Video: Heavy Sea - Thom Cross
in video
Stream: Look Back In Laughter - Hugh
in stream
This second single from Hugh has a lovely laid-back feel to it and I also totally love the message behind it... The things that stress you out today will almost certainly seem largely irrelevant one day.
Hugh is a new project from Joshua Idehen, who I've covered here both for his work with the excellent Debian Blak and with his other band Benin City. Hugh is a collaboration with Izzy Broox, Andy Highmore and Martin Kolarides that takes a more blissed out form than Idehen's more upbeat Benin City material, but it's just as good. Check out previous track Not Fair Too Far whilst you are here:
WHOWILLLUVU - Frenchfire
EP Review: WHOWILLLUVU - Frenchfire
WHOWILLLUVU is a haunting and emotive tech-house record that crafts feeling out of layered female vocals and an insistent synth melody. It feels more influenced by dubstep and Burial as anything produced within the confines of the house genre, granting it sense of isolation and urban sadness. The melodies resemble steel drums and it feels like a downtrodden and depressed reimagining of Jamie XX's uplifting Far Nearer. It is positively boiling over with pent up emotion.
Alongside the original is a mix for Lithuania's Vidis. His mix stays very much in keeping with the intent of the original, but with a slightly lifted pace and a greater focus on the rhythm track. That vocal still creates the main focus though, and the remix is just as good as the original.
WHOWILLLUVU is out now on Biologic, available from Amazon.co.uk on MP3 [affiliate link]. Check out a preview of the original in the Soundcloud player below or listen to the whole Vidis remix on YouTube:
EP Review / Stream: Fauve - Floral Fauna
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
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.
