POSTS TAGGED : Electro

ROTATION ROUND-UP #4

Time is becoming increasingly precious and difficult to obtain these days but I still have a grá on me for blogging.

So, this is an attempt cover more of what I am listening to on a regular basis, with a relatively quick roundup of what has been on rotation over the past week or two.

Enjoy!

Adwaith – ‘ETO’

Welsh outfit Adwaith – Hollie Singer, Gwenllian Anthony & Heledd Owen – will release the follow-up to their wonderful and Welsh Music Prize winning debut with new album Bato Mato on July 1st via Libertino Records. The new record is led by ‘ETO’, a soaring evocative guitar driven adventure brimming with confidence and ideas. It is shimmering, evocative, life-affirming and moving, and bursting with open-hearted soaring melody’s and lyrical vulnerability – instantly sweeping us along with this stirring anthem. This is Adwaith at their finest; you will be replaying, again and again, and again.

Many Voices Speak – ‘Within Reach’

Many Voices Speak – the project of Swedish musician Matilda Mård – has announced her return with second album Gestures, released on 29th April 2022 via Strangers Candy.

A master of misty-eyed, melancholic and hazy indie-pop, Many Voices Speak has always found its power in its ability to capture an eternity in an expression; found in abundance on her debut and lead single ‘Within Reach’. A six-minute long reflective slow burn that just brims with beauty, as Mård’s elegant, yearning dream-pop makes the world seem to slow down around it, where time stretches out, and you become totally immersed in it. ‘Within Reach’ showcases Mård’s continued growth as a songwriter, one more comfortable in her own skin.

Komla MC vs Fold – ‘Victoria Falls’

Komla MC vs Fold is the unlikely combination of two expats in Leeds, UK. Hailing from Accra and New York respectively, Rob (Komla MC) and Seth (of the band Fold) were brought together by having kids at the same school and united in their undying love of hip hop. Given that Seth’s work with Hip-Hop/Trip Hop outfit Fold has a rep for funky, groovy and cool sounds, it is no surprise that this delivers a healthy dose of all three pitted with a fun and cheeky sensibility. Hopefully there is more to come from this collab – top marks!

The AM – ‘On Joy Road’

The AM – AKA Ann-Marie Teasley – is a DJ with a penchant for Techno and Electro that started out as a classical violinist in Detroit. The AM is releasing her debut EP Black Majik on March 11, and comes fronted by ‘On Joy Road’; an Electro-influenced jam named after the long, dual-carriageway street that connects the centre of Detroit to Nankin Lake and the enclaves on the city’s west side. It is urgent and intense while simultaneously elegant as a hypnotic spell is spun by frantic up-tempo snappy beats, claps, rippling electronics and winding synths, while a warped vocal sample and woozy flourishes fade in and out of view. A mesmerising and thumping dancefloor ready banger.

Clwb Fuzz – ‘Sertraline’

Cardiff outfit Clwb Fuzz return with new single ‘Sertraline’; a magnificent blaze of fuzzed-up spiralling psychedelic-rock. Burning guitars fuzz, ominous eerie synths and swaying, pendulumic percussion, set the swirling stage for Emily Kocan’s haunting vocals, regaling vivid and sometimes far too real dreams, occurring as a side-effect of taking antidepressants. Unsettling paranoid introspection has never sounded so glorious.

Chainletter – ‘Lyric St. (K-65 Remix)’

Two aspects of Maison Fauna’s world collide on this one, as Bristol’s K-65 energetically remixes Durham-based Chainletter’s ‘Lyric St’.

Originally a full on techno adventure, K-65’s interpretation introduces an urgent, driving and pulsing electro elixir to its veins, complete with flurries of timbral rides, whirling sound effects, and teasing builds tailored for the dance-floor. Fusing elements of broken techno, breaks, dub, and electro, K-65 has crafted something compelling, nuanced and dancey, embracing experimental sound design to evoke vivid, yet subterranean imagery.

Tune in below:

Samoun – ‘Chakchouka’

‘Chakchouka’ is the debut single from Parisian pairing Samoun. Composed of two ‘famous’ producers, they are described as “the investigators of the Techno Raï genre” – whatever the back story, their debut single is a mouthwatering slice of minimalist heaven. 

Delivered with a deft touch that brings to mind the golden age of French electro (think Mr Oizo, Justice & a slew of other Ed Banger luminaries & early Daft Punk), metallic percussion, peculiar vocal and woozy, ghostly synth creates an otherworldly environment before the bassline drops and things lift off as it swaggers, grooves and moves. It is an absolutely stunning track, one that is not only addicting but destined to get people moving.

Tune in to the stunning powers of ‘Chakchouka’ below – the video is pretty great too:

https://open.spotify.com/track/71N3YYdTgwlCRSKLMmHBRJ


Golden Bug – ‘Ground (Feat. Phoebe Coco)’

Ahead of releasing collaborative album with In Fields, French producer and artist Golden Bug (aka Antoine Harispuru) has shared stunning lead single ‘Ground’.

Featuring Phoebe Coco, ‘Ground’ is lifted from collaborative album entitled ‘Vibration Métallique’ – and it is utterly mesmerising. It is inviting slow mo disco that slowly swaggers along a winding deep house groove illuminated by acid squelches, hypnotic chimes an flecks of electronics taking the listener to spaced out ambient zones. Phoebe Coco’s cool and breathy vocals are the perfect pairing, smouldering with emotion they add another smooth seduction as they flow stridently above. Calm, composed and utterly cool – this is captivating stuff.

Listen to ‘Ground (Feat. Phoebe Coco)’ below, and Vibration Métallique is out via Höga Nord Rekords on December 27.


WOB! – ‘Syncopate’

WOB! is a Serbian/Irish drummer, electronic music producer and DJ with a preference and precocious talent for crafting elegant & fluid compositions encompassing parts electronica, electro-pop, drum & bass and house.

Latest single from WOB!, ‘Syncopate’, is a perfect exponent of this spirit. Shifting along a sea of squiggling, squelching basslines and flurry of fluid beats ‘Syncopate’ moves with a fluid, liquid-like dexterity. Brimming with chill out vibes, stabs of Balearic-esque keys and flourishes of synths and harmonic vocals, this is an utterly transfixing three-minutes of infectious, neon-bright and beautiful electronica.

Also, WOB! teamed up with artists from Poland to create the stunning laser powered visuals on the video for ‘Syncopate’, lead by Okime Emiko – check it and the single itself below now.

WOB! will be performing live with four-piece band on April 12 in Brewery Corner, Kilkenny and June 2 at Vantastival. Tune in below:

Bearson – ‘It’s Not This (feat. Lemaitre and Josh Pan)’

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With latest single ‘It’s Not This’ 24-year-old Norway native Bearson (Jakob Bjørn Hansen) is bringing all the deliciously catchy, colourful and chilled pop vibes.

Teaming up with Lemaitre and Josh Pan, Bearson’s latest is a gentle and dreamy piece of pristine pop. Playful piano chords and synth melodies dance over a bouncy hip-hop indebted beat as ‘It’s Not This’ slithers along a smooth slinking groove as Josh Pan muses in a relaxed contemplative daydream manner with crisp, soulful vocals. Fusing bright pop hooks with an irresistible groove and hip hop beats, Bearson and company serve up an unbelievably catchy three minutes of electronic pop heaven.

Tune into ‘It’s Not This (feat. Lemaitre and Josh Pan)’ below and judge for yourself:

Retro Kid – ‘Neon Colours’

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Copenhagen-based outfit Retro Kid introduced themselves to us last summer with a series of irresistible electronic productions in the shape of their self-titled EP.

Retro Kid have kick off the new year with the great news that they intend to release their debut album Nordic Noir in 2018. And to get us in the mood, they have kindly afforded us a sneak-peak of what we can expect with lead single, ‘Neon Colours’. It is a really colourful track – neon bright in fact – imbued with a chipper disposition, bouncy vibe and peppered with blasts of brass. This colourful confection of synth splashed electro-pop is treated to one last – but certainly not least – coat of gloss by Christiane Kjærgaard’s gorgeous honeyed vocals. The icing on the cake really, Kjærgaard’s vocals bring it all home in exquisite fashion.

A sublime piece of infectious electro-pop that should have you, like me, salivating at the prospect of their debut album.

Give ‘Neon Colours a listen below – you won’t regret it.

Aggressive Swans – ‘About You’

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Aggresive Swans are Munich-based electro-pop duo of Janko Raseta (guitar, production) and Chris Chlupacek (vocals, bass, flute).

Together, the pairing are already proving to be a particularly potent partners in the ’80s tinged dance tunes, that brings the feelgood, party vibe’ stakes – something their new single ‘About You’ proves pretty resolutely. It is bright, upbeat and fun with phased synth and dancey beats aided and abetted by alluring vocals, forming a seductive sound of modern pop and electronica, infused with the spirit of the ’80s, and an overwhelming sense of wild abandon. The groove, the beats and the melody – just fabulous!

Hopefully we’re going to be hearing more from Munich’s Aggressive Swans throughout 2018 and beyond – for now, ‘About You’ is plenty to be getting on with.

NASAYA – ‘Milk (ft. Myra)’

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Born and raised in Reunion Island – next to Madagascar – French musician and producer, NASAYA (aka Theo Hoarau) makes electronic music bursting with ideas, invention and vitality.

that blends influences from a broad range of influences from Jamie xx, Tame Impala, Flume and Michael Jackson to Jimi Hendrix, Supertramp and Chick Corea. These influences evidently run wild on NASAYA’s genre-hopping, musical splicing-and-dicing latest single ‘Milk (ft. Myra)’. It is a colourful, imaginative tune that shuffles over some slick beats with a slinky, super-cool bounce before a blend of glitchy 8/16bit era computer game sounds reveal themselves, adding another dimension to this warped, yet beautiful sound collage. The final touch of class for ‘Milk’? Well, that is an honour reserved for guest vocalist Myra’s irresistible and mellifluous cooing. A sublime, super-colourful introduction to an artist that we hopefully hear plenty more from in the future.

Do your ears a solid and listen to ‘Milk (ft. Myra)’ below.

David Harks – ‘Avalon’

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David Harks is a name that should be familiar to regular patrons of the site.

The British-born, Berlin-based artist and singer has been the recipient of much deserved lavish praise for his work with Safetalk, varying collaborative projects and of course, his solo work.

It is the latter that concerns us on this occasion, more specifically Harks’ new solo single ‘Avalon’ – recorded with Pete Cattermoul from Teleman, it is a soft, psychedelic indie/synthpop song. It shifts along a steady beat, punctuated by a grooving bass and an enchanting combination of airy synths, piano loops and flourishes of electronics creating a chilled, atmospheric soul soothing sound. At points both melancholic and hopeful, Harks’ his transcendent voice conveys a strength in fragility and the pièce de résistance of this magnificent, incredibly chill indie-electro delight. You’ll be all the better for letting this wee gem into you life, guaranteed!

Be good to yourself, and check out ‘Avalon’ below: