With a voice that balances the fragility of Amy Winehouse against the sheer power of Aretha Franklin, Singer-Songwriter Emi Wes has spent the last couple of years working with Danish Songwriters and experimenting with different genres to perfect her musical craft.
The stars aligned for Emi, as she eventually found the core of her musical foundation; a sound that is completely hers. Entering a new collaboration with renowned producer Robin Hannibal, Emi is ready to kickstart her career with the release of her new single ‘Issues’.
Brimming with rawness, the harmonious piano-led melody graciously weaves through silky strings as it reaches the chorus; creating the perfect springboard for Emi’s gripping vocals. Its execution is mournful and pure yet tinged with a hint of optimism which appears to define her unique compositional style.
Emi’s debut EP ‘Departure’ is due to land 13th November 2020, via No Rules No Limits.
South London’s Oscar Jerome announces details for a forthcoming remix package spawned from his successful debut album ‘Breathe Deep’, out now through Caroline International. Featuring reworks from Joe Armon-Jones (Ezra Collective), Franc Moody, Shy One and The Colours That Rise, Oscar is trailing the November 20 release of ‘Breathe Deep Remixes’with the Nightmares On Wax version of fan favourite ‘Give Back What U StoleFrom Me’ – now streaming here.
The upcoming remix bundle – which also features the drumming of Black Midi’s Morgan Simpson – is the first new music from Jerome since the release in August this year of ‘Breathe Deep’, which saw him link up for collaborations with Lianne la Havas, Brother Portrait (Steam Down) and bandmates from Brownswood-signed Kokoroko, amongst others. Following previous packed-out headline tours around the US, UK & Europe (with London sell-outs at Heaven, Village Underground and EartH) and a support slot opening for Kamasi Washington, Oscar’s postponed UK headline tour in support of ‘Breathe Deep’ – which received airplay
across 6Music, 1Xtra, Radio X and Radio 1 – will be rescheduled to 2021 due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Though asserting himself as a jazz trailblazer in his own right, across ‘Breathe Deep’ Oscar celebrates the creative community around him, paying tribute to guitar greats like George Benson, Grant Green and Kenny Burrell and taking cues from the sounds of afrobeat, West African funk, broken-beat and 60s Latin American soul jazz. He carves out thoughtful songs that vary from personal odes to family, friends and past relationships (including ‘Coy Moon’ – remixed here by The Colours That Rise) to politically-charged cuts about climate change and environmental activism (‘Sun for Someone’ – given the remix treatment by Franc Moody and Shy One), the shameful treatment of refugees in Western Europe (‘Your Saint’ – remixed here by Joe Armon-Jones) and rallies against the corporations and governments that perpetually take from the poor (‘Give Back What U Stole From Me’).
Talking about his debut, Oscar says: “‘Breathe Deep’ is a pretty broad presentation of who I am musically and my journey to get to this point. On a personal level, it’s a reflection of the effort put in during that path of self-bettering, both emotionally and in life more broadly. It’s about preparing oneself for failure and growing from that. Taking a moment to step back and see where things are going and where one has been.” On top of that, Oscar explains, it also addresses “the resilience of people, which is reflected in the more political moments on the album.”
Born in Norwich but upping sticks to London to study at the Trinity Laban Conservatoire (Fela Kuti, Moses Boyd), Oscar is now a staple of the capital’s burgeoning nu-jazz scene. Previously working with everyone from Yussef Dayes to Shabaka Hutchings and Moses Boyd, Oscar also starred alongside Ezra Collective’s Femi Koleoso and Joy Crookes in the campaign for Stella McCartney’s ‘All Together Now’ collection, performing at its Milan Fashion Week launch. He was also on the bill for the ‘Stellafest 2020’ music festival broadcast on the official Stella McCartney Instagram, playing alongside the likes of Kelis and Brian Wilson.
‘Breathe Deep Remixes’
Give Back What U Stole From Me (Nightmares On Wax Remix)
Give Back What U Stole From Me (Nightmares On Wax Remix – Dub)
Snowk’s‘Under The Moon ft. J.Lamotta Suzume’ has just been released via Namy& Records and Warner Japan. The single will dance its way into your heart with Tel Aviv-born, Berlin-based singer J.Lamotta Suzume‘s powerful vocals standing out.
Speaking of the single, J.Lamotta Suzume tells us, “Last summer, I found myself working mainly on projects with people from Japan, and the collaboration with Snowk was one of them. When I first heard his beat, my feet started tapping on the floor. I started singing some ideas over it, and everything came together. The lyrics came relatively quickly, the melodies were flowing out, and I was dancing. It’s easy to collaborate with such freedom. Snowk and I never met in person, but we managed to get things done from far away and with mutual trust.”
The duo could be considered “Kitsunéprotégé” as they have had several releases with the label, contributing to their tidy count of over 2 million plays across streaming platforms.
Driven by its crisp electronic percussion, ‘Night Summer Waiting’ recalls the majestic dream-pop masterworks of Still Corners or Chromatics. The song was written earlier in 2020, at a small Italian hilltop town under the fading Summer sun.
“Watching the world with restless eyes… keep up, don’t fall behind” sings Teresa Woischiski, lyrics defiant with notions of escapism, yet tinted with a world-wary melancholy. “Night Summer Waiting, what you keep within, you can do without”, she lulls, her crystalline vocal rising through layers of dreamy atmospheric synthesisers and elegiac piano motifs.
The Ghost of Helags are singer-songwriter and producer duo Teresa Woischiski and John Alexander Ericson. Hailing from Sweden and now located in Berlin, the pairing combine the dream pop sounds of their Scandinavian roots with the electronic nuances inspired by their newfound home and beyond. ‘Night Summer Waiting’ is the latest in a string of innovative and exploratory tracks by the duo and follows recent 2020 singles including the Chemical Brothers-inspired ‘Parallel’ and the seductive Lynchian-inspired synth-pop of recent single ‘Chemistry’. Other highlights of their continually expanding repertoire include the New Music Friday playlisted debut single ‘I Carry Your Heart’, ‘Autobahn Lullaby’ (a tribute to their Berlin home) and 2019’s hymnal ‘The Santa Rosa Song’.
