Tag Archives: Stamp The Wax

Monday Music: Kenneth Bager, Jesse Futureman, Peter $un, Edwin Raphael & Brutalist

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kWsHziaNow that we’re in the thick of the “stuck to your chair” heat here in NYC, I decided to take a break from the throbbing electronic sounds of festivals, and serve up a dose of more analog vibes. Classic guitar, hip hop, indie, lighter drum & bass, and even a tune from a singer-songwriter. Cool off, slow down, and enjoy! Big ups to Stamp The Wax for providing 2 of the 5 tunes this week. They’re definitely one of my crucial daily reads.

Kenneth Bager’s Music For Dreams label has served up some exceptional Balearic, a vibe that some of my younger readers might not be familiar with. Essentially, the lighter, Mediterranean, ebb & flow feel that keeps you moving, but never presses you to dance or make a big show of it. Sunset over Hobro brings together guitar, accordion and soft, sunrise bass pad work for a relaxed intensity that pulled me in immediately. If it intrigued you as well, hit up the album on iTunes & Spotify.

Jesse Futerman, out of Toronto, slid this tune into my reality thanks to Stamp The Wax, and we’re all better for it. The lush, leisurely, morning jam deserves your coffee break or PokeStroll. The squelchy synths never get too aggressive, with a funky melody melting all over the beat. The muted trumpet & bass guitar give the track a vintage feel that I cannot get enough of these days.

Switching gears entirely, but staying at the same tempo, is this cut off of Peter $un‘s new mixtape, Paradise Is A Day Away. It’s been a minute since I repped rhymes, but this was too good to ignore. The heavy bass & ethereal feel seem to match the not-aggressive, but still wicked flow. It’s almost got a tinge of blues which is rare these days. Get at it.

Edwin Raphael does exceptional work here. The guitar soothes, the voice soars, and that’s all you need. No extra wacky synth work, no house beats, no autotune. Just a boy & his guitar, singing his heart out. Enjoy it with someone you love.

Rounding out the list is Brutalist, a group that wins for best new act name of the week, but also really nails it here on Strep. I expected the tune to be way more aggressive & brutal, but it’s a relaxed stroll through piano chord synths, stuttering bass & gorgeous chopped up vocals. Dig in and thanks to Stoney Roads for making sure I didn’t miss it.

Monday Music: Hayden James, Slushii, Kinkajous, Prince Fox & Jai Wolf

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EDC NY is next weekend, so to celebrate, I looked for the least retail, non-EDM I could find. It took me on a journey that I think you’ll love, so dig in!

About a year ago, SAFIA’s Embracing Me hit my filters and I needed to immediately yell about it. To his credit, Hayden James has taken a spectacular track and given it a similar, although strikingly different feel. It’s got a surprisingly peppy house beat under it. The source material is used splendidly, while the chord work remains euphoric without approaching tropical. The breakdown during the 2nd half of the tune has a summery sunset vibe to it, as the vocals flutter above. It breaks back into what would’ve been an anthem two years ago, but is totally devoid of those elements now. Hayden James does some really good work, so don’t sleep on his ish.

I totally missed the pop tune this remix is based on, and I don’t actually recommend going to look for it, as this is vastly superior to the original. Slushii‘s  Future Pop style melds with an almost Chibi sensibility, and glides along like a Porter Robinson mix when he’s in a good mood. Great sound, strong lyrics that honestly make me think That Poppy needs to be a dance music vocalist. That kind of almost spunky style is sorely lacking. Also “you’re the highlight of my lowlife” is a smart as fuck lyric that needs to be in more party people’s minds. (via Fresh New Tracks)

I don’t usually post jazz on this blog, but I had to make an exception when I heard this. It’s moody, exceptional, forward looking and perfectly mastered. When lots of high art snobs complain about the decline of the classical & jazz listening markets, I’m just going to point them at Kinkajous. This 5 piece live-act is frankly something I could listen to every day. Their previous EP is a big helping of this, so if you’re into this kind of stuff, there’s lots more for you. Thanks to Stamp The Wax for this one.

I fucking love Prince Fox so much. Ever since seeing him kill it at BangOn! last summer, he’s been one of the artists I always toss out when people ask who is up & coming in Brooklyn. Plenty of bad producers have produced this kind of sound and it never comes off correctly. Either it sounds like big room, brolectro or some weird LA pop tune. Prince Fox was able to inject some Flume-y Future Bass style vibes into a some Indie Pop that is going to find itself in dozens of sets this summer. You heard it from me first.

Jai Wolf is another one of those Soundcloud success stories that warms my cockles. Why? Tracks like this. A soft, post-EDM tune that pulls some amazing elements from indie, pop, and where the festival circuit will be by the end of the year. The Foreign Family Collective, created by ODESZA, has some amazing music on it, that you won’t hear in a lot of other places. The collective and the track are a great way to glide through your Monday.

 

 

Monday Music: Saiph, GANZ, Wasted Penguinz, Soular Order & Leon Vynehall

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CbwrB1eW4AE26NcIt’s May! It’s Monday! Time for the music! This week, I went all out, looking hard for tunes you won’t hear anywhere else. A couple of new hits, a couple of old treasures I just dug up, all quality. Break on through to the other side with this quintet!
I stumbled across Saiph when I went searching for new drum & bass I’d never heard before. This Japanese starlet creates some of the most frenetic yet controlled tunage I’ve heard in years. There’s a “Porter Robinson on Adderall” feel to Ultramarine, one step away from being part of the Sonic & Knuckles vg soundtrack.
Hermitude & Flume, reimagined by GANZ. The Amsterdam stunner has an EP coming, but to keep us satisfied while we wait, we’ve been provided with a quiet flip. The sunny, shimmering bass is a great example of what’s coming from the Future Bass scene with the Aussie summer over, while ours has yet to start. Trust that the festival season is going to see quite a bit of this stuff, so get your Aviator sunglasses ready.
 This one is a bit out there, so if you’re not a fan of the harder end of the spectrum, you may want to skip it. For everyone who is a fan of euphoric hard trance & hardstyle, you’re gonna eat this shit up. It’s so positive & hopeful it almost qualifies as Christian praise music. Wasted Penguinz are not only in the running for best producer name of 2016, but also the track that goes the hardest without getting prickly. Hardstyle is almost impossible to do gently, yet, here we are. This is a track drenched with high production values & oxytocin, great work from the Swedish duo. Send this to your loved ones who can’t sit still.

Soular Order can do no wrong, having been repped here repeatedly over the years. His new hotness is nothing short of breath-taking. A voyage of ambient, bass-driven delight, the sonic perfection that Soular Order delivers is simply awesome, and I do mean that in the traditional sense of the word. Throw it into some expensive headphones and take it on a nature hike. Your tears of joy will thank me.  There’s even an additional alternate tape rework on a separate 2 track EP & it’s pay-what-you-want, so don’t stop, get it, get it.  Leon Vynehall has hit my radar a couple of times in the last couple of months, with this track really solidifying my opinion of him. The lush, jazzy tune called Kiburu comes at you with an expansive vision of what funky house can be. Guitar riffs, brass support, bass & some wacky percussion really fill out the vibe. Gotta give the credit to Stamp The Wax on this one. They’ve continually pushed the fresh sound into my face, so go show them some love.

Midweek Music: Shirk, Arbitraire, Snoop Dogg, Dark Sky & More!

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Advent - Stamp The Wax
While the holiday season bears down on us, that doesn’t mean the tunes have to freeze over. 5 more tunes, and not a cold shoulder in sight!

You don’t hear glitch hop like this much these days. I’m a huge fan of the orchestral feel that the track gives off. It’s almost got this mad scientist feel to it, as electro clashes with glitch and everyone wins. Definitely not something I’ve heard in some time, so even though I’m a year late to the party, Shurk got followed like woah.

Arbitraire showed up from nowhere with this winner of an indietronica tune. There’s a pretty high level of moodly dopeness here, with the track wandering into London Grammar territory at times. It’s hard to keep this kind of production under wraps so watch for this group, wherever they’re from, to start making digital waves in 2016.

Stamp The Wax is one of my favorite UK blogs & for the holiday season, they’re bringing out the Advent Calendar. A whole month of music leading up to Christmas, with all the proceeds going directly to the artists, with mastering, hosting and all of the trimmings being comped. This tune comes from Dark Sky, a hugely talented London trio. This 8:25 epic journey feels like it’s halfway between the worlds of techno, garage, minimal and topped with just a dash of Latin. It feels very Barcelona during Sonar Festival, with the tune oozing character but not in a hurry to get anywhere.

A tune from 2004 by a group called The Real Tuesday Weld, this is about as random as it is chill. The genre was dubbed Antique Beat, but this was 3 years before Beats Antique showed up, so it’s managed to be its own thing. The video is what happens when you let a YouTube producer loose on the Internet Archive. The track is as close as you can get to a modern iteration on the classic Steamboat Willy vibe of vintage jazzy lounge music.

This is one of those remixes you’ve heard over and over in tiny pieces. I kept hearing it on forums and had to track it down. It’s about 3 years too late, but if you’re legit looking for a celebration anthem for 420, a way to test out new speakers, or troll straight edge friends, I got you covered. Just don’t tell Dr. Dre.

Kanye West Beat Cds from 2001 Discovered!

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Kind of a crazy story here. Apparently someone was cleaning out their garage & stumbled on some old (read 2001) mixtapes from Kanye West. And we do mean old, like markers on a cdr old. This kind of stuff may not appear to all of my readers, but if you’re into hip hop beats & the stuff that made Kanye famous before he engaged Mecha Douche 3000 mode, you might like this. The first CD is in the YouTube video above, & the 2nd one can be found here. Don’t say I never gave you anything :D(via Stamp The Wax)