The Witzard

" Sound Me fully embodies the ambiance and a sense of dualism captured between a dark past giving way to a brighter future. Inspired by the struggle of living day-to-day in working class Poland , Aani spins her lyricism into an art that paints a picture of love lost searching for a genuine connection, in a world that seems to have long forgotten the almost reminiscent old school values embedded in the unique style delivered by Sound Me ," WeGrowWax wrote within a self-contained press release shared on Polish Trip-Hoppers Sound Me 's mysteriously sparse Bandcamp page. Upon a first listen to Sound Me 's snippet-laced "Growing" (Album Promo Mix) , my well-trained ear immediately sensed notes of Amy Winehouse backed by Jurassic 5 in-house DJ's Cut Chemist and DJ Nu-Mark , as well as skilled songstresses Joss Stone , Macy Grey, and jj frontwoman Elin Kastlander —all of course, backed by Mayer Hawthorne -esque trumpet work. "[ Sound Me is] a ...

While they generally make a unique brand of self-loathing, love sick Dream Pop , Swedish duo JJ (formerly known as "jj" )'s music has always been heavily influenced by Hip-Hop and R&B ; take their latest single "All White Everything" for example, sonically it's a crisp piano ballad accented by a sparse Hip-Hop drum pattern about mid-way through, who's title is seemingly an allusion to Jay-Z 's Kanye & Rihanna -assisted smash single, "Run This Town." It's our first legitimate taste from JJ 's forthcoming album for Sincerely Yours/Secretly Canadian V , which will be their first proper full-length since jj n° 3 (2010). Aside from it's August 19th release date, 12-song tracklist, and cryptic album artwork , little else is known about V . Roughly two weeks before unveiling the aforementioned information, bandmates and apparent couple Elin Kastlander & Joakim Benon quietly uploaded a 45-second JJ V album trailer...

Mysterious, Hip-Hop -loving Dream Pop duo, jj burst onto the Indie music scene sometime back in 2009. Elin & Joakim soon inked a deal with Sweden -based label, Sincerely Yours . In a similar vein to Nine Inch Nails' "Halo" system, each of jj 's major releases thusfar have been labeled, "jj n° 1-3." My personal favourite jj project, "kills" was quietly liberated over Christmas Break 2010-11; Elin & Joakim 's interpretation of "the mixtape" was pretty similar to the American ideal... and featured 10 well-done, lush flips of a handful of 2010's most Popular hits: Dr. Dre, Taio Cruz , M.I.A. Jay-Z , T-Pain, Diddy-Dirty Money , and Kanye. jj essentially released an album's-worth of complementary material online over the course of 2011, some of which may [or may not] eventually end up re-appearing on "jj n° 4" (IN ETERNITY) . A few weeks ago, I emailed a batch of 10 questions over to jj and just th...

jj is an up-and-coming Hip-Hop tinged Swedish Pop group, consisting of Elin & Joakim . Already 2 full-length albums deep into their fledging career... It seems as though jj have started an annual tradition of releasing Grade A non-album content every Christmas . Last year, it was "kills" (mixtape) and this time, it's a double present: "eve of destruction-vi." Nearly a year later, "kills" is still available for download. The highly-recommended set includes dark Dream Pop re-interpretations of Dr. Dre, Taio Cruz, M.I.A. Jay-Z , Dirty Money , and Kanye -penned hits. Originally released around Dec. 15-20th, "eve of destruction" seems to be a quasi-protest song; Made famous by Barry McGuire and written by P.F. Sloan (1965), jj have re-purposed the track for reasons yet unknown. Even though parts of the lyrics are somewhat incomprehensible and the bulk of online content is written in Swedish ... You can sense the sheer passion an...