S J Denney- High Flying Birds
S J Denney is a UK-based singer and songwriter who centres his work around alternative folk-rock. He started his journey as a Church Boy who played the Clarinet. S J naturally gravitated toward Rock music, which significantly influence his work. You can see how much he values the classic with his Elton John-like texture in High Flying Birds S J Denney’s latest release- High Flying Birds follows Wishful Thinking, another single. S J plays with perspective remarkably well in his music. We see this In High Flying Birds too, from the perspective of melody, it feels jolly. Especially with the way the song blooms in the beginning with the strings, the tangerine and the piano. The instruments' tone, the gospel-like layering, and the choir cushion you into safety. But with soul-touching lyrics such as“I don’t need your sympathy. it just reminds me that I’m all alone in a world of my own.” it leaves you lonely. He related more to birds than humans. The way the orchestra engulf’s you with its beauty is like a wave welcomed in an ocean. This quality truly sets it apart. Into The Wild by Sean Penn is a masterpiece of a film. With the film’s aesthetically detailed camera work and cinematography, it has you hooked from the start. The film centres around a young man who gives up everything to hitch-hike to Alaska alone. The entire film consists of him helping himself and others to figure things out about life. High Flying Birds’ quality of yearning makes it custom-made for the film. You can imagine the song play as he sits and drives an immovable trailer. S J Denney does a beautiful job of neatly wrapping up a complex piece of art to be devoured by an audience, leaving you wanting more. You must follow him on his socials to see other such genius songwriting.
Ben Laver - One
Composer Ben Laver invites you on a captivating stroll down a melodic contemporary pathway amongst the stars in One. His latest release is a track that showcases his musical range. Ben effortlessly weaves notes and pulls you into his world. The track feels like a warm embrace on a cold morning, giving us a serendipitous moment. Ben bubbles with a starry energy that draws you in immediately. We patiently wait with the piano that has us holding our breath until the synth kicks in. This is the moment he captures your heart. Ben wordlessly paints such a vivid picture of hope and excitement with just music. The instrumentals in this track is nothing short of enchanting with its intricate nuances. I wonder why he named it One, I’d like to think that it is because we take in this song, one moment at a time. Specifically because of the way the song progresses, evoking a range of emotions. There is an indescribable chord that is struck within us as the song plays. Showing us the true power of music. A play that was filmed during the pandemic, was Romeo and Juliet. What sets this National Theatre Live production apart is a star-studded cast- Jessie Buckley, Josh O’Connor and Tamsin Greig. I cannot tell you how wonderful One would be in this particular iteration of Romeo and Juliet. Ben much like Jessie Buckley has a way of reaching through the barrier of your skin and into your soul and have it impact you wordlessly and you can’t help but allow them to take over. Ben Laver is a gentle powerhouse, you can check out his work in the links attached below.
Alan Dweck - Lockdown Song
Alan Dweck masterfully weaves soul and jazz seamlessly, creating a musical tapestry that’s both comforting and spirited in Lockdown Song. He captures the lockdown experience with emotive melodies and heartfelt lyrics. Dweck fills the song to the brim with texture and fizzles in and out almost teasing you with bubbling sounds. His smooth vocals glide effortlessly over jazz-infused instrumentals, evoking a sense of nostalgia. The lyrics share feelings of longing, love and wanting to be set free. That connection during uncertain times is filled with a truckload of information and feelings and this song encapsulates that perfectly. You can feel this song lull the crowd to silence in a crowded bar as this song spreads the warm feeling between people. A Comedy film that successfully makes you feel emotional as well is The Longest Yard. Lockdown Song would be perfect for the emotional parts of the film. You can savour every note if you hit the play button and check out the links attached above to know what’s next for Alan Dweck.
Kelly Phoenix - Move On Up
*WARNING* addictive song up ahead, the accused being Kelly Phoenix with his latest sweet crime- Move On Up. Phoenix truly knows how to mix things up and mix he does with this alt-rock-jazz number. His vocals and instrumentals dazzle and make their talent known, up until the very end. Phoenix sets the mood with the thumping beats that fill the room with haze, ready for Phoenix to enter the stage. And Phoenix pulls up with the most “cool as a cucumber” aura. He injects the room with energy as the guitar has the room soaring to new heights. The track would be perfect in This Means War. The playfulness in the song can make the rom-com drama, that much more delicious for the viewers. So sit back and buckle up while Kelly Phoenix takes you into a techni-coloured wonderland. You must check out the links attached above and give him and his work the attention they so rightfully deserve.
Moon and Aries - Traffic
Traffic by Moon and Aries is just what you need to calm you down in traffic. This soul synth hits the right nerves that need a little calming. They have the power to make you forget the busy world and transport you to a whole new world of their own. The Duo have created a creative masterpiece yet again and it grabs your attention like nothing you’ve ever heard before. We hear so many different elements that embellish and give that eccentric touch to the track. Moon and Aries are no strangers to the world of perfection with their Jazz Saxophone, vocals and production heavy lifting. Have I mentioned to you that the song is spaced and crafted to perfection? The track is unlike anything I’ve heard before from their work. I truly believe that this song would be so cute in Clueless. The pulsating bears and intricate synth melodies add many layers of texture to the track. You can find this and more on their links attached above.
Gunnar Ingi Guðmundsson - Eyðibýli
There is not a moment in the album where Gunnar Ingi Guðmundsson loses you in Eyðibýli and he does this wordlessly. He swifts into his world with his charm and grace that engulfs you into a painting where he shepherds you through a range of emotions. Listening to this album has you up in the clouds- sometimes it is jolly and you feel the gentleness of the cotton candy clouds around you and sometimes it is a thunderstorm that engulfs you with every note. Every note has been thought of and held with care as he places pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to give us this beautiful sonic journey. Eyðibýli (Main Theme) by Gunnar Ingi Guðmundsson This particular track hits you right in your heart and settles in your stomach. You can hear every note bounce off the walls, the production on this and every other track, to be honest, is immaculate and crisp. You hear the years of mastering that Gunnar has spent time on in this track. Ástfangin hjón Ástfangin hjón feels like the first breath of relief that leaves your body after a stressful situation. The piano matched with the strings. The track feels like the trickling of a stream that calms your body. It is hope in musical form. There is a grandness to each track but the fact that has a soft quality to it adds so much sophistication to it Reimleikar From then on we better buckle up because things are going to get intense. We move through a variety of emotions. He cranks things up several notches from Síðasti ábúandinn where we experience a sense of sorrow. From here on there are varied levels of suspense that build into varied intense emotions. Every instrument plays a vital role in amping up the textures of drama in each track. Before you know it we hit track ten Reimleikar. There is an unsettling feeling that this last track leaves you with. It’s like the end of a film that leaves you with a cliffhanger instead of a resolution. The perfect film, or TV Series rather, that can house such grandeur of an album is Game of Thrones. This is apart from the last three seasons of the TV series. Every frame is shot with great intent much like every note on this album. That being said, Gunnar Ingi Guðmundsson has you sitting at the edge of your seat and salivating at the mouth for the next song. He leaves you with a hunger for more. Artists like this are a rare gem, who the cinematic value of every pause or the sound of a bow striking the violin. This sense of carefully crafted rawness is very rare to come by. So follow the links attached above and make way and recognize brilliance when you see it.
Kepa Lehtinen - Suru
Music makes you the perfect traveler, with the help of a button, you can surround yourself with water. Kepa Lehtinen gives a new meaning to swift and fluid with his latest release- Suru. It’s fantastic, the imagery and feeling that a piece of music leaves behind in your body. Everything about this track is painfully beautiful. The track is wordless and yet it says so much. We begin soft and smooth with the piano. It is as if the moon has just risen and welcomes the gentle ache within our souls. The bass from the theremin adds a whole lot of depth to the track. There is a connection that the song establishes with the listeners right from the start. So much so that it feels more and more like a personal rendition as the song progresses. Words might not be enough to convey how moving the track is, it is as though the keys and the strings have become wrap themselves around the listener's diaphragm and have full control of your breath. The production on the track is nothing but perfect, every note is held for just the right amount of time is a testament to their craftsmanship. A series that has dedicated the same level of craftsmanship in every aspect is The Haunting of Bly Manor. The Haunting Of Hill House series is one of the perfect horror dramas out there. Suru would be incredibly wonderful in the second season as the whole season revolves around love, longing and letting go. Kepa Lehtinen has weaved this beautiful tapestry of sonic beats that it both warms us and leaves us with a sense of void. I urge you to listen to this and follow the links above to give more of his work a good listen.
Mia Giovina - Without A Note
To hear an array of sounds in a world that is drowning at the moment feels like the perfect antidote we need and Mia Giovina gives us exactly that. Her new album Without A Note is the giving tree that does not stop giving. The album consists of 5 songs that will knock at your heart’s door in all earnestness. Mia is a gifted melody craftsman who has given us the perfect album to ease into. She has embellished the track with different textures that add a whole lot of dimensions to the album. A walk with Mia Giovina to Deathbed Deathbed begins like a gloomy choir on a rainy day with a guitar pushing the song forward. The track is gradually propelled forward with Mia’s voice. She delicately sings of heartbreak. The track is everything we need to be gracefully angry at ourselves for giving an undeserving person a chance. We’ve all been there. The album opens with a bang where the lyrics clearly make you taste the acid she feels for this past relationship. Losing time This is followed by Losing Time and we are back to feeling the fear but rather a fear that radiates from within. Losing Time is a track that is dedicated Mia’s younger self. The track really touches upon some of the most ancient and insecure nerves in our bodies that need so much love. In this track, she sings of loving while also competing with our past selves. We sit with so much comparison as it is and we don’t realise how much of ourselves tries to live with our past, past lovers, past bodies, past homes, friendships, everything. Not realising how much of our present and future selves we lose by committing this act. Without a Note We finally hear Beckett’s gun go off with Without A Note. The album is already embellished with a whole new variety of gentle- heartbreak- sway. All this while it remains soft on the ear. The track has a slight spiralling quality to it with the way the background music swells and dips, adding to the tension. Mia manages to hold onto and build on this tension. With such a well-crafted heartbreak track, it would work incredibly well in Sex Education. Particularly when Ruby says “I Love You” to Otis. I have never wanted to punch anyone as hard as I wanted to punch Otis at that very moment. Ruby deserved and deserves so much more! When we look at this album, we know that Mia Giovina has given us the perfect break-up album to sing our hearts out to. Mia has all our hearts in a jar already. This fresh release deserves so much more attention so go, don’t be shy. Click on the links attached above and enter a forest with gentle streams of heartbreak!
Jakob The Liar - Vi@gr@ Falls & P!$$ Graffiti
Vi@gr@ Falls & P!$$ Graffiti is a big stick it to the regime kind of song by Jakob The Liar. The track is a water slide that, twists and turns, taking you on a a whirlwind ride. Vi@gr@ Falls & P!$$ Graffiti is unlike any song out there by any standards. Jakob knows what he is doing by giving us fresh textures to experience and get lost within. Jakob has created a track for us to immerse ourselves in, it is honestly a meditative journey. It is a treat as we allow ourselves to get carried away in this whirlwind of a track. It takes us swishing in its ocean of sounds. The track cannot be trapped within one genre. He has given us a punk-rock-rap mixture. The sound section in the song feels like pieces taken from different puzzle sets. Yet, it goes together perfectly well. He evokes a plethora of images and colours as we allow our imagination to dive into his soundscape. The track belongs in an iconic yet mundane and elevated reality film, a film like Birdman. This cult classic is one of the few films that has the wingspan to carry a masterpiece such as this single. Jakob The Liar is a name to watch out for and trust me, you would want to follow the links attached above. Especially because you will be screaming his lyrics out loud in the coming years. Watch out for this rising star as i have no doubt that he will be making waves in the Indie music scene.
Amy van Keeken - Wave At Me
Wave At Me by Amy van Keeken comes at you like Newton’s apple, with a whole lot of gravity that might change the course of knowledge. There is a brilliance to the production process that Keeken brings to her music. As listeners, you feel a sense of intense calmness owed to the minimalist texture in her music. Keeken gives us a zinger of an album that blows our minds with a palette full of flavors and depth that will blow your mind. She brings an 80’s pop meets modern-day experimental sensibilities to the table that gives us fresh energy to hold onto as listeners. Amy Van Keeken says Wave At Me The first track of the album is the reason for the album itself. She doesn’t beat around the bush. Keeken comes at us with intense music and a voice that sounds like Christmas on the shores. Much like the waves her voice ebbs and flows and comes at you one after the other through her layering. Much like the rest of her album, she has kept it simple- it’s her and her guitar with a few other instrumental chimes here and there. But all you need is this much to give the listeners goosebumps. We Cried On The Phone We see her layering the song with more than just instruments and her own voice in We Cried On The Phone. She uses soft nature sounds and she uses it with such technique to create depth through this layering. She uses this depth to bounce off her voice. The track feels like the gushing of a waterfall amid a forest but in slow motion. It also feels like the last goodbye in a relationship when you are left to process everything alone. Follow Me We have Follow Me after She Don’t Cry About Time. I truly believe this is one of her more special songs in the album. You hear the birds and the day goes by as she sings in the foreground of this perfect backdrop. The sound of her voice is truly ethereal in this song. To end with this song also feels like we are ending with a note of hope. Keeken gives us early morning dew drops on rich green blades of grass in the form of a song in Follow Me. Initially when I heard the first set of songs in the album I truly believed that it would be perfect in Lone Ranger but later I felt like it would also be perfect in Penelope. Both films are brilliant in their forms of storytelling. This also tells us how versatile of a writer Amy van Keeken is. You can see for yourself what I’m talking about if you click on the links above. She is a unique singer and a trial blazer of a writer. Very few singers and songwriters possess the grace with which she writes her powerful songs.
Archie Ray - End Of The Line
There is nothing more joyous than having the sky opening up and having a gift of song by Archie Ray plop straight onto your lap. End Of The Line is almost like a mature version of what the music scene was like in the mid to late 2010s. I would describe this song to be the perfect rainbow in the sky. It makes you want to jump, celebrate and thank the universe for the gift of all sorts of relationships. Archie honestly has a pulse of what the people need in this day and age. The track is up and bubbly through and through not in an annoying way but more so in an engaging way. While the energy of the song is up and high throughout, there is enough and more variation. This is because of the vocals of course but I would like to take a moment and thank the backing music composer. This song is well-stitched, what I mean is, that the production sensibilities of this song are spot-on. When you hear this song, you feel the youth ooze out of the song and it is only fair to through a little bit more texture in there and say Sky High. In fact, this song is so universal that you can envision this song playing during the credits of a rom-com, comedy or even a film about friendship. We are the passengers as Archie Ray drives us into the future where he has the Indie music in the palm of his hands.
Vanilla Franco - Traction
You better make way for Vanilla Franco, you can smell his brilliant bars from a mile away, especially with his latest release Traction. Vanilla mostly centers his music around Rock and a lot of major influences shine through, especially in this album. His influences include Tame Impala, Mac De Marco and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. There is also a hint of My Chemical Romance in there if I’m not mistaken. This album- Traction lives up to the name, each song has influences and a life of its own. The album consists of 9 songs and you can see that it was Vanilla’s labor of love. The detailing on each song- chef’s kiss. Vanilla Franco is Building Pressure The album begins with Building Pressure. You know Vanilla Franco means business when you listen to this opening number. Each note is crisp, and the balance between sung notes and said notes is impeccable. The same can be said for most songs on this album as they follow a similar pattern. He makes a strong entrance with a strong drum calling his entrance. Right when you think the instrumentals are overpowering the song, it takes a step back and allows Vanilla’s voice to shine through. Invisible Boys Invisible Boys somehow breaks this pattern of pure rock and brings in the influences of synth. It is also one of the songs where the instrumentals are as strong as the vocals. The quality of the high hats rings in your ear in the best way possible. Each song has a life of its own, especially Monkey On A Mission. The track is more pop than any of the songs on the album. This might be because of the guitar on the song, it’s as prominent as the drums. James Bond Vanilla Franco sure has an interesting mind, every name (of songs) on this album is attention-drawing. Leaving us with images and our imagination doing its work, we make up a personality for the song even before we hit the play button. And we aren’t mistaken to a large extent, when you hear James Bond you feel a strange sense of euphoria and drive. Almost as though you can do anything. The beat structure of this song seems a lot more meticulous as well. The strings take the foreground here, unlike the rest of the songs on the album. Every note in this album will be seared into your memory by the time you hit the pause button. Much like Monkey Man, although the film is out for barely a week, it has made quite the noise at the box office. The energy of Traction matched the energy of Monkey Man and deserves to be on its playlist. Follow the links attached above and allow Vanilla Franco to make a note in the neural pathway of your brain.