Song of the Day: Lazy Light (Remix) – Mieko Shimizu

Remixed by Mercury Prize winner Mike Lindsay (Tunng) and co-written with William D Drake of The Cardiacs, MIEKO SHIMIZU‘s single, ‘Lazy Light’, goes on a laid-back journey through a smoke-filled landscape.

The track opens with pitch bending guitars, much like Connan Mockasin or Mac DeMarco and simmers down into a super chilled stoner backbeat. Mieko’s easy liquid style, backed by haunting vocals from William D Drake create a cocktail perfect for a lazy, hazy summer afternoon with nowhere to go and nothing to do.

Mieko and her brother, Yasuaki Shimizu (also a critically acclaimed artist), arrived in London with a singular goal in mind – to subvert all expectations of a Japanese female artist. A statement of intent, Mieko broke into the UK electronic movement under the moniker of Apache 61, garnering plays by John Peel and quickly building a name across the underground scene dominated by male contemporaries. She soon signed to Haruomi Hosono’s (Yellow Magic Orchestra) label releasing her eponymous album and led to her remixing tracks for YMO. She is an enigmatic live performer and has supported the likes of Goldfrapp, Massive Attack with Riz MC at their Meltdown Festival and with Kraftwerk at Sonar, Barcelona.

‘Lazy Light’ is taken from her album, ‘I Bloom’ released earlier this year… have a listen below…

New artist Alex Frew establishes his arrival with ‘Get Out Alive’ visualiser

Canadian singer-songwriter ALEX FREW announced his debut with his first release, ‘Get Out Alive.’ The young crooner makes his presence loud and clear by showcasing his ability to make each listener relate to the emotions depicted on each verse through his crafted lyricism. Feelings on love lost, emotions still being processed and the uncertainty that comes with navigating each desire, backed by soothing and captivating vocals – Alex Frew’s first release begs you to feel.

Check out the visuals below…

Alice Rowe Releases Single, ‘All Night’ + Announces Debut EP

Urban/pop hopeful ALICE ROWE returns with new single and her debut EP that blends together elements of soul, pop and the classic R&B that everyone loves and needs during these weird times.

Having spent 2020 releasing a plethora of singles, Alice Rowe felt it was time to show off the lushious vocals mixed in with emotional lyricism in this new track. The young creative is known for talking about relationships, whether it’s writing about that spark of meeting someone for the first time or talking about an ex who helps create the mindset of being successful and that being her revenge.

That particular mindset is helped by a number of things, the inspirations of Loyle Carner and Etta James that have helped sharpen her sound as the years have gone on. But the most important part of the mindset has been the success of drawing interest from Radio 1Xtra, BBC Introducing and Capital Xtra as well as the likes of New Music Friday Denmark.

With her debut EP ‘Foreseen’, also released yesterday (4th August), the talented songstress has the belief and courage to become somebody that everyone can admire, which is why when Wonderland classified her as a rising star it was clear to see that the new track ‘All Night’ does just that…Check it out below…

Song of the Day: Who Am I (Black Lives Matter) – Rak-Su

In the light of recent events, and in support of the BLM movement – Watford group RAK-SU have delivered a thought-provoking charity single, ‘Who Am I’.

Written and produced by Rak-Su, ‘Who Am I’ samples John Boyega’s speech at Hyde Park. All proceeds from the release will go directly to their charity of choice, mental health organisation ‘Black Minds Matter’. Read more about the charity, take time out and visit their website: https://www.blackmindsmatteruk.com/.

Speaking on the release, Rak-Su explains: “Who am I is a raw release of emotion from us. We’re fortunate to be living a good life here and have a lot of white friends and fans, yet we felt like it was important to say to them ‘even though you love us, there are people getting severely mistreated or even killed just because they look like we do.’ And whilst it’s not something we’ve ever spoken up about before, it’s not because we never experienced racism; instead growing up we normalised it and just learnt to deal with it. George Floyd’s murder triggered a lot of people including ourselves and this was our way of dealing with it. Ashley’s mother over-heard us working on the song at home and walked into the room crying; this told us that we were definitely saying something important!”

Check out Rak-Su’s hard-hitting video for ‘Who Am I’ below…

ANE Shares ‘Sex Machine’ Music Video

First generation Korean-American R&B/Pop-Soul artist ANE unveils the official music video for her single ‘Sex Machine’.

Featuring New York rapper Qu’ality and produced by Malcolm Fong, the song comes from ANE’s new EP ‘1-800-FANTASY’, released last Friday, (July 24) via Calabasas Records. Although the title of the song is fairly explicit, the Luca Silveira-directed video is a colorful and campy representation of its suggestive theme with fun, inclusive skits and scenarios.

Check it out below…