Incredibly, even though Jack Casey aka Embrz has been making glistening droplets of chilled electronic pop music flown in from planet bliss for some time (I first featured him on Breaking More Waves in January 2014), only now is he getting ready to release his debut EP.
Surprisingly, Heartlines, the first track to be released from the EP is a lot more song based, upbeat and pop than you might expect. Featuring the vocals of Kate McGill from Meadowlark it has a lilting summer hue to it and McGill’s vocals add a pleasing prettiness to the whole thing. One to add to your Summer Holiday 2017 playlist?
Embrz - Heartlines ft Meadowlark
Whilst we were away at Bestival (Mini Review: Whilst the festival itself has grown bigger over the last 10 or so years, it has lost little of its brightly coloured soul or crazy charm. The thing that has changed is its audience, which has become far younger and far more mainstream – the abundance of Adidas and Ellesse fashion present spoke volumes) Kildare based producer Jack Casey, better known as Embrz dropped a brand new tune, his first since single Silent. Featuring the voice of LA singer pennybirdrabbit, Lights slow drips beautiful electronic warmth. It’s a piece of music that will make you want to be with someone you love at night, hug them closely and start the come down together, forever.
Embrz - Lights featuring pennybirdrabbit
Make Your Way, Slow Down, and remixes of Dive In and Ellie Goulding; those are 4 of the silky electronic productions that have established young Irish producer Embrz aka Jack Casey as being very much one to watch. Now finally there’s new material and it’s dreamy and as delightfully gauzy as you’d expect. Featuring Australian singer Amy Rose (who picked up plenty of blog attention in her own right for the song Awake Alive last year) Embrz adds the sound of strings to this softly coated tune, the vocals drifting across the track almost as if they’re another instrument in their own right. This isn’t a song with a big killer chorus, a big build or drop, but something far more graceful. You won't forget this one, you'll remberz where you first heard it (sorry).
Embrz - Silent
Breaking More Waves is a new music blog, which means you’re unlikely to find anything here that was released in 1979. But what about something that was released 8 months ago, that’s already had 80k plays on Soundcloud? Is that no longer new and should it therefore be discarded from being featured? There’s a line to be drawn somewhere, but sometimes the line shifts. It’s why every chapter of The Rules of Pop (including the one about blogging) is constantly being redrafted. For if it isn’t and the rules remain the same then everything about creativity becomes stagnant and boring. In fact, the most exciting rule in the rules of pop is the one written on the very first page. It says quite simply ‘THERE ARE NO RULES’. It applies to every chapter. Sometimes we wish we remembered that first page more often ourselves.
So here’s an artist that has been throwing stuff up on the internet since the middle of last year, already has thousands of Soundcloud plays and we’ve posted about once before just a few days ago due to a remix of his. But today we’re introducing him on his own accord.
EMBRZ is one Jack Casey from Ireland and his Facebook simply tells us that he likes to make music. Probably not the grandest of descriptions, some would probably prefer a proper biography telling you how he went off to write songs in a cabin in the woods after splitting with his long-term girlfriend or something similar, but remember what it says in the front of the rulebook, and that includes pop biographies. Once someone tells you it has to be done in a certain way, someone will do it differently, what they do will be brilliant and you’ll be made to look a fool.
In fact EMBRZ has already broken some of those rules. Listen to his track Slow Down, a gorgeous crystalline piece of down-tempo electronic music that turns Paramore and Gabrielle Aplin samples into something that will leave you breathless with wonder. It’s the musical equivalent of a dreamy Chvrches coming down after the all night high.
Then listen to his remix of Ellie Goulding’s How Long Will I Love You (here) See what he did there? Yes there’s a hefty similarity. Now try his remix of Dive In (here) which we posted recently. Oh, hold on. Is he taking the piss? No more than thousands of indie rock bands who smother every song in the same layers of guitar reverb and noise or rip off their sixties heroes time and time again. He’s just hasn’t bothered buying a rulebook. However, endless repetition would surely become too much and therefore EMBRZ adds something else with the exceptional Make Your Way. The result? Arrestingly beautiful dance music that is both euphoric and chilled in equal measure.
Remember, THERE ARE NO RULES.
EMBRZ - Slow Down
EMBRZ - Make Your Way
Free download time. Dive In got us grabbing our shades, jumping in our open topped sportscar and racing down to the south coast and the beach, the wind and sun streaming through our hair as we went last year with their song Let Go.
That was until we realised we didn’t own an open topped sports car (a Toyota Auris just isn’t quite the same is it – but hey at least its reliable and comfy, even if the stolen Jai Paul album sounds rubbish in it), already live on the south coast not far from the beach and don’t really have any hair for the wind or sun to stream through. Oops.
Now, considering that we featured Let Go last August, you’d expect that the record's shelf life had probably expired, but no, now Dive In have pushed out a remix from Irish producer EMBRZ (not to confused with the band Embers) a more chilled dreamy affair than the upbeat summer pop of the original. Dive In support the lovely Pawws at The Lexington on February 12th.
Dive In - Let Go (EMBRZ Remix)
