Tag: indie electro pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Radiant Baby Shares Slinky “Mort de Rire”

Félix Mongeon is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, musician, producer and creative mastermind behind Radiant Baby. Mongeon’s Radiant Baby debut EP It’s My Party caught the attention of Lisbon Lux, who signed him and then released the Montréaler’s 2019 full-length debut, Restless. Restless saw Mongeon creating a sound that meshes crisp electronic sounds with organic instrumentation to convey a more mature and dynamic aesthetic.

Since the release of Restless, the French-Canadian artist has very busy: He has made the rounds of the provincial and national festival circuit, with sets at Festival Pop Montréal, M pour Montréal, Festival Mode et Design, Picnik Électronik, Festival Fringe de Montréal, Santa Teresa Fest and Canadian Music Week. He also played at New Colossus Festival.

2021 saw the release of Mongeon’s sophomore Radiant Baby album, Pantomime, which was followed up with a deluxe edition of Pantomime (Deluxe) last year.

The French Canadian artist starts 2024 with “Mort de Rire,” the third single from his forthcoming third album slated for a summer 2024 release. “Mort de Rire,” is a slinky bit of synth-driven New Wave-like funk paired with Mongeon’s dreamy falsetto that sounds as though it could have been released sometime between the late 1970s and early 1980s. The song, as the rising Canadian artist explains inspects the twists and turns of our darkest sides — without taking itself too seriously.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Ghostly Kisses Share Spectral “On & Off”

Québec City-based indie pop outfit Ghostly Kisses — singer/songwriter Margaux Sauvé and Louis-Étienne — derives its name from William Faulkner’s “Une ballade des dames perdues,” which seemed to Sauvé like the perfect reflection of her ethereal voice.

With the release of their acclaimed full-length debut, Heaven, Wait, the French Canadian pop outfit received attention both nationally and internationally for crafting hauntingly gorgeous and spectral electro pop that pairs her ethereal delivery with moody productions featuring swirling and ambient electronics, twinkling keys and propulsive drumming.

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. The duo synthesized those missives 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, tears falling on the dance floor, but to find mystic connection in the darkest, electronic corners. The duo’s writing style reflects their ability to bridge the gap between people, who may feel far away. Typically, Sauvé and Santais would each set up in a different room, sharing snippets 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.

Darkroom‘s lead single “On & Off” is a looping and hook-driven, spectral pop song 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.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Pill Couple Share An Anthemic Banger

Pill Couple is a Vietnamese-based electronic duo, with members who grew up in the US and Russia, who have been friends since school. The duo’s sound sees them experimenting and meshing different genres and styles including dream pop, dark wave, synth wave, psychedelia and hip-hop rooted in melodicism, emotive vocals and heart-worn-on-sleeve lyrics that thematically focuses on sorrow and hope.

The duo’s latest single “Violetize” is a slickly produced bit of synthwave/darkwave featuring buzzing synth oscillations, glistening synths, industrial clang and clatter, tweeter and woofer rattling thump and Nik’s expressive delivery paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and chorus. The result is a song that pairs pop craft with modern production and earnest lyrics.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Mawzy Shares Hazy and Introspective “Better Man”

Toronto-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Matthew Cooke is the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie pop project Mawzy. And with the project’s debut EP Escapism and full-length debut, last year’s Long View, Cooke quickly developed an approach that sees him penning lyrics that capture the “unnavigability” of life and romance in his hometown paired with lush synths and crafted melodies.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Georgia Reed Shares Slow-Burning and Atmospheric “Back In Time”

Georgia Reed is an Aussie-born, London-based singer/songwriter and pop artist, who relocated to the UK back in 2019. After relocating to the UK, Reed spent the next fiver years, making a home for herself and carving a niche as a songwriter with a penchant for dark, moody material paired with cryptic storytelling. Speaking on her decision to relocate, Reed says “’I’d always been influenced by UK bands and artists. It played a really big part for me.”

Late lsat year, Reed shared “Haunted,” her first bit of new material since she relocated to the UK, and the first of four singles slated for release over the next few months to build up buzz for her long-awaited debut EP scheduled for a March release. “Haunted” paired a relentlessly driving rhythm section punctuated with dramatic drumming, phased-out synths paired with Reed’s smoky and expressive vocal. To me, the song was a hook-driven anthem that sounded as though it could have been inspired by Stevie Nicks‘ early 80s output with nods to much more contemporary fare, like Lana Del Rey and others while being rooted in lived-in, deeply personal experience: in this song’s case, that feeling of suddenly having the rug pulled out from under you. 

“I wrote ‘Haunted’ many years ago, at a time when my whole life had changed suddenly,” Reed says. “I would play it acoustically at shows, but It wasn’t until we started recording it that I realised it was probably my favourite song I’ve ever written.” 

Reed begins 2024 with “Back in Time,” a slow-burning and melancholy pop ballad featuring reverb-drenched beats, glistening and atmospheric synths, fluttering bass synths, boom bap-like drumming serving as a lush bed for Reed’s smoky and expressive croon detailing the achingly Romantic longing for a long lost love and a past that you can’t ever get back. While sonically recalling Kate Bush and JOVM mainstays ACES, the song as Reed explains is “for everyone who has ever thought of what would have or could have been, even if they really were just rose-coloured glasses.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Paris’ Loman Shares Brooding and Mysterious “Start Again”

Romain Yamauchi is a Paris-based Japanese-French singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and creative mastermind behind the emerging electronic music project Loman. With Loman, Yamauchi, who crafts enigmatic and cinematic pop inspired by Apparat, Jon Hopkins, the poetry of Ryuichi Sakamoto and the photography of David Lynch skillfully blends melancholy pads and syncopated beats with crystalline and bewitching vocals, revealing a penchant for delicate, ethereal aesthetics.

Yamuchi’s latest Loman single, the Vhinz-produced “Start Again” pairs skittering and glitchy ,off-kilter beats with lush and gentle layers of glistening synths and brief bursts of guitar with the Paris-based artist’s plaintive, almost coo-like whisper. While sonically, reminding me a bit of Radiohead and Aurus’ impressive Chimera, “Start Again” possesses a mysterious and cinematic yet dance floor friendly air.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Psymon Spine Share Punchy “Wizard Acid”

Over the past handful of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering acclaimed Brooklyn-based psych pop/dance pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Psymon Spine. The band — currently founding duo Noah Prebish and Peter Spears, along with Brother Michael Rudinski — can trace its origins back to when its founding duo met while attending college.

Bonding over mutual influences and common artistic aims, Prebish and Spears toured across the European Union as members of Karate. While in Paris, Spears and Prebish wrote their first song together. By the time, they arrived in London, they were offered a record deal. 

When Prebish and Spears returned to the States, the pair recruited Micheal “Brother Micheal” Rudinski and their Karate bandmates Devon Kilbern, Nathaniel Coffey to join their new project. And with that lineup, they fleshed out a series of demos, whcih would eventually become their full-length debut, 2017’s You Are Coming to My Birthday. The band then supported the effort with immersive art and dance parties, like their Secret Friend party series across Brooklyn and alter through relentless touring. 

At this time, Prebish was also splitting his time with rising Brooklyn-based dream pop act Barrie. Barrie started to receive attention across the blogosphere and elsewhere as a result of a handful of buzz-worthy singles and 2019’s full-length Happy to Be Here. And while with Barrie, Prebish met his then-future bandmate, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sabine Holler. 

The JOVM mainstay’s sophomore album, Charismatic Megafauna, which thematically explored the complicated and confusing feelings and the oft-resulting catharsis involved in the dissolution of human relationships through hooky synthesis of synth pop, electronic dance music and psych pop was released to critical praise from

Paste Magazine, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar and NME. The album and several singles were added to a number of playlists including NPR Music, Spotify‘s New Music Friday, All New Indie, Undercurrents and Fresh Finds, Apple Music‘s Midnight City and Today’s Indie Rock and TIDAL‘s Rising. And the album received airplay internationally from BBC, KEXP and KCRW among others. 

2022 saw the release of Charismatic Mutations, an album of of Charismatic Megafauna material. The members of the band grew up with a deep appreciation and love for the unique art of the remix. And as the story goes, the band found themselves craving longer, even more dance-floor friendly versions of album songs. So, the band recruited a handful of producers and electronic music acts. including including Hot Chip‘s Joe Goddard, Love Injection, Dar Disku, Each Other, Safer, Bucky Boudreau and Psymon Spine’s Brother Michael to remix material from the album. 

The Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays third album Head Body Connector is slated for a February 23, 2024 release through Northern Spy Records. The album is reportedly a gritty, punch, guitar-forward studio album from a band that’s long been obsessed with production. And perhaps more than their previous releases, Head Body Connector is explicitly informed and inspired by the band’s cathartic live show. “It’s more unhinged than anything we’ve made before,” Psymon Spine’s Noah Prebish says. “Throughout the writing process, we were always asking ourselves how we could make it really fun to play live.”  

Ironically, the album, though ready-made to be performed, was mostly written in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The band split their time between various home studios and friends’ back porches in Montauk, The Catskills, Boston and Brooklyn. It was fall and the crisp autumn air, and the political uncertainty and disquietude looming in the background lended itself to an undeniable longing for companionship. “It felt like we had collectively jumped from one timeline to another, more bizarre one,” Prebish says.

The central theme of time being fractured, chopped and screwed is integral to the album’s material and its album art, which was designed by New York-based artist Bucky Boudreau and appears in the form of alternative measurements of passing seconds, minutes, days, lifetimes, tally marks on a chalkboard and infinity signs made of camp bracelets on a cracked egg.“Head Body Connector is our response to a world even more chaotic than usual,” says Peter Spears, “and an exploration of the little joys, anxieties, and absurdities that world has to offer.” While being an ode to the dissonance of temporality in our current moment, it’s also an elastic tribute to friendship and harmony in the face of that dissonance.

Last October, I wrote about “Boys,” a track that begins with a glistening New Wave-meets-post punk introduction before quickly morphing into a funky, synth-driven both with slashing guitars. The two seemingly disparate sections are held together with Sabine Holler’s dreamy delivery. But just under the infectious, danceable surface, is an introspective song that reveals a subtle sense of unease.

The track was written after the band’s Sabine Holler relocated to Berlin, but she still lends her voice to the song. “By nature every Psymon Spine song must be a little cheeky to bypass our own self-criticism, but in reality ‘Boys’ is just a very earnest song about friendship,” the band notes. “Early on in the pandemic Sabine moved back to Germany and we weren’t sure what was going to happen, either to us as a unit or to the entire world. We went to Peter’s childhood home in Boston for a few days and fleshed out a demo that Michael had started a couple weeks earlier. We sent it to Sabine who almost immediately replied with the same vocal take you hear on the song today.” 

Head Body Connector‘s second and latest single “Wizard Acid” is a woozy bit of disco funk built around a punchy bass line, glistening synth arpeggios and thumping beats paired with lyrics about coming apart at the seams — both literally and metaphorically. Consumed with cabin fever, the song’s narrator is slowly losing their mind.

The band told the folks at Flood Magazine that the song is “part allegory, part nonsense, encapsulating elements of cabin fever, dread and humor.

We melded one of Michael’s early demos with one of Peter’s, creating one unholy coupling which eventually took the form of a shapeshifting disco jam. It sat instrumental for a couple months until Peter sent over some lyrics detailing a narrator slowly consumed by their sentient house, or perhaps losing their mind (maybe both?).” 

Directed by Dana Roth, the accompanying animated video feature bright abstract images of the band’s members, home furnishings, a guy sitting on his couch, people dancing and pulsating lines.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Les Amazones d’Afrique Share Bold and Swaggering “Flaws”

Founded in Bamako back in 2014 by three renowned and acclaimed Malian artists and social change activists Mamani Keïta, Oumou Sangaré and Amadou & Mariam‘s Mariam Doumbia, Les Amazones d’Afrique is a All-Star collective of female, West African artists that embraces international voices through a meshing of heritage and new generation talent while advocating for the rights of women and girls across the continent and elsewhere.

Since their formation a decade ago, the collective has expanded to involve female artists from across Africa and the African Diaspora, including Angélique Kidjo, Nneka, and rising Malian artist Rokia Koné.

With their first two critically applauded,. Doctor L-produced albums, 2017’s République Amazone, which landed on The Guardian‘s Top 50 of 2017 and 2020’s Amazones Power, which was featured on President Barack Obama’s Spotify playlist, the collective firmly cemented a sound that blends a number of African styles and richly melodic, collaborative harmonies with gritty, contemporary pop. Adding to a growing profile internationally, the members of the pan-African collective have played Glastonbury Festival‘s Pyramid Stage and BBC’s Later . . . with Jools Holland.

Les Amazones d’Afrique’s third album, the forthcoming Jacknife Lee-produced Musow Danse is slated for a February 16, 2024 release through Real World Records. The album reportedly sees the collective embracing a contemporary pop sound that draws from contemporary hip-hop and trap and is driven by 808s and glitchy synths while still vociferously campaigning for gender equality and the eradication of ancestral violence. 

Last year, the Pan-African All-Star collective shared the sleek and hyper modern “Kuma Fo (What They Say).” The track features five members of the collective — longtime members Mamani Keïta, Fafa Ruffino and Kandy Guira and new members Alvie Bitemo, an activist and actress from Congo-Brazzaville and renowned Ivorian artist Dobet Gnahoré — singing in the native languages of Mali, Benin, Burkina Faso, C’ôte d’Ivoire, and Congo-Brazzaville. Built around stuttering 808s, glitchy synths and the collective’s gorgeous powerhouse vocals, “Kuma Fo (What They Say)” is an effortlessly seamless synthesis of the ancient and contemporary that manages to be roomy enough for each artist to showcase their unique vocal stylings while being rooted in a powerfully relevant social message — with the collective boldly advocating for women to step out and seize their place at the table.

“‘Kuma Fo’ is about women’s freedom of expression.” Alvie Bitemo says. “It’s about speaking up — not asking, not waiting for us to be given the floor. We need to seize it.”

When you look at the Amazons of Dahomey, it was female warriors who made the decisions and took power. It feels like since colonization, certain countries in Africa have moved further away from women’s rights. And in this song, we say that if you bring life into the world, you educate, you organize the family, then you should reclaim your power: your female power.”

The acclaimed, Pan-African collective begins 2024 with the boldly in-your-face and slickly produced “Flaws.” Built around tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, skittering trap beats and dense layers of wobbling and oscillating synths, “Flaws” features Mamani Keïta and Fafa Ruffino trading verses with a hip-hop meets punk rock-like swagger and an impeccable sense of harmony and melody for the song’s incredibly catchy hooks. While continuing a remarkable run of material that effortlessly blends the ancient and the modern, the song is rooted in a bold and much-needed message for women — and well, for everyone, really — in the Photoshopped Instagram model/influencer age.

“The song has a simple message,” Malian-born Mamani Keïta explains. “The perfect person does not exist. We all have our flaws and imperfections, which we carry with us through life, but there is beauty in imperfection, and that’s what we want people to realise.”

“Jacknife Lee took time to listen to each of our voices,” Benin-born Fafa Ruffino says. “He doesn’t understand the language, but you can tell that he feels the emotion, understands that our souls are deeply invested in our words. I feel like he entered our minds. What he did is more than musical. It is spiritual.”

Directed by Zambian-born contemporary dance artist and choreographer Kennedy Junior Mutanga, the accompanying video showcases a group of brash and charming teenaged dancers of color from Birmingham UK‘s ACE Dance and Music School, who dance around Les Amazones d’Afrique’s Keïta in the school’s rehearsal studio. The young women in the video seem to take the song’s message of self-acceptance and self-love to heart, and it’s powerful to see.

ACE Dance and Music School’s mission is to promote dance through cultural exchange. The school has worked for over 20 years as a leader in the field of contemporary African and Caribbean dance, nurturing young talent from diverse backgrounds.

It was an amazing experience for our young dancers to work with such thoughtful and inspirational artists from across Africa,” Gail Parmel MBE, ACE Dance and Music’s artistic director says. “It’s exactly the kind of opportunity that we love to be able to offer them, and we’re so proud of what they’ve been able to offer in return.”
 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

deathbypeanuts is a mysterious and rising Berlin-based producer, who has collaborated with an eclectic array of acclaimed and rising artists including Kelvyn Colt, Chris James, Noah Slee, Beau Diako, JOVM mainstay Marie Dahlstrom, Sipprell, J. Lamotta, and a lengthy list of others.

The mysterious and rising Berlin-based producer’s latest single “Superspeed” is a slickly produced track featuring a simple yet eerie piano melody and trap beats and wobbling, tweeter and woofer rattling low end paired with MERON‘s delivery which alternates between hip-hop swagger and aching yearning for the song’s verses. Much like Majid Jordan‘s work, deathbypeanuts’ latest single manages to mesh the sultriness of contemporary R&B with trap swagger and catchy, pop hooks.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: London’s Rapidly Rising Fat Dog Shares Anthemic Club Banger “All The Same”

Last year, rapidly rising, London-based outfit Fat Dog exploded into the British scene with the band being named “2023’s wildest live band,” by NME for a live show described as “manically riotous and joyous” by BBC 6 Music, which included opening sets for Viagra Boys, Shame, and Yard Act, as well as their own headlining sets.

Their debut single “King of the Slugs” was released by Domino Records to critical praise from the likes of Clash Magazine and countless others. Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the British quintet announced their debut US tour, which will see them play sets at SXSW, Trans-Pecos, Los Angeles, and San Francisco, as well as an April headlining set at the 1500-capacity Electric Brixton. Along with that they’re sharing the Joe Love and James Ford co-produced “All The Same,” a propulsive, club rocking, industrial-inspired banger built around glistening synth arpeggios, and orchestral sample-driven hit, industrial clang and clatter paired with skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap, enormous shout along worthy hooks and a plaintive vocal delivery.

The members of the rising British outfit says about the song “What if you could turn the clock back and make a change? Just a single, well-placed kick, that perhaps could change the whole course of your life. Perhaps the party never has to stop?”

Directed by Dylan Coates and staring Neil Bell, the accompanying visual for “All The Same” is a twisted and absurdist tale of regret, revenge, time travel and fatherhood that sees its protagonist traveling back to 1989.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: D1V4 Shares Minimalist “WINTERSPORT”

Featuring members split between Berlin and Yberg, D1V4 is a German New Wave duo — Luis (vocals) and Cosy Mo (production) — that officially formed not too long ago, and can trace its origins back to when the duo met while collaborating in film: Luis worked as a filmmaker and director and Cosy Mo as a sound designer. In an attempt to enhance their work, the duo experimented with their own beats, gradually developing a common musical language – which resulted in their debut single “WINTERSPORT.”

“WINTERSPORT” is a minimalist bit of synth pop built around skittering beats and twinkling synth arpeggios and chanted mantra-like vocals that sounds a bit like Kraftwerk and John Carpenter soundtracks with a mischievously anachronistic quality.

The accompanying video features slickly edited footage of what appears to be Olympic Ski Ballet shot during the 1984 Winter Olympics. Each of the competitors manages to move almost in time to the accompanying song’s beats.