Browsing Tag

Alt Indie

Area 51 has nothing on Koosha Azim’s psychedelically sensory experience, ALIEN

Posted on 24 June 2022

Haunting and transcending are two rarely joined adjectives; the Iranian American contemporary artist, Koosha Azim, pushed them into a tight-knit while exploring alt-hip hop and psychedelia in his sensory soundscape, ALIEN.

The bleeding vocals, cinematically ethereal layers, and playfully unpretentious creativity are a stellular pleasure which scarcely resembles any Avant-Garde score that experimentalists have left behind before.

If he keeps pushing in this gratifyingly trippy and obscure direction, the San Francisco Bay Area artist will have the airwaves at his feet in no time. Naturally, we can’t wait to hear the transcendence that follows.

Koosha Azim’s latest single, ALIEN is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

David Wakeling looks into the future of this dystopia in ‘Living at 45 Degrees’

Posted on 24 June 2022

With the melancholy of The Verve in their best years, the folky narrative introspection of Bob Dylan and psychedelic layers not all too far removed from the kaleidoscopic textures from The Legendary Pink Dots, David Wakeling’s seminal single, Living at 45 Degrees, hits a plethora of spots.

The Anthropocene-conscious single only runs on par with Amanda Palmer’s Drowning in the Sound in terms of the wit in the metaphors, which cleverly shine a light on the ridiculous state that humanity has shaped itself into.

It’s tracks like Living at 45 Degrees which truly prove the worth of music in society. It’s something for the minority of humans that are self-aware enough to see into the futility of existence to meld into and find reason within.

The official video for Living at 45 Degrees is now available to stream via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ashes to Amber took the evolution of indie one off-kilter step further with HEEBIE JEEBIES

Posted on 24 June 2022
https://soundcloud.com/steedyroyce/heebee-jeebies-1/s-dMU88ZdfQch?in=steedyroyce/sets/heebee-geebees/s-wNN99aj7fTk&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

It isn’t all too long after the prelude that trying to pull out genre or reminiscence from Ashes to Amber’s latest single, HEEBIE JEEBIES starts to feel redundant. The unapologetic indie originator is one of the increasingly rare new names that are willing to expose his soul on the airwaves without hiding behind the style of another.

From gorgeously angular guitars fed through frenetic loops to harsh dancey synthetic textures to hip hop beats to cosmic blisters of dream pop, it’s all fed into the electrifying livewire of a title single to his forthcoming EP. As an anchor for sonic sanctity, Ashes to Amber gave us his sweetest indie-pop vocals, which will undoubtedly be a hit with fans of Peace, Jaws, the 1975, The Maccabees, and Swim Deep.

The HEEBIE JEEBIES EP will officially drop on June 24th. You can hear it for yourselves here.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Graffiti Welfare tells his anxious coming of age story in the trippy meditative alt-electro album, Revolving Shores

Posted on 23 June 2022

Revolving Shores is the gravity-defyingly meditative debut album from the up-and-coming artist and producer Graffiti Welfare. After appearing on the airwave in 2018 through his EP, Into the Soul of Space, which has been extensively playlisted & lauded by critics, the Austin-born, Denver-based artist let the world in on his coming of age anxiety.

Regardless of your age, there is ample resonance in the LP that explores the profoundness of loss in context to perceptions of reality. As someone who has only recently lost their mum after a long illness, I’m pretty reasonably qualified to attest to the efficaciously comforting gentle tenacity in the 10-track release.

Revolving Shores gently eases you in through the minimalist melodic opening score, To Be It, which almost rings with neo-classic cinematic atmosphere, then cruises right on into my personal favourite, Just Follow, which reflects the feeling of unravelling as you lose direction.

DejaBlue picks up a little more melancholy through its genius titular metaphor for carbon copy ennui before Good News flirts with elements of coldwave EDM. What is easily the biggest experimental triumph the album, Synesthesia, dips into far more indie territory, with nuances of post-punk in the chilling, stabbing and distorted angular notes. SeaShell as the closing single was an all too efficaciously entrancing way of ensuring that Revolving Shores doesn’t leave you without sticking to your synapses first.

Graffiti Welfare Said

“Revolving Shores evolved from watching my childhood fade into the unknown as grandparents and friends passed away while I was coping with coming-of-age anxiety. By day, I was trying to finish my thesis and escape the clutches of graduate school with my sanity intact.

By night, I wanted to make sense of everything by creating something sincere, unique and tangible. Each track represents a lucid perspective that builds from the last, guiding a quiet meditation towards the unknown and back into waking life. Rinse, float, repeat – cause who knows where you will wake up next?”

Revolving Shores was officially released on June 17th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Spotify and SoundCloud.

To keep up to date with the latest releases from Graffiti Welfare, follow him on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

BREGN set the bar with his plateau-transporting ethereal indie-folk single, Summertime

Posted on 17 June 2022

Here to make me eat my words about the banality and predictability of summer singles is the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer, BREGN, with his latest otherworldly feat of melodious indie-folk, Summertime.

With little more than strings and choral vocals to drive and structure the single, immersing yourself within the all-consuming mellifluous accordance comes with an immediate payoff.

Beyond the production that stands as a testament to BREGN’s creative originality, Summertime refuses to lyrically scratch at the surface. If Dylan Thomas himself rose from the grave and speculated on the season in relation to nature, freedom, past, future and present, I’m not all too sure that he’d be able to implant as much poetry.

Hear it for yourselves on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Whatever the question, the affable indie-rocker, Sam Scherdel, has ‘The Answer’

Posted on 17 June 2022

As stunning as The Manics’ Gold Against the Soul album, as cinematic as the Hollywood sign, the latest single from the Britpop-inspired UK singer-songwriter, Sam Scherdel, is a slice of celestial sonic bliss.

‘The Answer’ is a humbling admission of human nature, the inability to know everything, carry intellect on every subject and find absolutes at every turn. With weary yet romantically honeyed vocals atop the orchestrally decorated indie-rock score that grips with the same gravitas as Ben Folds, I think I felt every emotion on the human spectrum on the first listen (and the 5th; it just keeps giving. I might be addicted).

With exactly the same vein of magnetism as Billy Idol’s Baby Put Your Clothes Back On, hitting play on The Answer is a surefire way of giving Scherdel permanent space in your psyche. It’s beyond an earworm; it’s an ear unicorn.

The Answer will officially release on June 17th, check it out for yourselves via Spotify. 

Check out Sam Scherdel on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Take Graffiti Welfare’s lead in the soporifically ambient soundscape, Just Follow

Posted on 14 June 2022

Take Graffiti Welfare’s lead in their latest blip of transiently therapeutic bliss, Just Follow. The alternative artist takes the cosmic pop trend deeper into space than Bowie ever dared through a psychedelically smooth lens for the ultimate meditative effect.

The inventive samples lend themselves to the Avant-Garde nature of the release, while the dreamy, almost depersonalised, vocals aid the soporific effect of the atmospheric ambience.

As someone who grew up on a steady diet of Shoegaze records and was exposed to David Lynch soundtracks, I can safely say that Graffiti Welfare’s aptitude for artful electronica and cinematic gravitas is unmatched by most.

Just Follow is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

reharbour lay his soul bare in the melodic hooks in his debut ‘Without You’

Posted on 14 June 2022

It is one thing to release a heart-wrenchingly honest single as an established artist; doing it for a debut release is quite another. British singer-songwriter reharbour (Thomas Shearwood) was bold enough to lay it all down on the melodic hooks of his first genre-mashing single, Without You.

What starts as a sombrely intimate indie ballad starts to unravel as a massive electro indie-pop production, which will undoubtedly be a hit with the artist’s main influences,  Bon Iver, London Grammar, and The 1975,

All the way through the accordant earworm, there are affirmations of sincerity, but there isn’t a hint of earnestness in the upraisingly bitter-sweet single which takes you through euphoric electronic builds and arresting 80s rock riffs.

With an EP in the pipeline, save a space on your radar.

You can check out reharbour’s debut single via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Alt-indie artist, André Molina became everyone’s idea of seductive with his latest single, Euphoria

Posted on 8 June 2022

Everyone’s definition of seductive is different, but few will disagree on the broodingly demure power of André Molina’s third single, Euphoria, which explores the visceral highs which follow a hopeless romantic falling deeply.

Indie, alt-rock, orchestral dream pop and extremely nuanced RnB layers all became part of the fabric of the teasingly intimate track, which sensuously blows Closer by Nine Inch Nails out of the water; or at least provides a cinematic modernist alternative.

The Philippines-born, New Jersey-residing artist has an aptitude for giving the rough (almost industrial distortion) with the knee-weakening smooth (his lushly layered vocal harmonies). We can’t wait to watch the inevitable rise of André Molina. Few deserve it more.

Euphoria is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Fleeting artfully revived the alt-90s take on dream pop with his latest single, Enso

Posted on 4 June 2022

The angular indie ambience in the latest single, Enso, from the Philadelphian bedroom producer Fleeting is something for every alt-90s fan to get excited about.

Beyond the Gorillaz and Radiohead influences are the hazy textures of dream pop and Slowdive-Esque shoegaze guitars spliced with the trippy discord of the downtempo artfully placed breakbeats that keep you centred in the mostly instrumental mix. For even more catharsis, turn to the other 24 artfully orchestrated hits in his 2022 self-titled album. We know we will. Repeatedly.

Enso is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast