Category: Indie Synth Pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Washed Out’s Eclipse Live Session Performance of “Waking Up”

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. 

In the lead up to the album’s release later this month, I’ve written about two previously released singles:

“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 recent 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,” a cinematic yet intimate and deeply vulnerable track anchored around an alternating quiet verse, loud chorus, quiet verse song structure paired with Greene’s unerring knack for soaring and catchy hooks paired with a lush arrangement of glistening and twinkling synths, skittering and thumping beats that furthers the album’s overall aesthetic.

The album’s third and latest single “Waking Up” features glistening and burbling synth arpeggios, dreamily strummed guitar, finger snap-driven percussion and skittering beats serving as a lush and cinematic bed for Greene’s intimately cooed delivery. Fittingly, the song evokes the sensation of waking up from a pleasant dream — and the wistful desire to go back to sleep to experience just a little bit longer.

After months of research and meticulous planning, the JOVM mainstay and director Jonah Haber collaborated to film a live performance of “Waking Up” in the path of totality of the solar eclipse — on location in Bandera, TX on April 8, 2024.

With a ton of risks and embarrassment involved and no guarantee of success, Haber and Greene have managed to create one of the more unique visuals I’ve seen in some time: Shot in a single take, we see Greene performing the bulk of the song during the four minutes and eight seconds of full totality — the moment the moon crossed in between the Sun and Earth, emulating nighttime.

For the viewer, the effect almost appears as if Greene is taking the stage inside a venue, with the spotlights just on him, as he plays and sings. While it’s a gorgeous and downright perfect moment, there was a lot of things out of their control, reminding the viewer that ultimately nature rules us all.

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.“

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

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.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s Perestroika Shares Dance Floor Friendly Bop “Midnight Twilight”

Founded by Shravan back in 2017, Montréal-based goth/synth pop outfit Perestroika was conceived as more than just a band; but as an act of audacious reinvention: The band’s founder fled the sweltering chaos of the American South for the Great North, and he envisioned Perestroika as a mystical assembly where sound met the ethereal.

Mickey Dagger, a former member of Omegas and Gustavo Rodriguez was the first band member to join. Their first release was a demo that saw the pair meshing elements of British post-punk, goth and synth pop, anchored by the Oberheim DMX drum machine and an ever-growing arsenal of synthesizers.

When the world ground to a halt because of the pandemic, the band’s sound — perhaps fittingly — delved deeper into the shadows. With the addition of Jonah Falco, the then-newly constituted trio released 2021’s Monolith EP, an effort that saw the band seemingly pairing the dystopian pulse of Kino, the decadent and swooning harmonies of Roxy Music and Giorgio Moroder‘s disco pulse with eerily delivered lyrics that thematically focused on existential questions and concerns.

Emerging from the bleak desperation of the pandemic, the Montréal-based outfit expanded to a quartet with the addition of Sebastien Page (drums). Their sound went through another evolution with the band drawing from New Order and Pet Shop Boys — and funk-inspired grooves.

The newly-constituted quartet’s latest single “Midnight Twilight” is a hook-driven bit of synth pop that’s seemingly a slick synthesis of Depeche Mode, Human League, early 80s New Order, Electronic and the like with disco and synth funk groove paired with punchily delivered vocals and reverb-gated drums. It’s a dance floor friendly bop that subtly and lovingly modernizes a familiar and beloved sound while tackling familiar themes.

Directed by Alan Hildebrandt, the accompanying video for “Midnight Twilight” features animation by Hildebrant and Studio del Scorpio and follows the band and a collection of “nightlife characters” in the midst of self-destructive narcissism and hedonism, as an escape from the bleakness of modern life. Feels familiar doesn’t it?

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.”
 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

BOVIY is an emerging and rising Hamburg-based alt-pop artist. And with her work she addresses important social issues and advocates for marginalized people while loudly expresses the demands, desires and thoughts of a strong, confident and vibrant young woman. Last year, Vogue Germany named her as one of the top six up-and-coming female artists — and bolstering that achievement, she has already opened for the likes of Jessie Ware and James Morrison.

The German artist’s latest single “Berlin Is A Liar” is a slickly produced, hook-driven bit of 80s inspired pop that recalls St. Lucia, Haerts, ACES, Jef Barbara and others: Pulsing bass synth oscillations, glistening synths stabs, bursts of strummed guitar and stuttering beats and a sparse, almost minimalist bridge featuring twinkling keys serve as a lush soundscape for BOVIY’s achingly tender, yearning delivery. While being a Top 40 radio friendly bop, “Berlin Is A Liar” reveals an artist, who seems to effortlessly craft a remarkably catchy hook while anchoring the song in seemingly lived-in, bittersweet experience.

As the German artist explains, “Berlin Is A Liar” is a walk through late-night/early-morning Berlin: The burst of sunrise just on the horizon, and the streets full of revelers returning home. But at that point of the night, the sense of fun and freedom began to fade, and a sense of loneliness and melancholy beings to take hold.

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.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Geneva Jacuzzi Shares a Striking Visual for a Brooding and Retro-futuristic Bop

Geneva Jacuzzi is a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist, whose immersive and unhinged performances are considered legendary: they often involve a psychotropic gallery of masks, costumes, confrontation and massive art installations. Her recorded music frequently features catchy hooks and cryptic moods dusted in 4-track grit.

Jacuzzi recently signed to Dais Records, who shared the following about the signing: “As long-time fans of Geneva’s immersive world-building, singular songwriting and unforgettable live performances, we are honored to welcome her to the Dais roster.” She adds, “So excited to join the Dais crew. It’s definitely the coolest label in LA. Exciting new adventures on the horizon!” 

The Los Angeles-based multimedia artist’s latest single “Dry” is a brooding yet swaying bit of 80s retro-futuristic synth pop, anchored around layers of glistening analog synth arpeggios and skittering beats paired with catchy, razor sharp hooks. Jacuzzi’s seemingly detached vocal singing about disconnection and uncertainty ethereally floats over the dreamy arrangement.

“I took a little break from writing music and when I sat down at home to record, ‘Dry’ was the first song to burst out,” Jacuzzi recalls. “The music came together so instantly it’s as if it had been waiting and perfecting itself for years in the ether. The chorus lyrics came that same week after I went on a date with Mike Judge and he never called me back (haha). I wasn’t upset or anything, but I had never been ghosted before and couldn’t help but equate modern love to an appliance you buy on the home shopping network.”

The accompanying video is shot in a strikingly cinematic black and white, and features Geneva suspended upside down in an elaborate art installation-meets-costume, being literally hung out to dry.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Julie Thuillier is a French singer/songwriter, who started her career as a member of Zebra Love, an act that released two EPs. Since then Thuillier has stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her recording project AMA Waves, which sees her pairing slickly produced, neon tinted synth pop with lyrics sung in English.

The French singer/songwriter’s AMA Waves debut EP, the Daniel Burkhart-produced Delirium is slated for release later this year. The EP’s latest single “I drop my guard” is a blissful pop confection built around glistening synth arpeggios, thumping beats and rousingly anthemic hooks serving as a lush bed for Thuillier’s earnest yet defiant vocal. The result is a feminist anthem that seemingly channels Robyn, Pink and others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kalystia Shares 80s Inspired Synth-driven Bop

Kalystia is the solo synth pop recording project of a mysterious and emerging British singer/songwriter and musician, who started the project after watching the major motion picture Drive.

Inspired by the synth-driven soundtrack of the film, the British artist started to learn how to play synths, much like the sounds heard throughout the film. Two weeks later, they loaded up a vintage synth and attempted to mix that vibe with their love of the psychedelic elements of Tame Impala’s sound.

Kalystia’s latest single “Tonight, I’m Alive” is a swaggering 80s soundtrack-inspired bop built around glistening synth oscillations, anthemic, shout along with your drink raised in the air-worthy choruses, gated reverb soaked beats, wobbling bass lines and a woozy guitar solo paired with the British artist’s yearning delivery.

At its core is a youthful sense of abandon — and of enjoying life’s small pleasures before they pass.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Cisco Bluff is an emerging Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His second single, which also is the first official single off his forthcoming EP “Second Sight” is a slickly produced and funky 80s-inspired synth pop track built around glistening synth arpeggios, lush synth pads, a sinuous bass line and skittering beats paired with Bluff’s melancholy and yearning delivery and an uncanny sense of catchy hooks.

While sonically “Second Sight” reminds me a bit of Rush Midnight, St. Lucia, and others, the song as Bluff explains “essentially began as a ballad about sexual desire. It’s about falling into rapture, fantasy taking hold and being pulled into a hypnotic state of longing.”

“The song was originally written on guitar and later arranged around a rhythm I had programmed on my Oberheim DX drum machine, the same one used on many 80s classics,” the Los Angeles-based artist adds. “What you hear in the song is that original hardware. Everything else came together around that beat, which I immediately knew wanted big arpeggiated synth bass and lush pads.”