Don't you hate it when something really exciting happens and you aren't allowed to talk about it. These are all things I will be able to share in the near future, I don't like surprises but that's the way it goes sometimes. Fuck it's like the moment I turned 30 and things just started falling into place. 20's were the "make mistakes but make sure you are also working hard at whatever it is you love to do." Get your heart broken, clean up the mess, pick yourself back up and do it all again until you hit 30 if ...
EXGF – We Are The Hearts (Premiere)
We Are The Hearts...
Have you ever denied yourself the opportunity to make the right decision? i.e. You know shouldn’t take a job for the money, you know the person you’re with isn’t right for you, but you do it anyway, you carry on for the wrong reasons. What makes us so reluctant to choosing our nobler influences and why are we ruled by habitual vices, weak to our desires?
Those are tough questions but often times it’s our own ego hidden in the form of intellect that gives credence to our ego supported qualities. The intellect is nothing more than a middle man ...
Parra For Cuva feat. Anna Naklab – Wicked Games (Original Mix)
The original "Wicked Games" by Chris Isaak has to be one of my favorite songs, the lyrics, and the luring strums of the guitar, it's so effortlessly beautiful and timeless. So when I heard this original mix from Parra For Cuva & Anna Naklab I fell in love all over again. I can shamelessly say that I am in love and it doesn't matter with what or with who, so you can just keep on guessing, but the original is what plays in my head on a weekly basis, and now depending on my mood I now have two versions ...
Marina & The Diamonds – Starring Role
I've been a little under the weather the past few days but I guess that's just the time of year that's why I always like to find new tunes that are a little more upbeat but still have an aggressive message, I just think the majority of us are feeling a little more aggression around this time.
Marina & The Diamonds really hit home lyrically in this track. I have to always stop and remind myself that maybe when we feel a distance from someone in our lives or anything in general its not necessarily us, but maybe the weather or ...
ARTY has consistently been one of the best producers in electronic music for an extended period and he continues to show why on a remix that’s ready for festivals across the globe. He flips Ryan Tedder’s gorgeous vocals on “Future Looks Good” into a pulsating piece of bliss that feels like the widest smiles across a mass of people while mile-high strobes flicker across their faces. There’s a bit of irony with this one dropping during ARTY’s lawsuit claiming that Marshmello plagiarized his work, but hey, I suppose ARTY thinks his future is looking good there! At the end of the day, he’s not letting that hold him down and is releasing some really stunning stuff which i can seriously appreciate!
I have to say, I think the future looks good for me too. I have such a beautiful life with all of my needs fulfilled – wonderful friends, an increasingly comfortable home, a community where I can share my philosophical musings, a meditation home where I can go deep within myself. It’s really quite the rarity to have all your boxes checked off, but hey, that’s what a lifetime of really hard work will do for you. I really think we live on a sacred little rock called Earth where we can be our best selves both here and in the cosmic beyond. I know this post is a little all over the place today, but I’m basking in positive emotions and hope you’re feeling them too!
I had to get a last minute post in before the weekend because Carter Reeves has struck me with one of my favorite songs of the year. He’s been a super consistent artist for as long as I can remember, but this new one is like everything clicked and he’s ascended to seriously gifted songwriter status. This song has so many gorgeous little moving parts that feel like a full orchestra coming together for a swan song to romance, and with perfect timing, it feels like a swan song to summer too. You can imagine the transition from the bright sun to leaves falling and a cool temperature overtaking everything around you. Maybe that special someone has their head on your shoulder, your breath intertwining as everything feels so quiet, calm, and exactly how it should be.
“Front Porch” evokes a lot of specific memories – childhoods were spent running around them, middle school kisses were had on them, high school smoking was discreetly done there, college drinks flowed there. You could run a timelapse of all that time spent on the most essential part of a house, a place where your community at various parts of your life intersected. As is the case on Carter’s new song, though, all of that accelerates into one point of memory before dissipating into the present moment. It’s really beautiful stuff that has me in a positive, contemplative mood going into a cool weekend.
Delacey has pure pop radio potential but she flexes soulful roots on a new single that feels more fitting for the coolness of college radio, or hell, even your local alt-rock station. The diversity of her talents is just mind-blowing and positions her as truly nothing less than a star in waiting. “Actress” is a beautifully woven outing with lush, organic instrumentation and vocals that have a bit of uplifting ’70s sunshine, some early ’00s pop dramatics, and lyricism that’s absolutely part of the now, straight forward without a word of her thoughts minced or left unsaid. She says to not believe a word that comes out of her mouth, but I’ll de damned if I’m not hooked on every word and in full belief of the story she weaves throughout “Actress”. I can’t recommend enough to put this on repeat.
I went through phases of acting, trying to be someone I wasn’t in my past. I thought I had to fit into certain molds and not stray the path. These days, I’m my authentic self. I’m super into meditation and spirituality, but I’m also into watching football all weekend long. I’m into old school hip-hop, but I can also appreciate a good electronic song when I hear it. None of these things are mutually exclusive or warrant holding back on one to embrace the other. Enjoy whatever the fuck you want, because we only have a set amount of time in this physical incarnation and every moment should be spent with something that fulfills us, not something that’s just to hold up a fleeting appearance.
The Geek x VRV have officially delivered the vibiest single of 2019. This one is pure atmospheric waves, slowly floating you through a sonic mist where sounds come from every direction and naturally dissipate into the next drip of aquatic direction. If they’re trying to take us back to the year 1831 through the lens of modern electronic production, then it’s totally working because this feels like an exercise in making time a flat circle, where the past and present intersect. It’s just as grounded in centuries-old tradition as it is in 2019, the line between the two blurring as The Geek x VRV’s combined forces with Fakear and Balkan Bump makes the world’s timeline fold in on itself.
This week I’ll be revisiting the past through a present lens by going home to see family. Rather than viewing it as a trip to farm nostalgia, I’m using the comfort of the past to offer a release from the troubles of the present. I can slip into the locales where I spent my childhood while keeping my spiritual practices in the forefront, using the past as a launching point for present progress. In the past I let myself slip too deep in nostalgia and became enveloped by old trains of thought, almost reverting to a teenage state of mind where my adult conceptions were temporarily wiped away. It was a reminder that all the work we’ve done must be consistently maintained – we didn’t magically get here and more work must always be done!
Else come through with an absolute thriller in music form called “Back To 8” that feels like a Nicolas Winding Refn soundtrack that burst off the frame and came to life. There’s a beauty and tension that intertwine with one another, inspiring awe and suspicion at the same time. You can’t help but be sucked into the electronic atmosphere that this track weaves and feels like the perfect follow up to “Night Thoughts” which was their equally impressive single that came out earlier this year. This one is proof that music can be cinematic and drives layered, nuance feelings rather than just serving as a one-dimensional product to be experienced on a singular level. This is serious art.
I’ve been on an art kick through novels and film recently. I watched Tarkovsky’s Stalker last night which was a philosophy lecture in the form of sci-fi, using the genre as a vehicle to meditate on faith, religion, and human existence at large. I’ve also been deep into Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment along with Kafka’s The Trial, both of which paint vivid portraits of bleak aspects of humanity whether it’s the urge to hurt another when given freedom or the disillusionment of the individual under an authoritarian government. All three of these pieces offer deep perspectives in their own rights, showing that whether it’s music or film or novels, we are offered a deep chance at ascension.
“Worth It” has the building tension of an electronic club song with the release of Purity Ring esque exhilaration. It’s pure catharsis in audible form, an ode to self-love that feels like a giant sigh of relief as all the serotonin and endorphins rush through the brain like a dam that’s been plugged up for years finally breaks and water crashes through, a piece of manmade hinderance returned to its natural state. That feeling stretches throughout Las Aves’ new album which is a beautiful array of sounds that exist everywhere from abrasive Crystal Castles beckoning synth stabs to bubbly Max Martin era pop drama. The trio offers such pure versatility and I can’t recommend checking out the entire thing enough. If you like what you hear on “Worth It”, I promise you’re going to be blown away once I’ll Never Give Up on Love Until I Can Put a Nameon It buries itself within your psyche.
In a sense, a return to the spiritual center of pleasure, like that dam breaking, is a return to the natural as humans are meant to be an expression of the purest of intentions in our universe. We’re not supposed to suffer – suffering is a manmade concept that occurs when we stray away from the light. I sure as hell don’t mean that in the sense of “sinning” of course, but instead in the way that artificial hierarchies in society cause us to feel terrible about ourselves or make us outright oppressed, depending on the group. It’s impossible for all of society to have that “fuck it, let it all go” moment at once, but it feels amazing to take your power back and experience personal liberation.
I’ve written quite a bit about Broken Back so I’m stoked to see Allen Farben take on “One By One” and flip it into a feel good track that seems like the perfect swan song as summer fades into the fall. It’s like a subtle little anthem that makes you want to sway back and forth with the percussive groove before releasing into a head rush of a hook that’s equivalent to an exhilarating purge of all negative emotions and only feeling the purest good in your heart and in the world. This track has a proverbial heart of gold where you can hear the best of intentions in every note, a song made to inspire and uplift anyone who fortunately stumbles across it from now and beyond.
You have to take life slowly, one step at a time. If you’re looking to better yourself, you can’t make a 180 degree change in one fell swoop. You have to approach the process piece by piece, strategically choosing which part of yourself to better and strengthening it until you have the power and courage to take the next course of action. It might be frustrating to those who want instant gratification, but if you want to build a foundation with longevity rather than the, let’s say McMansion quality of metaphorical home, then you need to invest in a lengthy process that will pay dividends for the rest of your life. Take things slow and watch the results slowly but surely unfold.
Luis Crucet’s new single is an absolute masterclass in clean, crisp production that strikes deep with each and every pocket encroached. It’s so dense yet so clear, offering a full breadth of atmospherics that toy with the mind while overwhelming the immediate senses – a beautiful balance is struck that commands nuanced attention. The vocals add yet another wonderful layer to the mix, reminding me of mid 2000s dramatics that peppered my playlists, invoking a sense of nostalgia while looking toward the future. I’d highly advise to throw on a pair of quality headphones for this one and slip deep into the world that Luis Crucet has conjured.
I’d been walking through mental fog and mist for a long time. I could see what was directly in front of me, but I had no conception of what lied beyond. It was a part of my life where that lack of sight helped facilitate my sense of safety, but I’ve made a massive turn that’s given me the confidence to shine down through the fog and look toward the horizon. I’m seeing the beauty in nature, feeling the connections of truly listening to others, I’m experiencing art and philosophy on a deeper level, everything has come into focus like I’d been stumbling through life until now. I love my past self, but I’m excited for the new journey that’s just begun and what awaits.
Luke Wylde and Rhea Robertson offer up an absolutely powerful level of synergy on their collaborative new single. It’s a gritty anthem that feels equal parts dive bar and arena stage, the guitar licks sounding like the smoke of cigarettes wafting through your local club while the vocal hook is equipped for arms waving back in forth and controlled unison across the Staples Center floor. It’s a brilliant piece of modern alt-pop inflected with all the right bits of rock that sets itself so far apart from the cookie cutter tracks with a team of mad scientists (read: underpaid songwriters getting less than ideal cuts) behind them. Turn this one all the way up and you’ll immediately feel the middle-finger attitude this one is espousing from beginning to the very end.
Sometimes you have to save yourself. We’re a communal species of shared energy, but in this present moment, we only exist in one body and it deserves the maximum amount of preservation and respect. Don’t take the proverbial bullet for someone – you’ll not only spare them of what the universe is offering as a moment of necessary growth, but you’re sacrificing yourself all for what, an act of hindering progress? Does it sound selfish? Maybe, but I don’t think it’s unfair to consider the value of yourself and cherish it – there’s duality to all things in life, so while you maintain the spiritual practice of love and community, you must also maintain the spiritual practice of conservation. That’s how this one little mind on the speck of a speck of rock in the speck of a galaxy in a vast universe sees it, anyway.
