YIKIS music digest #1 ‘Music to spend your money on’

Welcome at the first YIKIS digest #1, a brand new idea suggested by Furchick and now a realized real thing as apparently you are looking at it right now. With the digest series we are not talking about chocolate or other edible material but it’s an attempt to bring you the latest hottest sounds and music things in a ‘digestible’ matter. For the first one it’s all about ‘Music to spend your money on’. Let’s get ready to rumble!

If you are like me (pictured above),
swimming in a bathtub full of money wishing it was something else…
Let me tell you about some ‘commercial’ releases that you could spend your money on if you wished to make some space in the tub and fill your ears up with music..

Let me tell you about an album that is actually worth every penny. ‘Etheric Anomalies’ by Pepe Maina.

Trust me, you don’t need to read on as this is music as music should be intended; it’s practically impossible to hate it or say anything unflattering about it; it’s wonderful and beautiful too. The music created by Pepe Maina here are like little wonders, pretty fantasies of progressive wonder that comes across so colorful and in touch with the fairytale side of life as well as nature. It’s so hard to describe it in a way that is justified, just think of music that takes you away into wonderland; a place on a beautiful planet where everything is gorgeous, peaceful and headaches don’t even exists! Amazing world music that would be the ideal gift to yourself, a friend, family members or birthday people! I’m sure it’s available on the Istore, but let me point towards the more friendly looking CDbaby site instead: https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/pepemaina17
If you don’t believe me (for some unknown reason.. take a look at a video from 2012 with a pretty colorful moving digital painting by Stab Base and a pretty sounding excerpt of Il Santo dell’Arca e del Crauto by … yes… Pepe Maina! Isn’t it gorgeous?

To keep the diversity flowing over here, it is an honor for me to mention this super relaxing sounding album by saxophonist Daniel Chia named ‘In The Moment’. Daniel Chia seems to be based in the super clean and hygienic Singapore and somehow it doesn’t surprise me to hear this kind of feel good lounge-disco-jazz goodness coming from this region. For this album he had teamed up with international top musicians of the trade and a 2 time Grammy award winning producer (and most notably) guitarist ‘Paul Brown’.

Daniel (in the middle) among the international top musicians responsable for the music on this lovely  album

In a way that this album is sounding good isn’t exactly a surprise; but it is pretty much nice to hear a body grooving easy listening release like this. Here is a music video in which a nice lady shows you how to enjoy this music (just got to find a nice car and a friendly beach, or just imagine you there… oh and dont forget to put up the volume…)

for more info and the chance to buy this album for as little as 9,99 you can check out Daniel’s official website:
https://danielchiaofficial.com/

What else we have in the prominent promising box of incoming press releases with material to spend your money on? Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors! With an album named ‘Pray Body’.

just by looking at the fantastic and unpresidented creative album artwork you just know its gonna be good!

It is something special I tell you… The band description goes like this ‘Back in the day (late ‘70’s – early ‘80’s), before it became a seminal influence in the creation of the ambient music genre, Gabrielle Roth & The Mirrors was making “regular” music, a blend of early ‘80s rock and tribal chanting.” So… if you want to dive with your ears and educate yourself in a genre named ‘regular’ then this is your chance! The music is sounding as if it hasn’t been subjected to time and age; still rocking out as if it is still early eighties & indeed late seventies. The rocky vibe with a back drop choir and a rough voice of a passionate Gabrielle is as if we had jumped into the time machine right in the middle of all the action of big hair, mullets, spandex, excessive jewelry and sweaty concert-goers. You can get this classic album for 14,95 dollar at the following kinky link:
https://ravenrecording.com/collections/cds/products/gabrielle-roth-the-mirrors-pray-body-cd

Somehow intrigued by Gabrielle Roth and the Mirrors I got sucked up on a wild youtube journey… Typing in Gabrielle Roth and you search and seek, and stumble upom a whole world of experimental dances that will open up. It’s so intriguing and fascinating; it somehow made me believe in humanity once again!
Here is a inspiring video of something called ‘The Power Wave’ dance that covers 5 universal rhythms… it’s really worth a look:

The youtube suggestions went from Gabriel Roth’s fascinating dance lessons to belly dancers, witches and… this other video of the 5 rhythm dance which might not have Gabrielle Roth in it, but is still absolutely fascinating!

Ah sorry for that! Let’s get back to the music items!

Also hot in the news and the commercial market are ‘Skinny Jeans’ some people wear them, others like to look at them & others sell them. Some people love Skinny Jeans so much that they would dedicate their writing skills, voice and producer time to it in order to make a ‘Skinny Jeans’ tune. Actually I’m not really aware of a scene of artists dropping ‘Skinny Jeans’ hits, so ChevyGurl’s potential hit single ‘Skinny Jeans’ might be the first one of its kind! Even though being aware of a compilation entirely dedicated to pants, I’m fairly sure there had be no tribute to Skinny Jeans whatsoever! So big up to ChevyGurl for crossing unexplored territories!

How does it sound like? It sounds like something you would expect to encounter on the radio, a commercially worthy pop hip-hop tune with ChevyGurl singing ‘Skinny Jeans’ over a fine rattling drum that you could potentially dance too in… guess what? Skinny Jeans! To make this news even more news-worthy! Skinny Jeans is also the first single of an upcoming album that has an interesting title namely ‘No Genre’ … doesn’t that sound exciting? I’m not sure this album is out, but for the pants-less people under us with some money at hand, you can get your own ChewyGurl’s ‘Skinny Jeans’ over at the following link:
https://chevygurl.hearnow.com/

For the happy goths under us, I will take the time to point towards this brand new album done by Experimenting With Dawn. You might think; since when are experiments with Dawn capable of releasing music as they are just ‘experiments’? Let me be clear that ‘Experimenting With Dawn’ isn’t just a term for experiments done with Dawn, in this case ‘Experimenting With Dawn’ is a Nashville based duo who presents a sound of goth rock that has a poppy feel and vibe. The structures and vocals that they bring might be made in the shimmering light between shadows and darkness, clearly crafted to please a crowd of graveyard lovers and possibly the undead themselves; they also come across energetic and bizarrely positive. So imagine the graveyard spiced up with fancy decorations and happily floating balloons… Who said that goths can’t have poppy fun? For just 5 dollars this album could be yours! Check the following link:
https://experimentingwithdawn.bandcamp.com/releases

After all the goths, the music done by Matrixx of Domination is like a refreshing nice reward. To heath you up, take a dive into the lyric video from a couple of years back to be not only impressed with the song and singing, but also with all the amazing typography and special effects:
it is refreshing isn’t it? To get your hands on their latest material you could check out their website for links to the commercial online shops. There is for example the obvious hit ‘One Shot’ which is sounding just as ripe to be dropped in a dense club, as ready to be pumped out from a radio station. It has a nice energy to it with deep wub wub baselines and upbeat electric pumping beats & of course the fitting vocals to throw your money towards. It sounds ready for the commercial market and yet still has a gritty underground club feel; appealing to a large audience I bet.
http://matrixxofdomination.com/

Let’s hope your bathtub of money is as good as empty by now as we are reaching towards the end… And here we have a prominent album with excellent commercial appeal? Oh yes! An album by Paul the Trombonist!

This Trombonist is someone unique, he is clearly dedicated to play his trombone and on a mission to bring the Trombone the global respect in music at all costs! He also is a youtube persona with his own ‘Paul The Trombonist Show’ :

He too had gathered top notch people (the best of the best) to work and produce an special album with. It’s named ‘Journey to the world’ and sounds ready to be loved all over the wold. If my ears heard it well, Paul aimed very much for getting that commercial popular sound that would hopefully launch his beloved Trombone sound back into popularity. His passion for the Trombone seems to be endless and somehow you could just feel that Paulis seriously obsessed with tromboning. ‘Journey to the world’ is described as revolutionary jazz and electronic hip hop, but I would say its many loving ways to represent the Trombone as a modern day lead instrument.
A really nice way to discover a track of this new album is to watch the video for ‘Popcorn Butter’ here the music really fits the visual animated story by Ben Zell Reicher in which some futuristic super hero is trying to do the good thing:

Paul’s tunes do bring the lovely trombone sound forward, on a bed of electronic beats in ‘Enchanted Garden’ and ‘Hey my love’ the trombone sounds comforting and pretty. It becomes the sensible human part of the music’s soul. But it’s the title track ‘Journey to the World’ which features no beats at all, but just supporting ambience that makes the trombone sound like a wonderful tool of blissful speace. If Paul the Trombonist’s goal was to make an album to showcase how wonderful and flexible the sound of a trombone is than he succeeded very much with this outstanding work of trombone love. For more info and ordering this album your could check out his official website:http://www.paulthetrombonist.com/

So yes, that was our full on YIKIS reader music digest number one. Next week hopefully a new one and rumor goes that the next one will be about music that you could get and hear for free, but will it be any good? Let’s find out in the near future!
(Ronald Digest)