Welcome to week #6 of the Steel Orca Songs of the Week.

Absolute banger💥 of a playlist this week. Song for song, this is, in my opinion, the strongest batch of music I’ve presented to date. I honestly have had this on repeat 🔁 all week and can’t get enough of it. I’m pretty confident anyone listening will feel the same, but let me know in the comments 🗣️.

On a more personal note, I hope everyone’s week is going well. As noted on the last post, I’m going to be making a significant effort to drop these consistently at the same time every week, so that will be tentatively scheduled for Fridays at 2 pm Eastern Standard Time, barring unforeseen complications. I’ve been managing to get these out consistently on Fridays thus far, it’s just the specific timing that’s been a challenge. We’ll see what kind of streak I can get going.

Finally, a couple of small changes you’ll be noticing moving forward:

1. I have some help coming with photography📸 and Instagram moving forward (I am not great at photography). If anyone has any questions about any of the pictures (or would like to submit some to be included in a future post), you can email photography@steelorca.io.

2. I purchased a new domain - we’re now at steelorca.io (seemingly obvious if you made it here) and are now indexed on Google 👨‍💻(which is surprisingly challenging to make happen for Substack newsletters).

3. I am going to be making Youtube Music playlists moving forward for everyone who uses that service instead of Spotify. I’ve started with this week’s playlist but will be adding the old lists and the ongoing Admin Login playlist later on.

Now, on to the music…

Playlist Breakdown

Here are the songs for the week of October 28, 2022.

Youtube Music ▶️: Songs of the Week #6 - Steel Orca

Again, this playlist is hot fire. I’m going to keep any feelings on the music brief as I think it speaks for itself. That being said, week to week, I am basically digging for audio gold, and I feel like I hit it this week. I haven’t been this excited about a post since I started writing 6 weeks ago 🥳.

As you’re listening to this, first of all, turn the volume up 🔊. Second, if you’re a young hip person who’s heard all this music before, remember that this is who is writing these posts.

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Subfer (featuring Chæ) - Signs

First up is Subfer featuring Chæ (which I assumed is pronounced like this, but I don’t actually know). I’m always amazed when someone who isn’t Prince (RIP) decides to name themselves something that’s impossible to look up on the internet.

This song came out February, 2019. Chæ sings, and she’s good, but this is more of a breathy atmospheric heavily edited vocal performance compared to someone like Angel Taylor on some of her performances, for example. The point is that this song needs to be considered holistically (with the volume turned up ⬆️) as an overall audio experience. It’s the production/orchestration where the song really shines.

I would describe this song as “punchy”. I can’t remember another song where the kick drum sounded like this. My favorite (maybe I should just say the best?) part of the song is from 2:20 → 2:55.

Vincent Antone - Love on Layaway

First of all, I feel like everyone of a certain age understands how impactful Rich Boy’s Throw Some D’s was at the time and apparently continues to be. I listened to the original when it came out, I’ve listened to countless remixes of it since then, and in 2022 (almost 2023) it continues to be relevant. Unfortunately, Rich Boy has found himself in some legal trouble recently.

That being said, this song isn’t just a remix of Throw Some D’s, but effectively a piano-driven electro-funk track that Rich Boy sings/raps the lyrics on. I would imagine that there will be a number of people rolling around in G wagons blasting this song next summer.

From his website (which is beautiful by the way):

Vincent Antone (full name Vincent Antone Seidl) is an American producer and recording artist based in Austin, TX. He is a multi instrumentalist; playing guitar for over 20 years, Drums for 15, and Piano and Bass for 10. He has produced music for over 8 years now and has found a passion for combining elements of Dance music with all sorts of genres. His style runs from Future Funk, Hip Hop, Future Bass, House, Trap, and everything in between. His music is boundless, you can expect the unexpected, and because of this, there is something for everyone.

Claude Von Stroke (featuring Barry Drift) - I’m Solo

Ok so this is me when I listen to this song.

I love Claude VonStroke. His music is awesome, and he’s funny and self-deprecating. The tagline of his current tour is “Your Dad Plays Great Music” 🧔.

This song ended up being a bit of a pandemic anthem given that it came out April 3, 2020. Barry Drift does vocals on this song but doesn’t seem to have much of a presence beyond his relationship with VonStroke on this song in particular.

John Summit - Deep End (SIDEPIECE Remix)

Another driving house🏠 tune. I was on a bit of a house vibe this past weekend when I was cleaning my garage. This song stays in the regular rotation. I feel like you can’t really go wrong with this one.

Not much else to say about it as this song is pretty subtle, but perfectly done. I don’t know much about John Summit or SIDEPIECE (haven’t listened to much of either of their music other than this), but I can tell I like them. At the time of writing, both are currently on tour.

Song of the Week 🙌🎵

YAKZ, Benzmixer - Fly so High

Ok so this song is sort of the black sheep of this playlist (in terms of overall sound), and is sort of also the creepy selection (based on the cover art 💀) in honour of this coming out on Halloween 🎃 weekend. But it’s also my favourite song on this list.

At this point of the playlist your volume should basically be turned all the way up 🔊.

My favourite part of this song is basically the “chorus”, where it gets progressively more intense (e.g. from 0:46 → 2:00). The transitions that happen at ~1:32 and ~3:02, in particular, are the bomb 💣💥🤯.

From Yakz website:

David Mitori, better known as the Los Angeles-based producer Yakz, has been making his name hard to ignore. With roots in Metal as a vocalist for several years, Yakz found his place in the underground Dubstep and Riddim scene where his focus on gritty, rhythmic sound design garnered popularity among the local counterculture.

From Benzmixer’s Soundcloud:

Benjamin Smalls is a Florida native as known as Benzmixer. He has been producing since 2009. Started producing dubstep in early 2010. He has always striven to bring something new to the table. Active support from the likes of Subfiltronik, Ayonikz, Shiverz, Ubur, Yakz, Da Force & many more, benz is one cutting-edge artist you will want to look out for.

Add this one to your party playlist just before Monster Mash 😱. You’ll thank me later.

That’s it for this week from all of us here at the Steel Orca.✔️👋

Be sure to follow the Steel Orca on Twitter and Instagram, and leave your thoughts by commenting below. 🗣️

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