Browsing Tag

Space Pop

Drift into a higher dimension with the latest interstellar single from Rae Larz, ORACLE

Posted on 15 November 2023

Back in February, Rae Larz invited us to a tea party with a cosmic difference via her single, Tea in the Stratosphere, going by her latest release, ORACLE, she’s still reigning interstellar supreme.

After a sequence of moody stabbing synth lines, the Brooklyn-based artist’s demurely magnetic vocal lines start drawing you into the gravity of the release by transitioning between the high vocal harmonies and sermonic spoken word utterances which command with sublime conviction.

ORACLE may be more niche than your average synth pop release, but the singer, songwriter, and producer never compromises with her deep emotional expression and visualises soundscapes that are infinitely more enriching for the heart, body, soul and rhythmic pulses. Freedom emanates through every progression within ORACLE; unshackle yourselves, especially if you’re a fan of Black Honey, She Draws the Gun and Warpaint.

If you can’t get enough of Rae Larz after hearing ORACLE, you won’t have long to wait before her vibration-raising EP hits the airwaves.

ORACLE dropped on November 3rd; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Dream Optimist sugared sonic soul before pouring it into their spacey synthpop single,  Think Gently of Yourself

Posted on 9 September 2023

Silence the maleficence of your inner critic with the latest interstellar indie space pop escapade, Think Gently of Yourself, from Dream Optimist. If Do You Realize by The Flaming Lips never fails to pull at your heartstrings and stir your soul with unabashed positivity, the same viscerally sweet reaction awaits when you hit play on the seminal single from Dream Optimist’s 15-track LP, Seven Day Love Challenge.

Atop the twinkling Grandaddy-esque keys and around the chamber strings, the questioning and pervasive with doubt lyricism leads you on an affirming odyssey of a journey through the cosmos, with the consolingly compassionate vocals acting as a star-roving guide.

The Oakland, CA-residing songwriter and composer, frequently voyages between synthpop, bedroom pop, chamber pop and a myriad of other genres when penning his hits for his ‘low head count collective’. Before breaking into song crafting for the airwaves, the collective’s head honcho, David Marc Siegel, honed his talents in art-punk outfits and as a composer for ad music, theatre music, musical theatre, and short films, which goes a fair way in explaining how he settled on his cinematically spirited sound that will take you as high as the transcendent register on the vocal harmonies.

Stream Think Gently of Yourself by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

LA’s most harmonic pop-rock pioneer, Johnathan Dax, evoked mindfulness in his latest single, These Are the Days

Posted on 17 August 2023

Johnathan Dax spun the ’60s psych-pop tones through a spacy, future-ready kaleidoscope to orchestrate his odyssey of a single, These Are the Days.

The single efficaciously finds a poignantly compelling way to prove that these times may not be perfect, but on this point on the space-time continuum, they’re all we have, and they were made for living in.

Our era may be choked with a wanton lust for nostalgia, but if any spacey pop-rock sonic universe can bring you back to the present and give you lust for contemporary life, it’s These Are the Days, which picks up momentum through rock licks toward the outro, while emanating the liberating transcendence of an ELO epic.

These Are the Days will be available to stream from the 17th of August; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

mooncrüe have made their psychedelically existential debut with the spacey alt-electro hit, Animal

Posted on 6 March 2023

Alt-electronica originators mooncrüe went heavy on the philosophy which will be as euphonic to existential ears as the kaleidoscopic synth-pop beats in their debut single, Animal.

If you have ever looked at the lesser-aware species that roam this scorched earth with us with envy for their habitual simplicity; you will find visceral resonance in this mix. Animal leaves the highs to the instrumentals, and the realism within the lyricism that becomes even more astute with every listen to the spacey psychedelic score.

It isn’t every day that you discover a debut that leaves you desperate for the sophomore, but clearly, the indie psychonauts within this devilishly clever outfit are anything but your run-of-the-mill aural peddlers. They’re on their very own spacey plateau. Hit play and join them.

Animal is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Arlo Boe – Eclipsed: One small step for pop, one giant leap for the airwaves.

Posted on 19 August 2022

The Australian up-and-coming pop sensation, Arlo Boe didn’t just go lyrically interstellar with her latest single, Eclipsed. The stratospheric energy resounds just as much through the catchy, spacey 80s synth pop textures, modernised by Boe’s unique futuristic pop vision.

Beyond the spacey intonations, Eclipsed is dedicated to the people who don’t fall into the category of marriage material but are dynamite between the sheets. A bold concept, but with Arlo Boe’s signature cinematic yet casually cool style, it is impossible not to get hooked on the synthy grooves and her vocal dynamism, which asserts her authenticity on the airwaves.

Eclipsed will officially release on August 12th; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Jack Wakeman & The Dreamstriders share the ‘Cosmic Fear’ in their latest single

Posted on 16 March 2022

It is easy to lament existing in this particular fragment of the space-time continuum. But at no other point in our history would we get to celebrate endearing alt-indie artists, such as Jack Wakeman & The Dreamstriders, and their tracks on apocalyptic optimism.

Cosmic Fear was written after a mental breakdown that left Wakeman overwhelmed by the magnitude of the sky. After the fear subsided, Wakeman was left adrift with existential confusion before he understood that it is ok to leave some things as a mystery. As meaning-makers, it’s hard to know where to draw the line and when to leave our curiosity behind; Cosmic Fear stunningly navigates the epiphany in true 80s synth-pop meets classic rock fashion.

If you like your existentialism sunny side up, the spacey indie pop rock earworm should be considered a playlist staple.

The official video to Cosmic Fear is available to stream via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

OneNamedPeter explores the pleasure-pain connection in his artful cosmic pop single, Hurts

Posted on 4 March 2022

Ahead of the release of his fifth 100% DIY album, Hurts, the alt-indie British singer-songwriter, OneNamedPeter, has given us a teaser by letting us taste the cosmic pop textures in the bitter-sweet title single.

If you took Prince’s solos, Elliott Smith’s raw songwriting style, the dreamy chamber pop style of Daughter, the spacey gravity of Bowie and threw them into an aural cocktail with orchestral motifs to boot, it would pour just like the intoxicating soundscape, Hurts.

Nothing about the high-fidelity production feels less than professional. OneNamedPeter knows just how to conjure enough alchemy to wrap around his lyricism that explores the pleasure and pain connection.

Hurts is one of those tragically rare releases that you immediately know you’ll want to dive into time and time again. We’re stoked to hear how the LP ensues after the title-single set such a blissful and accordant tone.

Hurts will officially release on March 4th, 2022. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Fountains of Paradise has made an interstellar indie space pop debut with Forgotten Man.

Posted on 28 October 2021

With their if-they-got-enough-exposure-they-would-probably-start-a-cult-and-it-would-be-the-best-thing-ever vibe, it is safe to say that we instantly warmed to The Fountains of Paradise through their single, Forgotten Man, which features on their debut album, Let the People.

The Yorkshire-born, Buckinghamshire-based singer-songwriter’s spacey indie bedroom pop track starts with uplifting ABBA-Esque chords before the sonic palette transitions into an avant-garde arrangement of orchestral strings pulling against the electro-pop instrumentals. Plenty of the accordance in the single comes from the singer-songwriter’s elegantly gentle vocals that tenderly relay the playfully melancholic lyrics.

Forgotten Man does little in the way of subverting reality; it becomes escapism music all the same for the way it leaves you caught up in the witty attack on nihilism and mortality redundancy. For four minutes, blackened souls will feel right at home.

You can add Forgotten Man to your playlists on Spotify, or you can check out the official music video on YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Television Of Cruelty go out of this world with ‘The Winchcombe Meteorite’

Posted on 18 June 2021

Eclectic is a word that gets overused in music reviews, but there are few that fit The Television Of Cruelty better; unexpected, often eerie and unsettling, ‘The Winchecombe Meteorite’ is a narrative tale telling the story of a big chunk of space debris which landed on the driveway of a house smack in the middle of Suburban England in February 2021, amongst the lockdown of the Coronavirus pandemic and the echoing divisions of Brexit and the Black Lives Matter protests.

Musically, there’s a mixture of folk, prog, and out and out rock; guitars, yes, and drums, but also flutes and a melodica. It sounds a little like New Model Army back in their ‘Vengeance’ and ‘Thunder and Consolation’ perfection heyday, mixed with ‘Space Oddity’-era Bowie and dashes of Pink Floyd and Yes. It’s gentle, poetic, storytelling folk-prog that’s a perfect introduction to the ToC’s new album ‘England’s Wyrding’. Stellar (sorry).

Check out ‘The Winchcombe Meteorite’ on Soundcloud; follow the Television of Cruelty on Facebook and Twitter.

Review by Alex Holmes

Troubled Traveller has released his psychedelically despondent art-pop debut, ‘the lucky ones’

Posted on 1 April 2021

Canadian singer-songwriter Troubled Traveller has made their debut with the all too resonant single ‘the lucky ones’, created in collaboration with Floridian space pop producer Brian Squillace and vocalist Amber Nicole.

With shimmering guitars cascading down melodies first heard in 70s psych-rock finding synergy with deadpan vocals, everything in the lucky ones pieces together like a perfect jigsaw that you never want to tear apart.

Troubled Traveller succeeded in lacing the lucky ones with the same despondence that we’ve all been in bed with recently without making it a self-flagellating melancholy fest. He’s set the bar with his seriously strong debut, but we’re more than assured he’ll exceed expectation with their upcoming releases. Don’t be surprised if Troubled Traveller ambles onto your radar when you hit play on their debut.

the lucky ones is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast