Browsing Tag

Avant Garde

Meet the Tom Waits of this Generation in Vince Chinaski’s Debut Album, Never Painted Black.

Posted on 26 November 2021
Vince Chinaski

Copenhagen’s most prodigal up and coming singer-songwriter, Vince Chinaski, has released his debut album, Never Painted Black, which opens on the title single and instantly arrests you in the Avant-Garde neo-classically inclined feat of psych, jazz and folk.

Without any hint of hyperbole, Vince Chinaski deserves to be just as revered as Tom Waits for the way he pulls new sonic intrigue from a timeless sound. With Louis Armstrong reminiscences in the cinematic jazzy score that flows at a teasingly mellow pace that leaves you desperately eager for the next note, Never Painted Black is beyond absorbing.

Its mind-meltingly artful gravitas becomes even more visceral towards the outro as the Chinaski’s crooning timbre starts turning dark and scuzzy vintage rock guitars feed kaleidoscopic discord into the release.

Chinaski’s debut album will be available to stream on all major platforms from November 26th, 2021.

Check out Vince Chinaski on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Soundcloud. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

8udDha bl0od – 8888: Avant-Garde Glitch Wave Psych Rock

Posted on 5 August 2021

Glitchy electronica meets psych-rock in Brighton-based artist 8udDha bl0od’s latest instrumental single 8888; the avant-garde production allows the static electronic effect to bite into the old school rock n roll guitars which drive you through the indulgent chaos of the soundscape.

As 8888 gears toward the outro, tribal energy starts to tear its way into the release before a sharp and sudden close affirms just how immersive the single was, once your rhythmic pulses are at a loss with the silence.

Even with the artist’s ever-evolving sound, you can appreciate the signature style of 8udDha bl0od that ensures each of his releases come with a psychedelic kick and dirty rock tones that bring familiarity to his otherwise eclectically obscure releases.

Listen to 8888 for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud now.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Western Bloc – Monkey Christ: Darkwave Avant-Garde Post-Punk

Posted on 19 July 2021
Western Bloc

I never thought Glenn Branca would have competition, but Western Bloc’s darkwave avant-garde post-punk composition, ‘Monkey Christ’, parallels the ethereally phantasmic effect in The Ascension. It’s got the class, nihilism and theatrical flair but through the consistently evolving progressions, you’ll pick up on contemporary post-punk styles through the reminiscence to the Editor’s impassioned sound that tends to air on the melancholy despite the bursts of energetic angsty euphoria.

Any fans of SWANS, Magazine and Echo and the Bunnymen definitely won’t want to miss out on the official launch of the Calgary-based artist’s forthcoming album, which is due for release in August 2021.

Check out Western Bloc for yourselves by heading over to the band’s official website and SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

PleasePrettyLea has released her dark theatre-pop ballad, ‘Ohheycide’

Posted on 14 July 2021

The darkly delectable princess of ethereal RnB pop PleasePrettyLea has returned with her latest single, ‘Ohheycide’; she’s lost none the arcane air that left us hooked on her preceding singles.

This time, she was daring enough to explore the complexities of suicidal ideation in her deeply conceptual music video. Starting with the lyrics ‘I wish you’d save me but you’re the one that breaks me’ captures the desperation that surfaces when someone tears you apart while you’re internally screaming for them to fix you. As the single moves through its stormy and shadowed progressions, there’s a visceral upsurge of the adrenaline that kicks in when rage starts to join apathy and debasing self-scrutiny.

Ohheycide is a stunning avant-garde vignette of the avenues our minds can take us down as we spiral down a depressive hole. It is the antithesis to plastic pop that always feels the need to follow a redemption story. Ohheycide compassionately tells you that on some days there’s scarcely anything but darkness, but that doesn’t mean that you don’t deserve a tomorrow.

The official music video is due for release on July 14th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Start your infatuation with Cherry Makes Waves’ latest avant-garde cine-pop single, Bisket Full.

Posted on 1 July 2021

Amsterdam’s Avant-Garde cine-pop artist Cherry Makes Waves has released her latest artfully sultry earworm, Bisket Full. With her ability to hit high notes with ethereal ease, your infatuation with her authenticity will ensue before the first verse runs through.

Any Kate Bush comparisons that you are tempted to make will quickly slip away while the down-tuned guitars and snappy electronic percussion remind you of the time when Skinny Puppy reigned supreme in the electronica scene.

The playful pop track explores our proclivity to make ridiculous decisions when we are hyped up on lust; considering that you’ll start to feel your inhibitions slip away while embracing the daringly single, Cherry Makes Waves makes a compelling case.

Bisket Full is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Claudia’s Graces drop haunting, brittle ‘Crystals’

Posted on 16 June 2021
Claudia's Graces

Claudia’s Graces is the solo experimental pop music project of Claudia Hinsdale, a 22 year-old singer, songwriter, and producer from Ohio. With a degree in Technology in Music and Related Arts from Ohio’s prestigious Oberlin Conservatory (ranked fifth in the world in Holloywood Reporter’s Top 25 Music Schools). That should give you an idea of the sort of quality we’re looking at here; our collective expectations were high, then, and we’re very pleased to report that ‘Crystals’ certainly doesn’t disappoint.

Light, shimmery, ephemeral, lying somewhere between folk and outright avant-garde, ‘Crystals’ is that rare beast; a track that’s hard to pigeon-hole or to draw easy comparisons for. Hinsdale’s free-form, stream of consciousness lyrics sit over layered, effected strings, keys, and unusual percussion, her vocal delivery sing-song and high register, almost choral at times, early music-like at others, folky and gentle yet with a definite commercial quality too. There’s vague allusions to Amanda Palmer, Tori Amos, or Emilie Autumn, but it’s much more than that – almost spoken word performance art set to a haunting, brittle backdrop, sparkling, glasslike, and…well, yes. Like crystals.

You can check out Claudia’s Graces here and on Instagram.

Review by Alex Holmes

Des Wallace taps into the melancholy of 2020 with ‘Weeping Roses’

Posted on 9 June 2021

Lyrically, artists have pretty much said all there is to say when it comes to lockdown musings, but instrumental singles such as Des Wallace’s track, Weeping Rose, from his 2021 EP, ‘A.D.’, poignantly captures emotions evoked during 2020 in his intimate composition.

With the sense of spirituality that flows along with his Avant-Garde progressions, Weeping Roses is as consoling as it is experimental. The minimalism within the production echoes the isolation that we collectively endured as the sharp and clean guitar notes reflect the apathy in the aimless steps that we took each day as we navigated our lives with almost clockwork autonomy. The sporadic blasts of glitchy electronica bring an all too relatable sense of chaos into the mix while never compromising the tender mellifluous feel of Weeping Roses. It is both a shot of catharsis and an extension of connection.

Weeping Roses is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Danny Ritz – Window: The Most Relatable Love Song You Will Ever Hear.

Posted on 2 June 2021

Alt indie artist Danny Ritz has followed on from his debut EP with his latest artfully lo-fi single, Window. If you’re irresistible to the charms of bedroom pop, you’ll quickly succumb to the enamouring tones of psych-pop, synthpop and art-rock.

While most lyricists do their best to maintain a pretence of sanity in their songs, Danny Ritz threw his sanity by the wayside to channel organically manic, relatable emotions into Window. Any fans of John Grant, Spector and the Lathums will want to experience it for themselves.

With the macabrely inventive lyrical lines such as ‘you left my heart circumcised’, you can’t help but engage with the single. The intrigue is all too intense as you listen to Window unfold through the playfully polyphonic, unapologetically authentic progressions.

Window is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Nightbird Casino has released their hotly-anticipated sweetly psychotropic earworm, ‘The Town’.

Posted on 23 April 2021

If you’ve found yourself wondering if you will ever hear an alternative track that holds any authenticity ever again, find yourselves pleasantly surprised with the sweetly psychotropic earworm, ‘The Town’, by art-rock Oakland-residing duo, Nightbird Casino.

With elements of artfully composed jazz, grunge, space rock, psych-pop and classical all melting in the alchemically intoxicating pot, you will practically feel the rabbit hole opening beneath you as you listen to the descending cadence of the jazzy improv instrumentals.

The existentialist air to The Town paired with the playfully avant-garde approach to production allows the track to become the ‘everything is burning down around me, and I’m totally fine’ meme, personified. And something tells me that if Bukowski was still around, he would have Nightbird Casino on his playlists; they share the same downtrodden but subversively charismatic appeal.

On this track, you’ll hear dual harmonic vocals from the founding members, James Moore and Don Shepherd. Instrumentally, you’ll hear session musician Nicolas Ocampo (clarinets, flute, saxophone, oboe, bassoon), James on bass and ondes martenot and Don on guitars, piano, organ, and drums.

With their sophomore album, ‘Rusian Carpet‘, due for release this summer, any fans of Radiohead, Sonic Youth or Mr Bungle will want Nightbird Casino on their radar.

The Town officially released on April 23rd; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Soundcloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Lucas Kurmis – I Thought I Died: Alluringly Dark Avant-Garde

Posted on 29 December 2020
Lucas Kurmis

‘I Thought I Died’ is the forthcoming Avant-Garde Noise Folk Punk single from Plymouth-based artist Lucas Kurmis. It makes Sonic Youth sound tame.

It feels like somewhere along the way everyone forgot that art should comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable, everyone apart from Lucas Kurmis. I Thought I Died is confrontational, abrasive, and utterly transfixing. The snarled spoken word vocals float over sporadic drum pounding and cymbal smashing, pulling the mix together is a sparse smattering of reverby electronic effect which nicely completes the minimalistic yet monumentally resounding single.

You’ll have to wait a little longer before you can check out I Thought I Died for yourselves. In the meantime, head over to SoundCloud to delve into their earlier releases.

Review by Amelia Vandergast