Sanne Putseys was not destined to become an artist. “I grew up in a really little town in Belgium, and none of my family was into music.” reveals the 21 year old, with refreshing sincerity. It’s the story of a young musician who ignores her fate, and pours her anxieties into her songs and her guitar. She turns her doubts into soul, funk and reggae melodies, trying hard to be worthy of her idols like Lauryn Hill, Erykah Badu and Bob Marley.
She sang in local clubson the weekend and attended high school during the week. She recorded in home studios and published drafts of her songs on the internet, without a thought of making a career in music. Thousands of fans responded to her, attracting the attention of Because Music Label, which eventually led to a record deal for the young, talented musician.
Her first, self-titled album is ambitious, a smart melting pot between electric rock, organic hiphop and soul. Today, she has chart success with the hit singles Raggamuffin, Crazy Vibes and This World. To find out more about Selah Sue's world, please visit this website.
Matta comprises of producers Andy Brookes and James Wilson. I think linking this video is far the best way to promote their music, enjoy. And don't forget switching to 720p, as always.
Let's go mainstream with an electropop track of young black magician, Ruby Goe. She goes really hard with this one, it will be a certain member of Dubdogg Summer Hits chart. Looking forward to her debut album.
Excuse me for dropping some fresh Moxix on you this fine thursday afternoon. With a spacey groove and some high-powered distortion, this track just seems to melt your speakers and set the club in motion.
A ridiculously young korean guy called Sunik Kim creates experimental electronic music, incorporating sampled pianos, pitch-shifted vocals and synths under the name Beat Culture. Kim came from Hong Kong, but now he is attending a boarding school in the USA. There isn't too much further information about the artist himself on the web, so let's just judge him based on his music. The sound of water is a widely used effect in his art, which makes you feel peaceful and relaxed, however this kind of sound overflows a little bit in his work. You can hear a slight influence of Fourtet, Gold Panda and of course Burial. Beat Culture creates pieces that consist of catchy phrases and atmospheric beats that invoke a wide range of emotions.
He is inexperienced, but deserves credit for making such art with so few years behind him. I think his coolest virtue is having a very unique style. Despite the whole album quite sounds the same, believe me when I say, this is one of the best sampled, chilling electronic music out there.
Kim is a very ambitious musician who is trying to put his own stamp on the scene. He is currently unsigned and releasing his music to the masses on Bandcamp for an arbitrary price. If you have a few unwanted dollars, throw them Sunik’s way to help fund his journey into the depths of the electronic music industry.
Every song of Tokyo Dreamer is an intelligent mix of intricately placed beats and samples across a wide range of sources and sounds. This album suggests that Beat Culture will be one to keep an eye out for in the future. I think his former work, Goldenbacked Weaver offers the same quality, but with less outstanding tracks.
Starting with sound effects of crashing waves, Shoreline is a perfectly balanced track with exciting sounds telling you to continue your trip. A special mention for You’re Hard To Resist with ethereal sounds, catchy beats and ever surprising progression, this track definitely stands out. Coastal Sentiment starts off with classic drums which then roll back to make place for a wave of remixed vocals, that gently break over the listener. Stars bears it’s name righteously starting off with chopped up high-pitched notes that dazzle the listener, before letting him glide into zero gravity with Midori and Complete Me. The penultimate pleasure maker, Before You Go is one of the most beautiful songs I've ever heard. Highly recommended. I have nothing more to say.
Tracklist:
Shoreline
You're Hard To Resist
Stars
Memory
Coastal Sentiment
If Only
Midori
Complete Me
Before You Go
Tokyo Dreamer
The daughter of a nigerian father and a german mother, Nneka Egbuna was born in Warri, in the delta region of Nigeria. In her childhood she soaked up the sounds and rhythms of one of the most musical nations on the planet, a country where expressing yourself through song is just a part of everyday life, where the influence is out on the streets. But at the age of 19 this modest and hard-working young girl made the big decision to leave behind the african way of life. To further her education, she moved to Western Europe, to the industrial seaport of Hamburg in Germany. For the young Nneka, it was a dramatic change, and there remains an intangible quality in her voice that speaks of being a long, long way from home.
Even though Nneka sings more than raps, she names hiphop as her primary musical root and most important source of inspiration, while citing artists such as contemporary rappers Mos Def, Talib Kweli and Lauryn Hill as key influences in her own pursuit of musical recognition. Her lyrics reflect much of her history and life in Nigeria as well as her time spent in Western Europe. Her songs stress the issues of capitalism, poverty and war, and are often loaded with moral and biblical messages and references. Victim Of Truth is an inspirational debut mix of hot loops, black consciousness and nu-soul music. Nneka's second release, No Longer At Ease combines the political and personal view of the artist, with an elegant, melodic voice.
She became famous for her most played songs like Africans and Heartbeat. Chase & Status created a cool remix version of the latter one. I haven't found her original Soundcloud profile, so these tracks are from different users. By the way, check out Nneka's website.
While love, hope and optimism form the bedrock of all Nneka’s recorded work, there’s a steeliness to her new material, the engagement of a highly developed mind on some of the tough realities of modern politics. In addition, let's face it, her voice is a perfect dubstep material.
Feed Me is an alter ego of beloved musical genius, Jon Gooch. After a school friend introduced Jon to the world of dubstep, he began experimenting with software to create his own music. His beats are large and expansive, his lines are jagged, chopped up and run through a battle ground of distortion and synths. In fact, synths play a huge part in his tracks. He also released work under the names Spor, and Unicron. Spor may be the most familiar to you.
Jon Gooch's electro house side project, Feed Me has been rather successful. He released new stuff like Feed Me's Big Adventure, Feed Me's Escape From Electric Mountain containing tracks like Cloudburn, Talk To Me, One Click Headshot and Pink Lady. He gained new friends and fans.
"I'm currently enjoying a bit more diversity and creative freedom under the Feed Me alias, which is allowing me to explore a lot more visually orientated ideas as well as less genre constraint." He says. I suppose there’s some degree of satisfaction at knowing what to expect from a Feed Me release, and its obvious that he is doing everything in his powers to appease his new fans, but a lot of people agree, that Spor's creativity and intelligence has been reduced to simplicity and predictability. His music could be described as glitchy and fidgety, but albeit extremely easy to listen to electro house, that can be thick with elements of dubstep, but with an overwhelming sense of danceability. I think it's a wrong approach to jumble the work of his alter egos, the audience has to accept the difference between bass-heavy, glitchy dance music and electronica.
Here is a short advertising video about him while performing live. If Jon aroused your interest, visit him here or here.
Chinese Man, signed by the label Chinese Man Records, is a french hiphop collective of Ze Mateo, High Ku and Sly. Its main influences are funk, dub, reggae and jazz. Sometimes two other artists participate in the creation of songs : Leo Le Bug and Le Yan. The group is particularly known for the piece I’ve Got That Tune, which was chosen by a large german automobile firm for an advertisement, as well as being the theme song for the french film festival in Hong Kong.
Chinese Man have propagated their music with banners of their great war, impressing upon the people that making music, not war is more rewarding.
With precise scratching and a mass of obscure samples, their emotional, melodic tunes remind me of african and asian traditional music as well.
Their songs have over predominantly dubby beats and an appealing syrup of mellow instrumental vibes. They've got 3 releases, Racing With The Sun and The Groove Sessions I and II. You can catch up on them here.
An experimental singer and songwriter, a mysterious, angelic voice, that you can easily fall in love with. Andreya Triana began singing at the age of 7, taking influence from the sights and sounds of London. This extraordinary girl was clearly a music addict as a little one, and she hasn't changed a lot since then. She has a beautiful, deadly weapon, that was mentioned above, her voice. It's addictive. One more thing, she's really pretty. Check out her website.
A collaboration with worldwide famous triphop producer, Flying Lotus brought her success a few years ago. After gaining some reputation, she went touring America with Simon Green's Bonobo Live Band, played on the BBC Introducing stage at Glastonbury, and signed a three album deal with Ninja Tune Records.
After taking part in Bonobo's highly recommended album, Black Sands, Andreya finally breaked out on her own with an album entitled Lost Where I Belong.
The album was produced by Simon, with label mate artist Fink also stepping up to co-write two tracks. With these names on the list, my expectations became very high. Luckily she didn't disappoint me.
I have a strange feeling while listening that much of the album sounds like songs you’ve always known and loved. It's also intellectually impressive, her lyrics are highly gentle and fragile. Andreya's live performances also have what it takes.
The carefully constructed running order ensures that Lost Where I Belong doesn’t get too harrowing. The opening song, Draw The Stars truly transports the listener to the realm of imagination, as if the notes are raining down from the twinkling stars themselves. The whole album stays by this dreamy, extremely soulful vein. Darker Than Blue and Daydreamer are both flooded with a fantastic, indescribable atmosphere. The horns add a whimsical jazz flavour that beefs up Up In Fire, while Far Closer has a warm, organic feeling that's bolstered by all manner of different instrumentation, from harps to violins. The closing song, X is filled with so much sorrowful emotion, that you can't even handle anymore. The painful goodbye of this nostalgic and relatively simple song ensures that even after the last note sounds, the remnants of a twinge of heartache is left resounding in your chest. The album needs more than a few plays for listeners to really get comfortable with it, but once that work is put in, you won't be able to put it down.
Tracklist:
Draw The Stars
Lost Where I Belong
A Town Called Obsolete
Darker Than Blue
Daydreamers
Far Closer
Something In The Silence
Up In Fire
X
