Listen: Sunshine - J Laser

J Laser is the musical solo project from Jordan Lawlor, who previously joined M83 playing as a multi-instrumentalist on their Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming tour and contributing to their album Junk.

Lawlor is now working on music under his own moniker, but in collaboration with regular creative partners Jamie Lawlor (drums) and Laura Murphy (bass). The music of J Laser is more overtly kaleidoscopic than that of M83, blending musical inspiration across the decades in a way that will be familiar to fans of Tame Impala. The result is crisp, modern and yet dreamlike, appearing like a reflection of a reflection or a memory of a memory. The drums punch with a clarity that would have faded on a decades old record, and yet there is a timelessness to the melody and overall sound here.

Sunshine is the second single from J Laser, following on from his debut Waves & Blades, and the first of ten singles to appear spanning two EPs in 2020. I love the meandering melancholy of this song, particularly in the bridge where it feels like Lawlor and his collaborators become unshackled, playing for themselves. The resulting music is bold, distinctive and intimate. I can’t wait to hear what else Lawlor has in store for us this year.

News: Glastonbury announce the 2020 Emerging Talent Competition

Ahead of this year’s Glastonbury Festival, Glastonbury have just announced the 2020 Emerging Music Competition.

As with previous years, the competition is aimed at providing unsigned musicians an opportunity to get exposure through the festival, with a slot of one of Glastonbury’s main stages up for grabs. The competition is once again being run in partnership with PRS for Music and PRS Foundation, with the PRS Foundation offering an additional prize of a talent development fund of £5,000 for the overall winner, with two additional funds of £2,500 each for the runners up.

Musicians of any genre are invited to enter with a one week window for entries starting at 9am on Monday 27 January and closing 5pm on Monday 3 February. The entry form will be available on the Glastonbury Festival website and acts will need to supply a link to one original song on SoundCloud, plus a link to a video of themselves performing live (this can even just be a bedroom recording if you don't have concert or gig footage).

Previous winners of the competition include R&B singer Izzy Bizu (a 2016 BRITs Critics’ Choice nominee and winner of the 2016 BBC Music Introducing Award) and 2016 winners She Drew The Gun. Many winners have gone on to wider success, including Marie White, last year’s winner, who has since signed with Decca Records and Universal Music Publishing Group.

Once entries have closed a panel of 30 music bloggers, including yours truly, will review entries and whittle them down to a longlist of 90 artists, with each blogger selecting their favourite three. From here, Glastonbury organisers Michael and Emily Eavis will create a shortlist of finalists who will go on to compete in Pilton in April to decide the winning act. It’s worth noting that for the past five competitions, all eight of the finalists were ultimately offered slots at the Festival.

You can find all the details on the Glastonbury website here. As always, I’m looking forward to diving into the entries and finding some unsigned gems to put forward for the competition!

Listen: Drive - Hot Minute

That Hot Minute describe themselves as “the music industry’s answer to Charlie’s Angels (...minus Charlie)” tells you quite a bit. The trio assert their attitude and independence, as band member Keely describes:

“You can be a bad bitch AND your own boss. You don’t need a ‘Charlie’ and you don’t just have to be one specific thing or another. You don’t have to answer to anyone. In our case this applies to us as women, but the message is universal - don’t underestimate yourself, you don’t need permission.”

On Drive they pound out electronic synth pop drench in retro 80s touches, a neon daydream surrounded by embellishments - muted guitar strings, drum rolls and the kind of glorious sax solo last seen on M83’s Midnight City.

Drive, a song about escape and escapism, has actually been stashed away in Manchester trio Hot Minute’s song book for years, but it only felt like the time for it had come now. Sometimes music needs a little time to brew. That’s what happened with Drive, and it’s all the better for it... Indeed that sax solo only actually found its way into the song midway through last year.

Keely says the song’s sense of escape is supposed to feel accessible, in perhaps the most British quote I’ve ever featured on these pages:

“We really wanted to get across the romanticised relationship of the high you get while chasing what feels like an impossible dream - but at the same point, if you just need to escape the house at 2am to get some white chocolate cookies from Asda, we’re also ok symbolising that! It’s the escape you want it to be.”

Check out Drive below:

Listen: Another Night - Two Another

Another Night is a sultry slice of soul that feels like the soundtrack to a movie I can’t wait to watch. The production work shimmers, capturing a slight feeling of the American Dream to it - it’s all motor cars and endless possibilities. Soulful vocals draw me in and the whole thing feels both modern and old timey. It’s neon lights on the strip captured through the gaze of an Instagram filter.

Two Another were actually born and raised in Sydney, Australia, where they drew inspiration from Bag Raiders, Cut Copy, Tame Impala and Flight Facilities amongst others. The duo, Angus Campbell and Eliot Porter, now reside between London and Amsterdam and their melding of that American Motown sound with electronic production comes from a distinctly European place. The deep bass notes boom like sound leaking through the paper thin walls of a Bristol terrace, full of a rawness that offsets the glittering strings and keys.

This new single is somewhat of a departure from previous releases, having been written in its entirity, sat at a piano. Two Another then worked with UK producer Utters in order to build the song out. Eliot Porter describes the process:

“Working with Utters, we were able to bring the song to life, recording strings and making the sound a little darker to shine light on the vulnerability of the song by referencing 90’s trip hop artists like Portishead and Massive Attack. We have been on this journey for a few years and truly overwhelmed by the reaction to our music.. We have enjoyed being able to make records with some of our favourite musicians around the world and release them independently. We reconnected in the studio earlier this year, drawing inspiration from both our lives. Sonically the project represents a different direction for us – more emotive and raw than our previous work.”

Check out Another Night below.

Listen: Underwater Heart - Channo

Channo is the work of Australian producer and vocalist Luchii, and Underwater Heart is a new single that captures a strange and disorientated feeling. With its weird, wonky bass and strung out guitars, Underwater Heart is a little otherworldly, the feeling of swimming alone in your own bubble, just hoping someone pops it. I love how it bobs along, the melodies slipping in and out of my mind.

The music here is deliberately mysterious, with Channo deliberately wanting to take a different approach at a time where everything feels fixated on content and exposure. Here he aims for mystique, conjuring an experimental and yet accessible sound.

So Underwater Heart is deliberately left open to interpretation. Even in making it Luchii found himself identifying things hidden inside that weren’t even initially intended to be there, interpreting it in different ways. The song started as a piece about pushing people out of your life - hiding your emotion beneath the surface and yet at the same time longing for connection... Waiting for something to happen.