Listen: Heart Is Broken - This Boy

Debut album Year One will be released later this spring, but the overall theme woven through the album is that of the force of everyday habits that can have both a liberating and limiting effect. When viewed from a distance, the role of pattern and schedule can make each day feel very similar.

Heart Is Broken is the debut single from This Boy, and starts in the mould of an alternative R&B joint - falsetto vocals and dark projection create a sense of isolation on a song that depicts the feeling of hurt that comes at the point our hearts snap. Yet this is high concept pop... In time, the song transforms into a transcendent piece as a huge choral refrain kicks in, an angelic moment that feels like it captures the feeling of salvation that comes as a heart becomes as broken as it can be, and the process of healing begins.

Moments of true heartbreak are tragic and immensely painful, yet they also represent the moment when the repair can start. Musically, Heart Is Broken represents a sound quite unlike anything I’ve heard before. Give it a listen and wait for the healing to begin.

Listen: Sign - SUMif

Having taken most of 2019 out to focus on an album, SF-based queer pop musician Steph Wells is back with Sign.

The second single to be taken from the forthcoming album, Sign deals with the loss of control that comes from wanting more of someone than they can give you. It can be a disorientating experience - knowing that the reason you can’t have more may be nothing to do with you, and yet just needing some sort of sign that the other person knows you are still there and still matter.

Wells brings the emotion of Sign to bear in the most nakedly vulnerable way I’ve heard on a SUMif record… The openness with which she expresses her emotional needs leaves a lasting impression, as the instrumentation gently stutters, simple and equally exposed. It’s an impressing demonstration of the range we can expect from the album - slower, more considered and, frankly, sadder than most of what we get from SUMif.

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: