Thaddeus.wav keeps it real, Emmanuel Della Torre heads north by northwest, Adrienne catch fire, NevilleSounds surrender and more in today’s submissions from Groover, a platform that connects artists with critics like me for a small fee. You can (and should) subscribe to my Tinnitist Groover Top 100 playlist HERE, or you can listen to it via the widget at the lower right of every page on this site. If you want to be in an upcoming playlist, click the link just below the widget or go HERE. But first, settle in for our latest international musical travelogue:
Thaddeus.wav | Faux
HOME BASE: United States.
GENRE: Hip-Hop.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “As a white guy from the middle of Southern Illinois, falling in love with hip hop was a weird thing. Playing instruments and singing my whole life, I had always listened to it and thought “I could do that,” so I made the decision to start producing/rapping a few years ago after I started delving very deeply into the genre. Very quickly I became aware of my identity as a white dude amidst a collective of mainly black artists, and began asking myself deeper questions of appropriation and borrowing from a culture’s art form. I feel confident in myself knowing that these artists such as my friend JUSTaimHIGH (the feature) and I have developed true deep friendships, and that they want me to be apart of their musical process and involved. On this song I really just explore my thoughts behind these relationships and how they affect my own self perceived image over a wavy/psychedelic beat I created myself using mainly instruments I played.”
Emmanuel Della Torre | J’entends Encore Anchorage
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Folk.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “The thing began with scattered images and frosted visions. I was flying from JFK back to Paris, after a couple of weeks in the North of the USA. The pictures in my head seemed to come from some Jack London’s short story taking place in the Far North, as well as from that movie starring Johnny Depp… Then the song was here, like an obviousness. No doubt about the place, nor the situation: it was Anchorage, a lighthouse anchored down in the frozen night.”
Adrienne | Incendie
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Indie-Folk.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “The Adrienne collective was founded at the end of 2018 under the impetus of producer Franck Lobielti. The project wants to give a lot of space to collaborations in order to give birth to a hybrid pop, at the frontiers of song and experimentation. It was in the spring of 2019 that it all came to fruition when Syka James, Mihuma, 3 South & Banana took refuge in the south of France at the Coxinhell Recording Studio. Incendie is taken from Adrienne’s first EP, produced by Franck Lobielti (Charlie Winston) and mixed by Nicolas Quéré (Arctic Monkeys, Timber Timbre).”
NevilleSounds | Surrender
HOME BASE: United Kingdom.
GENRE: Pop.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “London born multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Aaron Kieran Neville achieves a rare thing with his years-in-the-making solo project NevilleSounds: A creation of compelling, irresistible and unexpected pop tunes for the current times. Referencing qualities of his favourite artists — Prince, Pearl Jam, Haim, Faith No More and Stevie Wonder — Nevillesounds presents a rich offering of sharp piano hooks, fearless soundscapes and big themes. The brightness of pop, the edge of rock, and the soulfulness of Motown converge to deliver a broad spectrum against the status quo. Tunes to get your feet moving and your heart beating.”
Yudimah | Ride Like This
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Rap.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Born in Bordeaux (France), Yudimah is a self-thought rapper, singer, beatmaker, pianist and engineer. He also learned English by himself because he loves the sound of it, and also in order to reach a wider audience. With full control of his production, Yudimah has built a real sound of his own. Heavely influenced by the rap, R&B and neo-soul music of artists like Kendrick Lamar, J. Cole, Ryan Leslie, Drake and Masego, his music has a lot of melodies, harmony, sharp rap verses and lyrics about self-progression and positivity. Ride Like This is a sunny, uplifting banger that talks about the wish to stay in a good mood as much as possible.”
Emry Ghill | Shadow Play
HOME BASE: Belgium.
GENRE: Folk-Rock.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Emry Ghill is a French-born Belgian singer-songwriter. In 2019, Ghill and longtime collaborator Amaury Gheysens posted videos of covers on social media, and joined with Silvano Macaluso to make their first album in Belgium. The trio recorded it in four days, creating an intimate pop-acoustic effort created around the guitar. In March 2020, the album Shadows was released. It tells the story of the shadows of the singer’s past, — people, moments or emotions that punctuated his life between France and Belgium. The album’s visuals are realised by photographer and friend Litizia Marquez Santo, illustrating the idea that there is no light without shadows, and that looking behind enables you to remember where you come from and learn from your mistakes.”
Théophile | Pars
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Pop-Rock.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Théophile’s first steps let us discover a new project as surprising as it is effective: Singing in French in the same vein as the pop of Dominique A, electronic and very cinematographic instrumentals that wouldn’t be denied by Ez3kiel or Woodkid, aesthetic universe all in restraint … His songs are performed on stage as a solo live, vocal-guitar-machine.”
Pastel Coast | Rendezvous
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Indie-Pop.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Pastel Coast is the melancholic indie dream-pop creation of Quentin Isidore, delivered from the shores of Boulogne-sur-Mer and inspired by the alternative rock and shoegaze bands of Manchester in the early ’90s. After Pastel Coast’s debut album Hovercraft gave them the opportunity to be selected in renowned springboards in Paris, Pastel Coast are back with a new album expected to be released in May 2021. The first single Rendezvous, influenced by Phoenix or Vampire Weekend, announces more solar colours. Pastel Coast sing of the carelessness of summer, the promise of unexpected encounters and those evenings with a touch of mysterious magic.”
Mike Watts | How Deep Is Your Love
HOME BASE: United States.
GENRE: Jazz-Pop.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: Nothing. Much like this instrumental jazz-guitar revamp of The Bee Gees’ romantic classic, Watts lets the music do all the talking.
D. Selvagi and his OneManGang | Jogo de Interesses
HOME BASE: Brazil.
GENRE: Indie-Rock.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “D. Selvagi performs playing a baritone guitar, with the drums at his feet (resounding bass drum, screaming snare and a vibrant hi-hat). He whistles and sucks sugar cane all at the same time, singing wildly in low vocal tones. Blending arithmetic-explosive ingredients in his compositions, Selvagi offers a range of appreciable textures and nuances in his songs suggesting fresh notes of neo-psychedelia and mesmerizing beats. At first, there are generous doses of poetic experimentalism, obscure scenarios, ranting on or whispering magical messages (the ones you read and pass it on) based on pure nonsense impact, as if we floated over melodies in a surreal atmosphere. By the end, subtle flavors of noise guitar, climbing post velvet undergroundians structures with an inevitable dose of acid humor! All of them encircled by unusual dissonant tunings, played in a reverberated Danelectro Dead on 67 baritone guitar, enhancing the tasting with sharp special tones, the main psychedelic weapon in this one-man-gang.”
https://youtu.be/0l8mJc1LvtE
John Bringwolves | Jumble
HOME BASE: Italy.
GENRE: Electronica.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Jumble is born at night and it’s the first track that comes from a synth riff. I locked myself in the studio and found a riff that immediately resonated in my head, so I then worked on the rhythmic part and I wanted it to be simpler and “move ass” compared to the first two singles. The vocal “You’d better believe it” has a particular story: I extrapolated it from an Ig story of Afra, in which a friend of his screamed it and and you can hear it halfway up. This is the side of this project that I like most because it forces me to be a super attentive observer/listener of what surrounds me. Now we have reached the phase of the real reopening with the return to normality. Live situations with the crowds and with the difficulty of understanding how to interact with unknown people, with whom we haven’t seen in a long time, with whom we know he travels a lot, with who is very careful and wears the mask and does not give you the hand, who instead of kissing and hugging you like he’s never done before. We focused on this with Afra and chose to tell the story of two girls that (like in a paradox) never break away crossing London from the countryside to the central streets.”
HYL | J’sais Pas…
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Rap.
THE TRANSLATED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “HYL: Three letters, three characters, three rappers that punctuation made brothers. I present to you a trio of rappers behind a single pair of sneakers! Inspired by Mondrian, American Horror Story or Grand Corps Malade, HYL offers an eclectic three-part project halfway between rap and theater. This musical triptych oscillates between melancholy and euphoria, letting go and awareness! The triplets, both antagonistic and complementary, that are Interrogation, Exclamation and Suspension take you into their worlds and you are not at the end of the surprises that rap schizeclectic has in store for you. J’sais Pas… is a strong track from Suspension, a character with a poignant quill. It is the representation of questioning, doubt, lack of confidence. A journey through the history of this introvert, between poetry and nightmare. A piece undulating between slam and song with a shadow of rap, in a hypnotizing musical atmosphere. A clip in which his darkest thoughts are represented by animated drawings by artist Nick Pearce.”
Myyora | After Eight Acoustic Piano
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Jazz-Pop.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Born in London with roots in France, The Congo and England, Myyora is full of quiet contradictions. She splits her time between edgy urban London and an eco-friendly garden centre in Provence, getting her manicured nails dirty in the earth. Music has forever been the essence of her life. A songstress of the soul, Myyora blends the different musical aspects of her mixed heritage and travel experiences, creating both easy-to-listen to, poetic, nature-inspired music with reverberating dance numbers, subtly traversing genres as she goes. Myyora’s calm exterior hides many deep passions. She is driven by a desire to improve the world around her. She questions the existence of borders, of social norms, of the rules and regulations that bind us together and tear us apart. She is concerned about the environment, minorities and gender equality. But her messages are conveyed gently, massaging the listener’s mind, eschewing violent forcefulness. Her songs work on multiple levels … easy, lilting rhythms that work their way into the consciousness, but are never quite as simple as they seem. This young singer is a voice for the here and now, but it echoes all that has come before.”
The Bland | La Haya Vitoye
HOME BASE: Sweden.
GENRE: World-Pop.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “The musicians, originally from Sweden, met as teenagers while traveling in New Zealand. After falling in love with each other musically, the friends decided to travel the streets and venues of the world together. We just released our new single La Hata Vitoye, opening a new chapter for the band. With La Hata Vitoye, we want to try to look at life differently, to come together and share a positive attitude towards life. The story begins with a tiny little bar called La Hata Vitoye, located by the coast. It’s a place where caravans and traveling entertainers take refuge after long periods of touring. La Hata Vitoye gains its own culture. Every character moving into the town brings something new to the story, and as the town grows in size and the world starts to hear about it, dramatic events happen to develop the town’s destiny. In this fictional town called La Hata Vitoye, The Bland’s established indie-pop meets Latin vibes. It sounds like an exuberant night of dancing, freedom and joie de vivre — the easy things in life that the band and people are longing for the most right now.”
Mertanik | Wifi
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Rap.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Mertanik is a rap group of two twin brothers, Dokk and Zarby from Essonne. They released their first project, Lantern Stories in 2018. They have a quirky universe and instrumental very specific to their musical identity which does not leave indifferent to traditional rap listeners. This single tells about our vision of the world and of music, of the fears they generate, of failures and sentimental frustrations, but also of the fighting spirit that must be shown when you believe in something. Composed and written by us, recorded, mixed and mastered at Les Murs du Son studio.”
Jesse Ian | Sunshine
HOME BASE: France / Netherlands.
GENRE: Pop.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Jesse Ian is an Amsterdam-based singer and songwriter. His fourth single Sunshine is a contemporary R&B song in which he shows a broad range of vocal techniques, including clean pop melodies and rap. In the lyrics, Jesse sings about his girlfriend, letting her know how he feels for her. “I found my passion in music and through writing songs, I found a way to express my emotions. Sunshine is a tribute to my girlfriend. We met just when I had gotten out of a difficult relationship and at the time, she was just everything I needed and didn’t have.”
Scott Garred | Just Get Clean
HOME BASE: United States.
GENRE: Folk-Rock.
THE BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Scott Songs Vol. II (out Nov. 21) was produced by Scott Garred and Kelly Atkins. It marks the first collaboration between the two Bay Area artists. Garred, former leader of critically acclaimed bands Silver Scooter (1995-2001) and Super XX Man (1995-2015), is a music therapist whose work shapes his songwriting and vice versa. He began work on the new album in early 2019. Atkins is a multi-talented singer with Kitka, an American women’s ensemble inspired by traditional vocal techniques from Eastern Europe. Atkins makes her voice sound Theremin-like, insect-like, and just plain gorgeous-like. After being introduced by a mutual friend, Garred and Atkins discussed collaborating but lacked a worthwhile project. Inspiration turned to action when Garred shared the beginnings of these songs; the first-person narratives immediately drew in Atkins. The songs are delivered from various perspectives including a first-person mass shooter, artificial intelligence, a priest, and a drug user. This bouncy track was built up from a Casiotone drum beat. It’s got layers of keyboards, guitar, acoustic drums and piano too. The narrator sings about flying away, getting clean.”
