Pixey’s “I’m Just High” is in the HOT SPOT.  An artist from Liverpool (real name: Lizzie Hillesdon),“I’m Just High” is the third single off of her upcoming debut “Dreams, Pains & Paper Planes.”  The song tackles themes of heartbreak and an inability to move on from someone. Pixey said of this song. “The track itself is a double entendre. I like to put my own experiences into my music and I feel like this song is probably one of my most honest songs to date. I hope people can find some comfort in the song, I always like to write upbeat, groovy beats to personal struggles I’m still figuring out.”

 

Written, recorded and mixed in just eight hours, the “both eyes” that the lyrics mention confront the harsh realities of the digital world; the idea that we show two sides of ourselves, the real one and then our online persona that typically doesn’t divulge the more difficult times of our lives.

Lasse Lokoy is the bassist of Norwegian party-punks Sløtface, but flexes his muscles as a producer and songwriter of colourful and futuristic art-pop. Kacper Tratkowski is Safario,  a Norwegian rapper who creates upbeat yet lo-fi music.

Another visit to the HOT SPOT for Paw Paw Rod. 

A rapper and singer from the Great Plains of Oklahoma, Paw Paw Rod is back with “Message (Better Days).”

 “I started writing ‘Better Days’ on a snowy night in my hotel room in Manhattan. I couldn’t sleep because I was still filled with adrenaline from walking and performing at a fashion show a few days prior, all while romanticizing just being able to take a bite out of The Big Apple under such beautiful circumstances…a beautiful human I admired dearly just told me she was proud of me. In that moment I started laughing and said to myself ‘Music has really taken you places, I’m so glad I started, it’s worth it.’ I thought about all the times I felt discouraged, delusional for having the audacity to move across the country with no concrete plan in the name of Chasing a Dream.”

Moreish Idols are another Speedy Underground band – no surprise there. We loved the horns in this track, “Hangar,” which melds punk, jazz, krautrock and funk into a glorious swirl of sound.  Singer Jude Lilley sneers at the cultural landscape and a world of pop culture that does nothing for him. We feel you buddy.

“Tell Me Your Politik” by Nakhane feat Moonchild Sanelly & Nile Rodgers

This track has a ferocious rap from South African performer Moonchild Sanelly AND features Nile Rodgers on guitar, so what’s there not to like??

The song is Nakhane’s densely pulverising demand for prospective lovers to be ideologically aligned. “I wanted it to sound like a pack of wolves barking, saying ‘unless you get your politics right I’m not gonna f**k you.”