Stream: Know You - SUMif

For those that care, my favourite spreadsheet function is the simple if statement. It’s both remarkably simple, and remarkably powerful. I don’t think there’s a problem in life that can’t be solved by nesting infinite if statements within one another. =if(NOT(this=love),I don’t know what is,tell me what it is).

That’s a freebie, just on me. The sumif formula may lack the pure Swiss Army Knife utility of the lowly if statement, but it sure gets the job done fast, and for that reason it was always my second most favourite spreadsheet tool.

SUMif is musician Steph Wells, who was raised in LA on Sheryl Crow and pop punk. Presumably this means the music of Sheryl Crow, rather than an actual diet dependent on the nutritional value of Crow. Having taken in a music business course in New York City at NYU, and then moving on to Nashville to practice songwriting, Wells is now in SF. And it is from the multifaceted city of SF that she brings us her beautiful, emotional dance pop.

And Know You is beautiful, emotional dance pop about being lost inside someone. In SUMif’s words:

“Know You is about being captivated by another person in a totally new way. It’s the type of attraction where in it you discover new things about yourself that make you feel alive.”

Breathless and excited and lost, SUMif delivers Know You like someone who can’t wait to see where a particular person takes them next. Sometimes love feels like it can make the impossible seem possible. Nothing matters, not even reality, when you make me feel like this. Except formulas obviously. Because without those the spreadsheets wouldn’t work and I’d have to add up all the ways I love you manually.

And how much do I love you? Well let’s just say I’m getting a #DIV/0 error.

Stream: Made Of Mine - Gold Fir

Made Of Mine is a slinky piece of UK Garage influenced basement dance music that tugs on my 90s nostalgia but brings it right up to date. If you’ve ever lost it to Storm Queen you will likely appreciate the raw, soulful sound Gold Fir creates here.

Vocals come from Ms Ray and she appropriately channels UK R&B and Garage with a lyric that speaks to feelings of control, sexuality and breaking rules in a relationship. It’s a straight-forward, honest and sassy.

Stream: In My Head - Rynn

Rynn is Ohio-based singer-songwriter Kathryn Kempthorne and she has been experimenting with electronic music ever since she purchased her first synthesiser at the age of 14. Having scored over eight million Spotify streams with the song Islands from her debut EP Nightfires, Rynn is set to make waves when she unveils her second EP in the coming months.

In My Head, taken from the forthcoming EP, is a song about trying to understand a previous relationship - looking at the reality of the experience and what went wrong, rather than just focusing on the romanticised version that tends to get stuck in our memory.

On In My Head Rynn’s vocals alternate between higher pitched, high stakes emotion and the reassured and determined central line of “It’s all in my head”. She rattles off the compromises that existed in her relationship, as if to remind herself they existed. With layered synths and vocal harmonies, Rynn has created a piece of music that feels beautifully vulnerable.

Stream: Bonnie & Clyde - LightHouse

Following up on their wonderful single Nebula, LA duo LightHouse are back taking inspiration from another duo with new single Bonnie & Clyde.

Depicting the titular criminal pair, the song actually draws from the recent Aaron Sorkin directorial debut, Molly’s Game, about the infamous poker game runner Molly Bloom. The song describes the feeling we get as the audience, drawn in by the success we see on the screen and left feeling compelled to keep watching her every move.

Combining a wild jazz funk section and soft vocal harmonies, LightHouse have once again created a track that feels experimental and unique yet is catchy and accessible.

Video: Thick Skin - Mines Falls

Brothers Carson and Erik Lund began working together as Mines Falls following a series of events - the collapse of a relationship, the passing of a best friend, the inheritance of an upright piano. Together they now make beautifully introspective-sounding deconstructed piano ballads, like this one...

Much of the recording for Thick Skin’s video was captured at the Lund’s house in Hollywood, which was also their base for recording Mines Falls’ debut album Nepenthe. The house is clearly doused in symbolism - reflecting the brothers’ move to the west coast, the coming and going of various roommates, the general history of the building. Here they attempt to capture the melancholic ambiance of the place whilst juxtaposing it’s sense of the pedestrian to the alien landscapes the brothers find surrounding their new home city. Carson and Erik cite home and transience as being two of the core themes of their album, so it makes sense for them to focus on those here.

Thick Skin starts with a gently swirling melody, vocals flowing like a stream of consciousness, hands grasping for meaning but struggling to find tangible meaning. Something about the floor giving out, text messages and radios - it feels both decidedly normal and bizarrely otherworldly. Thick gradually disintergrates, distortion and chaos consuming all. It’s a beautiful piece of music and and fitting video.