Dumbo Gets Mad is an Italian-born, Los Angeles-based psych pop duo that formed during the summer of 2010. They wrote the material that would eventually comprise their full-length, 2011 debut Elephants At The Door in […]
Category: Indie Pop
Comprised of Jimmy Jönsson (vocals), Stefan Aronsson (synths and programming) and Per Linnerblad (synths and programming), the Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop trio Red Cell can trace their origins to when the band’s founding duo of Jönsson and Aronsson formed the back during the winter of 2002-2003. Deriving their name from a character that appears in the TV series Nikita, the duo recorded their first demo “In Command” a few months after forming, and it was released to praise in the Swedish press for an industrial metal sound.
Stefan Aronsson, who played guitar on their first single was recruited into the band along with another member on synths and as a newly constituted quartet, the band’s sound became much more synth-based. After recording two more demos — “I Am The Way” and “Related Skin,” which received national attention, the band entered the Swedish demo-contest Quest For Fame and won a recording contract. And although the band eventually turned down the recording deal they won, with a growing national profile, the quartet toured around Sweden and started playing regular gigs in Copenhagen, Denmark, which begun to expand their international profile across Scandinavia.
By January 2005, the Swedish electro pop quartet had signed with Torny Gotberg’s Gothenburg, Sweden-based Progress Productions, who released their commercially successful full-length debut effort, Hybrid Society that September. The album peaked at number 7 on the Swedish metal charts and at number 53 on the National charts. A national tour to support Hybrid Society followed, along with the band’s first gigs in Norway.
The band’s last effort Lead or Follow was released in 2008, and as you can imagine across Sweden and the rest of Scandinavia, the news of their forthcoming third, full-length release, slated for release sometime next year has been long-anticipated. Although currently untitled, the album’s first single “Taking Back The Crown” is an anthemic bit of synth pop that sounds indebted to Depeche Mode‘s “People Are People” and “Policy of Truth” as well as The Human League‘s “Don’t You Want Me?” as layers of undulating synths are paired with propulsive drumming, enormous arena-friendly hooks and plaintive vocals.
New Video: Introducing, the Soaringly Anthemic Sound of Kobe, Japan’s The Fin
Comprised of Yuto Uchino (vocals and synths), Ryosuke Odagaki (guitar), Takayasu Taguchi (bass) and Kaoru Nakazawa (drums), the Kobe, Japan-based quartet The fin have won attention across their native Japan for pairing lyrics written and […]
British indie rock sensation Escapists can trace their origins to when Simon Glancy (vocals) relocated to London to concentrate on his songwriting, and as soon as he moved he asked the only musician friend he knew to help him record his musical ideas, Oil Court (guitar). Court then quickly recruited his friend, composer Max Perryment to play bass. And as the story goes, the trio spent a week of intensive songwriting sessions before deciding that they had enough musical and creative simpatico to continue collaborating together. Court’s former schoolmate Any Walsh (drums) was recruited to finalize the band’s lineup, and the newly formed quartet began writing and recording material inspired by Arcade Fire, The National and Broken Social Scene.
The quartet’s debut single received airplay from XFM‘s John Kennedy and within that year, they were touring with Imagine Dragons and played sets at Reading and Leeds Festivals. Continuing to build upon the buzz they received nationally, the quartet spent 2013 writing and recording the material that would comprise their 2014 debut, Only Bodies, which was released to critical praise from the blogosphere.
Over the past year or so, the band has reportedly gone through a change in sonic direction with their sound inching towards dance-floor-leaning post-punk. “Pyramid Scheme,” the first single off the band’s Eat You Alive possesses enormous, anthemic hooks, shimmering and angular guitar chords, thundering drumming, sinuous bass lines, and swooningly plaintive vocals. Structurally speaking there are some playful changes in tempo in a song that sounds as though its indebted to the likes of U2, Editors, The Killers, New Order and others.
Certainly, with such an enormous hooks and a dance-friendly sound, I think we’ll be hearing quite a bit from them over the next few months.
With the release of their debut single “Can’t Afford to Lose You,” the Norwegian electro pop duo BLØSH, comprised of Madrid-born, Oslo, Norway-based cellist and vocalist Teresa Bernabé and guitarist Jørgen Berg Svela, an Oslo native, the duo quickly found themselves with an expanding international profile, thanks in part to a breezy and infectious pop-leaning sound. Already, the duo have seen praise and attention from JaJaJa Music, Indie Shuffle and airplay on Amazing Radio.
Building on the buzz that they’ve already received, the duo’s newest single “Give It Away” is “about not taking life — or the situations that life puts you in — too seriously,” as the duo explained in press notes. The song will likely cement the duo’s burgeoning reputation for crafting infectious pop as the song pairs an upbeat melody, punchy bass lines and a looping guitar line with Bernabé’s breezy vocals and soaringly anthemic hooks. Sonically speaking, the song draws from African music and African music-inspired pop — in particular Paul Simon‘s Graceland, the legendary Ali Farka Touré, and to my ears Afrobeat as the song and its funky and playful melody is built around the looping and angular guitar line. Simply put, the song is crafted and pure pop confection.
New Video: Introducing the Anthemic Pop of Denmark’s Palace Winter
Comprised of Caspar Hesselgar (synths and production) and Carl Coleman (vocals), the Danish indie psych pop act Palace Winter can trace their origins to the Winter and Spring of 2013 when the duo were tour […]
21 year-old Paris-based, French-Brazilian singer/songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist Yndi Ferreira is the creative mastermind behind indie electro pop project Dream Koala, a project that Ferriera started back in 2012. Interestingly, Ferreira developed a reputation of his production style as he quickly became a go-to remixer, remixing the work of Angel Haze, The 1975, BANKS and others — and as an artist, his debut single “We Can’t Be Friends” caught the attention of renowned acts including Fabolous, Doja Cat and the aforementioned BANKS.
Building on an increasing buzz around him, Ferreira released the critically applauded Odyssey EP and Earth. Home. Destroyed. EP which were informed by a variety of Ferreira’s influences including Flying Lotus, My Bloody Valentine, Radiohead, contemporary R&B which gave the material a spectral, shoegazer-like, introspective feel, along the lines of Beacon‘s For Now and The Ways We Separate while thematically exploring Afrofuturism and sci-fi.
Slated for a December 4 release, Ferreira’s soon-to-be released EP Exodus will reportedly continue thematically where the critically acclaimed Earth. Home. Destroyed. left off while cementing his reputation for crafting moody, spectral electro pop that seamlessly meshes elements of contemporary R&B, bass-heavy electronica and soft rock. “Dimension Sleeper,” Exodus‘ first single (and EP opener, by the way) pairs layers of slowly cascading synths, dub-inspired tweeter and woofer rocker bass fed through gentle washes of reverb and skittering drum programming with Ferreira’s plaintive and ethereal vocals in a song that evokes both the sensation of weightlessness and of wisps of smoke curling and rising heavenward before dissipating. And although possessing a retro-futuristic sound that would clearly sound at home in the early 80s, at the core of the song is a delicate and ancient ache that’s haunting and unsettling.
While playing this song I thought of the song’s narrator in a dying spaceship traveling through the cosmos, and the entire time the narrator is haunted by the lingering and inescapable ghost of a departed lover.
Up and coming, New Jersey-born pop artist Donna Missal first captured the attention of listeners and the blogosphere with her sultry and bluesy debut single “Keep Lying,” which paired Missal’s soulful, pop belter vocals with buzzing power chords, a propulsive rhythm section and anthemic hooks. Lyrically, the song’s narrator pleads with an unfaithful and deceitful lover to keep the facade of faithfulness so not to ruin her long-held fantasy. Is it cynical? Absolutely. But it evokes a deeply dysfunctional relationship — the sort where lies are just as useful and good as honesty. Somehow, I’ve been there once or twice before . . .
Building upon the buzz that “Keep Lying” has received Massal recorded a sultry and bluesy cover of Drake‘s massive hit “Hotline Bling” that turns up the vulnerable and sensual need of the original, essentially taking Drake’s hit song and confidently making it her own.
Check out how Donna Missal’s cover compares to the original.
New Video: ACES Cinematic Yet 80s-Inspired Video for “Find Me Out”
ACES, a Brooklyn-based electro pop duo comprised of Russ Flynn and Alexandra Stewart. The Brooklyn-based duo of Flynn and Stewart have quickly captured the attention of the blogosphere with a sound that pairs Flynn’s shimmering and atmospheric […]
Comprised of Linnea Atieno and Joakim Buddee, the Stockholm, Sweden-based production and electro pop duo Heart/Dancer have received attention nationally in their native Sweden and internationally for an ambient and cinematic synth pop sound that has been favorably compared to the likes of Young Galaxy, Kygo, M83 and others — and similarly, the Swedish electro pop duo’s sound possesses elements of shoegaze and new wave. Adding to a growing profile, the duo recently completed a UK and European Union tour and have had their a number of their songs appear in a few Swedish blockbuster films and an American TV series.
“Under,” the duo’s latest single will appear on their soon-to-be released full-length effort, My Heart Is A Dancer, slated for release on November 27. The single is a nuanced pop confection consisting of swirling electronics, bursts of angular guitar chords, gentle layers of ethereal synths and soulful boy/girl duet vocals paired with subtly anthemic hooks that give a song that’s as intimate as sweetly whispered nothings in a lover’s ear, a larger-than-life feel.
New Video: The Luminous and Dream-like Video for Melany Watson’s “Illuminate”
About two weeks ago, you may recall that I wrote about the Texas-born, New York-based singer/songwriter Melany Watson. Watson has been singing and performing music for as long as she can probably remember but, she can […]
New Video: The Stormy and Nostalgic Video for Leena Ojala’s “Why”
Just a couple of weeks ago, I wrote about the young, up-and-coming pop artist, Leena Ojala. Born in Germany to a Finnish father and English mother, Ojala was raised in Hong Kong and Essex before she relocated to London when she was […]
Comprised of Jamie Cogar (guitar, drums and vocals) and Andrew Trouwborst (guitar and vocals), the Brooklyn-based duo No Kill specialize in what they describe on their Facebook Fan Page as reverb soaked noise pop. And the duo’s latest single “Better” is a slow-burning and moody and swooning ballad that would likely make Hope Sandoval and Phil Spector proud — although decidedly lo-fi, the song captures the feelings and thoughts of someone, who recognizes that their romantic relationship may be on the ropes, and they’re uncertain of not just what to do, but if there’s a way to make it better. If you’ve been in that situation the song will be achingly familiar.
New Audio: Kishi Bashi’s Swooning and Romantic Cover of The Talking Heads “This Must Be The Place”
As a child, I was a huge fan of Talking Heads. I’ve probably seen and heard Stop Making Sense more times than about 80% of the population before I turned 15 and several of their albums — […]
New Video: Introducing the Dramatic and Moody Pop of Malta’s Berne
Influenced by the likes of Imogen Heap, Regina Spektor, Agnes Obel, and Marina and The Diamonds, Maltese singer/songwriter Berne initially began her career as the frontwoman of the acclaimed and award-winning act Bletchley Park, an act […]