Music Roundup: Kerem Ömer Şahin, Fantastic Mr Marcel, Ashtrace, NETAA

Particles of pollen drift out into the open air, cautiously grouped together before wandering off into the distance. That’s the image Kerem Ömer Şahin conjured when sitting down to write Sawdust, and it’s one I can easily see as well as the sparse notes of the melody line echo the particles and the bass notes seem to emphasize some movement as if a small change in air pressure suddenly shifts all of the particles one way or another. Check out Sawdust for your minimal modern solo piano fix.

Black & White by Fantastic Mr Marcel is a song about accepting and embracing the imperfections in a relationship. Influenced by artists such as Andre 3000 and Will-I-Am, I particularly enjoyed the harmonies and the layering of the vocals throughout.

A wholly DIY effort from start to finish, here’s Narwhal by Ashtrace off their debut album “Dog Kills Gun”.

Our song is about a man walking in a beach, who has lost almost everything in his life. But suddenly as he wanders around, he starts triping [sic] and he sees narwhals coming out of the sea. The narwhals take him by the hand and then they start a journey together. By the end of the song he has become a narwhal too.

-Ashtrace

Here’s NETAA’s first track, corrupted DNA. It’s an electronic trap song with lots of negative space between elements and some hard hitting bass. I love the downwards glissando into the drop that eschews your expectations. If you enjoy a hard hitting electro jam check this one out for some cool sound design.