Listen: By Floras - Haich Ber Na

By Floras is bursting with wonky clautrophobia… Falsetto vocals housed in tight, fuzzy electronic production to creating a tightly cropped take on emotional anxiety.

Peterborough-raised, London-based artist Haich Ber Na’s music feels reminiscent of a number of british electronic pop acts. The sound on By Floras sounds like Metronomy at their most avant garde with Joe Goddard on production duties. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the track was mixed by sound engineer Oliver Wright, who has previously worked with Hot Chip.

Self-taught, Ber Na initially embraced his roots in rap and grime music but in 2017 started to explore more experimental sounds. His distinctive sound has caught the eye of those in underground and more mainstream circles, including NTS, 1Xtra, the Guardian and iD magazine.

There is a caustic lo-fi basement feeling on By Floras that conjures a sense of alienation and distance. It feels appropriate for a song that depicts what were a couple but have now become strangers. Describing the process of creating By Floras, Ber Na says:

“This song was written very naturally, narrating emotions of a friends relationship. I feel like I’m evolving, and sonically ‘By Floras’ shows the direction I’m taking towards the next project.”

Check out By Floras below:

Listen: Let It Go - Josefine

Thankfully this Let It Go isn’t the well known song from Disney’s Frozen but is instead the latest song from LA-based, Stockholm raised musician Josefine. With production from Martin René (whose credits include Meghan Trainor, H.E.R. And Snoop Dogg) there is a level of polish to Let It Go that instantly grabbed me.

The song itself is about those moments where romantic relationships can seem to become bogged down in the pedestrian things that don’t really matter. Josefine explains:

“To be in a relationship is all amazing, romantic and spontaneous in the beginning, then comes that day when everything goes into routine and you start arguing about the most stupid and pointless things. It’s almost like you try to find something to fight about. So you apologize and take the blame a lot for things that has nothing to do with you just so you can move past it and be fine. You just want to LET IT GO."

What grabbed my attention with Let It Go is the way the music feels like it snaps as it transitions between the verse and the chorus. The verse has a certain timidity about it - the creeping feeling of little frustrations, tiny cuts. The song then launches into a intro to the chorus that feels like bubbling tension and raised voices, trying to control tempers. The chorus is then the release - not the argument, but the realisation that it doesn’t matter... The small frustrations will always be there. There is a feeling of release there that feels fresh, like a blast of perspective.

Check out Let It Go below:

Listen: Hang It Up - Justin Froese

Hang It Up is a song that deals with the romantic insecurity that comes with infatuation and building unreal expectations around someone. Sometimes the unobtainable becomes so compelling, almost creating an inherent desirability. This comes both through the result of the seeming impossibility, and the safety of being able to disregard the practical considerations. Unrequited love seemingly has a sense of purity about it by virtue of the fact there is no compromise in it.

Justin Froese is an award-winning songwriter focused on creating groove-driven alternative pop whilst drawing on diverse inspiration. Hang It Up was written and produced with his friend Jonathan Jones after hearing a few chords performed on Jones’ childhood piano.

With a deliberate contrast at its core, Hang It Up carries a moody, obsessive sound in the verse that then seemingly evaporates as the instrumentation melts in a daydream-like Billy Joel style chorus. Final production polish was introduced in the final version courtesy of Froese’s and Jones’ friend Scott McKay Gibson.

Watch: New Job - Dance Lessons

New Job has a glossy, easy-going disco sound that feels perfect for June. It is a song for the moment as the sun just starts to drop below the horizon on hot summer days.

What really stuck out for me is the way Dance Lessons have layered multiple vocal harmonies together whilst creating something that feels popular yet interesting, polished yet real. The artist is most calls to mind for me was Róisín Murphy, who similar brings beautiful vocals and a finesse to music that is ultimately experimental.

Dance Lessons are a London-based, female-fronted and female-produced trio. New Job is their second single and Dance Lessons’ Ann said it became weirdly prophetic:

“It was never meant to become personal. I initially wrote it late last year – before a break-up. Afterwards, I went on a mad search for new ways to distract myself. The song shows the similarities in perspective of two people post-breakup, both using distractions to mask the sadness.”

The video for New Job was shot by Sarah Chatfield in a COVID-19 locked down LA. Having previously worked with Lily Allen, Lykke Li and The Cribs, Chatfield was challenged to work unconventionally, without a crew and with minimal equipment. It's also shot entirely on iPhone, which is impressive given how great it looks!

The result perfectly captures the dance interpretation of New Job, performed and choreographed by Gabri ‘GQ’ Gilliam and Shantel Ureña. In a sense, the sight of a couple dancing through empty streets feels analogous to the experience of trying to move on from a break-up - the sense of isolation, of being busy for the sake of it, and the weird reality that the only person who genuinely knows what you are feeling is the precise person you are working to move on from. Together, even in moving apart.

Official music video shot and directed by Sarah Chatfield in Los Angeles during the Covid-19 lockdown, May 2020. No crew. #ShotOniPhone. Performed and choreo...

Premiere: Nice - Arkell LDN

Arkell LDN is the musical project of London-based producer, 3D animator and well known drummer John Arkell. Having worked with a long list of artists that include the likes of Lewis Capaldi and Bonobo and Primal Scream, John has embarked on making his own music and accompanying animation.

With a focus on music that makes people want to move whilst embracing darker, bass-drive sound, Arkell LDN draws on the the raw, rave-centric sound of the Prodigy, Jamie xx, Stanton Warriors and Jon Hopkins.

On Nice, that rave inspired sound manifests in the combination of tight, high energy disco strings, dark throbbing bass and chunky drum patterns. The sound recalls the unfussy energy of late 90s / early 00s dance music with aplomb - crisp, crunchy music that would sound great in night clubs with big rooms and even bigger sound systems.

John notes that the track is more positive and accessible than much of his forthcoming music, and how he embraced the fact an early listener likened The track to Spiller’s Groovejet. In John’s own words, “(it is) kinda mad how I usually start of tryna make something much harder with those refences in mind... but I wasn't afraid to go with this one... i think the drop still kicks”. I’m inclined to agree - the way Nice pulls together an energetic, uplifting sound to his dark, bass-orientated production style really clicks.

The visuals that accompany Nice were created in Xpresso, with John learning his craft in the software whilst putting the visuals together. These similarly echo the style of the early 00s - feeling like cool, psychedlic and musical interactive experiences like Wipeout and video game developer Harmonix’s awesome Frequency.

Check out the video, premiering on BlackPlastic, below: