GAZELLE - ARCADIA

SET SAIL WITH GAZELLE FOR ARCADIA! 

Where do we begin...fourth release of the year, all unique and incredible as Gazelle themselves, each distinctly unparalleled in style, but this....this is something else!    

Like a powder keg in a coal mine, Gazelle explodes down the shaft on Arcadia, a track filled with a combustible mix of raw musical energy and shadowy suspense laden drama!  This is Gazelle's signature cocktail, the masterful interlacing of music and imagery into something primal, that captures and holds your imagination.   Filled with social archetypes, Arcadia returns full circle to those everpresent  Gazelle themes of injustice, freedom, and breaking society's chains!

With a slick, glossy, stylized, Western themed production, as only Gazelle does, it's near impossible to draw the line between where the visual begins, and the musical ends.   

Ryan's vocal stalks in against the opening searing riffs; gritty, raspy, there's danger afoot. The drums and bass ignite a wall of sound, heavy, fast on the clip like rolling thunder, this is Gazelle rock n roll!  

Lyrically Arcadia captures Gazelle's passion and spirit for freedom, and the desire to take control of your own destiny.  The chorus wraps up the ethos of Gazelle with such lines as; "hey hey get off the carousel now, hey hey and speak what’s on your mind."    

Set in the reflection of a four minute Western short, Arcadia fits perfectly into the legend and lore of those who would not forsake to take their chance however slim it might be.  Gazelle are telling you that "Freedom knows her own chime", and to escape you have to find yours!   

Marseille - Freedom

 AND JUST WHAT IS IT YOU WANNA DO?  ....WE WANNA BE FREE....

After being lost in the Jungle for what seemed like a blurry, endless, hazy Summer, Marseille downshift into overdrive  and strike out for Freedom!  

With an air of invincibility that only youth, gigging, and having a Madchester remixed anthem in their arsenal brings, the band makes no shame of their new swagger as they announce; "the new era of Marseille has begun."  What Balls! ...And did I mention the new fifth member of the band?  Yea you know!   

I asked last time round, what they gonna do after Jungle, and they stormed back with Freedom.  Penned as a bit of a love letter to Derby, with the hope their music could bring some spirit back to a city they believe has fallen into the gloom, Freedom delivers!  

There's something in that opening, the bass, the drums, it's familiar, it's Marseille, but something's different.  The drums are heavier, the bass crisper, the sound is tighter, faster!  This is what you get out of gigging, this is a band gelling their sound and moving forward, this is a new Marseille, I'm sold on that.  

The guitars roar in with their signature riffs, rhythm notes cascading over the low end, but the action is quicker,  the timing is spot on.  If you haven't seen the band perform Freedom on Raw Sound TV this past week then you need to now.  There's a steeliness in their eyes, they're attaching the track on all levels, the vocal's ripping it up, and not looking back!

As November rolls in, the Selectors out there begin their track of the year lists, and without getting into the ring with that monster, there's no doubt that Marseille will be taking prominent spots topside of 2022.  Freedom is an unquestionable triumph for the "New Marseille," breaking with the past and setting course on the future! 

FIRE UP THE SUN - MIBBE THINK ABOOT E

 

MIBBE THINK ABOOT...THAT FOUR ON FLOOR....

Rollin' up to the back alley on the electro side of New Music Friday is the immeasurable Fire Up The Sun with their new track Mibbe Think Aboot E.  

Diggin' deep into their eclectic musical arsenal on this release, the duo that are Fire Up The Sun, pull out 120 beats per minute of deep, dark, dubby electro house, laced with their signature social driven freestyle.  

The classic lo-fi beat drops in, and is immediately layered up with phazer effects and elemental old school rave house keyboards to set the groove. Right off this is both a very danceable and mixable set ready track.  

That distinctive Fire Up The Sun freestyle vocal slides in over the beat, urban, dark, and gritty, mirroring the world we find ourselves in today. MC Burnoot, the vocal and lyrical half of the duo lays down a view I think we can all relate to around us; "your world is turned right upside down!"  This is a track who's vocal is very much connected to our place in time, as MC Burnoot reminds us we need; "mindfulness over pridefulness," and oh yea, "only fans is for folk who can't." 

Fire Up The Sun goes out of it's way to remind us that over the beat and a night out, we've all got the power inside us to take care of ourselves, and each other just a little bit better than we are today, weather that's on the dancefloor or socially.  "Get all social media into the bin, Stay out the sun look after your skin," Mibbe Think Aboot E.

 

Lewca - Incredible

 I'M AT A PARTY.....

The original Rockstar himself returns to drop the second single release off of the new album Friday Night Rockstar, due on December 16th - Incredible.  This time our man in France morphs the axman power cords into a deep space, electro, downtempo groove.  Crusin' in a Coop de Ville, Lewca takes us uptown, across 110th street, and brings us back....to the funkiness!    

The beats and cords Lewca's partner S.O.A.P. (aka. Son of a Pitch), Parisian high frequency beatmaker, mixer, and producer, lay down, are pure pure swagger! This is the track Bootsy Collins has on  while piloting the mothership to the outer rim of funk.  

Lewca's vocal comes over the groove; smoky, dangerous, even confessional as he tells you "high as fuck I just have to sing, can't contain the diva within."  Lewca lays down the rapid fire freestyle mid track, and lets you know he ain't given up the mic.  On the edge between reality and legend in my own mind, the vocal takes you on that perfect Saturday night trip out we're all secretly craving, but it's Lewca who's livin it!   

Collaborating with Lewca on Incredible are Ben Samama, James Willows, and Ambre, proving to all who doubt, Lewca is an electromagnet of musical velocity. If you need any more proof just listen to the b-girl chorus and the backing vocals the crew drop in to balance Lewca's husky bender style mic control.  It slides in, hooks you up, and holds on for the rush! 

Incredible musically is a razor and tape, trip-a-delic testament to Lewca's genius!  He's telling you straight up, God made me funky, and I'm glad he made me that way!  

Marseille - Jungle - Vega Rally Remix

 

DEEPER AND DEEPER AND DEEPER INTO THE JUNGLE

Every time I think I've escaped it pulls me back, over and over and over again!

Yea that's the Jungle, you know it, I know it, that groove, those congas, the funkiness, it's infectious, and we're all infected.  

What happens next, damn, Fifty days after release Marseille drops the remix and that's it, we're back.  Deeper, darker, groovier and covered in acid fingerprints, it's on, it's strobin in the big room, and when the bass hits, he who feels it, knows it!

It's just that killer, one hundred percent Madchester, Vega Rally steps in and straps on the remix.  Vega lays down a heavy, and I mean heavy, drumline entry, while the psychedelic  reverb strobes over the seemingly elongated vocals, winding itself like a snake onto your eardrums!  The mix breaks down on the middle eight, and then like a nitrus rush, he unleashes it all at you, and did I say "it's on"! Phazer action on the keyboard layers over the bass and the mix goes on full rave alert.  This isn't just a remix, it's a culmination of an acid trend that's been showing up all over the scene.

I wondered aloud what Marseille would come back with after the Jungle, questioning, how are they gonna follow this up? The Vega remix comes out of total left field, the perfect hook up that I didn't imagine.  But that's what Marseille are doing right now.  They're adding a fifth member, supporting Gazelle, opening up for Jesus Jones - what -  and seemingly every week going out and accomplishing something new that I didn't imagine.  

...NEVER FIND YOUR WAY BACK...  

Lewca is Your Friday Night Rockstar

ITS FRIDAY NIGHT................ROCKSTAR

Chaos is defined as "complete disorder or confusion", and, "behavior so unpredictable as to appear random".  Sounds very much like our world today; Last Orders anyone, to quote the divine vision in Lewca's collaboration with Fire Up the Sun,  "Mate lets face it we ain't gonna make it, but I'll get the last round when it all goes down".  Yea make mine a double!  And if that didn't get you off your ass, then the opening on Lewca's latest collab with Invisible Squirrel Balls Out doesn't mince words, "I'm a dance machine".   

For those who don't know, and what are you waiting for really, Lewca is a master of musical chaos, combining an incredibly observant lyrical eye on modern society, with an eclectic mash up of electro beat hip hop, sonic indie, freestyle drum & bass, and obscure sounds, cut to the chase, play it LOUD.  All of this with an unmatched sense of futile social humor, as he turns the mirror on.....well, us.

Lewca's main partner in musical piracy is S.O.A.P. (aka. Son of a Pitch) a Parisian drum & bass DJ and grandmaster, whom Lewca has been working with since 2018.  Serving as high frequency electro beatmaker, mixer, producer, and whatever other impressive title I can come up with, S.O.A.P. is the primary composer of the musical portrait underpinning Luca's lyrical barrage.      

Their most recent collaboration is the single Friday Night Rockstar taken from the full length fist pumping album of the same name.  Friday Night Rockstar, fueled by influences listed by Lewca as; class A drugs, weed, French wine, Belgian beer and expensive rum (Jamaican no doubt), is a dystopian Saturday Night Fever shaker for the post lockdown world.    

The track opens with screeching electro finger riffs that would easily have been at home in any early 80's big hair metal band, and that's where the zeitgeist begins.  Lewca's vocal proclaims he's a rockstar, "world famous in my neighborhood" and from there it's full strut balls out against the beat.  

Like a caged animal on the loose, the beat, now backed by a distorted searing flange, writhes against the sonic riffs with Lewca's lyrics riding roughshod "killin it one weekend at a time."

  

By the time you catch your breath Lewca and S.O.A.P have already melted the ax metal vibe down into a dark synthie electro acid beat, while Lewca chants prophetically "I'm a rockstar, Friday night rockstar."   

The ethos of Lewca is akin to taking a crosscut saw to forty years of musical history, and reassembling, with the precision of a microsurgeon, the pieces of what we believe music should be, into an entirely new genre.  He's not taking names because he doesn't give a fuck, but he is putting down a marker as an artist ready to attack all your preconceived notions of society, music, and in the end just going balls out! 

The single, digital and vinyl album pre-sale can be found on bandcamp 

Gazelle - Violet Hour Blues

 VIOLET HOUR BLUES

There's an ever so slight chill in the air and the mornings are just a little darker.  All the tell tale signs are there to see, heralding the arrival of cooler days and nights.  To say the Summer was hot would be an understatement, yea it was hot, and yea the music was hotter! 

In a season of unforgettable music, Leicester's mighty Gazelle kept the indie fires burning with two legendary releases.  First their soulie mod inspired Magic Carpet Ride, and followed up by the sheer musical exuberance of  Clementine, kept them squarely in the top of playlists the scene over.  

Gazelle returns September 22rd to a special New Music Thursday with their third release of the season, the emotionally torrent, stripped back, Violet Hour Blues.  Taking a different direction this time the band has released an impassioned tribute to those days when the weight of the world and it's invisible chains bind us down, and yet, we refuse to be bound.  

Ryan's vocal beautifully cascades over an ever so subtle acoustic intro, almost as to channel the approaching change in seasons, when the holidays are over and the world returns to work again.  Backed by the incredibly smooth texture of the guitars and brushes on drums, the band weaves a melodic masterpiece behind powerful freedom yearning lyrics "I refuse to stay where the sun don’t shine," and "still the Winters fog swallowed my sense of purpose."    

With soulful, expressive lyrics that proclaim "when I scream, these chains aren't mine" Gazelle reminds us that mentally we are never prisoners of our physical surroundings.  

And that's it isn't it, you cannot hold that which will not be held.  As the song concludes with the chorus "So let me blow my blues away before the morning does call my name" Gazelle brings us to that special place of tranquility that we all hold in our heart.  

AND AS WE BLOW THE BLUES AWAY SUNSHINE ALWAYS FOLLOWS RAIN