry that delves deep into social issues, it’s effortless to become consumed in the introspection. His verses are a poignant subversion of the medieval theology that love is the central force in the world. In Swave’s portrayal of the UK’s capitalistic dystopia, it’s not the measure of the heart but, lamentedly, the weight of one’s wallet that defines a man.

As the backing vocals provide a hauntingly beautiful contrast to Swave’s grounded, rhythmic flow, the track entwines euphonic magnetism with a provoking stimulus for the mind. It’s a track that not only resonates with his growing fan base but also stands as a compelling invitation for new listeners to explore the depth and versatility of his music.

Watch the official music video for Round and Round, which premiered on December 13th on YouTube, or stream the single on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The ‘Reckoning’ is Here, in the Form of Dissolved Girl’s Darkly Dystopic Trip-Hop Debut

Posted on 27 November 2023

With the juxtaposing vocal samples setting the cinematically disquiet tone as efficaciously as the harbingeringly dark electronic synthetics, which delve far beyond the dark depths of PJ Harvey, Massive Attack, and Portishead, Dissolved Girl made one hell of an entrance with their debut single, Reckoning.

The haunting anthem for a world teetering on the brink of collapse is a dystopian masterpiece, which encapsulates the unease and turmoil of contemporary times with its perturbed tones and intricately layered instrumentals. We all knew a reckoning was coming, but who would have known it would be delivered by a London-based four-piece with a penchant for the alt-90s, alt-rock, and hip-hop? Dissolved Girl not only captures the essence of an impending societal storm but also delivers a sense of catharsis – a release that fans didn’t realise they needed until it was upon them.

Forward-thinking and accessible in equal measure, the debut is a stark testament to their ability to innovate within the modern music scene. We can’t wait to hear the debut LP, which has been four years in the crafting, with the help of producer Dani Castelar and mastering engineer Matt Colton. The attention to detail paid off immensely; each note and nuance served the song’s brooding atmosphere and intensified the listener’s experience to the nth degree.

In an industry saturated with fleeting trends and disposable hits, Dissolved Girl stands as a beacon for those who crave depth, complexity, and sincerity in their playlists.

Reckoning debuted on November 13th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Freyja Elsy embodied the sentiment that hell hath no fury like a woman scorned in her single, Over It

Posted on 23 November 2023

Freyja Elsy’s latest single, Over It, from her upcoming EP, Modern Artifice, is a mesmerising blend of trip-hop, dark pop, and innovative electronica that resonates with the chillingly arcane Southern Gothic air of Chelsea Wolfe.

The single, which premiered on BBC Radio Wales on Adam Walton’s Introducing show, has been aptly compared to the likes of Massive Attack and Portishead, with a nod to the acid house genre in its production. The multi-layered auditory journey reflects the despondency of being cast into the harsh realities of adulthood and forced to contend with the seemingly arbitrary monotony which stretches for decades before those coming of age. Elsy’s voice, both haunting and commanding, unravels this narrative against a backdrop of spiky dream pop and leftfield electronica, creating a sound that is as visionary as it is haunting as it oozes the divinity of female power.

Elsy, who has had a remarkable year, opening for acts like Death & Vanilla and Welsh artists Eädyth, Ani Glass, and Small Miracles, never fails to showcase her ability to create a cohesive and clear vision in her music. Her previous singles, Lungs, Requiem, and Golden Hour, have already garnered international attention and BBC recognition, setting a high bar for her upcoming EP.

Over It hit the airwaves on November 17; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Juracán reached the epitome of caressive seduction in his downtempo trip-hop track, Ya Te Olvidé

Posted on 12 November 2023
https://on.soundcloud.com/Yn1rU

Trip-hop’s sultriest evocateur, Juracán, allowed raw emotion to pour into his most sensually sublime single to date, Ya Te Olvidé. If the intimate Spanish vocals don’t leave prickles of heat under your collar as they sweep across the mellifluous guitars, glitchy percussion, and trumpets, the caressive seduction in the trip-hop instrumentals will turn up the heat.

Ya Te Olvidé injects a brand-new context into the adage “gone but not forgotten” by alluding to how memories made with ex-romantic partners fade like old Polaroids, regardless of how much we want to cling to some of the sweetest moments in the bitter-sweet dichotomies that relationships inevitably traverse.

If you’re looking for solace after experiencing the obsoletion of inside jokes and watching pictures lose all meaning, you are sure to find it within Ya Te Olvidé. Either that or you’ll start a new sonic love affair with Juracán.

Ya Te Olvidé was officially released on November 3rd; stream the single on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Skee x Bogart. waxed lyrical with maximum conviction in ‘Go Off’

Posted on 10 November 2023

Trip hop meets old-school East Coast flavour in the latest lyrically sharp single, Go Off, from the Switzerland-based producer duo Bogart and the rapper Skee, who more than understood the assignment before he waxed lyrical with maximum conviction over the trippy mix which blends the ethereal with the gritty and visceral.

Layers of reverb ascend from the mix that steadies itself with a rocksteady backbeat and record-scratching to create an immersive atmosphere for Skee to dominate with his bars, which leave you under no illusion that this track was versed from anywhere but straight from the soul. It’s a cutting exposition of how using the spark from your passion can take you to the greatest heights but you’ll only reach the top unscathed with swathes of resilience.

Go Off was officially released on November 10th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mike and Mandy – Caught the Bug: PJ Who?

Posted on 1 November 2023

He was a (ska) punk (singer), she didn’t do ballet but came damn close with her time spent singing with an Opera Children’s Chorus and featuring in musicals before the duo, Mike and Mandy, met professionally in LA while working in Shakespeare play and married three years later.

Notably, the duo didn’t let their time spent in the theatrical trenches go to waste, going by their latest poetically magnetic leftfield trip-hop track, Caught the Bug, which takes the iconic styles of PJ Harvey and Massive Attack and the edge of She Drew the Gun and Black Honey and entwines the two sonically delicious facets to deliver a cinematically immersive hit that will entice you with the force of a tornado.

With both sides of the power couple bringing swathes of influence to the table, their genre-bending tracks don’t discriminate where they pull motifs from. Between them, Mike and Mandy have an affinity in everything from acid-jazz to funk to alt-country to rock n roll to art rock; listen closely when you tune into Caught the Bug and you’ll hear signatures in all that and more around the hypnotically demure vocals which will give you a lesson in demure vindication.

Catch the fever by streaming Caught the Bug via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Trip out with the unearthly beguile in Deadbeat Superheroes’ latest release, By the Side of the Road (redux), ft HORNETS!

Posted on 31 October 2023

After becoming unequivocally obsessed with the seminal single, By the Side of the Road, by Deadbeat Superheroes, we were stoked to be given another opportunity to trip out with the redux remix of the single, featuring HORNETS!

Julie Sun Lee’s PJ Harvey-esque deliciously distorted vocals are the piece de resistance within the Lynchian soundscape which shimmers with trepidation, scintillation, and a potent dose of unearthly beguile. It’s trip-hop striking enough to make your heart skip a beat as your rhythmic pulses move in line with the glitchy syncopated beats that stab through the texturally sublime oscillation.

If you’re looking for more ethereal escapism from the Canadian five-piece outfit, you won’t have long to wait; their Edmonton (Redux) EP is lingering in the pipelines awaiting its release on November 1. We’ve been promised that each track stands on its own; given the success of the original EP, we’re thoroughly inclined to believe the icons of Avant Garde electronica.

By the Side of the Road (redux), ft HORNETS! dropped on October 23rd; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Revel in the petrichor of Shaun Cruda’s electro-soul synthesis, Ashville Rain

Posted on 1 October 2023

Shaun Cruda’s 20k monthly Spotify listeners got a brand-new stylistic soundscape to savour when the LA producer delivered his latest sensuously cathartic single, Ashville Rain, on September 22.

As the dark days creep in, the sanctuary of ethereal luxe atmosphere in Ashville Rain will only become more inviting. By borrowing a few trip-hop elements from the pioneers and modernising them in his synthesis of electro-soul, there are few better singles to revel in the petrichor with.

The instrumentals resound beyond their minimalist quiescence to deliver the ultimate playlist staple for nocturnal introspection while the vocals breed a beguiling sense of intimacy as they harmonise the lyricism that narrates a spectral love letter. Familiar, yet far beyond the bars set by his contemporaries, the single is a testament to the multi-faceted talents of the artist who can pen a track as well as he can polish it and move a dancefloor from behind a DJ booth.

Stream Ashville Rain on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

heyiloveyou penned a monochromatically dark love letter to the trip-hop pioneers with ‘Never massivehead)’.

Posted on 30 September 2023

By imagining the atmosphere that trip-hop pioneers would create if they rose from the underground today, the Croatian solo artist, heyiloveyou, who has been demonstrating their imperviousness to genre and style constraints since 2020, unleashed their monochromatically dark single, Never (massivehead).

The quite genius titular portmanteau of Portishead and Massive Attack is far from where the ingenuity ends with this torridly electrifying release, which melds dark and caustic iconography with the stylistic catharsis to drench the airwaves in cinematically luxe gravitas.

In spite of the amalgam of the past and present day, the duality easily gave way to the synergy that floods the track through the guitars, drums, synths and beats. Get drenched by heading over to Spotify.

 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lana Volkov shared her ‘Fast Lane Fever’ in her debut trap track, ft Ayobaro

Posted on 4 September 2023

By putting the melodies in her debut trap pop track, Fast Lane Fever, into first gear, the up-and-coming artist Lana Volkov only needed half the duration of your average pop hit to craft the ultimate driving anthem.

With the collaborating artist Ayobaro in the passenger seat, Volkov orchestrated a sultry testament to her ability to stay in her own lane when it comes to creativity. The hypnotic textures within Fast Lane Fever will pull you right into the alluringly immersive mix that seamlessly progresses from hyper-pop momentum to trippy wavey ambient interludes that allow sensuality to take the wheel.

If her sound is this polished in her debut release, we can’t wait to hear what is in the pipeline; she ticks all the right trap boxes with her intoxicating vocals, absorbing melodies and infectiously siren-esque energy.

Fast Lane Fever hit the airwaves on 11th August; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast