Browsing Tag

Art Pop

Ava Elay – Spell of the Heart: Poetry in Theatrical Pop Motion.

Posted on 13 July 2023

At 15 years old, Ava Elay is already proving to be an unreckonable talented force; her latest single, Spell of the Heart, arrestingly exhibits her unconventionally poetic composition style and the deft touches she puts on her histrionically melodic progressions, undoubtedly influenced by her time studying the dramatic arts in LA.

With vocal lines which carry the same mainstream pop appeal as Lady Gaga and Miley Cyrus and swathes of darkly infectious ingenuity within the instrumentals to give her sound an irresistible mutant pop touch, Spell of the Heart is poetry in theatrical pop motion.

Ava Elay has been exploring themes of passion and love since 2019, with her official debut single, Eternity, arriving in 2021. She may be young, but clearly, the singer-songwriter and pianist has exactly what it takes to be as influential as Mitski and Lucy Dacus with the romantic depth within her sonorously beguiling hits.

Through Spell of the Heart, Elay paid homage to the all-consuming nature of obsession, and how impossible it is to escape it once you have embraced it. As many poets have observed, falling in love is the only socially acceptable form of madness; few wordsmiths allude to the visceral sensation as succinctly and viscerally as Elay.

Spell of the Heart debuted on June 30; hear it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

MASSIVESAD became the cinematically sad poster boy of melodic ennui with his latest art pop release, Balance

Posted on 7 July 2023

The cinematically sad poster boy of melodic ennui, MASSIVESAD, will mainline himself into your melancholic veins with his alt bedroom pop deep-cut, Balance. If you know all too well how it feels for your world to be knocked out of kilter as the scales perpetually turn against you, the catharsis you will find and the compassion you will feel will be visceral.

Emanating disorientating dissonance from his e-piano before the flourishing crescendo of a finish was the perfect way to ensure the instrumentals matched the bitter-sweet vocal lines and lyricality, which paints MASSIVESAD as an existentially amorous diehard romantic at heart. From LANY energy in the main body and the arcane touches of Bjork towards the outro, Balance will undoubtedly remain one of the most artful singles that have slipped into my ear canal in recent years.

Stream Balance from July 7th on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Socha rides ‘The Wave’ in her latest art-pop exhibition

Posted on 2 July 2023

The art-pop innovator Socha is unrelentingly committed to rearranging painful experiences into cathartically playful absurdity; her latest single, The Wave, this the ultimate exhibition of her creativity that revolutionises trauma into euphoria.

From a dreamy prelude which allows you to meander with the chiptune melodies which pay an ode to one of her most endearing influences, Adventure Time, the synth lines take a drastic tonal shift as the grooves emanate the sultry allure that made the Arctic Monkeys’ AM record so iconic.

It is a short and sharp descent down the rabbit hole with the Wave but an enjoyable trip all the same with Socha’s infectiously idiosyncratically bold vocal presence and reminiscences of FKA Twigs and Gorillaz registering in the electrifying mix, which tempts you into embracing your own madness – even if that madness falls outside of the acceptable levels. The Wave is a riot of individualism; other artists should take note and join her at the vanguard of true uninhibited experimentalism.

The Wave will officially release on the 1st of June; check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Whitefeathers are an ethereal dream (pop) come true in their debut, As Always ft Mike Watt

Posted on 25 February 2023
https://on.soundcloud.com/irg8i

For their debut single, As Always, the up-and-coming alt-rock UK/Czech artist, Whitefeathers, collaborated with bassist Mike Watt (Minutemen, Firehouse, Stooges) to orchestrate an artfully atmospheric feat of ardent indie melancholia.

Filtering pensive art pop panache into the eloquently composed release created a superlatively reflective soundscape for the lyrics that traverse the theme of losing love and finding yourself. The dreamy melodicism abstracts the ennui that accordantly rings from the scorned stabs of minor piano keys as the aloofly harmonised male and female vocals sigh from the soul.

It’s an impeccably strong offering from Whitefeathers, who undoubtedly have a luminary career ahead of them if they continue to create in the same vein as As Always.

As Always will drift onto the airwaves on February 24th – you won’t want to miss it. Catch it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Growing Boi made a malady of sentimentality in his psychedelically experimental single, Overflow

Posted on 24 February 2023

After years of success as a touring artist, session musician, songwriter and producer, Chris Matthews obliterated the notion of genre with his exploratively alternative single, Overflow, under the moniker Growing Boi. The artfully melancholic track makes a malady out of sentimentality while exhibiting the same instrumental alchemy and ingenuity as the Legendary Pink Dots and the vocal gravitas of Leonard Cohen.

The spacey amalgam of psych, folk, electronica, trip-hop and 70s pop is devilishly clever, but never to the detriment of the accessibility of the intimately bold score that will stay with you for long after the complex chords have faded into silent obscurity. From honkytonk piano keys to motifs you’d expect to hear in a Tame Impala production, Overflow is a treasure trove of artful beguile that allows you to drift to a higher plateau.

Overflow will drop on February 24th; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Oxfordshire sound designer Mosa has unveiled his poetically postmodernist score, helicopter

Posted on 2 February 2023
https://soundcloud.com/soundofmosa/helicopter/s-SzrHmsEv6VP?si=900e2a959dbd4e68829de9048b7cfe3f&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

Game composer by day and sound designer by night, the Oxfordshire-based artist Mosa evidently has a talent for creating immersive worlds. If anyone can exhibit the intrinsic beauty in melancholy, it is Mosa; his latest single, helicopter, is the ultimate testament to his ability to build poetry and a bitter-sweet neo-classic electronica score from scorned emotion.

Juxtaposingly creating an even balance between etherealism and visceralism, helicopter is an achingly artful aural memoir of ennui. The postmodernist reflective piece enmeshes you within the lyrical and vocal vulnerability, while the intricately weaved cinematic layers conceptually depict curtains closing. It is the ultimate consolation for outliers through the sonic resonance and affirmation that whatever you’re sinking into has sunk many of the beautiful minds that came before you.

Helicopter will land on February 3rd. Get onboard via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Paper White and the Lake goes for baroque in their single, My Love, ft. Teresa Ann & Nicole Limle

Posted on 24 November 2022

For their standout single, My Love, the up-and-coming Avant-Garde originator Paper White and the Lake collaborated with Teresa Ann & Nicole Limle to create a striking piano-led score that will easily arrest any Evelyn-Evelyn and the Legendary Pink Dots fans.

The theatrically baroque piano keys and Brian Viglione-style percussion fuse in absolute synergy with the beguile of the art-house chanteuse vocals, which implant aching amorous soul into the soundscape that resonates with a touch of coldness and isolation.

My Love efficaciously proves that nothing can rival the presence of love, and nothing can be as inhospitable as a world without it. To say that you will feel all of the emotion as My Love unfurls around the reprise of “you don’t want my love” is far from a mascara-ruining understatement.

Stream My Love on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Starleen cinematically exhibited what it means to be human in her debut art-pop LP, To Give In

Posted on 16 November 2022

After making her art-pop debut in 2020 with her beguilingly dark EP, Life is Strange, Starleen came into her cinematically ethereal own through the unveiling of her ceremonially humanistic LP, To Give In.

To Give In explores our desires to succumb to the forces keeping us on our knees while celebrating our unwavering determination to endeavour the myriad of storms that our chaotic world unleashes upon us. With soundscapes that spill a jarring sense of unease around the assuredly celestial vocals that moodily paint the imperfection of the human experience around the pulsating indietronica rhythms, anyone who accepts the idiosyncratic beauty of the human experience will find a wealth of resonance across the seven soundscapes.

All too often, lyricism paints humanity, as a collective, as what we wish we were, what we aim for; an endless series of pretences held up by scarcely anyone for any enduring length of time before perfectionism becomes a crushing weight. Starleen breaks the mould by upholding the truth behind the facades. Paired with the cathartically artful structuring of the soundscapes, her bold daringness to encapsulate the most harrowing facets of the human psyche in To Give In unleashes a wealth of emotion.

For me, the highlight of the LP came in the form of the penultimate single, Out of Touch, which efficaciously reflects the multi-sensory nature of disassociation. Before the album concludes on the tranquility of the reverb-drenched melodies in From Myself. Any fans of London Grammar and Chelsea Wolfe won’t want to skip it. Actually, that goes for the entire LP. It’s officially in my collection of sad girl playlist staples.

“With this project, I knew I wanted to create a dark world. The message I try to convey is that in life, we have choices. Although going back may tempting, we have to move forward. People and their strength to overcome life’s battles always has been an inspiration to me.

Lyrically I have always gravitated towards artists like Nina Simone, Tom Waits, and Leonard Cohen because they talk about what it truly means to be human. And that is something I try to bring in my music.”

To Give In is available to stream on Spotify.

Keep up to date with new releases via TikTok and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Mayshe-Mayshe sung an ethereal art-pop lullaby in her latest bedroom pop single, Indigo

Posted on 2 November 2022

Ahead of the launch of her sophomore album, the Yorkshire bedroom pop artist and producer, Mayshe-Mayshe (Alice Rowan), has painted the airwaves in ‘Indigo’.

With a sense of spirituality in her artfully hushed choral vocals as they meet the dreamy art-pop melodies weaved on vintage synths and the skittish yet absorbingly organic percussion, the ethereal allure of Indigo shouldn’t be underestimated. Lyrically, Indigo inspires the listener into embracing the uncertainties of life and reminds them that there is always another side to exhaustion and ennui.

Indigo may be technically lo-fi, but Mayshe-Mayshe created a feat of indie dream pop that could easily rival Warpaint, Beach House and Deer Hunter. It comes as no surprise that many of her fans return to her anxiety-quashing sound time after time.

Mayshe-Mayshe’s album, Indigo, will release across all major streaming platforms on November the 11th. Indigo, the single, is now available to stream on Spotify and YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

World music goes pop in Paul Melia’s explosively artful single, Doctor in the Sky

Posted on 16 September 2022

Taken from the sophomore album, Moons Over Mountains, by the experimental artist Paul Melia, the standout single, Doctor in the Sky, is a fiery explosion of Avant Garde pop that breaks the monocultural mould with the exotic rhythms and jazz-derived world music synthetics.

Despite being in a strident league of his own, Paul Melia created the most visceral earworm of the year, complete with the capacity to allow you to transcend the drudgery of modernity. As for the music video, short of dropping acid, there is no better means of escapism as you explore a psychedelic world, complete with appearances from internet-famous cats riffing on keyboards and guitars and cringey moments from political pop culture. It is like the condensed version of Adam Curtis’ Hypernormalisation, with a soundscape that keeps on giving with every repeat hit.

The official music video for Doctor in the Sky will premiere on September 16th. Check it out on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast