Browsing Tag

Alt Electronica

Ariana Rodriguez & Guap-O Unstoppable brought luxe grooves to the airwaves with ‘Forever Invited’

Posted on 15 November 2023

With the eclecticism in her discography, there’s no telling what Ariana Rodriguez will pull out of her bag of sonic dynamism next; her collaboration with Guap-O Unstoppable on ‘Forever Invited’ didn’t disappoint. It’s a showstopper of a downtempo vibe-spiller that takes the Jersey club sound to the next level.

After a smooth, steady and syncopated prelude that drenches the listener in atmospheric reverb, the track seamlessly picks up the pace ensuring not a drop of the stylised soul was lost along the way. The way Ariana’s effect-laden vocal lines sink into the glitchy ethereal soundscape is a guaranteed ticket to transcendence; as for the authenticity, you’d be hard-pressed to find another artist as committed to keeping in their distinctive lane, but if you’re a fan of Kate Davies, Ada Lea, and Squirrel Flower, you won’t go far wrong hitting play.

Forever Invited was officially released on November 3rd; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

J.MYSTERY granted the permission to ‘Breakdown’ in the ethereal catharsis of his artfully raw alt-electronica score.

Posted on 9 November 2023

‘Breakdown’ is the latest innovatively polished and artfully raw electronica score by the Portuguese virtuoso and genre-melding alchemist, J.MYSTERY, who has garnered an accoladed reputation over the last few years with his command over ethereal ingenuity.

After a strong yet wavy reminiscence of John Grant in the intro which puts J.MYSTERY’s honey-timbered croons atop oscillating synthesised turbulence, echoes of the darkest Arctic Monkeys album start to manifest in the reverberance before the single veers into intersections of atmospheric soul, which will captivate any fans of Hozier and George Ezra.

Given the strength of his discography, crafting his most powerful single to date was no easy feat, but inspired by the grief shared with his wife following the sorrow of a miscarriage, J.MYSTERY found the necessity to extol the virtues of breaking down and refusing to listen to ‘be strong’ commands. Unless your soul is cast in stone, you’ll find tears to shed over this overwhelmingly vulnerable release.

Breakdown was officially released on September 29; sink into the soulful avant-garde electronica by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The genre alchemist James Urquhart is set to unleash his progressively prodigious hit, The Tearz and the Pain

Posted on 4 November 2023

The genre alchemist and one of the top producers in the UK, James Urquhart, drifted through a melodic menagerie of style in his latest single, The Tearz and the Pain, which is locked, loaded, and ready to drop an atom bomb of ingenuity onto the airwaves.

With all the hooky body-rocking flavour of 90s boyband pop in the deliciously infectious vein of the hit that announced Backstreet’s Back after a mellow 80s RnB opening sequence that Seal fans will give the seal of approval, Tearz and the Pain reaches its high-octane peak in a euphoric intersection of drum n bass before winding the track right down again.

The progressive prodigy left us arrested with every aural transgression and convinced us that labels will be hammering down the door to his professional studio, which he uses to produce his and other people’s hits. Previously, his music has been distributed by Hed Kandi and Let There Be House; there’s no telling who will pick him up next.

Follow James Urquhart on SoundCloud and Instagram to be the first to know when The Tearz and the Pain drops; with the soul it sonically unleashes, it is more than worth the wait.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Trip out with the unearthly beguile in Deadbeat Superheroes’ latest release, By the Side of the Road (redux), ft HORNETS!

Posted on 31 October 2023

After becoming unequivocally obsessed with the seminal single, By the Side of the Road, by Deadbeat Superheroes, we were stoked to be given another opportunity to trip out with the redux remix of the single, featuring HORNETS!

Julie Sun Lee’s PJ Harvey-esque deliciously distorted vocals are the piece de resistance within the Lynchian soundscape which shimmers with trepidation, scintillation, and a potent dose of unearthly beguile. It’s trip-hop striking enough to make your heart skip a beat as your rhythmic pulses move in line with the glitchy syncopated beats that stab through the texturally sublime oscillation.

If you’re looking for more ethereal escapism from the Canadian five-piece outfit, you won’t have long to wait; their Edmonton (Redux) EP is lingering in the pipelines awaiting its release on November 1. We’ve been promised that each track stands on its own; given the success of the original EP, we’re thoroughly inclined to believe the icons of Avant Garde electronica.

By the Side of the Road (redux), ft HORNETS! dropped on October 23rd; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

heyiloveyou penned a monochromatically dark love letter to the trip-hop pioneers with ‘Never massivehead)’.

Posted on 30 September 2023

By imagining the atmosphere that trip-hop pioneers would create if they rose from the underground today, the Croatian solo artist, heyiloveyou, who has been demonstrating their imperviousness to genre and style constraints since 2020, unleashed their monochromatically dark single, Never (massivehead).

The quite genius titular portmanteau of Portishead and Massive Attack is far from where the ingenuity ends with this torridly electrifying release, which melds dark and caustic iconography with the stylistic catharsis to drench the airwaves in cinematically luxe gravitas.

In spite of the amalgam of the past and present day, the duality easily gave way to the synergy that floods the track through the guitars, drums, synths and beats. Get drenched by heading over to Spotify.

 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Teo unveiled their boundary-breaking debut single, A Portrait in a Broken Mirror

Posted on 20 September 2023

With an intro which evokes ‘40s nostalgia via static-decorated radio samples of blues before breaking into a news broadcast running a narrative of WW2, the debut single, A Portrait in a Broken Mirror, from the enigma of an artist, Teo, certainly makes its mark.

After three minutes of reliving the atrocities of the Second World War, Teo cinematically brings in their harsh electronica sonic signature, which dominates the middle ground of happy hardcore and industrial in a similar vein to Otto Von Schirach’s monolithic sonic manifestos. Taking a break from the high-octane motifs, the single starts to traverse an eerie and ethereal atmosphere before the rancour comes back in full juggernautical swing.

Even though I’m usually all for uninhibited experimentalism, an 18-minute debut single, which pays little mind to listener accessibility, is hard to paint as one triumphant in its innovation.

A Portrait of a Broken Mirror hit the airwaves on September 6th; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Timothy and the Apocalypse took his listeners to alt-electro ‘Nirvana’ with his latest release

Posted on 15 September 2023

The Australian alt-electronica augmenter Timothy and the Apocalypse took his sound to new celestial heights with the release of his latest single, Nirvana; the merit of it is almost enough to dissipate the synonymousness between Kurt Cobain and the track title.

With the opening vocals resounding with a spiritually ceremonial timbre across the lush layers of reverb, the artist and producer set the bar transcendently high from the intro, and still managed to rise above it with the shoegazey dream-pop guitars which bring introduce the solid backbeat that affixes a strong gravitational pull to the ever-ascending melodic lines.

Midway through the track comes a euphoric uplift, which defies all expectations of Timothy and the Apocalypse. Since 2021, he’s held dominion over the ambient trip-hop scene and dominated the associated playlists. With Nirvana, he broke new ground by progressing his new release into a track that could fill a floor and rhythmically drive it into fervour. Amalgams of IDM and deep house don’t come much more electrifying than this.

Stream Nirvana and the THOLEMOD Remix, which hit the airwaves on September 8th via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Wrap yourself up in nasir mf.’s latest exhilaratingly illusory single, twine

Posted on 31 August 2023

After contorting genres to his creative whim and distorting soundscapes beyond previously conceived limits while still maintaining exhilarating earworm appeal, the Brooklyn-based independent artist and DJ, nasir mf., arrived at the epiphany that music is as boundless as the artist orchestrating it. His latest single, twine, is the ultimate manifestation of his limitlessness.

By evading the hallmarks of the perfect pop track and arriving at a far more decadently illusory sonic place via his experimentalism, nasir mf. created a portal of hyper-surreal escapism with twine. The chiptune-EDM-pop amalgam twists with every progressive turn to ensure your senses are electrifyingly heightened while you’re experiencing the ambient melodicism evolve into hardstyle momentum.

This is far from the first time we’ve found ourselves obsessed about the Brooklyn icon’s ingenuity, and something tells us he’s got plenty left in the tank to arrest us with.

twine hit the airwaves on August 22; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jazz meets chiptune in Samuel Weaver’s latest score, Saviour Complex

Posted on 28 August 2023

With touches of House of Fun by the Madness grooving through the polyphonic funk of the jazz & chiptune amalgam, the UK-based artist Samuel Weaver concocted a superfluously ingenuity-driven score for the standout single in his debut album, Telechora!

Hitting play on Saviour Complex may be moderately akin to an acid trip due to the artist’s tendency to delve into sonic novelty despite his discernible composition and instrumental talents, but the euphoria-instilled vibrancy of the soundscape will lift you higher than any tab of acid ever could.

Given that intellectualism oozes from every progression, especially when the dissonance of sufferers with saviour complexes starts to manifest in the funk, at 17 years old, the composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has the music industry at his prodigal feet.

Saviour Complex charged in on its white knight syndrome on August 19th; hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Manchester-based producer Tao Mitsu liberated his listeners with his transcendent mix, Just Let Go.

Posted on 20 August 2023

With textures and melodic progressions that go beyond immersive to offer aural escapism, when you’re enmeshed with the pulsating rhythms in the latest instrumental mix, Just Let Go, from the Manchester-based producer Tao Mitsu, space and time may as well cease to exist.

By starting with emotional impulses and constructing musical landscapes around them, each creation of Tao Mitsu is an evocative trip tinged with the full spectrum of human emotion rather than just riding euphoric waves. The fragments of melancholy within the groove and bass-driven ambient techno beats in Just Let Go capture the bittersweetness of loneliness, encompassing the primal pain of heartbreak and the first teasings of hope that appear on the periphery.

Just Let Go may not carry the definitive Manchester sound, but with the cover art depicting one of the cosy corners of the iconic Night & Day Café, Tao Mitsu succeeded in paying homage to the vibrant and eclectic music scene via his nostalgia-driven, transcendently liberating leftfield electronica anthem.

Just Let Go reached the airwaves on August 13th; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast