“The Pressure” by Patience

Patience is a new project from Veronica Falls guitarist and songwriter Roxanne Clifford and “The Pressure” here is from a new – and already sold out -7″ single.

Synth pop may seem far from the traditional jangling guitar pop of Veronica Falls, and even further from Roxanne’s other stellar side projects like DIY-recorded Toy Love covers band Baggy Attitude.

But the heart of “The Pressure” is still POP and the song has the kind of structure, feel and of course vocal delivery that is from the same emotional landscape as the best Veronica Falls’ songs.

By that I mean the underlying sense of unease beneath the surface here. A tension, or anxiety about things left unresolved:

“My friends tell me you asked for me/ The world could end before we agree”

Although the limited edition (300) 7″ released on Glasgow label Night School Records is sold out you can still buy the single as a download.   Night School Records is also home to the hellishly wonderful new album by Ela Orleans, which PopLib introduced a few months ago, so it’s a label to keep an eye on.

“Tides” by Dinowalrus

“Tides” is the opening track from brand new, just-released album “Fairweather” from Brooklyn, NY based Dinowalrus.

Dinowalrus describe themselves as psychedelic synth punks. There’s certainly a lot of psychedelia and synth but not so sure of the punk bit.

It is however a harder-edged psychedelia than 60’s era cosmic exploration and seems to take its inspiration from the late 80s early 90s UK fusion of psychedelic pop and dance music. Think early Shamen and Stone Roses stirred through with a bit of Screamadelica era Primal Scream perhaps.

In other words, it’s a great collection of sparkling danceable psych-pop, blending human and machine. It’s also a sound in tune with the latest album from NZ psych-texturists Ghost Wave so if you loved their “Radio Norfolk” then check out “Fairweather” from Dinowalrus too.

Dinowalrus will be playing with Dunedin cosmic psych rockers The Shifting Sands at Bar, New Haven CT on 12 October.

 

 

“Janina” by Elan Vital

Élan Vital are an intriguing dark and danceable trio from Dunedin. After an early song “Albtraum” surfaced on a compilation late last year they’ve just released their first single proper, called “Janina” which you can stream and download free/ pay what you like from their Bandcamp page.

“Janina” is one of the (many) highlights of their impressive live performances. Performances which often incorporate the visuals of Lady Lazer Light – visual and video artist Erica Sklenars. Lady Lazer Light’s video for the song combines fake palm trees, swirling foggy mist and black and white images to create a perfect visual setting for the song.

The music of Élan Vital is an unusual combination of darkly psychedelic garage organ sounds and a more European synth-pop stylishness. Having two keyboards working together and no guitars gives the music a dense swirl. Using analogue drum machines, vocoder and other effects gives their set a satisfying and diverse range of moods, from feedback-strafed soundtrack instrumentals to upliftingly gloomy melodic pop.

The band is comprised of Renee Barrance (keyboards, effects, vocals), Danny Brady (synths, drum machines, electronics, live mixing) and Nikolai Sim (bass). Renee and Danny first jammed in Berlin, where they were both living a few years ago, before each finding their way to Dunedin years apart.  You can read more about the origins of the band and what “Janina” is about in a short interview with Renee on Noisey.

Danny’s other current band – Death And The Maiden – also originated in Berlin, so there’s a case for that European cultural capital being something of a musical and spiritual sister city to 21st century Dunedin.

Élan Vital are on tour in NZ this weekend and play at Borderline Festival at Aucklands’ Whammy Bar.

“The Last Supper” by Strange Harvest

Strange Harvest – photo by Phoebe MacKenzie

Forget the thin trebly sound of jangling guitars. The sound of Dunedin right now is sequenced arpeggiated electronic wave-forms and robotic beats and Strange Harvest’s suitably apocalyptic vision “The Last Supper” is here to collect your dead skin:

“The Last Supper” may be the best thing Strange Harvest have released. After the grainy dark-fi of last year’s “Pattern Recognition” it is wonderful to hear a crystal clear production, particularly on Skye Strange’s human-by-proxy voice.

Lyrically this is a typically enigmatic and bleak forensic word-picture of our everyday celebrity-consumerist dystopia, where toxic narcissists are feted as social deities and life emulates a badly-acted TV soap opera.

“The Last Supper” is from a new split digital single with Embedded Figures. The release also features a re-mix of each of the songs – Death And The Maiden provide a trippy dub re-mix of “The Last Supper” while the Kilo re-mix of Embedded Figure’s pulsing “Paradise Lost” re-engineers the song as a ‘club banger’ of epic proportions to meet the Andrew Weatherall “full-knacker panel-beaters-from-Prague-’ere-we-go techno” standard.

“Albtraum” by Elan Vital

Some more wonderful Gothtronica originating from the cold dusty detritus-filled rooms of Dunedin’s None Gallery building and communal arts & music space, this time from newcomers Elan Vital.

“Albtraum” is a deliciously grainy thing, with a vague hint of early Human League about it at times. Elan Vital seem to take some cues from the same ‘Sheffield sound’ of dark electronic pop that Dunedin trio Death And The Maiden have been re-engineering for the new century and Southern latitudes. Except where Death And The Maiden’s soundscapes are epic and lush in scope and scale and feel, Elan Vital’s sound is claustrophobic with unsettling undercurrents.

But among this unnerving dark shadow the change at 1:30 is pure pop. When it is followed by the introduction of a throaty growl of bass guitar, “Albtraum” transforms itself, spreads big dark leathery wings, and starts to fly…

“Albtraum” is included on “Deep and Meaningful Volume 3” – a compilation featuring an extensive 35 song trawl of the NZ underground, including PopLib featured artists Jim Nothing; The Biscuits; Emily Edrosa; and Strange Harvest.

“Tender” by Sparkle Kitty

Christchurch synthesists (?) Sparkle Kitty are back with a slice of fat/ phat synth-bass gyrating pop called “Tender”.

The intro to “Tender” may bring big memories for the old & frail of Rick Astley’s 80’s synth-pop hit “Never Gonna Give You Up”. But, like everything today infected with the seed of 80’s synth pop, Sparkle Kitty add the kind of effortless cool the likes of Rick Astley could never manage.

This is partly because “Tender” is a deeper, darker, more substantial pop tune with a Euro-Disco edge, and partly because Lucy Macilquham’s vocals run melodic gymnastic circles all around and over those hairspray 80’s boys.

Sparkle Kitty play at Chick’s Hotel on Saturday 8 August with Shunkan.

Chick’s Hotel has a bass-monster PA system, smoke machine, a great light-show and a glitter ball. That’s all you need to know.

“Memory Maps” by Lia Mice

PopLib has featured Aussie label Rice Is Nice previously. Along with Bedroom Suck, Chapter Music, and RIP Society they are the labels I usually check in on every month or two to find out what’s new.

“Memory Maps” from Lia Mice grabbed my attention on my recent visit to Rice Is Nice.

It’s from the Lia Mice album “I Love You” – and also appears on the “Rice Is nice Mixtape Vol. 2” cassette. It’s the second album from this world-travelling experimental pop artist, and “her first experiment in danceable tempos was inspired by new music uncovered during in her first year living in Europe: in the grooves of yé-yé singles; on the dance floors of converted boat-venues; in the theme songs of classic French cinema and on the iPods of neighborhood house parties.”

It’s intriguing, with a semi-familiar allure of dream-pop wrapping something that feels darker and weirder and makes me curious enough to check out the rest of the album, and then try to locate that first album too. The idea of Lia Mice’s music at undanceable tempos sounds just as alluring…
[postscript: Here’s the first Lia Mice album on Bandcamp… it’s wonderful too. Much darker, semi-industrial, gothic dream-pop… and my kind of slow lurching dance tempo too.]

[While you’re here, check out the best of what’s new at Rice Is Nice via their “Record Player”.]

“Voids” by October

October [photo by Connor Hickey]

Day 24 of PopLib’s May Month of Music Madness for NZ Music Month comes from newcomer October and the intriguing “Voids”.

It’s only one song, but it’s a strong opening statement. October’s “Void” is fully-developed dark synth pop with impeccable song construction/ production and a compelling vocal performance. It sounds less like it’s trying to emulate anyone else and more like it’s on it’s own mission into some intriguingly dark personal territory.

October is Emma Logan, originally from the small provincial South Island town of Blenheim. It’s not exactly a place known for it’s music. Few distractions perhaps, apart from unrelenting summer heat and the ennui of small-town NZ. All the better to escape into your own world through songwriting and music production.

The only other song on October’s Soundcloud is a cover (actually a brilliant cover) of The Stone Roses “I Wanna Be Adored”. It does the impossible and somehow makes a classic song even better. The secret here is the winning combination of a skillfully arranged synth pop production and a vocal performance which trumps Ian Brown’s drugged-up ‘baggy’ narcissist pleading and turns it into an almost threatening demand.

You can find out a bit more about October in this Radio NZ “Introducing” interview.

“Poly” by Little Bark

Little Bark

Day 20 of PopLib’s May Month of Madness Marathon for NZ Music Month goes into heavy synth-pop overdrive with Little Bark’s “Poly”

“Poly” comes from the recent album “USB” from Little Bark. USB in this case represents ‘Unique Sonic Broadcast’, although it is fittingly available on a USB drive as well as LP and CD formats. The rapid vibrato/ tremolo on the voice is just enough to give this lush big tune a hint of unsettling more-android-than-human appeal.

I had a synth once called Poly. Well, it was called Poly-800 but those numbers seemed so impersonal so it was just Poly to me. I sold Poly to Demarnia Lloyd of Cloudboy in 1996. I’m sure Poly had a much better and more creative life with Demarnia than it would ever have with me. But I do sometimes miss Poly…

“Cool It” by She’s So Rad

Day 14 of the May Month of Madness Marathon for NZ Music Month comes from Auckland indie-pop chameleons She’s So Rad.

“Cool It” is from She’s So Rad album “Tango” – out this Friday and streaming here if you want a sneak preview.

The guitar solo finale is every big hair 80’s rock guitar idol fantasy. It’s very good indeed. I love that She’s So Rad are not afraid to use what may appear anachronistic features in their songs to give them a hyper-saturated cartoon exuberance that is more non-conformist genre-bending than retro-fantasy. It’s something that features across the whole album – their shoegaze guitar-pop roots confounded by synth-pop and even hip-hop influences.