Serena Sophia has a lot to figure out on her new single Giving Me. The undeniably sultry singer brings the full package. Besides singing and playing saxophone, she is also an incredible dancer and boasts some acting skills too. That acting ability, to give all of herself to her character, is at the backbone of Giving Me.
“I usually don’t come clean, I dive then I retreat.” Her character in Giving Me is acting like your love is enough, but it can never be. In both life and love, her character suffers from wanderlust. She’s traveled the world and back again. Her beauty, winning rich promises and incredible offerings, but still she wanders. She was meant to write Giving Me, in a lot of ways it’s this ideology is her main temptation. With great reward, comes great sacrifice, and Sophia has had to waiver love to enjoy these triumphs. “I can’t stop, I can’t love you like I should, I can’t be the one for you.”
Serena shares a jazzy flare with some of R&B’s vocal masters like Amy Winehouse. She injects her own indie pop sensibility, and a touch of the mainstream flair known to Alicia Keys, and the trip hop tweak known to Esthero. She updates these vibes with a sexy downtempo groove with EDM intellect. The occasionally pumping production displays some dubstep influence and an appreciation for modern DJ culture. Not surprisingly Serena has won success in that world, having had her song Anthem featured on DJ Tiesto’s Dance Anthems. Giving Me is sure to please listeners from both worlds, as it has all the bass body to attract EDM fans and a catchy meaningful vocal to entice the R&B crowd.
Hear Giving Me now on our Women Of Trip Hop playlist.
MOLTENO has been dripping out singles for the better part of the last year. Her introspective dream is fully realized on her new EP, Element 1. Combining past singles with two bookends to bring it all together, MOLTENO’s complete vision comes to fruition.
MOLTENO is a spiritual force with impressive vocal abilities and songwriting chops. The melodies that makeup Element 1 display an attention to variation and harmonious awareness. MOLTENO can be street wise, like on the snarky Tripping Up and the groovy Who’s Crazy. She can also be haunting and ethereal, like on Our House Is On Fire and Illuminate. Her mystery is sexy, leaving you curious about the character behind the music. The project, in essence, is all of this. An elegant art piece meant to activate your imagination, drawing you into MOLTENO’s alternative reality; you’re supposed to lose yourself to this cinematic dream. MOLTENO admits that with Element 1 she aims “to explore the positive and negative aspects of the element of fire, from its destructive powers to its illuminating force.” The release is the first of four EPs that celebrate the elements and the way nature connects us.
Trip Hops gatekeepers have been heavily debating the genres complicated multiverse of groovy alternative R&B, dark downtempo electronica, and ethereal atmospheric vocals-capes. With Element 1, they can enjoy all of it in one comprehensive release. MOLTENO can appeal to indie pop fans, but she’s a gorgeous addition to the world of Trip Hop. A combination of individuality and classic aesthetic with modern indie sensibility, the crossover appeal is expansive.
Get lost to Element 1, and checkout Tripping Up now on our Women of Trip Hop playlist.
Minneapolis based trio Lazenlow are proud to call themselves Trip Hop revivalists. Embracing the dark brooding soundscapes with downtempo swagger, they add a modern sensibility, injecting tools and tweak known to modern electronic music. Altogether a colorful sonic bloom erupts from their conceptual collection Conditional Love 1, 2 & 3. At the forefront is vocalist Gillian Needham. She brings a mix of raw soul and urban poetic, On the more upbeat tracks like Gaslight Up My Life, she recalls Lily Allen and the Sneaker Pimps but with more modern indie pop aesthetic. On darker selections like the booming Time Again, she draws similarities to Channy Leaneagh of Polica.
Producer guitarist Ghost Channels is a electronic savant, building complex arrangements of layered percussion, ethereal pads, and employing live instruments for texture. Adding drummer Mo Bluntz brings an additional organic feeling lost on straight up EDM.
With every song the producer embraces a new rhythmic world, serving tasty tempo palettes for Needham to navigate. Lazenlow definitely leans darker, building on a brooding bass foundation in the vein of Massive Attack. They also embrace auxiliary percussion layers known to more world conscious trip hop acts like Thievery Corporation. In addition, there’s evidence of Dubstep’s darker contributions, with an awareness of electronic musics powerful potential, allowing Lazenlow to embellish these soundscapes live.
Dig in to the impressive chapters on Conditional Love, and enjoy Time Again now on our Women Of Trip Hop playlist.
“Time will tell. Winter Comes. I’m crying.”
Songwriter Mia Lovelock contemplates her complicated roots on the new single Winter Comes. She shares an indigenous heritage with the Taungurung people of Central Victoria. She admits her new single “is about the fragile nature of sovereignty, the scars of stolen generations, and the beauty of healing in a place that’s always been home.” One of her musical influences, trailblazers Massive Attack, are an ideal inspiration for her dark pop inclinations. Lovelock is searching for her truth through song.
Winter Comes brings a contemplative vibe with cinematic feel. It’s easy to lose yourself in the heartbeat of the bass drum that tracks her hypnotic vocal. Lovelock alternates between poetic prose and whispery siren. Two versions of alternative egos, the one who accepts their founding and the spirit still searching. The whispery spectres lullaby sinks into you like a relentless ghost haunting every suspecting achievement. You can never rest in this lineage of suffering.
And so it is, that Winter Comes is an opportunity for healing by bringing these histories to the surface and letting muffled cries be heard. “In their eyes to this day, sovereignty, it’s times to go their way.”
The dark pop of Winter Comes should please fans of Portishead and Goldfrapp as well as the aforementioned Massive Attack. It’s the minimalistic brooding combination of tempo and melody known to Trip Hops first movement.
Enjoy Winter Comes now on our Women Of Trip Hop playlist.
The Wild Is Calling 