Category: Indie Electro Pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Marble Shares 80s New Wave-Inspired “Jim Carol New Year”

Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Black Marble creative mastermind Chris Stewart will be releasing his fifth Black Marble album, Life in Small Spaces through Sacred Bones Records on August 21, 2026. The album, which is Stewart’s first full-length album since 2021’s Fast Idol, is an album of clear-eyed commentary and analysis of the music industry as a whole, a discussion of authenticity and a heartfelt letter to all the independent creatives out in the world.

“I always knew a lot of people in music struggled to make ends meet, but it surprised me to learn that the people you thought would be doing well often weren’t. For me, seeing the business from the inside like that changed how I looked at things,” Stewart says. “When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, ‘will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed?’ The life of an artist goes on after your moment ends, you know? So who do you want to be in the end and how do you want to be seen by the people that know you? I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life. I’m doing it as a vocation, not some last-ditch effort to escape to some other world. I made this record not only as a way of saying that, but as a way of saying it’s ok to feel that way. It’s ok for people to sacrifice some degree of creature comfort in order to live a life you believe in. And it doesn’t have to be an endless search for something just out of reach, it can be a permanent way of being and something that sustains you.”

Drawing from early American left-of-the-dial “college radio” staccato guitar lines and live drum samples, the album’s material sees Stewart eschewing his usual wall of synths-driven sound for a more live sound.

Life in Small Spaces‘ first single “Jim Carol New Year” is a hooky, decidedly upbeat, 1980’s New Wave-inspired track featuring layers of glistening and shimmering synths and gated reverb-soaked, angular drum machine beats. Seemingly channeling Security and Peter Gabriel 3-era Peter Gabriel and New Order, the song’s title nods to the late New York-born and-based author, poet and musician Jim Carroll and holiday season carols, while casting a critical eye on modern life. Throughout, the song sees is narrator and protagonist rejecting false promises of religion, advice from so-called experts or easy answers in favor of self-validation and independent thinking. The song’s refrain of “I forgot my money” is meant to convey all the things the song’s protagonist isn’t buying. “If you want to be free,” Stewart says, “you have to watch out for some of life’s classic pitfalls.”

Directed by Clayton Hunt, the accompanying video for “Jim Carol New Year” follows two travelers — one of them is in a hazmat suit — being inexplicably drawn to a house in the distance. The two travelers wind up meeting each other and discovering they’re doppelgängers for each other.

“Chris had an idea of a house in the distance with two travelers being drawn toward it. We wanted each traveler to represent a different version of the journey,” Clayton Hunt explains. “One traveler struggled unprotected against the landscape, the other was cautious, outfitted in an orange hazmat – type suit. I decided to shoot 16mm and capture everything against the green landscape, creating a vibrant contrast. That imagery helped guide the production and inform the story.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Alewya Returns with Defiant, Dancehall-Inspired “Maktoub”

JOVM mainstay Alewya is an acclaimed London-based singer/songwriter, producer and visual artist. Her highly-anticipated full-length debut, ZERO is slated for a June 26, 2026 release through Because London Records. The album reportedly embodies years of artistic growth into an effort that’s both deeply personal and sonically expansive. But the album also marks a significant milestone, as it sees her boldly stepping into a new creative era, defined by fearless experimentation and cultural fluidity. 

ZERO will include the previously released “Night Drive,” feat. Dagmawit Ameha and “City of Symbols,” “Eshi,” the Busy Twist-produced “Selah” and its fifth and latest single “Maktoub.” Anchored around dancehall reggae riddims, skittering industrial trap triplets, “Maktoub” continues a remarkable run of genre-defying and sweaty global club music that’s expansive yet urgent, accessible yet forward-thinking and remarkably catchy. Over the song’s dancehall riddims, the JOVM mainstay’s reggae-influenced vocal sings lyrics that touch upon themes of resistance, destiny and self-determination that are fiercely feminist and defiantly pro-Black and pan-African.

“Sometimes songs take time to reveal themselves but ‘Maktoub’ felt immediate and effortless from day one,” notes Alewya. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lulla Shares Brooding and Atmospheric “Secret Garden”

Lulla is a Chinese Canadian illustrator, fashion designer, singer/songwriter and producer who currently splits her time between Toronto and NYC. As a musician, the Canadian-born artist is a classically trained pianist, who recently began to experiment with electronic music by blending dark synth pop, alternative pop and indie pop to build an immersive sonic world that’s intimate and otherworldly. Thematically, her self-produced and self-written work explores emotional turmoil, femininity and nostalgia through sci-fi and futurism.

Lullaverse is the Canadian artist’s ongoing sci-fi narrative music project in which each song functions as a standalone emotional world and as a chapter in a larger mythological universe. Her second single “Secret Garden” is a a brooding and atmospheric alt-pop song featuring reverb-soaked, skittering beats, bursts of twinkling keys. Lulla’s yearning vocal ethereally floats over a brooding production that sonically seems to channel early Beacon and others.

“The garden is not a place. It is a body. The heart is hidden inside it. The hidden shrine is a vault,” Lulla explain. “A place where everything real is kept, worshipped in private, never surfaced. Heaven would call it sin. The world would call it a waste. Does it matter? Whether the devotion is directed toward a warm body or something of higher meaning, the distinction is irrelevant. She disappeared beyond the atmosphere either way.

“You can hear ‘Secret Garden’ as a queer love story,” she continues. “You can hear it as an artist’s confession. Both readings are fully supported. Neither one is wrong, it is deliberate ambiguous.”

Directed by the artist, the accompanying video features the artist, dressed in white with ivy wrapped around her in a white studio, near a computer and microphone. At one point, we see a confused Lulla running towards a bathroom. For the artist, she’s inexplicably and dangerous drawn to music — at seemingly all costs.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Christian Sean Shares Woozy “Saint Loreto”

Montréal-based pop artist Christian Sean is a firm believer in the transformative power of pop music. As a kid, he was drawn to indie rock and left-field electroinca, part of a local scene that disavowed commerciality in favor of innovation and creativity. But as he got older, he surrounded to his true calling — making what he believes is the best music of his life, anchored around a unique blend of melodic sensibility and avant-garde experimentation.

Sean’s debut, last year’s Hallelujah Showers was the culmination of years toiling on the local scene as a producer and multi-instrumentalist and was released to praise internationally from the likes of Ones To Watch, The FADER, Earmilk, and others. He capped off a busy 2025 by opening for French alt pop artist Zaho de Sagazan on their Canadian tour and making a run of the Québecois festival circuit with sets at POP Montréal and Santa Teresa Festival.

Building upon a growing profile, the rising Montréal-based pop latest single “Saint Loreto” is a slickly produced, hook-driven bop featuring lived-in songwriter Sean’s achingly tender falsetto and a glitchy, forward-thinking production that’s both club and radio friendly. But under the slickly produced surface is a song anchored around a familiar, woozy internal battle between self-doubt, indecision and longing.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Super Plage Teams Up with Virginie B on Summery “POOL PARTY”

Jules Henry is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, electronic music producer and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed, JOVM mainstay recording project and Super Plage. Founded back in 2019, Super Plage sees Henry crafting slickly produced, dance floor friendly electro pop that draws from house and nu-disco. He frequently collaborates with local French Canadian artists to create a playful, fun-loving and escapist universe, where it feels good to party.

Since 2019, Henry has released four albums, including 2023’s Magie á minuit, which received an ADISQ Félix Award-nomination for Electronic Album of the Year. Building upon a growing profile, Henry has made a run of both the provincial and international festival circuits, playing sets at Francos de Montréal, FME and Festival d’été de Québec, SXSW, Wide Days and others. He has opened for Miel de Montagne, Juilen Granel, Bon Entendeur, MYD and more.

Last year’s GROOSE MAISON featured a sleek and daring blend of house, disco and French touch anchored around catchy, downright funky grooves, much like on album single “Tip Top.”

The French Canadian JOVM mainstay’s latest single “POOL PARTY” continues his longtime collaboration with Virginie B. Sonically drawing from classic house music, “POOL PARTY” is a breezy and summery, dance floor friendly bop that showcases Henry’s unerring knack for sleek production and razor sharp, catchy hooks paired with a sultry, pop starlet performance from Virginie B. It’s a much-needed, early blast of summer.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Remington Super 60 Shares Shimmering, Dance Floor Friendly “Time to breathe”

Remington Super 60 — currently founding member, primary songwriter and producer Christoffer Schou, Elisabeth Thorsen and longtime collaborator Magnus Abelsen — is a Fredrikstad, Norway-based indie pop outfit the can trace its origins back to 1998 when its founder, Christoffer Schou started the project as a Casio synth pop band. Over the course of the Norwegian outfit’s almost 30 year history, the band’s sound has frequently bounced back and forth between Casio synth pop and 60s-inspired bubblegum pop drawing from Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, The Velvet Underground, Stereolab, The High Llamas, Cornelius, Yo La Tengo, Eggstone, New Order, The Cure and Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins, while releasing a handful of albums, EPs and singles through a number of labels across the globe.

The Norwegian outfit’s latest single “Time to breathe” is a decided change in sonic direction. Featuring a disco-influenced bass line and shimmering synth arpeggios, the song’s upbeat, hook-driven, ABBA-meets-Comme dans un penthouse-era Le Couleur-like arrangement serves as a lush bed for Elisabeth Thorsen’s ethereal vocal.

“’Time to Breathe’ is a little more energetic than our usual dream‑pop leanings — built around a groovy bassline and our singer’s soft, airy vocals,” Remington Super 60 founder Christoffer Schou explains, It was recorded in my living‑room studio, surrounded by guitars, basses, and a pile of well‑worn 80s Casio and Yamaha toy keyboards that have quietly shaped our sound over the years.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Locust Teams Up with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead and Natasha Morrow on Yearning “Long Distance Lover”

Mark Van Hoen is a London-born and based electronic music artist, who has written, recorded and released music with his best-known project Locust, as well as with Autocreation and under his own name. Originally influenced by Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream and others, Van Hoen’s music career started in earnest back in 1993 when he signed with Belgian-based label R&S. His initial releases as Locust saw him using vintage analog synthesizers and tape recorders. But as his sound moved towards an increasingly vocal orientated approach in the late 1990s, he also began releasing material under his own name.

Van Hoen also collaborated with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead in Black Hearted Brother, a project that released their debut Stars Are Our Home in 2013.

The English electronic music artist’s latest Locust single “Long Distance” features Neil Halstead on guitar and vocals from Irish musician Natasha Morrow. The lush and dream-like collaboration came together over the past few years and features shimmering and pulsating, Giorgio Moroder-like synths, Halstead’s reverb drenched shoegazer textured riffs meticulously draped and sculpted over the synths while Morrow’s yearning delivery expresses a longing for intimacy despite a physical distance.

“The music was recorded back in 2020 originally as a collab between Neil Halstead and I,” Van Hoen recalls. “It sat around for a few years, and I had the idea to send it to Natasha to see if it inspired anything vocally. She came up with the idea of long-distance phone calls between lovers. It struck a chord with me as I had experienced a couple of relationships like that. The idea of repeating these expressions of desire and longing over and over, because you are aching to be together. I had actually never met Natasha, and generally, I find that remote collabs don’t work because there’s a connection missing somehow. But in Natasha’s case, I had several long phone calls with her, and I think we connected that way. Not in any romantic sense, but as musical collaborators, which has its own particular need for a personal connection and understanding. I found it interesting that it related to the song’s lyrics in that she and I established a different kind of personal bond over the phone.”

The accompanying video by Mark Van Hoen features the song’s collaborators in silhouette dipping in and out of the frame, which helps further accentuate the distance, longing and ephemeral nature of the song’s central relationship.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lunar Twin Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Disappear into the Earth”

Lunar Twin — Bryce Boudreau and Chris Murphy — is a critically acclaimed duo and a JOVM mainstay act, who have established a sound that fuses dream pop and darkwave with atmospheric rock, electronic textures […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Genesis Owusu Shares Glistening, Woozy “BIG DOG”

Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu released this highly anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE today through OURNESS.

REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity. 

Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate. “The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”

The album includes the previously released “DEATH CULT ZOMBIE,” “STAMPEDE, “LIFE KEEPS GOING,” and the album’s latest single “BIG DOG.” Drawing from footwork, drum ‘n’ bass, glitchcore, and alt R&B, “BIG DOG” is anchored around a dense layers of dizzying synth arpeggios and skittering beats. The acclaimed JOVM mainstay alternates between punchily delivered bars and crooning over the woozy, uneasy production. The song sees Owusu surveying the world’s wreckage and takes aim at the higher institutional forces at play while still being danceable and oddly enough, almost feel good.

Owusu says of the “It’s a jam, man. Just something to have fun and feel good to. In the context of everything I’ve been releasing, the political, the disruptive, the punk – it’s important to remember what all that fighting is for: we’re fighting to be able to live life to the fullest. Live, laugh, love and all that. Fight for your right to party, as some wise men once said.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Modern Ideas Shares Glistening “This Is How It Hurts”

Modern Ideas is a Melbourne/Naarm-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who specializes in dark synth pop rooted in a belief that pop isn’t about perfection, but transformation. In particular, our power to change shape, to become new forms, to have new feelings and new identities.

Drawing from 80s synth pop and contemporary darkwave, Modern Ideas’ is anchored around a simple conceit: Although modern life may be artificial, within that artifice lies the possibility of something beautiful, strange and new.

The Aussie synth pop project’s latest single “This Is How It Hurts” serves as the perfect introduction to its overall sound and approach. Built around glistening analog synths, a tight, skittering four-on-the-floor paired with an understated yet aching vocal and a remarkably catchy hook, “This Is How It Hurts” seemingly channels Depeche Mode, New Order and TR/ST while anchored around a spacious and clean, modern production.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: RIP Magic Shares Woozily Claustrophobic “Screwdark”

Rising London-based quartet RIP Magic — Marco Pini, Felix Bayley-Higgins, Beth Boswell-Knight and Pedro Takahashi — recently signed to section1, the Los Angeles-based sister label to Partisan Records.

The British-based quartet’s signing to section1 is part of a breakout year that has seen early, word-of-mouth momentum turn into something much more tangible. Following last June’s self-released double single “Loot”/”Dox,” RIP Magic quickly built a reputation as one of the UK’s most compelling new live acts, balancing their own frequently sold-out headline shows with festival sets and opening spots for Tame Impala, Fcukers, Fakemink and others,

Late last year, the London-based outfit shared, the James Murphy-produced “5words,” which came out as they were opening for LCD Soundsystem. Building upon a growing national and international profile, RIP Magic’s latest single “Screwdark” is a dense, woozily claustrophobic tune that’s one-part brooding and eerie Portishead trip hop, one-part frenzied, Beck and Beastie Boys-like sample fest that’s both club and festival friendly and prefect for late-night headphone listening.

The new track comes as the rising act is opening for Tame Impala’s sold-out arena tour of Europe, and fittingly, the accompanying video directed by Velcro captures the band while in tour, edited in a frenetic fever dream of places, shows, people and experiences.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Afterlife Shares Atmospheric and Yearning “Lovers Maze”

Currently split between Paris and Copenhagen, Danish-born Olivia Danielsson is a multidisciplinary artist with a background that spans both music and fashion. Danielsson is also the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie pop solo recording project Afterlife.

With Afterlife, the Danish-born artist’s work reflects a cross-disciplinary approach in which visual and sonic elements are created in parallel. And as a result, her releases exist within a cohesive expanding universe that sees her exploring emotional and existential states unfolding through an intimate inner dialogue. Sonically, her work moves between ambient pop and experimental pop, rooted in an atmospheric, otherworldly quality.

Danielsson’s latest Afterlife single, The Bird-produced “Lovers Maze” is a hook-driven bit of electro pop featuring glistening synth arpeggios effortlessly gliding over a pulsing, Giorgio Moroder-like baseline paired with the Danish artist’s ethereal and yearning croon. The result is a song that evokes the sort of woozy, euphoric haze shared in the intimate moments between lovers with an uncanny, seemingly lived-in precision.

Shot on grainy VHS-styled analog film, the accompanying video follows the Danish artist in a long red dress wandering through a Danish forest. It’s one part music video, one-part fashion shoot.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Shares Breakneck “LIFE KEEPS GOING”

Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu will be releasing his highly-anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE through OURNESS on May 15, 2026.

REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE reportedly sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity.

Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate.

“The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”

“LIFE KEEPS GOING,” the album’s latest single is a gritty, club friendly tune anchored around a propulsive, drum ‘n’ bass-like production featuring rapid-fire skittering beats, thumping, organ rattling low end and atmospheric synths. The track’s production evokes seemingly unstoppable force and movement and over the breakneck instrumentation, Owusu muses on time and the motions of life, finding strength and inspiration in their relentless, disobedient nature. Birth, love, war, heartache, despair, time cycling forward and death will continue well after all of us — and in turn, all of this — will be gone.

Directed by Isaac Brown, the frenetic accompanying video for “LIFE KEEPS GOING” was shot in Accra‘s massive Black Star Square, which was built for their independence and is steeped in national unity. We see Owusu by himself dancing and rocking out in the square and in a gorgeous, dream-like sequence on the beach at sunset. And although Owusu is a larger-than-life figure, his smallness in the face of such immense settings, the sea rolling in and out, the sky above are all serve as reminders of the song’s central themes — and why we need more unity in our world.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Alewya Shares Sultry Club Banger “Saleh”

JOVM mainstay Alewya is an acclaimed London-based singer/songwriter, producer and visual artist. Born in Saudi Arabia to an Egyptian-Sudanese father and an Ethiopian mother, the acclaimed London-based artist has spent her life surrounded by diaspora immigrant communities: She grew up in West London and after a several year stint in New York, she returned to London. Upon her return home, the Saudi-British artist developed and honed her ear for music through the sounds of the Ethiopian and Arabic music of her parents and the ambient and alternative rock albums of her brother. 

She’s part of a generation of artists actively redefining global music, a generation that’s generally rooted in heritage, yet unbound by it. Describing herself as a painter, who makes music, Alewya approaches sound as texture and feeling, guided more by intuition than structure. Her sound and story help to widen the Black British frame, bringing the often under heard North and East African perspective into a much-needed focus. 

Back in 2020, the JOVM mainstay burst into the scene with an attention grabbing feature on Little Simz‘s “where’s my lighter,” which caught the attention of Because Records, who signed the rising artist and released her critically applauded debut, 2021’s Panther In Mode EP. 

Alewya’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, ZERO is slated for a June 26, 2026 release through Because London Records. The album reportedly embodies years of artistic growth into an effort that’s both deeply personal and sonically expansive. But the album also marks a significant milestone, as it sees her boldly stepping into a new creative era, defined by fearless experimentation and cultural fluidity. 

ZERO will include the previously released “Night Drive,” feat. Dagmawit Ameha and “City of Symbols,” “Eshi,” and the album’s latest single “Selah.” Produced by longtime collaborator Busy Twist, “Selah” is a sultry, club banger anchored around pulsing Afrobeats-like instrumentation and production paired with a propulsive, infectious bass line and the JOVM mainstay’s effortless, hypnotic delivery. “Selah came from playful instinct,” Alewya says.

Directed by Iggy London with creative direction by Lee Trigg and movement direction by Kitz Katila, the accompanying video for “Selah” captures the cathartic release of joy, sweat through color and dance at a Black London party. This kinetically shot video should remind you that there’s true freedom and unity on a strobe-lit dance floor — and that Black folk are fucking beautiful.