Nycole August takes pole position (in more ways than one), Panaviscope says grace, Saturne & Valfeu play their queen, Anantakara finds a forgotten key — and they’re just a few of today’s 20 submissions from Groover, a platform that connects artists with critics like me for a small fee. You can (and should) follow me on Spotify HERE, check out my Top 150 playlist HERE, or 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, go HERE. But first, enjoy another great new musical score:
Nycole August | Down The Pole
HOME BASE: United States.
GENRE: R&B.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “I am originally from Odessa, Tex. I moved to Houston in 2002. My style of music includes contemporary R&B, soul, neo-soul, and pop. However, I do like to dabble in other genres of music such as EDM, dubstep, blues and even reggae. I play guitar and some piano. I write my own songs, record and arrange them. My vocal style changes from song to song. My influences are vast and I would be here all day listing them. But to note a few I would have to say: Mariah Carey, Etta James, Aretha Franklin, Bob Marley, Prince, Amy Winehouse, Toni Braxton, The Supremes, India.Arie, Michael and Janet Jackson. Down The Pole a sexy, fun, catchy song about women admiring other beautiful women.”
Panaviscope | Under Your Grace
HOME BASE: Switzerland.
GENRE: Synth-Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Panaviscope, the one-man band formed by Alex, comes back with a new single. With Under Your Grace, Panaviscope presents an electro pop number featuring heady vocals. The airy synthesizers of the verses create a landscape reminiscent of synthwave, while the sustained beat of the choruses and the halting structure of the track evoke future house. Under Your Grace echoes classics like D.A.N.C.E. by Justice and Kids by MGMT, but with Panaviscope’s own soaring, psychedelic touch.”
Saturne & Valfeu | The Half-Hearted Queen
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Indie-Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “I was yours maybe before I even saw you,” wrote Marceline Desbordes-Valmore in Elégie. This verse perfectly sums up the love story of Saturne & Valfeu. These two lonesome dreamers saw their feeling born in a fantastic universe of runes, fairies and incantations, on a large flat rock on the edge of an emerald river. They live a letter-writing true love, between prose and poems, without even having met. She calls him Faun, he calls her Shewolf. They change lives for each other, and give birth to this musical project.”
Anantakara | Forgotten Key
HOME BASE: Belgium.
GENRE: Electronica.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Anantakara, a Sanskrit adjective meaning to make infinite, is a Belgian multi-instrumentalist who has been composing music since 2011. Philippe Wauman, the man behind the project, likes to describe himself as sound calligrapher, making delicate blends of ambient, electronica, downtempo, ethnic, neo classical and jazz. “I see myself as a passer of intensities,” he says. “I somehow trace a path that goes from sound to being, in the quest for a meeting point between opposing tensions: a mysterious point that regenerates and fulfils … Probe the unfathomable, one could say. What is central to me is to let myself be crossed by a verticality that infuses horizontality and creates a state of openness within sound spaces where the vast and the intimate dance together. This clip is an extract from a new album, which is the soundtrack of a novel that has not yet been written. It is the tale of a quest led by people in search of a key that will make it possible to curb the self-destructive madness of the world induced by the behavior of completely disoriented and panicked humans.”
Criis | Ker Nwar
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: R&B.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “A native of Reunion Island, this young artist easly handles the Creole language and rythmic sounds to take us into his universe. All his lyrics are inspired by real-life stories.”
Clint Is Good | Dans Le Love
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Rap.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Rocked by music from an early age, Clint Is Good had classical training before switching to rap and grime. His musicality and attraction to various instruments helped him create the singular musical universe of his first EP French Grime, released in 2019. Les Fleurs du Mâle followed in June, offering an opus of Afro, electro, rap full of versatility and sensitivity. Dans Le Love is the third clip from this EP. A title that is particularly close to his heart, it was the favorite song of the first woman in his life, who left us very recently.”
Giuseppe Vorro | Abbandonati
HOME BASE: Italy.
GENRE: Indie-Rock.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “I am poor but rich inside.”
Deville | Speaking In Tongues
HOME BASE: Sweden.
GENRE: Hard Rock.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “In 2004 in Malmö, faith united four brilliant musicians to form Deville, a heavy rock band with infectious energy. Armed with their authentic fusion of rock, metal and stoner, they set out to rock the world. They have released five albums, played nearly 400 gigs and festivals in Europe and the U.S., and shared the stage with such great acts as Red Fang, Torche, Mustasch, Truckfighters and more. They say their music is “like a rock and metal punch right in your face!” Thehir lateest single Speaking In Tongues tells the hard truth in the most heavy-rock way possible. It’s powerful, raw and inebriating. You will have a hard time not listening to it in loop.”
Magon | Forever
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Indie-Rock.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “A little less than a year after his second album Hour After Hour, French-Israeli songwriter Magon is back with a new opus, In The Blue. The cryptic title announces the mystical journey into the eclectic and colorful universe of this album, as illustrated by a work of the Inuit artist Ningiukulu Teevee. Composed around the birth of his first child, a little girl named Jackie, Magon changes tone in In The Blue: The tempo slows and pop songs take over. The singing is also more assertive, without sacrificing the characteristic relaxation of his main influences Lou Reed and Mac Demarco.”
Ik Snm | Foreign
HOME BASE: United States.
GENRE: Rap.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Singer, songwriter, producer, indie label CEO, professional model, footballer, artist.”
Bad Temper Joe | Been A While Since We’ve Talked
HOME BASE: Germany.
GENRE: Blues.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Bad Temper Joe is part of a new generation of the blues, writing and performing contemporary tracks. The German is a songwriter with sure instinct, and a performer who has an incomparable presence. Bad Temper Joe has been making waves in the international scene, reaching — as the only European act — the finals of the 2020 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. Just recently, Bad Temper Joe released One Can Wreck It All, his seventh studio record. The album rattles and buzzes with a unique intensity, as if everything is held together only by the heavy, aching groove and rusty strings of an old guitar. The sparse instrumentation develops a powerful and haunting sound. One Can Wreck It All shows BTJ’s relentless devotion to the tradition of the old blues singers from the Mississippi Delta, and is an example of blues craftsmanship at its best, while exuding a warmth and timeless elegance.”
Confiture Maison | Les Pôles
HOME BASE: Canada.
GENRE: Indie-Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “We are a Francophone rock band from Rimouski. This winter we plan to finish our first album in order to launch it next spring. We offer warm rock that is sometimes soft, sometimes funky or heavy, but always well crafted. Live, the group presents groovy and sensitive songs in a friendly and electric atmosphere, like the best music of your house party.”
Balazs Birtalan | Mars Mission: The First Picture
HOME BASE: United Kingdom.
GENRE: Ambient.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “I am a composer, arranger and performer of electronic, progressive, ambient, new-age and orchestral music in a variety of themes and topics. The Mars 2020 mission was announced by NASA on Dec. 4, 2012. The First Picture represents everything that NASA did successfully in this year in this historic moment. The album will chronicle the mission event by event (track by track) over the next year and will contain 15 tracks.”
Keating & Roark | What It’s Come To
HOME BASE: United States.
GENRE: EDM.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “What It’s Come To is the latest single by new Los Angeles production and songwriting duo Keating & Roark. It is a festival house track with loads of pop appeal, an infectious chorus, and a wicked drop co-signed by super-producer Ian Kirkpatrick.”
Maky Joe | Play
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Reggae.
THE TRANSLATED & EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Maky Joe is the new face of French reggae. He spreads a message of tolerance, peace and love. On his new single Play, it only takes a few notes, and words to escape the reality of the world around us and be invaded by Maky Joe’s love for music.”
Pinz & Pelz | Do You Remember This Feeling?
HOME BASE: Germany / Australia.
GENRE: Electronica.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Sydney / Berlin duo Pinz & Pelz first met in 2018 and have gone on to explore the musical multiverse with stellar releases. Fueled by the contrastful vitae of both protagonists, Pinz & Pelz’ body of work symbolizes the deep inner connections we all share while often living in surface modifications of reality. The diversity of life is expressed through the rhizome of their music. Not tied by genre boundaries, the duo craft intelligent dance music ranging from provocative techno to blissful trance, from nostalgic house to intelligent chill-out, from soulful drum ’n’ bass to humorous electronica. Do You Remember This Feeling? is a drum ’n’ bass / jungle hybrid turned into a love song. It expresses the constant search for love and lust, encapsulated in a reimagining of ’90s rave culture.”
Clide | Kitchen Floor
HOME BASE: United States.
GENRE: Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Clide grew up in a flat in Berlin. His parents worked as classical musicians, so it’s no surprise that he learned to play piano at an early age. At 16 he started fiddling with a computer, a microphone and a piano, and hasn’t stopped since. Lo-fi pop is a big source of inspiration. Although still pretty young, he knows exactly what adjectives he wants his music to be associated with: Authentic, innovative and raw. He wants to talk about things that move him and are close to his heart. Of course, love is one of those things, but so are questions around his own identity, the search for truth, dreams and interpersonal relationships. Kitchen Floor is inspired by a drunk fight. ‘Spilled a bottle of feelings’ is about saying things you didn’t mean, or even some hard truths you should have kept for yourself, and being left with the unrepairable mess afterwards. It’s a song about knowing you’ve gone too far and feeling there’s no way back. With an overall upbeat production and drive, its either a song to listen to when you’re sad and you’ve just broken up, or you just wanna chill and vibe.”
Homme Grenouille | Le Tempo Des Marées
HOME BASE: Belgium.
GENRE: Indie-Pop.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “The new track from Homme Grenouille — aka Bart Grinaert — is a French dream-pop ballad. When you hear this song, you’ll feel like you’re on a beautiful, deserted beach.”
The Confederation | That’s Where You’ll Find Me
HOME BASE: United Kingdom.
GENRE: R&B / Soul.
THE EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “We are a broad church bringing unique sonic tones and textures while crossing genres. The Confederation are a melting pot of musical DNA, fusing styles from the golden past, vibrant present and exciting future of music. The Confederation blend soul, pop, rock, jazz, funk, fusion blending uptempo, downtempo, dance, trance, old school, and neo-soul.”
Maze’d | Cure
HOME BASE: France.
GENRE: Pop-Rock
THE TRANSLATED & EDITED BIO & PRESS RELEASE: “Maze’d are a rock group formed in 2020 in Toulouse. The group released their five-track debut EP Phase One this year. Influenced both by both popular rock (Nirvana, Linkin Park) and lesser-known artists (The GazettE, BMTH) Maze’d offer powerful, simple and effective music with electronic music alway stouches — offered with a concern for modernity that will appeal to both a novice and an informed audience.”
