News – Page 70 – 7th Level Music

Sam Evian announces new album, “Time to Melt,” and brings us a new single – “Knock Knock.”

Today, Sam Evian announces his new album, Time to Melt, out October 29th on Fat Possum, and presents a new single/video, “Knock Knock.” Additionally, he announces a fall 2021 Northeast tour. Following a brief decampment to upstate New York to create his last album, You, Forever, Sam realized he could no longer resist the urge to escape the anxious city life. He and his partner, Hannah Cohen, split, building their refuge and Sam’s studio, Flying Cloud Recordings, in the quiet of a Catskills town. That reflective, relaxing environment inexorably shaped Time to Melt, a glowing set of soulfully psychedelic pop gems and a testimonial to the life and wisdom to be found when you give yourself the mercy of space.

During the last decade, Sam has become a preeminent collaborator, producing and engineering records for the likes of Big Thief, Cass McCombs, Cassandra Jenkins and Widowspeak. In their new home, he and Hannah hosted bands like house guests as he helmed their sessions. The coronavirus, though, clamped down on those interactions, largely sealing the couple from their longtime scene. So Sam tried something new: He sorted through more than 60 instrumental demos he’d recorded in the last two years and began shaping the most enticing of them into songs with help from Hannah and long-distance friends—Spencer Tweedy, Chris Bear, Jon Natchez (The War On Drugs), even strangers who sent him voice memos via Instagram. He took the unexpected time at home to dig deeper than ever before into his world of sounds and ideas, calmly considering our moment of prevailing chaos through a lens of newfound distance.

Time to Melt reckons with the weight of our time, even when it sounds largely weightless. New single “Knock Knock” taps Sam’s memories of race-and-class violence in the small-town South where he was raised and his subsequent reckoning with our crumbling American façade. The track, finished in June of 2020 as protests unfolded across the country, is a tribute to the perseverance of the vulnerable, who find community and joy in spite of the way centuries of miscreants try to deny it. “’Knock Knock’ is a song of commiseration,” says Sam. “It’s a conversation with my sibling, and really anyone else with a conscience. We talk a lot about the small town in Eastern North Carolina where we grew up, and why we left. Growing up we saw a lot of racism, violence, poverty, disparity, ignorance…all of it not so hidden under a veil of southern hospitality and dogmatic beliefs. A year later after George Floyd’s murder, I hope we can keep the conversation going. The veil is lifted for all to see. Knock knock – who’s there? A broken America.”

The song’s cinematic, light-hearted video, created by Josh Goleman and filmed in the almost completely abandoned town of Meltsville, New York, brings the Time To Melt album art to life.

Watch Sam Evian’s “Knock Knock” Video

Time to Melt is an album of sounds so pleasant and compelling that you put it on and follow the slipstream. There are songs of celebration on Time to Melt, paeans to whatever joy it is we find in life or love, such as the previously released “Easy to Love,” an ode to finding a new paradise outside of the city where you can plant love and literally watch it bloom. The album’s intoxicating rhythms and timbral webs are as settling, even seductive as an evening glass of wine. But whatever your day’s end ritual may be, it isn’t some idle exercise. It’s a place to unpack the pain and wonder, the suffering and promise of the moment, to reflect on where you have been and what might come next. In 40 striking minutes, Time to Melt sorts through a year of a life spent in rage and hope, lockdown and love.

The Sam Evian band will tour the Northeast this fall in support of Time to Melt. Sam (guitar, vocals) will be joined by Brian Betancourt (bass), Michael Coleman (keys), Sean Mullins (drums), and Liam Kazar (guitar, synths). Tickets are on sale this Friday, August 13th at 10am EST.
Watch the “Easy To Love” Video

Watch Sam Evan Perform “Easy To Love”

Pre-order Time to Melt

Time to Melt Tracklist
1. Freezee Pops
2. Dream Free (feat. Hannah Cohen)
3. Time To Melt
4. Knock Knock
5. Arnolds Place
6. Sunshine
7. Never Know
8. Lonely Days
9. Easy To Love
10. 999 Free
11. Around It Goes

Sam Evian Tour Dates
Fri. Oct. 29 – Hamden, CT @ Space Ballroom
Sat. Oct. 30 – Woodstock, NY @ The Colony
Wed. Nov. 3 – New York, NY @ Bowery Ballroom
Thu. Nov. 4 – Boston, MA @ The Sinclair
Fri. Nov. 5 – Asbury Park, NJ @ The Saint
Sat. Nov. 6 – Washington, DC @ DC9
Wed. Nov. 10 – Philadelphia, PA @ Johnny Brendas
Thu. Nov. 11 – Holyoke, MA @ Gateway City Arts
Fri. Nov. 12 – Providence, RI @ Columbus Theatre
Sat. Nov. 13 – Portland, ME @ Space Gallery
Fri. Nov. 19 – Amagansett, NY @ Stephen Talkhouse
Sat. Nov. 20 – Troy, NY @ The Hangar

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[Thanks to Jaycee at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Gordon Koang releases “Disco” in time for your end of summer parties.

Legendary South Sudanese pop star Gordon Koang releases a new track, “Disco,” off of his forthcoming Coronavirus / Disco 12”, out today via Music in Exile. “Disco” follows the recently released “Coronavirus,” but the new single was actually written by Koang in 1997.

Although it’s been a highlight in his live performances, this is the first time “Disco” has been recorded and made available for his audience to dance to at home. Written as a love song, “Disco” shares his trademark messages of peace and unity, dance floor style. Beginning with fast and almost rap-like vocal delivery in his native tongue, Nuer, the energy is high from the very start. With pulsating bass lines and interweaving instrumental melodies, the band is almost mesmerizing and urging in their accompaniment. When asked what he wants listeners to feel when hearing this song, he says “I need them to be happy, to listen to the song, to know that they will get advice from this song, to feel it in their heart, when they listen to music they will
be comfortable, be happy!”

Listen to Gordon Koang’s “Disco”

The Coronavirus / Disco 12” is his first offering since 2020’s “idiosyncratically joyous”
(Bandcamp) Unity. After two weeks in hotel quarantine (following a visit to his family), Gordon and Paul returned to Melbourne, eager to record music once more. With lockdown lifting, Gordon headed to the studio with a new band featuring Zak Olsen (ORB, Traffik Island) Jack Kong (Baked Beans, Traffik Island), David “Daff” Gravolin (ORB), and Jesse Williams (Leah Senior, Girlatones). This new release is the result of these studio sessions, jamming and recording at Button Pusher in Preston, Melbourne.

The “Coronavirus / Disco 12” will feature a pull-out poster from Gordon, encouraging listeners to stay positive during this difficult time.

Order “Coronavirus / Disco 12.”

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[Thanks to Jim at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Caleb Landry Jones announces new album – “Gadzooks Vol. 1” – due September 24th.

“The perspectives from which I write, jump erratically and can turn on a dime. Others grow and burn, only to sometimes vanish on the spot, just before the hat drops. . . My intention is to not rob the listener of their own fantasies by describing the annals of purpose which in turn, only unearth a fragile magic. I am interested only in the album’s response by its audience. The album is there to be digested, not by the front of your brain, but by the back. It is for the lover of labyrinths and quagmires.” — Caleb Landry Jones

Over the weekend, Caleb Landry Jones won the Best Actor Award at the Cannes Film Festival for his role in the film, Nitram. Today, the actor, musician, and visual artist announces his new album, Gadzooks Vol. 1, out September 24th on Sacred Bones, and presents lead single/visualizer “Bogie.” The follow-up to his debut, The Mother Stone, Gadzooks Vol. 1 moves from joy to despair, from horror to glib humor. Its sounds range from spider-like wisps of neo-psychedelia through to vast swathes of synthetic chords; it’s thrilling, shocking, and wonderfully entertaining as each song starts and finishes in entirely unique places, often totally divorced from each other. Lead single “Bogie” lurches with brass and tumbling percussion. Caleb’s voice cuts through as he continues to enter new terrains.

Watch Caleb Landry Jones’ “Bogie” Visualizer by Jacqueline Castel

Just a few months after recording The Mother Stone, Gadzooks Vol. 1 was written in Albuquerque, New Mexico while filming the dystopian themed film, Finch, alongside Tom Hanks. “I stole from what was around me, what fell out of the television, what passed below my windows, relationships, old and new. My frustrations, desires, day dreams and fears scattered themselves throughout my writing,” says Caleb. “It is a direct response to the album before it. I felt whatever I wrote next needed to be more consistent. I knew that I wanted to put everything down on tape. I wanted the same players as before but to go further.” He’d idle away his hours on location by focusing on creativity, and when filming stopped, Caleb knew he had to get straight back into the studio.

Caleb would soon link with the same cast who formed The Mother Stone, including producer Nic Jodoin, based out of the elegant Valentine Recording Studio in Los Angeles, and Drew Erickson who handled string and horn arrangements. Together, Caleb and Nic would work 18-hour days, bringing Caleb’s vision into focus. Recording to tape, Caleb would hack away at each take, reassembling the songs like Escher diagrams. “It’s like when you’re swimming in the pool and you’re doing a bit of butterfly, and then that gets old after a while. So then you start doing breaststroke, and then that gets old after a while. I think it’s just a reaction from the place where we were before.”

Part of a flood-tide of creativity – as its title suggests, a second half to this album is already on the horizon.

Pre-order Gadzooks Vol. 1

Gadzooks Vol. 1 Tracklist
1. Never Wet
2. Yesterday Will Come
3. The Loon
4. Bogie
5. Gloria
6. California
7. For A Short Time
8. A Slice of Dream
9. This Won’t Come Back

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Mega Bog puts down the “Weight of the Earth, on Paper” with her new single.

Mega Bog (the world-inhabiting moniker of song-animator Erin Birgy) presents a new single/video, “Weight of the Earth, on Paper,” off of her forthcoming album, Life, and Another, out July 23rd (vinyl out August 27th) on Paradise of Bachelors. Following “Station to Station,” “Weight of the Earth, on Paper,” stirs with lightly moving percussion, keys, and Birgy’s velvet voice. In the track, named after the collection of memoir tapes by the artist David Wojnarowicz, poppies sprout in Birgy’s shadow and scare her companion while harpies circle above Loch Ness. For the self-directed video, Birgy enlisted the help of friends, including Big Thief’s James Krivchenia (who co-produced the album), Adrianne Lenker, and more. “The video for ‘Weight of the Earth, on Paper’ came out more pure Mega Bog than I even expected,” says Birgy. “We are a community of deep friends and collaborators, who move through the world as scrappy little archeologists who love to play dress up. I’m so thrilled to have the friends I have show up and trust me over and over again, and I’ll always be there to do the same.”

Watch Mega Bog’s Video for “Weight of the Earth, on Paper”

Recorded over several sessions in various studios—the Unknown in Anacortes, Washington, Way Out in Woodinville, Washington, and Tropico Beauty in Glendale, California—Life, and Another features instrumental contributions from longtime and new collaborators, including Aaron Otheim, Zach Burba of iji, Will Segerstrom, Matt Bachmann, Andrew Dorset of Lake, James Krivchenia of Big Thief, Meg Duffy of Hand Habits, Jade Tcimpidis, Alex Liebman, and co-engineers Geoff Treager and Phil Hartunian. The album was written while Birgy cohabited with co-producer, engineer, and percussionist James Krivchenia in a small cabin near the Rio Grande. There, Birgy found herself often alone between their separate touring schedules. These isolations opened a familiar black hole of troubling projections, and any desire to remain positive continued to fold back into self-destructive thought and fear. Over time, a budding interest in mindfulness, attachment theory, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and rage gave way to new productive brain processes. These creative juices followed Birgy on the road and into subsequent lonely bedrooms as the songs continued to flow.

Departing from the humid spider plant nursery of previous record Dolphine (2019), Life, and Another brings us back to our home planet, into the rarefied air pressure of a desert valley where its fourteen songs were written and scattered like stones in the landscape, each one a precious gem chiseled by Birgy. It stages a semi-fictionalized drama in the interior self, with scenes of collective longing at the bowling alley, disputes over a distended memory outside the bar, and solitary circling on the patio, looking out over the yard in stubborn awe. These memories, from both past and future, bubble up throughout the album. Life, and Another is another fantastical off-world transmission and her most sophisticated, exploratory, and accessible statement yet.

A limited-edition Life, and Another photo and song book, featuring images, songwriting and studio notes, collages and texts by Erin Birgy, and drawings by Zach Burba, designed by Joel Gregory, is available exclusively via Paradise of Bachelors.

Watch the “Station to Station” Video

Pre-order Life, and Another

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Protomartyr announce fall U.S. tour.

In 2020, Protomartyr’s tour was cut short due to the pandemic. Today, they announce a fresh North American tour in support of Ultimate Success Today, their “eloquent, paranoid, and ultimately thrilling” (The FADER) album released last year on Domino. For this tour, they’ll be joined by Kelley Deal from the Breeders/R. Ring (some lucky fans got a sneak peek of this lineup prior to COVID lockdown). Additionally, Protomartyr are making their Ultimate Success Today visual album public. The visual album presents a video for each song, all made during quarantine except for “Processed By The Boys,” and edited together into a seamless short film. The filmmakers responsible for each song’s video are Dominic Ciccodicola, David Allen, Nathan Faustyn, Joseph Howard (with illustrations by drummer Alex Leonard), Trevor Naud, Ashley Armitage, Yoonha Park, and Jeremy Franchi. Tickets can be purchased here.

PURCHASE ULTIMATE SUCCESS TODAY
Domino Mart | Digital

WATCH THE VISUAL ALBUM

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “MICHIGAN HAMMERS”

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “WORM IN HEAVEN”

WATCH THE VIDEO FOR “PROCESSED BY THE BOYS”

PROTOMARTYR TOUR DATES
Nov. 8 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Tue. Nov. 9 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
Wed. Nov. 10 – Davenport, IA @ Raccoon Motel
Thu. Nov. 11 – Milwaukee, WI @ Cactus Club
Fri. Nov. 12 – Kalamazoo, MI @ Bell’s
Sat. Nov. 13 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory
Sun. Nov. 14 – Detroit, MI @ UFO Factory
Tue. Nov. 16 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s
Wed. Nov. 17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts
Thu. Nov. 18 – Brooklyn, NY @ Elsewhere
Fri. Nov. 19 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
Sat. Nov. 20 – Kingston, NY @ Tubby’s
Sun. Nov. 21 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Club Cafe

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Nation of Language share “Wounds of Love.”

Brooklyn trio Nation Of Language returned last month with ‘Across That Fine Line’, announcing their new album A Way Forward to be released on 5th November 2021. Pre-order the album HERE. Today, they share new single ‘Wounds of Love’, a song about feeling directionless after an emotional breakup, with a DIY lyric video made by singer Ian Devaney himself.

Listen to ‘Wounds of Love’ HERE.

On the single Ian says, “‘Wounds of Love’ is a song about getting caught in a mental feedback loop when a relationship ends. It’s an endless inner argument – wanting to move on defiantly, but feeling utterly lost about how to do it when the other person has informed so much about how you see yourself. For every bit of progress there’s just as much retreating, and eventually it seems like this back-and-forth becomes the new root of your identity – still tied to the same person, just without them actually being there.”

He adds, “During its creation, the song was really born out of the main riff – I was experimenting with synth sounds and delay pedals, trying to find something that felt kind of like Man Machine era Kraftwerk, and this simple melody just flowed out. At first the urge was to go very robotic with it, but a laid-back groove fell into place and gave everything a really warm, spacey, stoned feeling, which felt like it amplified the emotional haze that the song deals with.”

A Way Forward is the follow up to Nation Of Language’s highly acclaimed debut album, Introduction, Presence, released in 2020 during the early stages of COVID’s merciless mayhem. Unable to promote the album in any traditional live sense, the record grew through a flurry of rave reviews and airplay from radio stations around the world, ultimately landing on year-end ‘Best of’ lists from Rough Trade, Stereogum, Paste, Under The Radar, and NME.

With the pandemic putting so much on hold, Nation Of Language (Ian Devaney, with keyboardist Aidan Noell and bassist Michael Sue-Poi), decided to forge ahead and begin work on what would become A Way Forward. While much of the sounds on Introduction, Presence garnered comparisons to the synth-punk sound of the 80’s, with this new set of songs the band delved heavily into the Krautrock pioneers and electronic experimentalists of the 70’s for inspiration in the studio, stretching their boundaries in new and different ways. Production on the record was divided between Abe Seiferth (who worked on Introduction, Presence) and Nick Milhiser of Holy Ghost!

Due to perform at the sold out Reading and Leeds Festival this year, Nation Of Language announce a January 2022 tour of the UK and EU including dates in London, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow, and Leeds.

Tickets are on sale and available HERE.

Nation Of Language UK/EU Tour Dates:

27th Aug 2021 – Leeds Festival SOLD OUT

29th Aug 2021 – Reading Festival SOLD OUT

10th Jan 2022 – Cologne @ YUCA

11th Jan 2022 – Antwerp @ TRIX Bar

12th Jan 2022 – Amsterdam @ Paradisio

14th Jan 2022 – Hamburg @ Turmzimmer

15th Jan 2022 – Copenhagen@ Ideal Bar

16th Jan 2022 – Stockholm @ Obaren

17th Jan 2022 – Oslo @ Bla

19th Jan 2022 – Berlin @ Kantine am Berghain

20th Jan 2022 – Zurich, CH @ Kater

22nd Jan 2022 – Barcelona, ES @ Laut

23rd Jan 2022 – Madrid @ Sala El Sol

25th Jan 2022 – Paris @ Supersonic

27th Jan 2022 – Leeds @ Hyde Park Book Club

28th Jan 2022 – Glasgow @ Broadcast

29th Jan 2022 – Dublin @ The Grand Social

30th Jan 2022 – Manchester @ YES Basement

31st Jan 2022 – London @ Lafayette

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[Thanks to Amy at Prescription Music PR.]

Angel Olsen releases a cover of “Gloria” from upcoming EP of 1980’s music cover songs.

Today, Angel Olsen announces the Aisles EP, comprised of head turning covers of ‘80s classics and the debut release on her new Jagjaguwar imprintsomethingscosmic, out August 20th (digitally) and September 24th (physically). The EP features ambitious takes on five covers, including today’s “Gloria” (Laura Branigan), plus “Eyes Without A Face” (Billy Idol), “Safety Dance”(Men Without Hats), “If You Leave” (Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark) and “Forever Young” (Alphaville). Olsen comments, “I know it’s not really in my history to do something unintentional or just for the hell of it, but my connection to these songs is pretty straightforward, I just wanted to have a little fun and be a little more spontaneous, and I think I needed to remember that I could!”

The Aisles EP was recorded in the winter of 2020 at Asheville’s Drop of Sun Studios with co-producer and engineer Adam McDaniel. Olsen had known McDaniel for years, and became better acquainted while trying to conquer the audio of live-stream at-home performances last spring. McDaniel and his wife Emily opened their home to Olsen throughout the previous summer and made it a safe space to create and let go before beginning tracking. “I told Adam I had an idea to record some covers and bring some of the band into the mix, or add other players. I needed to laugh and have fun and be a little less serious about the recording process in general,” says Olsen. “I thought about completely changing some of the songs and turning them inside out. I’d come over to find Adam had set up five or so synthesizers, and we’d get lost on a part for a while messing with some obscure pedal I knew nothing about. We’d spend a good amount of time going through sounds before finding one or two, sometimes we’d get real weird and decide to just go with it. ”

Olsen’s take on “Gloria,” released today, crawls with reverberating synth and an arresting cello arrangement. As the song nears its end, her vocals ricochet into a dramatic vibrato. “I’d heard ‘Gloria’ for the first time at a family Christmas gathering and was amazed at all the aunts who got up to dance. I imagined them all dancing and laughing in slow motion, and that’s when I got the idea to slow the entire song down and try it out in this way.”

Angel Olsen’s Aisles EP follows the Song of the Lark and Other Far Memories Box Set, released this past spring, and her new single with Sharon Van Etten, “Like I Used To.” It is the premiere release for somethingscosmic. “I’m very excited to be introducing somethingscosmic, an imprint that will serve as the home for all my covers, collaborations, and one off singles,” says Olsen. “In this time away from touring I have been inspired to create more, and somethingscosmic will give the me flexibility to release when and how I want to with the help from my longtime partners at Jagjaguwar. The hope is that it will become a place for all of my creative endeavors, music and otherwise.”
Listen to Angel Olsen’s “Gloria”

Pre-order Aisles EP

Aisles EP Tracklist
1. Gloria
2. Eyes Without A Face
3. Safety Dance
4. If You Leave
5. Forever Young

Angel Olsen Tour Dates
Sat. Sept. 11 – Chicago, IL @ Pitchfork Music Festival
Fri. Oct. 29 – Sun. Oct. 31 – San Francisco, CA @ Outside Lands Music Festival

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[Thanks to Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Desert Daze announces its 2021 lineup.

Desert Daze makes its post-pandemic return this November with a limited capacity three-day festival and a bit of a scaled-down lineup. Don’t wait to get your tickets because they will go quick and why wouldn’t you want to go to a low-capacity festival with this many good bands playing it?

The Black Angels are always great live. Kikagaku Moyo are also legendary live performers. Tim Heidecker performing his Fear of Death album is worth the price of admission on Friday, and you also get to see Moon Duo, Ty Segall, and Deap Vally all on the same day. The Budos Band will get you grooving on Saturday. They’re a great funk band.

Tickets can be snagged right here.

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Cold Beat release first single, “See You Again,” from upcoming album – “War Garden.”

San Francisco-based band Cold Beat announce their new album, War Garden, out September 17th via Like LTD, and share its lead single/video, “See You Again.” The name War Garden is both a reference and a revelation. Although it gets its namesake from the self-sufficiency of World War II civilians to plant and grow their own food, in a more metaphorical sense it sprouted from a sense of connection, during a time where it was physically impossible to do so. The distance caused by the pandemic strengthened the bond between members Hannah Lew, Sean Monaghan, Kyle King, and Luciano Talpini Aita, resulting in an album that’s a remarkable leap from their earlier guitar-forward work. Following multiple albums and EPs, plus collaborations with notable contemporaries and icons such as Los Angeles artist Cooper Saver and Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder, War Garden presents Cold Beat as a fully realized unit. They openly embrace a synthesized landscape with rich harmonies and 80s pop flourishes, all while maintaining a complex emotional depth.

Rather than the sound reflecting the surrounding despair, the music is often suitable for the dance-floor, driven by steady, machine-like rhythms and ethereal vocals. War Garden calls to mind some of the greats: The melodies of Human League, the syncopation of Oppenheimer Analysis, and everything about New Order. While Lew is the front person, all members all contributed to the songwriting.

Lead single “See You Again” was written via zoom, like the rest of the album. This particular track was created in the first three months of lockdown and chronicled the feelings that came with the realization that they wouldn’t see each other for an unknown stretch of time. After Lew sat a shiva for a family friend, Monaghan sent another version of the song, and it developed into meditation on the unknown possibility of reconnecting with loved ones in the afterlife. “I had spent many months toiling in the dirt, tending to my War Garden,” says Lew. “Working with the soil is so hopeful, but also morbid. I had to bury some bulbs instead of being able to be present for the burial of a close friend. It became almost fetishistic to bury seeds, like a physical way to be there without actually being able to be there.”

The accompanying video, directed by Mimi Pfahler and shot in Lew’s yard and at Ocean Beach, was the first reconnection opportunity many had. “Among people on set I know there was a sense of transcendence – just a moment to give form to the feelings of isolation and physical need for each other that had built up,” says Lew.

Watch Cold Beat’s Video for “See You Again”

War Garden’s complexities reveal themselves piece by piece—an instrument at a time. Although some of its explorations are heavy, there’s a sense of optimism in the final beat build-up and fading choral and keyboard arrangement—a harbinger of much better things to come.

Pre-order War Garden

War Garden Tracklist
1. Mandelbrot Fall
2. SOS
3. Tumescent Decoy
4. Weeds
5. See You Again
6. Arms Reach
7. Year Without A Shadow
8. Rubble Ren
9. Part The Sea
10. Leaves And Branches
11. New World

Cold Beat online:
https://twitter.com/coldbeatsf?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/coldbeatsf/
https://coldbeatsf.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.pitchperfectpr.com/cold-beat/
https://www.instagram.com/cold_beat/?hl=en

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Jyroscope and Montana Macks tell us to “Take It Easy” on their new single.

Today, Jyroscope – the project of MCs I.B. Fokuz, Collasoul Structure, and DJ Seanile – and producer Montana Macks release “Take It Easy,” the newest single from their recently announced collaborative EP Happy Medium, out July 23rd. “Take It Easy” is an equally composed lesson in jazz, hip-hop, and meditation. It sees the group finding a ‘happy medium’ in their lives, appreciating what they have and who surrounds them. “It just seemed like I was going through this gauntlet of horrible shit that just kept coming,” Collasoul Structure says of the single’s genesis, explaining, “I literally closed my eyes for a moment and said to myself, ‘take it easy, bring it down.’” On “Take It Easy,” Fokuz offers his rebuttal to life’s myriad of challenges: “Peace is an everyday practice when ya conscious/ just a little levity can shake up the monotonous/ I sit and meditate when I awake and let the mind rinse.”

Listen to “Take It Easy”

Happy Medium is a potent manifestation of an endless journey for balance. Over sleepy jazz samples layered in well seasoned beats courtesy of Montana Macks, the aptly-titled Happy Medium EP sees Jyroscope exploring the difficulty in maintaining a focus on one’s craft, career, and the life responsibilities that come with putting down roots and starting a family.

Preceding Happy Medium, Jyroscope released several projects including the Hip House mixtape, On The House, and the bouncy boom bap-filled, MUTEEP. With a reputation around Chicago and beyond for their polished, high energy live performances, Jyroscope teamed up with long time friend and producer Montana Macks (Chicago Reader’s 2020 runner up for Best Hip Hop producer) for Happy Medium, their best effort to date. Happy Medium is the result of over a year’s worth of work that began with a wildly fruitful session in late 2019. They felt the title best reflected where they currently are as artists and people. With their poetic rhymes and heart-felt imagery, Happy Medium makes for a captivating listen, one that is sure to have fans new and old itching to run it back well before the final note has faded away.
Pre-order Happy Medium EP

Watch the Video for “Frozen In Time”

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