[SONG OF THE DAY] Yuksek - "I Don't Have A Drum Machine"

On Friday my most favorite Frenchie, disco-house producer Yuksek released his latest track, “I Don’t Have A Drum Machine”, which is his first release on Classic Music Company. In true Yuksek fashion, he’s carefully crafted a timeless disco delicacy that is effortlessly cool. Apparently I am the only person on the internet that cares to know the nitty gritty on this track’s most prominent feature, which is the voiceover that Yuksek utilizes to gradually layer on more dancetastic elements. The voice of the OG drum machine is none other than Philly disco soul drummer Earl Young (of The Trammps fame) explaining his four on the floor drum beat that created the recognizable disco drum beat we all know and love. Apparently this track was originally previously available on the internet as part of a Recover Re-Edits compilation via Yuksek’s label Partyfine that features the likes of Jean Tonique, CLAAP, and Santana. You can check out all of that over on the Partyfine Bandcamp.

YUKSEK LIVE

02 mar: Washington / Flash
03 mar: San Diego / CRSSD fest.
08 mar: Queretaro / Basis sound lab
09 mar: Mexico city / De Frente fest.
10 mar: Tulum / Gitano
16 mar: Lille / Nuits de la filature

[SONG OF THE DAY] Summer Heart - "Buckle Up"

Summer Heart @ Knitting Factory on February 21, 2019. credit for all photos in this post: William Helms, The Joy of Violent Movement

On Thursday night Brooklyn got some much needed summer sunshine when Swedish sweetie Summer Heart kicked off his east coast tour with analog animal Brothertiger. He kicked off the night with my gateway drug to the world of Summer Heart, “Pretty Haze”, rounding out the night with his latest track (and last song of the #12songsofsummer series), “Buckle Up”. It was a packed crowd full of people who were dancing like it hadn’t snowed earlier in the week, additional layers be damned. With this being my first time catching him, I had hypothesized that there would be mainly two types of attendees at a Summer Heart show and I totally nailed it: there are folks who 1)- happily dance and sway basically the whole time and 2) - those who choose to stand on the sides of the stage, head in their hands while resting their elbows on the stage, who just swoon and sing along in their own version of a pretty haze.

Side note: if there were an award for Musician With The Most Infectious Smile the dude David Alexander would win all day every day. His joy performing is infectious, making the whole experience even more enjoyable than you thought it could be.

East coast fam def don’t miss this tour. Dates below for your convenience. 💖

SUMMER HEART ON TOUR WITH BROTHER TIGER

Feb 23 Norfolk, VA - Charlie's American Café

Feb 24 Greenville, SC - Radio Room

Feb 26 Atlanta, GA - 529 bar

Feb 27 New Orleans, LA - Gasa Gasa

Feb 28 Houston, TX - Continental Club

March 1 Austin, TX - Barracuda

March 2 Dallas, TX - RBC

March 3 Tulsa, OK - Chimera Lounge

March 5 Kansas City, MO - Riot Room

March 6 Chicago, IL - Beat Kitchen

March 7 Bloomington, IN - The Bishop

March 8 Columbus, OH - Spacebar

March 9 Pittsburgh, PA - Cattivo

March 10 Philadelphia, PA - PhilaMOCA

[SONG OF THE DAY] Miro Shot - "Leaders In A Long Lost World"

Miro Shot (live performers, from left to right): Alex Parsons, Kashman Harris, Jamie Keegan, Roman Rappak, Tom Carter, Hinako Omori, Jay Udo-Udoma, Timothy Han

Today sees the launch of global collective Miro Shot and their debut single, "Leaders In A Long Lost World" along with its accompanying music video, courtesy of AllPoints/Believe. The genre-bending track carefully weaves together a variety of textures, from orchestral movements to delicate synths, all layered atop a bed of pulsating electronic beats. Do not be thrown off from them releasing a single and assume that Miro Shot is a band that just calls themselves a collective to sound cool. One quick glance at the video and you'll see that there is much more to this than just music from the erratic nature of the dazzling visuals that showcase the essence of their live performance as the compilation demonstrates the open source mixed media collaborative ethos at the heart of Miro Shot.

Music is merely the nexus to centralize the group of artists, graphic designers, and coders who flesh out the current roster of the collective and focus them on their primary objective. For the video specifically, the full scope of the collective was utilized, including award-winning VR filmmaker Nicole McDonald, VFX supervisor Haz Dullul, artist and roboticist Charles Aweida, and graphic novelist Oliver Harud. At the helm of the collective is frontman and de-facto leader Roman Rappak. Speaking exclusively with Some Kind of Awesome, Rappak shared the collective's origins, his optimistic outlook that technology will have on our future, and Miro Shot’s aforementioned primary objective.

In 2017, the early members of the collective located a space for them to collaborate in Dalston, which acted as a “lab” of sorts as Rappak would refer to it. It was a place where they could tinker on multiple levels. They developed the early versions of their app for their immersive VR experience, test AR and VR ideas, and also work on music. Feeling eager to put their efforts to the test, they applied for and were awarded a grant by the Dutch government. As Rappak explained, “[The Dutch government] is really into AR/VR events. And we said [to them], “Look, we’re gonna put on a concert that’s like a different take on a normal music show.” In May of that year, Miro Shot premiered a VR show at the Centre for Contemporary Art in Amsterdam. The performance lasted around 8 minutes and the band played to roughly 10 people. As luck would have it, BBC happened to be in attendance. As they would later describe the performance,

“The band became graphic versions of themselves before the audience was suddenly flying over an empty landscape and then a giant blue head of a woman emerged.

The show is designed to appeal to every sense: Electric fans wafted specially-concocted fragrances over the audience. Some people were quicker than others to work out that the event is 360 degrees: It's a good idea to look up or down and turn to see what's behind you.”

After the debut performance, a major visual effects company reached out to offer their services and they began to work on writing more music. “Suddenly we’re in Macedonia recording an orchestra,” Rappak recounted, “Then we were having to learn Cinema 4D and all these different tools that we hadn’t used before.” Since then, the band has continued to perfect their immersive VR show at various locations in Amsterdam, Paris, and London, ranging from galleries, cinemas, theaters, and even squats.

Miro Shot’s focus on technology comes from the collective’s notion that technology makes things better, or in this case specifically, how technology can enhance your appreciation for music. While the public majority views the ever-rapid technological advances as the means to the demise of humankind, Rappak has a more optimistic approach to the onslaught of breakthroughs. “It isn't because there is “too much technology” or because human beings are lazy or evil,” he explained, “It’s because tech is so new and so powerful. We are adjusting to a new world that is being built around us. As much as your phone has more computing power than the computers that sent rockets to the moon, it is incredibly primitive compared to what’s ahead. Not only is it primitive, it is badly designed, it is bad for your eyes and your world view.  But every day it improves.”

“We are adjusting to a new world that is being built around us.”

— Roman Rappak, Miro Shot

As we discussed the inspiration that informed his personal contributions to the music portion of Miro Shot, obvious renowned shows like Mr. Robot and everyone’s favorite techno-paranoia Twilight Zone rework Black Mirror came up. These are not the kinds of futurism-centric art that Rappak gravitates to. “I actually don’t like science fiction that’s really kind of… ‘light saber-y’ *laughs*.” In his mind, these futuristic worlds that are clearly a different timeline from our own make us feel inherently bad about our present because that particular future is essentially unattainable. “I actually like [science fiction] things that feel like they can happen,” he gushed, “Because that’s more optimistic and makes me think, ‘Maybe we’re not fucked!’”

Which leads us to the purpose of the collective’s existence. “War, poverty, pollution are not there because someone evil decided to ruin our day - they are organisational problems,” Rappak explained, “Problems that really well-made technology can help us fix.” As ambitious at it may sound, Miro Shot aims to be a catalyst for impactful change on society by leveraging their network and pool of resources to present a window into a world that could be. They understand that it’s unrealistic to assume they can do it all themselves, but recognize that by showcasing the future’s potential for greatness on a smaller scale, they have the opportunity to inspire action in someone else.

They're literally acting as leaders in our long lost world.

Miro Shot does not end at the current collaborators that worked on the the variety of multimedia elements that one can currently experience, but eagerly encourages newcomers to sign up to be part of the collective on their website. Pre-today’s public launch the collective has amassed around 450 already (including yours truly). You can head to their website to sign up now.

You can also find the band on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Jakuzi - "Yangın"

My beloved Turkish darklings Jakuzi have released another track from their gorgeous upcoming sophomore album, Hata Payı, which drops on April 5th courtesy of City Slang. As of today I can speak with authority about the awesomeness of said album because since it hit my inbox this morning I haven’t been able to stop listening to it.

This new track, “Yangın”, which literally translates to "Fire”, deals with feeling stuck in your current situation, more often than not because we’re our own worst enemy. As singer Kutay Soyocak shared, "My life is in a process of development and I am trying to go somewhere I would like to be. As this process goes on, a personal defect of mine distracts my attention and all of a sudden, I start watching it and that stops me. I am getting passive.”  

The band have paired the single to the below video which perfectly encapsulates Soyoack’s feelings. The gloomy scene portrayed comes off like there’s something wrong with the video once it zooms out on Soyoack sitting on the rooftop, but it’s just the somber reality of the situation at hand.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Max Rad - "Flesh & Blood"

As much as it irritates me to no end when artists go the hella illusive route with their online personas, I do delight in reporting on the occasional super sleuthing mission. This me for today’s SOTD —-> 🧐

Earlier this week The Algorithm™ delivered London producer/singer-songwriter Max Rad’s last track, “Rumors”, which as you’ll hear for yourself, is this laid back blend of trip-hop and R&B. As per usual when I find something that’s a delight to my ears I dive head first into their artist profile to see what else they’ve got going on.

Me: Oh! There’s a brand new track, “Flesh & Blood” and it’s just as good (if not better) than “Rumors”! Hell yes! Okay so what is this dude’s deal then?

Fam, there’s just like links to his Instagram and Facebook. No bio. No nothing. But he’s on like so many fucking playlists. His Instagram is meticulous and nothing too personal. But wait there’s a link to his official website on his Facebook where you can enter your email for free tickets (for what I assume is this Camden Assembly show on April 25th in London).

Which of course had me all, Okay no but REALLY who the fuck is this dude?!

Fortunately for y’all I have zero chill so I sat back for a couple of days and started looking for clues. Earlier today, I noticed on IG stories that he was celebrating the fact that London singer-songwriter Nathan Ball hit 4 million streams on his breakout track, “Drifting”. A track that, per some additional casual digging, a one Max Radford co-wrote and co-produced.

From the looks of the personal Twitter account he occasionally still updates, the story here appears to be that the dude has been working closely with Nathan Ball for a minute, lending his services on guitar for Ball as needed. Then early last year he started putting together the project you’re vibing to now under the name Max Rad and started getting some buzz love from around folks like Line of the Best Fit, Blue Walrus, NME, Clash, etc.

You’ll note that when Clash first wrote up his debut single, “Carousel”, that they even go as far to say, “We still don't know a hell of a lot about the newcomer - but that's fine, given that his colourful, lucid pop constructions speak for themselves.”

Well…. now you at least have a bit more to sink your teeth into so when you tell your friends about Max Rad you can say more than, “Yo this shit so so good tho”.

🧐😂💖

[SONG OF THE DAY] BABii - "SEiiZURE"

Late last week Margate, UK artist BABii unveiled her karaoke-esque style music video for her recent single, “SEiiZURE”. If you’re having trouble following along with the lyrics, that’s because the words are all written in BABii’s own pictorial alphabet. Speaking about the video, BABii said "FROM MAKiiN THiiS ViiDEO iiVE REALiiSED THAT ii AM JUST TRYiiNG TO LiiVE MY CHiiLDHOOD GiiRL DREAMS WiiTH ALL THE THiiNGS ii MAKE AROUND MUSiiC. iiTS FUN AND ii LiiKE iiT."

Where does one learn to speak fluent BABii, I wonder?? 🤔🤔🤔

“SEiiZURE” comes from her forthcoming debut full-length, HiiDE, which will be released later this year courtesy of Deathwaltz Originals.

Folks across the pond can catch her at a few shows coming up in Berlin, Munich, and London. Those of us in the US of A gotta figure out last minute SXSW plans if we plan on seeing her live any time soon.

See BABii live:
1/3 Gretchen, Berlin (DJ set) w/ Iglooghost + Kai Whiston
2/3 Common Ground, Munich w/ Iglooghost + Kai Whiston 
7/3 Scala, London supporting Crooked Colours 
11/3 - 17/3 SXSW, Austin

[SONG OF THE DAY] Bronze Whale - "Cruising"

Last week Austin groove gods Bronze Whale released their first track of 2019, “Cruising”. Following the slightly more upbeat tracks, “Never” and “One” that were released near the end of 2018, “Cruising” subtly shifts gears with the song’s steady pulsating hypnotic synths and gradual builds. If you were to accidentally put this song on repeat before going for a drive to clear your head you might end up states away from where you started without noticing the amount of time or distance that has elapsed.

“It delivered exactly the feeling we wanted,” the duo said of the track. “That first moment when the lights hit and a show begins. Cruise control on an open highway. Enjoying the night.”

With every song they’ve delivered in the past 6 months I’m very much looking forward to birthday month (April), which is when Benny and Jacques are expected to release their debut full-length, The Shape Of Things.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Ekkah - "Just A Thing"

You know what time it is. IT’S VIBE OCLOCK ON FRIDAY, CUTE PEOPLE!

Been longer than a minute since I checked in on disco-funk duo Ekkah. When last I heard from the pair they had just released their “Ekkah x Real Love” single back in 2016. Fortunately for us they’ve resurfaced this year, dropping “Homesick” early in January under my nose. Today brings us a new track, “Just A Thing”, which is a nice way to end a mostly-unintentional Valentine’s Day themed week. The duo enlisted the likes of SG Lewis and Phairo to collaborate with them on the track and as you’ll hear for yourself it is quite the lovely pairing.

Speaking on the track, the band explained, “‘Just A Thing’ is a song about a relationship that never quite took off. It's about not expecting too much from another person, you don't always have to fall in love, it was just a thing and that's cool sometimes!”