D4RKSTAR, the musical project of Gothenburg musician Andreas Lindh, made his debut in June 2018 with the album Black Hearts. The follow-up to last year's amazing album is Dystopian Nightmare/Revolutionary Morning, an EP, which will be released this spring via Modernshortcuts. FP2T is stoked to be premiering today the first single 'Sparks'. It is an absolutely powerful introduction to a very promising upcoming EP. Enjoy!
It's been three years since the last release by Spanish indie pop duo Lost Tapes and it was about time they brought out some new material. Since late December 2018 they had been teasing their fans with news of a fresh 4-track EP. The Bill will be out on February 22nd and Pau Roca and RJ Sinclair promise to immerse you into vibes of pure happiness in song format. The first single they are sharing today is proof of that. The electronic drumroll begins and it brings along melodies and bubbly arrangements that will fill your being and put a smile on your face. From Pop 2 Top is happy to be premiering a lyric video for the title song 'The Bill' created by Adriá Martínez Roda. The EP will be out on 7" via Kocliko Records (EU), digitally via Shelflife (USA) and on cassette via Shiny Happy Records (Asia). Watch the video and listen to 'The Bill' below!
February is proving to be a hot month for indie pop releases. The latest addition to the albums-we're-loving-this-year list comes from Corey Cunningham's solo project Business Of Dreams. The Los Angeles based musician and former Terry Malts and Magic Bullets guitarist created his debut self-titled album Business Of Dreams in 2017 as an outlet for inner emotional purification. His sophomore album Ripe For Anarchy was released on February 1st and conveys feelings of release, confidence and optimism. From the opening 'Chasing That Feeling' to the majestic, closing track 'Keep The Blues Away' Cunningham has managed to create his rendition of the genre as well as pay a stellar homage to past indie pop legends, such as The Field Mice. Ripe For Anarchy is out on vinyl and CD on Slumberland Records and Knock Yr Socks Off Records. Check it out below!
Swedish indie pop band Sambassadeur formed in 2003 and by 2010 they had released three albums on Labrador Records. After a seven-year-absence they are back with a new single taken from their upcoming fourth album Survival, which will be out on April 12th on the band's newly launched label European Records. 'Out Of Afrikka' sounds like an oasis of serenity and can quench your thirst for escapism thanks to the jangly guitars and Anna Persson's melodic voice. While waiting for the album you can watch the video directed by Samuel Peterson and filmed at an indoor beach outside Gothenburg. Enjoy!
Frederik Jehle and Josh Turner formed The BV's in 2016 after meeting on a university exchange programm in Cornwall and becoming roommates. They released their debut album, Speaking From A Distance, in 2017 and the follow-up EP, Interpunktion in early 2018. In summer 2018, the BV’s returned to the house in Cornwall where they met to record their second LP, which is scheduled for release on Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten in 2019. Their new single is called 'Every Story Is A Ghost Story' and is out on 7" vinyl on Cloudberry Records. Both the title song and the b-side 'Happy, Alright?' are indie-pop gems following the duo's unique and distinctive sound. Make sure to check them out below!
Uma & The Wandering Stars is the music project of London based singer and songwriter Uma Starets and musicians from different backgrounds, who have been wandering the world playing music. With varying influences, their music is a mixture of shoegaze, indie pop and alt-rock. October 26th was the official release date of 'Get Out', the fourth single off their debut EP Trapped, which will be released later on. 'Get Out' is a dream pop/shoegazey track that inspired the name and theme of the EP. Feelings of hopelessness and melancholy give way to positivity and transform it into a euphoric tune with the help of Uma's velvety voice.
The single is accompanied with an excellent video created by Bosco Shane. You can watch the video below and listen to 'Get Out' on Spotify and other digital platforms.
There is an artist you should follow. There is an album you should check. And - I promise you - you will fall for it. D4RKSTAR is the moniker of Gothenburg based, Swedish musician Andreas Lindh. After a 5-year hiatus from making music, his first solo album Black Hearts (June 2018) came about as a need to express personal feelings and situations. Needless to say, do not expect a "cheerful" album. Do expect, however, to be drawn in a highly evocative album, which blends darkwave, shoegaze and electro with Andreas' smooth vocals. And though most of the nine tracks are on the long side, they are so addictive that you will be asking for a few more minutes of them. 'Louder' is the latest single off the album. It presents a dreamlike, still edgy, soundscape and perfectly balances melancholy undertones with a certain indie pop touch. The single includes a remix by electronica maestro Lønnkrog and gives off nostalgic Depeche Mode vibes. You can check a video for 'Louder' below along with the whole album already available via Modernshortcuts on various digital platforms.
Holy Now are an indie-pop quartet (Julia Olander, Ylva Holmdahl, Samuel von Bahr Jemth, Hampus Eiderström Swahn) from Gothenburg, Sweden and today is the day they are releasing their debut album Think I Need The Light. Indie-pop fans will find the album to be lavish in upbeat, shimmering guitars and drum beats accompanied by Julia Olander's distinctive voice. Inspired by Gothenburg rain, heartbreaks and friendship, the 8-track album feels like looking at the future through cherry blossoms. Think I Need The Light is available on limited edition vinyl and CD via Lazy Octopus Records and on various listening platforms.
The album is already among our favourites of the year. Be sure to check it out below!
Dose are an experimental noise-rock band from Newcastle. They have been together under many iterations since 2015, blending art rock, krautrock and slowcore into one melodically obscure effect. Furniture is their latest single, which was released in February and is officially out today on 7" vinyl via A Turntable Friend Records. Inspired by the experience of playing in their squalid, decaying practice space, Furniture was written by Sean Turland and Ewan Barr and recorded at Suburban Home Studio with MJ from Hookworms. The full band includes bassist Matthew Collerton, guitar/synth/samples from Sam Campbell and drummer Joe Donkin. Both 'Furniture' and 'Opaque' are drenched in melodic guitars spiraling around Ewan’s spoken word overlapping Sean’s distant vocals building up an emotionally dynamic atmosphere. Check out the single and the video for 'Furniture' below!
It's not very often that I stumble upon French garage/indie-pop bands, but here is a quintet that instantly caught my attention. En Attendant Ana come from Paris and after their 2016 EP Songs From The Cave they are releasing today their debut album Lost and Found. If you are fans of Electrelane or Veronica Falls, you will enjoy the album's lively guitar tunes and trumpets. Lost and Found is out now in vinyl on French labels Buddy Records and Montagne Sacrée and in June on American Trouble In Mind. You can stream the album and watch the video for 'The Violence Inside' below.
Foliage is the solo project of San Bernardino, CA songwriter/musician Manuel Joseph Walker, who released his impressive sophomore album Silence in July 2017. He just announced the upcoming release of his third album III in late April 2018 and shared the first single, 'It's Time'. Faithful to the jangle/dream pop sound he's so far produced, the single is an introduction to something beautiful to come. Check it out below.
After the success of their debut album Speaking From A Distance in April 2017, German band The BV's are releasing today their brand new EP 'Interpunktion' on Augsburg label Kleine Untergrund Schallplatten. The 5-track EP is the result of recording sessions at Bear Cave Studio in Cologne, during the band’s tour with The Luxembourg Signal in September 2017. The EP includes two tracks planned to be recorded in the studio as well as three extra ones, which were improvised and recorded live in one take.
Pressed on clear vinyl and limited to 200 hand-numbered copies, each EP comes with unique, handmade artwork by The BV’s guitarist/singer Fred, consisting of a handprinted monoprint on A1 tracing paper, cut into seven pieces. The digital edition comes with its own artwork, also designed by Fred. 'Interpunktion' resembles a sonic journey through jangly-gazey-pop sounds where the listener is invited to imagine and add their own "punctuation".
Have a listen below!
As the year is coming to an end, it is time for Bolywool's final installment in the 'From Void To Matter' trilogy. Volume 3 follows the Swedish band's September release and introduces new elements to the palette, such as a combination of pop-y parts with more artsy and abstract ones. 'The Age Of Entitlement' stands out with its vigour and 'You Are Not Alone In The Universe, I Am Here' is a true anthem, which sums up the stunning EP and trilogy. The EP is available on Bandcamp and Spotify via VÅRØ records. Check it out below!
'Molten Young Lovers' is Airiel's second full-length album following their 2012's 'Kid Games' EP. The band, which hails from Chicago, IL., does not need many introductions among shoegaze fans. Jeremy Wrenn often describes their music as:"It's loud. It's pretty. You can dance to it."; it's a description that fits perfectly this album. 'Molten Young Lovers' instantly engages its listeners into an alternating array of uptempo (This Is Permanent, Sharron Apple) and downtempo songs (Your Lips,My Mouth, Molten Young Lovers, Song Of You). This album sounds like an ode to love and is full of captivating melodies permeated with Airiel's magical ability to turn the audio into visual with their lyrics. It's safe to say that it's among our favourite albums of 2017 (and not only). 'Molten Young Lovers' came out on October 13th on double LP and digital formats on Shelflife Records. Do not miss it!
There's a term in literary theory called 'intertextuality', which has to do with the interrelationship between texts that have influenced a writer to create a work or the reader to understand a particular piece of writing. The case of Fimbria's album 'Eternal Return' is one in which the artist uses his influences to create something unique. Fimbria is the solo electronic project of American-born composer, multi-instrumentalist, and songwriter Brian Castriota (earlier composing as 'Earth First') who released a 5-track EP 'Northern Winds' in 2014 on FMT Recordings. His music bears influences from the more wistful moments of The Radio Dept. as well as new age and electronic music pioneers, such as Suzanne Ciani, Harold Budd, John Kerr, and Enya. In 'Eternal Return' Brian worked meticulously to assemble and combine a particular palette of synthesizers: the lush pads and leads of the Juno-106, the breathiness of the M1, and the Gregorian chants of the VP-330. The album has been described as the soundtrack to "the last few shots of a movie that had a pretty unhappy ending, one of those achy coda endings that's mildly hopeful but it just seems that way relative to how grim the conclusion was in the penultimate scene." It is officially released today on Cadent Records, a label co-operated by Brian Castriota and Ethan Wells (Ebn Ezra), who both have a sense that their music belongs to and comes from another time and place, hence their fondness for Romantic painting, early MIDI- and voltage-controlled synthesizers, and megalithic earthworks. The painting by 19th-century German painter Caspar David Friedrich on the cover adds to the overall feel of the album. It is entitled 'Evening Landscape With Two Men' and Brian explains its purpose: "I like the ambiguity of it - the relationship portrayed, whose perspective it's from, and whether they're looking at a sunrise, sunset, or nuclear explosion." 'Eternal Return' is a multifaceted album and invites the listener to effortlessly dive into its various layers of depth again and again. It is available digitally and on limited edition cassette and CD. Check it out below!
Bolywool are a shoegaze/post-rock band formed in 1998 by cousins Calle Thoor and Oskar Karlström on the Swedish island of Öland. With numerous releases under their belt already, they have just shared the second volume of their 'From Void To Matter' trilogy. Following the first part, that was mostly improvised in the studio, this volume is an extraordinary continuation of their work with manifold, shimmering layers. The first song takes up from where they left the single 'The Dial' (released in 2010) with brilliant vocals by Julia Bjernelind from Westkust. The three songs create a vivid image of multiple sonic explosions that materialize into an ethereal, highly evocative, autumnal landscape. Volume 3 will be released later this year. A collective vinyl-box of all volumes has also been planned for 2018 to celebrate Bolywool's anniversary of 20 years as a band. The EP is out digitally via Swedish indie label VÅRØ.
Listen and get transported below.
Citrus Clouds released an impressive album in 2016 called 'Imagination', a musical trait they have no shortage of. The dream pop trio from Phoenix, Arizona (comprised of Erick Pineda, Stacie Huttleston and Angelica Pedrego) are ready for their new EP, 'Ultra Sound', which will drop on September 22nd on Custom Made Music. They've just shared the first single 'Life Happens', a song about loss and our ability to move on; when something ends, you have to accept it and grow. Musically, the song is wrapped up in the band's melodic guitar and bass lines, a sample of a more mature work we are looking forward to. You can listen to 'Life Happens' and pre-order the EP below.
TV Sets formed in Toronto in 2014 when Angela and Joshua heard each other playing music through the walls of their apartment building. They eventually met and started working together. Their third member, also called Josh, joined after being the only person to respond to Angela and Josh's vague Craigslist ad in search of fans of experimental electronic music. After revealing the first single Fools Day a few months ago, on August 11th the Canadian bedroom-pop trio released their new EP 'Elsewhere', which features 6 tracks that harmoniously blend jangly guitars and atmospheric bass. The title track is about the contradicting will to change overnight while being attached to the past. The video was shot on Super 8 film and it follows the band through different local hang outs around their home town. Check out the video and stream/buy 'Elsewhere' below.
Coming from a very sunlit country, I have always been fascinated by the amount of "cheerful" indie pop music northern - typically thought as gloomy and cold - countries produce. It seems to me that good indie pop coming from Scandinavian bands has become the norm. And here's (another) proof. Verandan are the latest addition to Finnish label, Soliti's list of great bands. They were formed in late 2015 around songs written by Ville Hopponen (known from Cats on Fire and latterly The New Tigers). Aiding and abetting Ville on his new adventure are the magnificent players Aleksi Peltonen (Puunhalaaja) Aki Pohjankyrö (Black Twig, LOVE SPORT), Kaarlo Stauffer (Black Twig) and Sampo Seppänen (Sofa Pets, Kynnet). Their first single 'Gold In The Hills' was released earlier in June and they've just shared their second one, 'Short Dream', from their forthcoming EP. As the title suggests, the song takes us into a short dream. The harmonic jangle of the guitars is mixed with the softness of the synths, making us step into the vividness of a dream. It’s short lived, as the song takes off with a direct guitar lead right after the vocals: “I’m awake now, I’ll walk on but I know it’s different, from now on”. Ville expands: “The song is built around an old musical idea that was lying around gathering dust but knew deep down it would eventually be of use. It’s mostly about the contrast between a vivid dream (or some other profound experience) and the mundane and how the former sometimes can make the latter feel underwhelming. Like the fate of a tourist.” 'Short Dream' will be released digitally on August 14th. As the summer is slowly coming to an end, I urge you to dive into this dreamy tune, which - like all things happy - doesn't seem to last long enough!
Hailing from Denmark's capital city, post-punk trio The Foreign Resort are two days away from officially releasing their new single 'She Is Lost', the first song from their next full length album. The band seem to be returning to the analogue sound of their 'New Frontiers' album, but in a more minimalistic way and with plenty of electronics and spacious drums to create a dreamy yet upbeat soundscape full of contrast. For lead singer Mikkel B. Jakobsen 'She Is Lost' is a very personal song about what he sarcastically refers to as “the summer of love”: “It was one of the worst summers in my life. I came out strong on the other side, but this song was written partly when things were looking very bad and I was not doing the right things to get to a better place and partly when I had realized it was not just me who was the problem. Hence the title 'She Is Lost'.” Steffan Petersen’s motorik bass and Morten Hansen’s dynamic drumming exquisitely embrace Mikkel's sophisticated reverb-enveloped guitar lines and captivating vocals producing a melancholic and yet buoyant effect. The band have also recently contributed the track 'Skyline/Decay' to the Alternative F̷acts: A Shoegaze Resistance Compilation, curated by DKFM Shoegaze Radio and are embarking on a ten-day Canada tour on April 20th.
While eagerly waiting for their new material, you can enjoy 'She Is Lost' below.
