Aussie pop starlet Yorke returns today with her first single of the year. Created over the course of just a few hours, ‘Window Shopping’ is a shimmering fusion of electro-pop and disco that looks into the desire of impressing a potential love interest while retaining your natural personality.
“I think sometimes the anxiety of wanting to make a good first impression (in any respect) can overshadow the ability to establish a meaningful connection.”
A dreamy pop release from RVBY, and one that feels euphoric in a gentle and subtle kind of way. It’s the type of song that softly builds momentum, leaving you feeling on top of the world as it concludes.
“I’m chasing this physical ‘sparkle’ on a journey. The meaning behind my new single is that I’m chasing this dream which in the video takes the form of a moving magical cluster. The sparkle is calling me to follow it and it symbolises something I really want.”
Hailing from Cape Town, HONEYMOAN are one of the most exciting alt-pop acts to emerge from South Africa recently, thanks to their ability in creating distinctive soundscapes that set the scene for some seriously addictive hooks and relatable lyrics. On ‘Super Emotional’, singer Alison Rachel explains:
“We sometimes try out a bunch of stuff like identities, relationships and careers in attempt to figure out who we are.”
Taken from the upcoming ‘Palace’ EP which lands on 18th August 2021.
Irish duo AMIN have created one of the strongest pop-dance hybrids to emerge so far this year. Immediately arresting, this is a refreshing sound that seizes your attention with its distinctive combination of melodies, lyrics and vocal.
“‘Count To Ten’ first came about following a pretty incredible moment for me watching the sunrise at Burning Man festival in the middle of the Black Rock desert in Nevada. I was working on a demo of it here and there for about 3 years. I thought it really had potential but needed someone with both underground & commercial sensibilities to give it a bit of a scrub & gleam to get it to where it needed to be. Once Mark entered the picture, it came together pretty quickly.” Darren Rice, ANIM
LA-based singer, songwriter and producer frogi has received quite love since releasing ‘moonlight’ just eighteen months ago.
She’s since ascended Hype Machine and been embraced by the fashion world, with in-store playlists from H&M and Ralph Lauren; not bad considering she’s released everything to date independently,
Today marks the release of the beautifully written ‘phantom limb’, a song that brings a warm and hyper-modern take on heartbreak.
“I like to travel in time when I write songs and visit different versions of myself, This song is a visit from present me to a younger me. I look back at myself when I was a teenager and send her love. Her self esteem was pretty low, and her self worth was so based on a relationship that was doomed from the start. I find it healing to talk to my younger self and show her love she didn’t know back then. I think it pieces broken parts of my present self back together.”
Irish international phenomenon Picture This are back today with the beautifully emotive ‘If Ever However Whenever Forever’.
The track marks the announcement of the band’s fan album, ‘Life In Colour‘ which comes out on 25th June 2021 via Republic Records. On the album, they say:
“Our fans have been amazingly patient with us over the last two years and allowed us to get a body of work together that we feel is really worth the wait for them and we’re excited for them all to get their hands on it! We will be back with even more music a lot sooner than you would think too!”
Not only that – but they’re also going on tour across the UK later this year, kicking off on 6th October in Nottingham. More info here.
I first featured Sigrid all the way back in 2014, but it wasn’t until 2018 that the world finally caught up to this Norwegian talent.
Here we are in 2021, and this superstar has already toured the globe, amassed over 1.2 billion streams and sold a million album units.
Now she’s back with a disco-filled bop in the shape of ‘Mirror’, continuing to hold her ground as one of Scandinavia’s biggest musical success stories.
One of the most exciting discoveries this week comes from London-based talent ivee. A fusion of rap, trap and dark-pop come together to create a sound that feels atmospheric and arresting.
Featuring the talents of hip hop artist VILLAIN, ‘Fallen Angels’ explores the inevitable tragedy of coping mechanisms.
A self-producing artist and composer, ivee developed her skills at the prestigious BRIT school and was spotted there by Little Cousin Records – who then released her debut ‘Paris In The Winter’ back in February.
Born in São Paulo and now based in London, PIE is one of those artists who creates a sound that delivers a ton of character, yet does so in such a finessed form that it wins you over within seconds.
With inspirations ranging from Latin and Bossa Nova tones to the ever-growing UK Jazz scene, as well as soul queens like Cleo Sol, Erykah Badu, and Aretha Franklin, PIE’s music tells captivating stories in the most effortlessly cool way imaginable.
“The opening line for the track ‘She had it coming to her but she is too independent’ introduces my reflection upon the process of getting to know the true meaning of solitude, the most valuable gift a heartbreak can give you, the lonely path to yourself. The track contains excerpts of the real phone call that triggered the creation of the song, bringing the listeners close to my own experience in an attempt to tell a story that may have happened elsewhere, in a different time and place.”
British composer Lindsay Wright is already an established name who has worked on compositions for film and TV (Netflix’s The Crown; Sky Atlantic’s The Tunnel; and period drama The Aftermath to name a few).
While in lockdown over the past year, Wright also created a beautiful EP entitled ‘LINES’ (out 4th June 2021), which includes new single ‘On Fire’.
Here you can experience deeply emotive tones gliding over a rich soundscape that was built on cinematic electronics, fragile strings and haunting vocals. Talking about ‘LINES’, Wright says:
“The current times and my personal observations over the past year shaped each track, going between the strangeness, the novelty and the distress that I was feeling all at once. How so many people could only see loved ones through the glass of a window or across a garden pathway. How nobody was unaffected by these changes in the world.
I also wanted to explore contrasting experiences, perhaps how having constant company with no change in scenery could result in overwhelming loneliness of a different kind. How small everyone’s world had to become in order to keep others safe. How I could cycle through these feelings of isolation and morph them into lines of connection instead.”
Hailing from a small town in Hungary called Szentendre, 25-year old talent Ben T Kadar is a promising new singer-songwriter who crafts a stripped-back yet soulful blend of alt-RnB and lo-fi pop.
Random fact: Ben was the Hungarian voice of Childish Gambino in the 2019 version of Lion King!
Taken from the new EP ‘Queen Size Bed’ which is out now.
One of my favourite outfits of late, daysormay are back, with new single ‘Ego’. Oscillating between the points of view of multiple characters, this is a hard-hitting and intense track that still somehow feels eccentric and fun at the same time.
“’Ego’ started as a songwriting exercise. I was trying to see if I could write in different voices, as different characters. My goal was to be as un-aidan as possible. Just to see what I would get. – Aidan Andrews, daysormay
Watch out for the upcoming album ‘Just Existing’ which lands this autumn.
It seems like everything RALPH touches turns to musical gold. Now she’s back with a new twist to her sound in the form of ‘Love Potion’.
This is a shimmering blend of disco and electro-pop, flirting between something that feels timeless yet still current and refreshingly fun.
“I wrote ‘Love Potion’ almost a year ago with my sweet pals David Charles Fischer and Terence Lam (the same team behind ‘Gravity’). I had just watched the movie ‘Midsommar’ and couldn’t get the imagery out of my head. I kept thinking about this one scene where the cult women create a love potion to woo the male protagonist… and soon I was deep in a google hole of ‘history of love potions’ (they date back to Biblical times!) I came into the session with that as my lyrical inspiration, and pretty soon we wove a dance-y, bass-soaked story of a woman afraid she’s loving her lover… so she cooks up a brew to remind him just how sweet she is.”
Taken from the upcoming EP ‘GRADIENCE’ which is due 7th July 2021 on Rich Man Records.
Atlanta-based talent Ryan Hall blends hyperpop with elements of punk and indie-rock to create a sound that feels raw and uniquely textured, while also being elevated and future-forward.
With an astounding 4.8 million followers on TikTok alone, Nashville-based artist and songwriter KINGS is making significant traction across social media with her fantastically catchy style of pop.
“I wrote ‘ur a good bye’ last August with a few writer/ producer friends of mine. I told them about this guy I unofficially dated and let me tell you, it was a mess. His immaturity was astonishing, but it made for some interesting art. I love taking bad situations and turning them into something people can jam to in their car. We were talking about the situation and I was like, ‘I can’t even be mad at this situation because he was a good bye.'”
Danish talent eee gee creates a kind of indie-pop that is hard not to fall in love with. ‘Favourite Lover’ is a song that feels charming yet eccentric to listen to, all the while bringing a new approach to the genre that is refreshingly original.
Self-described as an ‘artist, human, musician and love-based Kindness practitioner’, I am TIM creates a style of hip hop that is refreshingly individualistic. ‘Big cat fears’ is pretty short in length, but still piques your interest in this up and coming artist.
One of Australia’s most exciting indie-pop artists returns with a dreamy and melodic sad-banger that is addictively catchy.
Consistently pushing the boundaries of electronic pop, Japanese Mannequin duo FEMM return today with their hard-edged new track, ‘Private Dancer’.
Decadently blending elements of dance and goth rock into a sound that feels bold and raw, the song tackles the concept of ‘symbiotic love’ – the desire to use; and to be used.
“Confidence is sexy. She is strong and fierce. She doesn’t take no as an answer. She loves every inch of herself being a woman. It’s cool to sing this character as FEMM. It’s a new vibe for us and we are loving it. The song starts off with a mysterious tone, then goes into harder beats. For sure it’s gonna make you wanna dance. If you get more into it, the more you can really feel that strong confident sexy woman.” – RiRi, FEMM
Introducing LA-based talent BRICK! under the ‘New Music’ section is a little deceptive if I am honest; he’s an already multi-platinum selling producer, a DJ and a creative director. So it comes as no surprise that listening to ‘The Start’ will give you just about the most finessed slice of RnB that you’ll likely enjoy all day today.
