Week in Pop
Blushing shared a listen off their upcoming 12″ with “Weak” available January 26 from Austin Town Hall Records that offers a sophisticated survey of kindness & weakness illustrated in dream drawn textures. Christina & Michelle bridge harmonies that cascade in ascending orders that reach toward greater strengths that pushes away the negative thoughts of others in favor of bright & brilliant ethereal tones.
Madame Gandhi offered up the Gizzle remix for “Gandhi Blues” that sports visuals provided by Michaela Olsen, Jessica Peterson, Erin Bagwell, Sarah Tricker, featuring effects from Minkyung Chung, Victoria Arslani, Anthony Galante with animation courtesy of Emily Collins, Anthony Galante & Michaela Olsen. Released this past October 11 on International Day of the Girl & National Coming Out Day; Madame G & Gizzle illustrate the assertion of the self outside the binary constructs & constraints that moves forward for a greater generative dialogues & inclusive arts for everyone.
Behold the Julian Vares video for Yumi Zouma’s “December” off the features the Cascine album Willowbank that takes you through the group’s own favorite haunts about New Zealand. From locales like Loft Furniture & Homeware, Civil & Naval, Sawtooth Studios, Darkroom, Christchurch Art Gallery, Three Boys, C1, Supreme Supreme, Alice in Videoland, Ara, C4 & more; the Yumis offer a little slice of their home for their adoring fans all over the globe.
Cookie Money dropped the Andrew Smars produced single “Plug Talk” ft. E-40 featured off Cookie World 2.5 that offers stories of made mensches & tales from the trenches. From insights on boss life to the folks out there in that daily grind, 40 further toasts the ins & outs with working class paradigms juxtaposed with that high life. Cookie Money described how the two emcees collaborated:
E-40 and I knew each other, just from the history of the Bay. We recently started seeing each other at Warriors games, I was skeptical at first to even ask for music from him, until one day he called and said, send something. “Plug Talk” was done in 20 minutes!
Helsinki’s Suad presented us with a listen to their title track off their upcoming The Call that sends out snow fallen winter resonances to help the season of cold feel a little warmer. The rising Finnish pop star Suad Khalifa harnesses atmospheres of winter with vocals that invite a combination of the calm & wild that fly like doves & hawks wing to wing.
Austin’s own Neosho announced the debut album Borderline available November 10 with a listen to the sax-ed out/sax-ed up single “Big G”. Brass & synths do battle with one another in an electric array of awe & intrigue of utter fascination. This is the sound that will reverberate within your dome long after the festival have concluded, the band has ceased playing, the fans have gone home & Neosho’s music continues to reverberate long after.
Celebrating the relentless influences of the ultra-neon lit 80s is Boston’s Traverse Town who share the throwback radio signals of “Signs”. Through synth pop methodologies, the group of DJ Mello, Seth Marques, Andrew Botelho & Bobby Rubicine take you by the hand on a tour through the sites, sounds & city streets of Boston where inner thought streams are met by the motion & majesties of environmental surroundings.
Grammars offered up a listen to the clash of the semantics & expressions with “War of Words” that operates by way of a minimalist electro aesthetic. In the fight to find a common ground of understood reality, Grammars blast open the surficial & semiotic appearances of language exchanges to reach a greater understanding through games of attrition.
Manchester’s own New Luna offers up a listen to their single “Opinionated” that moves from points of view & into the ever expansive ether of audio ethereality. From matters of opinion & choruses that weave in & out of rich rhythmic guitar textures, the Mancunian quartet exhibits that the spirit of guitar forward pop is alive & well in the world.
Featured off Arum Rae’s album Sub Rosa, take in the intimate John Bevilacqua visuals for “Should I” that showcases the artist & their guitar in an empty flat with two empty wine glasses. Rae’s earthy delivery brings about illustrations of wants, desires & all the things & pangs that nag at the heart’s core.
Shopping announced their new album The Official Body available January 19 via FatCat Reccords & offer a pool-side view of their Billy Easter & Jack Barraclough video for “The Hype”. Readying a UK/EU tour this November, get wild with the band in one DIY pop pool party that you are not gonna wanna miss.
A is for Atom shared the evocative & spaced-out single “Last Man On The Moon” that orbits about an intimate & emotive galaxy created by constellations of chords & keys. Mike Cykoski takes us on their own space odyssey sort of anthem where the feeling of floating in suspended atmospheres make that long way down seem even more grand in scale, dimension & depth.
Portland’s Katy Davidson, aka Dear Nora, presented a cover of the century old song “Where the Morning Glories Grow” from an upcoming ten song comp available December 1 from Marmoset Music. The sound of sprawling floral surprises springs forth with a timeless feeling of rising up to greet a brand new as fresh as the morning dew & the day’s rising run slowly awakening & shining over the horizon.
Nashville’s Michael McQuaid presented a listen to the late night driving essence of eternal evening on “26 Miles” feat. Hudson East that is expressed with hazy, foggy & smoky textures. The sound of descending deep into the catacombs of subterranean lost highway corridors croon over restrained electronic ambiance with an assist from East that keeps the entire track focused yet wavy.
Strange Hellos presents the new single “Gold For the Golden” featured off the just released debut album Chromatic via Brilliance Records that shines with a sun kissed glow. Playing London’s Sebright Arms December 6, the Norwegian dream pop group commands the convection cycles of atmospheric audio auras that uplift all around with ears & hearts that hear.
From Typhoon’s upcoming album Offerings available January 12 from Roll Call Records, we bring you the album movement of “Floodplains” that features the cycle of “Wake”, “Rorschach”, “Empiricist” & “Algernon”. Featuring visuals from Nevan Doyle & Matthew Thomas Ross; the feeling of weathering the storms of life is felt in visceral manners of expressive introspection where feeling hangs on every note & lyrical utterance.
AUTOBAHN readies their new album The Moral Crossing available November 3 from felte & offers up a listen to the rhythmically charged title track. Questions of morality are extolled with paradigms of human nature caught at the crossroads of ethical quandaries exemplified through a visceral clamor & chorus.
BOYO presented the VHS video for “Me, Again” off their upcoming album of the same name available January 19 from Danger Collective Records. Mixing vintage visual overlays with home recorded footage; BOYO brings the bedroom pop essences of both sound & visions together in an intimate manner that will appeal to the core of your heart.
Ruth Good, comprised of brothers Jonathan & Wes Parker, present a listen to their brand new Spliff EP available now from Citrus City Records. The Richmond, VA duo brings all the DIY bliss & joy that follows up their 12″ with the buzz of “Mosquitos”, the jubilant “Got My Penz”, the sweetened delights of “Baklava”, the jangle strumming “Shooting Range”, or the emotive guitar expressions enjoyed on “Ice Water”, the passions of “YLIE”, as the Parker siblings close it out with the iced dairy break on “Milkshake Boyz”.
Gothenburg’s Erik Jonasson shared the sweet & sentimental strumming single “Those Words” available today from Hybris. Reminiscing of exchanges with a loved one from previous years shines a light on the way the past impacts the future & the feelings that get caught in the in-between.
Laura Shaw & Kid Cupid present their new single “Easy” that illustrates tests of wills pitted against one another & the cop outs of giving up too fast. From losses of desire & volition; the London group emphasizes the importance of showing not telling through works with the persistence & strength to make it together through the long haul of the thick & thin.
Jaunt returns with the first listen from their upcoming 2018 slated EP with the evocative & emotively expressive single “Machined”. The Toronto group follows up a plethora of touring, the release of their Chat EP with effervescent & atmospheric elements that move like the morning mist or the night’s restless fog vapors. The band introduced the new single “Machined” with the following thoughts:
“Machined” deals with the reluctant acceptance of the inevitable. It’s sort of like recalling a memory you’d like to forget, over-analyzing it to the point of uncertainty. It’s both pretty and jarring, building gradually only to fall apart quickly. We wanted “Machined” to be jerry-rigged together, pulling from our range of influences with enough collective glue to sound cohesive. It feels focused and refreshing to us.
Floating Points delivered the beat deluxe botanicals on “Ratio”, a 19 minute odyssey that hearkens back to hedonistic underground club nights & other clandestine events involving deep dish electro cuts. From rhythmic hyper charged sequences sent into the calm yet kinetic pools of electronic feelings; Floating Points provides the phenomenon of hovering about the atmosphere in ways where the audience feels as if they themselves are lighter than air.
Ahead of their new festival The Growlers Six happening this weekend in San Pedro, The Growlers dropped the Dan Auerbach produced single “California”. Previously known as the “Hung at Heart” demo, the stripped down acoustic hop-along & about single shines a light on the never before released album recorded with the dude behind Black Keys/The Arcs.
New York’s Jim Andralis provided a listen to the locally minded Americana ballad “Don’t Blame New York”. Andralis & company provide all the reasons why you shouldn’t blame the Big Apple for your problems that spells out cold hard truths that offers up a slice of collective commiseration with the message that no matter what you’re going through-you’re not alone.
Oakland’s LOUIZA (oka Rebecca Mimiaga) shared the song of faded memories & pangs of sorrow on “Forget Regret” that illustrate the intensity of life’s uncompromising reality & the ways in which it affects the core of the heart & soul. From evocative strums & candid lyrics that will strike a chord with many; LOUIZA is a tunesmith on the rise who illustrates the intimate in personal in manners that resonate in a universal way.
Cassandra Violet shared the single “Invisible Man” featured off the upcoming EP available December 1 that sends out a piano adorned tune dedicated to those certain someones that are barely there in the physical form. With atmospheric soaring vocals, Cassandra described the inspirations behind her new single with the following reflections:
“Invisible Man” is a song about being in love with someone who is never around, but you can’t get them out of your mind, and it sucks, so you try and distract yourself but nothing works. So, basically, loneliness. It might not be very high concept but I think everyone can relate!
