Melanie Martinez's creative drive and talents have always distinguished her from other musicians. After releasing her platinum-certified 2015 debut album, Cry Baby—which reached No. 1 on Billboard's alternative albums chart and has amassed over two billion streams worldwide —she conceived and directed a video for each song on the album. These mini-movies traced the traumas and insecurities experienced by the album's character, Cry Baby.
 
Melanie’s sophomore album and film, K-12, is another ambitious triumph. K-12's music is a vibrant and singular melting pot of low-key hip-hop, soulful pop and indie-leaning electro. K-12's universe is an expansion of the one introduced in Cry Baby. Using lyrics rich with metaphor, songs address the struggle to find a place to belong—including within friendships, the physical world and romantically—even when fitting into society feels like an uphill battle.
 
To accompany the album, Martinez wrote and directed a 90-minute movie (also called K-12) that incorporates the album's music and mirrors the themes and characters introduced. Filmed on location in Budapest, Hungary, the movie focuses on Cry Baby (portrayed by Martinez) and a class of students who find themselves trapped in a horror house-like residential school. As they experience the usual grade school rites of passage—a lunch room food fight, the embarrassment of gym class, a romance with nefarious intentions, courses taught by checked-out teachers— they have to figure out a way to escape.

LIFE THRU NEW LENS
an EP by MiLES.
out now

I'm a businessman that creates art for consumption.

Kali Phoenix Lp , "Voices", released Summer2016. Limited vinyl and digital.
All tracks co-written with Kali Phoenix and produced by Hundred Strong.

Bandcamp put "Voices" in their top 100 lp's of 2016 and said-

On Voices, Kali Phoenix stretches between past and present, presenting a distinctive blend of neo-soul that explores everything from budding romance to self-liberation and personal growth. She gives a clear nod to ’90s-era R&B (En Vogue, Erykah Badu) and ’70s-era soul (The Supremes, Stevie Wonder) without taking too much from either.


Voices is a collaboration with the Bristol producer Hundred Strong, who floats Phoenix’s voice over a smoky, down-tempo instrumental on the coy “What’s Your Poison,” and lifts it up over a dawdling bass line and rippling synths on the bright-eyed “Bolt From The Blue.” “Willow” cribs its first lyric, “Something wicked this way comes,” from Macbeth, and the song that follows makes good on that promise, with Phoenix singing of devils, angels, and full moons over dark, thumping percussion.

Hundred Strong’s production provides richly-detailed set dressing, but it’s Phoenix who is the star. On “So Sweetly,” she leans in to free-form vocal runs, stretching her melody deliriously over heavy kick-drum and handclaps. On “No Mistakin’,” which is draped in sitar, she sings of becoming one with a new lover: “Ignite what you find in me, burning me, take it all.” And on “Good Man,” she trips her voice up to a high register, extolling her lover’s virtues over a slow-rolling organ and bassline.

Throughout, Phoenix exudes confidence and poise. Voices, with its dusky production, may borrow from the past, but Phoenix’s eyes are firmly set on the future.

—Nick Williams

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- spillage village records

A soft-spoken but intricate lyricist with a cocky side 

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