Browsing Tag

Prince

The Palace became heirs to the rock n roll dynasty in ‘Looking at You’

Just as royal blood ran in the veins of Prince and Queen, The Palace is just as imposingly majestic in their debut album, Rainbow Shades, which hit all major streaming platforms on June 9th.

The standout single, Looking at You, is a rapturous riot of Broadway-esque blues rock, with the shimmering Organ keys aiding the transcendence of the experience around the bluesy piano glissandos and the reverent rock electric guitar solos.

Star quality emanates from the natural charisma of the frontman, who utilises his soulfully profound dynamic vocal range to bring this stellar slice of rock n roll to visceral life. If your rock playlists are lacking serotonin, give them a potent fix by making Looking at You a staple.

To launch their debut LP, The Palace performed on the main stage at Indy Pride Festival, following a series of performances to capacity crowds throughout independent venues in Indianapolis.

Stream Looking at You on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Interview: Bella Moulden tells us all about her outstanding new single Wire

Chatting to us more about her striking new single Wire, Bella Moulden shows us all about her 80-synth-pop tone and her outstanding multi-instrumentalist lifestyle. Telling us more about her idols and watching proper MTV back in the day, this is a thrilling interview which will electrify and inspire many to reach their dreams.

Hello, there Bella. Please let us know where in the world you are from/based and how many instruments do you play?

I’m originally from Buffalo, NY and I currently live in Belmont, NC.

I play about 5 instruments—self-taught. Piano, Guitar, Bass, Ukulele, and Percussion. I have been playing piano and singing since I was 9.

Do you have any family members who got you involved in the music industry or how did you get the music bug?

I am the only one in my family that is involved with music. I am a strange anomaly. I can’t really tell you how I ended up involved with music, it really just happened. I think a lot of it could have been watching MTV when I was a kid, in the early 2000s they’d still play music videos and performances. I think that’s what inspired me really want to start doing music.

What inspired your retro style?

Sheesh, so many things. Austin Powers, Jimi Hendrix, Prince, Wendy, David Bowie and so many more. The 60s/70s/80s had the coolest fashion. It also helps that I have a natural afro.

Please tell us all about your new single Wire.

My new single, “Wire,” is about the electric feeling of falling in love. I wrote, produced, composed, and performed the song in its entirety. The sound was definitely inspired by the 80s, with the synth-pop and reverberated guitar solo.

What inspired you to use a 4/6 double-neck guitar for some parts of your shows and videos?

Before using a double-neck for some of my stuff, I would literally stack my guitars on top of each other, having two separate guitars hanging around my neck. It was ridiculously heavy and immobilizing. I wanted to transition over to different instruments at a faster rate, so at the time this seemed like the best option. It made me wonder if there was a double neck guitar with a bass, rather than a 12-string. A lot of searching and I found quite a few, it’s a rare design, but I immediately had to get one! It works great when I use my loop-station, as seen in many of my videos.

Please tell us all about SelfCare and the process behind it being well-known all over the world?

I wrote, “SelfCare,” back in 2021 in the car waiting for my mom in the grocery store. It was a tough time due to the pandemic. Between school, music, and working I was highly stressed out. I was burning out quite a lot. With that, I really wanted to hear a song that reminds me to take a break and that it’s okay to not be okay. I couldn’t find any at the time, though I’m sure there are tons! I ended up writing my own. When we got home from the store I immediately went into my room and started recording. On the ride home I already had the melody in my head. I wanted it to be simplistic. Something repetitive, similarly an affirmation. I wanted it to get stuck in my head.

It began to get traction on Tiktok a year later, earning over 50 million views and over 150 thousand videos. With that, it also is doing great on Spotify! I’m glad this song is doing well and that its point is getting across. Definitely, the perfect song to jam to in the morning while drinking coffee!

Last, is there anything, in particular, you wish to achieve in 2023?

This year, I wish to perform at more festivals!

Listen up on Spotify.

Interview by Llewelyn Screen

World renowned saxophonist legend Lil’ Maceo calms all anxiousness away into the sky on 2MRO

Taken from his upcoming album called Evolution, the much-respected Lil’ Maceo turns all worries away into the westerly wind with a breathtakingly memorable performance to treasure forever on 2MRO.

Lil’ Maceo aka Mr Funky Sax is an award-winning indie jazz saxophonist who is well-known all over the world and performs with masterful class.

Lil’ Maceo has shared the stage with a host of music giants including Prince, Cyndi Lauper, JT Taylor, Maceo Parker, Nick Colionne, Euge Groove, Marcus Johnson, Cyril Neville, Sinbad, and Gavin DeGraw.” ~ Lil’ Maceo

Projected so expertly and with that proficient energy which we mere mortals shall never fully comprehend, Lil’ Maceo is rather illuminating on 2MRO and shall galvanize the world into being a much better place to live.

2MRO from the award-winning jazz saxophonist Lil’ Maceo is a perfect way to spend 6 minutes and 31 seconds. Each note is rather splendidly intertwined deeply within our souls, to float our tired hearts away into a much better place in time. Furnished with a gloriously precise arrangement which will untangle those self-made nets of doom, calming all souls in the process and displaying the actual power of delightful music.

Listen up on SoundCloud. See more via on IG.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Zackwa is on his own experimental plateau in ‘All Praise and Glory’

With the fluid transitions between the Prince-Esque vocalised harmonies and the blazing rap bars that are just as convictive as RZA’s, Zackwa’s latest single, All Praise and Glory transcends the constrictive nature of genre boundaries. That is before you account for the experimental accordance in the ambient electronica meets new age hip hop instrumentals.

Zackwa strives to rise above the mundane energy of the world, and it’s safe to say he is not only in another league. He is operating from a new dynamic plateau, constructed by his autonomy and inclination to verse introspective gold into the strained atmosphere of the 21st century.

Check out the lyric video for All Praise and Glory on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Strays of the World gave dark-electro soul in his latest single, Hello

Strays of the World

Fusing the iconic guitars of Robert Smith with the signatory filthy production style of Trent Reznor, Strays of the World’s latest single, Hello is a stunningly dark convergence of alt-electronica, post-punk, and a little bit of soul-pop flavour through the Prince-esque vocals.

Once again, we definitively see that romanticism tinged with a touch of gothic inclination is a hypnotic sonic elixir, especially under the duress of Strays of the World with his affable vagabond soul. The LA-based artist easily conjured one of the most distinctive contortions of alt-electronica we’ve heard in recent years. It threw us right back to the collaboration between Bowie & Reznor while showing us the future of dark electro.

Check out Strays of the World via his official website, YouTube and Facebook. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The RnB-inclined fusionist, KaEl has released his alchemically intimate single, LondonTowne

‘LondonTowne’ is the standout seminal release from the RnB-inclined genre alchemist, KaEl. At the start of his career, the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter committed to expressing his life, epiphanies, and afflictions through his music; he definitely came through in LondonTowne.

The low honeyed bass guitar and soft bluesy electric guitars create a stunning dynamic to the instrumentals that mellifluously flow under KaEl’s passionately demure classic-style RnB vocals. Any fans of Prince, Frank Ocean, Ye and Tyler, The Creator won’t want to miss out on this euphonically unforgettable release.

The official music video for LondonTowne is available to stream via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

OneNamedPeter explores the pleasure-pain connection in his artful cosmic pop single, Hurts

Ahead of the release of his fifth 100% DIY album, Hurts, the alt-indie British singer-songwriter, OneNamedPeter, has given us a teaser by letting us taste the cosmic pop textures in the bitter-sweet title single.

If you took Prince’s solos, Elliott Smith’s raw songwriting style, the dreamy chamber pop style of Daughter, the spacey gravity of Bowie and threw them into an aural cocktail with orchestral motifs to boot, it would pour just like the intoxicating soundscape, Hurts.

Nothing about the high-fidelity production feels less than professional. OneNamedPeter knows just how to conjure enough alchemy to wrap around his lyricism that explores the pleasure and pain connection.

Hurts is one of those tragically rare releases that you immediately know you’ll want to dive into time and time again. We’re stoked to hear how the LP ensues after the title-single set such a blissful and accordant tone.

Hurts will officially release on March 4th, 2022. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Robbie Maroon paid homage to Prince in his latest single, Take a Bow

For his latest single, Take a Bow, the luminary up and coming soul singer, Robbie Maroon, paid tribute to Prince and shone a light in the creative void he left on our planet when he departed too soon in 2016.

One of the most beautiful kinds of relationships that can exist in our strange and loveless world are the ones that exist between an icon and an ardent and inspired fan. Take a Bow perfectly encompasses this sentiment through the stunning choir vocal that accent the Prince-inspired, endlessly arresting guitar riffs. The single is practically a religious experience – especially for anyone that has previously knelt at Prince’s purple altar.

He may not be with us anymore, but his legacy will always live on through the passion of artists such as Robbie Maroon. While some artists would simply rip off his riffs, Maroon chose to give the icon the credit he’s due; the result is nothing short of breathtaking.

Take a Bow is now available to stream via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Oh No! – Royals’ Dylan De Bono is ‘Feeling S**t Right Now’

‘Maltese singer-songwriter’ isn’t a phrase you get to use all that often as a music reviewer, but when it comes to Dylan De Bono it’s one that we can fully expect to become much more common in 2021 and beyond. As one half of pop duo Royals, Dylan’s no stranger to musical acclaim, but with this – the first single from forthcoming solo album ‘Loose Wire’ – De Bono brings us an absolute belter of an electro-pop banger.

Dark yet humorous, edgy and sexy, with one eye on that perfect pop mix of accessibility and catchiness whilst avoiding cliché or ‘throw-away-ness’ (is that a thing?) and the other on an absolutely spot on understanding of dancefloor groove and pop-radio immediacy (aided, no doubt, by the writing and production collaboration with maestro David Vella), ‘Feeling S**t Right Now’ is a superb melting pot of clubby dance stunner and autobiographical songwriting, a mix of 70’s disco, 80’s club classic, and totally up-to-date electro-pop killer. Prince and Bowie mix with the Pet Shop Boys, Years & Years, and David Guetta here, to produce what may be one of the first ‘spot-on’ pop songs of 2021. The sound of the summertime might have just landed.

Check out the official video for ‘Feeling S**t Right Now’ on YouTube, and follow Dylan De Bono on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

Ristlynn takes us with him in his funk pop hit ‘I’m Going Down’.

Anchorage, Alaska-hailing artist, Ristlynn, dropped their debut single, ‘I’m Going Down’, on November 20th. The party pop-rock anthem has already received an exponential amount of attention; it is almost like we are all simultaneously experiencing the most confusing period of our lifetimes and need an aural pick-me-up.

Timeliness aside, I’m Going Down is a riotously enamouring single, while the instrumentals adrenalize, the lyrics raise an eyebrow and ask “really?” at self-destructive behaviour patterns which have previously been mindlessly glamorised by alt-rock artists. The single was penned during a transitional phase where the artist was starting to acknowledge the pitfalls of hedonism-aided avoidance, I’m Going Down is a subversively-titled reflection of that turning point which led to the commitment of making positive change.

Through pulsating bass, funk-riddled riffs, snappy rhythmic temper and Ristlynn’s sardonically charismatic vocals, you will be pulled into the infectious piece of hyperpop rock from a plethora of angles. Ristlynn’s talent is exhibited throughout the release, but it is in the chorus where he proves that he deserves a spot on your radar with their soul-filling sound. Especially, as there will be plenty more to come in 2021 and beyond.

Any fans of Panic! at the Disco, Prince, Maroon 5, Fallout Boy and Maroon 5 will undoubtedly find the same appeal in the artist’s funk-pop earworms.

You can check out the official video to Ristlynn’s single, I’m Going Down, via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast