Duke Dumont’s maturation into a full on star of indie dance music continues with new single “Hold On”. Featuring Rudimental collaborator MNEK (& “Need U” co-writer), “Hold On” walks a neat juxtaposition between the immediacy of the track’s club ready beats and bounce and the more sobering spiritual for the 2010’s vocal and instrumental stylings. “Hold On” is a most definite win for Duke Dumont.
Duke Dumont 
(Soundcloud)
Rating: 8.3
The very very talented UK up and comer Elli Ingram releases her debut “Sober” EP. A tantalizing (and we don’t use that word lightly) mix of current R&B and pop sensibilities w/ the powerhouse vocal quality and performance of the best and most well-lauded of the current wave female British singers; and, oh yeah, there’s this absolutely crazy re-work of Kendrick’s “Poetic Justice” that closes the EP and is our pick from the set.
Elli Ingram – Poetic Justice (Retrial) (Prod. Felix Joseph & Rudi Redz)Elli Ingram (Facebook)
Rating: 8.5
Lancashire UK’s soul pop home team Bondax. We’re going proceed now with this track by forgoing the requisite Disclosure comparison and introduce you straight to the track, which (and it should really not be a surprise) is very good indeed. We’re talking hit-you-in-the-heart-area R&B vocals, the slickest of slick bass lines & “feel good for summer” vibes; the typical (& typically well-fashioned) Bondax formula. A+’s all around.
Bondax (Facebook)
Rating 8.4
We were probably not alone in the music blogging game in scratching our heads at the notion that newcomers Lovelife were a partial extension of the once very well-hyped UK guitar band Viva Brother. That same band (or most of it) is now getting on well enough in their new digs as NYC-based 80’s dream-synth-poppers, Lovelife. We unlocked some of the band’s mystery during an interview before their recent Echo/Popshop West Presents show in L.A. We spoke briefly with producer/instrumentalist Ally Young and guitarist Samuel Jackson about their past, their new single with tastemakers Neon Gold, life on the road and more.
Lovelife 
(Soundcloud)
Necessary chill coming your way from LA based producers LOS GIRLS. Their debut release “One For Sloan” fuses dreamy synths and subterranean beat culture into an experimental serving of surreptitious electro pop. Keep an eye out for their debut EP July 16 on Plug Research and sample the cinematic vibes of “One For Sloan” below.
Los Girls 
(Plug Research)
Rating 8.3
NYC bros-in-DJ’ing Armand Van Helden and A-Trak a/k/a Duck Sauce a/k/a Goose Marmalade a/k/a Eagle Tapenade a/k/a The Ol’ Dirty Chinese Restaurant make a successful return to the $$$$ window w/ the playful kitsch of “It’s You”. Skip along to this one below.
Duck Sauce (Facebook)
Rating 8.3
Soulful London girls over dark hypnotic beats; haha, for lack of a better way of describing it that lane of music may be the one we’re digging the most at the moment. And while Abigail Wyles joins a relatively crowded genre, there is nothing here on “Mantra” that sounds tired or imitative; a very strong singular vocal performance and tune well complements Wyles’ collaborator Holly Simpson’s spare but well-suited & unique ambient-touched production. There’s also an undercurrent of jazz (that you really don’t hear in this style of music or really done well elsewhere) both in Wyles’ vocal and in the instrumental (particularly in the verses) that is especially interesting.
Abigail Wyles (Facebook)
Rating: 8.3
B3SCI are very pleased to world premiere the latest creation from L.A.-based production trio Captain Cuts; their remix for “Believer” from BK band American Authors. Team CC boost up the beats, inflate the original’s already strong hooks to oceansize and blast the track’s chorus into a interstellar hyperspace (at least that’s what we hear when listening to it). Peep game and get with B3’s premiere of Captain Cuts new “Believer” remix below.
American Authors (Facebook) (Purchase)
Captain Cuts (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.3
Welcome Philly R&B band Marian Hill to B3SCI. We’ve been spinning the brilliantly simple “Whisky” the entire week. Perhaps what’s most refreshing about “Whisky” and Marian Hill is there’s no “winking” or “hand waving” to the more blog friendly tropes of the current wave of R&B, “Whisky” doesn’t try to be anything more than what it is: a really really great song that also happens to be R&B. Very well done.
Marian Hill – WhiskyMarian Hill
: (Facebook)
Rating 8.3
Ah yes, Washed Out. The mellifluous Ernest Greene promised an update in sound for LP two (titled Paracosm) and while lead single “It Feels Alright” didn’t 100% grab us, second track “Don’t Give Up”, with it’s 70’s coke plate meets 2010’s synth-led isolation, most definitely does. Sample “Don’t Give Up” below and get psyched for Paracosm out August 13th on Sub Pop.
Washed Out 
: (Facebook)
Rating: 8.0
Not kiddin’ “Ocean Motion”, new from housewave act Just Kiddin, has on a little bit of a vibe. “Ocean Motion” is a pretty lush, classy little affair w/ beats that nicely straddle a neat subtlety (as not to go too far), while maintaining enough punch to get yr lady/boy moving in time.
Just Kiddin 
(Facebook) (Soundcloud)
Rating 8.2
Summer 2013 just called and is a little bummed w/ what y’all herbs have been calling the track of him/her. Not defeated, Mr. 2013 shot us back this glimmering new bit of uptempo synthpop from Aussie duo Olympics Ayres. The Summer 2013 rec’d “Magic” is excerpted from OA’s upcoming “Episode III” release due August 1st.
Olympic Ayres 
(Soundcloud)
Rating 8.2
