Category: Indie Electro Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Brijean Shares Lush and Cinematic Lullaby “Euphoric Avenue”

Brijean is an acclaimed indie pop project that features: 

  • Brijean Murphy, a Los Angeles-born percussionist, who can trace the origins of her music career to her childhood: Murphy’s father Patrick is a percussionist and engineer, who taught a young Brijean her first patterns on a pair of congas that she inherited from the late Trinidadian steel pan drum legend Vince Charles. As a percussionist, the younger Murphy initially made a name for herself as a highly-sought after touring musician with stints in the touring bands of Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls Poolside, and several others.  

  • Doug Stuart, a jazz and pop session multi-instrumentalist and producer, who has worked with JOVM mainstays Bells Atlas, Meerna, Luke Temple, Jay Stone and others. 

2019’s debut EP WALKIE TALKIE was written and recorded in marathon sessions at their intimate home studio, during breaks in Murphy’s then-very busy touring schedule. The EP found the duo quickly establishing a unique sound that meshed Murphy’s Latin jazz and soul upbringing with Murphy’s 70s disco and 90s house-inspired production, along with psych pop. 

2021’s full-length debut, Feelings celebrated self-reflection while making sense of the worlds around and within through rhythm and lyricism. However, the months surrounding the album’s release rang extremely bittersweet with the sudden death of Murphy’s father and both of Stuart’s parents. In a haze of heartache and loss, the duo left the Bay Area to be near family, resettling in four cities in under two years. 

Their to-go rig became their traveling studio and the tracks they had started writing, along with Angelo, Murphy’s 1981 Toyota Celica became their few constants. 2022’s Angelo EP, which derived its title from Murphy’s beloved car, processed loss, informed by the duo’s own losses and the desire to move and start over. 

The acclaimed and accomplished duo’s highly anticipated sophomore full-length album Macro is slated for a July 12, 2024 release through Ghostly International. Reportedly seeing the duo at their most playful, the album’s material features the duo engaging different sides of themselves, confronting the gloriously weird paradox of being alive. They’ve leveled up to meet the complexities and harmonies of the human experience with what may arguably be their most dynamic songwriting to date. Colorful, collaborative, sophisticated and yet deeply fun, the album creates a world of macrocosm with characters moods and points of view rooted in the notion that no feeling is final — and the only way out is through.

The album’s song sequencing elicits an exploratory vibe with high-tempo peaks and breezy valleys in the psyche. The duo sees the record’s vast sonic spectrum in contrast to the expectations for their output — “we’re supposed to know the box that our art fits, in and then fully commit to it existing within that box,” Brijean’s Stuart says. Overall, the album is deeply anchored in the intention to just not just move through the ups and downs life presents you but to feel it all, and to know it intimately. 

Released earlier this year, the album’s first single “Working On It” is a funky and breezy bit of Larry Levan house-like bop anchored around a layered and strutting baseline and a loop of different percussion paired with twinkling keys serving as a lush and ebullient bed for Murphy’s mischievous crooning. The result is a song that finds the duo at arguably their most playfully light, with the song seeing Murphy riffing on self-improvement, the insomniac’s desire to finally get some sleep and life in the seeming end times in a way that’s halfway serious. 

The song started as al living room jam then as Murphy explains, “Doug played the two-layered basslines over a loop of bongos, congas an a dream machine and the rest felt like it happened in a dream.” Later Murphy asked fans to send voice memos in exchange for art, and some of those got peppered into the sound-bed. “That was a treat… Just getting to go through and hear all of these voices from around the world, an intimate and charming experience.” 

“Euphoric Avenue,” Macro‘s second and latest single is a Bossa nova and soul jazz-tinged lullaby featuring soaring and cinematic strings by Stephanie Yu, shuffling drumming by Kosta Galanopoulos, atmospheric keys, propulsive drum machine and some soulfully fluttering flute by Logan Hone serving as a lush and velvety bed for Murphy’s meditative vocal. While sonically seeming to nod at Heatwave’s “Always and Forever,” and the intro to “Boogie Nights,” “Euphoric Avenue” is a sort of psilocybin-fueled, somnambulant wander through a moonlit park, and observing everything with a sense of hyper-attentive awe.

“Being in this beautiful part of town nestled up against the Angeles National Forest played a big role in how comfortable we felt stretching out and trying to push our musical boundaries,” says Murphy. “Anytime we brought someone into the world to add their musical touch, it felt like a highlight.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Fen Doi Shares Upbeat and Anthemic “New Horizon”

Zurich-based producer, musician and singer/songwriter Neil Lauper is the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie electro pop recording project Fen Doi. And with Fen Doi, Lauper has crafted a sound that seamlessly blends elements of post-punk and darkwave with uptempo synth-driven electronica that also manages to be simultaneously retro and futuristic. As Lauper describes it, it’s music that “encourages you to dance into a brighter future.”

Previous releases have received support from several electronic dance music artists including Ellen Allien at Boiler Room Sydney, Curses, Perel and Rena among others. Adding to a growing profile, Lauper’s work has received airplay across Swiss National Radio.

Lauper’s full-length debut, New Horizon was released last week. The album is a nine-song, genre-bending journey of synths and infectious drum beats. The album’s latest single, album opening track and title track “New Horizon” is an incredibly upbeat bit of 80s-inspired synth pop anchored around glistening synth arpeggios, gated reverb-drenched beats, Lauper’s uncanny knack for big, catchy hooks and choruses paired with his reverb-soaked yet earnest delivery.

“New Horizon” was produced and recorded in Lauper’s home studio and initially started off as an organic piece created through improvisation on his keyboard. “‘’New Horizon’  tells a story of tender new beginnings in the aftermath of unexpected change and loss,” Lauper explains. “It is a story of maintaining an attitude of gratitude when much speaks against it.“

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bear Hands Shares Eurodance-like “Intrusive Thoughts”

Brooklyn-based dance punks Bear Hands — Dylan Tau (vocals, guitar), Val Loper (bass) and TJ Orscher (drums) — formed back in 2006. They gained early attention with 2010’s “What a Drag,” which led to the trio signing with Cantora Records, who released their full-length debut, that year’s Burning Bush Supper Club. 2014’s sophomore effort Distraction was a critical and commercial success with the album reaching #23 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers chart. The trio followed up with 2016’s You’ll Pay For This and 2019’s Fake Tunes.

The trio is making a highly anticipated return with the first bit of new music in over five years with their newest single “Intrusive Thoughts.” The track was recorded at a small Cherry Hill, NJ-based home studio and was co-produced by Elliott Kozel, Alex M and the band. Anchored around glistening synth stabs, a sinuous bass line and percussive and skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling thump paired with seemingly stream-of-consciousness lyrics, which accurately capture the irritation, confusion, self-doubt, self-flagellation and denial that intrusive thoughts so frequently create.

“’Intrusive Thoughts’ is the song that’s playing in my head all day and I can’t get it out,” Bear Hands’ Dylan Rau explains. “Not that I really want to. Well sometimes I do when I’m trying to do basic math or pick a restaurant to eat at with my girlfriend. I think I wrote it about being bored of everything and feeling dissatisfied with everyone and everything around me. Not that I’m super misanthropic in general but this song might make you that way if you get it stuck in your head so watch out.” 

Directed by Orson Oblowtiz and edited by Alex Russek, the accompanying video for “Intrusive Thoughts” follows a megalomanic motivational speaker/drummer, who does a chintzy anti-drug stage show that also includes McGruff the Crime Dog. It’s the sort of show and message that its intended audience would probably derisively roll their eyes at while watching.

“The video was deeply influenced by a motivational speaker/drummer who toured all the elementary schools in my home state with a massive 30+ piece drum kit and chintzy light show,” Rau explains. “He loved drums, hated drugs, and was easily identified as a crazed megalomaniac by at least one naive fifth grader (me). I think I remember him saying he could be touring with Bowie if he wanted but that it was more important to educate the youth. Ha!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jessie Berkshires is a Detroit-based singer/songwriter, musician, and visual artist. As a singer/songwriter and musician, Berkshire collaborates with her husband and producer, Nat Plane to craft sleek electronic soundscapes that serve as a fitting vehicle for her songs that tell stories of love, loss, pain and hope.

Released earlier this year, “Enough” is anchored around twinkling keys, oscillating and glistening synths, thumping beats and thumping beats. Berkshires’ plaintive vocal ethereally floats over the decidedly 80s inspired, hook-driven production that brings the likes of Kate Bush, Pet Shop Boys and others to mind.

As Berkshires explains, the song is an exploration of the sort of struggles we all experience with its lyrics delving deep into the weariness of conversing with oneself and the constant retrospective gaze that can leave one feeling trapped within the confines of their mind and self-talk. Throughout the song, the song’s narrator yearns to break free from their own internal struggles and doubts.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Mzzltvv is an emerging and mysterious pop artist and producer, whose mission is to create music that means something to her — with the hopes that it’ll meaning and life for others. Much like countless contemporary artists, Mzzltvv is genre agnostic, and enjoys jumping around genres and styles with a sense of exploration and curiosity.

Their latest single “Burning Bones” is a slickly produced bit of synth pop built around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering thump and a blazing keytar solo that serves as a lush and club friendly bed for the artist’s soulful vocal delivery. While revealing an artist that seems to effortlessly craft a catchy hook, the song sonically recalls The Weeknd and 80s synth pop.

The song as she explains embodies both her personal battles and her inner fire to succeed and evolve — and as a result, the song is part of a larger quest of self-discovery and strength in which every chord and beat is a step towards owning her truth.


Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Washed Out Shares Shimmering “Running Away”

Back in 2021, Washed Out‘s creative mastermind Earnest Greene left Atlanta returned to the countryside he knew when he grew up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today, he’s preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him. 

He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion,” after the John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd. It has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large-scale visual-art experiments.

Greene’s fifth Washed Out Album, Notes From A Quiet Life is slated for a June 28, 2024 release through Sub Pop. The album, which reportedly is Greene’s most audacious effort to date, is anchored around a purity of vision. It’s also the first album of his catalog that Greene wholly self-produced with mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy and David Wrench. 

Earlier this month, I wrote about the album’s first single, “The Hardest Part,” a bit of classic Washed Out with subtle refinements” The atmospheric and achingly dream-like and nostalgia-inducing production is anchored around twinkling and arpeggiated keys, glistening bass synths, bursts of strummed guitar paired with Greene’s penchant for crafting catchy hooks and swooning choruses. And much like the JOVM mainstay’s most recently work, the song has Greene’s vocal front and center, with the song’s tale of love lost being the heartbroken star of the show. 

“Running Away” the album’s second and latest single continues a remarkable run of synth pop that’s simultaneously cinematic yet intimate and deeply vulnerable. Anchored around an alternating quiet verse, loud chorus, quiet verse song structure paired with Greene’s unerring knack for soaring and catch hooks, “Running Away” features a lush arrangement of glistening and twinkling synths, skittering and thumping beats that continues to be classic Washed Out — but with super clean production that places Greene’s gently vocodered yet plaintive delivery at the center.

“Starting a new album often means a lot of failed experiments,” Greene explains. “Basically, I’m just waiting around until I stumble into something new that I can build an album concept around.  For NFAQL, that song was ‘Running Away.’  It had all of the ingredients that ended up shaping the aesthetic for the album: a more minimal arrangement, sonic clarity, and more of an emphasis on classic songwriting technique.”
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Calgary’s Sleepkit Shares Woozily Hallucinogenic “Oxygen on the Autobahn”

Calgary-based outfit SLEEPKIT — co-founders Chad VanGaalen’s Ghostkeeper‘s and Plant City Band’s Ryan Bourne and Texture Twins‘ Marie Sulkowski along with newest members Alvvays‘ and Ghostkeeper’s Eric Hamelin (drums) and Crystal Eyes’ and Plant City Band’s Joleen Toner — can trace its origins back to when its co-founders were members in the fellow outer limits leaners Devonian Gardens, whose two albums allowed the pair to find their own patch of common ground.

With SLEEPKIT, Bourne and Sulkowski eschewed Devonian Gardens stylistically wide-ranging arpparoch in a favor of a streamlined sound that pairs textural inventiveness and zoned playing techniques with the immediacy and approachability of dance music. Their full-length debut, 2016’s Champion Weekend was a slick blend of sunshiny dream pop, post-disco and psychedelic synth pop/synth rock with nods to Giorgio Moroder, The Stooges and ELO. (Yeah, I know that sounds kinda wild, doesn’t it?)

Bolstered by the additions of Hamelin and Toner, the band’s long-awaited Scott “Monty” Munro-produced sophomore album Camp Emotion is a reportedly a deeply-nuanced and emotionally refinement of their brand of experimental pop that sees them exploring the outer edges of songwriting and creation, functioning as a dance floor friendly soundtrack as much as it does as a hazy, late-night headphone session through inner space.

Camp Emotion’s first single “Oxygen on the Autobahn” is a woozily hallucinogenic, dance floor and headphone friendly bop anchored around reverb-soaked thump, buzzing synths and a trance-inducing groove. The result is a song that seemingly channels a mind-melting synthesis of Evil Heat-era Primal Scream and deep house.

The accompanying video by the band’s Joleen Toner with tiles by the band’s Ryan Bourne features the band’s members surrounded in a glitchy VHS tape haze, sine waves and cosmic imagery superimposed over cars driving on a highway. Fittingly trippy for a trippy song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Félix Mongeon is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, musician, producer and creative mastermind behind Radiant Baby. Mongeon’s Radiant Baby debut EP It’s My Party caught the attention of Lisbon Lux, who signed him and then released the Montréaler’s 2019 full-length debut, Restless. Restless saw Mongeon creating a sound that meshes crisp electronic sounds with organic instrumentation to convey a more mature and dynamic aesthetic. 

Since the release of Restless, the French-Canadian artist has very busy: He has made the rounds of the provincial and national festival circuit, with sets at Festival Pop Montréal, M pour Montréal, Festival Mode et Design, Picnik Électronik, Festival Fringe de Montréal, Santa Teresa Fest and Canadian Music Week. He also played at New Colossus Festival back in 2019.

2021 saw the release of Mongeon’s sophomore Radiant Baby album, Pantomime, which was followed up with a deluxe edition of Pantomime (Deluxe) last year. 

Earlier this month, Mongeon released his third Radiant Baby album Porcelaine through his longtime label home Lisbon Lux Records. The album features “Mort de Rire,” a slinky bit of synth-driven New Wave-like funk paired with the Montréal-based artist’s dreamy falsetto. “Mort de Rire,” sounds as though it could have been released sometime during the late 1970s and early 1980s. And as the rising Canadian artist explained, the song inspects the twists and turns of our darkest sides — without taking itself too seriously.

Porcelaine‘s latest single “Klondike” continues a remarkably run of slinky, synth-driven and downright dance floor friendly-like New Wave that seems to channel Jef Barbara‘s Soft To The Touch and Contamination, Talking Heads‘ Remain in Light and Le Couleur‘s Autobahn — all while reminding the listener of Mongeon’s unerring knack for crafting insanely catchy hooks.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: N’Faly Kouyate Shares Slickly Produced “Kolabana”

Guinean-born, Belgian-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist N’Faly Kouyaté has had a long-held interest in bridging the distinct worlds he inhabited most of his life: the ancient and the modern, his native Africa and the West. Growing up, Kouyaté received a rigorous and traditional Guinean musical education. When he later relocated to Belgium, he received traditional Western conservatory training. 

Throughout his lengthy career, Kouyaté has collaborated with an eclectic and diverse array of internationally acclaimed artists across a wide range of styles and genres, including Peter Gabriel, William Kentridge, Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Ray Phiri and others. But by far, the Guinean-born, Belgian-based artist may be best known for his work with the Grammy Award-nominated, groundbreaking, genre-defying outfit Afro Celt Sound System. 

Kouyaté’s solo debut Re: Génération Part 1 EP sees the acclaimed Guinean-born, Belgian-based artist creating and developing a new genre which he dubbed Afrotonix, which seems him pairing polyphony, electronic production and traditional African instruments like the kora, the balafon and regional percussion instruments. 

Earlier this year, I wrote EP single “Premiers Pas,” a slickly produced, breezy and hook driven bit of pop featuring atmospheric synths, twinkling kora, a supple yet propulsive bass line and skittering tweets and woofer rattling beats serving as a lush bed for Kouyaté’s plaintive delivery singing lyrics in Malinké and French. While being club and lounge friendly, the song is rooted in several powerful and urgent messages with the song being a cry for African autonomy without colonial influence, but the song also seeks and demands a more equitable world for all, as Kouyaté also calls out abuse in both the workplace and domestic spheres.

Kouyaté’s latest single “Kolabana” is the latest off his recently released EP. “Kolabana” continues a remarkable run of material that sees the Guinean-born, Belgian artist crafting a breezy and seamless synthesis of the contemporary and the ancient: The track features twinkling and arpeggiated kora, glistening synths and skittering beats serving as a lush bed for Kouyate’s plaintive delivery and an emcee, who contributes a swaggering eight bars or so, making the song both club and lounge friendly.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Marseille’s Social Dance Shares High-Energy Bop “Meilleur”

Rising Marseille-based electro pop trio Social Dance — Faustine, Thomas and Ange — are best friends and former roommates, who started the project back in 2020. The trio craft uninhibited and absurd pop inspired by their common experiences and complementary music tastes.

“Parler” off the trio’s debut EP 2022’s Rumeurs was featured in the Netflix series Emily In Paris. And as a result of Emily in Paris‘ popularity, the trio wound up supporting the EP with touring across Europe and Canada last year, playing over 70 shows, including sets at Inouïs du Printemps de Bourges and Rock en Seine.

Building upon a growing profile across the Francophone world, the Marseille-based trio’s full-length debut Volte-Face. The album further establishes their take on infectious, feel good pop but while pairing funky grooves with French touch and others.

Volte-Face will feature “Sometimes,” a feel good slice of dance punk anchored in a euphoria-inducing, dance floor friendly groove paired with squiggling bursts of Nile Rodgers-like guitar, punchy, mathematically precise drum machine, glistening synths and dueling bilingual boy-girl vocals. The result is a song that seemingly channels LCD Soundsystem, JOVM mainstays Psymon Spine and others — while being remarkably mischievous. 

Anchored around angular and squiggling bursts of guitar, skittering beats punchily delivered vocals and incredibly catchy, razor sharp hooks, “Meilleur” the album’s second and latest single sounds as though it were subtly nodding to Freedom of Choice-era DEVO, Psymon Spine and Talking Heads while continuing a remarkable run of infectious, euphoria-inducing, high-energy bops.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: AKA Kellz Teams Up with Ria Boss on a Celebration of Black Liberation, Beauty and Self-Acceptance

AKA Kelzz is a Berlin-based, queer, non-binary Black artist, who’s committed to intersectionality and uplifting BIPOC communities. The Berlin-based artist’s career and musical journey has been a testament to perseverance. Overcoming various setbacks and limited representation, AKA Kelzz found much-needed solace in Berlin while reigniting their passion for music.

The COVID-19 pandemic served as a catalyst for the Berlin-based artist to develop their songwriting and to hone their production skills. Collaborating with producer Rafa Mura helped to launch their career, and since then they’ve become a rising figure in Berlin’s soul music scene.

Over the past year, the Berlin-based artist has played opening slots for Pip Millet and Madison McFerrin. They’ve also played sets at Melt Festival and X-Jazz Berlin Festival. And along with that, they’ve collaborated with JOVM mainstays Nick Hakim and Annahstasia as part of Noah Slee’s vocal ensemble A Song For You. Building upon a growing profile, AKA Kelzz’s recent releases “Free Falling,” “Hidden” and TikTok viral hit “Fly,” are part of the creation of a platform that specifically uplifts the voices of dark-skinned and/or queer black folks, who are often overlooked. (Fuck yes to all of that.)

Ria Boss is an acclaimed Ghanian musician, songwriter and performer with an incredible voice. Affectionately nicknamed “Cat Mama,” Boss has created Cat Mama World, where her multiple artist personalities and endeavors come to life.

Her latest album, 2022’s Remember was ranked the #1 R&B album of that year by Native Magazine. And Boss’ live show Cat Mama World as gained popularity for its showcase of her theatrical ability and storytelling.

AKA Kelzz’s latest single “Mango” sees the Berlin-based artist collaborating with the acclaimed Ghanian artist. Anchored around a sleek Afrobeats-meets-contemporary R&B-like production featuring bursts of strummed acoustic guitar, swirling and painterly layers of glistening synths paired with skittering beats, the song’s production serves as a dreamily lush bed for AKA Kelzz’s and Boss’ to trade soulful vocals — and for their ethereal harmonies. The song captures the profound joy of finding understanding and acceptance in a world that can be all too cruel to anyone not white, cis het or heteronormative.

And while sonically reminding me of THEESatisifaction, “Mango,” as the two collaborators explain is “a celebration of liberation, beauty and self-acceptance” that was inspired by the rising Berlin-based artist’s experience visiting Ghana last summer.

During that trip, AKA Kelzz experienced a profound sense of liberation. “I saw my reflection daily,” the Berlin-based artist says. “This unlocked a new level of Black liberation for me, and I want to bring this sunshine and liberation back to folks all over the world.” 

“This song is about embracing our own beauty and power. It’s about not being afraid to be who we are and to shine our light,” Ria Boss adds. “It feels like the softness of the sun on my skin and reminds me of how sweet life can be when we accept ourselves.”

Directed by Yalla She Said, the accompanying video for “Mango” features a collection of beautiful and incredibly stylish Black folk at a picnic in a verdant park. There’s different expressions of gender and of Black people — but they’re experiencing a collective joy while championing and holding each other up.

“The ‘Mango’ music video serves as a call to liberation, crafted to ignite inspiration and empowerment among BIPOC wom*n, urging them to champion each other on a profound life journey: to lead and shape a fresh reality where all feel truly seen and heard. Equal and embraced, amidst our myriad differences,” Yalla She Said explains.

“‘Mango’ becomes a vibrant celebration of colors and diversity, embracing the tender link between goddesses and the essence of nature, rooted in Mother Earth’s embrace. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Washed Out Shares Surreal, Dream-like Visual for Achingly Nostalgic “The Hardest Part”

Back in 2021, Washed Out‘s creative mastermind Earnest Greene left Atlanta returned to the countryside he knew when he grew up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today, he’s preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him.

He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion,” after the John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd. It has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large-scale visual-art experiments.

Greene’s fifth Washed Out Album, Notes From A Quiet Life is slated for a June 28, 2024 release through Sub Pop. The album, which reportedly is Greene’s most audacious effort to date, is anchored around a purity of vision. It’s also the first album of his catalog that Greene wholly self- produced with mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy and David Wrench.

Notes From A Quiet Life‘s first single “The Hardest Part” is classic Washed Out with subtle refinements: The atmospheric and achingly dream-like and nostalgia-inducing production is anchored around twinkling and arpeggiated keys, glistening bass synths, bursts of strummed guitar paired with Greene’s penchant for crafting catchy hooks and swooning choruses. And much like the JOVM mainstay’s most recently work, the song has Greene’s vocal front and center, with the song’s tale of love lost being the heartbroken star of the show.

Unabashed and unafraid to pioneer and incorporate new technologies within his art, Greene enlisted multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and director Paul Trillo to direct the music video for the album’s lead single, “The Hardest Part.” Created using OpenAI’s Sora, “The Hardest Part” marks the first collaboration with an artist and filmmaker to be generated entirely utilizing this technology.

Before I forget some background here: OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Their mission is to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI’s Sora is an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative videos from text instructions. Although the model isn’t publicly available as of this writing, OpenAI is currently working with a number of visual artists, designers and filmmakers to gain feedback on how to advance the model to be the most helpful for creative professionals.
 
“I had the seed of this video concept 10 years ago, where we do an infinite zoom of a couple’s life over the course of many decades, but I have yet to attempt it because I figured it’d be too ambitious for a music video,” Paul Trillo says. “While the technology is experimental and cutting-edge, I wanted to do something that also felt like a classic music video that would hold your attention no matter what tech was being used in the process. I was specifically interested in what makes Sora so unique. It offers something that couldn’t quite be shot with a camera, nor could it be animated in 3D, it was something that could have only existed with this specific technology. The surreal and hallucinatory aspects of AI allow you to explore and discover new ideas that you would have never dreamed of.  Using AI to simply recreate reality is boring. I wasn’t interested in capturing realism but something that felt hyperreal. The fluid blending and merging of different scenes feels more akin to how we move through dreams and the murkiness of memories. While some people feel this may be supplanting how things are made, I see this as supplementing ideas that could never have been made otherwise. Many artists in this industry are constantly compromising and negotiating their ideas with the reality of what can be made. This offers a glimpse at a future where music artists will be given the opportunity to dream bigger. An overreliance on this technique may become a crutch and it’s important that we don’t use this as the new standard of creation but another technique in the toolbelt.”
 

“‘The Hardest Part’ is a story about nostalgia and love lost.  With the video, I wanted to bring this narrative to life in a sincere way that was also exciting and unexpected. I’ve been a fan of Paul for a long time and he is amazingly skilled at incorporating cutting-edge visual effects that elevate a story instead of simply supplementing it with shock and awe,” Washed Out’s Ernest Greene says. “He was at the top of my list of potential collaborators. 
 
“What he’s come up with is nostalgic, sad, uplifting, and often quite strange.  However, he still manages to make you feel for the characters and invested in the journey of how their lives progress.

“I think that Paul is right when he says that this video could only be made using this new AI technology.  In my opinion, the hallucinatory quality of Sora clips feels like the beginning of a new genre unto itself – one that is surreal and unpredictable and entirely unique to traditional cinema or even animation.”
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: KOKOKO! Shares Throbbing and Propulsive “Bazo Bango”

The acclaimed Congolese collective KOKOKO!’s highly-anticipated sophomore album BUTU is slated for a July 5, 2024 release through Transgressive Records. BUTU sees the collective continuing to pair a defiantly resistant punk-like energy, informed and inspired by the attitude and thought of a new generation of Congolese artists and young people with their neck-snapping, attention-grabbing block party alchemy — but pushed to new, global heights.

Kinshasa’s after-dark buzz was one of the major inspirations behind BUTU, which means “the night” in Lingala, and the album dives deep into the heart of the chaotic, throbbing city, celebrating and championing the joyful and creative spirit of its inhabits. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Belgian producer Xavier Thomas, a.k.a. Débruit, the forthcoming album sees the collective led by Makara Bianko channeling a more electronic-driven, upbeat sound while replicating the frenetic feel of their hometown’s dynamic nightlife: equipment is pushed to its limits through saturated and distorted speakers and the sonic push-and-pull of nighttime sounds. 

The band employs field recordings, recorded from the city’s nighttime sounds and “ready-made percussion” like detergent bottles, which they fed through distortion to get closer to their city’s nighttime sounds. “Compared to Fongola, this album is intentionally way more intense, because it’s quite upbeat and quite full-on,” Xavier Thomas says. The album’s material also pulls from much wider influences and span across West Africa and South Africa, influenced by Bianko’s global travel, which introduced him to new types of alternative electronic music and punk. 

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written about the following singles:

“Mokili” a house music inspired banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, relentlessly skittering hi-hats and tweeter and woofer rattling thump serving as a slickly produced bed for Bianko’s crooning and impassioned shouts. Continuing a remarkable run of club friendly material with an in-your-face punk attitude and ethos, “Mokili” captures the frenetic and sweaty energy of their hometown and its nightlife scene with an uncanny, novelistic realism. But along with that, the song is a forceful and joyous reminder that Africa is the present and the future.

“’Mokili’ is about moving the world so much that it’s going to tip over sort of,” the acclaimed Congolese collective explains. “This track was a track we were used to trying live in a more improvised way, we never got the chance to record till recently where we added the right touch for the studio. It was the last addition to our album BUTU and became the first single, so it’s really fresh. It has obviously influences from Kinshasa but also Kwaito and 90’s dance music.”

“Salaka Bien,” a euphoric, trance-inducing banger anchored around percussion created on heavy ceramic pots and pans, glistening house music synth stabs and skittering beats that helps to emphasize Bianko’s punchy and swaggering delivery singing lyrics full of winking sexual innuendo. If this track doesn’t fire you up and get you moving, you’re probably dead — literally and figuratively. 

“It’s a bass line driven track, with a lot of influences, like punk funk meeting old house stabs with a trance feeling!” The acclaimed Congolese collective explain. “When we play it live there are moments of overwhelming feeling building till it explodes and people let go totally. Do it, do it good, do it till you break it”.

BUTU‘s third and latest single “Bazo Bango,” derives its title from a Lingala phrase that translates to English as “they are scared,” a chant sung by crowds as a way to vent frustration, the collective explains. Anchored around a looping and propulsive electric bass line, skittering electronic beats, twinkling and percussive polyrhythm and bursts of woozy synth arpeggios pared with chanted call and response vocals, “Bazo Bango” is a euphoric, riotous banger that captures Kinshasa’s chaotic, throbbing and irresistible energy with a mischievous aplomb.

The accompanying video is a woozy mix of digital and electronic glitch shot in and around Kinshasa that pulsates to the song’s relentless throb.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Stefan Certic Shares Broodingly Cinematic “World of Mine”

Stefan Certic is a Serbian multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer and producer, who will be releasing his latest solo album World of Mine. The album will feature the previously released “Human,” featuring Steve Sims, a brooding and cinematic bit of 80s-inspired synth pop that nodded OMD and Eurythmics, “Human” is a remarkably cinematic track with melancholy and reflective lyrics discussing the human condition in a deeply lived-in fashion.

The album’s latest single, album title track “World of Mine” continues Certic’s collaboration with vocalist Steve Sims, as well as a run of material built around broodingly cinematic and atmospheric soundscapes while featuring elements of dark wave, synth pop and alternative pop. And much like its predecessor, the song is rooted in melancholy and reflective lyrics that discuss the human condition: The song’s narrator acknowledges that life is often full of unbearable pain, misery and darkness — but that there’s also profoundly sublime light and beauty if you know where to find it.