Tag: indie electro pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

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.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

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.

Video by William Ruben Helms

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.

Video by William Ruben Helms

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?

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

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.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sarah Lake Shares Ernie Lake’s Nu-Disco Remix of “Soul Shaker”

Lake relocated to Nashville back in 2017. And since then she has released music that has been featured on Tidal, Apple Music and a variety of Spotify playlists. As a songwriter, the Canadian-born and now-Nashville-based artist has written songs for The Voice Season 13 finalist Moriah Formica, Ms. America Betty Cantrell — and Reba McEntire took her song “Amen” into the studio in 2018.

And although as a songwriter, she continues to write material across a range of formats and styles, as an artist, Lake’s work has firmly in the realm of Americana/folk.

Her latest songs “Devil in My Head” and Messy” have been featured on Nashville-based radio station Lightning 100. “Missing Home” has been added to several Apple Music playlists. And the video for “Wide Eyed Girl” was added to CMT online.

Released earlier this year, the Everette and Lake cowritten “Soul Shaker” is a hook-driven and anthemic bit of country pop — or perhaps pop country? — that captures the swooning sensation of love with a folksy and lived-in earnestness. Recently, Ernie Lake, who remixed Pink‘s “Get The Party Started” and Taylor Swift’s “Willow” among a lengthy list of others, remixed “Soul Shaker,” turning the track into a summery, Stevie Nicks “Stand Back”-meets disco heyday-like bop featuring wah-wah pedaled funk guitar, soaring and cinematic bursts of strings, conga, and a relentless funky groove — all of which seem to serve and emphasize Lake’s easy-going soulful delivery.

Lake hopes that the song will take listeners to a happy place and back to simpler times of roller skating rinks and dance floors.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sun Moon Sky Share Dance Floor Friendly “Work Eat Sleep Repeat”

Sun Moon Sky is a British-Swedish duo — Jenny (vocals) and Joe (production) — that can trace their history back some time: They’ve worked together for years with each other and in other projects, including a project that ended up on a label, touring and with material on soundtracks, while landing a Top 10 hit before calling it a day after the prototypical music industry complications and drama.

 For the British-Swedish duo, Sun Moon Sky is a creative reset, in which they craft music that they describe as sad-but-hopeful, cinematic-yet-intimate pop that’s a island of empathy and escapism for these complicated times — both for themselves and for listeners. Sonically, the duo creates epic soundscapes that sees them pairing analog synths, programmed arpeggios, live instrumentation, drum machines and Jenny’s blues-influenced vocals. They describe their sound as seemingly existing in the space between several different genres and styles, and note that some have dubbed their sound art pop, apocapop, alt rock, electronica, sci-fi blues and more. 

The duo begin 2024 with the slow-burning and dramatic “Into The Light.” Built around gated reverb-soaked drum beats, Jenny’s gently vocodered vocals, lush layers of atmospheric synths and bursts of bluesy guitar, “Into The Light,” continues a run of shimmering and cinematic material rooted in earnest, heart-worn-on-sleeve intimacy that recalls Kate Bush and others. 

Their latest single “Work Eat Sleep Repeat” is a Kate Bush-meets-Giorgio Moroder-like bit of synth pop featuring glittering synth oscillations, a relentless motorik grooves, skittering beats serving as lush, hook driven and dance floor friendly bed for Jenny’s expressive and yearning delivery — before the song ends with a brooding, minor key outré.

“‘Work Eat Sleep Repeat'” as the duo explain “is about the grand journey that we all go on, and the choices we make along the way.” The pixel art animated visual by Mexican artist Bruno Cortes follow the mundane drudgery of every day life with an uncanny attention to detail.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: South of France Teams up with BIg Samir and CRL CRRLL on Woozy and Swaggering “Something That You Said”

Led by Denver-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer Jeff Cormack,  South of France is an indie pop project that sees Cormack and his collaborators specializing in a groovy, beat-driven take on escapist, vacation pop.

South of France has had material featured in smash-hit TV shows like Bojack Horseman and Shameless — and they’ve received praise from American Songwriter, NPR, Rolling Stone and others. Adding to a growing profile, South of France has opened for a number of acclaimed acts including Portugal The Man, Young The Giant, Flaming Lips, Michigander and a lengthy list of others. 

Cormack’s latest South of France single “Something That You Said” is a lysergic and blissed out bit of pop featuring a supple and propulsive bass line, skittering hi-hat driven drum patterns, spaced out and atmospheric synths and electronics paired with incredibly catchy hooks. The production serves as a lush and woozy bed for Big Samir and CRL CRRLL to trade swaggering bars and dreamily soulful falsetto vocals.

While sounding like a mischievous take on Tame Impala, “Something That You Said” will appear on Cormack’s forthcoming album My Spirit Animal, My Baggage, an album that’s one part solo album, one part collaborative effort with a series of vocalists, emcees and more. “‘Something That You Said,” as Cormack says “is a great example of how fun these collaborations are getting. Everyone is really having fun with these songs and I’m really enjoying pushing the production into new places while keeping it fun and trying not to over complicate it.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Washed Out’s Eclipse Live Session Performance of “Waking Up”

Back in 2021, Washed Out‘s creative mastermind Earnest Greene left Atlanta 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 is slated for a June 28, 2024 release through Sub Pop. The album, which reportedly is Greene’s most audacious effort to date, 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 later this month, I’ve written about two previously released 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.

The album’s third and latest single “Waking Up” 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.

After months of research and meticulous planning, the JOVM mainstay and director Jonah Haber collaborated to film a live performance of “Waking Up” in the path of totality of the solar eclipse — on location in Bandera, TX on April 8, 2024.

With a ton of risks and embarrassment involved and no guarantee of success, Haber and Greene have managed to create one of the more unique visuals I’ve seen in some time: Shot in a single take, we see Greene performing the bulk of the song during the four minutes and eight seconds of full totality — the moment the moon crossed in between the Sun and Earth, emulating nighttime.

For the viewer, the effect almost appears as if Greene is taking the stage inside a venue, with the spotlights just on him, as he plays and sings. While it’s a gorgeous and downright perfect moment, there was a lot of things out of their control, reminding the viewer that ultimately nature rules us all.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays KOKOKO! Shares Swaggering In-Your-Face “Motema Mabe”

The acclaimed Congolese collective and JOVM mainstays KOKOKO!’s highly-anticipated sophomore album BUTU is slated for a July 5, 2024 release through Transgressive Records. Their sophomore album sees the acclaimed Congolese JOVM mainstays continuing to pair a defiantly resistant punk-like energy, informed and inspired by the attitude and thought of a new generation of Congolese artists and young people with their neck-snapping, attention-grabbing block party alchemy — but pushed to new, global heights. 

Kinshasa’s after-dark buzz was one of the major inspirations behind BUTU, which means “the night” in Lingala, and the album dives deep into the heart of the chaotic, throbbing city, celebrating and championing the joyful and creative spirit of its inhabits. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Belgian producer Xavier Thomas, a.k.a. Débruit, the forthcoming album sees the collective led by Makara Bianko channeling a more electronic-driven, upbeat sound while replicating the frenetic feel of their hometown’s dynamic nightlife: equipment is pushed to its limits through saturated and distorted speakers and the sonic push-and-pull of nighttime sounds. 

The band employs field recordings, recorded from the city’s nighttime sounds and “ready-made percussion” like detergent bottles, which they fed through distortion to get closer to their city’s nighttime sounds. “Compared to Fongola, this album is intentionally way more intense, because it’s quite upbeat and quite full-on,” Xavier Thomas says. The album’s material also pulls from much wider influences and span across West Africa and South Africa, influenced by Bianko’s global travel, which introduced him to new types of alternative electronic music and punk. 

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written about the following singles: 

“Mokili” a house music inspired banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, relentlessly skittering hi-hats and tweeter and woofer rattling thump serving as a slickly produced bed for Bianko’s crooning and impassioned shouts. Continuing a remarkable run of club friendly material with an in-your-face punk attitude and ethos, “Mokili” captures the frenetic and sweaty energy of their hometown and its nightlife scene with an uncanny, novelistic realism. But along with that, the song is a forceful and joyous reminder that Africa is the present and the future. 

“’Mokili’ is about moving the world so much that it’s going to tip over sort of,” the acclaimed Congolese collective explains. “This track was a track we were used to trying live in a more improvised way, we never got the chance to record till recently where we added the right touch for the studio. It was the last addition to our album BUTU and became the first single, so it’s really fresh. It has obviously influences from Kinshasa but also Kwaito and 90’s dance music.”

“Salaka Bien,” a euphoric, trance-inducing banger anchored around percussion created on heavy ceramic pots and pans, glistening house music synth stabs and skittering beats that helps to emphasize Bianko’s punchy and swaggering delivery singing lyrics full of winking sexual innuendo. If this track doesn’t fire you up and get you moving, you’re probably dead — literally and figuratively. 

“It’s a bass line driven track, with a lot of influences, like punk funk meeting old house stabs with a trance feeling!” The acclaimed Congolese collective explain. “When we play it live there are moments of overwhelming feeling building till it explodes and people let go totally. Do it, do it good, do it till you break it”.

“Bazo Bango,” a track that derives its title from a Lingala phrase that translates to English as “they are scared,” a chant sung by crowds as a way to vent frustration, the collective explains. Anchored around a looping and propulsive electric bass line, skittering electronic beats, twinkling and percussive polyrhythm and bursts of woozy synth arpeggios pared with chanted call and response vocals, “Bazo Bango” is a euphoric, riotous banger that captures Kinshasa’s chaotic, throbbing and irresistible energy with a mischievous aplomb. 

BUTU‘s fourth and latest single “Motema Mabe” continues a run of swaggering, neck snapping bangers. Anchored around a woozy and punchily menacing production featuring a looping twinkling and plunked string sample, buzzing bass synths and skittering military-styled beats and percussive percussive synth oscillations paired with Makara Bianko’s equally punchy delivery, “Motema Mabe” is an in-your-face challenge to any and all comers — whether on the mic, the dance floor or your fly style.

“Motema Mabe is a track about someone imitating, appropriating someone else’s creations, style or charisma – which happens a lot in Kinshasa!” The acclaimed JOVM mainstays explain. “It’s about karma getting back at people who can’t be original and claim things that they haven’t created. Make them pay!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Beach Ready Teams Up with Boe Huntress on Breezy “RIde Your Horses”

Christopher Cordoba is a London-based instrumental solo artist, composer and session musician, whose career started in earnest as a member of Jack Adaptor and Vibrations of The Sun, two projects that featured The Family Cat’s Paul Frederick. As an instrumental solo artist, Cordoba has released a series of critically acclaimed, eclectic efforts that has seen him collaborating with a an equally eclectic array of artists and producers including Robert Wyatt David Watson, The Associates’ Billy Mackenzie, Phil Vinall, Propaganda’s Claudia Brucken, Robyn Hitchcock, Pascal Gabriel, PJ Harvey’s Terry Edwards, Audrey Riley, Alex Thomas, Charlie Winston and a list of others. 

Cordoba’s sophomore Beach Ready album, last year’s Archipelago was released through Snow in Water Records. The album’s material is darker in texture and more extreme than Cordoba’s self-titled Beach Ready debut while still being centered around Cordoba’s guitar work and penchant for atmospheric soundscapes. The album also sees Cordoba incorporating drone, glitch, Frippertronics, industrial, New Wave and New age to create a unique sound collage that imparts an urgent ambience. Fittingly, the album thematically focuses on destruction — an all too present theme in our seemingly pre-apocalyptic moment. 

Cordoba’s latest single “Ride Your Horses” is the third collaboration with labelmate Boe Huntress. The collaboration can trace its origins back to when the pair met while playing a David Bowie tribute show at London’s Union Chapel, where Huntress was the artist in residence. “Ride Your Horses” is features an elegiac and gorgeous vocal from Huntress paired with a percussive production anchored around gently twinkling pads, jazzy four-on-the-floor, bursts of reverb-soaked guitar. While being a breezy and summery bop, “Ride Your Horses” sonically brings Princess Century‘s 2021 effort s u r r en d e r and BRAIDS‘ 2013 effort Flourish//Perish to mind, thanks to a forward thinking yet accessible production.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Mzzltvv Shares Mind-Bending “Nonsense (Psalms My Guard)”

Mzzltvv is an emerging and mysterious pop artist and producer, whose mission is to create music that means something to her — with the hopes that it’ll meaning and life for others. Much like countless contemporary artists, Mzzltvv is genre agnostic, and enjoys jumping around genres and styles with a sense of exploration and curiosity. 

Last month, I wrote about “Burning Bones,” a slickly produced bit of synth pop built around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering thump and a blazing keytar solo, creating a lush, club friendly be for the emerging artist’s soulful vocal delivery. While sonically bringing The Weeknd and 80s synth pop. The mysterious artist explained that the song is part of a larger quest of self-discovery and strength in which every chord and beat is a step towards owning her truth.

The emerging artist’s latest single “Nonsense (Psalms My Guard)” is a slickly produced, mind-bending bit of pop that meshes elements of atmospheric alt pop, trap, contemporary Billboard Top 40 pop and R&B that’s anchored by her effortlessly soulful delivery.