Category: Synth Pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing the Club-Banging Sound and Trippy Visuals of Sydney’s The Goods

I’ve been in Washington D.C. for the past day and a half on a business trip related to my day job as an acquisitions editor at a SoHo, Manhattan-based publisher, and as a result I haven’t been able to post as frequently as I’d prefer; but at the same time I’ve been with two colleagues, who I met while in the Netherlands, who I’ve quickly become fond of and some extremely lovely folks in sales and marketing, some of who are based here in the States and a couple, who are based in the UK. But if you know me well enough, you know that I typically survive on 4-5 hours of sleep during the workweek and as it is I’m fitting in a post or two while my colleagues are asleep. So let’s get to the business at hand . . .

With the 2016 release of their self-titled double EP, the Sydney, Australia-based electro soul act The Goods, currently comprised of founding members, multi-instrumentalists and production duo Boris Bangaltar and Rosario D’Awesome, both of whom have toured and recorded with nationally known acts such as Touch Sensitive, Daniel Merriweather, Dereb The Ambassador and George Maple, and newest member Black Tree, who has a stint as a touring backing vocalist for Sydney-based soul singer/songwriter Ngaiire — and who started collaborating with the band on “Ninja Trolls,” the trio quickly developed a reputation for a sound that reportedly blurred the lines between disco, funk and classic house while nodding at Gorillaz and Outkast. And as a result, the then-duo received radio airplay across community radio and on Triple J. Adding to a growing profile, the act opened for Onra, Oddisee and Winston Surfsshirt.

“Make Your Move,” the first single from the newly constituted trio will further their growing reputation for a slickly produced track that sounds as though it nods to several disparate sources including DFA Records, classic house, 80s electro soul and contemporary electro soul acts inspired by the 80s, including Dam-Funk and others; in fact the track features Black Tree’s soulful and sultry vocals paired with a slick, thumping, club-banging production featuring arpeggio keys, wobbling synths, tons of cowbell, finger snap-led percussion, razor sharp yet infectious hooks and a feel, good, cosmic glow in what may arguably be one of the most dance floor friendly songs I’ve come across this year.

The recently released music video follows the trio as they wander around, and goof off around a rainy Sydney — but if you pay close attention, the trio slowly turn aspects of their world into bold, brilliant colors.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of brothers Dru (keys, guitar) and Kumar Grant (electronics, percussion) and Emma Wilson (vocals), the London, UK-based electro pop trio KOIYA formed late last year, and they’ve quickly won over a growing fanbase and attention in London for a sound that pairs Wilson’s gorgeous, soulful and yearning vocals with live percussion and slick, brooding production featuring ominously swirling electronics and enormous, tweeter and woofer low-end as you’ll hear on “Brood,” the first single off the trio’s forthcoming self-titled EP, slated for a May 5, 2017 release. Sonically, they seem to draw from Portishead — but with a muscular and modern approach.

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Derbyshire, UK-born Leeds, UK-based producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alex, who grew up on punk rock and ska and Leeds-born and-based singer/songwriter Harrison, who’s largely influenced by Bon Iver, Radiohead and Thom Yorke, the Leeds, UK-based electro pop production and artist duo Krrum can trace its origin to when the duo met while they were studying at the Leeds School of Music.  Within a short period time, the duo has seen a rapidly growing profile — the duo’s has had work land at number 1 on Spotify’s Viral Chart, Hype Machine and Shazam, received airplay on BBC Radio 1 and Beats 1, collaborated with salute and Lao Ra, and have performed at last year’s Pitchfork Paris Festival.

The Leeds-based duo’s first single of 2017, “Moon” pairs enormous, tweeter and woofer rock beats, stuttering and glitchy electronics, a soaring hook, a chopped up and distorted vocal sample, and Harrison’s plaintive and soulful vocals in a song that the duo says “deals with the the ritual of wanting to pursue a relationship with someone, but not wanting to jump the gun and ruin it. It’s an uncomfortable place to be because you have you control and your’e probably gonna mess it gallup, like you always do.” And as a result, the song possesses an aching vulnerability and longing, but an underlying fatalism while simultaneously being radio and dance floor friendly.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Deriving their name from a scientific theory that suggests that Earth may have had a second moon, a twin moon that was destroyed in a massive collision during the early days of our solar system, Lunar Twin, an electro pop/dream pop/shoegaze duo comprised of Bryce Boudreau (vocals) and Chris Murphy (multi-instrumentalist and producer) can trace their origins to the 2011 Denver Underground Music Festival when Boudreau joined Murphy’s goth band Nightsweats as a guest vocalist. And by 2013, the duo started collaborating together full-time.

Now, it’s been some time since the duo have released new, original material as both the Los Angeles, CA-based, Hawaii-based Boudreau and the Salt Lake City, UT-based Murphy have been involved in a variety of creative pursuits — with Murphy working in projects that have shared stages with an impressive list of renowned artists including Grimes, Bonnie Prince Billy and Peaches among others; however, the duo’s latest effort Night Tides EP was released earlier this month through Texas-based dream pop/shoegaze label Moon Sounds Records with an extremely limited run of lathe-cut vinyl through the band’s own imprint Lunar Industry Records, and a limited cassette run through their new label. Unsurprisingly because of the distance between the two collaborators, that distance plays a significant thematic role on the material of Night Tides. As Murphy mentions in press notes, ” We both live thousands of miles apart, separated by the Pacific Ocean and miles of mountains and desert. These totally different places of isolation are the nexus of our songwriting. The ocean plays a big part in this album. The ebb an flow of the die and the effect the moon has on it.”

Boudreau adds, “For this EP, we wanted to channel the spirit of the primordial world and a lost island in the equatorial night feeling. The dense warm air smelling of flowers beneath a canopy of banyan trees.”  “Waves,” the first single off Night Tides, Boudreau explains “is about drifting between two worlds — the primeval and the technological and between Earth and Water spirits.”  And while sonically speaking, the duo’s latest single will further cement their reputation for crafting moody and atmospheric pop in which they pair Boudreau’s rich Mark Lanegan-like baritone with a minimalist production featuring propulsive, tribal-like drumming, ambient synths with brief bursts of shimmering guitar and twinkling keys. It’s a hauntingly gorgeous track that manages to evoke  the sensation of awakening from a pleasant reverie and swimming within a warm and gently ebbing  body of water with the moonlight shimmering right in front of you.

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous and Moody, Post- Apocalyptic Visuals for Phantom’s “Dance”

Phantom is a Helsinki, Finland-based, newlywed, electro pop duo comprised of jazz-trained vocalist and poet Hanna Toivonen and tech-futurist and producer Tommi Koskinen. And since their formation in 2012, the duo have received praise both nationally and internationally for a sound that has drawn comparisons to Bjork, Morcheeba and The Knife, along with developing a reputation for using new and evolving technologies to further expand and experiment with their sound. In fact, Koskinen built a multi-dimensional technology dubbed The UFO (Ultrasonic Frequency Oscillator) in the duo’s studio space, and as its been described, the user plays and controls the device by flailing their hands above a flying saucer-looking MIDI controller. He also developed a real-time visual projection software called Z Vector, which uses Kinect 3D cameras and audio data from the sounds of their live performances to create an immersive, multimedia-based live set.

MMXII, the duo’s recently released full-length effort derives its name from the year the duo started collaborating together, and the album’s first single “Dance” manages to feature a moody and atmospheric production consisting of scillating synths, twinkling keys, wobbling, tweeter and woofer rocking low end, futuristic, electronic bleeps and bloops and shuffling drum programming paired with Toivonen’s effortlessly soulful vocals. and a gorgeous piano-based arrangement. Sonically speaking, the song sounds as though it draws from several different sources — Morecheeba in particular, but also from Portishead, Niki and the Dove and others, complete with a rousing and soaring hook.

The recently release video features the duo performing the song, while an expressive modern dancer dances to the song in front of a giant projection screen — but the video seems to be set in a dystopian future similar to ours.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Sensual Visuals and Sounds of French Electro Pop Act Juveniles Latest Single “Someone Better”

With the release of their 2012 debut EP We Are Young through renowned French electronic music label Kitsune Records, the-then French electronic production and artist duo Juveniles, which featured Thibault Doray and its sole remaining member Jean-Sylvan Le Gouic, best known as Jean Sylvain quickly received attention for 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.

Since the release of the project’s full-length debut, the project has gone through several significant changes — Doray left the project, leaving it solely under the helm of Sylvain and his sophomore full-length effort Without Warning, which officially was released today 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 a radical change in sonic direction and approach as he abandons the fully computerized sound of his previously released work to embrace a much more human approach, complete with organic instrumentation, featuring contributions 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.

Without Warning’s latest single “Someone Better” 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.

Produced by Rodrigo Huarte, the recently released music video for “Someone Better” is comprised of a behind the scenes look at anti-hero cop movie in which its main character has a highly-stylized and dramatic love affair with a presumed “hooker with a heart of gold” type character and while the actors “on screen” play up a steamy relationship that they clearly don’t have — at various points, you can tell that both actors are wondering when they’re getting paid or thinking about what they’re doing once the scene is finally over — behind the scenes, two members of the crew, discretely hook up as the rest of the crew films the movie’s key love scene.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their first two full-length albums 2012’s self-titled debut and 2014’s Adorn, the Canadian experimental pop/ambient electro pop/dream duo You’ll Never Get To Heaven — comprised of Alice Hansen, a classically trained pianist and violinist and Chuck Blazevic, a studio obsessed tone-sculptor and monome performer — quickly received attention nationally and internationally for a staunchly DIY/independent ethos and for lush, deeply textured compositions that are roomy enough for Hansen’s ethereal cooing.

And as a result of their growing profile, they caught the attention of Yellow K Records, the label home of Eskimeaux and Japanese Breakfast, who officially released the band’s third full-length effort Images today. And while the album’s fourth and latest single “White Light” will further their reputation for crafting lush and textured pop, it offers a subtle expansion into their sound as the slow-burning single features gently swirling electronics, twinkling synths and percussion, brief bursts of industrial clang and clatter to create a fever dream-like vibe — in which the narrator and the listener can’t quite discern if they’re completely asleep and or dreaming or awake and hallucinating.

Interestingly, while the Canadian dream pop duo have in the past been rather reclusive,  they’re currently planning their first European and north American gigs to support Images over the course of the Spring and Summer of this year, so be on the lookout; however, in the meantime, if you’re in Ontario over the next few weeks, you can catch them live. Check out dates below.

Tour Dates
03/31/17 – London, ON – First Spiritualist Church
04/07/17 – Toronto, ON – The Baby G
04/16/17 – Ottawa, ON – Le Temporaire
04/18/17 – Sarnia, ON – Refined Fool Brewing
04/19/17 – Hamilton, ON – The Casbah

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Guy Brown is a Sydney, Australia-based producer and electronic music artist, best known as Mammals — and as Mammals, Brown has seen attention both nationally and internationally for a production style and sound that effortlessly bridges and shifts between indie rock and electro pop. In fact, if you had been frequenting this site earlier this year, you may recall his shimmering, slow-burning and spectral cover of Telepopmusik‘s “Breathe,” as part of Istanbul, Turkey-based dream pop/electro pop label Drug Boulevard‘s debut compilation, DRUG BLVD.

Adding to a growing profile, Brown’s collaboration with renowned electronic music artist and producer Goldroom “‘Til Sunrise” has received 9 million Spotify streams, has had his work playlisted in the Lost in the Woods (UK), Deep Dark Indie, Evening Chill and Boho + Chill Spotify Playlists and as a result, his own work has received over 7 million Spotify streams. Along with that Brown has opened for internationally acclaimed electro pop/electronic dance music production and artist duo PNAU during their March national tour, and he’ll be opening for fellow countrywoman, singer/songwriter Vera Blue during her national tour, before his headlining tour to support his soon-to-be released EP Chase Your Bliss later this year.

Interestingly enough, Brown has managed to achieve his early successes without having management, without being on a label, having a publisher or a publicity firm to back him. And considering that I had written about him a little while ago, receiving an email from him about his latest single, EP title track “Chase Your Bliss,” was a pleasant surprise. The new single features Brown’s tender and aching falsetto floating over a glistening and shimmering production that features layers of arpeggio synths, buzzing guitar chords, a sinuous bass line, cowbell and handclap-led percussion and a soaring hook — and while further cementing his reputation for a sound that meshes indie rock and electro pop, the single manages to sound as though it draws from In Ghost Colours and Free Your Mind-era Cut Copy and Tame Impala, as the song manages to subtly nod at psych pop.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Francis Novotny is an up-and-coming Gothenburg, Sweden-born, Paris, France-based singer/songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist, who grew up under the influence of his five older siblings and their eclectic record collections. As the story goes, after finishing school, Novotny moved to Paris, ostensibly to study French — but in reality, to work on music in relative peace and in new environs. Interestingly, for a brief period, Novotny felt compelled to try his hand at house music, before finding his true musical voice and sound, a sound that draws from a mix of styles including glitch-hop, R&B and electro soul while seemingly being influenced by Hudson Mohawke, Cashmere Cat and Gorillaz. And with his latest single “Hit N Run,” the Gothenburg-born, Paris-based artist reveals a imitable sound in which stuttering synths and chopped electronics, razor sharp beats and an insistent ear worm of a hook are paired  with Novotny’s ethereal yet soulful vocals singing lyrics in which the song’s narrator describes reluctance and cynicism that have hardened him a bit and made it difficult for him to open up to a new, potential romantic partner. And yet it’s an incredibly sensual song that sounds unlike anything I’ve come across in some time.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

DGTL CTL is a rather mysterious electro pop duo whose production draws from several different styles while possessing a flair for the avant-garde to craft a truly imitable sound that manages to be radio friendly. The duo’s debut EP is slated for a May 2017 and the EP’s first single “Elephant” features a sparse production that simultaneously nods at slow-burning, Quiet Storm R&B, a chilly but efficient minimalism, breezy atmospherics and a stark industrial electronica as it pairs distorted and shuffling beats, gently swirling and undulating synths and achingly tender vocals with an infectious hook. Lyrically, the song’s narrator talks about falling for someone so deeply that they can’t quite figure out a way to express themselves –they think about the idea of talking to their object of desire and they suddenly feel like a deaf mute, and when they try to put their thoughts and feelings down on paper, it just doesn’t add up to the feelings in their head. And whenever they’re around their object of desire, the only thing they notice is that there’s the proverbial elephant in the room — their longing and desire — and yet so many things are left hopelessly unsaid. And as a result the song possesses an aching desperation and longing, making it one of the most unlikeliest, sensual songs I’ve heard this year.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of its Manchester, UK-born and Paris-based David Shaw and Paris-born and based Dombrance, the Paris-based electronic music and production duo DBFC emerged onto the French electronic music scene with the release of several singles throughout 2015 and 2016 through renowned indie label Her Majesty’s Ship Records — including “Automatic,” a track which remained me of Kraftwerk’s “Trans Europe Express” and Primal Scream‘s “Autobahn 66” — but with a subtle cosmic glow around its edges.

The duo’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Jenks is slated for a June 2, 2017 release through Different Recordings/[PIAS] Records and the album’s first single “Sinner” will partially further their reputation for pairing slick electronic production with organic instrumentation but while a single like  the aforementioned “Automatic” struck me as owing a debut to Kraftwerk and Primal Scream, the new single still nods at those influences while subtly nodding at The Chemical Brothers‘ Come With Us as the song possesses a free-flowing improvisation paired with a similarly trippy and cosmic glow.

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

Madeleine Dopico is an up-and-coming Sleepy Hollow, NY-born, Brooklyn, NY-based singer/songwriter, who has received a bit of attention over the past 12-18 months or so — “Nice Boy,” which she released late last year has received just under 220,000 Spotify streams and with the release of her latest single “Me to Bleed,” the Sleepy Hollow-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter has begun to receive press from both sides of the pond. Adding to a growing profile, Dopico has performed at some of the area’s most renowned and beloved venues including a residency at Piano’s in Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

 

 

Just on the heels of her set at The Knitting Factory in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, I spoke to the up-and-coming singer/songwriter in a playful and revealing interview about a variety of subjects including some of the following:

  • the stories and influences behind her three biggest, attention-grabbing singles “Nice Boy,” “Done,” which is one of my personal favorites and her latest single “Made to Bleed”
  • how she could trace her love of music, singing and performing to being a 3 year old, who one day burst into the 4-year-olds’ daycare class and began singing “This Land is Your Land,” complete with a mic drop-like moment
  • what she ascribes to her early successes and the role her supporters have played in it
  • the careful and deliberate ways she attempts to set herself apart from a very crowded and competitive music scene
  • her songwriting process, along with her influences
  • her recent listening, which has included a deeper foray into hip-hop, along with some suggestions by yours truly
  • the moment she took the biggest risk of her life — quitting a successful and secure day job and began focusing on music
  • and much more

Just based on this young artist’s earnestness and determination to succeed, along with pop star belter vocals, I think that 2017 will be a huge year for Dopico. Check out the interview.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms
With the release of her Jimmy Logic-produced, debut single “Then” and her debut EP The Coffee Shop, the London-based pop artist Kemi Ade received national and international attention from the likes of Complex,  Artistic Manifesto, Fame Magazine, Reprezent Radio, First Ear and others for a song that meshed elements of alternative neo-soul, jazz, hip-hop and folk seemingly drawing from the likes of Jill Scott, Musiq Soulchild, Erykah Badu and others, and paired with Ade’s introspective and fearlessly honest songwriting.

The Coffee Shop‘s highly-anticipated follow up O.W. Nesty EP is slated for release later this year, and the EP’s latest single “Third” will further cement Ade’s burgeoning reputation for introspective and fearless songwriting and for a maturity and self-assuredness that belie her youth; but it also manages to reveal a subtle refinement of the sound that first caught attention as the song consists of a production featuring woozy and wobbling looped synths, stuttering beats, swirling electronics, shimmering keys and some subtle industrial clang and clatter. And yet, the production manages to be roomy enough for Ade’s effortlessly soulful and jazz-leaning delivery in a coquettish come hither song, in which the song’s narrator express vulnerability, need and longing simultaneously — with a bit of wish fulfillment.
Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Sultry Visuals and Sounds of Vancouver’s IMUR

With the release of their 2015 debut EP Slow Dive, the Vancouver, BC experimental pop/electro pop trio I M U R — comprised of Jenny Lea (vocals, keys), Mikey J. Blige (live production, guitar) and Amine […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Up-and-Coming Australian Pop Artist Woodes Live at The Line in Melbourne Australia

Best known as Woodes, Elle Graham is an up-and-coming, 24-year-old, Melbourne, Australia-based singer/songwriter and producer, who first came to national attention across Australia with a commercially and critically successful collaboration with fellow Australian producer Elkkle on a single that wound up becoming one of 2015’s most played songs on Triple J’s Unearthed Radio. Building upon a growing national profile, Graham collaborated with an impressive list of contemporary artists and producers including FØRD, Golden Vessel, Atticus Beats and North Elements. Adding to a growing profile, Graham released her 2016 self-produced self-titled debut EP, which debuted in the iTunes Top 20 Charts in 7 countries and received more than 2 million streams, while receiving praise across the blogosphere from Indie Shuffle, Pigeons and Planes, i-D, as well as from actress Emma Roberts, who has tweeted about her love of “The Thaw.”

“Bonfire,” Graham’s latest single consists of a looped, handclap-led production featuring tribal polyrhythm, shimmering and moody guitar chords, twinkling keys, buzzing and atmospheric electronics with Graham’s ethereal yet soulful vocals with a soaring hook. And while drawing from a cherished childhood memory of being both fearless and carefree, the song manages to sound unlike anything in contemporary pop today.

Just in time for her Stateside and SXSW debut and the release of three remixes of the song, Graham released both the live video of her and her backing band performing “Bonfire” at The Line in Melbourne.