Week in Pop
Seattle’s Hoop are getting ready to head out on the road for an April 14-22 tour with Briana Marela and we present a listen to the Pacific northwest ocean gazing “Marlin Spike”. Featured off their forthcoming debut album Super Genuine available May 19 from Decency Den Records, leader Caitlin Roberts paints all the particulars of complicated connections that become personified to the expansive wild found in the grand oceanic depths where plenty of fish exist & await new interactions. Definitely a group to keep a close ear on.
Brooklyn artist Nandi Rose Plunkett returns to her childhood roots in the Emily Dubin video for Half Waif’s snow-laden video for “Frost Burn” where Nandi takes us on a tour through the environments of her own charged memories. Feelings & thoughts from the present are mirrored with the spaces between the indoor sanctuaries & gorgeous surrounding landscapes of the past seen covered in blankets of snow. Find this song & more off the lauded Half Waif EP form/a available now from Cascine.
Canadian duo Alice Hansen & Chuck Blazevic present a listen to their recent album Images available from the good folks over at Yellow K Records. They paint a visual world of warmth, love & beauty as heard on the opener “Shared Dreams”, the mesmerizing “White Light”, the meditative “Still”, the evocative title track, the emotion laden “To Be Fair”, to the vast expanses of “Shadow Garden”. The sky opens up on the ever expanding brilliance of “Beyond the Clouds”, exploring anxiety on “Exquisite Tension”, to the smoky “Vapor Frames”, that flows into the airy feels of “Wind”, closing with the rainy day synth serenity of “Rain Copy”. On Images, You’ll Never Get To Heaven offers up a little slice of celestial palaces in a world that often feels like a living/waking hell.
Art School Jocks announced their upcoming Father/Daughter Records self-titled available June 2 and we present a listen to the Atlanta group’s new cut “Just a Gwen”. Ali Bragg, Camille Lindsley, Deborah Hudson & Dianna Settles have a knack for catapulting your mega-mainstage heroes of yesterday into the relevant frame of today & tomorrow with agressive assertion of truths, challenging alleged conventional wisdom of late night travels. Safety concerns and defensive stanses are made through the ASJ’s defiant & cool delivery of what sounds like a headlining mega-group performing in a garage.
The Como Mamas busted out their title track that moves & grooves in timeless fashions featured off their upcoming album Move Upstairs available May 19 via Daptone. Coming from a rich Como, Mississippi heritage of church gospel; Ester Mae Smith along with her sisters, Angelia Taylor and Della Daniels keep the tradition going by harmonizing in ways that will move you in the most mysterious of manners. Truly a sound for all time.
Schoolkids Records announced two new Record Store Day releases with dream pop veterans The Veldt’s forthcoming Symmetry / Slow Grind 7” and the Netherlands’ own Bettie Serveert releasing the Damaged Good album all on April 22. The North Carolina imprint offers a listen to The Veldt’s new single “Symmetry” that sends out sensations of balances & parallel lives living along parallel lines. “Slow Grind” exhibits that understated essence that Daniel & Danny Chavis wield so well, where the ambient feeling of a thousand rushing atmospheres enters the temple of yours ears & entire being. Bettie Serveert’s eleventh release Damaged Good arrives on the group’s anniversary of 25 plus years with a limited magenta vinyl long-player. The band sets up their reasons with the opener with “B-Cuz”, the roadblocks of “Brickwall”, the connective companionship seeking “Brother (in loins)”, to further sentimental exposition on “Love Sick” and further illustrations of emotions & feelings exhibited in a variety of tones, strings & more that offer up a little bit of heart & care.
Edmonton, Canada darlings The Velveteins are back with the new sleepy-surfing single “Midnight Surf” found off their debut album Slow Wave available May 12 from Fierce Panda. Fresh from the tour circuit, the SxSW road, and getting ready for dates with Wolf Parade at Canadian Music Week & a US/Canada tour—the rising rockers introduced their new big dramatic single to us with the following introductory insights:
I had written the first half as sort of an ode to sleeping but wasn’t sure where to take it. Spencer had the second half written as it’s own individual song and when we smashed them together we knew it was a perfect fit. The songs theme comes from slow wave sleep, the deepest stage of sleep you enter in the evening. A sort of glazed feel, with a lot of experimentation in the recording process.
Get ready to ride the weird waves of weirdness that play about on “Made Of The Sun”, your first listen off the upcoming Heliocentrics album A World of Masks available May 26 from the UK imprint Soundway Records. Featuring the stunning vocal delivery from Barbora Patkova; all arrangements begin to orbit & spin around the Slovakian singer who commands a musical & mystical galaxy that is all of their very own.
San Francisco’s INHALT present a listen to their Part Time Punks Sessions available April 14 from the gracious folks over at Cleopatra Records. Experiments in radiating & menacing bass is heard on “Aphonia”, as Philip Winiger, Matia Simovich & Steven Campodonico move the maudlin synth pop party forward on “Panopticon”, the darkly scanning “Black Sun”, to the German industrial wastelands of “Noise”. Portraits of pain can be heard on “Walking on Glass”, sinking deeper into the digital sequences on the Franco-linguistics of “Programming”, as the trio keeps the momentum humming on “Vehicle”, right before they close out the show with “Occupations” that offers up something to occupy your mind & senses for a while.
Ora Cogan shined some light this week with her new single “The Light” featured off her upcoming album Crickets available October 1. “The Light” moves in elusive ways where Cogan’s understated delivery conducts the rest of the arrangement to bend & bow & arpeggiate according to Ora’s ultimate musical design.
Mark McGowan share the title track off the upcoming April release from In Black Records with “Hot Coals” that expresses the pains & lengths that some folks will go through for another. McGowan illustrates the utmost degree of commitment through compromises & the literal trials of fire that we all go through in one sense or another. With Mark’s earthy & folk-style feel; “Hot Coals” is a song for everyone to connect with via their own respective experiences.
With the release of their album Solvents in the Dream, Brooklyn’s Loosie shares a listen to the single “Today” that practices the arts & acts of carpe diem with a dream fulfilling approach, style & sound. Guided by their fearless leader Sara McDonald (of the 22+ strong NYChillharmonic collective), the five piece group spins spools of home dreamt pop textiles that clothe the sounds of now & the potential promises of what tomorrow may bring.
Check out the down-home visuals from Sundara Karma’s “Happy Family” found off the debut album Youth is Only Ever Fun in Retrospect. Feelings of familiar nostalgia & the pains of growing up are seen here with that sense of nostalgic restlessness.
Those looking for a song to sweep you up and drop you somewhere in the midwest; listen no further than Jake Houlsby’s latest single “Oklahoma” that resonates with an endearing air of sentiment & spirited expressions. The chords, keys & crooning all careen together in a blissful kind of unison.
Featured off their April 7 slated album Clearing from Arrowhawk Records, Softspot shared the warmth wandering single “Heat Seeker”. The guitars paint out equations of intrigue while feelings of inward thoughts percolate to a thoughtful simmer.
Don’t sleep on Will Ivy’s recent album Flowers For Eyes that offers up some classic DIY vibes that champions all your jangly underdogs & bedroom strummers. “Flowers For Eyes” is deserving of being a lost C86 gem, “Someone I’d Like to Know” shares some heart, the tambourine shaker “Already Gone”, the enthralled “Say What You Mean”, all the evocative hooks that shine on the overactive imagination of “I Can’t Stop My Mind From Racing”, to the sad shrugs of “Love’s Not Meant For Me”. The balladry takes all kinds of twists & turns on the amour inquiring “Is This Love?”, the stripped-down twinkle of “Twilight”, sending you off with what would be an Anton Newcombe approved closer on “All You”ll Ever Need”.
Off of Somewhere in Between, VÉRITÉ presents “When You’re Gone” that deals with the aftermath of the absence of a beloved other. Emotions are spelled out in honest fashion amid a backdrop of dramatic, emotive electronic elements.
Australia’s Allday presented a look at the Nima Nabili Rad video for “In Motion” ft. Japanese Wallpaper found off their forthcoming album Speeding available April 21. Sentiments of kinetic & connective sciences & chemistry mix together in a weird dance of strangeness that is like some macabre mix of Carrie, Heathers & all kinds of other cult film tributes collect together to make for one sordid tale.
Branches Breeze brought some Canadian dream pop breezes into the fold with a listen to “Infinite Fountain”. The Sunshine Coast, BC quartet focuses on the most understated aspects of ethereal-aural landscaping where they materialize their own dream-scapes as a very special place designed for their music to dwell in. Keep an ear out more from the great things to follow from BB’s own Romita Pradhan Bosch, Jeff Deringer, Jon Snider & Joe Bosch.
France’s Raoul Vignal offered a viewing of the Anne-Laure Etienne video for “Under the Same Sky” featured off the album The Silver Veil available April 7 through the prestigious French imprint Talitres. Etienne’s video offers up a choreography of hands & fingers seen gesticulating Vignal’s heart, emotion & mind moving chords & calming delivery that further conveys the interpretive aesthetic experience that will keep the entirety of your senses lit for quite some time after…
Get your ultra-bright night club fix with the wild evening antics of “Stupid Boy / Girl” that is fun for everyone; found off of Blond Ambition’s album debut Slow All Over available May 19 from Swoon City Music.
Liverpool trio All We Are present the visuals for their new single “Burn It All Out” that offers up fancy lightwork coordinated by Venya Krutikov & filmed at the Invisible Wind Factory. Following up their 2015 debut album released in 2015 from Double Six, the three-piece works in ways of heavy synths, violent percussion & howling vocals that sing out like wind wailing out of the breeze from a forest of trees.
Introducing Hawaiian duo Lunar Twin who recently released their Night Tides EP that offers up ripples & water cycles bathed by the moon’s spotlight. The tide pool begins with “Waves”, where sentimental synth exposition leads to the sweet strings & kinetic rhythms heard on “Blood Moon”, unveiling the extensive depths of the ocean blue with “Coral Sea”. The worlds between heaven, earth & the grand expanses of the deep collect together on the cool flying attitudes on “Birds of Paradise”, offering up billowing vapor pillows of sound with the benediction of “Prayers of Smoke”, right before Lunar Twin leaves you with the title track that sets the listener assail out toward newly discovered horizons.
Chris Davidson, & friends, aka CHNNLL (pronounced channel), presents the single “W A V E S” off an upcoming EP available in April. The single helps melt the wintry mess of snow while welcoming the sun & rain that spring gives us.
Ultrviolence present their DIY video for the new single “Guillotine”, the band gets all Don’t Look Back through a show of lyrical signs displayed in a hitchhiker’s style of fashion. Announcing their upcoming EP available May 12 from Northern Light Records, the Canadian group returns with more brooding vocals and emotive synths to help you “lose your head” like the song says.
Xavier Omär presents the fears & inner-guarded feelings on the smooth & sensual single “Afraid”. Featured production by LA’s own Bizness Boi, Xavier exhibits all the aspects of apprehension that ruminate from within and are rarely expressed outwardly.
Nightlands’ upcoming album I Can Feel The Night Around Me will be available May 5 from Western Vinyl and we give you a listen with the following three song treasury to wet your whistle. “Fear of Flying” soars over all semblances of nervous tension, covering Dion’s cult classic “Only You Know” through some medicated & electronically meditative means that sends everything up to the sky with “Depending On You”.
Andres Arochi presents the FKJ video for “Why Are There Boundaries?” that was filmed in Tijuana in points located at the US border where the physical lines in the sand of political geography are questioned with a lot of head, heart, soul. vision & sound. Find this & more on French Kiwi Juice available now from Roche Musique.
UK rising electro-pop lovers Lisbon shared their snazzy single “Tyler” found off their EP We’re All Famous When We’re Young. The track basks in the glow of everything feeling new and feeling the pangs of inexplicable echelon of fame spun out of daydreaming recesses of the mind.
SWIMM dropped a sultry & smooth listen to “First Time” featured off Chris Hess & the gang’s debut album available later in 2017. Enjoy the new sensations lover’s rock jam and catch the group performing at their curated Love You Down mini-fest organized by the group as a celebration of the East LA music festival, happening April 8.
Hear The War on Peace’s “Fear of Loss” that sings the struggles that deal with loss & the host of complicated feelings focused on the unsettling sentiments that absence can bring.
Miami artist Gigi Rowe asks for some cover from the elements on the single “Cover Me Up”. It’s a track for all seeking refuge from unsafe places & situations that are looking for something, namely someone, resembling something akin to shelter.
O+S, made up of Orenda Fink along with Cedric LeMoyne from Remy Zero dropped the single “Remember When… (The Backroads)” featured off the forthcoming album You Were Once The Sun, Now You’re The Moon available on limited edition wax April 22 for Record Store Day via Saddle Creek. The track engages in a hedonistic sense of nostalgia that brings together your dream waving favorites with the thrills from new media brought about here in these contemporary times.
Physical dropped the remix of Dntel’s “Islands” featured off the upcoming TBD debut album Ride It Out. Further synth-sections are excavated & expanded with an atmospheric rework that highlights all the emotive triggering hooks.
NINET presented a look at the John Wynn video for “Elinor” that offers up a series of mirror reflections that look back & performance footage featured off the new album Paper Parachute available now.
Canada’s Close Talker dropped a look at their video for “Okay Hollywood” from Nathan Boey where the trio’s expressions are set from eating snacks in a junkyard car that dramatically builds up toward some impressive, tinsel-town style pyrotechnics. Catch this and more on the new album Lens available April 21.
Those looking for some big-time electro-sensuality should look no further than the fancy-dancing Jordan Vassallo video for J Motor’s “Meet In The Sky” that sets sights for the glorious expanses of the celestial skies that tower high above our heads.
Their upcoming album Waiting A Lifetime will be available April 14 and we have a listen to Splashh’s “See Through” that casts a view of glances that pierces right through the individual of whom this song has been written about.
UK’s own Will Joseph Cook shared the single “Plastic” featured off the upcoming Sweet Dreamer album available April 14 that expresses the hook about not wanting to dance on one’s own—all by their lonesome. The ballroom invitation is executed in a bouquet of electro-elements that shine with bright audio tones sure to illuminate your mind & put a little extra bounce in your step.
Coast Modern gifted us their fun new single “Pockets Full of No” found off their upcoming debut album available later this year from 300 Entertainment / +1 Records, as the group walks & rocks with a kind of swagger that is the sound of a spring break to last for forever.
RF Shannon’s EP Jaguar Palace is available today from Cosmic Dreamer Music and we bring you a beautiful listen to all the organic & ethereal elements that are sure to start your weekend off with soaring start. From the western cinematic expanses of “In The Wilds of My Mind”, the gorgeous & spacious title track, the smoky psych of “Tell My Horse” that softly & slowly gallops forward through the sinewy sawdust of “Had a Revelation” as the sun sets over the landscapes & soundscapes of Jaguar Palace with the lights-out gentle burner of “Hotevilla”.
Sofi Tukker dropped the remix from Istanbul producer Faruk Sabanci that re-tricks the single “Johny” to new brass tones to get Tukker’s fan’s excited as the artist prepares to embark upon tour that includes Coachella, Panorama & Lollapalooza appearances.
Welles announced that their debut EP Codeine will be available April 28 via C3 Records & got us shaking our hands & heads to the righteous rocker & roller, “Life Like Mine”, that basks in that super plush good-good life.
