Listen: On My Mind by Carolina Chase

Somewhat unbelievably, On My Mind, is the product of an artist who is just 15-years-old. Hailing from Los Angeles, Carolina Chase began writing songs at the age of nine, before releasing her first collection of music by the age of 12. This latest release comes ahead of Chase’s debut album, Warwick.

On My Mind is an emotive piece of indie pop that sits at the intersection of emotive piano balladry and epic electronic music. With a vocal that evokes the delivery of Lorde, the song’s gentle piano gives way to sounds altogether more intense.

The electronic portions of On My Mind feel like they are the product of Second Toughest of the Infants-era Underworld. With synth stabs that echo those of Born Slippy (Nuxx), things gradually descend into the glitchy, wobbly bass tones put to effect on that album’s Pearl’s Girl. Whether a fifteen-year-old from LA is deliberately channeling the British alt-dance of Underworld is a mystery but, regardless, Carolina pulls together the constituent parts of her song into something remarkably cohesive and effective.

Chase notes that the song is about learning to let go of focusing on what others think, and instead embrace your own sense of self, as she describes:

'I wrote (the song) after I learned the harsh truth that trying to win over people who wanted me to lose would never help me succeed. This song details the journey of letting go of those people, and becoming my own person.’

Check out On My Mind below, and look out for the album, Warwick, in September.

In addition to listening in the post, you can find almost all the music BlackPlastic covers on the music player of your choice. Add the dedicated playlist below:

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Listen: It’s Enough by Atmos Bloom

Opening with low slung bass and bright guitars, the latest song from duo Atmos Bloom sits somewhere between post punk and shoegaze.

Atmos Bloom is the product of Tilda Gratton and Curtis Paterson. The pair met when Gratton auditioned to play bass in Paterson’s band at university in Manchester. What started as a musical journey, channeling the likes of Sonic Youth and Pavement, evolved into something bigger. The pair are now life partners, based in London.

It’s Enough feels perfect for our current UK heat wave — bright guitar melodies weaving amidst Tilda’s beautiful, hushed vocals. The result is something like the Sundays with New Order’s Hooky on bass.

Having created their debut album, Flora, during the pandemic, the duo are now set to release a new album, Everythingness, via Spirit Goth on 24 July. Here on It’s Enough, Atmos Bloom reflect on the pressure to meet the various expectations others place on us, and the realisation that you don’t need to meet the demands of others to be enough.

In addition to listening in the post, you can find almost all the music BlackPlastic covers on the music player of your choice. Add the dedicated playlist below:

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Listen: Ether by Banyan

Having appeared on BlackPlastic with their 2023 song, More to Say, Banyan are back with a new slice of blissed-out electronic music in the form of new single Ether.

Whilst both Ether and More to Say channel the same rounded, soft synth sound, this new release has a driven feel to the percussion. The result is a song perfectly suited to the moment where the sun touches the Mediterranean horizon. It is reflective, dramatic, and beautiful.

Lyrically, Ether deals with the experience of having found someone who you expected to be your person, only to have it fall apart. The song is racked with disappointment, with a chorus focused on the experience of walking on sand in the rain. It isn’t difficult to make the metaphorical leap to sandcastles eroded, like the dreams of a future with someone you had a deep connection with.

Talking to Banyan, the duo describe their approach to creating the record in a way that supports and compliments the lyrics, something that feels like it reflects their experience in providing remixes for other artists:

‘We put a lot of love into the nuances and details on this record and took a very delicate and intentional approach while producing the sonic world around the lyrics. We wanted to impart a tinge of hope into the production while being careful to also retain the emotional depth of the lyrics.’

The result is an emotionally charged record, wistful and hurt, yet with an eye to the future, and the potential it holds.

In addition to listening in the post, you can find almost all the music BlackPlastic covers on the music player of your choice. Add the dedicated playlist below:

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Listen: Sugar in my Drink by Tricky FM

Opening with a dialling tone, one-sided snapshots of a phone call and warm, widescreen synths, Trick FM’s new single evokes a kind of late ‘90s / early ‘00s electronica. Fractured drum beats and ambient found sounds create an assembled sound that evokes urban Britain.

What is surprising is that Tricky FM is the musical pseudonym of Hana Freed, based in San Francisco. Whilst Sugar in my Drink basks in the kind of open skies and warmth I associate with the Bay Area, I haven’t heard anything quite like this from a US artist before. Cymbal crashes flip from one channel to the other, centring the listener amidst all the colours Freed is painting with. The result is warm and hopeful, as reflected in vocals that depict someone cautiously embracing a love and newfound self-respect. Everything feels good, and yet the only question is whether that, in and of itself, is a problem.

When I first heard Sugar in my Drink, it reminded me of Underworld’s Scribble. Both because of how they similarly combine drum & bass with thick, uplifting synths, and also because both songs make the use of the found phone call recording aesthetic. The snatched words of Scribble always captured my curiosity — a little mystery box within a record. Here, Freed adds backstory and texture to her performance in a way that connects us to her story, and it adds to the emotional stakes of her performance.

Having established herself across a variety of clubs, venues and punk bars in the Bay Area and beyond, Hana established her sound with her debut album, Peace, Love, Unity, Rave, on Cherub Dream Records. That record arrived amidst urgency and anger. The follow-up, Twin Star Fantasy, is born the other side of this reckoning — within a newfound stillness. That is reflected in the quiet contemplation snatched amidst the rolling drums here on Sugar in my Drink. The result is a dynamic yet beautiful listening experience.

Listen: IDWTC by Adrobski

Pulling together elements of electronic production, with heavy synths and fractured distortion, with traces of alternative rock, Adrobski creates a kind of beautiful noise on IDWTC.

The individual pieces glisten, like an explosion of broken glass in slow motion, whilst garage rock elements act like gravity and keep the overall sound grounded. Feedback swirls, bit crushed vocals squeak under the weight of compression, and drums rattle. A beauty emerges from the surprisingly organic feeling collage of sound French artist Adrobski creates here, a distillation of the tension the song is born from.

IDWTC is the title track from Adrobski’s forthcoming EP, which deals with the experience of growing up. Here on the preceding single, Adrobski wrestles with a choice he refuses to make — between music and ‘real life’. In doing so, it feels like he gets to the hardest thing about growing up — the realisation that our time is finite, and choices we make come with an opportunity cost.

Check out the song IDWTC below, and look out for the EP on Friday.

In addition to listening in the post, you can find almost all the music BlackPlastic covers on the music player of your choice. Add the dedicated playlist below:

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