Artist Spotlight

Alex Blocker Pays Homage to Chicago Roots with MFN Melo Collab “Zoom Meeting”

Colorado artist Alex Blocker is paying homage to his Chicago roots with his newest single “Zoom Meeting”. Featuring Chicago artist MFN Melo with a more hip-hop centric soundscape, yet still blending elements of R&B and jazz in Blocker’s quintessential style, “Zoom Meeting” is a humorous take where society is at the moment as Blocker both acknowledges darkness in his past and confidence about where he is today. “I didn’t want all my fiddle playing to make you forget I still hang with the best lyricists of our era,” says Blocker as this single is one that takes him back to his Chicago-style hip-hop roots.

“Zoom Meeting” came to fruition after a long night at Denver’s El Chapultapec – a historic jazz venue that closed during the pandemic. This final visit to the small nightclub inspired multiple songs…. this being the first tease to fans of a full-length album releasing in the fall.

Alex Blocker breaks boundaries with his genre-fusing style of contemporary music that combines elements of R&B, Hip-Hop, and Jazz. Influenced by his Chicago roots, Blocker has expressed musical ingenuity as a producer, instrumentalist, and vocalist on seven previous releases. Blocker began his music career producing and recording at YouMedia, an urban creative space in Chicago with previous alumni such as Chance The Rapper, Noname, and others. He has shared stages with performers such as Gramatik, Boombox, Nappy Roots, Masta Ace, and more.

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Artist Spotlight

Dusty Edinger crackle tension into rock electricity with latest release “We Outshine”

In “We Outshine,” Dusty Edinger considers the emotional costs of giving everything you have to a relationship, and what else you might have to give. The first line carries a sense of uncertainty, “I gave you everything I’ve got, not sure what I’ve got left.” Simple but revealing statement, putting exhaustion and vulnerability at the heart of the track.

The lyrics heighten the emotional tension as Edinger sings, “Don’t you see there’s no easy answer I’m starting to break. And that feeling of being trapped, no way out, that’s what gives the tension in the song. Another vivid image is the sound of the other person in the narrator’s head, like “a runaway train”. Together, the lines create a sense of a relationship moving at a pace the narrator cannot emotionally sustain.

“We Outshine” brings that conflict into a full-band setting, with catchy drums and bass propelling the performance. The arrangement adds weight without losing the song’s emotional heart, the groove. The writing feels tentative. It’s a song about the moment when something starts to fall apart, all of a sudden.

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Artist Spotlight

Tabi Harlowe captures the ache behind attraction with latest release “So Pretty (It Hurts)”

Tabi Harlowe‘s latest release, “So Pretty (It Hurts)” opens up with soft guitar, dreamy vocals and plucked guitar. It explores the complex emotion of wanting someone so much and feeling it in a way that is hard to explain. The subdued arrangement gives the song a subtle character.

Candle in my window long after midnight is a great opener that immediately gives off a late-at-night vibe, and the emotional tension becomes more intimate with “you look so pretty yet it hurts my stomach.” And that’s what that song’s about, that juxtaposition of beauty and discomfort. There’s that feeling Harlowe has of being pulled towards someone, of carrying an ache that won’t heal. “I want you to go with me everywhere.” And that makes the desire all the plainer.

Also, it’s emotionally naked, the image of standing there with “my hands wide open” hoping the other person will get it one day. The song “So Pretty (It Hurts)” uses its softness to carry the weight of uncertainty and longing in the lyrics rather than its force. It’s a tender look at attraction, and that awkward in-between space of wanting someone and waiting for them to get it.

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