All the Latest Music News on Nagamag

https://il-lo.ffm.to/soldiner

French electronic duo il:lo announces that they have signed to Nettwerk (Ark Patrol, Dreamers Delight, Hermitude) and make their label debut with the new single “Soldiner.” Comprised of producers Dejan Dejado and Andreas Schültz, il:lo creates an angular, yet airy deep house blend with expansive builds and mesmerising textures.

“Our new single Soldiner stands out from previous releases and marks the beginning of a new era, a musical production resolutely turned towards deep house which is more on electronic elements,” the duo remarks. “We wanted to grab the listener with powerful leads and soulful arpeggiators. This track is an emotional journey with a joyful start, intense body and final resolution.”

Producers Dejan Dejado and Andreas Schültz prove that two heads are better than one. After meeting in Prague in 2010, the duo formed a fast musical connection that spawned their dynamic and sprawling electronic act il:lo. With Dejado digging into unique samples and Andreas the editing and arranging mastermind, il:lo embody a yin and yang style of complimentary forces.

They describe il:lo as “difficult to capture or hold permanently, having wings.” This meaning can be derived from the definition of the world volatile and highlights their proclivity for shape-shifting moods and the uncanny ability to mutate between downtempo, trip hop, and deep house. Their influences are as far ranging as their music, citing 90s IDM, liquid drum & bass, and even hip-hop, jazz, and world music as playing a role in their compositions.

Throughout their career, il:lo have toured much of Europe taking cues from the exotic architecture around them. The angular aesthetic serves as a driving force in their bold minimalism. From 2015 EP Places to 2019’s Sloh, the duo’s creative vision is apparent in both their musical evolution and their visual identity.

Following the release of Sloh, il:lo took to the road once more touring with renowned beatmaker Blockhead as well as collaborating with electronic mainstay Emancipator, and the otherworldly CloZee on official remixes. They continued to broaden their horizons with remixes for Mt. Wolf, Panama and Jerro. At the top of 2022, il:lo unveiled their first live record with Anjunadeep Live Sessions, a culmination of their work with the progressive London-based dance label Anjunadeep.

Now, joining forces with Nettwerk, il:lo’s composition methods remain unchanged. Through their endless musical journey, the dualistic mindset continues to evolve and encourage listeners to let go and take flight.

Stay tuned for more from il:lo.

https://www.illomusic.com/

The handdrum is one of my favourite instruments. The soft, expressive tone in immersive rhythms is the perfect ingredient for a driving, moody organic house track in the style of Viken Arman or Nu. We recorded the song in Bali and it will be the first release of our new label trybe.

https://www.facebook.com/liifeofficial/

Quote from Blackwave about the song:

"This song is definitely our most personal and honest one yet. A lot of the events that happened over the past years, since the release of our debut album in 2019, made us dig deeper than we ever did before. After releasing an album we worked on so restlessly, we had a hard time finding purpose again. Both in our own way, we went through really dark times. We decided that we needed a more direct approach in our songwriting, and 'good day' is a first byproduct of that new way of working.

'good day' is about being in a really dark place and dealing with it on your own while trying to maintain an untroubled image towards the outside world. We often don't think about what people are going through on a daily basis, and might only see them on a 'good day'. We talk about some really personal things in the lyrics, including depression and loss.

The instrumentation of the track is purposely uplifting and tuneful, as we wanted to create a contrast between the meaning of the lyrics and the overall atmosphere of the track, as well as to translate the feeling of trying to lift yourself up while being so downhearted. The gospel influence in the vocal samples and chords additionally contributes to the uplifting sentiment we ultimately want people to take away from the track.

It kind of feels like a triumph being able to release this track and talk about these things. We feel like it's important to break the taboos surrounding them and to be able to speak about it honestly and openly."

https://www.facebook.com/blackwavedot

Produced By @willem_ardui & @themischiefboy

Lyrics:

Chorus (Jay)

Dreaming

All night, all day I don't sleep

Gravity don't exist 'round here

I can't get off my feet

So why won't you blow the dust off my surface

Fix me up and give me purpose

Even if I don't need it

Just 'cause you caught me on a good day

Verse (Willem)

Laying still, taking pills

Just to get out of bed

I'm missing thrills, cannot feel

'Cause I'm light in my head

Ain't paying bills, way too chill

Wish I got fire instead

But on the real nothing feels like it's posing a threat

Everyday feels the same, I stopped looking ahead

A long time ago, I was sure this was my path

I wanna be lead, I wanna be taken away

Tears to be shed, but I don't feel nothing

You just caught me on a good day

And I'm just feeling like a bootleg version of myself

Should approach it in a new way

New pace, true friends, losing all my loose ends

Foolish, acting like it's easy to be fooled with

I gotta take it seriously, seriously

This shit is fucking killing me

I've been ignoring this for too long

I gotta move on, go to bed with my shoes on

And start

Chorus (Jay)

Dreaming

All night, all day I don't sleep

Gravity don't exist 'round here

I can't get off my feet

So why won't you blow the dust off my surface

Fix me up and give me purpose

Even if I don't need it

Just 'cause you caught me on a good day

Verse (Jay)

Two in the afternoon turn and I snooze

No Zzz’s, mind clouded by the news

Of my pops that suddenly died in foreign

Ears ringing, couldn’t even hear the silence for ‘im

Prrrrrr, I turn and I snooze

I'd rather be on fun shit but today i lose

A battle i didn’t choose but I had to pick

Right now i just need the world to get off my _

And quit tryna fix my shit for me

I just need time

But it seems I can’t afford it

Always need to be rollin, always something important

That be knocking at my dox in the morning

Yet I rise and shine but rarely on time

Tired of maintaining that 9 to 5 smile

While feeding my addiction of escaping what’s before me

Can’t control but i know i just gotta get back to

Chorus (Jay)

Dreaming

All night, all day I don't sleep

Gravity don't exist 'round here

I can't get off my feet

So why won't you blow the dust off my surface

Fix me up and give me purpose

Even if I don't need it

Just 'cause you caught me on a good day

Bridge

Chorus (Jay)

Dreaming

All night, all day I don't sleep

Gravity don't exist 'round here

I can't get off my feet

So why won't you blow the dust off my surface

Fix me up and give me purpose

Even if I don't need it

Just 'cause you caught me on a good day

https://michaeldunstanmusic.com.au/

'Walk The Streets On Sunrise' is releasing today (March 18th, in Australia) and has already been placed in Spotify's New Music Friday AU/NZ.

The song was written at the beginning of last winter. With long busy days working, I began running before dawn and would often run down empty streets resemblant of airport runways, to be greeted with the stillest, most wonderful sunrises. With no one around, and no sound. Peace and quiet, in the city? The impact it had on my day, as it became busier, was profound. That stillness never left, and inspired me hugely throughout the day, and how I interacted with everyone around me.

The song is written from an imagined perspective of an older male, with limited days left on this extraordinary planet we are blessed to call home. In imagining how I'd feel in this person's situation, I feel the urgency and inspiration to make the most of every morning, every day I wake up breathing. I hope you enjoy the song, and keep finding moments to be grateful for each day. Let the peace fill your life.

It is the second single off an upcoming second studio album titled 'Impermanence', due to be released June 2022.

Lyrics:

Am I alone? Or are we living life in fast forward?

Scrambling from dusk till dawn,

For food to eat, for a place to call our home.

Well he said, I’ve been working all this time,

To find I never lived, right before I die.

And that’s why I walk the streets on sunrise.

And let the peace fill your life.

It’s so damn nice.

Peace and quiet.

Watch the birds take flight.

When you walk the streets on sunrise.

To be awake while the city sleeps is to witness an Earth at ease.

The cool morning stars they fade.

The roads are empty like runways.

Machines rise, the birds they hide.

But it’s okay for you have the silence inside.

And that’s why I walk the streets on sunrise.

And let it inspire my life.

It’s so damn nice.

Peace and quiet.

Watch the birds take flight.

When you walk the streets on sunrise.

"You Don't Know" is an infectious & addictive collaboration between Tel Avivian dance duo HOOX, Pop producer Noy Alooshe and the amazing vocalist Marina Maximilian, one of Israel's leading female artists and actresses (Fauda - Netflix)

Deeply intuitive and channeling all things divine, NYC-based creative Abby Diamond releases her third single in her full moon series of singles with a sultry feminine anthem entitled “Nice and Slow“.

”After the deaths of my grandmother and brother and the recurring visits of an unwelcome voyeur, insomnia arrived and took over my life. It was a relentless, nightly occurrence, leaving me awake for days at a time. After so many sleepless nights, three strange things began to happen. First, I began to fear being alone in my bed. Second, my days became messy and unscheduled as I tried to plan around the brief moments that sleep would find me. And finally, the potent and intense yearning I felt to put my loss and internal turmoil into words magnified into tunnel vision, and haunted my constant waking state. Nice and Slow was the first song I wrote during this time, and it poured out of me like a prayer for sleep” - Abby Diamond

The singles, produced by, and co-written with close friend Max Vehuni of slenderbodies, chronicles a time of intense growth and evolution into a more enlightened state for Diamond.

“Nice and Slow” will be available on all streaming platforms on the September full moon, Sep 20th.

http://abbydiamondmusic.com

https://instagram.com/abbydiamondx

https://fb.com/abbydiamondmusic

https://twitter.com/abbydiamondx

https://youtube.com/channel/UCY2qWZjyvh-CMGV61j0q-dQ290

Pop-soul duo RubyGld Smoke is releasing their sexy, lively single “Forbidden Fruit” on March 2. As husband and wife, the two’s undeniable chemistry creates a feeling of yearning for a lover’s magnetic energy. “Forbidden Fruit” allows listeners to embrace their guilty pleasures and chase after the relationships that aren’t necessarily the best for them. “Something sensual about it keeps both parties running back,” the couple says. “It’s the age old tale of wanting what you can’t have because it feels so good.”

RubyGld Smoke inspires lovers and artists alike with their irresistible charm. After a series of successful releases, the duo took some time to hone in on their sound and upgrade the quality of their artistry to give fans their best yet. “We wanted to make records that were bigger, broader, and more memorable. We listened to and heard our fans, and now we are taking the sound to the next level.” -T. L. Williams

Paris Combo, the French quintet Variety describes as possessing “a seemingly endless supply of catchy hooks and imaginative lyrics,” is back with a new album, Quesaco? The full-length release is their seventh studio album, but also the last recorded with the group’s late singer/songwriter Belle du Berry, who died suddenly on August 11, 2020, aged just 54, following a brief battle with cancer.

Hailed by Billboard as “a vocalist/accordionist and lyricist extraordinaire,” Belle was the beating heart of the group and her passing was a tragic loss for all those touched by her charismatic presence as a performer and songwriter during a career spanning 30 years and over 100 songs. She had been the unforgettable voice of the band’s elegantly intoxicating and joyful take on the world, her quirky, wise and often humorous songs providing a welcome antidote to the stresses and strains of everyday life. For the legions of mourning fans worldwide, who until now had been resigned to consoling themselves with the band’s nevertheless impressive back catalogue of eight albums, an unexpected and exciting parting gift has arrived in the form of the new release. Completed just before Belle died, Quesaco? is now being released worldwide on May 6 on the U.S. label Six Degrees Records.

Twenty-five years have passed since the band was founded, but it’s clear from listening to the 11 songs on the new album that Paris Combo have lost none of their magic. Quintessentially Parisian, yet timeless and international with a deceptively light touch, their music weaves together elements of Django Reinhardt-inspired gypsy jazz and Latin music, as well as exotic and cinematic influences, and is a testament to the group’s long journey together.

Four years after their last album Tako Tsubo, Belle and the group’s core members, David Lewis on piano and trumpet, Potzi on guitar and François Jeannin on drums, are joined by Benoît Dunoyer de Segonzac on bass and Rémy Kaprielan on percussion and vocals. Right from the outset we recognize Belle’s whimsical take on life in the title she chose for the new album — Quesaco?, an ancient Provençal expression, which might be translated as “What is all this?,” or “What’s happening?” and which lends a charming, old-world nuance to her questions about the mystery of existence.

It took Belle’s talent as a poet of the everyday to think of using the computer’s keyboard space-bar as a metaphor for all that’s missing in our lives. It took her keen eye and her joyful heart to capture the simple splendor of a couple’s stroll along the banks of the Seine. It took her playful imagination to visualize a “pole-dance” between the North Pole and the South Pole. And Belle knew how to shift the familiar and lend to it an air of mystery:

Outside, a strong wind is blowing

Outside, the night is still falling

Leaving us here, at twilight,

At the hour of the moon’s rendez-vous

Rendez-vous with a sun, who couldn’t care less.

Despite its seemingly prescient references to confinement and the current state of the world, in fact this album has nothing to do with the lockdown or the pandemic or our present anxieties. The album is “Covid-free,” written entirely before all that. Work began on it in 2019, with Nicolas Repac — the artist and producer had already worked with Paris Combo on their Remixed album the previous year. He collaborated on two songs, “Quesaco?” and “Panic à bord,” and these became sonic templates for the album as a whole — a rich and free sound, with perhaps more tension than on previous albums. In the end, the album, produced by David Lewis, is a seamless combination of live studio performances, with some tracks assembled from recordings at the group’s studio in Paris.

Paris Combo had a U.S. tour booked for March 2020, but with France at a standstill, this period was instead spent recording final takes in the basement of Belle and David’s home, just south of Paris, with trumpet, ’cello and Belle’s vocals completing the album. All that remained was to sort through the takes, finalize the arrangements, choose between the finely nuanced vocal performances and then meticulously assemble the whole.

Then, in the early summer, Belle received her cancer diagnosis. Courageous to the last, she chose the running-order of the songs and listened to the final mix. She loved it.

Her sudden illness took her from us far too soon but it did allow her just enough time to know she had succeeded.

Quesaco? was the album she had wanted to make.

Following the release of Quesaco?, concerts will be held in Paris, at the New Morning, and in Belle’s native Berry region, bringing together fellow artists, friends and fans to pay homage to her remarkable career as a singer, poet and composer.

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/

https://www.instagram.com/xjblazn/