What follows is an excerpt from the show BeatFreak Season Awards, presented by Nassima on Holovision Prime, the number one provider of augmented reality contents:
“Get ready, get safe, and sit down tight as your always faithful Nassima walks you down the great hits and sounds for this year. Well, some of our winners were sure things but we’ve got a few novelties coming so there may be some surprises down the line. We’ll start by announcing our top sales for this month, and then announce our BeatFreak’s spring awards for Best Artist, Best Album, Best Alternative Album – for the handful of you who follow the trends –, Best Look, and this season’s Revelation Album and Artist.I have to tell you that some of my favourite singers are here, we have an excellent selection of talent, and I’ll walk you through our top-fourteen and offer you some personal listening tips from your Nassima. So, without further ado, here we are, BeatFreak’s top ten
Number One: Vorace. Last season’s number one is this season’s number one. All of you know this French singer, of course. And I do mean ALL of you, all around the planet. The true Megastar, there are no surprises here. What’s my listening tip for Vorace? Well, just about anything she has published!
Number Two: Duke Fray. Everyone’s, and particularly Transzendenz’s – his editors – favourite Neocrooner, and still taking his Straight Talker tour to just about anywhere he can play at. Meanwhile we’ll keep buying his works, waiting for the next title, Space Cowboy, coming out just after the tour’s end. Can he keep the second place until then? Well, you’ll have to ask the two ladies that follow…
Number Three: Ka’athryn. Dub Revival at its best, with Transzendenz’s diva darling. I’ll lift the curtains a bit and tell you the Russian-born singer is the author of this season’s Best Album, climbing from last season’s number four after this New Year’s memorable concert in Paris. My listening tip won’t be the obvious latest release, as I know you’ll all be listening to it by now, but I’ll suggest her previous work, Body and Dreams, as one of my personal favourites.
Number Four: Andalusia. Last season’s number three, and Moondog’s Media counterpart to Ka’athryn, lost her third place mainly because she hasn’t published any new works since last year. But those boys at Moondog will be quickly preparing a response to Ka’athryn’s New Year extravaganza, if I know them at all; and trust your Nassima, I do know them! While Transzendenz capitalized on the New Year, Moondog’s marketing boys are probably waiting for the mid-summer season to bring out their star’s new work. Listening tips for now? Pick up an oldie, Screaming Murmurs. Not quite as charismatic and flamboyant as the extravagant and socially energetic Ka’athryn, Andalusia has enjoyed a longer and very steady career with a solid and mature body of work. My opinion? Andalusia is more visual, less musical, more dreamlike, and less physical. Who’s better? Why choose? Enjoy both!
Number Five: Revolution Starting. Another Transzendenz winner bet, the alternative and always socially pertinent – guess what? The average Joe doesn’t seem to care about politics… – Byelorussians of whom we still remember the major hit of two years ago No Time for Goodbyes. Well, it seems us girls have the top five covered with four out of five places… Let’s see what the rest of the charts bring us.
Number Six: Mute Crew. From the Asian Dub Revival music scene comes Mute Crew with their acid-styled sounds. Check out Electric Orgasm, released early this year, hitting our charts hard.
Number Seven: Malena y el Río de la Plata. The Uruguayan stars and their unique Electronic Candombe style are hitting hard not only in South America, but everywhere else, as their place on our tops indicates.
Number Eight: Dual Beat. The standard-bearers of Marrakesh Dub Revival have enjoyed a long, steady career, spreading the sounds and rhythms of Northern Africa throughout the globe, and are quoted as a source of inspiration by several influential figures in the music scene. Check out their latest album, Afrofuturistic, from last year, still holding on to the top ten.
Number Nine: The Electro-Acoustic London Orchestra. The classically devoted London based orchestra maintains their seventh place on our charts with their long running series of the classics recorded from live performances in selected worldwide concert halls. My listening tip will be their rendition of Mozart’s Requiem played in St Stephen’s Basilica, in Budapest. That is, if you’re into that kind of ancient stuff…
Number Ten: Winston Magnus Seven. The retro-jazz group Winston Magnus Seven, a permanent fixture on our charts, coming down from last season’s number nine. Always faithful to their improvisational and acoustical style, this jazz septet is the style’s current reference. Watch out for their latest album, the smooth and velvety Night Moods.
And to finish off this edition of BeatFreak, the much anticipated Season Awards:
Best Artist: (who else?) Vorace!
Best Album: Follow into Infinity, by Ka’athryn. The follow up to Body and Dreams, it has much less body and much more dreams. It’s a walk into the wholeness, led by the diva’s hand.
Best new revelation: Oazys. This girl is making it big into the media scene this year and to comment our revelation award we got a statement from our number one dub revivalist, Ka’athryn, about the new starlet:“Good choice, very intense dub! With some more hard work she’ll start to bring out some really good stuff. Still needs to go deeper into her soul though, embrace it without fear… I mean, a pretty face is a pretty face, but art is much more than that. She’s had great media coverage, especially because of that movie starring next to Leon MacArthur – who’s a dear by the way, and I hope the two hit it off! But the future is a building we add to day by day, isn’t it? So we’ll wait and see.”
Best Look: Véronique Lune. We, at BeatFreak, came to a tough choice between Vorace, Ka’athryn and Véronique Lune, but the latter had to get the award as her look is really an intricate part of her art and she weaves herself physically as much as musically. That’s it for now, friends!”
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