Very thankful that it’s another one of those WOW weeks again! Incredible new music has been making it’s way into my ears lately and I feel blessed.
Meet 18 year old SIAM from Ghent (Belgium). This astounding vocal artist goes to the conservatory of Tilburg (the Netherlands), where she studies jazz/light music. Miss SIAM is inspired by The Weeknd, Lykki Li and Miles Davis. Her debut solo release, “Same Thing“, was produced by Faisal and sounds refreshingly nice. We have high expectations already, so keep a close watch on young Isolde. Spread the word and you know where you heard it first!
The most humble person I have ever met is without a doubt the Italian stallion…DJ Blue. Combine this with the fact that he has deep-rooted passion for music and you might understand why DJ Blue is such a dope DJ.
Blue grew up in a tiny village near Venice (Italy), but decided to take a leap of faith and move to the big city of Amsterdam a few years ago. Music was the reason for him to leave the comfort of his hometown and start a new adventure. He gets acknowledgement from the heads, but has yet to reach the reconition he truly deserves. With his latest “Low End > High Pass” mix, he takes a big step in the right direction.
Stream “Low End > High Pass” and follow DJ Blue while he takes you for a ride, sharing his most beloved electronic sounds of the moment.
Steve Nalepa is an esteemed music technologist and audiovisual producer, who is also a DJ/VJ who’s mentored many of today’s top artists in Ableton Live. Together with Penthouse Penthouse he runs the label Team Supreme and today he has a brand new song out called “Paradise Of One” featuring the lovely Jimetta Rose. Visit Nalepa’s Bandcamp page to scoop up this little gem.
Now as a frequent visitor of the site you might be familiar with Jimetta Rose. If you’re not go ahead and educate yourself, because she has an impressive resume. Loving the new track she did with Steve, because it’s a super soulful and almost ambient ballad that will tickle your ears and make your soul giggle with delight. Hence the track title!
Proficient drummer Richard Spaven is almost ready to release his first full-length album, “Whole Other*“, on Fine Line Records. It continues where the previous “5ive” EP’s on Jazz Refreshed left off. A lot has happened since then. The track “1759 Outro” of his last EP was picked by FlyLo and was featured in the best selling video game ‘Grand Theft Auto V’. For those that don’t know, Spaven has supplied the drums for artists such as Flying Lotus, José James and Gregory Porter on stage and in the studio.
His new Whole Other* album is rich and genre defying. It showcases the drumming artistry many of us associate with Spaven, combined with his own productions in a realm somewhere between jazz and electronica. Blue Note’s rising son Takuya Kuroda appears playing the trumpet soulfully, while The Hics join Spaven (last minute) on the albums title track.
Our top choice was “SideIISide” featuring Sharlene Hector on vocals and Grant Windsor on rhodes. To us this is a perfect example of how musicians translate soulful jazz into bass-heavy electronic music with the most ridiculous neckbreaking drum patterns. Richard Spaven somehow manages to bridge the gap between two worlds using his drum sticks. We’re honored to exclusively premiere this song and in keeping with Spaven’s passion for the club scene – “Whole Other” will be followed by remixes from Mala (DMZ), Ital Tek (Planet Mu), Falty DL (Ninja Tune) & Frederic Robinson (Blue Mar Ten).
On July 7th Richard Spaven’s Whole Other* will be available digitally, on vinyl and CD via Kudos.
Truly happy to have stumbled upon ThisIsRealMusic.com who introduced me to 19 year old jazz singer/songwriter Billie Black from London. Her second song “I Don’t Need Another Lover” was produced by Imposters and deserves some likes and reposts if you ask me.
She began singing at an early age after hearing reggae, soul and disco records at her mom’s family parties. At age 13 miss Billie Black joined the National Youth Jazz Orchestra, starting a love affair with jazz that led all the way to a place on the Guildhall jazz degree (where she is now). At 14 Billie went to the Brit School, where she was exposed to a wide variety of music and it was towards the end of her time there she started listening to James Blake, Jessie Ware, Sampha and Kwabs; acts who combine classic vocals with electronic production.
From that point on Billie started writing her own music, putting together a band and working with producers Imposters & John Calvert on a sound that combined her roots in jazz with the bass and dance sounds of the moment. Billie Black will be releasing a first EP this summer and if you want to hear what she has in store just visit her debut show at Electrowerkz July 15th.
It seems like more than a few Belgian producers are into that raw electronic funk sound. Guys like Pomrad and Toolbox have been on our radar for a while now, but we recently added another one. Belgian producer Toon Janssens founded the artist name Title back in 2010. He grew up in a musical family and started playing instruments from an early age. Title is all about making uptempo synth based electronic music for the dance floor and so Title released his “Kitsch” EP on French label Cosmonostro earlier this week.
With titles like ‘Boogie Drol’ (translated into boogie turd) you know this EP is gonna sound funk-inspired. Containing ‘Serious Beats’ that sound kinda ‘Kitsch’ at times, but oh so nice. Head over to the Cosmonostro Bandcamp page and grab this for dirt cheap.
Marc Rapson is a man of many dimensions. This talented jazz pianist with a passion for raw hip hop beats spent the last decade quietly building a following amongst those in the know. This new album is for those people.
On “Dark vs Light” Marc blends lucious hip hop beats with a touch of jazz. Vocally he gets a little help from Liz Elensky (on “Love Is All”) and Replife (on “The Rah Rah”). This is exactly the kind of wonderful music we were expecting from a mind that grew up on Ahmad Jamal and A Tribe Called Quest.
Below you’ll find streams of “From Shadows” and “The Kalimba”, but we suggest you listen to the entire Marc Rapson album on the Expansions Collective Bandcamp page and act accordingly!
We told you that new Astronote album was gonna bang! Feast your ears on the brand new “Astroblacked” album wich has “One” on it (which we premiered exclusively last week) as a bonus track.
So many dope tunes to choose from, but since where Illa J fans we had to go for “Crunch Time”. And when it comes to bangin’ instrumentals “FTJFY” is a facemelter fa sho! Amazing fusion of hip hop, reggae, funk and electronic beats with more guest features from Blu, Stacy Epps, Nick Walker, Rasheeda Ali and Mansool.
Don’t be shy…go ahead and drop those nine bucks, cuz I can name 21 good reasons to purchase Astronote’s album!
Two years ago we introduced you to K15 and streamed some exclusive tracks in the process. Well he’s back with his brand new single “Bordeaux” including two tight remixes from Kaidi Tatham and Glenn Astro & IMYRMIND. As a bonus you get the track “Hall Of Memories” to complete this four track release on WotNot.
K15’s single has all the sophistication the name implies, a bubbling bass line with an earthy jazz undertone. Kaidi builds on the chord progression in his synth-laden remix with broken beat percussion, while Glenn Astro & IMYRMIND provide a fierce sounding house remix that’s perfect for the clubs.
Follow this guy on Soundcloud and get the digital version now or waith for the vinyl release that will be out soon!
Evil Needle & Sivey met in an online beat community many years ago and decided to work on an EP together. It took the guys a while, but after years of communication back and forth, the duo finally managed to complete their “Constructive Interference” EP. Though Evil Needle & Sivey never met in real life there is a certain synergy and the outcome is truly wonderul. Two sounds complimenting eachother so nicely…great job fellas!
I’d describe the EP as soulful electronic beats with a dash of broken beats and a twist of garage influences. Any attempt at discribing the sound seems futile, since it’s mostly genre-defying. Just take a good listen for yourself and purchase from the Soulection Bandcamp page if satisfaction is met!
