Betty Who’s latest single “Human Touch” is the pop dream we’ve been waiting to have.
It’s bubbly and upbeat, danceworthy and synthy—pretty much, it’s everything we’ve come to expect from Betty Who at this point. The Australian songstress’ voice is layered in a way that makes it sound both silky and husky simultaneously, dancing between the varying synths. It’s fun, sexy and exultant, and will have you grabbing your dancing shoes, anxious for the weekend.
With a very Beatles-esque vibe, Goodman is here to bring a bit of sunshine and chill to your dreary winter days with his latest single “Hiccup.”
Singer/songwriter Michael Goodman delivers us this feel-good track that walks the line between pop rock and surf rock, and it’s got us feeling all sorts of feels. Its repetitive beat, peppered with claps and hiccups, will have you grooving in your seat.
Keep an eye out for his full-length album The Vicissitudes, which is expected to drop in February on Invertebrate Records.
Bypass your morning coffee! Starting out with a chorus-y bang and accompaniment of keys, Zella Day’s “Man on the Moon” is the type of track that’ll kickstart your day and give you that much-needed pep in your step.
“Man on the Moon” is an ethereal beauty, surreal and dream-like from start to finish. It holds an air of normalcy until every chorus breaks down into the otherworldly again–its ability to capture the transcendental aligns oh so perfectly with the title. Appropriately, each chorus also has vocals that sound like a martian’s.
Take a listen below to this entrancing number.
Welp, 2016 has been hellish, and we officially all need 200 percent more chill in our lives. And Tel Aviv-born, LA-based Lee Triffon is here to bring us those much-needed laid-back vibes in the form of her new EP Different Sun.
The album begins with Triffon’s wispy vocals projecting an ominous and slightly mysterious energy in her titular opening track. The music ebbs and flows with her airy voice, carrying you on a cushy cloud of low-key electronica. It transitions into her popular single “Mirrors in the Sand” from there. In this track, the songstress stretches her range a bit more, telling a heartfelt tale using raspy vocals alongside a slow synthy backing. The midpoint of the EP sees “Silver Bullet Gun,” which is a more unique style from the previous two tracks, deviating into a more pronounced and ambitious song than her other two–it reaches out and grabs you, holding you captive to its enchanting sound. Although slow, it’s repetitive tracking makes it so the song reverberates around your head. The next song, “Caves,” is a bit faster than the others at times, and has an urgent yet unsettled feel to it. It further complements Triffon’s mysteriousness, a quality which is palpable in all the songs on Different Sun. “Caves” is the last glimpse of sunlight on a particularly brisk winter evening, making it seasonally appropriate, but also a great way to end out an album. The last track is an orchestral version of “Mirrors in the Sand,” which is a more magical and theatrical spin on the original single.
Take a listen to Different Sun below, and maybe it’ll help you feel a bit more reinvigorated for the coming year.
Have you ever listened to a song that feels both fast and slow at the same time? Well, once you’ve listened to Memoryy’s “Read My Lips King Deco Remix” you can say you have.
Memoryy’s remix adds a sultry, sexy twang to King Deco’s original track, commanding your attention with spine-tingling synths and bass. The song carries you along a slow build up of snaps and airy vocals to end with a fiery synth explosion that’s endearingly cacophonic. It grows outward and upward, climbing like a vine along a wall, and before you know it, you’ll be sitting on the edge of your seat sitting straight up, fully immersed in its beauty as it blooms before you.
Take a listen to the track below, and let it shape your week.
Get ready to dance off your extra Thanksgiving turkey weight to DRUZY’s latest track “How You Feel,” a vulnerable and raw pop track. Vocalist Brianna Conroy brings a real, sultry side to this track as Luc Alexiades crafts the music into an upbeat, addictive song. The Los Angeles-based duo is creating feel-good music that’ll get you up and moving while also digging into your more passionate side.
Listen below!
Flowery and airy, carrying you away from the hellscape that our country has become in the last two weeks to instead deliver you to a place where beauty and comfort exists is Ex Reyes’ new EP Do Something.
The EP starts out with their single “Bad Timing,” which is a jazzy, upbeat track that showcases falsetto vocals from Ex Reyes, aka Mikey Hart. It’s epiphanic and revelatory, which is a perfect lead into the piece as a whole. It also flows smoothly into the next track, “If U Come Runnin,” which will tinkle around your head for days with its quirky synths that spiral away.
From there, you’ll experience “Keeping You in Line,” which will do anything but that. You’ll feel yourself floating this way and that throughout this track as the music washes over you and transports you to a different world. Following that is a sobering dose of reality from the brief interlude track “Hard to Stand,” which will ground you after your mysterious journey from the prior song. The EP closes out with “Where U Callin From,” which features Wild Belle. With brassy elements that recall ska days of yesteryear and tinkling keys that dance up and down your spine, it’s a fantastic note to end the album on. Plus, Wild Belle and Ex Reyes’ vocals seamlessly complement one another.
If you’re looking for a bit of music to help you realign and center your soul, then you’ve found the artist to follow.
An instant pop classic with an old-fashioned twinge, The Hamiltons’ latest single “Take the Hit” is a timeless piece that’ll have you swooning. It’s a unique genre-mashing track in that it’ll transport you from smack dab in the 60s to the mid-90s over the course of a few lulling notes and jazzy vocals.
Based in London after relocating from Sydney, this sibling duo not only performs their own music, but also produce and write it. And their investment in their music is apparent in “Take the Hit”–it’s dripping with passion and affection, carefully honed to present you with an entrancing final product. With influences in jazz, folk, country, and cajan, it’s no wonder their sound is so eclectic.
Singer/songwriter Joe Montone, under the moniker Heat Thunder, is serving up tasty folk tracks, the latest of which comes in the form of “Wind Whips the Veil.”
An accompaniment of strings alongside acoustic guitar and Montone’s crooning vocals leads to a track you’ll want to either sway or cuddle to (or both). It’s passionate and fiery yet subdued and vulnerable, the perfect accompaniment to a chilly fall afternoon spent indoors sipping tea. Listening to “Wind Whips the Veil” brings you to a musical place that you might not have known existed before, a quality you can find in much of Montone’s music.
Heat Thunder recently opened for Anthony Green of Circa Survive on his Pixie Queen Tour and also released his latest EP, Phoenix. With so much going on lately, it seems that Heat Thunder might be a good artist to keep a tab on.
Lyric videos aren’t always the most captivating or memorable, but Ben Talmi’s video for “Play” is one that’ll entertain and impress. On top of that, it’s an overall fun, catchy song that’ll be sure to get stuck in your head.
The video follows an artist creating the same image over and over: a series of straight lines meeting at a central point. It gives viewers the feeling of looking at a sun setting or rising on a horizon, creating depth and dimension to the flat surface. Throughout the video, these lines flicker and waver alongside the upbeat music, disappearing or multiplying in accordance with the tempos. While this happens, the words also seem to play with the music, twisting and turning as the vocals increase and decrease in pitch.
“Play” plays with your mind and engages you in the way we wish more lyric videos would.
It has been far, far too long since there’s been a new Capital Cities song to jam out to, but thankfully we don’t have to go by deprived any longer.
Their latest single “Vowels” is not one to disappoint. It holds true to what we’ve come to expect from Capital Cities already: plenty of synths, a beat worthy of boogieing down to, and some spine-tingling brass breakdowns. Let this new track be the jump-start to get your week started, the pick-me-up you need at the middle of the week, and the anthem to your weekend.
Need a bit of a midweek pick-me-up? “Hero” by Blinders is exactly what you need to make the week feel like it’s halfway over rather than just beginning.
The track kicks off with a burst of energy and vocals that practically beg you to get up and start dancing. Its entrancing synth beats and mix of surreal vocals will transport you directly to the weekend, where you can spend your time dancing to your heart’s content. While traveling Asia and Europe, Binders mixed this unique single. It ended up taking almost a year and experimentation with five different vocals to find exactly what he was looking for with this piece. And we think he got it just right.
This is Binders’ fourth release off Protocol Recordings, and he’ll be performing in Amsterdam in mid-October.
Light up your day with the electrifying new single, “All of Your Life,” from Gunslinger.
This anthemic house track has everything you look for in an electronic piece: tons of synths, bass drops that get your heart racing, and upbeat jams that make you feel like you’re on a musical journey. In addition to personal inspiration, Gunslinger also utilized the Infected Mushroom “I Wish” plugin as an aid in producing this single. If you’re bummed about missing them at Burning Man last year, keep an eye out because you might be able to catch them at an upcoming show.
With his minimalist style and entrancing rhythms, Jesse Mac Cormack is putting out music that’ll have you grooving in no time. His single “Repeat” from his latest EP After the Glow is a shining example of that.
The track is full of gruff vocals, jangly guitar riffs, and rhythmic progressions that get your heart rate going and might just make you dance in your seat without realizing you’re doing so. It’s a great song to have along for a road trip or when you’re making an adventurous decision.
Check out “Relief” below, and head over to his SoundCloud to stream the rest of After the Glow.
At first, you might think the video for Infinity Shred’s single “Choir VI” is a video game demo or a preview of an upcoming trippy movie. It pulls you in with its fascinating 3-D graphics and captures your entire attention, to the point that you won’t even realize that it’s been three minutes since you began watching it. The entire track tells a story of wonderment and intrigue, as you follow an adventurous skateboarder into a church in the woods where he has an ethereal experience as he warps and twists and floats away after skating around a bit. The song features chills-inducing drums by Clara Warnaar and entrancing synths, all of which work together to create this piece full of nostalgia and innocence. It’s the first single off Infinity Shred’s upcoming full-length Long Distance, which is due out on October 14.
There isn’t enough thought put into what happens to the children once the apocalypse hits (step up your game, The Walking Dead), but Kids of the Apocalypse took the idea and ran with it, particularly in the video for their single “Better Life.” There’s symbolism for a world run by capitalism, it addresses love in an apocalyptic way, oh, and it also features astounding Gorillaz-esque graphics. It’s a chill rap song full of melodies and gloom with the cartoons to match that mood, the brain child of producer/musician Stefan Storm and animator Ernest Desumbila.
Sit back and watch this fascinating video—it’ll disturb you a bit, but it’ll also definitely resonate in a way that’ll have you wanting to watch it over and over again.
Beautiful cinematography, chill vibes, and impressive Mardi Gras costumes and makeup are to be found in Ex Reyes’ recent video for his single “Bad Timing”—meaning, it’s a video worth watching. It gives a dark spin to the otherwise celebratory NOLA holiday, with standoffs and groups of people chucking guns into a burning police car as Ex Reyes hangs out in the periphery the entire time. Oh, and there is a lion mascot and baton twirlers that probably dance better than most people you know, too.
Mikey Hart, aka Ex Reyes, showcases his smooth falsetto vocals in this relaxed out single alongside crashing cymbals and an entrancing saxophone breakdown. It’ll have you wanting to hang with the cool kids (pretty much every single person in this video) while also inspiring you to head to New Orleans ASAP to see these festivities for yourself (as if you need further encouragement, though).
You can catch Ex Reyes on tour through October this year with How to Dress Well. Watch “Bad Timing” below.
NENA, who you may know from her world famous single, “99 Luftballons,” has recently come out with a new video for her latest song “Genau Jetzt” (“Right Now”).
The video showcases different people, both by themselves and interacting with loved ones. With NENA’s powerful vocals over the video, you don’t need to speak German to feel impacted by this pop anthem. It’s a track where you can go from feeling empowered and inspired to dancing around the room completely lost in the music.
NENA will be embarking on her first U.S. tour starting in September where she’ll hit San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. If you’re looking to experience this German pop legend and hear “Genau Jetzt” live, then this is probably exactly what you’ve been waiting for.
With a seven-piece band, sometimes a voice or instrument can get lost in the mix. But with All Boy/All Girl, that’s absolutely not the case. Particularly with their latest single “Pastels.”
The track features shimmery vocals from Danielle Lovier over a backdrop of various acoustic instruments (cello, bass, viola, and ukulele). Each shines through in a unique way, creating a dreamy melody that’ll make you want to close your eyes and sway. “Pastels” has an ethereal spirit, from the layered vocals to the wispy notes that seamlessly flow through your ears; it’s the sort of track that makes you want and need to see what a live performance entails. It’s the first single released from their upcoming full-length Slagroom, and it’s got us excited for more.
Cool Company is bringing us a bit of smooth jazzy hip-hop in their new single “Slice of Paradise.”
This Bushwick-based duo is full of genre-mashing hits that make you want to move around a dance floor. Their new track holds elements of sexy, passion-packed soul music with raw hip-hop breakdowns, a juxtaposition that’s both unique and completely entrancing. If you’re looking for a song to chill out to after a long week, this should be your go-to—it’ll get you humming and relaxed in no time. They’re planning to release a full-length in September, so keep a tab on these cool fellas.
Feel like taking a musical voyage? Zula has got you covered with their psych pop jam “Basketball.”
While figuring out exactly what their genre is (experimental? psych pop? synthpop?) might not be entirely possible, it’s fun to get lost in their sound. It’s the sort of music that swirls around in your headspace, leaving you temporarily lost in the music—it’s the perfect place to forget about your daily worries and just relax. Their rhythms are intricate, their synths are plentiful, and their vocals are entrancing. This Brooklyn group is one you want to get familiar with, especially before the release of their full-length Grasshopper on August 26.
The second the spiraling music of Sleigh Bells starts and the distant “Uh-oh’s” sound, it’s apparent that “Hyper Dark” is a more than appropriate name for this new release. It’s a whole new sound from their past work, which is more upbeat and in-your-face, but it’s definitely a side of Sleigh Bells that we’ve been craving without even realizing it.
“Hyper Dark” is a slower piece that feels like it’s working toward something huge from the get-go. It gets in your head and builds you up until you’re sitting up straighter in your chair, waiting on the edge of your seat for the action. And when it doesn’t quite come, you realize that was never the point of the track anyway. Then you listen to it again, because you can’t and don’t want to shake a quality track.
Get caught up in Sleigh Bells’ new whirlwind of a song “Hyper Dark” as you patiently await the release of their upcoming fourth album.
Phantogram’s latest video for “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” is an empowering blast that’ll have you ready to cut that lingering crush out of your life for good, while leaving you deeply unnerved. The video is dark, a bit disconcerting at times, and full of bondage. Like we said, it’s empowering as hell, and it’s also going to send more than a few chills down your spine.
Frontwoman Sarah Barthel leads the charge (and wears the bondage), her vocals packing a punch while also coming across as incredibly tantalizing. The video and song are enough to put you on the edge of your seat and get your heart racing, but it’s a feeling you’ll want to keep chasing. In fact, the rush from the video is so addicting that it’s almost ironic given the title. Keep an eye out for their upcoming album Three, which is expected to drop on October 7, and then get your fix and watch the video for “You Don’t Get Me High Anymore” again.
Chasing Lovely have released a live version of their track “Always and Never Enough,” and it’s definitely enough to pull on your heartstrings and make you feel some pretty serious emotions.
Hailing from Nashville, sister duo Chloe and Taylor are able to weave a vivid tale with their voices and light acoustic guitar that’ll give you goosebumps. This folky pair advocate working toward positive change, and their music is a fantastic reflection of that. “Always and Never Enough” is an introspective peak into how they process the positive yet tragic elements of the human element and everyday existence.
Sit back in a comfortable chair, turn on “Always and Never Enough,” and listen to Chasing Lovely as they offer you a new perspective (which seems particularly necessary as of late).
10/27 Caroline Polachek @ Bowery Ballroom
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