Category: dance pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Springfield, MO-based Molly Healy is a singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who may arguably be best known for being a longtime fiddle player for the Ozark Mountain Daredevils. In 2015, Healy stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist after the purchase of a looping pedal.

Healy’s solo debut, 2015’s Nightbirds saw her crafting material that blended her voice and strings together into atmospheric and experimental, orchestral folk. Since Nightbirds‘ release, Healy has released two more albums, 2017’s Human, and 2019’s Circles, which have revealed a restlessly experimental songwriter, expanding upon and refining her sound and approach.

The Springfield, MO-based artist’s recently released third album, Lotus may very well be her most ambitious effort to date. Influenced by an eclectic array of artists including Radiohead, Andrew Bird, Zoe Keating, and Rasputina, the album’s material pairs lush string arrangements with beats and electronic production. Some songs feature a full choir and/or orchestral arrangements — and Healy’s daughter joints in on electric guitar for a track.

Lotus‘ latest single “Us and Them” is one-part 70s orchestral disco, one-part orchestral chamber pop, one-part psych soul, centered around a dance floor friendly groove and Healy’s ethereal and sultry cooing. But like countless dance music-related songs before it, “Us and Them” is rooted in incisive political commentary, informed by our unusually heightened moment: in this case, the polarization of political ideas and the dangers it creates for all of us.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DELNUR Shares Sultry “Intimacy”

Vic Delnur is a Rio de Janeiro-born, New York-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who can trace much of the origins of his career to growing up in a deeply musical home: Delnur grew up surrounding by synths, pianos and other instruments — thanks to the fact that his father is a maestro and producer, and his mother is a vocalist and art therapist.

With his mononymic electronic music project DELNUR, the Rio de Janeiro-born, New York-based artist’s work is informed by his Brazilian roots. as well as the time he has spent living and playing in London and New York. Lyrically, his work is informed by lived-in, personal experiences — and as a result, thematically the material touches upon anxiety, faith, relationships and life as an immigrant. Sonically, his work draws from early 80s disco, funk, neo-soul, psych pop and Brazilian music.

Earlier this year, the Rio de Janeiro-born, New York-based singer/songwriter and producer, released his debut single as DELNUR, “Mind-Brain-Body,” which quickly received attention nationally and internationally: Since its release, the track has amassed over 50,000 streams on Spotify. And with the attention surrounding both the artist and his debut single, Delnur was invited to play a set at this year’s Okeechobee Music Festival, where he shared a stage with Tame Impala, Jungle, Megan Thee Stallion and a list of other world-renowned acts.

DELNUR’s latest single “Intimacy” is a slow-burning, sultry bop centered around glistening and wobbling synths, skittering beats, the Rio de Janeiro-born, New York-based artist’s plaintive and vulnerable delivery paired with an infectious, razor sharp hook. Sonically, the track sees Delnur effortlessly mesh elements of electro pop, alternative pop, Quiet Storm soul to create something warmly familiar yet completely new.

The accompanying video by Monochroma Films is sumptuous fever dream — and a photographer’s dream: We see a woman dancing in a field at night, lit by headlights; photo shoots in monochromatic color schemes and in lush colors. And throughout, there’s a sense of longing and unrequited desire for the gorgeous woman at the center of it all.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Canadian Artist Freddie Future Releases an Intergalactic Visual for Summery “Loving You (So High)”

With the release of 2019’s self-titled full-length album, an effort that featured the attention grabbing single “Too Heavy,” the Toronto-based indie dance pop artist Freddie Future exploded across both the Canadian and international scenes while establishing a sound that’s inspired by Rüfüs Du Sol, Elderbrook, Majid Jordan, Cannons and A R I Z O N A among others. Since the release of his full-length debut, the rising Canadian dance pop artist has received praise from the likes of Clash Magazine, Exclaim!, Variance Magazine, Northern Transmission, Toronto Guardian and Canadian Beats. He has had his work playlisted on MrSuicideSheep, Spotify’s New Music Friday Canada, Fresh Friends, JustVibing and Outliers playlists, and as a result, his work has amassed over 2.6 million streams.

Freddie Future’s latest single “Loving You (So High)” is a summery club banger featuring shimmering synths, wobbling bass lines and tweeter and woofer rocking beats paired with Future’s ethereal yet plaintive vocals and a rousingly anthemic hook. While sonically recalling Octo Octa’s Between Two Selves, “Loving You (So High)” manages to simultaneously evoke dipping into a bracingly cold pool on a sultry summer afternoon and the swooning euphoria of discovering new love.

“’Loving You (So High)’ was the first track written for this new project, and instantly I knew there was something special here,” the rising Canadian artist explains. “The song is about being so consumed with a desire for someone that their love feels like the best drug you could ever have. It’s that ultimate state of euphoria you feel when you truly love that person. The song started with a few vibey chords but really came together once the catchy vocal hook was made. “I get so high off loving you. So high, so high, so high”.”

The recently released video by Physical Presents is an intergalactic visual that features several holographic projections of the rising Canadian artist on an extraterrestrial moon with an enormous planet and a floating space cube in the background. It’s a fittingly futuristic and trippy visual that captures the song’s swooning longing.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Blinker the Star Covers a Classic Madonna Hit

The past couple of years has seen an increasingly number of pieces covering JOVM mainstay act Blinker The Star, led by its Pembroke, Ontario-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind, Jordon Zadorozny. Zadorozny’s tenth Blinker The Star album Arista is slated for a July 2, 2021 release. And unlike his previously released material, Arista is a covers album that finds the Canadian JOVM mainstay tackling hits by Solange, ZZ Top, No Doubt, Eurythmics, Pet Shop Boys, Boz Scaggs, The Rolling Stones, Land of Talk, Aerosmith and others.

I had a daydream where I imagined Clive Davis signing me to Arista Records. He said, “Zadorozny, you’re all right. But you have no hits. And hits are the lifeblood of the artist. I’m going to sign you to Arista but I get to choose the songs”. So I let the imaginary Clive Davis in my head A&R this album, as he would have for Whitney Houston or Santana. You might say I have A&R issues.”

of my favorite Madonna songs — “Holiday.” Interestingly, the Blinker the Star version pulls turns the party anthem into an achingly wistful ballad longing for good times and easier days.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Paris’ QLAPs Returns with a Glistening Banger

o create accessible, pop-leaning dance music. Earlier this week, I wrote about the French trio’s “I Can’t Wait,” an infectious and swaggering club banger that reminded me of Yelle and JOVM mainstays L’Imperatice.

I don’t want your love,” was released earlier this year, and it continues a run of club friendly material centered around glistening synth arpeggios, sultry vocals, tweeter and woofer thumping beats and a euphoria inducing hook within a song that expresses the coquettish — and somewhat confusing — push and pull of love and lust.