Category: Synth Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently based in New York, Anya Marina is an Ann Arbor, MI-born, Cupertino, CA-raised singer/songwriter who initially made waves after relocating to San Diego, where she quickly developed a reputation as one of Southern California’s up-and-coming artists — and as a result, the then-San Diego-based pop artist was personally signed to Chop Shop Records by its founder Alexandra Patsavas, best known as the music director for films and TV shows such as Twilight, Gossip Girl and Grey’s Anatomy.  2009’s Slow & Steady Seduction: Phase II was released to critical praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Spin, The Village Voice and others and Anya Marina promptly followed that up with a core of T.I.‘s “Whatever You Like,” which appeared on a 2009 episode of Gossip Girl and spent two weeks on top of iTunes Top Alternative Songs chart, eventually selling more than 100,000 downloads. The official video for the track eventually received nearly 2.5 million views on Anya’s official YouTube channel. And adding to a breakthrough 2009, Anya Marina’s “Satellite Heart” was featured on the RIAA-certified platinum soundtrack for The Twilight Saga: New Moon.

2010 saw the release of her self-produced EP Spirit School, which included “Whatsit,” a collaboration with The Dandy Warhols‘ Courtney Taylor-Taylor and the “Satellite Heart (Tiny Stars Remix)“by Interpol‘s Sam Fogarino. With a growing national profile, Anya Marina has had a busy touring schedule both as an opener and headliner, touring with Jason Mraz, Spoon, Joshua Radin, Eric Hutchinson, Chris Issak, Paolo Nutini, Emiliana Torrini, The Virgins, Greg Laswell, Jenny Owen Youngs, Steve Poltz, Rhett Miller, The Plain White Ts, The Dandy Warhols and Tristan Prettyman among others.  Along with that, she’s made several high-profile TV appearances including ABC‘s Jimmy Kimmel Live!, and the WB’s Rockville, CA and along with that she’s had music appear in CBS’ How I Met Your Mother, MTV‘s The City, Showtime‘s United States of Tara, and the CW‘s 90210 and Privileged, as well as ad campaigns for Frito-Lays’ Tostitos and Kate Walsh’s Boyfriend.

Anya Marina wrote and recorded the Felony Flats EP in Portland and was released in 2012 to critical acclaim before she relocated to New York, where she returned to releasing albums independently — with her fourth full-length effort Paper Plane being released via PledgeMusic and her own Good Rope Records. Her latest EP, The Serious Love is slated for a June 16, 2017 release and the material, which was cowritten with Nashville-based collaborator Ian Keaggy focuses on four stages of heartbreak: the first being wild, heads over heels infatuation but there’s something not quite right — the recognition that what you had hoped was a real relationship is at best a situationship; the second being the push-pull/hot-cold/on-off stage in which the relationship/situationship has grown on you and in the back of your mind, you’ve considered the possibility of a breakup; the third stage is the eventual despair and heartache after you’ve gone through with the breakup — and it’s frequently the point in which you’ve replayed every single thing that happened or was said in your mind, in the hopes that maybe you can gleam some comprehension into what happened; and stage four, which is the focus of the EP’s final track “Faze Me,” that period in which you’ve moved out of anger, resentment and hurt and have accepted the fact that the relationship is over and that you’re ready to move forward with your life, even if your ex thinks that it’ll be more of the same push and pull that’s been the bulk of the relationship. In fact, the song’s narrator seems so over it, that she’s mentally about 1,000 miles away from the relationship in question. Interestingly, the song sonically speaking pairs Anya Marina’s sultry and breathy cooing with a sparse, atmospheric production reminiscent of JOVM mainstay Sofi de la Torre.

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal and Sexual New Visuals for Collapsing Scenery’s “Straight World Problems”

Comprised of Don De Vore, who has spent stints in a number of indie rock acts, including Sick Feeling, Ink and Dagger and others and Reggie Debris, the Brooklyn-based electronic duo Collapsing Scenery can trace their origins back to the summer/fall of 2013, one of a series of summers in which humanity seemed to be inching closer to the precipice of self-annhiliation. And inspired by those particularly bleak days, the De Vore and Debris put aside their guitars, the instruments they’d first learn to play music and on which they were most comfortable and most well-versed, and began assembling as much analog electronic equipment as possible — including samples, step sequencers, synths and drum machines, all plugged into a variety of effects pedals. Interestingly, De Vore’s and Debris’ music and creative process reportedly represents the world as the band wishes the world were: mischievous, polyglot, intense, committed, politically engaged, free, open and without boundaries or hierarchies.

With their initial and recording sessions being largely improvised and accompanied by Ryan Rapsys (drums), the material they wrote together expressed their rage and frustration — and while being an electronic outfit, their sound and material draws from punk rock, industrial electronica, techno, hip-hop. free jazz, disco, folk and several other things, and in way that will remind some listeners of renowned experimental electronic act Liars. Now if you’ve been frequenting this site for a while, you may recall that I had written about “Metaphysical Cops,” a single that reminded me of Soul Coughing’s “Super Bon Bon,” and while it’s been a while since I’ve written about the Brooklyn-based electronic duo, the band has been busy writing new material, which includes their latest single “Straight World Problems,” a propulsive and off-kilter bit of funk that manages to be both radio-friendly and dance floor-friendly despite it’s abrasiveness. While the core of the song suggests an unresolved sexual frustration and desperation, the song as the band’s Reggie Debris explains in press notes is about “the awful frequency with which new regimes and new systems mimic the worst qualities of those they replace.”

Directed by Richard Kern, the recently released video possesses a thinly veiled and unresolved sexual tension between each of the characters — are the members of the band being teased or they are enjoying suffering? Is there more than meets the eye? Hard to tell; but it’s sexy and downright weird.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Retro-futuristic 80s Inspired Visuals for The Legends’ “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else)”

So if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-15 months or so you’ve seen the name Johan Angergård as a result of his various electro pop projects including — Djustin, Club 8 and Acid House Kings, and he’s also known as the founder and label head of renowned Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop label Labrador Records; however, the acclaimed electro pop producer and label head, has had an equally accomplished solo career with his solo recording project The Legends — including 2009’s noise pop-leaning self-titled effort and 2015’s It’s Love, which featured lead single “Keep Him.” That same 12-15 month period has been an extremely busy and prolific period for Angergård: Djustin and Club 8 released long-awaited album and he released a series of critically applauded singles off his recently released full-length effort, Nightshift has revealed a decided change of sonic direction for his The Legends project, as his sound went towards a swaggering, neon-colored, retro-futuristic sound reminiscent of 80s Giorgio Moroder, Computerworld-era Kraftwerk, early house and Holy Ghost!’s Crime Cutz, and Homework-era Daft Punk as heavily vocoder-processed vocals are paired with tweeter and woofer rocking 808s, processed cowbell and layers of arpeggio synths as you’ll hear on the propulsive and summertime, club-banger “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else).” And while breezy, the song’s breezy quality is deceptive; at the core of the song is a bittersweet, sad sack narrator’s loneliness and heartbreak over being alone during yet another summer in the city while everyone else seemingly has someone in their lives.

The recently released video for the song is a pastiche of early 80s animation, including a lengthy Japanimation segment reminiscent of Pole Position and Voltron. Certainly, if you’re a child of the 80s, the video is remarkably fitting and will bring back some warm memories of easygoing, neon-colored summers.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past three years or so, you’d certainly come across a handful of posts featuring the  Austin TX/Houston, TX-based electro pop act  Night Drive. Comprised of songwriting and production duo Rodney Connell and Bradley Duhon, the Texan electro pop act can trace their origins to some rather unusual, highly soap-opera-like yet very true circumstances: Connell and Duhon had met and bonded after they had discovered the the woman they had both unwittingly had been simultaneously dating tragically died in a car accident. Regardless of the circumstances behind their formation, the duo  has received attention both on this site and elsewhere for a moody, slickly produced New Wave and synth pop sound that draws from Joy Division, Cut Copy, Brian Eno, The Knife, The Drums, LCD Soundsystem. Depeche Mode and others. However, the duo’s last single “Rise and Fall” managed to sound as though it were inspired by  A Flock of Seagulls “I Ran (So Far Away)” and Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart” — and interestingly enough, the song thematically focused on the slow dissolution of a relationship that according to the song’s narrator seemed to be nearing its inevitable conclusion; but with the recognition that walking away from a relationship is difficult, even when it’s absolutely necessary. And in some way, you can sense the narrator’s unexpressed and deep seated fears about his life, post-relationship.

Last month, the renowned Los Angeles-based production and DJ duo Classixx remixed “Rise and Fall,” turning the moody, synth-based torch song into a breezy, funky, summery, club banger along the lines of Tuxedo, Dam-Funk, 7 Days of Funk and others, as the duo pairs the original vocal track with twinkling electric piano, a sinuous bass line and thumping beats — and as a result, the heartbreak at the core of the song is reduced to the dull throb of having time pass by. As Connell and Duhon explained to the folks at Billboard “Classixx reinterprets the song through the lens of that same person reminiscing about the incident many years later while chilling on a beach and sipping a martini. Sure it was sad and heartbreaking, but it’s hard to stay sad while in the Cayman Islands.”

As Classixx’s Michael David and Tyler Blake explained to Billboard, their remix of Night Drive’s “Rise and Fall” involved them pulling out electric piano and bass and recording one long take jamming over the vocal track. “We were feeling the groove and liked some of the imperfections, so we left them in. Our initial pass was more abstract, but the band [Night Drive] helped us bring it back a little closer to the original material. It was a pretty collaborative effort through email. I like how it still sounds a little rough around the edges though. Sometimes that’s where the charm lies,” the duo’s Tyler Blake added in an emailed statement to Billboard.

The duo’s self-titled debut is slated for a June 16, 2017 release through Roll Call Records and the album’s latest single “Trapeze Artist Regrets,” and the album’s latest single “Trapeze Artist Regrets” will likely remind listeners of Depeche Mode’s “People Are People,” Yaz’s “Situation,” The Human League’s “Don’t You Want Me” and others as the song features an effortlessly slick production consisting of layers upon layers of propulsive, undulating synths and tweeter and woofer rocking beats paired with an infectious, dance floor-friendly hook and emotionally direct lyrics. However, interestingly enough, as the duo admits “‘Trapeze Artist Regrets’ was never supposed to happen. We were writing something else for a short film and became bored, so we changed the bpm, started shifting things around and all of the sudden we had this groove we liked.  We just started working backwards from there. The title came first, a sorta metaphor for disaster; it’s about watching someone you care about make the same mistake over and over again and not being able to do anything about it. Just hoping they pull through.” And as a result, the song possesses a bitter sense of reality, along with the recognition that the narrator’s friend will do something incredibly harmful to themselves and others.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Psychedelic Visuals for DBFC’s “Jenks”

Certainly, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-15 months or so, you’ve likely come across several posts featuring one of this site’s most recent mainstay acts, the Paris-based electronic music and production duo DBFC. Comprised of Manchester, UK-born, Paris-based David Shaw and Paris-born and-based Dombrance, the duo emerged onto the French electronic music scene with the release of a handful of singles during 2015-2017 through renowned indie label Her Majesty’s Ship Records — including “Autonomic,” a track that manages to nod at Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” and “The Man Machine,” and Primal Scream‘s “Autobahn 66” — but with a subtle cosmic glow around its edges.

Building upon a growing national and international profile, the Parisian electronic duo’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Jenks is slated for a June 2, 2017 release through Different Recordings/[PIAS] Records. Earlier this year I wrote about “Sinner,” the first official single from the album, and it was a track that furthered cemented the English/French duo’s reputation for pairing slick, dance-floor leaning electronic production with organic instrumentation — and while the aforementioned “Autonomic” took it’s cues from Kraftwerk, “Sinner” struck me as nodding a bit more at Come With Us-era The Chemical Brothers, complete with a similar anthemic yet trippy vibe. Album title track and latest single “Jenks” however, manages to nod at Evil Heat-era Primal Scream, EMF‘s “Unbelievable,” Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop-era U2 and the Manchester sound but with a motorik groove consisting of a sinuous bass line, shimmering arpeggio synths, warm blasts of electric guitar, four on the floor-drumming. swirling electronics and an arena rock hook paired with dreamy vocals singing lyrics about breaking free from conformity and being whatever you want to be/whatever you need to be — and at all costs.

The recently released music video is shot in a gentle, old-fashioned and trippy haze and follows an attractive woman as she walks a late night street to a club/performance space where she encounters DBFC — including their live, touring members — performing “Jenks,” and as the video progresses, the video’s protagonist gets entranced and then freaks the fuck out. And while nodding at commercials and old music videos, it’s arguably one of the weirdest videos I’ve seen in some time.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Mischievous Yet Dark Goth-Inspired Visuals for Ghost Twin’s “Plastic Heart”

Since the release of their debut EP, Here We Are In The Night, the Winnipeg, MB-based electro pop duo Ghost Twin, comprised of husband and wife duo Karen and Jaimz Asmundson, have received attention for meshing dark, industrial-inspired dance grooves in an immersive audio/visual show that includes edited video being used as percussion; in fact, the duo have played shows across their native Canada, including sets at NXNE, Pop Montreal, BreakOut West and Terminus. Eventually, the EP caught the attention of Austra’s Maya Postepski, a drummer and an electronic music producer known as Princess Century, who approached the band and was recruited to produce and collaborate on the material that would eventually comprise Plastic Heart, the Canadian duo’s full-length debut.

“Plastic Heart,” the album title track and latest single off Ghost Twin’s debut consists of tweeter and woofer-rattling boom bap beats, propulsive, shimmering arpeggio synths, a murky, retro-futuristic, industrial electro pop vibe and a soaring hook paired with ethereal vocals — and while clearly nodding at John Carpenter soundtracks, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Depeche Mode, Moonbabies, Niki and the Dove and others, the song manages to be a slickly produced, club banger with a dark, seductive feel. And interestingly enough, the recently released video, which was directed and produced by the band’s Jaimz Asmundson drops the viewer into a gym club for goths in which a dance instructor teaches some of the attendees a menacing new dance move, a move that mimics kidnapping, murdering and then burying the body of an enemy while conjuring dark spirits — and while menacing there’s a mischievous sense of dark humor and wish-fulfillment within the video.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Los Angeles-born and -based musicians Daniel Davila and Cooper Bell, the pop and funk duo Fabriq with their latest single “Electric Flow,” have an sexy, attention-grabbing sound that clearly draws from contemporary electro pop, 80s synth pop and synth funk in a way that’s reminiscent of Dam-Funk, Boulevards and others, as the song possesses a sinuous bass line, four-on-the-floor drumming and a slick, dance floor rocking hook.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

DGTL CTL is a mysterious electro pop production and artist duo, whose production and songs draw from several different and very diverse styles, while possessing a flair for the avant-garde to craft an imitable sound that interestingly enough also manages to be incredibly radio friendly. The duo’s debut EP is now slated for  release sometime this summer. Now, you may recall that I earlier this year, I wrote about the EP’s first single “Elephant,” a track that that simultaneously nodded at slow-burning Quiet Storm-era R&B, a chilly but efficient minimalism paired with breezy atmospherics and a stark industrial electronica as it featured a production consisting of distorted and shuffling beats, gently swirling and undulating synths and achingly tender vocals with an infectious hook. Lyrically, the song’s narrator talked abotu falling for someone so deeply that they can’t quite figure out a way to actually express themselves. Every time, he thinks about trying to put HIS thoughts and feelings down on paper, it just doesn’t ever add up to the what he feels and thinks in his head. And worse yet, whenever he’s in the presence of his object of desire, they ‘re forced to acknowledge the proverbial elephant in the room — their unexpressed longing and desire for that person — and yet so many things are hopelessly left unsaid. By far, it was arguably one of the most sensual yet desperate songs I’ve heard this year.

The duo’s latest single “3 Strikes” continues on somewhat similar vein as its predecessor —  in the sense that the song manages to draw from Quiet Storm R&B; however, it also nods at the indie dance pop of Cut Copy and Midnight Juggernauts as brief blasts of electric guitar are paired with stomping, boom-bap beats, wobbling yet propulsive synths paired with achingly tender falsetto vocals detailing a relationship that consists of a dysfunctional push and pull between both parties, in which they both use and abuse each other, fight and fuss, and endlessly repeat. And as a result, the song bristles with a barely contained bitterness over a confusing situation that they can’t quite get out of and can’t seem to comprehend; after all, in terms of most human relationships, we’re drawn to people and situations that we can’t quite understand or recognize — and in this song, the song reflects that with an uncanny psychological accuracy while also continuing to be radio friendly.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Upstate New York-born, Los Angeles, CA-based Marissa Longstreet and Los Angeles-born and-based Matthew Lieberman, the Los Angeles-based indie pop duo Rival Cavves can trace their origins to a chance encounter back in 2012. At the time, Lieberman’s new band Magic Bronson was looking for rehearsal/studio space and stumbled upon a warehouse in the San Fernando Valley that seemed to fit what they wanted and needed. Upon their arrival, Lieberman met the warehouse owner’s sister, Marissa Longstreet, who had recently relocated from Upstate New York to the Los Angeles area and was just getting her feet wet in the area’s music scene, fronting an indie dance act.  Over the next three years, Lieberman and Longstreet found themselves playing a number of shows together with their respective bands.

As the story goes, in 2005 Lieberman moved into the same North Hollywood neighborhood as Longstreet. The duo began to hang out more frequently and spent a lot of late nights listening to Lieberman’s record collection and introducing each other to new bands. Feeling inspired by these hang out sessions, Lieberman armed with a vintage Roland June-106 synthesizer began making beats and started sending them to Longstreet, who would upload his beats into Garage Band and track vocals over them. Within a few weeks, the duo had a handful of songs and they officially started their latest project Rival Caaves.

The duo’s latest single “Creep” reveals that the duo’s sound is largely inspired by 80s New Wave, synth pop, hip hop and house music, as well as contemporary synth pop as Longstreet’s sultry vocals are paired with slick yet retro-futuristic leaning production featuring Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, a sinuous bass line, thick shimmering cascades of arpeggio synths and boom bap-like beats. And while clearly nodding at Blondie, Tom Tom Club and Las Kellies, the song possesses a subtly paranoid cynicism rooted in the fear of being hurt and fucked over by someone who may be pretty obvious about how fucked up they are themselves; in fact, as Longstreet says in press notes “People aren’t always aware of how transparent they are online until someone else is seeing through them and then you’re the creep for looking,”

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Joakin Buddee is a Stockholm, Sweden-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumenliast and producer, and with his solo recording project foreverandever<3, Buddee has received airplay from P3 Radio and attention from major Scandinavian music blogs Ja Ja Ja Music, Nordik by Nature and Popmani for crating thoughtful, dance floor-friendly, escapist electro pop that is for “people who love electronic sounds and club music, but are a little too introvert to go to a rave. They dance at home in their heads.”

“so guuud,” a collaboration with internationally renowned Stockholm, Sweden-based dream pop artist David Alexander, best known as Summer Heart, is the first single off his  soon-to-be released debut EP, Late Walk/Space Walk and it will further cement Buddee’s reputation for thoughtful, dance floor friendly electro pop as it features a slick, hypermodern, house music-inspired production featuring layers of stuttering drum programming, thumping beats, swirling and whirling electronics, shimmering arpeggio synths, plaintive vocals and a big, crowd pleasing hook — and while nodding at both Octo Octa’s Between Two Selves and In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy, the song evokes both the swooning passion of a summer fling and the liberating feeling of abandon on the dance floor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Since the release of their debut EP, Here We Are In The Night, the Winnipeg, MB-based electro pop duo Ghost Twin, comprised of husband and wife duo Karen and Jaimz Asmundson, have received attention for meshing dark, industrial-inspired dance grooves in an immersive audio/visual show that includes edited video being used as percussion; in fact, the duo have played shows across their native Canada, including sets at NXNE, Pop Montreal, BreakOut West and Terminus. Eventually, the EP caught the attention of Austra’s Maya Postepski, a drummer and an electronic music producer known as Princess Century, who approached the band and was recruited to produce and collaborate on the material that would eventually comprise Plastic Heart, the Canadian duo’s full-length debut.

“Plastic Heart,” the album title track and latest single off Ghost Twin’s debut consists of tweeter and woofer-rattling boom bap beats, propulsive, shimmering arpeggio synths, a murky, retro-futuristic, industrial electro pop vibe and a soaring hook paired with ethereal vocals — and while clearly nodding at John Carpenter soundtracks, Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Depeche Mode, Moonbabies, Niki and the Dove and others, the song manages to be a slickly produced, club banger with a dark, seductive feel.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Video: !!! Get Fierce In Video for New Single “Dancing Is The Best Revenge”

Deriving their name from the subtitles of the movie The Gods Must Be Crazy, in which the clicking sounds of the Bushmen’s Khoisan language were represented as “!,” and currently comprised of founding member and vocalist Nic Offer with Mario Andreoni, Dan Gorman, Paul Quattrone, !!! (pronounced chk-chk-chk) originally formed in Sacramento CA when members of three local bands, The Yah Mos, Black Licorice and Popesmashers, decided to collaborate together on a project that would mesh disco, funk and dance music with more aggressive post punk and punk. Relocating to NYC, the members of !!! quickly became part of a famous batch of dance punk acts, who got their start in the early 00s including The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem and a lengthy list of others; but unlike their renowned peers and counterparts, they’ve managed to remain operating as a cohesive unit — although the band’s members now reside in NYC, Sacramento and Portland, OR.

Shake The Shudder, !!!’s sixth full-length effort is slated for a May 19, 2017 release through Warp Records and the album continues their collaboration with long-time producer Patrick Ford at the band’s Brooklyn-based home studio. Renowned electronic music producers Phil Moffa, Joakim and Matt Wiggins were recruited to mix the album and adding to the overall communal feel, the album features a rotating cast of guest vocalists including Lea Lea, Meah Pace, Nicole Fayu, Cameron Mesirow and Molly Schnick. Already, the album’s first single “The One 2,” which has seen airplay on BBC Radio 6, KCRK and KEXP has seen 400,000 streams, and building upon the buzz that the first single received, the act has released the album’s second and latest single “Dancing Is The Best Revenge” is a self-assured and sultry strutting song that nods at classic disco, funk, classic house and contemporary electro pop-like production while possessing one of the funkiest bass lines I’ve heard this year.

Directed by Will Galperin, the recently released video for “Dancing Is The Best Revenge” feature’s !!!’s Nic Offer with a collective of some fierce, take no prisoner drag queens — Kamryn Moore-Fierce, Nikki Moore, Makena Moore and Phoebe Monroe De La Strawberry strutting and dancing their asses off to the song. But perhaps more important, the video captures the performers camaraderie, pride and decency as they transform themselves to perform. And from the video, these ladies are a crazy, dysfunctional family — but a family in which every member accepts and loves their quirks and foibles, and offers the sort of love and understanding that they wouldn’t have received from their own biological families.

Interestingly, as Nic Offer explains in press notes, “When we recorded ‘Dancing Is The Best Revenge’ I pitched up voice, becoming Nicole Fayu in the studio — much like Prince became Camille and Morrisseey became Ann Coates. The groove felt like a strut or a walk and I imagined it akin to drag or ballroom culture.

“After ‘The One 2’ video featured such strong dance performances and was filmed in the historic L.A. venue Jalisco, we decided to give the song to some girls, who could really walk the walk and perform the song as in the spirit of reinvention. We traded some outfits and makeup tips, and they helped me become IRL Nicole Fayu. Dancing with them was a blast, and it was a great to finally see the song walked. I’m not used to being out-performed in a video.”

“These ladies ignore a world that tells them who they should be — they take the stage, walking as whoever they want to be, and that’s their best revenge. Maybe you’ll never walk onstage, maybe you’ll never be anyone else, but maybe this song/vid/story inspires you to try something you haven’t before.” Along with that though, is a very powerful message that being your truest self and not caring what anyone else thinks is arguably one of the simplest yet most revolutionary acts. And in a political climate in which their community is being attacked, the love these ladies show for one another, their pride and their zero fucks attitude towards life should truly be inspiring.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: French Electronic Music Artist Juveniles Returns with a Sensual Single Paired with Politically Conscious Visuals

Earlier this year, you may recall that I wrote about Juveniles, the now-solo recording project of French electronic music artist and producer Jean-Sylvan Le Gouic, best known as Jean Sylvain. Initially formed as a duo featuring Sylvain and former member Thibault Doray, the project’s debut EP, We Are Young, which was released through renowned French electronic music label Kitsune Records, received attention slick, hypermodern, super-computerized, dance floor-friendly productions. Building upon a rapidly growing profile among electronic music circles, the duo released their 2013 Yuksek-produced full-length debut, which expanded the then-duo’s profile across the European Union, Southeast Asia, China and South America.

Now, as I’ve not so subtly hinted at, since the release of their full-length debut, the project has gone through some significant changes — Doray left the project, leaving it solely under the helm of Sylvain and his sophomore full-length effort Without Warning, which was released earlier this year through Paradis/Capitol Records finds Sylvain releasing music on a new label after several years with Kitsune Records. Produced and recorded by Joakim at Crowdspacer Studios here in NYC, Without Warning finds the French electronic music artist going through decidedly radical changes both in sonic direction and approach as he abandons the fully computerized sound of his previously released work to embrace a much more “human” approach, featuring live instrumentation from The Juan Maclean’s, Holy Ghost!’s and Yeasayer’s Christopher Berry (drums) and Big Data’s Ben Campbell (bass), along with pre-digital and traditional mixing and production techniques.

“Someone Better,” Without Warning’s preceding single features a sinuous and propulsive bass line paired with blocks of arpeggio organ and synth chords, four-on-the-floor drumming, and Sylvain’s sensual and seductive crooning with some of the sharpest, most dance-floor friendly hooks I’ve heard in quite some time. And while arguably being one of the warmest, most soulful, the French electronic music artist has released to date, the song clearly draws from classic disco, bearing a resemblance to Cheryl Lynn’s “Got To Be Real,” Sylvester’s “You Make Me Feel (Mighty Real)” but with a subtly modern production sheen. “Love Me” continues in a similar vein, nodding at Nile Rodgers’ work with Chic, Zonoscope-era Cut Copy and DFA Records as the song features an arrangement consisting of shuffling funk guitar, a sinuous bass line, cowbell-led percussion and squiggling synths and some incredibly dance floor-friendly hooks. But just under the surface is a plaintive yearning to be desired and loved that’s innately human.

Directed by Aube Perrie and David Moerman and starring Laure Berend-Sagols and Flore Gandiol as the video’s very pregnant leads and love-struck couple, the recently released and lushly shot video pairs surrealistic and psychedelic-tinged animation and impossibly vibrant colors to evoke the leads swooning passion and desire for one another. And while placing the video’s central pair in surreal situations, the pair radiate sweetness, light and the sort of love that feels (and looks) as though they may be the only people in the entire world, if only for a moment. Certainly, in light of our current political climate in which a presidential administration is in a vicious war against women (in particular single mothers), our dear friends, lovers, colleagues and associates in the LGBQT community, non-Christians and anyone not White, Berend-Sagols and Gandiol’s dignity and decency feel powerful and revolutionary. One day love will be simply that — love.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Surreal and Psychedelic Visuals for HOTT MT’s “Tranceforming”

Earlier this year, I wrote about the Los Angeles, CA-based experimental pop Hour Of The Time Majesty Twelve (HOTT MT) — and you may recall that the duo, which is currently comprised of Spooki Tavi (guitar, vocals) and Ashi Dala (bass, vocals) have a developed a reputation for their former collaborative warehouse-based art space Non Plus Ultra, for crafting shimmering, psychedelic-leaning experimental pop, and for ambitious collaborations with The Flaming Lips, Ariel Pink, Erykah Badu and Ke$ha. Adding to a growing profile. the duo have opened for The Flaming Lips, Bat for Lashes, and Galaxie 500.
The duo’s sophomore full-length effort AU (Alternate Universe) is slated for a May 2017 release through the duo’s Mutation Records, and the album’s previous single “A Night in China Town” was a moody and dreamy song featuring shimmering synths, tinny and distorted Casio-like beats and angular guitar chords paired with a soaring hook while Spooki Tavi’s ethereal vocals floated over the mix. And while drawing from 60s psych pop and bubblegum pop and classic shoegazer rock, the song manages to also be reminiscent of Washington D.C.’s The Galaxy Electric but with a chillier air. AU (Alternate Universe)’s latest single “Tranceforming,” continues on a similar vein as its preceding single as you’ll hear a song that clearly draws from 60s psych pop and bubblegum pop — thanks in part to the use of what sounds like vintage, analog synths; but unlike the previous single, “Tranceforming” possesses a plaintive and visceral yearning, proving to be a subtle shading on a particular series of emotions.

Directed by the band’s Spooki Tavi, the recently released music video for “Tranceforming” builds upon a picture within a picture motif, as part of the video consists of its protagonist shoving a videocassette into the VCR — and the video is full of appropriately sugary and psychedelic imagery that at points features our very three dimensional protagonist in a 2 dimensional world. Pulling back to it’s viewer, the same protagonist is in a mind-altering trance.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Andy Crosby and Luke Hamel, the Australian/American psych pop duo Vox Eagle can trace its origins to when Crosby and Hamel met while touring together in a previous band. And during their time on the road together, the duo bonded over their mutual interest and desire to create experimental, electronic-leaning psych pop. The duo’s soon to be released self-produced and self-engineered EP was written and recorded in several different locales across the country — including Colorado, Upstate New York, the Mojave Desert, Midtown Manhattan, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, a number of Air BNBs, hotels trains and planes using the duo’s mobile recording rig. And as a result, the material on the EP is influenced by the duo’s travels as well as the changing environments the duo employed throughout their creative process. “i think the new locations help to keep the music fresh to us, and to inspire different ideas, while keeping us focused exclusively on the songs and not distracted by our respective lives,” Vox Eagle’s Luke Hamel explained in press notes.

“Come Over,” off the forthcoming EP features a production featuring big, propulsive beats, undulating electronics and arpeggio synths, buzzing guitars fed through effect pedals, and a rousingly anthemic pop hook paired with plaintive vocals — and in some way, the duo’s sound reminds me of Tame Impala, Painted Palms and In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy as the song manages to seamlessly mesh 60s psych pop, indie rock and dance floor and radio-friendly electro pop but with slick, modern production that will win over some new fans.