What a great start to 2020. Some awesome music that you'll be spinning all year long. New, old, fast, slow...it doesn't matter as long as it's good...and it's very good this month.
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Professor Lexis is the real deal. This young British rapper has spent the past year travelling, writing and recording. The result is this stunning debut album Lexicology, featuring superb vocals and quality production values sure to garner attention. The Tasty Turntable is excited to present these five quick questions from this fantastic new discovery:
What music are you listening to these days? In 2020, I’m more into UK rap than I’ve ever been, and there are some artists that I’ve been bumping non-stop this year. My favourites at the moment include SHOTTY HORROH, Jam Baxter, Skittles and Dabbla. These UK rappers really keep the essence of the UK scene flowing through their lyrics, while providing huge variation within the scene. Skittles’ album ‘Poor on Purpose’ really speaks volumes about life in the UK, and is relatable to a lot of listeners, whereas Baxter spins poetic stories and images with no difficulty, and in my opinion, his abstract content is a huge asset to UK rap in 2020. Do you have a favourite playlist? The playlist I’ve had on repeat recently is High Focus’ ‘High Focus Classics’ playlist, as it’s a welcome throwback to some of the legendary lyrical content that has emerged from the UK label in the past. High Focus have served as an inspiration to me lyrically, technically and stylistically, so these songs are always welcome on my daily rotation. What excites you about your new release? I think what excites me the most about this release is that it’s the first studio quality music I’ve put out. This means I’m really comfortable and excited when sharing my music with journalists, radio stations and playlist curators, as I can be assured that in terms of production, it’s the best I have access to. It’s also very exciting to simply have the facilities to get my music across to more people on these major online platforms and streaming services. What else would you like people to know about you and your music? I began constructing lyrical projects when I was five years old, and became very interested in the world of poetry. I used to love creating short poems that told a story, until I realised that if I sped up the delivery of these poems, they seemed to transform into rap lyrics. I began recording my rap music properly at the age of 15, and put out my first 2 track demo, titled ‘Half Baked’. During my high school years I used to love battle raps in the school courtyard, and the large hip hop scene in my town helped breathe into me a real interest and passion in the genre. Due to having some serious problems living in the UK, I took off to Australia after finishing compulsory education, where my rapping passion grew a lot while working in a surf camp in Gerroa, performing my raps to the campers multiple times. Long story short, I met my girlfriend there and ended up settling down in Switzerland, where I was able to secure studio time, and eventually release ‘Lexicology’ on January 17th 2020. I try to incorporate an eclectic blend of styles into my music, as is evident on the album, and a lot of the lyrics come from a very sentimental place. For example, my new album’s opening track ‘Castle Walls’ speaks about the problems I and a lot of others in my area have faced regarding drug addiction, and does so in quite a somber tone, whereas ‘Watch Me’ was engineered more as a track to get people hyped, hence the strong focus on double-time and relentlessly fast verses. The whole album was a lot of fun to write and record, and the influence of my producer both stylistically, and from an administrative point of view, was an excellent asset to the tracks. Where can people hear you? Right now, the main platforms where you can stream my new album are Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, iTunes, Google Music, and YouTube. A quick search for ‘Professor Lexis - Lexicology’, should pull the album straight up! Stream Lexicology on Spotify here: https://open.spotify.com/album/3KixxgDCWSAgQOPjKIJOyY?si=7IEwIrR2SFiaW3DKJu6z1A Download Lexicology on iTunes here: https://music.apple.com/gb/album/lexicology/1492012878 
A great collection of songs that will keep everyone happy for hours. An eclectic collection of songs that will continue to be updated all year long. Check out the 2019 version as well.
Hipster Soul...one of the playlists that started it all...now the 2019 version. Some classic soul sounds along with today's best acts. A great collection that will keep you moving today and well into the new year.
It's holiday season and we are celebrating with this fantastic mix of songs...new, old, fast, slow...it doesn't matter as long as it is good!
With winter coming on, there is no better way to fend off the cold than with this warm collection of songs new, old, fast and slow.
Back again with some great songs for Autumn 2019. Check out some favorites from The Mean, Houndmouth, Liam Bailey and much more!
Don't let those end of summer blues get you down...here's a great list of music to keep you going all autumn long. Kicking it off this month with a solid old school track from Damian Marley. Fast, slow, new, old...anything goes as long as it's good.
The turntables have been quite busy this summer. Great stuff for your summer get-togethers, featuring Inner Wave, Khruangbin, Davina and The Vagabonds and a whole lot more.
From the opening notes of track one on Alexandra's hauntingly beautiful new release, Ecdysis, through the album's coda, "Cycles", this multi-talented, Portland-based artist casts off all inhibitions to create a deeply personal soundscape that defies categorization. The layered work brings new discoveries with each listen. Favorite tracks include the subtly rhythmic "Roller" and the hypnotic "Membrane." The Tasty Turntable recently caught up with Alexandra for five quick questions:
What music are you listening to these days? I have been resonating with ethereal, ambient works as well as house, electronic, and hip-hop. I have been inspired by producers and visionaries Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Björk, FKA Twigs, Kelly Lee Owens, Tyler, The Creator, Anenon, James Blake, and Dirty Projectors. I go back and forth between hyped and calm sounds, getting lost in the worlds that these artists paint. They are true composers. Do you have a favorite playlist? One of my favorite activities is to craft playlists on Spotify. I’ve compiled a collection of songs that remind me of basking in summer light or sunbathing by the lake. It’s called, quite literally, “sunbathing by the lake” and is full of gems from João Gilberto, Angelo de Augustine, Amália Rodrigues and more. Excited to play it in headphones at a nearby river for an upcoming 80-degree Oregon day. What excites you about your new release? What excites me most about the album is the experimentation with new textures. I found liberation in exploration. This is the first album where I used samples and electronic techniques so it was exciting to stretch my idea of how my music could sound. What elevated this album over previous releases started with breaking my own perfectionistic ideals. I started listening to artists outside my usual listening scope, releasing the self-imposed expectation that I needed to stick to a certain genre, and following my gut for compositional arrangements. What else would you like people to know about you and your music? This album was born after a summer of touring through Europe with my good friend and talented musician, Adam (The Duke of Norfolk). We spent five weeks walking, biking, taking trains, planes, and buses through the U.K., France, Italy, Switzerland and Germany. We visited Annecy, a lakeside French town I grew up in where I first learned to ride a bike, where my love for swimming began, and where I had the SUPREME privilege of eating croissants everyday after school. We continued our journey through various mountain landscapes, urban jungles, and quiet villages. The chaos and calm brought a lot of memories back of traveling the world as a young kid. I archived these experiences in my noggin until I found a recording space that felt comfortable and distraction-free. I wanted these feelings to breathe and have a home of their own. I set up a little studio in my childhood home in San Diego, CA, where I spent hours playing with sounds and arrangements like a little kid in a sandbox. Thus, Ecdysis was born. Where can people hear you? People can hear me on Spotify, iTunes, and Bandcamp! Thank you for giving your ears and hearts so generously to the music. More on Alexandra: Last summer, freshly buzzing with inspiration after a five-week European tour, Alexandra (formerly Ali Burress) was eager to begin production on her fourth studio album. The songs of Ecdysis ([ek-duh-sis], the shedding of an older skin) cocoon listeners in a sense of childlike wonder and exploration—perhaps because Alexandra recorded and mixed the album entirely in her childhood home in San Diego. Encased in a more mature production style than her previous albums, Ecdysis is an 8-song ode to our inner child. Entranced by the processes of molting and metamorphosis, the 21-year-old Portland songwriter/producer speaks to how perfectionism can block the flow of creative consciousness, the trials of remaining openhearted and vulnerable in a world that wants to harden us, and reopening our innate receptivity to the messages being communicated to us in the dream world and waking life. Inspired by relentless whisperings of the sea, chattering crickets in tall grass, and bubbling waterfall alcoves in deep forests, the trance-like rhythms of Ecdysis induce the feeling of flying in a dream; soaring above luminous, shifting terrain. Alexandra describes her recording process as finding a sonic home—somewhere she can comfortably return after periods of wandering to map the inner and outer landscapes she has explored. The sonic atmospheres Alexandra produces are shaped by her deep connection to nature and a childhood spent roaming the globe, which created constellation lines in her psyche spanning across mountain ranges, desert sands, and turquoise waters. |