Premiere: Nice - Arkell LDN

Arkell LDN is the musical project of London-based producer, 3D animator and well known drummer John Arkell. Having worked with a long list of artists that include the likes of Lewis Capaldi and Bonobo and Primal Scream, John has embarked on making his own music and accompanying animation.

With a focus on music that makes people want to move whilst embracing darker, bass-drive sound, Arkell LDN draws on the the raw, rave-centric sound of the Prodigy, Jamie xx, Stanton Warriors and Jon Hopkins.

On Nice, that rave inspired sound manifests in the combination of tight, high energy disco strings, dark throbbing bass and chunky drum patterns. The sound recalls the unfussy energy of late 90s / early 00s dance music with aplomb - crisp, crunchy music that would sound great in night clubs with big rooms and even bigger sound systems.

John notes that the track is more positive and accessible than much of his forthcoming music, and how he embraced the fact an early listener likened The track to Spiller’s Groovejet. In John’s own words, “(it is) kinda mad how I usually start of tryna make something much harder with those refences in mind... but I wasn't afraid to go with this one... i think the drop still kicks”. I’m inclined to agree - the way Nice pulls together an energetic, uplifting sound to his dark, bass-orientated production style really clicks.

The visuals that accompany Nice were created in Xpresso, with John learning his craft in the software whilst putting the visuals together. These similarly echo the style of the early 00s - feeling like cool, psychedlic and musical interactive experiences like Wipeout and video game developer Harmonix’s awesome Frequency.

Check out the video, premiering on BlackPlastic, below:

Listen: Hostiles - Benin City feat. Eklipse

Long standing BlackPlastic.co.uk favourites Benin City are back, with a song that carries and important message in deeply challenging times.

Usually I would write something about the artist, the song, and what it makes me feel. In this instance, I think it is much better to let the music, and the artist, speak for itself. The words that follow in this post are those of Benin City.

It was already a painful year, with the Tories, with Covid, with Windrush, with Boris.

This year alone, our aunts have been spat on, our uncles knelt on, our elders deported, our brothers left to the mercy of COVID. George Floyd is the latest casualty in this eternal war against black people’s right to exist, to work, to be happy, to love as we love.

Trust, we’re exhausted, we’re watching the news and despairing, we’re tired, and we’re angry.

We’ve been emboldened by the protests, in the US and globally, even in the face of rampant police aggression. We’re a band, what we do best is music, so we’re putting this song out, Hostiles is our attempt to put our emotions to art in these shiitake-mushroom times.

All proceeds of the track will go to BLM UK, so we’d encourage you to buy it from our Bandcamp, though it’ll be available to stream from everywhere else too. Also, we’ve made a collective donation as well, and other donations to These Walls Must Fall (https://detention.org.uk/) BFTA collective (https://cash.app/$btfacollective) and Black Minds Matter (https://www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/).

If you can, donate too, or read/share this resource on other charities to donate to and articles compiled by It’s Nice That (https://www.itsnicethat.com/news/resources-supporting-black-lives-matter-movement-creative-industry-010620).

Take care of each other and yourselves. We are so much more to this.

Love is the law Unclench Your Jaw Wash Your Paws

Tom, Shanaz, Josh

#blacklivesmatter #blacktranslivesmatter

It was already a painful year, with the Tories, with Covid, with Windrush, with Boris. This year alone, our aunts have been spat on, our uncles knelt on, our elders deported, our brothers left to the mercy of COVID.

Listen: Hurt - Sabrina Lee

On my first play, Hurt opened itself up slowly. The production work is polished but unfussy, mostly focused on giving Sabrina Lee the space to deliver her vocal... gentle guitar strums, light percussive elements. And the vocal starts with a timidity that only grows in stature as the song builds, Lee hitting her stride with a chorus that doesn’t so much soar as drives with strength - it is a sharp point hit with force in order to puncture your defences and make you feel what she feels.

It is in the repeated refrain of the chorus that Hurt really come to life... There is something about the way Lee repeats the simple line like a personal mantra that gives it its own gravity:

“Sometimes I get hurt, I get hurt just a little bit;

I might make it worse, make it worse overthinking it;

And sometimes I get, I get hurt all by myself.”

It is here where the production really shines - a simple distorted bass line underlines the vocal to grant it the emotional significance it earns through repetition. Finally the song closes with Lee repeating the lines one more time, the instrumentation hushed, as she reflects on the significance of her own capacity to hurt herself.

I suffer from anxiety. The lyrics in Hurt struck a chord with me that I wasn’t expecting: I went through the experience Lee depicts here a few years ago, recognising that often the thoughts in my head are worse than the reality. In the face of uncertainty, I will sometimes overthink things and construct a destabilising narrative that takes an eraser to my guide ropes and my safety net and before I know it, I’m left clinging to a sheer rock face, alone... And I’ve constructed it all myself: the negative thoughts, the rock face, the feeling of gravity.

Sabrina Lee is a 17-year old Korean-American musician born in Virginia. She wrote and co-produced Hurt herself.

Watch: Boiler - Monoboi

Boiler is the latest single from German electronic musician Monoboi, who combines haunting melodies with self-made music videos in service of cross-media experiences that experiment with dark atmospherics and hidden meaning.

Arriving in tandem with the announcement of Monoboi’s forthcoming full length album, Year Of The Wolf, Boiler is the album’s first single. Both album and single deal with themes of the fear of loneliness within a composition that combines melancholy and hope.

The production brings together a glitchy, frenetic feeling with slow moving, peaceful melodies. Snatched vocal samples and layered percussion capture the restless nature of our minds against slow, thoughtful chord progressions that feel like the calm, constant change of nature. It’s a beautiful, emotive experience, with the video pairing the emotional feeling of serenity captured within the music.

Check out Boiler by Monoboi below:

Listen: Perpetual - Taroug

Perpetual represents both a refocus, and an official debut release from German-Tunisian electronic musician Tarek Zarroug. Working under the portmanteau of Taroug, he is making deep, experimental and cinematic electronic music reminiscent of the intelligent techno of Jon Hopkins.

As a track, Perpetual is conceptually deep - lyrics that describe the abstract experience of a wormhole in the human mind and depict the tension between imagination, or perhaps perception, and reality. Starting with gently layered electronic instrumentation and hushed, spectral vocals that feel deliberately hard to pin down. The result creates a sense of losing yourself to the music - crunchy, glitchy percussion builds the pace, and staccato melodies give this an overwhelming feeling. It’s dark and haunting, yet beautiful.

Check out Perpetual below:

After musical refocusing, the song Perpetual is the first official release by Taroug. A solo project by german-tunisian electronic music artist Tarek Zarroug. The lyrics are describing an abstract sight of a wormhole in a humans mind. The eternal dance between closeness and distance. Between imagination and reality. Like a mirage in the desert. The tracks artwork visualizes the idea from a first-person perspective traveling through dimensions. From here to there and backwards. From sciera to pupil. You devour me from the room, into the inside of your bloom. Spit me out behind the light ray, your shape is a step in my mind ballet. Composition, production, mixing by Tarek Zarroug Vocals by Niklas Genschel & Tarek Zarroug Mastering by Norman Nietzsche Artwork by Marie Brosius