Electro – Page 45 – 7th Level Music

Debby Friday’s new single will have you “Runnin”’ to the dance floor.

Audiovisual artist, vocalist and experimental producer DEBBY FRIDAY has shared her new single & video “RUNNIN”.

Shedding the previous layers of noise and catharsis, the Vancouver-based artist drives home a snaking synth-rap jam that’s primed with electric potential. Speaking about her thrilling new single, she says:

“This new record is about pure expression. I don’t feel like I need to exorcise anything from myself anymore. I wanted to to push myself in different directions and see what would happen and I think I accomplished what I set out to do. “RUNNIN’” is a cheeky song that has DEBBY FRIDAY themes present, but now I’m having so much more fun.”

A trippy experiment in exposure techniques, “RUNNIN” is brought to life by its own hypnotic video, which was shot on 35mm and directed by FRIDAY and Ryan Ermacora. Filmed near Hope in British Columbia, the visual was inspired by the colour palette of tinting techniques in early cinema, and shot using multiple exposures on one roll of film.

Watch & listen to “RUNNIN” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwHCwo_KlhM

Born in Nigeria, raised in Montreal and now based in Vancouver, FRIDAY released her debut self-produced, rap adjacent EP, BITCHPUNK in 2018. In 2019, Deathbomb Arc ushered in her second, critically acclaimed EP, DEATH DRIVE, which throbbed with eroticised electropunk fervour and cleared a path for self-actualisation. The project was accompanied by FRIDAY’S first music video and directorial debut for the lead single “FATAL”, which was subsequently nominated for the 2020 Prism Prize Award.

Having swapped Montreal’s heady nightlife scene for Vancouver’s scenic mountain views two years before, FRIDAY spent much of last year in lockdown figuring out this new direction in her life. “I was going through another change that involved so many other things – internally and externally in the world – and I felt like I needed to create something to represent that rebirth. Making a short film had been on my bucket list for a while.”

Conjuring elements of folk horror in its bewitching depiction of nature and isolation, the eight and a half minute film BARE BONES is an ode to the cycles of change, building upon FRIDAY’s self-mythology. “I like things that have a little bit of a creepy vibe to them,” she offers. “I like things that are just a little bit unsettling, because I think it brings you back to yourself in a visceral way. It reveals the subconscious.”

“RUNNIN’” celebrates rebirth, and the next stage of DEBBY FRIDAY’S evolution. Working with producers Cayne and Andrew of Big Kill, this track marks FRIDAY’S first studio outing, having previously produced everything from her bedroom.

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[Thanks to Frankie at Stereo Sanctity.]

Kalbells and Miss Eaves team up on new single – “Pickles.”

Kalbells—the collaborative art-pop project of Kalmia Traver, Angelica Bess, Sarah Pedinotti, and Zoë Brecher—today shared their new single “Pickles,” a fun and buoyant track featuring multimedia artist/rapper Miss Eaves off the upcoming full-length, Max Heart, releasing March 26 via NNA Tapes.

The wordplay-laden track debuted today via FLOOD Magazine, where Traver shared some thoughts: “The song is about escaping a romantic pickle by grudgingly accepting getting one’s ego chopped down, or at least chopped back…. and then realizing the whole experience can be kind of fun, sadistically, but also existentially thrilling and weirdly healing. For the second verse Miss Eaves and I had a long conversation about fuckbois and then she turned around this glistening cave of pickle puns and our mouths all dropped to the floor and we all fell in love with her.”

The sophomore album from Kalbells, illustrates the formidable love Kalmia Traver (Rubblebucket) discovered with her touring band turned bandmates. Together, Angelica Bess (Giraffage, Body Language), Zoë Becher (Hushpuppy, Sad13), Sarah Pedinotti (Okkervil River, LipTalk) and Traver, practice both listening and accountability, rejoicing in their queerness, and promoting each other to be their most genuine selves. The result is Max Heart—ten vibrant and subtly layered tracks of mesmerizing psychedelic synth-pop. Common groove language is a rare medicine to happen across, which is why, as a group, playing together has been not only exciting, but healing. Max Heart harnesses this magnetic power for a collection of songs that are packed with inspired tension and daring surreality. Read the full bio here.

Max Heart is available to pre-order on standard black & “Salty Pickle” green vinyl, as well as on compact disc and digital formats here. The album will be available on “Red Marker” red vinyl exclusively from local indie record stores.

Tracklist

1. Red Marker
2. Flute Windows Open In The Rain
3. Purplepink
4. Poppy Tree
5. Hump The Beach
6. Pickles
7. Bubbles
8. Big Lake
9. Diagram Of Me Sleeping
10. Max Heart

Links
instagram.com/morekalbells
twitter.com/annakalmia
facebook.com/kalbells
kalbells.bandcamp.com

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[Thanks to Cody at Clandestine PR.]

Yoshinori Hayashi gets you moving with new single – “Touch.”

Tokyo-based producer Yoshinori Hayashi announces his new album, Pulse of Defiance, out April 9th on Smalltown Supersound. The album is an outstanding statement, expanding Hayashi’s ever-growing world of sound and showcasing his musical versatility in the process. Spanning ecstatic jungle breaks, club-ready techno, and free jazz’s unpredictable gait, Pulse of Defiance is a sonic journey through Hayashi’s marvelous mind that provides new surprises at every turn, and with every successive listen. Jockeying lead single “Touch” oscillates with floating synth and a danceable beat, presenting a first taste of his expansive and addicting sound.

Stream/Purchase “Touch” by Yoshinori Hayashi

Pulse of Defiance is the latest and most fascinating step in Hayashi’s still-blooming career—a half-decade of fantastically quixotic output that’s established him as one of electronic music’s most fascinating aural conjurers. After a string of releases on esteemed labels like Lovers Rock, Going Good, and JINN, Hayashi made his Smalltown Supersound debut with 2019’s Ambivalence, his first full-length album. An immersive and fascinating work, Ambivalence submerged Hayashi’s sound in distant, underwater textures that added layers of allure to its loose, jazzy confines; it was followed up by last year’s Y, a four-tracker that splayed drum-machine freakouts and wobbly low-frequency textures across techno’s brittle framework.

In 2020, space disco masterminds Prins Thomas and Bjørn Torske offered lush remixes of Ambivalence cuts that emphasized just how musically fluid Hayashi’s style is—and Pulse of Defiance is more concrete proof that he’s working without limitations. Within the opening third of the album’s enticing sprawl, the listener’s treated to gorgeous jazzy hip-hop breaks, upward-scaling piano drama, and cavernous techno reminiscent of rave-era greats like Orbital and Underworld. From noise-bursted drum’n’bass to rapid-fire club music, there simply is nothing Hayashi can’t do.

Indeed, such virtuosic and diverse-sounding music collected in a single statement brings to mind myriad reference points; but Pulse of Defiance is also a work that could only come from him at this point, the latest delightfully surprising release from a musician that continues to chart his own path.

Pre-order Pulse of Defiance

Pulse of Defiance Tracklist:
01. Callapse
02. Make Up One’s Mind
03. Luminescence
04. Touch
05. Twilight
06. Go With Us
07. Morning Haze
08. Frequency
09. Flow
10. Shut Up
11. Gallop
12. I Believe In You

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Brijean says “Hey Boy” on new single from upcoming album – “Feelings.”

Brijean – the Oakland-based duo of Brijean Murphy and Doug Stuart – presents the new single/video, “Hey Boy,” from their forthcoming album, Feelings, out February 26th on Ghostly International. Following “Ocean,” “Day Dreaming,” and “Moody,” “Hey Boy” radiates with a percussive, atmospheric energy. Murphy calls the charming track a “psychedelic guide — the exploration of finding what feels good — through sorrow, anxiety, apathy.” This mentality applies to Feelings on the whole: in these nebulous and verdant worlds of hazy melodies, feathery hooks, and percussive details, the songs simply want us to feel alive. Murphy, also an accomplished visual artist, illustrated and directed the video in collaboration with motion graphics artist Rose Biehl and producer Samantha Sartor. Throughout, Murphy’s vibrant animations of the duo dance and play across the screen.

Murphy explains the video process: “My visual art style really developed when I began making hand-drawn flyers for a nightclub in Oakland. I hosted a recurring jazz night every Tuesday for a few years. The bands were always amorphous and always centered around percussion. That left a lot of elasticity in the genre — the musicians were often rooted in different cultural and musical backgrounds (Salsa, Gospel, Blues, Hip Hop, etc.) — and in turn, that attracted a wide range of dancers and drinkers to fill the space. This music video is a homage to that club and its people, infused with some psychedelic and cheeky moments.

The idea of shared experience, though a virtual reality, had shifted my perspective of shared space, which informs the visuals. Seemingly isolated dancers move within the compartmentalized windows and grids of a surreal technicolor world. We’ve all found ourselves here in this time, sorting through complicated information and synthesizing our inherited and undulating present. For me, I’ve found comfort and inspiration in tethering to the playful stuff.”

Watch “Hey Boy” Video

Murphy – one of indie’s most in-demand percussionists (Poolside, Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls) – and Stuart, who share backgrounds in jazz, Latin and soul music and were both fixtures in Oakland’s diverse music scene, began collaborating in 2018. Following the duo’s first sessions, which resulted in the mini-album Walkie Talkie (released in 2019 on Native Cat Recordings), Brijean continued collaborating in Oakland, inviting friends Chaz Bear, Tony Peppers, and Hamir Atwal, who all would end up contributing to the album. “We improvised on different feels for hours,” says Murphy. “Nothing quite developed at first but we had seeds. We re-opened the sessions a couple months later, after returning from tours, and spent a month developing the songs in a little 400 square foot cottage.”

The leap from 2019’s Walkie Talkie to Feelings is marked by a notable expanse in range and energy. Brijean’s signature sound — a golden-hued dream pop tropicalia of dazzling beats and honeyed vocals — elevates with the addition of live drummers, strings, and synths. The album also finds Murphy fully trusting in her strengths, not just as a percussionist, but as a songwriter and collaborator. “Valuing myself as elemental instead of an ‘aux’ percussionist, and the undoubted support and talents of Doug, encouraged me to both make this project and collaborate with many different people.”

Brijean wants you to move, physically, mentally, dimensionally; this is dance music for the mind, body, and soul. With Feelings, they’ve manifested a gentle collective space for respite, for self-reflection, for self-care, for uninhibited imagination and new possibilities.
Watch “Hey Boy” Video

Watch “Ocean” Video

Watch “Day Dreaming” Video

Stream “Moody”

Pre-order Feelings

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[Thanks to Patrick from Pitch Perfect PR.]

Blanck Mass releases “Starstuff” from upcoming “In Ferneaux” album.

Blanck Mass – the project of musician Benjamin John Power – presents a new video for “Starstuff” (Single Edit) from his forthcoming album, In Ferneaux, out February 26th on Sacred Bones. The video, created by Danny Perez, visualizes the track’s vibrant, erratic sound. “I have been a fan of Danny’s for years, I feel a strong connection to his use of texture and colour in an emotional sense,” says Power. “I felt that because the music of In Ferneaux is highly expressive, emotive and insular; by giving Danny free creative control of the video for Starstuff, it would only add to the experience. I always find it exciting to see how others interpret my music visually.”

Watch “Starstuff” (Single Edit) Video

The follow-up to 2019’s Animated Violence Mild, In Ferneaux explores pain in motion, building audio-spatial chambers of experience and memory. Using an archive of field recordings from a decade of global travels, isolation gave Blanck Mass an opportunity to make connections in a moment when being together is impossible. The record is divided into two long-form journeys that gather the memories of being with now-distant others through the composition of a nostalgic travelogue. The journeys are haunted with the vestiges of voices, places, and sensations. These scenes alternate with the building up and releasing of great aural tension, intensities that emerge from the trauma of a personal grieving process which has perhaps embraced its rage moment.

A blessing is often thought of as a future reward, above and beyond the material plane. With In Ferneaux, Blanck Mass wrangles the immanent materials of the here-and-now to build a sense of transcendence. Here, the uncanny angelic hymn sits comfortably beside the dirge. The misery and blessing are one.

Watch “Starstuff” (Single Edit) Video

Pre-order In Ferneaux

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Nana Yamato releases “Gaito” from new album – “Before Sunrise.”

Tokyo-based musician Nana Yamato‘s debut album, Before Sunrise, is out now on Dull Tools. NYLON premiered her new single/video, “Gaito,” alongside a profile (read it here). Like the first two singles “Do You Wanna” and “If,” Yamato sings in both English and Japanese on “Gaito.” Her vocals are backed by dreamy keyboard notes that tiptoe over a trancing beat. A minimalist guitar line reverberates through the chorus. The accompanying self-directed video features Yamato, dancing on a black and white screen.

“I’ve never been a fan of J-Pop or K-pop idols since I was a kid, so I didn’t understand why my classmates were so fascinated with them,” says Yamato. “Then I heard a rumor that a female idol group that debuted at the covid pandemic was very popular all over Japan, and I thought that the reason was that they had charms that I didn’t understand. I decided to write a song inspired by them, imagining their song, and this is what I came up with. For the music video, I watched their dancing on Youtube and tried to copy them. I haven’t listened to the song yet because I had it on mute.”

Watch Nana Yamato’s Video for “Gaito”

By day, Yamato is an ordinary girl who marches anonymously between her flat, her school and her job. But by night, she becomes something else — a young artist and record collector whose urge for connection and expression has created one of the best underground pop records to come out of Japan, and elsewhere for that matter. Her calling was found when one day she entered Big Love Records in Harajuku, Tokyo to buy an Iceage album. She then began going there everyday after school, where her studies shifted to the week’s latest indie rock releases. “Everything in my life started there.”

Yamato’s brilliance lies in a profound imagination that confronts the isolation and claustrophobia of Tokyo life, without losing grasp of the whimsy and romance of girlhood. It’s hard to ignore the romance the artist has with the streets that she walks; Japanese and English vocals sing about the lights and sounds of the city, as if there’s no place else she could exist. Yamato describes her style as “critical fantasy,” a fitting label for a sound that exists as much in a carefree daydream as they do in a crowded subway.

Each song on Before Sunrise is a secret hidden in the late-night glow of a young girl’s bedroom, created in the precious witching hours of the teenage heart, before dawn returns with the tedious demands of adulthood. Dreams, and the language of living inside one’s imagination, are the prevailing theme of Before Sunrise.
Watch the “If” Video

Watch “Do You Wanna” Video

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[Thanks to Jim at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Miss Grit – Impostor

Margaret Sohn, also known as Miss Grit, confronts impostor syndrome, Midwest living, the benefits and annoyances of technology, and more on her second EP Impostor. Even the cover art shows her unease with being in the spotlight. She’s actually trying to hide behind it.

I’m here to tell her that there’s no need for that, because Impostor is a nice piece of work. Opening track “Don’t Wander” is like something you’d hear while in orbit and has hard-hitting, simple lyrics like “There’s no more reward for winning. There’s a bigger toll for missing.” Sohn’s guitar on “Buy the Banter” is fuzzed and funky while Gregory Tock‘s drums are solid drops like heavy, scattered rainfall. The song is a brutal wake-up call to anyone who seeks power (“If you think you’re somebody, you’ll have to prove you’ve got what they want, and they want.”).

“Blonde” is a sad tale of Sohn confronting identity issues as a half-Korean woman growing up in a majority Caucasian Michigan town. Zoltan Sindhu‘s bass line on the track is a deceptive one, lulling you into a warm groove before the track blooms / bursts into a fuzzed-out fireworks display. Sohn’s guitar prowess is on full display on “Grow Up To,” with plenty of shredding and arena-ready riffs.

“Dark Side of the Party” is a great track, with Sohn mixing guitars and synths well and singing about being stuck at a party full of people who, on the surface, appear to be sure of themselves, but who are actually as frightened as her (or more so) of being discovered as an impostor. The title track ends the album, bubbling with hard rock guitars before simmering with ambient synths to drift us out into the world again, ready to face our own doubts with a little more confidence.

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[Thanks to Jim and Jessica at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Kalbells paint the world “Purplepink” with single from upcoming EP.

Kalbells—led by Kalmia Traver (of Rubblebucket) with her bandmates Angelica Bess (Body Language), Zoë Brecher (Hushpuppy, Sad13), and Sarah Pedinotti (Okkervil River, LipTalk)—have announced the release of their sophomore album Max Heart, out March 26 on NNA Tapes.

Max Heart explores what happens when we let go of what doesn’t serve us in order to leave space for the blessings that do. The album’s ten vibrant and subtly layered tracks of mesmerizing psychedelic synth pop (co-engineered with Luke Temple) were birthed from the band’s practice of listening and accountability, rejoicing in their queerness, and promoting each other to be their most genuine selves. Max Heart is a portrait of badass women harnessing their improvisational magic.

A prime example of Kalbells furthering their sum energies is the effervescent funk of lead single “Purplepink,” out now. Co-written between Traver, Bess, and Pedinotti, a hyper synth bass darts around elongated keyboard sighs. The video, conceptualized and directed by Lisa Schatz, features 3D animated rocket ships, faceless furry creatures, a 30 foot glittery hologram of Maddie Rice (Jon Batiste’s Stay Human, Saturday Night Live Band) shredding on guitar, and Kalbells as warrior space queens. Read the full bio here.

Max Heart is available to pre-order on standard black & “Salty Pickle” green vinyl, as well as on compact disc and digital formats here. The album will be available on “Red Marker” red vinyl exclusively from local indie record stores.

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[Thanks to Cody at Clandestine PR.]

Top 40 albums of 2016 – 2020: #’s 5 – 1

Here we are at the top of the music mountain. Again, putting this list together wasn’t easy. It went through at least four drafts before it felt “right.”

#5: BODEGA – Endless Scroll (2018)

This post-punk record by the Brooklyn band took a good chunk of the world by storm, receiving a lot of airplay in England and across U.S. alternative radio stations and being played at Paris fashion shows. It’s full of great hooks, scathing lyrics about hipsters, death, perceptions of masculinity, sex, and people willingly enslaving themselves to technology. BODEGA instantly became my favorite band of 2018 when I heard this.

#4: Flat Worms – Antarctica (2020)

This wild psych-punk (and I’m not sure that’s an accurate description) album unleashes raw power from the get-go and doesn’t let up for the entire run. It takes subjects like consumerism, rich elitism, racism, existential angst, and xenophobia head-on with hammering guitars and drums as heavy as a glacier. This album was locked into my #1 spot for Best Albums of 2020 after its release.

#3: The Well – Death and Consolation (2019)

This doom metal album from Austin, Texas’ The Well was my favorite album to send to fellow doom-lovers for Christmas in 2019. It hits hard in all the right ways – chugging bass and guitars, fierce yet in-the-pocket drumming, and lyrics about mortality, horrible things that lie beyond the veil, epic mystical battles, and overcoming fear of such things to transcend this illusionary existence. Heavy stuff? Yes, but The Well carry it with the ease of Hercules.

#2: Kelly Lee Owens – (self-titled) (2017)

This album made me want to create electronic music even more than I already did. I hadn’t touched my digital turntables in months, and then Kelly Lee Owens releases her self-titled debut of house, ambient, and synthwave music and slaps me awake with it. Seeing her live at the 2018 Pitchfork Music Festival only slapped me harder. The problem? She’s so good, and this album is such a strong debut, that it’s tempting to hear it and think, “Damn, why should I even bother?” I’ll be happy if I can create something a fifth as good as this.

#1: David Bowie – Blackstar (2016)

I mean, come on, was there any doubt? David Bowie’s final album is a masterpiece. I can’t say it any better than that. He faced his mortality with introspection, acceptance, and even humor. His backing jazz band is outstanding on this, and every song carries extra weight when viewed with the hindsight of knowing the Thin White Duke was getting ready to head back into the brilliant dimension that spawned him.

Thanks for all the good music, everyone.

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Top 40 albums of 2016 – 2020: #’s 15 – 11

We’re more than halfway through this list now, and we have a welcome comeback album, a live album, an improvised album, a double album, and an EP. What are they? Read on to find out.

#15: Yardsss – Cultus (2020)

You could almost call this an EP, since it’s only three tracks, but two of those tracks are each over twenty minutes long. Cultus is the improvised album I mentioned. It’s a stunning soundscape of shoegaze, psychedelia, synthwave, and jazz that the band created out of thin air with no plan at all. It’s a testament to their talent and an amazing listen.

#14: LCD Soundsystem – American Dream (2017)

Here we have the welcome comeback. LCD Soundsystem returned after a hiatus to bring all of us the dance punk we desperately needed as the country was beginning to tear at each other’s throats in fear and ignorance. Tracks like “Emotional Haircut” skewered hipsters and “Call the Police” addressed xenophobia – all the while making us dance.

#13: Windhand – Levitation Sessions (2020)

My wife and I watched a few live-streamed concerts in 2020, and all of them were good. This one, however, was the only one to give me chills. Windhand always brings power and spooky vibes to their brand of doom metal, and the Reverb Appreciation Society’s sound gurus did a great job of capturing Windhand’s wizardry in this live session. The hairs on my arm stood during “Forest Clouds.” I wanted to run through the streets yelling, “Wear a damn mask and wash your hands!” to everyone in sight to increase the likelihood we could all see Windhand live again soon.

#12: Thee Oh Sees – Facestabber (2019)

It was a bit difficult to choose which Oh Sees record to include in my top 40 list, because they put out a lot of material during the last five years – especially in 2020 when John Dwyer and his crew had nothing else to do but make more music and released multiple albums, EPs, and singles. The double-album of Face Stabber, however, was the album that I kept coming back to and giving to friends as a 2019 Christmas gift. It blends psychedelia with Zappa-like jazzy jams (with the stunning twenty-plus-minute “Henchlock” taking up one side of the double album) and took their music to a different level, which was pretty high already.

#11: WALL – (self-titled EP) (2016)

Holy cow. This post-punk EP from Brooklyn’s WALL burst onto the scene like Kool-Aid Man hitting a brick wall keeping him separated from kids dying of dehydration. “Cuban Cigars” was played all over England’s BBC 6 Music (where I first heard it) and they were the talk of SXSW and the east coast’s post-punk scene. They put together an untitled full album after this, but broke up before it was released. Fortunately, the lead singer and the guitarist went on to form Public Practice. This EP, however, relit my passion for post-punk into a three-alarm fire.

The top 10 begins tomorrow. It includes more post-punk, a rap album, Canadian psychedelia, and an Australian album that never ends.

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