Listen: Hang It Up - Justin Froese

Hang It Up is a song that deals with the romantic insecurity that comes with infatuation and building unreal expectations around someone. Sometimes the unobtainable becomes so compelling, almost creating an inherent desirability. This comes both through the result of the seeming impossibility, and the safety of being able to disregard the practical considerations. Unrequited love seemingly has a sense of purity about it by virtue of the fact there is no compromise in it.

Justin Froese is an award-winning songwriter focused on creating groove-driven alternative pop whilst drawing on diverse inspiration. Hang It Up was written and produced with his friend Jonathan Jones after hearing a few chords performed on Jones’ childhood piano.

With a deliberate contrast at its core, Hang It Up carries a moody, obsessive sound in the verse that then seemingly evaporates as the instrumentation melts in a daydream-like Billy Joel style chorus. Final production polish was introduced in the final version courtesy of Froese’s and Jones’ friend Scott McKay Gibson.

Hang It Up by Justin Froese Written by Justin Froese and Jonathan Jones Produced by Justin Froese, Jonathan Jones and Scott McKay Gibson Mixed and Mastered by Scott McKay Gibson Cover Art by Aura Walmer

Watch: New Job - Dance Lessons

New Job has a glossy, easy-going disco sound that feels perfect for June. It is a song for the moment as the sun just starts to drop below the horizon on hot summer days.

What really stuck out for me is the way Dance Lessons have layered multiple vocal harmonies together whilst creating something that feels popular yet interesting, polished yet real. The artist is most calls to mind for me was Róisín Murphy, who similar brings beautiful vocals and a finesse to music that is ultimately experimental.

Dance Lessons are a London-based, female-fronted and female-produced trio. New Job is their second single and Dance Lessons’ Ann said it became weirdly prophetic:

“It was never meant to become personal. I initially wrote it late last year – before a break-up. Afterwards, I went on a mad search for new ways to distract myself. The song shows the similarities in perspective of two people post-breakup, both using distractions to mask the sadness.”

The video for New Job was shot by Sarah Chatfield in a COVID-19 locked down LA. Having previously worked with Lily Allen, Lykke Li and The Cribs, Chatfield was challenged to work unconventionally, without a crew and with minimal equipment. It's also shot entirely on iPhone, which is impressive given how great it looks!

The result perfectly captures the dance interpretation of New Job, performed and choreographed by Gabri ‘GQ’ Gilliam and Shantel Ureña. In a sense, the sight of a couple dancing through empty streets feels analogous to the experience of trying to move on from a break-up - the sense of isolation, of being busy for the sake of it, and the weird reality that the only person who genuinely knows what you are feeling is the precise person you are working to move on from. Together, even in moving apart.

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.