This week our Deer Du Bois playlist is curated by 4 artists from around the globe, each of them making music from the heart, telling their story, staying true to their ideas and talents, while creating a unique sound!

Meet this weeks picks by SAKIMA (UK) x LIYV (US) x THE LAND BELOW (SE) x TAFF (GR)

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From Sakima‘s picks, watch out for SATICA and her “high” energy slow-pop on “Honey Whiskey”. She will also release a track in collab with our dearest Sakima very soon. On “3 Times” by Marged, a soulful scream is unleashed and transformed into a powerful life lesson. Follow SAKIMA on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

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Portland’s pastel pop singer Liyv got inspired by one of the most mysterious, yet progressive artists of the moment: Sevdaliza on her hypnotic masterpiece “Hero”. Her next pick, a collaboration between Starrah & Diplo on “Zoo”, perfectly reflects the deformed voices from the former song and also hints Liyv‘s drive on her latest album. Follow LIYV on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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Erik from The Land Below, known for his misty chill tracks, makes us discover the warm electronic soul of Solregn on “ONE”. And with Desta French, we melt the ice thanks to her rhythmic and uplifting pop on “Needing You”. Follow THE LAND BELOW on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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Greek newcomer TAFF, a film editor and director captures us again on his newest indie-tronic track “A Millions Waves”. He revealed having Empara Mi‘s newest song “Alibi” on repeat, a majestic track with a grand orchestration behind it. Follow TAFF on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

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If you want to drink a bit more until you get tipsy, you should check him on Facebook and Soundcloud, and follow his regular posts on our site.

Subscribe to Deer Du Bois refreshing playlist on Spotify now!

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In many ways this is a nostalgia thing. People who grew up with the music and are now adults are looking back on their teenage years. As nostalgia tends to make that which happened roughly 15 years ago cool again, we can maybe finally move on from our worship of the ’90s. Emo can finally come out of its dingy bedroom where it’s been living. Its transgressions forgiven. Its sentimentality no longer making us cringe.

The most interesting part of this shift in perception is not the revival of old styles (it never is), but the creation of new ones. This all started when I fell into a strange, sad internet hole and discovered the YouTube channel/pseudo-label “デーモンAstari“. Much of the music on the channel combines the music of your awkward phase with heavily autotuned sing-rap. Wedded to this musical blend is a decidedly internetty visual aesthetic that relies heavily on sad anime clips with a bit of vaporwave-ish Windows 95 worship thrown in for good measure. The musical style is as removed from My Chemical Romance as they were from Sunny Day Real Estate and they themselves from Rites Of Spring.

“Emo is the soundtrack to youth, and as times change, so does the music that resonates with young people. The history of emo is one of reinvention … of shifting musical styles.” – Andy Greenwald

There is something very now about this music. It’s more than just a breath of fresh air into an old style. This is a postmodern blend of internet mixtapes from Future to Odd Future, for kids who grew up on Adult Swim playing rap tracks before airing anime shows, whose first musical memory was hearing Jimmy Eat World on the radio. As Andy Greenwald wrote in his book “Nothing Feels Good”: “Emo is the soundtrack to youth, and as times change, so does the music that resonates with young people. The history of emo is one of reinvention … of shifting musical styles.”

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This music has been a long time coming. “808s and Heartbreak” pretty much set the template (as well as giving a great name to the aesthetic) of autotune assisted sing-rapping over hip-hop beats. That album blends Kanye‘s emotional autotuned singing with the eponymous drum machine of the title while ‘Ye indulges in pettiness after the dissolution of a serious relationship. Since then, rappers like Drake, Future, Young Thug, Lil Yachty, Travi$ Scott and Lil Uzi Vert have followed in this vein while making weird, emotional and melodic music that breaks with many of hip-hop’s established “rules”. Many of these rappers have even been described as “emo” for their soul-baring lyrics.

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While these rappers have bent the rules, they still have been successful in the mainstream hip-hop world: their singles topped Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart, they were interviewed in XXL and a few of them have collaborated with Kanye. There have also been outsiders who have made similar moves and received a different kind of success. Swedish rapper Yung Lean and his Sad Boys crew are hugely influential here with their white-boy autotune imitations of the above rappers. Part of Lean‘s appeal is the production provided by Yung Gud and Yung Sherman who combine the cloud rap of Clams Casino with electronic music touches.

The Canadian DJ/producer DJ Ryan Hemsworth has also been influential with his blend of electronic music, hip-hop and emotional indie rock. Hemsworth has even stated that two of his favourite albums are Waka Flocka Flame‘s “Flockavelli” and Weezer‘s “Pinkerton”, which sounds like the musical path for a good amount of this music. Both Lean and Hemsworth also have a very similar visual aesthetic consisting of Japanophile tendencies paired with a heavily emotional internet-worshipping aesthetic. This aesthetic might be best explained as the move from 90s emo’s obsession with bleeding one’s emotions and questionably poetry into a diary or a zine (“Diary” even being a seminal album in the genre) to publicly blogging these same issues on websites like Tumblr. Sad, suburban teenagers can now live on the internet in which they have created their own distinctive visual grammar.

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This new emo-goth-rap hybrid then combines elements of all of these musics. Some songs might sound like full-on emo tracks with hip-hop drums underneath, while some might be a more depressing and distorted version of current mainstream hip-hop. Like any genre or movement there are people who epitomise the movement and people who are hard to categorise, only seeming vaguely related. At the very least, even the artists who maybe don’t quite fit the mould are being included into this sphere by its fans and channels like デーモンAstari. Despite this, they generally share some family resemblances, these are: nostalgic cloud-rap influenced beats, clean guitars (sometimes sampled), short songs, autotune, emo-style singing, rapping and emotional lyrics (often about depression/suicide). These musicians are interested in rap music for its textures and its melodies not for technical rhyme schemes. It is not uncommon, then, to find some weak and fairly unexceptional rapping in lots of this music, but that’s not really the point. The production, however, is often wonderful. It captures the vague sense of emo sadness and nostalgia (the kind you might find in an American Football song) and blends it perfectly with the sad, hazy feeling of cloud rap beats. As with any of the music in a still developing scene, some of the music errs on the side of amateurish production values, but shows promise or is otherwise interesting for its pure novelty.

The music is also not without its issues. Combining the famously dodgy gender politics of emo and rap results in a perfect storm of douchebaggery. In both, women are frequently reduced to “bitches” or corpses. As Jessica Hopper wrote about in “Emo: Where The Girls Aren’t” , “We’re vessels redeemed in the light of boy-love. On a pedestal, on our backs. Muses at best. Cum rags or invisible at worst”. The rapper XXX-TENTACION has become a large figure in this scene despite (or, as Pitchfork suggests, because of) his imprisonment for domestic violence. With mental health issues the scene could be seen to be equally problematic. While in many ways having these artists discuss their sadness and depression can help others feel less alone and less stigmatised, it can also create an area where these issues are fetishised, where they can start to become cool. There are also the very current issue of sad, young men online with only an echo chamber of other equally frustrated young men to talk to. These situations have become the breeding grounds for extremist philosophies like the Alt-right. In terms of racial issues, it would be unwise to think that these largely white performers interest in Japan or African-American music signals any kind of allegiance with Black Lives Matter or other parts of the #woke internet.

The final thing is what to call this nebulous genre/scene that, for now, exists mostly around a few YouTube channels. Emo rap might work, but it’s not all clearly emo and that term has been half-used to refer to rappers like Kid Cudi for years now. Sad rap? IDK. I’m sure someone will soon find a way to categorise this and annoy all the artists who claim they’re totally original and can’t be pigeonholed. I look forward to the day. All I can say is it’s a shame that I won’t be coining said term and irritating everyone myself.

A brief introduction to the artists and songs worth knowing (most of these are best enjoyed with both the music and the video whilst alone at 1am):

– Lil Peep is probably the best and so-far the most well-known. His music is also the most successful synthesis of emo and rap. According to a recent Pitchfork profile his influences are Crystal Castles, Panic At The Disco and Gucci Mane (which says everything really).

“In “Girls”, Peep and collaborator Horsehead appear to be two scene-kids that have snuck into a Chief Keef video. It’s a surreal blend of sleek rap video direction and white kids with face tattoos. It’s also a clear attempt to enter the conventional rap world on its own terms. The beat epitomises the dreamy vibe of much of this scene while the lyrics seem to capture its dodgy gender politics.

“M.O.S” is a gorgeously gothic track that manages to be quiet and loud at the same time. Peep‘s vocals are slurred and low in the mix as if this were a My Bloody Valentine song. It really draws comparisons between shoegaze and this scene with a general emphasis on emotion and texture over clear lyrics.

– XXXTENTACION makes music that is occasionally gothic and distorted, occasionally emotional and sung. The デーモンAstari channel’s most popular upload is “I Don’t Wanna Do This Anymore”, one of his weepier songs, so I’ll include it in this list.

– Nothing, nowhere goes even further into emo than Peep. His music generally combines sad-sack lyrics with clean guitars and emo vocals but throws in some hip-hop production and some whiteboy rapping for good measure.

– Brennan Savage‘s “Look At Me Now” has a great gothic trap beat that Savage mostly sings over, with a tiny bit of rapping.

– Lil Bo Weep‘s “I Wrote This Song For You” was recently championed by Diplo on Twitter. Its genre might be best described as cloud rap ballad.

– yunggoth‘s “idk how to kill myself” is one of the vaguest trap songs ever written. Pretty much the only word you can make out in this ethereal banger is “bitches”.

– OmenXIII‘s “Drop Dead” is basically just a great gothic punk-rap song. He looks the part too, dressed all in black with some black nail polish for good measure.

[su_dropcap style=”simple”]I[/su_dropcap]t is interesting how a song can almost do a full circle in styles, by various remixes and covers. Grammy-Awarded Jack Ü‘s amazing single “Where are you now”, which originally features Justin Bieber, started as a stripped back piano ballad before being manipulated by Skrillex and Diplo and turned into one of the hottest dance tracks of the year.

In the cover version of Swedish trio Ember Island, the dance spirit fades away to give some room to sweetness and intimacy . But with the rework of rising producer Jimny, the track takes, again, another turn: the slower version gets back to the floor! The band and the producer both tap into the vulnerability of the lyrics while giving back to the dancefloor what belongs to the dancefloor! Listen to Jimny‘s amazing remix, which transforms the song from a dancefloor filler to a catchy tearjerker!

Listen to Ember Island‘s cover of Jack Ü:

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Where are you now Jimny? I hope creating more stunning remixes like this! This is a beautiful example of how a well-known track can be squeezed, twisted and crafted into something totally different and equally groundbreaking. To use such a well-worn track that many will be familiar creates a challenge on how you make the song your own but keep its soul. Jimny manages to do that brilliantly with his version that flows seductively and builds to a grand crescendo that is head-noddingly, fist pumping good.

Jimny – 25 from Brooklyn, New York – is relatively new to the dance scene but has already put out some impressive remixes on his Soundcloud page, for bands such as Alt-J or Sable. He started out playing as a guitarist in funk and blues bands before falling into the hands of dance music production after hearing xxyyxx’s self-titled album back in 2012:

Listening to xxyyxx’s style you can hear the care and craft that has gone into the production and that is reflected in Jimny’s work. The attention to detail is on point and the sheer variety of style is impressive which is something that he has clearly latched onto. Jimny’s remix of Ember Islands‘ cover is an intriguing Future Bass gem. The artist, who comes from Santiago de Chile, has managed to take the track back into the realm of dance while retaining the intimacy that Ember Islands gave it.

Get ready for more Jimny‘s music soon as his debut “LP1” will be released in June! Indeed, the artist recently signed to dance label Perfect Havoc. We are excited to see what else Jimny can produce, to listen to his own compositions and to see where his obvious talent will take him! Stay tuned on his Facebook page!

Good news, Jimny‘s remix of “Where Are You Now” is a free download!

[su_dropcap style=”simple”]M[/su_dropcap]ajor Lazer‘s European tour is now over and apparently, as they showed it on social media, it was a real BLAST every night. They were joined by some of the featuring of their latest album “Peace Is The Mission” such as Elliphant or Wild Belle. They shared a video for their latest single “Together”… A video with a very happy ending.

The video relates the escapade of a young couple who are just trying to get away in the middle of nowhere, riding a moto and enjoying the moment.
But…
“Don’t forget to use a helmet when you ride your bike kids.”
Then suddenly it shows the whole crew at some kind of funerals…

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YES, DIPLO DIED … YOU KNOW WHY? THANK YOU MADONNA, IT’S ALL THE FAULT OF YOUR DIPLO-PRODUCED SINGLE.

[su_dropcap style=”simple”]K[/su_dropcap]aren Marie Ørsted is a Danish singer, songwriter and producer known under the name of MØ. Her debut album “No Mythologies To Follow” was released in March 2014, and now she is back with some new content. “Kamikaze”, a song produced by her friend Diplo. Watch the video below.

First of all, let’s go back in time. 2012, MØ posted over the internet “Maiden”, her first single which describes the character she plays. As in Danish, “MØ” means either “Maiden” or “Virgin”.
(Well, we cannot confirm the virgin part, but … anyway!)

Then followed a few singles like “Glass”, “Pilgrim” and finally, “XXX 88”, the first song produced by her now friend Diplo which was included in her EP “Bikini Daze” among 3 other songs.

In 2014 arrived “No Mythologies to Follow”, MØ‘s debut LP out via Chess Club which is one of those brilliant and promising debut album from a talented Indie Pop artist. It included 16 songs + 4 bonus/”Night Versions” of 4 songs taken from the LP. Even though this album managed to create a small but strong fan-base, she didn’t do much promotion for it, as she only posted only one video for the single “Walk This Way” that you can watch below.

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Nevertheless, MØ kept being very active at the end of 2014 and during 2015 by doing a few collaborations such as “One More” with Elliphant, “Beg for It” with Iggy Azalea and the famous “Lean On” of Major Lazer who has more than 500 million views on YouTube.
The song was one of the summer hits and kinda propelled MØ into the mainstream environment but it’s ok, as MØ is intended to be a Pop Star.

Originally, the song “Kamikaze” was supposed to be sung by Rihanna and Nicki Minaj, but both stars declined Diplo‘s proposition. So he decided to finally asked MØ to be a part of it and we can say that this was the best decision ever made by Diplo
The song has the same exotic vibes that appear on “Lean On”, as it is something that fit MØ quite well.. Even if I still feel that “Kamikaze” is the Act 2 of “Lean On”.

Here is the video for MØ‘s brand new solo single “Kamikaze” :
The video was shot in Kiev and directed by Truman & Cooper
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We haven’t got any clue yet if “Kamikaze” announces a new era and new album for Karen, but we will keep you updated on this point.
But something is sure, it is really nice to see that MØ is back on track with her solo career.

Bonus :
Listen to the Cover of Frank Ocean‘s “Lost” by Major Lazer and MØ available for free download.

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The video was directed by the talented AG Rosas, who already worked with Jack White or Run The Jewels. The scene takes place in a US suburban area where you follow several couples. The video fits perfectly the song, alternating romantic and realistic moments carried by Aluna Francis‘ smooth voice and passionate peaks on some infectious drops the two DJs have the secret.

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[su_dropcap style=”simple” size=”1″]M[/su_dropcap]Ø, the Danish singer revealed yesterday ,after a week of teasing, her new single “Kamikaze”. The song is produced by Diplo, who also produced the song “XXX” on MØ‘s great debut album “No Mythologies to Follow”.

Unfortunately, “Kamikaze” sounds for me like it is the part 2 of “Lean On”, the summer song by Major Lazer featuring MØ herself on vocals.
I was expecting something a bit different from her, but let’s wait until we hear more from her upcoming album.

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Give us your thoughts in the comment section.

Here are some words from MØ about working with Diplo ;

“I love working with Diplo. It’s always such a fun and open-minded creative process. It’s about making memorable songs but, more than that, it’s about making pop music that wants to push boundaries. I’ve been loving all kinds of pop since I first fell in love with the Spice Girls, but pop needs to bring something new to the table, it needs balls. And that’s what you get working with Diplo. Making “Lean On” and being a part of that tornado these past eight months has been one of the greatest experiences in my life so far, and I’m super happy that “Kamikaze” is made in a collaboration with the same group of my friends.”

One year after the release of her debut track “Just Like You” via Diplo‘s Mad Decent Records, Elizabeth Abrams, better known as LIZ, is back with the pop hit we were craving for. Debuted in a commercial for the Samsung Galaxy S6 and played in Scream, an MTV TV show based on the famous series of scary movies, “When I Rule The World” is a bubblegum pop anthem which features forward-thinking and glittering production, courtesy of PC Music‘s rising collaborator Sophie. LIZ has been cutting her teeth in the industry for over a decade and this futuristic banger should enable her to access the status of pop star that she deserves. Watch the stunning Justin Francis-directed visuals below.

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