Stream: You Were Right - Metropoly

Channelling 80s pop and 90s R&B and 2000s electronic, Metropoly create the kind of spectral melodies that will be familiar to fans of Junior Boys.

Over a bowl of noodles in New York’s Chinatown, duo Julian and Ben realised their relative strengths could enable them to naturally compliment each other musically. Julian’s focus on songwriting and his classical training compliments Ben’s focus on DJing - the result is music that combines sophisticated musical progression and harmony with texture and sophisticated production techniques.

Released this coming Friday as a two-track single with No More, You Were Right is a piece of elegant and minimal electronic soul. Percussive clicks and kicks underpin Julian’s wistful vocals as the electronic melodies and bass lines create a beautifully human take on electronic music. Layered synthesisers and arpeggios form a dense yet restrained record.

Check out You Were Right below. Metropoly are currently in the studio collaborating with female vocalist Renélin on a follow-up single.

Stream: Holy Water - Tanners

Conjuring up breathless R&B, Holy Water is the work of NYC-based musician Tanners, real name Tanner Peterson.

Having originally intended to pursue audio engineering following her graduation, Peterson ended up being inspired to create her own music. Having engineered recordings for other musicians, she realised she had her own story she felt compelled to tell.

Drawing on her long held love of the beach, Holy Water aims to capture the feeling of being swallowed up and held at the mercy of the ocean. Describing the track, Tanners says “It’s a thank you song to the ocean for teaching me to embrace vulnerability”.

Check out Holy Water below:

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.