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Following up his track Pacing from last month, Canadian producer Tep No is back with this new big soulful electronic pop track. There is a bit less of a washed out feel to Under Rage, and instead we get something that sounds like a Balearic take on Prince. Cue big insistent hooks and warm gorgeous melodies.
Say Yes Dog were formed back in 2011 by two Germans and one Luxembourger and they create clever electronic pop music reminiscent of Hot Chip and Metronomy. Stronger, out yesterday, is their latest single and it combines a killer hook with the vocals adding to the appeal here - loving this track!
Look out for album Plastic Love, out 4 September 2015 through Diskodogs Records / Cargo. Listen to Stronger below:
Evvol are a one-part-Irish, one-part-Australian duo who have somewhat appropriately evolved out from previous moniker Kool Thing. Eternalism represents a debut for the two female bandmates as Evvol, even if it does follow on from their 2013 album within their previous act.
Eternalism is a short, sharp injection of dark atmospheric pop music. Opening the album with dischordent feedback and synths, I See You (I Am You) initially sounds restrained, but Evvol show their true colours through the soaring layered vocals and scratched guitar melodies that gradually emerge.
Tracks take on the shapeless groove-like form that Warpaint have successfully based their career on, but layered with electronic, futurist touches. Sola is a dreamy cinematic example of this, sweeping melodies given ample space to form their gently shifting song-shapes. Where Warpaint seemingly hit upon songs in spite of themselves the slow building grooves of Eternalism always feel a bit more deliberate. That may mean they never feel quite as miraculous as Warpaint's Undertow or Love Is To Die, but they manage a consistent brilliance all the same.
Evvol are unafraid to mix some real hooks in amongst their jams, and the chorus the tumbles out of No Love feels revelatory because it comes just when you least expect it. Similarly the nagging chorus and atmospheric calypso percussion of Four Steps From Home feels like an epic encore to everything that precedes it on Eternalism.
The only problem with Evvol's debut album is that there isn't enough of it. With nine tracks it is over all too briefly - of those nine, even two of those clock in below two-minutes, forming short but perfectly crafted interludes. It says something that the simple stark keyboards of one of these short interludes, Sirius A, is still more beautiful than most things I've heard this year. Simple, yet brilliantly effective.
Eternalism is released through !K7 on 24 July, pre-order now on iTunes.
Belfast band Girls Names have just unleashed new track A Hunger Artist and it's a belter. Talent borrows, genius steals and Girls Names steal from the best - there is a lot of Joy Division / New Order here but they weave it through a grungy wave of sonic disharmony, taking the drunk sounding vocal style of post-Roxy Eno.
A Hunger Artist is taken from forthcoming album Arms Around A Vision, due on 2 October through Tough Love Records. You can see the band live in London at the 100 Club on 19 October.
Away From Me is the glistening debut track from Danish three-piece
Chinah are Danish three-piece Fine, Simon & Simon and Away From Me is their debut release. It's a glistening sophisticated R&B track that comes straight from the band's bedrooms in Nørrebro, Copenhagen - impressive given just how polished this feels.
Look out for more - Chinah will be releasing their music through Denmark's No. 3 label. You can also catch them live when they play New Shapes at The Notting Hill Arts Club in London on 2 September 2015.