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Music Producer Blog & Promotion

Revel in the petrichor of Shaun Cruda’s electro-soul synthesis, Ashville Rain

Posted on 1 October 2023

Shaun Cruda’s 20k monthly Spotify listeners got a brand-new stylistic soundscape to savour when the LA producer delivered his latest sensuously cathartic single, Ashville Rain, on September 22.

As the dark days creep in, the sanctuary of ethereal luxe atmosphere in Ashville Rain will only become more inviting. By borrowing a few trip-hop elements from the pioneers and modernising them in his synthesis of electro-soul, there are few better singles to revel in the petrichor with.

The instrumentals resound beyond their minimalist quiescence to deliver the ultimate playlist staple for nocturnal introspection while the vocals breed a beguiling sense of intimacy as they harmonise the lyricism that narrates a spectral love letter. Familiar, yet far beyond the bars set by his contemporaries, the single is a testament to the multi-faceted talents of the artist who can pen a track as well as he can polish it and move a dancefloor from behind a DJ booth.

Stream Ashville Rain on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Joel Porter made a plea for providence in his alt-folk masterpiece, Godsend

Posted on 28 September 2023

The North Dakota alt-folk artist, composer and producer Joel Porter’s fascination with the human psyche knows even fewer bounds than the experimentalism in his harmonic landscapes.

Art brings meaning to life; in Porter’s work, which includes his recently released single, Godsend, life also brings meaning to art as the quiescent neo-classic melodies complement confessional emotional exploration. With his signature sense of intimate longing, Godsend is yet another testament to his talent and introspective eloquence. With a sound so sweet it stings, the melancholic cries for providence in Godsend are so profound they resonantly overwhelm the senses.

Combined with the aesthetic desolation in the black-and-white music video which visualises the monochromatic hues of a forsaken soul, Godsend is yet another masterpiece in Joel Porter’s repertoire.

Over the course of his career, he’s worked with renowned artists, showcased his music on a national level, accumulated over 7.5 million streams, and secured sync placements with the television series The 100 and in the Grey Skies: A War of the Worlds Story video game.

Something tells us the best is yet to come for Porter and his ability to construct bridges between the pensiveness of Elliott Smith and the intricate ambience of Nils Frahm.

The official music video for Godsend will premiere on September 28; watch it on YouTube.

For more info, visit Joel Porter’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Arrive at the brink of bliss with ACTHEKIDFROMSPACE’s euphoria-fuelled summer cocktail, POR Ti, ft Martina

Posted on 24 September 2023

Proving that summer is as much of a vibe as it is a season is the latest in a long string of seminal singles from Montreal’s brightest RnB luminary, ACTHEKIDFROMSPACE.

POR Ti, which features sun-kissed harmonies from the Argentina-born singer and composer Martina, who has been elevating the RnB, trap, and soul genres with her mesmerising vocal register, is an intoxicating tropic melting pot of genre-fluid culture.

With a few salacious lines worked into the production that boasts the same sweet, sugared, and polished sound of Owl City, POR Ti ticks all the Afro-pop RnB boxes while transcending the contemporary curve and driving you to the brink of bliss and allowing you to drift through it on cruise control.

With over 17k monthly listeners locking into his expertly rendered rhythms, the self-made Canadian artist and sound engineer has easily reached his goal of visualising his memories and feelings and allowing his staunch fanbase to vicariously live in the rapture of them.

Stream POR Ti on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Ecuadorian Pop Priestess NÍNIVE alchemised explosively ethereal ingenuity in ‘Solo En Ti’

Posted on 16 September 2023

Following the spiritually beguiling prelude of ethereal vocals and minimalist electronic melodicism, the transition into the high-octane installation of fierce feminine energy with body-slamming beats to boot you into rhythmic arrest is a broadsiding testament to the boundless ingenuity of the one and only NÍNIVE.

For her seminal single, Solo En Ti, NÍNIVE collaborated with the world-renowned music producer Enrique Gonzalez, who has worked with everyone from Metallica to Tina Turner to Nine Inch Nails; together, they sonically solidified the Ecuadorian alternative artist’s claim to the pop throne.

Put her on your radar and watch her ascend even further with her forthcoming album; the ingenuity that the LP will breathe was teased by the explosive alchemy within Solo En Ti. If Mitski swallowed an atom bomb, her avant-garde stylings still wouldn’t come close to this scintillating Tour De Force.

Clearly, her strong musical background has served her well. NÍNIVE began her musical education at a young age at the National Conservatory of Quito and furthered her vocal studies at the College of Music at Universidad San Francisco de Quito (a Berklee Global Partner). She also holds a Masters of Music in Songwriting from Bath Spa University.

Solo En Ti will break ground on the airwaves on September 15; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jah-Sun Collier futuristically reconfigured old-school boom bap in his latest single, RICH THOUGHTZ!

Posted on 16 September 2023

A blast of retro boom bap hit the airwaves when the latest satirically sharp rap track, RICH THOUGHTZ!, dropped as a courtesy of the ultimate urban antagonist, Jah-Sun Collier, who is also well-known as a popular YouTuber, actor, and video editor.

By futuristically reconfiguring the retro tones and adding a further lyrical trajectory to the evolution of hip-hop, the US rapper and record producer did far more than revisit vintage sounds with his tongue-in-cheek track that points out how contrived society has become through its obsession with capitalist gains.

He set the resilience to mercenary vanity bar transcendently high with the introspection-rich hit that proves that being rich in any real sense has no correlation to numbers on a screen, the brand names on your clothes or the car you drive.

RICH THOUGHTZ was officially released on September 1st. Stream it on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Emanuel Arzumanyan freed his listeners from the comparison trap with his hip-hop track, Gotta Get Mine ft Mr Maph

Posted on 10 September 2023

For his latest single and most popular hit to date, Gotta Get Mine, the Antwerp, Belgium-based beat maker, hip-hop producer, guitarist, and audio engineer, Emanuel Arzumanyan, collaborated with the London-based trailblazer of a lyricist and vocalist Mr Maph to deliver a high-octane rap track that will leave you adrenalized with inspiration.

The reprise “gotta get mine, gotta get yours” over the cinematically Grammy-worthy hip-hop orchestration is an efficaciously succinct way to veer listeners away from envy and the comparison trap and towards determination that doesn’t revolve around anticipating and facilitating the downfall of others.

Gotta Get Mine evades all of the usual tropes to unravel as a hit that delivers introspective gold over each of the expertly crafted hooks that will remain sharp enough in your mind to necessitate making Gotta Get Mine a playlist staple.

Stream Gotta Get Mine on Spotify and follow Emanuel Arzumanyan on Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Specyal T pioneered nostalgia for her boundary-breaking boom-bap RnB pop track, Double Take

Posted on 6 September 2023

Canada’s hottest RnB artist, Specyal T, brought enough heat in her LP, Foresight, to start an inferno. The standout single, Double Take, runs through with funk-laced retro synths to carve the grooves and boom-bap beats to deliver rhythms that will intoxicate your rhythmic pulses.

With the fiery old school rap bars in the verses and lashings of luxe soul in the harmonised vocal lines, Specyal T ensured their seminal hit was dripping in dynamism to accentuate the pioneered and manicured nostalgia.

The Caribbean-Canadian artist splits her talents between her vocations as a pro musician, actor and executive; her multi-award-winning tracks have featured on several popular TV channels, and her hits have been heard on commercial radio stations across Europe and North America. After working its way into her boundary-pushing LP, Double Take will also feature in the soundtrack to the 2023 film Alarmed. 

Stream the Album Version of Double Take for yourselves by heading over to Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Matangi Devi euphonised Vedic astrology in her single, Saraswati Mantra 12 Names of Saraswati

Posted on 4 September 2023

Ancient Indian folk, contemporary art folk, and Vedic astrology converged in the divinity of the debut album, Shakti Ma, from the up-and-coming New Age singer-songwriter, Matangi Devi. The mantra-focused seminal single, Saraswati Mantra 12 Names of Saraswati, is a beguiling exhibition of her deep sense of spirituality, effortlessly projected through her ever-ascending vocal lines and instrumentals which amalgamate to offer a transcendental experience your soul won’t be quick to forget.

To prepare for the album, the Australian composer and performer spent 17 years as a hatha yoga teacher and studied the Sanskrit language with the world-famous teacher, Dr. Lekhmani Tripathi. After acknowledging the profound positive impact of the vibrations of mantras, including how they awake cosmic energy that lingers within us all, she set out to share the divine nature of our universe and enable others to reach enlightenment as a soul-affirming songstress whose music could salve the sickness that this modern age has imparted.

Stream Shakti Ma in full on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jazz meets chiptune in Samuel Weaver’s latest score, Saviour Complex

Posted on 28 August 2023

With touches of House of Fun by the Madness grooving through the polyphonic funk of the jazz & chiptune amalgam, the UK-based artist Samuel Weaver concocted a superfluously ingenuity-driven score for the standout single in his debut album, Telechora!

Hitting play on Saviour Complex may be moderately akin to an acid trip due to the artist’s tendency to delve into sonic novelty despite his discernible composition and instrumental talents, but the euphoria-instilled vibrancy of the soundscape will lift you higher than any tab of acid ever could.

Given that intellectualism oozes from every progression, especially when the dissonance of sufferers with saviour complexes starts to manifest in the funk, at 17 years old, the composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has the music industry at his prodigal feet.

Saviour Complex charged in on its white knight syndrome on August 19th; hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

UK producer, James Urquhart, delivered a transcendent EDM anthem with Fire on the Track

Posted on 23 August 2023
James Urquhart

While some artists and producers need an entire discography to demonstrate their versatility, the Chichester, UK-based electronica chameleon James Urquhart only needed one blazingly high-octane dance hit, Fire on the Track.

With grime and pop vocals adrenalizing the mix and enhancing the eclecticism of the EDM earworm that defies the laws of gravity with the transcendence it provides, you only need one hit of Fire on the Track before you’re obsessed with the progressively exhilarating groove-oriented mix that would make even the most rational crowd lose their mind on the dance floor.

Even though it has been a while since James Urquhart delivered his latest mix, as he has focused on honing his talents, he’s released on labels including Duffnote, Let There Be House, INK, and Soulful Evolution. He has also worked with everyone from Amanda Wilson to Amy Pearson to Everette Peters to Meshach Broderik. If Fire on the Track is anything to go by, his hard-hitting house production skills have been well and truly honed.

Fire on the Track hasn’t hit the airwaves yet; follow James Urquhart on SoundCloud and Instagram to be the first to know when it drops.

Review by Amelia Vandergast