CHICAGO, IL | JUNE 5TH, 2020 - Chicago-based pop rock band Double Identity have released their new single "Your Anything," available on all digital platforms NOW. The energetic duo previously shared their last release in 2019. Bouncy and upbeat, "Your Anything" continues to cement Double Identity's style as fun, yet lyrically in depth. The track delves into the reclamation of personal power after escaping an abusive relationship, and although young, members Courtney and Arden Kurhayez are incredibly introspective. About the single, member Arden states: 
“This song developed out of the aftermath of an abusive relationship and was one of the first steps towards taking power back from someone who should have never had it in the first place. It’s a way of saying you don’t want to be anything to someone – not an ex, or even a memory to look back on – and signifies being fed up with and stepping away from someone’s abusive, looping behavior when it shouldn’t have to apply to you anymore.”  
Double Identity is a pop/rock band comprised of 21-year-old twin sisters Courtney Kurhayez (vocals/drums) and Arden Kurhayez (vocals/guitar). They began playing music at five years old and have been performing in and around the Chicagoland area for more than a decade. In 2018, the duo released their debut EP, ‘Small Talk,’ followed up by a single, ‘Everything Reminds Me of You’ in 2019. 

STREAM/DOWNLOAD "YOUR ANYTHING": https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/doubleidentityband/your-anything

Hardcore band Sharptooth have premiered their new single 'The Grey' with Brooklyn Vegan. The single is taken from their forthcoming new album Transitional Forms, the record will be released on 10th July 2020 via Pure Noise Records. Pre-orders are available now at https://smarturl.it/Sharptooth. 

Listen to The Grey here ​

Ministry of Sound Classical have today released a special video in collaboration with Alexandra Burke, the London Concert Orchestra and NHS Choir to give thanks to the incredible work of the key workers.  Their cover of Olive’s 1997 classic ‘You’re Not Alone’, with it’s poignant, hopeful lyrics and combined with a purely symphonic arrangement, encapsulates what is currently a testing time for us all.  Watch the video here. 
 
This month, Ministry of Sound Classical, a 50-piece orchestral show, with the London Concert Orchestra was due to perform at the Royal Albert Hall by arrangement with Coalition Agency and promoters Raymond Gubbay Limited.  As these epic landmark performances for this show was forced to cancel due to COVID-19, it was collectively decided by the performers to create a video to show appreciation and say "thank you" to key workers, specifically our incredible NHS here in the UK. The video has now premiered on Ministry of Sounds YouTube Channel, with a donate link available for those who have enjoyed the track to support NHS Charities Together if they are able.  
 
Alexandra Burke is a supporter of the NHS Charities Together and was due to perform as a very special guest at Ministry of Sound Classical at the Royal Albert Hall, so was the perfect choice of vocalist for this very special project. Ministry of Sound Classical is overjoyed for the video to include the Lewisham and Greenwich NHS Choir, having been invited to perform on the track by Alexandra. 
 
All musicians filmed and recorded their individual parts from the safety of their own homes.  The music arrangement and guide audio track was prepared by the live shows sound engineer Phil Wright and orchestral arrangers Robin Hoffman and Tom Player. ​

​After a silent few months, Mancunian rap power-house Aitch has floored fans with impactful new offering “Raw.” The freestyle lands in the wake of his chart-topping collaborative single “Rain”, with AJ Tracey - which is still in the UK Top 20 weeks later and on the verge of platinum status. 
 
A reminder of Aitch’s lyrical prowess and versatility, “Raw” sees the 20 year old talent spitting his way through a declaration of confidence and truth; a recap of his success so far. The single (produced by Whyjay and Sangy) lands with a dark and moody visual (directed by KC Locke)- leaving the viewer on edge and hooked on Aitch’s every word. Hidden in a dark warehouse, Aitch is seen caught in the spotlight for brief moments throughout, in a horror movie-esque visual that sees him remain focused despite something lurking in the darkness. It’s a mission statement from the young rapper, who has marked himself as one of the most exciting talents in the UK right now:  “Young Aitch, Big Boss, I’m The Captain.”
 
Awe-inspiringly adapting his trademark flow to any beat, Aitch is undoubtedly one of the biggest success stories of the last year. Covering The Guardian Guide last  month, and garnering support from the likes of NME, The Face, GQ, Vogue, Clash and beyond, Aitch is fast becoming a house hold name - even Stormzy and Ed Sheeran are fans. Debut offering "Straight Rhymez'' has now garnered well over 19 million views, being credited as the video that propelled the then teenage Aitch, into the limelight.
 
Since then Aitch, with the help of his team Northern Quarterz, has gone on to make a solid mark on the scene nationally, he is YouTube’s ‘Artist  On The Rise’, has a Brit Award nomination under his belt and a Global Award win for ‘Best New Artist.’ His video for single “Taste (Make It Shake)” has accrued 28M views, and at one point he even featured on four songs in the UK Official Chart at one time. A keen collaborator and integral part of the UK Rap Scene, Aitch has seen huge success with his features on Young T and Bugsey “Strike Me A Pose”, Russ x Tion Wayne “Kesha Becky (Remix)”, Ed Sheeran “Take Me Back To London” and more recently alongside DigDat on “Ei8ht Mile.” 
 
2020 has already seen huge success for Aitch, and fans and critics alike are continually anticipating his next move. 
 
Follow Aitch’s journey here: https://www.instagram.com/aitch  

Jack Garratt is very pleased to share details of his second album and his first new music since 2016.

‘Love, Death & Dancing’ will be released on the 12th June 2020 through Island Records. The music is performed solely by Jack, and produced alongside Jacknife Lee and James Flannigan. It is available for pre-order HERE

The record is preceded today by the sharing of three new songs, Vol. 1, Jack’s first new music since 2016’s ‘Phase’ LP.

Jack Garratt accompanies this deeply personal album with an equally reflective long-form visual piece, ‘Love, Death & Dancing – a film by
Jack Garratt’, of which the first installment ‘Time’ is out now on all major video platforms. View it HERE

Listen to Vol. 1, featuring ‘Time’, ‘Mara’, and ‘Return Them To The One’ HERE

In February, Jack headed out on a UK and European ‘Work In Progress’ tour to preview the new songs out on the road, ahead of further
headline dates later in the year.

“I wrote this album as someone - and for anyone - who likes dancing but doesn’t necessarily want to go out on a Saturday. It’s dance music for people who don’t want to go out” – Jack Garratt

If Jack Garratt wasn’t a musician, he’d make a mean critic. A detractor of his music could throw a brickbat at him but Jack will always have got there first. Ask him now about his 2016 debut album ‘Phase’ and the 28-year-old doesn’t pull his punches, describing it as “busy and erratic”, “clever bullshit … a record full of beautiful metaphor that doesn’t really say anything. I was scared to actually say something real; I didn’t think people wanted to hear it. That’s why my production on that record is so busy, so saturated.” Yup, he’s down on the production, too. “I didn’t think I was a good producer, so I did lots of tricks to make people think: ‘He’s good.’ Same with the lyrics, with the melodies, all of it: it was just me on a face-value level effectively going: ‘This is good because it’s impressive, not because it’s actually good.’”

‘Phase’ struck so many of us at the time as a debut of rare audacity and bravery, confrontational and challenging pop record that, far from pandering to listeners, instead made demands of us, and was all the more thrilling for that.

As he gears up to send ‘Love, Death & Dancing’ out into the world, Jack looks back on that period not with gratitude exactly, but with an appreciation of the wisdom it gave him - hard-won, maybe, but deeply precious, and an experience that armored him for the battles ahead. If the process sounds hellish, ‘Love, Death & Dancing’, by contrast, is an ultimately joyous album. It isn’t afraid to lay bare the torment that led up to and informed its creation. But it is also a triumphant testament to survival, and to courage.

“I was in what should have been this huge celebratory moment, I’m 24, 25, my album has not only sold but sold well, globally, the tours were selling out, I was getting all these accolades and awards - I should have felt comfortable, at the very least. And instead I was scared and alone, and desperate for affection. I’d released that a lot of the pillars of affection were hollow; they weren’t real.”

Right after the tour’s last stop in Brighton, Jack and his then fiancé Sarah fled to Chicago to be near Sarah’s family. But it wasn’t the haven Jack had envisioned, instead only exacerbating his problems. “I remember walking in there - and I was terrified, just empty and lost. We have these matching tattoos of spoons now because that day, I went into the kitchen for a bowl of cereal and I had no idea where the cutlery was. It may sound strange but it was a moment that made me feel so alone, in what should have been the safest place for me. And it said so much about what was going to happen over the next two-and-a-half years.”

A Christmas break in New York two years ago, a trip that would be on many people’s bucket list, would prove to be the catalyst for a violent wake-up call. “Somehow, in the middle of all this joy - we went to the theater, to Saturday Night Live, it was lovely, all these things I’d wanted to do, with the woman I love - this overwhelming thought came into my head. It was the first time I’d ever truly contemplated suicide. I was so taken with this moment, within the joy that I was feeling; that still, despite that, this arrow was able to find a way through it all and hit me, directly, square between the eyes. I just broke down. No love for myself existed in that moment. It was just all self-loathing.”

As can sometimes be the way with artists (it’s a terrible thing to say, but it’s true), this experience, by pulling Jack up short and forcing him to reassess everything, gave life to a song. Writing it would spark not only a new appreciation of his surroundings, his loved ones and his own worth, but a new honesty in how he wrote. The result was ‘She Will Lay My Body On The Stone’, one of many moments on ‘Love, Death & Dancing’ where you find yourself thinking: no one says this. Such naked soul-baring goes, after all, against the pernicious English code that says that unfiltered emotional candour just isn’t the done thing; that we like our honesty dressed in allusive finery, hinted at rather than shouted from the rooftops.

Working with the producer Jacknife Lee on half of the record and James Flannigan on the other half was “amazing”, Jack says. “They were incredible and really helped me in terms of getting my groove back, my confidence. Jacknife challenged me from a position of respect. He liked ‘Phase’, and was open to the issues with it.” Musically, ‘Love, Death & Dancing’ reflects its lyrical content, moments of mellifluous beauty and calm giving way to outbreaks of cacophonous anxiety and manic energy. If the bluesy spaciousness of ‘Anyone’ recalls Peter Green-era Fleetwood Mac, ‘Mara’ conjures the production work of Lindsey Buckingham circa ‘Tusk’, while ‘Time’ could be the offspring of both Baba O’Reilly and Boys of Summer. The anguished, propulsive ‘Better’, meanwhile, channels the Beach Boys, Daft Punk and Beat It, and the enraged, accusatory ‘Mend a Heart’ honors the legacy of Cupid and Psyche 85. Throughout, Jack’s extraordinary voice - equal parts soul and blues - soars and swoops, communicating desperation one minute and rapture the next. You never doubt that he means it. You never doubt it’s the truth, unfiltered, unapologetic, laid bare.

“The album was written from the point of view of someone who has a functioning sadness,” Jack says, “who has had his day-to-day depressions and anxieties that have influenced the decisions he’s made. The album is about that functionality, that day-to-day battle, conversation, tug of war. We’re making a film at the moment, to go with the whole album. The premise of it is that it’s me in the back rooms of my mental health, on my own, interpreting the album. The one thing it needs to do is for the very last shot to be exactly the same as the opening shot. Because this battle in my head is cyclical, infinite; it’s a line of consistency, a time loop that’s just going round and round and round.

“I think this is the first time I’ve felt proud of the songs I’ve made. I wrote this album as someone - and for anyone - who likes dancing but doesn’t necessarily want to go out on a Saturday. It’s dance music for people who don’t want to go out! And that’s the music that I love: music that doesn’t care if you’re standing up or sitting down. It’s going to give it to you either way.”

www.jackgarratt.com

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