Browsing Tag

Music Video

Blinding Lights in the Underground: Sco Nixon’s ‘Numb’ Is Retro-Futurist RnB Pop Cinema

Posted on 10 July 2026

The neon lights in Sco Nixon’s latest single, Numb, are even more blinding than The Weeknd’s viral hit. The Indianapolis pop and RnB artist, songwriter and performer locked emotional storytelling into a radio-ready release that carries the shadowy intimacy of the underground.

While the momentum and colour spill from the new wave synth pop melodies and contemporarily hazy production, Sco Nixon locks the amorousness of RnB into his harmonies as they glide across the retro futurist synth lines. You would be hard-pressed to find a more polished hit of RnB pop in the underground, but there is so much more to Nixon than a glossy presence on the airwaves. His voice is a cinematic force in itself, carrying enough control, smoke and sensitivity to make detachment feel dangerously intimate.

Numb is already out on all platforms, with the official music video expanding the tension behind the record through expressive performance and cinematic storytelling. That visual extension makes sense for an artist whose work is rooted in movement, feeling and atmosphere. After performing in multiple cities, including recent London and Los Angeles shows for the Target Concert Series, Nixon sounds ready for a wider spotlight.

Numb is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Humanity Holds the Line in the Cinematic Pop Rock Salvation of Julian Veliss’ ‘Ahead of You’

Posted on 9 July 2026

We are a little late to the party with Julian Veliss’ viral single and music video, Ahead of You, but the hype is still, unsurprisingly, in full swing. The Slovenian-German singer-songwriter has created the contemporary equivalent to Hallelujah; a secularly sermonic single that breaks the silence in the void of isolation and loneliness so many people have slipped into.

Signs of endemic disillusionment are everywhere you turn, making seminal singles such as Ahead of You more than melancholy-validating feel-good releases. They become rare opportunities to find catharsis in pain and power in the belief that you, just by virtue of being human, deserve to feel optimism and hope.

It is a stunningly rendered single, led by Veliss’ voice that could lead a choir, broadside on Broadway and effortlessly fill a stadium. His early appearances on Slovenia’s Got Talent and Deutschland sucht den Superstar make complete sense when you hear the vocal authority he brings here, yet the performance carries tenderness alongside its scale. When fortitude-fuelled vocals are accompanied by little more than acoustic guitar, the release already feels complete. When the arrangement rises into cinematic, orchestrally scored pop rock, it becomes aural salvation. With international radio airplay already behind it, Ahead of You proves Julian Veliss can raise others through formidable talent.

Ahead of You is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full enrapturing experience, stream the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Torment of Trauma Bonded Affection Oscillates Through GISELLE’s 90s RnB Hit, COMPLICATED

Posted on 16 June 2026

GISELLE poured fire and fury into sensuality with COMPLICATED, her latest RnB single and music video. Exploring the emotional complexity of a trauma bond and the silent spite of turning a blind eye to indiscretions to keep someone close, the LA singer-songwriter exhibits how nothing feels fair in love and war. As much as we want to believe monochrome lines are drawn in right and wrong, everything turns into a haze of grey when love sweeps you up in its kaleidoscope of raw pain and devotion. GISELLE visualised the mess of being attached in an emotional cacophony without missing a pixel.

The atmospherically heavy production keys right into the moody 90s RnB movement, when empowering hits started taking over the airwaves, but COMPLICATED is so much more than a washout of nostalgia. GISELLE toys with synth-heavy reverberations to make the weight of the release ache before lifting the timbre with piano melodies that shine the sombre light of reclamation into the standout single.

Originally from Boston and raised in Buffalo, GISELLE has been singing since childhood and writing music since she was eight, moving to Los Angeles at 21. Her multi-instrumentalist background, spanning piano, drums, guitar, violin and ukulele, feeds into a sound that refuses containment. With performances at The Hotel Cafe, The Mint, The Viper Room and Whisky a Go Go, COMPLICATED feels ready to push her further. The video takes you back to the MTV era; if they aired this, GISELLE would be an overnight sensation.

COMPLICATED is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Starleen Turn Evolution // Rebirth: A Lynchian Alt-Pop Ritual for Souls Surviving the Machine

Posted on 29 May 2026

Starleen, the electronic alt-pop duo based in Dallas, Texas, opened Evolution // Rebirth like a forgotten piece of Lynchian cinema, with an official music video that feels almost macabre in its dystopian disquiet. From the first frame, the single establishes a world where rebirth arrives through unease, metallic pressure, and bodies moving against the architecture of control.

Tension keeps creeping into the production as ethereal tones collide with harsh industrial-adjacent electronic motifs. Droning reverberations enmesh with scintillating sources of sonic light while the duo assert a hymnal, arcane vocal presence into the single, turning the track into an altar for transformation with cinematic severity. The arrangement feels ceremonial, bruised by the machinery of modern life, yet its ethereal centre keeps reaching towards catharsis.

The music video reimagines the aesthetics of The Matrix through an arthouse lens; delicate dance choreography juxtaposes cold, harsh cityscapes with grace as the ultimate exposition on what it means to keep your soul alive in the harsh reality of our world. Through its noir-lit futurism, industrial ache, and spectral alt-pop intensity, Evolution // Rebirth becomes a statement on survival, growth, evolution, and the spiritual act of respawning with more light than the world tried to leave you with.

Starleen Said:

“This song paired with its visuals really sets the tone for the full-length coming out later this year. After years of working together, we believe we have finally found the sound for us. Visually, we are leaning more towards having other artists tell the story through their talents. We were amazed by what Evelyn Phan brought on set that day, and during the rain! Keanu Cordero directed while Ryan Ritchie handled the cinematography.

Both Zachary and I feel that this song, along with the rest of the album, is finally telling a story we’ve been trying to tell for some time now. We feel optimistic about the future and are grateful for the experience of creating art with amazing people.”

–

Evolution // Rebirth is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify. For the full experience, watch the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

SoReal Built a Cinematic Hip-Hop MusicVerse Around the Meaning of Desire in ‘Glass Hearts (Act II)

Posted on 16 May 2026

SoReal expanded his Cinematic MusicVerse with Glass Hearts (Act II), a tension-soaked hip-hop chapter where film, narrative, and atmospheric production converge into a world built with discipline, desire, and emotional consequence. The visuals carry blockbuster scale, with sleek metropolitan styling, luxe lighting, and symbolic shifts that turn the music video into a full narrative instalment.

Following the groundwork of Act I, this second chapter introduces the Muse as a figure of connection and emotional truth, pulling the protagonist into the fragile space between temptation and what the spirit truly needs. Everything is brought to a fever pitch of polished and stylised pressure as SoReal lays down lived-in contemporary philosophy for the soul.

His delivery feels mesmerically measured and meticulously metered, grounding the track with passion, discipline, and accountability. Against the lofty female harmonies, his voice becomes the centre of gravity, carrying reflections on love, scars, faith, ambition, and the bruising process of becoming.

The outro pushes Glass Hearts (Act II) into subversively surreal territory, depicting universal oneness against the sharp edges of city desire… Mind. Blown. Once we’ve picked up the pieces, we’ll start anticipating the next chapter.

Glass Hearts (Act II) is now available to stream on all major platforms. But you’re going to want to check it out on YouTube, obviously.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kinju – Lights Out: An RnB Rap Retaliation of Resilience

Posted on 9 May 2026

A trifecta of rap and RnB titans came together for what deserves to become the evocative stormer of the summer, Lights Out. Kinju, DNA Picasso and Keenan TreVon collaborated on a fiery, feverishly fresh contemporary RnB rap anthem which swaps out lingerings of lust for the spite of picking yourself up from the floor when the people around you trampled on you and counted you as down and out.

Everything from 90s pop boyband harmonies to blazing rock riffs to storming rap bars that amplify the sting of spiralling was poured into the alchemic cocktail of innovation, earworm appeal and visceral vocal layering. The ability to impart the emotional architecture of the lyrics into the production, and ultimately the listener, clearly isn’t something that evades Kinju. It’s the kind of track that fuels you with hate for the haters and leaves you under no illusion that Kinju and his collaborators are more than worth championing.

Lights Out hits with the force of a comeback sworn through clenched teeth, while the official video sharpens that sense of purpose into something visually lean and hard-hitting. Produced, mixed and mastered by Slumped, then directed and shot by Jacky Velvet, the single carries a polished bite without sanding down the raw nerve in the writing and performances.

Lights Out is now available to stream on all major platforms, including YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Blues Odyssey – A Journey Beyond Borders by Avra Banerjee Turns Blues Fusion into a Global Rhythmic Sojourn

Posted on 26 April 2026

Avra Banerjee broke the monocultural mould with Blues Odyssey – A Journey Beyond Borders, an exhibition of how many culturally diverse facets of blues reverence there are in this collaborative tour de force of creative synergy.

The official music video, which has now reached almost 50k streams on YouTube alone, shows artists from different corners of the world locked into the rhythm of each other’s grooves, adding expressive touches of zeal, colour and culture which could only have manifested through an arrangement such as this. Sitar, swanky keyboards, grounding reverberations of bass, fingerpicked acoustic guitar notes and raw electric guitar riffs all converge in the exotically elemental instrumental sojourn across the world that will leave you arrested, giving only your rhythmic core the permission to break out of the stupor of being scintillated by a collective so gifted with rhythm.

There are shades of Ry Cooder’s borderless curiosity, Taj Mahal’s deep-rooted blues spirit, and the transporting instrumental richness of Ananda Shankar in the piece, yet the composition holds its own identity through the sheer generosity of the interplay. Conceived by Avra Banerjee, with contributions from a formidable ensemble spanning sarod, acoustic and electric guitars, bass, keys, and drums, the release stands as a testament to how expansive blues can become when handled with vision and reverence.

Blues Odyssey – A Journey Beyond Borders is now available to stream on all major platforms. For the full experience, watch the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Precious McKenzie: For the Love of God – A Visceral Gonzo-Style Tour De Force of Secular Derision

Posted on 23 March 2026

With their unorthodox approach to genre styling and lyricism that frequently borders on Machiavellian nihilism, Precious McKenzie has reached their sardonic zenith with their latest single and debut gonzo-style music video, For the Love of God. The Manchester-based independent artist continues to push further into their own angular, confrontational corner of alternative music, building on the attention drawn by earlier releases and carving out a space that feels wilfully abrasive in all the right ways.

Through visuals that are as affrontingly visceral as the sonic aesthetic, which swaggers between the intersections of Mansun and the Manics, (Richey era obviously), while augmenting the echoes of indie by salaciously teasing in the timbres of early 00s metal, Precious McKenzie delivered a harbingering exposition on how salvation is just another vice for people who move through life replacing one addiction with another.

Angular guitar notes pierce the vocal-forward production with math rock-esque rhythmic cerebralism as refrains of “You found God at the bottom of the bag” and “Collapse the walls then Heaven calls” become as instrumental to the mercilessly secular derision of people who fall into the hollowness of piety. The track lands as a personal tale of friendship lost first to drugs and then to religion, framing both as different faces of the same emptiness people spend their lives trying to fill.

If you’re clinging to dogma or your dealer’s burner number, this cataclysmic tour de force is going to sting.

For the Love of God is now available on all major streaming platforms.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lady Poetic revived sneaker soul culture in the poetic hip-hop hit ‘Kicks’

Posted on 14 January 2026

Lady Poetic delivered a sonic synergy of hip-hop, RnB, and spoken word in her latest single and music video, Kicks. Each element brings its own distinct energy, building into a track that has the potential to put the independent artist from Columbia, Missouri on the map.

Kicks plays like a love letter to the cornerstone of aesthetic identity — a nostalgic timeline of how we’ve evolved alongside the changing face of trending trainers. It’s enough to stir a sentimental ache as it rekindles affection for styles we hope to see make their way back around.

The way Lady Poetic approached the concept proves her lyrical ingenuity. She may have created a thematic anchor in Kicks, but the way she waxes lyrical makes it feel expansive, unrestricted. The track becomes a parable as she explores how footwear can become emblematic of who we are. More than just style statements, the kicks become vessels — almost as if they’ve got a soul, rather than soles.

Instrumentally, Kicks is the perfect match for Lady Poetic’s mood, keeping it light, bright, and as airtight as a bubble on a pair of Airmax. Around a steady tempo, blissfully temperate hues of RnB drift around the 808s, letting the message breathe while reinforcing her sonic signature.

Kicks is now available on all major streaming platforms. For the full experience, stream the official video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Fixation turned self-sacrificial in the Midwest Emo-tinged Trap Pop haze of Trukadi’s THINKIN’ STRAIGHT

Posted on 3 December 2025

An amalgamation of Midwest emo, trap, pop and alt rock was always going to hit with a certain degree of distinction, but with their sonic synthesis, THINKIN’ STRAIGHT, the breakthrough alternative artist Trukadi brought down the hammer of authenticity hard enough to leave bruises on your rhythmic pulses. Every aesthetic, every motif, every razor-sharp introspective lyric weighs heavy as Trukadi explores how romantic obsessions can become self-destructive addictions, where you’d sacrifice parts of yourself just for another hit, where everything else loses meaning. Undoubtedly, we’ve all been there, leaving everyone susceptible to the limerence that radiates around the darker, deeper tendrils of distortion injected into the genre-defying mix.

With enough talent to put Midwest emo in the mainstream, few people are likely to underestimate what Trukadi is capable of as he continues to build his discography. His newest release also marks a shift behind the curtain as he commits to more intentionally constructed work. After experimenting with glitch hop touches and trap-leaning drums on earlier drops, he stepped into a grittier alternative direction, letting yearning and emotional dependence colour the soundscape rather than relying on technical flourishes.

The music video accompanying the track reinforces that intent. His choices in colour, styling and the framing of his guitar pull together a clearer visual identity, hinting at how seriously he’s beginning to shape his artistic world. It sits comfortably beside the introspection that drives the single, capturing longing, compulsion and blurred emotional edges without drifting away from the pop accessible core.

THINKIN’ STRAIGHT is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Spotify. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast