Tag: Berlin Germany

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Berlin’s light heads Share Breezy Pop Confection “Got Me LIke”

Berlin-based indie electro pop duo light heads — Erin Renfro (vocals) and Alexandre Haudiquet (guitar) — can trace their project’s origins to their meeting in Paris. Both members have backgrounds in commercial music production, but they see light heads as a way to eschew hard and fast rules and strictures of songwriting and production — and as a way for the duo to embrace nostalgia, follow their instincts and tap into pure serotonin-driven pop.

Back in 2020, they relocated to Berlin, where they began writing and recording their debut single “Yellow House,” which saw the duo quickly establishing a sound that draws from a wide-ranging array of influences including psychedelia, funk and dance music in a technicolor indie pop package.

Released earlier this year, “Got Me Like,” is a breezy pop confection built around shimmering synth oscillations, a supple bass line, squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar and Erin Renfro’s ethereal delivery paired with an incredibly catchy hook. Sonically, “Got Me Like” brings a slick synthesis of Stevie Nicks‘ “Stand Back,” ACES and others while being a contented sigh that can only come from stumbling into love.

The duo explain that the song was created on a hot summer day last year: Haudiquet was jamming away while Renfro was dancing on the bed and singing the first words that came out of her mind “You got me like ooh ooh . .” For the duo, the single was an adventure into letting a song exist as it arrived to them, rather than picking it apart and cover complicating things as classically trained musicians tend to do. “I started off with lyrics that were simply fun and it evolved into the story of a summer fling turned into lifelong love,” light heads’ Erin Renfro says.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Berlin’s Max Blücher Shares a Sleek and Cinematic Banger

Hanover-born, Berlin-based electronic music producer and artist Max Blücher has quickly developed a reputation within the global electronic music scene for using his deep understanding of melodic techno and progressive house to boldly push the boundaries of electric music while simultaneously attempting to create music that’s innovative and emotionally resonate.

“Witching Hour,” the German electronic music producer and artist’s latest single pairs Giorgio Moroder-like synth arpeggios, skittering hi hat, and a Kraftwerk-like motorik pulse with organic instrumentation to craft a song that’s both cinematic and dance floor friendly.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Gotts Street Park Teams Up With Pip Millett on Yearning and Soulful “Got To Be Good”

With the release of a handful of singles the rising British neo-soul and hip-hop outfit Gotts Street Park— Josh Crocker (bass, production), Tom Henry (keys) and Joe Harris (guitar) — quickly amassed fans and acclaim while working with Rejje Snow, Kali Uchis, Cosima, Yellow Days, Chester Watson, Celeste, Rosie Lowe, and a growing list of others. 

2021’s Diego EP, which featured a collection of compositions informed by the raw energy of being together and creating in the same room, served as a further introduction to the rising British trio. 

Building upon a growing reputation both nationally and internationally, the British neo-soul outfit released ““Lost & Found,” a slow-burning and vibey bit of neo-soul featuring Charlotte Dos Santos’ self-assured and soulful vocal delivery, shimmering and reverb-drenched Rhodes and synths paired with a two-step inducing groove. 

The single, which was recorded between Leeds and New York, where Dos Santos was based at the time, can trace its origins back to when the Norwegian-born and currently Berlin-based singer/songwriter and the rising British outfit worked together on last year’s Morfo.

“’Lost & Found’ is a song about falling in love and not being able to forget about a person. It’s about being in all shades of love,” Dos Santos explains in press notes. 

“​​The instrumental track was from a batch of jams that were recorded during lockdown,” Gotts Street Park’s Josh Crocker explains. “Charlotte heard the instrumental whilst some of us were working with her on her record last year, we’d been looking for a way to collaborate and this one jumped out as being really well-suited to her.”

Gotts Street Park previously collaborated with Rosie Lowe on “Everything.” Last year’s “Summer Breeze” continued their ongoing collaboration with Lowe. Built around a slow-burning and vibey Quiet Storm-like groove paired with Lowe’s ethereal yet deeply expressive delivery, “Summer Breeze” is rooted in a simple yet powerful mantra: that its narrator – and in turn, the listener — deserves the best and should never settle for anyone or anything that makes them feel less than amazing. 

“‘Summer Breeze’ is an ode to anyone stuck in a toxic relationship. I wrote the chorus as a mantra, a reminder not to settle for anything less than someone who makes you feel amazing,” Lowe explains.  

“The instrumental for ‘Summer Breeze’ is basically us hanging out in the studio and jamming – you can hear us chatting and laughing in the background,” the rising soul outfit adds. “Sometimes you can lose the essence of a song when you decide to tidy it up and re-record it, so we just kept it for what it is. Collaborating with Rosie is an absolute no brainer for us, she’s super talented and creative and there was instant chemistry on this tune.”

The British outfit’s highly-anticipated full-length debut On The Inside is slated for an October 13, 2023 release through Blue Flowers. And along with the album announcement, the trio share the album’s latest single “Got To Be Good” an effortless vintage soul strut, built around skittering boom bap-like drumming, glistening Rhodes, bursts of funk guitar, and a sinuous and supple bass line paired with Pip Millett‘s yearning delivery.

“’Got To Be Good’, came together pretty fast. Whenever we’ve been in the room with Pip, it’s pretty free and fruitful,” the members of Gotts Street Park explain. “When a song comes together like this, we don’t overthink it or alter the final take too much and just hope to have the same energy come through to the listener as we felt in the room creating it.” 

“’Got To Be Good’ is about pulling yourself out of the darkness,” Pip Millett adds. “You have to really want for a change in order to pull away from that sadness, and that’s what I was writing about.”

Directed by Harry Pearson, the accompanying video depicts the feelings of isolation and unwanted solitude expressed within the song through the protagonist’s lonely journey through a nightclub — one in which Gotts Street Park is playing. We see everyone else frozen, yet having a good time, while the protagonist walks around with her misery and despair, while trying to pull herself into the fun everyone else is having.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Berlin’s Wind Mile Shares Dreamy and Atmospheric “Alone”

WIND MILE is a Berlin-based emerging and mysterious singer/songwriter, musician and photographer, also known as Antonin Côme. Music allows the emerging Berlin-based artist to shut down the scientific/logical mind and follow his instincts.

Côme debut EP was written during a rather liminal period of his life: between Germany and France, and between his time as a student and adulthood. The EP’s material is rooted in the ambition to craft a coherent batch of songs that the listener can dive into repeatedly — built around guitar arpeggios, glistening synths and propulsive bass lines paired with dreamily delivered vocals.

The EP’s latest single, the dreamy”Alone” is built around glistening guitar arpeggios, twinkling synths, the Berlin-based artist’s dreamy and plaintive delivery and enormous hooks. While sounding indebted to 80s pop, “Alone” is rooted in a lived-in earnestness — and is inspired by personal experience: The one was written between two different conversations with his six new roommates, who were — thankfully for him — becoming his friends. And as a result, the song is an ode to socializing and meeting new friends while reflecting his own need to be surrounded by people.

The accompanying video is comprised of footage of Côme hanging out with friends at various locales in Berlin, playing a house show and pensively hanging out on rooftops. The end result is an intimate visual portrait of a young, emerging artist.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rozarc Shares Cinematic Banger “For the Sake of a Long Night”

Over the past week or so I’ve managed to write a bit about Sinan Özgur Koç a Berlin-based, Turkish electronic music producer and artist, drummer and sound engineer, best known as Rozarc. Koç has grown up with a diverse array of music influencing his own work ranging from Bjork, Amon Tobin, and Nine Inch Nails to Siouxsie and The Banshees and Kyuss among others. But as an electronic music producer and artist, his work is influenced by techno, tech-house. industrial, synth wave, downtempo, glitch and IDM while paired with sound design ideas moulded with narrative and cinematic structures. 

The Berlin-based producer and artist first emerged into the electronic music scene with his debut EP, 2019’s five-song  Odds Are Tough, which saw him quickly establishing a forward-thinking, genre and style-defying sound and approach to his productions while being remarkably harmonious. Koç’s full-length debut, last year’s 12-song Flamacue was released to quite a bit of attention with the album being showcased in FAZEmag, The Groove Cartel, The Further, Zero Music Magazine, R+, Roadie Music, Zone Nights, Electronica.org.uk, and a list of others. 

I’ve written about two tracks off Flamacue:

  • “Sand Grains,” a track built around layers of fluttering and shimmering synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rattling thump and skittering beats that seemed like a slick synthesis of John Carpenter soundtracks, Tour de France-era Kraftwerk and Snap!‘s “Rhythm Is A Dancer” — but with a club friendly accessibility.

  • “S.S.7,” a track that begins with a brooding introduction featuring twinkling piano that’s gradually paired with propulsive thump. Eventually, the piano is replaced with gentle layers of glistening and bubbling synths. The end result is a trippy mix of downtempo, cinematic piano and minimalist techno that nods a bit at some of the atmospheric, classically-inspired moments of Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express and others.

The expansive “For the Sake of a Long Night” is built around glistening synth arpeggios, twitter and woofer rattling thump within a shapeshifting song structure. The single manages to continue a remarkable run of cinematic, yet club friendly house — but while being arguably the most sensual and soulful single off the entire album.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Berlin’s Rozarc Shares Shimmering and Minimalist “S.S.7”

Sinan Özgur Koç is a Berlin-based, Turkish electronic music producer and artist, drummer and sound engineer, best known as Rozarc. Koç has grown up with a diverse array of music influencing his own work ranging from Bjork, Amon Tobin, and Nine Inch Nails to Siouxsie and The Banshees and Kyuss among others. But as an electronic music producer and artist, his work is influenced by techno, tech-house. industrial, synth wave, downtempo, glitch and IDM while paired with sound design ideas moulded with narrative and cinematic structures. 

The Berlin-based producer and artist first emerged into the electronic music scene with his debut EP, 2019’s five-song  Odds Are Tough, which saw him quickly establishing a forward-thinking, genre and style-defying sound and approach to his productions while being remarkably harmonious. Koç’s full-length debut, last year’s 12-song Flamacue was released to quite a bit of attention with the album being showcased in FAZEmag, The Groove Cartel, The Further, Zero Music Magazine, R+, Roadie Music, Zone Nights, Electronica.org.uk, and a list of others. 

Last week, I wrote about “Sand Grains,” a track built around layers of fluttering and shimmering synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rattling thump and skittering beats that seemed like a slick synthesis of John Carpenter soundtracks, Tour de France-era Kraftwerk and Snap!‘s “Rhythm Is A Dancer” — but with a club friendly accessibility.

Album track “S.S.7” begins with a brooding introduction featuring twinkling piano that’s gradually paired with propulsive thump. Eventually, the piano is replaced with gentle layers of glistening and bubbling synths. The end result is a trippy mix of downtempo, cinematic piano and minimalist techno that nods a bit at some of the atmospheric, classically-inspired moments of Kraftwerk’s Trans Europe Express and others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Berlin’s KAYAM Shares Dreamy “Omens”

Berlin-based sibling duo KAYAM — Kim (vocals, Celtic Harp) and Mike Rauss (vocals, guitar, loops) — have had a multicultural upbringing with stints residing in England, Germany and Israel, and understandably those experiences have influenced the duo’s eclectic and continually expanding sound and approach, which they’ve dubbed “Falafel Pop,” a playful and affectionate reference to the fusion of styles that defines their work — and a reference to their love of chickpeas.

The sibling duo’s sophomore album Omens was released earlier this year, and it features album title track “Omens,” a gorgeous and dreamy bit of folk built around looping and lush finger plucked guitar, twinkling harp and the sibling’s breathtakingly beautiful harmonies. Sonically, “Omens” reminds me quite a bit of Loving‘s gorgeous If I Am Only My Thoughts.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Berlin-based duo Waking Dreams — Angela Chambers and Jason Letkiewicz — emerged from a three year hiatus, in which the members pursued solo projects, with the recently released album Sliding Lines. The new album’s material features a wide stylistic array with songs ranging from pop rock and ballads while seemingly influenced by Teenage Fanclub, Blondie, Annie Lennox, Brian Jonestown Massacre and Catherine Wheel. And they do so while retaining the elements of their sound that has won them attention — Letkiewicz’s ever-shifting soundscapes paired with Chambers expressive vocal.

Sliding Lines‘ latest single, the brooding “Not So” is built around a relentless post-punk thump, Letkiewicz’s spectral and wiry bursts of guitar paired with Chambers’ supple yet ethereal delivery before building up to a brewing storm across the horizon. “Not So” manages to recall the brooding and creepy eeriness of Siouxsie and the Banshees and Garlands-era Cocteau Twins.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Founded in 2021, the Berlin-based indie electronica duo Bromsen — Richard and Carlo Bromine — have developed and honed a sound that is built around their love of catchy melodies and elements of synthwave and guitar rock. The German duo’s first two singles “Merryman” and “The Photograph” were released to critical praise from the indie press. They also received airplay from indie radio stations in North America, the UK, France, Brazil and elsewhere.

The duo’s third and latest single “We” is an upbeat anthem. Built around glistening synth arpeggios, scorching guitar riffs, tweeter and woofer rattling beats paired with swaggering, arena rock bombast, enormous hooks and earnest, lived-in lyrics and vocals, “We” is the sort of song that deserves the raise your beer in the air, while hugging your best friend and shouting along lustily to the song’s chorus treatment.

The German duo explain that the song celebrates the unshakeable power of friendship. Richard and Karlo have been friends for 20 years, and they are convinced that their deep bond has helped carry them through both high and low points in their lives. “Such a deep and long-standing friendship can carry you through a period of weakness and often you emerge even stronger afterwards feeling free like a bird again who wants to fly higher and higher as described in the song…,” Karlo Bromsen explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alice Phoebe Lou Shares Dreamy and Summery “Shelter”

Cape Town-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and JOVM mainstay  Alice Phoebe Lou grew up in an intensely creative home: her parents were documentary filmmakers, who took a young Lou to piano lessons. As a teenager, Lou taught herself guitar.

When she turned 16, the JOVM mainstay went on a life-altering trip to Paris to visit her aunt. Armed with an acoustic guitar, Lou wound up meeting some of the city’s buskers and street performers — and she was instantly hooked. She even learned poi dancing from some of them. Upon completing her studies, Cape Town-born, Berlin-based artist returned to Europe, where she quickly developed a reputation as a highly-regarded busker — and for a fiercely DIY approach to her career.

Lou self-released her debut EP, 2014’s Momentum. She followed that up with her full-length debut, Orbit, which was released to widespread critical applause, including a Best Female Artist nomination at that year’s German Critics’ Awards. The Cape Town-born, Berlin-based artist closed out a whirlwind year with three, sold-out multimedia shows at the Berlin Planetarium. Those Berlin Planetarium shows were so popular and in such high demand that additional shows had to be added to her tour schedule in 2017. 

In 2018, the live version of “She” amassed over four million streams on YouTube and was featured in Bombshell: The Hedy Lamarr Story — before the studio version of the single had been recorded or released. Lou then spent the bulk of that year or so, writing and recording the material, which would comprise her sophomore album, 2019’s critically applauded, Noah Georgeson-produced Paper Castles. According to Lou, the album was “about nostalgia, about growing into a woman, about the pain and beauty of the past, about feeling small and insignificant but finding that to be powerful and beautiful, about acknowledging that childhood is over but bringing some of it with you.”

2021 saw Lou, much like countless others readapting her way of working. The result was her third album, 2021’s self-released David Parry-produced Glow, an album of visceral, glittering songs in which the JOVM mainstay articulated her deepest thoughts and emotions with her trademark unvarnished honesty. With touring at a standstill throughout the bulk of that year, Lou focused on writing and recording another album. The JOVM mainstay, along with her friends and collaborators Ziv and Daklis traveled to British Columbia to work with David Parry. Employing a simple and intuitive process, which allowed the songs to grow into themselves, the material they worked on was recored on 8-track tape machine, the end result was her fourth album and second of the that year, Child’s Play.

Lou’s latest single “Shelter” is the first single off her forthcoming fifth album, which from my understanding will be announced soon. But in the meantime, “Shelter” is a decidedly 70s album rock-inspired tune featuring glistening and arpeggiated keys, strummed guitar, a sinuous bass line and a propulsive backbeat paired with Lou’s achingly yearning vocal, bathed in a bit of distortion and reverb. While the song evokes warmly nostalgic thoughts about summer, the song’s narrator seemingly finds herself at an uncomfortable, uneasy balance: Although she points out that underneath her armor is a tender and vulnerable soul, she readily admits a need to put herself first.

Shot on 8mm film and edited by Andrea Ariel with additional footage from Jasha Hase and Alice Phoebe Lou, the accompanying video for “Shelter” features behind-the-scene footage of the acclaimed artist while on tour last year. Capturing Lou at her most playful and beguiling, the video is rooted in sweet, sun-kissed memories.

The acclaimed Cape Town-born, Berlin-based artist will be embarking on a lengthy international tour to build up buzz and support the new album. The tour will kick off with a May 9. 2023 stop at The Sultan Room. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

IRYS is an emerging, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and producer, who specializes in what she describes as dark electro pop with a note of retro and synth wave. She released her first single earlier this and currently has plans to release one single a month throughout the rest of the year. 

Earlier this year, the Berlin-based artist released “River,” a mid-tempo Version 2.0 Garbage-like track that featured her sultry vocal over a slick production featuring shimmering synths, skittering tweeter and woofer rocking beats and a propulsive bass line.

She followed that up with “Warriors,” one of the more dance floor friendly tracks of her growing catalog that manages to still be darkly seductive.

“Borderline,” IRYS’ latest single is brooding, trip hop-inspired bop centered around tweeter and woofer rattling beats, glistening synths, bursts of strummed guitar paired with the Berlin-based artist’s sultry and self-assured delivery and her knack for crafting infectious hooks.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Carla dal Forno Shares Sultry “Side By Side”

Singer/songwriter, musician and Kallista Records label head Carla dal Forno has spent the better part of a decade or so moving, writing, recording and touring out our Berlin and London, before recently relocating to Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia, where she wrote and recorded her third album Come Around. 

Slated for November 4, 2022 release through her own Kallista Records, Come Aroundreportedly sees dal Forno grappling with ideas of home, disorder and insomnia with self-assured, enlightened songwriting and pop hooks. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about album title track “Come Around,” a narcoleptic, meandering, dub-like take on indie pop centered around reverb and delay-drenched guitar and drums paired with dal Forno’s inviting, easy-going delivery and a well-placed, infectious hook. The end result is a song that feels like an open-ended invitation to stop by and stay awhile, to make yourself at home.

Come Around‘s latest single “Side By Side” is a dreamy and slow-burning, dub-inspired take on indie pop centered around a sinuous bass line, reverb and delay-drenched beats and bursts of twinkling, buzzing and atmospheric synths paired with dal Forno’s yearning, come hither delivery. It’s a slinky and sultry song, full of nocturnal desire.

“‘Side By Side’ is about the anticipation of hooking up with someone and the feelings of inevitability, transparency and impatience,” dal Forno explains. “It’s all in the lyric, ‘Make your move / I recognise the method you use.’ I’ve been sitting on this track for a few years. The production was really slow at first, leaning towards ‘ballad’ territory but it really seemed to find its groove when I increased the tempo and leaned into the bassline hook.”

Directed by Ludovic Sauvage, the haunting accompanying video complements the track’s nocturnal longing as it features a shadowy, blue-lit dal Forno superimposed over a shot of blooming, pink tulips in a stark, black backdrop.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay James Chatburn Shares a Woozy, Classic Soul-Inspired Jam

James Chatburn is a rising, Sydney-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and producer. Since relocating to the German capital back in 2015, Chatburn has carved out a reputation for being a highly in-demand singer/songwriter and producer, who has collaborated with acclaimed Aussie hip-hop outfit Hilltop Hoods‘ certified Gold single “Higher,”  rum.gold, Jordan Rakei, Noah Slee, Sedric Perry, and a growing list of others. As a solo artist, the Sydney-born, Berlin-based JOVM mainstay has developed and honed a sound that meshes elements of soul, blues, electro pop, neo-soul and psych pop with the release of his full-length debut, 2020’s David Tobias co-produced Faible. 

During the lead-up to Fabile‘s release, I managed to write about three of the album’s singles: 

  • “In My House,” a warm and vibey, two-step inducing bit of soul, centered around introspective, earnest songwriting, reverb-drenched guitars and thumping beats.
  • “Jewellery and Gold,” one of the album’s more tongue-in-cheek tracks, featuring a narrator looking forward to a future, where he’s flush with cash, and as a result, any of the major issues of his life being settled with that newfound cash — because dollar dollar bill y’all. 
  • “The Hurt,” a ballad that saw the Aussie-born, German-based JOVM mainstay express longing and heartache in a way that reminded me quite a bit of Nick Hakim.

Chatburn’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Late Night Howling officially dropped today. And if you’ve been following this site over the past month, you might recall that I wrote about “Do You Wanna Live Like That,” feat. Noah Slee, an expansive and mind-bending take on neo-soul and pop centered around a unique and woozily dynamic song structure that rapidly shifts in tone, time signature and instrumentation: The song’s introduction begins with twinkling pianos in a Latin jazz like tempo before quickly shifting to tweeter and woofer rattling trap beats and then shifting again to a vibey 70s neo-soul-inspired coda. 

Lyrically, the song is intimate and introspective, with its narrator vacillating between self-doubt, analysis, progression and gratefulness. “‘Do You Wanna Live Like That’ is a track I created which ended up kind of being a few different tracks in one, inspired by people like Tyler, The Creator with just these sudden drops and Sault with this vibe – simple not perfect, but just perfectly imperfect,” James Chatburn explains. “Noah Slee and I have been friends basically since we both moved to Berlin, it just took 7 years but we finally got around to releasing a track together.” 

Late Night Howling‘s latest single “Some Kind of Fool” sonically is indebted to Quiet Storm-meets-classic, late 60s-mid 70s psych soul as it’s centered around an arrangement of shimmering Rhodes, supple and sinuous bass lines, some metronomic time keeping, squiggling bursts of funk guitar and a soaring string arrangement serving as an ethereal and brooding bed for Chatburn, who fittingly adopts a yearning and heartbroken falsetto for most of the song. Although the song’s narrator is heartbroken and deceived, they have taken some degree of power back by clearly calling out someone, who has manipulated and exploited them.

“This song is about noticing being taken advantage of by other people and manipulated, but taking power over that situation by noticing it and calling out the behaviour,” Chatburn explains. “When producing and performing this song I wanted to land somewhere between Cleo Sol, Shuggie Otis, and Curtis Mayfield, I was like fuck it, I love it, I am going to make one of these songs.”

Directed by Dhanesh Jayaselan and featuring set design by Shari Annabel Marks, the accompanying video for “Some Kind of Fool” is an ethereal, fever dream that features an entirely black-clad Chatburn with his entirely white-clad backing band performing the song in a mistily lit, loft space. Local dancers — Nino Benito Marks, Kandi Alum and Lara Scheiber — perform some free, floating movements to the song’s slow-burning groove, and it gives the entire affair a woozy and floating feel.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Carla dal Forno Shares Hazy and Dreamy “Come Around”

Over the better part of the past decade or so of moving, writing, recording and touring out of Berlin and London, singer/songwriter, musician and Kallista Records label head Carla dal Forno relocated to Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia, where she wrote and recorded her third album Come Around.

Slated for November 4, 2022 release through her own Kallista Records, Come Around reportedly sees dal Forno grappling with ideas of home, disorder and insomnia with self-assured, enlightened songwriting and pop hooks.

Come Around‘s first single, album title track “Come Around” is a narcoleptic, meandering, dub-like take on indie pop featuring reverb and delay-drenched guitar and drums paired with dal Forno’s inviting, easy-going delivery. Centered around a seemingly effortless melodic simplistic and an unerring knack for a well-placed, infectious hook, “Come Around” feels like an open-ended invitation to stop by and stay awhile, to make yourself at home . . .

“’Come Around’ was inspired by a guy I used to play in a band with,” dal Forno explains. “I really admired the way he played guitar. He had this laid back strum that was effortless and cool. I was mucking around at home one day trying to imitate the way he played and I wrote ‘Come Around.’” Further adding: ”I wrote the song during a carefree springtime and I loved working on it while recording this album. There’s a lightness and openness to it, which I feel quite liberated by. It reminds me of a life I once had with very few responsibilities.”

The accompanying video by Ludovic Sauvage is red-hued — and despite dal Forno’s clothing, evokes lazy, hazy summer afternoons of daydreaming and hanging out without a particular plan.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

MSJY is a highly sought-after, Berlin-based DJ and curator, who is affiliated with Dekmantel and has been a former resident at Amsterdam‘s De School, Groningen‘s OOST and Berlin’s Greissmuehle. Over the past eight years or so, MSJY has developed a reputation for thoughtful and playful sets that draw from trip-hop and IDM and feature big bass drops and breakbeats.

MSJY’s newest project Xades — pronounced shades — sees the highly sought-after DJ and curator boldly stepping out from behind the decks and into the limelight as singer/songwriter. With Xades, MSJY pushes her sound and approach with the project touching upon dub, downtempo electronica and contemporary R&B, while being informed by her international and multicultural roots: Her mother is Brazilian, her father is Argentinian and she has a Swiss passport.

Her latest Xades single, the playful and coquettish “Locked In” features warm and vibey, neo-soul-leaning instrumentation, including a supple bass line, fluttering flute, and Latin percussion paired with skittering beats, a garage-inspired groove and twinkling synths, an infectious hook and MSJY’s sultry delivery. While being a summery bop that’s simultaneously club and lounge friendly, the song captures and evokes the pent up energy of being locked up inside and isolated from others for months on end — and literally bouncing off your walls.