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Music Blog for Indie Pop Fans

Rhine Valley prescribed nostalgia-tinged serenity in their indie summer serenade, Instincts in the Red

Posted on 24 July 2024

If you want respite from the artists driven by delusion and to tune into an artist who grooves to the sound of his own nostalgia-licked mellow melodies, hit play on the latest single, Instincts in the Red, by Rhine Valley and discover one of the most underrated artists on the airwaves.

The 21st-century answer to the Zombies’ 1965 hit, Summertime, filters through a sepia-tinged lens which captures the heat of the sun-soaked season within the rhythms which ebb and flow beneath the artist’s idyllic vocal register; the harmonies easily reach euphony while injecting soul into the soundscape that is as laidback as Elliott Smith on Xanax.

Rhine Valley, easily one of the most self-effacingly grounded artists in the music industry, used his bedroom-recorded lo-fi number to candidly reflect on life and the embarrassment of his streaming numbers. By using the tribulations of operating as an independent artist sans a trust fund or nepo connections, he spearheaded the indie music movement with unflinching authenticity.

The song’s mellow indie vibe is perfect for fans looking for something genuine and grounded, it is a true reflection of an artist who can capture the beauty in the mundane and the plight of grassroots music with swathes of tongue-in-cheek panache to spare.

Instincts in the Red will be available to stream on all major platforms, including SoundCloud, from July 24.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jayne Sugg – Belief is Hard: A Soulful 60s Sojourn Through Secular Spirituality

Posted on 21 July 2024

With her standout single, Belief is Hard, the NYC Indie singer-songwriter, Jayne Sugg, unveiled a strikingly soulful testament to the tribulations that transpire from spiritual metamorphosis. The title track of her forthcoming LP unspools a rich kaleidoscope of introspection, filtered through the soulful echoes of the ‘60s, creating a profound space for Sugg to narrate her wrestle with the ethereal and material reality.

The refraining lyric, “Why should I bring myself to pray if I can’t even find faith”, speaks volumes of her transformation following a deeply religious upbringing in which she was constantly brushing against the billboard legends of her parent’s generation.

Initially confined within the walls of religious music, Sugg deconstructed the constraints to unleash herself from creative stagnation. This transformation is the soul of her crowdfunded album, Belief is Hard, a collection that traverses her shifting perspectives, resonating with a love for soulful, nostalgic sounds that nod respectfully towards icons like Bonnie Raitt and Joni Mitchell. The instrumental backdrop in the title single, a subtle homage to the 60s soul, envelops her lyrics in a cocoon of warmth and organic richness, ensuring the listener feels every vibration of her vocal tremors.

The Good Shepherd Music Collective, a sanctuary for artists exploring deconstructed spiritual themes, finds its spirit woven into the album’s fabric. This collective, and by extension the album, sings of peace, love, and acceptance, echoing Sugg’s liberated spiritual and creative stance.

Recorded in the hallowed halls of Sonic Ranch and Dreamland Studios, featuring the performances of musicians like Tim Lefebvre and Terrence Clark, the lush and layered single is a gateway to catharsis.

Stream Belief is Hard on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Spotlight Feature: ‘Find Out’ and Fall in Love with Dilly Dally Alley’s Indietronic Jazz Infused Earworm

Posted on 19 July 2024

As lightness meets lyrical depth, Dilly Dally Alley’s latest feel-good earworm, Find Out, opens a doorway to rhapsodic bliss with a juxtaposing key of edgy off-beat style and an all-consuming sense of jazz-collective-next-door soul.

Straight out of Minneapolis, the ensemble, led by Sophia Spiegel, spun every-day awkward moments into sonic sugar for the soul; the single pulsates at the crossroads of indie-pop and jazz-inflected alchemy and unravels as the ultimate affirmation that you’ll always be free to shed your inhibitions and embrace your idiosyncrasies in front of the people who matter.

If there was any definitive formula for indietronica pop perfection, Dilly Dally Alley found it with Find Out; the kinetically weightless rhythms pull together to form a dance-worthy anthem that is equally as liberating for the mind and soul.

With Find Out, Dilly Dally Alley doesn’t just step into the limelight—they grab it, twist it, and weave it into a tapestry of infectious grooves and raw, emotive energy. The track is a testament to their journey from late-night jam sessions to becoming the heartbeat of Minneapolis’ vibrant music scene.

Dilly Dally Alley Said:

“Find Out is about the silly, clumsy moments in a relationship that grow to be the very reasons why you fall in love. It’s a song about running into your crush when you’re too drunk at a bar, or the grocery store without your makeup on or being completely tongue-tied trying to ask them out.

It’s about the love that nevertheless persists between two people because it’s meant to work out. This tune is to dance to – maybe a bit clumsily – so long as you’re doing it with someone you’re crushing on.”

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Find Out will be available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify, from July 19; shortly followed by the next single in Dilly Dally Alley’s line of sonic succession, This Just In, on August 23.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ben Thuesen mastered the art of indie pop euphonic immersion with ‘Angel Face’

Posted on 19 July 2024

In his latest indie-pop release, Angel Face, the affectingly irreplicable Ben Thuesen channelled the soul-wrenching mourning of a love lost into a composition that haunts with its lyrical depth and intricate melodies.

The Sacramento-based singer, songwriter, guitarist and producer exhibited how he has perfected the art of euphonic immersion with this vignette of the bittersweet aftermath of affection. The anthem for the lovelorn echoes the melodic poignancy of artists in the same vein as Owl City and Carly Rae Jepsen, while ensuring that no influence overshadows the uniqueness of his distinctly cultivated sonic signature.

By weaving guitar strings and heartstrings together, the independent artist crafted a sonic landscape that mirrors the isolation of heartbreak. The stinging clarity of his guitar lines cuts through the nightscape with the precision of a seasoned jazz musician, his roots bleeding into each note, offering a raw, unfiltered emotional narrative which reflects the alienatingly quiet hours of introspection that often accompany the loss of love.

Angel Face will be available to stream on all major platforms from July 19; stream it on Soundcloud first.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Seraphic Soulstress, Cati Landry, Struck Again with Her Sophomore Single, Riptide

Posted on 18 July 2024

Cati Landry defied the confines of material reality with the rush of euphonic etherealism in her sophomore single, Riptide, inspired by an equilibrium of the timeless music she grew up on and the rugged beauty of her coastal Canadian upbringing.

Ensuing from the ring of acoustic guitar chords which tinge the intro with 90s nostalgia, the single quickly oscillates into a diaphanous, quasi-hymnal ballad which reminisces on the most tender and mystifying-on-the-heartstrings facets of a relationship while conjuring a seraphic sense of serenity.

Landry’s crystalline vocal lines take the dreamy indie pop meets alt-country soundscape to a whole other celestial level; you can’t help but surrender to her otherworldly command when immersed in Riptide, which doesn’t stop at washing over your rhythmic senses; the single permeates the soul to implant the reverie rendered into the release.

Cati Landry set the bar high with her 2023 debut single, Mind’s Eye, but she reached nirvana with Riptide and sits alongside Beach House, Mazzy Star, and Chayr in the dream-pop pantheon.

Prior to focusing on her solo career, the Vancouver Island-born-and-raised artist lent her talents to various bands and performed in jazz clubs, bars & theatres. After studying Literature at the University, she pursued a Master’s in Songwriting at Berklee, where she wrote her debut single, which was brought to life in an LA recording room and polished by producer Neil Wogensen.

The dream-folk daytime lullaby arrived on the airwaves on July 11, distributed via Foundation Media, stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Self-actualise with the debut single, Superhero from the alt-indie originator, The Black Holes Philosophy

Posted on 16 July 2024

For the standout single in their eponymous debut album, The Black Holes Philosophy filtered a folky 70s pop twang into the cosmically expansive production style of ELO while poetically narrating the internal conflict of grappling with personal desire and external expectation.

While the introspective protagonist cherishes authenticity and simplicity over grandiosity and superficiality in Superhero, the beauty and the solace in the little things in life profoundly resonate through the prism of kaleidoscopic colour that spills from the piano pop-rock progressions.

Superhero is enough to make you contemplate every aspect of idealism reverberating through your psyche to ensure it derives from within instead of the confluence of cultural demands. The softly and soulfully rendered release reaches the pinnacle of liberation as it guides through a journey of self-actualisation while establishing The Black Holes Philosophy as one of the most artistically unbound artists on the airwaves.

Superhero was officially released on June 14th; stream the single on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

In Our Sea electrified the airwaves with their rhapsodically eclectic alt-indie single, When You Kissed Me I Went Numb

Posted on 15 July 2024

The third album, Flowers! Swallow Me!, from the inimitably rhapsodic and harmonically euphonic outfit, In Our Sea, has landed, introducing one of the most infectious singles to date from the architects of unpretentious alt-indie.

If you took the jangle pop guitars of Johnny Marr, the sticky-sweet synthy sensibilities of Yo La Tengo, the kaleidoscopic colour of the Beatles and the innovatively rhythmic flair of The Violent Femmes, you’d be left with a soundscape as electrifying as the standout single, When You Kissed Me I Went Numb. The lyrically avant-garde celebration of pure and innocent passion hits as hard as any of the tracks on Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea LP. With the unbridled self-effacing energy that’s poured into the single by the smorgasbord, it is impossible not to fall for In Our Sea, melodic hook, line, and sinker.

When You Kissed Me I Went Numb was officially released on July 5th with the Flowers! Swallow Me! LP; stream it on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

London’s introspective indie pop icon, Gemma Felicity, struck again in ‘10 Million Dates’

Posted on 13 July 2024

Our adoration for Gemma Felicity remains unflinching after the release of her intimate indie pop single, 10 Million Dates. With her latest right-on-the-euphonic money release, the London-hailing singer-songwriter captured the collective frustration within the modern dating scene, detrimented by the illusion of endless choice.

The sense of disillusion in the lack of real, raw, and pure connection resounds throughout the artistically profound, poetically bitter-sweet lament which acts as the ultimate consolation to anyone who is losing the motivation to keep searching.

By delicately touching on themes of people pleasing, loneliness, fear of the future, emotional baggage, and the ennui which follows pinning hopes on a transient character in our lives before they disappear within the folky dream pop reverie of the polished production, Gemma Felicity delivered one of the most affecting singles of 2024.

As the introspectively candid icon gears towards the release of her 5-track EP, Baggage, there’s no doubt that she’s inching towards the zenith of her career.

10 Million Dates was officially released on July 5th; stream the single on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergas

Georgina White became Trip-Hop’s most arresting chanteuse in ‘LOVE’

Posted on 8 July 2024

Georgina White’s recently re-released single, LOVE, is an aching reflection on the darker shades of affection. As the PJ Harvey-esque trip-hop aesthetics mirror the turbulence of a mind gaslit into accepting abuse by nefarious actions running under the guise of passion, the indie alt-pop framework ensures that White is doing far more than simply following in the footsteps of trip-hop pioneers, she’s synthesising a sound that is irreplicably her own.

The sepia-tinged production by the hand of Dan Myers brings an aura of old-school spectral soul to the soundscape which harnesses the haunting vocal delivery. Delicate yet commanding, White’s voice embodies the complexities of maleficent love, delivering each verse with a chanteuse’s grace and an insurgence of empowerment. Angel Olsen herself couldn’t have performed LOVE better.

Penned after drawing inspiration from the Cruel Intentions soundtrack, LOVE lends from the melancholic depths of the OST; despair pulsates throughout the progressions in the luxuriantly arcane production that melds gritty guitars with syncopated beats that mimic the frenetic rhythms of a heart beating out of sync.

Whatever the Brit-Austrian artist and actress turns her talents to next, it is going to be the epitome of iconic.

Stream LOVE on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

EmiTQM has made an ethereal debut with his installation of Latin indietronic pop, IGUAL Y ME PENSASTE

Posted on 5 July 2024

Latin pop sensation in the making, EmiTQM, has made an indelible mark on the Latin pop scene with his dreamy indietronica debut single, IGUAL Y ME PENSASTE, which arrests with ethereal melodic waves in the same vein as Cigarettes After Sex, and originates via tenderly warm and exploratively 8bit-adjacent sequences which envelop you in a sonic world of kaleidoscopic colour and soul.

Translating to ‘maybe you thought of me’, IGUAL Y ME PENSASTE is a reticently sweet embodiment of hope and yearning to reverberate around the mind of the person who ceaselessly occupies every waking thought.

The single is an affectingly unforgettable introduction to the Mexican pop singer-songwriter and producer’s unique style which has already seen him amass a loyal army of fans who relish in his ability to visualise universally resonant facets of the human condition.

The emotions that will flood through you as you follow EmiTQM’s lead through this future-forward earworm reach the pinnacle of visceralism. The hazy love-drunk hues translate with perfect articulation as the lines between reality and imagination blur.

One of the only things with more promise than his music career is that the sun will rise tomorrow. We are already stoked to hear what he has in store for his sophomore release.

IGUAL Y ME PENSASTE was officially released on June 27; stream the single on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast