Listen: Intertwined - Frank Mighty’s Hotline

Frank Mighty’s Hotline is the musical solo project of John Traboulsi, who originally started working on music for the project in his bedroom five years ago. The project brings together his diverse musical loves and his classical guitar upbringing. The result is a catchy, relaxed indie pop with an electronic aesthetic to the production, and a sound that has drawn comparison to The War On Drugs, Bon Iver and Glass Animals.

Following an opening slot playing for Said the Whale on their As Long As Your Eyes Are Wide Open tour, John was left considering whether he should pursue a career in music. With a stint living and playing venues in the UK, whilst surrounded and inspired by his affection for Brit Pop, Traboulsi ended up living in Toronto, where he adopted the Frank Mighty’s Hotline moniker.

Intertwined is the first single from Frank Mighty’s Hotline, and it packs a slightly grungy, grimy feel... Guitar melodies fly out like rapid fire, whilst Traboulsi’s vocals boast an earthy, folky feel. The song itself was inspired by a conversation overheard on the subway, with two people talking incredibly openly about sex, money and life without worrying about those around them. Inspired by their lack of inhibition and their connection, Traboulsi says:

“...It inspired me, people talking about these taboo subjects so freely, why shouldn’t everybody? And that just led to more of a trust your gut feeling, do what you want, follow your passion type vibe. And this being my first release under this moniker, being scared to follow music seriously because of societal pressures, trusting my abilities in songwriting, this song is a perfect way to drop into the scene.”

Check out Intertwined below:

Listen: Pull Me Closer - Leonard

Pull Me Closer is the second single from Leonard, and it’s a collaborative effort between pop producer and songwriter Jonny Avery and experimental guitarist Jake Church. The pair wanted to combine Avery’s classical music background with Jonny’s love of beat making, and the result is a sultry, soulful work out.

Whilst the pair come from very different musical backgrounds and both had to explore musical styles that felt unfamiliar, they had a shared desire when it came to the lyrical content and overall message behind the song, as Jonny explains:

“We wanted to write a song that reminded us that when ya’ve got shit going on, go hang with your ‘good people’, cause that will make you feel better - a simple message, but easy to forget in the moment.”

The production on Pull Me Closer has a wonderfully restrained feeling to it - warm bass tones envelope a determined and lovestruck vocal and a loose percussion track gives the track a relaxed, lived-in feeling. The guitar work only gives the track a further human, intimate feeling. With vocals that plead for a little tender love and connection, Pull Me Closer manages to create a feeling of wanting and being wanted, of comfort and release.

Listen: Pieces - JUJ

Long time readers may be aware that I don’t sleep well. There is a point in the night where it feels like there is no-one else in the world awake and that time could stop right there and then, and I would be alone forever, trapped with my worry and anxiety. Being alone in the night is one of the hardest things.

On Pieces, JUJ depicts her experience trying to deal with insomnia, having written the main hook at 4am one night when she couldn’t sleep. Things in the night can feel helpless and so crushingly lonely, and JUJ captures that feeling perfectly. When she asks for some piece for her mind, I can’t help but hope she got some.

Premiere: Just Friends - I Am Boleyn

Just Friends is the kind of record that bristles with the kind of emotion that moves with sharp edges. Vocals search for stable ground before seemingly slipping away in a wave of stuttering, wheezing synths and clattering drums. The whole thing creates a sense that the love it depicts could simply evaporate if anyone looks at it too closely. It's fragile, uncertain, nervous and beautiful.

This is the third single from I Am Boleyn, a musician who grew up in St Petersburg before moving to the UK to study History at Oxford University. She now divides her time between London and Stockholm, creating music as she goes, with influences that include Robyn, Mø, MS MR and Goldfrapp.

Depicting the fuzzy grey space that can exist in a relationship that feels somewhere between platonic and romantic, there is a sense of desire and pain that pulses through Just Friends... The fear that something will never happen, coupled with the terror that if it actually does, everything will change. Those tricky friendships can feel like a barbed trap we create - a new, inventive way to inflict pain upon ourselves. It’s dizzying and I feel a little sick, and yet here I am, reaching out to hold your hand...

Listen: Golden Ghosts - Elodie Rêverie

Having first appeared on BlackPlastic last month, Elodie Rêverie is back with her latest single, the appropriately spooky-titled Golden Ghosts.

The last song of Elodie’s I covered here was Skeleton Castle, a shimmering piece of pop music that glistened in a way that combined the crunch of grungy guitars with the glitter of disco. In contrast, Golden Ghosts waltzes along with a spectral and ever so slightly threatening sense of drama. Deliberately distancing herself from the electronic pop sound of her recent releases, Golden Ghosts was inspired by the feelings depicted in the Eagles’ Hotel California, but here the threat feels ever present.

Golden Ghosts is constructed from a piano introduction lifted from Standchën by Schubert, around which Elodie applies minimal production to leave us with something simply and yet impactful. It also reminds me of the melancholic sounds scapes used in Succession, my current TV obsession. There is an electric sense of power flowing through these sounds.

Check out Golden Ghosts below: