New Music, Emerging from your Local Scene
PROM D8 has their self-titled debut EP, and it is wild blend of Hip Hop, Soul, R&B, and insanity.
This primarily the work of Lizzie Zhang (L2K), Slade Warnken (Slade.Antonia), Alejandro Paredes, and Gavrie Smellhorse (2006IX). They also dropped a mixtape last month in advance of their debut that is almost equally as good.
Dolphin Midwives and Mordecai are teaming up for what’s sure to be an emotional and synth-driven night. The bands will be playing at the White Owl Social Club, Thursday December 27th. Listening to Dolphins Midwives puts you smack dab in the middle of a dark, calm night with the rays from a full moon kissing your brow. The sensitivity and depth present in the delicate strumming of the harp creates an intuitive and self-aware atmosphere. It puts you in touch with both the artist and yourself. Mordecai is known for their unique infusion of early 2000’s emo-ballads and electro-synth sensibilities. The band sounds like a more mature version of the songs you listened to in your bedroom as an angry teenager.
The sets start at 9, and the show is 21+. Tickets are free, so make sure to stop by!
-By Avril Carrillo
Belgrade offshoot, Goldenaire, recently released a new EP, titled Modern Meltdown. The four-song selection inhabits a sort of soothing rush. There’s a continuous rhythmic rumbling that surges through the collection, as if the the external world is chaotically buzzing by and somehow you’re in a tunnel that processes the events in a more laid-back, organized manner. In that way, the sound can be heavy and meditative.
I Ya Toyah is the Electronic music of Ania Tarnowska. She recently released her debut album, Code Blue, which finds her conquering all aspects of her hypnotic sound from synths to guitars, to beats, to intense vocals.
The album’s latest single is called “Glass Eyes” and is accompanied by the wild Joel Lopez (Lumbra Records) created video.
You can catch I Ya Toyah at Underground Lounge with Zwaremachine at Underground Lounge on March 29th.
Producer Spectacular Diagnostics recently released his latest album Raw Studies which features contributions from up and coming emcees from across the country include Chicago’s own Chris Crack (above) of the New Deal Crew.
“Hell is beautiful and everyone wants to go there.”
This haunting sentence lingers, like many, on Brooklyn-based multi-instrumentalist Jake Harms’ “Aquarium,” the title track from his recently released six track EP out on Good Eye Records. Harms, who performs mononymously on Aquarium but comprises one-forth of Brooklyn lofi outfit What Moon Things, channels a baritone vocal performance immediately evocative of late ’70s post-punk, with its mellifluous, dark quality occasionally breaking into a scream against a cataclysm of dreamgaze guitars and analogue synth. The whole of Aquarium is driven in large part by the size and power of Harms’ lyricism and vocal delivery, a heartbreakingly raw performance that explores depression, self-doubt, and regret. It’s visceral, overpowering, and at times deeply uncomfortable, but HARMS composes some of the most honest, unapologetic songwriting to come out of New York this year, meriting praise from its bold presentation of the uncomfortability of human existence. Stream HARMS’ Aquarium below. –Connor Beckett McInerney (@b_ck_tt)
Produced by Brian McTear (of Miner Street Recordings), the quartet of Petunia has a new single, “Bad Date”. Instrumentally, the song captures the heart-racing, stress-inducing anxiousness of a date. That sense of anxiety causes one to observe and evaluate all the conscious/subconscious decisions and choices. Sometimes despite our best intentions, what can go wrong will go wrong, and there’s a desire to escape the situation. It’s a whirlwind that can lead to a wide range of outcomes.
We’ve been saying for years that female indie musicians have, on average, been producing a lot more interesting material than their dude counterparts, and L’Freaq, the project of bi-coastal electronic singer songwriter Lea Cappelli, is another piece in the truly beautiful puzzle representing NYC women’s musical output in the new millennium. After releasing the delicate yet edgy electro-soul ballad "Weird Awakenings," the artists has recently unveiled a darker (and even edgier) single/video combo with "Moonlight" – streaming below. Channeling the experimental, noir ballads of Portishead, the track features a deceivingly sparse arrangement, blending a killer plodding and syncopated rhythm section with ever-evolving, ambient electronic soundscape. Lea’s vocals not only confirm her noteworthy pipes and silky tone, but also reveal her ability to convey character to a performance and "play" the song’s part, a trait only few musical performer possess. Don’t miss her next live performance at Rockwood on February 2nd.
Devin Wessels of Jam City Collective has released a very funky Christmas album called A Very Funkdapus Christmas. He takes on classics like “Jingle Bells”, “Christmas Time Is Here”, and “Drummer Boy”, but really creates something magical on “Santa Claus Sure Got Soul”.
One of the best parts of Nashville’s indie scene — as is the case with scenes all around the country — is that talent comes from far and wide to make their art. In doing so, they both blend into the American cultural landscape and stand out in it. Team Wild are one such example of this talent; their frontwoman, Amelie D. Noordzee, moved from Paris to Nashville in 2016, just as America was undergoing one of its biggest political shakeups in modern times. Noordzee made her anxieties known in the form of her debut album Clear Eyes / Full Hearts / Can’t Lose. Now, two years later, she returns with Team Wild to release her EP The American Diary / Vol. 1, a collection of thoughts put into song over her two years of living in the States. At times dissonant and dark, and at others bright and punchy, the three tracks on this first volume of The American Diary show a songwriter using all elements of music to spell out her emotions and observations about the current state of not just the nation, but the whole world. Take a listen for yourself below. – Will Sisskind
Joyful Noise has released annual Holiday album, Holiday Party, Vol. 2, and this year’s album features our very own Ohmme. The duo appears on the album’s lead single “ Carol of the Tubular Bells” with Thor Harris & Dumb Numbers, and they contribute their own original “Jing-a-Ling, Jing-a-Ling”.
You can buy the album digitally below or you can order one of the limit 7” singles the label has printed.
You can catch Ohmme at The Empty Bottle on December 28th with Ryley Walker and Ben Lemar Gay.
Potion 200, which is comprised of Bill Fries (Drone Ranger), Jeremy Colonna (Clasp), and Zack Robbins (Superheaven, DARK MTNS, Flight Habit, Sun Organ), recently shared a trio of tracks from their forthcoming LP Oblivion Parade. A smattering of percusion pops like firecrackers in the distance, hushed secretive vocals, and ascending keys build a mysterious intrigue on “Ask The Angels.” The song branches forward in a breezy pleasant jangle. Bill Fries’s soft vocals lift as if floating on a daydream cloud. One steps into a fantasy world if only for a fleeting moment.
