Week in Pop
With Jay Som’s masterpiece Turn Into being released on vinyl November 18 via Polyvinyl & news of a new album projected for 2017; Melina Duterte proudly presents her first music video for the beloved song “Ghost”. Directed by Neil Davis & Evan Davis and featuring Lindsay Rodriguez, torn & un-torn photographs prompt sentiments & instincts of restless nostalgia & a journey through the woods to find odd & occultic enchantment. The adventure & discovering of a tree stump altar with candles, a mirror, a reassembled & framed photo nearby & more illustrates the elements that further allude to the “Ghost”-like elements at play in Melina’s song.
Athens, Greece’s Chickn are here to make all your classic international prog-psych dreams come true October 10 with the release of their self-titled from Inner Ear Records & sharing the seven minute slow-tripping “Aleppo/Jam”. The trio of Angelos Krallis from Greece’s Kos island & fellow rembetiko artists Evangelos Aslanides & Pantelis Karasevdas carve out epic monster jams that are delivered on the foundation of improvisation that takes on musical lives of their own synergistic accord.
Blu and Parisian are the production duo known as Union Analogtronics, readying their collaborative album Cheetah In The City for release November 4 from Fat Beats that features cameo spots from DâM-FunK, Frank N Dank, Phat Kat & production exclusively by the UA tag-team. Breaking us off a listen with “One Two”, B & P push their funky brand of style with swagger & a confident classic lean.
Crystal Fighters’ new album Everything Is My Family will be available October 21 from [PIAS] and you can check out their big ultra pop action with the single “Ways I Can’t Tell”. It’s a fusion of super infatuated sentiments that are mixed with hyper-rhythmic underpinnings that shakes everything up with all the fall festival feels.
Hear the mighty & massive dance pop might on the track “Invincible” feat. iDA HAWK from Big Wild courtesy of ODESZA’S Foreign Family Collective. Invulnerability is translated to big stepping kinetic rhythms that keep you wondering what’s next from the the FFC.
Weyes Blood’s own Natalie Mering presents her self-directed video with photographic assists from Micah Van Hove & Journey Wade-Hack for “Generation Why” from her upcoming album Front Row Seat to Earth available October 21 from Mexican Summer. Natalie explores abandoned places and embraces a freedom that the wild of the sea & the beckoning call of the future presents. The message is plainly; the future is here.
Chen Firsel presents the Noy Baskin visuals for the single “Stellar” found off his Sugarush EP. Firsel sounds & sincere sentiments soar sweetly up to the cosmos in a celebration of chaos in the natural order of things complete with animated visuals that place Chen somewhere between the city building tops & the illuminating constellations of the stars.
Solilians dropped a little something to ring in the Roshashana new year in proper with the track “Hine Ma Tov (Merc Yes Mix)” off their upcoming album Shin available November 18 from Goodbye Better. The music of Sharon Malkin, Benjamin Malkin, Gabriel Walsh & Neptune Sweet gets extra twisted courtesy of Merc Yes over at Uptown Mixers in Harlem, NY that features trombone accompaniment by Dan Blacksberg and a whole lot of mystic meditative mitzvah to start things off on the good foot.
Those looking for something sultry & sumptuous to spend your weekend sulking about leisurely to; then perhaps Soft Hair has what you’re craving with their enticing new single “In Love” courtesy of Weird World Record Co. / Domino. Soft Hair brings the extra PH balance to guarantee that kind of buoyancy & bounce that specializes in only the most luxurious styles of lounge pop imaginable.
Blaenavon brings the big time passion with their new single “My Bark Is Your Bite” that offers up contemporary nu-Brit pop sentiments tailor designed for the big stages.
Sip a few pints along to the Quinn Allan video for Balto’s “Born Astray” that brings some vintage jukebox songs to unify all wandering, derelict souls.
Show Banga dropped the vide for “Bonafide Hustla” ft. Lil Yee where the HomeTeam / Mo Betta / EMPIRE lives up the last quarter of 2016 in celebratory style. Taking you through the Fillmore District (otherwise affectionately referred to locally as the ‘mo’), Show Banga represents San Francisco in full dedicated passion where Giants & Niners attire flourishes and the pack rolls deep, hard & thoroughly committed to the survival hustle game emphasizing strength in numbers.
Sweden’s own Affordable Hybrid dropped the scuzz soaring single “Bat” from the upcoming 7″ available October 28 from Flannel Gurl Records. Flying like a vampire being blasted from the most wondrous parts of hell; Affordable Hybrid cranks up all involved amplifiers to ungodly levels that will wake & shake the crypts of the living and the not-so-alive.
Let Nevelle Viracocha shake up your day or night with the track “On Me” that drops an interruption found off the album Eff/Pee/Ohh where the classic all eyes on me request invites listener into the head spinning personal tales that are told courtesy of NV himself.
In time for Mental Awareness Week; Communist Daughter brought some sentimental strums & warm hearts for those going through battles few know anything about on “Balboa Bridge”. Play this in the memory of beautiful ones that have gone to greener pastures & the different darlings that are still with us.
New York’s Liz Brennan gave her own vocal pop version that may or may not have been inspired by Buffalo Springfield’s “Expecting to Fly” with “Expected To Fly” produced by Kevin Killen. The flights of fancy and stage fight fears shift from the waiting for the miracle philosophy to the expectancy placed upon artists to perform feats of derring-do on command and on demand at all times.
Houston’s Maxo Kream gave us a tour of the trap with the super-heavy track “Out The Front Door”. Kream boasts inventory to levels of hyperbole featuring contributions from @AZaeProduction x @JerryPHD that keep the entire production trippy & eerie.
Grand Analog dropped their new EP Love Is A Battlefield that take classic riddim styles and updates them for the new era. The vibe gets floating with the opening title single, that rises upward toward the atmosphere on “Vapours”, paying an homage to Junior Murvin & Lee Perry with a cover of “Police & Thieves”, right before leavig you with a Mad Professor Dub Battle Mix attack with “Dub Is A Battlefield”. This EP is about to become your entire weekend.
San Francisco’s domestic Foreign brought more mythic & moving strings & styles with “Apophenia” where the observed patterns & textures in the arbitrary is illustrated like a romantic slice of nostalgia. Memories & forget-me-not pedals all flutter down like tears to the ground in a power pop song that rocks like the summer of love never left.
In case you missed the word, Barcelona by Brooklyn’s NOIA will release her Habits EP available October 14 from Cascine and shared the single of future nostalgia & forward thinking pop with “Nostalgia Del Futuro”. Combining a delivery in both Spanish & English, NOIA composes pop music for future night clubs, special themed club nights, sub-genres & more in a sound that will thoroughly relax every aspect of your being.
London’s Lully presents the Jonny Blair & Adam Barnett video for the breakout single “Slow D’s” available soon from Aesop (home to SOHN, Jens Kuross, etc). Through dances behind glances and a classic aesthetics that are met with Lully’s pop maximalism are seen here in lavish attire, textiles & designs fashioned by Jovana Gospavić & Pauline de Blonay.
Blake Rainey and his Demons return with a listen from their December 9 slated second album Helicopter Rose with the trouble in paradise rocking “Trouble On Holiday”. It’s the power pop sound of a vacay that goes to hell in a handbasket while the chords keep the energy & spirits on the up & up (no matter what trouble comes their way).
Preparing to embark on an international tour spanning from November 17 through January 21; The Dirty Nil remake The Who’s infamous appearance on The Smothers Brothers program with the Amanda Fotes video for “Friends In The Sky” found off their Dine Alone Records album Higher Power. Complete with a classic awkward intro full of irreverent banter, The Dirty Nil rips right into “Friends” in a performance video ripped from the analog vintage era when television ruled everything around us.
Check out the sun-ray pop of “Yellow” from Fake Guns, an offshoot from Alex Fitts from The Kickdrums. “Yellow” shines like a blazing waking solar ball of fury & flares that brings the feeling of bright new shining day.
Mashing up Kiiara x The Weeknd, Joshua from Gosh Pith dropped “GOLDBOY” where “Starboy” & “Gold” are mixed up with some Michigan mecha-tech action that sounds like the secret soundtrack ripped from the after-after-after-after party.
Miniature Tigers shared the consciousness shifting/drifting track “Dreaming” featured off the upcoming album I Dreamt I Was A Cowboy available October 28. Borrowing vague progressions from Blondie’s classic of the same name & Paul Young’s radio hit “Everytime You Go Away“; MTs concoct together new romantic tropes together to make an intoxicating brew of catchy arrangements & percussion that pop upon first listen.
BROOKZILL! (the talents of Prince Paul, Ladybug Mecca, Rodrigo Brandão & Don Newkirk) presented us with the Earle Sebastian & Brian Delaney lyrical video for “Let’s Go (É Noiz)”. Taken off their just released album Throwback to the Future; the collective brings about a fusion of Brasil percussion & progressions that are met with cosmic kicks that are way up & beyond the international level alone.
From the Bay Area, get to know The Seshen who are making some of the most exciting music around sharing the single “Already Gone” featured on the forthcoming album Flames & Figures available October 14 from Tru Thoughts. Turned up lounge takes dance cues from rhythms & blues that takes on memorable paths to new ballroom heights that the world should pay close attention to right now.
Fall in love with Brooklyn’s Active Bird Community who dropped the gorgeous and darn near perfect slacker pop gem “QB Sneak”, ripped off the upcoming album Stick Around available in January. Featuring production from the modern legend Christopher Daly at good ol’ Salvation Recording Co. in New Paltz, NY & mastered in Newburgh, NY courtesy of Jamal Ruhe at Newport’s West West Side Music; ABC are making the music that sounds like it be poised to consume your life in 2017. Listen further, dear readers.
Brooklyn’s beloved baroque poppers All Boy/All Girl present their captivating visuals for their single “Pastels” filmed in Poland by Łukasz Pytlik found off their album Slagroom available October 21 from Grind Select. Watch as locally filmed visuals of town & country are blended in an array of environmental wanderings & kaleidoscope shows.
Nikki Yanofsky dropped the timeless executive club suite single “Miss You When I’m Drunk” found off her Wyclef-produced EP Solid Gold available October 28 that recalls the cladestine luxury lounges of yesterday with a modern day debaucherous twist.
Junk Son provided some late night/early morning vibes with the moody track “Over” found off the forthcoming debut album Beginning, Ending, Pretending available November 4 from 37 Adventures. The South London artist moves between underground haunted chamber space sounds to sailing the winds of eternal night before resting upon the beds found at the celestial palaces built atop of the plateaus in the sky.
Cool Ghouls present the Colette Levesque video for the title track of their new album Animal Races (produced by Kelley Stoltz) that showcases the band in front of a green-screen where a host of DIY visual tricks & effects play out. The motorik groove & mover recalls vintage European television performances to cable access schmaltz where CG’s silver toned 60s inspired sound is given visuals that help propel you through the space-time continuum of the song’s way back machine style arrangement.
