Originally founded in beautiful Amsterdam, the rising indie duo Donna Blue — romantic couple and muses, Danique van Kesteren and Bart van Dalen — quickly established a dreamy and cinematic sound seemingly influenced by Phil Spector, Wall of Sound-like pop, Pasty Cline, yè yè and David Lynch‘s Twin Peaks with the release of 2017’s self-titled debut, which featured “Sunset Blvd,” a track that received airplay on Elton John’s Apple Music radio show Rocket Hour.
Back in 2020, Dutch indie label, Snowstar Records, released the duo’s self-produced and self-recorded five-song EP Inbetween saw the duo continuing upon the sound that quickly won them attention nationally and internationally — while also drawing from Roy Orbison, Julee Cruise, Nancy Sinatra, Patsy Cline. The end result was an effort that evokes late nights wandering narrow European streets, daydreaming in smokey cafes, sitting in bars reflecting on your life while nursing a drink. Personally, the EP’s material immediately brings back very specific memories: walking through Amsterdam’s Centrum and Red Light Districts late at night, the prostitutes summoning men with a wink and a wry smile, and passing drunk revelers on the street; and walking through Frankfurt-am-Main’s Haupwatche and Romer Districts with the surreal and lonely ache of being a foreigner.
Donna Blue’s highly-anticipated full-lengths but Dark Roses is slated for a May 13, 2022 release through Snowstar Records. The album is reportedly features 11 dreamy and cinematic tracks that feel like a film score for a romantic, film noir. While playing with the feeling of being alive, yet in a carefully sculpted parallel world, the album’s material finds the duo taking on a decidedly twangy Western sound inspired by Ennio Morricone, Piero Piccioni and John Barry paired with dreamily sensual vocals.
Dark Roses‘ fourth and latest single “The Beginning” is a slow-burning, lush, and cinematic track centered around shimmering and twangy guitars, soaring keys, propulsive, hi-hat driven rhythms paired with van Kesteren’s aching vocal. Fittingly, “The Beginning” sounds as though it should be part of the opening credits of a gorgeously shot and surreal film set in the Amsterdam or Berlin suburbs that’s one part social commentary, one part Romantic mediation, one part love story and one part psychedelic freak out.
The project can trace their origins back to the early 2000s: Mago and TWR72 met while DJ’ing Dutch underground electro parties. That raw and energetic scene saw the pari playing a mixture of electro pop, French house, fidget and techno. As the years passed by, they individually developed their own unique sounds — but they realized that they had long held a similar dream: to start a live act inspired by the bands they grew up with, as well as the likes of Miike Snow, Foals, Editors, Van She, and Goose.
Mike Rogers was a way for the pair to challenge themselves creatively and professionally — and to further develop themselves as producers and DJs. The duo recruited Kita Menari’s Micha de Jonge to his big, plaintive vocals to their hook-driven, crowd-pleasing sound.
Their full-length debut, which is slated for an early 2023 release will see reportedly see the trio crafting material that’s a mix of analog, digital and retro sounds with a modern feel. But in the meantime . . . The Dutch trio’s latest single “Can’t Stop” is an anthemic bit of post punk/dance punk centered around angular guitar attack, de Jonge’s achingly plaintive vocals and a motorik-like groove paired with enormous, euphoric hooks. While to my ears recalling the likes of Radio 4,Interpol, and Editors, “Can’t Stop” as the trio explains is about a lonely man, who looks back at his life: As a young man, he tries to do everything right, but always feels as though he is failing since people don’t seem to understand him. Battling a personal struggle with his past, the lonely man protests against this feeling, with the hopes that he can get rid of those negative thoughts.
Written last year, the trio explain, “In our minds that year was a year where we had a lot of questions. Like, what is freedom, what should one fight for, how should one fight for something, how do we move forward as a society and also, how do we judge our past behaviour. We believe questions are the biggest inspirator. We’re trying to ask questions more than to send a message, although that’s also a bit of a vision we want to share.”
Cloud Cukkoo is an emerging Dutch-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and producer. According to the Dutch-born, Berlin-based artist, she “writes, produces and performs songs for blue-tinted nights. Nights of rained upon ashtrays and repressed melancholia; nights that are blinding, deafening and paralyzing; nights that are as comforting as they are disconcerting. It’s the cutting winter cold that feels like an embrace after spending hours in an overloaded club. . .”
The emerging Dutch-born, Berlin-based artist’s latest single, the slow-burning and moody “The Game” pairs Cloud Cukkoo’s soulful vocals, oscillating and atmospheric synths, fluttering electronics, strummed guitar and twinkling keys. While revealing a songwriter who can evoke a brooding, late night melancholy, “The Game” is an earnest, pop confection rooted in what feels like lived-in personal experience: The song’s narrator struggles with being tempted by lust and loneliness, knowing that she will probably get burned — badly.
Organic Mood is an emerging and mysterious Ukrainian electronic music producer. His latest single “Fields,” which features Alexander P. is a melodic deep house jam centered around glistening synth arpeggios, tribal beats and chopped up operatic vocals. The end result is a song that sounds both lounge and club friendly while nodding at slick synthesis of Between Two Selves era Octo Octa and Enya.
Filligar — Casey Gibson (piano, keys) and the Mathias Brothers: Johnny (guitar, vocals), Teddy (bass) and Pete (drums) — established a reputation during the early 00s and 10s for being remarkably prolific, releasing seven critically applauded albums between 2006 and 2015.
Nationally, Filligar has played sold-out shows at Los Angeles’ The Troubadour, Bowery Ballroom, DC’s Wolf Trap and Chicago’s Lincoln Hall — and they’ve opened for Counting Crows, Alabama Shakes and The Black Keys. And over the better part of the past decade, the US Department of State has designated the band as cultural ambassadors, sending them six times on tours to perform worldwide as emissaries of American arts and aspirations. And as a result of those tours, Filligar has built up an international profile, winning over fans across the States, Europe, Australia, Latin America, Asia, the Middle East and Asia.
The indie outfit’s recently released eighth album, the 11-song Future Self is the first batch of original material in seven years. The album’s material sees the band pairing the big sound that has won them fans nationally and internationally with lyrics that thematically explore life and love.
Future Self single “The Fire in the Sun” is centered around squiggling funk guitar, a sinuous bass line and shimmering synths paired with gospel-tinged call and response vocals and a handclap accented coda. And while being slickly produced, “The Fire in the Sun” manages to capture post-modern, existential ennui with an uncanny precision.
Jacqueline Loor is a Miami-born, Cuban-Ecuadorian singer/songwriter, currently based in Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. Loor has released a handful of singles that have received placement in movies and in TV — “Burn It Down” appeared on The CW’s Batwoman and “No Me Digas” appeared in the award-winning short film Un Pequeño Corte which was part of PBS’ LATINXPERIENCE.
Loor’s latest single “Nada Mas” sees the rising Tenerife-based artist collaborating with Bogotá, Colombia-based guitarist, songwriter and producer Enrique Lloreda. Featuring a slick reggaeton-inspired pop production centered around shimmering and looping guitar, skittering tweeter and woofer rattling beats paired with Loor’s sultry vocals, “Nada Mas” is a dance floor friendly, feminist anthem featuring a fed up narrator, who’s tired of waiting time on a deadbeats, fuckbois and the like.
As Loor explains, the song is meant to inspire and empower women to not settle for any man who doesn’t treat them right.
Over the past two years, through the release of a handful of singles and last year’s critically applauded debut EP creeping speedwells, London-based post punk trio deep tan — Wafah (vocals), Celeste (bass) and Lucy (drums) — qickly amassed buzz both nationally and internationally with the band being featured in outlets like NME, DIY, Clash, Loud and Quiet, The Quietus, So Young, Notion, Dork,BrooklynVegan, and countless others.
The rising British outfit’s highly-anticipated sophomore EP diamond horsetail is slated for a May 6, 2022 digital release and a July 22, 2022 physical release. The band will also be releasing an extremely limited “Dinked Edition,” which will feature diamond horsetail and creeping speedwells pressed together on “piss kink yellow” vinyl. (And by limited, we’re talking about 400 copies. So if you’re a fan or collector, and you’re looking for it, good luck!)
diamond horsetail will reportedly see the members of the rising post-punk outfit further establishing their unique take on post punk in which their stripped-back, minimalist approach serves as a vehicle for songs that engagement with contemporary themes and concerns including deepfake revenge porn, surreal meme pages and furry hedonism among others.
The EP’s latest single, the taut “rudy ya ya ya” is a sparse and uneasy song centered around a propulsive and angular bass line, wiry blasts of guitar paired with Wafah’s sultry yet detached delivery in a vicious, yet occasionally veiled, satirical take down of the entirely deserving Rudy Guilliani — and awful men like him. It’s proof that Guilliani has moved on from a man that New Yorkers hate, to someone almost anyone with good sense across the world would hate.
Eldorado is an up-and-coming French singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and bedroom producer, who can trace the origins of her music career to when she turned 6 and started playing drums. Inspired by an eclectic array of artists, who have also abided by the DIY ethos including Mac DeMarco, Men I Trust, Yellow Days, Clairo and a list of others, the French singer/songwriter and bedroom producer’s work is inspired by real life, personal experiences, which helps evoke strong emotions.
Sonically, the up-and-coming French artist and producer has crafted music across a versa array of styles while maintaining a consistent brand and sound.
Eldorado’s debut single, the neon and heartache-tinged “3 in the morning” is centered around glistening, reverb-drenched guitars, the French artist and producer’s achingly plaintive vocals, skittering beats, atmospheric synths and a soaring hook. Sounding as though it were inspired by JOVM mainstays St. Lucia, Washed Out, and 80s synth pop, “3 in the morning” draws from a heartbreaking, fairly universal experience: wanting to be with someone, who has no interest in you whatsoever. It’s the sort of song, I can imagine heartbroken souls singing to themselves at 3am — or at the club, along with their equally heartbroken cohorts.
Brooklyn-based, indie rock duo Van Chamberlin — siblings Van and Jacob — features two grizzled pros: Individually, the members of Van Chamberlain have toured across the world in a number of bands, including Phantom Buffalo and Eternal Drag. Back in 2019, the duo reunited in Brooklyn, where they started Van Chamberlin, a project, which in many ways can trace its origins to the siblings growing up and making music together on a shared wavelength.
With the release of 2020’s studio demo LY, the Brooklyn-based duo quickly established a sound and approach that meshes elements of dream pop and jangle pop — with a subtle 90s alt rock influence.
Understandably, the pandemic forced the duo to postpone playing material live, so the duo spent their time in the studio, working on their full-length debut In The Sun, which is slated for an April 8, 2022 release through Very Jazzed.
Sonically and thematically, In The Sun reportedly is about layers — both sonically and philosophically. The album’s material is centered round lush and reverb-drenched guitar textures paired with infectious percussion. And although Van’s laid-back vocal evokes lazy sunny days, lyrically the album’s material draws from personal experience of loss and growth. The album’s sonic approach helps to affirm the duo’s philosophical message: what’s past is prologue, and the future holds promise, but neither will count unless you make peace with the present.
In The Sun‘s latest single “Heavy Cloud” is centered around lush layers of gently twangy, reverb-drenched guitars, propulsive drumming, soaring hooks and Van’s achingly plaintive vocals within an expansive and roomy song structure. The end result is a song that subtly nods at painterly, A Storm in Heaven-like textures and 90s, 120 Minutesera MTV alt rock with a deliberation attention to craft.
London-based dream pop act and JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — have managed to bounce between chilly and atmospheric pop and shimmering guitar-driven, desert noir through the release of five albums: 2012’s Creatures of an Hour, 2013’s Strange Pleasures, 2016’s Dead Blue, 2018’s Slow Air and 2020’s The Last Exit.
The critically applauded The Last Exit continued where its immediate predecessor left off with 11 songs centered around shimmering and carefully crafted arrangements featuring organic instrumentation paired with Tessa Murray’s smoky crooning. Thematically, the album took the listener through a hypnotic and mesmerizing journey filled with dilapidated and long-abandoned towns, mysterious shapes appearing on the horizon and long trips that blur the lines between what’s there and not there.
The album’s material was brought into further focus as a result of pandemic-related lockdowns and quarantines. “There’s always something at the end of the road and for us it was this album. Our plans were put on hold – an album set for release, tours, video shoots, travel,” Tessa Murray explained in press notes for the album. “We’d been touring nonstop for years, but we were forced to pause everything. We thought the album was finished but with the crisis found new inspiration and started writing again.” Three of the album’s songs — “Crying,” “Static,” and “‘Till We Meet Again” were written during this period and they reflect upon the profound impact of isolation and the human need for social contact and intimacy.
Late last year, the JOVM mainstays released “Heavy Days,” a propulsive and uptempo bop featuring twinkling synth arpeggios, a chugging motorik groove, shimmering and reverb drenched guitars and a soaring hook paired with Murray’s smoky vocals. The end result twas a song that saw the duo retaining the beloved elements of their overall sound — but while seemingly drawing from 80s pop.
Despite the literal weight of it’s title “Heavy Days” may be the most optimistic and sunny song of the JOVM mainstays’ growing catalog. “Sometimes it all feels like too much, there’s a lot to take in reading the news all the time,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says in press notes. “We wanted to write a reminder to put the phone down now and again and get out there and live life to the fullest while you can.”
The JOVM mainstays start off the year with the expansive “Far Rider,” a track that sounds as though it could have been on both or either Slow Air or The Last Exit as its centered around shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars and a steady rhythm paired with Murray’s smoky crooning, which at one point are chopped up and distorted.
“This song is about leaving, lost love and finding yourself somewhere on the journey, really it’s about redemption,” Still Corners Tessa Murray explains. I recently drove 6000 miles across the southwest to feel the sun on my face and think. We used the dreamlike nature of the song to capture the landscape and a hypnotic feel to conjure up the long and lonely travel days.”
Still Corners will be embarking on a lengthy tour throughout 2022 that includes a June 16, 2022 stop at Le Poisson Rouge. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
European Tour Dates
2nd April – Athens, Greece @ Gagarin 205 Tickets
4th April – Lille, France @ L’Aeronef Tickets
5th April – Paris, France @ La Maroquinerie Tickets
6th April – Sint-Niklaas, Belgium @ De Casino Tickets
7th April – Amsterdam, Netherlands @ Q-Factory Tickets
8th April – Groningen, Netherlands @ Vera Tickets
10th April – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Hotel Cecil Tickets
11th April – Hamburg, Germany @ Grünspan Tickets
12th April – Köln, Germany @ Gebäude9 Tickets
13th April – Berlin, Germany @ Heimathafen Tickets
14th April – Leipzig, Germany @ UT Connwitz Tickets
15th April – Prague, Czech Republic @ Meetfactory Tickets
16th April – Vienna, Austria @ Flex Café Tickets
18th April – Zagreb, Croatia @ Boogaloo Tickets
19th April – Ljubljana, Slovenia @ Kino Šiška Tickets
20th April – Milan, Italy @ Magnolia Tickets
21st April – Bern, Switzerland @ Dachstock/Reitschule Tickets
22nd April – Metz, France @ La Chapelle des Trinitaires Tickets
25th April – Dublin, Ireland @ Pepper Canister Church Tickets
26th April – Glasgow, United Kingdom @ Stereo Tickets
27th April – Leeds, United Kingdom @ The Brudenell Social Club Tickets
28th April –Manchester, United Kingdom @ YES Tickets
29th April – London, United Kingdom @ EartH Theatre Tickets
US Tour Dates
18th May – Philadelphia, Pennsylvania @ Underground Arts Tickets
19th May – Vienna, Virginia @ Jammin Java Tickets
20th May – Durham, North Carolina @ Motorco Tickets
21st May – Atlanta, Georgia @ Aisle 5 Tickets
22nd May – Tampa, Florida @ Crowbar Tickets
26th May – Dallas, Texas @ Deep Ellum Arts Co Tickets
27th May – Austin, Texas @ The Parish Tickets
30th May – Phoenix, Arizona @ Rebel Lounge Tickets
31st May – San Diego, California @ Soda Bar Tickets
1st June – Santa Ana, California @ The Observatory Tickets
2nd June – Los Angeles, California @ Echoplex Tickets
3rd June – San Francisco, California @ Great Northern Tickets
5th June – Portland, Oregon @ Mississippi Studios Tickets
6th June – Seattle, Washington @ The Crocodile Tickets
8th June – Boise, Idaho @ Neurolux Tickets
9th June – Salt Lake City, Utah @ Urban Lounge Tickets
10th June – Fort Collins, Colorado @ The Coast Tickets
11th June – Denver, Colorado @ Globe Hall Tickets
14th June – Chicago, Illinois @ Lincoln Hall Tickets
16th June – New York, New York @ LPR Tickets
17th June – Hamden, Connecticut @ Space Ballroom Tickets
18th June – Allston, Massachusetts @ Brighton Music Hall Tickets
18th June – Allston, Massachusetts @ Brighton Music Hall Tickets
Chemikkal is an emerging, Tampa-based producer and DJ, who has penchant for crafting infectious bangers meant to get people on their feet. His latest single, the balearic house-like “Decline U” continues a run of infectious, crowd pleasing bangers, centered around glistening synth arpeggios, self-assured and sultry vocals, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and some enormous Top 40 pop-like hooks. It’ll get you to the dance floor, I promise.
With the release of 2019’s sophomore album Under a Blood Moon, the Gothenburg, Sweden-based doom metal trio Firebreather — currently, Mattias Nööjd (vocals, guitar), Axel Wittbeck (drums) and the band’s newest member Nicklas Hellqvist (bass) — found the band quickly establishing a raw, in-your-face and incendiary sound.
The Swedish doom metal trio’s third album Dwell in the Fog is slated for a February 25, 2022 release through RidingEasy Records. Much like their preceding two albums, Dwellin the Fog was recorded and mixed by engineer Oskar Karlsson at Gothenburg-based Elementstudion. The album’s material features a streamlined focus on driving, symphonic riffs in the vein of acts like High On Fire,Inter Arma and labelmates Monolord among others, while rumbling and raging with a fury that the band has only hinted at on their previously released material.
“The album is a cathartic journey inwards and a musical continuation from Under A Blood Moon, but with more emphasis on groove and feel,” the band’s Matthias Nööjd says in press notes.
Dwell in the Fog‘s third and latest single “Sorrow” is a furious and sludgy dirge centered around thunderous drumming, scorching riffs and tweeter and woofer rattling low-end paired with Nöörd’s guttural yet melodic howling. While arguably being among the hardest and most forceful songs I’ve written about so far this year, “Sorrow” evokes the frustration, heartache and despair of sorrow — and in turn, loss — with a simmering yet visceral fury.
Tidal Wave is an emerging Toronto-based indie rock/art rock septet. Citing a diverse array of influences including M83, Depeche Mode and Arcade Fire, the emerging Canadian outfit released their self-titled debut EP last year.
After the release of their debut EP, the members of Tidal Wave wanted to create a bold song with lots of layers to open their show up and create more intensity. The band wound up with their first single of the year, the anthemic Silversun Pickups-like “This Cost of Life.” Centered around an alternating quiet verses, explosively loud chorus song structure, featuring thunderous drumming, soaring strings, big power chords and plaintive vocals, “This Cost of Life” captures the swooning melancholy and regret that happens as the result of a painful breakup. But it isn’t hopeless or despairing.
The song seems to suggest that although the end of a relationship can be devastating, heartbreaking and life altering, it’s part of the cost of living. You may be heartbroken but that relationship gave you something wonderful — a better understanding of yourself and what you want and need, the highs of love and connection and so on. Also while you think you may be the only one suffering; you’re not. Everyone has been there before. It sucks but it isn’t the end of the world either.
Formed back in 2020, Rotterdam-based indie rock outfit Elephant spent the better part of that year throwing themselves fully into songwriting, spending much of their free time at their greenhouse studio, just outside of town.
Early last year, the Rotterdam-based outfit released their debut EP. The material, which was centered around beautiful melodies, subtle grooves and sobering lyrics caught the attention of journalists nationally including pop journalist Leo Blokhuis. Several EP songs were playlisted on Amazing Radio with “Midnight in Manhattan” landing at #12 on the Verrukkelijke 15 Dutch National Radio Chart. They capped off a big 2021 by signing to Dutch label Excelsior Recordings, who will release their Pablo van de Poel-produced full-length debut Big Thing later this year.
The rising Dutch band started off 2022 with the release of the critically applauded single “Calling” and an an attention grabbing appearance at Eurosonic Nooderslag. Continuing upon that momentum, the members of Elephant recently released Big Thing‘s second and latest single, the slow-burning, “Medicine.” Centered around a trippy, 70s rock meets jam band like groove, glistening and twangy guitars, and easy-going vocals, “Medicine” manages to be simultaneously sunny and melancholy, evoking clouds passing in front of the sun.
“‘Medicine’ is about finding a remedy for negativity and cynicism, whether it is through love, music, or of course another shot of the vaccine,” the band explains.
Toronto-based post-punk quartet Hollow Graves are inspired by the second British invasion and with their recently released debut album Mid-Century Modern, the Canadian outfit quickly establishes a sound that features elements of dream pop, New Wave and post-punk.
Fittingly, the album’s material was inspired by life events both before and during the pandemic. Songs touch on the loneliness of being secluded, relationship and personal struggles, while also offering glimpses of hope and enjoyment.
“Borderline,” Mid-Century Modern‘s latest single is an infectious, hook-driven bop centered around glistening and reverb drenched guitar, a driving bass line, stuttering four-on-four and plaintive vocals. But just under the surface is an uneasy anxious tension that feels familiar, with the song asking the question of “when do you let go of someone, who might be struggling and can’t — or is unwilling — to help themselves.
As the band explains in press notes, “‘Borderline’ is a story about a person whose personal struggles are being spread to friends and family in a negative way.” They add “even though you may try to help a struggling friend, you might not be able to effect positive change until they can help themselves first.”
