Browsing Tag

World Music

Interview: Marshall Stain Teased What’s To Come in His Debut EP and Spoke on Creativity

Posted on 4 November 2022

Ahead of the release of his debut EP, VILLAIN YOU LOVE, A&R Factory caught up with the dynamically contemporary world music artist, Marshall Stain, to discuss inspiration, creativity and the cutting-edge releases making their way to the airwaves.

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Marshall Stain, welcome to A&R Factory! We loved your latest single, ZOMBIE; would you say you found your signature sound with this release?

“I wouldn’t necessarily say Zombie is my signature sound, to be honest, but it’s definitely inspired by the sounds I’ve been taking in, particularly Amapiano, and you kind of hear that with the use of the “log drum” on the hook.”

What is your songwriting process?

“It varies, some records start as a random melody that’s in my voice memos, and some are written according to where the instrumental takes me. I’m in between pen and no pen; it depends.”

Is there anyone else involved with the production of your music?

“Of course, mainly my engineer/producer who helps me steer the music typically in the postproduction phase to a whole new sonic direction. That is why I call every song I record an idea.”

And how would you describe your lyrical style? We’ve noticed you go dark with your song titles.

“Honest. The music will always reflect the place I was in when writing the song. So, when it’s all rainbows and sunshine, the titles will be parallel.”

Which artists had the greatest influence on you as an artist?

“A bunch, to be honest, because I used to rap, but it’s mainly been Burna boy, J Hus and Frank Ocean.”

Aside from other artists, what inspires you to write music?

“Artists always inspire me. I’m an athlete at heart; everything and anything can be competitive. I’ve written some of my best records after hearing a song and wishing I wrote it. I apply my own experiences as subject matter, but it all stems from the artists.”

What should we expect from your upcoming releases that are in the pipeline?

“Zombie is the lead single off my EP, which by the time this is published will be out. My debut EP, VILLAIN YOU LOVE, is out on the 4th of November, and I’m pretty gassed to share it with the world. The next EP is ready too. So, let’s see how soon it needs sharing.”

Interview by Amelia Vandergast

Cagri Raydemir – Unscripted Surrender: Meet Your New Favourite Prog-Rock Pioneer

Posted on 6 October 2022

With vocal reminiscences to Serj Tankian’s softer vocal lines and the gypsy punk rogue Eugene Hütz, Cagri Raydemir’s latest single, Unscripted Surrender, featuring musician Salih Korkut Peker, is a charisma-fuelled feat of intellectually crafted prog rock innovation.

With 12 albums and 5 EPs under his belt, the Munich, Germany residing singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and audio engineer has notably poured blood, sweat and tears into developing a sonic signature that will leave a perpetual mark once you have been exposed to the achingly beautiful motifs that take his sound far beyond the standard bar for independent artists.

While the instrumentals refuse to bow to genre constraints and break the monocultural mould in the process of the progressions, Cagri Raydemir’s autonomously alternative sound compliments the lyricism which operates on a near philosophical level.

Unscripted Surrender is now available to stream on Spotify with the rest of his 2022 EP, Shortage of Identity. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

World music goes pop in Paul Melia’s explosively artful single, Doctor in the Sky

Posted on 16 September 2022

Taken from the sophomore album, Moons Over Mountains, by the experimental artist Paul Melia, the standout single, Doctor in the Sky, is a fiery explosion of Avant Garde pop that breaks the monocultural mould with the exotic rhythms and jazz-derived world music synthetics.

Despite being in a strident league of his own, Paul Melia created the most visceral earworm of the year, complete with the capacity to allow you to transcend the drudgery of modernity. As for the music video, short of dropping acid, there is no better means of escapism as you explore a psychedelic world, complete with appearances from internet-famous cats riffing on keyboards and guitars and cringey moments from political pop culture. It is like the condensed version of Adam Curtis’ Hypernormalisation, with a soundscape that keeps on giving with every repeat hit.

The official music video for Doctor in the Sky will premiere on September 16th. Check it out on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get your good vibes straight from the source in ORAL P’s blister of Afropop bliss, Give Me Love O

Posted on 10 September 2022

East Nigeria-hailing Afropop artist ORAL P has captured international audiences since his 2018 debut; in his first release of 2022, Give Me Love O, he’s as soulfully versatile as ever.

With its jazzy undertones and rich Afrobeat flavour, Give Me Love O falls into that rare category of music that throws away commercialism, embraces a brand of soul that knows no borders and oozes commercial potential as a result of the vibrantly innate good vibes. With Give Me Love O on your playlists, you will always have a source of serotonin.

The Radio Edit of Give Me Love O is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Prepare to be torn from passive slumber with Cielo Pordomingo’s orchestral alt-electro feat of world music, Wake Up

Posted on 9 July 2022

Here to tear us from our jaded slumber with her spiritual synthetics is the alt-electro trailblazer, Cielo Pordomingo, with her latest single, Wake Up.

‘Enlivening’ scarcely cuts into the alchemy that the composer, singer, and producer used to reflect her soul in the orchestrally heightened single. It’s Europop meets Depeche Mode via Bond soundtrack with a classical chamber outro; need we say anymore? If we want to do Cielo Pordomingo justice as a lyricist, definitely.

Wake Up is far more than your average cry to people letting their lives pass them by. Pordomingo practically takes you by the hand to guide you through your awakening while addressing the problem of our tendency to waste existence by branding it as just another day. At this point, if she started a cult, I’d jump right into it.

Wake Up is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Emma Hunter contested the heteronormative hegemony in her latest single, Love is Not a Choice

Posted on 8 July 2022

With the hypnotic grace of medieval mystic, Oxford’s Emma Hunter demonstrated that there’s nothing unnaturalistic about deviating from the heteronormative hegemony with her latest single, Love is Not a Choice.

Queerness may seem like a modern phenomenon, especially in the vision of those desperate to stand on the neck of progression, equality, and acceptance. Yet, even the most bigoted view is bound to widen to the tune of Hunter’s signature flamenco guitar loops, art-rock percussion and arcane vocal layering.

The musicality that takes you on an intercontinental sonic trip runs at the same celestial level as the intrinsic sense of spirituality in the rhythmically arrestive production. Which once again sees Emma Hunter resisting the contemporary constraints of genre.

The official video for Love is Not a Choice, directed by Matt Trevor-Roper, premiered on July 8th. Check it out via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ariana Saraha & Flight Behavior showed us the true tribal roots of folk in Grandmother’s Tears

Posted on 26 June 2022

Here to remind us of what folk music was before it was commercialised and dominated by The Lumineers is the world music album, From the Wild, from Ariana Saraha & Flight Behavior.

The opening single, Grandmother’s Tears, takes contemporary frustrative energy and stretches it back a millennia through a soundscape inspired by infinitely more than the grand sum of human construction and destruction. With each element of nature a potential muse for Ariana Saraha & Flight Behavior, it’s almost surreal that they’re of this era. After listening to the lyric “Grandmother’s tears, they have fallen. Four thousand years”, which will haunt my contemplation for quite some time, I scarcely seem rooted in 2022 myself.

Ariana Saraha & Flight Behavior’s album, From the Wild, is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Intuitively spiritual rhythm meets sensual folk in DORA GOLA’s latest single, Dance with Danger

Posted on 17 June 2022

If any track is going to tempt the weary and wary out of their comfort zones after sanity diminishing lockdowns, it is the artfully fierce electronic folk-pop earworm, Dance with Danger, from the spiritually magnetic singer-songwriter, DORA GOLA.

With the intuitiveness of the rhythm, you scarcely need her bio to tell you that she’s a dancer. Her connection to music is enviably strong, but at least she’s had the grace to share her natural gift with the world through emboldening hits that tease your rhythmic pulses as much as they stir the soul.

Following the release of Dance with Danger, the Poland-born, West Ireland-based artist will continue to make her discography a rediscovery of ancestral roots, mystery and sensuality. We can’t wait to hear what follows. She shines luminously bright in a sea of ego-driven artists.

Dance with Danger will hit the airwaves on June 17th. Stream it here.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The world music genre got infinitely more otherworldly with Lara Eidi & Dave Manington’s latest composition, Fones

Posted on 1 May 2022
Fones by Dave Manington feat. Lara Eidi

World music composer Dave Manington found the perfect chanteuse for his latest release, Fones, in the singer-songwriter Lara Eidi. Her mystique-filled transcendent vocal timbre resounds around the lines taken from the poem of the same name by the Egyptian poet Constantine P. Cavafy.

After a Waitsy brooding bassline intro, the celestial-ism seeps-in through the luminously rich harmonies and nostalgic guitars, which breed sepia tones under the soaring harmonies. The exoticism within the multicultural jazzy experimentalism makes it all but impossible to capture the true essence of the flamenco laced release. Lara Eidi & Dave Manington truly are among the very few artists that can claim that their sound is completely original. We can’t wait to hear what follows.

Fones was officially released on April 29th; it is now available to stream and purchase via Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

[Spotlight Feature] Ethan Mark delivered honeyed euphonic bliss in his indie psych soul single, The Concept of You

Posted on 17 March 2022

There is nothing hallmark about the rich and vibrant sentimentality of Ethan Mark’s latest single, The Concept of You. With the straight-from-the-soul vocal passion as a paramour of the sultry Flamenco guitars, the RnB track is the epitome of affectionate sincerity.

His mellifluous harmonised vocals become the central gravity of the title single from his upcoming album, which will release in June 2022. As the world music flair gently wrestles with the psychedelic indie vibes, it is impossible not to get caught up in the sun-bleached bliss of the exotically euphonic single that stands as a testament to Ethan Mark’s organically distinctive production style. Despite the tonal eclecticism that encompasses the soul of old school hip hop, the evocative capacity of alt-RnB and the grooves in non-westernised music, every element gels cohesively together under Mark’s sporadically off-kilter production style.

After getting a sneak peek of the upcoming album, it is easy to anticipate massive strides in the Toronto-residing artist’s music career.

Here’s what Ethan Mark had to say about his latest release:

“The Concept of You, and the upcoming album, came about from a challenge from my partner. She, a listener of neo-soul and jazz, challenged me to pare my usually elaborate and busy musical style down to something more organic, soulful, and pretty.

The result was a series of love songs encompassing many different facets of love. The single refers to her, the sepia-toned memories of summers, the roots we have put down together, and the love for home.

These themes felt especially important after a long period punctuated by isolations, introversion, and cabin fever. It’s accentuated by nylon guitar strings, cascading violins, gentle pianos, and the frailties and soul of harmonised vocals. In supporting the themes of roots, home, and love, the album is paired with visuals romanticizing wintertime in Toronto.”

The title track from Ethan Mark’s upcoming album, The Concept of You, is now available to stream on Spotify.

You can keep up to date with all of the artist’s latest releases via Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast