Tag: indie synth pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Allegories Shares a Woozy New Single

Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — can trace their project’s origins to their penchant for indulging in unconventional musical pursuits. After founding anthemic, indie rock outfit The Rest, Bentley and Mitchell embraced any opportunity to indulge their more outeé inclinations and desires. 

Back in 2014, Bentley and Mitchell began writing and recording material with no clear destination in mind, dabbling in everything from neoclassical compositions to hip hop. Gathering further inspiration from DJ’ing house and hip-hop nights, the act began to create electronic music that often shifts between the mainstream and underground spectrum. 

Throughout the past decade or so, the duo have had very busy schedules: Bentley currently works behind the scenes in the music industry. Mitchell operates a restaurant. But Allegories almost always found a way to creep back into their lives — even if only as a private amusement between the pair. 

The duo spent the better part of a decade winnowing down 35 song ideas into their nine-song album Endless, their first full-length album in over 14 years. “There’s a moment during the marking of an album, where you don’t know if you’ll finish it,” Bentley and Mitchell say. “Endless was riddled with these cynical epiphanies. It’s unavoidable when you’ve spent over half a decade tinkering away. But as we closed in on the finish line, there was a sense that this could be the last work you ever complete. That spurs the process on, giving urgency. 

If you spend 14 years between albums, you want to make every note count.”

In the lead up to the album’s release earlier this year, I wrote about three singles:

  • “Pray” a bizarre yet winning mix of menace, irony and sincerity paired with an Evil Heat era Primal Scream meets Sound of Silver era LCD Soundsystem-like production.
  • “Constant,” a sugary sweet endorphin and dopamine rush centered around oscillating synth pulse and achingly plaintive vocal delivery paired with euphoric hooks. The end result is a song that simultaneously feels pleasant but also kind of off in a way that’s visceral but you can’t quite put your finger on. 
  • “Always True,” a glittery, late night, house banger centered around ominous synth pads, thumping beats and achingly plaintive vocals that slowly builds up to a woozy and dizzying crescendo before gently fading out. The song’s narrator wearily pushes on through some awkward social interaction that ironically enough they’ve desperately longed for because they’ve been isolated for so long. 

After the album’s official release, I wrote about “Funny Way,” a slow-burning and atmospheric track centered around woozy synths and skittering thump paired with plaintive vocals. While the previously released singles were off-kilter and dripping with irony, “Funny Way,” may arguably be the most earnest song of the album. 

“‘Funny Way’ is in many ways the beating heart of Endless. It is chronologically the earliest recording on this album, bridging a gap between two musical worlds in our lives,” the duo explain in press notes. “‘Funny Way’ holds a unique and earnest place within our catalogue of music.” 

Endless‘ fifth and latest single “Tell Me Before I Forget” is centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering beats, whispered and cooed falsetto vocals and insistent thump paired with the duo’s uncanny knack for infectious hooks. Much like its immediate predecessors, “Tell Me Before I Forget” is a woozy and mind-bending mix of earnestness, sneering irony and menace.

The accompanying video by Andrew O’Connor is a fittingly kaleidoscopic, satellite view of ocean waves crashing against a rock — with the visual pulsing in time to the music.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Rapport Shares a Cinematic Visual For Shimmering 80s-Inspired “Can’t Get It To Last”

After a decade of playing in a number of local bands, performing with other artists and stints with Moon King and Born Ruffians, Toronto-born and-based singer/songwriter and musician Maddy Wilde’s long-felt imposter syndrome gave way to a desire to create music that she felt was largely unexplored in the Toronto scene — earnest, heart-worn-on-sleeve pop with her latest band Rapport. Around the same time, her bandmates Kurt Marble and Mike Pereira, who have played in Twist, Ducks, Ltd. and Most People had experienced a similar urge to create earnest pop, despite their professional backgrounds in garage rock, punk rock and glam rock.

With their recently released debut EP Floating Through The Wonderwave, the Toronto-based trio have embarked on an exploration of crafted and breezy pop rooted in Wilde’s intuitive sense of harmony and slick hooks paired with a desire to sincerely capture the essence of sentimentality. But just under the surface, the EP’s material possesses a dark, melancholy quality.

Thematically, the EP touches upon jealous, neuroses and self-doubt while Wilde’s narrators also explore the delicate and uneasy balance between artistic creation and self-promotion. “I had to uninstall social media apps on my phone when I realized they were a major source of anxiety and a hugely addictive waste of time which I could have spent making music,” Wilde says. “My creative practice was suffering as a result. But without these tools, how are artists meant to share their work?”

The recently released EP’s third and latest single “Can’t Get It To Last” is a shimmering bit of 80s inspired pop featuring atmospheric synths, Pereira’s percussive and chugging bass lines, Marble’s 80s rock-like guitar lines and soloing and Wilde’s achingly delicate vocal delivery paired with a soaring hook. While sounding as though it were a seamless mesh of the Stranger Things soundtrack and Brothers in Arms-era Dire Straits, the song on one level could be read as a prototypical broken heart-fueled ballad. But as the band’s Maddie Wilde explains, “On the surface, this probably sounds like your average love song. But it’s really about friendships and growing apart. Close friendships take different shapes- for example, friends who do everything together but have never actually been vulnerable with one another. It’s like maintaining a light and fluffy connection that has never really progressed further than a casual relationship. Friendships like this can go on for ages, and they are valuable, but they don’t seem to last as long.”

“Adrienne McLaren brought to life my vision of creating a music video mood similar to that scene in Grease where Danny walks around the drive-in singing about Sandy,” Wilde adds. “For the drive-in movie, we made an experimental film not unlike one that would be submitted as an art class assignment. To get even more meta, we displayed the drive-in music video itself playing on a small Panasonic TV in various locations around the city. A video within a video within a video.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: French Psych Pop Outfit Polycool Shares a Sultry New Bop

With the release of their full-length debut, 2091’s Lemon Lord, the up-and-coming French psych pop outfit Polycool quickly established a unique sound that drew from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Air, Sebastian Tellier, Nick Hakim, Connan Moccasin and others. The band has received airplay on Radio Nova, FIP, France Inter, Les Inrocks and others.

Building upon a growing profile in their native France, the rising psych pop outfit has played at 2019’s Printemps de Bourges and 2020’s We Love Green.

The French psych pop outfit’s latest single, “Something Between Us” is a breezy and infectious bop centered around a strutting bass line, glistening synth arpeggios, Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar paired with a dance floor friendly hook and and a seductive falsetto delivery. The end result is a song that to my ears is a bit like the Bee Gees-meets-Tame Impala — or in other words a sinuous and sultry dance floor friendly come on to trip with that pretty young thing.

Fittingly, the accompanying video is a lysergic fever dream in which the members of the French outfit jam out in what looks like an enormous lava lamp.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Tacono Gate is a Brooklyn-based solo artist, who has been making and releasing music drawing from 70s krautrock, New Wave and contemporary lo-fi rock in obscurity from his bedroom since 2019.

His latest single “Goner” is a swooning, motorik groove driven, 80s New Wave-inspired bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, industrial thump and an icy vocal delivery paired with an enormous hook. While sounding indebted to A Flock of Seagulls, Depeche Mode, John Carpenter soundtracks and others, the song is rooted in bittersweet regret over a relationship the song’s narrator took for granted — and now recognizes is either on the ropes or over because of it. Throughout there’s a mix of tacit awareness and denial over the situation that feels familiar to anyone who’s been a direct cause of a breakup.

“This is a song I worked on for 24 hours, high as shit, and then left sitting in my folder for months during a deep depression,” Tacono Gate says. “The original lyrics were something like ‘I don’t have words to this song / I haven’t written words / I haven’t written anything.’ I came back to it recently and realized I really like it — normally I hate the stuff I put out by the time it’s released and can’t listen to it.”

“There’s an obvious darkwave influence, but I was also inspired by the big synth sounds and some of the wilder emancipatory energy of Queen a la Radio Ga Ga ‘I Want to Break Free,’ etc. and an Argentinian new-wave band called Virus. There’s some post-punk energy, maybe channeling a little Julian Casablancas on the vocals too, and I used the Magnetic Fields‘ ‘Strange Powers’ as a reference track for some of the overall tonality of the track. It’s definitely heavy on the ‘80s, but I think I made something new. tonality of the track. It’s definitely heavy on the ‘80s, but I think I made something new. I never want it to be derivative even when I’m wearing my influences on my sleeve.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Dilettante Shares Bitter and Heartbroken Pop Anthem

Toronto-based indie outfit  Dilettante can trace their origins back to 2016: During the spring, mutual dog lovers Natalie Panacci and Julia Wittman started a band so their dogs could hang out more. Along with The Black Cats’ Zachary Stuckey; Said the Whale’s, Iskwe’s, The Recklaws’ and Scott Helman’s Bradley Connor; and Candice Ng, they started For Jane, a self-described dog rock pop band with a Kate Bush meets Sinead O’Connor sensibility that prominently featured Panacci’s and Wittman’s contrasting vocals and mesmerizing harmonies.

For Jane released their debut EP, 2018’s Married with Dogs, which featured “Car,” a track featured on CBC Music and The Edge. But by early 2021, For Jane announced a name change, largely influenced by a massive lineup change that left Panacci and Williams as its creative core, and a decided shift in sonic direction.

The duo’s Maks Milczarcyk produced-self-titled, full-length debut was released earlier this year, and the album featured “Bonnie,” an 80s New Wave inspired, synth-driven confection that to my ears sounded like a sultry take on  Til Tuesday‘s “Voices Carry” as it featured glistening synth arpeggios, wiry post-punk-like guitars fed through a bit of reverb and an angular bass line paired with the duo’s plaintive and mesmerizing vocals.

The self-titled albums latest single, the Maks Milczarcyk written “Monster” is a gauzy synth bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor, burst of angular guitars, and an achingly bitter and heartache-fueled vocal delivery paired with a rousingly anthemic hook and chorus — before ending with a strummed acoustic guitar-driven coda.

While sonically bringing A Flock of Seagulls and others to mind, at its core, the song’s narrator delivers a bitter and heartbroken tell-off to an ex, she would like to forget. Rooted in a deeply personal experience, the song is simultaneously profoundly universal — to the point that I know many of us have been in the same situation and would be singing along with bitter tears streaking down our faces.

Shot by Video Business, the accompanying video follows one-half of the Canadian duo as she runs down a suburban street while singing the song past empty parking lots and a mall, where she eventually meets up with her bandmate — and they walk off together, perhaps suggesting that healing is in your friends, loved ones and in music.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Emerging French Act Curseurs Share a Sun-Dappled Visual for Slow-Burning “Bolide”

Emerging French trio Cursuers formed earlier this year. Influenced by Vansire, Men I Trust and L’Imperatice, the members of the emerging French trio specialize in an ethereal and romantic, synth pop that thematically touches upon the nostalgia of adolescence and the crossroads of adulthood with a swooning Romanticism.

Their debut single, the ethereal and slow-burning “Bolide” sees the trio pairing glistening synth arpeggios, a sinuous bass line, skittering boom bap-like drumming with plaintive vocals and a soaring hook. While sonically recalling JOVM mainstays ACES, Washed Out, Brothertiger and Summer Heart, “Bolide” is a summery bop full of aching nostalgia for a time — or for things — that you can’t possibly get back.

Directed by Rayane Mghezzi, the accompanying video was shot in and around the gorgeous French coast and follows the band hanging out and goofing off on a sun-dappled afternoon.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Jenny Stevens and the Empty Mirrors Shares a Glistening, Club Banger

Welsh-born, Finnish-based singer/songwriter and musician Jenny Stevens, a.k.a. The Ukelele Girl is the creative mastermind behind the songwriting project Jenny Stevens and The Empty Mirrors, which sees Stevens pairing dark-alt pop with quirky visuals. 

Last year, Stevens released the The Distance Between Us EP, an effort that featured “The River Rolls On,” an atmospheric track that seemed indebted to the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and Cocteau Twins. 

This year, Stevens released two more singles:

Stevens’ latest single “Unfinished Conversations” is a 90s house inspired banger featuring skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios, brief bursts of guitar, and sinuous bass lines paired with Steven’s plaintive and ethereal vocals. While revealing an act that’s restlessly experimenting and pushing their sound in new directions, including towards the dance floor, the song also reveals an artist with an innate ability to craft an infectious hook.

The accompanying video is set in the relatively near future, where we see beautiful people dancing and vamping to the song — but we also see people tuning out in virtual reality. And throughout, there’s a sense that there are things left unsaid.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MELRØSE Shares Sultry “Sexfriend”

Melrøse is an French electro pop duo — Anne-Camille and Anthony Bacou — that can trace its origins back to June 2020, when the romantic couple and musical collaborators decided to immortalize their relationship — and in turn, their love — in a song, written in a Los Angeles hotel room. 

The French electro pop duo released their debut EP, Nuit louve earlier this year and the EP features two tracks I wrote about last year:

  • “Poolside,” the first song that the duo wrote that June night back in 2020. Featuring skittering beats, swirling electronics and Anne-Camille’s achingly delicate delivery singing lyrics in French and English, “Poolside” evoked sultry, summer nights in bed with a lover while sonically nodding at Dummy-era Portishead.
  • “Insomnie,” another sensual bop featuring twinkling and arpeggiated synths paired with a relentless motorik groove and Anne-Camille’s coquettish delivery. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Insomnie” evokes a sultry summer nights — but restlessly tossing and turning because you’re sweaty, sticky and uncomfortable.

Nuit louve‘s latest single “Sexfriend” is a sultry, Quiet Storm-inspired bop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, wobbling bass lines, and skittering beats paired with Anne-Camille’s sultry delivery and the duo’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks. “Sexfriend” is a late night, cooed come-on, kisses on the neck, a longing to be touched at the right place, in the right fashion and at the right time . . .

The accompanying video for “Sexfriend” features MELRØSE’s Anne-Camille at the beach in a white, double-breasted, silk suit strolling the seashore at golden hour and swaying to the atmospheric song in the sea. Much like the song it accompanies, the video is subtle yet suggestive.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: H2S04 Returns with a Slickly Produced, Hook-Driven Bop

Formed in Kent back in the late 90s, British electro pop act H2S04 — Graham Cupples (keys, programming), Darren Till (keys, programming) and James Butler (vocals, bass) — features a collection of accomplished musicians: Cupples previously led techno acts Mortal and Code. Till played with Cupples in Code. Butler contributed bass and vocals in indie rock act Lobster, which was once known as Sulpher. 

Initially tracing their origins back to when they started experimenting with a series of remixes, the members of H2S04 began writing original material that blended electronica, rock and techno paired with a special attention to songwriting. Their debut single, 1998’s “Little Soul,” quickly became popular in their native England — and because of its extremely limited release, a collector’s item.

The trio’s 1999 full-length debut Machine Turned Blues featured the aforementioned “Little Soul,” as well as “I Need Feel,” “The Way I Want,” and “Imitation Leather Jacket,” a track that was a favorite among British DJs that also received radio play here in the States. They supported Machine Turned Blues by playing a series of festivals across the British festival circuit, including Glastonbury — and they played shows in Canada and Chicago.

2000’s Glamtronica saw the British trio further establishing their sound while adding a playful sense of satire to the mix. The act largely disappeared until 2015’s Under Control and 2021’s Love and Death. 

2022 has been a busy year for the British trio with the release of two singles:

H2S04’s latest single “Electroworld” is a sleek and slickly produced track that continues a run of material that’s club and lounge friendly. Featuring thumping beats, glistening and wobbling synth arpeggios and Butler’s insouciant yet sultry delivery, “Electroworld” is rooted in the trio’s unerring knack for crafting an infectious, razor sharp hook.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: LEATHERS Shares a Glittery Synth Pop Confection

Shannon Hemmett is best known for playing synths and contributing vocals in Vancouver-based post punk outfit and JOVM mainstays ACTORS. Back in 2016, Hemmett stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her synth pop project LEATHERS.

With her first few singles as LEATHERS, saw Hemmett develop and then hone her own take on synth pop: 2016’s debut single “Missing Scene” channeled early 4AD Records-era Cocteau Twins. 2017’s “Day For Night” featured a softer, glittering hue that caught the attention of outlets like Diamond Deposits, I Die: You Die and Impose Magazine.

Those singles appeared on last year’s LEATHERS debut Reckless EP, which was released to praise from Post-Punk.com, Synthpop Fanatic, I Die: You Die, CBC Radio 3 and Exclaim!, who wrote that the EP was “pulsing eighth-note bass, mascara-streaked goth melodies and ’80s-worshipping pop sweetness” — while landing on their Essential Releases for August 2021.

Hemmett’s latest LEATHERS single “Runaway” is her first bit of new material since the release of Reckless EP. Featuring glistening synth arpeggios, rapid-fire four-on-the-floor, tweeter and woofer rattling thump, and an insistent motorik groove, paired with Hemmett’s plaintive, yearning elivery and her uncanny knack for crafting an infectious, razor sharp hook, “Runaway” is a slickly produced and swooning pop confection that’s lovingly indebted to 80s pop.

Directed by frequent ACTORS collaborator Wayne Moreheart, the accompanying video for “Runaway” nods to classic-era MTV pop videos: Hemmett and a backing band performing the video in a sparse studio with soft pink light, a wind machine and endlessly falling balloons. While being a bright splash of color, the video is about breaking free from mundane routines, letting go and just having fun.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Allegories Share Slow-Burning and Woozy “Funny Way”

Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — can trace their project’s origins to their penchant for indulging in unconventional musical pursuits. After founding anthemic, indie rock outfit The Rest, Bentley and Mitchell embraced any opportunity to indulge their more outeé inclinations and desires.

Back in 2014, Bentley and Mitchell began writing and recording material with no clear destination in mind, dabbling in everything from neoclassical compositions to hip hop. Gathering further inspiration from DJ’ing house and hip-hop nights, the act began to create electronic music that often shifts between the mainstream and underground spectrum. 

Throughout the past decade or so, the duo have had very busy schedules: Bentley currently works behind the scenes in the music industry. Mitchell operates a restaurant. But Allegories almost always found a way to creep back into their lives — even if only as a private amusement between the pair.

They spent the better part of a decade winnowing down 35 song ideas into their nine-song album Endless, their first full-length album in over 14 years. “There’s a moment during the marking of an album, where you don’t know if you’ll finish it,” Bentley and Mitchell say. “Endless was riddled with these cynical epiphanies. It’s unavoidable when you’ve spent over half a decade tinkering away. But as we closed in on the finish line, there was a sense that this could be the last work you ever complete. That spurs the process on, giving urgency. 

If you spend 14 years between albums, you want to make every note count.”

In the lead-up to the album’s release late last week, I’ve written about three singles:

  • “Pray” a bizarre yet winning mix of menace, irony and sincerity paired with an Evil Heat era Primal Scream meets Sound of Silver era LCD Soundsystem-like production.
  • “Constant,” a sugary sweet endorphin and dopamine rush centered around oscillating synth pulse and achingly plaintive vocal delivery paired with euphoric hooks. The end result is a song that simultaneously feels pleasant but also kind of off in a way that’s visceral but you can’t quite put your finger on. 
  • “Always True,” a glittery, late night, house banger centered around ominous synth pads, thumping beats and achingly plaintive vocals that slowly builds up to a woozy and dizzying crescendo before gently fading out. The song’s narrator wearily pushes on through some awkward social interaction that ironically enough they’ve desperately longed for because they’ve been isolated for so long.

Endless‘ fourth and latest single “Funny Way” is a slow-burning and atmospheric track centered around woozy synths and skittering thump paired with plaintive vocals. While the previously released singles were off-kilter and dripping with irony, “Endless,” may arguably be the most earnest song of the album.

“‘Funny Way’ is in many ways the beating heart of Endless. It is chronologically the earliest recording on this album, bridging a gap between two musical worlds in our lives,” the duo explain in press notes. “‘Funny Way’ holds a unique and earnest place within our catalogue of music.”

The accompanying visual is a lysergic affair featuring explosive flashes of color that look like auroras. Moving geometric shapes, which appear like flowers before quickly disappearing and reappearing are superimposed over the aurora-like flashes. Tune in and tune out to this one, y’all.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A.M. Boys Share a Trippy Visual for Hypnotic “Traveler”

New York-based electronic duo A.M. Boys features two accomplished and grizzled scene vets:

  • John Blonde (synths, vocals), is an electronic musician and singer/songwriter, who was a principle member of JOVM mainstay act House of Blondes. As a solo artist, he releases material as Muscle Club.
  • Chris Moore, a producer, engineer, mixer, multi-instrumentalist, and electronic musician. As a producer and engineer, Moore has worked with David Bowie, TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Scarlett Johansson, Foals, and OSEES. As an electronic musician, Moore has released solo work as Light Vortex and through a variety of other aliases through the years.

Blonde and Moore can trace their collaboration together back to meeting at an Aphex Twin listening party they attended back in 2014. The duo struck up an instant chemistry that resulted in a batch of original songs in 2018 using analog synths, drum machines, space echo and voice that paired clean, post-punk minimalism with a contemporary approach to rhythm and arrangement.

They sent Suicide’s Martin Rev one of their earliest tracks “Distance Decay,” and by the next day, they were offered an opening slot with the post-punk legend. The duo have shared a stage with Deerhunter side project Moon Diagrams, and they’ve played one of the most memorable sets at local, experimental venue Spectrum. As DJs, they’ve spun sets at Jupiter Disco, Troost, Sundown Bar, Wythe Hotel and several other spots across town.

The New York-based duo’s full-length debut Distance Decay is slated for a June 3, 2022 release. Written and recorded by the duo, at their Brooklyn-based studio Glowmatic Sound with additional vocal recording by Jeff Berner at Studio G, the album’s title is derived from a term that describes the pattern of criminals committing fewer crimes, the further they travel from their homes. Sonically, the ten-song album sees the members of A.M. Boys focusing on an intimate and minimalist approach to instrumentation and composition through the juxtaposition of rippling rhythms with melodic synth lines and ethereal vocals.

The album’s material as written during darkly lit, late night jam sessions influenced by post-punk and coldwave, along with their revered trinity of Kraftwerk, Aphex Twin and Prince — with one song being directly influenced by Throbbing Gristle. The recording sessions were deliberately pared down to allow the pair to recreate the songs live. For the duo, the minimal approach helped to yield material that develops a deeper emotional resonance with repeated listens. “We knew we didn’t want to layer too much, we felt that the songs sounded stronger with less. A lot of modern music can be fussy and cluttered, we wanted to present the music simply, gaining a transparent power,” Blonde explains.

During the height of the pandemic, Blonde and Moore holed up at their studio and recored an entire second album — and are currently working to incorporate some of that new material in their live sets. But in the meantime, Distance Decay‘s second single, “Traveler” is a mesmerizing and hypnotic track featuring skittering beats, glistening and oscillating synths paired with Blonde’s ethereal vocals and spacey feedback. While nodding at John Blonde’s previous work with House of Blondes and Kraftwerk, “Traveler” fittingly possesses a trippy cosmic air, the end result is a song that seems to be a perfect for late night space travel.

Directed and filmed by New York-based motion designer David-Lee Fiddler, the accompanying visual for “Traveler” was a deeply collaborative effort between Fiddler and the duo that incorporates live, in-studio footage shot by Doug Young, animated still photos taken by A.M. Boys’ John Blonde, which were used for the album’s cover art. The end result is a trippy and mesmerizing video that seems perfect for those with ASMR. The duo credit Fiddler with being an energetic director that “seemed capable of translating any idea we had into reality.” Blonde adds “The ‘Traveler’ video is what we think the electricity looks like inside our synthesizers.”

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 before stepping out into the limelight as a solo artist. As a solo artist, Ryal 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 and elsewhere for releasing material that’s been compared to Little Dragon and the aforementioned Portishead.

The duo’s latest single “Best Friend” is a slickly produced bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering beats and shimmering bursts of guitar paired with Ryal’s achingly plaintive delivery, random puppy noises and the duo’s unerring ability to craft a razor sharp hook. Initially written as a lullaby dedicated to her beloved dog, who died, “Best Friend” eventually turned into a dreamy and anthemic bop that the duo recorded to tape. Despite its anthemic nature, “Best Friend” captures the unique and profound relationship one has with a faithful, animal friend.

With the single being released on National Pet Day — April 11, 2022 — the dup partnered with pet partners like Broadway Bitches and PupperCup, as well as animal rescues for charities.

The single’s artwork is collaborative fan art, where fans were asked to submit pictures of their pets. 20 of the submissions were selected and illustrated by Nashville-based artist Psychic Lemonade in a Brady Bunch-styled color block collage.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MADSUN Teams Up with Naomi Wild on the Soulful and Yearning “You and Me”

MADSUN is a risng French-born electronic music producer, who currently splits his time between his native France and the States. His earliest tracks amassed over one-million streams and those tracks received media coverage in 25 countries.

Adding to a growing international profile, the rising French-born producer has had his music appear in ad campaigns for The Definite Article, as well as The Architect: Paris video game and the original soundtrack for the Lille, France-based European Film Festival.

MADSUN’s latest single “You and Me” is a slow-burning bit of synth pop centered around glistening synth arpeggios and thumping beats paired with Naomi Wild‘s soulful, yearning vocals singing about a profound and deep love shared between two soulmates.

Directed by MADSUN and Arctic Hue, and edited by Allan Fernandes and Mayur Sharma, the accompanying video for “You and Me” feature two 3D generated status facing each other and in a deep and loving embrace.