Tag: indie synth pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ninety’s Story Shares Sultry “Bad” feat. Ferdi and Béssau

With the release of their debut EP, 2017’s Kikuyu, which featured EP title track and debut single “Kikuyu” Nice-based indie act Ninety’s Story — childhood friends Guillaume Adamo and Florian Deyz — quickly established a sound and approach that’s fittingly inspired by Phoenix, Daft Punk and Air, and fittingly the French Riviera.

The duo, along with their backing band have opened for Archive, Morcheeba, Pale Waves and Puggy and a list of others. Adding to a growing profile, the duo wrote the music for a Citroën C4 Aircross ad campaign that aired in China —  with the band representing the company at the Paris and Hangzhou Motor Shows. 

Since then, the Nice-based JOVM mainstays have been busy releasing a handful of singles over the past couple of years, including:

  • The breezy and anthemic “APO”

  • The sultry, R&B-inflluenced “Home.” 

And a a Groover Obsessions‘ Les Capsules sessions at La Marbrerie that featured two songs:

  • “Heaven,” a slow-burning and brooding song that reminds me a bit of JOVM mainstays Ten Fe and Palace Winter: a deliberately crafted, anthemic song centered around expressive and bluesy guitars, shimmering synths, plaintive vocals and lived-in lyrics. 

  • “Ride,” a strutting bit of pop rock that — to my ears, at least — brings a slick synthesis of Steely Dan and Radiohead to mind. 

The French JOVM mainstays begin their 2023 with their latest single “Bad,” feat. Ferdi and Béesau which sees the band embracing a slickly produced synth pop-driven sound that seems equally inspired by The Weeknd, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy-era Kanye West, and 80s sophistipop — thanks in part to a soulful horn solo. Thematically, the song touches upon regret, longing and taking a desperate and much-needed leap of faith to keep a relationship on the verge going.

The song will appear on the duo’s forthcoming album, Tears and Laughter, which is slated for a Spring release.

Directed By Victor Rahman, the cinematically song visual for “Bad” starts with a woman walking around the shore before seeing her expressive dance along a windswept shore. The rest of the video is told through a series of flashbacks from a drunken night of revelry — and of regret.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Polar Mind Shares 80s Synth Pop-Inspired “Am I The One”

Polar Mind is a mysterious and enigmatic Swiss-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who can trace the origins of his musical project back to three years ago: The Swiss-born and-based artist was a scientist, who was part of a scientific expedition to Antarctica. Assigned to the Palaoa Research Station, where sounds from the sea are recorded and tracked, the mysterious Swiss artist lived as a hermit.

During his time at Palaoa Research Station, the Swiss artist listened to whales breathing and marveled when ice floes collide — around the clock. He became a local celebrity among the 4,000 scientists stationed in Antarctica when he made a surprising scientific discovery: He detected a pulsating bubble about a kilometer below the surface that emitted an unusual signal. An initial sample of the bubble reveals that it consists of ammonia, methane and hydrogen — all components that played an important role in Earth’s early days. In the gas mixture, small lightning bolts seem to be discharging, which allows the bubble wall to emit signal waves that appear to communicate with a yet to identifiable force.

According to the Swiss artist, teams of experts from different parts of the world are trying to recover the strange discovery because they suspect he stumbled upon something major. Others believe that his discovery is suspicious.

He becomes the pawn of various different interests and returns home to Switzerland, where he focuses on music full-time. “Am I The One,” Polar Mind’s remarkably cinematic debut single features glistening synth arpeggios, gated reverb drums and a sinuous paired with plaintive vocals and enormous hooks. While sounding indebted to 80s synth pop and New Wave the song is rooted in slick modern production, deliberate craftsmanship and earnest performance.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Stockholm’s Me & Melancholy Shares a Brooding Banger

Peter Ehrling is a Stockholm-based electronic music producer, musician and creative mastermind behind the solo electro pop recording project Me & Melancholy. Inspired by Depeche Mode, New Order, Camouflage, and Swedish synth acts like The Mobile Homes and Elegant Machinery, Me & Melancholy focuses on melancholy synth pop that blends retro and contemporary sounds to create a nostalgically upbeat yet introspective vibe.

Since starting the project last year, Ehrling has been rather prolific: he has released three singles, an EP and his full-length debut, You and me, Melancholy.

“I let you down (Dark Version)” is a brooding bit of goth-meets-industrial synth pop centered around tweeter and woofer rattling thump, glistening synths and guitar paired with Ehrling’s plaintive delivery and enormous hooks. Sonically, the song brings Violator-era Depeche Mode while rooted in self-flagellation, disgust, despair and heartache.

Ehrling explains that “I let you down (Dark Version)” is a complete and thorough remake of the the original, which appears on You and me, Melancholy.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Mysterious, Danish electronic music artist Ani Even is a self-described “electro cave/rave/chantcore artist.” Late late year, Even shared “The Nearest Star,” a slow-burning yet euphoric ode to the Winter Solstice, centered around sampled layers of Benedictine monk-like chants, indigenous-like throat singing, Even’s plaintive vocals, thumping club friendly beats and glistening synths. The end result is a mind-bending mix of rave music, drum ‘n’ bass, shoegaze and spiritual music — that sounds as though it should be played at Stonehenge. 

Even’s latest single “Dogstar” derives its title from Sirius, a star in the constellation Canis Major, seen in the Southern Celestial Hemisphere. Sirius, also known as the Dog Star is the brightest star in the night sky. For those in Egypt, the rising of Sirius roughly correlates to the cyclical flooding of the Nile River, while the ancient Greeks, it marked “the dog days of summer,” the hottest part of the summer. For the Polynesians, who were mostly located in the Southern hemisphere, the rising of Sirius marked the beginning of winter — and the star was used as a guiding reference while navigating the Pacific Ocean.

Centered around layers of glistening synth arpeggios, a relentless motorik groove, skittering beats paired with heavily vocodered and distorted vocals and euphoric hooks, “Dogstar” manages to sound as though it pulls from elements of Giorgio Moroder-era disco, Kraftwerk-era techno, and Little Boots-era electro pop and meshes them into a seamless, crowd-pleasing fashion.

The Danish artist describes the song as “a journey from the melancholic to the joyous. The Sirius star (Canis Major) is sometimes reffered [sic] to as the Dogstar [sic]. A guiding light on the night’s sky, which helps you navigate through the darkness towards a brighter horizon. Follow your heart and you will find your destination.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Liela Moss Shares Incisive and Propulsive “Come and Find Me”

Over the course of her 20 year music career, British singer/songwriter and musician Liela Moss has been very busy: She’s a co-founder of The Duke Spirit, whose output has ranged from brawling alt-rock and cinematic ventures. Moss with her The Duke Spirit bandmate Toby Butler are members of synth-rock project Roman Remains. And she has collaborated with the likes of UNKLE, Nick Cave, Giorgio Moroder, The Heritage Orchestra, and Lost Horizons among a list of others. Moss has also served as a muse for iconic designers Alexander McQueen and Philip Lim.

With the release of 2018’s My Name Is Safe In Your Mouth, Moss stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist. 2020’s Who the Power was a dramatic, synth-driven effort. Moss’ third album Internal Working Model is slated for a January 13, 2023 release through Bella Union. Internal Working Model reportedly bristles with frustration at our disconnected culture but also — crucial — burns with a desire to reconnect: “I’m trying to find a way to plug myself into a new community,” says Liela Moss of her third solo album. “I am imagining a tribe, navigating away from our very centralized culture, dismantling it and revising the way I think things work.” “We see the beneficiaries of the status quo suppress realness and wellbeing by selling you a banal alternative that upholds their agenda. I want to add to the firepower to burn that old house down,” Moss explains.

Internal Working Model’s creation evolved organically between Moss and partner/collaborator Toby Butler, who divided their time between work and parenting to make the album. Moss compares the process to a “slow game of cards,” the duo revealing their hands in a playful spirit. The “third brain in the room,” says Moss, was the modular synth: “You tweak it and it changes the energy. There’s nothing new in that technology, but in terms of the way we’ve worked for years, working with an anonymous synth brain was a new kind of freedom.” 

Thematically, the album is in part an album about selfhood and certainties made unsettled in today’s dystopian theater, somewhat by the pandemic but also as Moss says by the “self-seeking, self-protecting culture” of global economics, where we have forgotten that “competition is just a construct, co-operation is actually the natural way of being . . . Lyrically, I’m laughing and yelling at surveillance capitalism, I’m throwing down sentences that reach out to simply feel good on good terrain, to feel safe on planet earth. There is turbulence, but an understanding that the urge to restructure is growing; human goodness cannot truly be suppressed.” The album is also rooted in Moss’ interest in attachment theory, the idea that the ways we are cared for (or not) in childhood, forge the neurological pathways that build esteem, that shape us — and perhaps the entire world. . “I started to think about the nefarious characters in globalist culture who have such a hold on what’s going on in terms of big pharma, big tech and big political everything. I was thinking, my God, these manipulative people started life needing to be attended to properly and probably were not! All this desperate greed and corruption winds back to maladapted individuals! Then I began seeing them as tiny, neglected humans with an unhealthy attachment cycle.” 

Sonically, the material features Moss’ expressive voice leading the way over fractious synth backgrounds to create something that’s tense yet tender, timeless yet timely; determined to plug into positivity wherever — and whenever — it can be found. “It’s like a carnival of good will,” says Moss, “we see the pretense, the masquerade. Then the realness, the love. That’s why the word ‘empathy’ comes up so much and rolls around amongst the most menacing synths. It cannot be kept down, no matter the weight.” 

In comparison to its immediate predecessor, Moss says that she . . “wanted a more vigorous pulse, I wanted more movement. I wanted to feel friction and for things to feel emotionally disruptive this time around.”

Centered around Moss’ plaintive and yearning delivery paired with glistening synths arpeggios, skittering beats and a relentless motorik-like groove, Internal Working Model‘s latest single “Come And Find Me” is simultaneously sultry, forceful and menacing in a way that brings Peter Gabriel‘s Security to my mind. But the song is rooted in Moss’ incisive sociopolitical commentary and thinking. “The idea running throughout this track is that co-operation is natural, and competition is a construct,” Moss explains. “I’m trying to be the bigger man, always seeing . . .Using empathy as the guide, we could neutralize the bad guys. My favorite lines are these: ‘This should be embodied dream space, should be free space, should be fair. That’s all’. I mean, that is all, right?! It’s such a rhythmic track, and the synth arpeggios layer up in a way that adds electricity and force to the ideas in the song; resistance against obstacles to fairness.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Brontë Horder is a rising Aussie-born and-based singer/songwriter, composer and producer, who has written and produced both scores and bespoke songs for TV, films and documentary projects. Her song “Day By Day,” which appeared in the short film Fourteen received a Best Original Song Composed For The Screen nomination at 2019’s APRA-AGSC Screen Music Awardss. Holder also wrote and produced “Everybody Wants To Be Me,” which appeared in Chloe Morello’s YouTube series Not So Famous.

The rising Aussie singer/songwriter, composer and producer has also made a name for herself as a session vocalist, contributing vocals to a variety of projects and ad campaigns, including Survivor Australia, Celebrity Name Game and the ABC. After winning Sony Music Australia‘s songwriting competition Breaking Ground back in 2013, Holder stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist.

Her video for “The Eleventh Hour” premiered on MTV Australia. “Switch It Off” received nods at the Indie Music Channel Awards for Best Pop Song, Best Pop Recording and Best Female Pop Artist.

Cali Satellites specialize in effortless yet deliberately crafted songwriting that’s sometimes beautiful, sometimes dark and always engaging. Their debut single “In the Sunshine” is a silky bit of electro pop/house with nods to funk and indie rock that features sultry vocals from Los Angeles-based artist TIAAN.

Leo Gaurdo is an Italian-born, Melbourne-based DJ, producer and sound engineer, who started DJ’ing at a very young age. Back in 2001, he gained popularity within Italy’s house music scene after playing at Chalet delle Rose. In 2008, Guardo relocated to Australia with the intention of perfecting his skills in sound engineering. With over a decade in the audio industry, Guardo has worked on a number of projects across music, television. But recently, the Italian-born, Aussie-based DJ, producer and sound engineer has been focused on his own production work, releasing crowd pleasing material that meshes elements of tech, deep and house grooves with Balearic and tribal house through several renowned electronic music labels, including Orianna Music, MoBlack Records, King Street Sounds, Wired, Tribe Records and Merecumbe Recordings among others.

The trio collaborated together on the four-song EP Only The Good Ones, which was released earlier this year. Thematically, the EP focuses on the power of words — especially on our mindset. The EP’s first single, EP title track “Only The Good Ones” is a slickly produced pop confection centered around glistening, reverb-drenched guitar, shimmering synth arpeggios, skittering beats and a soaring hook paired with Horder’s ethereal vocals. Sonically, “Only The Good Ones” manages to be simultaneously radio friendly and as though it could played at clubs in Ibiza.

“Only The Good Ones” can trace its origins back to a jam session between Holder and members of Cali Satellites. “At the time we were listening to stories of people who had distorted perceptions of themselves. As Brontë was searching for a melody, out came the lyrics, being at war with ourselves and wanting to reframe the way we think and speak about our minds and our bodies. Everyone’s inner dialogue would be so much kinder if we treated ourselves the way we treat our friends. When our friends talk about their insecurities, we always say beautiful words to them, encouraging them to practice love and forgiveness like ‘don’t be so hard on yourself ’ & ‘you’re doing an amazing job,'” they explain. “We sent it to Leo, who felt inspired and imbued his electronic magic.” Ultimately, the song is a gentle, cautionary tale, that reminds the listener to choose their words carefully.

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Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MARBLES Shares Breezy and Bittersweet “One of a Kind”

Kolbotn, Norway-based dream pop outfit MARBLES — Ferdinand Widmer (vocals, bass), Marius Ringen (drums), Adrian Sandberg (synths) and Marcus Widmer (guitar) — features members, who come from a variety of musical backgrounds with many of the band’s members also playing in the black metal bands that the city is best known for internationally. 

When the band started, its members were initially unsure exactly what sound and genre this new music would be, but they quickly discovered a shred interest in dream pop, indie and disco styles, and they were able to capture a unique vibe together in their jam sessions. That unique vibe was immediately present on their debut single “European Dream.” And from there, the Norwegian outfit quickly honed and built upon the blueprint that song set out for their overall sound.

The Norwegian pop outfit’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Humour is slated for a February 10, 2012 through Playground Music. The album will feature three singles released over the course of this year, including “World Inside Me,” a deliberately crafted mid-tempo and breezy Washed Out and Brothertiger-like bop that’s underpinned by a deep-seated — and perhaps hard won — introspection.

“‘World Inside Me’was written in our most isolated period through the pandemic. It tries to describe a feeling of loneliness that is mostly conjured by our own mind. Even though there are options and offers from the outside world, sometimes you just feel better in your own sphere,” the Norwegian dream pop outfit explains. “Living in your own little world (or bubble) can feel both pleasant and safe, but also quickly turn into a lonesome and desperate state of mind.” 

Album single “One of Kind” is a subdued, introspective and woozy bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering four-on-the-floor paired with Widmer’s ethereal vocals and the band’s unerring knack for well-crafted, catchy hooks. But the song is rooted in bittersweet, lived-in experience: MARBLES’ Ferdinand Widmer explains that “One of a Kind” is all about the experience of realizing that a relationship in your life — whether it be a friend, family member or romantic partner — and coming to terms with the fact that you are moving in different directions.

“Our message with ‘One of a Kind’ is that – sometimes it’s ok to lose contact with someone close in your life. Maybe you evolve differently or go down different paths. You come to the point in a relationship where both parts have moved on, and you´re still trying to accept it for a good thing. Doing your best to cherish their accomplishments in life. You’ll never find someone similar, and that’s just life. You still want the best for them. And you understand that ‘forever regretfulness’ can be a curse.”

The accompanying video for “One of a Kind” features the band’s Ferdinand Widmer and a green screen backdrop. Leaning hard into the goofiness and obvious fakery of its setup, Widmer is inserted into the screensaver type of backdrops like the photo booth karaoke machines you’d see at your local mall.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jacque Ryal is a New York-based singer/songwriter, keyboardist and pop artist, who first emerged onto the local scene as a member of pop outfit Strip Darling. She then stepped out into the limelight as a solo artist, who crafted Portishead-inspired trip-hop. 

RYAL, the New York-based artist’s latest project with producer and songwriter Aaron Nevezie has recieved attention from The Best Line of Best Fit, Time Out New York, LadyGunn, Popdust, this site and elsewhere  for releasing material that’s been compared to Little Dragon and the aforementioned Portishead.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Best Friend,” a slickly produced bop built around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering beats, shimmering bursts of guitar and Ryal’s plaintive delivery paired with random puppy noises and the duo’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks. Initially written as a lullaby dedicated to Ryal’s beloved dog and best friend, who died, “Best Friend” gradually morphed into a dreamy yet anthemic bop. But just underneath the big choruses and catchy hooks, the song captures the unique and profound relationship one has with their animal companions.

RYAL’s latest single “What I Mean To You” is inspired by the full band set up of their previous releases, and sees the duo collaborating yet again with Marcy Playground’s and Norah Jones’ Dan Rieser (drums) and Grammy Award-winner John Davis (bass). Centered around a punchy and propulsive rhythm section, twinkling keys and Ryal’s plaintive and yearning delivery, “What I Mean To You” is a swooning and hook-driven bop that seemingly comes from lived-in, personal experience.

“What I Mean To You” thematically finds its narrator grappling with a relationship on the brink. Throughout the song, the narrator tries to save their relationship through affirmations of safety, love and fidelity — and the determination to make the effort and do the work to maintain it. It’s a much needed burst of light, yet earnest sweetness in an all too often harsh world.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Riches — Young Galaxy‘s Catherine McCandless and choreographer Wynn Holmes — is a multidisciplinary, intercontinental collaboration and ongoing dialogue between its two collaborators that combines music, dance and performance. Songs are the first iteration of the project, and they take a narrative approach to themes concerning the performance of creative rituals, identity, transgression and devotion.

The duo’s latest single, the slow-burning and woozy “Shadow of You” pairs syrupy, reverb-drenched beats and guitar and glistening synths with McCandless’ delicate upper register, which expresses aching, soul-deep longing.

The duo explain that the song “celebrates the entity and demon of Creation, serenading just how gorgeous, intoxicating, and potentially self destructive the compulsion of making art can be.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Psykasya Shares Woozy and Darkly Seductive “Fleetingly”

25 year-old, French singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Adriane is the creative mastermind behind the emerging dark wave recording project Psykasya. Adriane can trace much of the origins of her career to getting vocal and Celtic harp lessons at a very young age. But after discovering MAO last year, the French singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist was inspired to write her own material.

Sonically, her work is informed by several different styles and genres — but she cites Aurora, aleah, Myléne Farmer, and Fishbach as major influences. Centered around a dark, mysterious atmosphere, the young and emerging French artist’s work thematically focuses on the night, witches, death and the like.

The French singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist’s latest single, the retro-futuristic “Fleetingly” is a brooding and darkly seductive track centered around skittering beats and woozy atmospheric synths paired with Adriane’s sultry delivery. The end result is a song that seamlessly meshes elements of trip hop, dark wave and goth.

Fittingly shot at night and in a cinematic black and white and through VHS tape, the accompanying video follows a walk through a suburban office park, to the city and a night out at local pub for pints and then to a crowded, sweaty club and a house party.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Axis Neptune Shares a Slinky Meditation on Life

Josh Cotterill is a Scarborough, UK-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, sound designer and producer, who can trace the origins of his music career to when a seven year-old Cotterill, obsessed with Jimi Hendrix and John Frusciante, learned guitar.

After graduating from college with a degree in history and Chinese, Cotterill began focusing on producing his own music with several projects — in particular, his rising, soul, jazz, synth pop and indie rock-influenced solo recording project Axis Neptune, which he started in 2020.

Cotterill’s Axis Neptune full-length debut, last year’s Reasons featured “Cherry Red,” which was chosen as BBC Introducing‘s pick of The Week by BBC Radio York and North Yorkshire‘s Jericho Keys. The Scarborough, UK-based artist was invited to perform for a BBC Introducing live session that was filmed on the Chinese island of Hainan, because Cotterill was stuck in China as a result of the country’s strict COVID-19 restrictions. (This also marked the first ever BBC Introducing session ever filmed in China.)

Adding to a growing profile, the rising British artist and producer played live sessions for CGTN, China Radio International, Nugget Record’s Online Music Festival, and sets at Sofar Sounds and Beijing’s Dusk till Dawn Club.

Cotterill’s latest Axis Neptune single, “Solar” is a slinky, hook-driven bop centered around glistening synths, bubbling bursts of funk guitar, skittering beats and the rising British artist’s falsetto delivery that manages to bring Currents-era Tame Impala to mind. But under the sleek, Quiet Storm-meets -disco funk facade is a brooding meditation on life’s fleeting nature.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Carrellee Shares Dark and Sultry “Morning Sun”

Sarah Pray is Madison, WI-based singer/songwriter and musician, who can trace much of the origins of her music career to growing up in a musical household: Pray’s father taught her piano and by the time she turned five, she was learning jazz chords and music theory.

As a teenager, Pray interned at recording studios in Madison and Minneapolis — and then she started writing her own original music. Pray started her career as as solo artist, releasing her first few releases under her name. She then made a name for herself as one-half of folk duo Kivi & Pray with her ex-husband Thomas Kivi, an act that toured across much of Europe and the States.

During both the pandemic and divorce, Pray wanted to experiment — and return to her roots. “I am a big fan of female artists like Bjork, Angel Olsen, Fiona Apple, and PJ Harvey, who constantly evolve. I feel more in touch with myself more than ever since the divorce.” Pray’s latest project Carrellee sees the Wisconsin-born singer/songwriter and musician working with Brett Bullion to fine tune her songs, giving them a sleek, modern air.

Pray’s Carrellee debut, Scale of Dreams is slated for a November 18, 2022 release through Negative Gain Productions. Thematically, the album is heavily informed by Pray’s divorce with the album evoking the heartache, longing, frustration, regret and bitterness of a major relationship’s end. Sonically, the material draws from Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush and a wide variety of Italo disco and synthwave with each instrument being processed through crumped and fried analog tape.

Scale of Dreams‘ first single “Morning Sun” is a dark and seductive synthesis of Giorgio Moroder-like Italo disco, industrial electronic and pop featuring thumping and skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios paired with razor sharp hooks and Pray’s sultry delivery expressing aching longing — and the song’s narrator’s realization that their relationship has irrevocably changed.

“Morning Sun” came to Pray during a dream she had as she was getting divorced. The next morning, she quickly transcribed it from her home studio, and shared the demo video on Facebook, where it has amassed over 370,000 views.

The accompanying video features Pray wearing different wigs in superimposed or directly in neon light and explosive bursts of light in a variety of sexually-charged scenarios.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Brothertiger Shares Breezy and Escapist “Be True”

Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, musician and producer John Jagos is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed chillwave/synth pop, JOVM mainstay act Brothertiger. And with Brothertiger, Jagos has released four full-length albums and a handful of EPs featuring brooding and introspective material, Tears for Fears cover album and Fundamentals, a four-volume series of livestreamed improvisations.

Jagos’ self-titled fifth album was co-produced with longtime collaborator Jon Markson. Slated for a November 4, 2022 release through Satanic Panic Recordings the self-titled album reportedly sees Jagos moving through his chillwave roots and into the refined glitz of sophistipop, a British micro genre made famous in the 80s and 90s by the likes of Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti and others. Jagos’ take on the style though is pure escapism — immaculate, lushly produced and engineered, retro-leaning songs meant for romantic vagabonds and urbane daydreamers alike.

Typically, the self-titled album is reserved for an artist’s debut effort. But for Jaogs, the album serves as an introduction to a playful and escapist new era for him that can trace its origins back to the early days of the pandemic: Like a lot of artistic city-dwellers, the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstay was restless. That changed after he scoured eBay for vintage gear, impulsively snagging some some sophisitpop-era synths and samplers manufactured by Ensoniq, a now-defunct company.

Armed with this new gear and a completely new sonic palette, Jagos wrote, recorded and released “Dancer on the Water,” a lush and cinematic track centered around glistening synths and bursts of pan flute. Initially released as a standalone single last spring, both longtime fans and new fans were smitten by the song’s unselfconscious optimism and its throwback, feel-good energy. “I was like, I want to make music like this for a while and see what happens,” Jagos explains. 

What happened next was that new songs spilled out of the JOVM mainstay with an unexpected ease. “I felt more connected to my songwriting than I’ve ever felt before,” Jagos recalls. That self-synchronicity was infectious, leading to productive sessions with some unexpected collaborators including Covet‘s Yvette Young and Underoath‘s Spencer Chamberlain.

But Jagos was also conscious about leaving space for kitsch and absurdity, often embracing the inherent cheesiness of the album’s slick influence. “Trying to be less serious about the music business is a big theme,” Jagos explains. “I’m not trying to conform to the specific ideals the algorithm machine wants me to be a part of; I’m just trying to make music that sounds good.

The self-titled album’s latest single “Be True” is slick, hook-driven bop built around glistening synth arpeggios, pan flute and a sinuous bass line that manages to subtly recall 90s R&B and Avalon-era Roxy Music — but with a longing, escapist vibe.

“I had this syllabic rhythm in my head for months and I felt like I needed to make a song around it,” the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstay says of the song’s origins. “It had this specific ‘90s RnB’ vibe to it which I loved. That evolved into the mantra of the song, and from there, I just built around it. Then Jon came in and we added specks of detail all over. I love how heavy it became.”

The accompanying video features cinematic footage shot in some of the world’s most gorgeous and breathtaking places — and it happens to link up nicely with the song’s lyrics.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formerly known as Super Inuit, Edinburgh-based pop duo Slim Wrist — Fern Morris and Brian Pokora — pair assertive beats, organic tones and pop sensibilities with an understated poignancy in a way that has drawn comparisons to Cocteau Twins, Portishead, Broadcast, and Sylvan Esso.

The duo formed back in 2016 and since their formation, they have evolved from having separate and distinct musical roles to a much more collaborative and cohesive unit that shares ideas and then develops them further together.

The Scottish duo’s full-length debut Closer for Comforting officially drops today and the album, which was written over the past two years, sees the band stripping their songwriting to the bone and leaving the listener with exactly what they need. “We’ve developed quite a direct approach to writing and with Closer for Comforting we’ve really tried to hone that, stripping back on the sprawl of some of our earlier music,” Slim Wrist’s Brian Pokora explains. “All the songs have a purpose and the album feels quite concise, whilst still having room to breathe.”  Fern Morris adds “It’s a bit of a calm after the storm reflection, both musically and lyrically. If you’re in the middle of a situation you’re not always able to lift your head and see things in perspective.  We wanted to have a sense of that and have that sense of space whilst maintaining that direct, poppy feel.”

“Milk Teeth,” Closer for Comforting‘s latest single pairs glistening synths, skittering industrial thump and link with Fern Morris’ ethereal cooing and the duo’s ability to craft an earworm of a hook. The end result is a song that sounds like a slickly produced and stunning synthesis of Portishead and Soft Metals.