Browsing Tag

Indie Soul

Experimental Singer-Songwriter, Klas Ehnemark, Gave ‘Indian’ the Force of Ancestral Belonging in a Disconnected World

Posted on 14 April 2026

If we all lived consistently reminded by the fact that we’re the current manifestation of our ancestry instead of focusing on our ego and the immediacy of our sole legacies, we might stand a chance at veering away from the dystopia we’re currently in. Klas Ehnemark’s Indian is a visceral interruption of self-obsession, an invitation to drench yourself in the bliss of knowing that even though everything is temporary, the roots of ancestry anchor you within a world becoming more and more disconnected. Hailing from the windswept Swedish island of Öland, and only now stepping into public view after years of private songwriting, Ehnemark arrives with the presence of someone who has taken his time for a reason.

Sonically, Indian is a lush landscape of pop, funk, and the pure heat of impassioned soul. Ehnemark’s vocals soar with spellbinding conviction, the emotional range of his delivery almost as impressive as his octave range; rock musicians would kill to carry the same force in their vocal cords, and all his power is primed without overshadowing the catharsis of the production. There are shades of Van Morrison in the spiritual warmth, hints of José González in the intimacy, and the reflective pull of Bon Iver and Nick Drake in the songwriting, yet Indian carries its own pulse of belonging and continuity.

Indian is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

K.O. “M” Band – Addressing It: 90s nostalgia, seductive grooves and siren-esque mic-drop lines that scintillate the soul

Posted on 26 January 2026
https://open.spotify.com/track/7fcdCD0RaHSv5FQTXJ0VD4?si=1b379e60947a469c

Independent sibling duo K.O. “M” Band channelled their fearless fusion of Funk, Rock, R&B and underground Hip-Hop into Addressing It, the standout single from their new EP, ALL FAIR GAME. From the second the 90s nostalgia spills through the production, you’re pulled into a lush haze of seductive grooves and siren-esque mic-drop lines. It’s a seminal track for anyone who wants to expand their mind, scintillate their soul and push their rhythmic pulses into overdrive. As the raunchy flow of licks and grooves snakes beneath the surface, the vocals thrive in their playful purity, sharpening the thematic edge while keeping the entire experience bathed in a hazily hypnotic cloud of choral reverb.

In that haze, the duo make it clear they aren’t creating through ego. There’s a spiritual urgency in the way they’re awakening their growing fanbase, using their platform to confront the introspective issues we sleepwalk through. Their aural world feels voluptuously viracious, almost ritualistic in the way it pulls you in and refuses to let go. It’s a revolution delivered through intention, sensuality and a meticulous sense of mood.

Formed by siblings Mckenzy Keyes and Maximus Keyes, K.O. “M” Band has spent the last decade refining the Naptown Sound, pushing Indianapolis’ musical identity forward with their bold genre collisions and vibrant creative chemistry. ALL FAIR GAME marks a major milestone for the pair, showcasing their evolution, maturity and sharp musical identity. Fully independent and self-produced, they continue to expand their universe on their own terms, proving that innovation doesn’t need permission.

Addressing It is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tears Me Up proved Bryon Harris can haunt and heal in one alt-indie breath

Posted on 31 October 2025

Bryon Harris filtered the soul of 80s RnB into indie neo-pop to make his debut with the single, Tears Me Up. Through woozy saturation, drippings of delay and reverb, and guitars which cut right through the atmospheric warmth of the production, and a voice which is just as sharp in its emotive capacity, Tears Me Up became a paradox for the way that it revels in the melancholia of romantic grief yet glows with caressive hues.

A classically trained vocalist who has performed everywhere from the Yale Opera Theatre to Italy’s International Lyric Academy, Bryon Harris now dwells in the indie-rock-soul world with Artists & Activists Records in Austin, Texas. His experience permeates through Tears Me Up, not as grandeur but as presence; a realness that moves between genres as effortlessly as his vocal cords do between emotional states.

If this is what Harris delivered as his debut, we can only expect more authenticity-rich candour wrapped in the aura of singer-songwriter cultivation from the rest of his discography.

Tears Me Up is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

MALA!KA Bared Fire, Soul and Frenetic Jazz Poetry in Out the Back Door

Posted on 2 October 2025

Through syncopation and a bold synthesis of soul, RnB, trip-hop, pop, and jazz, MALA!KA hit her stride with the standout single, Out the Back Door, from her seminal EP, At the Café. The track reaches the epitome of scintillation as it lures you into the warmth of a multi-sensory sojourn, escorted by biting lyricism and jazzy reverie to temper the sharper teeth of her narrative. What MALA!KA spills here feels raw, unfeigned, and unflinching.

There’s a striking cadence in her diction, a precision that echoes the spoken fire of contemporary poets in the vein of Kae Tempest, while carrying the same kind of diaristic sting that Kate Nash once cut with, only hers is forged from deeper soul. Against erratic percussion, her vocal melodies pour like liquid gold, never forced yet always resolute. The words refuse to sugar-coat, confronting the archetype of those who weaponise language without sincerity, using words as masks rather than mirrors.

Just when the sting is sharpest, a swanky jazz blues middle eight breezes in, offering a cool detour before the riot resumes. Sax lines spiral, percussion grows frenetic, and MALA!KA ensures the finale is nothing short of fearless experimentalism. It’s a reminder of her refusal to stay in one lane, and her determination to let emotion dictate form, not formula.

Born in Wilmslow with roots in Pakistan, MALA!KA has been shaping her sound against the backdrop of Liverpool’s vibrant music scene, where she has already headlined sold-out shows. Her debut EP, At the Café, cements her as one of the most authentic rising forces in the UK soul-pop landscape.

Out the Back Door is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Taya Elle broke the monocultural mould with Latin-laced bilingual soul in Don’t Love You

Posted on 27 September 2025

With over 72k streams racked up on YouTube, the official music video for Taya Elle’s debut single, Don’t Love You, has instantly resonated with worldwide RnB audiences scouring the airwaves for a voice that breaks through the mediocrity of surface-level emotivity. Don’t Love You traces the contours of tangled heartstrings while reflecting how conflict between the mind and soul within a relationship knocks your sense of self and the world out of kilter.

Every element is a cinematic triumph within the single, which takes the foundations of old school soul and builds a contemporary temple around it, decorated with motifs that break the monocultural mould. The Latin guitars fused with the moody indietronica elements, and the way Elle chameleonically switches through her lyrics bilingually, ensures that this stylistically and culturally fluid track breaks down the barriers to the soul as much as it tears through borders.

Produced by the three-time Grammy-nominated Joe “Capo” Kent, the track is a blueprint for what it means to be raw while holding composure. Taya Elle, a rising artist unafraid to pour vulnerability into bilingual verses, channels her influences (Sade, Sabrina Claudio, Ariana Grande) without losing her individuality in their shadows. From theatre stages to feature spots on Univision and USAWire, she’s steadily building a name on integrity, intimacy, and vocal silk spun from lived experience.

Don’t Love You is now available on all major streaming platforms; for the full experience, stream the music video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

iRO Delivered the Full Cinema of Heartache in His Indie-Folk-Pop Ballad, ‘Lonely’

Posted on 28 August 2025

Some musicians create music videos to dress their singles, true artists capture the full cinema of their sound, and iRO proved himself firmly in the latter camp with Lonely. In this folk-leaning, orchestrally scored indie piano pop ballad, the weight of loss and isolation gnaws until the soul is as raw as the emotion swelling through the diaphanous crescendos. What begins with the quiet introspection of a track fit for a Joni Mitchell-centred playlist builds into a gospel-esque sermon, steeped in the seraphic intensity that brings to mind Hozier while carrying the absolving tenderness of Michael Kiwanuka.

Lonely triumphs not by grandiosity but by its fragility; its confessional lyricism bleeds into visceralism, while the melancholy of the melodies consumes the spaces words cannot reach. It is the kind of ballad that caresses as it devastates, holding its listeners in a state of stillness where loss becomes strangely redemptive.

Behind the moniker iRO is Ori Rakib, the NYC-based singer-songwriter and poet who has shared stages at Coachella and Tomorrowland with Macklemore and Alok, yet remains as comfortable in stripped-down subway station performances as in front of festival crowds. With his debut album White Roses, he now presents his art in its most unguarded form, with Lonely as one of its most affectingly cinematic centrepieces.

Lonely is now available on all major streaming platforms. For the full experience, watch the official music video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sharo Drifts Melancholy and Bliss Through the Synth-Pop Surf of California Sun

Posted on 31 July 2025

In the opening rays of Sharo’s latest single, California Sun, you’ll be swept into waves of Cali synth-pop, where temperate oceanic soul and retrowave shimmer are signed, sealed, and delivered straight from the shore. You can almost smell the lemon haze on the retro synths as the melody breezes in, floating between peaks of effervescent euphoria and undercurrents of melancholy left out to dry beneath the blistering aural rays. Sharo manages to pull the resonance straight from the salt air, inviting listeners to drift with the flotsam in his uniquely bittersweet sound.

If you’ve been on the hunt for the golden middle ground between moody synth-pop and euphorically kinetic earworms, this is your port of call. The scintillating synthetics shimmer around Sharo’s intimately sweet vocal style, which traces a melancholic line reminiscent of Elliott Smith, without ever settling for pastiche.

The Maryland-based producer and vocalist, who has been navigating the boundaries between EDM, chillwave, lo-fi hip hop, and pop since 2016, continues to expand his aural palette on this single. California Sun is a bright, genre-surfing testament to his evolution and proof that even in the deepest synthetic grooves, vulnerability can bask unashamed in the light.

California Sun is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Strings and Soul Grooves Anchored Fletcher Jr Jr’s Meditation on Time in ‘Days Come and Go’

Posted on 6 June 2025

There are few better ways of acknowledging how the sands of time ceaselessly slip than sinking into Days Come and Go, a filmic track that uses the pull of classical strings to take you right back to the golden era of Hollywood while juxtaposing them with folksy acoustic guitar chords, staccato rhythms, grooves of Motown and soul that the genre-fluid singer-songwriter pours from every pore in his vocal timbre.

It’s not your typical fusion, but under Fletcher Jr Jr’s tenderly expressive care, every element ties together to paint a panorama of emotion. There’s soul for the warmth, funk for the uplifting groove and orchestral swells to sweep ornate strokes upon the introspective frame that pontificates how living carries little meaning without loving.

Forever unchained from any one particular genre, Fletcher Jr Jr follows the thread of whatever instrument he picks up and lets it guide the composition. From prolific album releases to original tracks uploaded weekly on YouTube, his focus never wavers from the pursuit of a perfect song or lyric to shine a light on the darkness.

Days Come and Go is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lylo Gold Spun Silk from Emotional Scars in the Ambient Reverie of ‘Knights in Vegas’

Posted on 6 May 2025

Knights in Vegas by Lylo Gold is a melodically melancholic cruise through the intersections of ambiently saturated downtempo indietronica and soul-drenched dream pop. If you caught the fever with Sweater Weather by The Neighbourhood, you’ll feel your temperature rise with the euphonic etherealism that flows through this single with cathartic grace.

With vocals which drift with the same effortless elegance as the instrumentals while dripping with stylised soul, Knights in Vegas isn’t just the result of ticking songwriting and production boxes—it’s emotion expressed in its pure freeform; it’s enough to make your rhythmic pulses feel as though they’ve been reborn.

The East London-hailing artist is far from a passive presence in her creative output. Lylo Gold has poured herself into every aspect of her project, from production through to the final expression, informed by her musical upbringing and the influence of her reggae artist father. While her sonic roots may trace back to R&B, her scope spans far beyond the expected. In Knights in Vegas, she navigates emotional desolation and ego-drained affection with the poetic poignance of an artist unafraid to surrender vulnerability to atmosphere.

With her upcoming work set to push further into authentic introspection, Knights in Vegas proves she’s not interested in soft-selling heartbreak or masking the turbulence. She’s building sanctuaries from the fallout and cloaking them in audio opulence.

Knights in Vegas is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.


Review by Amelia Vandergast.

Under the Ephemeral Veil: DANIELA’s Sonic Resonance in ‘Waiting’

Posted on 26 November 2024

DANIELA’s latest indie RnB single, ‘Waiting,’ is as ethereal as slipping through a semi-lucid dream. The indie-tinged journey through stripped-back soul demands that listeners surrender to the seraphic sublimity of its dreamy atmosphere, which stands as an exhibition of DANIELA’s authentic to the nth-degree talent.

With every note, she demonstrates a masterful command over texture, tone, and melody, carefully curating each sonic element to immerse her audience into a vignette of dreamy, lovesick longing. The warmth of her vocal whispers serves as the gravitational core of the track, leaving the listener tantalised long after the music fades.

Originally from Italy and now enriching London’s diverse music scene, DANIELA draws inspiration from icons such as Amy Winehouse and Lana del Ray, weaving her rich, emotive vocals with contemporary production that hints at nostalgia. Her musical narrative is steeped in neo-soul, jazz, and Italian melodic influences, culminating in a distinct sonic signature.

With a background rich in performance—from London’s speakeasies to the jazz circuits of the Emirates—DANIELA has honed her craft on illustrious stages, contributing to her seasoned artistry. Her live performances resonate with the strength of her studio work, notably during standout gigs such as the WOW Festival at Southbank Centre, backing legends like Sister Sledge, and enamouring audiences in venues as diverse as the Grand Hyatt in Doha and the spirited bars of Soho and Shoreditch.

Waiting was officially released on November 15; stream the single on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast