Tag: Shazam

Throughout the course of this site’s nine-plus yer history, I’ve written quit a bit about the Brooklyn-based electro pop act denitia and sene. And as you may recall, the act won the attention of the blogosphere for a unique sound that paired Brian “sene” Marc’s hyper-modern and slick production work, which effortlessly meshed elements of electro pop, hip-hop, funk. minimalist electronica, underground and avant-garde pop and neo soul with Denitia Odgie‘s soulful yet ethereal vocals.

The duo’s full-length debut his & hers was a critical and commercial success — the album landed in the Top 10 of iTunes R&B Charts, and the duo were profiled in the New York Times, for their participation in a forward-thinking Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist collective and living space. After the release of their debut, the duo had been busy with individual creative pursuits — Marc was a part of the cast of  Netflix‘s Luke Cage, has starred alongside Emma Roberts in Nerve and a lead role in White Girl while Odigie’s solo recording project ADESUWA received attention after the release of the Air Light EP and the project’s full-length debut.

Their sophomore effort, 2016’s love and noir featured album singles “open wide,” a swooning love song centered around a seemingly chilly and subtly industrial production and “favorite” a shimmering and airy song that evoked the happy sigh of waking up next to a lover after you’ve just made love. Although it’s been a while since I’ve written about the longtime JOVM mainstays or their individual projects, Odigie has been busy writing and recording the material off her forthcoming solo album Touch of the Sky. Written as a cinematic ode to nostalgia and the alchemy of love, the album’s material was produced largely from 6am sessions from Odigie’s beachfront studio.

Touch of the Sky‘s third and latest single “Place To Be” follows the release of “Where You Go” and “Waves,” both of which received placement on Spotify’s Indie Stage playlist and Shazam‘s official The Best New Music playlist on Apple Music. Additionally, “Waves” caught attention from Refinery 29, who placed the song on their New Music To Know This Week round-up. The slow-burning “Place To Be” is centered around denitia’s tender and aching vocals, atmospheric synths, and thumping beats.  Interestingly, the new track bears more of a resemblance to the cinematic and aching pop of JOVM mainstay ACES — while being inspired by the bittersweet loneliness that frequently sets in during the aftermath of a tumultuous affair.

 

 

 

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New Video: Britney Spears, Boy George, and Nicki Minaj in Auditioning for a Gig in New Visuals for Hook Laden, New Track by Up-and-Coming Leeds-based Electro Pop Duo Krrum

Earlier this year, I wrote about the up-an-coming Leeds, UK-based, indie electro pop production and artist duo KRRUM. Comprised of Derbyshire, UK-born Leeds, UK-based producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alex, who grew up on punk rock and ska and Leeds-born and-based singer/songwriter Harrison, who’s largely influenced by Bon Iver, Radiohead and Thom Yorke. And as you may recall, the duo can trace they their origins to when they met while studying at Leeds School of Music. Within a relatively short period of time, the duo has seen both commercial and critical success — the duo has  had singles land at number 1 on Spotify’s Viral Chart, Hype Machine and Shazam, received regular airplay on BBC Radio 1 and Beats 1, collaborated with with salute and Lao Ra, and have performed at last year’s Pitchfork Paris Festival.

“Moon,” the Leeds-based duo’s first single of the year, found the duo pairing a club banging production featuring enormous, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, stuttering and glitchy electronics, a soaring hook, chopped up and distorted vocal samples with Harrison’s plaintive and soulful vocals giving the song a thoughtful, fatalistic sort of introspection; that shouldn’t be surprising as the song “deals with the ritual of wanting to pursue a relationship withs someone, but not wanting to jump the gun and ruin it. It’s an uncomfortable place to be because you have no control and you’re probably gonna mess it all up, like you always do.” 

Interestingly enough, the duo’s first single “Evil Twin” was their first single and although it caught on virally, the duo reworked and fleshed out the song in a way that makes them feel as though the song is finally completed; in fact, the song features a production consisting of a cinematic, looped horn arrangement, a chopped up, soulful, house music-like vocal sample, tweeter and woofer rocking beats and Harrison’s vocal taking on a gravelly ache. And while the song is rooted upon a  swaggering hook, it possesses an underlying aching uncertainty — the sort of uncertainty of someone who’s swaying between a good life, and a life of sin and vice. Sonically, the track manages to further cement their reputation for crafting hook-laden pop but while gently pushing their sound in an avant-garde leaning direction while remaining playfully accessible. 
As the band’s Alex explains of the song, the song toys “with the duality of wanting to be healthy, productive and find some long-term stability, but wanting to throw all of that away and indulge your vices. Individually, they are comforting but they are always competing with each other to come out.”

Directed by Camille Summers-Valli, the video as the duo’s Alex notes is a strange realization of the competition between one’s good, healthy side and one’s vice-loving, trouble-seeking side, as it stars Britney Spears, Nicki Minaj, Boy George and Michael Jackson lookalikes auditioning for a gig for Krrum’s lead producer and co-vocalist Alex, who appears both unimpressed and confused. Interestingly, the visuals give these world famous superstars a desperate and ridiculous humanity, as they’re auditioning for a role they don’t fit for.