Browsing Tag

Art Pop

Anjalts – On Your Side: Provocatively Sensual Art-Pop

Posted on 26 June 2022

While everyone is jumping on the Kate Bush hype, it isn’t a far hop across to the up-and-coming art-pop singer-songwriter and producer, Anjalts’ latest sensually provocative single, On Your Side.

The minor keys in accord under the 80s-Esque production wrapped in haunting reverb create the perfect atmosphere for Anjalts’ translucently lucid vocals to bleed into. It is a full-on sensory experience that naturally words alone can’t capture. On Your Way leaves no room to wonder why it is on its way to going viral. We can’t wait to hear the alchemy that undoubtedly lingers in the LP that is set to follow On Your Way.

On Your Side is now available to stream on YouTube. And you can check out Anjalts via her official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Area 51 has nothing on Koosha Azim’s psychedelically sensory experience, ALIEN

Posted on 24 June 2022

Haunting and transcending are two rarely joined adjectives; the Iranian American contemporary artist, Koosha Azim, pushed them into a tight-knit while exploring alt-hip hop and psychedelia in his sensory soundscape, ALIEN.

The bleeding vocals, cinematically ethereal layers, and playfully unpretentious creativity are a stellular pleasure which scarcely resembles any Avant-Garde score that experimentalists have left behind before.

If he keeps pushing in this gratifyingly trippy and obscure direction, the San Francisco Bay Area artist will have the airwaves at his feet in no time. Naturally, we can’t wait to hear the transcendence that follows.

Koosha Azim’s latest single, ALIEN is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Noise Pop Biblical Provocateur Norman Lampeye Has Swarmed in With His Debut Single, Locust

Posted on 3 May 2022

NYC noise-pop antagonist Norman Lampeye unleashed his debut single, Locust, on April 28th; fans of Fidlar and other peddlers of escapist existential discord will want to pay attention to the biblical climate-change lamenting art-pop earworm.

The scuzz-swathed off-kilter production utilises harsh snares, distorted synth pads, jarring reverb and Sonic Youth-style chaos to set the savage scene of our slow-burning reality while the lyrics unravel as apocalyptic literary pornography. As debut singles go, there’s scarcely any topping “Oh, did you really have to make this harder? / We take turns holding the locust underwater”.

Naturally, we can’t wait to hear what comes next – summer apocalypses pending.

Locust is now available to stream on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

UK indie pop duo ISYLA has unveiled their consciousness-driven cinematic single, Pretty Lies

Posted on 30 April 2022

The UK’s most promising pop duo, ISYLA (Lizzie Freeborn & Woodburn) has further staked their claim with the release of their latest dynamically cinematic single, Pretty Lies.

There is a touch of Nadine Shah’s Kitchen Sink to the jazz-tinged prelude, but ISYLA soon breezed into their ethereal own through the breathy vocals, flamenco guitars and arresting lyricism. “I live and let live but what if a choice takes a life” may just be the most perfect lyric I’ll hear this year. Yet, that’s just a splinter of the refreshing consciousness carried by the duo that formed in 2020 as a musical response to the climate crisis.

Since making their debut, they have featured on BBC Introducing, Music Declares Emergency, and the Consciousness Festival. Their selfless sense of holistic interconnectedness makes every soundscape they touch resound with a rare sense soul that is enough to make everything else on the airwaves feel superficial.

Pretty Lies is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Welsh singer-songwriter M’ Donwaite is an artful aural vision in his indie-folk single, Watering Can

Posted on 24 April 2022
Watering Can by M' Donwaite

Welsh singer-songwriter M’ Donwaite has released his achingly beautiful, orchestrally-scored indie folk pop single Watering Can. Its delicate intensity creates a beguiling paradox which may as well be pandora’s box for the way Watering Can unpredictably unravels.

With the naturalistic elements brought up against M’ Donwaite’s Tenor vocal notes and the contrastingly lamenting finger-picked guitar strings that bring a little lo-fi intimacy to the release, it is an artful triumph. Yet, it never dares to come close to the same air of pretension often affixed to the neo-classic Avant-Garde. To say M’ Donwaite is the most exciting act from Wales since the Anchoress wouldn’t be an exaggeration.

Watering Can officially released on April 17th; it is now available to stream and purchase on Bandcamp.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LJ Gomez proves that patience is a romantic virtue in his latest alt-indie single, Soon

Posted on 9 April 2022
LJ Gomez

Austin, TX alternative artist, LJ Gomez, let the soul pour in his hazily sweet latest lo-fi single, Soon. Fans of Radiohead, Bon Iver, Ye, and James Blake will want to bathe in the trippy tape-effect saturated guitar tones that complement the glitchy trip-hop beats.

By opening with the lyric, “is it possible to miss somebody that you never knew”, you’re instantly disarmed by LG Gomez’s candour and artful vulnerability. Even if the question was hypothetical, the answer is a resounding yes. There’s nothing quite as melancholy stirring as needing someone that doesn’t yet exist in your peripheral vision. And on the other hand, there’s nothing quite as sweet as the grasp of the belief that the right one is right around the corner.

Check out LJ Gomez on SoundCloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Noah and the Sound embodies the epitome of inertia in his indie-pop electro hit, Stuck

Posted on 27 March 2022

Swedish singer-songwriter Noah and the Sound has released his post-punk-tinged indie-pop earworm, Stuck. In a time when momentum is hard to find but not as hard as the grip of inertia, it has all the makings of an electro-indie pop playlist staple.

With an arty approach to cinematic production, Stuck finds the perfect balance between intimacy and intensity. Especially with the contrast between the vulnerability in the hushed and honeyed indie dream-pop vocals and the deep percussive throbs that ensure the momentum ironically remains perpetual. There’s also no aurally evading the sense of romanticism that resounds around the bitter-sweet candour.

Stuck is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Case Watson spins a phantasmal fairy-tale in her folky art-pop single, Hollow Tree

Posted on 17 March 2022

In her latest single, Hollow Tree, the ethereal art-pop artist Case Watson, well and truly came into her alchemic stride. With cinematic electronic obscurity nestled against folkish mysticism and a few caustically volatile elements thrown in for good measure, Hollow Tree moves beyond an aural experience. Its arcane air sets your imagination alight and tears you away from realism in the process.

If you could imagine what it would sound like if Emilie Autumn opted for nuance instead of archaic hysteria, you will get a good idea of the phantasmal bliss found in this darkly electrifying lyrical fairy-tale. We’re officially obsessed.

Hollow Tree is now available to stream on Spotify. Or head over to Case Watson’s official website for more info.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

R†o has released his morbidly addictive dark art-pop single, The Wolf & The Deer

Posted on 15 March 2022
https://open.spotify.com/track/5A0XcNqZpxumjkVzg85l2p?si=47408d18be5e45e9

After a dark chamber pop-style piano prelude, R†o’s life-affirmingly cathartic single, The Wolf & The Deer, starts to unravel as a beguiling electronic-folk-meets-art-pop reminder of every living thing’s mortality. If that comes across as morbid, it says more about your perception of life than it does about this exploratively provoking release.

The single was loosely mused by the death of the London-based alternative artist’s great-grandfather. It serves as a meta ode to his family, by using the wolf as a parable for death and the deer as a metaphor for life. Dark and edgy doesn’t often come hand in hand with spirituality. Naturally, we’re obsessed with R†o and his stunningly layered harmonies and his ability to bring beauty to the macabre. We can’t wait to hear what follows.

The Wolf & The Deer was officially released on March 11th. It is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The UK singer-songwriter, Mea has released her sad-girl-empowering debut single, Sad Girl Vibes

Posted on 25 February 2022

The up-and-coming independent alt-pop artist, Mea’s exceptionally promising debut single, Sad Girl Vibes, is everything that it metaphorically says on the tin, and so much more for the way it puts to shame toxic positivity tropes and empowers through resonance.

The artfully vulnerable release melds the moody beats with lighter textures and sensibilities to make it all too easy to get on the same wavelength as the UK-based singer-songwriter and her trip-hoppy, indie RnB nuanced track. Any fans of Warpaint will want to pay attention.

The bruisingly honest lyrics in the earworm stand as the ultimate testament to the fact that just because someone errs on the side of melancholy, that doesn’t make their psyche synonymous with obnoxious misery. If anyone can tempt people into owning their sad girl vibes, it is Mea.

You can vibe with Mea’s debut single, Sad Girl Vibes, for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast