Tag: House Arrest Records

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chennai India’s The F16s Return with Feverish and Sensual Visuals for Doo-Wop Inspired “My Baby’s Beak”

Earlier this week, I wrote about the up-and-coming Chennai, India-based indie rock act The F16s, and as you may recall, the act which is currently comprised of Abhinav Krishnaswamy (guitar), Harshan Radhakrishnan (keys), Joshua Fernandez (vocals, guitar) and Sashank Manohar (bass) can trace their origins to when its founding trio met while attending college in 2002. With the release of their debut EP Kaleidoscope, the Chennai-based indie rock quartet received national attention — with the band being named one of Rolling Stone India‘s Artist to Watch For. Since then, the act has released another EP and their full-length debut, 2016’s Triggerpunkte both of which have helped expand their profile nationally and internationally; in fact, the band has managed to play at some of their homeland’s biggest festivals — and recently, they’ve made strides into Southeast Asia with a growing six city tour across Singapore, Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

The up-and-coming Indian indie rock act recently signed to Oxford, MS-based indie label House Arrest, who will be releasing the band’s WKND FRNDS EP later this week. ”We were fascinated to discover The F16s writing and performing such relatable pop-rock songs so many miles away. We had to reach out to see what their story is, which eventually led to us working together, ” the label says in press notes. “Their new EP WKND FRNDS is a big step for The F16s and we’re excited to see the reaction in both India and over here in the US.”

“Amber,” the EP’s previous single was centered around glistening synths, Fernandez’s plaintive and ethereal vocals, shimmering and jangling guitars and a soaring hook — and sonically, the song found the band seamlessly meshing elements of dream pop, bedroom pop and indie rock with a swooning yearning for a complicated and uneasy love that’s just ended. “My Baby’s Beak,” WKND FRNDS latest single is a slow-burning, doo-wop meets Beach Boy-era psych pop-like “My Baby’s Beak,” which continues a run of swooning yet deceptively uneasy love songs; in this case, the song details a contradictory and confusing push and pull between two especially damaged partners. Comprised of hazy stock footage, the recently released video is an ecstatic fever dream that manages to be both trippy and sensual, evoking a desperate and urgent longing. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay TR/ST Returns with an Industrial House-Inspired Banger

I’ve written quite a bit about the  Toronto, ON-born, Los Angeles, CA-based JOVM mainstay Robert Alfons, and his solo electro pop recording project TR/ST over the years, and as you may recall Alfons has released two critically and commercially successful albums — 2012’s self-titled album and 2014’s Joyland. Interestingly, Joyland was a decided change in sonic direction for the Toronto-born, Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstay as the album found him crafting pop orientated, muscular club bangers.

Five years have passed since Joyland‘s release, and during that time, Alfons had been writing and recording new material in a farmhouse in Southern Ontario and in Los Angeles, where has since relocated. Working with an all-star list of collaborators that included Austra’s Maya Postepski, with whom he collaborated with on his self-titled debut — with Postepski co-writing and co-producing six songs. Alfons also worked with co-producers Lars Stalfors and Damian Taylor to further refine the album’s overall sound.

During the writing and recording process for Destroyer, Alfons learned that patience would be a major ingredient and influence on his songwriting approach and the album’s sound. “The environment I work in has always guided me. But it took a long time to submit to the kind of patience these songs were asking of me. I was getting glimpses of what I wanted to achieve with the album,” Alfons says in press notes. “But it wasn’t feeling cohesive; things weren’t aligning in a clear direction. My first two records were put out so close to one another that I think of them as one. They just poured out of me.” With The Destroyer, the process was entirely different. “It was so much more careful. I found myself seeking spaces of absolute quiet; I needed them in order to hear what was going on inside.”

Destroyer 1‘s first single was the “Bizarre Love Triangle”-like “Gone,” a radio friendly and accessible track centered around a swooning and urgent Romanticism. “Unbleached,” the album’s second single, was a collaboration with longtime collaborator Maya Postepski was a decidedly industrial track inspired by the sound of rats running back and forth on the roof, complete with tweeter and woofer rocking beats, layers of arpeggiated synths and an enormous hook. The album’s third single, “Colossal,” continues his ongoing collaboration with Austra’s Postepski — and in a similar vein as its immediate predecessor: a tweeter and woofer thumping, industrial house-leaning production centered around layers of arpeggiated synths, shuffling beats and enormous hooks that evokes early morning mist slowly rising in the horizon.

“Such a special collab with Maya, we wrote it together while in different parts of the world,” Alfons explains in press notes. “This song was written during long walks I would take in the middle of the night around the hills in my neighborhood, watching the mist rise as the sun came up.” Postepski adds “I was coming home on the train with my music on random when a TR/ST song came on from the first album we made, I started crying, it brought back so many memories. I sent Robert the sketches for ‘Colossal’ that night. He wrote back and we rekindled our relationship, so I find it deeply emotional every time I hear it. Had I not taken the chance and sent it who knows if we would be working together again. Overcoming fear and being brave have become the focus of my work and this song underlines that — if one is willing to look into the lion’s mouth the rewards can be astounding.”  

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the past few months, I’ve written quite a bit about JOVM mainstay, Josie Boivin, Quebec-based classically trained pianist and opera vocalist and electronic pop producer, electronic music artist, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter, best known as MUNYA. As the story goes Boivin had only written one song when she was asked to perform at 2017’s Pop Montreal Festival. Now, as you may recall, ironically at the time, Boivin had never intended to pursue music full-time; but after playing at the festival, she realized what she was meant to do — be a musician.

So Boivin quit her day job, moved in with her sister and turned their kitchen into a home recording studio where she wrote every day. These recordings would eventually become part of an EP trilogy named after a significant place in Boivin’s life. Her self-released debut North Hatley derives its name from one of Boivin’s favorite little villages in Quebec and her second EP Delmano, which was released last year through Fat Possum Records derives its name from Williamsburg Brooklyn’s Hotel Delmano.

Blue Pine EP, the third EP of Boivin’s trilogy derives its name for the Blue Pine Mountains in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks — and continues the trilogy’s overall theme of EP’s being named for a significant place in Boivin’s life.  “It’s All About You”  Blue Pine‘s first single was a beguiling pop song centered around shimmering and arpeggiated synths, a soaring hook, and Boivin’s ethereal falsetto — but interestingly, the song focuses on the joy and agony of an all-consuming infatuation that borders on obsession. “Benjamin,” Blue Pines‘ second and latest single is centered around a breezy and infectious hook, shimmering synths and guitars, a sinuous bass line, four-on-the-floor beats and Boivin’s ethereal vocals singing lyrics both in English and French. (Interestingly, the song marks the first time Boivin sings in both languages.) And much like its immediate predecessor, the song finds Boivin balancing an infectious pop sensibility with an aching, sepia-tinged wistfulness. Oh how, things were easier/simpler/less cynical back then, the songs seem to say –and yet within “Benjamin,” there’s a bit of hope. As Boivin says of the song in press notes,  “Many times in my life when I thought I had found love it turned into heartbreak. Like most people, it has made it harder for me to be vulnerable with new experiences and people. In this song I take a step back and realize it’s how we all feel. I make fun of my own vulnerabilities, try to just push them to the side and enjoy my new love.”

Blue Pine is slated for a March 8, 2019 release through House Arrest/Fat Possum Records imprint Luminelle Recordings, and along with that the three EPs will be combined for the physical release MUNYA, which will also be released on March 8.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Perhaps best known as a founding member, vocalist, pianist and primary songwriter of Los Angeles, CA-based indie quintet Local Natives, an act that’s received attention nationally for a sound that has been compared favorably to the likes Arcade Fire, Fleet Foxes, Vampire Weekend and Grizzly Bear, Kelcey Ayer steps out from behind the auspices of a band for his solo side project, Jaws of Love. Unsurprisingly, Ayer’s new project reportedly sees Ayer honing in on what he’s best known for — sparse yet emotive piano ballads, as highlighted on his primary gig’s critically applauded sophomore effort Hummingbird.

 

Tasha Sits Close to the Piano, Ayer’s Jews of Love. debut takes was named by Ayer’s wife, who named the album after the their dog, Tasha — and the album is slated for a September 22, 2017 release through House Arrest Records, and Ayer’s Jaws of Love. debut single, the eponymous “Jaws of Love,” begins with a spectral arrangement in which he accompanies his plaintive and aching vocals with a gorgeous and mournful pianos before turing into a moody, and ambient synth pop track seemingly inspired by Narrow Stairs-era Death Cab for Cutie, Postal Service and Brian Eno; but at its core is a sweetly swooning love song that reveals a visceral vulnerability as the song, much like the rest of the album’s material, focuses on love’s trials and tribulations, with the recognition that love may arguably be one of the more difficult, insane and absolutely necessary things in our lives.