Browsing Tag

Avant Garde Pop

Francesca Pichierri’s ‘Amen’ Strikes Alt-Pop Gold with a Groove-Soaked Rebuke

Posted on 25 March 2025

Francesca Pichierri never lets sentimentality get in the way of precision. With ‘Amen’, her fifth single and a pivotal chapter in her concept album Cellule Stronze, she lays a satirical yet razor-sharp lens on cancer ghosting—the social retreat of those who disappear when illness walks into the room. Rather than wallowing in the emotional wreckage, she chooses to let irony march straight to the dancefloor.

Musically, Amen firmly implants alt into pop. Retro-futurist synth lines and swathes of synthesised bass bring the funk, summoning a sound reminiscent of Depeche Mode warped through the lens of South American disco and gospel. But it’s Pichierri’s performance that overrides the energy of the release. Her vocal lines carry a seraphic sanctity, acting as a vocal exorcism of all the shallow well-wishers and their hollow “thoughts and prayers”.

You plug into Amen—not the other way around. It strips you of autonomy with its animatronic pull, transposing darkness into an earworm of euphoria. The lyrical sting doesn’t get lost in the groove. Instead, it’s accentuated by it. Her vocal delivery pivots from soulful sincerity to smirking irony with a deftness that makes every line land harder. It’s funk with bite. Gospel with gall. Dance music with a grudge.

With Amen, Pichierri soundtracks the uncomfortable silence left by those who recoil from pain—and she sets it to a beat they can’t ignore.

Amen is now available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud and Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Empara Mi Tears Into the Fabric of Grief with ‘I Can’t’

Posted on 22 February 2025

Empara Mi has long been a voice that defies convention, and her latest single, I Can’t, is no exception. As the first chapter of her forthcoming album, Monsters & Masochists, this heartbreak-laden anthem traces the contours of loss and lets them bleed into every note. With lyrics that seem to be torn from the pages of premonition, Empara Mi wrote I before experiencing the very devastation she feared, turning this track into a cruel case of life mirroring art.

Proving how frivolously the word ethereal is thrown around, Empara Mi’s vocal delivery is as otherworldly as it is gut-wrenching. The sombre introspection quivers through each aching vibrato harmony, carried by a sparse yet cinematic arrangement that makes every moment linger in the silence.

In parts, the instrumentation strips itself to the bare iridescent bones of reverb bleeding from a lone synth note, yet nothing is left hollow—this is a masterclass in knowing when to hold back and when to let the weight of emotion fracture through.

From one soul to another, I Can’t is a reflection of alienation, a meditation on grief that deepens in resonance with every discordant beat.

I Can’t is out now on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify, setting the stage for what promises to be Empara Mi’s boldest and most vulnerable era yet.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spyndycyt’s ‘The Shadows Come to Steal My Plans’: A Melancholic Waltz with Mortality

Posted on 28 January 2025

In The Shadows Come to Steal My Plans, the music industry’s best-kept secret, Spyndycyt, orchestrated an existential opus that blurs the lines between Avant-Garde orchestration, folk sensibilities, and synth-pop eccentricity. While the track’s artful embellishments and idiosyncratic textures initially catch the ear, it’s the deeply philosophical lyricism that truly holds the weight. With unflinching introspection, Spyndycyt digs deep into the inevitability of mortality, using the ageing skin on the backs of his hands as a metaphor for the relentlessness of time.

The single’s stripped-down composition allows the driving beat—a metronomic representation of life’s ceaseless passage—to anchor the arrangement. Even when the beat is momentarily masked by ornate synth textures or folky flourishes, it always returns, echoing how we distract ourselves from the inevitable but never escape its shadow. As the folky motifs fade, the track crescendos into alternative synth-pop absurdity, conjuring a sense of surrealist vulnerability.

Lyrically, Spyndycyt paints a dimly lit portrait of reflection, where regrets, fleeting victories, and the inconsequential nature of ambition intertwine. Lines like “I don’t want you to hit me on the shoulder and let me know when it’s time to go; I already know” unravel with devastating poignancy, capturing the universal tension between acceptance and resistance.

With The Shadow Comes to Steal My Plans, Spyndycyt doesn’t just invite listeners into his richly ornamented introspection—he forces them to confront the stark reality of their own fleeting existence, all while making the experience sonically spellbinding.

Stream the Shadow Comes to Steal My Plans on SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alt-Pop Sad Boy Psychonaut Jake Marshall Captured the Messiness of the Human Psyche with His Earworm, Next Time

Posted on 3 January 2025

Jake Marshall continues to push boundaries with Next Time, the defining single from his debut EP, Better Luck Next Time. The perennial pop earworm blasts past contemporary trends with its retro-futurist spin on disco, funk, synth pop, and Avant Garde indietronica. Marshall’s music remains unapologetically unique, and Next Time is no exception, delivering the kind of sonic innovation that makes you fall a little deeper for his unfeigned artistry and unflinching mission to capture the messiness of the psyche as it wrestles with themes of affection and rejection.

The track evolves and drifts into obscure interstellar experimentation, allowing the listener to imagine what John Grant could create with the sardonic grit of Fidlar. It’s a testament to Marshall’s restraint-less approach to laying it all down on the line—idiosyncrasies and all. Next Time carries the emotional resonance of heartbreak but reframes it as an empowering experience; this ongoing saga of self-discovery is as stunning to hear as it is to witness, particularly as Marshall gains both artistic confidence and career traction.

Anchored by his striking four-octave range, Marshall delivers every lyric with a depth that feels revolutionary in a genre where vulnerability can often be an afterthought. The dynamic vocal lines, paired with the intricate production courtesy of Daniel Finn, create a rich sonic panorama that bridges raw emotionality with experimentalism.

Next Time will be available to stream across all major platforms from January 3rd, including Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Francesca Pichierri painted an Avant-Garde pop prism of the absurdity of reality in ‘Io Sto Bene’

Posted on 8 December 2024

After a beguiling fusion of style, soul and spirituality in her sophomore single, Francesca Pichierri has evolved into an alt-pop Avant-Gardist with her third single, Io Sto Bene. The infectiously obscure piano-driven earworm inches cabaret pop further into the mainstream with the playful panache in Pichierri’s vocals bringing equal amounts of energy as the upbeat staccato piano notes before the mid-way mark hits and sinks the listener into a kaleidoscope of baroque pop experimentalism.

Io Sto Bene pulls you into a rabbit hole of mental disquietness, efficaciously depicting how it feels to try and find stability while everything in your external and internal world feels off-kilter.  Like a rush of acceptance, the outro is a luminous visualisation of ephemeral transcendence away from the tumult of turmoil.

The independent singer-songwriter penned Io Sto Bene inspired by a bitter-sweet memory of her mother waking up from her first ovarian cancer treatment to reassure the family that ‘everything is fine’, and the epiphany of how paradoxical it is to be determined to appear fine in the midst of chaos. This is so much more than art imitating life; the single is a painful prism of the absurdity of reality.

Io Sto Bene was officially released on November 29th; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Il Nemico Dentro by Francesca Pichierri – A Cinematic Soul Serenade That Burns Through Avant-Garde Flame

Posted on 25 October 2024

In her standout single, Il Nemico Dentro, the alchemist of soulfully avant-garde alt-pop Francesca Pichierri fused Mediterranean warmth with avant-garde pop inclinations, creating a tonally spiritual multi-sensory experience that is as cinematic as it is visceral.

Born under the sun of Apulia, the singer-songwriter has unflinchingly dedicated herself to honing her talents as a sonic vignette painter, culminating in the masterful strokes in Il Nemico Dentro. The quiescent reverberance emanating from the first notes is enough to serenade your senses to stand to attention; the hairs on the back of your neck will prick up in synergy with your ears as Francesca Pichierri seraphically commands complete emotional immersion, and the filmic undertones tug at your emotions in waves.

As the score unravels, you’re seduced by the provocative originality, derived from the fusion of indie, blues, and jazz. Just when you think you’ve found your rhythm with the release, avant-garde samples cut through, pulling you deeper into the evocative chaos.

The catharsis hits hard, only to give way to an electrifying crescendo that pulses with the raw emotionality Francesca is known for. The song blazes its own trail, driven by the weight of Francesca’s lived experiences and her poetic knack for transforming personal grief into universal art.

Francesca is so much more than alt-pop royalty – in her niche, she stands as a goddess, creating borderlands between celestiality and material reality.

Stream Il Nemico Dentro on all major platforms, including SoundCloud from October 25.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

NÍNIVE – Aleluya: Celestial Permission to Shed the Weight of Emptiness

Posted on 9 February 2024

After making one of the strongest debuts of 2023, the Ecuadorian Alt-Pop conduit of cinematic experimentalism, NÍNIVE, has returned to the airwaves with her sophomore single, Aleluya, created in collaboration with the world-renowned producer, Enrique Gonzalez Müller.

There’s not just something in the ethereal atmosphere of Aleluya; the intricate complexities within the explorative instrumentals as they oscillate, glitch and melodiously flow are dynamite to the rhythmic senses as they create a beguiling platform for NÍNIVE’s celestial vocal timbre.

As the deeply confessional single professes the weight of internal emptiness, the transcendence within the production is permission to free yourself from that feeling and let light and colour into your soul through resilience, love and awareness of inner beauty. The sonic meditation is the ultimate antidote to the agony of our current era, which makes it so hard to find meaning and fulfilment. We can’t wait to hear what the superlative songstress constructs next.

Aleluya was officially released on February 2nd; stream the single on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nicholas Dante incited a sonic insurgence with his harsh electro-art pop debut, Rebellion

Posted on 10 February 2023

The Brooklyn-based artist, Nicholas Dante, brought the uprising we’ve all been waiting for in his electro-art pop debut single, Rebellion.

The hyper-pop elements melded with harsh electro synthetics allow industrial tones to go pop in the insurgently promising debut that the world is already paying attention to. After making light work of putting momentum behind the debut, the Avant Garde originator will undoubtedly become a landmark fixture in the future of pop.

Beyond the cinematic production, the experimentalist holds reverence to pop pioneers, naming Britney Spears, Madonna, and Janet Jackson as his main aural influences, which goes a fair way in explaining the hooky proclivities of the track that will push your speakers to their limits.

Jump on the sonic insurrection by streaming Rebellion on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Berlin’s Raluca brought depth to dance-pop in her latest single, Could I

Posted on 24 March 2022

In the Berlin-based singer-songwriter Raluca’s latest single, Could I, nothing is black and white; melancholy melds with euphoria in the zeal of the orchestrally scored EDM pop progressions.

As the lyricism tackles the vulnerability that comes hand in hand with affection, the 80s and 90s-inspired beats veer through the unpredictable Avant-Garde hooks. It isn’t your average earworm, but with the depth of the lyricism paralleling the intensity of the experimentalism, Could I isn’t a dance hit that is easily forgotten.

Vocally, Raluca made no attempt to hide behind pop archetypes. Instead, she confidently ran with her own distinctively electrifying vocal lines that make Could I. Even at this early stage in her career, Raluca is proving to be one to watch.

Could I is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

VITA has dropped one of the most ensnaringly Avant-Garde debuts of the year with BADBADBAD.

Posted on 28 February 2022

With her debut single, BADBADBAD., the icon in the making VITA is pushing alternative attitude and avant-garde textures into the mainstream, which is all a part of her mission to break society’s boundaries, and encourage her listeners to do the same.

If you could imagine the fierce feminine ferocity of Peaches paired with the earworm appeal of Rihanna and the extreme multidimensional artistry of SKYND, you will be able to get an idea of what the Sydney-hailing artist delivered in her arrestingly promising debut.

If the sonic gravitas isn’t enough to leave you enraptured, her determination to carry the power of her ancestry in her rebellious modern sound will be more than efficacious. Vita was named after her great aunt who died in the Holocaust; once you register the sheer juggernaut power in BADBADBAD. with that in mind, it is enough to leave you with goosebumps.

BADBADBAD. is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast