Listen: Feels - LUNAS

Swimming in baggy and loose sun kissed chords and rhythms, Feels is the latest track from Cologne-based musician Marvin Mauelshagen. Working as LUNAS, Marvin has found his groove making electronic music with a touch of garage and house blended to create a sense of urban movement.

Following on from 2017’s breakout single Night Out, Feels is LUNAS’ debut single for Berlin label Guesstimate and the first track to be taken from a forthcoming EP, due to be released later this year.

For a song that carries the central line, “If you wanna feel, do it”, Feels actually exhibits a surprising dose of melancholy... Rather than celebrating a feeling, the song leaves me wondering if that feeling comes at some sort of a cost, or whether it is simply about the desire to feel something when faced with a sense of withdrawal or apathy. Regardless, the song captures the feeling of seeking out pleasure within European cities in the summer - beats echoing amongst narrow alleyways, the cooling feeling of falling through pools of shade that collect between pockets of hot midday sun. Yet it also feels a little like the pleasure we seek comes with its own cost.

Listen: Thinking About You - Zachariah

Coming from LA-based R&B artist Zachariah, Thinking About You is the kind of song that bristles with emotional gravity... The sort of record that sounds like someone lost in the throws of what they feel.

With hushed, whispered vocals, loose elastic bass and a stop-start-will-they-won’t-they rhythm, everything about this record feels like it’s about bubble over. It’s the overwhelming uncertainty that comes with a really intense form of love - that constant feeling of “If I feel this strongly about you, how can you possibly feel anything comparable about me”. In some ways, this is the feeling of becoming incredibly close to someone... And yet as Zachariah pleads, “Can’t you stop thinking about me too?”, you sense the loneliness, the seeming impossibility of fulfilment and release.

Describing the track, Zachariah says:

“Thinking About You is about the beginning of a relationship - and the uncertainty of it all. It's the possibility of someone thinking of you and just that being the most exciting thing. Early parts of love are the best-- you're kind of in a fever dream of sorts. It feels like everything- the night, seasons, music, exist only for the two of you. I wanted to capture that feeling in this song.”

Check out Thinking About You below.

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.