Category: experimental pop

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.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal, Dream-like Visuals for Polyenso’s “17 New Years”

“The chorus is about that moment in a relationship when you realize that the person you love is using you as a scapegoat for their past emotional injuries. And despite how much you care for an desire this person, you can’t let them bring you down.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Floating Points Performing on KEXP Radio

Interestingly, as Shepherd announced his tour and the forthcoming release of Kupier, Shepherd released live footage of him and his backing band performing “Silhouettes I, II and III,” “Argente” and “Kupier” in KEXP’s studios last month. Naturally, the live footage should give you a good sense of a live Floating Points set — including as the announced joked a visual display behind the band, which included floating points; but it also should cement Shepherd’s burgeoning reputation as an sonically challenging and inventive composer, whose material also manages to be trippy, expansive and mind-altering while being approachable.

The live session includes a rather revealing interview in which Shepherd discusses the origins of Floating Points, his influences, how he met the members of his backing band and his incredible 10,000 album record collection.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Mournful Sounds and Surreal Visuals for Stefan Weich’s Latest Single “Louie”

Stefan Weich’s second and latest single “Louie” continues on the same vein as “Holy Night” as swirling and ambient electronics are paired with soft padded drumming, bursts of bluesy guitar chords and Weich’s plaintive falsetto crooning lyrics about a relationship in which both people are slowly drifting apart. At the heart of the song is the unspoken and built up resentments that can cause people to slowly drift apart over time, and a lingering sense of regret of what happened — and how it happened.

The recently released music video for the song also fittingly featured some warped and kaleidoscopic, psychedelic imagery — in some way, it evokes what I would imagine tripping on hallucinogens would feel like as you were wandering around a lonely and surreal city landscape.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal Dali-esque Visuals for BRAIDS’ “Companion”

Over the course of three full-length albums and their latest EP Companion, Montreal-based electronic act BRAIDS have developed a reputation for restless experimentation, which has resulted in each of their recorded efforts sounding different from each […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of Jacqueline Caruso (keys and vocals) and Augustus Green (bass, synth, production/beats and sound design), Washington, DC-based psych pop duo The Galaxy Electric specialize in a sound and aesthetic that mixes Brazilian bossa nova and Tropicalia, 60s psychedelia and early synthesizer experimentation; in fact, adding to that aesthetic, the duo utilizes old-fashioned, lo-fi recording techniques, as well as the use of sound design-inspired arrangements and old-timey reverb and echo devices to craft a trippy and immersive sound that seemingly comes out of 1967.

“Temporal,” the latest single off the duo’s forthcoming Everything Is Light and Sound consists of Caruso’s gorgeous vocals paired with twisting and turning synth chords, bop-era jazz syncopated drumming and a sinuous bass line filtered through gentle layers of reverb and echo, and the result is an ethereal and trippy song  that focuses on the both the nature of time and our experience of it; all while evoking a similar vision of the future presented by the 1964 World’s Fair — a hopeful world that has used science and technology to solve humanity’s greatest problems in an efficient and timely fashion.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous, Surreal and Ancient Mythology-based Visuals for Dengue Dengue Dengue’s “Guarida”

With the release of their critically acclaimed full-length debut La Allianza Profana and its follow-up, Serpiente Dorada through Enchufada Records, Peruvian electronic duo Dengue Dengue Dengue quickly received international attention for a sound that possessed elements of traditional […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Jonas Ronnberg, the co-owner of Northern Electronics who’s known for recording caustic techno under the moniker of Varg, as well as his involvement in renowned experimental acts Ulwhednar and Dard A Ranj Fran Det Hebbersalska Samfudet; renowned Swedish composer Erik Enocksson, who has scored a number of independent productions including an orphaned soundtrack to Apan, which was re-mastered and re-issued by Posh Isolation Records last year; Frederikke Hoffmeir, the mastermind of highly-regarded industrial and experimental electronic act Puce Mary;Vit Fana’s Ossian Ohlsson, who has appeared on a number of Northern Electronics and Posh Isolation compilations; and Loke Rahbek, co-founder of Posh Isolation and member of Damien Dubrovnik, highly-regarded act Lust For Youth — and for recording with Croatian Armor, Body Sculptures is an All-Star side project of renowned Scandinavian experimental electronic and electro pop artists.

Last year marked the act’s live debut, a set at the Berlin Atonal Festival and the release of their debut effort together, The Base of All Beauty Is The Body. And June 3, 2016 will mark the release of the act’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort A Body Turns to Eden.The album’s first single — and album title track — “A Body Turns to Eden” will further cement the act’s reputation for crafting stark and uneasily tense music as background electronic buzzing is paired with slowly unfurling and churning synths, minimalist beats in a song that only partially unfolds and reveals itself to its listeners.
 

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The combinations of acoustic and electronic instrumentation, the soiled traces of genre, and the mixed modes of experimentation, are here pitched as an eternal requiem, letting the play between the project’s orthodox and unorthodox methods reflect a sharp fatalism. Each song presents familiarity and intimacy within an aura of claustrophobia. And as if out of a cruel awareness of this fact, unease blooms into a comforting form. A Body Turns To Eden is an essential piece for anyone with interest in Scandinavian electronic music today.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed by Moon Magnet Studios founder and ringleader Reed Fuchs back in 2009, Denver, CO-based collective deCollage features members of several locally and regionally known bands including Rose Quartz, Sound of Ceres, Candy Claws, Rubedo and others. Since their formation, the collective has developed a reputation for an immersive and interactive live show – and for material that sonically employs the use of synths, accordion, glockenspiel, found sounds such as typewriters, trains, crunched leaves, zippers, cirtcut bending among others and for material that lyrically focuses on metaphysics, surrealism, abstraction, wonder and navigating the fragmented post-modern world we live in.Unsurprisingly, as a result of their growing reputation in psych music circles, the members of the collective have opened for the likes of Animal Collective, of Montreal, Zammuto, Fever The Ghost and Linear Downfall among others.

“Crystal Choir,” the latest single off the collective’s soon-to-be released, new effort Magnetize is a hazy and swaggering bit of psych pop that possesses elements of contemporary electro pop and R&B as enormous boom-bap drums are paired with layers of shimmering synths, and layers of harmonized vocals in song that reminds me of In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy — but with a mischievous and playful sense of hope.