Brika’s new song Blinded is by far her most ambitious to date and possibly my favourite thing she’s ever done. It starts with a crackle and some single drips of piano that gradually evolve into a rain of notes, a storm more reminiscent of something from a classical-ambient record than an artist usually associated with R‘n’B pop. It doesn’t end with the surprises there either. There’s Brika’s effect-laden vocal, what sounds like suspiciously like a banjo and a backing track that sounds haunting, mysterious and almost modern Celtic. It’s bolder and more experimental than anything Brika has done before and it opens up the idea of all sorts of future possibilities – and it’s those possibilities that make me excited just as much as this rather intriguing piece of music. Brika - Blinded
Brika picked up a lot of traction on music blogs leading up to the release of her hugely enjoyable debut album Voice Memos, and now after a quiet period, she’s back. I’ve always loved the ability of pop music to take you to places that are very different to your own (records like Kendrick Lamar's To Pimp A Butterfly for example I find fascinating) and certainly Brika’s Miami based sound is miles away from anything I would expect to come across in the south coast city of Portsmouth UK that I call home, where all forms of guitar based rock seem to reign supreme. But that’s why I adore this even more. Don’t Want Your Love is a song that saunters up to you with a shoulder drop and shaking hip rather than rocking with an aggressive and forceful strut. Listen to that bass and that ‘Oh-oh I don’t want your love’ hook. It's pure class. This is R&B for sure, but it’s not the normal (dare I say it lame) electronic R&B that seems to hit Breaking More Waves’ in box every day of the week. The sound here is far more organic sounding but with a heightened level of sophistication. Yes, Brika may not want your love, but she’s got mine anyway.
This is one of those songs that the word jam was invented for. Following on from her Voice Memos album, which was released at the back end of 2014 Brika returns with her first original material since that time. You is just as you would expect from the Miami singer; sophisticated and soulful, with hints of Latin and jazz underpinning her smooth croon. It’s the soundtrack to the funkiest cocktail party by the pool where all the perfect beautiful people are hanging out. It positively grooves and then some. You is the first taste of Brika's new EP coming later this year. Brika - You
Without further ado, here are the next 4 Breaking More Waves recommended acts for Great Escape 2015 in the 2nd of this 5 post series. Read about why we love Great Escape so much in our previous post as well as checking out some further recommendations. Recommendations 5-8 Brika We've featured Miami based singer Brika a number of times on the blog last year, but to date her profile in the UK is relatively low. Great Escape will be one of the first opportunities a British audience gets to hear songs from her debut album Voice Memos. For fans of sultry electronic pop with (in places) a hint of the cocktail bar to it.
Aurora Katy Perry is already a fan having tweeted that Aurora makes her heart 'a flutter' and that she's an 'angel'. The small number of songs this Norwegian singer has put on line so far have been celebrated by the blogosphere (including Breaking More Waves). The buzz is building nicely for this electronic pop singer with a voice that sounds that it could sit just as comfortably on a folk song. Katy Perry isn't wrong.
Pretty Vicious There's been a bit of a music industry scrum down for this Welsh indie rock band with the punk rock referencing name and bags of energy in their sound. A chance to see what the fuss is all about perhaps? If you like the Arctic Monkeys you'll hear a bit of resemblance with their song Cave Song.
Robyn Sherwell Last year we watched Robyn play an Alternative Escape show at the Latest Music Bar to just a small handful of people after featuring her cover of Ben Howard's The Fear on the blog. Since then things have been developing nicely for Robyn, with her Islander EP being very well received and a recent headline show at London's Lexington. This Fleetwood Mac cover has recently been doing the business on the Hype Machine charts.
We’ve often (well, occasionally) wondered what the average user of blog aggregator Hype Machine looks like. On one hand we’d like to think that they’re the kind of ultra-cool dude that is just always on it in every way; music, fashion, art, the works. The sort of person that just exudes charm, sex appeal and has the most incredible music collection you could ever imagine. People just like us. On the other hand the reality is that they’re probably some sort of greasy haired spotty geek who doesn’t know how to use a deodorant who spends 50% of their time wanking off to the latest Kanye Hype Machine chart topping remix and the other 50% to porn. However whatever they look like, you can’t deny that every now and then the typical user of the Hype Machine knows a good tune when they hear one. You’ve only got to look at the impressive amount of love shown for Miami’s Brika on the site to know that. This lady uploaded multiple eargasms to the internet last year and we’re glad that Breaking More Waves was in the mix, posting a number of her songs for both the beautifully hip and the goofy geeks to salivate over. Here’s another one. Taken from her album Voice Memos, the end product of a three-year musical relationship with songwriter, arranger, pianist and producer Julio Reyes Copello, Moon is an exquisitely produced piece of pop with a heavy downtempo feel to it and an aggressively powerful chorus. If you’re a fan of the likes of Banks or Indiana we highly recommend that you grab yourself a copy of this album. Hype Machine listeners, whatever they look like, are sometimes on the money. (You can find Breaking More Waves on Hype Machine here - follow us if you like, then you can just listen to the tunes and cut out all the crap we write.) Brika - Moon
Following three previous tunes, namely Mumbai, Expectations and Options (two of which we featured on Breaking More Waves) comes Miami singer Brika’s fourth single, Gold, the final release before her debut album Voice Memos which is due on November 25th via Art House Records. We quite like the idea of an album called Voice Memos. We imagine Brika singing her weekly food shopping list over some pumping electronica and perhaps some domestic chores and laundry that she needs to remember to do over some deft piano. After all it was good enough for Kate Bush. However it looks like our fantasies of normality will remain just that that, because Gold is nothing of the sort. Instead it’s a propulsive and uplifting dance-pop belter with not one mention of packets of pasta or washing the kitchen floor. “Hold me close and I know I'll feel fine,” Brika sings before the chorus hits the swagger button and forces you to throw your hands in the air.
If you're a connoisseur of new music / the internet / blogs then you'll probably notice that a number of the tracks we're posting over the next few posts have been doing the rounds over the last week or so. We make no apology for posting these tracks 'late' after being on a short holiday, a holiday that included a trip to the epicentre of San Francisco tourism that is Fisherman’s Wharf, which according to Brika’s Instagram she was at on the very same day we were there. If only we’d known. Breaking More Waves was very 'early' with Brika’s previous song Expectations back in May when it had just a few hundred plays on Soundcloud. Since then it has received blog adoration, stormed the Hype Machine charts and had over half a million plays. She's now followed it up with Options, a tune that finds her singing of how sometimes love isn’t big enough over loose sounding instrumentation that joins the dots between jazz and electronic soul. This one is ripe for your late night seduction tape and has already received lots of web love. Let’s give it some more of that; because ‘late’ or ‘early’, the important thing is that it’s good. Brika - Options
Journalists love inventing new genres don’t they? And even when a style of music is a repeat or influenced by something that has gone before that doesn’t stop them either. Just put the word new (or nu for hipster spelling points) in front of something and voila, we’re in business. New wave, new rave we’ve even had the new wave of new wave. In fact we’re rather surprised that nobody has coined the term new minimalism, because when we look back at this decade and try to define what it sounded like, away from the over produced maximalism of homogenous vocoder club and r’nb influenced pop that dominates much of the UK charts these days, we’ll probably remember the likes of James Blake, The XX, Lorde and London Grammar as the new minimalists, who brought very little to the kitchen table (in a good way) allowing their music to breathe through stripping the songs back to the essentials. So here’s a newcomer to that pot of new minimalism. Expectations by Miami’s Brika is a totally of the moment song; there’s belching pulses, drips of echoing electronics and sensual soulful vocals that sound like they could sing their way to ear-orgasm whatever style she chose to sing in. It’s an exquisitely well-mannered piece; nothing sounds out of place and certainly there’s no over-cooking in terms of its production. With its vocal call to take things slow, the lyrics suit its downtempo naked style perfectly. Remarkably all this is from a woman whose biggest influence is Coldplay! Brika - Expectations
