Category: Indie Synth Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed by Moon Magnet Studios founder and ringleader Reed Fuchs back in 2009, Denver, CO-based collective deCollage features members of several locally and regionally known bands including Rose Quartz, Sound of Ceres, Candy Claws, Rubedo and others. Since their formation, the collective has developed a reputation for an immersive and interactive live show – and for material that sonically employs the use of synths, accordion, glockenspiel, found sounds such as typewriters, trains, crunched leaves, zippers, cirtcut bending among others and for material that lyrically focuses on metaphysics, surrealism, abstraction, wonder and navigating the fragmented post-modern world we live in.Unsurprisingly, as a result of their growing reputation in psych music circles, the members of the collective have opened for the likes of Animal Collective, of Montreal, Zammuto, Fever The Ghost and Linear Downfall among others.

“Crystal Choir,” the latest single off the collective’s soon-to-be released, new effort Magnetize is a hazy and swaggering bit of psych pop that possesses elements of contemporary electro pop and R&B as enormous boom-bap drums are paired with layers of shimmering synths, and layers of harmonized vocals in song that reminds me of In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy — but with a mischievous and playful sense of hope.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known as the frontman of renowned indie act Black Moth Super Rainbow, Tobaccco has developed a reputation as an electronic music artist and producer, who has an uncanny ability for crafting an abrasive yet anthemic sound — as a fellow critic at Stereogum  described Tobacco’s sound as wanting to “channel Daft Punk and The Black Keys at the same time.”

Sweatbox Dynasty, the long-awaited follow-up to Ultima II Massage is slated for release this summer, and the album’s first single “Gods In Heat” will further cement Tobacco’s reputation for crafting scuzzy and anthemic electronic music as his production pairs layers of buzzing and abrasive synths, industrial clang and clatter, skittering drum programming, surface-level analog tape hiss and sizzle, a chanted mantra and an infectious hook — but if you’re familiar with the Pennsylvania-based producer’s work, the new single possesses a subtle elements of psych rock that lighten the murkiness ever so slightly.

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Kristin Henry (vocals) and Brad Boettger (production), Seattle, WA-based  duo NAVVI have developed a reputation for crafting brooding and propulsive electro pop; in fact, the duo have had their work appear on a compilation curated by renowned French electronic label Kitsune, and they’ve received press from a variety of media outlets including NME, Brooklyn Vegan, Impose, The Line of Best Fit and Jay Z’s Life+Times, among others. Building on the early buzz they’ve received, the Seattle-based duo will be releasing their long-awaited full-length debut Omni on May 27 through Hush Hush Records.

“Close,” Omni‘s first single is a gorgeously minimalist bit of electro pop that has the duo pariing Henry’s sultry and intimately breathy coos bubbling over a sleek and hyper-modern production consisting of crisp, yet stuttering drum programming, ambient, swirling electronics, bleeps, bloops and boops, layers of shimmering and buzzing synths. and a propulsive groove. Sonically and thematically “Close” reminds me quite a bit of BRAIDS’ impressive Flourish//Perish and Octo Octa’s Between Both Selves as the single possesses a bracing chill that belies an urgent, swooning and yearning Romanticism at its core.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Stunning and Surreal Visuals for Kristoffer and the Harbour Heads’ “When You Say Stay”

  Gothenburg, Sweden-based electro-pop trio Kristoffer and the Harbour Heads have developed a profile across Scandinavia and elsewhere for crafting expansive, experimental electro pop that’s been compared favorably to the likes of Menomena. Woods and […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Dmitri Manos is a Tucson, AZ-based multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist and producer, whose solo recording project American Monoxide has quietly built a profile for specializing in analog electronic instrumentals that manage to be somewhat abrasive, trashy and funky as you’ll hear on “Hot Lava Express,” the first single off his forthcoming sophomore full-length effort Web Content, a single that has the producer and multi-instrumentalist pairing industrial boom-bap beats, tumbling electronic bloops, beeps and bleeps, scorching synths, Nile Rodgers-inspired funk guitar chords to craft a song that’s simultaneously offbeat yet funky as hell.

Multiple labels are involved in the June 10, 2016 release — and it’s arguably the most complex release I’ve come across in the almost six year history of this site: the vinyl version of the album will be released through People In A Position To Know Recordings (PIAPTK), Solid Gold Records, Almost Halloween Time Records, Wooden Tooth Records, Shot By A Fan Records, Hocus Bogus Records, Lazy Boy Recording Company and Baby Gas Mask Records. All the labels pitched in on the cost of manufacturing with each label creating different packaging for their particular release — some labels plan on doing variations of the album cover art, while others are including bonus material such as special release cassettes, lathe cut albums, zines and posters, etc. The cassette will be released through PIAPTK and Wooden Tooth Records while the electronic version will be self-released.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Promise Keeper is a London-based producer and electronic music artist, who has started to receive attention across the blogosphere for a sound that draws from classic Chicago house, blue-eyed soul and electro pop as you’ll hear on his sleek, dance floor ready, second single  “Side Decide,” which pairs breathily cooed vocals with a production consisting of twinkling and shimmering synths, staccato drum programming and swirling and ambient electronics.

 

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

VOKES is the solo recording project of Los Angeles, CA-based singer/songwriter and producer Mike Harris. And according to Harris, his latest single “Slow Down” draws from two different experiences. “For me, ‘Slow Down’ represents two stories,” Harris explains in press notes. “The first story I originally wrote was about being naïve in a relationship, splitting up for the wrong reasons and realizing what a terrible mistake was made. The second story that eventually became the focus of the song is about two strangers, who quickly fall for each other, while one person feels hesitant to move forward because of being on the receiving end of the first story.”  Sonically Harris evokes confusion through lush and shimmering synths and a sinuous bass line for the verses, which gives the song an ethereal buoyancy reminiscent of Rush Midnight while the chord changes around the song’s chorus and bridge convey the awkward and understandable tension at the core of the song’s narrative. Adding to the complex and confusing array of emtions expressed within the song, there’s a hopeful sense among the song’s characters that with a bit more maturity and experience under their belts, that this time may be different.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known as a member of Karen, The Late Late Show with James Corden house band fronted by Reggie Watts and a weekly residency with Watts at El Cid, drummer and vocalist Guillermo E. Brown’s solo musical project Pegasus Warning has received musical industry nods through collaborations with an impressive list of artists including Twin Shadow, Das Racist, Gordon Voidwell, Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, Saul Williams, Mocky, Spoek Mathambo and others.

“Come Close” Brown’s latest single is about longing, “that oh-so-human feeling of missing someone to the brink of collapse like singing in the rain in the desert,” as Brown explains in press notes, and as a result his vocals possesses an urgent and plaintive need and an aching vulnerability. Paired with cascades of shimmering synths and a sinuous bass line, the single is both ethereal and undeniably sensual — and in fact, manages to channel Quiet Storm-era R&B. Or simply put, you should play this the next time you plan to have a romantic evening of naughty fun with that someone special.

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Ambient, Atmospheric Electro Pop Sounds and Visuals of Karachi Files

Last May, Andi and Hannes Teichmann, the heads of Noland Records, along with Haamid Rahim and Bilal Nasir Khan brought together 12 electronic musicians hailing from Pakistan, The Maldives and Germany in a house in Karachi, Pakistan […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of American-born vocalist Rose Suau, best known for her work in synth pop act Shoestrings and Swedish-born multi-instrumentalist and producer  Johan Angergård, best known for his work with Club 8, synth pop side project Djustin can trace their origins to when the duo, who noticed an eerily parallelism in their lives — both are middle children, born in the same year and under the same astrological sign and have identical record collections — started with a mutual admiration of each other’s various musical projects, back in the late 90s. Suau and Angergård started writing each other lengthy letters about love, life, pop music and other subjects. Naturally, those letters turned to emails  –and although both Suau and Angergård went on to form several other musical projects including Pallers, Invisible Twin and The Legends, the duo continued a regular correspondence.

Now as the story goes, although Suau and Angergård had corresponded with each other for years and begun to really know each other, they had never met; however, last fall when Angergård was looking for a vocalist and lyricist for a new musical, side project the first person he thought of was Suau. As Angergård explains in press notes “I love the soulful sensualism in Rose’s voice and figured she’d be perfect for the project. I’m pretty used to writing everything myself and wanted to see what would happen if I did things in new ways. So, I took the chance and sent a couple of tracks over to Rose with me singing gibberish. A week later she dropped a recording of the finished vocals and it was…well, just lovely.”

Tryst, the duo’s soon-to-be released debut EP is slated for a May 13 release through Labrador Records, and the EP’s latest single “Concrete” pairs Angergård’s production consisting of cascading and undulating layers of synths and propulsive boom-bap beats and a razor sharp hook with Suau’s suggestive and sultry vocals in a swooning yet moody song that thematically focuses on lust, obsession and heartbreak. And while nodding at both house music and 80s synth pop, the single possesses a contemporary and radio friendly sheen.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Wistful and Trippy Visuals for Gosh Pith’s “Scoop”

Over the course of the past 18 months or so, Detroit, MI-based duo Gosh Pith have become JOVM mainstays while gaining a rapidly growing national profile for a sound that possesses elements of hip-hop, electro pop, stoner rock, indie rock, […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the 2015 release of Hairless Toys, Irish electro pop singer/songwriter and producer Roisin Murphy quickly became a JOVM mainstay artist — and that shouldn’t be surprising as Murphy has a long-held reputation for being an inventive and genre defying artist, whose sound and aesthetic incorporates elements of jazz, pop, electronic dance music and found field recordings and samples. And although her 2005 full-length solo debut Ruby Blue was a critically applauded departure from her early work in pop act Moloko, the effort was a commercial failure; however, her 2007 release Overpowered was a critical and commercial success as the album was considered for nomination for that year’s MTV Europe Music Award for Best International Act.

Over the next few years, Murphy hadn’t released any album-length material but she did collaborate with an impressive array of internationally acclaimed artists including the likes of Fatboy Slim, David Byrne, Crookers and others. 2014 marked the release of the Mi Senti EP, a collaboration with her frequent collaborator Eddie Stevens and her partner Sebastiano Propezi, which featured the Irish singer/songwriter singing covers in Italian. And according to Murphy, the album’s material was written to intentionally channel Edith Piaf and Studio 54 in a style that Murphy coined “very adult-orientated disco.”

The aforementioned Hairless Toys was Murphy’s first full-length release in over eight years and the material off the album reportedly drew from very similar influences to the Mi Senti EP — in this particular case, European house music, Casablanca Records, and the legendary Grace Jones. Simply put, the material is effortlessly elegant and shimmering electro pop that slowly reveals that its narrator is on the verge of mental breakdown — you can practically feel their psyche crumbling from the weight of her own failures and anxieties. And as a result, it gives the material an aching, desperate urgency. Interestingly,  the forthcoming Take Her Up To Monto an album that takes its name from an Irish folk song popularized by The Dubliners, is comprised of material that was written and recorded during the intense writing and recording sessions that wound up resulting in Hairless Toys.  And although drawing from disco, cabaret, pop torch songs some of the material was radically reimagined and reworked once the Take Her Up To Monto‘s tone and character revealed itself.

Monto’s latest single “Mastermind” is a slinky and tense song that sonically seems to draw from classic house music, freestyle and confessional singer/songwriter pop as Murphy and her frequent collaborator Eddie Stevens pair layers of shimmering synths, propulsive beats and swirling electronics with Murphy’s plaintive and aching alto in an song with an expansive song structure that eschews easily discernible hooks and choruses for a driving motorik groove reminiscent of Kraftwerk as the song comes and goes about in strange and unfamiliar angles revealing an artist, who relentlessly pushes her sound and aesthetic forward and into new territories.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Dana Hobson (vocals), Daniel Wolf (guitars, production) and Patrick Zenali (drums), Los Angeles-based electro pop trio The Danes specialize in what the band describes in an email to me as “dark electro pop in a similar style as BANKS, FKA Twigs and Lo-Fang” — although the trio’s latest single “Far From Love,” a slickly produced song about the dangers that came up with a long-term serious and committed couple experimented with an open relationship manages to be reminiscent of Los Angeles-based electro pop duo Pr0files as the trio pairs skittering drum programming, boom bap beats, wobbling synths, ambient electronics and an infectious hook with Hobson’s sultry, jazz-leaning vocals. What makes the song truly compelling and what also sets it apart from the tons of contemporary releases I come across is the fact that the song’s narrator expresses both an urgent sensuality, but just underneath the surface fear, confusion, regret and uncertainty are all evokes within the turn of a phrase.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Kristina Borg (vocalist), Niklas Angergård (guitar, vocals) of Acid House Kings, Mikael Matsson (guitar), of the Shermans and Carl–Johan Näsström (bass), Stockholm, Sweden-based indie pop quartet Red Sleeping Beauty originally formed in 1989 and with the release of two full-length albums Bedroom and Soundtrack, a number of EPs and singles, the Swedish pop quartet received both national and international attention before the quartet split up.

In 2014, the Stockholm-based quartet reunited to record a cover of Alpaca Sports song “Just For Fun” and “Merry Christmas, Marie,” a holiday-themed track, which caught the attention of fans and critics, who were desperate for new material from Red Sleeping Beauty. The quartet quickly followed that up with the release of the “Always” 7 inch, a set at Madrid Pop Fest and the release of “Mi Amor,” the first song the band recorded with a chorus completely sung in Spanish. Building upon the buzz created by the band’s reunion, this year may be one of the biggest years in the band’s history, as June 17 will mark the release of Kristina, Red Sleeping Beauty’s first album in 19 years.

“If You Want Affection” Kristina‘s first single has the members of Red Sleeping Beauty pairing a driving motorik groove with shimmering cascades of synths and an infectious hook with Angergård’s chilly yet plaintive vocals to craft a song that sounds as though it pulsates with an urgent need, while sonically the song sounds as though it channels 80s dance floor-friendly synth pop — in particular, I think of Depeche Mode‘s “People Are People”  and “Just Can’t Get Enough” among others –but with a slick, modern polish.