[SONG OF THE DAY] Wake The Wild - "Second Nature"

Last week LA trio Wake The Wild released their latest single, “Second Nature”. Last January I was fortunate that The Algorithm™ blessed me with one of their 2016 singles, “Pulse” and I’ve been keeping a careful eye on them ever since. As their track record precedes them with “Body Language” and “Numb”, it’s no surprise to me that pumping out another smashing synth-pop hit would be….second nature for them. These guys should be your go-to if you’re in search of songs to include on mixes for both lovers or hookups alike.

Looking forward to see what else these guys have up their sleeves. Hopefully we’ll have a few more jams before the year closes out. Perhaps it’s time I take a slide into their DMs and see what they’re all about?

[SONG OF THE DAY] Roosevelt - "Shadows"

Earlier today Cologne based synth-pop artist Roosevelt unveiled the video for his latest single, “Shadows”, a song about past love. “A long-lost companion; someone that you were close to in the past, someone that still haunts you, that you can't get out of your head,” says Marius Lauber of the song’s inspiration. The song comes from his forthcoming sophomore album, Young Romance, which is out on September 28th courtesy of City Slang / Greco-Roman.

I’m not normally into music videos very much, but it’s been a long time since I watched one and thought, “oh no it me”. Basically the premise of the video is a woman is at a pool party and the entire time she’s distracted from her date because she’s staring down Marius Lauber behind a Wurlizter the entire time. While I’m not exclusively into crushing on musicians, being really creative just makes crushes cuter for some reason, right? Back me up here!

Anyway, as can be expected given how fuckin smooove Roosevelt jams are, he’s added a 2nd show at Music Hall of Williamsburg on December 3rd by popular demand. Best know I’ll be there but I don’t like dancing by myself so you better come out! If you’re not in NYC, his headlining tour kicks off on October 21st in Copenhagen before making his way to North America in December.

Roosevelt 2018 Tour Dates:

10/21 - Copenhagen, DE @ Pumpehuset

10/22 - Hamburg, DE @ Uebel & Gefährlich

10/23 - Cologne, DE @ Live Music Hall

10/24 - Berlin, DE @ Astra

10/25 - Munich, DE @ Muffathalle

10/27 - Vienna, AU @ Flex

10/28 - Zurich, SWI @ Mascotte

10/30 - Milan, IT @ Ohibo

11/02 - Aimens, FR @ La Lune Des Pirates

11/03 - Bordeaux, FR @ Iboat

11/04 - Brussels, BE @ AB Club

11/06 - Paris, FR @ Gaîté Lyrique

11/08 - London, UK @ Oval Space

11/09 - Manchester, UK @ YES

11/16 - Madrid, ES @ Sala Gotham

11/17 - Barcelona, ES @ Razzmatazz 2

11/21 - Nijmengen, NL @ Doornroosje

11/22 - Amsterdam, NL @ Melkweg

12/03 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

12/04 - Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

12/05 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Foundry

12/06 - Washington, DC @ U Hall

12/07 - Boston, MA @ Middle East

12/09 - Montreal, QC @ Belmont

12/10 - Toronto, ON @ Mod Club

12/12 - Chicago, IL @ Bottom Lounge

12/14 - Los Angeles, CA @ Teregram Ballroom

12/15 - Santa Ana, CA @ Constellation Room

12/16 - San Diego, CA @ Soda Bar

12/18 - San Francisco, CA @ August Hall

12/20 - Portland, OR @ Holocene

12/21 - Seattle, WA @ Neumos

[SONG OF THE DAY] Thomas Azier - "Hymn (feat. Schérazade)"

Ugh you guys life is so hard when you’re just one human and you love literally hundreds(maybe thousands?) of bands. It’s a daunting task to keep tabs on everyone and I’m embarrassed that I haven’t been a solid stan for musical nomad Thomas Azier as I should be.

Upon The Algorithm™ delivering “Hymn” in my Release Radar I quickly rushed to see if there was anything else I was missing out on and apparently I had missed out on a whole EP in July! 😩😩😩

Okay so let me make sure we’re all caught up here starting from the latest and going backwards, okay?

On Friday Azier dropped a 2-track single called Hymn, featuring today’s song of the day and a gorgeous slow jam called “Smoke”. “Hymn” is a straightforward punchy little synth pop number featuring some vocal stylings from the fabulous frenchie Schérazade.

So this is the part I’m trying to make sure I’ve nailed down correctly about this July release, S t r a y. At first glance it appeared to just be an EP, but upon Azier making note that the songs from Hymn would be added to S t r a y, so he might be turning this EP into a full length? There’s a post offering a very limited run of 250 vinyl pieces back when the EP dropped, so it’s a little confusing and for whatever reason no one else seems to be really celebrating these new songs. That all said, Line Of The Best Fit’s interview tells us that the songs from S t r a y were written while he was living in various European cities and found that embracing working and traveling simultaneously had a huge impact on his songwriting, he even noted, “By being on the move constantly I was able to invite the music to my head naturally and fluently.” It’s a great interview and worth reading in full for sure.

At any rate, while I get better acquainted with S t r a y, I guess the only other thing to pass along is that he’s got some exclusive Dutch shows coming up in November and tickets are on sale this Friday (21st) at 10am local time.

And with that I think we’re all caught up!

Thomas Azier On Tour

28/11 Leeuwarden: https://bit.ly/2xoxL4H
29/11 Amsterdam: https://bit.ly/2QBL0b9
30/11 Nijmegen: https://bit.ly/2NPdnnx
02/12 Groningen: https://bit.ly/2OpY2a1

[SONG OF THE DAY] NVDES - "Mind Body Soul Music"

Alright Monday LET’S GOOOOOOO!

Last week LA’s NVDES announced that on November 2nd he’ll be releasing his debut full length album, Vibe City Utah. On the heels of the announcement he also released the 2nd track from VCU, “Mind Body Soul Music”. Like previous NVDES releases, “Mind Body Soul Music” is bursting at the seams with its unique brand of erratic indietronica. Almost instantaneously the song goes barreling through your eardrums at 100 miles a minute. It’s the perfect amount of energy to launch you into the work week full of all the right vibes.

Be sure to keep an eye out this week for the first of eleven total visuals to accompany the upcoming album. Also you can head over to his site to pre-order Vibe City Utah, there are plenty of options to choose from based on your level of fandom.

[SONG OF THE DAY] SAKIMA - "Holy Water"

photo credit: Anna Partington

Our first taste of SAKIMA’s upcoming full length, Project Peach, dropped yesterday, which means your Saturday is about to get hella sexy. In true SAKIMA fashion, “Holy Water” is a come-to-Jesus (heh) moment between lovers. It’s a beautiful moment of vulnerability all the while maintaining a sense of self-worth. You can’t be more up front with someone than saying, “So if you make me love you like I think you are then boy, I’m fucking sacred, better treat me like I’m holy water”. Even though I’m of the opinion that SAKIMA could sing the phonebook and I’d be on board with it, if this level of intimacy is what we’ll be getting for this upcoming album, it’s going to be just peachy.  🍑

[SONG OF THE DAY] Tom Aspaul - "Going Down"

Photo by Alice Rainis

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It’s the best day of the weeeeeeek! I am happy to alert you to one of the best humans to ever grace the internet. Today London’s Tom Aspaul released his latest single, “Going Down”, a catchy little number surprisingly enough about dealing with grief and depression. He’s really crafted a perfectly pain-filled pop song, the kind of tune that makes you do a double take at what he’s actually saying because you get lost in the poptastic production. I’m one for dancing my problems away and this is going to be one I reach for from now on when I’m having one of those days.

If this is your first taste of Tom, please make sure you get well acquainted with the variety of music projects he’s been a part of.

Also, love yourself and follow him on Instagram. I live for his IG story bubble to come up and I know plenty of friends who stan equally as hard for them.

[SONG OF THE DAY] Jaded - "Young"

It’s been a little over a year since I casually slipped UK indie electro-pop trio Jaded in diSKOAver weekly with their breakout hit, “In The Morning”. Since then, I’ve followed along with these dope dudes on Instagram, who have been responsible for me laughing to myself like an idiot on the subway no less than twice. It’s only fitting that they would release a song like, “Young” last week, as it’s *almost* as playful as they are. Almost. This is hands down the care-free anthemic song you need in your life. It’s the perfect microdose of escapism that you need amidst the chaos of everyday life.

Fair warning though: if you’re walking around while rocking this jam you might find yourself pouting, shimmying, and mouthing the words in front of strangers at a crosswalk or something.

Not that I am speaking from experience. 😳

[WATCH] Moritz Simon Geist Makes Techno With Music Robots

Hey! Wanna see something that will break your fucking brain? 

I have had to sit on this video for an entire week and basically since I saw it I haven't been able to stop thinking about it. 

My two favorite things have collided courtesy of Moritz Simon Geist, an electrical engineer turned musician based in Germany. From his upcoming debut EP, The Material Turn (out on October 12), please feast your eyes and ears on his first offering, "Entropy", which I am having trouble not watching for the 30th time while writing about this. For this EP, Geist has built robots to act as his musical instruments to make techno music. As in, there are no synths or traditional instruments involved (unless you count the "drone guitar," which is essentially a motor attached to an electric guitar). 

Robots. Making. Techno.

CAN YOU EVEN HANDLE YOURSELF RIGHT NOW!? BECAUSE I CANNOT!

I think the thing that I love the most about this is how he's managed to bring a deeply tangible aspect into electronic music through this project. As the music making process becomes increasingly simplified, the performance aspect, especially in electronic music, has a problem of essentially being a table, a laptop, and confetti cannons/LED screens/etc. Don't get me wrong, I love a good dance party, but I feel like a lot of times we take the craftsmanship that goes into these records for granted because the only way to make a live show interesting is to add pyrotechnics. I am now more upset than I was previously about not making it to Moogfest this past year because I would KILL to see this live. I know I'd be conflicted about dancing to this because I'd be taking my eyes off him tuning a robot who plays water glasses. Or would I be more entranced watching little styrofoam balls pulsating through a cylinder as a "pneumatic hi-hat" of sorts that I'd forget to dance? I DON'T KNOW BUT I WOULD LOVE TO FIND OUT! 

okay imma stop talking now WATCH THIS!!

Now that you're obsessed too, you can go pre-order this EP over on Bandcamp. There's also a full-length (!!!!) coming November 16th that's appropriately titled Robotic Electronic Music. Meanwhile, if you want to see how some of these dope robots are made, you can watch the below behind the scenes video. 

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE!