Listen: We’re The Only by Sasha & The Bear

Following on from their celluloid-soaked epic, Something You Said, from September last year, duo Sasha & The Bear are back with new single We’re The Only.

Last time we checked in with Sasha & The Bear, the pair had been brought back together despite being divided by geography. With Dov having moved to Tel Aviv, the death of his mother brought him even closer to Sasha, and the duo started making music again, meeting in Scandinavia and, later, Madrid, to do so. Since then, they have come together in the Netherlands to record their second EP, 7.5 Years, which is scheduled to be released later this year.

Where Something You Said basked in a synth-heavy, cinematic vibe, We’re The Only has a more open and organic sound. The aesthetic has hints of Foals to it, math rock guitars combined with a steady kick drum as reverb heavy vocals evoke a sense of loneliness and space. The sound is like a holiday gone wrong, the space, and time, that should be restorative suddenly becoming lonely and alienating.

The song’s lyrics depict the breakdown of a relationship between two people deeply in love. Faced with the recognition that the relationship they had is over and a sense of disbelief at what happened, yet unsure as to what it was that didn’t work. As Sasha & The Bear let the experience roll around inside their sound, the A437zDJEHf3k_gFrBG__ result is restrained and simple, yet deeply moving.

Watch: Moves by Roman Around

Having recently graced BlackPlastic.co.uk with his presence already in 2024 and, before that, in 2022, Roman Around (real name Roman Rivera) is back with another slice of beautiful, artful pop.

Where The Thanks was a luxuriously lackadaisical performance, Moves moves with excitement. Percussion slaps like flip-flops running down the sidewalk, the fizzy energy of late-night summer fireworks and evenings on beaches.

There is a deliberate nostalgic feel to Moves, as Roman Around looks to explore and encapsulate pivotal moments from their youth. Having lost their best friend at a young age, Rivera went on to witness those around them getting into difficult situations, and becoming parents too soon. Describing his former years, Roman says:

‘These experiences pushed me to surround myself with positive influences. My boundaries with love have been continually tested, such as being unable to contact my brother, watching old friends struggle with addiction, and being abruptly cut off by friends without explanation.’

The need to find some positivity comes through strongly on Moves, as it races along with a sense of ramshackle determination. This is both the hope and terror of being young — at the mercy of things beyond your control, yet with the advantage of time on your side.

Listen: From A Chiringuito by OK Doomer

Despite basking in the kind of widescreen production stylings more commonly found among artists of the American Midwest and West Coast, OK Doomer is the musical pseudonym of South London born songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lou Doyle. Following on from debut single Rivers Cuomo, named after the Weezer lead singer, OK Doomer is back with his new single, From A Chiringuito.

Recorded across London and Hamburg by Tonmeister Hannes Plattmeier, From A Chiringuito is designed to ‘unfold like a time-lapse’. Opening with a softly repeating piano chord, the song unfurls beneath Doyle’s earthy vocal. Scattered percussion creeps, like plants pushing through cracking tarmac, testing for weakness. Guitars come to the fore, before receding once more, and Doyle sings of dilapidated houses and satan.

The whole piece feels like a natural step forward from Rivers Cuomo, which was atmospheric rather than cinematic. The resulting evolution, here on From A Chiringuito, lands the listener somewhere between Thom Yorke, Stufjan Stevens and Bon Iver. It’s a tantalising vision of where OK Doomer might go, given the breadth of a full album.

Listen: Your Favorite Girl by Country Girl

With summer, both seemingly feeling relentless, and yet inevitably drawing to a close, I continue to find myself basking in a series of sun-kissed slices of melody.

The latest of these perfect-for-summer records is Your Favorite Girl by Country Girl, a record that basks in its scattershot percussion and hushed vocals. Those voices evoke the feel of a perfect, soft kiss, as the lyrics depict the experience of directing our movie scenes in our heads, the construction of a movie narrative of our latest crush.

Raised in New York and now biased in Brooklyn, Country Girl was homeschooled in preparation for studying classical composition at Juilliard. Insulated from the impact of popular culture, his influences instead came from the likes of Maurice Ravel and Steve Reich. On Your Favorite Girl, the debut single for Country Girl on the FADER label, Country Girl combines his classical upbringing with contemporary pop sensibilities. The result is modern, yet also has a touch of 90s Britpop to it, with echoes of Teenage Fanclub and James, whilst simultaneously evoking the Country Girl’s own environment, as he describes the song as:

‘The very essence of sticky New York summer, an exploration of those little moments when your heart bursts out of your chest, when you have to pour a whole bottle of water on your head and you don’t even feel cold when it hits.’

Your Favorite Girl is a little perfect capsule of summer fancy: apply liberally like sunblock.

Listen: Make Believe by St. Anthony Mann

We are in the middle of a bit of a sustained heat wave in the UK, which is a little rare for August. Typically, as soon as the schools break up for summer at the end of July, the weather turns wetter. Instead, I find myself regularly trying to keep my newly laid turf alive as the sun beats down.

As a result, I’ve found myself leaning even more heavily into the kind of warm synth sounds, falsetto vocals and skittering percussion that I love so much, and that always feels even more perfect in the sun. It’s into this headspace that St. Anthony Mann’s Make Believe arrives.

With the kind of vocal that sounds like fruit that has just reached peak ripeness whilst still on the vine, Make Believe combines an emotive performance with thick and glossy synth melodies and choral harmonies. The effect feels simple and restrained, yet only happens as a result of a careful combination of layers. This beguiling sense of complexity and simplicity perhaps stems from the song’s creation, with the song starting as a simpler acoustic song before mutating into something more energising:

‘This song started out as a soft acoustic piece, but somewhere the arrangement itself went down a different path and came up with all this energy behind it, which was exciting. At that point, it all came together quite naturally. Later on my good friend JT Bates (Bonny Light Horseman, Big Red Machine, Taylor Swift) did some arranging of the drums and percussion sounds after I had recorded the initial guitar-stutter track.’

Hailing from St. Paul, Minnesota, Mann starting making music in high school, with finger-style guitar and experimental alternate tunings. Having spent time in the Midwestern plains, he returned to Minnesota and started recording music under the moniker St. Anthony Mann.

On Make Believe, Mann is inspired by the notion of transition and change as we head down paths unknown, as explained below:

‘This song, for me, is about that point of transition as you step onto a new path or a new journey. (…) A portal or a doorway has always symbolized a new beginning, and folks often might feel some trepidation before the path, as what lies ahead is the unknown. This song meditates on both sides of that decision; those who spend all their time in a sort of liminal space and those that decide to walk the path into the unknown.’