Ivan Mihaljevic & Side Effects - Counterclockwise Review

There are certain things you expect of Eastern European rock groups: competent musicianship, poetry, and a love of beauty that includes the sadder side of life. But on their new album Counterclockwise, Ivan Mihaljevic and Side Effects present a cohesive work of great artistry, and do it with confidence. 

This ambitious album has thought-provoking lyrics married to music that really does rock. But it also has beautiful melodies and subdued moments of reflection. There's even a hint of steampunk and classical on the haunting track "Eclipse." This isn't just a set list of random songs, either. It's 48 minutes of a continuous musical experience -- and your neighbors won't hate it if you play it loud! 

The album begins with a tiny intro song, "Too Much Is Not Enough." Then the band swings into "Build Your Destiny," a blast of encouragement in dark times. If you were starting to think it was sounding too poppy, the guitar solo will convince you otherwise! But instead of another upbeat song, as would be traditional in most albums, the next song is "What Is Underneath," a moody meditation on the deceptions and hidden motivations of friends and loved ones. Drums and guitar go to town on this one to keep it from dissolving into depression. But the guitar solo's defiance fades away to even more gritty reflection on selfishness and lies. Mihaljevic and his bandmates do a passionate a capella ending to this song. Then comes the first long song of the album, "Driving Force", which features driving rhythms and driving guitar, of course! We now learn that "Too Much Is Not Enough" was just a taster for this song as Mihaljevic swings into the lonesome verse and powerful chorus. Internal rhymes and philosophical questions are handled with the unpretentiousness of a late night, darkness, and the need to know. Arabic and Indian-inspired sounds join the mix. "Gilded Cage" begins with the sound of a clock ticking, and then enters into the question of redeeming not just sins, but wasted and lost time. There's some really skillful acoustic guitar work here. I could listen to this track again and again. "Gift of Life" is another longer track with amazing guitar, dealing with regret for a friend's loss to death. The piano bit near the start is profoundly unsettling. Things have to go up from there, and "Time Travel" starts with a sort of metal playfulness. It's purely instrumental, but the instruments do plenty of singing for you. "Eclipse" is twelve minutes of amazing and awesome. "I Am" is a surprisingly quiet coda to an album, much like a concert encore. After the epic events of "Eclipse," the band is determined to go on -- and to continue building their destiny. Mihaljevic sings particularly appealingly on this track. And then the album ends, on a harp dissonance. 

I haven't said enough about the wonderful playing by all the band members, or about the interaction between them that makes the band greater than its considerable parts. 

But I think this album is something special, and that you'll enjoy it more with every listen.

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Chinwe - Breeze Pass

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J. Jackson: “Truth Be Told”

 

Detroit, MI- Lyricist extraordinaire, J. Jackson, is hard at work on his debut project. While Jackson is not giving us any clues about the project’s title or release date other than this summer, the content being delivered is undeniable. To further whet the appetites of his audience, Jackson is releasing behind the scenes footage of the recording of his latest offering “Truth Be Told”.

 “Truth Be Told” is produced by Chanes, a beat-smith who has worked closely with Shady/Aftermath as well as J. Jackson. The yet to be released track serves as a classic vent session that capsulizes the time of its recording. J. Jackson gives the listener an insight of his twenty-some-odd years shifting frantically from vague to liberal detail in roughly two minutes. What isn’t said outright in the lyrics, is still communicated in Jackson’s delivery that is simultaneously paced and urgent.

 “Truth Be Told” is only the beginning for J. Jackson as he is hard at work, preparing to release a mix-tape this summer as well as an official EP. It is made apparent in “Truth Be Told” as well as the soon to be released “90’s Freestyle” that J. Jackson is far from short on talent in any area. Follow J. Jackson on his journey, starting with the behind the scenes footage of “Truth Be Told” as he poises himself to be hip-hop’s next big thing, truthfully.

 For Press/Booking Inquiries:

Supportj.jackson@gmail.com (Att: Anthony Kellum)
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Instagram: @iam_j_jackson 
SoundCloud: JacksonUnivercity

Trevor Simpson and The Cataracs "Dagger"

Trevor Simpson is the resident DJ at Ruby Skye, San Francisco's marquee EDM club and has remix credits to the likes of M.I.A., Dev and Enrique Iglesias, Jason Derulo, and Lady Gaga.

The Cataracs are a multi-platinum group responsible for #1 Billboard pop song "Like a G6" and David Guetta "Sweat" featuring Snoop Dogg. Recent projects include songs with French EDM superstar Martin Solvieg and Icona Pop.

Dagger is the first single from Trevor Simpson's debut ep and will be out on World Town recordings world wide on May 14th .

SoundCloud:
https://soundcloud.com/djtrevorsimpson/trevor-simpson-and-the-1

Web www.DJTrevorSimpson.com 
Twitter.com/DJTrevorSimpson
Facebook.com/DJTrevorSimpson 
Web: www.TheCataracs.com 
Twitter.com/TheCataracs

Lil Dee: “The Lions Den” Stories Of Struggles, Injustice And Real Issues!

The Real Lil Dee is a revolutionary rapper and hip hop entrepreneur with more than 350,000 followers worldwide. Lil Dee the son of a bank robber and drug dealer grew up visiting his father in prison. During his early adulthood Lil Dee would find himself engulfed in a life of crime and at war with a system determined to snatch away his freedom. On the run, he would often find himself in foreign countries exposed to multicultural societies and philosophies which heavily influenced him as an individual.

In an effort to change his life and not wanting to follow his father’s footsteps, Lil Dee began to immerse himself into the music business and now can be found promoting and marketing underground hip hop artists via Rapmonster.com. He is constantly educating the masses about systematic racism, false religion and oppression through social media outlets such as Twitter, where he has well over a quarter of a million followers.

On the 10th of February 1925, a great man penned his well known “First Message to the Negroes of the World From Atlanta Prison”, wherein he made his famous proclamation: “Look for me in the whirlwind or the storm, look for me all around you, for, with God’s grace, I shall come and bring with me countless millions of black slaves who have died in America and the West Indies and the millions in Africa to aid you in the fight for Liberty, Freedom and Life.”

That man was Marcus Garvey. A Jamaican political leader and orator who was a staunch proponent of the Black nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements. Garveyism inspired others, ranging from the Nation of Islam to the Rastafari movement, which proclaims Garvey as a prophet. It’s a shame so few people remember or even know about Marcus Garvey and the Black Star Line, today. Before Martin and Malcolm ever made their marks, there was Marcus.

Lil Dee is one of the very few new rappers out there that seem to be tracing Marcus Garvey’s footsteps with pride and integrity. This is a real man that has something to say about the world and doesn’t just rehash the same youth and gang struggles that mainstream rappers continually brandish to their fans.


Lil Dee tells stories of struggles, injustice and real issues that not a lot of rappers out there would even attempt to address nowadays. He also does it in such a clever fashion that it is undeniable that this emcee understands the world in a much broader sense than your average rapper. I will admit Lil Dee is not the easiest artist to listen to at times, his voice and personality takes some warming up to if you haven’t listened to his music before, but once you do, it is just smooth sailing from there on because this man is one of the best things to come out of the underground rap movement in quite a while.

Over at the Rapmonster.com website we stumbled across “The Lions Den,” an album by Lil Dee, that hosts a collection of 39 whopping tracks. “Liberty Or Death” which kicks off the fireworks, has an opening verse that reads:

“we have the greatest lost of people thru human history
niggers dont know about kemetic school of mystery
many people done lost their nation hood
alot of damn people have been conquered and abused
yet our lost was so great man its hard to recover
everytime i turn around we fighting each other
we opressed you my brother and we both suffering
the white man is to blame that aint up for discussion…”

Making it clear from the outset that Lil Dee, lays it down straight and doesn’t any cut corners in his messages. He raps with wit and conviction that propels as the album goes on. His flow is awesome, and he can easily switch up at almost any time with no sign of slack.

Once again, Lil Dee really knows how to paint vivid pictures filled with social commentary and real positive messages despite the use of explicit language on the occasion; but there is a lot of substance on this album and his lyrics are so thought provoking that the cursing is simply just in context.

The thing that makes Lil Dee and the album so great is because this is what real hip hop is supposed to be about. Nowadays you hear rappers exclusively rapping about stuff like cars, women and drugs. Rap music has become quite stale recently, but it’s albums like this that are keeping it alive. The Lions Den sends positive messages as opposed to talking about the futile stuff mentioned earlier and goes way beyond the beats.

Lil Dee is one of those unique artists that is really able to talk to the people and send a message about society in his raps.

Lil Dee / Rapmonster

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