May 2020 - Monthly Round Up

As the second month in lockdown comes and goes, all the team here at 23rd Precinct want to express their huge love, appreciation and thanks to all those key workers who are continuing to keep us going during the pandemic.

We say fairwell to May but not before celebrating another month of amazing projects, collaborations and superb musical output from our songwriters.

The backend of April brought us some stellar releases, none more so that 'Casual' - Tom Hall, Nalestar feat. Emiah. We are overjoyed to see this track gaining support from curated playlists across the globe and has amassed 3/4 million streams in one short month! Well done to our writers Tom Hall, Emma Whyte & Stuart McInnes for writing this incredible track.

May brought us fantastic new music from our writer/producer/artist Ben Macklin who released 'Savour' feat. Hayley Roscoe under his Duett moniker early in the month. You can download the track here. Later in the month, we were treated to an incredible synth wave album from Ben under his Alpiine alias. 'Windows' is a nine-track mini masterpiece and you can listen to here.

There was a huge announcement from Last Night From Glasgow's imprint Past Night From Glasgow as they announced they were releasing re-masters of The Bluebell's famous album 'Sisters'. So pleased for our writers Robert Hodgens, Ken & David McCluskey as this classic album will be re-mastered, repackaged and reissued with new liner notes, bonus tracks and attain the love & respect it deserves! You can pre-order a limited run of vinyl here.

There was more exciting news in the world of our in-house record label First Run Records as the highly anticipated album 'Psychedelic Soup' by Barrie-James was released. Following on from the success of debut single 'Float', the album has been received with love and support from fans all around the world. You can order a limited 12" vinyl of the album through out First Run Records shop.

After a short hiatus, we welcomed the return of our Glasgow based dubstep and hard electronica producer TeKlo. 'GEDD!T' dropped mid way through the month and has already been included in Spotify's Friday Cratediggers playlist. Check out the mind crunching single here.

Our long running writer/producer/DJ John Kirk released new track 'Movements'. It was included in a fantastic Tech House compilation exclusive to Beatport and you can check out here.

Our dynamic writing duo Sarah-Jane Johnson and Sally Corlett have been hard at work continuing to write with each other remotely. The pair signed 'Surrender My Love', a collaboration with Hiast, to established dance label Open House Records. Keep you eyes & ears peeled for this release, it's a belter.

Techno and all round electronic aficionados Mark Sherry & David Forbes have a collaborative project Thick As Thieves. The pairs' characteristic pounding techno was exercised once again with 'Stronger/Brain Control' released on Mark's own label Techburst Records.

David Forbes was also involved in new music released from young emerging trance producer and writer Jardin Owens. Also signed to 23rd Precinct, Jardin's newest track 'Need You' has climbed the Beatport Trance Chart this month and you support by downloading here.

Similarly to April's round up, we were pleased to see more music from our writers Les Hemstock & Christ Jennings. Their latest creation 'Beautiful' feat. Jan Johnston and released via Azure Recordings.

Our writers Luke Hayes, Rhys Buckley & Fran Cosgrave known collectively as Futuristic Polar Bears released a new track featuring LUX. 'Faith' released on Protocol Recordings has been sitting in Music Week's highly acclaimed Cool Cuts Chart. Listen to this summer anthem here.

DJ, producer and label owner Dan McKie released remixes of his early 2020 bop 'Dance' on his imprint 1980 Recordings. 'Dance' was co-written by 23rd Precinct's Paul Browne so we are buzzing at these new remixes and the new life they breathe into the track.

Frank Farrell released an incredible meditative album under the alias Kat Chu. The 10 track calming body of works is a truly mindful masterpiece. The perfect accompaniment to taking some time out from the craziness of the world. Listen to 'Affirmations' here.

The final Friday of the month brought us an abundance of new releases; Lovestruck - Covenants feat. River (Gemstone Records) which was co-written and co-produced by 23rd's Alan La Porte. Ryan Sewell's co-writing and vocal skills were on show once more to excellent effect with his collaboration with Dilby on 'We Can Change' (Altra Moda). The long awaited album from our writer Paul McGeechan was unleashed into the world. 'Earthbound' under Paul's Starless alias features an array of superlative duets with the likes of Emma Pollock, Julie Fowlis and Steven Lindsay to name a few. The album which is released on Last Night From Glasgow is available on CD & vinyl.

Aside from all the fantastic releases this month, we're pleased to announce we've had great success with some remote co-writing sessions. Our writers Calum Ingram & Frank Farrell teamed up with London's Joe Killington. The trio have been hard at work creating a new track which can be pitched to management companies and labels for spots. In addition to this, our writer/cellist Calum also featured in an all star cast of 'Imagine', a cover of the Lennon great. You can watch the full video here.

In the new world of live streams, we were pleased to see our writer, producer Mark Sherry included in the enviable lineup for Colours House Party. We learned that there is no party like a Colours House Party as Mark bashed out a memorable set as did Judge Jules, Illyus & Barrientos and GRUM.

We also tuned in just on time to see the legendary Louie Vega on Worldwide FM support for an upcoming release on OPOM Records. 'What In The World' is written by Raff Crolla, Daniel Rego, Sy Sez & Barrie Hayes, all of whom have signed to 23rd Precinct publishing for this track.

We also introduced our first Limbo live stream into the world - featuring David Forbes, Choopie, Phraktal, Cristobal & Jamiez, Kris Keegan and Steven MCreery. You can watch all the live streams back on our YouTube.

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