Tag: ECR Music Group

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Heroic Enthusiasts Shares Blak Emoji’s Industrial Remix of “Still Life”

The Heroic Enthusiasts — multi-instrumentalist and songwriter Thomas Ferrera and vocalist and multi-instrumentalist James Tabbi — have celebrated careers as solo artists, producers, composers and multi-instrumentalists. The duo bonded over their mutual influences of Brit Pop, New Wave and post-punk. Additionally, their education in computational mathematics and mathematical statistics help to inform work that manages to deftly combine the intellectual and emotional.

Last year was a busy year for the synth pop duo: They released two EPs last year through Meridian/ECR Music Group — Fits and Fashions EP and Crimes and Passions EP. As the duo explains Fits and Fashions “provided and introduction and an opportunity to glimpse who we are as a band: one that pulls from 80’s-based nostalgia and turns into something modern.” The duo’s Thomas Ferrera explains that the first EP is essentially Side 1 of their forthcoming album. Crimes and Passions in contrasts with — and to compliment — the first EP is a collection of five inspired, spontaneous songs meant to take the listener on a journey that convey a multitude of emotions. Crimes and Passions is essentially Side 2 of the album.

“Still Life” appears on Crimes and Passions EP. Featuring glistening synth arpeggios, mathematically precise, propulsive four-on-the-floor and bursts of angular guitar paired with Tabbi’s expressive crooning and razor sharp hooks, “Still Life” manages to sound indebted to Pet Shop Boys, New Order, and Electronic. “The song is an imagining, a metaphor, of those aspects of a still-life painting reflected into a relationship,” The Heroic Enthusiasts’ Tabbi explains in press notes. “Two lovers feeling the lightness and darkness of love, feeling alive, knowing the feelings and emotions will ebb and flow, and sadly, someday end as all of nature does, in death.”

Recently, the duo recruited JOVM mainstay Blak Emoji to remix “Still Life,” that retains the vocal and razor sharp hooks of the original but pairs them with a club friendly, industrial-leaning production featuring enormous, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and buzzing synths. “’Still Life’ was my favorite song from the Crimes and Passions EP,” Blak Emoji says in press notes. “Soon as I heard it I felt I could contribute a bit more of an industrial pop edge sonically with respect to the original. I kept visualizing how it would sound on the dance floor of a goth club. Had a total blast with it and the Heroic guys are great people, period.”

“’Still Life’ was one of our first compositions for this two-EP collection,” The Heroic Enthusiasts’ Thomas Ferrara explains. “Its lyrical content can be interpreted in several ways, and melodically and sonically the same holds true. Blak Emoji translated the song and original track into his own voice that strikes a chord with both James and me. He may have awoken a sleeping giant. Thank you Blak Emoji.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Blak Emoji Shares Sleek and Sexy “Last Night Lost”

New York-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Kelsey Warren has had a lengthy and accomplished career: Over the past two decades, Warren has been in a number of different projects as a side man, hired gun and/or frontman, including Denise Barbarita and the Morning Papers, and Pillow Theory among others.

Warren started Blak Emoji back in 2015. Initially conceived as a solo recording project with a rotating cast of players for live shows, Blak Emoji gradually evolved into a full-fledged band led by Warren (vocals, guitar and keys) featuring Sylvana Joyce (keytar), Bryan Percival (bass, keys) and Max Tholenaar-Maples (drums). With Blak Emoji, Warren has expanded upon his sound and approach to include a slick synthesis of the soul, R&B, and pop that he was immersed in while growing up in South New Jersey, along with hip-hop, punk, minimalist classical and synth-driven music Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails and Prince that he loved as an adult.  

Over the past handful of years, the JOVM mainstay has been incredibly busy: With Blak Emoji, Warren has released two EPs and two albums, which have received praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Afropunk, The Line of Best Fit, BUST, Popmuzik. Vampire Freaks, Ghost Cult Magazine, this site, and many others. “Velvet Ropes & Dive Bars, and “Poison To Medicine” appeared on ABC’s Quantico while “Sapiosexual” appeared in several indie films. Additionally, Warren has become an in-demand producer, who has collaborated with an eclectic array of artists.

Last year, Warren signed with Blake Morgan‘s ECR Music Group for a four-part, full catalog re-issue from the label. The first re-issue is a recently released, deluxe, remastered edition of Warren’s acclaimed album Eclectro. The acclaimed album has been re-sequenced and remastered by ECR Music Group’s Morgan. “I’ve loved and respected Blak Emoji’s work for years,” Morgan says. “I’m thrilled to have him join our roster, and honored to have had the opportunity to remaster his catalog for these stunning ECR reissues.”

Late last year, the JOVM mainstay shared “Mainstay,” a slinky, dance floor friendly, 80s-inspired synth funk bop featuring stuttering and wobbling bass synths, boom bap beats, a sinus bass line and squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar paired with Warren’s sultry cooing. Much like the handful of other Blak Emoji singles I’ve written about over the years, “Mainstay” is rooted in Warren’s seamless and funky meshing of his various influences and his unerring knack for well-placed, razor sharp hooks.

“Last Night Lost,” Eclectro‘s second and latest single continues a remarkable run of slinky, 80s-inspired synth funk bops featuring dense layers of oscillating synths and bass synths and thumping beats paired with Warren’s sultry cooing, dance floor friendly, razor sharp hooks and sleek, contemporary production. Interestingly, “Last Night Lost” may arguably be the sexiest song of Warren’s growing catalog.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Blak Emoji Shares Funky “Mainstay”

New York-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Kelsey Warren has had a lengthy and accomplished career: Over the past two decades, Warren has been in a number of different projects as a side man, hired gun and/or frontman, including Denise Barbarita and the Morning Papers, and Pillow Theory among others.

Warren started his latest project Blak Emoji back in 2015. Initially started as a solo project wit a rotating cast of players for live shows, Blak Emoji gradually evolved into a full-fledged band led by Warren and featuring Sylvana Joyce (keytar), Bryan Percival (bass, keys) and Max Tholenaar-Maples (drums). Whether as a solo project or as a band, Blak Emoji has been Warren expand his sound and approach to include a slick synthesis of the soul, R&B and pop that he was immersed in while growing up in South New Jersey, hip-hop, punk, minimalist classical and synth-driven music like Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails and Prince, among others.

Since then, Warren has been rather busy. With Blak Emoji, Warren has released two EPs and two albums, which have received praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Afropunk, The Line of Best Fit, BUST, Popmuzik. Vampire Freaks, Ghost Cult Magazine, this site, and many others. And adding to a growing profile, “Velvet Ropes & Dive Bars, and “Poison To Medicine” appeared on ABC’s Quantico while “Sapiosexual” appeared in several indie films. Along with that Warren has been busy as a producer, collaborating with an eclectic array of artists.


Earlier this year, Warren signed with Blake Morgan‘s ECR Music Group for a four-part, full catalog re-issue from the label. The first re-issue is a Deluxe, remastered edition of Warren’s acclaimed album Electero. Slated for an early 2023 release through ECR Music Group, the acclaimed album has been re-sequenced and remastered by Blake Morgan. “I’ve loved and respected Blak Emoji’s work for years,” Morgan says. “I’m thrilled to have him join our roster, and honored to have had the opportunity to remaster his catalog for these stunning ECR reissues.”

Electro Deluxe and Remastered’s lead single “Mainstay” is slinky, dance floor friendly, 80s-inspired synth funk featuring strutting and wobbling bass synths, boom bap beats, a sinuous bass line, squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar paired with Warren’s sultry cooing. Much like the handful of other Blak Emoji singles I’ve written about over the years, “Mainstay” is rooted in Warren’s seamless and funky meshing of his various influences and his unerring knack for well-placed, razor sharp hooks.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Blake Morgan Returns with a Yearning Ballad

Blake Morgan is a New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and the founder and President of ECR Music Group. In his role as President of ECR Music Group, Morgan’s ideas, opinions and editorials on music and the music business have been regularly published by a number of major media outlets including The New York Times, Billboard Magazine, CNN, Newsweek, Variety, The Hill, NME, The Huffington Post, and The Guardian. 

As a producer, Morgan has collaborated with a who’s who of music from Lenny Kravitz to Lesley Gore, and a lengthy list of others. Since the release of 2013’s Diamonds in the Dark, Morgan has been extremely busy: he has a remarkable six-year run of sold-out shows at Rockwood Music Hall that often feature guest spots from a number of Grammy and Tony Award-winning artists, who join him for unique, on-stage collaborations; 150,000 miles of touring and sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic; and production work on over 20 albums by some serious A-list artists. 

Late last year, the New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and music biz exec released “Down Below Or Up Above” to praise from the likes of The Aquarian, Post-Punk.com, Culture Catch and my dear friends at Glamglare.

Morgan’s fifth album, Violent Delights was released last week through his ECR Music Group and in the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of its released singles:

  • “My Love Is Waiting” a rousingly anthemic and brazenly hopeful love song that views love as the important, necessary and powerful force of our world. But underneath its anthemic hooks, the song, which at points nodded at The Police‘s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” Joe Jackson and JOVM mainstays Palace Winter revealed a penchant for old-timey pop craftsmanship paired with an uncanny knack for a well-placed, razor sharp hook. 
  • “Baby I Would Want You,” a swooning and euphoric guitar pop song that manages continue a remarkable run of brazenly earnest love songs while nodding at Elvis Costello and XTC‘s “Mayor of Simpleton.” While unintentionally referencing — and being fitting for — our current, near apocalyptic moment, the song’s narrator seems to say to his love, “welp, the sink is sinking, the water is rising, and there ain’t much else we can do — but we got each other.”

Violent Delights‘ latest single, album title track “Violent Delights” is a slow-burning, pop ballad featuring angular, reverb-drenched guitar and angular bass lines, and bursts of twinkling keys paired with Morgan’s plaintive delivery and his unerring knack for sharp, rousingly anthemic hooks. Much like its predecessors, “Violent Delights” is a proud, unabashedly earnest love song full of very adult yearning.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Blake Morgan Shares Euphoric Love Song

Blake Morgan is a New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and the founder and President of ECR Music Group. In his role as President of ECR Music Group, Morgan’s ideas, opinions and editorials on music and the music business have been regularly published by a number of major media outlets including The New York Times, Billboard Magazine, CNN, Newsweek, Variety, The Hill, NME, The Huffington Post, and The Guardian.

He also lectures frequently at The Georgetown University Law Center, California State University, Syracuse University,NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, American University and his alma mater, Berklee College of Music. His music advocacy has taken him to Capitol Hill numerous times where, as the founder of the #IRespectMusic movement, he continues to fight for musicians rights in the digital age. As a producer, Morgan has collaborated with a who’s who of contemporary music from Lenny Kravitz to Lesley Gore. 

Since the release of 2013’s Diamonds in the Dark, Morgan has been extremely busy: he has a remarkably six-year run of sold-out shows at Rockwood Music Hall that often feature guest spots from a number of Grammy and Tony Award-winning artists, who join him for unique, on-stage collaborations; 150,000 miles of touring and sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic; and production work on over 20 albums by some serious A-list artists. 

Late last year, the New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and music biz exec released “Down Below Or Up Above” to praise from the likes of The Aquarian, Post-Punk.com, Culture Catch and my dear friends at Glamglare. “Down Below Or Up Above” will appear on Morgan’s long-awaited fifth album Violent Delights, which is slated for a May 20, 2022 release through ECR Music Group.

Last month, I wrote about the rousingly anthemic “My Love Is Waiting” a defiant and brazenly hopeful love song that views love as the most important and necessary force of the world, meant to get people up from their seats to dance and and shout along with it. But underneath its anthemic hooks, the song, which at points nodded at The Police‘s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” Joe Jackson and JOVM mainstays Palace Winter revealed a penchant for old-timey pop craftsmanship paired with an uncanny knack for a well-placed, razor sharp hook.

Violent Delights‘ third and latest single “Baby I Would Want You” is swooning and euphoric guitar pop song that to my ears that sounds indebted to Elvis Costello, XTC‘s “Mayor of Simpleton.” While continuing a remarkable run of brazen and defiantly earnest love songs, “Baby I Would Want You” manages to be unintentionally fitting for our apocalyptic moment that simply says “welp, the ship is sinking and the end is nigh, but I got you and you got me.” r

It’s a rare sort of love, but the sort of love we all need in our desperate and uncertain time.

Continuing his ongoing collaboration with genre-defying filmmaker Alice Teeple, the accompanying video for “Baby I Would Want You” is shot in a cinematic black and white at Williamsburg’s Pete’s Candy Store and features Morgan and his backing band performing and hanging out at the venue. And much like the preceding visuals, it captures a very New York scene that’s near and dear to my heart.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Blake Morgan’s Cinematic Love Letter to New York

Blake Morgan is a New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and the founder and President of ECR Music Group. In his role as President of ECR Music Group, Morgan’s ideas, opinions and editorials on music and the music business have been regularly published by a number of major media outlets including The New York Times, Billboard Magazine, CNN, Newsweek, Variety, The Hill, NME, The Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He also lectures frequently at The Georgetown University Law Center, California State University, Syracuse University,NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, American University and his alma mater, Berklee College of Music. His music advocacy has taken him to Capitol Hill numerous times where, as the founder of the #IRespectMusic movement, he continues to fight for musicians rights in the digital age. As a producer, Morgan has collaborated with a who’s who of contemporary music from Lenny Kravitz to Lesley Gore. 

Since the release of 2013’s Diamonds in the Dark, Morgan has been extremely busy: he has a remarkably six-year run of sold-out shows at Rockwood Music Hall that often feature guest spots from a number of Grammy and Tony Award-winning artists, who join him for unique, on-stage collaborations; 150,000 miles of touring and sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic; and production work on over 20 albums by some serious A-list artists. 

Late last year, the New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and music biz exec released “Down Below Or Up Above” to praise from the likes of The Aquarian, Post-Punk.com, Culture Catch and my dear friends at Glamglare. “Down Below Or Up Above” will appear on Morgan’s long-awaited fifth album Violent Delights, which is slated for a May 20, 2022 release through ECR Music Group.

“My Love Is Waiting” is the rousingly anthemic, second single off Morgan’s forthcoming album. Centered around twinkling keys, atmospheric synths, an enormous arena rock friendly hook and Morgan’s plaintive vocals, “My Love Is Waiting” is a defiant and brazenly hopeful love song that’s specifically meant to get people up from their seats to dance and shout along with it. But it’s also the sort of upbeat love song, which views love as the most important force of our lives and that is very rare. Sonically, the song nods at The Police‘s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” as well as Joe Jackson and JOVM mainstays Palace Winter. And that’s a result of old-fashioned craftsmanship paired with an uncanny knack for a well-placed razor sharp hook. 

“If I had only three minutes to play anyone anything from this new record, I’d pick these three minutes,” Morgan says in press notes. “It’s a brazen love song that dares you not to get out of your chair.” He goes on to add that the song was inspired by more than just the power pop and post-punk influences that he’s best known for. “This track has specific Easter-eggs in it connected to The Police’s ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,’ a track I’ve been mesmerized by since I was a kid. I hadn’t intended an indirect homage when we recorded it, but there’s some juicy stuff in there if you hunt for it.”

Directed by genre-defying filmmaker Alice Teeple, the accompanying video for “My Love Is Waiting” is shot in a gorgeous, cinematic black and white, and follows a dapper, black suit clad Morgan in a swooning love letter to New York that begins in Coney Island and through the subway system. Inspired by William Friedkin’s classic The French Connection and Jules Dassin’s The Naked City, the video is “classic, old-school New York cinema mixed with rock and roll,” the New York-born and-based Morgan says in press notes. “There are only two characters in it– me, and New York.”

Directly contrasting the dark, 1940s noir aura of “Down Below or Up Above,” “My Love Is Waiting” was shot in daylight, as a way to reflect the hopefulness of the accompanying song. “We wanted motion, propulsion––just like the song itself has. A modern-day music video crossed with Walter Hill’s The Warriors, full of energy, and full of hope,” Morgan continues. “We also wanted to keep to the aesthetic of the whole record, as we did with the first video: one of classic cinema, where you’re not quite sure what decade this video was shot in. Alice and I both live and breathe that stuff. It’s why we have such a short-hand vocabulary when working together.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Blake Morgan Shares Earnest and Anthemic “My Love Is Waiting”

Blake Morgan is a New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and the founder and President of ECR Music Group. In his role as President of ECR Music Group, Morgan’s ideas, opinions and editorials on music and the music business have been regularly published by a number of major media outlets including The New York Times, Billboard Magazine, CNN, Newsweek, Variety, The Hill, NME, The Huffington Post, and The Guardian. He also lectures frequently at The Georgetown University Law Center, California State University, Syracuse University, NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music, American University and his alma mater, Berklee College of Music. His music advocacy has taken him to Capitol Hill numerous times where, as the founder of the #IRespectMusic movement, he continues to fight for musicians rights in the digital age. As a producer, Morgan has collaborated with a who’s who of contemporary music from Lenny Kravitz to Lesley Gore.

Since the release of 2013’s Diamonds in the Dark, Morgan has been extremely busy: he has a remarkably six-year run of sold-out shows at Rockwood Music Hall that often feature guest spots from a number of Grammy and Tony Award-winning artists, who join him for unique, on-stage collaborations; 150,000 miles of touring and sold-out shows on both sides of the Atlantic; and production work on over 20 albums by some serious A-list artists.

Late last year, the New York-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and music biz exec released “Down Below Or Up Above” to praise from the likes of The Aquarian, Post-Punk.com, Culture Catch and my dear friends at Glamglare. “Down Below Or Up Above” will appear on Morgan’s long-awaited fifth album Violent Delights, which is slated for a May 20, 2022 release through ECR Music Group.

“My Love Is Waiting” is the rousingly anthemic, second single off Morgan’s forthcoming album. Centered around twinkling keys, atmospheric synths, an enormous arena rock friendly hook and Morgan’s plaintive vocals, “My Love Is Waiting” is a defiant and brazenly hopeful love song that’s specifically meant to get people up from their seats to dance and shout along with it. But it’s also the sort of upbeat love song, which views love as the most important force of our lives and that is very rare. Sonically, the song nods at The Police‘s “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” as well as Joe Jackson and JOVM mainstays Palace Winter. And that’s a result of old-fashioned craftsmanship paired with an uncanny knack for a well-placed razor sharp hook.

“If I had only three minutes to play anyone anything from this new record, I’d pick these three minutes,” Morgan says in press notes. “It’s a brazen love song that dares you not to get out of your chair.” He goes on to add that the song was inspired by more than just the power pop and post-punk influences that he’s best known for. “This track has specific Easter-eggs in it connected to The Police’s ‘Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,’ a track I’ve been mesmerized by since I was a kid. I hadn’t intended an indirect homage when we recorded it, but there’s some juicy stuff in there if you hunt for it.”