Norma Jean Martine - No Gold (Brolin Remix)

Remix time, the first one on Breaking More Waves in 2014. It’s the sort of remix we like, that is to say it takes two new artists who we’ve posted about in the past and comes up with something that represents the remixer but still keeps the essence of the original as well.

So here we have masked man Brolin's subtle soft electronic beats instead of the ballsier organic sound you would be used to if you heard version one (here). Then he sprinkles a touch of his own liquid vocals around to compliment Norma’s bluesy, soulful, gospel voice. That will do nicely sir and madam. 

It’s got us thinking though, what other acts that we’ve blogged would you like to see remixes by? We’ve already had Curxes doing Chvrches – a bonkers marriage of aggression, amped up noise, electronica, and bad spelling, that was a good one. We’d quite fancy Charli XCX having a go at MMX (XCX vs MMX) or maybe Little Boots vs Little Daylight, that one would be big (oh hold on….) 

Norma Jean Martine - No Gold (Brolin Remix)

Brolin - New Waves

Imagine that all music blogs were written by robots. ("What they're not?" shouts a surprised and questioning readership.) They’d probably churn out posts that contained the following:

1.Some comparisons : So and so sounds like so and so

2.Some non-musical facts : So and so is from such and such a place and does this and that and has a record out on such and such a label

3.Some commentary on the music itself : So and so has such and such a sound and is of such and such a genre and sings lyrics about such and such a theme

4.Some emotional / personal content from the author / robot : This makes us feel like so and so

5.And in the case of the Breaking More Waves blog robot sometimes a reference to food or sex : This makes us hungry for so and so laid out ready and waiting for so and so

So here’s a new artist. He’s called Brolin. This is what the Breaking More Waves robot generated about him:

1.Brolin’s NYC sounds like a slow-jam version of 2forJoy’s Choke, which was a pretty slow-jam to start with. (Listen here and then compare with the song below. The robot is right on this one – very right). Other comparisons are Youth Lagoon, James Blake and Halls.

2. Brolin (probably not his real name) is from London and makes his music in his bedroom (that almost slipped into the sexual reference there) and releases NYC on Oct 15th through National Anthem, the label that seems to be unable to put a foot wrong at the moment with previous new waves Haim and Chvrches also coming from the same stable.

3. Brolin's music has a moody and minimal simplicity to it, feeling almost underdeveloped in places, but that’s fine because it gives the songs a sense of warmth that over production would ruin. The vocals are weird and hazy with Brolin singing about leaving and running away on NYC.

4. NYC is one of those songs that makes us want to put an arm round everyone that we love and tell them that everything is going to be OK, whatever their situation right now; it’s that kind of record.

5. After a romantic meal and making some sweet music in the bedroom (oh we wrote about that one earlier didn’t we?) NYC is the song to lower your head on to a pillow to and drift away with.

Just under 200 words generated by a machine, but that hopefully sounds very human – rather like NYC, a song that sounds beautifully human. We hope you agree.

Brolin - NYC