Julie-Anne Marshall New Single Memory

December 16, 2018 Leave a comment

A new bonus track for December is the excellent new single Memory from Julie-Anne Marshall.

Starting out with some percussion and simple piano this song quickly develops into a very catchy uptempo tune that will have feet tapping and heads nodding. Julie-Anne’s voice tells a great story of change and development we can all relate to. Some tasteful jazzy/latin acoustic guitar fits in for a nice instrumental break and rounds out the song well. Sure to be a summer favourite.

“Hailing from Adelaide, Julie-Anne is an independent singer-songwriter who is not limited by musical boundaries. Memory is her latest single release which could be considered alt pop. It’s JPY-Love is in the air, meets Lily Allen. Think Soft Rock, Easy Listening with some jazz, rock, roots and blues and a bit of folk and pop and that’s the diversity of this artist.”

Julie-Anne has had previous tunes on soundslikecafe that have all been warmly received so we are sure this one will be no different- enjoy – checkout the spotify link below for instant gratification or hear it on the Soundslikecafe Digital Playlist Track 3.

Joel Leffler – Brighton Lakes Sessions EP

November 27, 2018 Leave a comment

If you were to walk in the front door of one of those homes, turn right up the stairs and left into bedroom 3 you would find a grand piano, an acoustic guitar & an air of something recognisably creative.

This 8 track EP features popular songs from Joel Lefflers’s previous titles ‘Run With The Wolves’ & ‘Strip Me Bare’ along with 2 brand new acoustic tracks fresh out of the studio, ‘Where You Are’ & ‘Home To Me (Caledonia)’.

Much like Brighton Lakes face lift; these songs have been re-imagined to give an insight into what they sound like both in pre-production & live in show.

Joel says of his experience recording the acoustic sessions, “I was recently diagnosed with severe anxiety that found me laying in an ER bed at Liverpool Hospital…What I thought was originally derived from music actually turns out to be – that music itself is the cure!”

Brighton Lakes Sessions EP was written, recorded & produced by Joel Leffler followed by mastering by Andrew Beck at Damien Gerard Studios.

Listen here:

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Throwing Shapes – Super Natural

November 27, 2018 Leave a comment

Throwing Shapes is Fox Shannon, a drum and bass/electronic/dance performer from Perth, WA.

Unique and forward thinking electronic music, from house and club tracks to D+B. With influences from Pendulum and Sub Focus to Disclosure and Slumber Jack, Shannon’s energetic performances and catchy dancefloor hooks has won him a growing interest from local and international DJ’s. A number of tracks have also featured on dance compilations.

The title track combines a hooky four-on-the-floor disco beat and some spooky soundtrack layers on the top line. Another lead track prime for play is Pretend Your Mine, which is driven by warm electric piano chords and catchy, soulful female vocals.

Then there’s the energetic 2000 People, where you’ll get the feel of 80’s synth, house and EDM. “Good vibes, good times”, says Shannon.

Listen here:

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The Jimmy C – Songs For The Species

November 27, 2018 Leave a comment

Humourous, up-beat, catchy, power/pop/psychedelic/rock … the Melbourne one-man-band The Jimmy C opens a can of earworms that burrow deep and leave you smiling.

The Jimmy C is Jamie Coghill, a self-taught multi-instrumentalist who loves the music of the late 60’s and early 70’s. Some know Jamie as the drummer from Luxedo, Fez Perez and The Devilrock Four, others know him from his own music as The Jimmy C. He records everything at home in his spare room.

Songs For The Species is a humorous collection of songs whose creator says is sonically influenced by Super Furry Animals, The Kinks, Jellyfish, Supergrass, ELO, Pugwash, Beach Boys and The Beatles.

The album opener is Everybody Shits. “Imagine Jellyfish playing your favourite up-beat 70s sitcom theme,” Coghill enthuses. “[It’s] a bouncy pop song reminding us, “It doesn’t matter how cute you are, you still have an asshole.””

Another album highlight is the jangly Foot In My Mouth, “an ode to those of us who never fail to say the wrong thing every time we speak.” Coghill describes the song as, ” a slow plodding rocker with up-beat choruses and a chaotic split personality ending.”

Alt-country meets sunny pop in the harmony-filled “ASAPples”, which rides on some, “silly modern-life influenced lyrics” – the inspiration of texting, emojis and our technology-filled lives.

Born Without A Brain is where the drummer makes fun of drummers. “They’re my people!”, Coghill protests. Power pop guitars, lush Beach Boys harmonies and upbeat vibes makes this track a catchy and enjoyable album standout.

Songs For The Species is out now on Foghorn/MGM.

Watch the video for “Baby Blue Sky” here:

And see all SIX BRAND NEW VIDEOS from The Jimmy C here:

Listen via your favourite music provider here:

Connect with The Jimmy C:

Inside the Secretly Lucrative World of Solo Piano Music – from Rolling Stone

November 8, 2018 Leave a comment

Thanks to streaming, a small cadre of independent solo pianists are making a killing.

By ELIAS LEIGHT

On October 3rd, Michele McLaughlin got some exciting news: Her music has been streamed over one billion times.

Young artists in popular genres are racking up streams like crazy these days — presumably McLaughlin is an ascendant rapper releasing 90-second battering rams through SoundCloud? Or maybe she’s the guest vocalist on the latest reggaeton posse cut to rule YouTube?

Nope: McLaughlin is an independent artist in her forties who makes contemporary instrumental solo piano music. She’s a star in her field — to the point where another pianist says, “I’m not quite doing Michele McLaughlin numbers” — reportedly making around $250,000 a year. And she’s not alone. “We have a large group of solo piano players that are making a killing, making $7,000 to $10,000 a month,” says Kevin Breuner, VP of Marketing for CDBaby, which touts itself as “the largest global digital distributor of independent music.”

“Some of them are making far more money from their music than the artists than you see on major labels that sell OK but are not crossing the threshold of really having an income stream for years to come,” Breuner continues. “These piano players have cracked that.”

That’s thanks to the rise of streaming services and an accompanying shift in listening habits. “It used to be that, to get signed, it had to be something that somebody thought they could sell to a mass market,” Breuner explains. “But now, music gets used in so many different ways. When we dug a little deeper, this particular genre group and a lot of other genres that tend to be mellow and instrumental perform really well on streaming — there are a lot of dentist offices, a lot of work-office environments where people are putting on quiet, soothing music in the background and just letting it play.”

“I had someone ask me the other day, ‘Are you OK with being known as sleepy music?’” says Chad Lawson, another successful solo pianist. “I think he was trying to take a jab in a roundabout way. But I said, ‘Yeah, I really am.’ I have a running joke: Don’t listen to my music while you’re driving. It needs to have a warning sticker: Do not operate heavy machinery while listening to this.”

Read the rest of the article here at Rolling Stone.

and be sure to check out some of the stellar solo piano albums on our featured page from artists such as Fiona Joy Hawkins, Rachel Lafond, Andy Iorio and Loren Evarts.

Gareth Koch and Peter Bonner – Don’t Tempt Me

October 2, 2018 Leave a comment

Don’t Tempt Me

GARETH KOCH + PETER BONNER

What happens when the musical worlds of an ARIA Award winning classical guitarist and a hard-hitting rock singer collide? The answer in this case lies in an unusually refined and confident EP titled Don’t Tempt Me, Out now on Planet/MGM.

It’s not easy to describe such an accomplished EP as this one. To begin with, the arrangements are all acoustic and highly sophisticated. Little wonder, since these songwriters have roughly 1000 years of music history bubbling away in their consciousness. But alongside this knowledge is a keen awareness of contemporary sensibilities. Sparkling effervescent textures, trumpets, percussion, dobros, classical and 12-string guitars and even a 1966 ‘Beatle Bass’ all combine to create a unique and original soundscape.

This Australian songwriting team of Gareth Koch and Peter Bonner draws inspiration from medieval music to post-modern psychedelia, with every imaginable influence in between. Bonner and Koch have a strong and immediately recognisable musical identity, a new sound and aesthetic that comes with a fluid movement across genres. The result is an array of catchy pop tunes, soulful ballads, blues grooves and rock songs

Connect with
GARETH KOCH + PETER BONNER
Website
https://www.garethkochmusic.com/

Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/Gareth-Koch-Music-500437070367413/?ref=br_rs

Checkout the Record

Thanks for listening!!

Mark Lucas – Prisoners of The Heart

October 2, 2018 Leave a comment

To be released Friday October 5 Soundslikecafe is proud to feature this excellent new album from Mark Lucas

Prisoners of the Heart – A retrospective

“You never sang soap opera/ or wore your hair in curls/ you still want all the trappings of the post-consumer world/ come on now, admit it dear/ you’re a thoroughly modern girl” – The Ghost of Lost Creek Road

The trajectory of Mark Lucas’s career is akin to tracing a bird in flight. Perpetually restless, banking and diving and always observing – it is these characteristics, among others – that allow his unique lyrical view on the world.

In Sydney, Australia, his home since 1981, Lucas wears an awful lot of hats. Venue manager. Band booker. Activist. Adding yet another cap, he is a prolific singer-songwriter whose productive output is as inspiring as it is diverse.

Since the 1980s, Mark experimented with rock and pop, before returning to his country and folk roots in the 1990s. These are not just stories; they are as much observational as they are impressionistic. True to his English heritage as a songwriter to match Graham Parker or Elvis Costello, he also has cynicism to burn.

With the forthcoming release of Prisoners of the Heart, Mark draws deep from his 22-year career as a solo artist and bandleader, as songwriter and masterful lyricist. His songs, like those of his heroes, Townes Van Zandt, Bob Dylan, Jerry Garcia and Guy Clark, do not always tend to the personal over the abstract. In fact, sometimes the opposite is just as true.

The 20-track CD Prisoners of the Heartdraws from Lucas’s ten-album output, with the focus on his adroitly authored songs. His inspirations come from the worlds he inhabits, the people whose lives brush up against his.

This retrospective album tells many inspired stories of different lives, contrasting almost impressionistic lyrics with the more direct story song approach, like the cautionary tale of ‘Between The Ditches’ against ‘Shopping Town’, a meditation on commercial enterprise taking on real lives.

Whether working with his long-time backing group, the Dead Setters, or crafting his own guitar-and-voice meditations, he captures something special from the crumbs of the everyday. Like one of his inspirations, Guy Clark, he makes plain the idea that “some days you write the song/ some days the song writes you”.

Prisoners of the Heart is out 5^thOctober through MGM

Track listing

Another Town Along the Road

Rosie

The Ghost of Lost Creek Road

Walk in Beauty

Between the Ditches

Monsters Ball

Canal Road

Dryland Sea

Sisters of Mercy

Shopping Town

Until She’s Mine

Soldier’s Row

Federal Highway Blues

Small Town

Rider

All the Bonnie Birds

Prisoners of the Heart

The Onion Song

Hear the new album-

Check out more info and live dates

Finally Check out A Fine History of Releases below

Discography:
1996 ‘Bootheels of Desire’ (The Parwills) Larrikin TWNG 001

1999 ‘Jukebox Jury’ Laughing Outlaw Records LORCD 003

2001 ‘The Ghost of Lost Creek Road’ “ LORCD 028

2005 ‘White Man Soul’ TWNG 002

2007 ‘Sideshow Alley’ TWNG 003

2009 ‘Eat at Joe’s’ (Live at Joe Maguire’s Pub) TWNG 004

+ Live at the Cooks River Motor Boat Club dvd

2011 “Putting on the Dog Laughing Outlaw Records LORCD130

2014 “Sin City Blues” ep TWNG 005

2015 “Little Town Blues” Laughing Outlaw Records LORC174CD

2016 “The Continental Drift” TWNG 006

Fiona Joy (Hawkins) – New Single – Grace Chill Remix – Out Now

September 17, 2018 Leave a comment

Fiona Joy (Hawkins) – New Single – Grace Chill Remix – Out Now

Soundslikecafe is proud to feature this International Tune on the new September 2018 playlist

“I originally wrote Grace as a piano instrumental and it ended up on a Grammy winning album in 2014. I wanted to add words and record my own singer/songwriter version as I really connected with the message in the song “To be with Grace, To live with Grace, Always with Grace’. A slower acoustic recording was followed by a chill mix which featured on the first Say Yes To Love album in support of marriage equality. This current remix of Grace is punchier Dream-Pop.
The track features Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel) playing NS Bass, Marc Shulman (Jewel & Suzanne Vega) playing Electric guitar with a little Beat-Box by my son Nick Hawkins.
The song has genre hopped from World to New Age to Pop and it’s been covered by a number of other artists including Flutist Sherry Finzer and Grammy winners Ricky Kej and Wouter Kellerman.

Connect with Fiona:

Website

Facebook

Annoyed by Restaurant Playlists, a Master Musician Made His Own

August 4, 2018 Leave a comment

From NY Times –

by Ben Ratliff

Last Autumn a friend told me a story about Ryuichi Sakamoto, the
renowned musician and composer who now lives in West Village, New
York. Mr. Sakamoto, it seems, so likes a particular Japanese

restaurant in Murray Hill, and visits it so often, he finally had to be
straight with the chef: He could not bear the music it played for its
patrons. The issue was not so much that the music was loud, but that
it was thoughtless. Mr. Sakamoto suggested he could take over the
job of choosing it, without pay, if only so he could feel more
comfortable eating there. The chef agreed, and so Mr. Sakamoto
started making playlists for the restaurant, none of which include any
of his own music. Few people knew about this, because Mr. Sakamoto
has no particular desire to publicise it. It took me a few weeks to
appreciate how radical the story was, if indeed it was true. I consider
thoughtless music in restaurants a problem that has gotten worse over
the years, even since the advent of the music-streaming services,
which – you’d think – should have made it better. If I’m going to spend
decent money on a meal, I don’t want the reservation-taker, the dishwasher or someone from the back office to be cooking it; I want someone who is very good at cooking food to do it. The same should apply to the music, which after all will be playing before, during and after the eating. I would prefer that music not seem an afterthought, or the result of algorithmic computation. I want it chosen by a person who knows music up and down and sideways: its context, its dynamism and its historical and aural clichés.

Joseph L Young – New Album – Every Moment

July 24, 2018 Leave a comment

Joseph L Young – New Album – Every Moment

For his fifth album, acclaimed flutist Joseph L Young returns to the instrument which first awakened his muse—the saxophone.

Every Moment marries soulful sax with flowing new age melodies, lightly sprinkled with elements of ambient textures and chilled rhythms. All of this is wrapped up in Young’s usual top-notch production quality. Prepare to hear Joseph L Young in a whole new light, where every moment is musical bliss.

The critics weigh in on Every Moment

The many layers of instrumentation make the 12 tracks on this CD a delightful journey for the listener. The use of the synthesiser layered between the sax is brilliant. The atmospheres are a combination of new age and smooth jazz. I love that combination and most certainly would like to hear more. The variety is what draws me and keeps me interested… Joseph L. Young gives us another masterpiece of sound and colour to listen to…say or Every Moment of this gift of music and spirituality and thank Joseph when you can.5/5 StarsKeith “MuzikMan” Hannaleck

As I move into my 30th year of writing music reviews, I continue to be amazed by the high quality of music coming in here each and every day… and Joseph’s high quality work on his new release[Every Moment] is one of the best examples of that perfection…I give this album a MOST HIGHLY RECOMMENDED, with an “EQ” (energy quotient) rating of 4.99… it is definitely an album worth owning and will give you aural pleasure for years to come. Dick Metcalf/ Contemporary Fusion Reviews

Every Moment by Joseph L Young is one of the finest albums I have heard this year, there have been a few now but it’s so pleasing to hear so much quality out there. Young…has opened his heart and embraced his original muse, the Saxophone, and manifested something so pristinely beautiful, that it will flourish in all corners of the musical world.

Music composed, performed, engineered and mixed by Joseph Lee Young, except as noted on the album. Album artwork by the artist. Produced by Joseph Lee Young and Lenise Redding. Mastered by Andy Mitran at Mitran Studios, Chicago.

TRACK LISTING

Prism 5:38

Falling Through Time 4:49

Every Moment 5:07

Twilight 4:21

Time Traveler 5:18

Once In A While 4:26

Vicariously Blue 5:07

Continuum 4:44

Chronos Dreams 5:56

Letting Go 4:30

Eleventh Hour 5:46

Evening Repose 6:11

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Tag: Soundslikecafe

Julie-Anne Marshall New Single Memory

Joel Leffler – Brighton Lakes Sessions EP

Throwing Shapes – Super Natural

The Jimmy C – Songs For The Species

Inside the Secretly Lucrative World of Solo Piano Music – from Rolling Stone

Gareth Koch and Peter Bonner – Don’t Tempt Me

Mark Lucas – Prisoners of The Heart

Fiona Joy (Hawkins) – New Single – Grace Chill Remix – Out Now

Fiona Joy (Hawkins) – New Single – Grace Chill Remix – Out Now

Annoyed by Restaurant Playlists, a Master Musician Made His Own

Joseph L Young – New Album – Every Moment

Joseph L Young – New Album – Every Moment

TRACK LISTING

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