Listen: In The Way Or Disappear by DD Walker

I think that we all have a fondness for the music from a certain period in our lives. For me, the period where I felt most connected to and inspired by contemporary music was in the period of 2003 through to about 2010. Much of the music I felt attached to in that period informs the music I write about today.

Electroclash; the influence of post-punk, DFA, and LCD Soundsystem; Daft Punk’s second era; Cut Copy’s reimagining of Fleetwood Mac on In Ghost Colours; Phoenix’s technicolored Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix; Soulwax’s grungy take on dance music… All of these sounds tickle my pleasure senses when I hear echoes of them today, even as I recognise that they, themselves, were echoes of their own.

There is an artist from that same period, however, that I would classify as having produced the album I love the most that you (yes you) are least likely to have heard of. And that, dear reader, is the chaotically wonderful How About That?, by the relatively unknown Icelandic musician Gisli. The sound employed on that under-appreciated album is undoubtedly heavily indebted to Beck, with a dash of anti-folk, and yet Gisli took his sound in a more overtly accessible direction. His reward for that was, I sense, obscurity.

Still, How About That?, and songs like The Day It All Went Wrong and Mind Games, soundtracked a period of my life… Early days with my (now) wife, hanging with one of my best friends from school, in the early days that followed university, the course of life uncertain.

And so when I heard the gently strummed guitars and overdubbed vocals of DD Walker’s In The Way Or Disappear, I heard the echos of that period of my life. Walker embodies a similar aesthetic – grungy vulnerability meets a loose sense of creative experimentalism. The opening two-minutes plays gently, heartbroken as Walker unpacks a break-up, before a wall of guitars blows away the emotional cobwebs. It’s precisely the sort of thing Gisli would make, and I love it.

Describing the song, DD Walker talks about the urgent pace with which In The Way Or Disappear was written, which is abundantly clear in just how vital it sounds… This is the kind of song that violently comes out of someone, all at once:

“I wrote this in 15 minutes at 2 in the morning after a months-long low after this dramatic break-up. I was crashing in the room I made music in when I was growing up and just put together a little make-shift recording setup for 2 weeks back there. The nostalgia was palpable in that space and with this wish to be back with this person and how we were before it was a negative thing… I demoed a record’s worth of material in a couple (of) weeks, and this was the most direct and quick to finish.”

NYC-based producer DD Walker is currently working on the release of his forthcoming EP, Night At The Arcade. The EP was co-produced and mixed by Andrew Maury, who has previously worked with Post Malone, Shawn Mendes, and Ra Ra Riot. Check out In The Way Or Disappear below.

Listen: Universal Angel by Guava featuring Maddie Ashman

With softly played melodies and low-slung analogue-sounding bass, Universal Angel has a dream-like quality to it from the get go.

Fuzzy synths, low-key percussion and a wonderful vocal from Maddie Ashman create an other-worldly feel. As the song descends into the bridge — a hushed, glitchy section where the music almost seems to stop entirely — Universal Angel manages to nurture a sense of yearning. The abundance of space, and the confidence in the time the song takes, mean that when Ashman’s vocal comes back in, sliding across appropriately angelic melodic notes, it is the aural equivalent of a balm.

Guava is Berlin-based producer, DJ, and multi-instrumentalist Bradley Hutchings. Currently gearing up for his debut LP, Hutchings is set to release the album, titled Out Of Nowhere, via his own imprint, Guava Noise, on October 27. The album sees Hutchings draw on the themes of bittersweet romance, isolation, and yearning, knitted together with elements of shoegaze, breakbeat and electronica. Describing the album, the artist says:

“I can only talk a little about where this album came from. It's tough to intellectualise what happened. I was going through a lot, but also, by that stage, I had started meditating. I've been practising transcendental meditation for years, allowing me to accept who I am and my creative impulses. Leaning into my strengths, but also embracing my shortcomings. I got to a point where I just said, ‘it's time – I'm going to do this’. And whatever comes out, comes out. What I have learnt from all those tours as a session musician and what I have gained from my friends and collaborators is what you hear.”

Check out Universal Angel below, and look out for Out Of Nowhere next month.

Listen: Something You Said by Sasha & The Bear

Channeling an emotive synth pop sound, Something You Said rides the kind of celluloid-soaked 80s-vibe I find so infectious. Big kick drums and snares pulse, as dark chords and arpeggiated melodies rise, slowly enveloping the vocal duet at the centre of Sasha & The Bear’s latest song.

Depicting the challenges and irresistible force of love, Something You Said is an exploration of the wild, unpredictable feelings that flow in the wake of desire and attraction. The song’s melodies and atmosphere are a deliberate reflection of that feeling – both epic and intense.

Sasha & The Bear is the musical pairing of singer, songwriter, and producer Sasha Daniel, and songwriter, producer, and singer Dov Igel. Having both created music individually, the duo came together in Brooklyn under this new guise, back in 2016. The pair subsequently took a break to work individually, with Dov moving to Tel Aviv. Following the tragic death of Dov’s mother, however, they became closer still, travelling to Scandinavia together to make music depicting “nature, loss and friendship”, and more recently to the suburbs of Madrid, where they worked on their debut EP.

Listen: Guestlist by Bulgarian Cartrader

Bulgarian Cartrader, or BCT for short, is the musical persona of Sofia-born singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer Daniel Stoyanov.

In his first year as Bulgarian Cartrader, Stoyanov has made appearances on stages and at festivals across France, the US, Bulgaria, Austria, and Germany. Ahead of his first European headline tour, and as a prelude to a forthcoming EP that is scheduled for February 2024, BCT is unveiling his latest single, Guestlist.

Self-produced, and mixed by the Grammy-nominated Stephen Sedgwick, who has worked with Gorillaz, Lana Del Rey, and with Amy Winehouse, Guestlist glistens with a distinctive energy. With the kind of experimental-yet-glamorous drama that reminds me of alt-indie-R&B of Jai Paul, Guestlist is built around the interplay between a simple synth refrain and classical guitar. Fluid drums and rapid hi-hats give the sound a modern feel, as Stoyanov belts out a clearly personal vocal about his experience of guest-listing music industry professionals.

The resulting song is a little staggering – the creative briefly on display during Guestlist’s short two-and-a-half-minute duration is impressive. Bulgarian Cartrader has engineered a distinctive sound, accessible and yet wholly his own, and in doing so, hints at the potential for great talent for the future.

Listen: Fun At Parties by The Dying Seconds

With an eclectic and expansive sound that draws inspiration from artists as diverse as Phil Spector, Animal Collective, Warp Records, and Radiohead’s Kid A-period, The Dying Seconds have just unveiled their latest single Fun At Parties.

Blending conventional instrumentation like a Fender Rhodes together with granular synthesisers, there is a flavour here of the kind of nostalgic futurism popularised by Arcade Fire and Grizzly Bear. This is something described in the release accompanying Fun At Parties as classic pop songwriting, but depicted through the lens of a less hopeful time.

On Fun At Parties, The Dying Seconds slowly layer together elements to create a beautiful, rousing feeling of dream-like possibility. Following a brief interlude, the song’s closing minute breaks into the kind of sprint that you can’t help but join in with… A dramatic, inspiring conclusion to a song that feels more epic than its short duration would suggest. Check it out below: