🔝 Hype Machine’s Zeitgeist is here. In 2020, we stayed home. For many of us, home was office, daycare, and the only place we heard new music. This Zeitgeist, we’ve collected the artists and tracks that resonated with the Hype Machine community, and selected standouts from our Stack newsletter to match the vibes in our virtual home. Listen through each room and find your favorites—link in bio.
🤖 Support your favorite artists by buying their music on @bandcamp . Paste a link to your "Top Songs 2020" playlist into Merch Table, and we'll search for albums you can buy. With Bandcamp waiving their fees for artists again tomorrow (Friday), it’s a good time to try it out. Link in bio.
Hype Machine is 15 today, and a lot like the three of us at that age—completely obsessed with music, and always online. It's still here thanks to the support of our listeners, who kept the service going when we were sure we'd have to shut it down. Thanks for listening with us 💚
We just sent out our weekly newsletter, Stack, which delivers five new tracks, a mix, a good read and an album to stream. This week’s featured album is an EP by Bay Area singer and guitarist @zelma.stone . A collection of dreamy, hopeful Americana-pop songs navigating grief. "Undeniably life-affirming and comforting," says @gorillavsbear . Link in bio.
🏞 Featured album: You Become The Mountain by Jeffrey Silverstein. In 2019, Portland, Oregon-based songwriter and special education teacher @jeffreee released his solo debut after more than a decade recording in collaborative projects (Baltimore band Secret Mountains and Brooklyn duo Nassau). The EP introduced a meditative psych-folk sound inspired by the Pacific Northwest, an atmosphere he expands on here. Joined by pedal-steelist Barry Walker Jr., bassist Alex Chapman, and producer Ryan Oxford, Silverstein sways between evocative instrumentals and observant lyric-based compositions. "Cosmic country with a gentle sweetness, reminiscent of Beachwood Sparks and Silver Jews at their twangiest," says NPR. It's out on @arrowhawkrecords . Link to stream in bio.
🌾 Featured album: Close to the Flame by @forever_apoet . Montreal's June Moon, aka Forever, makes silky-smooth dance-pop music fusing elements of R&B, trip-hop, downtempo, and house. She follows up her 2016 debut EP with this new mini album featuring contributions from Michael Brock (Mind Bath), Patrick Holland (Project Pablo), Ouri, Cecile Believe, and David Carriere (TOPS). Lyrics detail love and loss over finely-tuned grooves, which Gorilla vs. Bear calls "intoxicating and sensuous." It sees release on @cascine_ . Link in bio.
🤖 Happy New Year! Look back on 2019 with Zeitgeist, our roundup of the year in music, including the most popular tracks and artists, the year’s biggest breakthroughs, and Merch Table, a way to support artists directly. Link in bio.
✨ featured album: Trophy by @katedavismusic . Portland-born, New York-based musician Kate Davis grew up as a jazz virtuoso before turning to the catharsis of indie rock. After navigating viral fame, a stifling record contract, and co-writing Sharron Van Etten's hit single "Seventeen," Kate Davis reaches her debut album, Trophy, titled as a wink to the accolades of her decorated youth. With witty lyricism and nuanced instrumentation, Davis ruminates on existential themes: identity, self-worth, and loss. "Visceral, all-encompassing," says The Line of Best Fit, "she's finally making music on her own terms." It's out on @solitairerecordings . Cover by @h0ldenbr0wn .
Link in bio.
Featured album: @wishedbone ’s Sap Season. Wished Bone is the recording project of LA-via-Ohio musician and plant biologist turned bartender Ashley Rhodus. She calls her songs “dark twee”; The Fader's take is “unhurried, comforting indie-rock with an edge.” Following her full-length debut in 2018, she returns with a self-released collection of warm and modest stories embracing the ephemeral and ordinary details in life. Produced by @beautiphilboy with contributions from instrumentalist @wanderinglake . Link to stream in bio.
