Category: Synth Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-18 months or so, you’d be fairly familiar with Stockholm, Sweden-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, Labrador Records label head and electronic music artist Johan Angergård, who’s best known for his work as a member of Club 8. 2017 has been a rather busy year for the renowned producer, electronic music artist and label head, as his solo project The Legends recently released a new album earlier this month and his project with American pop artist and vocalist Rose Suau, Djustin will be releasing their long-anticipated full-length debut Voyagers on May 5, 2017.  And with Voyager‘s first single “Illumination,” Angergård further cements his rapidly growing profile for slickly produced, retro-futuristic, 80s-inspired synth pop — along the lines of Giorgio Moroder, John Carpenter and others — with a nod towards propulsive, dance floor friendly house music. In fact, Suau’s vocals add a plaintive and urgent need to the song.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Tom, Owen, Clementine (a.k.a. Clem) and Creeda, the Brighton, UK-based indie electro pop quartet Kudu Blue have received attention both nationally and internationally from the likes of Complex, The Line of Best Fit, Wonderland Magazine, Notion Magazine, Pigeons and Planes and airplay on Beats 1 Radio, BBC Radio 1 and Radio 1Xtra for a sound that draws from contemporary R&B, electro pop and soul — paired with lush and atmospheric production.

The Brighton-based quartet’s recently released Shaded EP, which was written and then self-recorded and self-produced in each of the bandmembers’ bedrooms — and the EP’s latest, slow-burning, single “Enemy,” will further cement their growing reputation, as the single features a lush and atmospheric-leaning production consisting of shimmering and twinkling arpeggio synths, wobbling bass synth chords, a sinuous bass line and boom bap beats paired with vocalist Clementine’s yearning and soulful vocals. And while sonically bearing a resemblance to Morcheeba but with a subtly contemporary take, the song is loosely based around a rather heated discussion the band’s vocalist had. As the band explains, Clem had come out of a bumpy patch in her life, and was ready to start living her life in a new way — in which she’d just enjoy things and take it day-by-day; however, the people in her life found it difficult to accept that she was attempting to make a purposeful and positive change in your life. Unsurprisingly, as a result, at the core of the song is a bitter confusion over the fact that someone, who the song’s narrator once thought understood them, may actually be one of their worst enemies. Worse yet, you couldn’t have possibly seen it coming either.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

So if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of its history, you’ve likely come across a handful of posts featuring New York-based, JOVM mainstays and electronic music duo Beacon. Comprised of Thomas Mullarney III (vocals) and Jacob Gusset (production), the duo have received attention across the blogosphere for a sound that draws from R&B, house music and electro pop as Mullarney’s aching and yearning falsetto vocals are paired with generally spacious, minimalist productions consisting of chilly, arpeggio synths and wobbling low end.

Last year’s sophomore effort Escapements thematically was about time and the baggage it both creates and brings, and unsurprisingly, the album’s title was inspired by clock mechanics; in fact, escapements are timekeeping regulators specifically designed to transfer the kinetic energy of the clock’s parts at a constant and regular pace. As Mullarney explained in press notes at the time, “I was attracted to this concept because of the entropy it implies. Friction and changes in amplitude over time mean[s] every escapement, no matter how well crafted, will lose its accuracy and effectively slow down time via its own decay.”

Featuring drumming from Tycho‘s Rory O’Connor, the material on Escapements was written, revised, refined and recorded over the course of about nine months at Beacon’s Brooklyn-based home studio and Gary’s Electric and the album revealed that the duo restlessly experimented with their songwriting and production approaches, following wherever their muses and instincts took them, including trying out new studio techniques and recording techniques. And occasionally, they tried things on the fly, which meant that the recordings captured much more of the free-flowing feel and energy of the creative process — while at points being subtly cinematic.

On the heels of a Coachella appearance with Tycho, Mullarney and Gusset released their first single of 2017, “Marion.” At the core of the song is a hammered dulcimer, a percussive, stringed instrument in which the musician strikes the strings with small, hand-held hammers — coincidentally, the hammered dulcimer is an ancestor of the modern piano that sounds a bit like cross between a harp and a piano. The chiming, hammered dulcimer sample ebbs and flows, and occasionally recedes for Mullarney’s achingly tender falsetto vocals to float over the production, which also features stuttering boom-bap beats. And while being subtly warmer than some of their previously released material, their latest single will further cement the duo’s reputation for crafting minimalist yet pulling material that possesses a wistful and yearning ache.

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of the past year, you may recall that although Johan Angergård may be best known as a member of renowned Swedish electro pop acts Djustin, Club 8 and Acid House Kings, as well as the founder and heard of renowned  Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop label Labrador Records. But interestingly enough, Angergård has had an accomplished solo career, as he’s released several albums 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.” Last year was an extremely busy year for Angergård as Djustin and Club 8 released long-awaited albums and he released two original singles “Cocaine” feat. Maria Usbeck, “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else)” and a cover of The Chainsmokers smash-hit “Roses” feat. Rozes with his solo recording project. Those first three tracks wound up revealing a decided change of sonic direction for him and The Legends 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 as heavily vocoder-processed vocals are paired with tweeter and woofer rocking 808s, processed cowbell and layers of arpeggio synths; and in fact, the cocksure “Cash” and the dance floor and boom-box rocking “In Love With Myself,” the two most recently released singles off his recently released album Nightshift. 

“Riding The Wave,” is the latest single off Nightshift and sonically speaking, while the song continues the neon-colored, retro-futuristic vibe of the preceding singles, “Riding The Wave” manages to sound like a Giorgio Moroder-leaning take on Harold Faltermeyer‘s “Axel F,” and as a result, the song possesses a late night, coke and strobe-like fueled sensuality.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Retro-futuristic 80s Visuals and Synth Funk Sounds of Aida’s “Let’s Ride”

Aida is a French-born singer/songwriter who with the release of “Let’s Ride” off her soon-to-be released debut EP, My Retrospective has received attention for a neon bright, funk sound reminiscent of 80s synth funk — i.e., The Whispers “And The Beat Goes On,” “It’s A Love Thing,” and “Rock Steady,” Tuxedo’s self-titled debut, Dam-Funk, Blood Orange, Chaka Khan’s “I Feel For You” and others; in fact, “Let’s Ride” which features a slick, dance floor-friendly electro funk production by Fresco Klüb consisting of cascading and propulsive arpeggio synth chords, enormous, tweeter and woofer rocking beats from Fresco Klüb paired with Aida’s effortlessly soulful and coquettish vocals.

Directed by Xavier Cantin-Lemieux of La Maison Bald Man, the recently released music video consists of pitch-perfect 80s-inspired visuals that cut between Aida going to a local bodega to make a phone call, where she watches a music video featuring three bathing suit-clad dancers on a studio-designed beach, and Aida riding her scooter through a Tron-like landscape; but as the video gets to the hook, it becomes darker, suggesting that Aida is an assassin on an important mission — and she does so with a cool, detached, efficiency.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known as the frontman of British-based indie act Kins, the Australian-born and now, Stockholm, Sweden-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and alt pop artist Thomas Savage’s latest, solo recording project Vilde reportedly draws influence from Radiohead, Wild Beasts, TV on the Radio, BØRNS  and Tim Hecker — but with a uniquely atmospheric yet warm take that he’s dubbed “study-dance.”

Savage plans to release the material off his debut full-length album with a new single every month — in a similar fashion to The Raveonettes and others. The album’s latest single “Maintain” is reportedly a bit more of an uptempo release featuring cascading arpeggio synth chords, chilly and swirling electronics with bleeps and bloops and a propulsive rhythm section and anthemic hooks paired with Savage’s plaintive falsetto vocals floating over the chilly mix. And while sonically being reminiscent of a slightly more uptempo take on Radiohead’s “Everything In Its Right Place,” the song thematically as Savage explains “is somewhat of a crammed amalgamation of ideas. Part inspired by the film Ace in the Hole, where a news reporter begins to twist events in a dark way to gain fame through his portrayal of the story. There’s some pretty bleak imagery in the lyrics yet bits of optimism seep through too, provoking a sense of solitude, release and calm.” But just under the surface is a urgent and visceral yearning.

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year, you may recall coming across posts featuring one of this site’s newest 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 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. And you may recall that I wrote about Jenks‘ first official single “Sinner,” a track that further cements the French duo’s reputation for pairing slick, dance floor-friendly production with organic instrumentation — but while “Autonomic” took its cues from Kraftwerk, “Sinner” nodded at Come With Us-era The Chemical Brothers, as it possessed a similar cosmic haze. Album title track “Jenks” however, reminds me even more of Evil Heat-era Primal Scream, EMF‘s “Unbelievable” and the Manchester sound as dreamy vocals are paired with an infectious, motorik groove featuring a sinuous bass line, shimmering arpeggio synths and a rousingly anthemic yet dance floor friendly hook.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you had been frequenting this site over the past three years or so, you would have come across a handful of posts on the Austin TX/Houston, TX-based electro pop act  Night Drive. Comprised of primary songwriting and production duo Rodney Connell and Bradley Duhon, the Texan electro pop act can trace their origins to some rather unusual, soap opera-like yet very true circumstances — they met and bonded after they had discovered that the woman that they had both unwittingly been dating at the same time died in a tragic car accident. Since the project’s 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, interestingly enough, the duo’s propulsive synth pop single “Rise and Fall” manages 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” while thematically the song focuses on a the slow dissolution of a relationship in which the song’s narrator knows that the end is inevitable and coming soon — and yet, there’s the realization that walking away from a relationship is difficult, even when it’s absolutely necessary; in fact, you can sense the narrator’s deep seated fears of what his life would be like, if the relationship ends. And thanks to an aching and rousing hook, the song manages to be a break up anthem that should feel intimately and uncomfortably familiar.

Recently, the renowned Los Angeles-based production and DJ duo Classixx remixed the song, 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.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Futuristic Visuals and Genre Mashing Sounds of BASECAMP’s “The Hunter”

Now, if you had frequented this site back in 2015, you would have come across a handful of posts featuring the Nashville, TN-based electro pop trio BASECAMP. Comprised of producers and songwriters Aaron Miller, Aaron C. Harmon and Jordan Reyes, the electro pop trio can trace their origins to when the trio started to collaborate together to write. Quickly realized that they had a strong creative chemistry, the trio founded BASECAMP and with the release of their 2013 debut EP, which featured standout tracks “Emmanuel” and “Smoke Filled Lungs,” the Nashville-based trio received attention both locally and nationally for a genre-mashing sound featuring R&B-like melodies, thumping bass lines, percussive beats, unpredictable tempo changes paired with glitchy electronics and organic instrumentation. And as a result of the attention they had begun to receive, the members of BASECAMP toured across the States with CHVRCHES and Phantogram before signing to Skrillex’s boutique label OWSLA, which released their impressive 2015 sophomore effort Greater Than EP, which featured one of my favorite singles of that year “Watch My Back.”

Since the release of Greater Than, the Nashville-based electro pop trio have been rather busy, working on and releasing two stand-alone collaborations “Comfort Zone’ with Jamie Lidell and “In My Veins” with Del The Funky Homosapien, and the In Stone EP, an effort which further cemented the trio’s reputation for a genre mashing sound and tempo changes; but arguably with a greater sense of sonic and thematic cohesion, while revealing much more introspective songwriting. After successful tours across Europe and North America — with shows at TEDx, Colors Berlin and Summit At Sea — the trio released “The Hunter” Remix package, which features remixes from the trio’s friends and frequent collaborators — Jamie Lidell, Yeo and Deebs.

In the meantime though, “The Hunter” is a refinement of their imitable sound and production as the song finds the trio pairing earnest and soulful vocals with stuttering and glitchy beats, swirling electronics — and in some way, the song reminds me of Timbaland’s revolutionary collaborations with Missy Elliot and Justin Timberlake in the 90s and 00s and of Beacon’s The Ways We Separate and Escapements, thanks in part to a swooning, uneasiness that the song’s narrator expresses in describing a relationship that seems to heighten his own self-doubts and has him wondering if he is hunter or prey — or perhaps both simultaneously. It also captures the odd sense in almost every romantic relationship in which neither party could tell what their relationship actually is or what their intentions are; but both are fearful of the perceived inevitable heartache they expect.

Directed, by BLAWKNO, from the GLO.Digital collective, the recently released video uses 3D scans of each member and fuses CG with live-action video as a play on the concept of perception vs. reality while giving the proceedings a hyper futuristic and alien sensibility.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently comprised of founding member Alexander Pavlich, Andrew Murray, Stian Aasen, Christian Balvig, Teodor Dysthe Lyngstad, and Martin Kaasa, Lovespeake is a Sandivka, Norway-based indie electro pop act that with the release of their debut album DNA received international attention — with radio airplay and additions to a variety of Spotify playlists across North America, the UK, the EU, Asia and Scandinavia. Adding to a growing national and international profile, in a relatively short period of time, the Norwegian pop sextet have received more than a million streams across the major streaming services and they were playlisted on Norway’s biggest radio station P3 for 16 consecutive weeks. Along with that, the band had songs featured on several influential Spotify playlists in North America, the UK, the EU, Asia and Scandinavia — an their debut charted highly on CMJ’s college radio charts here in the States. And most recently, they were selected as Tidal Rising Artist.

“Novocaine,” the Sandivska, Norway-based sextet’s sinuous, first single of 2017 is a collaboration with Max Frost that will further cement their growing reputation for crafting slick, hook-laden electro pop that possesses elements of psych pop, dream pop and funk that reminds me quite a bit of Tuxedo, Dam-Funk, Blood Orange and Tame Impala in the sense that while clearly drawing from brightly colored, 80s synth pop and funk, much like those renowned acts, Lovespeake’s sound manages to be a subtly contemporary take on something familiar; however, in the case of the Norwegian act, there’s an underlying quirkiness that manages to set it apart.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Interestingly enough, if you’ve been frequenting this site  over the past couple of years, you may have come across a couple of posts featuring the Washington, DC-based electro pop duo GEMS, comprised of Lindsay Pitts and John Usher. And although it has been a while since I’ve personally written about the Washington, DC-based electro pop duo, they have developed and maintained a reputation for crafting  slickly produced pop that manages to be intimate and confessional while expressing heartache and profound longing; in fact, with the release of the duo’s 2015 full-length debut, Kill The One You Love, Pitts and Usher received a rapidly growing national profile as the sensual album single “Soak” was praised across the blogosphere for thematically focusing on the sense of life being irrevocably altered after an heartbreaking breakup. But underneath the seemingly bleakness and heartache of the song, there’s a subtle ray of hope as the song’s narrators readily admit that life is frequently about accepting what has happened, trying to learn from it and then trying to move forward with the best of your ability.

The duo’s latest single “Poison” is also the latest single in their Every Full Moon Series — a single of the month series, in which the duo release a new single every Full Moon. Interestingly, as GEMS’ Lindsay Pitts explains in press notes, ” “Cliff and I started writing ‘Poison’ before we ended our romantic relationship. It laid untouched for a good year before we stumbled across it again. At first, resurrecting it brought me back to a really painful time in my life and elicited some heartbreaking visceral memories. However, we ended up breathing light into something we had started during a time of isolation and darkness.” Interestingly, while focusing on familiar themes of heartache and attempting to move forward past it, the song sonically speaking finds the duo drawing from 80s New Wave as they pair they’re aching boy-girl harmonies with shimmering guitars, electronic drums fed through reverb,  atmospheric electronics, and a razor sharp, memorable hook.

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: The Legends’ Boom Box Rocking Single “In Love With Myself”

Although Johan Angergård may be best known as a member of renowned Swedish electro pop acts Djustin, Club 8 and Acid House Kings, and the head of Stockholm, Sweden-based electro pop label Labrador Records, he’s also had an accomplished solo career, releasing several albums as The Legends — including 2009’s noise pop-leaning self-titled effort and 2015’s It’s Love, which featured lead single “Keep Him.” Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site for some time, you may recall that last year wound up being a rather prolific and busy year for Angergård as Djustin and Club 8 released long-awaited albums, and he released two original singles as The Legends, “Cocaine” feat. Maria Usbeck, “Summer In The City (Living Is For Somebody Else)” and a cover of The Chainsmokers smash-hit “Roses” feat. Rozes — and interestingly those three tracks wound up reflecting a change in sonic direction for him, as he developed a decidedly swaggering, neon-colored, retro-futuristic sound that nods at early 80s Giorgio Moroder, Computerworld-era Kraftwerk, early house and Holy Ghost!’s Crime Cutz as heavily vocoder-processed vocals are paired with tweeter and woofer rocking 808s, processed cowbell and layers of arpeggio synths as you would have heard on the cocksure “Cash” off his soon-to-be released The Legends album Nightshift.

Nightshift’s latest single “In Love With Myself” features guest vocals from Elin Berlin and while continuing with the swaggering, cocksure vibe of its preceding singles while arguably being the most straightforward, dance floor friendly song off the album, as Berlin and Angergård’s breathily cooed vocals float over a slick, retro-futuristic production consisting of shimmering synths, stuttering drum programming, and boom bap beats. In some way, the song sounds as though it were subtly modern take on the boom box rocking sound of the 80s.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Noirish and Cinematic Visuals for ACES’ Slow-Burning and Atmospheric “Baby I Don’t Mean To Ignore”

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site for a while, you may recall that with the release of four singles over the course of 2015 and 2016 — the achingly vulnerable “What Do You Think They’ll Say About Me,” the part torch song, part wistful and tender farewell “I’m Already Gone,” the slow-burning Quiet Storm-era R&B inspired pop song “Find Me Out,” and the swooning “I Could Be Your Girl,” ACES, the recording project of Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based pop artist Alexandra Stewart, featuring contributions from Canadian-born, Brooklyn-based guitarist Russ Flynn received quite a bit of attention across the blogosphere, including this site, for an atmospheric and subtly modern take on 80s synth pop.

This year began with Stewart releasing “Just Cut It Out,” a single that appeared on the DRUG BLVD compilation, the first release from Istanbul, Turkey-based dream pop label Drug Boulevard, founded by Kubily Yigit, who has also founded renowned Turkish progressive/trance electronica label Blue Soho Records. And interestingly enough, I think that “Just Cut It Out” will cement Stewart’s growing international profile for crafting slow-burning and atmospheric pop that feature her breathy and achingly tender vocals while focusing on a narrator who’s heartbroken over a relationship that’s ended and yet doesn’t want to give it up. Stewart’s latest single, the slow-burning and aching “Baby, I Don’t Mean To Ignore” continues in a similar vein — sparse and atmospheric arrangements with swirling electronics paired with Stewart’s breathily tender vocals. And much like her preceding singles, “Baby, I Don’t Mean To Ignore,” the first official single from her soon-to-be released debut EP Stranger manages to convey a complex array of emotions — in this case a push and pull between longing and devotion, wanting to be left alone, of being hopelessly stuck in one’s own head and not quite knowing how to express themselves in a way that makes sense.

The recently released and extraordinarily noir-ish and cinematic video was created by Alex Stewart and her video team of Alex Munro and her husband Oresti Tsonopoulous. Based primarily around footage Tsonopolous and Stewart shot while on a date. As Stewart explains in press notes, the footage wasn’t even intended to be used for a music video but once she started to go through it, the concept of the video immediately came to mind. “I love the motion in driving and walking scenes and that’s where I tend to do my best thinking. The song was an idea I had about a person in their most vulnerable moment. Some time before they’re in a relationship or be before they’ve even decided what they’re going to do about their feelings. They’re really mulling things over. The video took shape from those images, and I think you get the sense that this is a girl on a mission. She’s ready to make her move.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Will Joseph Cook is an up-and-coming London, UK-based indie pop/indie electro pop artist and producer who can trace the origins of his career to when he began crafting earnest and off-kilter pop tunes inspired by Talking Heads, MGMT, LCD Soundsystem and Vampire Weekend among others.  And at a relatively young age, the British producer and electronic music artist quickly received national and international attention with the release of his debut EP,  You Jump I Run through Duly Noted Records; in fact with EP single “Message,” which landed at number 1 on Hype Machine‘s charts and number 2 on Global Spotify Viral Chart. 

Proof Enough, Cook’s much anticipated follow-up Proof Enough further cemented Cook’s growing reputation for crafting material with enormous, rousing and crowd pleasing hooks, while going through a decided electronic approach, an approach that continues on his Jack Steadman, Hugh Worskett and self-produced full-length debut, Sweet Dreamer which is slated for an April 14, 2017 release through Atlantic UK.

“Plastic,” the album’s latest, infectious single features a boldly confident and brash production consisting of twinkling arpeggio keys, enormous, stomping, tweeter and woofer rocking beats paired with Cook’s achingly soulful and easygoing vocals and a rousing, anthemic hook; but underneath, the song possesses an anxious uncertainty — the sort that comes about when a potential love may be unrequited or when a current love may be unceremoniously ending. And from the release of his latest single, Cook reveals himself to be one of the more interesting and unique electronic artists in an incredibly crowded field.