After his “Tracks” EP, some singles and collaborations that led the way in his artistic production, Souvlaki announces the release of “Continued Survival”, his second EP, anticipated by the launch of the single “7LUNGS”. The track combines the electronic and ambient sounds that have already become the Italian artist’s trademark with hip-hop and drum&bass influences, in a hybrid between soft atmospheres and grooving rhythm. Slim Gong lends his voice for some top notch hip-hop phrasing in French, adding another layer and a new contamination to a multifaceted and experimental track, which yet gets to sound spontaneous and balanced. Souvlaki, who sinks his musical roots into the solid ground of electronics, ambient and alternative, does not hide his natural will to experiment and push himself into new territories. His creative process reveals his curious and attentive personality.
In his words: “I like ‘7LUNGS’ a lot in terms of writing, but I admit that it was difficult to finish. I wanted to create another “hip-hop” song like “Fellow”, which I published earlier. But the first version of ‘7LUNGS’ could not fit in the sound of the record, it had a nice modern tone but too far from the rest, I was one step away from removing it from the EP. Then fortunately, I was able to find what I was looking for and from there, I built the ending (the drum&bass beat was created by Simone Piccinelli, with whom I collaborated). Dark, obsessive, distorted, a bit as if the song wrecked towards the real sound of the EP. The song still sounded unfinished, a nice base but without the decisive hook. Again, through Simone, I got in touch with Slim Gong and then all the pieces of the puzzle fit together perfectly. His contribution, in French, is probably what makes this song the most complete on the record in my opinion”.
“7 Lungs” is available on all major digital platforms
“Continued Survival” EP, produced by Souvlaki and Simone Piccinelli at La Buca Recording Club and mastered at Woodpecker Mastering will contain 6 unreleased tracks, including the single proposed here and will be officially released on January 15th.
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’.
Having captured the attention of i-D, The Quietus and EARMILK, Los Angeles based creative crooner Raven Artson combines his internal monologue with enigmatic pop culture and underground art.
Returning with new single ‘Whatever’, Raven delivers a powerful testimony; to empower your authentic self. Intertwined with a synth-fuelled melody and a hint of autotune, a detail which compliments his ethereal vocals; the new woozy bop sees Raven step out of the shadows to present his most confrontational outpour of emotions yet.
He says: “Whatever was written in a stream of consciousness, the words just poured out of me. When finished the brutal honesty struck me. I created a mirror, forcing myself to look into my own eyes.”
As a highly ambitious singer-songwriter who creative directs his own shoots and produces for artists including Sevdaliza, Pip Blom and Ray Fuego, Raven can just about do anything. More recently he started curating his own interdisciplinary shows, which has led fashion designers like Hardeman and Hanger Inc. to collaborate with artist like himself, True Blue, Beskhen and Cosima.
With a new EP, Raven is ready to take the next step in his career: “As a person I try to be as honest as possible in my relationships. It’s exciting to share music that’s just as genuine.”
Ultraflex is made up of Norway’s Farao & Icelandic musician Special-K. Who have announced their debut album ‘Visions of Ultraflex’ is set for release Oct 30th. Packed with playful disco pop, the new single & video from the record “Work Out Tonight“ is online now.
Speaking about the video, the band said “‘Work Out Tonight’ is the first in a trilogy of Ultraflex videos directed by genius artist and our good friend OKAY KAYA. Bathing, sunshine, pickles… We decided to give our fans a special glimpse into our everyday lifestyle.”
‘Visions of Ultraflex’, the self produced album by Icelandic/Norwegian duo Ultraflex is a joyride through a disco theme park. The conflux of the individually accomplished artists, Farao (NO) and Special-K (ISO), channels the cheekily frank Icelandic nature through Norwegian acuteness and reason, resulting in an interdisciplinary artistic collaboration that oozes charisma.
The pair met when they were both living in Berlin and had mutual artistic crushes on each other. The opportunity to collaborate arose when they were hired to make a piece for the Scandinavian electronic music festivals Insomnia and Extreme Chill in 2019. After a few short, intense writing sessions in the remote Westfjords of Iceland, the arctic Tromsø and Berlin, they managed to construct their sound, image and debut album.
‘Visions of Ultraflex’ is a cocktail of contemporary disco and futuristic boogie, the production style falling somewhere between Peggy Gou and The Rah Band, topped with lyrics and vocal performances reminiscent of Easter, Saâda Bonaire, and Janet Jackson. Live, they perform exercise routines in synchronisation with visuals largely based on 80’s Soviet aerobics, which goes well with their overall fashion output, a look that would make Lotta Volkova proud. The project has an easily detectable background in fine art, an everpresent tinge of wit and self irony enveloping everything.Their music videos, many of which are made by fellow Norwegian pop artist OKAY KAYA, are a sophisticated blend of camp and chic and their internet presence is as nonsensical as it is carefully curated.
The album gently glides open on a lingering high-pitched string sample, which little by little blossoms into the fully formed synth bouquet that is “Get Fit”. Along comes a bouncy and borderline corny bassline accompanied by a pumping 80’s drum beat. The only vocals are the band’s watermark ‘Ultraflex’ and the occasionally repeated phrase: “Get fit, get ripped, get a lover, get kids”. This inviting opener establishes the lush and mischievous world we are about to enter.
After this appetiser we’re hit full force by “Work Out Tonight”,a track that fully showcases the band’s brashness. Overtly sexual sport metaphors are whispered atop a naked drum beat and thrusting bass line, and via a breezy pre-chorus we take a dive into the deep and sensual chorus:“I’m gonna make you work it tonight, gonna make you work out tonight.” The ever present cheekiness climaxes with a lewd dialogue between a man who wanders into the women’s dressing room and the person he encounters there.
Sunny instrumental “Papaya”, with its glittering saxophone solo and a dell’Orso-esque interlude, perfectly sets the mood for the melancholic dance anthem “Never Forget My Baby”.The effortlessness with which the girl’s voices blend together in the chorus and the sentimental, verging on saccharine, lyrics make this song stand out in an already delicious assortment.
This luminous dreamboat sails and sinks into the next track, “Man U Sheets”,which contains considerably more shade. A remorseful saxophone opens the door to a roaring bassline and heavy beat as we are told a merciless tale of adolescent sexual debuts. The slightly dissonant chords and the deadpan delivery of the lyrics enhance the awkwardness of the subject. The next track “Olympic Sweat” lightens the mood with a Michal Rother-esque harmonised solo and a slow yet triumphant tempo, allowing us to lean into the bright stream of synths and chimes feeling like we’ve just crossed a finish-line in slow motion.
Right before the end we reach the final energetic crest – the bold and seductive “Full Of Lust”,with exaggeratedly sensual vocals and bratty lyrics like “When I tell you I’m tired, you light up a smoke, tryna fill up the silence when I don’t laugh at your jokes”. The album concludes with the repetitive and wacky “Secret Lover” with sentences spoken by Farao in a thick Norwegian accent from the perspective of a private investigator. The last words of the album are accurately: “So we’ve done a good job. Very happy with our work”.
Musically and conceptually, ‘Visions of Ultraflex’ is a seductive and inventive debut. Glimmering through it all is the warm and playful relationship between Special-K and Farao; they seem to have found a home in each other where they can progress musically while feeling relaxed enough to be nonsensical. “With our solo projects we are both miserable and lonely, so we are coming together like step sisters or lovers to keep each other warm when it’s cold outside”, they say about their unification. Ultraflex brings us a bundle of joy, self-irony and snarky attitude wrapped up in danceable beats – it’s a breath of fresh air in today’s intricate landscape, reminding us that we must not forget to have fun.“
