Watch: What’s The Movie by Ayelle

Having previously appeared on BlackPlastic.co.uk back in 2019 with her minimal, crisp R&B Regrets, and then again, a year ago, with her emotive single Get Away, London-based musician Ayelle is back with her latest single.

Taken from her forthcoming release Shadowselflove, What’s The Movie stays true to Ayelle’s trademark style. Emotionally vulnerable lyrics combine with clean lines and stark melodies to create something with a minimal yet dramatic resonance. Restrained melodic touches sit alongside Ayelle’s vocals, underpinned by powerful drum kicks and bass.

Shadowselflove is designed as part one of Ayelle’s debut album, and together with part two, Higherselflove, it forms a concept album exploring “the duality of human experience”. Shadowselflove is designed to be “an invitation to identify and see past our illusions and fears, whilst processing and integrating our shadow aspects from a place of curiosity, acceptance and self-compassion”.

Describing the process of writing Shadowselflove, Ayelle says:

“I wanted to create a safe space for processing difficult emotions, which is what these songs have been for me. I wrote them during a period of my life where I was doing a lot of shadow work and recognizing tender and weary parts of myself, along with limiting beliefs and things that needed to change in my life. I implemented a lot of changes after writing these songs, and the continuation of this healing journey is chronicled in Part 2 of this exploration, set to release next year.”

Check out What’s The Movie below:

Listen: Waiting For Dawn by The Seshen

The Seshen are a Bay Area sextet, focused on creating sounds that blend R&B and indie. The sound here reminds me of the electronic stylings of husband-and-wife duo Sylvan Esso, both in tone and style.

Which is to say, The Seshen are crafting purposeful, distinctive pop music. Vocalist Lalin St. Juste provides an emotive focal point for the instrumentation that surrounds her, here in Waiting For Dawn. Layers of electronic melody combine with low slung bass tones and snappy drums to create a sound that feels stark and clean, whilst benefitting from a slight fuzziness at the edges.

Taken from their forthcoming album, Nowhere, Waiting For Dawn is an exploration of the “restlessness and tumultuous thoughts one experiences while grappling with grief and the aftermath of a significant life transition”. During times of shock and insomnia, sometimes the dawn of a new day is the only salve available. It’s a beautiful, distinctive song and I can’t wait to hear the rest of the record.

Listen: Elevator by Crewless

When asks what music I like, one of my go-to answers has long been “dance music made by rock bands, and rock music made by dance acts”. There is something in that overlap that appeals to me, and perhaps that predisposes me to like Crewless, who claim a very-loose musical backbone of “house music with punk guitars”.

As a group, it appears that Crewless enjoy toying with concepts. They have three vocalists, lending them a hard-to-pin down quality — a diverse palette, a collective energy, and a dynamic interplay. But they also like to create two versions of their songs. It may be that one of these will be more electronic, and dance floor orientated, whilst the other is more laid back.

And that technique is employed here, on Elevator. The “Going Up” version deals in angular guitars, crunchy distortion and loose-but-punchy percussion, a punk-funk aesthetic with a melt-in-the-middle in the chorus. In contrast, the “Going Down” version has a crisper, electronic feel to it, electronic drums providing a cool, polished aesthetic, against which sub-bass and glass-like vocals slide past. Both are special, distinctive, and atmospheric in their own way.

Check both versions of Elevator our, below:

Watch: What Are The Chances by Man Alive

Man Alive is the solo project of Mark Prendergast, of Dublin outfit Kodaline, and his new single is the kind of song that feels instantly recognisable. The opening guitar refrain invokes familiar melodies as Prendergast lays down a wistful, heartbroken vocal.

Rather than shelter in timidity, however, What Are The Chances is full-throated, the chorus arriving in a golden carriage built of piano chords and melodies that ratchet the emotional drama of those gentle guitars. The result is undeniably cinematic, and it would risk being derivative if it wasn’t for two things.

Firstly, through Prendergast’s lyricism. The artist weaves together universally emotive themes, from small details, like visiting the old haunts of a loved one, to the big thematic hook of wanting to start a relationship again, with his promise of being better.

Yet Prendergast contrasts these, almost like an unreliable narrator — the odd disconcerting line hanging over his earnest vocals like a trailing question mark. Chief among them is the admission that, “I know I burned your neighbourhood to the ground”, but there are other details — walking in the rain, smoke in his room, and ultimately the reflection that “I’d probably end up doing the same”. It’s the kind of love song that straddles epic romance, and something quite a bit darker.

The second reason What Are The Chances transcends its form, however, is just how deftly it is constructed. Unwilling to rest on its laurels, the song further ratchets the chorus on its second iteration. In addition to the piano, it introduces dramatic reverb-heavy percussion before giving way to a bridge that has Prendergast’s vocal ad-libbing its way into the sunset.

Describing the song for BlackPlastic.co.uk, Prendergast shares how it is very much rooted in personal experience:

“What Are The Chances is a song about being at fault for a break up happening, for being on the other side of it. There’s no way around it, I let someone down and it’s about that. In the past I’ve written more from the other perspective because that’s where I was at.”

I was a little blown away by What Are The Chances, a song that feels so familiar and yet so memorable all at once.

Listen: PseudoFriends by Gold Spectacles

Gold Spectacles are a London-based outfit with a polished-yet-DIY aesthetic who draw inspiration from artists as broad as Paul Simon, Lykke Li and Phoenix.

Having released their eponymous debut LP in 2019, Gold Spectacles have had a busy start to 2023, producing music with Mysie, SOFY, Johnny Stimson, and Viddy, and also releasing their EP, More Heart Than Sense (Pt. 1). PseudoFriends is the first song from follow-up EP, More Heart Than Sense (Pt. 2), and the source of both EPs’ titles.

PseudoFriends is a dive into the kind of connections that portray themselves as more meaningful than they are — superficial connections that can be mistaken for real friendship.

The song is built around a central bassline that vibrates with a kind of life, almost a growl, loose yet heavy feeling. Indeed, the band note this is where the song started:

“We’ve been sitting on this one for a little while. The bassline came first. We spent a few hours jamming to it before we had solidified the lyric. The rest then followed pretty quickly. We had just got off the phone to an old friend who had been really let down by her mates, and we wanted to write about this and the idea of not ever knowing who to put your trust in. Being burnt by who you think are dependable protagonists in your life is never fun. Don’t worry, they’re doing a lot better now!”

The magic in PseudoFriends, however, is in the details Gold Spectacles have created around it. Whilst there is an easy, freeform aesthetic here, it feels like every detail has been sweated over… the percussion, the interplay between the vocals, little guitar licks, and the touches of instrumentation all feel meticulously planned. It is this subtle attention to detail that shines, with the song having a lived-in feel to it, whilst benefitting from a highly produced, detailed aesthetic. Check it out below.