A rising icon in Latin American dance music, Gian Varela teams up with Steve Andreas to unveil their uptempo, club-ready heater “Veneno.” Featuring the entrancing vocals from Felicia, the collaborative effort is designed to get you moving. With its latine spirit and progressive house volume, “Veneno” is made for dancing. Beaming with fluid, sexy soundscapes, juicy build-ups, and kinetic drops, Gian Varela and Steve Andreas are in perfect sync in their latest offering. Listen to “Veneno” today.
Alli Lindsey
MEDII - WHAT IF THIS IS ALL REAL
Music, Original MixCommentCollaborating between LA and London, dance music duo Medii is a force against distance. Back with their 14-track album What If This Is All Real the celebrated pair bridge the many gaps between ethereal dance, chill pop, and quintessential indie. The album brings together their previously released EPs Binary Blue and Replica Red and adds four new original productions “Dying Day,” “My Mind’s Escaping,” “Love Yourself,” and “Real.” A colorful excursion across divergent soundscapes, What If This Is All Real can’t be pigeonholed into any one particular genre. An amalgamation of soulful future bass and playful indie-pop, this Medii original is worth the replay.
MEAGAN DE LIMA - QUEEN
Music, Original MixCommentA minimalist R&B gem, Meagan De Lima’s “Queen” is a sophisticated triumph. An ode to her heritage, culture, and matriarch, “Queen” pays homage to the woman who raised her to become one of Toronto’s most exciting new R&B acts. The song is a garden of simple, beat-driven melodies that delicately blossom under her velvety vocal instrument. Despite its barebones production, Meagan’s lyrical prose is captivating, demanding, and honest. A blissful ballad and bow to her mother, “Queen” inspires the daughter in all of us.
CADMIUM & ROBBIE ROSEN - TRAGEDY
Music, Original MixCommentCadmium and singer/songwriter Robbie Rosen just teamed up to unveil their emotional dance-pop cut “Tragedy.” A blissful balance between euphoric synths and catchy vocal rhythms, the collaborative effort is an instant summer classic. The song’s upbeat melodies swing in a uniform direction, driving the track forward with a seamless flow. A righteous juxtaposition between sound and soul, “Tragedy” is a yin and yang of hopeful instrumentation and poetry born from pain.
CRAZE - STUCK ON YOU (FEAT. PALMER REED)
Music, Original MixCommentAt the intersection of DnB and melodic hip-hop comes Craze’s new single “Stuck on You.” Enlisting a refreshing feature from vocalist and songwriter Palmer Reed, the collaborative effort is a fascinating showcase of artistic synergy. Experimenting with the unsuspecting relationship between electronic music and hip-hop, Craze and Palmer Reed make the challenge sound effortless on “Stuck on You.” Mellow breakbeats flow under Reed’s buttery vocal delivery to create a blissful dichotomy of sound and spirit. Sophisticated and markedly inspired “Stuck on You” is not one to miss. Listen today.
ALMOST SEX - WE'RE OKAY
Music, Original MixCommentEqual parts artistic collaborators and romantic partners, Nick Louis and Warren LaSota are almost sex. Familiar and novel to boot, the Brooklyn-based tandem distills the sounds of indie-pop with lo-fi Americana on their darling new EP We’re Okay. The cozy extended play moves through touching ballads and guitar-driven lullabies while poetic lyrics move gracefully throughout. An insightful and meaningful body of work, We’re Okay is more than sound. Instead, We’re Okay is a reflection of the pair’s poignant connection and shared commitment to bettering themselves and the alternative musical landscape as a whole. Speaking on the EP almost sex says, “The process of writing and recording this EP involved us stripping things back a bit to consolidate the core elements that made up our sound. Our drummer had been away for work for most of the year, so we began performing shows with an analog drum machine from 1979. We decided to take it into the studio with us and it ended up becoming the principal instrument featured on most of these tracks. Much of the lyrical content of the project centers around themes of getting older in an increasingly frightening and hyper-commodified world.”
RN ISMO - ALL I CAN BE
Music, Original MixCommentInspired by Detroit’s influential underground dance scene, RN ISMO brings cutting-edge house music to the forefront of his 4-track EP All I Can Be. Teeming with the timeless sounds of retro dance floors, All I Can Be is at once nostalgic and primed to set the standard for the future of club music. The EP flows seamlessly from one track to the next while staying tethered to its familiar, thumping beat. Shifting between minimalism and intricate musical complexions, the short and sweet extended play is a sophisticated ode to the archetype of the underground.
SAINT VELEZ - WAREHOUSE POETRY
Music, Original MixCommentBrooklyn-based DJ and producer, Saint Velez has emerged out of the notoriously industrial New York scene, cutting his teeth in warehouses from Bushwick to Bedstuy. Having released a slew of singles and EPs in 2021, including his charting number, “Load of My Mind” via Back In Black Recordings, and “Cigarette Cuts” via T78’s Autektone Dark, the rising talent looks to reenter the release radar with his debut full-length LP, Warehouse Poetry via De-Konstrukt Records. A propulsive effort from start to finish, the 10-track album weaves a sinuous path through the New York underground, transporting listeners to a time zone somewhere between sunset and daybreak, scraping the depths of the night. Born out of internal conflict, Warehouse Poetry highlights the trials and tribulations of a raver embedded within the scene, following the highs and lows in an unending journey to sunrise. Following a loose theme based on Liam Neeson’s character in The Gray, who carries a poem from his wife who recently passed in both the film and real life, the LP serves as a reminder of passion in sound, situated outside of a corrupted crowd. Warehouse Poetry successfully encapsulates the weekly odyssey of the dedicated raver, escaping from the world, only to emerge yet again.
FREYA BEER - LOVE CHILD
Music, Original MixCommentCreating her own genre, glam noir songstress Freya Beer just dropped her new single “Love Child.” Surveying femininity in its proximity to tragedy, the composition, from songwriting to instrumentation, is powerful, seductive, and dramatic. Brushed with strokes of grunge grandeur and alt-pop aromas, Freya Beer’s “Love Child” is striking.
Speaking on the track Freya says, “My new single ‘Love Child’ is an important release as it touches upon the subject of ‘gaslighting.’ In comparison to my previous releases, this is not a love song. The lyrics speak from the experience of coming across individuals in life who undermine and try to claim your knowledge and creativity by opposing themselves as the victim in the situation they’ve caused. The subject of the song is something which I haven’t touched upon in my songwriting before but being able to share it on a wider platform and become a story which people can relate to is a way of telling my story.”
A melodramatic delight with an edgy appeal and empowering themes, “Love Child” is worth the replay.
