Browsing Tag

Adult Contemporary

James Austin Melton Strips Jazz to Its Core and Rebuilds It with ‘Adaptive Fiction’

Posted on 14 March 2025
James Austin Melton

James Austin Melton may still be breaking ground in the jazz scene, but Adaptive Fiction proves he’s set to shake the foundations. His intricate, classically influenced guitar style intertwines seamlessly with a cinematically smoky brass section, creating a deeply rooted and refreshingly unrestrained sonic signature.

The single is catharsis in melodic motion. As the Latin-esque guitars set the groove, the energy only intensifies with the arrival of Melton’s soul-imbued vocals, soaring above the instrumentation with effortless conviction. The production strips jazz to its core and rearranges it with a vision that few would dare to share, yet every note remains as accessible as it is sanctifying.

A musician, educator, and writer, Melton approaches his craft with the kind of thoughtfulness that turns compositions into experiences. His discography is quickly shaping into a sanctuary of sound, offering respite from the noise with arrangements that challenge convention without ever alienating the listener.

With Adaptive Fiction, Melton reaffirms that jazz isn’t just alive—it’s still evolving in ways that demand attention.

Adaptive Fiction is now available to stream on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Wherewithal by Yellow Couch Music ft. NYALLAH – An RnB Jazz-Funk Flame That Refuses to Burn Out

Posted on 3 March 2025

Helmed by drummer, musician, and producer Layton Weedeman, the ensemble Yellow Couch Project thrives on collaboration, pulling in artists from across the globe to breathe life into his intricate, groove-laden compositions. Jazz, funk, R&B, hip-hop, rock, and world music all find a place in the mix, but it’s the seamless cohesion that makes each track distinct.

With The Wherewithal, Yellow Couch Music, alongside NYALLAH, delivers a jazz-funk feast laced with soul and caressing catharsis. The instrumentals twist into arcane textures, yet the vocal lines remain grounded, inviting you into a session of soul-affirming relaxation. Beneath the smoothness, there’s fire—a scorned R&B love song at its core, carrying an emotional weight that cuts through the silky rhythms.

The interplay between the expressive percussion, fluid basslines, and sultry vocal delivery ensures no note is wasted. Each element serves its purpose, whether to soothe or stir. Yellow Couch Music  sets the tone for modern jazz fusion, proving that tradition and innovation can walk hand in hand without stepping on each other’s toes. With tracks like this, they won’t be waiting long for a place on the jazz map.

The Wherewithal is now available on all major streaming platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

BE became the airwaves’ answer to antifreeze with her modern jazz-soul single, ‘Mr Winter’

Posted on 6 February 2025

Some voices are made to console, to smooth the edges of existence with nothing more than a phrase, a note, a breath. BE has one of those voices. In Mr Winter, she employs her timelessly graceful vocal lines to command attention and allow intensity to ebb and flow through effortlessly euphonic harmonies

The single instantly settles you into its easy, sublime smooth grooves of easy-listening soul. If you’re looking for a single to console you through the winter and touch your soul with warmth, look no further than this modern jazz-tinged masterstroke, which ensures that there’s no time for complacency. The transitions in tempo and the evolving intricacies within the time signatures ensure you stay enduringly arrested by the expressive instrumentation, which shines alongside the vocal centrepiece of the record.

Every progression is a revelation within Mr Winter, one that will cradle you within the cinematic sepia-tinged vignette of winter blues. With artful flourishes by the smorgasbord and endless virtuosic touches in the instrumentation, the only question the track will leave you with is when will BE become the household name she deserves to be.

BE’s artistry is shaped by a passion for connection, authenticity, and empowerment—values she carries into her work beyond the studio. A seasoned collaborator and a creative force in her own right, she has worked alongside artists such as Emeli Sandé and Priya Ragu, led songwriting retreats that have been hailed as profound and transformative, and even taken her artistic journey to the wild, embarking on solo expeditions that blur the lines between personal challenge and creative expression.

With her recent rebrand, she steps further into experimentation, bridging her natural, earthy sound with an adventurous, expansive presence.

‘Mr Winter’ was officially released on January 17th and is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergas

Jenny Maybee has unveiled her soul-enrapturing neo-jazz number, ‘Run’

Posted on 13 January 2025

With her latest single, Jenny Maybee delivered a sultry slice of neo-jazz that carries the same smouldering catharsis as Peggy Lee’s iconic rendition of Fever. The tantalising tempo pulsates like a melodic heartbeat while her soulful, sensually charged vocals flow effortlessly through the organically rich progressions. As the second single from her forthcoming LP, due later this year, Run is an irresistible testament to Maybee’s ability to transform a song into an aural aphrodisiac.

As a recording artist, composer, and producer, Jenny Maybee refuses to bow to the confines of any one genre. Her music is a fearless fusion of jazz, pop, rock, and orchestral elements, interwoven with sensuality and defiant experimentation. Each track is guided by her deep reverence for love as a transformative force.

In Run, the love affair between the playful and the profound is unmistakable. With hypnotic rhythms and lush melodies, the single offers an invitation to feel, to connect, and to let go. The magnetic intensity of her voice ensures you don’t just hear Run—you surrender to it.

As the anticipation builds for her LP, Run sets the tone for a 2025 that promises to see this soulstress scale stratospheric heights.

Run was officially released on January 3rd; stream the single on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Feathers and Fault Lines: Libë’s Haunts with the Neo-Soul Resonance in ‘Birds of a Feather

Posted on 5 January 2025
https://open.spotify.com/track/1VghB2iXOlXfRvTP2aDPMA?si=3156483f4fef482d

Libë’s third hit single, Birds of a Feather, flips the script on archetypal RnB lyricality by tenderly exploring the painful facets of attachment, reaching the epitome of emotive duality.

The lyrics are enough to meditate on, and the smooth yet intricately decorated instrumentals ease you further into a reflective ambience. As the reprise of “guess I’m stuck with you” drifts in through Libë’s aphrodisiacally affecting and organically raw vocals, each second in the cinematic scope of the release resonates with the full force of the longing that shaped this smooth contemporary ballad.

Produced by Mercury Prize-nominated Drew Horley—who has collaborated with esteemed artists such as Estelle, Burna Boy, De La Soul, and Jay Sean—Birds of a Feather is the third in a Neo-soul series depicting a toxic couple bound by hopeless circumstances. In a tragic twist on the saying “birds of a feather flock together,” each lyrical protagonist is too toxic for anyone else, leaving them tied to the same fractured union.

Born in London to Nigerian heritage and raised in Sheffield from the age of nine, Libë has used her classical piano background to craft an R&B/Neo-soul blueprint infused with gospel, soul, and Afrobeats nuances. Since choosing music over a law degree in 2019, she’s consistently garnered impressive streaming figures. Keep an eye on social media for the remaining five singles completing the tumultuous relationship arc.

Birds of a Feather was officially released on December 13 and is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sasha Sky found her place in a niche of style and grace with her indie RnB single, Outside of Us

Posted on 20 November 2024

Sasha Sky, a seraphically sublime soulstress emerging from County Durham, reached the epitome of sophistication with her indie RnB release, ‘Outside of Us’. As her lines weave through organically magnetic harmonies that embed the emotions of the lyrics into the listener’s psyche, the melodies carry just as much ease with their mellifluous loungey gentility.

With warm, distinctively embellished textures and intricately stacked layers that don’t merely sum to a whole but open a panorama of soulful experience, the track invites you to immerse in the colour and sincerity of its composition, grooving against your emotional impulses and leaving a lasting mark.

This single stands in stark contrast to the modern charts’ disregard for genuine grace as it vindicates the romantically scorned, showcasing Sasha as the embodiment of the refinement she portrays in her music.

Since beginning her music career during the 2021 lockdown, Sasha has drawn upon her lifelong love for music, songwriting, and poetry, a venture emboldened by her studies in Performing Arts and Music at New College Durham. This background honed her ability to weave sonic narratives that speak directly to the soul. As the crowning point of her career so far, Outside of Us is the perfect opportunity to introduce yourself to a superlative voice in contemporary indie RnB.

Outside of Us was officially released on November 7th and is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify and SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Laura Mock took her listeners from poetic depth to ethereal heights in her standout single, Acadia

Posted on 11 November 2024

After two years of pouring her poetry, candour and sublimely affecting unique aura into her debut EP, home//body, the NYC-residing songstress, Laura Mock has finally unveiled one of the most sensuous sounds of 2024.

The standout single, Acadia, starts with tenderly warm piano chords which echo Nick Cave’s ‘Into My Arms’ before the single veers into stylistically seraphic easy listening territory and concludes following an arcane neo-classic folk pop crescendo which reaches the epitome of sonic serenity.

Despite the diaphanous propensities of each of the motifs in Acadia, the artfully composed, orchestrally laced progressions are strong enough to carry the weight of the heaviest souls as Mock uses the organic reverie within her vocal register to wrap you up within a vignette where naturalistic beauty resounds in equal measure to the divine nature of her talent.

Stream Laura Mock’s debut EP, home//body, on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Surrender your senses to the spiritual sanctity within Catherine Grace & Mark Dwane’s electronic folk single, Broken Wide Open

Posted on 30 July 2024
Broken Wide Open by Mark Dwane / Catherine Grace

In the spirited soundscape of her childhood home, reverberating with the likes of Johnny Mathis, Fleetwood Mac and Barbra Streisand, Catherine Grace found her calling, which would eventually lead her to her collaborative partner, Mark Dwane. Their relationship, marked by seamless creativity and a deep mutual understanding, has culminated in scores of cultivated-with-soul releases, including their latest titularly poetic single, Broken Wide Open.

The track unfolds at a cathartically measured pace, not rushing to reveal its depths but rather allowing listeners to immerse themselves in its spiritual and soulful melodies. Catherine’s ethereal harmonies, when coupled with Dwane’s electronic folk underpinnings, create a profound sonic synergy that transcends mere musical collaboration. The duo has mastered the art of building a track that ebbs and flows with rhythmic magnetism, weaving together notes that resonate with an arresting affirmation of their unique artistic alchemy.

Amidst personal challenges and life’s unpredictable turns, music has been Catherine’s sanctuary, a theme that resonates powerfully throughout their latest offering. With Broken Wide Open” Catherine Grace and Mark Dwane invite the listener into a shared experience of renewal and revelation. Their collaborative spirit evokes comparisons to the iconic Enya, yet with a distinct identity that firmly roots them in the contemporary indie scene.

As you surrender to the lush, layered textures of Broken Wide Open, you’ll revel in the power of sound to soothe, inspire, and awaken.

Broken Wide Open is now available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Miranda Joy is an icon of graceful beguile in her latest single, Wasting My Time

Posted on 19 January 2024

Miranda Joy brought the proverbial house down with her latest single, Wasting My Time. Her classic approach to songwriting paired with the cutting-edge cultivation which resounds within the sophistication of the production allows her rapidly expanding fanbase to enjoy the best of both worlds as she delivers pure unadulterated emotion filtered through the lens of a relatable vignette.

It isn’t a stretch to say the vast majority of us waste life’s most precious resource as our time becomes trapped in digital vacuums or invested in people who aren’t worthy of our energy or attention, allowing Wasting My Time to unravel as a universally relevant release. The timely unveiling of the single, which coincides with when our motivations to keep resolutions slip, is sure to ensure the success of the single, orchestrated by the London-based luminary, whose voice has filtered through the O2 Academy Islington and graced the bill of The Great Escape Festival.

Her voice, a blend of raw emotion and refined artistry, carries the song with an effortless grace reminiscent of Joni Mitchell’s intimate narratives. Yet, there’s a stridency in her delivery, a nod to the iconic power of Prince’s Purple Rain. Even with the loungey adult contemporary elements filtered between the blues and soul layers, the accessibility of the single as Joy commands a panorama of emotions is palpable from the first verse.

Her past collaborations, like the acclaimed I Just Came to Dance with Carmy Love, and her contributions to Peter Beatty’s album, have all been stepping stones to this moment. Wasting My Time is a testament to her growth as an artist and a harbinger of the incredible work we can expect in her upcoming releases.

Wasting My Time is due for official release on January 19; stream it on Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jeff Jepson has released his haunting hymnal gem, The Good-Night Song

Posted on 18 November 2023

The critically acclaimed singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Jeff Jepson is set to garner a fresh wave of impassioned reverence with his Christmas-tinged EP, Sparkle. If this is your first acquaintance with the artist who rose to fame in Liverpool and has recently replanted his musical roots in the Isle of Man, the standout single, The Good-Night Song, is the perfect introduction to the master of poignant melody.

Whether it was the finiteness in the lyricism or the way the acoustic guitar’s euphonic rings intensified the affecting sting within the captivating vocal delivery in the arrangement which visualises the sparseness of winter branches, I couldn’t help but shed a tear as Jepson’s evocatively honeyed timbres quivered in the frost of the hymnal gem which will haunt you long past the outro.

The Sparkle EP illuminated the airwaves on November 10th; kindle your affinity with the 4-track release via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast