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This new year begins with BeatPicks Track of the Week, “Where the pavement ends”, from Nell Bryden’s latest album, Second Time Around.

“Where the pavement ends” is a fast American folk track. It’s sincere, beautiful and definitely a classic in the making. The lyrics are straight from the heart and Nell’s voice is really what makes this song so strong. Her voice soars with ease on each emotional note of her guitar. It’s touching, motivating and undeniably powerful. Hands down, “Where the Pavement Ends” could be track of the year. Hear it here, at BeatPick.com.

Ohn’s “Cowboys & Indians” is the track of this week! Although this track is from Lets Get It on, one Ohn’s older albums, it’s still worthy of being selected! Listen, watch and relax- take a break from work … because you know you want to .

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5KamrKuOR4E[/youtube]

Created and Directed by Ken Adams for Big Soma
From the OHN album “Let’s Get It”

I can’t help but be a bit obsessed with this track, “So This is the way it feels”. Its eerie rock sound and upbeat lyrics are a catchy combination that has been stuck in my head for days… Ok I admit, WEEKS! The name of this fantastic group is Soular, probably the next big thing to hit the music industry in the coming year. You don’t have to wait till then, check out the track that has me singing in the busy streets of Rome, right here at BeatPick.com!

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bMH8ZbocZhU[/youtube]

Album; Love, Crash, Heal…. track, “So This is The Way it Feels”

 

 

January Jaunt, an Indie Rock band from Denmark managed by StrangeEars, has recently released a music video directed by Andreas S. Sorensen for their track titled, “Try”. The video reminds me of Coldplay’s beautifully done “Speed of Light” video and the song reminds me of Muse. “Try” music video has been selected as MTV’s featured music video currently available on MTV’s website. Besides MTV, January Jaunt is also airing on 25 other American music video channels. This video’s success in the United States is more than deserved! Lyrically and musically, “Try” has the potential to be the “IT-factor” in making this independent band an international sensation; January Jaunt is certainly not a “one-hit-wonder”![youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n9mTFFy1L4o[/youtube]Track “Try” available at BeatPick.com for streamlining & licensing SOON! Interested in booking January Jaunt?

Http://www.myspace.com/strangeears, booking@strangeears.com

If you haven’t heard of Sharif yet, believe us, it’s only a question of time. Having toured both the US and Europe in support of his first two albums (250 shows just last year!), the American songwriter is working his way to an ever wider fanbase, while perfecting a style that has little to envy when compared to million-selling records.

His latest work “Surrogate Lovers” is truly one of those records that is difficult to get out of your head: a catchy blend of American Oriented Rock-Pop, British taste for melody and unexpected, subtle moments of instrumental wisdom.

Many are the tracks that are worthy of mention, from TV-friendly semi-ballad “Simple Ways” to reflective, refined masterpiece “Respect“. Yet the outstanding record opener “You Are My Girl” is a notch above the rest, and has soon become a Beatpick.com favorite.

A romantic, bittersweet love declaration (”My Life is insane because you’re in it, just sit back and indulge it for a minute“), the song bases its’ strength on the author’s powerful and expressive voice, revolving around melodies that pulsate energy in every line, sending the listener back to such inspirational work as Elliott Smith’s (Sharif himself quotes the unfortunate genius as one of his main influences). Yet the high-quality production makes this a mainstream-oriented potential classic, rather than an indie cult object. And that’s why, here at Beatpick.com we’re ready to bet on this very special songwriter’s future.

To download “You’re My Girl” for FREE, click here.

To visit Sharif’s Beatpick Profile, click here.

At Beatpick.com we’re proud of the ever-growing variety of music in our roster. And, of course, we’re even prouder of the high quality standard of the new bands we are signing.

One of such bands is the Art-Rock duo from Nashville You Are A Hologram, whose eponymous debut album is a passionate demonstration of an evolving alternative Rock scene under the surface of what is better known as the eternal hometown of traditional Country music.

E ddie Mangrum and Matt Michiels’ style has its’ roots somewhere between such American tradition, a more British, moody side, and an almost EMO theme basis. If you add to that an interesting, almost experimental approach to processed drums and beats, the mixture could be seen as an actual marriage between modernity and classic rock.

Opening track “Under the Water” is probably the finest example of the duo’s songwriting skills: an emotional and inspiring semi-ballad based on a more traditionally Nashville tempo, in which the structure leads to a gradual, subtle growth of intensity the further the track goes along. Ideally such a progression is the perfect accompaniment to the “main character”’s personal evolution: the track starts with a fragile and almost doubtful voice/guitar verse describing the disillusion about man’s limits (”I can breath, I can breathe under the water….I can fly, I can try harder and harder“), yet grows steadily towards an ending that is slowly more and more full of hope and optimism (”I still believe in the things that brought us together“); in particular this can be observed in the magnificent guitar-work, where the taste for delicate chord progression drives the project into more psychedelic, almost shoegazing territories (the My Bloody Valentine influence appears quite evident also in other tracks on the album – in particular “Fast Ones“).

If you want to download the track for free, click here.

To visit YAAH’s Beatpick profile, click here.

Many studies have been made reagrding what attracts the average white middle-class person to the problems of afro-american communities of the USA, so crudely recounted in many Hip Hop stars’ words. Apparently Hip Hop audiences are in fact mainly constituted by a mass of white voyeurs, curious to get insight into a culture so distant from their own. So, why not, let us at Beatpick participate in this role play too, and express all our voyeuristic love for this track!

And believe us, there’s many reasons for such enthusiasm.

First of all, the mastermind behind “Understand Why” is in fact a white producer, whose understanding of Hip Hop culture and sound processing is profound enough to compete with all better known international Rap production moguls. Joe Preston, aka IZM, has been working in the West Coast scene long enough to know exactly how to transform a track into an underground classic, with such taste for electronic insertions and beats it’s hard to hold still while listening.

Add to such premises MC T.O.C.’s furious flow regarding the complex relationships between American black communities and the USA, and the bomb-track is complete. “I can’t trust this Government, I can’t call the police, who the fuck can trust? Understand why I’m trusting the streets“: pure gangsta poetics, such ghetto-centric imagery one would suddenly think we’re back in Compton, L.A., at the beginning of the nineties…

At Beatpick we’re proud of our ever-growing Hip Hop section: check out a few of our artists, from sophisticated Toolshed Productions to quirky gangsta virtuoso Killa Kat… And of course one of our new favourites, bling-obsessed Hip Hop heavyweight Tony Cash…

To download “Understand Why” for free, click here.

Thought-provoking, genre-crossing Pop-Rock laboratory OHN are at the moment working hard on promoting their latest album “Revolutionary Revolution“, certainly the most mature piece of work the Austin-based ensemble have published so far.

The band’s formation is in constant evolution, having dropped from seven elements to just four, and with the fundamental addition of female vocalist Allison Scharf, who plays a key-role in the new album’s sound: an often brilliant crossover between Electronic Rock/Pop and more complex influences, such as Dub, Jazz and Downtempo.

“Any Way U Look At It” is a wonderful example of what OHN’s sound is today: starting with a percussion-driven Funk Groove, and soon developing into a masterful post-modern Pop patchwork, the song leaves no grounds unexplored, constantly swinging between jazzy sax solos, ethnic Downtempo Dance and highly melodic vocal interventions.

And as mastermind Bill Sarver’s elaborate texture rolls into full charge, Scharf’s vocals invite the listener to find empowerment in the modern Era, to “stand up, and ask the right questions…Stop acting so,so mad“: each sentence she pronounces is immediately underlined by the Sax, in a Question-Answer structure that leaves the phrases floating in the listener’s head, with undeniable hypnotic effect.

“Any way you look at it you can’t lose“: optimistic and uplifting, the chorus carries the listener towards an almost ambient-jazz bridge section, where the soulful Electronica OHN proposed in their first two albums regains the full center of the stage. Such transitions only great musicians and songwriters can afford to attempt.

To download the full track for free, click here.

OHN will be playing live at the next NAMM convention on July the 27th, and continue to attract attention from both public and music lovers, as recent use of their music for PBS television show Roadtrip Nation demonstrates. Listen to all OHN albums from their Beatpick Profile, here.

As readers can check out on our main blog, 2006 Global Battle of the Bands winners Heavy Mojo will soon be leaving us, having signed a deal for their first Major record release with Universal. Surely we’re sad (and thrilled at the same time), yet what better occasion to celebrate one of the greatest bands to have been on Beatpick??

Blow Out The Sound is the band’s second album, a truly inspiring journey across the past, present and future of Hip Hop: from Funk to Rock, from Old Skool beats to Jazzy breaks, no influences are excluded, in such a fresh and intriguing melting pot no music fan will be disappointed.

Still, Blow Out The Sound is actually even more than that: its sharp lyrics have no problems tackling all modern Hip Hop values and clichès, and carrying home a strong, convincing message very few records are brave enough to even attempt.

“Carz and Clothes” brings down the axe on all the sexist and capitalistic ideals ruling nowadays Hip Hop imagery: “I never thought I’d see the day when music don’t exist, when every song’s about putting money in your fist or putting shiny shit around your wrist“. Following in the steps of Chicago-based Rap prophet Common, the band are clearly out to deliver a message to the whole afro-american community, and this is just a beginning, as practically all the songs on the record deliver hard-hitting, uncompromising lessons in credibility and morality.

Take “Lovely Lie“, for example, a surprisingly feminist semi-ballad, where the black woman’s self-subjugating dependence on drug-dealing, prostitute-fueling men is examined in a crude and passionate mode, reaching emotional peaks in the Faith No More styled crossover chorus (”Baby, why’d you live that lie?”): no surprise that with producers James Salter and Rusty Fowler (previously at work with Rage against the Machine and Stone Temple Pilots) the Rock heritage should be so clear.

Kicking off with a human beatbox solo, “Black Sand” is another standout track, where Dirty Dollarz, Priest and Simon Stone’s alternated vocals pay a tribute to the involution of a Black neighbourhood and its traditions. An intimate and touching insight on afro-american family and community relations.

Another favourite song at Beatpick is closing track “Mojo’s Last Stand“, a self-celebratory, light-hearted Funky Rock anthem for the next generation of Hipsters, driven by contagious hand-clapping and obsessive guitar rifferama.

Now’s the perfect moment to discover one of the hottest bands on the planet! Before their notoriety shoots up (and, alas, also the price of their music), buy or license Heavy Mojo music at Beatpick rates!

To download the four aforementioned songs for free, click here. (this link will only be active until the 25th of July)

To hear the full album in streaming, visit the Heavy Mojo profile on Beatpick.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As our more loyal followers surely know, Beatpick.com is home to many young and upcoming experimental Electronica artists, from Glitch and IDM scientists to more outer-space, kraut-inspired material.

London-based Jamie Cato, aka cato_six, started his experimenting at the end of the 90s, inspired both by Aphex Twin and more traditionally “Rock” artists such as Nick Cave and Sonic Youth. After handling many high profile remixes, his style found a precise composing method based on the use of the Reaktor software combined with acoustic samples and “on the fly” granular processing (often executed through the use of personally modified Drum Machines, samplers and Sound FX).

“Pollution Sunrise” is the second track from his 2005 EP offering uc8ic16, and is a wonderful example of what Jamie has in store for those who wish to explore his mysterious and avant-garde soundscapes. As a female voice recites names of cities from each continent, a harmonious dialectic takes place between epic keyboards/acoustic samples and hectic yet almost melodic Glitch beats.

In fact, in close connection with the occasional male voices’ phrase (”this song’s for her, wherever she may be“), the processed beats seem to actually take emotional life and participate in the sense of longing the ideal protagonist is living, in not knowing where his inspirational muse may be on the globe. The constant stop-and-go structure (a common characteristic of Cato’s work) almost perfectly traces the rhythm of thoughts running through a puzzled and lonely mind, a further demonstration of the profound sensitivity in play on this track.

Jamie is definitely rising to cult notoriety after collaborations with musicians such as the Black Cherry Company, video artists such as Julian Ledlin, and even a recent live Second Life exhibition for Electronic Music Club Trash Palace. For more cato_six tracks, visit his profile on Beatpick.com.

To download this track for free, click here.

More Glitch/IDM maestros at Beatpick include Hungarian whiz-kid Cooler, Italian sound experimenter Tobor Experiment, melancholic noise composer Kingbastard, drone-sound project One Man Nation, and many others in our Glitch/IDM section.

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