Danny Darko ft. Julien Kelland "Say Goodbye" (Original Mix) [single]

[https://soundcloud.com/dannydarko1/danny-darko-ft-julien-kelland-saygoodbye]

It's hard for me to describe the music going on within this song.   It's not full on "pop" in the way that you would think of something being on the radio and thus becoming obnoxious to me because the vibe is a lot more chill.   It's also not really rock, as there are beats and tones of bliss, but yet somehow I want to call this "pop rock" in the way that Blue October would make one of their songs (see: "Approaching Normal") rather than the more traditional route.    The vocals remind me a bit of Polly Scattergood but they do stand out as something unique and for that I do want to listen to anything with Julien Kelland in it now.

There are guitars but not in the sense that you might think of as being upbeat and annoying.   They're strummed along to the synth bass and this is just all around chill.   I'd call it chillwave but it might not be quite that but rather a combination of that, pop, rock and something else I cannot quite place.    Still, this song is a lot of fun and I'd put it on my mixed tape for sure so you should be listening to it as well.    Volume up, windows down.

Braille "Everyone's Crazy" (Friends of Friends)

[$6 to Download // https://fofmusic.bandcamp.com/album/everyones-crazy]

When I looked up Friends of Friends I found out that they release music by Shlohmo who oddly enough was connected with Tropics and I've been listening to this EP with "Rapture" to the point where I want to put the two on a mixed tape together.    Can someone do that for me?  I really don't have the time right now.

In any case, this music is strange.   It's electronic manipulation with percussion that can make it feel like hip hop at times and other times it could be chillwave.     Synth progressions come out like jazz horns and by the fourth song I'm hearing C&C Music Factory which makes me want to get up and dance.

There are a number of ways to describe this but I just like to think of it as being weird.    Even if you only listen to the first song, which happens to be the titular track, then you should be able to enjoy this because even if I don't make that Tropics/Braille split cassette I might make a mixed tape and that would include the song "Everyone's Crazy" (or at least some sort of "Best of 2015" playlist by year's end)

Tropics "Rapture" (Innovative Leisure)

Perhaps one of my best reasons for liking Tropics is because I don't really listen to music like this and of course by my saying "music like this" it implies that other music of this nature exists and for all that I know it simply does not.    There is no good way to describe the music of Tropics using comparisons because there really isn't anything in my collection to compare it with exactly.

Right away I have this pegged as being somewhere between pop and soul.   It has that just overall non-threatening and pleasant vibe to it that I feel puts it somewhere on that pop scale.   Yet at the same time the music reminds me a bit of R&B and as such I can think of this as having soul if not directly being a reflection of soul music.

Between synthwave, new wave and just my banner of being smoov I really have no place to put this percussion filled slow jamz mix that can go from drums to drum machine.    On Spotify, some of the related artists include but are not limited to Giraffage, Com Truise, Mount Kimble, Balam Acab, Sun Glitters, Gang Colours and Shlohmo, who I've admittedly listened to and enjoyed but still don't recall hearing anything like "Rapture" before.

If not for that "it's unlike anything I've ever heard before" tangible, this is going to stand out as one of my favorite albums on 2015 simply because it is that good.    The fact that it is pleasing to the ears just makes me want to listen to it that much more, as it gets stuck in your head but in a good way.   Imagine if you could eat all the candy you wanted without getting sick.