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Bentley Jones – I Could Be Your Girl
Bentley Jones has just dropped his new video titled ‘I Could Be Your Girl’. Bentley is one of those artists that, when he releases something, I quietly think to myself ‘About time…’. I say this because he is a constantly and truly evolving artist. Each release is somewhat of a reinvention of both the artist and the music. This is just as true with ‘I Could Be Your Girl’.
The video is at times hypnotic and captivating yet gives that sense of solace and yearning. A dark longing for love and romantic closeness in a time of social distancing lending to that certain something we all feel at times, especially these times, in that we all need someone. I hear the words ‘Beauty is in the eyes of the beholder’ when I first watched this video and now those words have a meaning to me. This is a message to the world that beauty is more than sexual and sultry; it’s something we all have, and by knowing that you can get the deeper meaning of the music.
to me, Bentley is an artist who deserves everything he’s worked for and worked very hard for. Now entering his tenth year as an artist, he is just as fresh and new as ever and it shows.
ABOUT BENTLEY JONES
Bentley is continuing his reign as an independent pop pioneer by wrapping up his 10th anniversary before launching a brand new 2020 album. He has single-handedly amassed over 40 million sales and gathered remix credits for the likes of Madonna, Britney Spears, Kygo & Whitney Houston, Demi Lovato, Ariana Grande, Taylor Swift, Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga (who also follows him on Twitter).
If that wasn’t enough, he’s contributed scores to some of the world’s best-known franchises like “The X-Files”, “Tekken”, “Sonic the Hedgehog”, “Gradius”, “Titan Wars” and “QQ Dance”. With a taste of international success as a producer Ben looked further afield to make his debut as a recording artist before planting his roots – unintentionally – as far away from home as possible.
After taking a risk signing the first-ever British artist to release a Japanese album on a major label, EMI-Universal tested audiences with the debut single “Sunaoninaretara FINAL NIGHT”. Without any promotion or radio play, Bentley sold over 30,000 copies placing the song in the top 5 of Japan’s International Chart and cemented his stature as an international breakthrough artist.
Bentley continued his success in Japan with various projects including the 2012 album “UPGRADE 1.0” which saw him collaborate and perform with native artists for the first time including May J. She was enamored by Ben’s sound and called on him to write and produce for her next album. Ben’s work also caught the attention of May J.’s record label AVEX who signed him to their management arm as he became the first-ever foreign writer and first-ever foreign producer to join Japan’s biggest music company. Ironic that it was also the same management label of Ayumi Hamasaki who offered her personal approval of Bentley’s debut at the start of his Japanese career.
His first independent English EP “So Much More…” including the title track which was featured in the number 1 selling video-game “SEGA All-stars Racing”. It also featured 1 of 3 songs that received a staggering 1.1million streams in just 5 days after a promotion with the US social network Gaia Online. The sequel album “TRANS//LATION 2” made Bentley the 19th most viewed musician on YouTube the week of its release and his adaptation of the theme from “Devil May Cry 4” has accumulated 1.7 million streams.
Realizing he could continue his success as a fully independent artist, Bentley unleashed 2015’s “The Rebellion” to critical acclaim; “Articulate, brilliant and haunting.” (BuzzJack) “The must-listen-to album of 2015.” (Muzikman) “Let this album be an inspiration to us all.” (J-Wave’s 25 Best Indie Albums of 2015). 2017’s “Unravelling” was also a smash with critics being described as “powerful and meaningful… Bentley has bounced back better than ever!” (Essentially Pop) and became his highest-earning independent album at the time with over 310,000 sales.
Bentley’s 10th anniversary has been the colossal celebration we’ve come to expect from such a reputable artist. Proceedings kicked off at the end of 2018 with a live performance on Japan’s prestigious music show “Nodojiman THE WORLD!” (12.1 million viewers) which coincided with the release of his Japanese single “Lay Down on My Heart”. The song was premiered in the UK by BBC Radio and was the first-ever J-pop song broadcast by BBC Introducing leading to Bentley being awarded the “Sound of 2019” (BBC).
His 10th-anniversary album “Translated” – a celebration of his Japan debut – gained 270,000 sales during its summer release resulting in his decision to reside in Japan where he headlined at the Tokyo Summer Bon Festival. He’s even found time to compose music for the upcoming “Titan Wars” video-game, the theme song for From Aqua Mineral Water commercial, the main theme of the AVEX Influencer Academy as well as continue working with Asian artists such as Carrie Lai and DJ KOO (TRF).
ABOUT ‘I COULD BE YOUR GIRL’
‘I Could Be Your Girl’ cover.
Following acclaim from Billboard Japan (“a must-listen-to artist”), BBC Radio (“incredible”, Sound of 2019) and Miami Beach Pride (“an LGBTQ+ icon”), independent pop juggernaut Bentley Jones is finally delighting fans with lead single “I Could Be Your Girl” (out now) – a delicious slice of sultry, sexy pop R&B that (according to Jones) “was composed almost entirely in a dream.”
His bold new image – an enticing amalgamation of muscles, stilettos, lace, and skin that celebrates his fluidity, sexuality, and defiance – is a telling statement of the difficult journey he’s been on to get here.
Bentley has enjoyed a considerable amount of success in Japan, which is why last year he turned his entire life upside down and moved to Tokyo. At first, he flourished; performing on the prestigious TV show “Nodojiman THE WORLD!” to 12.1 million viewers and headlining the Tokyo Bon Summer Festival.
However, the company promising to sponsor his visa – as well as provide promotion and touring for a new album – suddenly about-turned and began pulling their support from a contract they had been negotiating for months. As Bentley explains in a video blog, the company said he was “too controversial” and became “worried about what people will think”.
Ben made the heart-breaking decision to walk away from the contract and return home to the UK.
“After working so hard and risking everything, it was soul-destroying,” Ben expresses. “But this album and these songs are fundamental to who I am and what I stand for. It feels amazing to finally start releasing them exactly the way I intended.”
Last month Ben helped raise over $14,000 for community aid performing at Pride Collective – a virtual festival formed by the several US Prides. Miami Beach Pride was so impressed they selected Bentley to represent them at Global Pride on June 27th where he will make the first-ever live performance of “Girl” alongside such legends as Adam Lambert, Kesha, Todrick Hall and more.
“I Could Be Your Girl” is out everywhere now, with the music video following on June 19th.
LINKS:
http://www.bentleyjones.com
http://www.facebook.com/BentleyJonesMusic
http://twitter.com/Bentley_Jones
http://www.youtube.com/BentleyJonesMusic
http://www.soundcloud.com/BentleyJones -
Parabola West – Calling Your Name
Parabola West is releasing her new single ‘Calling Your Name’ and, along with that, a new video inspired by the deep woods of New Zealand, which this American singer-songwriter now calls home. Directed by Chris Lane for Bigkid Productions, Felicity Cawood’s art direction for the new video brings this sonic lushness into a forested landscape fit for the Hobbit or Lord of the Rings.
Parabola West is the artist persona of Amy Tucker West. Drawing inspiration from Celtic and Nordic folk roots, electronica, and organic sounds, her music is a lush soundscape of layered melodies.
“Calling Your Name’ expresses the torment of loving someone who has become emotionally numb. Ask anyone on a significant dose of anti-depressants and they’ll tell you about the numbing – that slow, subtle nothingness that keeps life ticking over without incident but turns down all the color,” says Parabola West.
“The lyrics “you are a wilderness frozen from me” kind of sum up the bad times when you just can’t reach the heart until the ice melts. We wanted to create a curious, beautiful, and dark fairytale feeling with the video. The goal was to make it feel both otherworldly and relatable – to express the isolation, hope, and madness of holding an unreachable heart.”
This new release follows up Parabola West’s 2017 EP ‘Purity of Weakness’ and lead single ‘Fire’, which was released both digitally and on CD. Her debut EP ‘Did You Hear?’ was released in 2014. Often piano-driven, her music is laced with hints of Celtic and Scandinavian influences and a dash of fantasy.
Originally from Springfield, MA (near Boston) on the U.S. east coast and currently based in Raglan, New Zealand, Amy began songwriting on the piano as a teenager and, at age 21, she was recruited into the London-based trip-hop band Dreamfield during their recording sessions in Boston. With two critically acclaimed releases to their credit, the band split in 2003 and West relocated to New Zealand.
The self-confessed ‘math & science nerd’ then took a 10-year break from the music industry to work in IT and engineering recruitment, returning to her musical roots in 2013 as solo artist Parabola West.
“I came to a point where I needed to fully immerse myself again in the creative,” says Amy Tucker West. To achieve that she took the extreme step of moving completely off-the-grid to a rural spot on New Zealand’s rugged West Coast. West has since released two successful EPs and continues to call Raglan home.
This song was recorded at 432Hz instead of the standard 440Hz due to Parabola West’s experimentation with healing frequencies in her music.
‘Calling Your Name’ is available everywhere via online stores like iTunes and Apple Music, and streaming platforms, such as Spotify. Also, her many releases can also be found on Bandcamp.
CREDITS
Written and performed by Amy Tucker West
Produced by Andrew Newth, Scott Newth & Parabola West
Mixed by Andrew Newth and Scott Newth
Recorded in The Porch recording studio in Hamilton and various home studios
Mastered by Oliver Harmer at The Lab recording studio in Auckland
Main vocals and keys by Parabola West
Backing vocals by David West
Flute by Alexandra Slap
Video by Bigkid Productions
Directed by Chris Lane
Art director: Felicity CawoodLINKS:
http://www.parabolawest.com
https://www.facebook.com/parabola.west
https://www.youtube.com/c/parabolawest
https://parabolawest.bandcamp.com
https://www.instagram.com/parabolawest
https://twitter.com/ParabolaWest
https://open.spotify.com/artist/2gT8TsfEV1uoLQhFOFNMaX -
Tulipomania – On The Outside
Philadelphia-based Tulipomania has revealed the second track from their new three-track maxi-single. ‘On The Outside’ follows the first single – the Seahawks Remix of ‘Don’t Be So Sure’.
‘On the Outside’ is a dark and sinister, yet addictive, affair, contrasting internal battles between hazy dream-pop and angular indie, between fractious and shattered vocals and muscular beats, swirling psychedelia and sonorous, drifting keyboard washes. God is in the TV Zine amidst this is “like a more muscular Tindersticks fronted by Mark Lanegan”. The new video presents intricate torn paper and tape collages of live performance, melded frame-by-frame with interior and exterior images, and additional objects in the band’s examination of shifting mental states of focus.
Tulipomania creates meticulous, mesmerizing videos that augment the group’s artistry, involving painstaking frame-by-frame stop-motion animation techniques. Described as “artistic and inventive”, the music videos created by Tulipomania have been featured in film festivals worldwide, the most recent of which include the London Short Film Festival (England), Leeds International Film Festival (England), Aesthetica Short Film Festival (York, England), Encounters (Bristol, England), Zubroffka (Poland), and StopTrik (Croatia, Poland).
‘Don’t Be So Sure’ was the band’s first hand-painted animation, featuring multiple passes of brushwork shot on thousands of individual sheets of black paper, visually allowing singing self-portraits to morph and dissolve in an atmospheric exploration of ambiguity. For the Seahawks Remix, the band re-photographed the original artwork, frame by frame, matching the new tempo and softer mood, which they felt also called for a more painterly, layered approach to the imagery.
Gelover and Murray first met in art school and found themselves collaborating on projects for their Experimental Film and Animation classes. Tulipomania essentially grew along with these experiences. They were influenced by Talk Talk, the solo work by Mark Hollis and Tim Friese-Greene, and many early 4AD bands, including Cocteau Twins, Lush, Throwing Muses, and The Pixies.
The original version of ‘Don’t Be So Sure’ featured on the band’s fourth album ‘This Gilded Age’ (2016), described by Byron Coley of WIRE Magazine (May 2017 edition) as “…pretty whacked – something akin to a battle of the bands between Crazy Horse and The Kronos Quartet”. The remix featured on this new single comes from Seahawks, a duo made up of Jon Tye, founder of the legendary Lo Recordings (whose roster includes Grimes, Aphex Twin, Four Tet, Thurston Moore and Astronauts) and Pete Fowler, creator of Monsterism vinyl toys and perhaps most famed as illustrator of oh so many Super Furry Animals album sleeves.
Tulipomania, whose name was inspired by the 1637 Dutch tulip market collapse, has been categorized as ‘cult synth punks’, ‘glam-leaning’, ‘postpunk’, ‘art rock’, and ‘muscular chamber pop’. Band members Tom Murray (lead vocals, bass, drums, guitar-organ) and Cheryl Gelover (synthesizer, background vocals) were joined by Mitch Smith (guitar, glockenspiel), who also contributed to the band’s eponymous first album, Richard Hartline (piano, percussion, engineering and mastering), and Howard Thompson (executive producer).
This release features intriguing new artwork by legendary artist Vaughan Oliver, whose work they have long admired. Oliver give distinct visual identities for 4AD releases by many bands, including Mojave 3, Lush, Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance, The Breeders, This Mortal Coil, Pale Saints, Pixies, and Throwing Muses, in addition to numerous non-4AD artists such as David Sylvian.
LINKS:
http://tulipomania.com
http://www.facebook.com/TheTulipomania
http://twitter.com/tulipomania
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