“Corona King” by Dawn Drake (Feb 12, 2021 on PMX Records) chronicles a pandemic romance that is already barely hanging by a thread on Zoom. The relationship finally succumbs to a lack of actual human connection that many of us have experienced in 2020.

Imagine if your computer screen is actually a bad dream come true? Many singles in lockdown all over the world went for months without actually being in the presence of other human beings. Social media and video chats have been the only human connection we have had during the pandemic- and Zoom, Facetime and Skype have become some of the only potential romantic connections we’ve had as well. This bad dream for Ms. Drake tells a somewhat autobiographical tale of being in quarantine already cutoff from all social ties; the final straw is when that special someone catches coronavirus and is never heard from again. S/He becomes the “Corona King” for whom the song is named.

In Dawn’s signature fashion of accompanying her darker lyrics with grooves that light up the dance floor, the video for “Corona King” sheds a sunny light on the subject matter as the protagonist prevails. Dancing and singing into the post-lockdown summer and fall, she makes lemonade out of the tale, converting it into a passion-filled dance number that is at once New Wave Pop and Cuban Timba (Salsa Cubana) with some dashes of Afro-Cuban folkloric references that conjure up images of Changó, the Orisha of male virility, and Ochún, the Orisha of love and sweet waters. “Corona King” shows us that all is not lost in the world and that even when the floor is shaking… you can still dance!

Dawn Drake & her band of over a decade, ZapOte (a luscious tropical fruit) are beautifully filmed by Okay Motion in a lush Brooklyn backdrop that features the signature Colamari Horns (Jackie Coleman and Lynn Ligammari of Durand Jones, Antibalas and Red Baraat), the sounds of the tres guitar played by Benjamin Lapidus, as well as Drake’s own bass, vocals and percussion. The tight rhythm section featuring Rosa Avila (Summer on Broadway, Broadway Bounty Hunter) on drums and Mara Rosenbloom on keys makes you want to get up and groove all the way into post-pandemic land!

While you’re grooving you’ll be in good company with choreography by Hansell Vaillant of La Habana, Cuba accompanied by Ms. Drake and Brooklyn dancer Michele Drysdale. Cameo appearances by Brittany Anjou of BiTyrant and Eliane Amherd from the voice of Switzerland make it all in the family. A motion filled piece from beginning to end, the moves in “Corona King” will give you the energy you need to shake off the Corona King you may have in your own life.

Who is the “Corona King” in the video premiere? We may never find out, as the plot is purposefully gender-non-specific. One is left to guess who the actual Corona King really is. In the end, the takeaway is that perhaps there is hope for singles even in and beyond a global pandemic!

http://www.instagram.com/thedawndrake
http://www.dawndrakeandzapote.bandcamp.com/

Eclectic Reggae/Island-Fusion Artist Vana Liya Releases Single “Come Away” (Featuring Half Pint) via LAW Records
Genre-busting vocalist, songwriter, and ukulele maverick Vana Liya https://www.vanaliyamusic.com/ made a serendipitous recent arrival on the national music scene after she posted several ukulele covers of popular reggae songs to social media, which garnered the support of top original artists and led to a 2018 record deal with L.A.-based LAW Records. She has since been quickly earning a reputation among many of her well-established musical peers as a solid collaborator who always brings a fresh take and positive energy to the mix with her distinct yet not easily classifiable “island” vibe.

That free spirit of collaboration between major and emerging artists is nowhere better illustrated than with Vana Liya’s new single “Come Away” featuring Jamaican dancehall and reggae legend Half Pint, (out Feb. 12, 2021, on LAW Records). https://halfpintmusic.com/ https://www.law-records.com/

Produced by multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, and Stick Figure member Johnny Cosmic, “Come Away” had originally been constructed by Vana and Johnny as a reggae-pop club track before Half Pint was asked to collaborate on it. Yet when Half Pint sent the stems with a section of the vocals back with the lyrical tagline ‘come away from the land of the sinking sands,’ Vana was so blown away by those foreboding words, almost premonitory of the racial and political strife yet to come in 2020, that she decided to scrap everything she’d written and go with the more heavy-hitting, politically relevant storyline.

“I think musicians have a really important role to speak up about what they believe in. And it’s not necessarily like you have to get super political or anything. But I definitely think that if you don’t use your platform, you’re missing out on an opportunity. The song isn’t explicitly about racism, or politics, or any one thing. But it reflects the times that we’re in and the racial violence and political injustice is just something that hit me really heavy. This was the year I woke up and I realized that the world was corrupt. I’d had a shield over my eyes where I thought everything was fine before. So I wanted to address that in the song but it in a light way. So that if you wanted to just chill out and listen to the song, you could chill out and listen. But then, if you had your thinking cap on, it also hits you a whole different way.”

The release of “Come Away” serves as a sample of what has been a consistent flow and wide range of new material Vana Liya has had in the works over the past year and foreshadows the broad stylistic eclecticism and bold subject matter that can be expected on Vana’s upcoming projects. It is also indicative of a deeply personal renaissance Vana has been undergoing with her evolution as an artist.

Born Nirvana Goberdhan, Vana grew up just east of New York City in Deer Park, NY. As the daughter of parents from Guyana (located at the southernmost end of the Caribbean), Vana was surrounded from a very early age by soca, calypso, dancehall, and reggae music and began singing at the age of 12. At age 19, Vana’s mother recognized her daughter had a gift and love for music and bought her a guitar. However, playing the acoustic guitar was difficult for her small stature, so for the Christmas of 2014, her mother gifted her a ukulele instead — a gift that ultimately changed the course of her life and journey.

A couple of years later, Vana began posting ukulele covers to YouTube and Instagram of songs by her favorite reggae artists like Sublime, Slightly Stoopid, and Pepper. Her magnetic personality and smooth voice combined with the novelty of a reggae-rock-ukulele chick belting out fan favorites and soon enough her videos started taking off and getting lots of views and engagement Before long, artists like 311, Rebelution, Stick Figure, and SOJA were sharing Vana’s covers across various social media platforms, which was the beginning of Vana finding her audience. However, what would become a career-defining moment came in June 2017 when she put up a cover of Pepper’s “Too Much”. Within a week, the band had reposted it and taken keen notice of the young artist and her unique approach.

In April of 2018, Vana signed with Pepper’s LAW Records — becoming their first female and first solo artist — and subsequently released 4 singles within a year. In November, Vana visited Great Stone Studios owned by Scott Woodruff of Stick Figure in Oakland, CA. At that time, she recorded “Go For It” with Johnny Cosmic of Stick Figure and also did a duo song with Happy Madison star Peter Dante called “Give Love Get Love”.

That year, Vana made the business decision to move from her native New York to California, eventually settling in Los Angeles, where she formed her band, including Steve Shaw (keys/sax), Kenny Nishikawa (bass), Logan Tyler (drums) and Eli Reskow (guitar). Much of 2019 was spent touring relentlessly with bands including Expendables, KBong, and Kash’d Out, and opening for such noteworthy artists as Pepper, Ballyhoo!, Badfish, Oogee Wawa, Tunnel Vision, and Tropidelic.

After meeting Johnny Cosmic on tour, Vana asked him to team up with her in the studio for this single and the two worked closely through 2019 to develop Vana’s unique island fusion sound. While much of her work falls into the reggae category, Vana asserts she is not a straight-up reggae artist. For the “Come Away” single, she was successful in demonstrating an authentic stylistic eclecticism by creating a track that has a reggae basis but is, in essence, more of a heavy pop-reggae tune that even manifests elements of trance.

Says Vana, “Working with well-established and respected artists like Half Pint and Johnny Cosmic has been a rewarding and validating experience for me at this early stage in my career. I think one of the things I’ve been kind of struggling with is that a lot of people used to pigeonhole me as like ‘the ukulele chick’ who just does covers and stuff like that. I’m really trying to stray away from that and coming into my own now. So with this single, I want to let people know I didn’t come to play; this is legit!”

An On Bast is a live electronic artist who creates all her work on the fly. This track was made at a time when she was busy with a number of projects at the same time. Anna Suda (her actual name) is a major in philosophy so she often has a deeper meaning behind the titles of her songs.

“There are so many things I wish I knew
Wandered for so long, to come back to the same place”

“The music video of “Forgive Me” is a pictorial analogy of the everlasting guilt driven by a bad decision which leads to ruminate the “I wish I knew” thought.

The scene takes place following the moment when God talked with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to ask them why they were hiding. They must have felt so guilty even though God was showing them so much love.

In the video, Eve is wandering as she seeks forgiveness for the sin that we are still paying for to this day. She wanted to know so badly that it led her to take the worst bloody decision in the world when she was totally free in the garden… How can we break free from such a burden?

Letting go is always a decision away, it starts when you accept that you are guilty, selfish or sometimes, an asshole, but it’s ok, as long as you don’t keep being it! The biggest challenge after is to open the door and let the light in… to let love in.”

– 10After10 –

A rainy morning somewhere but a good day with a cup of coffee and finally the sun shows up :-) This is my coffee homage – couldn’t live without music and coffee

https://www.instagram.com/loungetunes

LOUNGETUNES:

Munich-based songwriter/producer Frieder Mollat started his music career in the mid 90’s following his passion for music.

Graduating from college as a musicologist in 1995 he joined the music industry working a few years for labels like Warner Music Germany.

Over the years he has been writing music for several projects signing a publishing deal with Universal Music Publishing Germany in 2001.

LOUNGETUNES is his brandnew project after his 2017 debut as a solo-artist with the launch of his KLANGPLANET project.

https://www.loungetunes.com/

One of hip-hop’s most unforgiving and raw voices, Slaine has grown into a multi-talented artist through his music and acting roles in some of the most renowned crime dramas of our generation. He appeared in The Town, Gone Baby Gone, and Killing Them Softly alongside legends like Ray Liotta, James Gandolfini, and Brad Pitt, while continuing to hone his craft as an emcee.

And now, Slaine releases his most visceral album to date with The Things We Can’t Forgive. It’s a lyrically-charged journey that touches on love, sex, heartbreak, narcissism, trauma, betrayal, addiction, forgiveness and recovery. The ten track LP is produced primarily by his frequent collaborator and fellow Bostonian, The Arcitype, who helps build a foundation of rich instrumentation. Additional production is provided by Statik Selektah who created the album’s title track.

To accompany the album Slaine is sharing his self-directed video for “When the War Ends (feat. ILL BILL),” which includes photography and editing by Christian Hardy. The cinematic visuals center on a troubled, younger version of Slaine (Justin Thoms), who ultimately confronts his future self with potentially stirring results.

The Things We Can’t Forgive is available now through all digital retailers and streaming platforms via AR Classic Records/Perfect Time Music Group.

https://go.perfecttimemusicgroup.com/slaine_thethingswecantforgive

Tracklist:

01. When the War Ends (feat. ILL BILL)
02. Everything Once (feat. Rite Hook)
03. Blurry Eyed (feat. Claire Whall)
04. Revolver
05. Wrath & Pride (feat. Snak The Ripper)
06. Chasing Ghosts (feat. Rite Hook)
07. Beautiful
08. Not Enough (feat. Rite Hook)
09. The Things We Can’t Forgive (feat. Rike Hook)
10. Legend of the Fall

Rising UK Singer Ashleigh Bankx Unveils Debut Single “Angel”

LISTEN HERE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4t0RMWfExg&feature=youtu.be

London-based artist Ashleigh Bankx is the latest singer to emerge from the UK’s resurgent soul/R&B scene, and she’s making a huge statement at the top of the year with the release of “Angel”. The independent artist’s first official release, “Angel” is an impassioned love song that arrives with accompanying Lutch Media-directed visuals to set the mood. Inspired by the likes of Lauryn Hill, Amy Winehouse, Nina Simone and Rihanna, as well as music from her Zimbabwean roots, Ashleigh brings a much-revered throwback neo-soul sound of yesteryear, with a unique, modern twist.

“Angel” begins with an empowering voiceover sample from Nina Simone that leads perfectly into the rest of the song. Ashleigh says: “‘Angel’ is about self-liberation, understanding and valuing yourself through past experiences with relationships and society. The song is about black love and centres around the concept of self-love, self-confidence, self-pride and the unity of and journey between two lovers. I want the listener to determine what mood and emotion they feel when they listen to the song.”

“Angel” shines a light firmly on Ashleigh’s impressive lyricism and her emotive, soul-drenched voice, which provides the perfect vessel for her music’s exploration of the love and pain we as people experience in our everyday lives and relationships. With her first release of the year now uncovered and an EP series also in the works, Ashleigh Bankx is set to make a big impact and will surely be one to watch out for in 2021.

“Angel” is available to buy/stream now on all platforms: https://afrisounds.lnk.to/AshleighBankxAngel

Keep up to date with the latest from Ashleigh Bankx:

https://www.instagram.com/ashleighbankx/
https://twitter.com/_ashleighbankx
https://soundcloud.com/ashleighbankx

Stayhomie presents a music video for his single “I Can Do It For You”. Its footage was shot by photographer Luis Quintero at the mass of a religious community in Panama. These visually powerful video clips inspired Max Kubbe (a.k.a. Stayhomie) to put them together to make one whole story with a stunning climax.

Single “I Can Do It For You” is taken from the debut album “Random Heartbreaking Memories vol. 1”. Album features several vocalists from different parts of the world: Grisly Faye, Bark Bark Disco, Snezhik, Neon Lights, Bew Nalance.

Stayhomie: “There are two selves inside of me. One of them looks toward melancholic experimental sound, the other one infinitely loves aesthetics of the 90’s, ultramelodism and sentimental pop-phrasing. You can find both of them on this album”.

https://www.instagram.com/stayhomie/

Stayhomie is an electronic producer from Saint-Petersburg, Russia. Ultramelodism, patchwork of voice samples, vintage synthesizers and Roland 808.

https://ezhevika.bandcamp.com/album/year-of-no-answers

Stream “burnout” by Gillian Heidi
https://ffm.to/d9mwxxb

Rising Boston-based Pop singer/songwriter Gillian returns with her first single of 2021 via “burnout”. After releasing a slew of well received music last year, she’s starting off the new year strong and is gearing up to release a ton more music throughout the year.

Gillian treats her music as a conduit for truth. Whether behind the piano or with a guitar in hand, the Boston-based artist chronicles life’s ups and downs, ebbs and flows, and trials and tribulations with thoughtful clarity, poetic eloquence, and a stirring soulful voice. Documenting the dissolution of a relationship, confronting the pains of addiction, or facing loneliness, she confidently conveys unbridled emotion with wisdom that belies her 16 years of age.

Gillian made her introduction in 2019 with the independent release of her debut EP, Unfiltered. The lead single, “What It Felt Like,” impressively tallied 200K Spotify streams — no small feat for an unsigned act. 2020 is set to be another banner year for Gillian as she heads towards the release of her album, 3AM, due for release this Summer.

https://www.instagram.com/gillianheidi/
https://www.facebook.com/gillianheidimusic/

Trombonist Chris Abelen doesn’t think (or talk) like other composer bandleaders—the kind who work to further their careers. He lives just outside Amsterdam, and is plugged into the scene there, but he isn’t one for hanging in the Bimhuis café till all hours, or mounting bands to play international summer festivals. He has a disarming habit of describing his process as chaotic, or plain nuts: When I put this bassist and drummer together, each wrongly assumed the other would keep time. Or he’d tell you how uncomfortable someone was playing in his band. When he put out the archival live recording Proost, he was careful to mention how little the original audience had cared for it. For example.

https://www.chrisabelen.com/

And yet the music always comes out right. That musician who felt uncomfortable sounded great in his band, and Proost is one of the overlooked modern Dutch gems. Proost for tentet, Dance of the Penguins and What a romance! for his headbutting quintet, Space for quintet, strings and Ab Baars—there isn’t a dud in Abelen’s discography. But he can also keep you waiting far too long for his next project, such as this one, a radical departure from those loosey-goosey recordings.

As Chris Abelen tells it, it’s the usual cockup. This instrumental music began as a vocal project with an almost entirely different band. “My friend Bastiaan Geleijnse and I—he’s one of the writers of the political cartoon Fokke & Sukke—had been talking for years about writing an opera, but decided to start with something more manageable.” So Bastiaan came up with a story about office work in an age of efficiency experts. “A day at the office was first intended as an album with both sung and instrumental tracks, but I wrote too many pieces and we finished only two songs. Since we needed more time to work on those, I decided to make this instrumental-overture album to a program which might never be realized. I don’t know whether to treat this album as a stand-alone production or not, but we are working on that vocal album, with lyrics in English.

“I started the project with a different line-up, using good friends of mine from the Amsterdam community. The first rehearsal wasn’t bad at all, but it sounded like ‘more of the same.’ So I fired my friends, except for Tini Thomsen and Yonga Sun—we are still friends—and I decided to go in a different direction, more pop or funk or whatever. The result is an album with quite simple tunes—still more of the same?—but with a different feel and assigned solo slots—not more of the same.”

The first band included his peers; the new one is mostly Dutch and German players a generation or so younger than the leader. In his old quintet (with Tobias Delius, Corrie van Binsbergen, Wilbert de Joode and Charles Huffstadt), the foundation could be fluid; the forms had room to stretch and snap back. To change up, Abelen makes this septet all about a certain kind of precision: the music is tight and superbly balanced. Abelen suggests one point of reference with the title “Remembering Willem B,” where Chris plays a valedictory solo for his old friend. As a fledgling in the ’80s, Chris had played trombone in the Breuker Kollektief, and later worked as Willem’s digital copyist, readying parts for that more-or-less 10-piece band, which had its own on-the-grid precision, and musicians who kept busy in foreground or background roles.

“Willem and I we got along very well, and we were an unbeatable duo when it came to complaining about the world, and music in particular. And I agree, there are some similarities with his music, in terms of being tight and on the grid. On the other hand, Willem didn’t like to write ‘song’-like compositions at all. As influences go, I always liked the Zeeland Suite of Leo Cuypers—‘hey, it’s allowed to write a singable melody!’—and the music of Paul Termos and Guus Janssen more than Willem’s music.” Plus, Breuker had a compulsion to fill all the space on the sheet music, so no player was ever idle. Chris Abelen lets the music (and musicians) breathe more than that.

Abelen does have a gift for melody—hear that soprano saxophone line on “It’s Time,” say, or even its bassline. Or the slightly arch and beboppy melody “GDP.” Or “Back to Work” with its echolalic call-and-response. (That one has the kind of sturdy architecture one associates with Breuker.) Or the lovely horn chorales that break out all over. “Not Love” starts out like Abelen’s Big Ballad—his James Bond theme—until bass clarinet sends it somewhere else, and then the original theme comes back in different guise, Abelen showing that thrifty Dutch composer’s way of parceling out materials. The whole program bristles with bustle: every office should work so smoothly.

In that pop vein, tunes are short and tightly constructed, but plentiful improvised solos are part of the job’s benefit package. The band’s best known player and relative elder, trumpeter Angelo Verploegen, like Abelen came up in the ’80s and made his name in the ’90s, as member of the hardbopping Houdini’s. Verploegen gets a few fine solos but his unofficial concerto is “The hall,” which shows off his virtues: chops, lyricism, beautiful tone, the way he leaves space in a line, and the bluesy inflection you don’t hear coming. Angelo and Chris had played together once years ago, at a festival in Morocco. The other players came to the leader a little closer to home.

“I had heard Tini play with the New Rotterdam Jazz Orchestra. The nice thing about her soloing is, she really uses the low regions on both bass clarinet and baritone, and with a lot of power.” (She has a band called MaxSax.) Thomsen played alongside alto and soprano saxist Floris van der Vlugt in the band Windkracht 7, and they blend very well. His soprano solo on “It’s Time” demonstrates his clear tone and elegant improvising—he doesn’t go straight for the pinched upper register. Drummer Yonga Sun (of the quartet Talking Cows, among other bands) recommended Munich-born bassist Ulrich Wentzlaff-Eggebert—drummers know who they can get along with, sometimes after playing four bars together. Chris rehearsed with them both and liked the chemistry. The bassist and drummer link up beautifully; they can dance lightly or get heavy—as on the rocky second section of “A day at the office.”

The youngest player here is head-turning rock guitarist Thijs Huibens. “I knew him as a friend of my son Willem, who plays saxophones,” Abelen says. “They met in high school and play in some little bands, workshopping standards or playing heavy rock. I liked the way he played mostly by ear, and not via extensive studies of the Holy Chord Changes. Guitarists who only play notes or get a standard jazz-guitar sound bore me—they won’t explore tone the way a singer or horn player will. At first Thijs had some problems with all these notated parts, but he put in a lot of work, figuring out all this music in sometimes really unfriendly guitar keys.” “Delay” is his mini-concerto, an essay in mutable guitar timbres. I love those strummed mid-bar accents on “More circus” too.

There is some tight interactive playing here for sure—the improvised counterpoint on “More circus,” notably. With everyone attentive to good intonation, that penchant for precision really pays off, as in the rising, falling and converging lines on “Huub.” (Some good low bass clarinet on that one, too.) As mentioned, this project began with office workers, and any Dutch-scene insider might correctly guess the tune’s named for the Bimhuis’s tireless director Huub van Riel, who can navigate through myriad distractions much the way the trombone melody does.

The last thing to mention about A day at the office is how it was put together, more like a pop than a jazz record, in layers. Chris Abelen recorded it mostly at his home studio, one instrument at a time. That decision was partly quixotic (it allows for “music minus one” play-along versions), partly economic (“If I had to pay for the time spent mixing and editing this album I could have bought a small car”), and partly practicality, convenience, and psychology. “In a studio there is always a kind of pressure to play a solo in one or two takes—and to tell everyone you only needed one. Needing more is regarded as amateuristic. But if we had to record more takes to get a satisfying solo, no problem.” Everyone can relax and focus, and be ready for their moment.

The proof’s in the final report. The players don’t sound like they’re watching the clock, waiting for work to be over. They sound psyched, rested and ready. Putting this music together, Chris Abelen struck a blow for worker comfort, efficiency, and effective time management.

–Kevin Whitehead (july 2016)