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:

Javeon McCarthy – Love Without A Heart by JaveonMcCarthy

Artist info:
http://www.javeonmccarthy.com

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:

Rhye- Open by Rhyemusic

Artist info:
http://rhyemusic.tumblr.com/

The Couch Brothers are our latest hot hip hop discovery. Japanese beatsmith Kazu and Dutch MC Maikal X from Curaçao are the creative forces behind this persuasive project, that seems like a incandescent shining star in the darkest hour of hip hop. We interviewed them to find out what this dynamic duo is about.

They met in the Netherlands in 2006, when their mutual friend Naba Napalm asked both to join his musical project. At that time Osaka-native Kazu, an indefatigable globetrotter and producer, was making a living as DJ and producer in Paris, while Haarlem-based Maikal had just left the influential Dutch hip hop formation ‘Postmen’ which he joined under his former pseudonyms ‘Rollarocka/Shyrock’. Thus, they were both open for new projects when they met for the first time. Following the session, Kazu made Maikal listen to his sun-drenched bossa nova-inspired beats and Maikal got excited.

Soon after they started making music, sitting on a ‘Yellow Couch’ with nothing more than Kazu’s laptop and Maikal’s microphone it clicked immediately: Kazu ‘fell in love with Maikal’s voice and flow’ and Maikal got hooked on Kazu’s beats. Since they both lived in different parts of the world one would think the easiest way to collaborate was a ‘cybercollabo’ through the internet; however they never felt tempted by this modern but impersonal way of working. Thus Kazu would always visit Maikal when he was travelling and they ‘locked-in the studio for a whole week or month to sit down on said couch and make music’ – hence their name ‘Couch Brothers’.

Our favourite track of the Couch Brothers is ‘All U Need’, a buoyant and joyful, vibrating, bossa-tinged hip hop beast that will set tongues wagging among real hip hop lovers. You simply have to love the way Kazu flips the piano sample and beats with his Akai MPC 3000, Maikal rides the rhythm with his flow – and the soulful hookline is the icing on the cake. According to Maikal X, the tune’s ‘about people always looking past what they got. People always want more because of ego and greed when it’s all right in front of them.’ Kazu on the other hand says that he was ‘heavily influenced by jazz and Brazilian music’ when he produced that beat, ‘especially samba rock’.

We’ve had enough of words! You should now listen to this utterly uplifting, essentially beautiful hip hop jam in the vein of the Dilla-produced golden age classic ‘Runnin’ by The Pharcyde. Listen to the dopeness galore via the www.soundcloud.com player below:

All u Need by CouchBrothers

The Couch Brothers finished their album recently and plan to release it independantly in 2012. Nevertheless they’re open for offers from labels.

Artist info:
http://www.couchbrothers.com

When the native Venezuelan Dominik Deonarain moved to Berlin eight years ago, he discovered a whole new world: the microcosm of electronic music and the nightlife in the urban jungle. He dived into that scene and absorbed the vibe and the music of that time, in order to merge this potpourri with his earlier influences, that stem from his background as a hip hop/soul lover and musician.

He says that he grew up mainly listening to soul and pop like Terence Trent D’Arby, Duran Duran, Pet Shop Boys and Minneapolis funkateer Prince. ‘When I moved to Berlin, electro and new wave enhanced my stylistic array, two genres that play a vital role in my music nowadays.’

We can hear some of these influences in his latest track ‘Something Like Love’, a track that bounces with a bass-heavy foundation, crispy breakbeats, fat synths and an interesting soul-pop-new wave twist. It’s the kind of gritty digital pop funk that Funkstörung-member Michael Fakesch or Jamie Lidell’s project Super Collider stands for, the sound that Justin Timberlake and Timberland champion in their best ‘Sexy Back’ moments – a moving combination of raw, edgy club sounds with catchy hooklines. To audit what we’re talking about have a listen via the www.soundcloud.com player below:

Something Like Love by KnixxMuzack

Artist info:
www.myspace.com/knixxizknixx