Category: Electro Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TANSU Shares Bittersweet Ballad “Easy Love”

Deriving her artist name from a Turkish term for the sun’s radiant touch on ocean waters just before sunrise, the emerging pop artist TANSU has a diverse and global cultural background with roots in Turkey and Ireland. She spent her formative years in London and Connecticut, had a stint in Boston for college, and has called NYC home for the past 13 years. 

During that period, TANSU has carefully balanced her life between music and fashion, which she personally defines as performing arts. While working in fashion PR, she lent her vocals to numerous projects as a session and featured vocalist, most recently releasing The Wash Up EP co-produced with Lars Viola. She also performs extensively around both lower and Manhattan, including a monthly residency at Lafolia Restaurant, every first Thursday.

Back in 2015, the emerging pop artist reconnected with American Authors‘ Dave Rublin, a college acquaintance. Since then, they’ve been writing and recording music together, which has included sleek and slickly produced “DOWNTOWN,” and simmering soul-pop ballad “Got 2 Me.”

The New York-based artist’s latest single “Easy Love” continues a run of sleek, slickly produced 90s and 2000s-inspired R&B built around a minimalist yet percussive production featuring glistening synths paired with her effortlessly soulful vocal expressing a bittersweet and heartbroken farewell to a relationship.

“’Easy Love’ is a soft goodbye,” TANSU explains. “It is a song about letting go of a friend while respecting the life and beauty the relationship once shared. A loving tribute to someone you can no longer be there for, the song helps us all tell our former friends to take it easy, love.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Binoy Shares Slickly Produced Ode to Queer Hookup Culture

Binoy is a Kenyan-born, Indian-Sri Lankan singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who uses his songwriting to authentically pinpoint and express his experiences and feelings as a queer person of color. Inspired by Taylor Swift, Troye Sivan and MIKA, Binoy proudly incorporates his Indian and Sri-Lankan roots and East African upbringing into his sound and approach.

The Kenyan-born artist’s latest single “BoysBoysBoys” is a slickly produced, club banger built around skittering reggaeton beats, African and Indian subcontinent-inspired polyrhythm, glistening and wobbling synth arpeggios paired with Binoy’s sultry, come-hither delivery and some remarkably catchy hooks. The song captures and evokes the excitement, thrill, chaos and occasional danger of queer hookup culture with a lived-in familiarity and specificity.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Lisa LeBlanc Performs “Dans l’jus” at Francos de Montréal 2023

Lisa LeBlanc is an acclaimed Rosaireville, New Brunswick-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist (banjo and guitar), who proudly claims Acadian heritage — and comes from a family of passionate music lovers. (In case you’re curious — as I was — Cajuns are often described as descendants of Acadian exiles, who went to Louisiana during Britain’s Great Expulsion of Acadians from what is now known as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, parts of Eastern Québec and Northern Maine. To simplify it a quite a bit, Acadians and Cajuns are historically very deeply connected, although it’s kind of confusing.)

LeBlanc can trace the origins of her professional career to when she turned 14 and stared to write her own original songs. She played her first shows at O’Donaghues in Miramichi with her mother accompanying her because she was underage — and couldn’t be legally in the bar by herself. But despite her relative youth, she quickly received recognition for her guitar playing and for being a promising singer/songwriter when she won 2010’s Festival International de chanson de Granby – singing material in French.

The juried award brought her to the attention of the country’s Francophone media. And as a result, she wound up playing Coup de cœur francophone, FrancoFoiles de Montréal and at Festival d’été de Québec by the following year.

Building upon a growing profile across Francophone Canada, LeBlanc’s full-length, self-titled debut was released in 2012 by Montréal-based label Bonsound. Primarily written while she was still living in her native Rosaireville, studying at L’École nationale de la chanson with portions written in Montréal, where she eventually relocated, the album was recorded by Karkwa’s Louis-Jean Cormier at Studio Piccolo. The album is best known for the single “Aujuord’hui ma vie c’est d’la marde” (“Today My Life is Shit”) – and because of the success of that single, the album eventually was certified platinum by Music Canada. 

2014’s Highways, Heartaches and Time Well Wasted, her critically applauded and commercially successful English-language EP debuted at #7 on the Canadian Album Charts. 

LeBlanc’s sophomore album, 2016’s bilingual Why You Wanna Leave, Runaway Queen? featured songs both in English and French, as well as a thrash-folk cover of Motörhead’s “Ace of Spades,” which helped to establish what she has dubbed as thrash-folk. The album was on that year’s shortlist for the Polaris Music Prize. 

Back in 2020, LeBlanc, under the pseudonym Belinda released It’s Not a Game, It’s a Lifestyle, a five-song EP of disco songs specifically about bingo – yes, bingo.

The Canadian artist’s third album, last year’s Chiac Disco is a glittery, dance floor friendly tribute to disco, funk and Lee Hazlewood with colorful lyrics sung boldly, loudly and proudly that was released to critical acclaim from CBC Music, La Presse, Le Journal de Montréal, Montréal Gazette, KCRW, Exclaim!, and countless others.

Today, the acclaimed Rosaireville-born, Montréal-based artist announced a Stateside tour in December that will include a December 6, 2023 stop at Café Wha? (Tour dates are below. But you can get more information, including tickets here.)”I recently dug up some photos from our last East Coast tour in the US from 2018,” LeBlanc recalls. “I remember during our New York show, there was a record snow storm and the city was a total ghost town with subways canceled and everything. Despite this, about 300 people came and I couldn’t believe my eyes and kept pinching myself that we were playing NYC for a room full of beautiful people. Needless to say, I’m really excited to come see you all again on my upcoming US tour in December!“
 
Along with the announcement, LeBlanc shared live footage of her and her backing band performing “Dans l’jus” in front of 45,000 people at this year’s Francos de Montréal, an annual, eight-day Francophone music festival with 250 shows in venues across Downtown Montréal, including a massive, outdoor festival stage in the city’s Quartier des Spectacles section.

“Dans l’jus” is a bombastic dance floor banger that’s roughly one-part Talking Heads, one-part Blondie, one-part glam rock and three-quarters glittery disco funk grooves built around a hypnotic, hook-driven arrangement paired with lyrics that openly discuss the seemingly omnipresence of burnout, frustration and dissatisfaction in our society.

The footage is a small portion of an entire show that was originally broadcast on ICI Radio-Canada Télé, but it reveals a super tight band that can quickly get into an irresistibly funky groove, fronted by a high-energy, dynamic frontperson. LeBlanc and her backing band headlined an M for Montréal showcase at Darling Bowling last year, and it was one of the most memorable and downright fun sets of that year’s festival. So trust me on this, if she’s playing at a city near you, don’t fuck up and miss her.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: aswefall Shares Shimmering and Dreamy “Mélancolie”

Founded in the early 2000s, aswefall is a collaboration between two grizzled and accomplished music industry vets:

  • Clement Vaché, a DJ and electronic music producer, known for being a pioneer of the French Rave scene, an organizer of the Borealis Montpellier Festival back in the 90s, and for being the resident DJ of the Kill the DJ parties at renowned Parisian club Le Pulp back in the 2000s. However, over the past few years, Vaché has become one of the most sought-after musical directors in luxury and fashion. 

  • Leo Helleden, a musican and producer, who has played in a number of bands including Camp Claude and Tristesse Contemporaine. 

The duo’s full-length debut, 2005’s Bleed was released through Kill the DJ Records and features “Between Us,” a track used in ad campaigns for Air France. Since then, “Between Us” has amassed close to five million streams on Spotify.

Last month, I wrote about “La nuit s’évapore,” a brooding track that meshes elements of coldwave, goth and electro pop to create a club friendly banger built around glistening synth arpeggios. icily detached vocals and skittering boom bap paired with incredibly catchy hooks.

The French duo’s latest single “Mélancolie” is a remarkably autumnal track built around the sort of reverb-soaked shimmering guitar textures that seem to channel Slowdive, A Storm in Heaven and others paired with skittering beats, a supple and sinuous bass line and atmospheric synths paired with breathily delivered vocals. The result is a song that feels — and evokes — a melancholy fever dream and a wistful reminiscence of something or someone that we can’t ever get back.

“This new single entitled ‘Mélancolie’ summons the obsessions of T.S. Eliot, the floating guitar arpeggios and the soft pallor of a melancholic morning. All this in elevation as if flying over the smoking debris of a submerged world,” the duo explain.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montañera Teams up with Bejuco’s Cankita and Las Cantadores de Yerba Buena on Dreamy and Meditative “Santa Mar”

María Mónica Gutiérrez is a Bogotá-born, London-based singer/songwriter, musician, who during the course of her decade-plus long music career has established herself as one of the most unique and intense voices in the contemporary Colombian scene — as a member of bands like Suricato and Ságan and as the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed solo recording project Montañera.

As a member of Suricato and Ságan, Gutiérrez has toured across Europe, the US and Latin America, and has played at The Smithsonian Museum, The Kennedy Center, SXSW, Lollapalooza and Festival Estéreo Picnic, and MaMA Festival among a list of others, as well as a live session aired on KEXP.

Gutiérrez’s third Montañera album, the Rizomagic-produced A Flor de Piel is slated for a November 17, 2023 release through Western Vinyl. Thematically, the album is reportedly a meditative journey of self-discovery across oceans, time and the traditional confines of genre. Gutiérrez began the album as a way to explore her identity after a difficult move to London for school left her feeling untethered and alone in a strange new place. Understandably, the 5,000 mile journey across the other side of world and across a seemingly endlessly ocean imparted her with a new understanding of herself as a human and as an artist.

The album also reportedly sees the Colombian-born, British-based artist examining the immigrant — and migrant — experience through a rich soundscape inspired by and drawing from disparate sources, including traditional Colombian and Senegalese music, contemporary ambient and experimental production and whalesong from the depths of the Atlantic Ocean. Pairing skillfully restrained synths and electronic textures, A Flor de Piel sees Gutiérrez re-contextualizing traditional sounds and sentiments into something fresh, urgent and vital. And for the Bogota-born, London-based artist, it’s a fitting representation of her personal struggles, while echoing universal truths, as she summons the strength and wisdom of past generations. As she describes it, “The album has accompanied me through inner journeys of finding myself in a new territory — of redefining myself, of remembering who I am — in a strange place.” 

A Flor de Piel’s latest single “Santa Mar” is the only album on the track that features percussion, as well as Cankita, Bejuco’s marimba player and Tumaco, Colombia-based traditional vocal group Los Cantaadoras de Yerba Buena. Built around Cankita’s twinkling and percussive marimba, atmospheric synths and electronics serving as an ethereal and dreamy bed for Gutiérrez’s yearning vocal paired with the expressive harmonies of Las Cantadores de Yerba Buena. The result is a song that evokes a deep, mediative sense of peace and mindfulness — and at a time when we all could use it.

“It’s a song that talks about peace in Colombia, specifically with the afro pacific women,” the Bogotá-born, London-based artist explains. “The lyrics were inspired by them after investigating their musical practice for my master’s studies. Understanding their personal and collective healing processes within the peace-building process of the country. I want to portray the importance of womanhood for peace-building in their territory and the song talks about the forces of the sea to cure and the sea as a female saint, of how these women have the power of the sea in themselves. The marimbas are played by the amazing Cankita from Bejuco, who is very close with the Cantadoras de Yerba Buena, he calls them his “aunts”, his masters. It’s a true honour having the voices of these elder women in the album, they have such a strong life story and nevertheless, so much vitality, strength, and drive in life, a true inspiration for me.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Riya Gadher Shares Cinematic and Introspective “Own Way Home”

Riya Gadher is an emerging Leicester, UK-born, London-based singer/songwriter, who spent five years quietly developing her sound and approach, including graduating with a degree in songwriting and performance, before stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist earlier this year.

Sonically, the emerging British artist has often felt like she was an old soul, from a different era — but she has readily embrace a sound that meshes elements of alternate pop with conventionally classic undertones. Her latest single “Own Way Home” is a slow-burning, cinematic track that pairs sleek, contemporary electronic production featuring skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios and twinkling and percussive piano with Gadher’s plaintive and expressive delivery. At its core, is a songwriter, who displays a remarkable sense of insight and wisdom beyond her relative youth with introspective lyrics informed by her own life.

Sonically, the self-produced track reminds me quite a bit of Gravity Pairs and Along the Lethe-era Beacon. Thematically the song as the British artist explains “is about embarking on a journey of self-discovery to find mental peace in a world that’s face paced, while not being afraid to cut your own path and do what’s right for you. It’s about faith, hope, female empowerment and courage.”

“I really believe when your mind is still and at peace you can better deal with the challenges that life throws at you,” Gadher adds. “I feel it’s not always possible to change your physical space but your mind has the ability to take you anywhere.”

Directed by Daniel Alexander, the accompanying video for “Own Way Home” follows the pensive and emerging British artist wandering London and the English countryside, seeking a sense of peace — and her own sense of power.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montréal’s Das Mörtal Shares Chilly and Uneasy “NOSHAME”

Montréal-based singer/songwriter, producer and electronic music artist Cristóbal Cortes is the creative mastermind behind the rising chillwave/goth project Das Mörtal. Cortes’ music career started in Berlin, where inspired by Steve Moore and Aphex Twin, he began to craft a dark, nostalgia-inducing sound that meshes an array of influences including German techno, horror and sci-fi soundtracks.

Cortes has released a handful of EPs and albums that have amassed over 20 million streams on Spotify. He has supported those efforts with tours as an opener for Vitalic, Pertubator, Carpenter Brut and a lengthy list of others and as a headliner with stops across the States, Scandinavia and France among others. He has also played sets across the global festival circuit, including Osheaga, Transmusicales de Rennes, FME, and Meg Festival. Adding to a growing national and international profile, the Montréal-based artist has also received airplay in over a dozen countries and several influential YouTube pages.

While still rooted in the dark, occult vibes that has won him attention both nationally and internationally, Cortes’ fourth Das Mörtal album Bury The Sorrow is a change in sonic direction for the Montréal-based artist, with the material rooted in a sound that meshes elements of trap and trip-hop. Thematically, Bury The Sorrow may arguably be Cortes’ most personal to date: The album is informed and inspired by the isolation, unease and stress of the past couple of years, starting — naturally, perhaps — with pandemic-related quarantines. As the Montréal-based artist explains in press notes, Bury The Sorrow in many ways is about how difficult it was to actually make the album — with the album’s material constantly hinting at the unstable mindset that created it.

“NOSHAME,” Bury The Sorrow‘s latest single is a chilly bit of coldwave built around dense layers of glistening synth arpeggios, a relentless motorik groove paired with skittering four-on-the-floor, a remarkably catchy hook and Cortes’ achingly yearning yet detached vocal. While sonically recalling early Depeche Mode and others, “NOSHAME” accurately captures the boredom, unease, self-loathing and anxiety of someone who’s been isolated and left with their own pride, thoughts, memories and regrets.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Ghostly Kisses Shares Swooning, Ethereal “Golden Eyes”

Québec City-based singer/songwriter Margaux Sauvé is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed Canadian electro pop project Ghostly Kisses. The project derives its name from William Faulkner’s “Une ballade des dames perdues,” which seemed to her like the perfect reflection of her ethereal voice.

Sauvé has received attention both nationally and international for crafting hauntingly gorgeous and spectral electro pop that pairs her ethereal vocal with moody productions featuring gently swirling and ambient electronics, twinkling keys and propulsive drumming.

Now it’s been a handful of years since I’ve written about Sauvé and Ghostly Kisses. But her latest single, the swooning “Golden Eyes” sees her channeling Goldfrapp and Portishead with the song pairing skittering, UK garage beats, atmospheric house-inspired synths with her ethereal yet achingly yearning delivery.

Sauvé explains the track is “about being in love with your best friend and how gauche it feels to finally admit it. The lyrics were inspired by a revelation from a fan we met on tour, about how hard and vertiginous it can be to express our true feelings to someone that we really love.” While party about Sauvé’s own experience falling in love with her songwriting partner Louis-Étienne Santais, the song is also inspired by Ghostly Kisses’ ‘Box of Secrets’ project, where fans submitted anonymous stories to the band.