Kaytranada has been one of the main staples of my iPod. I have been a fan since his remix of Janet Jackson’s If. Other than that, I have always anticipated his numerous Boiler Room sets to check what he has been up to so I can download and include his new stuff in my playlists.
He launched his album 99.9% just a few days ago, and I strongly believe it’s actually one of the best dance releases for the month. The perfect blend of house, hip hop, R&B, soul, funk, and electro in his songs just makes his album very easy to like and listen to. His collaboration with diverse musicians like Vic Mensa, AlunaGeorge, Craig David, Badbadnotgood, Little Dragon, and Anderson .Paak (my breakout artist for 2016) just shows what he’s capable of doing. He can be both diverse and approachable at the same time, synthesizing so many genres in one album without alienating current and new listeners.
Personally, the ultimate standout would be You’re the One feat. The Internet’s Syd. The song is just plain sexy and sultry, it’s something you’d want to dance to on a lazy Sunday morning in your pajamas.
99.9% is is a electro-discotheque masterpiece – it’s something anyone would totally listen to anytime of the day. I’d recommend buying his album as all tracks will definitely end up in any classic dance playlists this year. I’m giving this album 🔥🔥🔥🔥.
Follow Kaytra on Songkick to know where his next gigs will be.
I never thought this would happen, but in a span of only ~3 days, I’ve become the 3rd most viewed writer on Quora about Independent Music!!!!!
Apologies if I’m e-screaming like a child here, but I still cannot believe it! My boyfriend just told me to check it out because it’d be great way for me to learn more and share my knowledge on the topics I’m passionate about. True enough, it has helped me big time. I get to interact with people who share the same thirst for music and marketing as me. While at the same time, it is also good way to validate if my knowledge about these stuff actually make sense and good enough to serve as tips/tricks for people who know little about my field.
This is just a start for me. My next step would be more on networking. I hope this will enable me to finally realize my dream of teaching and helping indie musicians become more business-minded on their own. Crossing my fingers (and toes, even)!
A friend recommended me to check this song out as it is a side project of one the artists I’ve been a fan of for so long. I won’t disclose who that artist is as I don’t want to ignite initial biases on his first release. To be honest, I cannot help but compare it from his original works. But I tried my best to be objective in terms of giving feedback so that it’d be useful when it comes to future releases.
Putting on my neutral hat now, I believe this is a promising track as it perfectly resembles the overall vibe of one of my favorite albums of all time – College’s Northern Council. It has that dark electowave sound that completely stands out from the clutter of party-wave sounds that every one has been always used to. Moreover, one will instantly notice that it is well thought of – the sequence of sounds has a cadence structure and feel to it, starting from the bells, to the synth claps, and then triad chords played just before the chorus. I just felt the build up that the artist was trying to achieve fell short. Personally, the climax was not that impactful as it was only merely limited to the chorus and towards the end of the song already. I was expecting something more than that – probably a bridge, a climb or something to that effect.
Again, I still feel there is so much potential on this song. It just needs a little more tweaking, but ultimately, I’m already a fan. Cannot wait to hear more of his stuff.
And the guys have done it again. Just a few weeks after releasing my summer fave Money On Me featuring Anderson .Paak, Snakehips came up with yet another gem of a track featuring Malika, entitled “Falling”. This is included in the 4-track EP they launched last April 15th named after the Tinashe and Chance the Rapper song, All My Friends.
What I love most about this song is that they definitely went old school R&B/Hip Hop by making use of jazzy horn hooks in the background. Malika made it even more brilliant – sexily and soulfully belting out lyrics focusing on the joys of finding new love. Despite going back to basics, Snakehips still made sure they put in their signature electro-hop flavor by properly placing groovy bass lines all throughout the song.
You can order Snakehips’ EP here, catch them in their other shows (aside from Coachella) by following them on Songkick. Or just be updated with all new related to the duo by liking their Facebook page.
So, I was one of the few lucky fans who got the chance to watch Kanye West perform his first show for 2016 after the release of The Life of Pablo. To be honest, at first I thought this concert was a scam because there were literally no traces of the show announced in any of his social media assets. It was only until I think last week that it was confirmed in his website that he was going to Manila – out of all the places in the world to be honest.
After witnessing him live, I now understand why the guy’s so full of himself. Yeezy’s just too good to be true. I haven’t seen anyone who puts so much passion in his work to the point that he sang Famous 3 times in a row because he wasn’t happy with how it turned out. He got so emotional during the performance that he freestyle rap-ranted in the middle of the song, talking about how much he wanted to do his own thing because it was the ethos of being an artist – creating things aligned to your essence and not being told what to do. “So if I get in trouble for saying the truth, what’s being said the rest of the time? And I had to fight every day of my life when the whole world turned against me for saying what I felt. That’s the job of an artist, of a true artist — not to be controlled by their finances, not to be controlled by perception, but only to be controlled by their truth. What you see, what you feel, and say what you f*cking feel!” Everyone was fully supportive and confirming his rants, cheering him on throughout this scene.
His set design was super minimal. It was just a bunch of lights similar to his SNL performance with Sia and Vic Mensa when he first released Wolves. What’s great about this setup is that the whole focus of the crowd was solely on him. There was only one change in the setup when he brought out his synthpads when he sang Runaway.
What I loved most about his performance was he mixed a bunch of his old and new stuff to keep the crowd interested and craving for more. Most of the songs transitioned to the gospel chorus of Ultralight Beam, which was a perfect attention-getter it made you feel like you’re listening some pastor preach the Sunday gospel in church. He opened his set with Stronger, which I believe was the right mood setter as it instantly got the crowd so hyped up everyone was dancing and literally singing their hearts out to every word. Aside from Famous, some tracks he sang from TLoP were Father Stretch My Hands Pt. 2, Waves, and some bits of Fade. He actually sang a little bit of everything – Black Skinhead, New Slaves, and the catchy sample from Bound 2 from Yeezus, All Falls Down and Jesus Walks from College Dropout, Gold Digger from Late Registration, All of the Lights and Runaway from My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy, Stronger, Flashing Lights, and Good Life from Graduation, and whole lot more. It was literally a back to back to back to back of his biggest hits. I’m quite surprised he included these past hits in his set list as these are already so far from the new experimental hip hop Yeezy sound he’s been known for the past few albums.
This man is just out of this world. My mind still cannot comprehend that he actually went to this humble 3rd world city. Kudos to the Paradise IMF team for putting up this one helluva show. I’m crossing my fingers now, and hope they bring in Drake and Childish Gambino next.
Yeezy’s next confirmed show will be this 16th of April called the “Yeethoven” – a 70-piece orchestra in collaboration with Yuga Cohler and Stephen Feigenbaum. Either way, stay updated by following him on Songkick. This man is just full of surprises you never know where and when he’s gonna strike next.
UK dynamic duo Oliver Lee and James Carter aka Snakehips are on a roll, following up the smash hit with Tinashe “All My Friends” with “Money On Me”. This track collaboration with Anderson.Paak is the perfect blend of soul, R&B, and electronica, which, as I have noticed has been their style in practically all their tracks. They impeccably place the right bass lines and drops, synth accents, and soulful voice parts just at the right time, frequency, and pace.
Along with the release of the track, they announced plans of releasing a four-track EP named after the Tinashe x Chance the Rapper hit on the 15th of April, via RCA. I couldn’t wait to get my hands on that. For more updates on the duo, like their Facebook page. You can also follow them on Songkick to get the latest news on where they will be playing live next.
I’ve been waiting for this release since I first heard one of his singles “Fever” (which, btw, I reviewed here last year). And I must say, this 15-minute long EP is worth putting on loop all day. Lenno has this knack of using classic nu-wave/discotheque beats, bass lines, and synths you’d normally hear from classic 80s and 90s tracks. For someone who’s only in his early 20s, he’s making songs that our parents can tolerate listening to.
All tracks are standouts, it’s so hard to choose just one. The whole vibe of his album is everything I’m looking for in an electropop/synthpop song. You’d find yourself including his songs in your springtime/summertime beachparty playlists.
For more of Lenno, check out his Soundcloud, like his Facebook page, and follow him on Songkick to get updates on where he’ll be playing live next.
FATIMA ESPINEDA 