This video is what greenscreens were invented for. This fever dream of epic proportions will make you too want to dance beneath the light of the moon. “Blaze For You” is the kind of song you might expect to hear playing at a showdown at the local saloon. The second single off the upcoming album Summer’s Over is a lot spookier than the title track released earlier this fall. It’s unclear what direction the album will take but the gothic Americana vibes are promising.
Take a listen to the Chicago singer-songwriter’s latest single.
Mark Steiner & His Problems – Hang On (Twin Flames)
by Ann Pill
This Twin Peaks-esque black-and-white nightmare from Mark Steiner is more an art film than a music video. The plot of “Hang On (Twin Flames)” is impossible to follow but that really isn’t a problem. Mark Steiner and his band of Norwegian “problems” deliver blend of distorted guitar and poetry. Moody and gothic with post-punk energy. Think Nick Cave moved to Norway directed by David Lynch.
“Amazing clip! Love it – but I’m worried about you lol!” reads the current comment section of the video.
Give it a watch and you’ll be right there with them.
I’m not the first to say it, but there isn’t enough modern goth rock music coming out anymore. The genre isn’t dead, but it does seem to have retreated into its coffin being held down by the streaming and DSP giants.
But then there’s Chopper, the project of Jonatan K. Magnussen, an artist from Copenhagen, Denmark, whose newest single “Moongirl” feels like a sonic marriage between The Sisters of Mercy, Alice Cooper, and The Cure. A haunting track, with guitar work that screams like a darker Pink Floyd, fantastically styled music video in the graveyard, and Chopper’s shifting vocal techniques, this track is pure darkened ear candy for the next generation of goths. Keep an eye out for Chopper’s forthcoming Shock Pop Vol II EP. But until then, enjoy this absolute treat of a music video.
Richard E, an artist from the UK who makes music under the umbrella of progressive pop, has a new single and video called “To the Moon.” The track feels a bit like the more exploratory work of The Beatles but under a more new wave lens. The video follows this tradition with Richard E (looking like he hosts the hottest art nouveau dance club and gallery in Britain) singing in a hushed and layered tone as images of moons, sporadic shapes, and geometric patterns form in the background. It’s really 80s but also a love letter to chilled-out psychedelia as a whole.
Since the release of her experimental dream pop album L’eau et les rêves last spring, N NAO has achieved genuine recognition from the public and the industry thanks to her ritualized, spellbinding, almost mystical performances, even earning herself a place on the prestigious Polaris Prize Long List. The success behind this brilliant audiovisual work is due in particular to her documentary research on fresh water, produced during intimate trips into nature following the recording.
The haptic and intuitively filmed footage led N NAO to poetically follow the light, the reflections and refractions, in an attempt to get closer to an ineffable object, as if a dream was openly playing the game of showing her what she couldn’t yet see. After “La plus belle chose,” “Tout va bien,” “La fin du monde” and “Lac Léman,” N NAO now presents her fifth extract “Nos endroits,” a sensual slow song about a strange love dialogue written during a mutual healing process, dealing with memory and grief in the wake of a loss.
From the subconscious melodies composed on guitar, a gentle vulnerability emerges in her auto-tune-coloured voice, and reveals the intimate thoughts of a precious stone rediscovered in the inner lake of her diary: “I’d like you to remember / The places I take you to.” It seems love is what transcends death.
Sir.Daydream is a brand-new synthwave artist from the Netherlands with a penchant for a darker-sounding build-up and wall of sound. His music sounds like it would pair nicely with the video game Cyberpunk 2077, or the Blade Runner universe. You can tell he’s definitely a guy obsessed with the kind of tones you can get out with vintage synths VSTS or proper machines like the Arturia 2600. The debut track “Leap of Faith” also contains some new wavy guitar licks for good measure.
Written in response and protest to a controversial Summer hit cowboy song “Try That In A Small Town” by one Jason Aldean—that essentially supported Donald Trump’s hate rhetoric and racism by being filmed outside of Maury County Courthouse in Columbia, Tenn. the area was the site of the lynching of an 18-year-old Black teenager and showed images of flag and cross burnings—”Hard-Luck Parade” is a cowpunk tune all about anti-bigotry.
It’s a song we need more than ever now as an air of confusion is quickly consuming America. So who better to lead the charge than Canadian, Matthew Kliewer co-founder of the Fast Romantics?
It’s angsty and similar to another parade hit, “Ramshackle Day Parade” by Joe Strummer & The Mescaleros.
Falling somewhere in between the hazy psyche vibe of The Brian Jonestown Massacre and the experimentation of Throbbing Gristle, Ruiz!’s “Stupid Old Git” is as weird as it is catchy. The one-man project from Sheffield uses glitchy organ patches and fuzzed-out guitar lines giving “Stupid Old Git” a dusty, vintage quality as Ruiz’s DIY electro-new wave vocals chew the scenery. Coming with “Stupid Old Git” is a montaged music video of archival film footage of Europe and England in the ’70s. The message of the song is clear; don’t be stuck in your old ways.
“Stupid Old Git is about a stupid old git I once knew. There’s therapy in so many places, you just need to know where to look,” Ruiz! says.
SKNAIL is a Swiss-based jazz project and pioneer in its field, spearheading a musical trend combining contemporary jazz and minimal electronica. This combo of five virtuoso musicians, all with jazz backgrounds, is about to release its fourth album, entitled Ouija. This new opus evolves through nine tracks mixing acoustic purity, post-electronica vibrations, and oriental sounds with the Oud of the famous Tunisian musician Amine Mraihi.
The real draw of SKNAIL’s Ouija is absolutely the improvisational nature of the Oyd playing off the horns and piano while the drums hold the track together. Check out the live video of Ouija below.
AI-generated music videos have kind of become all the rage in these past few years, especially concerning instrumental music. One artist who has taken this trend to new heights is Atelic, an instrumental jazz hop producer from Germany who has spent time in Tokyo. Atelic’s music is super cerebral, perfect for zoning out to or if you’re like me, great tp throw on when you’re writing. One of his latest ethereal soundscapes is called “Shanti,” featuring a trippy music video from Kaiber, that looks like it was generated by AI.
“‘Shanti’ takes you on a meditative journey inwards, from a tranquil shore into the chaotic waves of a stormy sea to the waking at a surreal yet peaceful island amidst the clouds. At its core, the song deals with the struggles of finding inner peace despite all chaos and suffering in the world.” – Atelic.
Record producer, film composer, musician, arranger, and engineer David Baron is an avid collector of vintage analog synthesizers and recording gear, who worked with the likes of The Lumineers, Lenny Kravitz, Four Tet, and Lana Del Rey. On his new album The ARP 2500 out on November 17 via Here & Now Recordings, the iconic vintage synthesizer ARP 2500, known as a “keyboard legend,” was the only sound source used during the whole process, in order to preserve the original glory of this rare monophonic analog modular instrument within modern settings.
Designed by a NASA engineer on an analog computer model, and not by a musician, the synthesizer was launched commercially in 1970, but was mainly sold to universities and sound labs, as the 2500’s modules were known to be a bit overwhelming to use.
His new track “The Plan” has a more percussive and uptempo beat-driven sound compared to “City of Nerves” and “Distance of Time,” making it more reminiscent of a chase scene in the video game Cyberpunk 2077.
The ARP 2500 exhilarating sounds upload us into the cyberspace of a dystopian future, made of cyberware upgrades, intergalactic communications, neural networks, and consciousnesses stored on cybernetic biochips. David Baron’s creative pursuit results in a truly rewarding and exciting endeavor, to the point of making oneself ask a weird question: what if the next big technology was actually a really old one?
Check out “The Plan” video here :
A portion of the proceeds from the sale of the album go to the ARP Foundation.
White Latex is a mysterious and relatively new experimental soundscape project by one Justin Ensminger, a 23-year-old multi-instrumentalist and songwriter.
His music on the new single “Wingfoot (Loud)” is lo-fi, delving into the instrumental indie psych vibes of someone like Her’s. The video is really just a film static shot of moving water, but it is easy to get lost in, much like the track itself.
