Another killer track from LA artist SIVIK, following on from High a couple of weeks ago. U Got is a similarly great slice of futuristic R&B - where High was about the heat of the initial attraction, U Got is about what follows...
Jack Garratt is rapidly sizing up to be one of this year's most exciting artists, with lots of blog love and radio hype. As such it is with some excitement that I greeted his latest EP, his sophomore release Synesthesiac.
The release opens with the experimental-ambient-post-garage of Synesthesia Pt. 1, a track that sounds unlike almost anything I've heard before. A lounge piano loop rubs up against elephant-sized slobbering bass before dissolving into thin air, eventual re-materialising as the haunting intro to The Love You're Given, and the scene is set.
That lead single The Love You're Given remains Garratt's greatest track is no backhanded compliment - it is such an incredible piece of music and here it stands tall within it's carefully crafted surroundings. That it is so careful intertwined within Synesthesiac is almost cause for disappointment - it suggests that the song is unlikely to make a reappearance on Garratt's debut, when we inevitably get one, and boy does it deserve wider repeated listening. At turns delicately weeping and then gut-churningly heavy, this song feels like three different artist's best records all at once - shimmering falsetto soul, Earth-shattering bass and cut-up folk tangled up into one five-minute long masterpiece.
Chemical is similar in exhibiting Garratt's willingness to cut 'n' shut disparate genres, ferocious beats lending his vocals a sinister and determined edge. It never quite achieves the same sheer intensity of emotion but it remains an incredible track. Finally Lonesome Valley delivers slowly looping blues, full of fuzzy kick drums and distorted bass, and gradually builds towards the EP's epic release.
Synesthesiac is an EP that reaches beyond the four songs it contains to create something far more significant than the format can normally deliver. If you want to hear the sound of the future, Garratt is a safe bet.
Synesthesiac is out now on Duly Noted Records. Listen to All The Love You're Given and Chemical below, or purchase the EP on iTunes [affiliate link].
I've covered Mura Masa a couple of times over the past year - once for his remix of HARTEBEEST's Drums and also for his collaboration with Billie Black on the awesome This Simple Pleasure. He's just put his new EP up on Soundcloud and you need to hear it - lots of wonky emotional R&B with Mura Masa's fantastic production work all over it.
Check out Firefly feat. Nao above and head to SoundCloud to hear the full EP. Also on the EP is Terrible Love featuring Denai Moore - a delicately intricate futuristic ballad... Check it out below:
Love this big dream pop track from Stockholm duo Cape Lion. Taking inspiration from everything from the Beach Boys to Tears For Fears, vocalist/producers Carl-Johan "Oa" Sevedag and Martin Wiklund delivery a massive tropical hit of summer joy on Called You Mine. I simply can't get enough of this, it's a great big bear hug of a record!
This Soft Machine cites both Yellow Magic Orchestra and the Ramones as influences, and they made their debut via a two hour mix for Nicholas Jaar's Other People label. On this double a-side debut release for Eskimo we have Nicholas Jaar's Darkside band mate Dave Harrington handling guitar work and Cut Copy's Dan Whitford providing synths.
With those influences and collaborations it would be difficult to know what to expect, but the resulting record is actually a relatively straight forward combination of the atmospherics and experimentation of an Other People release, the big pads of a Cut Copy track and a little bit of LCD Soundsystem style percussion. Throw in some deadpan Nancy Wang like vocals from Lorraine Nicholson for opening track On & On and it feels like you could be listening to a super group formed from some of the best bands of the past ten years.
Whether it borrows from contemporaries or just draws from the same inspiration is up for debate... What isn't is that the two tracks here provide a solid introduction to this Australian-born producer, now based in Berlin via Japan.
Check out On & On above, the full release will be available from Monday on Eskimo Recordings.