Full To The Brim

It was a whopper of a week for new music, NovelliFans, so let’s get right to it!

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Another Little Piece Of Her Heart

First things first, Christina dropped her second SMR LVE collab of 2024 on Friday, and to absolutely no-one’s surprise, it’s a BEAUT!

The follow-up to ‘Fallen Stars’, which was released on March 15, ‘Serenity’ is a melodic “heartfelt voyage” that adds yet another jewel to the Queen of vocal trance’s crown.

Coming to us on Andrew Rayel’s label Find Your Harmony, the song was featured as the Light Side Track of the Week in episode 404 of Rayel’s Find Your Harmony Radioshow.*

The song will also be included on SMR LVE’s forthcoming full-length release, ‘Spirit Of The Sun’, alongside ‘Fallen Stars’ and their 2023 collab with Sue McLaren, ‘Every Breath I Take’.

If you’re looking for a “blissful anthem” of self-reclamation to add to your ‘Phoenix Rising’ playlist, give ‘Serenity’ a spin. I’ve got a hunch it’ll be the vibe your heart’s been waiting for.

Buy / Stream ‘Serenity’

*The same episode also featured one of last week’s & Co. top drops, ‘Under Pressure’ by Sarah de Warren, Jason Ross & Kill The Noise AND one of Susie Ledge’s recent releases, which I’ll get to in just a minute.

Dream Team

Our second track of the week is one I believe I saw teased on Sue McLaren & Susie Ledge’s Instagram stories, so if you’re not already following them both over there, and you’re thrilled by sneak peeks the way I am, pop over and add them both to your feed so you don’t miss out. Sue’s account is @suemclarenmusic and you’ll find Susie @susieledgemusic.

Srsly, go for it. I’ll wait.

All good? Excellent. Let’s get back to the release.

If my Instagram interpretations are correct (and that’s 50/50 at best ) ‘Everything To Me’ is a track that Sue and Susie recently teased in their stories as a co-write, which you can be sure had me DM-ing #dreamteam as fast as my thumbs could carry me.

Sue’s second VANDIT Records release of 2024, this time she’s teamed up with Düsseldorf, Germany’s Dj T.H. and Polish producer, TH3 ONE for a straight-out-the-gate banger with the sweetest vocal harmonies I’ve heard since #LandslideLive & the #UnforgivableDuet.

Sound like a track you wanna take for a spin? I don’t blame you! Follow the links below to your favourite platform, and enjoy the ride!

Buy / Stream ‘Everything To Me’

Susie x 2 =

& if you’re in the mood for even more Susie, (’cause when are we not, amirite? ), In Trance We Trust is here to deliver with ‘Solitaire’.

A collab with YYC-based club DJ & event promoter turned trance producer Edwin Tsui, who goes by the stage name Yelow, ‘Solitaire’ is yet another one of Susie’s recent releases that makes me wish I was a music supervisor, or knew a music supervisor, or felt it was appropriate to cold email a music supervisor and say ‘Hey, you need to hear this.’

Also featured on the aforementioned episode 404 of Andrew Rayel’s Find Your Harmony Radioshow, ‘Solitaire’ appears to be Susie & Yelow’s first original release. However, Yelow did work with Roger Shah to create not one but two remixes of Susie’s tracks with Sunlounger, dropping fresh takes of ‘Sail Away’ & ‘On The Other Side’ back in the summer of 2021.

I for one am thrilled that these two have decided to work together again, and not just because Yelow is from a city where I used to live (#AlbertaTranceFamRepresent). ‘Solitaire’ is 3 minutes and 23 seconds of masterful vocal trance that starts off moody and carries you away with a classic uplifting twist.

& if 3-ish minutes just isn’t enough, get ready, ’cause the Extended Mix is a full 7 minutes and 4 seconds of straight up fire. Luckily both versions are available now, wherever you like to listen.

Buy / Stream ‘Solitaire’

#TranceFamilyTree

This next track is a perfect example of one of the things I love most about the dance music scene, and why I’m thrilled to be in my EDM era, even if I am still very much a rookie when it comes to writing about it.

Unlike in other genres, where the narrative of competition often reigns supreme, in the dance music scene collaboration is clearly queen. This entire site is actually proof of it, but this next drop is also a perfect example, singularly condensed.

Originally released in 2022, ‘Reach for You’ is a collab between Linney (who I discovered through Christina) and Irish DJ, producer and straight-up-superstar, Ciaran McAuley (who is currently working on a collab WITH Christina, which they’ve teased a couple of times on Instagram stories ). The song was co-written with Casey Cook, who also co-wrote two of Linney’s other recent releases, ‘Echoes’ & ‘A Little More Me’.

Linney has also previously worked with Maratone (who I discovered through Siskin, again via Christina) on one of my personal top 10 ASOT Top 1000 tracks*, ‘Closer To You’ (Lasse Macbeth Remix), which they released back in 2021.

According to a story Maratone shared on Instagram, he randomly bumped into Ciaran backstage at a festival a couple years ago, and they hit it off, prompting him to later reached out via email & see if he could remix one of Ciaran’s tracks.

As you may have guessed, Ciaran agreed, and as a result we have Maratone’s absolute vibe of a remix of ‘Reach For You’, which dropped on May 31 from Black Hole Recordings — the same label that has released BOTH of Christina’s full-length albums, and a multitude of other MMM & Co. works as well.

Can we say #TranceFamily, or what?

And as members of that same Fam ourselves, we now have the pleasure of adding this fab track to our collections — so let’s show it, and everyone connected to it, some love, shall we?

Click the links to add the ‘Reach For You’ (Maratone Remix) to your ‘TranceFam’ playlist now.

Buy / Stream ‘Reach For You’ (Maratone Remix)

*Ciaran also made it onto my ASOT Top 10 with ‘You’re Never Alone’ the collab he released with Susie Ledge (on Black Hole Recordings) in 2022. #TranceFamily INDEED!

Acoustic Adventure

Next up I’ve got something a little different for you, Fam … or rather Jamison does.

If you’ve been a reader here for a little while, you may remember that Jamison was one of the co-writers on ‘Champagne Eyes’, the collab between Adam Pearce and Linney that came out just over a month ago, on May 3.

As I mentioned in my coverage of ‘Champagne Eyes’, Jamison is not only a topliner, aka “a songwriting professional who writes the melody and lyrics to a premade beat track” (Thank you, Google & MasterClass ), she’s also a music teacher, music therapist, writer and soon-to-be podcast host. It is 2024, after all! #creatoreconomy

& on top of all that, at last count her ‘Written By Jamison’ playlist hosts a whopping 87 tracks that she wrote, or co-wrote, with / for the likes of Skyler Cocco, Jaime Deraz, Chemikkal & Jessica Chertock.

The latest addition to that list, is one of Jamison’s own singles, ‘Life is Strange, Are You Happy?’ — a courageous ode to relationships lost and a new love found.

Produced by Zach Miller and coming to us on Chapstick Records, the acoustic vibes of this track are a throwback to my pre-EDM days, when Tegan and Sara were dominating my listening hours, and I am 100% here for it!

So if you’d like to try something a little different this week, I highly recommend giving ‘Life Is Strange, Are You Happy?’ a spin.

Buy / Stream ‘Life Is Strange, Are You Happy?’

Thank You, Tara

Keeping with the singer-songwriter vibes, to close out this week’s post I wanted to share a song I heard on the BBC Introducing Solent episode from May 2 that featured Paul Saywer’s remix of Siskin’s ‘Are We Dreaming’.

‘Pretend’, by up-and-coming UK artist Tara Flanagan was featured as the Track of the Week in that particular episode, and once you’ve heard it I’m sure you’ll understand why.

Unfortunately, the episode itself no longer available for streaming, but as Tara shared on her Instagram, the song is a tribute written for her older brother Mikey who passed away when they were both very young.

Released on May 6th, which is fittingly also Mikey’s birthday, the track, which was co-written and produce by Billy Keane, has seen additional features on Spotify’s Fresh Finds UK & Ireland playlist and was given the official music video treatment by 70mm Independent Film with direction from Craig Norley.

As you can imagine, the song is a heart-wrenching ballad that will very likely bring a tear (or several) to your eyes, but I wanted to feature it here today, because as I shared with Tara on social, I am in awe of how she managed to capture so many of the things I myself have been carrying on my own journey with grief, which began with the death of my oldest childhood friend, Chrissy, when I was 17.

A week ago today marked the 25th anniversary of her death, and it seemed fitting to share Tara’s song with you in this post as my own tribute of sorts. I am exceedingly grateful for Tara’s courage and commitment to her craft — she is a deeply talented songwriter with a hauntingly soulful voice, and I hope you will show her some love by giving ‘Pretend’ a spin.

Buy / Stream ‘Pretend’

& if you’re moved by the song and would like to hear Tara perform it live, the marvellous folks over at Treehouse Sessions recorded a video of her accompanied by a single electric guitar that is guaranteed to impress.

Thank you for taking a little detour with me today, NovelliFans. I appreciate your being here, and if you’ve also been walking with grief I hope that Tara’s song can be as much of a gift to you as it has been to me.

I’d also love to know which of the other tracks from today’s post you’ll be adding to your personal playlist, so please let me know in the comments below.

As always, thanks for stopping by!