AV Super Sunshine releases “Are You Happy?”

AV Super Sunshine are, above all else, songwriters. “Are You Happy?” is the latest entry in their growing catalog and drawn from their album Candyland Vol. 1 and they lay out the song in such a way that discerning listeners will be able to tell, from the first, that if you took away the effects and post-production manipulations of the song’s radio and club mix, what remains is a durable and sparkling example of popular songcraft at its finest. Though I believe the band pays deference and respect to past influences, AV Super Sunshine is a band of the present as well and their appeal can cut across genre and age lines with little effort. “Are You Happy?” is one of the best singles from anyone I have heard in 2019 and serves notice that this unique and uber talented band has yet to reach the peak of their powers.

URL: https://www.avsupersunshine.com/

I am taken with the way the vocals and music weave around each other without ever sacrificing any element of the musical arrangement or singing. A crucial decision they make ensures it will come across for listeners – the tandem of the lead vocalist and secondary singer Philomena bring a combination of emotion and attitude to the radio mix that is sure to capture any listener’s attention. The effect dampens only a little with the song’s chorus – the sound of the two singers is a little too diffuse for my taste, but they nevertheless convey the lyrics with a real sense of stakes that makes you sit up and pay attention.

The lyrics help in this regard. I like the question burning in the heart of this song title and they face it in the writing without any sense of cliché and a genuine wonderment about what their own answers, or others answer, might be. There’s no overwriting weighing down the song with too much verbiage – instead, the same keen sense of what the song needs musically reaches into the verbal realm as well.

REVERBNATION: https://www.reverbnation.com/AVSuperSunshine/song/29656735-apple-dance-remix

The drumming and synthesizer work in the song are its defining musical elements. The drumming is obviously live rather than the result of a computer or drum machine laying down a rhythm for the song and the melody really comes alive with warmth and vitality thanks to the synthesizer playing. AV Super Sunshine are not content with just pursuing those ends, however, and adorn the song with other instruments that complete the song in a memorable way.

The club and rock mixes of the track are effective as well, though in different fashions naturally. The club mix is a much longer take on the track’s potential and will play well in the environment it is clearly aimed for while the rock mix will appeal to a wide swath of new and old fans alike. AV Super Sunshine’s “Are You Happy?” has many faces, as these mixes show, and I can say without reservation I found each of them compelling in their own way. I can’t wait to hear more from this great band.

Zachary Rush

Where We Begin by Fenix & SM1LO

Music is a far more complicated medium than any other in the art world, and among all of the most popular music genres in the 21st century, there’s no debating whether or not electronica is the most sophisticated and multifaceted. Newbies to the electronica experience that are interested in getting a sampler of everything that the style can do should make a point to check out Where We Begin, the collaborative album from Fenix & SM1LO released this past June on the Say Wow Records imprint which features none other than Llexa on lead vocals. 

Where We Begin is one song sliced fourteen different ways, six of them being one hundred percent instrumentals. The instrumental “Dub” mixes are generally unnecessary for the average fan’s needs, but for music enthusiasts like me, they’re the bread and butter of a weekend spent taking over every club in the downtown core. There’s no vocal to get in the way of our appreciating the differences between house, club and pop versions of “Where We Begin,” and in some situations, the music is more communicative without the addition of lyrics. “Fenix House Radio Dub Mix” and “Club Radio Dub Mix” are two of the best in this category, but they’re far from the only winners here.

YOU TUBE PREVIEW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NxgYA27bn8

Vocalist Llexa gives some clarity to the emotional subtext in the manipulated melodies we hear in “SM1LO Remix” and “Kali Remix,’ and in the album-opener comes close to going over the top but stops just short of drifting too far from the main hook’s harmony. Some of the alignments are off (namely in the house mixes that she’s featured in), but regardless of how her amazing skills are utilized, they’re an ever-present element that keeps things on a mainstream path instead of a jagged, avant-garde one.

I need just a little more energy out of the “Kali Remix” for it to be the best edit here, but the structure of this mix is nevertheless one of the strongest that Where We Begin features. Does it borrow its piano part from the mid-2000s? Yes, but that rigid riffing that follows it beside Llexa’s singing isn’t similar to anything on the FM dial this July; in all actuality, it has the most futuristic vibe of any element here. Electronica geeks will squabble about the minute differences between these mixes, but all in all, there’s nothing in Where We Begin that misses the mark, especially if you’re a newcomer to this sound.

SPOTIFY: https://open.spotify.com/album/6TRif4TasUGGhqaqVfyO6F

Fenix & SM1LO’s collaborative project and the fourteen songs it has produced make for a tough record for any journalist to review. It poses as many questions about the players that go unsolved as it does provide an answer to listeners in need of some swinging grooves this summer, but I’ve got a feeling that this could be only one installment in a series of releases from this duo. They haven’t said as much, but if they’re keeping up with the critical reception that Where We Begin has had, they would be crazy to miss out on the lucrative opportunity to make more music like this. This is a club-goer’s paradise, and a great way to get acquainted with contemporary EDM.

Anthony Carlisle 

Integriti Reeves releases new Single/Album

The faint strumming of an acoustic guitar greets us with open arms as we wander the lush sonic landscape of “Eu Vim Da Bahia,” the new single from up and coming jazz singer Integriti Reeves. Her gorgeous Latin vocal is met with a decadently melodic backdrop in this spellbinding debut, but the excesses of a mainstream jazz sound are mostly absent from this tightly arranged composition. Reeves is an angelic force to be reckoned with here, dishing out robust harmonies alongside a minimalist beat that is as stirring as any of her words are, and thanks to its erudite master mix, there isn’t a single detail in the massively textured “Eu Vim Da Bahia” that goes without a personal touch from behind the soundboard. The grooves are glowing, the strings are as dreamy as a summer’s setting sun, and the voice of our star player is a velvety slice of vocal virtuosity unlike any other that I have had the pleasure of sampling this year.

Reeves is full of energy, has a spunky demeanor and bubbly tone in her execution, but her style of attack is much more conservative than that of her peers. She isn’t afraid to share the spotlight with this excellent instrumental track in the background, and her elegant distribution of the vocal melody is wholeheartedly avant-garde, at least in comparison to what I’ve been spinning lately. There’s a couple of instances where she comes close to overtaking the percussive strut with the colorful cadence of her verses, but instead of assaulting the chorus with unnecessary gusto, she recoils, and lets the guitars work their magic for us. Her unselfishness in the studio makes her quite a rare find nowadays; where so many of the modern jazz players that I’ve been following recently have embraced cruder indulgences of the old school, Reeves is doing the exact opposite, and appealing to a post-genre generation of jazz enthusiasts who appreciate postmodernity as much as she does. There’s plenty of room for growth, but there’s not a doubt in my mind that with a push in the right direction, Integriti Reeves could be a phenomenally popular artist in and out of the jazz world.

Chic, classy and truly one of a kind in every way that really matters, “Eu Vim Da Bahia” is one of my new favorite singles of the summer. Integriti Reeves is still earning her stripes in the underground, but with a voice like hers (and a strong talent for arranging to match), it’s hard for me to imagine her brand remaining under the radar of mainstream audiences for very long. She’s got the sort of skills that you just can’t teach, no matter how disciplined the student might be. Her gifts are natural, uncompromisingly expressive, and exploited quite well in this awesome track. If you haven’t already taken the time out to do so, I highly recommend giving her new EP, tilted Stairway to the Stars, a listen the next time that you’re in the market for new and intriguing Latin jazz. If you’re a connoisseur of the genre, it’s an acquisition you won’t soon regret.

Stephen Dejong