Olivia McShane and Alex Bloomfield are a new duo, making music under the name Atelier Blue. They self-identify their unique sound as 'Mood Pop'. Both tracks
they've released so far are endearing, infectious, perfectly-constructed synth-pop
gems. In the most recent, “Empty Lungs”, they put their ‘moodiness’ on full display,
as McShane longingly wonders in the chorus, her velvet voice drifting over groovy guitar and bass rhythms,
“Why can’t I get what I want???”
They are not just a band to watch, they're a band you'll want to set an alert for, to make sure you don't miss anything.
“This is your life / Don’t let it just happen to you”. That
is how Hannah Cohen opens her album Welcome Home, pleading with us, delivering
a straightforward lesson. The word “life” sweetly stretched out, allowed to
linger in the air.
This album was written during a time of transition, as Cohen
was taking the radical decision to leave the bustle of New York City for the
rustic environs of Woodstock, NY. The
album – Cohen’s 3rd – was released in April (I’m a little behind the
curve). At the time of release, she described the process of writing the first
single and opening track, “This is Your Life”:
“It was the beginning of September and NYC was
in the midst of a big heat wave. I was staying with my partner
at the time and had locked myself in the bathroom to work on this song. It was
very early in the morning, the air conditioner was buzzing away. At the time we
were searching for our first apartment together, and had seen about 27
apartments in person. All were gross or out of our price range. It was
definitely a catalyst for wanting to move out of the city – and it all came
rushing at me. I really needed a change. Locked in a boiling hot bathroom, playing
my nylon-string guitar, I realized that this is it… my life is crazy, it’s time
to make a big move.”
Out of this revelation came an album that is marked by
honesty and almost pastoral clarity. You get the sense that Cohen has arrived
at some important lessons and is distilling them here, both for herself and for
us. They perhaps sound simple, but as Cohen knows – hell, as we all know - they
take a while to grasp and identify with. Through the dreamy pop production,
well-executed by her partner Sam Owens, you can still make out the charming
tones of the old nylon-stringed guitar she used to compose many of the songs. This
is an album that will cause you to feel warm and hopeful, even as it causes you
to examine your own path.
Today Carla dal Forno announced a new album, Look Up Sharp, to be released on October 4th via her own label, Kallista Records. Along with the announcement, she put out a new single titled “Took a Long Time”. It is our second glimpse into the album; the first is “So Much Better”, which she released in April as part of an EP. Her announcement today offers some insight into its motivating themes:
“In a transformative move towards crystal clear vocals and sharpened production, Look Up Sharp is an evolutionary leap from the thick fog and pastoral stillness of her Blackest Ever Black missives, You Know What It’s Like (2016) and The Garden EP (2017). Three years since her plain-speaking debut album, the Melbourne-via-Berlin artist finds herself absorbed in London’s sprawling mess. The small-town dreams and inertia that preoccupied dal Forno’s first album have dissolved into the chaotic city, its shifting identities, far-flung surroundings and blank faces. Look Up Sharp is the story of this life in flux, longing for intimacy, falling short and embracing the unfamiliar.”
While dal Forno’s production may be cleaner, sharper, the fog is still present, only maybe now its celestial fog - fog transmitted from some astral plane, in the form of psychedelic dream-pop synths and echoing, understated percussion. ‘Intentional’ is the term that comes to mind. Her lyrics tell a story, a story about intimacy – in this case about “meeting someone you like and not being able to tell yet if they like you too”. Her lyricism is economical. Her voice is plaintive, tinged with regret, or perhaps just with a longing to go back and understand, to make sense of things. And the song chugs along, steadily, intentionally, that dominant humid bass-line holding it down.I get an image of a train on the way out of a city, with Carla dal Forno pensively singing, eyes fixed on the landscape through the window, her thoughts still trapped in London.
The up-close, sunburnt, textural music video is the work of Ludovic Sauvage.
Yeule's mega-talent has been out in the open for awhile. While her releases haven't been as frequent as fans might hope - she's studying for a bachelors of fine arts, gosh - The Singaporean London-based producer has been quietly releasing - synth-heavy, shoegazey, often atmospheric - art-pop (enough descriptors?) for several years. Okay, one more - "witch house" (self-ascribed).
In 2017, The Fader called her "Coma" EP "dream pop perfection." More recently, she made it onto one of Grimes Spotify playlists!¡ She's getting recognized, that's the point. With her latest track, I hope more recognition is headed her way.
The music video for her newest song "Pretty Bones" (released on Bayonet Records) is out. Directed by Joy Song, the video explores self-identity, artificiality, and decay. Sundry luxuriant items, artificial and natural, are interspersed, heaped together on an exquisite banquet table: bowls of raspberries topped with glitter; shiny rose petals; shinier lip gloss; a bejeweled octopus. Then things dissolve, scatter, get destroyed. A pomegranate is torn apart; an engraved knife stabs a slab of raw beef; overfull bowls of fruit rot in half a second, are resurrected, and then rot again. It's miraculous. The whole thing brought to mind a quote from the end of Strindberg's A Dream Play (ahem): "Time and space do not exist. Upon an insignificant background of real life events the imagination spins and weaves new patterns."
One more thing: check out this interview by Milk Magazine.
Highlights: "Who are you, yeule?
yeule is my reflection, your reflection, your friend, your enemy, a cut in dimensional fabric, a disappearing space..." "How do you balance attending university while maintaining your career and artistry?This is a very good question, Gabriella — I’m a shapeshifter...."
If you haven't heard of Lisbon-based alt-pop trio Vaarwell, that's okay. Until this morning, neither had I. The band consists of Margarida Falcão (vocals, keyboards), Ricardo Nagy (guitar, keys, production), and Luís Monteiro (bass, sampler). After forming in 2014, they have been going from strength to strength ever since. Their 2017 debut LP 'Homebound 456' in 2017 got play on BBC Radio 1 and led to a 2018 performance at SXSW. Their new song 'False Promises' is a new height for the band, as they reinforce and build upon their particular soft-sweet-confident-indie-pop brand. The song's layered, careful, even soulful production betrays the band's origin - they met in a music production class. Equal parts melancholic and optimistic, nostalgic and hopeful... oh, screw it, I might as well just quote Margarida, who describes the impulse behind the song this way: "'False Promises' is an upbeat plea for one's loved one to stay, even when the feelings are no longer mutual. The song goes back and forth, from denial to the acceptance of the inevitable end of the relationship. Wanting, on one hand, to hold on to past hopes and promises, whilst knowing that things change and that some promises are hard to keep"
Last week Canadian electro-pop duo Purity Ring released their new album, Shrines. The presence of the album has now become more or less ubiquitous across the music blogosphere so, in the interest of fitting in, I may as well post about them as well.
On the whole, this album is very impressive. Corin Roddick creates twitchy hip-hop inspired beats with finesse. He expertly employs light glitchy hooks surrounded by layers of pulsating ambience to create dream like, atmospheric environments. Megan James sweet, innocent vocals give us the impression that she might as well be singing a nursery rhyme, so you are probably likely to do what I did, ignore the words she is singing. Don't make that mistake. The lyrics throughout these eleven tracks vary from eerie surrealism to downright creepy. One prime example is "Fireshrine", in which Megan sweetly invites us to "Get a little closer, let it fold, cut open my sternum and pull my little ribs around you". (shudder)
Purity Ring have succeeded in creating a album that is widely listenable and is also distinctly, unequivocally their own. That is something they can be proud of. They have firmly secured their place in my itunes folder, (on my shelf would've been a more engaging metaphor but it's the year 2012), alongside The Knife and Crystal Castles.
