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Echoes of Resilience: Ren’s ‘Sick Boi’ and the Enduring Allure of Audio Tapes
November 16, 2023 in Music

Discover the raw artistry of Ren's 'Sick Boi' in our latest RIOT journal entry. Dive into the world of audio tape revival and experience how this Welsh rapper's personal narrative is driving a resurgence of musical tangibility.

Video of the Day: Ásgeir – Unbound
March 9, 2017 in Music, Featured

“Unbound” by Ásgeir has been doing the rounds at Riot HQ for quite a few weeks now – giving it enough staying power for us to want to share with the rest of the world.  A glitchy, mellow and futuristic sounding song with absolutely stunning falsetto vocals that simply melt in your mouth, “Unbound” is the perfect level of eclectic weirdness that we adore. The beautifully shot and unique video deals in an unknown virtual reality world, where the subjects are able to express their deepest and darkest desires, through a futuristic virtual reality lens.  Throughout the film we watch multiple storylines intertwine, hooking us in right from the beginning until the last note rings out. We’ve been following Ásgeir and his work for many years – it just keeps getting better and better.  We advise everyone that loves this go back and check out more of Ásgeir’s work as it is sure to cleanse your musical palette. Click play and enjoy the magic.

Song / Video of the Day: Wennink – Dissolve
February 18, 2017 in Music

“Dissolve” has been haunting me for a few weeks now.  Every time that sombre piano hits after the initial glitch, I find my mood instantly resets. I give sole focus to the song every single time.  I mean hell, “Dissolve” made me get on here and write this, that’s the power within it. It’s stunning, clever, thought provoking and pulls you into another dimension, where only you and the song exist for a moment. “Dissolve” makes me reflect on me and my day, rather than focusing on anyone else or even the song itself (and the intricacies contained within it) – it’s happy to just take me on a journey.  So my day huh? Today, I got the Santa Cruz blue hand with the mouth inside it tattooed on me and it looks rad, I worked all day (still am) and I’m currently waiting on the second burrito from Essex Taco in the Lower East Side on busy Friday night, within one hour, because it was that divine – I also just got called to check I actually wanted the second burrito!  It’s the first time Seamless and I have done express re-order and it’s dangerous. I was going to just put “Dissolve” up as […]

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Song / Video of the Day: “Half Below” by TEPR
October 12, 2016 in Music, Film

We’re always on the look out for a good track to work too. If you get the right song, where you just can’t help but jive with it, then you’re golden. You’re inspired, your ass is moving back and forth in the seat – you’re just generally far more happy with your current situation because of that song. Well “Half Below” by TEPR is our latest “song to work to” gem that we discovered and just can’t get enough of. We were so inspired in fact that we also put together some of our own imagery inspired by listening to the song on loop. We recommend you listen to the song a bunch of times before actually moving on to the video at all. Fall in love with the song first and the video gives you this awesome addition to something you weren’t sure could get better. The song version is 5:55 in length, whereas the video version is just a minuscule 2:14 – although it packs a massive punch in that short time with some fantastic inspiring visuals that are unique, well done and funny (our favorite being the skull kitting himself with his bones as if he is […]

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The Greatest Playlist Of All Time #1 Q3 2016
September 28, 2016 in Music, Featured

In case you haven’t noticed, at RIOT we absolutely adore music – in case our amazing sister site AltSounds didn’t make you already realize this! It’s our favorite medium for art, no other art form can place you back to a time in your life where you can fully picture and see a whole scene in your head, simply thanks to a certain song that brings it all flooding back. As such, we’re listening to music almost all of the time; in the background as we work, while we walk, skate, cycle, drive, party. Of the thousands of songs we listen to every single month, there are some that stand out from the crowd. The ones that make you skip back instantly and listen again and again and again like a drug habit you can’t kick. These best of the bunch songs are rare though, sometimes very rare with only one coming to us over a two week period, other weeks there might be a few. At the start of July we decided to start putting together a playlist every quarter aptly titled “The Greatest Playlist Of All Time” because, well, it is! We decided on doing one a quarter […]

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Song Of The Day: Kate Tempest – Europe Is Lost
September 13, 2016 in Music, Featured

“Europe is Lost” is Kate Tempest’s protest to the world’s current state of affairs through her lens. It’s an instant hook for anyone listening, with hats tipping towards Cypress Hill in the beat, while Kate spits rhymes with absolute style and lyrical prowess driven by her fantastic British accent. She paints a vivid picture of her world, her take on immigration, the police, selfie culture, life on the weekend in her hometown and many other relevant topics. Her rhymes are relentless and, while she focuses on her close locale, she discusses the bigger picture of the world. “Europe is Lost” challenges a plethora of issues which we’re always a fan of, whether we agree with the content or not (the immigrant / patriotism mentions for example). We’d rather have someone state their thoughts and opinions freely, than suffer the blatant censorship we see all around us. A challenging one for sure, but well worth giving it time.

Song Of The Day: M83 – Do It, Try It
September 7, 2016 in Music

This is a perfectly odd song. It begins with a weird chant that keeps telling you to “Do It” and “Try It” over a very cool 90s sounding piano straight out of the Euro Dance era. After a brief verse the chorus drops perfectly and turns into some molly filled warehouse rave anthem before switching to a sweeney synth solo, that follows with the most fun and bounciest bass sound we have potentially ever heard! We honesty don’t know how M83 keeps creating such amazing movie inspired musical masterpieces. You can literally put their music under any edit and it will look better because of it! We also decided to embed the awesomely weird animated talking dog head version M83 has on his Youtube that was created by blør because, well, who doesn’t like a singing dog head in space?

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Song Of The Day: E1sbar – Televisual
September 3, 2016 in Music

E1sbar is completely new to us but, if “Televisual” is anything to go by, I have a feeling we’re going to be huge fans of everything they do. “Televisual” totally surprised us. When that first chorus hits around the 1 minute mark we were completely blown away and hooked, it’s probably one of the coolest transitory changes we’ve heard in a while, completely altering the vibe of the song, getting your whole body grooving instead of the verse’s “I’m in a dream” feel. E1sbar’s vocal tone is very dreamy and beautiful with the echo, reverb and delays playing off each other perfectly leading you into a trance and then with a weird synth sound you’re back into that groovy chorus and back in the moment. It’s a very cool journey and a must to listen to when you are creating something that needs a bit of a split personality vibe.

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Song Of The Day: Kele feat. Yasmin – First Impressions
September 2, 2016 in Music

Everyone already knows Kele Okereke. He is the front man from the very rad and successful British indie band Bloc Party. Now “indie band” doesn’t really do Bloc Party justice but it easily allows the people that like putting things in boxes know roughly where they stand if you haven’t heard of them already. If you haven’t, where have you been hiding? Under a rock? LOLZ. Kele’s been releasing solo work since 2010 and it showcases a completely different side to his personality, being more dance based with no guitars in sight. It’s a refreshing change for his fans we’ve been huge fans since his first release “The Boxer.” His sound has grown since then though and “First Impressions,” taken of his latest album “Trick” shows a very mature and calculated version of Kele, with the smooth backing track sounds, nods to 2000’s British Garage like The Artful Dodger and the perfect use of male and female vocals both together and as individual entities – one of our favorite moments in the song is when Yasmin first comes in on her own and offers her side of the story the song is telling. If you have a repetitious task to […]

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Song Of The Day: Maribou State feat. Pedestrian – The Clown
September 1, 2016 in Music

We take a lot of inspiration from music. We probably have music on in the background as we work 80% of the time. As part of our daily ritual we also curate the best new music through our other website AltSounds.com where only the greatest songs or music videos will make it ensuring you can be comfortable just visiting the AltSounds site and letting it do the rest for you! Amongst an already great bunch of songs there are some that stand out as truly exceptional. These are the songs that we will feature here as and when they occur. The exceptional ones are the songs that you just can’t get past. By the end, you click back and listen again and again and again. Our first installation of this feature is “The Clown” by Maribou State, featuring Pedestrian and released on Counter Records. From the piano sound, through the mellow vocal tones to the after hours vibed beat and cool backwards strings at the end, “The Clown” literally has everything you could possibly want out of a song. Our true love for this song became apparent while driving, top-down through Hollywood. The weather was glorious and “The Clown” proved […]

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