FRESH NEW KICKS: Sharpness- Jamie Woon

By now it seems relatively safe to dub Apple Music’s Beats 1 radio a comprehensive success. Artists are premiering exclusive content over the airwaves at a rate that probably has Jay Z crying into a handkerchief worth more than your entire wardrobe. OVO, FKA twigs and Pharrell are just a sample of musicians choosing to drop new tunes on their own shows without so much as a hint of a pre-order option on iTunes. And thankfully, that has led us to this happy occurence: Jamie Woon, the original sonic mould for thousands of Soundcloud electronic R&B artists, has returned to rescue us from the musical doldrums with a brand new track that Pharrell cheekily decided to air on his Beats 1 slot, without Woon’s prior knowledge. Then Disclosure followed suit by showcasing it on Radio 1 and now the song has finally made it online for you to listen at your leisure.

FRESH NEW KICKS: Royce Wood Junior- Bees

Even if you don’t recognise Royce Wood Junior’s name, you’ll be acquainted with the glorious ‘whitey soul’ soundscapes he creates, both alone and in tandem with other producers like Jamie Woon and Burial. Listening to his work brings intense confusion: why is this guy not bigger? He’s not even properly captured the attention of the blogsphere, which is a crying shame given the consistent excellent and unique nature of RWJ’s releases. Latest single Bees is a brilliant 4 minute synth soul ride, driven by an infectious cooing hook and slap-happy percussion. To be honest, I’m not doing it justice; this song is beautifully basic in its inception, but somehow remains incredibly emotionally affecting. I want to bathe in it, but I guess I’ll just settle for listening on repeat. RWJ’s debut album The Ashen Tang is released on the 8th of June and even if I wasn’t acquainted with the rest of his fantastic backcatalogue, I would pre-ordering it, based solely on Bees. Join me by clicking here.

Follow @Roycewoodjr on Twitter now. 

FRIENDLY REMINDERS: Mirrorwriting- Jamie Woon

Jamie Woon‘s biggest misfortune was to emerge in a year that favoured big soundscapes. Commercially, the charts were dominated by joyful, bold pop tunes- this was a time when ruby-hued hair was sported by at least 1 in 10 girls of a certain age thanks to Rihanna’s Loud era, and Jessie J claimed BBC Sound of 2011 off the back of her excellent first single, Do It Like A Dude, which remains the only exciting thing she’s managed to produce in the last 3 years. On the critical side of things, James Blake had emerged as the new underground darling, thanks to pioneering a now ubiquitous fusion of heavy electronic production with vulnerable, raw vocal performances. Frank Ocean had just dropped Nostalgia, Ultra while Katy B raked in the plaudits for her debut album that also helped reignite a new passion for UK dance music in the mainstream. Oh, and Adele did quite well with a record titled 21, but let’s be honest, we’ve heard enough about that one.

 Here’s that video that FKA twigs hates.