Live concert photography of Elsewhere Festival’s second day feat. Vince Staples, BADBADNOTGOOD and Sudan Archives.
Tag: electro pop
New Audio: HiFi Sean and David McAlmont Team Up on Breezily Expansive, Hook-Driven “Sun Come Up”
British duo HiFi Sean and David McAlmont features two of the UK’s most accomplished songwriters, artists and producers:
Back in the 90s, singer/songwriter, musician and producer HiFi Sean had a stint with Scottish alt-rock outfit The Soup Dragons. In the States they were best known for “Divine Thing,” a song that peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Modern Rock chart. Famously, the video “Divine Thing” was filmed over the course of two days here in New York, and was later nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for best video; but it lost out to Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Since his stint with The Soup Dragons, HiFi Sean has collaborated with the likes of Yoko Ono, Crystal Waters, Bootsy Collins and a list of others.
David McAlmont is a singer/songwriter, musician and producer, who’s best known as a frequent collaborator with Bernard Butler.
As HiFi Sean and David Mcalmont, the accomplished Brits have teamed up to to create a unique take on alternative pop through the release of a handful of singles and their full-length debut, last year’s Happy Ending.
Building upon a growing profile, the duo’s sophomore album Daylight is slated for an August 16, 2024 release. For the duo, the 12-song album represents a significant moment in their partnership: The album was produced in a remarkable burst of collaborative energy with both artists channeling and sharing the momentum throughout. Thematically, the album’s material celebrates, expresses and explores the bright and vivid colors of summer.
Daylight‘s latest single “Sun Come Up” is a breezily euphoric yet wistfully nostalgic bit of synth pop that seeming channels a synthesis of Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz, Tears for Tears and A Flock of Seagulls‘ “I Ran (So Far Away)” but while anchored in an expansive song structure, a relentless motorik groove and the pair’s uncanny knack for a razor sharp, remarkably catchy hooks.
Throwback: Happy 70th Birthday, Neil Tennant!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pet Shop Boys’ frontman Neil Tennant’s 70th birthday.
New Video: Brock Geiger Shares Lush and Glitchy “Steps Taken”
Brock Geiger is a Canadian singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalists and producer, who over the last decade has established himself as a mainstay on the Canadian scene and beyond and as a key collaborator on over 30 records. And as a result, Geiger has toured the globe with a multitude of projects.
The Canadian artist’s newest batch of music is anchored around a penchant for refined song-craft and ambitious production while showcasing a singular creative vision. His latest single, the Geiger and Will Maclellan co-produced, Tame Impala-like “Steps Taken,” is anchored around overdrive-fueled guitar, twinkling synth stabs, skittering, glitchy beats and big, incredibly catchy hooks serving as a lush yet rocky bed for Geiger’s achingly plaintive delivery. “Steps Taken” evokes the woozy unease and the fear of losing something of yourself in any relationship — especially a romantic one.
“‘Steps Taken’ was written as a reflection on the intricacies and fragility of relationships, ecosystems built on trust, losing oneself to someone or something, and finding regeneration and a way forward by looking inwards.” Geiger explains. ” I’m a big fan of juxtaposition and extremes in art and ‘Steps Taken’ achieves this with its energetic-spazzy, K-Pop inspired track as a foundation for heavier lyrical themes.”
Throwback: Happy Belated 54th Birthday, Beck!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Beck’s 54th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 63rd Birthday, Vince Clarke!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Yaz’s/Yazoo’s, Depeche Mode’s and Erasure’s Vince Clarke’s 63rd birthday.
Throwback: Happy Belated 53rd Birthday, Missy Elliott!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Missy Elliott’s 53rd birthday.
Live Footage: JOVM Mainstay Washed Out Performs “Wait on You” in Bandera, TX
Back in 2021, Washed Out‘s creative mastermind Earnest Greene left Atlanta and returned to the countryside he knew when he grew up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today, he’s preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him.
He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion,” after the John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd. It has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large-scale visual-art experiments.
Greene’s fifth Washed Out Album, Notes From A Quiet Life officially came out today through Sub Pop. The album is arguably one of Greene’s most audacious efforts to date, and is anchored around a purity of vision. It’s also the first album of his catalog that Greene wholly self-produced with mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy and David Wrench.
In the lead up to the album’s release I wrote about three of the album’s singles:
“The Hardest Part,” a bit of classic Washed Out with subtle refinements. The atmospheric and achingly dream-like and nostalgia-inducing production is anchored around twinkling and arpeggiated keys, glistening bass synths, bursts of strummed guitar paired with Greene’s penchant for crafting catchy hooks and swooning choruses. And much like the JOVM mainstay’s most recent work, the song has Greene’s vocal front and center, with the song’s tale of love lost being the heartbroken star of the show.
“Running Away,” a cinematic yet intimate and deeply vulnerable track anchored around an alternating quiet verse, loud chorus, quiet verse song structure paired with Greene’s unerring knack for soaring and catchy hooks paired with a lush arrangement of glistening and twinkling synths, skittering and thumping beats that furthers the album’s overall aesthetic.
“Waking Up,” a track that features glistening and burbling synth arpeggios, dreamily strummed guitar, finger snap-driven percussion and skittering beats serving as a lush and cinematic bed for Greene’s intimately cooed delivery. Fittingly, the song evokes the sensation of waking up from a pleasant dream — and the wistful desire to go back to sleep to experience just a little bit longer.
Notes From A Quiet Life‘s fourth and latest single “Wait on You” continues upon the album’s overall aesthetic — the classic Washed Out sound that has won Greene fans and acclaim everywhere but with subtle refinements: a chopped up vocal sample is paired with skittering beats, glistening Rhodes serve as a lush and satiny bed for Greene’s gently vocoder’ed, plaintive delivery. The result is a subtle house-leaning take on the Washed Out sound that also manages to feel both earnest and deliberately crafted.
Greene teamed up with director Jonah Haber to film a one-take live performance of “Wait on You” which was filmed on location in Bandera, TX — the same location where Greene’s live performance of “Waking Up” was shot.
New Video: Premier Métro Shares Sultry and Club Banging “Mascara”
Paris-based synth pop outfit Premier Métro — Dimitri, Sébastien, Alexandre and Enzo — initially specialized in a nostalgia-inducing synth driven sound that seeming drew from 80s pop, Flavien Berger, The Weeknd, and others.
With just a handful of singles under their collective belt, the French quartet landed a slot We Love Green and an appearance on Culturebox. Since then they’ve released a handful of singles, including “Pour Quelques Secondes” and their recently released debut EP, Les autres sont touś partis.
Les autres sont touś partis was inspired and written during a nocturnal, excessive year. “In the dark, everything is experienced with greater intensity,” the French quartet explain. The EP’s latest single “Mascara” is club banger featuring tweeter and woofer rattling thump, glistening and cascading synth arpeggios paired with remarkably catchy hooks and a sultry, longing vocal. It’s the sort of song perfect for dancing and sweating your worries and concerns away for a few minutes.
Directed by Lou Dunoyer, Marion Gourvest and Mathilde Beltran, the accompanying video for “Mascara” follows drag king Power Beau Tom in the one of the most vulnerable and intimate moments of our lives — primarily at home and in front of your mirror. Then we’re at the club, watching Power Beau Tom dance with an eclectic array of humans at a night club.
New Video: Los Angeles’ King Pari Shares Slinky and Funky “Better The Devil”
Rising Los Angeles-based funk duo King Pari can trace its origins back to a happy accident: Joe Paris Christensen and Cameron Kinghorn had been playing the same Minneapolis area scenes for years, but when Christensen sent Kinghorn a new tune he had created on a tape machine, something clicked. “This sounds how my brain feels,” Kinghorn said. That session became the first King Pari song.
The duo’s Minneapolis funk pedigree anchors their work: Both Christensen and Kinghorn played alongside some of Prince‘s closest associates — and Christensen’s previous band was among the last that Prince personally invited to play at Paisley Park. Additionally, they’ve also been tapped into the national funk and jazz scenes from the beginning: Their first gig together was opening for Kamasi Washington, before they landed on a name.
Having relocated to Los Angeles and signing with Stones Throw, the duo is starting a new chapter. Their latest single “Better The Devil” is the second single from their highly anticipated full-length debut. Anchored around an 80s synth funk-like production and arrangement featuring skittering, gated reverb soaked boom bap, tape saturated synths and squiggling funk guitar serving as a lush and silky bed for achingly tender falsetto vocals and a scorching guitar solo. While sonically nodding at The Whispers, The Gap Band and 80s Chaka Khan, the song reveals an outfit that can effortlessly craft a catchy hook.
Directed and edited by Zach Sulak, the accompanying video for “Better the Devil” featuring the Los Angeles-based duo running late for an audition with — well, the devil. Hell could use some funky tunes, huh?
New Audio: Kenon Chen Shares Glistening and Propulsive “Sunday”
Kenon Chen is a prolific, electronic pop singer/songwriter and producer, who over the course of last year released four albums — Electric Winter, The Tide: Wave I, Electric Spring, Electric Summer and Electric Fall.
Chen also released the Electric Seasons Remixed album earlier this year. The album features “Safe In Your Arms (Lunar New Year Edit),” a slickly produced hook-driven bop featuring skittering beats, strummed guitar and glistening synth arpeggios serving as a lush and cinematic bed for Chen’s plaintive falsetto. Rooted in deeply heartfelt and earnest lyrics, the song seems to channel Get Ready-era New Order and St. Lucia.
Continuing a wildly prolific run, Chen released the Sunday EP earlier this month. The EP features, EP title track “Sunday (Radio Edit),” is a sleek banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering tweeter and woofer rattling thump, a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and bursts of twinkling reverb-drenched keys. The production serves as a lush bed for Chen’s achingly tender falsetto singing some deeply earnest lyrics.
“‘Sunday’ is an anthem to summer Sunday drives and spontaneous adventures, from its infectious melodies to its heartfelt lyrics,” Chen explains.