Browsing Tag

Alt Electronica

Avicii meets Depeche Mode in Policy’s latest genre-mash, I’d Wait for You ft Sergi Yaro

Posted on 23 May 2023
Policy

The award-winning genre-melding producer, Policy, is back on the airwaves following the successful launch of his debut LP, Echo Chambers, in 2020 and the sophomore album, The Abby Rose, in 2022. This time, the Ohio-based beat master collaborated with the Ukrainian singer-songwriter Sergi Yaro to awaken sentimental senses with I’d Wait for You.

The falsetto vocal lines against the dark, droning and dancey synths and harbingering percussive beats, which slam to sonically attest to how dark the waters of a loveless reality can be, is an alchemic combination, which won’t fail to drag you into the murky core of this experimental hit which could win over mainstream electronica fans and alt-electro heads alike. Instrumentally, if you found the middle ground between Depeche Mode and Avicii, you’d find I’d Wait for You resoundfully residing there.

I’d Wait for You is due for official release on May 23; hear it on the artist’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

CONT4MIN4TED – This is the Way: An Alt-Electronica Journey for the Mind, Body, Soul, and Rhythmic Pulses

Posted on 16 May 2023
https://soundcloud.com/cont4min4ted/sets/this-is-the-way/s-lYo30PwNNHK?ref=clipboard&p=a&c=1&si=67a3e5c169854d6d9ec28a67dcadf4b6&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

After aurally relinquishing their emotional baggage via their debut LP, the Gainesville, GA alt-electronica producer, CONT4MIN4TED, went even further leftfield with their sophomore album, This is the Way, which will take you on a journey of the mind, body, soul and rhythmic pulses.

I could dissect each of the 16 singles that were intuitively curated to orchestrate the ultimate sonic experience, but perceptibly, the greatest achievement of this LP is the cinematic journey it will take you on straight from track one, Stuck, before the stagnation lifts in the fervidly exhilarating soundtrack, Drifting.

Even with the chillier tones and ethereal vocal lines in the cinematic slices of synthesised soul, you won’t fail to find the impassioned warmth in the emotion and experience-driven soundtracks to vignettes that are universally shared. The album is enough to make you forgo your usual vibe-out electronica playlists; it is a smorgasbord of constantly in-flux electronica ingenuity. For your sanity’s sake, sink your teeth into the catharsis.

Stream This is the Way from April 28 on SoundCloud, Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Relinquish control and uphold the unknown with Laura Brehm’s latest electronica single, Wonder, featuring Nikonn.

Posted on 27 April 2023

Portishead and PJ Harvey can scarcely hold a candle to the electronica songstress Laura Brehm after the release of her latest single Wonder, featuring Nikonn. Ethereal yet tangibly resounding in equal measure, the track is scintillated through the domineeringly demure vocal lines to sonically prove how sweet life is if you maintain an innocent sense of wonder. All too often, we’re caught up in the obsession of seeing the full picture and understanding every stroke that created it; Wonder, in all its artful ingenuity, gives you permission to relinquish all-encompassing knowledge and softly uphold the unknown.

In addition to creating her own music, Brehm has released almost 100 collaborations on labels including Universal, Electronic Bird Records and NCS; the innovatively sophisticated writer, singer, composer, and multi-instrumentalist has turned her hand to swathes of different genres, but whatever she touches always turns to philosophical gold.

Check out the official music video for Wonder on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Gaze into the entropy abyss with the catharsis in Static Null’s latest downtempo release, Void

Posted on 25 April 2023

The prolifically playlisted alt-electronica artist Static Null drenched the airwaves in downtempo catharsis with their latest scintillatingly textured instrumental soundscape, Void.

Voids typically are synonymous with abyss-like phenomena, but there’s plenty of sonic salvation to be found in the artfully composed single, which allows the darker proponents to cast a shadow over the splinters of light to reflect the complexity of the human experience.

If we never acknowledged the redeeming qualities of our mortal coil, we would never mourn their absence while caught in voids, which mostly happen to be of our own making. Static Null’s latest synthesised orchestration is a demonstration of all that and more. Losing yourself within it’s tender warmth is wholly recommended.

Void was officially released on March 23. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Make your perspective as luminary as abstract.ortiz’s latest single, Lighten Up

Posted on 21 April 2023

Even the sky won’t be blue if it is lucky enough to be exposed to the soul in abstract.ortiz’s latest single, Lighten Up. The alt-electronica downtempo manifestation of euphoria enmeshes you with its colourfully-hazy tones before the artist and producer prises you away from ennui with his sticky-sweet vocal lines that will be all too efficacious on fans of Grandaddy.

Bringing his art into this era, there is a trappy feel to the release through the cadence of the vocal melodies and how the harmonies bleed into the synthetics of the soundscape that ensure that by the time the single reaches the prelude your perspective will be as luminary as this release.

Lighten Up was officially released on March 14. Hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dig your way into a dystopic landscape with the dark hazy beats in Snakes of Russia’s single, Tunnel

Posted on 17 April 2023

Taken from the original soundtrack from the film, A Brush with Violence, the reworked iteration of Tunnel by the alt-electro producer, Snakes of Russia, is a harbingering descent through droningly dark synth lines and dystopically hazy laments, fed through the unpredictably rhythmic downtempo percussion.

Ambient and arrestingly alluring – to those who find comfort in the obscure – in equal measure, Tunnel is an ambient Avant-Garde work that you will want to burrow into time and time again for the way it paints light tones to cast shadows on the progressions. After all, no tale of horror can be told without holding a candle to humanity and the collective fears that show how precious our mortality is despite our nihilistic inclinations.

Stream Tunnel on Spotify now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Trip-hop goes baroque in Lakitah’s latest bullet to the monocultural mould, The Fall ft. EvenstAr

Posted on 18 March 2023

Lose yourself in the fantastical atmosphere of Lakitah’s latest single, The Fall, featuring EvenstAr; the baroquely histrionic brand of trip-hop melodically works to create a mise en scene of isolation and introspection.

The international collaboration project, led by vocalist and guitarist Dominika Zdrodowski, started as a lockdown-born endeavour, but as the struggle for hope is still as endemic as it was when we were commanded to keep distance between each other, and just as insular in our alienation, the project still thrives. You only need to slip into the artful opulence of the Fall to affirm that for yourselves.

The featuring artist EvenstAr takes influence from trip-hop acts, such as Portishead and Massive Attack; put against the monocultural-mould smashing beguile laid out by Lakitah, The Fall is an Avant-Garde emblem you will want to treasure for as long as you want to keep hold of your sanity.

Stream EvenstAr on YouTube now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Tom P Buckley pushed the boundaries of Avant-Garde electronica with his latest single, Try

Posted on 14 March 2023

If you like your leftfield electronica soaked in theatrical autonomy, you would be hard-pressed to find more originality than what floods the mix in one of the recent releases from the Maine-based artist and producer, Tom P Buckley.

Try is just one of the 8,000 songs penned by the prolifically creative artist, who has also put his name to 51 novels and received accolades for his visual art. The extended 7-minute release drifts through everything from cutting orchestral strings to intense electro build-ups that break with a flood of euphoria to lift you from the sonic monotony that is tragically prolific on the airwaves. While we can’t say we’ve ever heard anything like it before, who is to say that’s a bad thing?

Try was officially released on March 2nd; catch it on YouTube.

For more info on the artist, head over to his official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

mooncrüe have made their psychedelically existential debut with the spacey alt-electro hit, Animal

Posted on 6 March 2023

Alt-electronica originators mooncrüe went heavy on the philosophy which will be as euphonic to existential ears as the kaleidoscopic synth-pop beats in their debut single, Animal.

If you have ever looked at the lesser-aware species that roam this scorched earth with us with envy for their habitual simplicity; you will find visceral resonance in this mix. Animal leaves the highs to the instrumentals, and the realism within the lyricism that becomes even more astute with every listen to the spacey psychedelic score.

It isn’t every day that you discover a debut that leaves you desperate for the sophomore, but clearly, the indie psychonauts within this devilishly clever outfit are anything but your run-of-the-mill aural peddlers. They’re on their very own spacey plateau. Hit play and join them.

Animal is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Slender Dan orchestrated a superlative existential meditation with ‘Time is Running Out’

Posted on 2 March 2023

With vocals as ethereally magnetic as Cigarettes After Sex atop cinematically intricate Aphex Twin-ESQUE beats and apocalypse-centred lyricism, the latest single, Time is Running Out, by Slender Dan, is the ultimate existential meditation.

With chilling vocal samples alluding to how our child-like proclivities are the main reason behind our destructive tendencies that have led the earth to the point of collapse, there’s no exaggerating the sombreness of the dream-like Avant-Garde score. Yet, Slender Dan simultaneously succeeded in creating a tranquil feat of electronic ambience that will quell your end-of-days fears.

The striking mindfulness within the layers of lush reverb allows the tonally transcendent single to unravel as one of the superlative feats of post-modernism you could add to your playlists.

The Nashville-residing duo comprising Heather Dickinson (vox, keys, guitar, bass), and Patrick Ahern (drums, production, vox) debuted their first EP on KEXP in 2021 and has had its fair share of successes since. Time is Running Out is just one of the singles to feature on the forthcoming LP, GESTALT. In their own words, here is what it traverses:

“GESTALT is a 1 hour long, 19 track, avant-garde electronic album. With 13 songs and 6 interludes, Slender Dan presents a sobering critique of modern Orwellian forces- commenting on such topics as propaganda, censorship, the lack of consensus on truth, and the attempt to remain sane in the midst of insane times.”

Time is Running Out will officially release on March 2nd. Hear the official audio on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast