POSTS TAGGED : Psych-Pop

Vanessa Van Ness – ‘The Early Bus’

Vanessa Van Ness is a New York-based singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with a penchant for eerie post-punk with psych brush strokes.

Van Ness’ latest single ‘The Early Bus’ is a very personal one, intimate and hypnotic, it is fraught with a harrowing sense of eeriness as it deals with her brother getting hit by a car when they were kids, and taking an early bus each day to visit him in the hospital over a span of six months. A stirring, emotionally charged and sentimental track that musically nods in the direction of 70s/80s UK post-punk and motorik krautrock. Melancholic vocals whisper and flicker above a hypnotic groove while guitars shapeshift and evaporate amid the sparse sea of atmospherics, synth and psych brush strokes. ‘The Early Bus’ is incredibly powerful, moving and captivating – it may be dark and eerie but is also extremely touching too.

Listen to ‘The Early Bus’ below:

Anna Vincent – ‘Nothing Wrong’

London singer/songwriter Anna Vincent, known for her work with My Tiger My Timing and Heavy Heart – the latter caught our ear on more than one occasion in recent years with wonderful explorations of ‘90s indie rock, shoegaze and dream pop. – will release her debut solo album Under The Glass on 29 October.

The album was recorded mostly at home (and in lockdown) during 2020 and was inspired by late 60s and early 70s folk and folk-rock by the likes of Joni Mitchell, Simon and Garfunkel, John Martyn, Jackson Browne, and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, as well as indie rock like Wilco, Elliott Smith and Teenage Fanclub.

And with the record’s release only weeks away, Vincent has shared ‘Nothing Wrong’, a third single lifted from the forthcoming album. Vincent takes us on a melodic meander through a wonderful woozy world of warm dreamy allure with hazy psych brushstrokes while rippling guitars shimmer a gentle pattering groove undulates beneath the lush and breezy vocals that cruise above.

Listen to ‘Nothing Wrong’ below and keep an eye out for Under The Glass on 29 October.

Holiday Ghosts – ‘Off Grid’

Holiday Ghosts – based in Brighton, via Falmouth, appear to be something of a magnificent pop music recycling plant.

On the evidence of latest single ‘Off Grid’ Holiday Ghosts borrow from some of the finest sounds of past era – mining parts the Kinks, Violent Femmes, Alex Chilton and Modern Lovers – while transcending their influences in a rather simple manner: by producing a really great song and crafting their own irresistible concoction of modern indie-pop.

‘Off Grid’ is quite simply an irresistible indie-pop jam blending bright tones, sunny disposition, endearingly ramshackle jangling guitars and dueling vocal melodies, and packing pop sensibility at every turn. It fizzes with energy that whizzes around addictive melodies and all bathed in youthful sense of freedom and untamed possibilities. ‘Off Grid’ is an utterly addictive and contagious ball of fizzy joy and such is its earworm powers, it will compel you  to hum, whistle, sing-along from the off. An utterly addictive and contagious ball of fizzy joy, ‘Heading Out’ will be spinning around your head for days.

‘Off Grid’ is out now with forthcoming album, North Street Air, following on May 21st via Fat Cat Records.

Air Devi – ‘Mosquitos in the Backyard’

Air Devi is the moniker of Philadelphia singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Devi Majeske.

The project began life as home recorded lo-fi indie pop before releasing debut EP, ‘Swanning About’ last year, before signing off on 2020 with superb single ‘Move Without Place’. Devi has opened her 2021 account with new single ‘Mosquitos in the Backyard’; a lush, colourful confection of woozy, starry-eyed dream-pop. Devi’s syrupy smooth vocals drift over a bubbling bassline groove that seductively slaloms through a plush haze of woozy guitars and swirling atmospheric tones. It is dreamy, heartfelt and intoxicating sound as Devi’s voice continues to be cast in a series of woozy settings, with beguiling results.

Listen to ‘Mosquitos in the Backyard’ below – you won’t be disappointed

By The Sea – ‘The Let Downs’

Wirral outfit By The Sea have long been favourites around these parts. Both their self-titled debut and follow-up Endless Days, Crystal Sky are utterly brilliant and bewitching records filled with melodic psych-pop songs, illuminated by drifting, dreamlike atmospherics, jangling guitars and beautiful dreamy vibes.

Close to six years on from the release of the latter, By The Sea have returned with ‘The Let Downs’ lifted from the forthcoming album Heaven Knows Magnolia – double good news. The new single continues and expands upon their penchant for wistful and heartfelt dreamy indie-pop. ‘The Let Downs’ waltzes slowly through a haze of elegant fuzz and ethereal air as a steady drum beat and twinkling groove join world-weary vocals in bewitching us entirely with an overwhelming and heart swelling sense of melancholy and longing. It is an exquisite, transfixing and deeply moving return, and just the sort of wistful, introspective and smouldering emotive powers we come to love from By The Sea.

You can listen to ‘The Let Downs’ below – hopefully we’ll have more news on the new album soon.


Cate Von Csoke – ‘Dream Around’

Cat Von Csoke is an Australian-born, Brooklyn-based musician and songwriter with a flair for cinematic, ethereal, and transfixing psych flavoured soundscapes.

Von Csoke is gearing up to release a new LP, Almoon, on June 5, and ahead of which, she has shared ‘Dream Around’. Adorned with all the aforementioned attributes, ‘Dream Around’ whisks us away on a woozy waltz through a sun-drenched haze awash with layers of warm fuzz and distortion. Anchored by dark, hypnotic and reverb-laden vocals and intriguing lyricism, slumbering melodies undulate amid a nonchalant air as guitars purr and jangle, rich with melodic allure and swelling emotion. It is a mesmerizing slice of evocative, ethereal and sun-drenched musings – utterly divine.

Listen to ‘Dream Around’ below – the new LP is out on June 5.


Wilding – ‘Speed King of the Commonwealth’

Melbourne psych-pop purveyor Wilding – aka Justin Wilding Stokes – has charmed us with gloriously playful, jovial and off-kilter pop at every given opportunity but over the past few years, all has been quiet on the music front.

However, Wilding has broken this unholy vow of silence with new single ‘Speed King of the Commonwealth’, the lead track lifted from his forthcoming third LP The Death of Foley’s Mall. Wilding has become synonymous fabulous, charming and sprightly indie-pop and his return marks no deviation from this rich vein of form. A two-and-a-half minute pop nugget, ‘Speed King of the Commonwealth’ whizzes and fizzes by with scuzzy guitars, smiley melodies, charming hooks and his signature preference for playful, jovial and off-kilter pop, and all covered in delightful layers of fuzz. Infectious doesn’t even cover the half of it; this is sparkling indie-pop perfection – one to be treasured and enjoyed, no question!

Listen to ‘Speed King of the Commonwealth’ below and keep an eye out for the new record later this year.

Tokyo Tea Room – ‘Forever Out of Time’

Tokyo Tea Room is the psych-pop lovechild of Canterbury natives Daniel Elliott and Ben Marshall.

With the pair on guitar and bass respectfully, they are joined by four of their closest friends and fellow musicians; on vocals and keys, Beth Plumb, on drums, Sam Teather, on guitar, Ryan Debling and on synth, Graham Nunn.

This fellowship of friends has a preference for dreamy and psychedelic sounds, marrying melodic bass lines, hypnotic guitar riffs and dreamy synths together to form a seductive sound with a soulful personality – and their latest single is just one such example. Exploring the concept of holding on to the past, feeling an imbalance in life while trying to move on, ‘Forever Out of Time’ is an imaginative and colourful psychedelic pop song with layers of shimmering synth, frazzled electronics, fuzzed-up guitar and gritty bass tones. It is a song with the air of summery breeze as Plumb’s soft but euphoric vocals flutter above the glittering floods of surging psychedelia which veer off into a cascading mesh of experimental, spaced-out sounds. A beautiful and woozy cut of cosmic psych-pop – utterly divine.

‘Forever Out of Time’ is out now via Easter Island Records / Painted Halo Records – tune in below:

Heavy Heart – ‘Bed Bug’

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Hot on the heels of sublime single, ‘Bed Bug’, which was released last month the London outfit Heavy Heart have shared a transfixing and unnerving video to go along with it.

‘Bed Bug’ itself is spellbinding; a bright, shimmering tune from the get go, Heavy Heart explore the worlds of ‘90s indie rock, shoegaze and dream pop over the course of four-and-a-half minutes sprinkled with yearning, melancholy, hope and glistening guitar lines and a massive sound. Jangling guitar riffs and crisp but haunted vocals grab you attention before plunging into a soaring bittersweet chorus full of lamenting heartache with a lush backdrop of shimmering strings as ‘Bed Bug’ goes huge on the hooks and choruses. Delicate but powerful, layers of guitars, fuzz, distortion and whirring are moulded into something beautiful, transfixing you as it ekes out a perfect space between light and shade.

‘Bed Bug’, the first of three mixed and co-produced by Gabe Wax (The War On Drugs, Fleet Foxes and Soccer Mommy) and a new EP is expected this spring,

Tune in below.

Michelle Blades – ‘Politic!’

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Michelle Blades is a Miami-raised, Paris-based, Mexican-Panamanian songwriter and multi-instrumentalist with a flair for colourful, catchy and effervescent psych-pop.

Blades is readying the release of her new album Visitor, due out on March 29 via Midnight Special Records, and has shared the vibrant off-kilter confection that is ‘Politic!’ as a taster. Blades’ multi-cultural experiences are reflected in the magpie like sounds of her colourful, imaginative and irresistible psych-tinged indie-pop as ‘Politic!’ flits in and out of psych dreaminess with jerky guitars, bouncy beat and jittery bassline puncturing the bright, luminescent spectrum of colourful sound. Addictive and infectious with decidedly danceable disco grooves, ‘Politic!’ manages sweetness, effervesces and jerky art-rock hi jinx simultaneously as vocals slide from deep and honeyed to powerful intent, and glass-shattering screech with such an ease. A colourful, fizzy and fuzzed-up psych-pop adventure of the finest calibre.

Listen to ‘Politic!’ below & watch out for new album Visitor, due out on March 29 via Midnight Special Records.