Browsing Tag

World Music

Eastern rhythms meet blackened ethereal trip-hop in Arula’s latest single, Alive Now.

Posted on 4 December 2021

Alt singer-songwriter, Arula’s latest single, Alive Now, is powerful enough alone, but considering it followed on from the imploring, ethereal remix of her single, How Long, the defiance in the statement made in the dark, trippy soundscape is made so much more strident.

With Eastern influences feeding into the artfully blackened trip-hop track, Alive Now became one of the most invigoratingly experimental tracks that we’ve heard this year. It borders on ambient industrial while keeping hold of celestial textures that you’ll want to tune into time and time again.

Alive Now is available to stream and purchase on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get high with the vibes in Rhisk’s enigmatically energetic track, Mr. Mr.

Posted on 4 November 2021

It’s not every day that hip hop artists with magnetic charismas fall onto our radar, which is just one of the reasons to get hyped about Rhisk’s new high-vibe single, Mr. Mr; it’s a baller hip hop track like no other.

With Eastern world music elements putting an alchemic touch on the instrumentals and Rhisk’s enigmatically energetic rap bars falling into them, you couldn’t ask for a more galvanising hip hop playlist staple. If any hip hop single is going to give you the energy to get back on your grind, it’s Mr. Mr with its earworm melodies and unadulterated good vibes. Whatever the X-factor is, Rhisk has it.

Mr. Mr is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Blowing My Own Trumpet takes us around the world with ‘She’s a Black Snake in My Grass’.

Posted on 10 September 2021

Blowing My Own Trumpet is the latest project by South African Trumpeter Claude Lamon. His culturally cultivated sound is best enjoyed through his latest single, She’s a Black Snake in My Grass, featuring his daughter Josephine Lamon, which comprises elements of folk, rock, and African rhythms.

The vibrantly rich soundscape uses jazzy piano motifs around brass and the male and female layered vocals that pull together to celebrate their love for the land and the heritage that made their ground-breaking roots-based sound possible.

She’s a Black Snake in My Grass is now available to stream via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kassandra Dasent shows us how to love in a hateful world with ‘Be Still’

Posted on 7 September 2021

Singer-songwriter Kassandra Dasent’s latest single, Be Still, gives you the sense that she lights up any room that she walks in. All of her music is a reflection of her evolutionary journey through life, and Be Still is the perfect introduction to the value of her introspection and the passion in her bluesy gospel vocal delivery.

It is all too easy to say ‘good vibes only’ through music; what is far more difficult – and what Dasent excels in – is guiding those who use the atrocities in the world as a reason for apathy back into motion.

The San Juan, Trinidad-born artist grew up in Montreal with Calypso, Soca & Chutneyin her blood; her rich heritage transfuses into her sound that carries a sonic resemblance to 90s soul-pop while unravelling as a melting pot of culture that you’ll want to delve into the and time again.

The official music video for Be Still is now available to stream via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Swim Ignorant Fire speaks to your rhythmic pulses on a primal level with ‘Initiated’

Posted on 3 September 2021
Swim Ignorant Fire

Chicago Illinois experimentalist, Swim Ignorant Fire, has launched their latest single, Initiated, as a leftfield globally inspired teaser of his album, Bufo Alvarius. The soundscape makes a Herculeanly strong case for multiculturism as the Eastern vocals ethereally drift in and out of the ambient electronic mix that also feeds in distorted guitars and bass.

If your ambient lo-fi playlists are feeling a like uninspiring, funk them up with this infectiously eclectic release that speaks to your rhythmic pulses on a primal level.

Get Initiated by heading over to Swim Ignorant Fire’s Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Venezuelan aural ambassador Morris Northcutt has released his latest classical score, Tonada Del Cabrestero

Posted on 9 August 2021

Ahead of the release of his solo debut album, award-winning professional touring artist Morris Northcutt teased what is to come with the richly cinematic, deeply emotional classical composition, Tonada Del Cabrestero, composed by Simon Diaz.

To name a few, the Latin-inspired artist’s accolades include winning global music awards, being a Bach Conn-Selmer solo performing artist and touring the globe with performance groups such as Mannheim Steamroller, Critical Mass Big Band, The Blues Brothers Reunion Band, Puget Brass, and the Tacoma Concert Band to the Seattle Symphony Chamber Orchestra, Breath of Aire, and the Tacoma Symphony.

Before you even learn the intent behind the instrumental score, you feel the ego-less sense of passion in the production; you get a sense that Tonada Del Cabrestero is pulling emotion from a much deeper place. Tonada Del Cabrestero was created in collaboration with Venezuelan artists impacted by the economical disaster imparted by quarantine measures.

It was designed to pay ode to the culture that has been stifled and to introduce the world to the cinematic magic of Venezuelan music. It embraces Northcutt’s bold virtuosic flair, bringing a sense of warmth to the soundscape that proves that beyond borders and language barriers, we share humanity that defies the suffocating concepts of tribalism and late-stage capitalism. Frankly, we’re obsessed. Venezuela couldn’t ask for a better aural ambassador.

Tonada Del Cabrestero was released on July 23rd and is now available on Spotify. The debut album is due for official release on August 30th.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

ANGELICA LOPEZ energetically embraces multiculturalism in her new single, ‘New Gold’.

Posted on 5 July 2021

Columbian-born, London-based singer-songwriter ANGELICA LOPEZ has unleashed her latest single, New Gold, and reminded the world why she was accoladed as one of the best Latin artists in Europe.

With her vibrant vocal timbre and the progressively eclectic feel to the instrumentals, New Gold is an explosion of colour, culture and unadulterated talent that almost speaks to you on a primal level as you realise that, depressingly, music from different regions can coalesce far better than some of the people in the UK. With so much tension arising as a result of Brexit, New Gold feels like a soulful act of rebellion as it energetically embraces multiculturism.

New Gold carries the infectious pop appeal of ABBA, arrestingly authentic Latin rhythms and a few sonic elements of funk and rock to give the enlivening soundscape even more energy.

New Gold is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Earth Stone take time out with ‘Adi Shakti’

Posted on 26 June 2021

Earth Stone are Gemma Stone and Anthony Noiosi, a husband and wife duo with a World Music love and chilled, mellow, vibes.

Adi Shakti – from their Yoga-inspired new album – see’s Stone singing an Indian Sanskritt yoga mantra over electronic drum patterns and some soaring, melodic guitar work. It’s a mix of the traditional and the modern, mixing rock stylings, traditional, folk, world music, and gentle relaxation tranquillity. It’s a beautiful, gently uplifting piece, a perfect antidote to the hectic pace of modernity.

You can hear Earth Stone on Spotify.

Review by Alex Holmes

Saintfield – Into the World featuring Anne Bourne and Ed Hanley

Posted on 12 June 2021
Into The World by Saintfield

Canadian duo Saintfield have released their neo-classically-inclined, psychedelic ‘alt-world’ single, Into the World; the deeply spiritual release inspires synaesthesia while the profoundly ethereal instrumentals unravel with the finesse of a Ramin Djawdi score.

The multicultural textures in the release evoke an atmosphere akin to what you can expect from the global sensation, Heilung, yet, Saintfield also plays with post-punk and goth-rock elements to bring a connectable sense of modernity to the release that transcends immersive and operates in the realms of the celestial.

Into the World is now available to stream and download via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ariane Mamon goes into the wild with her arcane jazz fusion single, ‘Dangerous Trees’

Posted on 14 May 2021

For her latest EP, ‘Vertical Seas’, Jazz vocalist, performance artist and composer Ariane Mamon pulled inspiration from across the globe and created arcane feats of jazz fusion. The instrumental roots in the lead track, ‘Dangerous Trees’, vastly pre-date western genres as Mamon simultaneously carries the air of an 18th-century mystic and a Parisian chanteuse in her operatic highs and rhythmic non-lexical vocals.

We can’t fast-forward from 2021, but we can escape into our collective history, appreciate the power in the natural world and feel a part of it, that is exactly what Ariane helped her listeners to do here. With gritty funk in the basslines and fiercely tribal percussion against glassy vocal notes, the extended single captivates you through every improvised progression; allowing the energy to flow naturally, serenely, intensely.

The official video to Dangerous Trees released on April 20th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast