Indie dance duo MIDNIGHT MYSTERY CLUB enters into 2024 with all guns blazing with their latest album, ‘Aesthetics Vol.1’, released earlier this month, 11th January.
Known for their blurringly chilled and spanky pieces that’s fit for lounging in the balearic sun, the guys have taken a slightly different direction, adopting a deeper and darker baseline that offers another form of tranquility. Having said that, towards the ending of the collection, ‘Stay Young Forever’ and ‘Only Dancing’ somewhat retains the trademark of vibrantly mesmerising soundscapes which radiates a warm sunny glow.
It’s great to see that Midnight Mystery Club are back in good form, using their stellar skills as producers. Their latest album just displays that they were very worthy of being winners of 2018 Independent Music Awards in the Electronic/Dance Producers of the Year.
Fresh from supporting Griff on her only Australian headline show at Sydney’s Metro Theatre earlier this month, celebrated and widely beloved Eora/Sydney R&B artist, musician, producer, engineer and music video director MILAN RING shares her latest single ‘Quicksand’, out now via Astral People Recordings.
Hallmarking her emergence into a playful and inquisitive new era, ‘Quicksand’ also acts as a tether to Milan’s previous incarnation, finding her addressing and reflecting on her younger self. With stacks of soulful, autotuned harmonies, shimmering, celestial-toned synth arps, a dusty beat and accents of Milan’s ever-nimble guitar work, she touches on past struggles of breaking through glass ceilings and imposter syndrome to presently wanting to be held in love by someone, “but also the polarity that ultimately you need to hold yourself,” she explains. ‘Quicksand’ is the sound of gracefully sinking into the compassion and the care that comes from accepting your own capacity to contain multitudes, sometimes harmonious, other times in contradiction, but always yourself.
Of the track, Milan elaborates: “Quicksand is about accepting yourself as you are and allowing love in. Having the safety and grounding of a love that allows you to take risks, go forward and break through the limitations and barriers that the world places on us, and that we internalise. The metaphor is that even when you appear to be climbing, the ladder is simultaneously sinking without that solid foundation”.
‘Quicksand’ follows up the previously released ‘Mangos’, a balmy and love-struck single that marked Milan’s return to new solo music since the release of her acclaimed 2021 debut LP I’m Feeling Hopeful. Co-produced by 18YOMAN, ‘Mangos’ landed as the fullest and most distilled expression of Milan Ring’s beguiling talents to date, seeing the multi-faceted artist weaving the Guzheng into her songwriting for the first time in a purposeful nod to her Chinese heritage. A homage to a summer love affair, crackling with humidity and longing, oozing a weightless, hazy giddiness, ‘Mangos’ earned praise and support from the likes of BBC Radio 1’s Jack Saunders, COLORS, NME, ACCLAIM, Wonderland Magazine, Northern Transmissions and many more, alongside rotation adds in Australia from Double J, FBi Radio, 2SER and airplay across triple j and community radio stations around the country.
OK, as promised, here are the top ten albums of 2023.
If you fancy some UK R&B, or maybe some afrobeats fused with smooth R&B, futuristic/dreamy pop or some good old hard-hitting bars, well you’re definitely in the right place! Just get to it and hit play on each beauties below! If you’re feeling any of the collections, please like, or better still, leave a comment below.
Be sure to check NEW LEASE MUSIC’s Top Ten Singles of 2023 tomorrow. I hope you enjoy the albums below…
Hey, Hey, Hey! Happy New Year guys! I hope you had an eventful festive period.
It’s that time of the year NEW LEASE MUSIC ramage through and pick out the top releases of 2023! Today, we start off with the best music videos featured on the blog in the past year. So why not sit back and check them out – oh and if you’re really digging these videos, why not leave a comment below.
Be sure to look out for NEW LEASE MUSIC’s Top Ten Albums of 2023 later today!
10. Sometimes Relax – LLAMAN x Pitch 92
9. Freak Out – Jessica Wilde
8. Face Off Part 1 – Quincy
7. PTSD – Dax
6. Iron Right – DJ Drama, Boosie Badazz & OMB Peezy ft Trouble
Hackney rapper NICKI KNIGHTZ latest EP, ‘Lonely Girls Hearts Club’ is a rollercoaster of both extreme highs and painful lows, produced by genre bending partner in crime Henny Knightz. This is her third project following 2020’s ‘For The Uninformed EP’.
‘Lonely Girls Hearts Club’ is an 8 track play which marries early 2000s nostalgia, rap, avant garde samples and classic 808s. A both playful yet intense overlook of how traumatic experiences lead to partaking in activities that are riddled with self-sabotaging themes, which in turn ties into the projects title.
Opening track ‘Lonely Girls Hearts Club’ (Intro)’ tells of how NIcki came to refer to herself as a ‘lonely girl’ relaying her experiences of council estate living and being painfully different from the accepted norms. It also celebrates the solace she found once discovering equally talented and artistic outcasts. Accompanied by a cinematic video which exhibits Nicki and three fellow ‘lonely girls’ that the world has turned its back on. Though they experience extreme highs when together, once alone they are left grappling with sombre thoughts and intense emotions. Inspired by the hit movie ‘Set It Off’ to fight back they take their destinies into their own hands.
Second track ‘Along Came Molly’ a retelling of the high and lows of the experimentation with MDMA, over a whimsical, stripped back bed of instrumentation with Nicki’s husky vocals stabbing through prominently.
Third track ‘Step With Me’ ft. Joe Jas , A nostalgic song with heavy influences from the much praised 00’s era with braggadocios lyrics, smooth tones and a catchy hook By JoeJas. Henny Knightz taps into the early 2000’s creating a beat that brings you straight back to the times of MTV in the first few seconds. A song that has a true sense of individuality, with three of the most distinctive, artistic individuals from London’s weird and wonderful Alternative Hip Hop scene.
Fourth track ‘You Want Me’ ft. Tai A song that explores the fantasy of a girl next door crush, that you are then able to explore and the thrill that it provides, once attained. A quite mellow and chilled, sexy instrumental that features East London multidisciplinary artist Tai.
Fifth song ‘Bigger Things’ ft. Ivohé delves into the nuances of working a 9-5 whilst also trying to fund and prioritise a dream. Berlin based artist Ivohé’s angelic voice reinforces the message being shared.
Sixth song ‘ICY’ Sonically a lot more darker and a lot more focused on rapping capabilities, Nicki vents her frustrations on recent experience, a fuck you so to speak to all.
‘Cherry’ ft. RETROPXSSY, an exploration of how Nicki came into her sexuality. Retropxssy blesses the chorus with her experimental performance, reiterating that sometimes the ‘normal’ way isn’t always meant for everyone.
The multifaceted, multi-layered project, ends with ‘P.O.V’. A song told from a perspective other than Nicki’s. “I created this song not from my own experience, but from a lot of females point of view that I have spoken with. The first verse is me speaking from a woman who is going through domestic, sexual abuse with her partner at home and how on the gram, socials she presents to be happy/perfect but really, she is struggling, she is broken. The second verse then speaks from the male’s perspective who is inflicting the abuse, where he speaks on how he became to be this person, from watching his father do the same to his mother.”
A voice for the outcasts, routing out of Hackney, rapper Nicki Knightz’s emotional turmoil is easily identifiable through her husky tone and self-descriptive lyrics over demanding, bass fuelled alternative production. Nicki’s voice is still nothing short of ‘unique’ and raw, accompanied by her partner @hennyknightz left-field production, making her ‘sound’ even more of a breath of fresh air categorising it underneath the genre – Alternative HipHop. Nicki Knightz released her first EP ‘Hate’ in late 2018, celebrating its release by headlining her own show at Old Blue Last in Shoreditch with supporting artists @HennyKnightz & @BZERK.
2020, Nicki Knightz returned to share an important message about her mixed-race identity with the release of ‘For The Uninformed’ during a pivotal time in history – the uprise after the George Floyd protests. The E.P was congratulated by Toddla T praising ‘India Arie’ by making it his ‘coldest record of the week’ on Radio 1 commenting “this is special, “I’ve never heard anything like it”.
Mid 2022, Nicki released her lead single “Lonely Girls Hearts Club” with a cinematic visual, that premiered on KALTBLUT Magazine – Germanys leading indie print / online magazine for Art, Fashion, Music.
Why not check out ‘Lonely Girls Hearts Club below…
Must Listens: You Want Me?; Bigger Things; Cherry; POV
