Browsing Tag

Dream-Pop

Jess Porter kindled kindred spirit sanctity in his ethereally ambient release, Overplayed

After the successful release of his 2022 single, Patterns, singer-songwriter Jess Porter has made an ethereal return to the airwaves with his latest single, Overplayed.

The inspiration behind the single lies within an anxiety-calming connection made during a flight from the UK to Australia mid-pandemic. The nuanced message that runs through the lush oscillating vein of the ambient release is that you can always find your tribe – no matter where you are.

Having experienced a similar kind of experience just weeks before, and although I try to stay in our material reality while drawing logical conclusions, Overplayed meditatively taps into the feeling of knowing your kindred spirits are dotted around out there waiting to find you at the moment you most need them. There is so few facets of the human experience worth celebrating now. Yet Jess Porter’s kindling of kindred spirit sanctity is enough to make you waylay any human-related existentialism.

Overplayed is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

UK-based music producer Bite The Boxer grew tired of that long wait on ‘Forgotten’

Following up on the previous EP release called ‘A Stream Becomes A River‘, Bite The Boxer put on his Sherlock Holmes hat and managed to find a track that was thought lost forever and has been brought back to life on ‘Forgotten‘.

Bite The Boxer is a UK-based multi-genre, DIY production project that merges various aspects of dream-pop, synthwave, cyberpunk, ambient, chillwave and Lo-fi.

Formally an indie-rock act that has developed through time, this is the kind of music that will blow your mind into smithereens as Bite The Boxer shows us his world-class abilities on this outstanding new single. With a really smooth feel that captivates all your senses together – this is an experience that will take your intellect into a nostalgic place – that has you remembering when you were left behind after waiting too long for something you thought would be automatic.

Forgotten‘ from the superb UK-based production project Bite The Boxer is one of those scintillating tracks that will cause unexplainable shivers to emerge all over your dazzled body. There is a moody atmosphere to swim into here that is so fascinating – with a spectacular beat and ear-shaking vocals – that will totally intrigue your whole soul as your feet tap in flawless alignment. This is a single that will have you looking up into space, as you wonder why you were left alone when all you wanted was true love.

Listen up to this new song on Spotify and check out the IG page for more.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Feel the transcendent calm in Arbo x Linzi Clark’s euphoria-heady feat of electronica, Balancing Act

Arbo

After winning over a significant proportion of the Scottish population with her debut single, All I Have Now, the Paisley singer-songwriter, Linzi Clark, collaborated with a fellow local artist and producer, Arbo, for her stylishly sublime sophomore release, Balancing Act.

The arty and ethereal feat of electronic trip-hop, which was remixed by Arbo, is a transcendent triumph of up-vibe electronica that allows the shimmering melodies to speak to you on a soulful and primal level. Sonically, Linzi Clark’s inspirations include Four Tet, Juliana Barwick and Bonobo. Lyrically, she takes influence from the icons Joni Mitchell and Regina Spektor. With that combination, alchemy was always a guarantee. Especially with Arbo’s arrestive percussion-heavy ambient sound that we hope to hear plenty more of. Quite notably Arbo and Clark are an unstoppable ambient electro force.

Check out Linzi Clark on Facebook and Instagram, or check out the ventures of Arbo on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Low Highs cut to the core of romantic scorn in their psychedelically dreamy alt-indie single, Don’t You Ever

The South Florida residing alt-indie duo, The Low Highs, have released their eagerly anticipated sophomore single, Don’t You Ever. The mellifluous earworm allows dream pop, indie psych and folk-rock textures to pull together in the atmospherically absorbing release that cuts to the core of romantic scorn.

Don’t You Ever captures the disjointing feeling of realising a relationship was filled with empty promises of perpetuity before exploring the confusion that leaves us questioning every exchange and retracted extension of affection as though our interpersonal history has been rewritten with the utterances of a few words.

The Kraftwerk-y style melodic synths and funky indie disco percussion paired with the hypnotically distorted vocals make exploring those torrid emotions infinitely easier. You’d be hard-pressed to find another up and coming outfit bringing a better aura to the airwaves. It’s almost ironic that a song on empty promises was so promising.

Don’t You Ever premiered on January 21st. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Life is but a dark dream in Fox Evades’ latest indie-pop single, Strange Forever

If you ever needed definitive proof that no city breeds dark indie like Manchester, delve into the atmosphere in Fox Evades’ latest single, Strange Forever.

With a beguiling vocal style reminiscent of Jo Bevan from Desperate Journalist paired with the instrumentals that will remind you why you fell for post-punk and new wave in the first place, Strange Forever is an indulgent hit of tonal nostalgia.

When it comes to the substance in this viscerally evocative confession, Fox Evades well and truly stands in a league of their own. There comes a time in every outlier’s life when we acknowledge that we will never grow into normalcy; Strange Forever captures those cutting feelings while unifying the similarly minded with the lyrical affirmation that it’s a choice to be alone.

Strange Forever will officially release on February 25th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Demure dream-pop royalty, speakeazie has released her debut album, Prohibition Hippie

The Minneapolis-based alt dream-pop artist that is never short of mesmeric material, speakeazie, has released her highly anticipated debut album, Prohibition Hippie, featuring the standout single, Disintegrate, which spins an engrossing narrative tale of a young girl losing control. Anyone that has ever felt their mask of sanity slip will undoubtedly want to delve into this compassionately orchestrated single.

Disintegrate shares a tonal palette with Echo and the Bunnymen’s earlier material. But with the instrumentals distorted via the wobbly tape delay effect, the bedroom pop single takes an authentically demure form.

speakeazie’s vocals parallel the evocative power of Florence Welch while keeping in line with the contemporary moody indie-pop vocal trend. By that we mean they are alchemic leagues ahead. Also written into Disintegrate’s mix is speakeazie’s influence of dreamy retro aesthetics and the 1920s. It is inarguably one of the most distinctive releases that we have heard so far this year.

speakeazie’s debut album is now available to stream on Spotify. Or you can check out the video on YouTube. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Agaaze proves that pace is the trick in his electro-pop-meets-neo-psych single, Take it Slow

The New York-hailing multi-instrumentalist and producer Agaaze is fresh from the release of this debut 7-track EP, A Portal Inside, which features the eclectically progressive, Take it Slow.

Take it Slow was curated to prove that when it comes to progress, pace is the trick. The progressive single starts with the downtempo, dreamy textures you would expect from a track under such a name. By the time Take it Slow reaches the outro, expect to find yourself in a trippy, psychedelic rabbit hole that is structured by Agaaze’s soulfully sweet magnetism and the sheer range of his experimentalism. At the age of just 19 years old, his songwriting talent transcends the majority.

The world will never see another David Bowie for the simple reason that they’d rather place icons on pedestals and believe independent artists can never reach them. As far as we’re concerned, Agaaze came pretty damn close with Take it Slow.

Watch the visualiser of Take it Slow on YouTube or add it to your Spotify playlists.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Zara Shahzad takes us through a dream-pop descent with her latest single, Fall from Grace

London-based singer-songwriter, Zara Shahzad, has released her eagerly-anticipated ethereally sweet indie dream-pop single, Fall from Grace. With nuances of shoegaze and trip-hop combined, the 21-year-old artist broke new aural ground with the deeply visceral single that unfolds around entrancing beats and reverb-laden angular guitars. Light and dark textures weave inexplicably together, never letting the melancholy overpower the sense of strength that Zara exhibits in the vulnerable release.

Any fans of Desperate Journalist and Cultdreams will undoubtedly want to add Fall from Grace to their new wave shoegaze and dream-pop playlists.

Fall from Grace is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Just Like You: Ari Voxx wonders why they wouldn’t accept her on the beautiful ‘Brown Eyes’

Taken off her new 4-track EP called ‘Letters to Myself‘ that includes relevant topics all about self-identity, depression, growing up, letting go and holding on, Ari Voxx is at her most complete self with the reflective 2nd single ‘Brown Eyes‘.

Previously known for her lusciously beautiful jazz and enchanting neo-soul vocals, Ariana Harbin aka Ari Voxx is a jazzy dream-pop solo artist who bases herself in DC, USA.

I know this song is long, and it doesn’t have the catchiest hook, but it’s the song I’m most proud of, and genuinely represents me as an artist.” ~ Ari Voxx

Performed with a dazzling array of authentic compositions that is entirely her, Ari Voxx shows us her wonderful skillset here with a track that shows us exactly who she is. After feeling like she was caught in two race-oriented worlds for too long, perhaps this is the mental breakthrough that brings her into a happier world where she is at ease no matter who is around.

Brown Eyes‘ from the DC-based indie dream-pop solo artist Ari Voxx, shows us an honest flashback to her life growing up as she tried to fit in. This is a brave young woman who just wants to be loved and feels the pain of what happened before, as she sings with such an exquisite manner that is so classy. No matter who brushed her aside due to the colour of her skin or how she acted due to her influences, this shows the bravery of someone that refuses to be put into any box. This is the sign of a true artist who makes that nostalgic kind of music that needs to be admired by anyone who has had struggles in life.

Hear this important new single on Spotify and see more via the IG music page.

Reviewed by Llewelyn Screen

Goonmetal has released his addictively authentic alt-indie single, For the Moment

https://soundcloud.com/goonmetal/for-the-moment-ft-treistemm?si=78b4791b773a4fa19a9f02fc0accf788&utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

With the same floods of bleeding reverb as Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine mixed with the indie jangle-pop melodies and trap pop sensibilities, Goonmetal’s latest single, For the Moment, featuring Treistemm, is a fiery feat of constraint-less experimentalism. It hits the visceral spot whilst leaving you utterly transfixed in the aural chaos as choral tones come up against caustic ones.

The white-hot guitars cut through the mix just as efficaciously as they did in Interpol’s debut record. But there is an accessible lo-fi edge to all of Goonmetal’s tracks that prove his interest in commercial success fell by the wayside as the need for expression took the lead throughout his creative process.

The 18-year-old Glastonbury, CT-hailing artist is a self-taught artist who has made every beat from scratch since making his debut in 2019. He knows exactly how to amplify the raw emotion that is projected into his music. For that reason, he will remain firmly affixed to our radar throughout 2022.

For the Moment is now available to stream via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast