Week in Pop
Al Lover is preparing for his EU tour but before doing so he collaborated with Fuzz Club Records to present the 10″ NEUicide that merges together the creative & influential tropes introduced by Neu! & Suicide that have inspired today’s & tomorrow’s underground circuits. Al couples the contributions from the two titan groups of mythic lore where the motorik components of NEU! dovetail into the electro minimalism championed by Alan Vega where both the realms of the krautrock & NYC post-punk worlds collide together in a universe that totally belongs to Al Lover.
From Human Bevhavior’s just released album Kedumim, we give you a listen to the cryptic/mystic weirdness of the record with a focus on “As We Remember That No Prophet Is Accepted In Their Own Country”. The strums & strange noises rumbling about the background & the sound of a flickering fire provides something of an ancient & acoustic entrance into the unusual chambers & gothic subterranean cathedrals.
Brooklyn’s SAINt JHN followed up the recent cut “Roses” with the subterranean reverberations heard on “Reflex” that tackles the spaces between responses & reactions in real time. The production maintains a pensive spark & smoky haze while JHN provides some exposition of internal introspection that illustrates statements of self while shedding a light on the more vulnerable aspects of earnest cares & concerns.
Johan Angergård’s Legends dropped the new single “Cocaine” that features the infinitely exquisite vocals from Maria Usbeck. The combination becomes a woozy and intoxicating one as both Johan & Maria duet together in a hazy electric wonderland that keeps us curious about what to expect next from both of these respective pop titans.
Tel-Aviv’s Noa Bentor puts a new spin on Radiohead’s “True Love Waits”, where the blank & breathy spaces are emphasized with the utmost elegance & diligence. Bentor takes on Thom Yorke’s classic with strings and vocals that further adds to the sparse nature of the song where Noa teases out the baroque pop portions of the song that will keep you waiting with bated breath for her next moves soon to follow later this fall.
The world of H.P. Lovecraft is alive & well as referenced in Le Trouble’s Epher Heilland video for “Vampires” that depicts a Cthulhu life spent in solitude. Everything from seeing the anti-hero/antagonist going to the store, spending time at home, by a waterfall, and being teased by others while at a diner. Le Trouble brings the vampirical passion on “Vampires” while illustrating how it’s not easy to be a Cthulhu in the real world after all. Get the single & more here.
Cameron Murdoch dropped some hazy-days on a sunny afternoon feels with the single “Revival” found off the forthcoming I Love Me Too EP available October 7. The Midwest stationed artist makes every new day feel like a brand new start with a constant & steady beat to inspire you to get out there and have the best day possible.
Hot on the heels of their debut that dropped last summer, hear the latest from Melbourne trio Arbes with the beauty of the single “Sun On My Back” that will keep your summer sun shining big & bright through to the summers of 2017, 2018, and so on. Found off of their new self-recorded EP Psalms available October 7 from Sports Day Records, Arbes exhibits & embrace the most glorious & illustrious confection of chords that glisten like hard candies & assortments of jelly beans left beneath the rays of the sun.
Take a ride with Young Dolph through his old Memphis stomping grounds in the Iconick video for “Nothin’” found off the Paper Route Empire album Rich Crack Baby that gives a tour of the parts that the northern & coastal sets know little about. Dolph depicts a narrative of his come up with environments that recall where YD’s been, where’s from, and the hustling story of making something out of absolutely nothing.
Massachusetts by California artist Magana readies her debut album Golden Tongue for release October 28 through Audio Antihero sharing the emotive pleas heard on the single, “Get It Right”. Discourse of manners, cander & composure are on front & center display here as Magana enters the scene guns blazing with the simple request to be the real deal or no deal at all.
Scotty ATL enlists Ty Dolla $ign to help pour a little out & shed some tears over the loss of dear friends near to the heart with the eulogy “Bye Bye”. Those who understand hardship & grief will instantly connect to Scotty & Ty’s verses that are relayed like prayers to the sky expressed over some smoky & atmospheric TDT production.
Dinowalrus recently dropped their fourth album Fairweather, guested Week in Pop with and today present the rooftop centered video for “Falling to the Periphery” from leader Pete Feigenbaum & filmed by J. MacDonald. The track title’s invitation beckons you to travel to the margins where the group presents an alternate Brit pop anthem that emulates your heroes in the most unexpected of ways. The visuals play around with filter effects & more that transform Dinowalrus’s rooftop performance (not exactly your parents’ “Get Back” rooftop concert) into a full psychotropic experience as the late 80s & 90s become rewritten.
Tucson’s Mute Swan just released their Ultraviolet EP and we had the pleasure to premiere “Just Like Weeds” and today we give you the single “Never Born”. The band takes a detour that returns to the origins of the womb in a dreamy haze of dissonance that contains some of the most peculiar guitar tones you will ever hear. Catch them touring now through October 14.
The Left Rib, comprised of Bonobo’s Johnny Tomlinson and Eryka Badu’s Belle Benham featured on front & center vocals present the animated video for “Evening Star” taken from their debut EP Corporeal available October 21 from Blind Colour. The emotive sound-scapes & expressions are treated to Dali-esque CGI renderings to compliment the meditative sound that unfurls before your senses.
Sosamann dropped the video for “Splash 4 The Kash” ft. Sauce Walka that follows a few of Houston’s illest emcees having the time of their life while living the life. Find this off the Sauce Eskobar, and watch Sosamann & Sauce get jolly & jubilant now.
Introduce yourself to LA duo Who Can Sleep who present you the incessant insomniac pop with the single “Salt and Honey” that brings about a paradox of pure bliss that you never want to end. The contrast of the savory and the sweat with the tears & affection is detailed like a Romeo ballad that pens a sonic-sonnet to their betrothed love to be.
Atlanta artist Erik Stephansson makes music under the banner of Suntrodden and we just discovered that absolute tear-provoking beauty of “Melt” off the forthcoming Suntrodden II available October 28. Recorded at Stephansson’s own Echo Bright Studios, “Melt” displays the kind of sentimental pop genius that will speak to more aspects of your receptive senses than you’ve never known before.
Daye Jack ft. Dev09 dropped the single “Loaded Gun” featured off the young artist’s Surf The Web that deals with situations & sentiments that are under extreme pressure. Dev provides levity that matches the more ambient aspects of the production.
Shake a leg with Paul & The Tall Trees’ new single “Next Time” that strums out a little something, something to look forward to in the future. From the upcoming album Our Love In The Light available October 21 from Big Crown Records produced by Datpone’s own Thomas Brenneck; the guitarist from Charles Bradley presents his own unique take on Americana styles that presents a romanticism that is full of spontaneity & hopeful joy.
Tasseomancy presented us with the Badalmenti/Lynch/Cruise canon with “Missoula” taken from their Do Easy album available November 18 from Bella Union. The track brings a haunted northwest by Midwest fancy that moves like a hovering ghost making it’s way down the line along the haunted trail.
Get all introspective with the Lucho x WELL$ track “A Sad Dance Song” that provides some emotive tunes to dance to on a ready day. WELL$ spills his heart about the one that got away with conversation quips & extracts where illustrations of understandings in games of love & war are pronounced in the refrain of “you say you know who you are, you say you know you” that crush you to the core like coping with heartache while the rain descends downward upon you.
Check out the Enrique Perez video for RÉN’s “Into The Unknown” that ventures deep into the park for strange pop rituals.
Featured off his new album 1993, Caleborate presents the video for “Consequences” that tackles the cause & effect equations over a chill Julia Lewis beat. Caleborate calibrates your consciousness on the things that matter that involve all the squad goals like the catchy reiterated refrain of “I just wanna drink, smoke weed & be cool”.
Bridgit Mendler is readying her Nemesis EP for release November 18 and we have the video for “Atlantis” to tide you over. Romantic flights of fancy and adoration take over that sets up the most endearing & ecstatic gatherings complete with a guest appearance & verse from Kaiydo as the place where dreams & awakened life meet in congress like held hands.
Behold a mustachioed Natalie Mering in her DIY video for the heart-captivating “Do You Need My Love” featured off Weyes Blood’s forthcoming album Front Row Seat to Earth available October 21 from Mexican Summer. Natalie transforms folks approaches into timeless tales torn from the pages of books & almanacs from other eras & places.
Baloji has signed to Bella Union and dropped the single “Spoiler” ffrom the forthcoming 64 Bits & Malachite EP available November 4. The Congolese artist by way of Belgium combines a fusion of cultures with dashes of French pop styles & so much more that displays a real time array of fasinating sciences of sound that spring to vibrant life before your ears.
Minneapolis’s own red shirt runners Communist Daughter brought us the single of hesitance, reluctance & restraint with “Hold Back” found of the upcoming album The Cracks That Built the Wall available October 21. The notions drift like dandelion pedals blown into the breeze like thoughts of truths, thoughts of careless whispers cast to the couriers & carriers of the wind’s airborne paths of transit.
Taylor Gang’s own J.R. Donato dropped the video for “Trap Never Close” featured off his upcoming Why So Serious? tape that talks the 24 hour ins & outs of the struggle game joined by a crew of fellow revelers that keeps things lively & booming.
All Boy/All Girl delivered the single “Housewarming” that seeks some sort of solitude & sanctuary of one’s own away from the work week off the upcoming album Slagroom available October 21 from Grind Select. Danielle Lovier & company built their sound from the humble confines a of a basement in Manhattan’s lower east side that is rich with the exquisite expressions & experiences of our collective human experience.
Baltimore’s Captain Morris brought an anthem for suburban ennui & the more dormant boredom areas of romance on “White Girl”. Morris brings about a voyeuristic kind of vibe that takes it to the next level where adoration turns into a visceral & vicarious imagining put to a modern soundtrack of a well arranged production to star in your next mixtape.
Hooton Tennis Club present the soiree-sorted video for “Katy-Anne Bellis” featured off their upcoming album Big Box Of Chocolates available October 21 from Heavenly Recordings (and produced by the legendary Edwyn Collins via his Clashnarrow Studios at home in Helmsdale, Scotland). The result is some of the greatest power pop you’ll hear this season that will restore your belief in large, chunky & chimey power chords.
Brooklyn’s Bridges and Powerlines dropped their new jam “Even Killers Need A Home” that lifts a toasts to all the loveless derelicts of the world off their forthcoming National Fantasy Devise available October 7. The track harmonizes in manners that illustrates some the candiest pop rock around.
The Lafayette Afro Rock Band vs Ice AfroFunkExplosion! compilation will be available October 28 from Manifesto Records and we give you a sound of their latter incarnation as Ice (following the departure of leader Bobby Boyd) with “Don’t Wonder Why”. The Long Island originated group boasts some of the most glamorous rhythm & pop gems that shine with brass & wah-wahs that bring about some of the best funk heard east of Detroit.
Australia’s Two People are Phoebe Lou and Joey Clough who just dropped the Ryan Davis “Timeless Edit” remix of their single “If We Have Time” that discovers new sections, sequences & audio lands out of time & mind. Davis’s take on the duo’s cut entertains illuminating keys & atmospheres that feels like the tranquility of a sabbatical spent recollecting your senses.
Brooklyn’s Richie Quake dropped a new romantic dance jam with “Hesitate”. Quake exhibits restraint in a song that takes its time, but never for a moment hesitates on the meanings behind the persistence that punctuates the bombastic-plastic sparse & slapping production.
Take in the epic & expansive locations heard & felt in the following David M. Helman video for Vancouver Sleep Clinic’s ultra-dramatic “Killing Me To Love You” that basks in the vasts surroundings that house the equally titanic arrangement/delivery/execution.
From Columbus, Ohio with lots of love; Earwig brought us the Mike Beaumont for Spacejunk Media video for “Wasted on You” featuring an epic power pop duet between Lydia Loveless and Lizard McGee. Catch this & more on the forthcoming album Pause For the Jets from Anyway/LFM Records.
Feast your senses on the b/w video from Nathan Johnson for “Weep” from Magik*Magik (oka Minna Choi) featured on her upcoming self-titled album available October 14. Let all your senses of sight, ears, smell but above all emotion pour fourth and allow yourself to connect to the tear-jerking triggers that could be the best catharsis you have experienced in an eternity.
Delivering the next chapters from their debut EP To The Valley, NYC x Philly’s Palmas brings more sweeping baroque pop with “Flowers” that abides by vintage harmonies & arrangements that reach for newer contemporary grounds. “Flowers” exhibits a sound that is constantly ascending, as every chord & vocal rises toward a sky, space & heave without ceilings.
Australia’s Julia Jacklin presented the beautiful “Hay Plain” that will work it’s way into your heart in the most unexpected of ways. Found off her debut album Don’t Let The Kids Win available October 7 from Polyvinyl, Jacklin makes music worthy of multiple listens where new meanings & feelings are revealed each & every time.
On October 28, Daptone releases the ultra-massive instrumental self-titled album from The Olympians that features some of NYC’s best artists around, such as Charles Bradley, The Dap-Kings, members of Lee Fields, El Michels Affair, Menahan Street Band, Budos Band, Tonight Show Band, The Arcs, Sugarman 3, Steely Dan & David Byrne’s musical director & still more. Presenting the following listen to a few singles off the upcoming album, we begin with “Apollo’s Mood” that takes off like a spaceship rising up from the Apollo Theater with a mission told through brass & utter sparkling brilliance.
Also from the upcoming Daptone self-titled from The Olympians, check out “Sirens of Jupiter” that rocks like a classic 70s movie soundtrack that is somewhere halfway between the sidewalk & the stars. Woodwinds & wah-wah peddles push the atmospheric funk forward as a sunny day here suddenly turns into a cosmic affair.
Parcels’ are readying their new EP for release in early 2017 from the good folks at Kitsuné, and you can get a first listen with the vocal laden dance bass & bounce of “Myenemy” to catapult your weekend proper.
I Have A Tribe delivered the sentimental piano-lead reflections of “After We Meet” that delves into the departures & returns found off the forthcoming debut album, Beneath A Yellow Moon available October 14 from Grönland.
Melbourne duo friendships are Nic Brown & Misha Grace who just dropped their debut Nullarbor 1988-1989 this past week via Dot Dash / Remote Control Records and we present you with the video for “The Roof” that was inspired by Misha’s fall from a NYC roof during CMJ 2015. The result is the duo’s steadfast resolve that breaks through the mortal coil for a whole other kind of energy & power where the continuum between life & death feels closer than ever where you witness an out of body experience of worlds flashing before you eyes in CGI.
Melbourne duo friendships are Nic Brown & Misha Grace who just dropped their debut Nullarbor 1988-1989 this past week via Dot Dash / Remote Control Records and we present you with the video for “The Roof” that was inspired by Misha’s fall from a NYC roof during CMJ 2015. The result is the duo’s steadfast resolve that breaks through the mortal coil for a whole other kind of energy & power where the continuum between life & death feels closer than ever where you witness an out of body experience of worlds flashing before you eyes in CGI.
Today Kayla Cohen, otherwise known as Itasca gifted the entire world with the bliss & blessing of her anticipated new album Open To Chance via Paradise of Bachelors. Touring with Ryley Walker in November, Itasca has entranced/illuminated/enlightened & more with releases like Grace Riders On The Road, Unmoored By The Wind, Ann’s Tradition & various singles that solidified her place in the great cosmic Americana canon of like-minded legends & spirits. The glimmering guitar chords enter with the warm & befriending “Buddy” that instantly makes this album the ultimate road trip companion. Tales of conflicts witnessed, experienced & felt star on “Henfight” (that will win over every Vanguard Records folk freak), defying causes & effects on “No Consequence”, busting out the twang on “G.B.”, leading you through passage ways that pass the common dining halls of “Layman’s Banquet”. “Carousel” takes you on a slow spinning ride down memory lanes, while “Just For Tomorrow” rocks you in a cradle of serene strings, the celestial strums of “Angel”, embracing the daybreak of “Daylight Under My Wing”, to the consciousness illuminating “Right This Time”, that leads to the closing number “Bonafide” that will keep your heart yearning for a twelfth track to follow. Next up, Kayla Cohen takes over Impose’s Week in Pop after the following listen.
