Category: Indie Electro Pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sweden’s The Sweet Serenades Share Hopeful and Anthemic “Akhilia”

Martin Nordvall is a Swedish singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed recording project The Sweet Serenades. And with The Sweet Serenades, the Swedish artist specializes in a sound that’s designed for both small clubs and late night car rides.

Nordvall’s work has been highly praised across the blogosphere, and as a result of his material appearing in TV shows like Grey’s Anatomy, Teen Wolf and The Fosters, the acclaimed Swedish artist has toured around the world.

His last album 2020’s City Lights featured a brooding sound built around dark synths and programmed beats. But his forthcoming fifth album, the Johannes Berglund-produced Everything Dies reportedly features a much more playful sound. “While writing and recording the new album I lost my father in [sic] a heart attack, I also became a father myself for the first time,” Nordvall says of the album., “The contrast between loss and happiness can be heard in the songs  – in the end it’s a hopeful album filled with energy – life is a cool thing.”

Everything Dies‘ second and latest single “Akhilia” features rumbling toms, insistent four-on-the-floor, a mischievous marimba melody, twinkling synths, and buzzing guitars paired with Nordvall’s penchant for enormous, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses and his weary yet hopeful delivery. At its core, is a song with a simple yet profound and oft-heard message, that frequently needs to be repeated — all things pass in time.

“Rumbling toms, four on the floor, a contagious marimba melody mixed with 80s synths and distorted guitars. Could be the first time The Little Mermaid and New Order has something in common,” Nordvall says of the new single. “This is an ambitious song that wants to be heard. It wants to be a hit. Arena Indie.” 

The accompanying video features a young child in a silver mask dancing in a wooden area. The video captures and emphasizes the mischievousness and the resilience within the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Split Kick Shares Sultry, Slickly Produced Banger

Split Kick — Miami-based Pete Neonakis and Toronto-based Andrew Corbin — can trace their origins back to a chance meeting in Busan, South Korea. The duo quickly developed a sultry electro pop sound informed by their shared love of everything from the 80s, soft rock and nightlife.

While they developed a fast-paced creative process that allowed them to produce multiple well-crafted tracks in a short timeframe, the duo also quickly captured attention across the country, performing shows around both Busan and Seoul.

Distance and lack of appropriate technology led to a short hiatus in the duo’s creative process. Pandemic-related lockdowns led to extra free time — and it inspired a desire to stay creative, which led to the duo pursuing the music that initially brought them together.

The duo’s latest single “Fantasy” is a slickly produced, sultry, club friendly banger built around glistening synth arpeggios, pulsating tweeter and woofer rattling thump paired with falsetto vocals and a remarkably catchy hook. Sonically, “Fantasy” reminds me of a sleek synthesis of Little Boots, 80s synth funk and Giorgio Moroder‘s legendary disco productions.

“We wanted to create a minimalistic tune that pumps hard for the DJ’s, while also adding something unique and interesting with the vocals,” the duo explain. “‘Fantasy’ feels like that classic late night banger that gets you through to your second wind.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Copenhagen’s Chopper Returns with Dance Floor Banger “Touch”

Jonatan K. Magnussen is a singer/songwriter and musician, best known for being the frontman of Copenhagen-based goth outfit The Love Coffin. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of months, you might recall that Magnussen recently stepped into the spotlight as a solo artist with his side recording project Chopper. And with Chopper, the Danish artist specializes in what he has dubbed “shock pop,” a crowd-pleasing sound that draws from Eurodance, glam rock, industrial, disco and B horror movies. 

Magnussen’s upcoming Chopper effort, the mini-album Shock Pop Vol. 1 is slated for a June 16, 2023 release through Pink Cotton Candy Records. The mini-album reportedly sees the Danish artist continuing to explore inherent dualities of the human condition while touching upon love, sexuality and carefree joy. Sonically, the album’s material is influenced by Pet Shop Boys, Skinny Puppy and Underworld — but placed in a modern context. 

In the lead up to Shock Pop Vol. 1‘s release, I’ve written about two of the mini-album’s previously released singles:

  • “Springtime,” a sleazy, dance floor friendly banger built around Magnussen’s sultrily delivered cooing, shimmering guitars, industrial clang and clatter, glistening synths and enormous, crowd pleasing hooks. The end result is a song — that to my ears — brings Electronic, New Order and Ministry to mind, while rooted in sleek, hyper modern production and razor sharp hooks. But underneath the dance floor rocking grooves, is something far darker and menacing. Written during the pandemic winter, the song illuminates the feelings of longing and isolation — capturing the desire to be out among friends, to meet lovers, to just do things with anyone. 

  • “Sugar and Spice” which begins with a brooding horn line, twinkling synths and percussion, a sinuous bass line and tweeter and woofer rattling thump paired with Magnussen’s and Glitchi‘s sultry deliveries and enormous Larry Levan-era house-like hooks. The end result is a sweaty and hedonistic banger that to my ears sounds like a slick synthesis of Ministry, The Sisters of Mercy and Electronic. 

Shock Pop Vol. 1′s third and latest single “Touch,” which features vocalist Ama May continues a remarkable run of sleazy, dance floor friendly bangers. But unlike its immediate predecessors, “Touch” is a sleek, slickly produced synthesis of the Madchester sound, eurodance, Larry Levan-era house and French touch built around the Danish artist’s penchant for infectious groove and enormous hooks.

The accompanying video continues along in the sleazy, DIY-meets-public access TV aesthetic of its predecessors and includes the collaborators in a strobe and laser lit club, mutants and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: AMAARA Shares Gorgeous “New Love’s Mortal Coil”

Kaelen Ohm (she/they) is a Canadian singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, actor and filmmaker. As a musician, Ohm has cut her teeth in a number of indie projects as a frontperson, guitarist and keyboard player — and as a result, she has shared stages with St. Vincent, RY X, Shannon and the Clams, Vance Joy, and Counting Crows. As an actor, Ohm has had a starring role in Netflix’s Hit and Run, and she has appeared in a number of American TV shows and films, including NBC’s Taken, MGM’s Condor, AMC’s Hell on Wheels, Lifetime’s Flint and Charles Wahl‘s award-winning short film Little Grey Bubbles, which screened at over 20 film festivals globally. She was also cast in season two of MGM+’s FROM.

Ohm’s latest multimedia project AMAARA initially began as a solo effort — and an outlet to express her own ethereal, dream pop sensibilities featuring reverb-soaked guitars, soaring synths and expansive percussion paired with haunting vocals. So far she has released her debut EP, 2017’s Black Moon and 2020’s sophomore EP Heartspeak, which was featured on NPR’s All Songs Considered and received positive reviews from Tower Records, Guitar Girl Mag, Exclaim! and a list of others.

Ohm’s AMAARA full-length debut Child of Venus is slated for a July 7, 2023 release through Lady Moon Records. The album is reportedly a culmination of a lifetime of artistic pursuits and a document of rediscovery and transition, in which the Canadian multi-disciplinary artist coming up for air as both an artist and as a human being truly reborn. Thematically, the album material reflects on love and loss, the healing power of pure psychedelia and the act of connecting with her inner child, which has led her to reflect on her own adolescence. “I’ve been on a journey of looking into my own childhood conditioning, and the notion of unbounded creative genius as well as where that goes wrong in adolescence,” Ohm explains. Sonically, Child of Venus‘ material is classic dream pop but also draws from jazz, R&B and folk — while further cementing the sound that has won her praise both in her native Canada and internationally.

Child of Venus‘ first single, “New Love’s Mortal Coil” is a slickly produced. atmospheric bop that sounds indebted to 80s synth pop and hip-hop but rooted in modern production. The song is built around shimmering synths, skittering beats and thumping reverb-soaked 808s, reverb-soaked bursts of guitar, Ohm’s yearning delivery paired with an incredibly catchy hook. But under the slick production is earnest yet somewhat playfully cheeky lyricism born from seemingly lived-in experience.

“I was walking back to the studio one day in the Spring of 2021 and found myself sining this cheeky song about projection and what happens in anew relationship when the first stages begin to fade,” Ohm explains. I recently learned the word limerence and, nearly two years later, it turns out to be a primary theme of what my new single, ‘New Love’s Mortal Coil,’ is about.

The Canadian multidisciplinary artist explains that limerence is a term used in psychology and is defined as “the state of being infatuated or obsessed with another person, typically experienced voluntarily and characterized by a strong desire for reciprocation of one’s feelings, but not primarily for a sexual relationship,” Ohm says. “I also wanted to speak to the law of impermanence and how it can apply to new love – what happens when we attach to a dream or an expectation that things will go a particular way… It’s a very real thing and it can rob the connection of organically evolving to its natural potential.”

Directed by the Canadian artist, the accompanying video for “New Love’s Mortal Coil” is a surrealistic yet cinematically shot fever dream with a vibrant color scheme that features Ohm and a collection of dancers in neon-colored 80s-styled suits performing a series of choreographed moves throughout various locations in Los Angeles.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Me.Kai Shares Brooding “Why It’s So”

Me.Kai is a singer/songwriter and guitarist, who began her career busking on Santa Barbara‘s streets covering an eclectic array of artists including Ella Fitzgerald and Dua Lipa, among others. Gradually transitioning from cover artist to solo artist, she became a staple in her hometown’s music scene, collaborating with Area 51, Everything’s Fine, and a number of up-and-coming producers, including Gold Man and Burko. As as solo artist, she has developed and honed a genre-blending style and sound that draws from  Janis Joplin and Stevie Nicks, and her love of bass heavy, indie electro pop. 

Some of her songs have landed on Insomniac’s In/Rotation Label list, and several high-profile Spotify playlists. She has also had some of her work appear in the Netflix series All American. Building upon a growing profile, the Santa Barbara-based artist plans to be very busy: a number of collaborations with popular EDM producers and her debut EP are slated to on the horizon in the upcoming months. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Bump in the Night,” an accessible and sultry bop built around Me.Kai’s coquettish, come hither delivery and a breezy bop, glinting guitars, wobbling tweeter and woofer rattling low end, dancehall-like riddims and twinkling synths. The song is full of carnal longing and desire and features a narrator, who boldly expresses that she has sexual needs and desires that need to be fulfilled — now.

Her latest single “Why It’s So” is a brooding bit of singer/songwriter synth pop featuring a sinuous bass line, skittering boom bap beats, atmospheric synths paired with Me.Kai’s plaintive vocal. While seemingly nodding at a synthesis of R&B and Dido, “Why It’s So” is rooted in lived-in personal experience.

“‘Why It’s So’ was a very personal project for me,” Me,Kai explains. “It follows the ups and downs of being in an abusive relationship with the love of my life, finally making it out safely.. and then the hardship that follows afterward, even knowing you made the right decision for yourself in the end. I hope this song can take people on an emotional journey through that process of persevering through love and hardship.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Rising Paris-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and JOVM mainstay Thaïs specializes in an atmospheric and delicate take on pop centered around the French Canadian artist’s ethereal vocals. Thematically her work focuses on melancholy, loneliness and dysfunctional, confusing, heartbreaking love. 

Last year was an enormous year for the rising Paris-born, Montréal-based artist. She signed with Bravo Musique, who released her highly anticipated full-length debut, Tout est parfait, which featured three singles I wrote about on this site:

  • “Arrête de danser,” a slickly produced bop centered around glistening and atmospheric synth arpeggios and trap beats that saw the rising French Canadian artist alternating between a syncopated trap-like flow for the song’s verses and ethereal cooing for the song’s hook and choruses. And while arguably being one of her most club friendly songs, “Arrête de danser” is a bitter tell-off to an unhealthy, dysfunctional lover that the song’s narrator knows deep down is wrong for her — and yet can’t quite quit.  
  • The Cœur de Pirate co-written, Renaud Bastien-produced “Vieux Port,” a danceable and deceptively upbeat bop featuring wobbling bass synth, glistening and arpeggiated synth melodies, twinkling keys, some brief bursts of industrial clang and clatter and soaring strings paired with Thaïs ethereal cooing. But just underneath the surface is a song that details a relationship that’s seemingly on the ropes while contemplating the passing of time and the desire to turn the clock back — with the knowledge you have now. 
  • “Le vent,” a breezy pop song but around twinkling and atmospheric synth arpeggios and skittering trap-like beats paired with Thaïs ethereal cooing. The song structurally was written to evoke a gust of wind for its verses and a brewing storm for it choruses. But at its core, “Le vent,” continued a remarkable run of material imbued with a bittersweet ache over a long lost love that deep down she knows she’ll never get back.

Thaïs also played a high-energy opening set at last year’s M for Montréal‘s Believe Presents Meet and Bowl at Darling Bowling Showcase that proved to me that she’s a superstar in the marking.

The rising Montréal-based JOVM mainstay’s latest single is a collaboration with Chibogamau, Quebec-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and musical Raphaël Bussièrs, best known as Lucill. Bussièrs can trace the origins of his musical career to his childhood: The young Chibogamau-born artist assiduously taught himself bass. After spending a period of several years as a touring and session musician with a number of acts around the world, Bussièrs decided it was time to step out into the spotlight as a solo artist. With Lucill, the French-Canadian artist specializes in a sound that features elements of indie rock, indie pop and folk paired with a straightforward approach.

Bussièr’s 2018 self-titled debut EP won the Indie Rock EP of the Year Award at 2019’s GAMIQ Gala. Building upon a growing profile across the province, the French-Canadian artist followed up with his full-length debut, 2020’s Bunny, which was released to rapturous critical praise and his sophomore effort, last year’s Snake Eyes.

“Si j’étais toi,” the Montréal-based artists’ collaboration together is an ethereal pop confection and a remarkably seamless meeting of musical minds built around shimmering and atmospheric synths, twinkling keys, the duo’s ethereal and yearning cooing, a relentless motorik groove and their unerring knack for a catchy hook. The song’s narrators express a desire for each other but they don’t quite know how to proceed with that knowledge — or if it’ll be successful. And as a result, the song is rooted in a coquettish yet frustrating push and pull.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mike Rogers Shares Anthemic and Urgent “Live Out Loud”

Amsterdam-based indie dance trio Mike Rogers features three of the country’s rising electronic music artists: Mike Mago, TWR72, and Kita Menari mastermind Micha de Jonge. The project can trace its origins two decades ago, back to the early 2000s: Mago and TWR72 met while DJ’ing Dutch underground electro parties. That raw and energetic scene saw the pair playing a mix of electro pop, French touch and French house, fidget and techno.

Naturally, as the years passed by, the pair individually developed their own unique sound and approaches — but they realized that they had long held a similar dream: to start a live act inspired by the bands they grew up with, as well as Miike Snow, Foals, Editors, Van She, and Goose among others. Mago and TWR72 started Mike Rogers as a way to challenge themselves creative and professionally, while further developing as producers and DJs. The duo then recruited Kita Menari’s Micha de Jonge, who contributes his big, plaintive vocals to their hook-driven, rousingly anthemic, crowd-pleasing sound.

The trio’s full-debut Live Out Loud is slated for release this year. The album reportedly sees the Dutch trio crafting material that’s a slick mix of analog, digital and retro sounds with a decidedly modern feel. During the album’s creative process, they all agreed that it felt like second nature for them to be bold and make big musical gestures without sensationalism. Interestingly, that creative approach wound up informing the album’s central thematic concern. “Why do people always have to choose between black and white?” The Dutch electro pop trio asks. “You don’t have to choose between extremes. You can be modest in your opinions but still live out loud!”

“Go out there and live in the moment. You don’t always have to choose sides. The music represents this throughout,” the trio add. “All styles from opposite sides are mixed to create a perfect balance in the middle or leave the listener with an ambiguous feeling. 

Last year, I wrote about album single “Can’t Stop,” an anthemic bit of post punk/dance punk built around angular guitar tack, de Jonge’s achingly plaintive delivery and a motorik groove paired with euphoria-inducing hooks. While sounding a bit like Radio 4, Interpol, and Editors, “Can’t Stop” as the trio explains is about a lonely man, who looks back at his life: As a young man, he tries to do everything right, but always feels as though he is failing since people don’t seem to understand him. Battling a personal struggle with his past, the lonely man protests against this feeling, with the hopes that he can get rid of those negative thoughts. 

Written in 2021, the trio explain, “In our minds that year was a year where we had a lot of questions. Like, what is freedom, what should one fight for, how should one fight for something, how do we move forward as a society and also, how do we judge our past behaviour. We believe questions are the biggest inspirator. We’re trying to ask questions more than to send a message, although that’s also a bit of a vision we want to share.” 

Live Out Loud‘s latest single, album title track “Live Out Loud” is a rousingly anthemic bop built around glistening synths, shimmering guitar lines that bring A Flock of Seagulls to mind and de Jonge’s earnest delivery paired with the Dutch trio’s unerring knack for enormous, rousingly anthemic, shout-along worthy choruses.

“The song was written during a period where, we felt, far sides of the political spectrum were very present,” Mike Rogers explains. “We wanted to motivate the group known as the silent middle to stand up for their (slightly more nuanced) thoughts/visions/ideas. We also wanted to seek overlap in standing up for your idea and being outgoing whilst losing oneself in the moment. We all have to live out loud more. If you don’t live life fully, you don’t live life at all. You have to live it out loud to make sense of it, because otherwise ‘you’ll never know what it’s all about.’ And if you know what it’s all about, you have to fight for it.” 

The trio adds “We encourage to ask questions out loud. To share your uncertainties out loud. To say, I don’t know, yet I care. To forgive out loud. To live out loud.”

Directed by Rens Polman, the accompanying video for “Live Out Loud” is a slick and trippy mix of A.I. that follows a series of characters escaping reality for a digitally processed world. “If you don’t live life fully you don’t live it,” the Dutch trio say. “You have to live it loud to make sense of it, because else ‘you’ll never know what it’s all about’. And if you know what it’s all about you have to fight for it. “‘Live Out Loud’ is about the current situation where social media and A.I. are increasingly taking over our lives. Reality is slowly being lost and we mainly experience happiness in the digital world. As a result of A.I. and social media, reality is becoming increasingly fused. However, we are experiencing it more and more as reality and getting further immersed in it. We are losing control over what it truly means to ‘really’ experience something. The digital world acts as a shot of dopamine. With the music video, we are demonstrating how people are literally being swallowed up by a fantasy world. A world that makes our brains happy. A world where we can experience everything we could possibly want. It is limitless. However, this is contrasted with the fact that we often forget about our own real lives. The life where we can truly experience things.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Altarviolet Shares Earnest and Urgent “SOS”

Colorado-based singer/songwriter Greta Hotmer may be best known for stints as the frontperson of The Moxy and Leo Moon, along with collaboration with friends and former bandmates, including Nick Bozzelli, CKY‘s Jess Margera and Carl Pannell. Hotmer’s solo recording project Altarviolet sees her blending the electronic sounds of her youth with organic and analogue-ish bass synths to create material that’s “part nostalgia, part futuristic . . . the kind of music you can dance, cry, and sing your beautiful face off to all at once,” as she puts it.

The Colorado-based artist’s latest single “SOS” is features ayers of glistening synth arpeggios, Hotmer’s achingly plaintive vocals, skittering beats and shout-along worthy hooks and choruses. While sonically bringing Tori Amos and Banks to mind, “SOS” is rooted in lived-in experience — and as a result, it captures a narrator seemingly at the end of her rope. “Most of my songs are born from processing difficult feelings . . . music therapy at its finest. This song reflects a chapter in my life where I felt like I was stuck in a cycle that wouldn’t break no matter how I tried to change the situation or change myself. It is an ode to a time that I am grateful to have found the courage to step away from” Hotmer says.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Red For Stop Shares Brooding and Anthemic “You Caused This”

Red for Stop is a mysterious French-based indie collective with four core musicians, who have worked in various projects based in different counties, and collaborate with others. The collective has won the KR Home Studios Discoveries contest three years in a four year period.

Building upon a growing profile, Red For Stop released “God In You,” earlier this year. The song is a hook-driven bit of trip hop that to my ears reminded me a bit of a synthesis of  Goldfrapp, Portishead, and Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles and balearic house with a jazz-inspired coda.

With their latest single “You Caused This,” the French outfit continue a run of trip-hop-inspired pop built around a gorgeous and achingly plaintive female vocal, expressing both yearning and bitter regret paired with twinkling keys, subtly swelling strings, power chord-driven guitar lines and a shout-along worthy chorus. Sonically speaking, the song is part-Tori Amos, part Portishead, part power pop anthem.

“First we create music and sounds without any vocals,” the French outfit says of their creative process. “Then we go on the internet, looking for vocals, which could suit to the music. We never find perfect ones. So sometimes we have to modify certain notes of the vocal to make them working [sic] with the harmony of the music. This works takes a long time.

“When we have finished, the result is very different of [sic] the original song from which we use the vocals. So we say that this is not a remix but an Unmix or an UndoMix. We do not know if other musicians do the same. Anyway, we try to respect the feeling of the original song an create a real musical alternative of it, with a lot of modesty and respect.

“‘You Caused This,’ is an example of this,” they explain. The original song “Youth” was written by an English band called Daughter.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toulouse’s BEAR Shares Atmospheric “Foreigner”

Toulouse, Franee-based electro pop duo BEAR — Rachel Balma (vocals) and Adrien Sabathier (production) — have developed a dreamy and atmospheric sound inspired by Kate Bush, Björk, Peter Gabriel, and Billie Eilish among others.

Their latest single “Foreigner” is a swooning track built around woozy synths, tweeter and woofer rattling bass and skittering beats paired with Balma’s expressive vocal. The end result is a song that sounds a bit like a slick synthesis of Kate Bush and contemporary alt pop — delivered with a heart-worn-on-sleeve earnestness.

Directed by Lionel Pesqué and Joakim Coutouly, the accompanying video for “Foreigner” is a hazy fever dream featuring sequences in which BEAR’s Balma is in a bare, white studio wearing white and the duo performing the song in a hazy red plastic, that looks a bit like an embryo.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Habitat Canada and Druzy Team Up on a 80s Funk-Inspired Bop

Habitat Canada is a rising yet mysterious Montréal-based solo electronic music project that’s inspired visually by 70s and 80s noir, the sounds created by the beloved Prophet Synthesizer, and electronic music artists and composers like Vangelis, Kavinsky, and HERO. Since emerging into the scene back in 2021, the Canadian artist has released a growing collection of work that’s been well received by music cognoscenti, landing on a broad range of playlists and blogs. Building upon a rapidly growing profile internationally, Habitat Canada has had his work featured in a New York Post news docuseries, a Ford Motors commercial, and other film projects.

Over the past couple of years, the rising Canadian artist’s work has increasingly paid homage to 70s and 80s horror and sci-fi movie soundtracks, complete with the familiar — and perhaps prerequisite — grit and palpable tension. Slated for a June 2023 release through DRRT Records, his forthcoming EP, Lunar Spectrum is reportedly informed by “Scarecrow,” his collaboration with Rush Midnight that saw him delving deeper into retro-futuristic sounds, while also showcasing the rising producer and artist’s skills.

“Fascination,” Lunar Spectrum EP‘s latest single features a sultry and yearning and sultry pop starlet turn from Los Angeles-based funk duo Druzy, and fittingly is a breezy and funky bit of 80s nostalgia that immediately brings Prince, Control and Rhythm Nation-era Janet Jackson, Let’s Dance-era David Bowie, Nile Rodgers, Rio-era Duran Duran and others to mind — but with a clean, hyper modern sheen. It’s a fun, party-starting bop meant to get asses out of seats and moving.

“I started working on the track not long after meeting with Druzy for the 1st time (our first collab was entirely virtual due to the pandemic and being based on opposite sides of the country). We kicked it off on a rooftop in Downtown LA and I had a sound and image in mind,” Habitat Canada explains. “The song structure came pretty fast, the heavy drum and bass groove added with some industrial effects gave us a nice jolt of brightness to the darker sound palette on the EP. The team at DRRT sent it quickly to Druzy in hopes of doing a second collaboration together. We were all super excited about the result and couldn’t have asked for a better fit.”

“We love Habitat Canada‘s music and our previous collaboration, ‘Speed of Light’, was a pleasure to work on so it was an immediate yes to doing another collab with Nico,” Druzy explains. “Especially when we got sent a track this good to write on!”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chopper Teams Up with Glitchi on Hedonistic and Bombastic “Sugar and Spice”

Jonatan K. Magnussen is a singer/songwriter and musician, best known for being the frontman of Copenhagen-based goth outfit The Love Coffin. Magnussen recently stepped into the spotlight as a solo artist with his solo project Chopper, which specializes in what the Danish artist has dubbed “shock pop,” a sound that draws from Eurodance, glam rock, industrial, disco and B horror movies. 

Magnussen’s upcoming Chopper effort Shock Pop Vol. 1 reportedly sees the Danish artist continuing to explore inherent dualities of the human condition while touching upon love, sexuality and carefree joy. Sonically, the album’s material is influenced by Pet Shop Boys, Skinny Puppy and Underworld — but placed in a modern context. 

Last month, I wrote about Shock Pop Vol. 1 single “Springtime,” a sleazy, dance floor friendly banger built around Magnussen’s sultrily delivered cooing, shimmering guitars, industrial clang and clatter, glistening synths and enormous, crowd pleasing hooks. The end result is a song — that to my ears — brings Electronic, New Order and Ministry to mind, while rooted in sleek, hyper modern production and razor sharp hooks. But underneath the dance floor rocking grooves, is something far darker and menacing. Written during the pandemic winter, the song illuminates the feelings of longing and isolation — capturing the desire to be out among friends, to meet lovers, to just do things with anyone. 

Shock Pop Vol. 1‘s second and latest single “Sugar and Spice” begins with a brooding horn line, twinkling synths and percussion, a sinuous bass line and tweeter and woofer rattling thump paired with Magnussen’s and Glitchi‘s sultry deliveries and enormous Larry Levan-era house-like hooks. The end result is a sweaty and hedonistic banger that to my ears sounds like a slick synthesis of Ministry, The Sisters of Mercy and Electronic.

Fittingly, the accompanying video for “Sugar and Spice” is as maximalist and bombastic as its single while drawing from 80s visual cliches.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: AYN Shares Brooding and Cinematic “Kingdom”

Austrian duo AYN — Lea Padiwy and Hubert Marcher — will be releasing their debut album later this year. But in the meantime, their debut single “Kingdom,” which was released earlier this year is an incredibly brooding and cinematic track built around twinkling keys, a mournful horn sample and atmospheric electronics paired with Padiwy’s sultry, pop star delivery.

While “Kingdom” may rightfully draw comparisons to Portishead and Goldfrapp, the song is rooted in a slick, contemporary production.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lyfe Indoors Shares Slow-Burning and Woozy “Binary Crime”

Started back in 2014, the bedroom pop project Lyfe Indoors has received attention across both the cognoscenti and the blogosphere for a handful of self-released EPs and singles that see him pairing poetic lyricism, esoteric and alluring imagery with a synth-driven sound drawing from dream pop, shoegaze and New Wave.

Afer a brief hiatus, the rising bedroom pop producer returns with “Binary Crime,” the first single off a new and upcoming collection of tracks. Built around buzzing bass synths, skittering beats, whirring synth arpeggios paired with the rising bedroom producer’s plaintive, reverb-drenched delivery, “Binary Crime” is a slow-burning and woozily narcotic mix of shoegaze, dream pop and synth pop that’s rooted in pandemic era-related ennui.

“‘Binary Crime’ is a tune I wrote when feeling a bit lost in technology.  Post-covid, it’s a lot easier to be numb to everything online,” Lyfe Indoors explains.”That’s difficult and I wanted to make a song that exemplified that.  The lyrics are up for interpretation but at the end of it, everything is just 1’s and 0’s.”