We miss live music and everything about it from the sweat drenched dancefloors to the collective energy pulsing from our favorite festivals. After all, music is the most emotive artform but the way we’ve had to engage with it during the pandemic leaves a lot to be desired, especially when gathering in groups is still keeping fans at home. We’re going on a year of mainly algorithmic music discovery but that hasn’t stopped new artists from bursting onto the scene or already working producers putting out new releases.
Last year, our friends dropped their Sisters of Sound compilation in conjunction with the legendary Berlin-based !K7 Records with support from dublab celebrating female forward and non-binary talent from around the world. Over fourteen tracks span the breadth and depth of global electronic dance music as imagined behind the controls of some of the best producers of the moment. The result is a celebration of international influences and genre-bending sounds and samples engineered to make you move.
A few of the acts local to us shared some of their stories behind the music. Look, have a listen and celebrate with us this International Women’s day with hope that we will hear these artists play live again someday soon.
C. Love
My name is C.Love. I am a sister, daughter, wife, creator, healer and seeker. I create music that explores life’s multiple dimensions and satisfies unknown desires simultaneously.
The 2020 SOS Music Compilation explores unity. The two founders gave us all the gift of collaboration while dance floors globally were forced into deep sleep.
My contribution to the compilation, ‘Possédée’, was inspired by my wife’s Amazigh heritage. While traveling in Marrakech in 2018 I was given the gift of these vocals by a local musician. Turning these vocals into a hypnotic-possessed-acid-track felt like the right thing to do.
Maddy
I’m a producer, DJ, SOS Music Co-Founder, and A&R for the iconic British indie label, Ninja Tune. I make melodic, acid infused house and downtempo, mixing vocals and deep melodies with strong rhythmic elements and arpeggiated synths.
SOS MUSIC is a LA based record label and music collective that’s dedicated to showcasing forward thinking electronic music from all corners of the globe with a focus on female and non-binary talent. Founded by myself and Tottie and launched last year, SOS Music just released a critically acclaimed, 14 track womxn charity compilation featuring some of the most exciting producers working in dance music today: Umfang, rRoxymore, LCY, Violet, Maral, Nightwave, Masha & C.Love amongst others.
It made top electronic albums of the year in both Bandcamp and Rough Trade end of year lists and garnered support from the likes of RA, Crack Mag, Mixmag, Vinyl Factory, Radio 1, BBC radio 6, DJ Mag, Inverted Audio and the Wire, with a ton of support from Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer and other DSPs to boot. Proceeds will be donated to three womxn focused charities The Downtown Women’s Center, Transgender Law Center & The Women’s Refugee Commission.
My track, ‘Obsesión Romanticå’ is a bit of a love letter to my European Roots which I’ve dearly missed during the pandemic. It’s definitely an escapist track. I wanted to emanate the feeling of watching the sunrise on a Mediterranean island after a night of getting sweaty in a club combining a deeper, more downtempo feeling through the melodies, with a repetitive, slightly aggressive drum line. Tottie makes magic with the intensity of the vocals and we joked that it became the soundtrack to a 4am orgasm in the Balearic Sea.
Maral
I see myself as more of a sound manipulator than a producer or DJ, so much of what I do comes from a deep love for the serendipitous moments of sound: How you could be walking down the street and hear someone playing a banging tune in their car and also someone else playing a tune in their yard and in those five seconds that they pass each other, they make something special and fleeting. I want to capture that feeling with my music and DJing.
You can hear in the SOS compilation how each producer has their own unique relationship to sound and how that plays into their tracks. The compilation does a great job of showing all the different worlds electronic music production can live in.
When I started working on my track for the compilation, I wanted to make my own version of techno since I knew a lot of tracks would be rooted in techno and house. It samples folk music from Iran and I wanted it to feel like a journey through the past and present. Usually, I let the samples lead the way but for this track I let the beat decide the vibe.
Masha
I am an independent radio and club DJ, a music maker and I throw parties with Surround and Dusk Presents. You can catch my upbeat dance sets every Friday from 12-2pm on dublab and my slowed down cosmic journeys monthly on NTS Radio. I make house music with analog machines and my sound has been described as Halloween Disco, Belgian New Beat-y and raw.
This track is my first release and it feels great to finally put my music out there. I’m forever thankful to SOS for approaching me to be a part of this dope comp. I love the message and respect all the artists involved.
I made ‘Doris Day’ in late January 2020 when I was DJing clubs and warehouses every weekend and life felt more fast paced. It’s made for losing yourself in the late night space. I started composing it on a difficult night when I went into the studio after a memorial and released a lot of energy into this.
Tottie
I’m a label co-founder, DJ, musician, director of events and special projects at non profit community radio station dublab. I’m obsessed with music discovery. I’m constantly digging for off the radar rhythms, dubs and melodies from far flung corners of the world, and one day I intend on jumping onto the production bandwagon. I just haven’t had my calling yet. Right now, I’m focusing on developing my skills as a vocalist and pianist and manipulating these instruments. I was incredibly lucky to be classically trained in piano and voice at an early age, all of which had a profound experience on the way I approach music exploration and I’m very focused on developing on my early musical foundations.
SOS Music Vol 1 really is a true reflection of the incredible female and non-binary artists that are producing music right now. As a community of music lovers, the label and this compilation specifically, was a way for us to continue to build community during one of the toughest years in the industry to-date. For me, music is a powerful tool that sparks immediate connections wherever you are in the world.
The lyrics written and performed in Spanish on ‘Obsesión Romantica’ was in part an “adios” to my European life. I spent seven years living in Barcelona, Spain, before moving to Los Angeles. Speaking and living life in another language is very powerful and I wanted to channel that energy in this track. Barcelona was also the city that immersed me into rave culture and made me understand the power of a dance floor so it felt good to reflect on that time. Maddy’s amazing production skills allowed for this wonderful acid infused track.
