Following the bizarre and twisted brand of úber-pop and nu-metal mariah that Moriah Pereira (Poppy) tapped into for 2020’s I Disagree has been strained even further now we come to Zig (Sumerian). Her Flux album was the pop-punk bridge making her fifth album the next logical maturation point.
Hailing from Newport, Wales, noir pop and alternative rock quartet The Nightmares reveal their bleak yet breezy souls with their debut album, Séance, via Venn and Equal Vision Records. The record’s themes of death were inspired by the COVID pandemic putting a hold on the band’s touring plans, leading to experiments with seances during the writing process. As one could imagine, the mental and spiritual outcomes of this paid a great contribution to the music’s morbid concepts and haunting execution.
It’s uncanny when a new band emerges on the scene with as much vigor, talent, control, and singularity as it would from a seasoned act. Somehow, the Liverpool trio catapulted themselves into immediately noteworthy status. Piano-driven and guitar-less, Exploring Birdsong brings essences of progressive rock, eighties nuance, indie, and alternative pop together to create a sound that is solely their own; they’re uncategorical.
As the follow-up to the big debut, there is a lot on the line for any artist’s second album, but Mothica wasn’t afraid to jump the gun creatively with her concept record Nocturnal (releasing via her own imprint with Rise Records, Heavy Heart Records). While her last album Blue Hour explored the developmental period of becoming sober, Nocturnal dwells on the dark aftermath and search for a new meaning. With a whopping seventeen tracks including an introduction and three interludes, she took a risk with an unconventional album format – one that overall worked out in her favor.
People growing up in the internet age have access to a wider range of musical styles than ever before. As a result of that, at least in part, music scenes have become less tribal — artists and fans don’t cling on so doggedly to one style and are often comfortable to extol, say, Napalm Death and Billie Eilish in the same breath.
Los Angeles-based Indie-Alternative Pop artist Jayelle has dropped her new EP, My Father’s Daughter, in time for New Music Friday and it’s the perfect cure for 2020. The EP has five darkly majestic tracks highlighting Jayelle’s singular, sultry voice, introspective lyrics, catchy hooks, buzzing synths, angular beats, and even a great ballad. Fans of PVRIS, Gunship, Freezepop, Purity Ring, and CHVRCHES will dig this up and coming artist. Check out the EP now! Continue reading
Ghost Cult is pumped to debut the brand new video from The Earthly Frames, ‘She Waits For Yesterday’. The track comes from the new album Light Reading, releasing tomorrow January 11th, 2019. This delicious piece of off the wall alt-pop/post-punk weirdness comes from the brain of solo auteur Gabriel Walsh, for which The Earthly Frames is just one of many guises worn by Walsh in twenty-five years of art making. In addition to the hook-laden track of droning synths, glitchy samples, and buzzing bass; B movie aficionados may recognize the Invasion of the Bee Girls clip, now in the public domain as the visual component. Check it out! Continue reading
There has been a certain inevitability about the de-Rocking of 30 Seconds To Mars’ sound. They have always embraced electronica as being as integral to what they are as the guitars, bass, and drums, with Jared Leto’s distinctive tones up-front and centre. If 2013’s Love, Lust, Faith + Dreams (Virgin) advanced matters, progressing things from flirting with pop and electronics to full on stepping out, to (painfully) extend that metaphor, America (Interscope) is the lavish engagement party, as the band walk confidently off into the sunset hand-in-hand with modern, mainstream and minimalist pop-sensibilities. Continue reading
Sleep Token has a sound and an image that fully captures all who cross paths with even a single second of their music. This band of “mortal representations of the deity ‘Sleep’” is led by an “appointed Vessel” who literally just goes by “Vessel.” That’s right, it gets weird – but aren’t all things that are truly artistic a little bit wacky?Continue reading