Browsing Tag

Experimental Pop

The Avant-Garde Alt-Pop Sensation Mitchell Zia Struck Again with His Jekyll and Hyde Hit, ‘accelerating’

Posted on 21 November 2024

With almost 80k monthly listeners behind him on Spotify and 157.4k followers on TikTok, the Avant-Garde Dark Electronic Pop sensation Mitchell Zia’s trajectory through the industry since his official debut in 2019 is the definition of a modern success story.

His standout single, accelerating, uses a baroque cabaret pop prelude as an opening salvo before introducing his vocals, which send tremors of deep, dark reverberations throughout the entire mix, easily overpowering the thrum of the basslines and the trappy beat. Weaving light back into the mix, the swanky piano keys ephemerally reintroduce themselves as Zia’s vocal lines chameleonically transform into an infectious pop timbre.

The way the single continues to switch in tone is enough to whip up a schizophrenic frenzy in the single which never allows you to feel complacent within the helter-skelter production. It’s enough to leave you with no room to wonder why Mitchell Zia is dominating the contemporary pop scene.

Accelerating is available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Il Nemico Dentro by Francesca Pichierri – A Cinematic Soul Serenade That Burns Through Avant-Garde Flame

Posted on 25 October 2024

In her standout single, Il Nemico Dentro, the alchemist of soulfully avant-garde alt-pop Francesca Pichierri fused Mediterranean warmth with avant-garde pop inclinations, creating a tonally spiritual multi-sensory experience that is as cinematic as it is visceral.

Born under the sun of Apulia, the singer-songwriter has unflinchingly dedicated herself to honing her talents as a sonic vignette painter, culminating in the masterful strokes in Il Nemico Dentro. The quiescent reverberance emanating from the first notes is enough to serenade your senses to stand to attention; the hairs on the back of your neck will prick up in synergy with your ears as Francesca Pichierri seraphically commands complete emotional immersion, and the filmic undertones tug at your emotions in waves.

As the score unravels, you’re seduced by the provocative originality, derived from the fusion of indie, blues, and jazz. Just when you think you’ve found your rhythm with the release, avant-garde samples cut through, pulling you deeper into the evocative chaos.

The catharsis hits hard, only to give way to an electrifying crescendo that pulses with the raw emotionality Francesca is known for. The song blazes its own trail, driven by the weight of Francesca’s lived experiences and her poetic knack for transforming personal grief into universal art.

Francesca is so much more than alt-pop royalty – in her niche, she stands as a goddess, creating borderlands between celestiality and material reality.

Stream Il Nemico Dentro on all major platforms, including SoundCloud from October 25.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Glitchy art rock meets alt urban pop in Jacobi.e’s latest single, Rcv

Posted on 17 July 2022

Since his 2020 debut, experimentalism has been at the forefront of Jacobi.e’s alt bedroom pop sound. With his aptly dark, melodically off-kilter and tumultuously glitchy first single of 2022, Rcv, the Jamaican American artist and producer, currently residing in LA, fused his rock background with contemporary flavours of the originators, Dominic Fike, Kanye and Yeek.

While some artists manage to make exploring alternative sounds a contrived act of pretension, Jacobi.e instantly affirms that the alchemy came organically through his affinity for a plethora of genres. Pulling all of the contrasting textures together, his vocals are a sticky-sweet vocal point in the wavy track that stands as a testament to his flair as a producer that continues to amass gravitas.

RCV is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Marcel Schechter has released his decadently dark pop single, Circle.

Posted on 24 March 2022

Ahead of the release of his third album, Circle, the German artist and sound engineer, Marcel Schechter, has released the title single. it intriguingly sets the euphonically pensive tone and welcomes new listeners to Schecter’s bold arrangement style that effortlessly resonates as artfully distinctive without needing to veer into the Avant-Garde territory.

With hints of Echo and the Bunnymen and New Order in the melancholic cascading progressions, and the plaintively dynamic vocals atop the mash of dark, fluid aural alchemy, this moody yet intrinsically hopeful single doesn’t fail to hit the evocative spot.

The single also features the revered artists Ben Jud (bass), Jan-Philipp Wiesmann (drums), Thomas Langer (guitar) and Andreas Pohr (lead vocals).

The single, Circle, is now available to stream on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

West Ingston brings the Jekyll and Hyde vibes in his alt-pop hit, Bone Apple Tea.

Posted on 29 September 2021

Houston-born, Chicago-based alt-pop artist West Ingston’s standout 2021 single, Bone Apple Tea, is just as ingenious as the inventive title implies. His melodic hooks are just as clever as the conceptuality of his music.

With spoken word increments that are rough enough to make Iggy Pop’s vocals sound polished around the artist’s RnB pop vocals, Bone Apple Tea tells a story of duality that you can’t help but be hooked in by. The Jekyll and Hyde vibe adds an incredible dynamic to the tender jazzy indie-pop track that serves as an incredible testament to West Ingston’s boundary-breaking avant-garde expressionism.

You can drink in Bone Apple Tea by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Transcend our 3D reality with Michæl Augustine’s ambient experimental hyperpop single ‘goodbye’

Posted on 18 February 2021
Michæl Augustine

Experimental hyperpop artist, Michæl Augustine, is set to release their latest entrancingly avant-garde ambient single ‘goodbye’, if you want to slip away from our three-dimensional world, goodbye will gladly hand you the ticket.

The soundscape was written as an aural transcription of the mental and emotional journey of the average human being. With so much misguided focus on mental health, it is easy to see any amount of emotional turmoil as a life-long issue or an affirmation that we’re ‘broken’. Goodbye is a serene reminder that pain is part of the human condition whilst allowing the vibrant colours to decorate your mind with catharsis.

Needless to say, we’re floored with Michæl Augustine’s astute approach to experimentalism.

Goodbye is due for releasee on March 14th, you’ll be able check it out on SoundCloud. In the meantime, check out their former release.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ideaad6 – Renaissance: Meet Your New Alt RnB Pop Earworm

Posted on 18 January 2021
Ideaad6

Ideaad6 broke into the Pop scene in 2019, as 2020 drew to a close, he dropped his experimentally conceptual album, 35MM, which gives a panoramic view of his all-encompassing approach to production.

The standout track, Renaissance, is the perfect introduction to Ideaad6’s raw, compelling and intimate sound. With classical strings weaving ethereal atmosphere in the trappy electronic track which pulls in gritty nuances of Alt Rock and RnB, Renaissance may be a genre-defying track, but the accessibility was never compromised in the entrancing hook-laden hit.

Describing a track as hard-hitting and soulfully hypnotic should be a paradox, Ideaad6’s alchemic approach makes it a transfixing upraising reality.

Ideaad6’s album 35mm is now available to stream via their official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Wally Hoak has made their viscerally experimental Alt Urban Pop debut with “Complicated”

Posted on 31 October 2020
https://soundcloud.com/wjoaquin9/complicated

Usually, you’d have to turn to Dreampop or Shoegaze to hear guitar tones as tantalising as the ones you will find in Wally Hoak’s Alt Urban Pop single “Complicated”.

The experimentally indulgent soundscape is a collision of culture, seasoned by the frustrative grief which can sour the sweetest of relationships.

While there’s a fairly wistful and melancholic air to the former verses, with the following verses, Wally Hoak starts to project the visceral contempt which usually manifests when romantic partners unnecessarily push and blur boundaries leaving us unaware of where we stand but all too aware that we look like an idiot.

With the amount of resonance in Complicated, we can’t wait to hear how the artist serves up his soul in his sophomore release.

You can check out Wally Hoak’s debut single Complicated by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Kaia Black – Really: A Piano-Led Ode to Pain

Posted on 19 September 2020
https://soundcloud.com/user-168590831-505180188/really

Starting with a simple, four-note repeating piano phrase, ‘Really’ by Kaia Black is the simplest of songs, a one minute eleven seconds ode to pain and a lack of understanding, the final refrain a plaintive ‘I don’t think you’re sorry’.

The piano part carries the track, and, admittedly, the vocal leaves a little to be desired, the attempt at nonchalance coming across instead as perhaps lacklustre and unsettled. That said, there’s an interesting concept, the simplicity of the track itself a challenge and a change from the over-instrumented, over-produced mainstream that often counts for ‘alternative’ music.

Kaia Black is on Soundcloud and Facebook.

Review by Alex Holmes

Howevever brings the bass-drenched synth lines in their seminal single Movie Night

Posted on 13 September 2020
Howevever

Australian Electronica artist Isaac Lee has worked under many guises in his almost decade-long career, this time, he’s gracing the airwaves under his new moniker Howevever and set to unleash their entrancingly soulful Alt-Electronic Pop track “Movie Night”.

If Fidlar jumped from Stoner Garage Rock to spacy synthy experimentalism, you’ll get an idea of what to expect when you hit play. Movie Night may be a little overly reverb-drenched, but there’s no denying that Howevever delivers pure distinction in this droney kaleidoscopically indulgent track.

You’ll be able to check out Howevever’s track Movie Night for yourselves from September 18th via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast