Nicola Ormiston is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Ormiston.
The Canadian producer’s latest single “Cherry Picker” sees crafting a breezy, hook driven pop confection built around a disco-inspired bass line, reverb-soaked Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, glistening and wobbling synth arpeggios and the Canadian artist’s plaintive and yearning delivery. “Cherry Picker” continues a remarkably run of breezy, effortlessly crafted pop that’s both lounge and club friendly.
Inspired by an old acquaintance that always left the Montréal-based artist starry-eyed, the song manages to evoke the swooning, starry-eyed sensation of being near a crush/love interest — and not quite knowing what to do or how to go about it.
Ali Sethi is a Pakistani-born, New York-based singer/songwriter and author, who is best known globally for his attempts to revive ghazal, an ancient poetic form that was taken by Sufi mystics from the Arab world to Persia and throughout the Indian subcontinent, where it captivated the royal court. Over the last few decades, ghazal has been unfashionable and viewed as a heavily mannered style associated with decadence and misfits and madman who speak in puns about the charms of forbidden love.
Sethi has given the ancient poetic form a new lease of life through playfully revisionist covers and renditions, which draw from his years of training in raga music, and his own journey as an out-of-place queer kid back in Pakistan, who relocated to New York. His most popular single “Passori,” was one of the most Googled songs of last year, with hundreds of millions globally tuning into its timeless message of forbidden love.
Nicolás Jaar is a Chliean-born, New York-based musician, electronic music artist and producer. Throughout his career, improvisation has been the core of his work. Before he started writing and recording electronic music, Jaar jammed on accordion with friends on the streets here in NYC.
Sethi has long been a fan of Jaar’s music, long before they began collaborating together. He’d absorbed the sounds over a number of years, listening casually and taking in their subtleties in bars and rooftop parties across Lahore and London. “It felt familiar to me, that sense of adventure you have when you hear his music, like a tale that teases you and plays with your expectations as it unfolds,” says Sethi. “In that sense it resembled the leisurely improvised ghazals and qawwalis I grew up hearing in Pakistan.”
When the pair were introduced by Indian visual artists and frequent Jaar collaborator Somnath Bhatt, Sethi was prepared. He had began to sketch out voice notes using loops snipped from Jar’s acclaimed 2020 album Telas, improvising vocalizations and seductive Urdu poems of the Chilean’s ethereal, time-bending productions. Jaar was amazed by the result. “It was what ‘Telas’ had been missing,” he explains.
The result of the vocal sketches is the acclaimed duo’s collaborative album together Intiha, a Ghazal-driven re-working of Jaar’s 2020 album, Telas. Slated for a November 17, 2023 release through Other People, Initha draws from Sethi’s life — and it gives the album’s material a gently subversive edge paired with the addition of new, improvised elements, prompting a playful back-and-forth echoed throughout the record.
Genre is constantly evoked but in gesture. But overall, the music transcends formula, using cultural reverberations and distinct repetitions that lull listeners into a placeless trance. It’s “a sound that I hope can operate on multiple levels,” says Jaar, a borderless, playfully ambiguous set of improvisations that sing confidently of love, loss and belonging.”
The album’s first single “Muddat” is built around a soulful and mischievously anachronistic production featuring skittering castanet-like percussion, glistening organ arpeggios that veers briefly into club rocking techno. The production serves as lush, silky bed for Sethi’s plaintive and yearning delivery, crying for out desperately for union with his beloved.
The song takes the opening lines of a canonical ghazal written as the British were decimating India’s precolonial traditions and the elaborate rituals and ettiequte of its courtesans and noblemen. But at its core, the pair evoke the loss of a cherished — and mythical — milieu, that as a native New Yorker feels deeply familiar. Ultimately, the result is a song that’s simultaneously ancient and modern, while evoking an old and very human longing.
Following a North American tour that included sold-out shows in NYC, Los Angeles and Toronto, Sethi will be embarking on a run of world-wide dates to close out the year and start 2024. You can check out those dates below. More dates will be announced in the upcoming weeks. But you can grab tickets here.
Ali Sethi on tour
10/8 – Austin City Limits – Austin, TX
10/9 – House of Blues – Dallas, TX
1010 – House of Blues – Houston, TX
10/12 – Variety Playhouse – Atlanta, GA
11/11 – Dubai Opera House – Dubai, UAE
11/14 – Saint Luke’s – Glasgow, UK
11/17 – Gorilla – Manchester, UK
11/18 – O2 Institute – Birmingham, UK
11/19 – 02 Shepherds Bush Empire – London, UK
2/24 – District of Raga Washington, DC – Vienna, VA
Founded in the early 2000s, Aswefall is a collaboration between two grizzled and accomplished music industry vets:
Clement Vaché, a DJ and electronic music producer, known for being a pioneer of the French Rave scene, an organizer of the Borealis Montpellier Festival back in the 90s, and for being the resident DJ of the Kill the DJ parties at renowned Parisian club Le Pulp back in the 2000s. However, over the past few years, Vaché has become one of the most sought-after musical directors in luxury and fashion.
The duo’s full-length debut, 2005’s Bleed was released through Kill the DJ Records and features “Between Us,” a track used in ad campaigns for Air France. Since then, “Between Us” has amassed close to five million streams on Spotify.
The duo’s latest single “La nuit s’évapore” is a brooding track that sees the pair meshing elements of coldwave, goth and electro pop into a danceable, club friendly banger built around glistening synth arpeggios, icy and seemingly detached vocals and skittering boom bap with some incredibly catchy hooks.
In a relatively short period of time, Garcia’s work has caught the attention of major British outlets like The Independent, Clash Magazine and BBC Radio 6. Building upon a growing profile, Garcia’s Tonguetied debut EP BLOOM is slated for an October 27, 2023 release.
BLOOM reportedly sees Garcia pairing the songwriting of a diarist, carefully treading a line between a direct and indirect gaze with what’s quickly becoming her trademark production style — arpeggiated synth pulses paired with her ethereal delivery.
The EP’s latest single “Selfish Girl” is built around glistening synth pulses, thumping beats and a driving groove serving as a lush and silky bed for Garcia’s ethereal vocal, expressing yearning to fit in, frustration, the sensation of not quite fitting in, and unease within the turn of a phrase — and within a lived-in specificity that should feel familiar to almost all of us.
“Born from a place of frustration, ‘Selfish Girl’ was one of the fastest songs I’ve ever written. The lyrics and melody came to life within around 15 minutes,” Garcia explains.
“As I grow and find my footing in this strange and very often unfair world, I become increasingly aware of those around me who don’t seem to align on the importance of self reflection. We all make mistakes, and all have moments of taking our lives for granted, but a perpetual inability to entertain the privilege you walk through life with, starts to become inexcusable.
Navigating friendships and communication in your 20s can be difficult – Selfish Girl provides me with an outlet to scream ‘I don’t care what you have to say’ into the musical abyss, and save my more put-together and perhaps constructive conversational approach, for real life.”
Shot by Zak Watson of Timestorm Productions, the accompanying video for “Selfish Girl” captures the rising British artist at dawn in silhouette and with sweeping cinematic aplomb and in brooding shots in stark, dream-like wood scenes.
Deriving her artist name from a Turkish term for the sun’s radiant touch on ocean waters just before sunrise, the emerging pop artist TANSU has a diverse and global cultural background with roots in Turkey and Ireland. She spent her formative years in London and Connecticut, had a stint in Boston for college, and has called NYC home for the past 13 years.
During that period, TANSU has carefully balanced her life between music and fashion, which she defines as performing arts. While working in fashion PR, she lent her vocals to numerous projects as a session and featured vocalist, most recently releasing “The Wash Up,” co-produced with Lars Viola. She also performs extensively around both lower and Manhattan, including a monthly residency at Lafolia Restaurant, every first Thursday.
Back in 2015, the emerging pop artist reconnected with American Authors‘ Dave Rublin, a college acquaintance. Since then, they’ve been writing and recording music together, including her latest single “DOWNTOWN,” which has been released through Rublin’s Little Planet Records.
Featuring skittering, trap-like beats and glistening synths serving as a silky bed for the emerging New York-based artist’s self-assured and sultry delivery. Seemingly indebted to the likes of The Weeknd, SZA, Beyoncé and others, the anthemic and hook-driven “DOWNTOWN” marks a new sonic direction for the emerging artist, while being informed by the bitter hurt of lived-in personal experience, so the song sees its narrator expressing confusion, hurt, pride and then forgiveness within a turn of a phrase.
“I wrote this song on the heels of ‘The First Big Fight’ with, who was then, my new boyfriend,” TANSU explains. ” It was weird, because I was treating the fight with one-night-nonchalance; kind of a, ‘don’t worry baby, I never liked you that much anyway’ type of feeling. Because that’s how you were SUPPOSED to feel when dating in the late 2010’s. ‘Grabbing my scars/ and then deciding just to walk out’ is a very intimate line. It questions how we can be intimate with someone, touch each others’ bodies, our scars, our souls, and then pretend that we can just move on. It’s hard to justify an intimate fling with your soul. ‘DOWNTOWN’ speaks to the juxtaposition of that mind fuck,” TANSU shares. She continues, “fresh from the fight, I needed some glorifying attention from someone else. So I went to the studio to go write something. Luckily my producer was also going through a situational something, so we came up with a sexy song while both sexually frustrated. We ended up going out to Three Diamond Door in Bushwick that night after that session. The bridge is an interpretation of what happened after Three Diamond Door. We were buzzed, music made us dance, I got the attention I thought I wanted… but as soon as I stepped outside, I knew who I was calling.”
The couple eventually recovered from that argument, and they got married this past weekend.
Acclaimed Montréal-based artist Laurence-Anne has developed a reputation for being an architect of the intangible. Her work is a blend of elements of dream pop, coldwave and synth pop built around soundscapes featuring haunting melodies, lush synths, hazy textures and synthetic rhythms paired with a voice that’s capable of evoking and instilling both comfort and anxiety. Thematically and lyrically, her work is informed and inspired by her imagination and her experiences while being deeply infused with her unique perspective.
The Montréal-based artist made a big splash with her critically applauded full-length debut, 2019’s Première apparition, which landed on the Polaris Music Prize long list. 2021’s Accident EP saw the Canadian artist expanding upon the sound that won her critical acclaim. Her Félix Petit-co-produced sophomore album Musivision saw Laurence-Anne crystallizing her creative identity and sound.
Slated for a Friday release through Bonsound, Laurence-Anne’s François Zaïdan co-produced third album Oniromancie sees the acclaimed Canadian artist diving deep into the nocturnal world — with the material moving seamlessly between sweet dreams and paralyzing nightmares. Sonically, the album sees her continuing to blend elements of dream pop, coldwave and synth pop, in addition to elements of art pop and experimental pop, which gives the album’s material a denser and darker feel.
Drawing from its creator’s subconscious, the album’s material manages to be dreamlike, intimate and seemingly spellbound while inviting listeners to a universe that exists only to those who are willing to lend an ear. And with that ear, the acclaimed Canadian artists opens up more than ever, while still depending the mysterious aura that surrounds her.
Oniromancie‘s latest single, the breakneck “Vitesse” features a relentless rapid-fire staccato rhythm, which helps to evoke the woozy anxiety of a vivid and unshakeable nightmare fueled by the creeping dread of its creator’s deepest, darkest fears. Laurence-Anne’s urgent and plaintive vocal seems desperate to burst out of the confines of eerie synth arpeggios and song’s relentless, breakneck rhythm — but can’t. “Vitesse” is inspired by a particularly vivid bad dream and the 80s European coldwave scene, particularly seminal French outfit Martin Dupont. In the dream, the Montréal-based artist rushes full-speed through chaotic, Dali-esque landscapes in search of the source of unrelenting havoc.
Laurence-Anne will be playing a handful of dates across Fall 2023 and Winter 2024. She will be playing two album launch shows: September 28, 2023 at Montréal’s La Sala Rossa, one of my favorite rooms in town to see live music. September 30, 2023 at Québec City‘s Le Pantoum. All tour dates are below.
Tour dates 15/09/2023 – Pont-Rouge, QC – Moulin Marcoux • 16/09/2023 – Sherbrooke, QC – Théâtre Granada • 28/09/2023 – Montréal, QC – Sala Rossa (Oniromancie Launch – POP Montréal) 30/09/2023 – Québec, QC – Le Pantoum (Oniromancie Launch) 03/12/2023 – Gatineau, QC – Minotaure ◦ 09/12/2023 – Mont-Tremblant, QC – L’Église du Village • 02/02/2024 – Terrebonne, QC – Le Moulinet • 03/02/2024 – Cowansville, QC – Espace Diffusion • 08/03/2024 – Lévis, QC – Vieux Bureau de Poste 15/03/2024 – St-Félicien, QC – Cégep St-Félicien – Salle Azimut 16/03/2024 – Alma, QC – Café du Clocher
• Supporting Milk & Bone ◦ Double bill with Bibi Club
19-year-old, emerging, French-born pop artist Loréne can has dreamt of being a singer since she was a girl. She wrote her first songs in her room, by herself — initially without daring to finish them.
A few years pass by and she starts timidly singing in local bars and restaurants. Those experiences open the doors to cabaret and the orchestra. Last year, the French artist decided to throw herself fully into music. She notes that like countless other young artists, she had to face the doubts and fears that prevented her from attempting to pursue her dreams.
Her debut single, the Whosinnocent co-written and produced “Across the Universe” is an anthemic, pop confection featuring twinkling and atmospheric synths serving as a lush yet ethereal bed for the emerging French artist’s remarkably self-assured delivery. While sonically reminding me of Haerts and others, lyrically and thematically, “Across the Universe” finds it narrator trusting a larger power — the universe itself. And as a result, it’s simultaneously hopeful and an acceptance of our smallness.
California-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Justin Chamberlain is the creative mastermind behind the rising dark wave recording project SOFT VEIN. Chamberlain emerged into the national and international dark wave scenes with two singles last year — “GIVEUPTHEGHOST” and “VIOLENTIA,” which saw him quickly establish a sound that has been compared favorably to the likes of Selofan, Panther Modern, Boy Harsher, Mareux, Twin Tribes, and others.
Building upon the attention he amassed with this first two singles, as well as a string of live shows, the California-based artist will be releasing his highly-anticipated full-length debut, PRESSED IN GLASS through Arttoffact Records on October 20, 2023. Entirely written and recorded by Chamberlain, the album’s material reportedly blends a variety of influences including cold, wave, industrial, modern dark wave and EBM. Sounding urgent, visceral and dangerous, the album’s material frequently features icy and brooding vocals over minimalist drum machines, metallic percussion, menacing bass synth lines and atmospheric synths to evoke “flashing, grainy pictures of desperation lust, and even love, in the dark.”
PRESSED IN GLASS‘ second and latest single, “LEASH” is a club friendly dark wave bop that seems indebted to John Carpenter soundtracks and early Depeche Mode with the song being built around a relentless motorik-like pulse, thumping industrial-like beats serving as a icy bed for Chamberlain’s plaintive delivery. The result is a song that manages to be simultaneously brooding and uneasy yet full of yearning.
Berlin-based indie electro pop duo light heads — Erin Renfro (vocals) and Alexandre Haudiquet (guitar) — can trace their project’s origins to their meeting in Paris. Both members have backgrounds in commercial music production, but they see light heads as a way to eschew hard and fast rules and strictures of songwriting and production — and as a way for the duo to embrace nostalgia, follow their instincts and tap into pure serotonin-driven pop.
Back in 2020, they relocated to Berlin, where they began writing and recording their debut single “Yellow House,” which saw the duo quickly establishing a sound that draws from a wide-ranging array of influences including psychedelia, funk and dance music in a technicolor indie pop package.
Released earlier this year, “Got Me Like,” is a breezy pop confection built around shimmering synth oscillations, a supple bass line, squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar and Erin Renfro’s ethereal delivery paired with an incredibly catchy hook. Sonically, “Got Me Like” brings a slick synthesis of Stevie Nicks‘ “Stand Back,” ACES and others while being a contented sigh that can only come from stumbling into love.
The duo explain that the song was created on a hot summer day last year: Haudiquet was jamming away while Renfro was dancing on the bed and singing the first words that came out of her mind “You got me like ooh ooh . .” For the duo, the single was an adventure into letting a song exist as it arrived to them, rather than picking it apart and cover complicating things as classically trained musicians tend to do. “I started off with lyrics that were simply fun and it evolved into the story of a summer fling turned into lifelong love,” light heads’ Erin Renfro says.
Orlando-based sibling duo and JOVM mainstays The Lovelines — Tessa D (vocals) and Todd Goings (multi-instrumentalist, songwriting and production) — emerged into the scene with the late 2021 release of their debut single “Strange Kind of Love,” a slick synthesis of Amy Winehouse-like blue-eyed soul, jazz standadrs and Dummy-era Portishead-like trip-hop centered around Tessa D’s soulful crooning and a dusty production featuring twinkling Rhodes, wobbly guitars and an infectious, razor sharp hook.
Over the past year, the Orlando-based JOVM mainstays have released material from their forthcoming full-length debut single-by-single over that period. Their latest single, “May Be Love,” is a slow-burning torch song take on trip hop and neo-soul built around shimmering pedal steel and congo-led percussion paired with Tessa D’s soulful vocal expressing an aching longing for love — and to be loved. We’ve all been there at some point or another. And we’ll all continue to be there at some point or another, too.
“‘May Be Love’ is a song about love and foolishness. It’s about what a fool love can make you be, but, oh to be a fool in love. You know?” The Lovelines Todd Goings says of the new single.
Back in 2016-2017, I had managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering the acclaimed Bay Area-based indie electro pop sextet The Seshen. Led by founding members Lalin St. Juste (vocals) and Akiyoshi Ehara (bass, production), the Bay Area-based outfit have released three albums of material that draw from a broad and eclectic array of influences including Erykah Badu, Jai Paul, James Blake, Radiohead, Broadcast, hip-hop, indie rock and electronica, among others.
Earlier this month, the acclaimed Bay Area outfit made two announcements:
Their return in the wake of the recent separation and divorce of its founding members
Their long-awaited fourth album Nowhere, which is slated for an October 6, 2023 release
Nowhere reportedly not only showcases the sextet’s remarkable musical prowess, but also offers a window into the changing nature of love, the fragility of human connections, and the different ways to embrace impermanence. It also marks the closing of one important chapter and the beginning of a new one for the band, capturing their evolution as individuals and their resilience as a band. And the album’s material is shaped and rooted in the experiences of its members, including the impact of St. Juste’s and Ehara’s marriage and divorce.
While St. Juste’s beautiful vocals anchor much of the album’s material, the band’s intricate production work helps to create a sonic landscape that’s simultaneously ethereal and grounded, capturing and evoking the essence of emotional turbulence and self-discovery, while complimenting lyrics based on St. Juste’s journey through the complexities of love and loss.
“Hold Me,” Nowhere‘s woozy, latest single pairs St. Juste’s ethereal and yearning vocal with sleek and hyper modern production featuring dub-like, glistening and wobbling synth oscillations, a sinuous bass line, skittering beats with the band’s unerring knack for catchy hooks within trippy and expansive song structure. At the core of the song is a desperate clinging to hope, for that relationship to not end, for that dear one to not leave. But nothing you can do can change the inevitable.
“‘Hold Me’ is about that moment before loss – the hope, the longing, the desire for love to stay,” The Seshen’s St. Juste told AFROPUNK. “During the separation between Aki and I, we held onto each other to navigate the darkness …a darkness that was dizzying, disorienting, and unfamiliar. We held on to each other and found our way out. This song is about connection even in the face of change.”
Directed by Paul Bates, the accompanying video for “Hold Me” is an intimately shot and woozy tour video diary that captures life on the road and elements of the creative and promotional processes with an uncanny specificity.
Andrew Barnes is a New York-based producer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who has spent much of his musical life playing guitar and drums in a variety of heavy bands. Barnes made a splash with his solo recording chillwave/bedroom pop/dream pop project Fake Fever — and its 2020 full-length debut, Surrogate, which caught the attention of the blogosphere with its material being a hazy, subdued trip through a lazy river of vaporware-tinged dreams and memories.
Nostalgia is a rather powerful drug. It can be provide a quick escape or a warm blanket of comfort in times of need — or in desperately uneasy times. But what happens when that temporary saccharine rush fades? As it turns out, the longer that Barnes spent in the nostalgic space that had long defined Fake Fever, the more he felt those reflective comforts dissipate over time, and found that the harsh realties of the present being uncomfortably inescapable. “When I initially tried to piece together ideas for my 2nd album, I was hitting a wall and slowly realized that I had spent so much time over the last few years trying to recreate this essence of my childhood and my past and existing in this escapist place where I was constantly looking backwards, that I was doing a horrible job of living in the present and trying to progress, both creatively and personally,” says Barnes.
After spending three years of false starts, new surroundings, much-needed band-aid ripping, chaotic experimentation and refinement, the result is Barnes highly-anticipated sophomore album Inside The Well. Slated for a for a September 1, 2023 release, the album thematically is a bittersweet breakup album viewed through the lens of nostalgia. “This album encompasses that sometimes-painful process of loosening the grip on the past so that you can free yourself to move forward,” the New York-based artist explains.
Sonically, the 11-song album sees Barnes sees him effortlessly weaving new genre flourishes to the Fake Fever sound including hints of shoegaze, house music, footwork, 2000s indietronica revival and drum & bass among others. The result is an album that sees Barnes showcases a new confidence that honors the electro pop sound and ear worm video game bleeps of the 90s and 00s while maintaining a creative, forward-thinking approach to blissful soundscapes and hook-driven songwriting.
Last month, I wrote about “Graveyard Shift,” a slickly produced and deliberately crafted slice of pop built around glistening synth arpeggios, sinuous bass lines and skittering, processed beats paired with Barnes’ ethereal and yearning falsetto and his knack for razor sharp, remarkably catchy hooks. The addition of a shimmering guitar solo makes “Graveyard Shift” sound a bit like a sleek synthesis of Jorge Elbrecht,Brothertiger‘s 2022 self-titled album and 80s sophisitipop. But the song is rooted in the devastation of heartbreak, the longing for something you can’t get back, and the slow process of moving forward as best as you can.
Inside The Well‘s latest single “Unknowable” is a brooding, Dâm-Funk-like funky strut built around wobbling bass synths, twinkling synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap serving as a lush and dreamy bed for Barnes’ ethereal and yearning delivery. The result is a song that continues a run of seemingly 80s-inspired material rooted in earnest, lived-in lyricism.
“This song is a perfect example of a happy accident. I had spent hours piecing together some upbeat sunny song idea that was not hitting at all for me when I played it back, and I was just sitting there frustrated and dejected about having to scrap it and start over,” Barnes says. “All of a sudden after the main track had stopped playing and it was just a gap of silence for a while, there was some random two-note dark synth layer I had accidentally recorded at the end of the project file on my little cheap Casio SA-46 that immediately made my ears perk up. I isolated that, deleted everything else I had made in the session except for the drums, and every layer just started immediately falling into place right after, forming the majority of what you hear on the finished product.”
Cincinnati-based synth punks The Serfs — founding members Dylan McCartney (vocals, percussion, guitar, bass, electronics) and Dakota Carlyle (electronics, bass, guitar, vocals) along with Andie Luman (vocals, synths) — can trace their origins back to when McCartney and Carlyle were working the fryers at a local pub and generally wallowing in puddles of despair.
The duo decided to express their grim outlook through the self-hypnosis of drums and synthesizers. After a couple of bungled attempts to play live shows, Luman joined the project, finalizing their lineup.
The Cincinnati-based trio’s third album Half Eaten By Dogs is slated for an October 27, 2023 release through their new label home, Trouble in Mind. The album reportedly sees the trio putting a decidedly Midwestern spin on the modernist twitch of future-forward acts like Total Control, Cold Beat, Skinny Puppy, Dark Day, This Heat, and Factrix while being informed by the existential doom of our current moment — with the album’s material at points featuring doomed proclamations of natural and supernatural disasters.
Half Eaten By Dogs‘ latest single “Club Deuce” is an icy, industrial-inspired club banger built around glistening and shimmering synth arpeggios, burnt out, tweeter and woofer rattling 808s paired with Lumen’s sultry cooing. Channeling early Depeche Mode and mid-80s New Order among others, “Club Deuce” is specifically designed to make you head to the dance floor and move — right now.
“I thought of the idea for this song at first like a movie in my mind,” says Luman. “It was the story of a fated man and a modern day Venus with complete and unrelenting control. The set was a quiet corner in a thunderstruck city with endless commotion in the distance. The whole thing glowing like a neon sign. ‘Club Deuce’ churns unhurried until it billows all around you and you’re caught like a fly in the jaws of a venus fly trap.”
Over the past 12-15 minutes or so, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering British electronic outfit and JOVM mainstays H2SO4. Last year was among the busiest years for the British outfit as they released a batch of slickly produced club bangers.
They began the year with “Outsiders (BassBears Mix),” a sleek, Balearic house-like banger built around glistening synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, enormous bass drops and euphoria-inducing hooks paired with sultrily delivered vocal sample fed through a bit of distortion. This one sounds as though it would rock clubs at Ibiza on any given night.
Continuing a rather prolific period for the British outfit, their latest single “Following The Line,” a slick yet accessible deep house banger that wouldn’t sound out of place at Avant Gardner or Ibiza while subtly channeling Tweekend-era The Crystal Method and Come With Us-era The Chemical Brothers.
