I like how direct most of these songs are

As the sun begins to set later and the days grow dark and bitter, Better Person (the moniker of musician Adam Byckowski) announced his long awaited debut EP It's Only You and premiered a new song, the weather appropriate Everything Cold. Inspired by winter days in his former apartment, an icy top floor flat on Berlin’s Pannierstrasse where he would stay up late and spend his days alone. About the song, Byckowski explains, "It just describes a certain mood i was in at the time. The first version of the song was just a classic pop ballad, with almost no beat and a saxophone solo. I came back to it a few months later and changed it completely, turned it into a reggae song. My friend Karolini played the guitar part and Sean Savage sang some backing vocals on it. It’s my favourite song on the EP."
 
Better Person's enigmatic stage presence is matched by his elusiveness as a recording artist: while he's already toured with the wonderful Canadians TOPS and Timber Timbre, and as keyboard/guitarist with Sean Nicholas Savage, at six tracks It's Only You is his longest release, encompassing the critically acclaimed singles “Sentiment” and “I Wake Up Tired.”

While the EP's sonic touchstones – torch songs, Sade, Arthur Russell, synthed-up European and Japanese pop from the 80s, French and Italian movie soundtracks – are all unimpeachably romantic, there's a more Romantic undercurrent of isolation that begins from the way It's Only You was made – all recorded on a computer at home. Byczkowski brings to the fore an aspect of the recent embrace of New Romantic soundscapes and R&B emoting: crooning as a form of self-seduction, a kind of therapy, an impossible compromise between the irreconcilable poles of intimacy and isolated self-sufficiency. The title itself casually, elegantly captures the paradoxical phase shift which occurs when the movement toward closeness becomes a plunge into solitude. It's Only You is the sound of turning down the mood lighting so low you're no longer sure if anyone else is there.

The transmutation of being-alone-with into being-alone ignites a fixation on memory, and most especially on its entanglement with place. On repeated listens, It's Only You slowly reveals itself as an album of (self-imposed) exile behind a facade of seduction. In the aftermath of intimacy, one is left with only sensual remnants - smell leads to memory (“I found a smell that takes me home,” Byczkowski sings in opener “Somebody Cares”) and memories, of home and of people, lead to the question of place and belonging. In “Somebody Cares,” “I found a smell that takes me home” leads into “I try to notice all the things around” - reminiscence of there demands attention to here – but he concludes “God only knows where I'm gonna live.” “I Wake Up Tired” features the plaintive request “Show me a place / where I feel home;” while the refrain in “Everything Cold” asks the question on the mind of every expatriate in Berlin: “Why is everything closed on Sunday night?” In the still astonishing “Sentiment,” the singer is left unsure of his identity, with only sentiment remaining, precisely because he will “never be from here.”

For listeners already enamored with “Sentiment” and “I Wake Up Tired,” the real revelation of It's Only Youmay be the closing track “Your Smell” which, atop a tragicomically funky shuffle, wraps in a cocoon of beautiful confusion all of Byczkowski's themes: lost love, lost locales, and finding oneself again, fleetingly, provisionally, in their pursuit.

Better Person - It's Only You

18th Parellel

Eucharist

From the first drum machine kick, “Sentiment” is an ephemeral instant classic, an earnest bedroom pop song wrapped in textures evocative of slick City Pop from 1980s Japan, the dreamy experimental disco of Arthur Russell, and more recent experiments in vintage and lo-fi sonics from Dean Blunt and James Ferraro.“ The song is romantic in both senses of the term – intimate, sincere, and seductive, it quivers also with the anxiety that arises in the face of the sublime.
Sentiment is the follow up to Berlin based sometime-Sean Nicholas Savage guitarist Adam Byczkowski's first recording as Better Person, the breathtakingly pretty Soundcloud hit “I Wake Up Tired.” Having joined the roster of Berlin imprint Mansions and Millions, his debut EP is planned for release later this year.

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Better Person - Sentiment

Stay balanced
Stay even
Stay informed
Stay, no leavin

Don't let it overcome you
Don't let it lead
Don't let it get ya
Don't let it bleed

Your mind
Your patience
Your love
Your heart

The flight
Will take you
The flight
Will depart

Your mind
Your patience
Your love
Your heart

Keep strong
Keep doing what you're doing
Stay relax
And, give peace a chance
A chance
A chance

Give peace a chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance

Don't let it overcome you
Don't let it lead
Don't let it get ya
Don't let it bleed

Your mind
Your patience
Your love
Your heart

The flight
Will take you
The flight
Will depart

Your mind
Your patience
Your love
Your heart

Keep strong
Keep doing what you're doing
Stay relax
And, give peace a chance
A chance
A chance
Give peace a chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance

A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance

Keep strong
Keep doing what you're doing
Stay relax
And, give peace a chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
Give peace a chance
Give peace a chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance
A chance

A Flight of Peace

EXCERPT from "MUSIC FROM HARVESTER" now available on double-cassette along with 3 other new releases from SUN ARK CASSETTE EDITIONS: www.sunaraw.com/sunarkshop.html

"Sonne" from MUSIC FROM HARVESTER (2015) by CAMERON STALLONES & NICHOLAS MALKIN

You're not sure why you decided to come alone to this karaoke bar. A sudden desire for people-watching, you suppose. You don't sing anything, just nurse a drink near the back. For the first half-hour, nothing out of the ordinary happens. Then, another spectator, one you've noticed hovering by a side wall, takes the stage. A slightly tinny drum machine comes forth from the P.A. The song is instantly familiar, but you can't quite place it. It must be some mostly-forgotten hit from the '80s that you haven't heard in years. At first, the singer's delivery is as shy as you'd expect from a fellow wallflower. But slowly, you come to perceive a deep, quiet confidence in his voice. He obviously knows the song by heart. He occupies it as if it were home. Actually, you think his rendition might be truer than the original performer's, although you still can't recall who that was. Although it might just be your second drink taking effect, you've almost begun to suspect that there is no original, that the enigma on the stage in this unremarkable bar, is, somehow, performing an entirely new song for the very first time. As the tempo slows and he begins to gently croon the next track, you become sure. By some weird turn of Lynchian magic, this man on the stage has reshaped the room to his will, coaxing his own private music out of the karaoke machine.

This is the kind of scenario one imagines when listening to Better Person's smoke machine pop. His (Adam Byczkowski) enigmatic stage presence is matched by his elusiveness as a recording artist output: while he's already toured with the wonderful Canadians TOPS and Timber Timbre, and as keyboard/guitarist with Sean Nicholas Savage, at six tracks It's Only You is his longest release, encompassing the critically acclaimed singles “Sentiment” and “I Wake Up Tired.”

While the EP's sonic touchstones – torch songs, Sade, Arthur Russell, synthed-up European and Japanese pop from the 80s, French and Italian movie soundtracks – are all unimpeachably romantic, there's a more Romantic undercurrent of isolation that begins from the way It's Only You was made – all recorded on a computer at home, on Berlin's Pannierstrasse (the same street where Magic Island's Wasted Dawn was recorded last year.) The title itself casually, elegantly captures the paradoxical phase shift which occurs when the movement toward closeness becomes a plunge into solitude. It's Only You is the sound of turning down the mood lighting so low you're no longer sure if anyone else is there.

The transmutation of being-alone-with into being-alone ignites a fixation on memory, and most especially on its entanglement with place. On repeated listens, It's Only You slowly reveals itself as a work of (self-imposed) exile behind a facade of seduction. In the aftermath of intimacy, one is left with only sensual remnants - smell leads to memory (“I found a smell that takes me home,” Byczkowski sings in opener “Somebody Cares”) and memories, of home and of people, lead to the question of place and belonging. In “Somebody Cares,” “I found a smell that takes me home” leads into “I try to notice all the things around” - reminiscence of there demands attention to here – but he concludes “God only knows where I'm gonna live.” “I Wake Up Tired” features the plaintive request “Show me a place / where I feel home;” while the refrain in “Everything Cold” asks the question on the mind of every expatriate in Berlin: “Why is everything closed on Sunday night?” In the still astonishing “Sentiment,” the singer is left unsure of his identity, with only sentiment remaining, precisely because he will “never be from here.” The real revelation of It's Only You may however be the closing track “Your Smell” which, atop a tragicomically funky shuffle, wraps in a cocoon of beautiful confusion all of Byczkowski's themes: lost love, lost locales, and finding oneself again, fleetingly, provisionally, in their pursuit.

Better Person - Your Smell

Better Person - Everything Cold

Better Person - I Wake Up Tired

Better Person - Somebody Cares

Completely Careless (2012-2015)

Careless

Compassion

Stardom

Taken from Luxury Hits ep released November 2018 on Full Ashram.
www.freelovenrg.com

Playing As Punks

About 'Too Numb to Know' (out 9/25) by Profligate

'Too Numb to Know' showcases Profligate continuing to shirk the heavy electronics of his early years for razor sharp pop. On 2018's 'Somewhere Else,' Noah Anthony delivered dark pop gems while adding live instrumentations, reinvigorating his songwriting and sonic palette. This new song-driven approach gained praise from Resident Advisor, Pitchfork, Bandcamp Daily and The Wire, exposing Profligate to new listeners.

'Too Numb to Know' followed Anthony from coast to coast, as he recorded his first demos in Philadelphia and then moved to Los Angeles, a city he found creatively challenging and emotionally depleting. After the theft of his computer—and with it the work he'd done on 'TNTK' in L.A.—Anthony took a friend's suggestion and moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where he finished the album and added contributions from allies like Matchess, Lazy Magnet, Gel Set, and Missions, among others.

'TNTK' is about growth, reflection and change. Lead single "Hang Up" urges the artist’s younger self to trust his instincts during chaos. Its message pairs with bright keyboards, a pulsing beat, and soft, alluring vocals - on the chorus, he croons "Nothing you create but love penetrates." It's an urgent, driving pop song that fuses electronics with guitar and bass like the best of alternative radio. Guitar is prevalent on 'TNTK,' building on the live bass of 'Somewhere Else,' adding a new arrow to Anthony’s quiver, creating more space for melody, and using it to fill the room.

"A Little Rain" and "My Days" feature evocative melodic and textural beauty. Laura Callier of Gel Set adds graceful shimmering vocals to “A Little Rain” that wash the song in nostalgia, while the latter song’s weave of mostly acoustic instruments (certainly a first for Profligate) is unexpected and welcome. Softer moments like these are interspersed throughout 'TNTK' between kinetic numbers like "No Clear Way," while "We Can Punish" and “A Stranger” are reminiscent of his noisier, beat-oriented years. This varied approach and attention to detail are the garnish to an already tight song cycle that will satisfy hardcore fans of Noah Anthony's output and newcomers, alike.

About Profligate

Noah Anthony’s music ranges from heavily rhythmic electronics to tightly-composed songs. His debut LP Come Follow Me, was released in 2012 on More Records and a string of 12” EP’s and compilation appearances followed. 2014’s Finding the Floor was issued by Not Not Fun. 2018's 'Somewhere Else' was Profligate's first for Wharf Cat Records and was supported with U.S. touring and an appearance at SXSW 2018. The follow up, 'Too Numb to Know' will be released on 9/25.

Better Person - Your Smell

Mansions and Millions

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