Tag: Madge

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Glassio · Breaking Through

Glassio is a Queens-based synth pop act that can trace its origins back to 2015 when its founding members — Sam R. and Charles Pinel  — met while attending NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. Since the project’s formation, it has increasingly become the Queens-born and-based Sam R’s solo recording project. Interestingly, during that same period of time, Sam R. has managed to develop and hone what he has dubbed “melancholy disco,” a mix of dance music influences, wavering pop melodies, introspective, narrative-based lyrics and lush harmonies. Thematically, Glassio’s work draws from its creative mastermind’s own life and heartbreak, the difficult wrestling of self-acceptance we all deal with throughout our lives, loneliness and of course, major life changes.

Last year, Sam R released his sophomore Glassio EP EP Age of Experience, an effort that Mother Jones called “proof that electronic music and great storytelling are a perfect match.” The EP featured “Back for More,” which amassed over 2 million Spotify streams while being featured on Alan Ball’s HBO show Here & Now.  Outside of his own work, Sam R. has received attention for remixing and reworking the work of artists like Madge, Argonaut & Wasp, Sulene and Goldwash.

Sam R’s full-length, 11 song debut For The Very Last Time officially dropped yesterday — and so far, the Queens-based artist has released a handful of singles including “A Million Doubts,” which was featured in the latest season of the Freeform TV series Good Trouble, “Nobody Stayed For The DJ,” “Are You Having Fun Without Me?” and “Make No Mistake,” the album’s fourth single, which featured a guest backing spot from New York-based vocalist Daneshevskaya. Centered around twinkling synth arpeggios, thumping beats and a soaring hook, the song finds Sam R. balancing an achingly wistful nostalgia with a much-needed sense of optimism. In a narrative sense, the album’s material captures the growth and re-birth of someone’s character out of a dark space. Thematically, the album is focused on shedding negativity and figuring out a way to trust yourself to love others again. So by the album’s last song, the character you’ve been hearing about has managed to evolve, accept their shortcomings and find a way to heal from personal loss.

“I wanted to take electronic-pop tropes and use them in a more fragile, loving way. I think there’s a bit of spiritual nature to the album — much of it is about rediscovering your faith in the world and those around you, as well as yourself, and much of it is about accepting fate,” Glassio’s Sam R. explains in press notes. “For those reasons, I wanted the songs to all sort of feel like little electronic-pop hymns. The record is about proudly displaying and accepting fragility. I needed the mixes and production to mirror that too. Nothing is mixed ‘perfectly’ by any means. I like having some instruments uncomfortably quiet and some uncomfortably loud. Many of the songs on the record are about feeling very disconnected and isolated from the world.”

“Breaking Through,” For The Very Last Time‘s fifth and latest single is centered around layers of glistening synth arpeggios, thumping beats and Sam R.’s plaintive vocals. And while further cementing the Queens-based artist’s reputation for an unerring knack for writing deeply earnest material with infectious hooks, the track evokes a skittish uncertainty that begrudgingly and slowly grows into confidence, as its narrator admits his vulnerability and frailties.

I have to add that half of the proceeds from the album will go to Black Mental Health Alliance while 100% of Bandcamp proceeds will go towards BHMA. So if you dig Glassio and want to buy the album, your money will also go to a great and necessary cause.

https://glassio.bandcamp.com

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Glassio · Make No Mistake

The Queens, NY-based synth pop/New Wave/dream pop act Glassio can trace its origins back to 2015 when its founding members — Sam R. and Charles Pinel  — met while attending NYU’s Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music. Since its formation, the act has become the Queens-born and-based Sam R’s solo recording project. And during that same period of time, Glassio has developed and honed what its creative mastermind has dubbed “melancholy disco,” a mix of dance music influences, wavering pop melodies, introspective, storytelling-based lyrics and lush harmonies. Interestingly, the project has increasingly pulls from Sam R’s own life and heartbreak, while thematically wrestling with self-acceptance, loneliness and major life changes.

Last year, Sam R. and Glassio released their sophomore EP Age of Experience, an effort that Mother Jones called “proof that electronic music and great storytelling are a perfect match.” Interestingly, the EP featured “Back for More,” which amassed over 2 million Spotify streams while being featured on Alan Ball’s HBO show Here & Now.  Outside of his own work, Sam R. has received attention for remixing and reworking the work of artists like Madge, Argonaut & Wasp, Sulene and Goldwash.

Glassio’s long-awaited full-length debut, the 11 song, For The Very Last Time is slated for a July 23, 2020 release and earlier this year, the Queens-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and remixer has put out a couple of singles, the lullaby-like “A Million Doubts,” which was featured in the latest season of the Freeform TV series Good Trouble; the early 80s inspired “Nobody Stayed For The DJ;” and the contemplative “Are You Having Fun Without Me?”

“Make No Mistake,” For The Very Last Time‘s fourth and latest single continues a run of shimmering and swooning electro pop, centered around twinkling synth arpeggios, thumping beats, soaring hooks, Sam R.’s ethereal vocals and a guest backing spot from New York-based vocalist Daneshevskaya. What makes the song intriguing to me is that it balances achingly wistful nostalgia and a much-needed optimism. In many ways, the song is an anthemic blast of encouragement when coping with and facing circumstances much greater than ourselves  — as we all are right now.

“I was having a hard time getting out of bed towards the end of 2018 and facing everyday life. My anxiety was starting to go through the roof and daily tasks like taking the subway started to become difficult,” the rising Queens based artist explains in press notes. “The seed for the song came from wanting to talk about those feelings and I wanted to write a song that could get me moving. The lyrics and melody of the verse hit me out of the blue at the same time one morning while I was lying in bed and it was just there, already completed. The whole thing just unraveled very naturally and I think more than any other song on the album, it was very much written in the middle of the situation that it was about. Usually some time needs to pass before I write a song about an event, but this one was very much in the moment.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Napoleon Gold Releases a Hazy and Surrealistic Video for 80s Inspired Pop Confection “Love Don’t Cut Me Down” feat. Haiva Ru

Born Antoine Honorez, the Luxembourg City, Luxembourg-born French electronic music producer and artist Napoleon Gold received attention across the European electronic music scene and elsewhere for as a solo artist, whose ambient electronic production work is generally centered around bewitching arrangements, warm, low-pitched vocal samples and rousing percussion — and for a series of remixes and collaborations with Sun Glitters and Monsoonsiren. Building upon a growing profile across the European Union, Honorez toured across the European Union’s festival circuit, making appearances at Liverpool Soundcity Festival, Nordik Impakt, Galapagai Festival, Rock A Field and others.

After signing to New York-based electronic labels 13 Audio and Cinematic Music Group last year, Honorez released an attention grabbing collaborative EP,  A New Colour with T-Pain. However, 2019 may be a breakthrough year for the Luxembourg City-born producer: his highly anticipated full-length debut Sunset Motel is slated for a September 20, 2019 release. Deriving its title from a fictitious place, where the producer takes refuge from his life-long struggles from insomnia — and the thoughts, desires, regrets and dreams that come during the late night hours, the album thematically is about the inspiration he feels late at night. The album will also further cement his reputation for being an expert curator of collaborative talent, as the album finds him working with an eclectic array of up-and-coming artists including Haiva Ru’s Annie Merrill, Anna Majidson, Madge, Jesus Honcho, PH Trigano, Raquel, Kimberly Tell and Jalen Santoy. 

The album’s first single “Love Don’t Cut Me Down,” a collaboration with Haiva Ru is a decidedly 80s synth R&B two-step centered around thumping beats, layers of arpeggiated synths, brief blasts of Nile Rodgers-like guitar, a funky bass line, a sinuous and infectious hook and Haiva Ru’s Allie Merrill’s tender and plaintive vocals. And while sonically speaking, the song manages to recall Cherrelle, and even contemporaries like ACES, the song expresses a mix of yearning, longing and desperate hope that seems all too common in any romantic relationship. “I think I associate my first encounters with insomnia to a period of my childhood when my parents were constantly listening to this Belgian radio station called RTL2, on which they’d always play this kind of music. The songs trigger emotions linked to my childhood and they really speak to me. I wanted to add similar textures and vibes into this album” Honorez says in press notes. 

Starring Haiva Ru’s Allie Merrill, the recently released video is a hazy, languid and surrealistic dream that has Merrill in a hotel room that’s both decadent and dilapidated. We see her intimate moments, dancing to a song and reminiscing — before bathing with her clothes on.