Running Touch – This Is Just To Say
Here’s another Australian young gun: Melbourne’s Running Touch has garnered his best reception yet with This Is Just To Say. Soulful, smooth, but bristling with attitude, it’s a minimal arrangement of mostly voice, driven electric keys, and fm bass that nevertheless packs a powerful punch. With support from Lavish, a promotional outlet of edm.com, I’m expecting to see a lot more of his work catch fire soon.
Check out Running Touch here.
The Weeknd – Can’t Feel My Face (Ember Island Cover)
A well done cover released at the right time can do wonders for an artist. Young Swedish trio Ember Island has been hard at work developing their own delicate, almost ethereal take on the indie-electronic aesthetic. Eager to establish a fanbase and reach new ears, they’ve leveraged The Weeknd’s skyrocketing popularity with this cover of Can’t Feel My Face, and it’s working. The result is a melancholic but calm rendition that still provides that same infectious vocal melody, albeit in a form that feels fresh and inviting. If you’re like me, you’re a huge fan of the original but have been afraid to play it to death yourself and get sick of it, especially with everyone and their mother seems to be blasting the song at every waking moment. Well, here’s a refreshing interpretation to sate your appetite.
Check out Ember Island here.
JNTHN STEIN – Dreaming At The Function ft. Brasstracks
You may remember way back when we gave a shoutout to Ivan Jackson for his trumpet work on Distant Memories. Brooklyn’s one half of Brasstracks reemerges again here with this funky new stiff-upper-lip JNTHN STEIN collaboration, Dreaming At The Function. Ivan and Jonathan are the two founders of Candid Music Group, a music complex in NYC offering a slew of music production and design services. I strongly suggest you give a listen to the artists they’ve worked with. They’re some very unique and talented individuals, and we’re keeping a very close eye (ear?) on the music they’re pushing out.
Check out JNTHN STEIN here, Brasstracks here, and Candid Music Group here.
Lianne La Havas – What You Don’t Do (Grades Remix)
GRADES increases the tempo and adds a french house flare over a nice bed of powerful vocals in his remix of Lianne La Havas’ What You Don’t Do. GRADES, perhaps best known for his original Crocodile Tears and whose video for King was recently nominated for “Best Dance Video” at the UK Music Video Awards, is continuing to develop his upbeat mixture of catchy vocals and bobby electronic production within the London dance scene. Both artists have soul – you won’t be disappointed.
Obsession – DrewsThatDude
Leveraging an education from Berklee College of Music in Boston, the now NY-based producer DrewsThatDude has helped produce for a handful of big hip hop names, including Tech N9ne and Lil Wayne on the last Carter album. While he’s a very talented arranger and session musician, his own personal productions are impressively detailed and memorable, and his newest Obsession is no exception. There’s a lot going on in this mix that you won’t catch until the second or third time around–one of those walk around the sound-garden kind of beats.
Check out DrewsThatDude here.
Electric Mantis – Infatuation
“Electric Mantis” is the perfect name for the incredibly sophisticated Oregonian producer Wyatt Pearson. Originally from Alaska, Electric Mantis’s charged sound is perhaps best showcased in his latest EP Braincase. Here at Black Sheep, we’re thrilled that he’s getting the recognition his craft truly deserves – including having his remix of Hear The Bells featured on Porter Robinson’s upcoming Worlds Remix album – and we can’t wait to see where he goes. This guy is the real deal.
Check out Electric Mantis here.
sakuraburst – forest of the spirits
Be warned – this song is only for the brave. forest of the spirits is a sensational release off sakuraburst’s new EP blood orange. Not much is known about this UK artist besides their incredibly lush Japanese production chops, but get ready to go on a sonic journey. forest of the spirits is absolutely haunting, rapidly transporting listeners from moments of calm recluse to an incredibly tense synth-didgeridoo drop; hang on for the ride.
Check out sakuraburst here.
Froogle – Repose
Last month we gave a shout out to Texan electronic producer Froogle and his collaboration on Falling Down with Alexa Harley. I thought I’d bring a different side of his work to light, so here’s Repose, a bouncing instrumental centered around a simple but catchy lo-passed synth line. Another great piece for some R&R, though a little more representative of the diversity in his production talent.
Check out Froogle here.
EP Spotlight: Troye Sivan – WILD
Troye Sivan is not a newcomer to the limelight. Raised in Australia, Sivan is a decorated actor, YouTube personality, and finally musician; his resume includes the film X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), winning a Teen Choice Award for his collaboration with YouTube sensation Tyler Oakley (2014), as well as being featured in Papercut off Zedd’s album True Colors (2015). Amidst all of his other successes, Sivan’s music and unabashed openness regarding his homosexuality is quickly propelling the 20-year-old into new heights worldwide. Riding off of the success of his previous label EP TRXYE, which included his earlier hit Happy Little Pill, Sivan’s latest project WILD is surpassing already elevated expectations and is set to make Troye Sivan a recognizable name in popular music.
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SG Lewis – No Less (Kartell Remix)
Take note of Kartell’s latest track, a remix of SG Lewis’s No Less. An early pioneer back in 2012 of the French label Roche Musique – which now boasts artists like Zimmer, Darius and FKJ – Kartell is a master of blending R&B, Parisian House, and best of all the Rhodes piano. If you’re vibing with his “French Touch” revival, be sure to explore his new EP Tender Games.
Check out Kartell here.
Cura – Theory of Dreams
It seems like the mystery-producer aesthetic has become somewhat of a phenomenon over the past few years. The masked artist looming behind some artistic facade, whether it be a robot suit, mouse head, or (in this case) a gray hoodie, really gets listeners interested and elevates a brand–but it makes it hard as holy hell to write a post about them because there’s no damn information to be found, even from the artist him/herself. Anyways, meet Cura. He’s from Norway. That’s all we know. Oh, and also that his first release Theory of Dreams kicks ass. Listen to this if you’re an Odesza fan. And if you’re not, listen to it anyways.
Check out Cura here.
Jungle – Time (Lxury Remix)
The UK struck gold again with Lxury’s brilliant take on Jungle’s Time, which effortlessly combines a steady groove with a light disco progression. Lxury’s style draws from his personal friendship with the Disclosure brothers and has even caught the eye of Australia’s own Future Classic. Following the release of his latest EP Into The Everywhere on Greco-Roman, the future looks bright for this rising London DJ.
Check out Lxury here.
Odesza – All We Need (Haywyre Remix)
After dropping it live every night for the last few months along a tour touching down in hot spots like Counterpoint and Electric Zoo, keyboardist and producer Haywyre has officially released his remix of All We Need, a bouncy filter-funk edit led by his signature keyboard work. It’s hard to pin this one into a typical genre, so I’ll use the one Haywyre came up with himself: “Post Avant-Garde Pre-Futuristic Jazz-Fusion”.
I’ve always appreciated the emotional drive accompanied by thick percussive sounds in Odesza’s music. After being contacted by them to remix All We Need, I instantly got to work; Here’s what I came up with after finishing it a few months ago. – Haywyre
Check out Haywyre here.
Dan Lissvik – Airwalk
Swedish electronic duo Studio disbanded in 2012 with a short parting message to fans from member Dan Lissvik: “Thanks to all involved, see you in another shape and form.” Three years later, he’s now working under his own name and with the support of Smalltown Supersound, an Oslo-based indie label focused on promoting alternative jazz, rock, and electronic blends. Sitting on Side A of his new Shuvit! EP (the first in a series of 12″ releases leading up to a full-length LP later this year), Airwalk is the announcement of Lissvik’s return to the scene.
Check out Dan Lissvik here.
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