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Ross Learmonth’s ‘Opposites’ Is a Catchy Love Letter to the Beautiful Mess of Relationships

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If you’ve ever fallen for someone totally different from you—and somehow it just works—then Ross Learmonth’s new single “Opposites” will hit you right in the feels. The Johannesburg-born artist, best known as the former frontman of Prime Circle, is in full solo stride, and this latest release is as catchy as it is heartfelt.

“Opposites” has that special kind of spark: it’s playful, emotional, and seriously addictive. Think Hozier meets Imagine Dragons, with a touch of that raw storytelling vibe that makes Jeremy Loops and Matthew Mole so beloved. It’s easy to sing along to, but the lyrics will sneak up on you and make you think.

Inspired by his parents’ love story and his own romantic rollercoasters, Ross dives into the complexities of how different personalities can actually bring out the best (and sometimes worst) in each other. “It’s not always the case, but sometimes, opposites attract—and it’s magical,” he says. Honestly? Relatable.

The way the track came together is also kinda beautiful. Ross describes the song like it was just floating in the air, waiting to be caught. “It was in the room, and it wanted to be written,” he says, crediting his engineer Mark Beiling for helping him lock it down in the moment. Shoutout to the dream team, Rusti Rossouw and Tristan Carmichael (working from the UK!), who helped polish this one into the radio hit it’s becoming.

Speaking of which, “Opposites” has already been charting across some of South Africa’s top stations and made it onto big Apple Music playlists. And if you’ve been lucky enough to catch Ross live lately—maybe at Kirstenbosch or even opening for The Goo Goo Dolls (yes, those Goo Goo Dolls!)—you’ll know just how electric this track feels on stage.

Ross has a string of live dates this April and May, with a stop in Cyprus later this year (big moves!). And there’s more to come: a moodier single is dropping in May, followed by a full album either later this year or early next.

For now, though, “Opposites” is the perfect reminder that love is weird, wild, and worth it—even if it doesn’t make perfect sense on paper.

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

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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 5th 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.

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