Queen of Hearts - Only Love (Extended Version) (Ben Howard cover)

Here's a new cover from Queen of Hearts.  The original is "Only Love" by Ben Howard, and QoH has created a beautiful club synth landscape for our ears.  Some info courtesy of their SoundCloud:

"In this the Jubilee year, we can’t get enough of Queens. Good news then that Queen of Hearts has announced she will be releasing an EP of new material in September.

Ahead of that she has a treat for us in the form of a dreamy electronica cover of Ben Howard’s beautiful Only Love.

Queen of Hearts will also be doing dates around the UK including London Live in Hyde Park, Manchester Pride and Vogue Fashion Night Out in London.

CATCH QUEEN OF HEARTS LIVE

Saturday August 11
London Live
Hyde Park, London

Saturday August 25
Manchester Pride
Manchester

Thursday September 6
Vogue Fashion Night Out
London

'Only Love' produced by John Myers"

Electric Youth - "The Best Thing"

Here's a cool "song of the day" courtesy of Electric Youth.  I heard this song performed live only a couple of weeks ago, and it translates to the studio quite well.  Even cooler-- the band is working with Vince Clarke, a real hero of synthesizer music.

"We've released our new single 'The Best Thing' Today!

We worked on it with the amazing Vince Clarke (founder of our fav groups Depeche Mode, Yaz & Erasure) and plan to work further with him on our debut album once we come off tour."

Bonus: if you're unfamiliar with Vince Clarke, here's a classic look at Vince in the studio in 1985 (or 1987, if one of the comments is correct).

   

She's the Queen prep "Talk to Me" Single

She's the Queen have announced their new single "Talk to Me".

From the band:

"We are insanely proud to announce that our Talk To Me single will be released via electronic rumors on the 24th September, with reMixes from Lightwaves, digitalfoxglove, ODahl and Silenx. Not to mention our amazing music vid director Aaron Alexis :)
Here's the cover!!!"

Be on the lookout for this on the 24th of September!

Dave Smith Instruments announces the Mopho x4

From GearJunkies:
"Dave Smith Instruments is just a week away from introducing DSI's new Mopho x4 synthesizer keyboard to the world. This new synth is polyphonic Mopho keyboard! The Mopho x4 is the newest addition to DSI's revered line of analog subtractive synthesizers. Building upon the same award winning voice architecture of the Mopho and Mopho Keyboard, the Mopho x4 boasts huge sound and 4 voice polyphony in an ideally sized, portable, and elegantly designed package. Use it to create huge unison basses, creamy leads, maniacal sequences, and ethereal pads. The Mopho x4 is sure to satisfy all your polyphonic analog synthesis needs.

Arturia Prophet-V2 Review

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about Arturia stepping up their game recently and revamping their line of softsynths into the new 64-bit future, meaning they'll run better on newer machines that have 64-bit processing.  Since this blog has been around for only a year, this offers me a unique opportunity to revisit some of their older plugins.  I was given 3 for review, and the first one I'll be talking about is the classic Prophet-V2 plugin, based on the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5.

If you don't know, the Prophet 5 is a classic.  It's been incredibly popular since its release in 1978, and was a huge step forward for synthesizer technology, being one of the first to have patch memory and polyphonic sound -- hence the "5", for the 5 voices, in the name.  The synthesizer has been used by so many greats-- off the top of my head, Phil Collins-- that its status as legend has propelled its price point up into the thousands range.  Enter Arturia, who take classic and convert them to code so the average musician can enjoy and perform with the sounds of the legends.

Visitor - RNB

Last week Visitor teased us with a quick YouTube blip of some of their upcoming songs, and today we finally have the full track "RNB".  "RNB" showcases Visitor's growth in the last year, with classic 80s chimes, fantastic production, and catchy melodies.  I'm incredibly excited for this release, and I have the feeling it will be a big release for the duo.  Be sure to watch out for the full EP on the 10th of September.

Kid Machine - "The Robot Scientists Black Hole (Kid Machine Unreleased Vocal Mix)"

I'm not sure how old this track is, and if it is older, how I missed it, but it's certainly a little gem courtesy of Kid Machine, who's been a guest on the blog before.  He's got a great retro vibe happening and it's a delight.