We Speak Music

NJ’s own Zach Kyle drops new single/new album

Published

2 years ago

October 10, 2024

Emcee Zach Kyle brings it back with the release of his new single “Nostalgia.” The young NY transplant takes us on a dream-like train-of-thought narrative coupled with a shifting soundscape (produced by Ray Janes) of ghostly keys and bombastic drums.

Taken from the #SWAG LP (Out on Oct 10^th) Kyle said of the project “the concept of the album is me trying to find a balance between my current life in New York City versus my upbringing in suburban New Jersey. The first few tracks are more ignorant and turnt because I feel that’s who I turn into when I hit the city; A more “swagged out” version of myself, whereas my life in Jersey feels a lot more ‘real.’

Speaking on the track he added “‘Nostalgia’ serves as a turning point in the album, where the music starts to become more personal and representative of my Jersey life. Throughout this track, I’m using more obscure, yet deeply personal imagery to represent the beginning of me opening up to the listener. There’s a lot of references throughout the track to things that are nostalgic to me, such as trips to the Hamptons with my friends, memories with girls, but the main point of nostalgia being touched on is summer camp. Growing up as one of the only black kids in my very white and very suburban town, summer camp was the first place I felt in my life I was truly free to express myself without any judgement and be accepted with open arms. I wanted to make a song that felt like that feeling of being there and being young and energetic and excited to start your day.”

Though barely out of his teens, Zach Kyle has extensive first-hand history with hip-hop partly due to proximity to his father, DJ Jay-Ef whose creative friends include Masta Ace, Wordsworth & Planet Asia. Over the past few years Kyle has been prolific releasing two previous albums, Autonomy and Shangri-La as well as several EP’s and numerous singles.

More Info: https://www.instagram.com/zachkyle/

We Speak Music

Michele Ducci teases new album with uplifting indie single ‘Woman Like You’

Published

1 day ago

April 17, 2026

Don Reed

Michele Ducci has unveiled the second single, ‘Woman Like You’, from his forthcoming album and animated film ‘Snail in the Clouds’.

‘Woman Like You’ pairs bright distorted electric guitar with an electronic drumbeat, adding in Ducci’s soulful vocals and a catchy uplifting chorus with Letizia Mandoleisi’s sweet vocal harmonies. A vintage organ pedalboard operated by Ducci simultaneously generates chords, bass and rhythm, like a one-man band. Shane Kennedy (Girl in the Year Above) joins in on guitar. Simon Milner (Is Tropical, Ysing) recorded and produced the track at his 4am Studios in London.

The album and film tell the story of a planet called ‘Snail’, inhabited by hybrids – primarily a mixture between scorpions, snails and humans – who lead a life according to the style of Pythagoras, devoted to music. There is also a cloud man named Agostos, a writer of musical operettas, who together with a talking smoke machine called Doctor Subtilis, begins to kill all hybrids, targeting in particular the hybrid musician Diodoros and his band, in an effort to steal the ark of melodies, an ancient ship that allows the whole planet to survive with music and joy.

The video for the single, created and animated by Ducci and Mandoleisi, delves further into the realm of planet ‘Snail’:

Says Ducci, “The ark of melodies, after various attempts, finally starts to work and fly in the planet Snail, while the shady Doc. Sub. and Agostos, with their platoon of soldiers made of foggy smoke, spy the miracle, planning to steal the ark for their evil and tyrannical purposes.”

About the track, Michele says, “I wrote this song for my love Letizia. Love seen from the mind is the sound we make. Sound is the love of matter.

We used a Technics synthesizer organ from a flea market. I tried to find a mood that was right for the song and I started using the bass of the pedal board together with the synth and the drums, and it was magical to hear the song reveal itself all coming from a single instrument. Leti was singing with me and we recorded everything live in one shot. Then we made Shane do the guitar flight, as if he came out of the window. The idea was to maintain disproportions, guitar thrust and synth drum thinness a la Haroumi Hosono, so as to create an estrangement, but naturally: it’s about how I listen, with close up something that captures me in its nuance as element of a larger orchestra somewhere. I’m glad we decided in the studio with Simon to use the layers of arrangement as the close-ups in the cinema; they look like strange enlargements that perch on parts of a mutated orchestra. I’m happy to come back with this love song at a time when everything seems to opt, even my labor in managing the flows of selfishness that have poured out on me while doing this album, for the sound of war. I’m here happy to be able to say that the sound of love always wins as did for me. Snail in the clouds is one of the most important works in my life and I am glad to start from pure love for this album that is my son.”

The album and full-length film will be released on the 5^th of June on Monotreme Records.

Michele and Letizia’s previous musical short film, ‘The Great Book of Nature’, is an official selection for the 2026 Venice Shorts Film Festival.