The future of electronic music seems to be over exposed synth (for now), but good producers pull it off. Pat Lok goes with a disco-house/pop approach and brings in some beautiful vocal collaborations for his latest album, Hold On Let Go. Realistically though, how many of his songs am I gonna be listening to in five years? One. Well, probably two or three, but one has a more dramatic effect.
I recently finished Dr. Dre & Jimmy Iovine’s documentary, The Defiant Ones. In it, Dre says a perfect line to sum up why one of Lok’s songs stood above the others. “Every producer knows that you’re only as good as the artist you’re working with.” And how Claire Mortifee’s lines are laid on top of ‘My Own Throne’ gets me giddy every time I listen. Her lyrics are an instrument played well.
Can’t wait to hear what’s next from Pat Lok. And who’s next.
Leven Kali has three strikes going for him. One, with his single that introduced me, ‘Mine.’ Second, a few months later he performed ‘Joy’ on Colors Berlin – a collective that hosts musicians to record a live set of a song against a clean colored background. In Kali’s case pink. Which repped him well. The final nail of approval was a tweet praising him from Ebro, a host on HOT 97 and Beats 1.
I went through Kali’s catalogue after his name popped up a third time, which is usually what it takes, and his music is starting to stack up. Although there’s a lot of collaborations with shit rappers crowding his sound. It’s good for exposure though, but he soon won’t need it.
We mainly highlight artists over singles now, which has given us different criteria to look for in what to feature. Mainly, more than just a few singles to show off. Something I see more with vocalists over instrumentalists or producers, but Masego does it all.
But like most musicians I pick, I love his voice most. He’s got personality that’s an artist’s dream and it shows through his voice.
He played with Goldlink at Coachella this year and the two are some of the finest record makers, live performers, and make some of the finest sounds with their voices.
I love how Comedy Central can make a fool of themselves. The logo they’ve had since 2011 represents its goofy humor well, a lot like the name of their first ever comedy & music festival, Colossal Clusterfest.
For its first year, it wasn’t a complete cluster fuck, even though the comedians took full advantage of the name. It actually felt like there was more to do than at most music festivals. From visiting a replica of Seinfeld’s original set, which did seem to be a cluster fuck of a line, to a dating show where a comedian represented each of the contestants – I signed my friend up. But the best was still in the comedy and music shows.