Tag: Young Heavy Souls

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Detroit’s Zilched Shares Yearning “Loveless”

23 year-old, Detroit-based singer/songwriter Chloe Drallos is the creative mastermind behind the rising pop recording project Zilched. Started back in 2017, Drallos exploded into the national scene with her full-length debut, 2020’s DOOMPOP, an effort, which saw the Detroit-based artist quickly establishing an eclectic, genre-defying take on pop.

Drallos’ highly-anticipated sophomore album, the Ian Ruhala and Ben Collins co-produced Earthly Delights is slated for an August 11, 2023 release through Young Heavy Souls. Reportedly a testament to the maturation of her uncompromising creative vision, Drallos’ sophomore album sees her adding grunge elements to her gothic pop-tinged take on art rock. While being a dazzling display of poetic lyricism that sees the Detroit-based artist weaving an intricate tapestry of Romantic imagery, metaphor and religious allegory that softens the blow of her brutal honesty, the album explores the purgatorial nature of bargaining with an indecisive lover and with oneself.

“Loveless,” Earthly Delights‘ latest single oscillates between shimmering and yearning Kate Bush-like verses and cathartic, rousingly anthemic choruses as the song’s narrator speaks of something that’s fairly universal: the frustration and annoyance of a lover that’s been withholding and indecisive. The song ends with its narrator essentially saying “make up your mind or I’ll make it up for you.” While “Loveless” is a display of slick and seemingly effortless craft, the song feels rooted in bitter, deeply lived-in experience.

“The song is like a conversation between lovers. Contemplating the purgatorial roller coaster that exists between freedom and unity,” Drallos says.

Directed by Chloe Drallos, the accompanying video for “Loveless” sees Drallos and her band performing in a bare studio in a lush swatch of red and blue lighting as a sparse crowd of mysterious onlookers dispassionately watch. “As for the video, I was inspired by disco TV performances and Giallo horror,” Drallos explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Brazilian-Canadian Shoegazers Palm Haze Release a Gorgeously Cinematic and Feverish Visual for “Second Round”

With the release of their self-produced debut EP, 2017’s Tangy Dream, Palm Haze, comprised of Illhabela, Brazil-born, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada-based Anna Wagner (vocals, bass) and Lucas Inacio, a.k.a Fløver (guitar, production) have quickly developed a reputation for a unique sound that meshes elements of alt rock, shoegaze and trip hop. Considered the third best shoegaze album that year by DKFM‘s listener’s pool, the EP was later released on cassette tape by Young Heavy Souls and on vinyl through a successful Qrates crowdfunding campaign. 

Slated for release later this week through YHS Records, the the Illhabela-born, Vancouver-based shoegazer duo’s forthcoming effort Rêve Bleu reportedly draws from the duo’s chaotic personal lives last year. “While Tangy Dream feels very tangible and achievable, Rêve Bleu will bring up chaotic emotions and thoughts, taking you much further from reality and closer to the wonders of uncertainty. Where could you go? What could you do? It’s a fantasy you fall on accidentally, revealing risky and forbidden paths. It’s the kind of dream you’re afraid of, but also tempted towards,” the duo explain in press notes

Earlier this month, I wrote about the Lightfoils-like album single “Floating,” a track, which was centered around layers of fuzzy, pedal-effected guitars, a motorik groove, shuffling drumming and Wagner’s ethereal vocals. Interestingly, Rêve Bleu’s latest single “Second Round” is an expansive and trippy track that begins with a lengthy jazz-like and slow-burning intro featuring Wagner’s vocals floating over shimmering guitar and stuttering beats but about half way through, the song morphs into towering shoegaze reminiscent of My Blood Valentine, Ride and others, complete with fuzzy power chords and thunderous drumming. “Second Round” may arguably be the best example of their sound and approach but while managing to be ambitious yet accessible. 

Directed and edited by Matt Black and featuring camera and drone work by Alex Buksdorf, the recently released video for “Second Round” is one part brooding and noir-ish as it’s all gorgeously cinematic black and white photography and neon light — but as the song’s intensity turns up, the visuals become increasingly hallucinogenic.