Playlists

Playlist of the Week (2018/50)

Playlist of the Week, No 50: Chill Sesh by FancyFoxx #POTW

This POTW has been on my list to cover for a while.  It’s Chill Sesh, from Fancy Foxx Music. This is one smooooth playlist, steeped in loungey, funky-jazz vibes.  It feels both clubby and yet very horizontal.  It’s a bit late in the year, I know, but some of the songs feel quite summery, too, as there are various songs that are either reggae beat or have a clear West Indian influence. We can dream of beaches in the middle of autumn, right?

Fancy Foxx is a small label that has been around for a couple of years, and has a handful of artists associated with it. Their image is very much ‘the life & soul of the party’, whereas this playlist is more like the after-party wind-down at 2am or so when most of the few remaining participants still awake have collapsed into the comfy chairs and have started having deep and meaningful conversations and don’t want to go home. There are still a few people dancing, though – the music’s funky.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/49)

Playlist of the Week: Alex Pope's Hover Car Radio Synthwave/Retrowave collection

This week’s Playlist of the Week is Hovercar Radio: Synthwave/Retrowave/Dark Synth. It’s compiled by Alex Pope, the Bristol based producer behind Dark Smoke Signal, an 80s-inspired synthwave and electronica act. He’s a bass-playing multi-instrumentalist who has been involved in a number of other projects, such as the Hot Freaks. He’s only released a couple of tracks so far under the Dark Smoke Signal moniker, but they’re very well made. If you only listen to one, check out The Big Stage: it’s worth it for the stunning bassline alone, but there’s far more to it. Imagine a synth-pop mashup of Daft Punk, Gorillaz and Kids in America by Kim Wilde and you should be getting close.

This playlist is unabashedly retro. It kicks off with the titles of Blade Runner by Vangelis.  There’s a strong synthwave element running through it, as you might expect, peppered with artists such as Kavinsky, Kalax, Com Truise and Daft Punk as well as the odd 80s classic track. In addition, there are plenty of tracks by artists you might not have heard before.

Playlist of the Week (2018/48)

Playlist of the Week no 48, 2018: Folks & Strokes by Mark Joseph Parsons of Berthmark

This week’s POTW is brought to you by Dubliner Mark Joseph Parsons, who writes and performs as Berthmark. His musical journey started with a tin whistle and a bodhran and expanded to other instruments as time went on. He’s big on story telling – his songs tend to start as short stories and get translated into music after. Being a storyteller, he’s also looking to progress to writing for film.

Mark’s Folks and Strokes playlist has an indie-folk singer-songwriter feel to it, with names you’ll recognise like Van Morrison, Glen Hansard, Ray LaMontagne, The Pogues and Badly Drawn Boy. But there’s a twist – these artists have been paired with independent artists you may not know already, such as Garrett, Katie Ellen and Vic Cracknell. The result is a charming, laid-back folk-fest which is easy to work to.

Playlist of the Week (2018/47)

Playlist of the Week No 47, 2018: Instrumental Awesome by Bruce Forst
This week’s POTW comes from Bruce Forst, the person behind the artist Brusalan. There isn’t a lot of information available about Brusalan online, but what is there seems to suggest that he is trying to make music from ‘happy accidents’, making music experimentally and choosing the parts that turn out to be pleasing to his ears.

The playlist is ‘what it says on the tin’!

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/46)

Playlist of the Week No 46: Filtersweep Collective - Stay Clean 2018This week’s POTW is another from the Filtersweep Collective stable,  Jamie Christie’s Filtersweep Collective – Stay Clean 2018.  I’ve previously introduced you to Jamie in July, when I covered his easy listening/AOR playlist geared up for lazy weekend mornings.

This playlist is a mix of genres tending towards a slightly dark flavour, anchored by the synth-tronica of JJ Christie himself and other indie and synthy artists like Resonanz Kreis and War Syntaire. It’s not all about the synths, though: there’s a good balance of guitar-orientated music in the selection. It also has its lighter moments, such as Robert Maitland’s optimistic song All is Well, and the beautiful cinematic piano piece The Song Without a Name from Merlijn Depré.

All in all it’s a really nice showcase of a variety of independent music – I don’t think there’s a single track in this collection by a mainstream artist.

Rating: “PG” – This playlist mostly avoids songs with the ‘explicit’ label for swearing or adult themes, as the title of the list might suggest, but there are a couple of exceptions with the odd stronger word.

Playlist of the Week (2018/45)

#POTW No 45: Electric Road Trip by Tobi

My Playlist of the Week this time around is Electric Road Trip. As implied in the name, it is full of electronic music of different kinds with the emphasis on pop, EDM and other upbeat styles, and it is a very listenable mix of tunes.

The playlist curator, Toby Davis, is a Luxembourg-based musician and producer who is very much involved in getting independent music into the ears of music fans. He says, “Good producing is like good plumbing: if you do your job right, no one notices.”* He is one of the key figures behind the ‘Monsterthread Community’ of independent music artists, and he also writes for Brash! Magazine as well as being a professional graphic designer and being all over the interwebs. He’s notably active in the  thread on Twitter, which promotes new music from less well known artists.  I’m actually quite surprised that I haven’t written about him before now; that’s clearly an oversight on my part, given how much Toby does on behalf of label-free musicians.

Some of Toby’s recent productions include The Strand by Daniel Feinberg, and Yours by Katie Ellen. He is also a keen remixer – you can hear some examples here.

 

* Bass playing usually follows the same rule, also.

Playlist of the Week (2018/44)

Digital Music Goodness, from Replicant Theory, is this week's playlist of the week.

Digital Music Goodness by the artist Replicant Theory is this week’s Playlist of the Week. It’s full of various forms of electronica, focussing on darkwave, synthwave, ambient and electronica.

The Replicant Theory project originated as a collaboration between two artists in the early 2000s, but after making their first album, one of the members relocated and the project fizzled out. After a couple of failed attempts at getting going again and a second album, Polaroids, Replicant found new momentum after writing two tracks for a zombie shooting game as a result of a chance encounter with a game developer. Since then, as well as releasing more albums of his own, he has collaborated with a number of independent artists (including GJART, whose playlist GJART Loves I featured back in February). Replicant Theory describes the music he makes as a “hybrid of alt-metal, progressive, industrial, electronica & darkwave from the underground.”  There are several good examples of his work, such as Shadows Fall, within the playlist.

 

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/43)

Playlist of the Week: Susan Moss's Monday Playlists - MoonDreams Music Monday and Monday Monday.

One playlister whose name has come up again and again in this series is Susan Moss, because of her dedication to getting independent artists heard. Today I’ve got not one but two playlists of the week for you, both designed to cheer up your Monday (or other days of the week as you see fit), and both compiled by Susan : Monday Monday and Moondreams Music Monday. There’s a variety of music on these playlists, so there’s something in there for just about everyone – except maybe hardcore metal-heads.

Since I last covered one of her playlists, Susan’s released a new single under her Moondreams moniker, called Tropical Breeze, and you will find this on the playlists.  It has a nostalgic 80s vibe to it with lots of vocal layers; I’m hoping that I’ll get to do a remix of it at some point in the next few months, ready for next Summer. Meanwhile I can dream of sunny beaches while I navigate the storm puddles in a relatively wet and chilly UK!

Playlist of the Week (2018/42)

Stoneygate's Playlist of the Week No 42, 2018

This week’s playlist is from ENILSounds, aka Line Munch-Petersen, a “one-woman-band” from Copenhagen, Denmark, whose Traffic Jam List 2018 playlist I featured back in August. Line says about her work, “I make music because I have an urge to. I would love to be able to make a living out of it, but it is not my main goal. That is to be happy while I am doing it.” Line considers her style to be soft-synth electronic pop music, with lyrics about life, love and loss, but says some would label it New Age. In any case, listeners have said her music reminds them of Enya, but with a Joni Mitchell style vocal.

In case it’s not obvious from the title, this playlist is part of a series Line has been curating, to show off the most popular tracks that are trending by independent artists, plus a few from mainstream artists that fit with her vibe. She’s been faithfully creating  new lists of artists’ most popular music since early this year; This is October’s – enjoy!

 

 

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/41)

POTW No 41: Soulful Fox's Chill-out Downtempo Dance Music

This week’s POTW is the fantastic Chillout Downtempo Dance Music, by Soulful Fox, an independent music producer and performer from Liverpool who makes uplifting electronica music that leans towards house, downtempo and liquid drum and bass.

After studying for a music degree, she took a detour and started a career in banking, but  decided it wasn’t for her. She subsequently went into music teaching, which she loved and which also gave her the opportunity to learn music production, using Logic  software. You can find some of her excellent work via this playlist, or at her CD Baby or Soundcloud pages.