Browsing Tag

Baroque Pop

Go on a baroque space odyssey with Chris Sunfield’s Circus of Love

Posted on 15 May 2023

Circus of Love is enough of an oddity odyssey it could make David Lynch jealous. Yet, Chris Sunfield pulled it all together with the sweetly impassioned style and soul of Wayne Coyne and the spacey touches of ELO and Bowie, leaving just enough room for his own masterful maker’s mark.

Affectionate and Avant-Garde in the same histrionic breath, Circus of Love will easily become another hit for the singer-songwriter who always allows his sonic signature to evolve with every new release. The only consistencies are the superlative talents through which the sentiments are splayed out across the addictive melodies and the rapturous reception every new single garners.

Circus of Love hit the airwaves on May 5; catch it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Erika Levy blurred the line between grief and joy in her indie Avant-Garde single, Chicken and Rice

Posted on 5 January 2023

LA singer-songwriter and classically trained pianist Erika Levy closed 2022 with the release of her elevated alt-indie single, Chicken and Rice, which captures the desolation of the world in the absence of anchoring connection. Haunting and affirming in equal measure, your soul won’t know what’s hit it once you delve into the monochromatic sorrow flowing through her filmic vocals that establish her as a 21st-century chanteuse.

“I’ll get higher once I hit the ground, just takes a little bit to find me, Hey lonely, come buy me another round” is a lesson in heart-breaking lyricism; projected with such grace and finesse, the vulnerability is flooring. In place of pity, you’ll find appreciation for the strength she amassed to lyrically blur the line between grief and joy.

Any fans of Tori Amos, Amanda Palmer, Kate Bush and Fiona Apple will be disarmed by the sheer originality of Levy with the baroque nature of her descending piano melodies that become the off-kilter centre of her 70s folk-pop sonic world.

Chicken and Rice is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Elisa Winter – Summer Spent Dreaming: orchestrally apocalyptic post-grunge resonance

Posted on 9 July 2022

While many artists desperately wrestled with their creativity during the first lockdown only to reveal trite lyricism the performer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and baroquely phenomenal recording artist, Elisa Winter foresaw the new normal before the modern plague was on our door.

Finally, her debut album, Summer and Smoke, which was officially released on Summer Solstice 2022, is here to spill orchestrally apocalyptic post-grunge resonance. The LP tracks across the tensions between truth, reality and gaslighting, with the engrossingly stunning highlight, Summer Spent Dreaming.

Lush yet tumultuous. Visceral yet encompassing the detachment we all felt in some capacity, Summer Spent Dreaming is the most authentic aural depiction of the frustration and entropy I’ve heard yet.

Everything changed, in a way it is almost impossible to put in words. I say almost because Elisa Winter discernibly succeeded with “speak to me please, what has happened to you? Searching for you in your eyes, you won’t let me in.” There’s been a disconnect that we’ve kept our heads in the sand about. Thankfully, Elisa Winter is here to vindicate the confusion in our alien relationship with reality and each other.

Elisa Winter’s latest album, Summer and Smoke, is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

 

Case Watson spins a phantasmal fairy-tale in her folky art-pop single, Hollow Tree

Posted on 17 March 2022

In her latest single, Hollow Tree, the ethereal art-pop artist Case Watson, well and truly came into her alchemic stride. With cinematic electronic obscurity nestled against folkish mysticism and a few caustically volatile elements thrown in for good measure, Hollow Tree moves beyond an aural experience. Its arcane air sets your imagination alight and tears you away from realism in the process.

If you could imagine what it would sound like if Emilie Autumn opted for nuance instead of archaic hysteria, you will get a good idea of the phantasmal bliss found in this darkly electrifying lyrical fairy-tale. We’re officially obsessed.

Hollow Tree is now available to stream on Spotify. Or head over to Case Watson’s official website for more info.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dark pop royalty, HVIRESS, cordially invite you to bite into their latest baroque single, Golden Apple

Posted on 19 February 2022

With the baroquely orchestral strings against the cinematically dark electro elements and HVIRESS bringing just as much alchemy to the mix vocally with their gothy occultist harmonies, Golden Apple is a bewitching triumph of a single from the dark pop duo.

If Emilie Autumn broke out of her Victorian anachronistic bubble and entered the realm of demure pop, the results would be equally as indulgent as the darkly imaginative single that also plays with tribal and apocalyptic themes.

You can watch the equally as artistic and obscure Lolita-style music video that premiered on February 11th for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Indie-pop goes baroque in Millaze’s standout single, Viscera.

Posted on 2 January 2022

The first thing that grips you with the standout single, Viscera (I’m Saying You Can Still Have Me), from Millaze’s 2021 album, A Note on the Author, is the vibrant deep-rooted originality. In the same way that Bjork and Kate Bush ran with their avant-garde authenticity, the Oakland-hailing singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist is making strides in her own direction.

While plenty of artists struggle to find confidence in their authentic voice – especially at the outset of their career – Millaze’s confidence allows her to defy harmonic convention. Instead, she offers visceral outbursts of passion that *actually* reflect human emotion.

With song titles as endearing as Courtney Barnett’s, her unapologetic candour and frankly alchemic melodies, the aural world is at Millaze’s feet. If the Billboard charts were based on ingenuity and distinction alone, we have no doubt that Millaze would be riding high at the top.

Viscera is now available to stream on Spotify, along with the rest of Millaze’s seminal album, A Note on the Author.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

PH Mazza looks beyond avocado tropes to tap into the misery of Millennial life with Millennial’s Song.

Posted on 11 November 2021

For their latest single, Millennial’s Song, alt-rock artist, PH Mazza, turned the reality of millennial life into a theatrically sinister feat of baroque post-punk complete with symphonic scores, Elton John on acid vibes and filthy Crampsy garage rock licks.

PH Mazza succeeded in creating a brief reprieve from the crushing existentialism that comes with our avocados and inability to get on the housing market. If that wasn’t enough, the pioneer threw in just as much psychedelic experimentalism as the Legendary Pink Dots. If anyone has what it takes to dethrone Nick Cave, it is PH Mazza.

The official music video is available to stream on YouTube, or you can add Millennial’s Song to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Space pop goes baroque in J.T. Rogers’s latest single, The Cycle of Orbit, featuring Carter Costello.

Posted on 9 November 2021

After the successful release of his 2021 debut album, All Through Time and Space, J.T. Rogers teamed up with Carter Costello for his latest alt-pop hit, The Cycle of Orbit. After hearing the synthy-sweet hooky chorus, I’m fairly sure I surrendered a significant proportion of my soul to the mesmerising collaborative duo.

I don’t make Peeing Tom reminiscences lightly. Yet, the Seattle-born, LA-based artist warranted it with his uniquely evocative mix of vocal vibrato and reverb atop of the baroquely twisted instrumentals.

J.T Rogers took space pop to a fairly dark place, but those who find their minds in the shadows regardless will find plenty of salvation in this gorgeous amalgamation of bedroom pop, lo-fi and emo which is just as psychedelic as the most Avant work from the Legendary Pink Dots.

Costello adds a gorgeous dynamic single with his commanding debonair-vibe vocals. It comes as little surprise that J.T. is starting to amass so much traction in his career. We can’t wait to hear what he pours onto the airwaves next.

The Cycle of Orbit is now available to stream on all major platforms via this link.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Shake off the existentialism with Chris Sunfield’s symphonic baroque pop single, Tomorrow’s Here.

Posted on 14 October 2021

‘Tomorrow’s Here’ is the latest symphonic baroque pop release from singer-songwriter Chris Sunfield. It carries a similar uplifting finesse to the Manic Street Preacher’s latest album with plenty of extra added cosmic bliss.

With the orchestral scores against the enlivening jangle-pop riffs that prop up the layered choral vocals, Tomorrow’s Here is a sure-fire serotonin fix. With ‘we are asleep inside, we are the dreams we hide behind, who we fear to be, slumbering in a bed of history’ as an opening lyric, straight off the bat, you get the affirmation that Sunfield is an artist with a wealth of enlightened intelligence to offer to the existential.

Tomorrow’s Here is now available to stream on Spotify – don’t sleep on it.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Niadomi has released her theatrical, hyper pop single, The Beast and the Grind.

Posted on 14 September 2021

Just when I was starting to think that I had heard it all, alternative artist Niadomi appeared on our radar with her theatrical, hyper pop single, The Beast and the Grind.

With her operatic vocals that verse fantastical, poetic lyrics meeting the happy hardcore-style beats, I now know how Emilie Autumn would sound if Dune remixed one of her archaically fierce singles. The Beast and the Grind may not be your average earworm, but that doesn’t remove its infectious potential; you can’t help being hyped by the aural presence of Niadomi. We can’t wait to hear what follows this seminal release.

Check out the official lyric video to The Beast and the Grind via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast