It’s hard to write, much less record, a song that conveys true emotions. That’s why ‘Made of Gold’, the new track and video by Rayon Nelson, is so special. It conveys and expresses those times in our lives that we have all had. Times of loss and helplessness, when we feel at our lowest. Backed by creative genius both musically and lyrically, Rayon’s soulful voice and nuances really give experience to the lyrics and give the listener hope as well as heart.
About Made of Gold
Shimmering guitar lines and a pared-back arrangement serve as a backdrop to Rayon’s heartfelt confessions of failure and imperfection. ‘Made Of Gold’ chronicles those times when the wellsprings of our emotion overcome our flood barriers and overflow as we fail to uphold our own often fastidious psychological standards. “Hard times are no stranger to my door,” he sings, relating his personal struggle with our complicated and erringly human interior lives. It’s a richly layered song that thrums with the splendor of Rayon’s voice. Combining vintage and modern influences, ‘Made Of Gold is a haunting, soulful, and eminently relatable song which lays bare the touching contradictions at the heart of the human experience. It’s an impressive sleight of hand from an artist who is carving an original and beguiling space in contemporary music.
Often people think because you present yourself in a certain way, that you have everything together. Made Of Gold song attempts to show that even though these words that I try to live by are ‘made of gold’, I somehow still fall in doubt and I’m most certainly not perfect. I’m a closed person in general so this EP contains some personal songs, and I guess its a way of people getting closer to me.
About ‘Closer’ EP
Written and self-produced by Rayon himself, and mixed and mastered by Alberto Coin, Closer is a set of songs that draws listeners deep into Rayon Nelson’s artistic world. Confessional and tender in tone, the four songs that comprise the EP meditate on the concept of identity from four distinct viewpoints. From the soulful and relatable psychological interiority of lead track ‘Made Of Gold’, Rayon lays himself open. Following that, there’s the familial ‘Granny’ – a poignant thank you message to his grandparents, which he contrasts with ‘Where Were You?’, a heartfelt message to an absent father. Closing with the expansive and ambitious ‘Freedom’, Rayon steps outside of his persona and empathizes with the global oppressed. By his own admission Rayon is a guarded figure, but through the humbling honesty of ‘Closer’ he lays himself bare, and in so doing he reveals himself to be a relatable, charming, flawed, but also an incisive lyricist with an inimitable new sound.
EP Track Listings
- Made Of Gold
- Granny
- Where Were You
- Freedom
About Rayon Nelson
Lauded for his captivating and soulful vocals, Rayon Nelson has achieved remarkable status for an independent artist. With eclectic influences from Jamaica, London, and Suffolk, his music presents an inspirational and compassionate lyricism, set often to a sonic backdrop which encompasses a broad fusion of styles. Shaped by early exposure to an array of different music such as reggae, old school gospel, and soul from artists including Bob Marley, Jimmy Cliff and Lauryn Hill, Rayon Nelson’s work is a matchless synthesis of the styles and vibes that formed him. He was shortlisted for Glastonbury festival, performed at Isle Of Wight Festival, and often featured on BBC Introducing and BBC 1Xtra whilst remaining unsigned. His latest EP ‘Yung Solo’ has attracted over 380k streams on Spotify, and has been featured in numerous blogs such as Hilly Dilly while attracting major industry interest. After a one year hiatus, Rayon is now releasing his Closer EP and intends to firmly make his mark in the music industry this year.
LINKS:
https://www.rayonsofficialmusic.com
https://www.facebook.com/rayonsofficialmusic
https://soundcloud.com/rayon-nelson
https://twitter.com/rayonnelson
https://www.instagram.com/rayonnelson
-
Your 33 Black Angels Premiere ‘Hott Funn’ on Jammerzine (The Week in #Indie Segment)
Your 33 Black Angels (a.k.a. Y33BA) just defined my ideal criteria for originality in music. The quirky personalities of the mindset of each member tossed into something written within the boundaries of the band as a whole. The secret is, is that those boundaries are endless don’t exist. So for Y33BA to come up with something within that definition of that criteria, with their new single and video titled ‘Hott Funn’, is a masterstroke in music.
Y33BA ‘Eternities I’ is slated for release on May 7 and will be available across digital stores and streaming platforms. It can also be pre-ordered via Bandcamp. The band’s album release show will take place on May 10 at Alphaville in Brooklyn.
About Your 33 Black Angels
Your 33 Black Angels (a.k.a. Y33BA) has announced their new album ‘Eternities I’, which is their seventh long-play to date, to be released in early May. Ahead of that, they are previewing the lead track ‘Hott Funn’.Recorded over three years and more than 60 studio days with endless mixes in the making, ‘Eternities I’ is 13 tracks that are built to stand as the culmination of Y33BA’s labors.
Based out of New York City, Y33BA is a long-running noise-pop freakshow. This genre-defying project has its own stamp of dark pop, electro-paisley new wave space rock, with a dose of crunk bass and rhythm. They produce elegant vibrant melodies with strange, novel sounds. This is the New Age underground for the End Times.
How do a group that has danced around sensibilities and sounds refresh the template? More cutting-edge instruments and riskier, avant-garde pop songs than ever. Imagine Madchester, and imagine dream pop meets Aphex Twin. Imagine the bastard child of Arthur Russell, Rain Parade and Rza and add original 21st century sound design and guitar webs.
This is a radical, angry, watermark record. Designed to embrace and rattle against the times. Combining haute popcraft with touches of the undercurrents of our lives–acid house, Paisley Underground, synth wave, field recordings, minimal electronica, and epic RAWK.
As well, the Y33BA wordsmiths have always been equal part poetry fans as lyricists, so the Poesia Concreta of Augusto de Campos or Guillaume Apollonaire may have as much influence as wonderful lyricists like Neil Hannon, Bjork or Serge Gainsbourg. Breaking rhythms and broken meter match the polarized sounds from start to finish.
Formed in 2003, Y33BA debuted with the album ‘Lonely Street’ in 2007, which was a vinyl-only limited edition. Once the initial pressings sold out, Y33BA released the album on CD and digitally. They followed up with ‘Tales of my Pop-Rock Love Life’ (2008), ‘Pagan Princess’ (2009), ‘Songs from the Near Bleak Future’ (Optical Sounds, 2010), ‘Moon and Morning Star’ ( Optical Sounds, 2012) and ‘Glamour’ (2015).
In that time, they have played over 500 shows across Europe and North America, sharing the stage with some rather fine acts during recent tours. The Monochrome Set selected Y33BA as the direct support act for its first New York City show in 30 years. La Femme, The Veldt and Dyr Faser have toured or shared many nights with the group. The band has also played with King Tuff, Blitzen Trapper, Suuns, Six Organs of Admittance, Blonde Elvis, B-17 and We Melt Chocolate.
The video for ‘Hott Funn’ was made by Richie of Vinyl Villains. “Richie is a mysterious Bushwick programmer that doesn’t leave his loft til the light has disappeared and the day has turned to dark. He is part vampire, part design whiz. He has invented an automated animation program that turns songs into aliens, furry creatures, whatever the sound seems to suggest. Obviously, Your 33 Black Angels have a very alien sound, but he might have horses singing to Neil Young, vegan cupcakes singing Fiona Apple, dolphins singing Supergrass, etc. Richie is so ineffable and distant, we don’t even know his last name. All we know is he commands legions of aliens, faeries, and elves. Literally, that’s what he does!”
“A delight of jangling guitars, spacey-sweet vocals, and electronic squiggles, a psych record rooted in beat-pop and experimentalism”
– Village Voice (on ‘Glamour’)“One of this year’s treasures… is worth the hunt for its pop-wise rattle (Pavement with a case of the Strokes) and singer Josh Westfal’s resemblance, in dry, frank voice and cautious optimism, to another local institution: Lou Reed on the Velvet Underground’s fourth album, Loaded”
– Rolling Stone (On ‘Lonely Street’)“This is dark electric frenzied New Wave space-rock, blasting by like a fiery and unexpected sonic guest, clearly defying genres and interacting with cosmic messengers”
– Big Takeover Magazine“Retro-leaning, though hardly flower pop fetishists… pacey keyboard textures and groove-oriented arrangements, while their penchant for laid-back Daniel Johnston vocals and warbly lo-fi riffs more closely resembles the classic college rock of Pavement and Built to Spill”
– NOW Toronto (On ‘Songs from the Near Bleak Future’)“Your 33 Black Angels are known for frenetic, unpredictable shows. the interlocking guitars sometimes surged into what seemed like an eternal groove”
– Washington Post (live review)LINKS:
https://www.facebook.com/your33blackangels
https://y33ba.bandcamp.com
https://twitter.com/y33ba
https://www.instagram.com/y33ba
https://soundcloud.com/y33ba
https://itunes.apple.com/bn/artist/your-33-black-angels/271047566 -
The Mojo Slide Releases ‘Not In My Name’ Single (The Week in #Indie Segment)
The Mojo Slide has released their new single titled ‘Not In My Name’. Groove infected from the start and hook-laden throughout, The Mojo Slide show that the steady groove is the way to go with their latest single.
Guitar-driven and rhythm steered, ‘Not In My Name’ has that perfect chord construction that steers clear from the inside of the box musically and has a specific rhythm and definition lyrically that adds to the punctuation of the track itself.
Click HERE to watch Season 6 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 5 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 4 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 3 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 2 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.
Click HERE to watch Season 1 of Jammerzine’s ‘The Week in #Indie’.LINKS:
https://themojoslide.com
https://facebook.com/themojoslide
https://instagram.com/themojoslide
https://twitter.com/themojoslide
https://soundcloud.com/themojoslide
https://reverbnation.com/themojoslide
https://open.spotify.com/artist/4wGCmOPDaqWJO5HGzcsMdF?si=eAE22NXQSzKj0Tkfuo_z2w -
Jammerzine’s The Week In #Indie for 11/14/2016
This week’s episode includes the latest from Jasmine Rodgers, The Winachi Tribe, Rachel Mason, TheUse, Ooberfuse, Mark Daly, Death Valley Rally and the Blue Soap Music Blue Soap Box Top 10 in independent tracks.