Tag: indie synth pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Scavenger Hunt’s “Stranger Things” and 80s Pop Inspired Sounds and Visuals for “Never Enough”

If you’ve been frequenting this site, you may recall that I wrote about “River Runs Dry,” a single off the duo’s soon to be released Shapes and Outlines EP — and that particular single found the band managing to mesh anthemic and swooning 80s-inspired synth pop with a slick, contemporary production with Lamoureaux’s sultry pop-star belter vocals. The EP’s latest single “Never Enough” is a mid-tempo bit of anthemic synth pop that sounds as though it were inspired by the likes of contemporary acts like St. Lucia and others, thanks in part to the use of chiming percussion that emphasizes the song’s hook, sinuous bass line, some Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar. Of course, I think the single will help to further cement the duo’s burgeoning reputation for crafting slick, anthemic and radio friendly electro pop with an heartfelt and swooning earnestness.

The recently released music video draws influence from both the hit Netflix show Stranger Things and from MTV-era pop videos but with an equally slick production and visual value.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last month, I wrote about the mysterious  Montreal-based DJ and production duo The Beat Escape. And with “Seeing Is Forgetting,” an atmospheric and moody track which features a production consisting of shimmering synths, swirling electronics, shimmering guitar chords and ethereal vocals and harmonies paired with a tight motorik groove. And while evoking waking from a particularly vivid dream — the sort in which you can’t quite tell what was a dream or what was real; the song sonically owes a debt to 80s synth pop and contemporary dream pop. Following up on the attention that “Seeing Is Forgetting” received across the blogosphere, the Canadian DJ and production duo have returned with their latest single “Half-Empty Happiness” the duo further cements their burgeoning reputation for crafting melancholic and shimmering electro pop — that in this particular case sounds as though it were indebted to early Depeche Mode.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jacob Montague is a San Francisco, CA-based electronic music artist and producer, best known as a of member BRANCHES and as a solo artist, who has had his music appear in a number of popular TV shows including — America’s Got Talent, The X Factor, One Tree Hill and others, as well as the film trailers for The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, Afternoon Delight, and Love Is Strange. Adding to a growing profile, Montague has also been on bills with Mutemath, Joseph, Twin Forks, DEVO and others.

However, with his latest solo recording project Tsutro, Montague’s sound draws from a diverse array of influences including pop, worldbeat, future garage, ambient and downtempo. And with his debut as Tsutro, Montague’s sound reveals a new sonic approach in which the Bay Area-based producer and artist carefully chose a vocalist that would work with a particular aesthetic in mind, sampled a few phrases and then carefully built up a new arrangement around that sample; so while seeming like a remix and a rework of sorts, the material Montague has crafted manages to feel as though it’s a crafted original song in which a producer has collaborated with a vocalist. In fact, with his latest single as Tsutro “Back To You,” you hear shimmering aqueous-like synths paired with stuttering drum programming paired with Sunday Lane‘s plaintive and tender vocals reminiscing and mourning over an ex-lover in a radio-friendly, house-music-leaning electro pop song that reminds me quite a bit of Octo Octa‘s Between Two Selves as it evokes a lonely, late night ache and a falling into a bracingly cold bath.

 

 

 

 

 

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

 

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’ve certainly been very familiar with Toronto, ON-born, New York-based singer/songwriter and electro pop artist Joanie Wolkoff, who has long been a JOVM mainstay, thanks to her work in a number of attention-winning projects including Her Habits, her solo work as Wolkoff, collaborations with The Hood Internet and others, as well as Gemology, a project Wolkoff began with the then-New York-based multi-instrumentalist and producer Natasha Chitayat, who has since relocated to Los Angeles. Now, it’s been a while since we’ve last heard from the duo as a writing and recording unit, as the aforementioned Wolkoff and Chitayat have been busy with a variety of other creative pursuits; however, the duo recently reconvened to write and record their latest single “Come Again.”

As for “Come Again,” Wolkoff’s ethereal vocals float over a dramatic and slow-burning production consisting of shimmering  and twinkling synths, tweeter and woofer rocking boom-bap like beats, stuttering and skittering drum programming, warm blasts of guitar and a sinuous bass line.  Underneath the shimmering surface is a slowly swooning and euphoric giddiness over stumbling on to someone (whether as a friend or a lover) with whom you speak the same language, and with whom you find an instant and profound connection — and it comes about easily, frequently without explanation; it just is and always will be. But there’s also an underlying uncertainty that comes from the fact that relationships can be endlessly frustrating and short-lived; that sometimes there are moments in which you feel that maybe you’re not quite ready to give yourself — and you find that you’re freely and happily giving yourself. But no matter what, considering how frustrating and confusing relationships of any sort can be, lucky and are are those who find such a profound connection.

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous and Surreal Visuals and Sounds of Pavo Pavo’s “Ran Ran Run”

If you have been frequenting this site, you may have come across a couple of posts about the band when they released their “Ran Ran Run”/”Annie Hall” 7 inch, an effort that was also praised by the folks at Stereogum as “weightless pop music that sounds like it was beamed down from a glimmering utopian future,” while nodding at the psych pop sounds of the mid 60s; but just underneath the gleaming surface, there’s a bit of unease, anxiety and rot. In my mind, the song strikes me as a feverish yet whimsical dream of simmering synths and ethereal harmonies that skip about the song’s instrumentation like a pebble being tossed across a placid lake.

The band’s long-awaited full-length debut Young Narrator in the Breakers is slated for a November 11, 2016 through Bella Union Records and to celebrate the album’s upcoming release, the band released a gorgeous and artful music video for the album’s first single “Ran Ran Run.” Directed by artist collective SWIMMERS, the video features the bandmembers in a series of surreally staged scenarios that emphasize the song’s ethereal and surreal nature. As the band’s Eliza Bagg explains of the song and the video, “‘Ran Ran Run’ is a song about the joys and sorrows of growing up, the awareness of impermanence and change — ‘time is a hole in my waterbed!’ In the video we pass through some kind of portal into a completely manufactured reality — a space that is intense but also playful, full of stark contrasts and extremes (of color, texture, mood). We’re somewhere between children and adults, literally dressing up, playing, play-acting, trying on the guises of who we might be. Actually a theme throughout this record is that the whole prospect of becoming an adult involves a little bit of fantasy — reaching for a possible world or possible self, and aiming for magic, for something over the top, fantastical.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Playfully Retro-Futuristic, Videogame Inspired Visuals for Kishi Bashi’s “Say Yeah”

Interestingly, Ishibashi’s recently released, third album Sonderlust was produced by Grizzly Bear‘s Chris Taylor and co-engineered by Pat Dillet, who has worked with Angelique Kidjo and David Byrne, and drummer Matt Chamberlain, who has been a member of Morrissey‘s and Fiona Apple’s backing band and a member of Montreal, and the album finds Ishibashi expanding and playing with the sound that won him acclaim across the blogosphere — thanks largely in part to the fact that the album’s material didn’t come about immediately or through his usual creative process. “As I sat down to write songs last summer, I went to all my usual conduits of creation: violin loops, guitar, piano and I came up with the musical equivalent of fumes,” Ishibashi explained in press notes. “I tried to create orchestral pop recordings that I assume were my forte, and in turn, I found myself standing in front of a creative wall of frightening heights.” This period of creative uncertainly, along with significant changes in his personal life, led him experiment with a new musical direction. “I questioned everything about what it means to love and desire…the difference between loving someone and being in love,” Ishibashi says.

The album’s first single “Say Yeah” has Ishibashi pairing twinkling and shimmering synths, lush string and wind arrangements, propulsive drum programming, an incredibly infectious hook and the renowned violinist, vocalist and producer’s tender and aching falsetto in a swooning yet dance-floor friendly song that interestingly enough sounds as though it were indebted to disco and both electro pop — all while still possessing a swooning Romanticism. Lyrically, the song can be seen as a plaintive and urgent plea to a lover to try to make their relationship work, as a charmingly flirtatious come-on to an object of affection in which the narrator is trying to get his lover to finally just be with him — and in another way, as an admission of the sort of perceived (and sometimes real) wrongdoing and misunderstandings that can break up a relationship, and the continued desire to makeup and get it right, even if just for a little while.

The retro-futuristic and charmingly playful take video-game inspired video manages to capture the spirit and tone of the song as it follows a couple, who meets cute, fall desperately and madly in love, and through chance or fate, they’re separated with the male character going through a variety of obstacles to reunite with his love. Twice within the video a timer appears to remind the video’s central character of how much time is left for the song, and during two other points, the protagonist has instruments miraculously appear that he plays — as part of the game.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Griffith Synder (vocals), Charles Kern (guitar, programming) and multi-instrumentalist Julia Mendiolea, the Denver, CO-bassed indie electro pop/dream pop trio Inner Oceans formed back in 2013 over a mutual desire by each of the band’s three members to create music that’s personal while embodying a spiritual mystery and elegance that’s just out of touch. And with the release of their early singles “8 Cousins” and “Everything’s Alright,” the Denver-based trio received both national and international attention as both singles landed on several high-profile Spotify playlists, and have opened for the likes Tennis, Wild Nothing, Hundred Waters, Big Data, Moses Sumney, On an On, Holy Fuck and Shigeto among others. And of course, since the release of those singles, the trio have received quite a bit of attention from major media outlets and the blogosphere alike including Westword, who named the trio 2014’s “Best New Band,” Idolator and No Fear Of Pop and others.

Earlier this summer, the duo released two singles “Wild” and “Apparition,” which revealed that the trio has increasingly moved towards an aesthetic that’s difficult to pigeonhole or tie down. Interestingly, the trio’s latest single “Call Through The Wire” is a slow-burning bit of synth pop in which Snyder’s plaintive and tender falsetto floats over atmospheric and shimmering synths and a simple yet propulsive rhythm — and in some way, the song nods at Quiet Storm-era R&B and Tame Impala‘s psych-leaning pop.

The recently released music video employs a fairly simple concept –the trio’s frontman Synder singing the song in front of a psychedelic background and in some way, it nods at Michael Jackson‘s “Rock With You.”

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Earlier this year, I wrote about San Diego, CA-based indie electro pop/dream pop project Inspired and the Sleep. Comprised of signer/songwriter Max Greenhalgh, multi-instrumentalist Bryce Outcault and a revolving cast of musicians and collaborators, the Southern California-based duo received attention both locally and regionally with the 2014 release of Eyelid Kid, an album comprised dream pop-leaning material. Now, as you may know, with the release of “Sweet Company,” the duo turned towards a breezier and lighter sound with the duo returning to self-production, while combining electronic production techniques with live instrumentation; in fact, the duo revealed that they specialized in crafting buoyant hooks with  a wistful yet deeply appreciative feel.

 

The band’s latest single “Getting Through” is arguably their most upbeat and dance floor friendly song, and it sounds as though Greenhalgh, Outcault and company had been drawing from St. Lucia as they pay a buoyant and rousingly anthemic hook with layers of staccato synths, propulsive drum programming, bursts of live instrumentation featuring shimmering guitar, swirling electronics and a sinuous bass line paired with Greenhalgh’s sultriest vocal turn yet. And while seeming upbeat, the song manages to have a much deeper message as the duo informed me by email. As the band explains: “‘Getting Through’ is a tune that takes a third party view of the walls we put up against the people we hold the closest. It seems so obtuse to shut out the ones we, at one point, held so dearly. You can’t help, but ask yourself why.” As a result, the song possesses an underlying irony at its core.