Listen: Story - Magdalena Bay

Magdalena Bay is US duo Mica Tehenbaum and Matthew Lewin, and having first appeared on BlackPlastic.co.uk last year they are back with new single Story.

Story came out of Magdalena Bay’s moment of clarity - the point where an aspiring artist discovers how hard it can be to succeed. In the words of Mica:

“We wrote Story after the first time our hopes and dreams were dashed. The song is a look back at our previously naive selves, who thought it would all be so easy- as if!”

The duo deliberately focus on swerving the sound of sad-songs-on-the-radio and purposely bring a sense of fun to their music. Despite its inspiration, Story has an upbeat feel, riding on lovely and loose elastic bass and energetic synths. It is only Mica’s breathless vocals that betray an aloofness rooted in disappointment... And the result is perfect - the feeling of an artist performing, and yet keeping just a little bit for themselves.

Watch: Favourite Game - Von Marlon x Lea Giovanna

Having gone through both a personal and musical split, Von Marlon was created in 2017 as the solo project of a 26-year-old producer of Iranian-Irish descent. Hailing from London, the Von Marlon alias is derived from a line by Mike Skinner, itself reflecting a youth spent growing up surrounded by UK urban and experimental artists like The Streets, Wiley, Radiohead and Massive Attack.

Following on from previous singles Searching and Tripping, Von Marlon released EP Journeys at the end of last year. Favourite Game is the latest single from that EP, and features vocals from German vocalist Lea Giovanna.

Favourite Game was created whilst travelling, depicting the experience and joy that comes from travelling, either alone or with others. Written both in Berlin and London, the song and video capture the in-between moments in journeys and the impact distance has on relationships.

The resulting track is a deep, dubby electronic track with pop elements. Von Marlon’s falsetto vocals create combine with Giovanna’s delivery to create beautiful constrasting harmonies and the production work draws on the darker, heavier feel of dance music that both London and Berlin are famous for.

Check out Favourite Game below.

Watch: Run - Moose Island

Moose Island’s Run comes on soft and gentle before gradually wrapping itself in thick bass-like-molasses. Depicting the feeling of trying to move on from a love the doesn’t break cleanly, you can feel that thick, treacle like substance dragging you down. It’s break-up as zombie flick, trying to get clear and yet the arms and teeth grab you, slow you down, increase your infection level. You stumble, shuffle, beat back the hoard, but it’s so hard to leave it all behind. The only way to get free is to run, and to not look back. Yes, that’s the eyes of your lover, but the mind behind them has gone... Keep going, never stop.

Moose Island is a Swedish singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, and in 2020 he is set to release his self-produced EP, due in April. He grew up with music, as well as the culture of his homeland. With an upbringing that took in the diversity of Queen, Radiohead and Stevie Wonder, Moose Island looks to bring together the experimental and the soulful in his music.

Run is taken from Moose Island’s forthcoming EP, and is song depicting revenge, escape and freedom, as the artist describes:

“When I wrote the song I imagined a picture of a dark and desolate trail in the forest as the visual inspiration. I wanted the song to be encased in a mystical dreamworld. I painted the picture focusing on detail and progression.”

The resulting record captures the feeling of dread that comes from grief and emotional loss - often the real terror in our minds. Check out Run below:

Listen: Half - Artemis Aether

In its vulnerability, Half feels like consolation, empathy and resignation. But more than that, it sounds like support and kindness and rallying for another round.

Drums pump like the steady march of just putting one foot in front of the other... those times where just surviving is enough. Piano notes ricochet like fleeting moments of hope, and gentle guitars strum along like vibrations in the dirt as life rushes by, before reaching a climax as, perhaps, surviving stops being enough.

Half is a song about things that divide us, and the choices we make in search of something beyond happiness.

Having worked within music for some time, Artemis Aether felt constrained by the usual bios and band photos. Preferring to retain a sense of mystery, they instead have opted for alternative creative forms for giving a sense of what they are about. This includes a a short story on their website, and the short poem below:

All fire and fury
All secret and surly
All baritone bravery
And heterogeneity

Some settled on sombre
Some beat to the tame
Some spotted a contra
So called it a game

They came for the fever,
The once broken preacher,
And the mask made to see her
Called Artemis Aether

Check out Half below:

Listen: Drink The Water - T.O.L.D.

T.O.L.D., short for The Order of Life and Death, is the musical project of Daniel James Smith, a British musician now based in Los Angeles. The name of Smiths’ project comes from Gustav Klimt’s painting Life and Death, something he was exposed to as a teenager.

Having initially experimented with music and self-releasing his own material in London, in 2014 Smith moved the the US and started working as T.O.L.D., with early releases including production credits from GusGus’ Birgir Þórarinsson. Following a debut album, It’s Not About The Witches, back in 2016 and last year he was announced as one of the BBC’s Introducing Artists of 2019.

Drink The Water is a meditative piece of indie gospel, with synths that would feel at home in a John Hughes movie but a slow, vocal chorus that creates a stark, contemplative feeling. Smith cites Bon Iver, Animal Collective and Brian Eno as influencers on the sound, but I can also hear TV On The Radio’s baritone soul here.

The song itself is a literal ode to water and sun. Having grown up in an English town famous for its spring water, Smith would at times marvel at the feeling something as simple, as abundant, as water could give. On darker days, when Smith felt depressed, he was drink gallons of the water:

“The freshest and best source of it on the planet under my feet. I craved the sun and when it finally came back, this song poured out of me.”