7th Level Music

Aaron Frazer releases “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It)” from album due January 08, 2021.

Aaron Frazer (of Durand Jones & The Indications) releases new single, “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It),” from his Dan Auerbach-produced debut album, Introducing…, out January 8th on Dead Oceans/Easy Eye Sound. Following previous singles “Over You” and “Bad News,” “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It)” cheerfully skips with piano, wurlitzer, plucking bass, and a blend of brass instruments – trumpet, saxophone, and trombone.

Frazer elaborates on the song’s origins:

“I was at the DMV in Sacramento and above the commercial vehicles desk I noticed a wall full of toy trucks, and at the top a teamsters slogan from the 1950s: ‘IF YOU GOT IT, A TRUCK BROUGHT IT.’ I thought, damn that’s a hot line. Jotted it down, and when I brought it up with Dan, the song felt like it was writing itself. It’s a song of gratitude for who/whatever it is in your life that brings you happiness, grounding and self improvement.”

Listen To “If I Got It (Your Love Brought It)” by Aaron Frazer

A testament to his wide-ranging influence and deep gratitude for his musical community, Introducing… is both loving and gracious, critical without losing hope, and a showcase of a young artist on a seriously soulful ascent. Working with producer Dan Auerbach (of The Black Keys), Frazer works to combine ‘70s soul with Auerbach’s particular sensibilities. Across Introducing…‘s 12 tracks are songs with a message in the key of Gil Scott-Heron, as well as uplifting tales of love told through a blend of disco, gospel, and doo-wop.

Introducing… was recorded in a week at Auerbach’s antique and ephemera-laden studio in Nashville following a rapid and prolific songwriting session. Auerbach called on a crew of heavy session players — including members of the Memphis Boys (who played on Dusty Springfield’s “Son of A Preacher Man” and Aretha Franklin’s “You Make Me Feel Like A Natural Woman”), symphony percussionist Sam Bacco, and members of the Daptone–Big Crown Records universe. With a collaborative vision, Introducing… manages to hit the sweet spot between intuition, intentionality, and craft – a love song that’s both personal and universal.

Watch Video for Aaron Frazer’s “Over You”

Watch Video for Aaron Frazer’s “Bad News”

Pre-order Introducing…

Keep your mind open.

[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Brijean encourage us to start “Day Dreaming” with lush single from new album due this February.

Brijean – the Oakland-based duo of Brijean Murphy and Doug Stuart – announces their new album, Feelings, out February 26th on Ghostly International, and shares the lead single/video, “Day Dreaming.” The forthcoming album and lead track draw on Murphy’s experience growing up in a family immersed in jazz, Latin, and soul music, and arrive after working extensively within Oakland’s diverse music scene and as one of indie’s most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls). In 2018, she began recording songs with multi-instrumentalist and producer Doug Stuart, who shares a background in jazz and pop in bands such as Dougie Stu, Bells Atlas, Meernaa, and Luke Temple.

Album opener “Day Dreaming” is a dynamic celebration of newness: the excitement in finding deeper understandings of yourself as you get to know someone, something, or somewhere new. The track is guided by a lush mix of charismatic keyboard chords, grooving bass lines, and radiant conga-driven rhythms. Produced by Stuart with vocals and percussion by Murphy, the track also includes Chaz Bear who engineered and played keyboard. The accompanying video was shot on an iPhone in Los Angeles by Murphy and Stuart and then transformed by flatspot ___• into an immersive and psychedelic world.

Brijean states, “We had been wanting to work with flatspot ___• for a long time – both circling around each other at shows, collectives, and studios for years and finally got to collaborate on this project. His work with Smart Bomb has been a visual anchor and inspiration for Oakland creatives.”

flatspot ___• adds, “I try to leave space in the editing process for the unexpected. It is essential for me, when using analog gear and video feedback, to allow the eccentricities of the electronics to bring out new character. I send the footage through the wires and circuits and experiment with different settings until the desired outcome reveals itself. What is revealed to me by the old gear is just as important, if not more than any plan I may have made.”

Following the duo’s first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie (released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), Brijean continued collaborating in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal, who all would end up contributing to the album. “We improvised on different feels for hours,” says Murphy. “Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage.”

The leap from 2019’s Walkie Talkie to Feelings is marked by a notable expanse in range and energy. Brijean’s signature sound — a golden-hued dream pop tropicalia of dazzling beats and honeyed vocals — elevates with the addition of live drummers, strings, and synths. The album also finds Murphy fully trusting in her strengths, not just as a percussionist, but as a songwriter and collaborator. “Valuing myself as elemental instead of an ‘aux’ percussionist, and the undoubted support and talents of Doug, encouraged me to both make this project and collaborate with many different people.”

Brijean wants you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they’ve manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities. The album cultivates a specific vibe, a softness Murphy has come to call “romancing the psyche.” In nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, Feelings simply want us to feel alive. The songs radiate in wonderful abandon and with a sense of devotion to the self.

Watch “Day Dreaming” Video:
https://youtu.be/sYBOFnwD_a8

Pre-order Feelings:
https://ghostly.ffm.to/brijean-feelings

Keep your mind open.

[I daydream of you subscribing.]

[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Rewind Review: Com Truise – Silicon Tare (2016)

Com Truise‘s 2016 EP Silicon Tare packs more synthwave goodness into its five tracks than most full-length synthwave albums from other artists.

“Sunspot” starts with a horror movie synth-stab and then the wicked beat drops in and you’re strolling down the 16-bit video game road much like the person depicted on the EP’s cover. “Forgive,” with its snappy beats, dance floor synths, and fuzzed bass, is Harold Faltermeyer‘s “Axel F” if “Axel F” was a champion kickboxer / ninja / international spy instead of a street-smart Detroit cop transplanted to Beverly Hills.

“Diffraction” bounces and blips and bumps like something in a futuristic disco. It’s a delight. Truise layers beats upon beats and also knows when to pull out some of those layers at the right times to keep your mind and hips moving without getting overloaded. The title track is music to bump from your Blade Runner Spinner as it cruises down a Chinatown street or over high-rise buildings full of people who might be more human than human. “du Zirconia” closes the album with electronic chops that could double as video game rifle fire sounds, synths that chirp like robotic birds, and bass that softly hums like a well-tuned speeder bike engine.

Silicon Tare is one of those EP’s that is over far too soon. You will want this to be a full album, even a double album, but Com Truise has plenty of material out there from before and after this (including a new record, In Decay, Too, coming out in December). Don’t hesitate to check out his catalogue.

Keep your mind open.

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Clutch release new version of “Passive Restraints” with guest co-vocals from Lamb of God’s Randy Blythe.

Clutch has released its new single “Passive Restraints” today. “Passive Restraints” originally appeared as the title track to the bands 2nd EP released in 1992. This newly recorded version is part of the Weathermaker Vault Series and features guest vocals by Randy Blythe from Lamb of God. Clutch and Blythe have collaborated on this track live for several years now, the last time at European festival appearances in the summer of 2019. The song can be streamed on Spotify at this location: https://orcd.co/passiverestraints and on the band’s official YouTube Channel: https://tinyurl.com/yy2575t7

The official video for the song was directed by David Brodsky (The Black Dahlia Murder, Papa Roach).

“Passive Restraints’ was one of the first Clutch songs I wrote lyrics to,” states frontman Neil Fallon. “It was a staple of Clutch sets for years but fell by the wayside as we wrote more and more songs over the years. When we toured with Lamb of God a few years back, Randy would often ask us to bring it back into rotation. We dragged our feet, and finally, we caved. And we were glad we did. The last time Clutch played Copenhell, Randy joined us on stage to perform the song. We decided to re-record it for the WM Vault Series and thought it was only fitting to have Randy join us.”

“When Clutch asked if I wanted to sing an older song with them during our 2016 tour together, I knew immediately which one I wanted to do- ‘Passive Restraints‘ adds Blythe. “We performed it in Milwaukee, then again a few years later at Copenhell Fest in Denmark, and I had a blast both times. I think they were a bit surprised I chose a song released in 1992, but I’ve been a fan for a long time. I’ve followed their development as a band since the early days and have enjoyed every album, but as a musician, I know sometimes it’s fun to dust off something you haven’t played in many years and see how it sounds. The song holds up to this day, and I was honored to sing on its re-release.”

The single “Passive Restraints” comes from the upcoming album “WeatherMaker Vault Series Vol. I” out on Friday November 27th.

CLUTCH:Neil Fallon – Vocals/Guitar / Tim Sult – Guitar / Dan Maines – Bass/ Jean-Paul Gaster – Drums/Percussion

For more information, check out the band’s website:www.pro-rock.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/clutchband

Instagram: www.instagram.com/clutchofficial

Twitter: www.twitter.com/clutchofficial

Official: www.pro-rock.com

YouTube: www.youtube.com/user/officialclutch

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Doug at New Ocean Media.]

Review: Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas – III

The third album from Norwegian electro-music duo Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, appropriately titled III, is a beautiful album of lush sonic landscapes and uplifting grooves just in time (here in the northern hemisphere, at least) for dark and cold weather to come…and to give you a break from any self-isolation doldrums you might be having.

There’s a sense of fun right out of the gate by naming the album’s opening track “Grand Finale.” It leaps out of your speakers with bright, 1980s synths like UFO lights through dark clouds. “Martin 5000” was the lead track from III and I like the way it builds, seemingly in the background of everything around you, until it strolls alongside you like a super cool panther along a jungle path.

The bass line in “Small Stream” seems to have a bit of an Afrobeat sound to it, and the jazz piano mixes quite well throughout it. “Oranges” is spacey acid-lounge suitable for chillin’ or making out. “Harmonia” might be the lushest track on the album. It’s like something you’d hear in the coffee house on the mothership from close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the DJ there was Mowgli from The Jungle Book. “Birdstrik” closes the record with a thudding, sexy heartbeat rhythm and even sexier synth-bass to send us off with a relaxed afterglow.

III is one of those cool mood-altering electronic albums that is suitable for so many places, times, and situations that you’ll find yourself floating back to it again and again.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: October and the Eyes – Dogs and Gods

New Zealand’s October and the Eyes is a one-woman show. Perhaps the Eyes mentioned in her “band’s” name are the eyes of the world, or the Creator, or Big Brother. I don’t know the answer, but that’s okay. Sometimes the mystery is more intriguing than the answer itself, and “intriguing” is a good way to describe October’s Dogs and Gods EP. She calls her music “collage rock,” meaning she blends influences ranging from krautrock to house music to dub and garage punk. It all works, and the fact that all this sound is produced by one person is damn impressive.

Opening track “Playing God,” for instance starts off with industrial beats and guitars and soon blows your speakers onto their backs with psychedelic reverb-laden vocals reminiscent of Siouxsie Sioux emerging from a dark cave. “All My Love,” a tale of love and lust, is a gothic shoegaze masterpiece with sexy robot beats and synth-bloops doing a striptease alongside October’s vocals that sound like she’s singing through an FM radio dug up in a post-apocalyptic junkyard that can somehow access broadcasts from the early 1980s.

“Wander Girl” continues the goth-synth vibe with Dum Dum Girls and, I’ll say it, Cyndi Lauper-like vocal stylings. “I’ve only been waiting my whole life for you,” October sings on the peppy “You Deserve It” – a song that seems aimed at herself and her potential lover at the same time. “The Unraveling” is a flat-out shoegaze rocker designed to rattle your home walls or the roof of your car. The closing track, “Dark Dog,” is dreamy synth-wave that has a slightly creepy feel to it as October sings about a man best left alone.

This is one of the coolest-sounding (and sexiest) EPs I’ve heard all year. I hope we hear more soon.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Partner – Never Give Up

I don’t know if there’s an award for Most Fitting Album Title of 2020, but Partner‘s new album, Never Give Up, might win it if there is. It seems that everyone has shouting this for the entire year. Everyone is fighting a battle. This has been true throughout all time, of course, but internal and external battles seem, and often are, magnified in this year no one will be sad to see leave.

Thanks heavens we have bands like Partner (Josée Caron, Lucy Niles, Simone TB) to recharge our batteries with massive riffs and songs about sex, rock and roll, and being comfortable in your own skin.

I love that they open Never Give Up with an introduction song – “Hello and Welcome,” which has Caron and Niles sharing vocals about how happy they are to be rocking off our collective socks. The breakdown on it is like stomping the gas pedal on a 1970 Plymouth Road Runner. “We’re Partner…We’re not foolin’ around,” Caron sings. Those riffs certainly aren’t. “Rock Is My Rock” is full of power chords and hand percussion s Caron and Niles sing about how rock and roll not only keeps them afloat through hard times, but how it can shake us out of the funk this crazy year has dropped on the world like an oppressive net. “I wouldn’t want to imagine a world without rock,” Niles sings. Who can argue with that?

Caron’s vocals take on a bluesy swagger on “The Pit,” a song about letting go of anything holding you down. “Honey,” a song about Caron’s guitar is, appropriately, full of big guitar riffs. “This guitar sounds like honey going down,” they sing, and they’re right. It does. “Big Gay Hands,” a favorite in their live sets, is a strutting, sweaty, sexy track about hotties and the hotties who love them.

“Good Place to Hide (at the Time)” reminds me a bit of Rush, who are known influences on Partner, with its echoing vocals, switching time signatures, and space-rock riffs. “Roller Coasters (Life Is One)” is a piano-first rock opera ballad about navigating through the madness of 2020 and the world in general. “At the heart of each day lies a brand new, scary, sweet surprise,” Caron sings.

“I couldn’t remember my postal code if I tried,” Partner sing on “Couldn’t Forget” – a peppy song about memory and self-deception with some country twang for good measure. Simone TB’s drum lick on “Here I Am World” is slick, reminding me a bit of the opening beats on Blondie‘s “Rapture.” Caron sings about grabbing “each scrap of joy” and Niles reminds us that “each day is a precious gift.” It sums up the theme of the album, and the best way to get through this nutty year, quite well. The record closes with the chugging, powerful “Crocodiles,” in which Partner warn us that many beasts (often ones self-created) lie in wait around us to catch us up in their maws if we let them.

Never Give Up is the metaphorical shot in the arm we all need right now and easily one of the most uplifting albums of the year.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Mar Sellers.]

Badge Époque Ensemble release “Just Space for Light” ahead of upcoming album.

Toronto’s Badge Époque Ensemble present a new single, “Just Space For Light” (feat. Jennifer Castle), from their forthcoming album, Self Help, out November 20th on Telephone Explosion Records. “Just Space For Light” follows “Unity (It’s Up To You),” which was presented alongside an incredibly ambitious claymation video, and lead single “Sing A Silent Gospel.” With each new single, which has featured a new guest vocalist (beginning with Meg Remy and Dorothea Paas, then R&B soul artist James Baley and now Castle), Badge Époque Ensemble show more of how their sound and style can evolve into something wholly unexpected. On its onset, “Just Space For Light” is blissfully soothing, drifting with rhodes by bandleader Maximilian Turnbull, flute by Alia O’Brien, percussion by Ed Squires, and Castle’s affecting vocals. As the song approaches its peak, it transforms into a flurry of fragmented guitar and progressive instrumentation.

“’Just Space For Light’ weaves a few BÉE themes together,” says Turnbull. “The collision of disparate moods between sections, lyrics which touch on the meditative experience, and collaboration with a distinctive vocalist; in this case Jennifer Castle, who’s soulful presence on our album is a blessing.”

Listen to Badge Époque Ensemble’s “Just Space For Light” (feat. Jennifer Castle)

Recorded live over three weekends at Toronto’s Palace Sound Studio in the months before lockdown, Self Help is an exploratory record that dances across time and genre, guided by fidgety miniatures and jazz inflected collage. While constructed from the inspiration of soul, funk and film music, BÉE mediate those influences having first digested them through the productions of Madlib and the RZA.

“Unity (It’s Up To You)” (feat. James Baley) Video

“Sing A Silent Gospel” (feat. Meg Remy and Dorothea Paas) Visualizer

Pre-order Self-Help

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you go.]

[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Affect Display – Animal Drift Animal

Animal Drift Animal, the first album from Affect Display (AKA Damien Smith), is a lush sonic soundscape that sounds not unlike what you’d hear while dreaming of electric sheep.

Lead single “Until the Light Hits the Door” starts off sounding like something you might hear in the score of a modern psychological thriller but then transforms into slightly goth, slightly ambient trance music. “Flight or Fury” pulses like an alien menace on a haunted moon, blending Ennio Morricone and Vangelis influences.

The subtle sonics of”Transference” are suitable for meditation, your morning tea, making out, or taxiing down the runway on your flight to wherever you’re going to quarantine for two weeks. “Dauen” is full of bright synths, strange samples, and beats that sound like they were recorded in an empty Olympic pool (and I mean that in the best way).

“Flock” builds around a drone that could be some kind of machine Smith recorded in the field for ambient sound. Stuttering drum beats stumble around a swelling guitar line and Smith’s robot overlord vocals. “Red Blue In-Between” starts off with psychedelic guitar (!) and then becomes something like an instrumental Sisters of Mercy song with its fierce drumming and slithering synths. The closing track, “Floating Pictures,” has touches of synthwave, city pop, and ambience for a nice finish.

It’s a lovely record and one that is suitable for so many different situations that it’s impossible to list them all. Let’s hope Smith keeps up these sonic explorations and unearths more treasures for us.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Pirates Blend Press.]

CHAI release cover of Mariya Takeuchi’s “Plastic Love.”

Today, Japanese quartet CHAI are excited to share the official video for “Plastic Love,” their cover of Mariya Takeuchi’s 1984 city pop standard, which recently saw a resurgence of its own in 2018. “Plastic Love” stars the group as “tour guides” of their beloved Tokyo, taking you through the city’s many districts in this exuberant visual. CHAI says: “THIS IS TOKYO! Everyone has their own perception of Tokyo, but many, at times, would say it can be sort of gloomy, sort of dark. With our version of ‘Plastic Love,’ we wanted to show you what Tokyo looks like from our point of view. From Asakusa, to crepes in Harajuku, to the skyrise buildings and Tokyo Tower, to long night-time drives in Shibuya…we welcome you to our version of Tokyo! You also notice how we’re all wearing white? That’s because we are going to disrupt the gloomy Tokyo! We are the brightness amongst the darkness and we’ve come to illuminate! Just like Mariya Takeuchi did with this song in the 80’s, we’ve come to do this again with our version today!”

WATCH CHAI’S VIDEO FOR “PLASTIC LOVE”

STREAM “PLASTIC LOVE”

CHAI’s interpretation of the international cult hit is from their double A-side single, “Donuts Mind If I Do”/”Plastic Love,” out now on Sub Pop. “Donuts Mind If I Do”/“Plastic Love” double A-side single is available as a limited edition 7,” which is available to purchase now from Bandcamp (on orange or turquoise colored vinyl), and Sub Pop Mega Mart (on lime green vinyl). All three options while supplies last. The “Donuts Mind If I Do”/“Plastic Love” 7” single will be available worldwide (excl. Japan and Asia) with an estimated ship date in late November.

CHAI is a revolutionary four-piece, made up of miracle twins Mana and Kana, and the impeccable rhythm section of Yuuki and Yuna. Combining their powerhouse musical prowess with “pinkish punk” sensibilities, CHAI has managed to create a huge splash in the music scene in their homeland, Japan, and abroad. Now ready to build on their infectious sound and musical accolades, CHAI is gearing up with their new label to release even more new music into the world.
WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “DONUTS MIND IF I DO”

PURCHASE “DONUTS MIND IF I DO”/“PLASTIC LOVE” 7”

CHAI Online:
http://chai-band.com/
https://twitter.com/CHAIofficialJPN
https://www.instagram.com/chaiofficialjpn/
https://www.facebook.com/CHAIofficialJPN/

Keep your mind open.

[Don’t forget to subscribe before you split.]

[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]