Skip to main content

About The New Beatmaker

Hi!  I'm Lee.  Welcome to my blog.  Here we talk music: news, reviews, interviews, tips, tutorials and more.  I'm also working on the upcoming podcast  Influenced  as a guest, writer and researcher alongside music aficionado Mark Williams and friends.  Watch this space! I have been a lover of music for as long as I can remember, an amateur lyricist for 25 years, a music writer for 15 years and a hobbyist musician and blogger for almost 10 years. My tastes range from jazz to house to hip hop and I love helping artists from all genres develop their sound. My music, videos, reviews and interviews have been featured in a variety of magazines and websites, including: B-Boy Tech Report Gimme That Beat Humanhuman Audio Skills Dream House Beats Where Did the Road Go Beat Tape Co-Op Push Power Promo Drum Magazine You can find my music on Bandcamp: Monkey Mind Sounds AKA LeeTNB And you can find me on Facebook: The New Beatmaker page Lee's personal page

Showcase Your Music, 'Your Beats': 'UMBRA' EP Teaser by K15


I'm really enjoying checking out all the music being sent to 'Your Beats'.  In the latest installment we have UK beatmaker K15, who kindly shares with us the teaser to his latest EP, the sci-fi-with-soul outing, 'UMBRA'.


Here's a little bit more about the project:
K15 - UMBRA (Release Date February 25th)

Following on from last year's Theme Music For A Pariah and The Long Walk, K15 returns with a brand new EP entitled UMBRA, a journey through a fictitious world made out of mysterious soundscapes and both dark and enlightening beats.

This EP will be released by Dutch based INI Recordings whose lofty and stunning back catalogue makes them a forced to be reckoned with in today's musical climate.
I love the atmospheric 'Intro / The Realm': the Boards of Canada 'faded' synth washes, the more aggresive, 'Being Boiled' bass sounds and Three 6 Mafia 'hey hey' vocal stabs which further up the suspense.

Then there's 'Flux': lots of lovely Neptunes / N*E*R*D sounding synth chords bubbling up and around you with some great arpeggio keys adding another welcome layer. I really can't wait to check out the full track.

Track three, 'We See Periphery' has some really soulful ambient-style washes and the closer 'Arcadia' has a great, broken-beat organ with lovely strings as accompaniment.  Both show off some lovely, unquantized drums. These tracks hint at DJ Spinna and remind me a little bit of The New Beat Maker favourite, Mecca:83.

Please don't get all these comparisons twisted, though.  I'm using these as quick reference points, just to give you a bit of an idea as to what's in store here.  The EP definatley has it's own soul and identity from what I hear on these little samples.  I'm very eager to hear more and I'm sure you will be too.

Check out the 'UMBRA' EP teaser and more: 
www.soundcloud.com/k15

For the full - length release from Monday:
www.inirecordings.bandcamp.com



Credits
Music and Image: www.soundcloud.com



Get exposure.  Send your music and videos to The New Beat Maker.

If you would like your music or videos to be posted in our 'Your Beats' feature, please check our submissions guideline here


Popular posts from this blog

About The New Beatmaker

Hi!  I'm Lee.  Welcome to my blog.  Here we talk music: news, reviews, interviews, tips, tutorials and more.  I'm also working on the upcoming podcast  Influenced  as a guest, writer and researcher alongside music aficionado Mark Williams and friends.  Watch this space! I have been a lover of music for as long as I can remember, an amateur lyricist for 25 years, a music writer for 15 years and a hobbyist musician and blogger for almost 10 years. My tastes range from jazz to house to hip hop and I love helping artists from all genres develop their sound. My music, videos, reviews and interviews have been featured in a variety of magazines and websites, including: B-Boy Tech Report Gimme That Beat Humanhuman Audio Skills Dream House Beats Where Did the Road Go Beat Tape Co-Op Push Power Promo Drum Magazine You can find my music on Bandcamp: Monkey Mind Sounds AKA LeeTNB And you can find me on Facebook: The New Beatmaker page Lee's personal page

Learn How to Play D'Angelo's 'How Does it Feel': Piano Couture

Barely a week goes by without me playing 'Voodoo' at some point and with it, a desire to learn how to play 'How Does it Feel'.   This tutorial video by youtube user pianocouture is one of the best 'how to play' videos I have seen for the classic track.   I think that instructional videos like this are good for two main reasons.  Reason one: obviously, a learner player will gain confidence and enjoyment from learning a favourite song of theirs.   Reason two: Even if a beatmaker has no desire to learn to play the keyboard, but wants to create a loop or a riff (a feeling) similar to 'How Does it Feel', what better way to, than playing the song itself (or similar sounds), sampling it and chopping it up? Either way, this is a great tutorial video.  I've subscribed to Piano Couture's youtube page and, if you are looking to get your key game up, I suggest you do too ;) Related Posts: ?uestlove talks new D'Angelo, J Dilla Video: youtube.com/user/pian

Objects In Orbit 'Panoramas'

REVIEW :  The New Beatmaker favourite changes his name, hones his craft on potential best album of 2020 Producer, Sound Engineer, Musician and Videographer Objects In Orbit has been a favourite of the site since 2013. Whilst there is not a single bad project in the catalogue of the artist formerly known as Evil Alex, he has evolved and improved almost constantly from one project to the next. He is a master of sonic suspense with many of his projects sounding perfectly at home in an art installation or art-house cinema. His trademark style mixes hip hop born sample-based techniques and 4/4 beat composition along with jazz influenced time signatures and experimentation. He often incorporates eerie, industrial stylings and at times dissonant tones.  Whilst predominantly instrumental, Objects In Orbit finely weaves into layers of musical samples either long stretches of dialogue, which make the listener feel as though they are eavesdropping on private conversation, or snip