Vilde (photo credit: Elin Ghersinich)
Armed with a collection of not-so-well-known tunes and an inquiring mind Getintothis’ Mike Stanton fires Unknown Pleasures into your beautiful faces once more.
First up some immaculately crafted electronics from Sweden, via Australia. Ex-Kins frontman Thomas Savage AKA Vilde has returned with the stylish, sophisticated and floating Flash In The Pan. Taking his trademark penchant for imbuing intelligent art-rock with pop-sensibilities, Flash In The Pan is perhaps the best distillation of Vilde’s unique style to date. It also acts as a taste of what can be expected on his new album, Thud, due for release 13 July.
Atmospheric and with a Scandinavian air of witchy electro-pop mystery akin to The Knife or Fever Ray, Flash In The Pan sparkles with a club-tinged groove which drifts like a snowstorm of glowing synths and electro-pop.
In writing this new release, Savage reflected on and refined his creative process: “Thud was a new experience for me. I realised that I felt like the last time I really knuckled down and dug into something was making the Kins album in 2012. I’d lost touch with the concept of work ethic in music. Everything since had been whimsical, I believed inspiration was reliable. My productivity waned. I felt an urge to prove to myself that I could actually commit to something and follow it through.”
Flash In The Pan is out now, with the full-length Thud set to follow on 13 July.
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The Old Pink House (Press Photo)
Next up a track that grabs you instantly with layered electric guitars, keyboards and a whole lot of bass that propels The Old Pink House’s alternative dance-fueled music forward. This is a high energy, rhythm-driven affair, with synthy basslines and rock-solid beats.
In fact, beat and melody rule here and that’s no bad thing, it’s undeniably catchy and a satisfying listen. It’s that heady mix of bright rock & roll and fizzy electronic dance-pop centered around big, crunchy guitars, equally big, crunchy synthesizers and bluntly energetic beats that grabs you.
Straight out of Newcastle UK, The Old Pink House have been causing a stir locally and beyond over the past 18 months with a string of 80’s inflected cosmic-pop singles. New track JADED is the second cut from their forthcoming debut EP, and continues the quartet’s neon march into the national scene’s collective consciousness.
Of this latest release, frontman Christopher Brown explains “JADED is about how things we go through wear us down. I’m naturally a pessimistic person and the lyrics are shot through with that sense of cynicism, but at the same time I’m always trying to peel away at it as it traps us in a vicious cycle where we become more and more numb to everything around us. With the way everything in the world is going now, it’s the last thing anyone needs.”
JADED is retro-flare and starburst electronica designed for pure pop confections and is out now.
Searmanas (Press Photo)
Cleopatra Records has announced the forthcoming album release for NYC-based electronic artist Searmanas. Slated for release on July 6, her first full-length self-titled album covers a wide spectrum of the electronic music world, previewed by the first single Undo.
Reminiscent of the electronic trip-hop of Lamb or Télépopmusik, Undo is dramatic, widescreen and sweeping. Huge arcing swathes of synth are exactly what headphones crave on rainy days. Seductive melodies haunt the space around sparse beats and echoing ambience recalling Goldfrapp on Velvet Mountain, however Searmanas is in a more sombre and gloomy mood.
Introspective and reflective, “Undo is a pause to the beginning before everything hurt. It is the release of the concept of time. It is the beginning of the process of healing,” explains electronic producer and creative force behind Searmanas, Niabi Aquena.
Searmanas‘ sound explores the role of ceremony within urban experience, resulting in severe, textured landscapes with touches of sparse vocals. Her wordless poetry ranges from industrial glitches to layered, oceanic progressions, all tied together by an aura of questioning and chaos.
Inspired by Aphex Twin, Ryuichi Sakamoto, early Tori Amos, Jóhann Jóhannsson and Fever Ray, Aquena has constructed some beautiful haunted romanticism.
Undone is out now on Cleopatra Records.
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