Swedish singer-songwriter Noah and the Sound has released his post-punk-tinged indie-pop earworm, Stuck. In a time when momentum is hard to find but not as hard as the grip of inertia, it has all the makings of an electro-indie pop playlist staple.
With an arty approach to cinematic production, Stuck finds the perfect balance between intimacy and intensity. Especially with the contrast between the vulnerability in the hushed and honeyed indie dream-pop vocals and the deep percussive throbs that ensure the momentum ironically remains perpetual. There’s also no aurally evading the sense of romanticism that resounds around the bitter-sweet candour.
Hands in Shadow’s latest single, Hater, Fighter…Lover? is an ingenious mash of indie post-punk, funk, grunge and avant-garde. The prelude delivers Nirvana-Esque sludgy tones before the playfully polyphonic keys allow you to imagine the aural result if the Residents and Kraftwerk produced together.
Hands in Shadow found the perfect balance between obscurity and melody, the eerie magnetic pull of the single makes you feel at a loss when the short and sweet psychedelic indie hit suddenly comes to a close. We will definitely be keeping the Yorkshire-based artist on our radar for future releases; we advise everyone with a penchant for avant-garde indie to do the same.
You can check out Hands in Shadow’s latest single for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.
With her latest single, ‘Lessons from a Great Cult Leader’, Finley Clark paid ode to her greatest lyrical inspiration, Bob Dylan, in collaboration with guitarist Alex Bunghez and producer Stefan Paraschiv. The lyrics tell a coming-of-age story that explores rights of passages and paths to maturity; instrumentally, the bitter-sweet melodies capture the innocence and ecstasy of youth along with the growing pains that eventually kick in when we leave our naivety behind.
With the fiery rockabilly guitar solos, Lessons from a Great Cult Leader is blazoned with some serious rock stripes; with Finley’s effect-laden vocals and the dancey beats, you’ll be thrown right back to 90s Britpop. Any fans of Garbage, The Cardigans and the Cranberries will definitely want to experience this authentically infectious track for themselves.
Lessons from a Great Cult Leader released on May 24th; you can check it out for yourselves by heading over to YouTube.
Funky moody pop may sound like a paradox, but that’s exactly what will greet you when you hit play on the latest single released by alt-pop singer-songwriter V!V.
MY NRG is the sophomore single from the Detroit-born Chicago-raised artist that delved into Chicago’s music scene by collaborating with up and coming rappers and vocalists. After taking plenty of inspiration from Tyler, the Creator, V!V started to create her grooving loops to flow with her vocals that can only be described as radiant.
MY NRG comes with a smorgasbord of attitude, but it is all in the name of demonstrating the importance of protecting your energy and knowing your worth. It is an infectiously empowering track that you will need on your summer pop playlists as soon as you hear it.
The UK duo The Moontown Project is back with their indie vibes, post-punk lyrics and genre-evading electronic beats with their latest single, ‘Mademoiselle’.
Ingeniously, the Moontown Project captured club atmosphere in a way that doesn’t give you that stir-crazed desperation for life to return to ‘normal’, but in a way that allows you to vividly revisit the times that came to you on a dancefloor and will stay with you forever.
With their second single, the Moontown Project’s sonic palette consisted of two step rhythms, funk-riding bass and synth lines that tie the track together and create an immersive electro house vignette of dancefloor culture and euphoria.
The duo that consists of Will Swain-Smith on guitar & lead vocals and Guy Molony on keys, bass & lead vocals made waves in London prior to their recent relocation to Leeds which marks a major shift in their career and determination to allow their sound to resound far beyond the districts of London.
Their debut single has already received attention and airplay from BBC Introducing: London, Amazing Radio, Hoxton Radio, Independent Music News and Soundwave Magazine. After signing with Stogey Records, they are set to truly come into their own in 2021.
They have major plans to take their fusion sounds on tour across the country, and thankfully, fans won’t have to wait for long before another ethereal release from The Moontown Project. Don’t just get them on your radar, get them in your gig diary.
Mademoiselle officially released on May 14th; head over to Spotify to hear it.
Indietronica fans will want to pay serious attention to the rhythmically commanding latest release, ‘3 GODS WE KNOW’ from up and coming artist, Krane Alis.
By dipping into a myriad of genre pools with their subversive synth-driven, 80s-inclined sound, Krane Alis brought individuality to the airwaves, seemingly with ease. The major distinction radiates from her warmly enigmatic vocals which pay ode to retro-style dance pop while projecting you far into the future of indie dance pop.
The Bay Area solo artist takes inspiration from everyone from The Talking Heads to Blondie to Hot Chip and Daft Punk. Her eclectic aural affinities ensured that the debut album which is set to follow 3 GODS WE KNOW will be one that you definitely won’t want to miss out on.
Vienna-based, Russian-born singer/songwriter/producer Aygyul mixes up the genres on her new, bilingual single “I’ll Be Alright”, throwing in Indie-pop, Electronica, and a little dash or two of R&B, to produce a classy little dance-pop track.
Created during lockdown from Aygyul’s bedroom music studio, and working with poet Pati Avish (who writes all the lyrics for Aygyul’s songs), this is a reminder that, no matter what’s going on around us, we need to look internally, to our inner resilience and strength, and to take the time out to care for ourselves and give ourselves time to recover; ‘I’ll Be Alright’ is a strong track, dance-oriented but still poppy and uplifting.
If UK alt-rock five-piece Divisions had scripted 2020, they still couldn’t have come up with a more appropriate time to release their eponymous second album (due out March 12th). In preparation, they lead in with this, the opening single from the ten-track album, available via Bandcamp and with an accompanying ‘lockdown-special’ video on YouTube.
‘Quiet Frustrations’ is a powerful track, a statement around social division, post-truth politics, the frustrations of pandemic-stricken Britain, and that horrible over-arching ennui and exhaustion that’s seemed to blanket us all for the last couple of years. It’s a great song, potent, intelligent, thoughtful, and unusual yet with enough commercial nous to appeal to a wider audience; think Thirty Seconds To Mars with a little more introspection and inner-city tower-block feel, and you’re pretty much on the money.
See the lock-down video for ‘Quiet Frustrations’ on YouTube. Buy ‘Quiet Frustrations’, and pre-order ‘Divisions’, from Bandcamp.
New York based singer-songwriter Alexa Marino has spent the last twenty years honing her craft around NYC venues such as Rockwood Music Hall, Shrine World Music Venue, The Bitter End, and Groove, all the while studying vocal technique. Now, she’s marrying her brand of narrative beauty and storytelling lyrics with a superb voice on her debut album ‘Laid Bare’, and it really has been worth the wait.
‘Laid Bare’ – the single – is the lead (and, obviously, title) track from the album, co-written with and produced by established New York musician Alex Hayes, and it’s an absolute cracker; poppy yet soulful, intense, beautiful, with a style a little reminiscent of Florence and The Machine mixed with Natalie Imbruglia and Katie Melua, Hayes’ production sparse yet mellifluous, a lovely mix of electronic instrumentation managing, unusually, to still sound organic and ‘real’, perfectly matching the timbre of Marino’s voice.
The rest of the seven-track album is excellent and out now, but ‘Laid Bare’ is the perfect taster of Alexa Marino’s undoubted talent.
Check out ‘Laid Bare’ on Spotify, and follow Alexa Marino on Facebook now.
Orange Dream got Jazzy with their latest Indie drop ‘Twisted’, which is exactly what it says on the tin. The solid feat of psychotropic Electronic Indie also doctors in a nuanced Trip Hop edge to give the multifaceted hit yet another mind-melting texture to solidify the ingenuity.
As Josie Rose Molasky’s vocals find the perfect balance between harmony and attitude, the energetic yet carefully contorted Hip Hop beats make sure you stay hooked in the melody right from the intro while lush synths give you plenty of atmospheric reverb to sink into. If you feel like getting nostalgic about your hedonistic days, Twisted will happily send you a postcard.
Twisted may be an independent release, but it is hard-hitting enough to leave a serious mark on the airwaves. The LA duo is undoubtedly one to watch.
You can check out Twisted for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.
