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Dream-Pop

The existential indie dance pop icon Saynt Ego augmented grief in ‘Big Mad World’

Posted on 19 September 2023

The indietronica icon in the making, Saynt Ego, strengthened the foundations that his legacy will undoubtedly rest upon with his double A-side single, Looking 4 U – Big Mad World.

While the vocals sing a bitter-sweet goodbye, the augmented-with-funk melodic lines pull you to transcendence and acceptance in Big Mad World. The chaos of the universe is efficaciously encapsulated in the hypersonic soundscape, and all the assurance you will need that you can overcome any obstacle on your healing journey lingers in the lyricism, which rings with melancholy standing alone. Within the anthemics of the indie dance-pop hit, the candour-fuelled verses are awakening poetry, which alludes to the tragedy of obsession with earthly escapism.

Penned after losing his best friend to suicide, Big Mad World tracks cosmic themes while being underpinned by the grief of knowing that the human experience can’t always be traversed with resilience alone.

Occupying a middle ground between Cigarettes After Sex and ABBA, Saynt Ego found plenty of room to assert his authenticity in the self-produced release, which was written by Will Retherford and the airwaves on September 8th.

Stream Big Mad World on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

All isn’t fair in love and war in millar’s indie alt-electro-pop single, hunting ground

Posted on 12 September 2023

By drawing parallels between blood sports and romanticism in her indie alt-electro-pop single, hunting ground, the up-and-coming London-based singer-songwriter, millar, delivered a striking exposition of how nothing is fair in love and war when unsuspecting diehard romantics are forced to play by the rules of mind games.

As the atmospheric space progressively shifts from light to dark in the same vein as The Neighbourhood, Cigarettes After Sex and Perfume Genius around the strikingly angular indie guitar work which bears reminiscences to Slowdive and the driving backbeat that gives the single a punchily vindicating energy, hunting ground, is one of the most stunning UK indie tracks to spill up from the underground in 2023.

We can’t wait to hear where millar’s candour and inexplicable talents in euphonically visualising melancholy take her next.

hunting ground was officially released on September 1st; stream it now on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Laney Ryan visualised an indie-folk dream for her latest single, This Path

Posted on 5 September 2023

‘This Path’ is the latest dreamy indie-folk single from the Boston-based singer-songwriter Laney Ryan, whose superlative ethereal atmospheres are always haunted by soulful possession.

With This Path, she delivered the reminder that what is lost will always be found; regardless of how lost and directionless you feel on your path, if you are moving forward, you will always find a way to find your way. The lush with choral reverb shoegaze guitars and the desert folk rhythm section create a captivating soundscape to contemplate the trajectory of your own journey while Ryan’s vocals deliver all of the assuring sanctity you could expect to soak up from a single.

Even though she sounds right at home in her indie folk sound, as a teen, Ryan had heavier music tastes; she eventually joined the LA alt-rock band The Brink, which became well-known in the Hollywood touring circuit. After five years of crafting high-octane hits, Ryan moved back to her hometown and started experimenting with a more acoustic sound that rings through in her contemporary material.

This Path will hit the airwaves on September 5; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Rya welcomed in a dreamy new era of electro-soul with his latest single, SHOW OFF.

Posted on 25 August 2023

With his latest single, SHOW OFF., the trailblazing emissary of soul, Rya, wrapped the roots of RnB around modernist electronic dream pop tones and created a solid backbeat by infusing the track with rhythmically tight hip-hop nuances.

Rather than attempting to be everybody’s cup of tea, the London-based electro-soul singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer chose to take the visionary path to explore his experimental sound and create escapist worlds that you won’t need inviting to twice.

The emotion implanted into his singles may be raw, but by staying true to his distinctive production style, which melds jazz, R&B, and neo-soul tendencies, he always delivers ear candy sweet enough to give you a sugar rush.

SHOW OFF. Will hit the airwaves on the 25th of August. Hear it on SoundCloud first.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ted brewed the ultimate blend of jazzy indie-folk dream pop with ‘The Coffee Shop’

Posted on 18 August 2023

There was no forgetting Ted’s folk-meets-dream-pop hit, Revolution Then, which reminisced on the times when revolution action was a feasible act of retribution amongst the repressed masses.

In his latest single, the Australian singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist waltzed into The Coffee Shop to share a jazzy and intimate vignette of an unassuming female protagonist who inspired the laidback with luxe style from the fleeting observations made on her curious reticence.

With touches of the Beatles melding with a dreamy iteration of the 70s folk style, The Coffee Shop is far from short of beguile. Ted captured the coffee shop mood perfectly. The snug comforting atmosphere breathes right through the sax-infused kaleidoscopic melodies.

Visit The Coffee Shop for yourselves by heading over to Spotify first.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dream Baby Dream with Cati Landry’s indie pop installation of etherealism, Mind’s Eye

Posted on 22 July 2023

With vocal lines that hypnotise as they harmonise, Cati Landry’s indie dream pop single, Mind’s Eye, will instantly put you under its ethereal spell. As the lead guitars bend licks of Americana into the notes, the rhythm guitars keep the 90s indie dream alive in their steady spills of instrumental romanticism.

The Canadian singer-songwriter set to create the ultimate anthem for the diehard romantics who find themselves consistently contending with the juxtaposition between dreams and reality; given that she made romantic expectations all the more unrealistic with her butterfly-releasing release, it is safe to say she succeeded in her enchanting record, which deserves to be just as revered as Swift’s latest LP. I highly recommend investing in Cati Landry’s promising career before you have to take out a second mortgage for her gig tickets too.

Mind’s Eye was officially released on July 14; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Bomb Voyage has debuted his compassionately choral RnB dream pop serenade, Serenity

Posted on 20 July 2023

With melodically intricate indie guitars and synths that wouldn’t be out of place in a Cigarettes After Sex single, Bomb Voyage created a hazily dreamy atmosphere for his classic RnB vocals to soak into in his latest single, Serenity.

Hedonistic and self-destructive behaviour may have been normalised to the point it has been glamorised in contemporary culture; instead of contributing to the acceptability of the toxicity of the trend, Bomb Voyage orchestrated a moody yet compassionate ballad to pay an ode to a female protagonist who has a proclivity towards excess.

Rather than painting a monster, Bomb Voyage used their lyrical empathy and beckoningly magnetic vocal lines to create a consoling release for anyone who needs the affirmation that even the most wayward souls deserve to be seen beyond their lifestyles.

Serenity is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Foreign Saints is sonorously spectral in their debut shoegaze single, Here With Me

Posted on 11 July 2023

If you placed yourself in the middle ground of Elliott Smith and Slowdive, you would be in good company with the sonorously spectral debut single, Here With Me, from Foreign Saints.

With a slice of psychedelia written into the indie pop songwriting chops, Here With Me unravels as a hazy kaleidoscope of wistful colour. As the lyrics allude to what’s lost through time and distance, the dreamy instrumentals envelop you in their reverb-swathed cathartic tonality.

The bedroom pop project from the Brooklyn-based musician, Thomas Roberts, may not be far past its inception, but Roberts is already proving himself to be an unreckonable resonant force. Fans of The Japanese House, War on Drugs, and Day Wave won’t want to let the project slip them by, especially with the debut EP in the pipeline.

Here With Me is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: Ella Rossi negated adorated anxiety in her ethereal indie soul pop sophomore single, Linen

Posted on 16 June 2023
Ella Rossi

After finding her voice as a jazz singer, the LA-born, Montreal-based artist Ella Rossi has flourished as one of the most seminal RnB Pop singers of her generation. With a vocal timbre as rich as the staccato guitar chords, few ethereal indie RnB Pop soundscapes spill as much tonal sanctity as her sophomore single, Linen, which explores the sensual highs and the tormenting lows of a relationship you can’t leave in the rearview mirror, despite never knowing where you stand in it, or how the severe the wounds will be when time finally closes on it.

With a vocal range so luxe and rich it would make Elon Musk feel inferior, Ella Rossi is a diamond in the rough; it is only a matter of time before major record labels want to mine her. Her capacity to captivate with her honeyed harmonies and so-radiant-they-glow soundscapes is second to none. Rossi is the ultimate proof that if you stay in your own creative lane, there will be no one out of your expressive league.

Ella Rossi said:

“Linen is about a passionate but complicated relationship and being unable to resist the attraction, despite the potential consequences. The lyric, “wrapped in this linen”, represents a sense of comfort and intimacy while alluding to a feeling of entrapment in a dynamic where there is no longer a clear view of how the other person feels.”

Linen will release ahead of Ella Rossi’s debut EP; stream it via Spotify and SoundCloud from June 16th.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

House of Asha broke through silence and stigma with her debut dream-pop single, Talk About It

Posted on 16 May 2023
https://youtu.be/Z27jssfBhsU

With her diaphanous debut single, Talk About It, the alternative singer-songwriter, House of Asha, broke the silence and stigma which often stifles the conversation around mental health in South Asian communities.

It is one thing to be candid when there will be no negative consequence or connotation, it is quite another to defy culture to break the cycle of generational trauma. The mellifluous dream-pop synthetics are a sublime pairing for the harmonically poised bleeding vocals, which effortlessly coalesce with the shoegazey dream-pop layers that will leave your rhythmic pulses on a plateau while the lyricality leaves you grounded.

Talk About It is the first single to release from House of Asha’s debut LP; it set the bar for what is to come, although, our faith is well-placed in the elevated grace of the songstress who scores her melancholically demure tracks around influences from the likes of Imogen Heap, Billie Eilish, Hozier and Young the Giant.

You can check out the debut single, Talk About It, from House of Asha via SoundCloud or stream the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast