Tag: indie pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Deriving her artist name from a Turkish term for the sun’s radiant touch on ocean waters just before sunrise, the emerging pop artist TANSU has a diverse and global cultural background with roots in Turkey and Ireland. She spent her formative years in London and Connecticut, had a stint in Boston for college, and has called NYC home for the past 13 years. 

During that period, TANSU has carefully balanced her life between music and fashion, which she defines as performing arts. While working in fashion PR, she lent her vocals to numerous projects as a session and featured vocalist, most recently releasing The Wash Up EP co-produced with Lars Viola. She also performs extensively around both lower and Manhattan, including a monthly residency at Lafolia Restaurant, every first Thursday.

Back in 2015, the emerging pop artist reconnected with American Authors‘ Dave Rublin, a college acquaintance. Since then, they’ve been writing and recording music together, last month’s “DOWNTOWN,” which was released through through Rublin’s Little Planet Records. 

Her latest single “Got 2 Me” is a simmering soul-pop ballad that pairs an atmospheric, modern pop production featuring glistening synths, skittering beats, bursts of twinkling keys, wobbling bass synths and bursts of funk guitar with TANSU’s show-stopping powerhouse vocal. The result is a song that serves as vehicle that showcases a superstar in the making.

“‘Got 2 Me’ is a very vulnerable song about trusting someone to love you the right way,” TANSU says.  “After falling in love the wrong way, it’s all the more difficult to fall in love again, correctly. This song is about that path.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Norway’s Beharie Shares Bouyant and Flirty “Desire”

Rising Norwegian singer/songwriter and pop artist Beharie has been busy over the past handful of years. Since 2019, he has released three EPs:

Each of those efforts have seen the rising Norwegian artist constantly expanding upon his sound, artistry and message, while refining his focus towards what’s to come.

Beharie’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the 12-song Are You There Boy? is slated for an October 20, 2023 release. The album reportedly meets the artist where he is right now and invites listeners into a carefully curated sonic world that features vibrant melodies and delicate, smooth vocals. Thematically, the album sees the rising Norwegian exploring theme so love, self-doubt, desire, longing and pain with his heart worn proudly on his sleeve — and with a remarkable sense of nuance. The album follows a multi-faceted, fully-fleshed out character, who seeks meaningful connections, follows his curiosity where it takes him and ultimately discovers himself. As a result, the album sees its creator and its main narrator exploring the ever-changing, versatile aspects of his own humanity and identity, showcasing his growth, insecurities, passions and complexities.

“This album has given me the opportunity to delve into various aspects of my own identity, and in the process, I have explored the complexity inherent in my personality and expression,” Beharie explains. “We have nurtured different characters and played with their distinct expressions. These characters have been assigned unique names: Washed-out jeans boy, float in space boy, constant fear boy, make believe boy, and lost in thought boy.” Fittingly, each of those characters represents fragments of Beharie’s soul, personality and essence — all in search of a sense of belonging.

The album also features collaborations with two rising singer/songwriters — Dublin‘s Uly and The Netherlands’ Judy Blank.

Are You There Boy?‘s latest single, the flirty and playful “Desire” is built around a buoyant melodic groove, skittering boom bap serving as an ethereal and silky bed for Beharie’s tender and yearning delivery. The song’s narrator sweetly wants to prove to a prospective love interest, that he’s the right one for them — and for the rest of their lives. Behave explains that “Desire” is a confident love song about “insisting on being the right one for someone you like and telling them without any doubt, and being willing to do anything to make it happen.” 

Ultimately, “Desire” to me reveals a songwriter, who is able to effortlessly craft a catchy pop tune rooted in earnest, heartfelt lyricism while eschewing cliches and formulas.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glassio and Beauty Queen Team Up on Dreamy and Bittersweet “A Friend Like You”

Sharjah, United Arab Emirates-born, New York-based Irish-Persian singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam R. spent the bulk of his formative years split between the third largest Emirati city and Monterey, CA. He fell in love with music listening to Pet Sounds and Graceland on his way to school in the mornings. “It was that  juxtaposition of hearing Brian Wilson’s harmonies in a very barren, desert/Arabian landscape that I think planted the seeds for my love for making music that mixes different influences and challenges associations you might have with certain instruments,” Sam explains.

Started over seven years ago, Sam R.’s solo recording project Glassio has seen him amass millions of streams across digital streaming platforms and a loyal fanbase globally as a result of a sound that has seen apply a melodic sweetness to brooding dance beats — and often bridges influences from Big Beat to Chamber Pop to New Wave.

His debut EP 2016’s Poptimism was released to critical acclaim and featured viral single “Try Much Harder,” which peaked at #9 on the Global Viral Charts on Spotify. A series of singles and 2018’s Experience EP saw the New York-based artist quickly establishing an approach that paired electronic music with insightful storytelling.

2020’s full-length debut For The Very Last Time amassed over 7 million streams through digital streaming platforms and was named one of the best electronic records of the year by Bandcamp. Last year’s See You Shine charted at #1 on multiple iTunes Charts globally and made ways in Europe — perhaps as a result of “Breakaway” being featured in Amazon Studio’s Don’t Make Me Go and Netflix’s Locke and Key.

The next year or so will see the acclaimed New York-based electro pop artist release a string of singles collaborating with a number of artists — and the first single “A Friend Like You,” features Los Angeles-based dream pop artist Beauty Queen.

Hawaiian-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Katie Iannitello is the creative mastermind behind rising dream pop project Beauty Queen. Iannitello crafts sun-bleached, washed out music that has been described as the perfect soundtrack to crying in the bathroom during a high school dance.

Her Henry Nowhere-produced EP Out of Touch was released to critical praise across the blogosphere for material that drew from her laid-back Hawaiian upbringing paired with 1950s and 1960s songwriting influences and her lilting croon.

Their collaboration together “A Friend Like You” is a dreamy lullaby built around twinkling keys, thumping toms, bursts of angular post-punk like guitars and an anthemic hook paired with Iannitello’s plaintive crooning and the duo’s soaring harmony for the song’s hook and chorus. But despite the song’s anthemic nature, the song is actually a bittersweet and heartbreaking farewell to the “friend that sends you down bad choice road” that recognizes that this is indeed, a farewell forever.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Miranda Joan Teams Up with CARRTOONS on Soulful and Flirty “Bada Bing!”

Miranda Joan is a rising, Montréal-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician, who spent her formative years in Vancouver, where she filled up diaries with emotions, thoughts and experiences that would eventually go on to form the basis of her songwriting.

The Canadian-born artist’s first experiences of music and performing came from high school drama and musical theater. Leaning into soul, R&B and jazz, she found a natural and fitting home for her voice. She began to shape her own sound rooted in intricate songwriting and playful production informed by her journals and diaries, as well as influences like Bill Withers, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Anderson .Paak, Little Dragon, and Robyn among a lengthy list of others.

Miranda Joan relocated to New York to study jazz. And upon her arrival, she opened her inquisitive sound and aesthetic to a host of artists and producers. And fittingly, the grittiness and intensity of the city filtered into her work and approach.

Eventually establishing herself in Brooklyn’s soul and jazz scenes, the Canadian-born artist is the co-host and co-founder of Brooklyn’s Femme Jam, the city’s first all-female led jam session, community initiative to create a womxn-led space with an emphasis on female musicians and artists that specifically fosters inclusivity. For the past eight years, she has been a music mentor with the non-profit SAY: The Stuttering Association for the Young, where she works with youth 8-18, who stutter.

As an artist and performer, she has provided backing vocals for The Killers, Shawn Mendes, Lorde, Kylie Minogue, Andy Grammer and Sly5thAve and the Orchestre National de Jazz de Montréal for a tribute to Dr. Dre. And through those experiences, she has been on national tours and played sold-out, headlining shows across the country, including her adopted hometown. Her full-length debut, 2021’s Windborne, the follow-up to 2019’s Still EP led to her selection as one of First Up with RBCxMusic Emerging Artists.

Both releases received radio airplay in Vancouver and Los Angeles — and that led to sync placement on Canadian TV show Strays. Adding to a growing profile, “Overstimulated,” and “I Love You, Dwayne” have received praise from NPR, Consequence, EARMILK, Exclaim! — and airplay from CBC and MountainFM in her native Canada, and Jazz FM’s Tony Minvielle in the UK.

Blossoming out of what was originally intended as a one-song collaboration, Miranda Joan has spent the past few years collaborating with acclaimed and rising New York-based musician and producer Ben Carr, a.k.a CARRTOONS on her forthcoming sophomore album Overstimulated. Simultaneously leaning into and letting go of the excessive and the overstimulating, the album sees the Brooklyn-based artist move towards a contemporary soul and jazz sound that meshes the electronic and organic. The album also features contributions from Sly5thAve, Jake Sherman, Ben WIlliams, Huntertones and Kristine Kruta. “It is an album book-ended by songs of affirmation, of rooting, of returning to and loving oneself, intertwined with the messy, chaotic and interconnected web of my hopes, dreams, imagination, love, and heartache”,  Miranda Joan says.

Overstimulated‘s latest single “Bada Bing!” is built around a lush, Quiet Storm-like soul pop production and arrangement featuring an elastic, two-step-inducing groove while Miranda Joan’s sultry and soulful delivery coquettishly dances within the song’s groove.

Directed by Gigi Nettles, the accompanying video for “Bada Bing!” fittingly is a loving and playful homage to The Sopranos and features some of the familiar sights from the show’s introductory sequences with the Montréal-born, Brooklyn-based artist playing the role of Tony Soprano.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ormiston Shares Breezy Pop Confection “Cherry Picker”

Nicola Ormiston is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Ormiston.

The Canadian producer’s latest single “Cherry Picker” sees crafting a breezy, hook driven pop confection built around a disco-inspired bass line, reverb-soaked Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, glistening and wobbling synth arpeggios and the Canadian artist’s plaintive and yearning delivery. “Cherry Picker” continues a remarkably run of breezy, effortlessly crafted pop that’s both lounge and club friendly.

Inspired by an old acquaintance that always left the Montréal-based artist starry-eyed, the song manages to evoke the swooning, starry-eyed sensation of being near a crush/love interest — and not quite knowing what to do or how to go about it.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Emerging Northern California-born, New York-based pop artist Sam The Woo grew up on a llama farm and initially had dreamt of becoming a dermatologist. But her knack for performing kept nagging and poking at her. She relocated to New York, where she attended Pace University’s Musical Theater program.

With a semester left until graduation, the Northern California-born, New York-based artist left the program to pursue a career in music. While she can trace her songwriting to writing poetry on second grade papers, learning production during the pandemic helped her step up her game. The result is genre-defying take on pop that features elements of jazz, funk, country, Motown-era soul and alt-pop.

Sam The Woo’s debut EP, Hungry Appetite is slated for an October release. The EP’s latest single “Rude Little Girl” displays an audacious and swaggering approach to songwriting with the song featuring nods to classical music and bossa nova and some remarkably catchy hooks paired with Sam The Woo’s sultry and self-assured delivery. Simply put, what you’re hearing is the bold emergence of a burgeoning pop star.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Telescoping Shares Glitchy Yet Accessible “Don’t Show”

Led by co-founders, multi-instrumentalist Lorenzo Tomaselli and Maria Eduarda Garcia (bass), indie outfit Telescoping was formed last year. And since their formation, the band has created music that’s accessible and innovative rooted in their commitment to push the boundaries of what’s possible in pop.

Their latest single “Don’t Show” marks a change in sonic direction for the band. Built around an ear-catching hooks and melodies paired with a propulsive groove and distorted guitars, the song sees the band adding electronic glitches and looping to add a modern and experimental edge to their sound — while being remarkably accessible.

As the band explains, the song thematically explores the idea of showing your true self to others, and how people are committed to never letting others see or know their true selves.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Edie Yvonne Tells Off Fuckbois and Dummies in “Random Boy”

14 year-old — yeah, 14! — Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Edie Yvonne wrote her full-length debut At Ease in her room during pandemic-related quarantines. The young artist has shared three singles off the album so far, “On Your Mind,” “In the Rain,” and the album’s latest single “Random Boy,” which were released earlier this year.

Built around a singer/songwriter pop arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar, boom bap-like drums and a mischievously jaunty hook, “Random Boy” simultaneously reveals a young artist with a self-assuredness beyond her relative youth while being a tell off/reminder to not deal with fuckbois, bullies and other assorted dummies with the awareness that they’d be terrible for her.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Romy Valalik Shares Haunting and Eerie “Comme un reve”

French indie artist Romy Valalik is a self-taught singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, who started her career as a bassist. She quickly turned to electronic instruments, so that she could fully express her musical ideas — and have a symphony orchestra at her fingertips.

The French artist quickly established an attention grabbing sound that featured gorgeous symphonic-inspired arrangements paired with a Björk-like vocal. After singing to Universal Music France, Valalik released her debut EP, 2021’s 1 and last year’s “I Am Your Treasure,” she chose to follow her own path and become an independent artist with complete artistic freedom.

Her latest single “Comme un reve” is built around an eerie arrangement of twinkling keys, bursts of soaring strings and trumpet serving as an atmospheric bed for the French artist’s hauntingly expressive vocal. It’s a remarkably cinematic song that while somewhat indebted to Björk sounds as though it should be part of the soundtrack of a bildungsroman featuring a character discovering herself.

The accompanying video, which was directed by the French artist, features the artist in tight closeups, appearing like a siren in the deep. Behind her tendrils of light move with her. It’s a fittingly eerie and dreamy visual.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Guatemala’s Wino Gándara Shares Anthemic “The Journey”

Influenced by Tony Iomni, Kirk Hammett, Brett Garsed, and Joe Satriani, Guatemalan-born and-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Wino Gándara has been performing, recording and writing music professionally since 2008. He has shared stages with a number of acclaimed musicians and guitarists including Pablo Solar, WarCry‘s José Rubio, Rata Blanca‘s Gabriel Marián and Mario Ian, Alessandro Bertoni, Manuel Trabucco, Giuseppe Zanca, Atheris Energy, Lukky Sparxx, Walter Monsanto, Hedras Ramos and a lengthy list of others, while impressing both musicians and fans with his energy, creativity and talent.

Gándara will step out into the spotlight as a solo artist with the release of his full-length debut, Love Journey. Produced and recorded with several different artists and musicians, the album sonically ranges from prog rock, classic rock, fusion and even smooth jazz among others. The album will feature “The Journey,” a song that sounds like it would fit on the soundtrack of St. Elmo’s Fire, The Breakfast Club, Lethal Weapon, and other 80s fare, complete with bombastic guitar, keytar and saxophone solos.

Thematically, “The Journey” as the Guatemalan artist explains is informed by our daily struggle to achieve our dreams despite failure, fears and countless other obstacles. “It’s a reminder that no matter how hard our journey could seem, what we have learned and where we’ve gotten so far has made us who we are, stronger and wiser,” he says.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TANSU Shares Sultry “DOWNTOWN”

Deriving her artist name from a Turkish term for the sun’s radiant touch on ocean waters just before sunrise, the emerging pop artist TANSU has a diverse and global cultural background with roots in Turkey and Ireland. She spent her formative years in London and Connecticut, had a stint in Boston for college, and has called NYC home for the past 13 years.

During that period, TANSU has carefully balanced her life between music and fashion, which she defines as performing arts. While working in fashion PR, she lent her vocals to numerous projects as a session and featured vocalist, most recently releasing “The Wash Up,” co-produced with Lars Viola. She also performs extensively around both lower and Manhattan, including a monthly residency at Lafolia Restaurant, every first Thursday.

Back in 2015, the emerging pop artist reconnected with American Authors‘ Dave Rublin, a college acquaintance. Since then, they’ve been writing and recording music together, including her latest single “DOWNTOWN,” which has been released through Rublin’s Little Planet Records.

Featuring skittering, trap-like beats and glistening synths serving as a silky bed for the emerging New York-based artist’s self-assured and sultry delivery. Seemingly indebted to the likes of The Weeknd, SZA, Beyoncé and others, the anthemic and hook-driven “DOWNTOWN” marks a new sonic direction for the emerging artist, while being informed by the bitter hurt of lived-in personal experience, so the song sees its narrator expressing confusion, hurt, pride and then forgiveness within a turn of a phrase.

“I wrote this song on the heels of ‘The First Big Fight’ with, who was then, my new boyfriend,” TANSU explains. ” It was weird, because I was treating the fight with one-night-nonchalance; kind of a, ‘don’t worry baby, I never liked you that much anyway’ type of feeling. Because that’s how you were SUPPOSED to feel when dating in the late 2010’s. ‘Grabbing my scars/ and then deciding just to walk out’ is a very intimate line. It questions how we can be intimate with someone, touch each others’ bodies, our scars, our souls, and then pretend that we can just move on. It’s hard to justify an intimate fling with your soul. ‘DOWNTOWN’ speaks to the juxtaposition of that mind fuck,” TANSU shares. She continues, “fresh from the fight, I needed some glorifying attention from someone else. So I went to the studio to go write something. Luckily my producer was also going through a situational something, so we came up with a sexy song while both sexually frustrated. We ended up going out to Three Diamond Door in Bushwick that night after that session.  The bridge is an interpretation of what happened after Three Diamond Door. We were buzzed, music made us dance, I got the attention I thought I wanted… but as soon as I stepped outside, I knew who I was calling.”   

The couple eventually recovered from that argument, and they got married this past weekend.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Loréne Shares Ethereal Pop Confection

19-year-old, emerging, French-born pop artist Loréne can has dreamt of being a singer since she was a girl. She wrote her first songs in her room, by herself — initially without daring to finish them.

A few years pass by and she starts timidly singing in local bars and restaurants. Those experiences open the doors to cabaret and the orchestra. Last year, the French artist decided to throw herself fully into music. She notes that like countless other young artists, she had to face the doubts and fears that prevented her from attempting to pursue her dreams.

Her debut single, the Whosinnocent co-written and produced “Across the Universe” is an anthemic, pop confection featuring twinkling and atmospheric synths serving as a lush yet ethereal bed for the emerging French artist’s remarkably self-assured delivery. While sonically reminding me of Haerts and others, lyrically and thematically, “Across the Universe” finds it narrator trusting a larger power — the universe itself. And as a result, it’s simultaneously hopeful and an acceptance of our smallness.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Restlessly prolific Norwegian instrumental tropical funk/pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Orions Belte —Øyind Blomstrøm (guitar), Chris Holm (bass) and Kim Åge Furuhaug (drums) — will be releasing their third full-length album Women on October 6, 2023 through their longtime label home Jansen Records.

Much like their previously released work, all the songwriting and production is done by the band members themselves, but with Women they’ve consciously put a lot of effort into making everything bigger and more powerful than before. String arrangements flow easily throughout the album’s material and is meant to describe a sensation that they describe as feeling “like releasing a million balloons at once while lying looking at the night sky, and dreaming of road trips on bumpy country roads through the Amazon in Brazil.” 

Women will feature:

  • “Silhouettes,” a track rooted in the trio’s penchant for trippy and irresistibly funky grooves, but while also arguably being the darkest song of their growing catalog. The song bounces back and forth between ethereal verses and crunchy, earthy guitar riffage paired with soaring hooks, a supple bass line and a cacophonous string arrangement by Norwegian violinist and composer Ola Kvernberg. “Silhouettes” reveals a mischievous and adventurous group of musicians boldly pushing their sound and approach in new directions while still being rooted in their penchant for trippy grooves.
  • “Jai Alai,” a track built around a percussive and driving drum pattern, glistening and twinkling 80s-like synths, a Steely Dan-like guitar solo paired with a dreamy Tropicalia-like coda with acoustic guitar sand shimmering mandolin paired with a bemusedly delivered lyric, “Jai Alai” is mischievously anachronistic song that sounds as though it could have been released in 1974 or maybe 1984 but while dripping in self-deprecating irony. “‘Spent some time alone with you, a friend of mine told me to’ – everybody has gotten bad advice like this at some point,” the members of the Norwegian JOVM mainstay outfit say of the new single. “And sometimes things can go a lot faster than you thought, like Jai Alai – the world’s fastest sport. This track has a summery feel to it, percussive patterns, an in-your-face guitar solo and a dreamy ending with acoustic guitars and mandolins.”

Women‘s latest single “When You’re Gone, I’ll Be Gone” is a slow-burning, Quiet Storm-like jam built around a two step-inducing groove and shimmering guitar serving as a silky bed for Live Miranda Solberg, a.k.a. Louien’s delicate delivery. The song is a bittersweet, nostalgia-inducing song that’s part lament over the breakup of a relationship and part begrudging acceptance.

Solberg is a rising star in the Norwegian indie/folk scene, who received Norwegian Grammy nod last year, and is a current member of Silver Lining.

The band will be embarking on another Stateside tour this fall that includes an October 16, 2023 stop at Baltimore’s Metro Gallery and an October 17, 2023 stop at Johnny Brenda‘s in Philly. Sadly, there isn’t a NYC date, but Johnny Brenda’s is one of my favorite venues in Philly. And you can load up on cheesesteaks while you’re there! Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Orions Belte Tour Dates:
10/4 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst*
10/5 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theatre*
10/6 – Ventura, CA @ Ventura Music Hall*
10/7 – Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse*
10/8 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom*
10/11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Vencie West
10/12 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone
10/13 – Portland, OR @ Jack London Revue
10/14 – Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown (Bellingham Exit)
10/15 – Chicago, IL @ Empty Bottle
10/16 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
10/17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Jonny Brenda’s
10/18 – Boston, MA @ Deep Cuts
* w/ Psychedelic Porn Crumpets
 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: DC’s Alena Ciera Shares Lush and Anthemic “Change Your Mind”

Alena Ciera is a Maryland-born, Washington, DC-based singer/songwriter and musician. Throughout her career, she played at The St. James Theatre, Jamming Java, Snally Gaster Festival, Nationals Park, EagleBank Arena, Audi Field, Pearl Street Warehouse, and a growing list of other venues across both the DC region and nationally. She performed in David Byrne’s American Utopia, and she has collaborated with Yolanda Adams, CeeLo Green, Bela Dona, and a growing list of others.

The Maryland-born, DC-based artist’s work frequently draws from her own life experience while her extensive musical background allows her work to draw from rock, pop and R&B among others.

Released earlier this year, Alena Ciera’s latest EP All In My Head attempts to take listeners on “an immersive experience through a fusion of ethereal electronic sounds, soulful melodies and introspective lyrics,” she says. The EP’s latest single “Change Your Mind” is a crafted, radio friendly, pop confection built around a crafted and lush arrangement of pop funk guitar, atmospheric electronics, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses serving as a silky 80s-influenced bed for the Maryland-born, DC-based artist’s yearning delivery and lived-in lyrics.

“Change Your Mind” reveals a remarkably self-assured songwriter, musician and artist, whose work wouldn’t be out of place on Top 40 radio right now.