Stream: Flashbacks - We Are The Way For The Cosmos To Know Itself

If there is one thing you need to know about We Are The Way For The Cosmos To Know Itself it is this: they are way better at making music than coming up with band names. Because as band names go, We Are The Way For The Comos To Know Itself is about as silly as !!!.

Still, Flashbacks is stop-me-in-my-tracks beautiful. The kind of song that haunts me me - the vocals gently shimmy against soft electronic production and a nice, slow beat. There is something timeless about Flashbacks - a little bit 80s, a little bit 2000s, a little bit right-here-right-now.

This track is also full of wonderful little details. That heartbreaking opening line, those vocals in that chorus (“I keep hearing those flashbacks!”), that bridge towards the end when everything drops away into the background. It all literally gives me goosebumps.

There is so much heartbreaking loss here... The band describe flashbacks as a song about bittersweet nostalgia and longing - memories that exist in the borderline between happiness and anxiety. It feels like trying to put the pieces back together, figuring out where love was lost and where all those feelings went... “Remembering the past in differing shades of light”, say the band. It’s a description that feels perfect. This song gets me.

Video: The Way Things Change - Yellow Days

If you are looking for sleazy sideways pop funk you came to the right place.

Ahead of his forthcoming sold out US, European and UK tour Yellow Days has just put out The Way Things Change, his first new music of 2018 and his first appearance on BlackPlastic since last year's Go Home.

This new track boasts the same weird, acid-tinged sound musician George van den Broek has been known for. Hammond, reverb, strong grooves, desperate vocals... There is an otherworldly strangeness here that Yellow Days blends with a very earthly analogue sound.

Check out The Way Things Change below.

Stream: Just On Drugs - Yoshi Flower

The second track to hit the blog with an Elohim connection this week, Yoshi Flower is friend, collaborator and touring mate of Elohim (Michl was the other artist this week). Having legally changed his name to Yoshi, Flower is dealing in psychedelic pop music that calls to mind Darwin Deez, in a good way.

This track reeks of nerdy-love-denial as a route to self-defence. I don’t actually love you, I’m just high. Just like 10CC huh? Big boys don’t cry?

Yep, I kind of find this heartbreaking. Because maybe the person he is singing to really is just on drugs, but I have a feeling Mr Flower is a little bit more than smitten here. Besides, we all know love is a drug anyway.

Stream: Melo - Colin Magalong

Colin Magalong deals in 90s inspired disco and R&B and brings both to the fore on new track Melo to create something irresistibly infectious.

Portraying the feeling of quiet moments falling in love during nights in together, I love the positivity and excitement that comes bounding out in this track. There is a nice easy-going feel to this, perfect for spending time with someone you want to enjoy those one-on-one moments with.

Check out Melo below:

Stream: Philadelphia Babe - Flagship

Philadelphia Babe is the latest song from duo Flagship and it has sunken its teeth into me deep.

The new track from the forthcoming EP, The Ladder, Philadelphia Babe is a rousing indie anthem - the sort of thing I expect from Future Islands. The first time I heard it I put it on repeat for about half an hour, I literally listened to it ten times, it’s bluesy yet hopeful romantic energy capturing everything I was feeling at that point.

This is the kind of record about being found by love that you weren’t expecting. A bright shiny thing that lives inside you. A feeling you never realised you had until something found it and polished it up. And once you find it, there’s no putting it back - “I’m never coming down, never falling back to ground”.