Listen: Where Would You Drive? — Nieri

Where Would You Drive reminds me of the tension of Tiga, whose pop was performed against a background of techno, much like Nieri’s here. There is also a drama stylistically consistent to the slow urban crawl of Ariane Grande and The Weeknd’s Love Me Harder, and Ali Love’s (remember him?) similarly titled Love Harder. It’s all clean lines — functional, tight drums, crisp synths and futuristic bass.

It’s the closing third of Where Would You Drive that significantly elevates it for me, however. As Nieri gets to the two-minute mark, he throws himself into the bridge. The vocals take a threatening turn, as the bass comes to the fore and echo and reverb takes over. Nieri sounds like he is shouting here, yet his vocal volume sits consistently at the level of just a whisper.

We get one final spin through the chorus before these sinister whispered shouts take us to Where Would You Drive’s close, amidst a clatter of drums. It’s a thrilling track, which manages to feel significantly more epic than its three-and-a-half-minute duration would seem to afford.

The sense of drama on Where Would You Drive all stems from its emotional core, which centres on a relationship in crisis. Distilling the fear of losing someone, Nieri says describes the inspiration behind the song:

“When an argument turns for the worse, you start questioning everything. When you fight with a partner, it’s easy to get caught up in your own fears, and point of views. The song wants to be a reminder that, at the end of the day, we’re all looking for healing, and that sometimes we can find it in each other.”

The result is a song with strong themes of anxiety and turmoil, yet ultimately resolving in a sense of hope.

Originally hailing from Milan, Nieri now channels a Euro sensibility into a high-energy sound from his base in Los Angeles. Where Would You Drive follows up on last year’s debut EP, Starshine, released in July. His ambition is to inspire and empower a new generation of pop music fans to be their authentic selves. Check out Where Would You Drive below:

Listen: Morning Light — Lüne

Opening with a falsetto vocal layered over ambient sounds, Morning Light starts with a lonely, introspective atmosphere. Textural flourishes create a sound that surrounds you – drums kick, and a pair of guitars unravel, with one pitched towards each channel. And then Lüne drops into the break — a chunky mash of drums and thick, organic feeling bass.

The overall feeling I get from Morning Light is one of picking through debris and flora, whether in moving through the world, on a hike through the wilderness, or through the heart. There is a beautiful clash at the core of the song, between emotive vocals and rich instrumentation, and more brutalist production techniques.

That tension is perhaps deliberate. An attempt to capture the friction that exists within the human experience, between hope and despair, loneliness and comfort. Describing the song, Lüne said:

“I wrote this track when I was feeling lost and down. The world around me was all grey. This track is an appeal, a journey trough finding the lost colors.”

That sense of colour, and the search for hope and beauty, comes through strongly on Morning Light. Check it out below.

Listen: Body Is Love — Billy Vena

Following on from Rabbit Hole (Love Is What You Make It) and Romantic Logic, Panama-native and Texas-based musician Billy Vena is back with a new release. Body Is Love marks the start of a new series of releases, whilst leveraging the timeless retro-influenced pop Vena has become known for.

Even though it retains the general Prince-esque vibes of Vena’s previous work, Body Is Love is nonetheless slung lower than previous work, and looser in feel. It basks in the sunny glow of 90s R&B, with guitars, chunky bass and snappy drums evoke the liberal aesthetic of early TLC and En Vogue.

Describing the song, Billy Vena talks about the inspirational form the people around him take:

“I was inspired to write Body Is Love to sort of express how beautiful the people in my life are, and how much I wanted them to see themselves as such. In the simplest of forms, it’s me saying, I want you to love you, like I love you.”

Check out Body Is Love below:

Listen: Another Story — Monomotion & Piers

With the kind of emotive piano and synth combination not unfamiliar to fans of the likes of Jon Talabot, Another Story is an emotive piece of electronic music for your body and your mind.

Having long sought the opportunity, Monomotion and Piers were able to come together to work together on Another Story. The piece looks to channel an ambiguous sense of atmosphere and melancholy, targeting the dance floor as a place for communal healing.

What struck be about Another Story is its restraint. A simple piano melody forms the central hook, around which Monomotion and Piers arrange textural percussion synths. It manages to capture sadness and hope, both at the same time.

Listen: Calling Out Your Name — Fourth Daughter

Calling Out Your Name, from Fourth Daughter (real name Emily Atkinson), opens with crisp percussion and minimal synths. The result is a sound that gives the vocal the space it needs to shine — particularly as Atkinson launches into a reverb-heavy bridge.

As Calling Out Your Name progresses, however, the sound gets more complex. Coming out of the song’s chorus, the percussion develops a layered, clattering complexity. The mix feels sophisticated but thick, evoking the sort of classy nightclub pop of the late 90s and early 00s, like Everything But The Girl and Olive.

Atkinson’s inspiration includes contemporary talent such as Jamie XX and Sylvan Esso, and her artist pseudonym is a reference to her experience growing up as the youngest of four daughters. Music became a way to escape the boredom of growing up in the small-town Scottish countryside.

Calling Out Your Name is actually the b-side of Say What You Want. Calling Out Your Name is below, and you can check out both tracks here.