Top-notch curation for music enthusiasts.
All the featured music has come from our submission process or my DM's sometime throughout February. If you'd like to be featured, send your music to the link above. All tunes here can also be found in our official playlists for Lo-fi, Hip Hop, and Jazz.
1) I wish I could savor the flavor of the atmosphere on "Inner City Staycation" by Evening Stroll. The air is thick with a contemplative sensation, I could get lost- no, absorbed into this track. The drums are crisp and keep an apprehensive rhythm behind the ominous keys. A trumpet whims in and out, when necessary, to fill important pockets of time. To me, this is the perfect song for night strolls and after-hour smoke sessions. This feels like the ominous soundtrack to a detective's late-night hunt, to a backdrop of cigarette smoke, a glass of scotch, inside a moody hole-in-the-wall bar.
2) Midnight Cruisin by Lamar Azul & Mindscape simply slaps and needs no other words of validation, but I must talk about the gracious amount of stank they used on this one. The groove is perfect (chiefs kiss). That bouncy bass is probably the hardest bassline I've heard in a while tbh, and the overall feeling of movement in this track is done superbly well. Small details come in and out of frame but it all comes together in such a tightly-knit, glued-together mix. As a Californian, I can also appreciate the West Coast influence in this one. If the knocking drums and bouncy bass weren't enough, a tasteful high-passed sax floats about the song just like the trumpet in the above track.
3) Risky Business by Clifford & Dougie Do feels three-dimensional and transcends being a "listening experience" for me. I can't hear this song without being viscerally transported into a cinematic movie scene somewhere in Europe or Latin America as the most interesting man in the world, on a spicy mission. The percussion is my favorite thing about this piece, sitting so comfy in the pocket, it's satisfying. Like ASMR. And the breakdowns with that organ-like synth are so, so dope. Expertly placed guitar licks leave no rhythmic stone unturned. An excellent tune for anytime of day or night, really.
4) Executive Shine by Afroham, delaney., and Howden is a downtempo gem with a full share of bleeps, bloops, and glitchy, groovy percussion. Just when you think the song will take a direction, it goes in the other. This is a great track with endless evolution and movement for those analytical people (like me) to hold our attention. It's also one of those that you can either get lost in, or use to compliment a downtempo state of mind, and I love the dynamism to that. A trumpet glides around the track elegantly as if on ice skates, waltzing to the rhythm of city lovers under a crisp night sky.
5) Night Glow by Milocero hits a vibe that reminds me of how it felt as a child, wide-eyed at the world, innocent, where everything is a surprise and a journey. Those chords are so nice, accented by a great B-section and thick wood/percussion noises. This is a rather simple track compared to other technical pieces but the atmosphere created in this one feels genuine, and tangible, like I've been there before. It's a mark of talent to convey a message while remaining as simple as possible, and I can appreciate the great work Milocero achieved in "Night glow".
///End
Thanks for taking the time to get deeper into our curation. I'll continue to drop new "top five" issues and reviews monthly. Submit your music here!