Only six days to go: on the 28th of February our move to our new home will be completed!
From then on our free download compilations will be launched exclusively at mb! Magazine, starting with our forthcoming Mixed Tape ‘Precious Selection’. In the face of this special event we promise that we’ll enthuse you with this especially eclectic selection of precious picks from around the world.
But there’s more to it than that. You’ll also find three terrific articles by the Mixed Tape editorial team including an exclusive video feature starring the musical prankster and Mixed Tape regular, Mocky. We met the entertaining singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer (Feist, Gonzales, Jamie Lidell, Nikka Costa etc.) in his new home base Los Angeles where he took us beyond the obvious Hollywood clichés – and behind the scenes of modern music production.
Everything’s bigger, better and brighter – so come along!
Berlin-Based duo Me And My Drummer just released their debut single ‘You’re A Runner’ via Sinnbus Records, home to artists like Bodi Bill and Hundreds. While Charlotte Brandi (keys and vocals) and Matze Pröllochs (drums) describe their sound as dream pop, it’s hard for us to pinpoint their affiliation with any particular genre as their sound oscillates between different poles. To our ears their music sounds rather Scandinavian than German, due to creating a harmonious collage of synth pop, imaginairy folklore with melancholic sentiments, indie pop and song-oriented electronica.
The two songs off the single more or less represent these poles: The title track represents the indie/electronica side. It begins rather quiet, builds slowly and successively establishes an energetic stream that pushes towards a climax, that will carry you away. For the b-side ‘Runner (Reprise)’ the duo strip off their electronic garment and offer calmly intimate nordic folk pop reductionism at its best. Charlotte’s voice forms a tender, immediate alliance with the sparse instrumental backing. You can almost sense that this is not just a band, but a loving couple circling around each other in the boxing ring of their music.
Have a look at the ‘Runner (Reprise)’ video below and grab your free download of ‘Down My Couch’ here.
We’ve noticed Charlotte singing that ‘there is a transformation going on’ … which reminds us of the transformations that are going on at our editorial team as we are about to incorporate Mixed Tape into the mb! Magazine within the next days. So watch this place and check our Facebook page regularly in order to stay tuned.
Javeon McCarthy is a highly talented Bristol-born vocalist. His hometown has always been one of the main epicentre’s of bass tremors of any kind, from early drum & bass to dubstep and beyond. Thus it’s hardly surprising that Javeon has a knack for voicing gut-slamming bass jams.
The 23-year old soul man has been a staple in his city’s fertile underground music scene for almost a decade now. At the tender age of 13 he formed the Kold Hearted Krew with a few friends including now successful dubstep/r&b producer Joker. This was the time when garage was morphing into grime, thus McCarthy found his skills as ‘two-faced’ party hosting MC with the ability to spit verses and boost the party as well as flexing his vocal muscle harmonically.
All in all Javeon has been collaborating with many kindred spirits who would turn out to be genre-defining artists of the next generation of electronic music. Among others his vocals blessed productions of Nightslugs impresario L-Vis 1990 (‘Forever You’), lauded dubstep producer Guido and the highly acclaimed bass-not-bass/house-not-house sensation Julio Bashmore (‘Father Father’). Obviously the two have enjoyed working with each other, because Javeon’s banging debut single ‘Love Without A Heart’ features Bashmore’s fingerprint too – a futuristic house gem fusing a bumping 808 electro bass riddim, driving hi hats, hypnotive synth stabs and Javeon’s sensitive vocals. This is 21st century r&b!
Listen to the boomin’ super soul of Javeon McCarthy via the www.soundcloud.com player below:
This seems to be the Mixed Tape week of lucious strings and beautiful harmonies. While we started with Miguel Atwood-Ferguson’s bewitching chamber music reinterpretation of Sonnymoon’s ‘Just Before Dawn’, we continue with another light-hearted as well as venerable piece of ‘chamber pop’: ‘Open’ taken off the debut EP of the Californian duo Rhye.
It was released ten days ago via the Los Angeles-based Innovative Leisure label, which has established a good reputation with valuable releases across-the-board. The label as well as the artist’s website don’t offer too much information about Rhye, thus journalists and bloggers have already started to mystify this promising act, conjecturing about the number of members, their supposed European background and the assumption that they live in LA.
We have a different approach: as disciples of Danish super producer Robin Hannibal, we presume to presume that he’s responsible for the production as it’s comparable to his brilliant output with Quadron, Boom Cap Bachelors or even Owusu & Hannibal. Rhye’s tune ‘Open’ quintessentially bears his sonic signature between an almost asepetic sound engineering and highly reserved synth pop aesthetics on the one hand, and a penchant for heartbreaking melodies, warm synths and likewise strings on the other. The song sounds like a close relative of Robin’s beautiful Boom Clap Bachelors production ‘Løb Stop Stå’, albeit songstress Coco Malaika has been replaced by an equally heart-warming, mysterious voice. Is it his girlfriend or even Robin himself? Listen to the song via the www.soundcloud.com player below to judge for yourself:
It’s crucial for an artist to be signed to the right label. This seems to be the case with Boston-based Sonnymoon, who were featured on our Mixed Tape 32 with ‘Run Away’ and are now signed to the well-respected Californian Plug Research label which is known for their challenging releases from a wide spectrum of artists including Flying Lotus, Bilal, Quadron, Shafiq Husayn, Exile, Daedelus, Dntel, John Tejada and many others.
Backed by this label, the duo seems to proceed rapidly. After two inofficial releases in three years Sonnymoon will release their highly anticipated self-titled debut album in May 2012. But there’s more to it than that: singer Anna Wise and producer Dane Orr really take the gloves off in this year and start it almost hyperactively with two relases as appetizers for the main course, the LP. The first is the ‘2012 – EP’, which builds on the formula of their previous releases ‘Golden Age’ and ‘Blast Off’, offering moody bass-heavy downtempo electronica with a psychedelic dub edge and Anna’s aethereal voice swaning through these spheres.
The other release is the ‘Just Before Dawn’ single, a minimalistic dark blue ballad with an interesting synth-foundation. While the original is already stunning, we fell for the alternate take by LA-based composer/arranger/multi-instrumentalist Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, who’s best known for his Flying Lotus collaboration and J-Dilla tribute ‘Suite For Ma Dukes’ in a contemporary chamber music style. This breathtaking version delivers exactly the sweet strings and the exquisite arrangement you’d expect from him – full of quiet moments, beauty and soft ambient sounds. Listen to these prolific sounds via the www.soundcloud.com player below:
Also we’d like to add this remix of the ‘2012 – EP’ track ‘Magicians’ as a goodie. Listen to the tune which sounds like a twisted ‘Girl From Ipanema’ hip hop rework and grab your free download via the www.soundcloud.com player below:
Only six days to go: on the 28th of February our move to our new home will be completed!
