Listen: Fragrance — Augustine

The soft brass-like stabs that open Augustine’s haunting new single Fragrance provide a beautiful bedrock for the song’s floating melodies and falsetto vocals. Those brass-like bass notes remind me of the deeply sinister sounding Doorway by Planningtorock, but where that was a dark and threatening slice of electronic synth pop, Frangrance sparkles like tear-streaked glitter make-up.

Hailing from Sweden, the producer, songwriter, and musician Augustine’s music comes from a love of 70s-pop, chillwave and vintage movies. The songs he creates focus on capturing the feelings and stories that come straight from his youth.

Fragrance is about those moments where you just can’t get over someone, and they reside in your self-conscious to the point where you see them even when they aren’t there. Our memories, working against us:

“Even though you’re trying to forget and move on, your mind is so obsessed with the thought of running into that person that sometimes you even trick yourself into thinking that you’ve noticed that familiar fragrance. But of course it turns out it’s not them, it never is. As you pass through her subway station, you fantasize about getting off the train and buying her dinner. ‘What’s for tonight, pasta or pizza?’ Instead, you stay in your seat as the doors close and the train rolls on.”

Fragrance is deeply melancholic and let gorgeously emotive single. Every so often, the purest thing is loving someone who won’t love you back. Check it out below, and look out for Augustine’s debut album, due on 29 October.

Listen: Trouble In Paradise — Windser

Following on from previous songs Peach Fuzz and Real Life, Trouble In Paradise is the new single from Windser.

The pseudonym of Jordan Topf, Windser and he has spent recent years crafting atmospheric and ethereal music that evokes the dreamlike feeling of Beach House and the gently plucked guitar melodies of the xx.

Coming ahead of a forthcoming debut EP, Trouble In Paradise deals with the experience of relocation, and the ensuing feelings of isolation. Topf explains:

“The song is about LA. About my experience moving to Los Angeles from New York, playing music here, meeting new people, and feeling overwhelmed by how beautiful everything can be when bad things happen. Sometimes this city can feel completely isolating, but I often find that time spent alone allows me to be more honest.”

Check out Trouble In Paradise below:

Listen: Friday Night — Orbit

Friday Night is the new single from Orbit, and arrives in tandem with his second EP, Summer Someday. Having traded the busy Berlin scene in 2020 for the relative calm of the North German countryside, musician and producer Marcel Heym found the inspiration to start Orbit, a new musical venture. Having spent years playing in bands with his brother, Heym wanted to bring together a mix of raw acoustic sounds and bright electronica, creating something that sits at home equally well with M83, Bombay Bicycle Club, Flume, and Disclosure.

Without relying on any conventional forms of promotion for his debut EP, Perspectives, Orbit has already accrued a total of four million streams and is generating an additional quarter of a million tuning in each month. With an active focus on the artistic community, Heym hopes to transcend the barrier that usually exists between listener and artist through streaming platforms, to create a deeper connection.

Friday Night has a gentle and sympathetic warmth — Marcel’s vocals feel close enough to be your own internal monologue, piano keys falling like infrequent raindrops all around you. Oscillating bass and crunchy drums provide a solid wall of sound that contrasts perfectly to the delicate melodies. The overall result was enough to stop me in my tracks when I heard it.

Friday Night ends with a beautiful collage of found sounds from nature and gentle melody, leaving me excited to hear where the EP picks things up. Describing the song and its inspiration, Marcel talks about a perfect moment of music and connection combined with introspection:

“I wrote this song about a scene in my life: Friday Night. The moon shines. Feeling sad and overwhelmingly good at the same time. Lovers. Loud music. Being lonely or in a crowd of people -- or both. Colorful strobe lights. All this melting into an ecstatic moment happening in one song.”

Check out the EP, Summer Someday, below, including Friday Night.

Watch: Smalltalk — Nightbus

Smalltalk is the debut release from Nightbus, and comes from a collection of songs written during the pandemic.

Having connected in early 2020, Sena Verdi and Louise Wellby found a shared creative chemistry that led to the formation of Nightbus. Born and raised in London, vocalist and lyricist Louise (also known as Skylu) draws on her personal experiences as inspiration for her music, and on Smalltalk particularly:

“The lyrics are all drawn from my journals, scribing my dreams and struggles with mental health. I don’t always know how to talk about it, but songwriting just flows. The track has a nostalgic feel to it, written with my teenage self in mind.”

With British-Iranian producer Sena, the music they create has a deep, emotionally full feeling. Known for his work as Lyonheart, Verdi has previously released music with the likes of BT and Paul Oakenfold, and collaborated with the Grammy-nominated Aqualung.

The sound draws on the New Romantic sounds of the eighties, big dance sounds of the late-90s and modern progressive pop. Perhaps the closest contemporaries to the music exhibited here are the experimental pomp and drama of Wild Beasts and These New Puritans. Whilst Nightbus dress their sound in less overtly avant-garde theatre, the sense of emotional depth is similar and, when it comes, Smalltalk’s chorus soars magnificently.

Premiere: Never Lie About You — Olivia Castriota

New York-based musician Olivia Castriota grew up in Pennsylvania, with a passion for music manifesting early as she wrote songs in elementary school about boys and heartbreak. Her music today is a little more self-reflective, and whilst it may largely focus on matters of the heart, she rarely makes songs about being in love itself:

“Feelings are my favourite and I love, love. The weird part is, I rarely write actual “love” songs, but the second things go south, I have no problem writing an entire album about it. I love a cry your eyes out heartbreak song as much as I love a badass anthem.”

With a style that blends an upbeat electronic pop aesthetic with the earthy vocal delivery that channels the likes of Amy Winehouse, Castriota’s sound is distinctive in its ability to sound both grounded and dream-like. Here on Never Lie About You, Olivia depicts a situation where a small argument boils over into something more meaningful and hurtful. Drawing on that aforementioned self-reflection, Castriota concludes that “I lie a little bit more than I like to, but I would never lie about loving you”.

With production work that evokes easy-breezy summer days and the nervousness that comes from skirting the boundaries of a relationship’s comfort zone, Never Lie About You feels both hopeful and nervous. The chorus itself has this playful shout-out-loud cadence that captures something of the argument itself — that wonderful thing of a song whose very sound conveys the thing it depicts.