Tag: [PIAS] Électronique

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Solid Wall at 160DL Studios, London

London-based electronic music project Solid Wall — Argentine-born and London-based producers, multi-instrumentalists and songwriters Patricio Alvarez and Lucas Vedel — can trace the origins of their collaboration back to 2018: Alvarez and Vedel first met in Buenos Aires through mutual friend and mixing engineer Martin Sólimo.

What began as an impromptu studio collaboration quickly turned into an intense and virtual creative partnership with the pair writing and making music almost daily. The connected remained uninterrupted when Vedel returned to London in 2019, evolving across different cities and years of shared experimentation.

When Alvarez joined Vedel in London in 2020, the duo continued developing a deeply collaborative creating process, treating production, songwriting, engineering and performance as an intrinsic and inseparable part of that same process. After years of writing, producing and road-testing material through DJ sets and live improvised sets across London and Europe, the duo’s project Solid Wall emerged as a natural expression of heir lengthy journey together. And by 2023. the duo signed with PIAS, marking a new project while cementing a sound and approach that had been years in the making.

Built around the duo’s shared obsession with sound as both craft and language, Solid Wall sonically is rooted in alternative electronic music, but shaped by trip-hop, post punk, dub and left-field club culture. Their work together explores the space where physical movement meet emotional depth.

Last Friday, the duo released the five-song In-Phase EP through [PIAS] Électronique. Written and recorded between 2023 and 2026 between Hackney, London’s Godspeed Studio and Dalston, London’s 160DL Studios, In-Phase EP explores human connection through sound and movement, with music that blends elements of club culture and introspection. The EP’s songs were gradually released as standalone singles over the past three years. which allowed the EP to evolve over time.

To celebrate the release of the duo shared a live session directed by Argentine filmmaker Elias Heredia. The live session re-imagines EP songs through a live, immersive band setup, which features expansive renditions of the recorded tracks, showcasing a project that’s stepping further into a live band setup. The live session features three of the EP’s track “Let You Go” feat. Jelani Blackman, “Voice Notes Interlude” and “Find Me” feat. Ulfie.

“Let You Go” feat. Jelani Blackman is a is a swaggering mix of UK grime, post punk and house music, anchored around tweeter and woofer rattling thump, skittering trap-like beats and glistening synths that’s simultaneously club and headphone friendly that reminds me a bit of Parisian outfit DBFC. “Voice Notes Interlude” is a dreamy song featuring banal voice notes and messages beneath droning yet ethereal synths. “Find Me” feat. Ulfie may arguably be the most straightforward club banger of the live session. “Find Me” is a deep house banger built around Giorgio Moroder-like synth oscillations, tweeter and a Tour de France-era Kraftwerk-like motorik groove beneath Ulfie’s sultry and yearning delivery. Each of the live session’s songs convey a desperate need for connection with another –while showcasing the duo’s ability to craft hook-driven bangers rooted in introspection.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tinlicker Teams Up With Helsloot on Euphoric “Edge Of Forever”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer along with Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012: Heyboer initially founded Tinlicker as a solo project, releasing the act’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

In 2014 Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, 2024’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Now, back in 2020, as Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they started a successful and ongoing collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including last year’s “I Started A Fire.” Shortly after the release of ‘I Started A Fire,” Heyboer and Achthoven invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the group. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Earlier this year, the trio released their fourth album — and first as at rio — Dreams of the Machine earlier this year. The album features album singles “I Want My Freedom,” “Reborn,” and “Release.” The trio recently released the standalone single “Edge of Forever,” a collaboration with producer, longtime friend and collaborator Helsloot through Remember The Future/[PIAS]. Their latest collaboration can trace its origins to the two acts sharing a bus during their recent European tour together.

“Edge Of Forever” is a club and festival stage banger that features Baldwin’s emotive pop star-like vocal floating atop glistening synth oscillations, pulsating reverb-soaked bass lines that slowly builds up to a cathartic and euphoric frenzy. While continuing to cement the act’s long-held reputation for crafting melodic, emotional house music, “Edge Of Forever” may arguably be one of the more cinematic tracks of their growing catalog.

“The guys were noodling around while I was looking through the great sweep of glass at the front of the bus, the landscape passing almost imperceptibly beneath us,” Tinlicker’s Hero Baldiwin explains. “There is something contemplative about travelling in that way; cities, towns and villages drift past, fields give way to forests, and before long you find yourself less aware of the places themselves than the quiet passage of time between them. Later Thomas (Helsloot) and I listened back to what had been started on the bus, pressed record and the lyric and melody emerged intact in a single take.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: belac Shares a Sultry, Club Friendly Banger

belac is a rising, Perth-born and-based producer, who is a product of the Internet Generation: After discovering a Martin Garrix breakdown of his hit song “Animals” when the Aussie producer was 11, he has spent the past decade consuming — and sometimes forming — internet tends and turning them into club bangers. Before music, he was one of the best beach sprinters in Western Australia and a qualified physicist. But as he explains, he went all-in on music, when he heard his own music being blasted by the electronic music club while walking around his university’s open day.

Since then, he has signed with [PIAS] Électronique, who has released recent singles “need it, breathe it” and “be with me 2009,” which manage to be simultaneously nostalgia-inducing and fresh, while giving younger fans a cache to experience an era of EDM that they might not have originally been around for. And interestingly, gamers have claimed that his work is the perfect soundtrack for massive gaming sessions.

Now while there’s a cheekiness to his music and his online presence, the Perth-born and-based producer has an unerring knack for understanding what delights dance music fans and brings them to the dance floor. And as a result, he’s become one of Australia’s most recognized, rising electronic producers, specializing in club friendly bangers with elements of 2010s EDM, Memphis trap, jazz and more.

The Aussie producer’s latest single “late night visions” is a subtly brooding and atmospheric take on tech house with a sultry vocal sample that reminds me of French JOVM mainstay LutchamaK and a lengthy list of others, while showcasing a producer who can craft a euphoric, remarkably catchy hook.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinlicker Shares Euphoric “Release”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, 2024’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including last year’s “I Started A Fire.” Last year, also saw Heyboer and Achthoven inviting Baldwin to be a full-time member of the group. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — Dreams of the Machine is slated for a February 27, 2026 release through [PIAS] Électronique. Dreams of the Machine will feature the previously released singles “I Want My Freedom,” and “Reborn.”

The newly-constituted trio’s third single “Release,” is a lush, euphoria-inducing track anchored around melodic, rippling synth arpeggios, skittering, industrial-inspired breakbeats and reverb-soaked bass paired with Hero Baldwin’s sultry, commanding delivery and the trio’s unerring knack for crafting expansive, club and festival friendly tracks underpinned by a deep soulfulness.

Lyrically, the addresses the modern obsession with our cell phones — to the point that we’re not fully present with ourselves, with others or within the moments we should be enjoying and cherishing. How many times have you attended some event and 98% of the people around you are fixating on their phone — whether to text, instagram or to record every single moment? But the song also focuses on the potential conflict between human and the influence of AI-led algorithms.

“At its heart, ‘Release’ is about how easily we slip out of the moment without noticing. The habit of checking, fixing and responding instantly on our phones and how that slowly takes over our attention to each other,” the members of Tinlicker explain. “We’re not anti-technology, perhaps just quietly aware of what disappears when distraction becomes automatic. ‘Release’ is about pausing and staying in the moment with the people around you.”

The accompanying video by Carl Frazer-Lunn begins in a bustling London with businesspeople, commuters, students and others busily fixating on their phones, completely unaware of their surroundings. The video then quickly turns to live footage of the trio performing at Crystal Palace in front of an enraptured crowd. It’s proof that there are only a few truly transcendent moments in our morally bankrupt world: that moment when our favorite act plays our favorite song live — or that moment when that act gets into an irresistible groove. Put that phone down and dance already.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tinlicker Shares Driving, Club Banging “Reborn”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest memberHero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project of its founder. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, last year’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The ealbum featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they had started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including their most recent single “I Started A Fire,” which was released earlier this year. Heyboer and van Achthoven recently invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the band. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — is slated for an early 2026 release. The album will feature the previously released “I Want My Freedom,” which begins with a slow-burning piano intro that nods at Radiohead‘s “Everything In Its Right Place,” before morphing into a festival and club banger with a euphoric bridge and hook paired with Baldwin’s defiant and resolute vocal.

The forthcoming album’s third and latest single “Reborn,” is an expansive, almost cinematic, deep house banger, anchored around glistening and arpeggiated synth oscillations, a motorik groove paired with the act’s unerring knack for crafting enormous hooks and drops. Sonically speaking, “Reborn” seemingly channels 90s-00s house, making the song a high-energy homage to the sounds of their teens.

“Music can be a reflection of the era you grow up in. You fall in love with the soundscape of your teens and drag that feeling with you, because during this period you experience so many new adventures,” the members of Tinlicker explain. “‘Reborn’ is an homage to the early sounds that shaped us as teenagers, as it is an era in music we hold close to our hearts.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinlicker Shares Defiant and Euphoric “I Want My Freedom”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project of its founder Heyboer. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero.

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online.

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland.

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, last year’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival.

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they had started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including their most recent single “I Started A Fire,” which was released earlier this year. Heyboer and van Achthoven recently invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the band. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl.

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — is slated for an early 2026 release. But in the meantime, the trio’s latest single “I Want My Freedom” showcases what has made the Dutch outfit a titan in electronic music: Beginning with a slow-burning piano intro that seemingly nods at Radiohead‘s “Everything In Its Right Place,” the track quickly morphs into a festival and club banger featuring skittering beats, glistening and melodic synth arpeggios, a string section sample-led bridge, and a euphoric bridge and hook, which serves as a slickly produced and lush bed for Baldwin’s defiant and resolute vocals.

Throughout the song’s runtime, Baldwin’s lyrics are especially pertinent right now, as many countries across the world seem to be sliding backwards into a brutally abusive, authoritarian hellscape that many of us don’t want — and will resist until death.

“These lyrics circled in my mind for a long time” Baldwin says. “I started writing from that feeling of disconnection as a woman in my mid-twenties with a sharp awareness of the world moving backwards. But over time, the song grew into something bigger. ‘I Want My Freedom’ isn’t just about me, it’s about all of us. The heartbreaking truth is that the abuse of freedoms reaches far beyond gender. I wanted to create a song of inclusion, with a nod to what I personally feel I’ve lost. Freedom is never handed to us, it’s something we fight for, and I no longer have that softness in me to apologize for that.”

The accompanying video for “I Want My Freedom” consists of footage shot from their Crystal Palace Bowl set.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: ZODIAC Shares Lush and Summery “Horizon”

Formed back in 2023, the rising London-based production and DJ trio ZODIAC — Joe Doyle, Will McMullin and Ellis Moss — quickly signed to [PIAS] Électronique, the label home of artists like Tinlicker, Eli & Fur and Innellea. Each member of ZODIC brings a distinct sound and vision to the project, blending their talents to create a captivating electronic-driven soundscape that’s both evocative and immersive.

The London trio’s debut single “Blink,” featuring The Boxer Rebellion‘s Nathan Nicholson received support across the global electronic music scene, earning endorsements from Joris Voorn, Above & Beyond, Sister Bliss and Alfa Romero.. Adding to a growing profile in the global electronic music scene, the London-based trio have had opening slots for Armin Van Buuren, Korolova and a growing list of others.

The trio’s highly-anticipated debut EP Constellations I was released last week. While showcasing deep, driven and rhythmically rich melodies, the EP marks a new chapter for the group — the first batch of new material following the addition of Ellis Moss, an already established name in the electronic music scene.. The EP’s first single “Horizon” is a club banger anchored around glistening synth oscillation, a relentless motorik-like groove paired with tweeter and woofer rattling thump. The production serves as a lush and hook-driven bed for a soulful, pop belter vocal sample. Ultimately, it may be one of the more Ibiza/summery songs I’ve listened to and covered in the past few months.