Category: experimental pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal Visuals and Swaggering, Hyper-Futuristic Sounds of Bonzai’s “I Did”

As you’ll hear on “I Did,” the latest single off Lunacy pairs Mura Masa’s swaggering futuristic and incredibly unique production style comprised of industrial clang and clatter, stuttering and skittering beats, staccato cascades of hot, neon synths with Bonzai’s swaggering, self-assured vocal style, which nods at a young Missy Elliot. As the Irish pop artist explains “I wrote ‘I Did’ about some people I felt were jealous of me and I what I was doing cause they think they’re better than me and you know that might be true but I did something with myself and they did not.” She later explains on the incredibly technicolor and psychedelic animated video directed by Tom Bunker, which features Bonzai’s cartoon avatar running through a surreal, dream-like jungle, “the video is meant to depict a journey to success, the tree being the tough climb to the top and the voyage through space at the end being the sweet victory.”

As the video’s producer Tom Bunker adds “The original idea for the video came out of a discussion illustrator Pete Sharp and I had with Cassia [a.k.a. Bonzai) about the track It follows themes that Bonzai puts across in the track about progression in life and moving away from negativity, which could be resentment from your peers or a giant smoke monster that lives in a log. It’s a pretty relatable struggle either way. For the jungle sequences, a lot of the plant and wildlife were a mishmash of different fruits and flowers which Pete took from old Botanical drawings and references of exotic animals.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vienna, Austria’s Hearts Hearts Return with a Brooding and Artistic Meditation on Identity, Self-Invention and Perspective

“AAA” is the Austrian quintet’s latest single off Young and sonically it’s a song that nods at Kid A, Amnesiac, and Hail to the Thief-era Radiohead as shimmering guitar chords, stuttering drum programming, swirling electronics, twinkling keys and a lush string arrangement with Österle’s tender and aching falsetto expressing a deep yearning for more while possessing an underlying uncertainty at its core. Interestingly enough as the band’s frontman David Österle explained about both the song and its video treatment: “I think that the world is a place, where we can dare to pretend. ‘AAA’ deals with that basic feature of the human condition. We fake it till we make it, and thereby go (at least sometimes) astray in the plethora of metamorphoses in that societal masquerade. I think that by assuming different roles we ourselves are fulfilling the requirements of the economy, demanding excessive flexibility and changeability. As a result we all feel like faceless puppets sometimes.

“We wanted to make a video that visually underscores this figuration of identity as a permanent process of self-inventions. The video is much about showing people in different perspectives. The images are blurry, sometimes they are overlapping and merging together seamlessly. What the lens captures, is actually the performance of a performance, the play in a play.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous and Surreal Visuals and Sounds of Pavo Pavo’s “Ran Ran Run”

If you have been frequenting this site, you may have come across a couple of posts about the band when they released their “Ran Ran Run”/”Annie Hall” 7 inch, an effort that was also praised by the folks at Stereogum as “weightless pop music that sounds like it was beamed down from a glimmering utopian future,” while nodding at the psych pop sounds of the mid 60s; but just underneath the gleaming surface, there’s a bit of unease, anxiety and rot. In my mind, the song strikes me as a feverish yet whimsical dream of simmering synths and ethereal harmonies that skip about the song’s instrumentation like a pebble being tossed across a placid lake.

The band’s long-awaited full-length debut Young Narrator in the Breakers is slated for a November 11, 2016 through Bella Union Records and to celebrate the album’s upcoming release, the band released a gorgeous and artful music video for the album’s first single “Ran Ran Run.” Directed by artist collective SWIMMERS, the video features the bandmembers in a series of surreally staged scenarios that emphasize the song’s ethereal and surreal nature. As the band’s Eliza Bagg explains of the song and the video, “‘Ran Ran Run’ is a song about the joys and sorrows of growing up, the awareness of impermanence and change — ‘time is a hole in my waterbed!’ In the video we pass through some kind of portal into a completely manufactured reality — a space that is intense but also playful, full of stark contrasts and extremes (of color, texture, mood). We’re somewhere between children and adults, literally dressing up, playing, play-acting, trying on the guises of who we might be. Actually a theme throughout this record is that the whole prospect of becoming an adult involves a little bit of fantasy — reaching for a possible world or possible self, and aiming for magic, for something over the top, fantastical.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Derek Barber (guitar) Geneva Harrison (drums, percussion, keys) Sandra Lawson-Ndu (vocals, percussion, keys) and Doug Stuart (bass, vocals, keys), the Oakland, CA-based soul pop quintet Bells Atlas specialize in a sound that’s been kaleidoscopic, lushly layered and yet difficult to pigeonhole sound as it incorporates elements of indie rock, Afro pop, jazz, electro pop as you’ll hear on the Bay Area’s trippy, shimmering and atmospheric new single “Spec and Bubbles.” Structurally speaking, the song twists and morphs into several distinct segments held together by stuttering drumming, a sinuous bass line and Lawson-Ndu’s sultry cooing — and in some way it channels renowned soul pop act, Hiatus Kaiyote but with a deliberate and painterly act, as though each chord and each bar were a brushstroke, and each brushstroke added color and texture to the larger whole.

Interestingly, the release of single immediately came on the heels of their upcoming run as the house band for WNYC/NPR’s Snap Judgement, later this year and through 2017.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Cinematic Visuals for The Deltahorse’s “Call It a Day”

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time, you’re most likely familiar with The Deltahorse in some fashion or another — and you’d know that earlier this month I wrote about “Happy Heart (Can Go For Miles),” the first single off the act’s long-anticipated and soon-to-be released, full-length debut Transatlantic. “Happy Heart” consisted of Colley’s swaggering and sultry electric baritone saxophone passages, stuttering drumming and drum programming, Sash’s propulsive bass lines with Vadim’s plaintive vocals signing lyrics about how a happy heart can endure almost everything; however, just under the surface was an underlying bitter irony. The album’s second and latest single “Call It A Day” is a cinematic and forceful single consisting of slashing, staccato piano chords, boom bap drum programming, Colley’s swaggering and strutting electric baritone sax skronking, subtly ominous and swirling guitar and bass chords, propulsive percussion and Zeberg’s coolly ironic vocals singing lyrics that hint at the desire to continually move forward and physical desire while beginning to cement their reputation for crafting material with deep, danceable grooves paired with a literate, cinematic sound.

The recently released music video employs a rather simple concept — the band’s Vadim Zeberg in close up singing the song with the Atlantic Ocean behind him. Throughout Zeberg is revealed to have a rather expressive face, at one point after briefly looking at his shoulder at something, he begins to smile mischievously, at other points bobbing his head while singing, and at other points looking at things with an ironically, raised eyebrow.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Led by its Berlin, Germany-based founding member and bassist Sash and featuring Boston, MA-based saxophonist Dana Colley, best known as a former member of Morphine and their latest member, the Belfast, Northern Ireland-based vocalist Vadim Zeberg, the members of indie act The Deltahorse have managed throughout their few years of existence to create a sound that feels and sounds lived in and created live with all three members playing in a studio, despite the fact that because of the distance between each member, they can’t perform together, and reportedly have rarely seen each other face-to-face. As result, the members of the band have never had the experience of playing in a room and picking up on the physical and visual cues that musicians can pick up on that allow them to easily play off and riff off one another. And yet when the trio does write and record, the sessions are treated as though they were impromptu jam sessions with each member adding their individual musical talents and tendencies to create a swaggering and uniquely genre-defying sound.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time, you’re most likely familiar with The Deltahorse in some fashion or another — and you’d know that earlier this month I wrote about “Happy Heart (Can Go For Miles),” the first single off the act’s long-anticipated and soon-to-be released, full-length debut Transatlantic. “Happy Heart” consisted of Colley’s swaggering and sultry electric baritone saxophone passages, stuttering drumming and drum programming, Sash’s propulsive bass lines with Vadim’s plaintive vocals signing lyrics about how a happy heart can endure almost everything; however, just under the surface was an underlying bitter irony. The album’s second and latest single “Call It A Day” is a cinematic and forceful single consisting of slashing, staccato piano chords, boom bap drum programming, Colley’s swaggering and strutting electric baritone sax skronking, subtly ominous and swirling guitar and bass chords, propulsive percussion and Zeberg’s coolly ironic vocals singing lyrics that hint at the desire to continually move forward and physical desire while beginning to cement their reputation for crafting material with deep, danceable grooves paired with a literate, cinematic sound.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Jess Labrador and Shannon Madden, Chasms is a San Francisco, CA-based duo who specialize in crafting sparsely, minimalist dirges based around Labrador’s hauntingly ethereal vocals and shimmering guitar, propulsive and pummeling drum programming, swirling electronics and bursts of feedback and industrial clang and clatter. And in some way their sound draws from shoegaze, drone, dream pop, doom metal and ambient electronica as you’ll hear on the “We’ll Go,” the latest single off the duo’s forthcoming, full-length debut effort On The Legs Of Love Purified, which is slated for an October 14, 2016 through felte records. Interestingly, “We’ll Go” may arguably be the most slow-burning song they’ve ever released — and in some way it evokes smoke slowly dissipating before your eyes as Labrador’s vocals and shimmering synths gently drift into and out of focus and reverberate.

But just under the seemingly placid surface, there’s a sense of unease and discomfort, and that shouldn’t be terrifying surprising. Labrador spent most of the year recording the album herself with a hand injury that made guitar playing and production work difficult, laborious and painful.  Then add that the duo recorded the album in an illegally rented rehearsal space and a cramped apartment, struggling to survive financially as artists while facing the constantly looming threat of eviction, as they were frantically trying to finish their long-awaited debut effort. And in some way, that discomfort helps to emphasize the stark and haunting beauty and the visceral ache at its core.

The duo will be embarking on a tour through October and November, which will include a November 16, 2016 stop at Brooklyn’s Shea Stadium. Check out tour dates below.

Tour Dates

10.07 Portland, OR @ Lovecraft %  
10.08 Seattle, WA @ Blue Moon
10.09 Eugene, WA @ Wandering Goat 
10.10 Sacramento @ Press Club # 
10.11 San Francisco, CA @ The Knockout ^ 
10.13 La Puente, CA @ Bridgetown DIY ~ 
10.14 San Diego, CA @ The Whistle Stop *
10.15 Long Beach, CA @ 4th St. Vine 
10.16 Los Angeles, CA @ The Echo (Part Time Punks) + 
10.29 Berkeley, CA @ KALX (Live Session + Interview)
11.08 Indianapolis, IN @ State St. Pub
11.15 Providence, RI @ Machines with Magnets
11.16 Brooklyn, NY @ Shea Stadium =
11.19 Chicago, IL @ TBA

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the course of this site’s six year history, you’ve likely come across a number of posts on Brooklyn/Pittsburgh dance pop/experimental pop/funk act Superhuman Happiness. With the release of their long-awaited 2014 full-length debut Hands, the act led by co-founders Stuart Bogie (vocals, saxophones, synths) and Eric Biondo (vocals, trump, synths, percussion) emerged on the national scene for a sound that draws from Talking Heads, Antibalas (which, both founding members and several members of their rotating cast of collaborators have been members of), Fela Kuti, synth pop, dance music, New Wave, and others, and for an ebullient and mischievous live show that incorporates elements of jazz-like improvisation, surrealist comedy, performance art and infectious joy. Interestingly, since the release of Hands, the act has gone through a major lineup reshuffling that included the recruitment of Andrea Diaz (lead vocals, keyboards, percussion) along with the aforementioned rotating cast of collaborators featuring friends, former bandmates and other musicians from across the Northeast in completely reformatted project that has gone through a major (and decided) change in sonic direction as the material on Hands‘ follow up Escape Velocity incorporated an increasing use of synths and electronics while retaining many of the elements that first caught my attention, as well as that of the blogosphere — deep groove-filled material that’s whimsical, mischievous, joyous while continuing to thematically focus on profound topics. In the case of Escape Velocity, several songs focused on the fidelity and accuracy of one’s memories against nostalgia.

From what I understand, the members of Superhuman Happiness are currently working on yet another full-length effort but in the meantime, they’ve released their latest single “Powermasters,” which consists of boom-bap drum programming, fluttering and twinkling electronics, warm blasts of horn and a driving, dance floor-friendly hook – – and in some way, it sounds a bit like a subtle yet bumping modernization of their “GMYL”/”Hounds” 7 inch. Completing the single is a hauntingly gorgeous, atmospheric and mournful coda that begins with looping synths, subtly syncopated drumming and ends with a gorgeous string arrangement.

 

The band is in the middle of a tour with Arc Iris that includes an October 6, 2016 stop at Rough Trade. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Superhuman Happiness / Arc Iris — 2016 Tour Dates
October 6 – Brooklyn, NY – Rough Trade
October 12 – Portland, ME – Empire
October 13 – Cambridge MA – Lizard Lounge
October 14 – Providence, RI – Columbus Theatre
October 15 – Burlington, VT – Signal Kitchen

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Led by its Berlin, Germany-based founder and bassist Sash and featuring Boston, MA-based saxophonist Dana Colley, best known as a former member of Morphine and their newest member, the Belfast, Northern Ireland-based vocalist Vadim Zeberg, the members of indie act The Deltahorse have managed throughout their existence to create a sound that feels and sounds lived in and created live with all three members playing in a studio, despite the fact of the distance between each member, they can’t perform together, and reportedly have rarely seen each other face-to-face and as a result have never quite had the experience of picking up on physical and visual cues musicians pick up on that allow them to easily play off and riff off one another. And yet when the trio does write and record, the sessions are treated as though they were impromptu jam sessions with each member adding their individual musical talents and tendencies to create a swaggering and uniquely genre-defying sound.

Now if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time, you’re most likely familiar with The Deltahorse in some fashion or another. The band’s long-anticipated full-length debut Transatlantic is slated for a September 30, 2016 and the album’s first single “Happy Heart (Can Go For Miles)” consists of Colley’s swaggering and sultry electric baritone saxophone passages, stuttering drumming and drum programming, Sash’s propulsive bass lines with Vadim’s plaintive vocals singing lyrics about how a happy heart can endure almost everything — with an underlying bitter irony. And while further cementing the act’s reputation for a highly sophisticated and almost literate sound, it also reflects a great deal of artistic growth, as the song may arguably possess the deepest groove they’ve yet to release, while being the most accessible.

 

 

New Single by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Phenomenal Handclap Band‘s Daniel Collas (keyboards, production) and Morgen Phalen (vocals guitar) and members of Stockholm, Sweden-based bands Dungen and The Amazing, indie psych pop act Drakkar Nowhere can trace their origins to when Collas and Phalen had been making music in the kitchen of a rented apartment in Stockholm. And in a relatively short period of time, Collas and Phalen’s kitchen-based music project caught the attention of the members of Dragen and The Amazing, who then joined the project to flesh out its sound, a sound that’s largely influenced by cosmic jazz, soul, jazz fusion, prog rock and psych pop among others — and by their direct surroundings, including the forests that surround the Bagarmossen and Midsommarkransen neighborhoods of Stockholm.

Now you may recall that I wrote about “How Could That Be Why,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming self-titled debut, and the shuffling and trippy single has the band pairing twisting and turning synths and keys, a sinuous bass line and an infectious sense of melody to craft a song that sounds as though it could have been released in 1973. The album’s second and latest single “The Line” continues on a similar vein although it has the band pairing slow burning psych pop and psych rock with 70s AM rock — and in a fashion that nods at America‘s “Horse With No Name” and Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd but with a plaintive ache just under the song’s cosmic glow. Interestingly, the song may arguably the prettiest song the band has released to date.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Indie, Experimental Electro Pop Supergroup’s Latest Pairs a Tight Groove with Deeply Empathetic Lyrics and Visuals

Interestingly, the album’s latest single and album title track “Our Puram,” has a narrator, who describes the sense of ecstasy and belonging that members of the Rajneeshpuram community felt and the gaping sense of dejection and hopelessness when they were forced to return to what they felt were dreary, ordinary, meaningless lives. While sonically, the trio pair distorted four-on-the-floor-like breakbeats, layers of wobbling and distorted synths, twinkling keys, distorted and droning guitar chords and mournful horn notes held together with a motorik-like groove that builds up towards the song’s last half/last third or so. It’s arguably the trio’s most mournful song but paired with one of the deepest and trippiest grooves they’ve released to date, while retaining a cinematic quality.

The recently released video features found footage that provides an intimate peek into the daily lives and practices of the Rajneeshpuram community and it gives the song a deeper, empathetic feel as it reminds the viewer and the listener of the subject’s essential humanity.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Menomena and Lacktherof‘s Danny Seim, The National‘s Bryan Devendorf and David Nelson, who has had stints in the touring bands for  David Byrne and St. Vincent and Sufjan Stevens, the members of Pfarmers can trace the project’s origins to when The National and Menomena toured together back in the early 2000s — and as a result of frequently running into each other Seim and Devendorft quickly became friends. And while Seim and Devendoft were playing with their respective primary projects at a festival, Devendorf played Seim a series of severely damaged synth-based drumbeats he had worked on with Nelson, who at the time was playing as part of the horn line in David Byrne’s live band. Seim was so intrigued that he joined into the project, which released their debut effort Gunnera last year; in fact, if you had been frequenting this site at some point last year, you may recall that I wrote about the album’s first single “The Ol’River Gang,” a moody, atmospheric track consisting of horns, boom-bap like beats and ethereal vocals that felt like an undulating fever dream.

Pfarmers’ sophomore effort Our Purim was written as Seim relocated from his hometown of Portland, OR to Louisville, KY. Initially wanting to make the album’s material conceptually about Oregon, where he had spent the majority of his life, he chose to focus on Rajneeshpuram community of Wasco County, OR he had learned about as a child. As an adult, he recognized the tragic nature of their story and as a result of contemporary events, began to find himself relating to members of the religious community in a different fashion than he had imagined. And much of the material began to be written from the perspective of a Rajneeshee leaving the compound — for good. Interestingly, it wasn’t until he had finished the album that he also realized that the album also managed to cover what he subconsciously felt was his own exodus from the only home he had known up until recently.

“Red Vermin,” the album’s latest single pairs gently undulating synths, industrial electronic-like drums, twinkling keys and plaintive yet ethereal vocals that describes the sensation of being ridiculed for one’s beliefs and outcasted with a profound sense of empathy  —  so much so that you can feel the sting of the insults hurled at the song’s narrator while possessing a cinematic quality.

 

 

 

 

 

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Los Angeles, CA-based sibling duo Andrew Aged (lead vocals, guitar) and Daniel Aged (bass, production and vocals) write, record and perform as inc. no world — and with the critically applauded release of their 2013 debut effort, the duo quickly received a profile for an introspective songwriting approach, and for crafting songs that are not only thoughtful but draw from several different sources, including gospel, soul, experimental pop and others; but with a post-modern minimalism.

“Waters Of You,” the first single off the duo’s highly anticipated, forthcoming effort As Light As Light will likely further cement the Southern California-based duo’s burgeoning reputation for ethereal, soulful pop while subtly expanding upon it; in fact, in some way the song sounds as though it were inspired by Prince, Quiet Storm-era R&B and Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT as it manages to possess a sleek and sensual yet off-kilter funkiness and an aching tenderness as the song has the duo pairing gently strummed guitar  with shimmering synths, ethereal yet sensually cooed vocals and stuttering drum programming. In some way, the song evokes an urgent, carnal need and a vulnerability at its core.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting this site for the past couple of months, you may recall coming across a post or two about Tucson, AZ-based multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist and producer Dmitri Manos, whose solo recording project American Monoxide has quietly built a profile for specializing in analog electronic instrumentals that manage to be somewhat abrasive, trashy and funky as hell such as on “Hot Lava Express,” the first single off his sophomore full-length Web Content. Sonically speaking, Manos paired industrial clang and clatter, boom-bap beats, tumbling electronic bloops, beeps and bleeps, scorching synths and Nile Rodgers-inspired funk guitar chords in an offbeat funky song that reminded me quite a bit of Tobacco.

Web Content‘s latest single “Get Into My Way” is a wobbling, shuffling and buzzing song with the sort of twangy alt-country, alt-folk, experimental pop sound reminiscent of Odelay-era Beck — but in this case, as though Beck had recorded the album on old, warped cassette tape, with a breezily narcoleptic feel and an incredibly catchy hook.