WRYT and 6058 make magic together in this 6058 remix of “Death in a Dream”. The rest of the team has off today for Veteran’s Day so I’ve got the website all to myself this New Music Friday. Thank a veteran (I’ll be calling you later mom & dad), and enjoy these rare delicacies from the far reaches of the music world, including: a selection off the debut album of alternative hip-hop artist thEmotion, the anthemic debut single of teen hyper-pop artist Betafish, the second single released by post-punk/shoegaze three piece Autosleeper, and the first single from the forthcoming debut of EP by Rose White. We hope you enjoy all of this great new music as much as we do, and hope it contributes to your plans for the holiday weekend. All this and more excellent music can be found on the Alchemical Records Multigenre Mixture playlist on Spotify (while supplies last).
The downtempo, acoustic nature of “Death in a Dream” was already something of a departure from what we usually see from WRYT. We don’t think we’ve seen the last hard rock track from this Washington D.C. area artist, but the 6058 Remix adds a few BPMs and contains elements of electronic and pop; highlighting how songs written and performed by WRYT have the potential to reach audiences well beyond the rock tracks inspired by NIN and Thrice (I also hear elements of 10 Years or Evans Blue) we might be familiar with hearing. Not only is there more music to come, but there’s a really good chance we haven’t entirely been able to predict where WRYT will take us next. For comparison, check out the original version of “Death In A Dream” and another track, “Fierce“, which we covered on our site earlier this year.
thEmotion has been releasing singles all year long, but hits us hard all at once with his debut album, Eyes Wide Shut featuring “Say Something”, the lead single with the cool swagger. The album is bigger than we’re going to be able to give credit to (give it a listen) in this brief introduction, but Eyes Wide Shut is a beautiful resume of thEmotion’s diverse talents and influences. Particles of pop, hip-hop, and R&B all find their way into the album’s 11 tracks; seemingly merging together into one moody, melancholic masterpiece thEmotion self-produced.
“Producing and writing all of the music myself felt like an important part of this project to truly capture what I was feeling in the moment but I’m planning to work with a lot of other great
musicians in the near future,” he says.
We’re not gonna lie “Fading Frontier” by Autosleeper is a little bit of an odd one at first. It feels both familiar and unfamiliar all at once. The level of sonic exploration reminds us a bit of Annapolis prog rockers Robot Jurassic, though perhaps with a little less distortion and slightly less polished. “Autosleeper” are a Barcelona based post-punk/shoegaze three piece who are releasing their debut album Ocean of Noise in February 2023, citing influences ranging from The Cure, Joy Division, Idles, Preoccupations The Smiths, to 90’s alt rock bands such as Sonic Youth, Swervedriver, My Bloody Valentine, and Ride. While we don’t quite hear all those infleunces in “Fading Frontier” we are intrigued to hear how it all comes together when Ocean of Noise releases early next year.
Quirky best describes “Cry About It” the debut single by teen hyper-pop artist Betafish (Alexander Waters). The song has a wind-in-your-face kind of groove. While we’d love to hear a little more of Waters’ voice and a little less autotune, it isn’t any wonder that the vocals are one of Waters’ favorite parts of the song given how impressively it merges with the other aspects of the track; the piano arrangement seems just as effective at setting the song’s pace as the drums. “Cry About It” has the potential to connect with fans of artists like Post Malone, The Kid Laroi, or ARIA.
“The auto-tuned and pitched vocal stacking, the over-the-top drums, and the crazy synth and piano lines all come together to form this sound that I had been trying to create for a while but I could never quite get until I made this song,” says Betafish. “It was definitely my gateway drug into a more hyperpop style.”
Don’t worry. We definitely did not lose this song among all the Halloween submissions, “Evil Side” by Rose White is beautifully more complex and should not be confined to one specific holiday. “Evil Side” seeks to embrace the fact that humans are themselves beautifully complex creatures. The jazzy guitar seems to slide in between the drums, which does give the track a kind of slyness. Rose shares her personal inspiration and how the song took on a form of empowerment.
“I wrote this song back in 2018, which was a particularly challenging year for me. I struggled with the feeling of loss and being misunderstood; put my dreams on hold, stopped believing in myself. I found a bliss in alcohol, until I met someone who was willing to take a chance on me and help me find a light in a dark tunnel. Initially I wrote this song for them, but with time the ‘you’ became universal. ‘You’ is whatever helps us stand up when we’re pushed to the ground by the world.
Human beings are not perfect and we all hide an ‘evil side’ inside of us. Instead of suppressing it though, we should learn how to embrace it and take the reins of our own life.”
For contrast, check out “Hero Side” by Stephanie Mathias
Daniel Warren Hill is an American musician, writer, and motivational speaker. He is best known as the frontman for Washington DC area Alternative Rock band YellowTieGuy, as co-founder of Capitol Groove Collective, and increasing the exposure of artists on a global scale through his work with Alchemical Records.
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Alchemical Records is a Washington, D.C. based music publication. We cover the Washington, D.C., Baltimore and Richmond, VA metro area music scenes, including band interviews, articles about your favorite musicians, new music and concert dates.
