Listen: Hunting Points by Aves featuring JFDR

This is the kind of song that arrives in such a cloud of beautiful, heart-breaking vulnerability that it stops me in my tracks, instantly planting me in the moment. On Hunting Points, Helsinki-based pop trio Aves have partnered with the Icelandic artist JFDR to create a spectacularly delicate piece of music.

Together, Aves and JFDR have combined the former’s warm instrumental soundscapes with JFDR’s ethereal vocals. JFDR’s performance here is really spellbinding, and I’m impressed with the delicate way Aves have embellished it, without overpowering something so delicate. Gentle melodic keys create a dream-like aesthetic, with loose percussion and layered synths giving the song a cinematic feel.

As we coast into the holiday season, Aves and JFDR have created the kind of record that feels like a warm hug, and I’m here for it.

Listen: Regulate by iVANA

Regulate starts with a bass guitar riff that feels a little like the sort of thing Kim Deal would create… loose, low-slung, melodic. iVANA’s vocal drips in spit, sweat and attitude, as the snarls through the verse before ploughing into the song’s chorus, head on.

A song about the complexity of relationships, Regulate depicts the sense of yearning for a connection whilst feeling constrained and unable to break free. You can sense the tension in iVANA’s performance, particularly as a wall of grunge-y guitars bite in the song’s chorus.

Hailing from the Poconos in Pennsylvania, iVANA started making music during her college years, under a different name and in a different genre. She ultimately found her calling in the uniquely diverse experiences of New York City. Here, iVANA felt free to break free of conformity, liberating her to combine her love of indie rock with diverse styles and collaborators. Taking inspiration from Santigold and Lykke Li, you can clearly hear the eclectic and artistic aesthetic of the former on display here on Regulate. Check it out below:

Listen: Our Potential by Jaya Bremer

Jaya Bremer’s new single, Our Potential, opens with a simple combination of elements. A softly rounded synth picks out a series of slow chords as a looped rhythm establishes a bed for Bremer’s haunted vocal.

As the song hits the chorus, it builds a stride. The contrast reflects a building confidence and assertiveness from Bremer. Born of a growing yearning, her vocal is louder, clearer, and underpinned by more forthright instrumentation. ‘I’m running out of patience’, Bremer sings, ‘the anticipation, of something new’.

Jaya Bremer’s path to this slice of minimal electronic pop is somewhat unusual. Based in Victoria, British Columbia, Bremer has been on the Victoria music scene for nearly ten years. Her credentials are diverse — fronting a manouche jazz quintet, a Patsy Cline tribute act, an indie-rock band named Wise Child.

Here on Our Potential, Bremer evokes the dance-floor based emotional vulnerability of Robyn, but blends it with the kind of subtlety portrayed by The Japanese House. I find Our Potential extremely effective — restrained and yet desperately emotive. It tracks down those thrilling moments where a physical intimacy is in the air and captures them, the spaces between two people as notable as the spaces their bodies actually occupy. Like the Miles Davis quote, it’s about the notes you don’t play, this is a song about the physical space not occupied. Describing the song, Bremer says:

‘This song is written about a crush developed outside of a committed relationship. It is about the longing, the fantasy of someone else that you know little about and can project your desires onto. Our Potential was written as an outlet for this desire, as a way of allowing myself to explore that longing without doing something I was likely to regret. This song is about not wanting to compromise, but to have it all, the freedom and fun, as well as the person waiting for me at home.’

As Jaya’s new single slides itself towards a conclusion, rising arpeggios echoing French touch, something is unleashed. ‘I wanna give up nothing’, she whispers, the music shaking free of all that restraint, desire soaring. Someone needs to loop that final 45-second portion into something that fully lets me get lost inside of it. My finger on the rewind button, as Bremer says, ‘I’m running out of patience… How about you?’

Listen: Whatever by Anudo

Anudo are a synth pop duo hailing from Italy, and Whatever is their new single. Positioned as a taste of their new album, Whatever simmers with a dark sense of drama.

Using synths, overdubbed vocals and a combination of rock and electronic sensibilities, Whatever reminds me of the kind of aesthetic employed by Foals. The song’s chorus has an introspective sadness to it, synths and bass tones creating a sense of motion as it builds, displaying a sophistication approach to production. Anudo do a remarkable job here, layering electronic and analogue elements together. A truly rude, loose bass guitar carries the song through the bridge at the song’s halfway mark, for example, before it morphs into a more electronic sound, a seamless, distinctive blend.

Overall, the sound Anudo create here has a distinctive sense of emotion and drama. Check out Whatever below, and look for the album, Orange, out now on streaming platforms.

Listen: Ramblin’ by Late Guest At The Party

European-American outfit Late Guest At The Party position themselves as ‘sad boy dance music’, which, for the record, is 100% my jam. Here on Ramblin’ they have partnered with Joe Lambert (DFA Records, and Animal Collective) on mastering duties. And the resulting record is about the journey that ‘often happens in your head’ whilst making music… An exploratory journey of creation, destruction, and reconstruction.

With warm bass notes that have a slightly squelchy, acidic feel to them, Ramblin’ pulses with a nervous energy. Lyrics fly in a stream, a sense of determination creating a propulsive energy as the synths morph around the song’s vocals.

In the middle section, Ramblin’, throws out a cacophony of clattering beats and glitchy electronics, a bridge that gives birth to the song’s closing third. A vocal refrain repeats the line, ‘I’m gonna live in my head’, as the song moves through a slack bass phase, the percussion morphing as the song seemingly hits every single beat possible.

The nerdy beauty on display on Ramblin’ calls to mind the kind of thinking person’s dance music popularised by Hot Chip. I can’t wait to hear more from Late Guest At The Party, whose groove, smarts, and emotion feel equally abundant.