The third album from Norwegian electro-music duo Lindstrøm & Prins Thomas, appropriately titled III, is a beautiful album of lush sonic landscapes and uplifting grooves just in time (here in the northern hemisphere, at least) for dark and cold weather to come…and to give you a break from any self-isolation doldrums you might be having.
There’s a sense of fun right out of the gate by naming the album’s opening track “Grand Finale.” It leaps out of your speakers with bright, 1980s synths like UFO lights through dark clouds. “Martin 5000” was the lead track from III and I like the way it builds, seemingly in the background of everything around you, until it strolls alongside you like a super cool panther along a jungle path.
The bass line in “Small Stream” seems to have a bit of an Afrobeat sound to it, and the jazz piano mixes quite well throughout it. “Oranges” is spacey acid-lounge suitable for chillin’ or making out. “Harmonia” might be the lushest track on the album. It’s like something you’d hear in the coffee house on the mothership from close Encounters of the Third Kind, and the DJ there was Mowgli from The Jungle Book. “Birdstrik” closes the record with a thudding, sexy heartbeat rhythm and even sexier synth-bass to send us off with a relaxed afterglow.
III is one of those cool mood-altering electronic albums that is suitable for so many places, times, and situations that you’ll find yourself floating back to it again and again.
New Zealand’s October and the Eyes is a one-woman show. Perhaps the Eyes mentioned in her “band’s” name are the eyes of the world, or the Creator, or Big Brother. I don’t know the answer, but that’s okay. Sometimes the mystery is more intriguing than the answer itself, and “intriguing” is a good way to describe October’s Dogs and Gods EP. She calls her music “collage rock,” meaning she blends influences ranging from krautrock to house music to dub and garage punk. It all works, and the fact that all this sound is produced by one person is damn impressive.
Opening track “Playing God,” for instance starts off with industrial beats and guitars and soon blows your speakers onto their backs with psychedelic reverb-laden vocals reminiscent of Siouxsie Sioux emerging from a dark cave. “All My Love,” a tale of love and lust, is a gothic shoegaze masterpiece with sexy robot beats and synth-bloops doing a striptease alongside October’s vocals that sound like she’s singing through an FM radio dug up in a post-apocalyptic junkyard that can somehow access broadcasts from the early 1980s.
“Wander Girl” continues the goth-synth vibe with Dum Dum Girls and, I’ll say it, Cyndi Lauper-like vocal stylings. “I’ve only been waiting my whole life for you,” October sings on the peppy “You Deserve It” – a song that seems aimed at herself and her potential lover at the same time. “The Unraveling” is a flat-out shoegaze rocker designed to rattle your home walls or the roof of your car. The closing track, “Dark Dog,” is dreamy synth-wave that has a slightly creepy feel to it as October sings about a man best left alone.
This is one of the coolest-sounding (and sexiest) EPs I’ve heard all year. I hope we hear more soon.
Animal Drift Animal, the first album from Affect Display (AKA Damien Smith), is a lush sonic soundscape that sounds not unlike what you’d hear while dreaming of electric sheep.
Lead single “Until the Light Hits the Door” starts off sounding like something you might hear in the score of a modern psychological thriller but then transforms into slightly goth, slightly ambient trance music. “Flight or Fury” pulses like an alien menace on a haunted moon, blending Ennio Morricone and Vangelis influences.
The subtle sonics of”Transference” are suitable for meditation, your morning tea, making out, or taxiing down the runway on your flight to wherever you’re going to quarantine for two weeks. “Dauen” is full of bright synths, strange samples, and beats that sound like they were recorded in an empty Olympic pool (and I mean that in the best way).
“Flock” builds around a drone that could be some kind of machine Smith recorded in the field for ambient sound. Stuttering drum beats stumble around a swelling guitar line and Smith’s robot overlord vocals. “Red Blue In-Between” starts off with psychedelic guitar (!) and then becomes something like an instrumental Sisters of Mercy song with its fierce drumming and slithering synths. The closing track, “Floating Pictures,” has touches of synthwave, city pop, and ambience for a nice finish.
It’s a lovely record and one that is suitable for so many different situations that it’s impossible to list them all. Let’s hope Smith keeps up these sonic explorations and unearths more treasures for us.
Keep your mind open.
[Fly over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
On the cover of Caroline Rose‘s new album, Superstar, Rose is bathed in red neon light, her makeup and the cellophane around her neck making her look like a mannequin that was mostly unwrapped but then forgotten in a store room or perhaps left there when the place went out of business. She is glamorous, sexy, beautiful, and yet artificial in appearance. I might be reaching a bit here, but it’s as if Rose’s message is that images of beauty are often illusions. True beauty lies in true expression of the self, which she superbly does on Superstar.
She opens with the electro-poppy “Nothing’s Impossible,” which combines hip hop beats with bright synths that carry along her lovely voice like a ballon on a warm breeze and ending with space opera keys that melt into lounge jazz. The groovy, fun “Got to Go My Own Way” has Rose talking about her big dreams and moving on from lost love to finding new opportunities. “I was born to be a star,” she claims. It turns out she was right.
Rose embraces her sexuality (again, self-expression is true beauty) on “Do You Think We’ll Last Forever?” as, over a slick bass groove accentuated by handclaps, she sings about lusty sex (“I want to climb inside you every single day.”) and wondering how long it will last (“Do you think we’ll last forever? No pressure, though, just tell me yes or no.”). She gets Zen on the short and psychedelic “Feelings Are a Thing of the Past.” She’s right. They are. The only moment is now.
“Feel the Way I Want” has Rose strutting across the room like Ric Flair on his way to the ring (“I’m lookin’ good, I don’t think it’s a crime.”) before she gives us a lesson on self-expression and not kowtowing to the pressure of pleasing others, as living a life as others expect you to live it (in terms of expression, at least) is a trap. “Everybody’s so quick to sit you down and say, ‘Try to be cool about it,'” she sings, but she’s going to embrace her feelings and who she is instead. Again, the image of beauty is one often put upon us by others.
Need some make-out music? Rose has you covered with the sultry “Freak Like Me.” “My love is a real bad scene,” she warns, but you want to walk into it despite the warning because you know it will be a good time. Rose moves onto “Someone New,” which is a great showcase of her vocals. It’s easy to overlook how good of a singer Rose while you’re paying attention to the dance floor synths and electronic drums.
“Pipe Dreams” opens with what sounds like a train rolling along the tracks, and the opening guitar certainly goes along with that theme before it drifts into a softer space and Rose’s vocals seem to saunter out of the Black Lodge in Twin Peaks. The opening synths on “Command Z” sound like something out of an early 1990’s video game, which means they sound great, and the rest of the track has a neat dark wave feel to it as Rose sings about wishing she could go back to a better past, much like the thick bass-heavy “Back at the Beginning.” “If it takes a lifetime, I will find my true love again,” Rose sings on the “I Took a Ride” – a pure synthwave cut about heartbreak. You leave the album without any doubt she’ll do it.
Why? Because she’s a superstar. She’s someone who has embraced herself as she is and is leaving illusions behind her on the road. She has cast off the masks that others want her to wear. She has forged her own path. We should all be so lucky.
Keep your mind open.
[You’d be a superstar in my eyes if you subscribe.]
Consisting of electronic / disco / synth / dream-pop musicians Farao and Special-K, Ultraflex create music that seems ingrained into your DNA if you grew up on late night cable access TV, VHS culture, and 1980s workout classes. That exercise esthetic is prominent throughout their debut album, Visions of Ultraflex, and even their live performances (which often have them doing aerobics to their own music).
I mean, the first track is called “Get Fit,” and is perfect for a warm-up yoga session. The band’s name is the most repeated line in the song when they’re not encouraging you to “Get fit, get ripped, get a lover, get kids.” The electro-drums and sexy, breathy vocals of “Work Out Tonight” would make Janet Jackson envious. The electro-poppy “Papaya” might be about naughty bits. The saxophone throughout it is reminiscent of many Cinemax late night film scores.
“Never Forget My Baby” blooms like the theme to a Saturday morning talk show that focuses on fitness, exotic locations, and hot trends in dating. The vocals echo around your bedroom and produce the perfect atmosphere for making out. “Man U Sheets” sounds like the name of a naughty He-Man villain, and that seductive saxophone and sexy synths are more powerful than a Charm Person spell cast by Evil-Lyn.
“Olympic Sweat” is synthwave bliss. It’s like floating on a cool stream after you’ve been in a sauna with your lover. “You’re not really my type, but this is your lucky night,” they sing on the cheeky and delightful “Slave to Your Crush” – which is filled with bright synths, electro-pop beats, and a sense of fun missing in a lot of dance music. The closer, “Secret Lover,” sounds like something Prince wrote down after a wet dream. The electro-phat bass, 1980s fashion show synths, and near-industrial beats are great combination.
I hope these two ladies keep putting out records, because this one is superb. They have a future as bright as their synths ahead of them with a debut album this good.
I couldn’t tell you where I first heard Warm Drag (Paul Quattrone and Vashti Windish), but I can tell you that I was immediately hooked by them when I did. Two people making so much powerful psychedelic stuff couldn’t be ignored, and their self-titled debut is a top-notch record.
Opening track “The Wanderer” (not a cover of the 1950s classic) starts the album off with a thudding beat you feel in your jugular veins and enough distortion to probably cause your houseplants to shrink back from the speakers for fear an earthquake is rumbling through your living room. “Cave Crawl” was the first track I heard from Warm Drag and the song that stopped me in my tracks. Windish’s vocals bounce off the wall behind you and creep up on you like a vampire while Quattrone’s beats sound like a spaghetti western soundtrack record that’s been left in the sun a bit too long.
Windish is looking for love on “Cruisin’ the Night,” which blends girl-group rock with David Lynch film beats. “End Times” pours out of your speakers like some kind of venom that saps your willpower and entices you to lie down and let it carry you away with its filtered reverb effects, industrial drumming, and psychological thriller film synths. “No Body” ripples with krautrock beats and Windish’s vocals are pure shoegaze beauty.
“Sleepover” could fit in a horror film, a romance film, a compelling drama, or a spaghetti western. Windish’s lullaby vocals are a perfect match for Quattrone’s haunted saloon synths. “Lost Time” continues the sensation of being in a dusty ghost town street while the long-dead residents shamble out of the shanties to stare at you with hollow eyes.
Quattrone’s synths and beats on “Hurricane Eyes” buzz like a beehive and Windish is the queen commanding all of us drones with her breathy delivery. “Someplace” is like honey dripping from a spoon into yerba mate spiked with peyote. Quattrone takes his time with the beats on it, not rushing anything so as to let the guitar and Windish’s sorceress-style vocals stretch out like a pair of leopards on a hot rock. The album ends with nearly eight minutes of “Parasite Wreckage Dub.” I love a good dub track, and this one doesn’t disappoint. It mixes dub with krautrock, industrial, and synthwave. That’s not an easy task, but Warm Drag makes it sound like they can do it in their sleep – and it’s a great soundtrack for dreams.
The entire album is, really. These are songs from dreams, hallucinations, illusions, hauntings, and seductions. It’s an album you’ll never tire of hearing because you’ll find something new in it every time, and the feel of the album will change as you listen to it in different locations. I hope it’s not the one and only Warm Drag record.
Keep your mind open.
[Crawl over to the subscription box before you go.]
Affect Display is sharing his beautifully immersive debut album, Animal Drift Animal. Out now on Pirates Blend, it’s the first release from Canadian producer Damien Smith, and it takes cues from his deep well of influences, ranging from electronic, techno, experimental, psychedelic and indie pop. Smith is also sharing the vibrant video for album opener “Until The Light Hits The Door”, an explosion of colour announcing his arrival.
WATCH: Affect Display’s “Until The Light Hits The Door” on YouTube
Smith describes the track as “Like a phoenix rising from the ashes life is born into the world. Light hits one of the infinite doors from which before had come darkness and life emerges. It’s all at once uncomfortable, painful, wondrous, new and beautiful.“ Animal Drift Animal is a cohesive being that begs you to delve deep into lush ambient spaces, while jettisoning you into the heights of frenzy and energy, showcasing Smith’s depth, ability and love of the tools of sonic goodness. From analog synths to drum machines, guitars to samplers, he unifies his varied and eclectic influences into a collective body of work within each song – standing alone in their own right, but ultimately becoming a greater being when listened to in the context of the whole album.
Affect Display’s songwriting takes you on a journey through both familiar places and the unexpected as one listens through this united body of work. It is an album that sonically touches on the circle of life and what it means to be a conscious being in an often unconscionable world; a soundtrack to a life lived through all the beauty, hatred, hurt, love and fear that is to be offered and experienced.
Animal Drift Animal is streaming everywhere now through Pirates Blend. You can listen to it here.
Keep your mind open.
[Drift over to the subscription box while you’re here.]
New Zealand-born, London-based singer, songwriter and producer October and The Eyes shares the new single/video, “Playing God,” from her debut EP, Dogs and Gods, out November 20th on KRO Records. Following lead single “All My Love,” “Playing God” is fierce and dark, October’s fuzzy vocals empowered over ricocheting percussion and wavy guitar.
“‘Playing God’ is about the innate human desire for power and control but also our ability to cry ‘poor little ole me’ when it all gets too much,” says October. “We’ve seen it time and time again throughout the history of man, and perhaps it feels even more relevant now than ever witnessing the powers that be struggle with the moral handling of a global pandemic. It’s also hugely laced with irony, humour and contradictions – I’ll be the first to admit my lust for control, yet I’m also ready to laugh at myself (at my own expense) at how farcical our trivial desires for such things seem in the grand scheme of life.”
The accompanying video references videographer Rich Kern’s Submit To Me Now. “To me the title and video of his film both represent the inherent sexual power that the female body and mind possess – our ability to play god at our own choosing,” says October. “Also it’s just a sick video visually and Lung Leg looks badass and I can only hope to be half as rad as her one day.” Watch “Playing God” Video: https://orcd.co/octoberplayinggod October is no newcomer to music – despite only being 23, she has been involved in musical pursuits since she was a child. She taught herself how to record and produce her own music at age 12, locking herself away in her bedroom for hours on end. Having moved halfway across the world to her new home in East London, October has remained true to her traditional isolated writing style by holing up in her East London flat for several months and writing a small collection of songs that can be described as dizzying, darkly kaleidoscopic, and dauntless above all. October produced the Dogs and Gods EP herself, creating a sonic universe that heralds her heroes of yesteryear. She describes her musical style as ‘collage-rock’ (not the be confused with college rock). Pulling musical inspiration from the likes of Bauhaus, Bowie, Siouxsie Sioux and Suicide, she then squeezes her influences through the gauze of modernity and electronics, creating something entirely her own. Watch “Playing God” Video: https://orcd.co/octoberplayinggod
Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas announce their new album, III, out November 20th on Smalltown Supersound, and share its lead single, “Martin 5000.” III is their first outing together in eleven years, since 2009’s II, and as ever, Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas have crafted their own unique sonic world. This is expansive, luscious electronic music rich with texture and intricacy, patiently revealing every eccentricity while constantly pulling the listener in. Getting lost never sounded so good.
Since the release of II, Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas have remained more than busy with their respective solo careers, but work on III was taking place behind the scenes the whole time—slow and steady by sending files back and forth. “There’s a different process with every album,” Thomas explains. “With the first two albums, we had a door between separate rooms in the studio, so I could open my door and play him something. We also toured together a lot after the first album, and after that experience we realized that we work better together at a distance. We’re doing our best work by not worrying too much about what the other one of us is doing.“
Eventually, the bulk of III came together over the last year, as Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas teamed up to craft a lush and lovely work that recalls the hazy atmospherics of Air, the loose-fit jazz of Lonnie Liston Smith, and the genre-resistant electronic music that both artists have made their name on over the course of their impressive careers. “Our partnership is very democratic—we never turn down each other’s ideas. And if it goes wrong, we blame it on the other guy,” Thomas says with a laugh. “The tracks that Lindstrøm sent me this time were almost like standard house tracks. I already had an idea of what I wanted to do, so I forced those tracks into new shoes and dresses.”
III is an unexpectedly subtle album, but don’t mistake that descriptor for suggesting that this music is subdued. Listening to it is like taking a microscope to a petri dish—the further you zoom in, the more your naked eyes (or, in III‘s case, ears) can witness an environment teeming with life and kinetic energy. Above all else, III is a testament to the adventurousness of Lindstrøm and Prins Thomas when it comes to soundcraft. Both artists have established separate careers on bodies of work that feature infinite twists and turns, thrilling their audiences with the suggestion of where they’ve been and where they’re about to go. Together, they’ve crafted what might be their most beguiling and inviting work yet, a jeweled box of electronic music ornately crafted but never losing the sense of playfulness that so many have come to love from them. Stream “Martin 5000”
New Zealand-born, London-based singer, songwriter and producer October and the Eyes announces her debut EP, Dogs and Gods, out November 20th on KRO Records. October recently signed to the label following an introduction by fellow musician and friend Yves Tumor. Today, she shares the lead single and video “All My Love,” a track that lures you into a warm embrace of October’s coy and breathy sweet-nothings.
“’All My Love’ is unfortunately a love song – something I told myself I would never write, yet here I am,” says October. “But it’s not all sweet. In fact, I would call it more of a lust song. It’s about being in love but lusting for something more. It’s about desire, greed, and infatuation with a stranger. The song became strangely prophetic in recent months as I watched the one I once loved self destruct from afar ‘in tin cans and other crumbs of temporary self satisfaction’ – a line I wrote before I could even comprehend that it would become remotely true. Because of this, the song is now tainted with a strange sadness that I’ll carry with me every time I perform it.”
October is no newcomer to music – despite only being 23, the New Zealand born musician has been involved in musical pursuits since she was a child. Heralding from a musical family, the prospect of pursuing music in one form or another was almost inescapable: A classical pianist mother, fanatic music fan father, and two older multi-instrumentalist brothers who were always holding their band practices in the family playroom. Having grown up in a small rural town in New Zealand’s wine country, she turned to songwriting as a means to stave off boredom, teaching herself how to record and produce her own music.
After moving to East London, October wrote and produced the Dogs and Gods EP, a dizzying, darkly kaleidoscopic, and dauntless collection of music. Thematically, the EP explores the complex dynamics of love, lust and infidelity in the 21st century.
Self-describing her music as “collage-rock,” October pulls musical inspiration from the likes of Bauhaus, Bowie, Siouxsie Sioux and Suicide, then squeezing her influences through the gauze of modernity and electronics. With nods to acid rock, psychobilly and post-punk, October and The Eyes’ music is equal parts nostalgia-drenched as it is future forward, employing layers of ambient synth drones, crunched guitar, jagged organ parts, and October’s theatrical voice, creating something entirely her own.
