3. Luke Black – Amsterdam
Coming from Čačak, a realtively unknown city nested in Central Serbia, Luke Black has quickly ascended to stardom, even being dubbed by sections of the music media as “The Serbian Pop Alchemist”. A true Hyperpop magician, Black’s ability to weave dark sounding soundscapes together with future beats and nefarious sounding locals is a truly unique talent.
Starting with an almost horror sounding intro, Black opens with an ominous ‘I took a trip to Amsterdam’. In stark contrast to the flowery, high optimism focused beats of future pop, Black flips the script to show us the other side of hyperpop. The drop, which hits right after he grimly utters ‘maybe we belong together’ immediately makes you wish you were inside a rave to fully experience each key in this fantastically apocalyptic club anthem.
2. The Lonely Together – Shots Fired…
‘Shots Fired…’ is the final single to be released from The Lonely Together’s long-awaited debut, Everything Viewed Backwards Through The Rearviewmirror – a dark, romantic tale with deep melancholy at its core. Although the name might suggest some sort of heavy and aggressive tune, ‘Shots Fired…’ is slow, progressive, and pleasurable to listen to. The track is strongly emotive, carried by a repeating acoustic guitar that sets the mood until a grandiose crescendo hits towards the end. Mike Baillie’s simple question forms the heart of the song: “When was the last time you loved someone”. It’s so beautifully sung, so impassioned, yet so restrained that it becomes all the more powerful. In fact, it moves from just being an obvious romantic theme, to a downright existential one.
On the composition, Shots Fired… incorporates numerous layers to its production – amongst them, aching guitars and thoughtful vocals – but the standout inclusion lies an, glitching Commodore 64 games console track that somehow blends perfectly with the message and soundscape of the tune. It is a truly mesmerising piece.
1. Safiya – Let’s Pretend
The debut single from fusion artist Safiya, ‘Let’s Pretend’, is a wonderful new entry to the modern landscape of jazz, soul, and afrobeat sounds. Performing the track at several live shows and festivals through the years, Safiya meticulously planned the production of this track to be perfectly tailored and mastered at every layer, melody, and hook. Opening with an infectiously groovy bassline that’s followed by a transportive saxophone motif, all of which is written by Safiya by the way, it’s equal parts impressive as it is enjoyable.
When the breakdown hits, the tempo jumps to another level, pulling you into the rhythm as the percussive elements start to join the fray. The instrumentation and production work on this single is so rich and well curated, it amplifies the already jaw dropping vocal performance that Safiya delivers. ‘Let’s Pretend’ is the kind of song you wish you could hear live, with a full band, back up singers, and Safiya herself all in sync and enjoying themselves as they hit every note. Of course, that doesn’t take anything away from the studio recording which is expertly mastered from start to finish.
Soul music like this can have no haters, it’s so intrinsically positive and pleasurable that it will just make you fall in love with the music. An immense talent that I can’t wait to hear more of in the years to come!
Check my playlists here!