Browsing Tag

Avant Garde

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

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

Spotlight Feature: Pinwheel Valley transcendentally reflects in his accessible Avant-Garde ambient EP, What If I

Posted on 3 February 2023

On February 3rd, the superlatively talented songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Pinwheel Valley will unveil his most experimental EP to date, What If I, as a departure from his indie-psych hits. Bar spoken word philosophical verses in the title single, the instrumental EP allows the dynamic instrumentals to set the tone, atmosphere, and sonic ideology.

The opening single, R.E.M. State, reaches the pinnacle of tranquillity as the lush reverb counters the visceralism of the trip-hop-y backbeats. Before track two, Honey Ripples, gives you an oceanic opportunity to slip away from the fray and enter a subaqueous paradise.

The concluding title single is a disarmingly poignant invitation into the psyche of Pinwheel Valley. The spoken word verses compel you into matching the deep state of reflection while the experimentalism of the Avant-Garde rhythmically complex arrangement provides a serene atmosphere you will want to visit time and time again. The soulfully accommodating release is inexplicably unparalleled from what any other artist is putting into the ether.

The alchemic feat of audio engineering definitively proves Pinwheel Valley’ ability to take phenomenological fragments and create sonically serene worlds from them. If I could permanently exist within them, I would take up perpetual residence in their artistic confines.

Pinwheel Valley Said:

“R.E.M. State is inspired by the absorbingly rejuvenating instrumentals in KAYTRANADA’s single, Bus Ride. I wanted to leave a mark on the canvas of mankind’s universe by flowing into rhythmically complex territory without becoming inaccessible to my audience.

Honey Ripples was written on a rainy day, envisioning how water droplets collide with the body of a lake before reflecting the impact through the warm and creamy honey texture of the Rhodes piano, also experimenting with dolphin samples to create an underwater soundscape haven.

What If I traverses themes of revival. The instrumental track with spoken vocals speaks from the dark abyss of mortal defeat. The protagonist weighs up letting his soul disintegrate or summoning an unforeseen strength to claw out of his pit to bring about his soul’s resuscitation.”

What If I will officially release on February 3rd. Check it out on Spotify.

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

London’s True Being pulled us from polarity and put us ‘Back on Track’ with his alt-pop jam

Posted on 22 November 2022

True Being took us back in time with their latest single, Back on Track, which reminisces on the less polarised and partisan days when we could see the world in full colour instead of through the divisive prism of black and white.

What it will take for people to get back there isn’t quite clear, but Back on Track is certainly a step in the right direction. The quirky alternative single which plays with mystical eastern rhythms and playfully polyphonic electro-pop layers is an efficacious reminder that things haven’t always been this way, and there is no good reason why they are engrained in our modern cultures the world over.

The London-based artist makes a habit of holding a mirror to the absurdist facets of our world through his assertion that artists have a role to play in the shaping of our future to take the power away from Musk and his kin, politicians and celebrities. He’s been likened to LCD Sound System, Nick Cave, Talking Heads and John Grant, but all reminiscences in his flamboyantly eccentric sound are incredibly fleeting.

Stream Back on Track on YouTube and Spotify.

Review by Amelie Vandergast

Sweetspeak – Light Ruined Dark: A Warped Soundtrack to a Lynchian Fever Dream.

Posted on 12 October 2022

Testing the boundaries of rock n roll, the alt-rock band, Sweetspeak released their 2022 album, Signal Interception #186-Q7. The standout single, Light Ruined Dark, is the first feat of psychedelic experimentalism I’ve heard in a LONG time that isn’t tainted with derivative assimilation.

The distorted psychedelic blues tones would be reminiscent of a remaster of Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross… if the tape was fed through a meatgrinder. Sounding like two singles being played at different speeds simultaneously with bleeding vocals in the vein of Shoegaze artists, Light Ruined Dark really shouldn’t work, but God damn, it does. The immense guitar sound is practically an aphrodisiac.

Light Ruined Dark was officially released on October 5th. Check it out on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

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

Canadian originator, Ethan Mark opened his jazzy neo-soul in his album ‘The Concept of You’

Posted on 23 June 2022

After teasing us title single from his 2022 album, The Concept of You, we eagerly awaited the full length of Ethan Mark’s sophisticated psychedelic-soul experimentalism.

With the opening single, The Unravelling of Every Day, equally as sublime as the openers on your favourite 90s Shoegaze albums (surely, everyone has some of those!), it is instantly affirmed what kind of production the Canadian artist constructed. One that is defined by its quiescence and the ability to hold your attention through the jazzy indie-soul juxtapositions.

Track 3, Gunslinger, is a trippy ethereal masterpiece, colourful enough to rival the fantasy-like escapism in tracks from Cosmo Sheldrake. Reminiscences fall by the wayside in the boundlessly experimental world music title single which breaks the monocultural mould with the percussion and throws in some flamenco guitars around the RnB grooves.

Not that The Concept of You has any skippable tracks, but special attention should be paid to Weight of it All. The lofty intricate work is a sublime pool of lyrical vulnerability, Avant-Garde ambience, and quintessential folk escapism. It is gravitas sonically personified.

Here is what Ethan Mark had to say on his album

“The Concept of You, and the upcoming album, came about from a challenge from my partner. She, a listener of neo-soul and jazz, challenged me to pare my usually elaborate and busy musical style down to something more organic, soulful, and pretty.

The result was a series of love songs encompassing many facets of love. The title single refers to her, the sepia-toned memories of summers, the roots we have put down together, and the love for home.

These themes felt especially important after a long period punctuated by isolation, introversion, and cabin fever. It’s accentuated by nylon guitar strings, cascading violins, gentle pianos, and the frailties of harmonised vocals.”

Concept of You is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Liberace of punk, Cinemartyr, are back in proggy Avant-Garde form in ‘No Legacy’

Posted on 30 May 2022

Baroque folk meets prog rock in the latest single, No Legacy, from the NYC-residing Avant-Garde outfit, Cinemartyr who have lasciviously been stealing the crown of the boldest aural architects since their original formation in 2008.

The doomy, heavy guitars follow the ultimate head-banging formula as the riffs keep on getting brought back slower for the aphrodisiacal angsty effect. While Irish folk nuances, from founding member, Shane Harrington’s geographical ghetto past, sporadically eke in through the pull of classical strings and the tonal shifts in Amber Moon’s vocal eccentricity. The era-hopping vocal lines are enough to put Kate Bush and Dua Lipa in the same league.

Keep them on your radar for the release of their forthcoming album, OPT OUT, which will be available to to stream and purchase from June 17th.

The official music video premiered on March 3rd; you can stream it for yourselves via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast