EP Review / Stream: Fauve - Floral Fauna

Written and produced by Floral Fauna. Release Date: February 10th, 2014

Fauve is the new release out next week through Better On Foot that features duo Floral Fauna. Formed in Baltimore last September after street musician Ony teamed up with Rhodes player Rob Fontana.

With a focus on improvisation Floral Fauna produce tracks inspired by disco and jazz. The EP's name, Fauve, is a reference to Fauvism, a period of expressionism within art where artists took to vibrant strokes and colours to convey feelings rather than realism.

Fauve is a fitting description for this EP that paints more in mood than in the literal medium of lyrics. The vocals on Visions sound like they have been gently placed atop the music rather than imprinted on it - the improvised sense of this music suggests the moments, rhythm and melody are more important than the contents.

Lift It is similarly casual, the vocals reverberating around a staggered chord sequence that gives the track a gentle tumbling sensation. Final track Mysteries plays with heavy vibes whilst the vocals take the foreground for once, the hook detailing a timid lover struggling to come forth and declare his affection.

There is a relaxed playful experimentation to this music that reminds me of a more soulful and disco-influenced version of Cody Chestnutt's cult classic debut album The Headphone Masterpiece. In other words, there is a lo-fi, sexy effortlessness to Fauve that is hard to resist. Particularly on that last track.

Kevin Yost has been a supported and so the EP includes a deep house remix of Visions. Textually Yost takes the track to a wholly different place, the record full of ambience and shuffling beats in place of the original's raw sass, but it provides a crisp reimagining that fits with the mood of the EP.

Fauve is released on 24 February through Better On Foot and is available to pre-order from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link]. Listen to Visions on Soundcloud above.

Stream: Massive (KRTS RMX) - Fem Fel X PBJ

Remix from Fem Fel x PBJ's Massive. A nice 90's break beat action for the groovers out there. Enjoy. Check his work here: Video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWg-ZWUnTtI https://soundcloud.com/femfelmusic https://twitter.com/femfel https://facebook.com/femfel

This remix of Massive by Fem Fel X PBJ from KRTS is all kinds of nice. I've been following KRTS since his excellent album The Dread Of An Unknown Evil and he continues to deliver the goods.

If you don't already know it, the original track is also worth checking out, the loose feel of KRTS' mix really adds a contrast to this.

Video: Heart & Soul - James Wolf

Heart & Soul feels a little too obvious in some ways... Nu disco / house painted a little by numbers perhaps, but there's no denying it's catchy as hell. Heart & Soul is produced by Tom Neville, whose credits include Kelis and Ellie Goulding - and you can feel his influence all over this track.

D/R/U/G/S was responsible for one of my favourite tracks of last year and here he provides a remix of Heart & Soul that pitches down the vocals to create something a little more moody and smokey:

Info // Bookings: james@autonomymusicgroup.com

Hearts & Soul is out on Monday through Herculean Records.

Album Review: Banshee - Kendra Morris

I recently covered Kendra Morris as part of my overview of artists I'm tipping for big things in 2014, 2014 Hype. Much like East India Youth, Morris is another artist getting things out early in the year, with her album Banshee set for release next Monday.

Banshee is a break-up record, these songs crafted in the period that followed Morris' break-up as, in her words,  “it’s just so much easier to put a feeling to a note”. The result is a record that takes in a little funk, a little soul and a little blues. There is a clear hip-hop influence here, both in terms of the slight cut-and-paste feel of production that permeates the album and in some of the subject matter - lead single Concrete Wave dealing with the risk / reward thrill of skateboarding, for example.

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Banshee - Kendra Morris

Morris' vocal delivery is difficult to argue with - the frequent use of overdubbing means it is a somewhat brassy execution, yet it suits the songs themselves well. On the whole this a set of bold and assertive pieces, tracks like Spitting Teeth holding no punches in portraying Morris as a lady who is prepared to get her hands dirty.

Which isn't to say Morris doesn't have a voice - the more soulful tracks where the instrumentation taks a half-step back allow her to open up. These turn out to be some of Banshee's most memorable moments - If You Didn't Go's resignated acceptance feels personal in a way some of the other tracks here can't. Similarly, Here switches between hurt Rhodes based gospel blues to emphatic and pleading big soul choruses. It is the best of both worlds, the space letting the verses breath before all that power is unleashed, and marks the album's standout moment.

Banshee is an intricately produced album - almost to the extent that the production gets in the way and feels a little too much. But there is no denying that Morris knows a tune, and all that production work certainly lends proceedings some energy - I wouldn't want to be Morris' next love, because if they step out of line Banshee just might kick their ass.

Banshee is out on 10 February through Naive Records. Available for order from Amazon.co.uk on CD, LP and MP3 [affilaite links].

2014 Hype: Realize You - Empress Of

It seems almost impossible to get any information about Empress Of, which is kind of ridiculous because despite her aloof approach to PR she is screaming for some cross-over success. With slinky indie sass meets snappy synth pop melodies it's hard to figure how you could not love every one of the handful of tracks Lorely Rodriguez has put out as Empress Of.

Rodriguez is Brooklyn based and appears to divide her singing between English and Spanish, with her Systems EP featuring two tracks in each language. That EP is good - Hat Trick being a particular highlight. But the track that has me most excited and caught my attention in the first place is the the single she released towards the end of last year, Realize You. There's a high-art angle to all of this - a sort of synesthesia that comes from Rodriguez's experiments with colour, as explained on Dazed Digital last year when they interviewed her.

Realize You is a beautifully slinky yet stumbling and obsessive record. Soft bubbling electronic melodies and those gorgeous slightly Germanic, slightly techno drums. It is Rodriguez's vocals that steal the show though, her obsession shining through, scary yet alluring: I want to be your boyfriend / and I want to be your girlfriend / and I want to take you there / and I want to watch you do it.

1 November. . .Iceland Airwaves, Reykjavic 2 November. . .Pitchfork Paris 3 November. . .Hit the City Festival, Eindhoven 5 November. . .Birthdays, London 14 November. . .El Plaza Condesa, Mexico City 16 November. .

Check out Hat Trick below:

SYSTEMS A 1 Hat Trick 2 No Means No B 1 Tristeza 2 Camisa Favorita PREORDER via DOUBLE DENIM (World ex. North America) http://doubledenimrecords.bigcartel.com/product/dd019-empress-of-systems-ep PREORDER via TERRIBLE (North America) http://terriblerecords.bigcartel.com/product/empress-of-systems-ep http://www.facebook.com/empressof https://twitter.com/empressoff

There is also quite a bit more on the Empress Of Soundcloud page and a rather surreal video for Champagne:

This is probably the last in my series of posts on artists I'm tipping for big things in 2014. You can read the rest here and check out my Spotify playlist containing some of the bands best songs (and some bands I haven't had time to cover) here.