Ryan Judd Releases Album ‘Closer To Home’

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"Ryan Judd Releases Album ‘Closer To Home’"

“It is so remarkable to find that exceptional artist that can create a totally unique musical “voice” as a guitarist. Ryan Judd is that artist.”

– Michael Whalen

Two-time Emmy® award-winning composer, recording artist and producer

‘Close to Home’ is Ryan’s latest album, characterized by music that is heartfelt, spacious, and ethereal. Drawing inspiration from deeply personal experiences of love, insight, and grief, Ryan’s delicate and moving nylon-string guitar playing creates a serene and contemplative soundscape. This album is an invitation to embrace peace, stillness, and reflection. GRAMMY®-nominated sound engineer Tom Eaton mixed and mastered the project ensuring that the artistry of this album has been superbly captured.

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Ryan Judd is a Billboard chart topping recording artist, award-winning musician, and internationally renowned music therapist. He is an accomplished fingerstyle guitarist dedicated to creating music that inspires peace and well-being. Ryan’s distinctive musical style on the nylon string guitar creates a warm and gentle soundscape for the listener. His influences include guitarists Michael Hedges and Will Ackerman, and has worked extensively with the GRAMMY®-nominated musician Tom Eaton to refine his sound.

 Ryan’s recordings have been streamed more than 380 million times. His music has been featured on editorial playlists such as Spotify’s Peaceful Guitar and Calming Acoustic, Pandora’s Meditation and Spa stations, and Amazon Music’s Relaxation and Spa Stations. Additionally, his tracks are played on SiriusXM’s Spa Station and Hawaiian Airlines’ Soothing Sounds channel. Ryan has also been featured on Hearts of Space, and his last two albums rank in the top 30 on Amazon’s Best Sellers in New Age Relaxation Music list.

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Matthew Labarge Releases Album ‘Psalms & Sutras’

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"Matthew Labarge Releases Album ‘Psalms & Sutras’"

Thousands of years ago some people wrote poems and music that became The Book of Psalms. That collection is today held sacred by followers of Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. Also thousands of years ago, other people wrote poems and music that became the Sutras that are held sacred by followers of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism. Just as one might expect, to read the Psalms and read the Sutras, we encounter some drastic and fascinatingly different experiences.

But as I did this late last year, I found myself more surprised by the similarities. While the outward details are often as disparate as could be, in both experiences we find ourselves in the company of people who are trying to live a better life and to best appreciate the life they have. They share with us hopes and fears, regrets and joys, what it is to live a day, what it is to live a year, and what they hope it is to live a life best.

Here are some of my reflections on these messages from those who came long before us.

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Matthew Labarge has released seven albums of solo piano music, eight albums of mixed instruments as Larkenlyre, and an album of pirate-themed lounge music as Cane Bay Cabaret. He works tirelessly in a tiny studio in Blacksburg, Virginia to bring you albums that unfold like a novel, are worth listening to carefully, and still yield new insights after many listens.

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Lune Ranger Releases Single ‘Blue Skies’

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"Lune Ranger Releases Single ‘Blue Skies’"

Where do you turn when love is lost but the connection lingers?
Come on a journey of healing in Lune Ranger’s heart-rending single, ‘Blue Skies’. The single combines his iconic soulful vocals with soaring guitar work.

“I probably wouldn’t be here without music. I create art, because I don’t think there’s anything else in the world… Anything else I’d rather do than music. ‘Blues Skies’ grew out of a series of heart aches. A number of people had disappeared from my life, and yet I still longed for them. I wondered where they were and what they would be experiencing. I wrote this song to release that feeling.” – Lune Ranger

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Based out of Mildura, Victoria, Lune Ranger is the solo project of the virtuoso front man and songwriter of Loose Bricks. Blue Skies showcases this songwriting powerhouse who has clocked up 6.8 million streams for Loose Bricks, sold out headline shows in Australia, featured on Triple J, and supported named acts like Coterie, DICE, and Hoodoo Gurus.

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BLJ Releases Single ‘Make You Feel My Love’

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"BLJ Releases Single ‘Make You Feel My Love’"

This is the song that got Burger Legs Joe ft Andi started. He’d been doing some guitar samples for the Dance Around and Be Stupid EP, and as thanks, I said pick a song and we’ll record it. He chose Make You Feel My Love by Bob Dylan. I hadn’t heard it before, so I was a blank page. I recorded Andi singing with his guitar and arranged the song out from there.

We had so much fun doing it that we just had to do more. It’s a beautiful song, with such heart-felt lyrics. I was surprised when I heard the original later and discovered where we’d taken the song to. I think Andi’s dreamy vocals work so well, and the instrumentation makes for an absorbing, romantic, ballad groove. Well, I hope you feel that. Relax and soak up the romance.

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The avatar of an unidentified Music Producer, Burger Legs Joe is on a mission to restomod (restore and modernise) outstanding retro songs for your grooving pleasure. Treasuring the essence of what makes each track so fabulous, they’re re-energized to a modern perspective; weaving rhythms and melodies in BLJ’s distinctive ear grabbing style, that lingers in your head, and puts beats in your feet.

Mesmerised by the voice of friend and vocalist Andi Bracken; together they have set out on a journey to blow the dust off some of the great songs of the past.

Burger Legs Joe says – “The way Andi ‘owns’ the song is amazing. You just instantly accept the new version. Fond memories of the original seem to disappear in that moment.  The inspiration of Andi’s vocals on a song I love makes it so much easier for me.  The arrangements just seem to regenerate around them, naturally building to a butt kicking finale that elevates the song and Andi’s voice.”

 Bangers to ballads, and anything in between, Burger Legs Joe featuring Andi’s tracks are infused in reimagined retro joy and romance.

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Paul Scott Releases New Single ‘Old People On Drugs’

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"Paul Scott Releases New Single ‘Old People On Drugs’"

‘Old People on Drugs’ is the first track from a new collection of songs from Scott and Melville exploring the tones and textures of eighties electronic pop.  Lyrically it rummages through the hazy interworld of various ‘drugs’, from pharmacy to propaganda, prescribed, self-medicated or addicted that suffuse the soul as the animal vigour fades.

Older adults engaging in recreational drug use can be a complex and overlooked phenomenon often resulting in addiction.  As people age, their social circles shrink, leading to feelings of isolation or boredom.  Dumb ideas can be addictive too…So that’s what I think, but really, I’d rather not say anything – Paul Scott.

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Paul Scott began his career in music, writing and playing bass in angular NZ group Pop Mechanix. Despite court cases, a revolving cast of singers and multiple record labels, their single ‘Jumping Out A Window’ became a staple of New Zealand pop culture.

Relocating to Australia, Paul formed Montana with Ken Stewart (Mr Blonde), Michelle Margherita and Steve Melville. Their first release featured ‘Koolest Band’ which received national airplay and high rotation on JJJ. A brief tour of the USA and a performance at SXSW, led to ‘Koolest Band’ being included in the Hollywood movie ‘You Drive Me Crazy’. The subsequent album ‘Bubblegum Love’ was released in Australia, Spain, France and the USA.

Scott has since played bass for various Australian acts, playing everywhere from community halls and malls in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane to the Sydney Opera House. Teaming up with Steve Melville (ex Mr Blonde and Montana) Paul and Steve have established a studio production relationship, playing on each other’s tracks (Stewart and Melville, The Likes of You) and coproducing The Insufferable Paul Scott’s well received 2021 album ‘Tea and Medals’ (which Melville also mixed).

Their most recent project is a closer collaboration with Melville adding drums, percussion and keyboards to Scott’s voice, guitar and bass, a line up very close in sound and feel to their youthful unit ‘Montana’. “I was looking for the kind of pop thrill I used to get from great Aussie indie bands such as The Falling Joys, Smudge, The Hummingbirds, pop thrills… you know?” says Scott.  An album has been completed and tracks will be released over the next few months on Foghorn, home to most of their releases to date.

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Kaijin Solo Releases Single ‘Elektra’

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"Kaijin Solo Releases Single ‘Elektra’"

The Pleiades, also known as the Seven Sisters, Messier 45, and other names by different cultures.  It is an open star cluster containing middle-aged, hot B-type stars in the north-west of the constellation Taurus. At a distance of about 444 light years, it is among the nearest star clusters to Earth.

The name of the Pleiades comes from Ancient Greek.  It probably derives from plein (“to sail”) because of the cluster’s importance in delimiting the sailing season in the Mediterranean Sea.  In mythology the name was used for the Pleiades, seven divine sisters, the name supposedly deriving from that of their mother Pleione and effectively meaning “daughters of Pleione”.

Kaijin: ‘In a lot of ways I think Elektra is just me hanging on to the thing that good is, despite or even regardless of current global issues. If you have any beliefs at all the sort of shit that’s been going down for far too long now is a complete astonishment. I’m not particularly religious but if God is Love, then who is the killing for?’

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Kaijin Solo is a contemporary singer/songwriter based on the NSW Central Coast with a blues rock influence. He has been working and honing his craft for many years with various band line-ups and the plentiful bread and butter busking jobs and pub/club gigs around the coast.

In between studio sessions Kaijin formed The Backbeats with Rhys Meyer on Vocals and Keys, Felix Harper on Bass and Ash Feder on Drums. They spent much of 2023 playing local venues such as the infamous Link and Pin, Brackets and Jam on Kincumber Mountain, and Avoca Beach Hotel. Kaijin and Rhys also did a few duo appearances at various venues such as: the Long Jetty Hotel and Bateau Bay Bowling Club.

The band closed out 2023 to a packed crowd as support for The Radiators at Ourimbah RSL. 2024 has kicked off well with a packed house at Mumbo Jumbos at Terrigal and The Hawkesbury Brewing CO. in Lisarow.

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Monster Taxi Releases Single ‘Field of Dreams’

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"Monster Taxi Releases Single ‘Field of Dreams’"

“This beautiful tranquil and serene setting against the almost hip-hop music backing track, layers perfectly with the piano making this pure joy to listen too. This Field of Dreams is less about corn and more about cool.”

Bill Kelly, Co-founder of Winter Music Conference

“Field of Dreams”, is an appropriate title for this song, with the melodic instrumentation, and spoken word. Once again, we experience the theater of the mind, with melodic movement of the music, transporting us to a place of inner peace and self-reflection, all to be brought back from a dream state, with a sense of positivity. Monster Taxi is showing how music transforms us, while fast becoming the new Pink Floyd of Electronic Music.

Robert Kechter, Music Director at MXNext Dance Radio

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Anyone hailing from the heartland of the Midwest knows full well the wondrous, magical feeling of wandering through corn fields. There is a certain excitement and enchantment about those neat, orderly rows that is quite unlike any other feeling. These are the fields of life that feed not only the body, but the mind and soul as well; these are the fields that feed us all.

From the very first notes, “Field of Dreams” by Monster Taxi – the brainchild of Miami composer, producer, and musician, Jason Klein – elicits exactly this primal, deep-seated emotion that lives within the heart of humanity. This mesmerizing piece pays homage to Klein’s travels with his daughter to this special part of America and the memories they created exploring their own field of dreams. These are memories that will last a lifetime and stay in their hearts everytime this song and video play.

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Monster Taxi is the alter-ego of Miami music producer and keyboardist Jason Klein. Klein has worked on recordings for several major and indie artists including Mariah Carey, Ricky Martin, and Earth Wind & Fire.

In 2003, Klein produced the BMG US Latin/RCA Victor album, Beny Moré – The King of Son. The single, “Bonito y Sabrosa”, was a Latin radio and video hit, charting #1 on several stations. It made the Billboard chart on May 17, 2003 on the Tropical/Salsa airplay at #39, Klein’s first Billboard chart position.

He formed Monster Taxi and Toy Robot Records to license his own tracks to major labels. The Monster Taxi tunes, “Boogie Makes a Splash” and “Cosmic Love Juice”, were featured on a dance compilation for Ministry of Sound. He worked with Billboard charting dance singers such as Pepper Mashay (Cosmic Love Juice), Rachel Panay (Repeat Performance and Get Off), Jennifer Carbonell (Memory Wack), and Ray Guell (Love is the Answer).

Recent dance mixes from Monster Taxi include Miami Spice, Cluck Old Hen, Do the Hora, Motivate, Tank and the jazz song, Ocean Drive. In 2013, Klein remixed Universal Music Canada artists, Bet.e and Stef. He continues to remix songs including releases by Eddie Amador & Ultra Nate and Jenevieve X.

He currently re-masters compilations for Sony Music and Fania Records, along with doing a voice-over production for the Simpsons cartoon on Fox.

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Gareth Koch Releases Single ‘Song For Taylor Swift’

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"Gareth Koch Releases Single ‘Song For Taylor Swift’"

Song for Taylor Swift is the first in a series of dedications to influential artists of the modern era by Gareth. There is a rich history of one artist acknowledging another in music, ranging from Beethoven to David Bowie, the latter having written his Song for Bob Dylan.

Song for Taylor Swift explores the gentler side of her output, with a recurring fragile interlude subtly reminiscent of her ballad-like material. The resonator & lap steel guitars reference Taylor’s occasional country influences, as does the cover art of the release.

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Gareth Koch is an ARIA Award winning multi-instrumentalist, recording artist, guitar soloist, composer & songwriter. He has recorded a sizeable repertory across multiple genres spanning works for classical guitar, flamenco, original compositions, arrangements, medieval projects, rock & songwriting. He has appeared at major festivals within Australia, Europe, Asia and North America.

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Extra Time Releases Single ‘The Girl Who Rules The Sea’

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"Extra Time Releases Single ‘The Girl Who Rules The Sea’"

Hailing from Sydney Australia, Extra Time are releasing the  new single, The Girl Who Rules The Sea, from their current album Songs With Long Titles on 22 May.

A very worthy addition to our playlist and feature videos

Extra Time’s current double gatefold vinyl release is receiving glowing reviews internationally and they are proud to present the next single, The Girl Who Rules The Sea, beautifully accompanied by a video clip filmed at one of Australia’s most iconic landmarks – Bondi Beach.

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As a young  immigrant, Brendan tells of his almost fateful swim in the infamous Australian waters, where he was saved by a nearby surfer:
“The Girl Who Rules the Sea is a song about almost drowning at Bondi Beach in Sydney when I was six years old. As a kid from an Irish immigrant family, we were strong on enthusiasm but poor on swim technique. I was lucky enough to get rescued by an Amazonian surfer girl who introduced me to many new obscenities vastly expanding my swearing vocabulary.
The song is a love letter to Bondi where I was born and one of Australia’s best loved beaches.”

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The video features live action drone and underwater footage shot by Leonard Clifford and Chris Flaxman and was edited by Nick Lever. Motion Editing was by French Motion Artist Veronita Va who ran with Brendan’s idea of creating an animated version of a Piet Mondrian painting featuring the bold geometric lines forming the signature grid of the neo plasticist artist. Aside from the aesthetic, drawing the eye to the ‘Girl Who rules the Sea’ as she swims through the crystal blue waters of Bondi Beach, the inspiration of Mondrian for a music video is also fitting as the music loving artist described the challenge of producing his work, saying: “I am searching for the proper harmony of rhythm and unchanging proportion.” His art is described as highly musical and later, Modrian ascribed specific dances to accompany his art.

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The album Songs With Long Titles (the second studio recording from Extra Time) is a journey through intriguing stories of life, death, delusion, joy, passion and dreams in classic rock album format along with just enough jazz and blues influences to keep it interesting. Think Steely Dan meets Supertramp if you like references.
Lyricist, composer, and singer Brendan McNamara has been honing his craft over many years and for this record teamed up with ex Los Angeles co-producer and engineer Andrew Beck at Damien Gerard studios in West Gosford. A veritable A-List of session musicians were called in through the 20 plus days of recording and mixing, culminating in a special gatefold vinyl album out now.

MUSICIAN CREDITS

Tim Firth                  Drums
Brett Hirst                Bass
Aaron Blakey            Keyboards
Peter Koopman        Guitar
Amanda Easton        Vocals
Sarina Jennings        Vocals
Paul Murchison        Trumpet
Matthew Keegan      Trombone
Bridget Darby           French Horn
Luke Bartley             Tuba
Jane Stanley             Strings
Andrew Beck            Tubular Bells

The Girl Who Rules The Sea is OUT NOW

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BLJ Releases Single ‘Friday I’m In Love’

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"BLJ Releases Single ‘Friday I’m In Love’"

Another great cover to add to our playlist is this cracking version of The Cures Friday i’m in Love from the BLJ Production Team

“One of the hot topics of conversation over here is what song to do next. We love The Cure, they write such beautifully crafted songs, and we wanted to do something really upbeat. So, we thought how about ‘Friday I’m In Love’, in a similar style to our restomod of ‘Just Like Heaven’.”

 Well, here it is. Andi’s vocal adaption is spot on, as always, and I’ve given it lots of slam, dressed with string arrangements. We hope it lifts you up and gets you groovin!

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The avatar of an unidentified Music Producer, Burger Legs Joe is on a mission to restomod (restore and modernise) outstanding retro songs for your grooving pleasure. Treasuring the essence of what makes each track so fabulous, they’re re-energized to a modern perspective; weaving rhythms and melodies in BLJ’s distinctive ear grabbing style, that lingers in your head, and puts beats in your feet.

Mesmerised by the voice of friend and vocalist Andi Bracken; together they have set out on a journey to blow the dust off some of the great songs of the past.

Burger Legs Joe says – “The way Andi ‘owns’ the song is amazing. You just instantly accept the new version. Fond memories of the original seem to disappear in that moment.  The inspiration of Andi’s vocals on a song I love makes it so much easier for me.  The arrangements just seem to regenerate around them, naturally building to a butt kicking finale that elevates the song and Andi’s voice.”

 Bangers to ballads, and anything in between, Burger Legs Joe featuring Andi’s tracks are infused in reimagined retro joy and romance.

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