Featured Artists, Songs and Posts

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Soar is the latest release in a series of pieces composed around the modern relationships beginning, middle and increasingly common end. With the second release ‘Fly’ depiciting the honey-moon period, Soar is composed around the beginning of a relationship ending.

Soar is overall a very positive piece; however, these parts are constantly overwhelming the fractures which can be heard panned hard left and right.

Munich based indie-pop quartet KYTES start the new year in style with a infectiously vibrant indie-disco bop 'Apricosa' out 25th March through their very own label Frisbee Records.

The track is a forerunner to the ‚Apricosa' EP out in summer - the band continue their message of positivity, laced with indie-disco vibes and breezy indie-pop melodies.

The band say: "Apricosa expresses our desire to come together, our metaphor for ease and our wish to dance again in the here and now.Apricosa is a journey, our own journey to discover the more electronic and disco side of Kytes. We feel great freedom exploring new styles and nuances."

https://www.facebook.com/kytesmusic/

https://lnk.to/khokhoba

‘Khokhoba’ is the third single taken from Hopeyard, the debut album from classically trained studio wizard, composer and pianist NIN3S released now on Dorado Records.

Undoubtedly one of the album’s most affecting tracks, it features the powerful, compelling vocals of South African songstress, writer, poet and musician, Toshi Tikolo. Toshi co-wrote the track with NIN3S and sings in her native South African tongue; Xhosa.

Hailing her as “one of the most sonorous voices of Africa’s electronic music scene,” Mixmag last year listed her among their ‘Top African Women Shaping Dance Music.’ She has worked with a who’s who list in the genre including Black Coffee and David Morales. Here though, Toshi’s rich vocals ring out, quivering with raw emotion adding heart and depth to an epic, uplifting track that combines a mesmerising melody and NIN3S deceptively simple piano motifs.

Meaning ‘getting old’, ’Khokhoba’ is dedicated to Toshi’s grandmother who raised her and persuaded her to sing in church at the age of 6. It speaks of a yearning and love for her role model and inspiration who is growing old and frail. Toshi has been writing songs since a young child, and through her storytelling captures her life’s stories in her powerful lyrics. Like NIN3S, she was classically trained, turned to jazz, yet found her voice through poetry and folk music.

Toshi said “The song is dedicated to my grandmother, how gracefully she’s aging, the suffering she went through in all her living years, raising her kids as a single parent.”

Accompanying the track is an astonishing video that is an emotive masterpiece. The sands of time are a theme running throughout – we see grains of sand dancing in the atmospheric, golden light around a graceful young face. The sands shift in rhythm and tempo as the song reaches its crescendo with soaring vocals, yet as the sands starts to fade, so the face ages in a dimming light, but her inner glow remains undimmed.

https://ninesmusic.com/

Today we release Stor mellan, the first single from the upcoming album Små Vågor 5 by Henrik von Euler and Små Vågor. You

Stor mellan is the only reasonable order at Restaurang Hjälmaren in Årsta. Everything else has become too expensive. I think they’re keeping the price down on it just so we can stay. We usually sit in Smygen or at table five. Table five is called Masa beş which phonetically translates to loads of beers in Swedish (Massa bärs).

We who sit there are Rickard, Osten, Pelle, Tove, Linda, Anna, Martina, Anders, Conny, Hult, Kajsa, Lisa, Uhrlander, Hygglo, Sampan, Caroline Boxarn and Bubben. Bengtssons used to sit there but they have moved to the city.

Soundtrack to "Forgotten Border", the formal deadliest Easter-Bloc border in the world.

One of the fastest rising British male artists of 2022, Sam Tompkins releases the ‘who do you pray to’ EP alongside emotive visuals for new single ‘My Brother’ today.

With a host of stellar singles already released from the EP; including ‘Whole’, ‘Bloodline’ and ‘Hero’; Sam honed his craft across the collection of 7 tracks revealing his unique voice as a songwriter instilled in the narrative arc of his songs.

New single ‘My Brother’ encapsulates his intimate story telling style, as Sam notes; ‘My Brother is really special to me. I love it so much. The origin of it is actually a sad but lovely story. When I was about 18, we lost our Nana and at the funeral we had to read the eulogy. I got about 6 words in before being in floods of tears, my brother read the rest and was so strong. Flash forward to last year when my Papa (Grandpa) passed away and I decided to do the eulogy. Sadly because of covid my brother couldn’t make it as he was working away in Canada. This time I got the whole way through it and I remember getting the text from my brother who watched it through a live stream that I smashed it and I felt so proud because the only way I was able to do it was knowing I was the exact age my brother had stepped up and been brave 5 years prior.”

Sam Tompkins is a force to be reckoned with; following his own critically acclaimed singles, the TikTok trending collaboration with Jnr Choi ‘To The Moon’; a string of viral videos including impressive covers shared via TikTok and grass-roots touring; he has garnered over 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify and amassed a colossal online audience which has grown exponentially over the past year.

The release of this debut body of work is set to cement Sam’s status as one of the year’s most exciting new artists. His music has already been praised by the likes of MTV, Clash, BBC, and Notion; played across BBC Radio 1 by Jack Saunders, Scott Mills, Clara Amfo, Ricky, Melvin and Charlie, and featured on flagship Spotify editorial playlists.

Matching pop touches to a classic feel, he’s often compared to SamFender’s anthemic truth-seeking or Tom Walker’s revelatory autobiography. Yet Sam’s work stands alone and is already scaling mountainous heights. His music digs deep, explores the key topics in his life and communicates emotions we all feel, but sometimes can’t put into words.

Elton John and Shawn Mendes are fans, pop phenomenon Bebe Rexha has co-signed his work, while Justin Bieber is a prominent supporter. The two recently hung out in LA, while a video of Justin singing Sam’s single ‘Whole’ has gained more than 2 million views –and counting. Closer to home, JayKae jumped onstage on Sam’s last tour, and renowned UK artists Krept & Konan, Chip and Clean Bandit are fans.

Such a broad spread of support simply represents his audience as a whole; there’s a literal army of TikTok followers moving alongside him, with Sam amassing almost a half million followers on Instagram –that’s more than some very established artists. In fact, he already has more Instagram followers than some winners at the BRITs last year.

Selling out every venue he puts his name against, Sam’s live prowess stretches across Europe. Next month Sam will be one of the first UK artists to tour Europe in a bus since the pandemic hit as he heads out on a mammoth European tour, containing a packed out Kentish Town Forum date on the 8th April.

From his humble beginnings busking on the streets of Brighton, EP‘who do you pray to?’ is set to continue Sam’s momentum and rise on the international pop stage.

https://www.instagram.com/samtompkinsuk/