Category: New Single

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: VAAMP Shares a Cinematic and Minimalist Composition

VAAMP is the solo recording project of a mysterious composer, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind, who actively attempts to push limits of creativity and genre. Sonically, the project sees its mysterious mastermind employing multiple layers of synths, drums, bass, keys, guitar and experimental sounds to create a captivating musical experience.

VAAMP’s latest single “New Way of Being” is the first bit of new material since the release of his debut EP, Time Sensitive Material earlier this year. “New Way of Being” is a cinematic and minimalist composition featuring twinkling and reverb-soaked keys, fluttering synths and a supple bass line. The result is a song that seemingly channels a synthesis of Collapse Under The Empire and John Carpenter, complete with a retro-futuristic feel and vibe.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Brussels’ We The Living Share Lush and Brooding “We Shall Return”

Brussels-based ambient, indie outfit We The Living features two highly accomplished artists in their own right:

  • Andorra-born and-based composer and singer/songwriter José Papí, best known for his work in hard rock outfit Yearn

  • British-born, Brussels-based ambient, electronic music legend David Morley

We The Living can trace its origins back to 2015: Papí and Morley discussed starting a project together, but the project started in earnest earlier this year, when teh duo went into the studio to write and record their full-length debut, Making The Living Great Again, an effort, which was released earlier this month, that the band describes as “an obstinately melodic trip into existential challenges and the unresolved issues of today’s world.”

Making The Living Great Again‘s latest single “We Shall Return” is anchored around a supple and propulsive bass line, twinkling keys, and a glistening, reverb-soaked guitar figure. The arrangement serves as a lush and dreamy bed for Papí’s yearning delivery. The result is a song that seemingly recalls Softspot‘s gorgeous, fever dream of an album, 2017’s Clearing — but with a sense of existential dread.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Norway’s Helsinki Horizon Shares Anthemic “Tie Them To The Mast”

Norwegian outfit Helsinki Horizon — founding member Snorre, (guitar, bass, keys) along with Öllegård (vocals), viNd (guitar) and Geir (drums) — can trace their origins back to 2008 as a solo recording effect with Snorre began writing music and recording demos. By 2012, viNd and Geir joined the project, and the band, then a trio began playing live shows.

Citing the likes of Radiohead, Mogwai, M83 and Max Richter as influences., the band also incorporates Tesla coil emulated Cello distortion and 8-bit crushed bass harmonica in a genre-defying sound and approach. Their debut EP, 2021’s Signal Flares drew from the band’s experiences in the underground metal scene, and received critical praise and attention across the post rock scene.

Released earlier this year, the Norwegian band’s full-length debut Sirens sees them collaboration with Stockholm-based avant-garde pop artist Öllegård contributing vocals while drawing from Homer’s Odyssey. Thematically, the album’s material touches upon existentialism, human facade, contemporary global politics, climate and environmental destruction and the consequences of all of these on us as a whole.

Sirens‘ first single “Tie Them To The Mast” is a seamless and slick synthesis of shoegaze, post rock, rock and electro pop anchored around a propulsive and swaggering rhythm section, atmospheric synth oscillations, and bursts of expressive guitar. The song’s arrangement serves as a dramatic bed for Öllegård’s earnest delivery — while revealing a band with an uncanny knack for a catchy hook and a big, sing-along worthy chorus.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Siberia’s Lo.Krain Shares Brooding New Single

Lo.Krain is a Siberian indie project created by a mysterious yet extremely prolific creative mastermind, whose desire and priority is to create soulful, sincere and occasionally experimental music.

The project’s latest single “Город-призрак,” which translates into English as “Ghost Town.” Anchored around glistening and chiming guitar tones, a sinuous bass line and dramatic drumming, the song’s arrangement serves as a dreamy and melancholic bed for yearning vocals. Seemingly channeling a mix of dream pop, jangle pop, post punk, bedroom pop and film noir, “Город-призрак” evokes late night commutes back home from partying or from a show with the bitterly lingering ghosts of your memories.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bordeaux’s St Franck Shares Lush and Escapist “Dream Trap”

Franck Lada is a Bordeaux-based producer, singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the emerging psych pop project St Franck. Lada’s career started in earnest with his participation in a number of musical projects in the UK that included sitting in on bass for Saint Leonard’s Horses for a few shows.

Lada stepped out into the spotlight with his debut EP, 2018’s Gamma Wave and a handful of singles that saw him establish a DIY/bedroom pop-meets- electro pop-meets psych pop sound, which he developed with some barebones equipment during flat shares in London: a computer, an 808, an Ms20 and Ableton.

Since his humble beginnings, the French artist has upgraded to a professional studio in Bordeaux’s bohemian La Bastide neighborhood. His Pierre Loustanau, a.k.a. Petit Fantôme co-produced full-length debut Cavalier Solaire is slated for a November 10, 2024 release through Courant Records/Modulor Records. The album reveals a producer and artist, who’s part of a new generation of producers and artists, who are searching for meaning in a mad, mad, mad world. Sonically, the album is anchored around lush, sculpted arrangements paired with lyrics that encourage the listener to explore the inner world of their dreams and the subconscious.

Cavalier Solaire‘s latest single “Dream Trap” is built around a lush and dreamily escapist soundscape: Starting the beep of an alarm clock, presumably startling the narrator — and in turn, the listener — awake, the song features woozy and glistening synths arpeggios, strummed acoustic guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line and bursts of twinkling keys and vocodered vocals paired with the French artist’s plaintive delivery. While sonically, channeling MGMT and Tame Impala, “Dream Trap” evokes the both the blissful nostalgia of a gorgeous summer afternoon — and the warm buzz of a half-remembered dream.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kai Tak Teams up with There’s Talk on Ethereal and Brooding “Flood The Harbour”

Born in Hong Kong and adopted by American parents, who worked at a camp for Vietnamese refugees seeking opportunity in the city nicknamed the Pearl of the Orient, the Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and producerChris King may be best known for his work in Cold Showers and his production work for a list of artists that include Tamaryn, House of Harm and Fearing. 

Led by King, the Los Angeles-based collective Kai Tak derives its name from the now-retired Hong Kong airport, famously known for its harrowing approach just above and through the city’s skyscrapers. Founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when King started to write songs as a vehicle for connecting with his own unconventional roots — and as a platform for collaboration with the numerous musical friends made from his lengthy career as a producer and engineer.

Operating without any deadlines or creative constraints allowed King to use and explore every technique he had learned over the years, incorporating re-sampling, drastic pitch shifting, time-stretching, liberal use of tape delay, recording live drums with MIDI drum triggers, and creating his own sample-based synthesizers using found sounds recorded during various trips to Hong Kong.

The Los Angeles-based collective’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Designed In Heaven Made In Hong Kong is slated for a June 21, 2024 release through á La Carte Records. The album sees King and collaborators specializing in sculpted, moody soundscapes that draw inspirations from shoegaze, trip hop and electronica. The album will feature three previously released tracks:

“Jalen Rose,” feat. Draag

“Villains In My Mind,” feat. Foie Gras

“Blush,” feat. Dol Ikara‘s Claire Roddy. The collaboration can be traced back to when the two artists were placed together by chance at a live show. “Blush,” is built around a brooding and cinematic arrangement that — to my ears — sounds like a synthesis of Massive Attack and Cocteau Twins with the song featuring skittering boom bap and a looping glistening string sample paired with swirling shoegazer guitar textures serving as a lush bed for Roddy’s soulful, smoky croon.

“Chris came to me with this transportive instrumental while I was dealing with a bit of a writer’s block,” Roddy explains. “These lyrics are an ode to that very moment of inspiration where suddenly feelings, words, and melodies spring right out from the drought, as instantly and vulnerably as a blush.”

“When Claire explained the meaning behind her lyrics, I almost couldn’t believe it,” Kai Tak’s Chris King explains. “The music also came to me during a bout of writer’s block, which was broken by one of my old tried and true methods – watching a visually stunning movie on mute and composing music inspired by the imagery.  In the case of ‘Blush,’ the inspiration was Fallen Angels, which has always made me feel like I’m permanently suspended in the most beautiful fever dream.” 

Designed In Heaven Made In Hong Kong‘s fourth and latest single, the brooding “Flood The Harbour” seems to sonically channel Garlands and Heaven or Las Vegas-era Cocteau Twins: swirling shoegazer guitar textures are paired with swaggering and thumping, boom bap-like drums and a supple bass line create a lush and dreamy bed for There’s Talk’s Olivia Lee’s gorgeous and expressive vocal fed through a little bit of reverb. Throughout the song evokes the existential unease and dread of our current moment — with the acknowledgment that the our current world is on its death knell, and the hope that we’re on the precipice of a new, fairer world for all.

“The music for ‘Flood The Harbour’ was written on the same day I wrote ‘Blush.’ After feeling uninspired for a long time, I spent the day repeatedly watching Fallen Angels on mute while messing around with instruments, and 90% of both songs were written in a few hours,” King explains. “Whenever I’m working on something new, I always give the songs a temporary working title of the neighborhood that inspired the tune, or that I’m using found samples from, and this song drew from Yau Ma Tei. Formerly a little fishing bay, Yau Ma Tei has been built extensively upon reclaimed land. Because of Hong Kong’s limited usable land and massive population density, land reclamation has been a central part of the city’s growth over the past century – over 60 km of land has been added to the city from land reclamation projects, including part of the old Kai Tak airport, and just thinking about land reclamation and its endless ripples helped shape the song.”

“I aligned on inspiration with Chris – the lyrics came to mind after simmering on the working title for the song, Yau Ma Tei, as well as hazy neon-lit montages from Fallen Angels,” There’s Talk’s Olivia Lee adds. “Sinking into the broodiness of the song, images of a revolution on the heels of the end of the world engulfed in flames and flood came to mind. Perhaps a meditation on the consequences of colonialism and corporate greed, and who will have the last word.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Khotin’s Blissed Out and Ambient Remix of Bodywash’s “Kind of Light”

Montréal-based JOVM mainstays Bodywash — Chris Steward and Rosie Long Dector — can trace their origins back to when the pair met while attending McGill University. But when they met, the pair didn’t immediately share a common musical language: Steward grew up in London listening to celestial dream pop while Dector grew up in Toronto listening to folk and Canadiana. But the music they began writing together saw the pair bridging their influences.

With the release of 2016’s self-titled EP and 2019’s full-length debut, Comforter, the Montréal-based duo firmly established their sound — slow-burning and dreamy material centered around ethereal vocals, intricate guitar lines and pulsating synths. 

The Canadian shoegazers’ sophomore album, last year’s I Held the Shape While I Could was inspired and informed by the COVID-19 pandemic and its subsequent lockdowns. The duo used the unexpected hiatus to write new material, which was darker, more experimental and more invigorating than its immediate predecessor. The new material also reflected on Steward’s and Long Doctor’s seperate and shared experiences of losing a sense of place, the way something once solid can slip between your fingers, and their attempts to build something new from the psychological and emotional fallout. 

In the lead up to the album’s release, I wrote about several singles, including the album’s first, “Kind of Light,” an expansive track that began with a slow-burning and elegiac intro and a skittering yet propulsive kick pattern that a slowly builds up and breaks out into a high-energy, boom-bap-like breakbeat paired with scorching guitar, and squealing and wobbling bass synths. Long Decter’s ethereal and achingly plaintive vocals are at the front and center, expressing heart-wrenching despair and yet hope. Throughout, the song suggests that while loss is natural and expected, there can be hope; that there are only a handful of things that in our lives that are truly permanent — and that for the most part, it can get better. 

“I wrote ‘Kind of Light’ in bed,” Long Decter says. ““It was the fall of 2018 and Chris and I were both going through experiences of learning not to trust what feels like home. He sent me a plugin for a new organ sound, suggesting it might provide inspiration. I sent him back chords, a kick pattern, and some vocals about trying to pull your legs back; trying to take your energy out of the wreckage and put it into yourself. The process of deciding what’s worth keeping, what can be reworked and what gets tossed in the fire. A process that is devastating and also weirdly invigorating, because you can see new possibilities opening up in front of you. And you can start to look for light somewhere else.”

Just ahead of the Montréal-based duo’s North American tour dates with Blushing and Airiel in June, they share a remix of “Kind of Light,” by Edmonton-based electronic artist Khotin. The Khotin remix turns the tense and cathartic original into a blissed out, ambient euphoria that’s perfect for contemplative chill out sessions. (By the way, the Blushing/Airiel/Bodywash tour includes a June 19, 2024 stop at Johnny Brenda‘s, one of my favorite rooms in Philly and a June 20, 2024 stop at Baby’s All Right. The tour dates, as always, are below.)

“Khotin’s Release Spirit was in heavy rotation while we were on the road last year, soundtracking everything from the craggy cliffs of the Pacific Northwest to the dreaded NJ Turnpike, so we were keen to have him remix ‘Kind of Light,’” says the band. “His version takes the tension and catharsis of the original song and injects it with blissed-out euphoria. It’s a track that’s destined for a sunrise slot in the chill-out room, channeling the West Coast rave psychedelia of Pilgrims of the Mind along with the more ambient influences that informed our last record.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jinte Deprez is an acclaimed singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, programmer and producer, best known as being one-half of the songwriting duo behind the acclaimed Belgian indie outfit Balthazar. 

Over the course of the past two decades, the members of Balthazar have played across the global festival circuit with sets at All Points East, British Summer Time, and others — while selling over 600,000 albums globally. Throughout his career, Deprez has firmly cemented a reputation for being a wildly talented generalist: Along with his songwriting partner Maarten Devoldere, Deprez has co-produced three of Balthazar’s five albums to date. 

As the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed solo recording project, J. Bernardt, Deprez wrote, recorded and produced his full-length debut, 2016’s Running Days, an album with a sound molded from electronics. That album has amassed over 40 million streams globally since its release. 

Deprez’s sophomore J. Bernardt album, the Tobie Speleman and Deprez co-produced Contigo is slated for a May 17, 2024 release through Play It Again Sam. Deriving its name from the Spanish phrase “with you,” the album sees Deprez crafting an old-school band-based sound featuring a collection of the Belgian artist’s super-talented friends that he guided through intense rehearsals and performances, “searching for that spark.” The string and orchestral arrangements were written by Deprez, who’s a classically trained violinist. 

Contigo sonically is reportedly a dramatic, compelling and colorful body work and brought to life by sumptuous melodies, vocals and production flourishes from an acclaimed singer/songwriter and producer. Thematically, the album explores all the phases of a break-up: shock, sadness, denial, anger and acceptance while being viciously romantic. “I know a break-up record is a cliché,” says Deprez. “But I’m growing to love cliches! I wasn’t afraid to go all the way. Forgetting about the break-up by singing about it is like self-sabotage, but I’m having fun with it too.”

So far, I’ve written about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • “Taxi,” a taut pop gem featuring a slinky bass line-driven groove, a soulful female choir, propulsive percussion, twangy bursts of guitar and cinematic strings serving as a lush bed for Deprez’s plaintive and heartbroken delivery. The song’s narrator is in a taxi, desperately desiring an escape to contemplate a recent, very bitter breakup: throughout the ride, the narrator endlessly replays and questions everything that led up to the split. And for devastated and heartbroken narrator, he’s left without any real answers to anything, other than raw hurt, confusion and shock. He’s a man who has had the rug violently yanked out from under. 
  • “Mayday Call,” a swaggering yet woozy tune that starts off with a wailing horn but is lead by a thick and brooding orchestral section, a propulsive rhythm section serving as a lush and uneasy bed for Deprez’s squealed delivery, which describes a panic attack with an uncanny verisimilitude before ending with a wearily exhausted coda. 

Contigo‘s third and latest single “Last Waltz” is a slow-burning, lush bit of orchestral pop. Featuring an ethereal yet cinematic string arrangement, expressive bursts of guitar, a soulful backing choir and Deprez’s heartbroken baritone croon, “The Last Waltz,” is a drunken and heartbroken surrender to the new reality of post-breakup life, while choosing to fondly remembering what once was. The song’s narrator seems to say “Lord knows, we had some fun, huh? But it’s time to move forward somehow. Auf wiedersehen, sweetheart/Auf wiedersehen/Auf wiedersehen . . . as Vera Lynn once sang.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Helsinki Lambda Club Shares Ethereal, Swim Deep Remix of “Good News Is Bad News”

Formed back in 2013, Helsinki Lambda Club is a Japanese indie outfit led by Kaoru Hashimoto, whose influences range from 70s rock to modern indie pop. And as a result, the band specializes in a genre-defying sound and approach that encompasses garage punk attitude, and New Wave and psych rock spirit with catchy melodies, playful lyrics and experimental soundscapes that frequently morph from sunny surf rock to full on psychedelia.

Celebrating their 10th anniversary, the Japanese outfit released their third album Welcome to Helsinki Lambda Club, which they supported with touring across Hong Kong, Singapore, China and Taiwan. Building upon a growing international presence, the members of Helsinki Lambda Club played at SXSW earlier this year, receiving attention from American music press — and garnering a video feature on Grammy.com.

The band is gearing up for their first UK tour next month, HLC Airlines, which will feature shows in London, Birmingham and Brighton‘s The Great Escape Festival.

Continuing the celebration of their first decade, the Japanese indie outfit is launching a series of remixes of some of their signature tracks. The first of the series sees British indie pop act Swim Deep giving “Good News Is Bad News” the remix treatment. While the original version is a jaunty, hook-driven bop seemingly inspired by The Strokes and Arctic Monkeys, the Swim Deep remix turns the song into a dreamy and ethereal soundscape inspired by Low and Souvlaki-era Slowdive.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Zimbabwean-born, London-based emcee Rhyme Assassin is a grizzled vet in the game, starting his career in earnest back in 2000 doing rap battles and performances in his native Zimbabwe before relocating to the UK in 2002. Since then, Rhyme Assassin has appeared on a number of compilations and released a handful of mixtapes, including 2021’s Side Barz.

HIs forthcoming, highly-anticipated full-length debut, Dedicated to Self will feature production from the likes of Buckwild, True Master, DJ King Flow and a list others, as well as guest spots from Ras Kass, Masta Ace, dead prez‘s stic.man, Saigon and Keith Murray. Dedicated to Self‘s latest single, “Run Em Up” sees the Zimbabwean-born, London-based emcee trade mosh pit-inducing bars about running up on the competition with M.O.P. and Ruste Juxx over a bruising and menacing Preemo-like beat from The Arcitype.

The Arcitype beat inspired Rhyme Assassin to reach out to his collaborators. “I could only hear M.O.P. on the instrumental,” he says, adding that it didn’t matter how many times he listened to it, because he only could hear the Brownsville bullies on the beat. Then, when he needed a third verse to close it out, he reached out to Ruste Juxx, who “complemented M.O.P.’s energy and vibes,” Rhyme Assassin says.