Listen: Regrets - Ayelle feat. Akacia

Ayelle is a Swedish-Iranian musician and songwriter who grew up in Sweden and Spain before moving to London. Having received a PRS Women Make Music grant, Ayelle has focused on creating music the explores power dynamics in relationships, self-referection and challenging the status quo.

Regrets captures a sense of a desire to move forwards and be more accepting of what we are now. The tension we feel when we lack security - the need to project a sense of normality and confidence, when inside what we feel is often very different. Describing the motivation behind the record, and her collaboration with Akacia, Ayelle says:

“Regrets is about the anxiety involved in keeping up appearances and longing for something more. Akacia and I started working on the track remotely last year and brought it to BB who's production really brought it to life.”

The result is a track that feels raw and emotional, yet brims with a growing sense of self-confidence and vulnerability. Synths gently pan and bass rumbles as Ayelle’s cut-up vocals perform a form of melodic gymnastics between a series of verses that feel soothing in the simplicity. Regrets is both minimal, and also sophisticated in its application of detail.

Listen: Lovely - Taught Abroad

Sometimes a track has the ability to capture a feeling through the subtlest of details. Taught Abroad is the musical creation of Chicago multi-instrumentalist Chris Sadek, who plays and performs every instrument, vocal and sound in his music.

You need to keep listening. Because Lovely starts with a relatively minimal aesthetic - a slightly bruised sounding vocal, an almost-too-simply four-four beat, a touch of organ, some synths, but then something happens. The first couple of minutes feel loving, but not transcendent. And then, at two-minutes-and-twenty-seconds, it all changes. A touch of echo consumes the vocal, the instrumentation takes on a sense of weightlessness, and in doing so Lovely suddenly begins to feel less like a moment and a little more like forever. It’s a moment that reminds me of the similarly beautiful takeoff that gradually unfolds on Junior Boys’ Banana Ripple, one of my all time favourite songs.

That transcendent moment somehow creates a whole new feeling. In one moment, Sadek seemingly goes from being there, with us, to existing on a different plane. His love is no longer momentary and tied to a point in time - it’s scope feels expanded, omnipresent, endless and timeless. It’s the sound of a person telling you they will always love you, and you really believing it, of deriving security from that endless feeling. Chris goes from being a musician in a room to a feeling in the atmosphere. It’s impressive and touching and I can’t help but feel a little bit more love in the world when this sound exists... And whilst I wish the final two minutes of this record went on for longer, the beauty of music is that once it exists, it is almost impossible to lose. Just like the feeling Lovely evokes, the love captured by Taught Abroad here is now caught in amber, and it won’t ever leave us. Take some security from that.

Premiere: Wash Out - Brunette

Brunette are a Brooklyn based duo (that’s New York City, fact fans!), comprised of Sho and Adrien Epsy. Apparently they also need to drink more water, and call their moms (that’s mums, English people and anglophiles)! Brunette also make music inspired by the likes of D’Angelo, Jai Paul and Kaytranada, which puts them firmly in my wheelhouse.

Their song Wash Out is an exploration of the uncertain yet thrilling experience that comes from existing in a ‘vaguely defined’ romantic relationship... Living with the pressure of something that could either be a brief fling, or a life-defining experience.

What struck me about Wash Out is the way it takes a really stripped back musical production and layers it with a vocal performance that feels both effortless yet impassioned. It is yearning and yet somehow carries it with swagger. Snatched vocals combine to create brief harmonies that give this a real feeling of power, the stripped back electronic bass lines and sharp drum hits only emphasising that.

Listen: Gold - JacobNeverhill

Back in March, I announced that one of the artists I longlisted for the Glastonbury Emerging Talent Competition was JacobNeverhill, who impressed me with his emotionally vulnerable and sophisticated sounding R&B.

At the time, the track I based my judging on wasn’t released. Thankfully Jacob has now released that track, Gold, and I wanted to share it with you. What strikes me with this song is how it combines the delicate sound of the guitar work with Jacob’s vocals to create something that feels beautifully put together. The warm bass notes that ride along beneath the surface of this record to give it a real sense of momentum, and the whole thing comes together to create the sense of being a little bit separate from the humdrum every day reality of the world... It gives you the feeling of being so wrapped up in someone that nothing else feels real any more.

Discussing his inspiration, Jacob talks of the impact of being in love with someone and the experience of just focusing on the good in people:

“I wrote this song about loving someone fighting depression, how over time I learnt every detail about them, all the “dark sides” that they don’t show the rest of the world, but through all of that I only ever saw the “Gold”. It’s a mantra that I want to walk with across all encounters with people: only seeing the Gold. So I’m releasing this song hoping that it can really connect with people dealing with similar issues.”

Mental health is something that touches most of us at one time or another, and I certainly know the experience of both seeing the gold, and hoping others do the same.

Listen: All But Lost - Andrea Hamilton

All But Lost is the new song from Andrea Hamilton, taken from her eighth record, an EP of the same name that is out now.

All But Lost twitches with a sort of positive but restless energy... Like good nerves, some might say. Hamilton’s vocals are caught up within a swirling kaleidoscope of colourful electronic melodies that sound excited and yet fearful.

Andrea has been making music since she was 16, with her work appearing on numerous TV shows, whilst she has collaborated with numerous other songwriters. She has also established herself as a musical philanthropist, performing in partnership with a number of charities and non-profits including The AIDS foundation of Pasadena and Project AK-47, an organisation dedicated to rescuing child soldiers.

Check out the song All But Lost below and look out for the EP wherever you stream your music.