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Electronic dance music artist Soomeen is already striking very definitive chords in his discography, falling straight into the scene with his debutant single She Takes Me Up. In a collaborative venture with Oscar Merner, the track’s writing and delivery is bombastic and straightforward with the ability to completely captivate the listener.

The track is a number deserving of mass celebration in the outdoors, and has elements of club pop, EDM-like intonations and bridge along with features of electronic dance music. The track is an elite display of melodic and arrangement-oriented strength that is devoid of any fluff that distract the listener from his gripping romantic and rhythmic undertones.

Kirsty Lee Akers is exactly the kind of star we need in 2021 – eccentric, exciting, authentic, and a genuine recording artist. She is a rare talent who is proud of her First Nations heritage, a woman of the Wonnarua People (Hunter Valley – Australia). Akers describes herself as a fusion of pop, modern country, with Americana stylings.

Like many artists unable to tour throughout the pandemic, Akers spent much of her time writing and recording. Taking inspiration from what she couldn’t do, to make the most of what she could.

In addition to creating new music, curb the unfortunate circumstances, Kirsty (and her husband Jesse Anderson) have kept themselves busy as one of five couples featured on the Channel 9 reality TV series ‘The Block’ airing at this very moment. Both have enjoyed the experience, but music will always be Kirsty’s first passion.

Akers states, “Music and family have always been the most important parts of my life. My Nan, Mum, and Aunt were all singers, and I grew up with my pop playing music all the time. I still remember my first performance at age three. I was hooked!”

Decades later, Kirsty has a plethora of musical achievements under her belt, she is the only artist in history to have won three of the major prizes in Australian Country Music, Toyota Star Maker, Telstra Road to Discovery, and a Golden Guitar Award (Two in total).

No stranger to pushing boundaries, Kirsty has a remarkable new song with plenty of genre-bending spark to thrill every new listen. Her new single “For Love” was written in lockdown and is the brand-new single from the 2021 Golden Guitar winner. In 2020, when she was meant to be in the United States on a writing trip, she instead improvised and connected with two of her favourite collaborators, Phil Barton and Bruce Wallace. The result was an upbeat, vibrant track about what she would do for love.

Written about her husband Jesse, the new single is in fact a true love story, from primary school to marriage… a rare enduring relationship in 2021. Even though Jesse was the inspiration, the song tells a story of love in general, and all the things you would do for that “special” person. Kirsty declares, “I know Jesse would give his life for me, and I would do the same, I hope this song tells the story of loving someone so much that you couldn’t imagine living life without them.”

After taking the producer’s chair for the first time on her most successful album to date in 2018, Akers decided to bring her established band members in on the fun this time. The track was co-produced by Akers with Paul Bain, Issac Kennedy, and Dan Ebbels at the new Five Town Productions studios in Brisbane.

Kirsty explains, “I never want to do the same thing twice in music. I think this track is something my audience hasn’t heard from me before. We really experimented with different sounds and creating something new but also had a bit of nostalgia to it. It’s still me, just an evolution of my sound.”

The video for “For Love” is overflowing with conviction, romance, and affection, and it’s the perfect visual representation of the sentiment behind the song itself. Produced and directed by Kirsty’s husband Jesse, the video clip encapsulates an artist who is totally involved in the process, and completely enamoured by the idea of creating new songs and sounds…all “for love”.

The track is the very first release through Kirsty’s newly formed record label, Rider Records.

Fresh off the back of their hugely successful single ‘Another One More Time’, 2021 Golden Guitar nominees Hurricane Fall return with their latest release, and it’s a damn ‘Good One’.

The track explores the theme of looking for the love of the right person, in a world where too many things are competing for our attention. Says Pepper , “It’s an upbeat song about the search for “the One” and holding out for the ever-elusive forever love! It’s all about enjoying the journey to the transcendent dream of true love”.

Recorded at Msquared Productions and produced by Michael Paynter and Michael Delorenzis in Melbourne, ‘Good One’, like the band’s other recent singles, was once again recorded over zoom due to COVID lockdowns. It’s a track that has a highly polished sound but with mud on its boots.

It follows on from ‘Another One More Time’, which has received over 800k streams to date, along with playlist additions on Spotify’s Fresh Country, New Music Nashville and New Music Friday playlists. It was also added to Apple Music’s Aussie Country, Country Risers and Today’s Country playlists, and peaked at #5 on The Music Network CountryTown Hot 50 airplay charts.

Hurricane Fall kicked off a highly successful year, pandemic notwithstanding, with a Golden Guitar nomination for Best Group or Duo , and a regional headline tour. They were also set to perform at a number of major festivals including Deni Ute Muster, Gympie Music Muster and VDM Fest, all of which have been rescheduled for 2022. Fans can catch Hurricane Fall performing next at the Tamworth Country Music Festival in January 2022.

Having earned the reputation as one of the best live acts, Hurricane Fall are aching to get back on stage. Says Pepper “We pride ourselves on being one of the best live bands in the country. Like all musicians, the extended lockdown has us caged in the COVID zoo. We have never been more excited to hit the stage with a brand new show and heaps of new material.” And with ‘Good One’ they’re onto not just a good thing, but something truly special.

A brand new release Darts Of Love Dance track in the most modern way. Darts Of Love is OUT NOW !!!

‘Start Again’ is the closing theme to award winning Australian western/period drama short film ‘Sherbrooke Down: The Road to Cataract’, featuring much-loved Australian TV soap stars Patrick O’Connor, Sophie Dillman and Tim Robards. This heartfelt and emotional song showcases a powerful vocal collaboration by Steve McNaughton and his long-term co-writer, business partner and friend, James Stewart Keene. With its uncomplicated melancholic sound and its dramatic cinematic tone, this track ventures from country into adult contemporary territory.

Australian singer/songwriter Steve McNaughton has been writing songs for over 25 years and performing with different artists and bands around Sydney for nearly as many. Steve’s first album ‘Hardly Softly Rock’ was released in 1999.

Steve came to the music industry’s attention through music festivals in Midem France and Popkomm in Germany, and radio stations in the U.S.A., Germany and New Zealand. Tracks from the album held the top spot of the Ison Live Radio International Top 50 Chart for several weeks with ‘Hold Me Tonight’ peaking at number six.

In 2000 he released an EP for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games called ‘Sydney Olympic City’. The lead track ‘Sydney You’re So Beautiful’ received airplay from visiting international television networks and overseas airplay, well after the games had finished.

Steve McNaughton’s second album ‘Storm Chaser’ and its title track of the same name, was inspired by renowned American storm chaser Scott Currens and others like him. The song is a high energy track that fully captures the fury of nature when the plains turn violent across the United States’ mid-west.

Steve’s ‘Eagles Aloft’ has now taken him fully into the contemporary country music scene. Using Nashville artists, with some Americana and country influences for inspiration, the result is a slick album of crossover country. This album features a number of co-writes with Australian and U.S. writers, the best of which seem to come from his main collaborator, James Stewart Keene.

In 2021, ‘Start Again’ (co-written with James Stewart Keene and Janssen Langlands) was finally recorded for the closing credits of short film ‘Sherbrooke Down: The Road to Cataract’.

Multi-award winning vocalist, songwriter, and producer Natalie Nicole Gilbert shows her musical versatility and emotional breadth in her new nostalgic album, Warm Winter (Orchard). Having released over a dozen albums of original music ranging from EDM to jazz to alt pop rock, Gilbert delves into putting her own spin on an eclectic mix of 10 iconic songs written by some of the most notable songwriters of our time, including David Foster, Joni Mitchell and Andrew Lloyd Webber. To create the album, Gilbert collaborated with a multi-faceted team of music heavyweights, including composer and violinist Andrew Joslyn, (Leslie Odom Jr., Macklemore and Lewis, Suzanne Vega), songwriter, composer, orchestrator, film scorer and multi-instrumentalist Dana Bisignano (Oprah, VH1, and Curb Your Enthusiasm), and multiple award-winning TV and film composer Jonathan Still (Dancing With The Stars, Shameless, Inside the NFL). Warm Winter hit all digital platforms on December 11, 2020.

Gilbert’s Warm Winter album consists of her unique reimaginings of 10 songs from a smorgasbord of genres. The songs range from Andrew Lloyd Webber’s rendition of a centuries old Latin hymn “Pie Jesu”, to a contemporary mashup of “What Child Is This” over the melody of “We Three Kings” in “What Child of Kings”; to Gilbert’s ambitious covers of Joni Mitchell’s 1971 Christmas folk song “River”, Fleetwood Mac’s 1974 “Landslide”, David Foster’s 1990 “Grown Up Christmas List” and Harry Styles’s 2019 melancholy “Falling”. “Walking in the Air”, is from the children’s TV animated film, The Snowman, and “Wrapped Up in a Dream Called You” brings lush traditional jazz to the album.

Guest artists on the album include vocalist Lisa Ramey (NBC’s The Voice) and Grammy® Award winning vocalist/songwriter/producer Jarrett Johnson (Take 6, Michael Bublé, Ariana Grande, Childish Gambino) on “That Will Be Christmas”. Strings were provided by Andrew Joslyn who played violin and viola on 7 of the 10 tracks, along with Eli Weinberger (Manahem Pressler, Macklemore and Lewis) on cello. Jonathan Still provided the piano and arrangement of “What Child Of Kings”, and Dana Bisignano provided piano on four of the tracks. Warren Pettey adds a soulful jazz piano in “Falling”, “Grown Up Christmas List” and “Landslide”. “Wrapped Up in a Dream Called You” features Steve Rice (who also co-wrote the song) on piano and Jay Thomas on the tenor sax solo, joined by Devan Stovall on drums and Cary Black on bass.

The album was co-produced by Gilbert and Latin Grammy-nominated recording engineer, DJ and remixer Robert Eibach, who mixed and engineered the album. He also provided the beats and all instrumentation on “That Will Be Christmas”.

Curl up with a warm cup of cocoa and listen to Warm Winter, the latest winter-themed album by Natalie Nicole Gilbert.

MORE ABOUT THE ARTIST

LA-based Natalie Nicole Gilbert comes from a musical family heritage with a pianist mother who played with Liberace, a vocalist sister into love songs from every era, a brother in a rock band, and a father whose tech engineer mind led him to work for Lockheed Martin. Gilbert’s career has included collaborations with a number of film composers and musicians of a wide array of genres ranging from EDM to classic jazz to alt pop rock.

Today, Gilbert is a voting member of the Recording Academy with 14 solo albums and an additional seventeen singles to her credit. In addition to her music, she has more than 10 years in broadcast radio as a radio host and voiceover talent, and has done national commercials for McDonalds, Cadillac, Quiznos, and other well-known brands. She built her home recording studio in 2005 when it was still a relatively new practice, and continues to produce and co-produce her own music. Gilbert is also a session vocalist for the Dublin Studio Hub, and film and TV composer with Music + Pictures, whose credits include Law and Order, The Office, and many others worldwide. She brings her extensive knowledge of what is radio-ready and what is easiest to license for film & TV to her own acoustic and electric songs.

AMARI Is a female dj – producer with some previous successes. Going out went over 2 million streams. AMARI always makes lyrics with a message. This time it is about survive. In may 2021 she was diagnosed with cancer, that sadly already spread. She is fighting to get well again, to survive. To write a new chapter in her book. AMARI always thought she needed people to survive, but she came to the conclusion that you don’t need other people to survive. You need a positive mindset. And you need to live your life to the fullest. That is why the song goes ‘ I need you to survive, don’t need you to survive’ . Thinking you need other people to be happy. But all you need is making first yourself happy. With this song she worked together with LOWKIE a Canadian artist. They met each other through this rough time. All that resulted in this amazing song that will hit you with his message and nice dance beats.

Samali and incognito producer Organ release “Done” on Effective Records.

Effective Records is one of the biggest indie labels haling from Russia, Moscow and is the only label in Russia/CIS and East Europe with a Grammy award (for Imanbek’s remix of “Roses”).

“Done” is already playing on radio in 50 cities and receives approx. 300,000 online streams per week.

“Goose” is a laid-back and self-reflective piece of sonic escapism, with thick pulses of synth bass layered with lush, bubbling and percolating pads, glassy FM synthesis and thoroughly driven home by an uptempo groove that tugs you into the unknown.

“Goose” was composed and produced by Daze Gates in Glasgow, mixed by Ben Evolo in Amsterdam, mastered by Jon Astley / Close to the Edge in London

Using his musical talents and lyrical gifts, Dr Jaymz, an EDM (electronic dance music) artist from Boston has released a new single – ‘Tidal Wave,’ to combat a growing crisis plaguing the United States – opioid addiction and overdose deaths. The Centers for Disease Control says drug overdose deaths spiked nearly 30% this year, with other countries following a similar trend. It’s a bleak milestone, and this grim data is even more concerning after overdose deaths were on the decline since 2018.

Dr Jaymz is different from any other EDM artist. As the world’s first missionary to become an EDM artist, his goal is to transform lives through music. From the narrative lyrics, to the sizzling dance music and character-driven video, his new single is showing people that drugs aren’t the only way, and there is a hope that can break every chain and addiction – the living water. Dr Jaymz says, “My desire behind this song was to create a dope electronic dance beat with an uplifting drop and lyrics that inspire hope, which is especially important in today’s crisis-stricken world.” In other words, Tidal Wave is more than a song, it’s a message of hope for all those who feel trapped in a world of addiction and depression. Its message will inspire listeners to look beyond their current situation and be awakened to new life in Christ – the living water.

This is a message that can relate to all of your audience. There are times when everyone feels lost without hope. As data shows, many people turn to drugs and other outlets to numb their pain. The opioid epidemic needs unique and exceptional ways to reach people. Tidal Wave is a different way to reach members of your audience who feel tempted by drugs or trapped by addiction.