POTW (2019/1): Simon’s 2018 Top 10 on Spotify

I probably with hindsight should have made a playlist with all my own favourite tracks from the year, but that would have required I start making notes a year ago. Maybe next year! Instead, I have this lovely little selection from Simon Irvine, aka the artist Stuffamebobs, who I have mentioned before. (I’m extremely honoured to have a song included on this list, as well 🙂 )
Got to dash! Wishing you a Happy New Year, and I’ll be back on Monday with a new playlist for you, with the focus being on the new.

POTW (2019/1): Simon's 2018 Top 10 on Spotify

I probably with hindsight should have made a playlist with all my own favourite tracks from the year, but that would have required I start making notes a year ago. Maybe next year! Instead, I have this lovely little selection from Simon Irvine, aka the artist Stuffamebobs, who I have mentioned before. (I’m extremely honoured to have a song included on this list, as well 🙂 )
Got to dash! Wishing you a Happy New Year, and I’ll be back on Monday with a new playlist for you, with the focus being on the new.

Playlist of the Week (2018/51)

Playlist of the Week No 51, 2018: Stoneygate's Alternative ChristmasYou can’t get to this point in the year in a series like this without having a Christmas playlist. It’s becoming a tradition of mine to put Christmas music on whilst I wrap the presents, mainly to try to persuade myself it is that time of year and I need to get a move on otherwise I’ll run out of time.

I enjoy some of the golden oldies, but they do get, well, old. So, a couple of years back or three, I started to compile a YouTube playlist of various lesser known Christmas songs, the ones that you don’t hear over and over again in the shops all the way from about September. It became more than a little obsessive and the list got extremely long, because just about everyone has done a Christmas song.

So this week’s POTW is a bit of a cheat, but it’s my collection of some more obscure Christmas songs, some secular, some sacred, some just plain daft and some serious. It’s got a wide variety of styles, from punk to an African childrens’ choir. There are a whopping 320+ songs included, so it will keep you busy for hours on end whether you’re hanging up the decorations, making the mince pies or preparing the Christmas dinner.  The mood of the songs is mainly grouped together, so if you want more variety, hit the shuffle button.

Playlist of the Week (2018/45)

#POTW No 45: Electric Road Trip by Tobi

My Playlist of the Week this time around is Electric Road Trip. As implied in the name, it is full of electronic music of different kinds with the emphasis on pop, EDM and other upbeat styles, and it is a very listenable mix of tunes.

The playlist curator, Toby Davis, is a Luxembourg-based musician and producer who is very much involved in getting independent music into the ears of music fans. He says, “Good producing is like good plumbing: if you do your job right, no one notices.”* He is one of the key figures behind the ‘Monsterthread Community’ of independent music artists, and he also writes for Brash! Magazine as well as being a professional graphic designer and being all over the interwebs. He’s notably active in the  thread on Twitter, which promotes new music from less well known artists.  I’m actually quite surprised that I haven’t written about him before now; that’s clearly an oversight on my part, given how much Toby does on behalf of label-free musicians.

Some of Toby’s recent productions include The Strand by Daniel Feinberg, and Yours by Katie Ellen. He is also a keen remixer – you can hear some examples here.

 

* Bass playing usually follows the same rule, also.

Playlist of the Week (2018/43)

Playlist of the Week: Susan Moss's Monday Playlists - MoonDreams Music Monday and Monday Monday.

One playlister whose name has come up again and again in this series is Susan Moss, because of her dedication to getting independent artists heard. Today I’ve got not one but two playlists of the week for you, both designed to cheer up your Monday (or other days of the week as you see fit), and both compiled by Susan : Monday Monday and Moondreams Music Monday. There’s a variety of music on these playlists, so there’s something in there for just about everyone – except maybe hardcore metal-heads.

Since I last covered one of her playlists, Susan’s released a new single under her Moondreams moniker, called Tropical Breeze, and you will find this on the playlists.  It has a nostalgic 80s vibe to it with lots of vocal layers; I’m hoping that I’ll get to do a remix of it at some point in the next few months, ready for next Summer. Meanwhile I can dream of sunny beaches while I navigate the storm puddles in a relatively wet and chilly UK!

Playlist of the Week (2018/42)

Stoneygate's Playlist of the Week No 42, 2018

This week’s playlist is from ENILSounds, aka Line Munch-Petersen, a “one-woman-band” from Copenhagen, Denmark, whose Traffic Jam List 2018 playlist I featured back in August. Line says about her work, “I make music because I have an urge to. I would love to be able to make a living out of it, but it is not my main goal. That is to be happy while I am doing it.” Line considers her style to be soft-synth electronic pop music, with lyrics about life, love and loss, but says some would label it New Age. In any case, listeners have said her music reminds them of Enya, but with a Joni Mitchell style vocal.

In case it’s not obvious from the title, this playlist is part of a series Line has been curating, to show off the most popular tracks that are trending by independent artists, plus a few from mainstream artists that fit with her vibe. She’s been faithfully creating  new lists of artists’ most popular music since early this year; This is October’s – enjoy!

 

 

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/41)

POTW No 41: Soulful Fox's Chill-out Downtempo Dance Music

This week’s POTW is the fantastic Chillout Downtempo Dance Music, by Soulful Fox, an independent music producer and performer from Liverpool who makes uplifting electronica music that leans towards house, downtempo and liquid drum and bass.

After studying for a music degree, she took a detour and started a career in banking, but  decided it wasn’t for her. She subsequently went into music teaching, which she loved and which also gave her the opportunity to learn music production, using Logic  software. You can find some of her excellent work via this playlist, or at her CD Baby or Soundcloud pages.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/13)

This week’s POTW is the wonderfully named Keep Calm and Walk with the Elephant*, from Iced Note Music.   The Elephant in the title is a reference to Elephant State, which is a band in Iced Note’s stable and who have some tracks included on the playlist – I particularly like the driving Heritage.

The playlist has a broad variety of electronic music from electro house to noise, as well as tracks from other genres, so there should be something in there to please most listeners.

*No animals were harmed in the writing of this blogpost.

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/12)

This week’s POTW comes from Russell Suereth. Russ creates spiritual new age music and you can best hear his work via another playlist of his, Enigma and Russell Suereth.

Russ’s Freshly Picked Selections playlist is an eclectic mixed bag, as far as genres are concerned, but the common theme throughout these songs is that Russ has championed unsigned artists.

Disclaimer: there are a few songs in this list with the ‘explicit’ label. If that is likely to cause offence, please do use the skip button when these come up!

 

Playlist of the Week (2018/9)

This week’s POTW is another one from Atom Collector Records, who are doing a great job of championing musicians who release music independently of any record label via their site, Soundcloud and Spotify in particular.

This playlist is from their ‘the 100’ series, where they put together 100 tracks (or thereabouts) from lesser-known musicians, and it features classical and ambient tracks. It is still being compiled as I write, as there are much less than 100 tracks currently. That means you’ll have to come back later and listen again if you want to get the full ambient goodness of it.