Groover Playlist 93 | Up And At ’Em!

The latest batch of great new music from around the country & around the world.

JayJay Brass Dance bring in the funk, Mort Rose are all about the money, Pierre welcomes the dawn, Melrøse can’t sleep — and you won’t be dozing off either as you spin today’s submissions from Groover, a platform that connects artists with critics like me for a small fee. You can (and should) visit to my Tinnitist Top 150 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, let these artists make your day:

 


JayJay Brass Dance | Mediterranéo

HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Jazz-Funk.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Created in 2018 in the South of France, the JayJay Brass Band play New Orleans Brass Band standards with Funk and Hip-Hop accents. They have repeatedly shared the stage with Leroy Jones, Kermit Ruffins, Kevins Louis, Kirk Joseph. Their album After was released in 2020. Méditerranéo is inspired in particular by Mano Négra, whose influence can be heard in Louis Huck’s electric guitar. The video was directed by Nina Liguoro.”


Mort Rose | Money

HOME BASE: Canada.
GENRE: Indie-Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE:Mort Rose is a rock band founded in 2016 in Montreal. With a lifelong passion for psychedelic rock, the band emulates the sounds of the late ’60s in an honest, personal and modern way to deliver music with a timeless aesthetic. The new single Money precedes an upcoming album for the Quebecers! In two minutes and 30 seconds, they project us on an intense and pleasant trip: The guitars intermingle, the harmonies and melodies hit the bull’s eye between Western and Asian scales, all the senses on the lookout … ”


Pierre | La Belle Aube

HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Indie-Pop.
THE TRANSLATED & EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “2021 marks the release of Pierre’s single La Belle Aube — a first opus, tinged with mystery and melancholy, but also sweetness and intensity. He has immersed himself in artists such as Mathieu Boogaerts, Patrick Watson, François Atlas & The Atlas Mountain. Pierre is an intimate, poetic, organic project in which nothing is left to chance. He wants to make us dream. It is an invitation to a journey that is both contemplative of the artist’s universe, but also introspective, where the listener’s interpretation remains free. The common thread remains sharing and creativity, the two engines of the artist.”


Melrøse | Insomnie

HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “The duo Melrøse present Insomnie, the new single from their upcoming EP (out Sept. 21). It presents a night spent between dream and reality, blown by the sensual voice of Anne-Camille. The words written by her lover plunge us into a soft and intense universe, and sound like a small nugget of electronic pop, a photograph of an intense night in a scorching spring.”


Alvin Chris | Maux De l’Âme

HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Rap.
THE TRANSLATED & EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “It is through his nonchalance that Alvin Chris unveils his analysis of the modern world. Maux De l’Âme highlights the hypocrisy of propriety, the superficiality of the digital age and the fear of the gaze of others. A rapper with U.K. garage influences (Jamie XX, Four Tet) and lyrics that are percussive, effective and exciting, Alvin Chris is an artist who is definitely at ease on many fields.”


Mohand Baha | La Go Est Sympa

HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Rap.
THE TRANSLATED & EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Two months after the release of his EP Chronos, Toulouse rapper Mohand Baha is back with a new single revealing the poppier side of his musical color chart. La Go Est Sympa is a dance track that is at once sweet, deep and nostalgic. A catchy rhythm anchors a vocal that reminds us of time spent time in pyjamas on the sofa with a packet of chips on your stomach and the pizza crusts scratching your back, waiting for the pain to pass.”


Bidi | Cause Perdue

HOME BASE: Canada.
GENRE: Indie-Rock.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE:Bidi was 16 when he wrote his first songs and started as a frontman in a punk-hardcore band from Laval, Quebec: Strict-Minimum. Over the years, Bidi has composed many pieces ranging from folk, to prog-rock and metal. During the summer of 2014, he decided to dedicate himself to keyboards and immediately started writing the songs on his first album. In 2017, he teamed up with Richard Lafleur, who — on top of playing the bass and guitars tracks — recorded, arranged, and mixed the album. Bidi says: “This is actually my favorite song of my first album Dans Ma Bulle, both for the music and the lyrics. It talks about the incomprehension of seduction codes and love rejection.”


Dan Zimmerman | Soldiers

HOME BASE: United States.
GENRE: Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE:Dan Zimmerman is an independent queer singer-songwriter in Brooklyn. His music details his own coming-of-age experience as a young LGBTQ+ adult in New York City — exploring lust, loss, and loneliness in an urban dreamscape. Dan’s music captures the energy of adolescence and radical self-discovery, marrying his soaring vocals with catchy, electronic arrangements. Soldiers is an energetic burst of vocally-driven pop, released just in time for Pride Month; the song encapsulates the playfulness of a budding summer romance, offering listeners a hopeful queer anthem that gives a nod to the homoerotic camaraderie among Ancient Greek warriors. Soldiers is the first of a series of singles set for release in 2021.”


Sex On Toast | Take Your Mask Off (And Love Me Tonight)

HOME BASE: Australia.
GENRE: Jazz-Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE:Sex On Toast specialise in raw, early-’80s funk, hard-edged new jack swing, blazing improvisation and heartfelt blue-eyed soul. Currently residing in Melbourne, their choreographed stage act, complex arrangements, performative larrikinism and danceability have won the hearts of casual punters and hardcore fans alike. They have begun work on their next album, which will feature the lead single Take Your Mask Off (And Love Me Tonight). Maybe the track hits a bit too close to home right now, but it’s certainly a fun take on the reminder of how different life is in a covid world. The full album is set for release in 2022.”


Tom Terrien | What’s Wrong?

HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Electronica.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE:What’s Wrong is an instrumental electronic noise-pop song, a sort of synthetic upward fantasy.”


Greymatter | Tesla (Black Fan’s Soundfactory Dub 7″ Re-Work)

HOME BASE: United Kingdom.
GENRE: Electronica.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE:Greymatter and Black Fan are long-term friends and ex-studio partners. Greymatter’s Tesla has been remixed by Black Fan into powerful and reduced house music. There’s a pure ’90s Junior Vasquez deep warehouse vibe on this one. Greymatter (aka Graham Luckhurst) continues to steadily release his unique blend of dance & electronics on a number of labels.”


Innocenzo Genna | The Châtelain Nocturne

HOME BASE: Belgium.
GENRE: Neo-classical.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “The piano compositions of Innocenzo Genna fall within the categories of minimalism and modern classic, with frequent combinations into blues and jazz. He says: “This is one of the first pieces I composed in Brussels, after a long artistic break. This is why it is dedicated to Châtelain, the inspiring residential area of Brussels where I settled in 2011 and where I got my creative motivation back. Nevertheless, the creation of this piece was long and complicated: it was not a linear composition, rather a puzzle of a different musical intuitions merging and diverging without a clear scope. Thus, it took almost eight months to conceive the final version. I added, deleted and modified various parts of the music, struggling to find a satisfactory version.”


Izzy | Plomb

HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Parisian singer Izzy’s road songs are an electro trip to a territory of her own emotions. Like a 2-step track passed through a Mediterranean filter, her single Plomb features a mix of indie-pop, hip-hop beats, Berber sounds and Moroccan groove. Inspired by real events, Plomb imagines the life of Hayat, a young student killed by the Moroccan Navy three years ago while trying to cross the Mediterranean. Plomb is a call to a world without borders, in the vein of M.I.A.”


TODAY’S PLAYLIST

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