issue 20 - our roaring twenties

Chinese/Lunar New Year celebrations, a discospective, new discoveries and playlist additions, glorious line-in recordings and more

we’re officially in our (roaring) twenties! it’s a time for exploration, having a quarter-life crisis and questioning everything you know - let’s see how many of those we manage to tick off in the next ten issues of FRESH.

this issue is also jam-packed - please click to expand if you are reading from your email inbox!

恭喜發財! 新年快樂

happy Chinese/Lunar New Year, if you happen to be celebrating! we’re sending you lots of lai see and luck for the new year. at FRESH HQ, our fai chun (CNY decorations) and lai see (red packets) this year are all LINE friends themed:

which one is your favorite?

the FRESH five

short lists of five things, to kick the issue off

5 pieces from bling by wing that would make a great Valentine’s gift for yourself or your boo:

blingbywing

A post shared by ✨bling by wing✨ (@blingbywing)

1. the be my valentine necklace, $75 (pictured above) - go all out with your love with this bold red-themed piece.

2. the pearl kingdom necklace, $99 - ideal if you prefer wearing a more neutral color palette.

3. the iridescent waterfall earrings, $30 - adds a hint of sparkle and color to any look.

4. the moon rocks phone charm, $15 - one of our best-sellers, the perfect accessory to pair with a higher-than-average phone screentime.

5. the confetti party bling nails, $50 - for all the manicure lovers!

all our pieces are gender-neutral forever - we believe in wearing what you want, when you want to!

5 new playlist additions in ‘clam down comedown’ to vibe to:

1. Absent - SG Lewis: an echoing and understated track from SG Lewis’ debut EP, Shivers, that only recently caught my attention. more about SG coming up in just a second!

2. hello? - TURQUOISEDEATH: silky smooth lo-fi with vocal chops aplenty.

3. Need You - Jasper Tygner: another great downtempo, garage-inspired track from North London producer Jasper Tygner. plus, excellent cover art.

4. Be With U - Fort Romeau: if you’re a DJ Seinfeld enthusiast, you’ll be intimately familiar with the bittersweet quality that this 9-minute track exudes.

5. Back in My Soul (Encore) - Redeyes: for the soulful D&B lovers.

(i put this playlist on nearly every single night to wind down, and whenever the mood needs to feel mellow and relaxed. might just be my most reached-for and shuffled playlist over the last few years.)

FRESH: events and happenings

The Lewis Discospective

i had the pleasure of co-writing this feature piece on none other than SG Lewis, with the wonderful Brad Kyle of Front Row & Backstage, a fellow music publication here on Substack! inside you’ll find a thorough retrospective on SG’s musical career so far, lots of info tidbits to brush up on your SG trivia, personal track recommendations and anecdotes from myself. here’s a little snippet to wet your reading appetite:

Wing recalls her first SG impressions: If my memory serves me correctly, “All Night” was my very first introduction to SG Lewis’ music. This was back in (and around) 2015, a year where indie electronic was flourishing and abundant all around, following the influential releases of ODESZA’s In Return, and Porter Robinson’s debut album Worlds, the year prior in 2014. SG offered his own unique chilled-out, singer-songwriter spin on the genre, which landed him a spot on my to-watch musical radar from then on.

click through below to browse the whole piece!

Singer/Producer, SG Lewis, 28: Elton John, Dua Lipa, and Chic's Nile Rodgers are Paying Attention

FRESH: music

Let Me Know - LANY

Brad had a little to enlighten me about SG Lewis too - i did a double take when reading that he had collaborated with one of my favorite bands LANY (among a plethora of other star-studded artists), and rushed to find which track they had collaborated on. it so happened to be Let Me Know, a severely underrated track off Malibu Nights, one of the best albums for post-breakup listening - and one i have a very soft spot for.

on re-listen, you can instantly recognize SG’s magic touch on the track. that swaying intro harkens straight back to some of SG’s own tracks, like Rest, released not long after Let Me Know.

FRESH: new music

Leave Me Like This - Skrillex, Bobby Raps

the Godfather of modern electronic has been on fire lately - Leave Me Like This marks Skrillex’s third release of the year, on the tails of PinkPantheress collaboration Way Back, and the mighty Rumble. try getting that incredibly catchy vocal hook out of your head this week - quite impossible.

keen-eared listeners will recognize this track as a previously played ID, notably from the recent run of London shows he played with Fred Again.. and Four Tet, that we featured last issue! this track was one ID that pulled my heartstrings and one i gravitated towards instantly - it feels like an unexpected treat that this particular one is already released.

on the interwebs earlier this week, Skrillex candidly opened up about his personal struggles over the past years, in a celebration Twitter thread of sorts for his 35th birthday:

Skrillex @Skrillex

For the first time in 4-5 years I’ve found a new sense of peace. It took so much work and sacrifice to get here.

it feels humbling whenever larger-than-life figures, celebrities and whoever else we idolize share details about their ‘losses’, instead of ‘wins’, per se. no matter who we are, fame or fortune, the same very human things happen to all of us - life, death, grief, healing. it takes courage to be vulnerable on social media of all places; this feels like a great example and step in the right direction towards (further) normalizing showing up as our authentic selves without fear if we wish to, both online and offline.

more new tracks for you to give a spin this week:

• 1992 (Sped Up Extended Mix) - No_4mat: i’ve been a little out the loop with No_4mat’s music since the original 1992 was released back in 2018 - i was pleasantly surprised to find it blew up in the time since then, racking up close to a whopping ten million plays on Spotify! not bad for a lo-fi techno track. to celebrate, No_4mat released this smashing sped up version, along with a moody slowed and reverb version.

• Feels Like Home - ALPHA 9: FRESH’s pick off ALPHA 9’s debut album (after over a decade, finally!) on Anjunabeats, New Horizons. you may also know Artem as his main alias, ARTY. this track truly Feels Like the Russian artist going back Home to his classic trance roots.

• Step By Step (Axel Boman’s In The Air Version Extended Mix) - Braxe + Falcon, Panda Bear: taken from the upcoming Step By Step remix package, Swede Axel Boman puts a wonderfully smooth spin on the original, channeling the classic French Touch sound that Alan Braxe and DJ Falcon themselves helped to shape. if Step By Step was a release circa 2002, not one from 2022, it would surely sound exactly like this.

• Alyu - Estiva: a little fun track with clever wordplay from progressive producer Estiva.

FRESH: live sets

Virtual Self B2B G Jones @ Second Sky 2022

for a (non-official) video recording of the set, head here

once again, i am breaking my own rule of never re-listening to sets i’ve already heard in person. in my defense, this is yet another set worth breaking that rule for. thanks to Diplo’s Revolution Radio on Sirius XM, we now have crisp line-in recording of Virtual Self and G Jones’ back to back set from Second Sky Music Festival, held last October.

the stacked setlist is aplenty with exclusive edits of both gentlemen’s tracks from each of their solo discographies - a.i.ngel (Become God) and Dark Artifact were perhaps destined to be mashed up together, and G Jones’ Acid Mix of Particle Arts is just exquisite. hearing God Rays live again was also such a treat.

the set concludes in great flourish with quite an eyeful and earful - of the still unreleased Virtual Self ID, Dry Your Eyes (from this iconic set back in 2019), and G Jones’ That Look In Your Eye.

pass the Kleenex around, everyone

for merch hoarders aficionados like myself, the Virtual Self x G Jones Crewneck was a no brainer. it happens to be one of the softest sweatshirts i own, i treasure mine dearly.

wingograph

A post shared by wing (@wingograph)

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wishing you only this energy to tide you through the lunar new year - let’s make this one count!

love you back,

wing

alright, over to you now - hit up the comments section, or reply to this email with your thoughts! if you enjoy a little prompting:

• how are you celebrating Chinese/Lunar New Year, if at all?

• what routines do you have to wind down at night before you sleep?

• what is your favorite era or track from SG Lewis, and why?

• how comfortable do you feel about showing your authentic self to others, especially in online spaces? how much of ourselves should we be showing online? how does it make you feel when you see others showing vulnerability and deeper layers of themselves?

• which merch item would you never, ever part with? what’s the story behind you acquiring it?

head over to freshbywing.com to catch up on past issues of FRESH, and find us on instagram!