Tag: Mickey Valen

TRACK PREMIERE: Lara Maxen & Mickey Valen “Your Anything”

Lara Maxen

Today we have a double hit of premiere for you, all in one sultry song. In “Your Anything” vocalist Lara Maxen purrs brazen lyrics elevated with production by Mickey Valen. “Your Anything” is the 18-year-old Lara Maxen’s debut track, as well as the debut track in a series of collaborations producer Mickey Valen has lined up with other artists.

Listen to “Your Anything” below.

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TRACK PREMIERE: Jojee “Unravel Me”

Jojee

Our girl Jojee is back with a sultry track “Unravel Me” and we get to share it with you first. The moody number invokes the same sensuality as a candle-lit stoned shower, smoke and steam obscurring skin on skin. The “future soul” artist has a kaleidoscope of sounds that all zoom into the same focal point claimed by R&B in the 2015 musical landscape. Relax and allow yourself to come undone with the latest – “Unravel Me” slows things down to the tempo you want to bath in every beat.

Indulge in the heady high of “Unravel Me” below. The song is produced by Mickey Valen.

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TRACK REVIEW: EVVY “Tidal Wave”


 EVVY

New York-based songstress EVVY recently released her new single “Tidal Wave.” The enchanting pop track, a collaboration with Baby Daddy of Scissor Sisters, Mickey Valen, and Chris Wallitsch speaks of the grounding power love holds against uncontrollable and destructive forces. First and foremost, “Tidal Wave” is really fun, which both in the world of songwriting and let’s be honest – love – is rather refreshing. Immediately the distinct feeling of being overtaken by a wave, caught up while body surfing and being tossed and thrown is evoked. It is a lot like love, absolutely terrifying, and there’s a slight risk you’ll become paralyzed for life in the struggle.  The key to not only surviving, but having the time of your life – is to just roll with it.

Listen to “Tidal Wave” below.

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TRACK OF THE WEEK: Jojee “Think of Anything”

Jojee

Letting go is hard. Memories can act as a quicksand of sorts, keeping us stuck in toxic relationships or negative situations that make us feel shitty, because perhaps there once was light. They say much of what makes up our experience of love is how someone makes you feel. “Think of Anything,” the new track from New York-based future soul artist Jojee is about someone who makes you feel you can do anything. That’s much more pleasant than being stuck in the mud, isn’t it? Despite its uplifting ideals, the song is far from annoying pop, but a darkly beautiful soul track with smooth hip hop beats, like a sly smile that gradually warms your face when you realize you’ve made it to the other side.

“Think of Anything” is produced by Mickey Valen. Listen below.

TRACK REVIEW: Jojee “I Don’t Give A”

Jojee_1
Breathe in and exhale a new track from Jojee produced by Mickey Valen. The song was inspired by forbidden love, an unfiltered reaction so magnetic sometimes you just have to let go of social constructs and allow it to swallow you up. According to an inside source, the song “…is the declaration of not giving a f*ck anymore and following your heart.”  A lot of people often mistake love for joy, but the definition that resonates with me, is an acceptance. Acceptance of passion, acceptance of flaws, acceptance of situation, and learning to just go with the flow – an emotion, perhaps both the most basic yet difficult for humans, that Jojee perfectly pins down musically. The New Yorker has been described as “future pop,” but this sounds more like modern day soul to me. The intersection of dream pop and R&B (Wet, Banks, FKA Twigs) has created an exciting new corner of music. Like, what you’d make love to post-abduction on an UFO.
Listen below.

TRACK REVIEW: Alessia Cara, “Here” (Mickey Valen Remix)

alessia cara remix

Def Jam’s Alessia Cara burst onto the scene this past April, with “Here”, a soul/R&B/jazz inspired anthem about the experience of being a wallflower amid a party full of folks who just don’t give a fuck (as the kids say) about who you really are. Surprising from an 18 year old – to be so bold about a sentiment that I can surmise many young women actually feel quite often, yet scant few are willing to admit to. The song showcases Cara’s stunning vocals (among her influences, she counts Amy Winehouse and Ed Shareen). She has been amply compared to Rihanna, etc, though I think her voice is actually much stronger.

Mickey Valen’s remix of the track, out today, transforms it into a darker, more sinister, insidious dance jam, with strategically-placed future bass that will get your heart pounding. In fact the whole song feels turned-up, indelibly so – with tiny, subtle transformations that one can’t exactly pinpoint but collectively make a huge impact: the sign of a deft remixer, indeed.

TRACK REVIEW: Sofi de la Torre “What People Do (Mickey Valen Remix)”

Sofi de la Torre Remix

Sofi de la Torre What People Do Remix

“This is the beauty I want. Beauty has got to be astonishing, astounding – it’s got to burst in on you like a dream.” – F. Scott Fitzgerald, from “The Offshore Pirate”

When Sofi de la Torre sings of certain markers of opulence on “What People Do,” her smokey vocal and scaled-back percussion makes the things she longs for seem unobtainable. Like Lorde’s “Royals,” that inaccessibility gives way to a certain ironic tinge, and by its end the track shows something of a disdain for trite status symbols.

But leave it to NYC-based producer Mickey Valen to flip that script. “When looking for remixes I search for great songs that have vocals that inspire me to do something different, completely strip all the original production and build around it” he says. His lavish treatment of Sofi’s “What People Do” is so sonically disparate from the original that it adds a completely new dimension to the track’s sense of yearning. With flute flourishes, jazzy piano, and bubbly synth glitches fanning out from the Spanish singer’s distorted hook, the world Sofi created pops off like a Gatsby party under Valen’s skilled hand. It’s enough to make you want to put on a string of pearls and sip champagne on a yacht.

Valen has worked with emerging indie acts as Noosa and EVVY, and has four more projects slated for release in 2015. He’s taking a break from producing full-length albums to put out remixes every month, so be sure to follow his soundcloud for the latest.