Tag: indie electro pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Anthony DiBella is an emerging, 23 year-old, Long Island-born, Boston-based singer/songwriter. Currently studying songwriting at renowned Berklee College of Music, DiBella’s love of music was sparked when he was in fifth grade and began playing trombone.

Since then, the emerging Long Island-born, Boston-based artist has busily explored every aspect of music and performance, including classic, muscle theater, country, alternative and more. DiBella’s latest single “Can’t Let You” is a hook-driven. slickly produced bop with glistening synth arpeggios, a relentlessly driving groove paired with soulful, yearning vocals that reminds me a bit of Rush Midnight, St. Lucia and other contemporary acts, whose sound channels 80s synth pop.

Underneath the breezy song’s remarkably catchy hooks, the song tackles a universal experience: The inability to let go of someone and move on with your life.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Québec’s Ghostly Kisses Shares Uneasy and Brooding “Keep It Real”

With the release of their acclaimed full-length debut, Heaven, Wait, Québec City-based indie pop outfit Ghostly Kisses — singer/songwriter Margaux Sauvé and Louis-Étienne — received attention both nationally and internationally for crafting hauntingly gorgeous and spectral electro pop that pairs Suavé’s ethereal delivery with moody productions featuring swirling and ambient electronics, twinkling keys, propulsive drumming and so on.

After touring with Ry X, Men I Trust, Lord Huron, and Pomme, the Québec City-based outfit launched their “Box of Secrets” initiative, which gave their fans an anonymous place to share their most deeply personal thoughts. What the duo quickly discovered a global, post-pandemic, postmodern era of pain — an intense and strange loneliness felt around the world. “We heard from a lot of fans from countries where they couldn’t openly love the person they were in love with for political or social reasons,” Sauvé says. “I felt that pain, identified with it in my own way, and knew many others would too.” The duo would up synthesizing the missives they received into their highly-anticipated sophomore album Darkroom. 

Slated for a May 17, 2024 release through Akira Records, Darkroom sees the acclaimed Canadian duo willing those inner monologues they received into view, finding mystic connection in the darkest, electronic corners — with tears falling on the dance floor. The duo’s long-held writing style reflects their ability to bridge the gap between people, who may feel far away. In fact, the duo would each set up in a different room, sharing snippers via email and only meeting up to finalize ideas. “Writing separately ensures we’re not influenced by anything else, and we can bring more depth to our process,” Sauvé explains. 

For Darkroom, the Box of Secrets project provided an unusual baseline for the material’s influence, rather than just their own individual experiences. After compiling demos, the duo brought in new collaborators to further bolster their new electronic palette: co-producers George FitzGerald and Oli Bayston. Longtime engineer and Santais’ cousin Alex Ouzlileau further shaped the album in the studio and Gabriel Desjardins’ string arrangements also help to add depth and drama to the overall proceedings. 

Unlike their previously released material, the duo tested the material while touring, a new step in their creative process that also served as portal into connecting more with their music and their fans. 

Last month, I wrote about Darkroom‘s lead single “On & Off,” a looping, hook-driven bit of spectral pop built around Sauvé’s ethereal yet expressive delivery, glistening synths and squiggling bursts of funk guitar that evokes the tumult of an inconsistent, confusing and complex love. The track “depicts a complex and tumultuous cyclical relationship where two people constantly break off and get back together,” Ghostly Kissses’ Margaux Sauvé explains. “The lyrics draw inspiration from a revelation in the ‘Box of Secrets,” which was the conceptual inspiration behind our new album.” 

“Keep It Real” may arguably be one of Darkroom‘s most brooding and uneasy tracks built around glistening and buzzing synths, skittering beats paired with the duo’s uncanny knack for remarkably catchy, dance floor friendly hooks and Sauvé’s achingly plaintive delivery. At its core, is the doubt and longing of a narrator, who’s desperately trying to decipher the thoughts of others — particularly dear ones — to help shed light on a complicated, uneasy situation that is rooted in an almost novelistic attention to psychological detail.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: KOKOKO! Shares Club-Rocking Ode to Kinshasa’s Nightlife

Since exploding into the scene back in 2017, the acclaimed Kinshasa-based collective KOKOKO! have captivated audiences globally with a striking, forward-thinking, dance floor friendly sound. The Congolese outfit’s full-length debut, Fongola was released to widespread critical acclaim with DJ Mag writing that it was “quite unlike anything else you’ll hear,” and The Guardian calling the collective a “commanding new voice.”

Building upon a growing profile, the band played attention grabbing sets across the global festival circuit, including All Points East, SXSW, Green Man and Pitchfork Festival. The Congolese outfit was named bad live band by the likes of AIF, NPR Tiny Desk and Boiler Room.

Thematically and aesthetically, the acclaimed Congolese outfit has had a long-held, fiercely activist and political slant. The Democratic Republic of Congo continues to experience serious human rights violations, including mass killings within the context of armed conflict and inter-communal violence, as well as crackdown on dissent and ill-treatment of detainees. People residing in regions affected by a variety of armed conflict are deeply impacted amid mass displacement and other deepening humanitarian crises. Additionally, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s wealth of natural resources are routinely exploited by large, multi-national tech companies and other conglomerates, which helps to fuel even more conflict in the region.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, political protest using words carries a risk of imprisonment, so dissidents and performers often work with their bodies and sounds to express and signal their critiques and commentary. The acclaimed Congolese outfit’s highly anticipated sophomore album BUTU is slated for a July 5, 2024 release through Transgressive Records. The album reportedly sees the collective continuing to pair a resistant, punk-like energy and attitude, informed by the attitude and thoughts of a new generation of Congolese artists and young people with their 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 Belgium producer Xavier Thomas, a.k.a. Débruit, the forthcoming album reportedly 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,. the collective fed those sounds through distortion to get closer to those 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.

BUTU‘s first single “Mokili” is a house music-informed banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, relentlessly skittering hi-hats, 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. (If y’all didn’t know, by 2050 close to a quarter of the entire world will be African.)

“’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.”

Filmed by Erick Abidal Editing with Creative FX BY Myrtille Moniot in Kinshasa, the video sees the Congolese collective taking over the media seemingly by force, even without Internet signal. And throughout they let the world dive into the surreal and energetic scenes and people they come across in their hometown.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Hiwatt Trance House-like Fever Mix of Brittany Bindrim’s “Fever Dream”

Best known for being the frontperson of Chicago-based post-industrial rock outfit i: Scintilla, Brittany Bindrim has stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her forthcoming Matt McJunkins-produced full-length solo debut, Velella Velella, an effort that sees her adopting a dark, electro pop-based sound.

While sonically Velella Velella‘s material reportedly ranges between ethereal ballads and gritty dance floor friendly bangers that also showcases the evolution and versality of Bindrim’s work. Thematically, the material touches on themes of self-discovery, empathy, apathy, disillusionment and growth, rooted in unapologetically vulnerable lyrics. “The songwriting process for every song on the album was a little different, but I didn’t try to force ideas or overthink things,” Bindrim says. “Each song developed very naturally and instinctively.”

Velella Velella‘s latest single, “Fever Dreams” is a slickly produced synthesis of electro pop and industrial electronica featuring buzzing bass synths, glistening synth-driven melodies, skittering beats and some subtle industrial clang and clatter serving as a lush yet woozy bed for Bindrim’s ethereal and expressive delivery and catchy hooks. The result is a song that to my ears reminds me of I Am Snow Angel and Goldfrapp with a bit of Kate Bush.

Ken “Hiwatt” Marshall recently remixed “Fever Dreams” for the “Fever Dreams” singles package. The Hiwatt remix turns “Fever Dreams” into a trance-inducing, club rocking techno track with a subtle speeding up of the original’s tempo paired with harder hitting beats, a dreamy and hazy bridge, along bursts of with throbbing guitars and an industrial clang and clatter-driven coda.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Liv Eli Shares Dramatic “Goodbye Innocence”

Liv Eli is an emerging, Norwegian artist, who cites David Bowie, Radiohead, The Smile, Massive Attack, Ane Brun and a list of others. Although she has songwriting experience in previous musical efforts, as solo artist songwriting not only reflects a rich tapestry of inspirations but a much deeper exploration of songwriting. “After so many years, I have finally allowed myself to immerse myself in this side of my life.”

Eli’s upcoming album The Struggle For Peace Of Mind thematically sees the Norwegian artist delving into the profound impact of life’s coincidences and conflicting choices on one’s quest for inner harmony and peace. The album’s latest single “Goodbye Innocence” is a cinematic and dramatic bit of synth pop built around glistening synth arpeggios, gated reverb-soaked percussion, twinkling keys paired with Eli’s expressive and melodic delivery. Seemingly indebted to Kate Bush, Tori Amos and Massive Attack, and sounding a bit like it could be on the soundtrack of a bildungsroman of a woman coming to terms with her decisions and their impact on her life, “Goodbye Innocence” tells a story about the grave consequences of a life-altering decision that shatters preconceived notions of goodness and justice to reveal a life overshadowed by insecurity and constant vigilance.

“When crafting ‘Goodbye Innocence,’ I envisioned it as a film,” the Norwegian artist explains. “Throughout the production, capturing the ideal atmosphere was of utmost importance. Collaborating with producer Kristoffer Lo, I believe we achieved my initial ambition to perfection.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bolis Pupul Teams Up with His Sister on a Shimmering and Dreamy Ode to Their Late Mother

Highly acclaimed Ghent-based electronic duo Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul exploded into the national and international scenes with the release of 2019’s critically applauded David and Stephen Dewaele-produced Zandoli EP, which featured Paténipat” and “High Lights,” tracks that received airplay on UK Radio and were playlisted by  BBC Radio 6. 

Their official full-length debut as a credited duo, 2022’s Topical Dancer was co-written and co-produced by Soulwax and the acclaimed Belgian duo, and was released through Soulwax’s label DEEWEE. The album’s material was deeply rooted in two distinct things. The duo’s perspectives as Belgians with immigrant backgrounds: Adigéry proudly claiming Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Pupul proudly claiming Chinese ancestry. And the wide-ranging conversations between each other that they’ve had that touch upon cultural appropriation, misogyny, racism, social media vanity, post-colonialism, and more.

The album thematically was a snapshot of their thoughts and observations on pop culture in the early 2020s. Sonically, the album saw the acclaimed duo cementing their sound and approach: The material featured thoughtful songs that slap — and slap very hard — but were centered around their idiosyncratic, off-kilter and satirical take on familiar genres and styles. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” Pupul laughs. “We cringe when we feel like we’re making something that already exists, so we’re always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”  The album’s songs were generally fueled by a restless desire to not be boxed in — and to escape narrow perceptions of who they are and what they can be. “One thing that always comes up,” Bolis Pupul says, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.”

But that’s done with a deeply satirical bent. For the Belgian duo, it’s emancipation through humor. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” Charlotte Adigéry says. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”

Pupul steps out into the spotlight as a singer/songwriter and solo artist with his full-length debut, the Soulwax co-produced Letter To Yu. Slated for a March 8, 2024 release through Soulwax’s DEEWEE, Letter To Yu comes on the heels of a whirlwind couple of years touring the globe to support Topical Dancer. Thematically, the album is love letter to his beloved mother, who was killed in a 2008 traffic accident. 

Born to a Belgian father and Chinese mother and growing up in Ghent, Pupul had not negated his Chinese roots exactly — his mother was born in Hong Kong — but he hadn’t exactly embraced them either. However, in the wake of his mother’s death, he began coming to terms with his heritage. “When I started to think about my roots, I started to embrace them. And it became more and more important for me to get in touch with them,” the acclaimed Chinese-Belgian singer/songwriter and producer says. ““I went to evening school and began learning Chinese. I did that for four years. That was the first step.”

His first visit to Hong Kong back in 2018 further cemented how he wanted to incorporate his Chinese roots into his own music. A primary intention on his first trip to Hong Kong was to find where his mother — Yu Wei Wun — was born. Not wanting to forget this overwhelming experience, Pupul began writing a letter to his mother, so he could properly grasp his thoughts. Some time later, when the album began to take shape, the acclaimed Ghent-born and-based producer remembered the letter. “It became the centerpiece of this album,” he says matter-of-factly.

Fittingly, the creation and recording of Letter To Yu has proven to be a pivotal and liberating experience for Pupul. “Even though this trip was very emotional and at times sad, I also had some great times that just made me really happy,” he concludes. “This resulted in a very uplifting melody where I felt like I could handle my life.”

So far I’ve managed to write about two of th album’s singles:

  • “Completely Half,” a track which saw Pupul pairing a glittering Chinese-influenced melody, skittering beats and wobbling synths with Pupul’s yearning delivery describing the sensation of searching for your roots — and the desire to understand someone, who can no longer speak for, let alone explain themselves. The track also features field recordings recorded on the Hong Kong subway, which adds a vital and forceful sense of place to the proceedings. 

  • “Spicy Crab,” a techno pop ode to the city’s signature dish, spicy crab, which Bolis ate during his first visit to Hong Kong. Built around a relentless motorik groove, skittering boom bap and glistening synth oscillations with a brief woozy breakbeat-like bridge, “Spicy Crab” subtly recalls late period Kraftwerk and Giorgio Moroder while being a slinky club banger.

Letter To Yu‘s third and latest single “Ma Tau Wai Road” is specifically dedicated to his late mother, and features a glistening Chinese-influenced synth-driven melody paired with a slinky and infectious groove serving as a lush and dreamy bed for his Pupul’s sister Salah Pupul’s yearning vocal expressing gratitude, regret, awe and confusion within the turn of a phrase.

“I wrote this song in a hotel room just around the corner of my mother’s birthplace on Ma Tau Wai Road in 2019,” Pupul recalls. “It’s a song about gratitude and regret, two feelings that go hand in hand when I’m in Hong Kong. 

He adds, “Back in Belgium I asked my sister, Salah Pupul, if she wanted to sing this song. Besides being a great visual artist she is also a very talented singer with whom I’ve made a lot of music in the past. Prior to the recording session she had never been to Hong Kong, but when we decided to make a video for ‘Ma Tau Wai Road,’ I wanted to film her being a small part of this giant city. I enjoyed every minute with my sister in Hong Kong, mirroring each other since we were kids. Made with lots of love and compassion, and dedicated to our beloved mother, Yu Wei Wun.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Seattle’s Toler Shares Soulful, Trip Hop-like “The Way You Move”

Toler is a Seattle-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, whose work draws from an eclectic array of influences and a passion for experimentation. Built around driving guitars, atmospheric synths and unexpected production decisions, the Seattle-based artist’s work frequently is rooted around the sort of attention grabbing contrast that keep the listener guessing.

According to the Seattle-based artist, “this project aims to encapsulate teh good and bad feelings that come with finding oneself through thoughtful lyricism and diverse sounds.”

The Seattle-based artist released his full-length debut, New Red Paint earlier this year. The album’s latest single “The Way You Move” is built around a dusty and soulful Portishead-meets-Washed Out production featuring twinkling synths, skittering beats and razor sharp hooks paired with Toler’s easy-going yet swaggering delivery.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: ALYA Teams Up with Bhramabull on a Slick Banger

Bhramabull is an enigmatic, emerging hip-hop producer, who can trace the origins of his career back to being a fervent fan of hip-hop and hip-hop culture. Inspired by the genre’s beloved pioneers, the emerging underground producer developed and honed a gritty, hard-hitting boom bap-inspired sound with a fresh and edgy twist, fueled by an unyielding passion for crafting raw, authentic beats.

ALYA‘s latest single, the Bharamabull-produced “Crazy.Trap” feat. ALYA is a heady mix of meets-boom-bap-meets trap that’s a remarkably accessible and slickly produced bed for ALYA’s slightly processed and sultry, pop starlet delivery paired with some incredibly catchy hooks. The result is a headbanger that brings back memories of Timbaland — but with a subtly modern take.

Directed by Alya Michelson, Tim Carmon and Dilia Alshina, the recently released video for “Crazy.Trap” prominently features a rubber room: We see ALYA put her hands onto her desk top — and then suddenly her world becomes irrevocably changed. We then see her in a rubber room with a late 70s-early 80s computer, expressively dancing to the song. We also see a lone dancer in the room, dancing. Where do the worlds of tech and the human begin? Where do they end?

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Alex Paradoxe Shares Club Friendly “T.U.E.R.”

Alex Paradoxe is a queer, Brussels-based artist who pairs defiant protest-fueled lyrics with a sound that draws from electro pop, pop and rock. His latest single “T.U.E.R.” is a dark yet club friendly industrial-inspired, club banger built around tweeter and woofer rattling thump, woozy synth oscillations, big bass drops, buzzing guitars paired with sultrily delivered vocals.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kai Tak Teams Up With Dol Ikara on Brooding and Shimmering “Blush”

Born in Hong Kong and adopted by American parents, who worked at a camp for Vietnamese refugees seeking opportunity in the city nicknamed the Pearl of the Orient, the Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Chris King may be best known for his work in Cold Showers and his production work for a list of artists that include Tamaryn, House of Harm and Fearing.

Led by King, the Los Angeles-based collective Kai Tak derives its name from the now-retired Hong Kong airport, famously known for its harrowing approach just above and through the city’s skyscrapers. Founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when King started to write songs as a vehicle for connecting with his own unconventional roots and as a platform for collaboration with the numerous musical friends made from his lengthy career as a producer and engineer. Operating without any deadlines or creative constraints allowed King to use and explore every technique he had learned over the years, incorporating re-sampling, drastic pitch shifting, time-stretching, liberal use of tape delay, recording live drums with MIDI drum triggers, and creating his own sample-based synthesizers using found sounds recorded during various trips to Hong Kong.Sonically King and company specialize in sculpting moody soundscapes that draw inspiration from shoegaze, trip hop and electronica.

Back in December 2022, King assembled a live lineup and within a year, Kai Tak has opened for Blonde Redhead, Tamaryn and Public Memory. The collective has plans to tour in support of their full-length debut, which is slated for a June 2024 release through á La Carte Records.

Coming off the heels of the album’s first two singles, “Jalen Rose,” feat. Draag and “Villains In My Mind,” feat. Foie Gras, the album’s third and latest single “Blush” featured Dol Ikara‘s Claire Roddy, a collaboration that can be traced back to when the two artists were paid together by chance for a live show. Built around a brooding and cinematic arrangement that — to my ears — sounds like a synthesis of Massive Attack and Cocteau Twins with skittering boom bap paired with looping and glistening strings and swirling sheogazer textured synths serving as a lush bed for Roddy’s soulful, smoky croon.

“Chris came to me with this transportive instrumental while I was dealing with a bit of a writer’s block,” Roddy explains. “These lyrics are an ode to that very moment of inspiration where suddenly feelings, words, and melodies spring right out from the drought, as instantly and vulnerably as a blush.”

“When Claire explained the meaning behind her lyrics, I almost couldn’t believe it,” Kai Tak’s Chris King explains. “The music also came to me during a bout of writer’s block, which was broken by one of my old tried and true methods – watching a visually stunning movie on mute and composing music inspired by the imagery.  In the case of ‘Blush,’ the inspiration was Fallen Angels, which has always made me feel like I’m permanently suspended in the most beautiful fever dream.” 

Kai Tak will be performing at Lunar New Year themed show on February 10, 2024 at Los Angeles’ Genghis Cohen that will feature bands with at least one Asian member. Fittingly. there will be some Lunar New Year traditions — every attendee will receive a Lucky Red Envelope with various prizes inside. The night’s DJ will play a mix of tradition Chinese music and contemporary tunes. It’s an event that Kai Tak’s Chris King hopes to turn into an annual tradition.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Formwandla Shares Club Friendly, Brazilian Bass Remix of “Te encontrar”

Formwandla is a rising Brazilian-born, German-based electronic producer. Late last year, he released “Te encontrar,” a collaboration with Rio de Janeiro-based singer/songwriter Isabela Silvino, which was also his second song featured lyrics sung in his native Brazilian Portuguese.

“Te encontrar” was a radio friendly yet club rocking production with glistening synth arpeggios, a relentless motorik groove paired with Silvino’s melancholy and yearning delivery. To my ears, “Te encontrar” managed to sound like a sleek, hook-driven synthesis of The Weeknd and Euro pop rooted in the sort of heartache familiar to Portuguese fado. 

“I had a certain feeling of longing and melancholy in my head and I wanted Isabela to simply put her feeling into words and melody,” the Brazilian-born, German-based electronic producer and artist explains. “She had very few fixed instructions from me so that she could develop freely. The result is an exciting interplay of European-influenced dance pop and Brazilian emotions.”

The Brazilian-born, German-based producer begins 2024 with a remix of “Te Encontrar.” Dubbed “Brazilian Bass Remix,” the remix pairs Isabella Silvano’s melancholy and yearning delivery with an even clubbier, deep house-meets Euro dance-inspired production featuring glistening synths and synth oscillations and thumping beats and enormous bass drops. The remix reveals that Silvano’s vocal can work with just about any style of electronic music.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: N’Faly Kouyaté Shares Breezy, Genre-Defying “Premiers Pas”

Guinean-born, Belgian-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist N’Faly Kouyaté has had a long-held interest in bridging the distinct worlds he inhabited mos too his life: the ancient and the modern, his native Africa and the West. Growing up, Kouyaté received a rigorous and traditional Guinean musical education. When he later relocated to Belgium, he received traditional Western conservatory training.

Throughout his lengthy career, Kouyaté has collaborated with an eclectic and diverse array of internationally acclaimed artists across a wide range of styles and genres, including Peter Gabriel, William Kentridge, Roxy Music’s Phil Manzanera, Ray Phiri and others. But by far, the Guinean-born, Belgian-based artist may be best known for his work with the Grammy Award-nominated, groundbreaking, genre-defying outfit Afro Celt Sound System. 

Kouyaté’s solo debut reportedly sees the acclaimed Guinean-born, Belgian-based artist creating and developing a new genre which he dubbed Afrotonix, which seems him pairing polyphony, electronic production and traditional African instruments like the kora, the balafon and regional percussion instruments.

The Guinean-born, Belgian-based artist’s latest single “Premiers Pas” is a slickly produced, breezy, hook-driven bit of pop featuring atmospheric synths paired with twinkling kora, a supple yet propulsive bass line and skittering tweeter and woofer rattling beats with Kouyaté’s plaintive delivery singing lyrics in Malinké and French. While being club and lounge friendly, the song is rooted in several powerful and urgent messages with the song being a cry for African autonomy without colonial influence, but the song also seeks and demands a more equitable world for all, as Kouyaté also calls out abuse in both the workplace and domestic spheres.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Cisco Bluff is an emerging Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. His second single, which also is the first official single off his forthcoming EP “Second Sight” is a slickly produced and funky 80s-inspired synth pop track built around glistening synth arpeggios, lush synth pads, a sinuous bass line and skittering beats paired with Bluff’s melancholy and yearning delivery and an uncanny sense of catchy hooks.

While sonically “Second Sight” reminds me a bit of Rush Midnight, St. Lucia, and others, the song as Bluff explains “essentially began as a ballad about sexual desire. It’s about falling into rapture, fantasy taking hold and being pulled into a hypnotic state of longing.”

“The song was originally written on guitar and later arranged around a rhythm I had programmed on my Oberheim DX drum machine, the same one used on many 80s classics,” the Los Angeles-based artist adds. “What you hear in the song is that original hardware. Everything else came together around that beat, which I immediately knew wanted big arpeggiated synth bass and lush pads.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: San Diego’s Crystal Night Shares Swooning “Julia”

Crystal Nights is an emerging and mysterious San Diego-based indie electro pop project. The Southern California-based project’s debut single “Julia” is a lush and swooning bit of nostalgia-inducing, 80s inspired pop featuring glistening synths, wobbling bass synths paired with yearning and ethereal vocals and soaring hooks. “Julia” is the sort of tears falling while you’re on the dance floor song that will take a hold of your broken and bruised heart.

The accompanying visuals are taken from the night out in Tokyo scene from Lost in Translation.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sun Moon Sky Shares Cinematic “Into The Light”

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 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. 

Late last year, I wrote about the swooning “State of Grace,” an intimate yet cinematic bit of pop featuring twinkling keys, buzzing power chords, skittering four-on-the-floor paired with Jenny’s expressive delivery and the duo’s penchant for crating rousingly anthemic hooks that at points seemingly nodded at Eurythmics “Here Comes The Rain Again” and “Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This),” and Michael Jackson‘s “Beat It.”

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.