After recently scooping the blog’sSong of the Week titlewith latest track Fenin, BEKREATIVE is not slowing down anytime soon. Instead, he digs deep into his archive and drops his 2019 cut ‘Airout’. For this joint, he taps New Orleans’ rapper Anthemusiq who drops some peppery-slick bars over a deeply menacing b-line.
Expect more music from BeKreative throughout the year…but for now, hit play on one of his throwbacks below…
ASHA GOLD returns hot on the heels of her Glastonbury 2022 performance to unveil her first track of the year. Fragrant single ‘Up To Me’ is the epitome of Gold’s artistic identity, an unpredictable and nuanced number with timeless yet innovative qualities. Presenting her staple and silky melodic choreographies, Gold taps at the crossroads of pop and R&B to take ‘Up To Me’ a step ahead into an irresistibly refined sound that is uniquely her.
Speaking of her latest release, Asha Gold says: “I had a lot of fun writing ‘Up To Me’ – the quicker tempo pushed me to be inventive with melody and challenged me to tell a story without crowding the space with too many words. The lyrics encapsulate a sort of playful nostalgia: it’s about growing up and entering the real world, and therefore losing the freedom to carelessly spend hours upon hours with my favourite people. I play on the idea of wanting to keep someone trapped inside so that I can have 100% of their time. Producer Louis hints at this needy, childlike behaviour in the production the beat is incessant whilst the instruments and samples are super playful.”
Having received praise from global tastemakers of Rolling Stone, BBC Radio 1, BBC 1Xtra, BBC Asian Network, The Line Of Best Fit and Colors, Asha is confirmed to be the gift that keeps on giving. She even affirms her strength in the live music scene having performed at Lord’s Cricket Ground for 30,000 people, headlined at Laylow, and opened for Olivia Dean and Tamera.
A massive fan of G-Funk, CNFMUS pays homage to the genre, that emerged from the West Coast scene in the late eighties, with new summer blazing joint, ‘Sophisticated Lady’.
Produced during CNFMUS’ time in Hong Kong, ‘Sophisticated Lady’, emcompassess all the ingredients of the genre – smooth synthesized melodies, lush chords, squishy basses, and classic drum machine samples.
So if you’re also a huge fan of G-Funk, you’re probably itching to check out the single that’ll be add extra fire to your summer…well, go ahead and check out ‘Sophisticated Lady’ below…
There is a special energy created when a rapper and stellar producer have an undeniable synergy. Sydney/Eora based YOUNG FRANCO (pictured on the left) and US based rapper Pell are becoming an international duo that perfectly tap into and reflect the power of collaboration, now releasing their 4th collaborative effort ‘Like That’ alongside fellow Perth raised, Berlin producer Jafunk.
Sonically, Young Franco and Jafunk combine to create a track that reflects the golden era of club driven rap music, pioneered in Virginia by production greats including Pharrell, The Neptunes and Timbaland. Its bounce-ready percussion runs perfectly with quickly strummed guitars and a slapping bass line. On the top line front, Pell is in no rush to get his slick bars off, gliding over the beat with an elegance and class before riding it out with an infectious hook its final third.
Young Franco and Pell have a track record of creating successful musical outings. Their first outing, Juice spent 9 weeks at the #1 position on Spotify’s flagship indie playlist Front Left, BBC Radio 1 Spins from Annie Mac and Molly King, as well as featuring as Zane Lowe’s ‘Next Wave’ artist on Beats1. Then followed Fallin’ Apart alongside Denzel Curry, which featured as the soundtrack for an Apple Airpods campaign, which was viewed over 4 million times. It also sat at #1 on the US Shazam discovery Chart for 4 weeks and has seen over 5 million likes on TikTok and 700 million views.
Jafunk enters the equation with distinct swagger and energy. The Perth raised; Berlin based producer has become renowned in local circles for his funky & soulful take on traditional house music. His remix of Set Mo’s Chasing Forever has achieved over 5 million streams, with his follow up songs receiving millions on plays being hosted on tastemaker channels including Majestic Casual, The Sound You Need and Selected.
Young Franco’s past two years have been his biggest yet. He’s currently sitting on over 135 million streams across all singles to date, with over 1 million monthly listeners on Spotify. In that period of time he sound tracked the new-look Australian Football League, and has received global sync’s for brands including Apple, Starbucks, Topshop and Kia. Currently, he’s touring the United States and has locked in massive festival slots at Lollapalooza, Falls Festival, Spilt Milk & Lost Paradise.
Following on from singles, ‘Forgotten’ (released in April) and ‘Like A Ghost’ ( released in June), dreamy alt-pop act, BITE THE BOXER dishes up his third release, ‘Way Out’, which combines a gritty and melancholic influence from 90s trip-hop with lush synths and vocal production from modern alternative pop, to set a mood that takes the listener on a journey to a dark place but in a comforting way.
Bite The Boxer (AKA Matt Park) often produces his music live on Twitch streams and has this to say of his process: “Writing music live with people watching encourages me to trust my instincts and produce by feel; nobody wants to watch me do fine tuning and tweaks for 2 hours. I try to avoid over-thinking the process. If I can finish a 2.5 hour stream with the bulk of a song finished, and it sounds good then that’s an ideal result.”
‘Way Out’ was released last Friday (5th August) across various music platforms. Check out the video for the single below…