Look, we know we throw a lot of new music at you. We also know that not everyone who comes to this site has the time to be as involved with or informed about the local scene as maybe they’d like to be. So for those casual readers who either can’t or have no interest in keeping up with the parade of artists we try to cover, who may not know the difference between Bitter and Biters, we have created our TRIPLE THREAT feature. The premise is simple: Every Friday our writers will put their heads together and come up with three tracks that grabbed our attention over that week. Then we tell you why the songs are great and worth listening to. That’s it. Maybe some weeks we’ll have a guest commentator come in and share their favorites, but the format will always remain the same: three songs, some words, and we out. Enjoy.
Credit: Chris Cella
Fantasy Guys – “Reveal Thy Deal”
From the EP, Cruisin’ Around Respectin’ Babes
Fantasy Guys are back and are once again exploring every possible avenue of smooth music. Their new EP Cruisin’ Around Respectin’ Babes finds the tropical trio charting a more sophisticated take on Caribbean jams than some of their early endeavors, and nowhere is that more evident than the new age masterpiece “Reveal Thy Deal.” Though the band has jettisoned their charming cartoon aesthetic, their sense of humor is still front and center, encased in the blue-eyed soul of Kenny Loggins, the ascendant energy of Enya, and the gloriously tacky guitar tones of Acoustic Alchemy. – Russell Rockwell
More Info
Web: fantasycometrue.net
Bandcamp: fantasyguys.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @partdolphin
Instagram: @fantasy.guys
SoundCloud: @fantasy-guys
DYVER – “ST.JON.”
From the standalone single
If music were oil and musicians the veins to tap, Terrence Smalls would never run dry. Throughout 2017, the producer and rapper better known as DYVER lent both beats and flow to a host of projects—a hypnotic odyssey with Yung Matthew, fresh blood and bars to the WAKE crew, the slick but incendiary CODEBLVCK album, and instrumental mixtapes full of wonky boom baps. Yet, even after all that oil, Smalls still has some drops left to burn. Enter “ST.JON.,” a steamy D’Angelo-esque tangent that knocks on theology, mortality, and the hazy code of ethics that separates the two. For most, this leisurely metro soul would lend to a lyrical cool-down, but DYVER cuts deep from the first line: “Woke up this morning, thought of the H bomb.” Smalls toys with both salvation and the soul with clever turns, yet never kills the funky vibe. No doubt, he’s mined an unexpected nugget of gold from his usual oil reserves. – Lee Adcock
More Info
Bandcamp: dyvermusic.bandcamp.com
Instagram: @69dyver69
Twitter: @DYVERMUSIC
Cosmic Trigger – “Ignorance is Bliss”
From the upcoming full length coming early 2018
As a key cog in local psych machines Visitors and the 10th Letter Ensemble, multi-instrumentalist Gage Gilmore has been content to lurk in the background and lose himself within those projects’ collaborative free-wheeling and improvisational grooves. As Cosmic Trigger, however, Gilmore gets his opportunity to stand in the forefront and serve as master and commander of his own interstellar vessel. “Ignorance is Bliss” is the first track from his upcoming first full length, and despite its insistent beats and somewhat methodical construction, the cut sallies forth with mischievous abandon. But while that ineluctable thump may reach out and snatch your attention, it’s Gilmore’s ability to stitch together a wide canvas of sounds–everything from mercurial drones and Matrix samples, to tactile noise and sweeping synth melodies—that make this trip worth taking. – Avery Shepherd
More Info
Bandcamp: gagegilmore.bandcamp.com
Facebook: @cosmictriggeratl
Instagram: @gageagainstthemach1n3