Song of The Day: Remember Me – Oparu

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Today’s very tasty dish of the day is OPARU’s debut single Remember Me, which boasts a stunning fusion of haunting pop, paired with operatic vocals and dark experimental electro.

OPARU is the musical endeavor of Los Angeles based songwriter, singer and actress Dianna St. Hilaire. Originally from Albuquerque, New Mexico, St. Hilaire started to write and perform music at a very young age in choir and musicals. Self taught, her first instrument was the piano and she worked tirelessly at the craft of reading and writing music.

When St. Hilaire was in her late teens, she began performing with punk bands and for producers as a back up/ studio vocalist in New Mexico, where she took on her first musical alias, the highly successful group Versailles. Partnering with the infamous Kim Fowley (The Runaways, Kiss, Joan Jett, Alice Cooper), she has toured the US extensively, been featured on the official Grammy ballots, as well as charting on Billboard. Versailles’s music was also on rotation with popular stations across the U.S. including KROQ and NPR tastemaker KCRW. St. Hilaire reinvented herself in late 2015 as OPARU, deriving from the Japanese name of the birthstone opal.

The next chapter in her musical journey, is the highly anticipated Remember Me, out now on iTunes…before you go, have a listen.

New Music Video: Fvxk With You – Angel (ft. Rich Homie Quan)

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Hot on the heels of a huge summer which saw him bring his mesmerising vocals and must-see stage performances to both Wireless and V Festivals, UK R&B singer-songwriter ANGEL has shown no signs of slowing down with the release of his new EP HER earlier this month – which has already been streamed almost 400,000 times in less than two weeks – and now the brand new visual for his track Fvxk With You featuring US rap artist Rich Homie Quan.

Sampling 90s girl-group Jade’s iconic New Jill Swing jam Don’t Walk Away, ANGEL continues  with his unique mix of addictive 90s samples mixed with his distinctive, soulful vocals on the Harmony Samuels produced Fvxk With You. With west London meeting America’s ‘dirty south’, delivered courtesy of an explosive 16 bars from Rich Homie Quan, the Atlanta, Georgia hip-hop artist currently taking the music industry by storm, Fvxk With You has already started to make a huge splash across both sides of the Atlantic and is set to be taken to the new heights with the new visual, filmed in the rapper’s ATL neighbourhood.

HER EP is a collection of six slick and sultry R&B jams produced by Angel and showcasing his incredible songwriting ability and flair for hypnotic hooks and earworm melodies. Seeing him continue to build on the waves he created with his previous releases this year, the EP features two further new tracks, the soon-to-be new favourites Thelma and Louise and the Bobby Brown sampling Me & You. HER also includes Hop On featuring rising UK rapper Stefflon Don and the powerful Rude Boy featuring Haile from WSTRN, which along with the remix – which saw him join forces with JME (Boy Better Know), Wretch 32 and Tally – collectively amassed over 2 million combined streams and garnered support from Radio 1Xtra and Rinse FM.

Signed in the US by Motown records VP, Ezekiel Lewis (also responsible for forming the group The Clutch who have gone on to write and produce hits for Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Neyo and more), alongside Island Records, ANGEL continues to reinforce his position as one of the UK’s hottest R&B talents. With Pop and Oak (known for their work with the likes of Chris Brown, Kehlani and Nicki Minaj), Grammy award-winning producer Swiss Beatz, Neff U and Prince Charlez (who recently collaborated with Rihanna on Anti on the list as just some of the credible names Angel has recently worked with, there is no doubt that his debut album is going to rock both sides of the shores, making 2017 and beyond his for the taking.

HER EP Is out now on Island Records.

Album Review: Staring Into Space – Oloff

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After four months releasing his EP Life’s Got You Riveted ( once voted Album of the Week by NEW LEASE MUSIC) OLOFF rounds off the year with his 15-piece album, Staring Into Space, released last month.

The latest project predominantly includes three-minute bursts of his old instrumental recordings dating back to 2012, where this young artist put his smooth spin on vintage/Slum Village-esque hip-hop. This guy is cut from a different cloth; he’s worth a trial – check him out!

Must Listens: Never Was Feeling Poorly, DECRACS, Someone Took.

New Music Video: Dreamin’ – ADI (ft. KDC)

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After a two-year break, which she describes as “a necessary form of artistic hibernation”, Tel Aviv singer/ producer ADI (Adi Ulmansky) returns with a music video to her new single Dreamin’ . The latest banger is the lead single from her forthcoming EP, also entitled Dreamin‘, out next Friday, which also features self penned and produced single Pink Pillz.

Featuring US rapper KDC, Dreamin’  was produced by Eric Dingus (whose work features on Drake’s If You’re Reading This It’s Too Late). This is the first project that ADI has enlisted external producers whilst still co-producing the entire EP – a mix of R&B, hip-hop with futuristic beats.

Back in 2013, ADI turned heads with her debut mixtape, Shit Just Got Real and follow-up EP  Hurricane Girl a few months later. Jay Z’s Life and Times mag called her “matchless”, Vice claimed that they’re “obsessed with ADI“, while The Guardian noted that she took “her love of Radiohead and transformed it into clattering, MIA-esque pop”.

New Track: Sirens – UNNO

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NEW LEASE MUSIC regular Awir Leon, J.Kid and Tismé aka – UNNO (The UNexpected NOte) – have just released their latest pop/avant-garde piece Sirens via French label Nowadays Records.

The latest release is the first single of their second EP Silence, which draws up in a swirl where the shooting melody and the trip hop/synth beat seizes the mind, and Awir Leon’s vocals dives into a universe made of mirages.

The band released their first EP As We Land and As We Land (Take Off Edition EP) – which includes a bonus new track and a remix by fellow Nowadays Records recruit BRNFKD.  With the forthcoming release of their second EP, UNNO continues to explore and experiment with layers of electronic/pop/trip-hop textures; a unique sound that only exists through the chemistry between the three personalities.

Have a listen for yourself… check out Sirens.