Synth Pop
Blaqk Audio (AFI Members) Announce New Album, Unveil Five New Songs Including “Hiss”: Stream
Blaqk Audio, the synth outfit made up of AFI members Davey Havok and Jade Puget, have announced a new album, Beneath the Black Palms. The entire LP will be released on August 21st, but the duo has made Side A, comprised of five songs, available today. Beneath the Black Palms marks the fifth album for Blaqk Audio, following up 2019’s Only Things We Love. Along with releasing the first five tracks on the album, the duo has unveiled a visualizer for the first single, “Hiss”. “Beneath the Black Palms is an affirmation, exaltation, and momentary illumination of rich, arcane shadows fortified by blinding and rapturous light,” stated Havok in a press release. “Musically a bird sister of Only Things We Love, our latest record more deeply traverses our EBM and futurepop roots while also extend...
Taylor Swift’s folklore Dismantles Her Own Self-Mythologizing: Review
The Lowdown: Born of isolation, Taylor Swift’s eighth album, folklore, interrogates the pop star’s self-mythologizing and turns her gaze outward. Created during the ongoing pandemic, Swift collaborated remotely on 11 songs with Aaron Dessner of The National, who shared orchestrations composed inside his own quarantine. The results lean toward modern folk and glitchy experimentation, abandoning pop bombast but not the drama of swelling strings or anxious percussion. The accompanying visuals depict a gloomy summer, and listeners can imagine Swift watching storms barrel across the Atlantic horizon and wandering old-growth forests in half-done braids, alone or with a companion socially distanced beyond the frame. Dropped on 24 hours’ notice without her typically painstaking roll-out, the 16 mo...
Future Islands Share “For Sure”, First New Song in Three Years: Stream
Synthpop heroes Future Islands are back with their first new song in three years. The track is called “For Sure” and it sees the Baltimore band teaming up with Jenn Wasner of Wye Oak, a pairing that sounds seamless in practice. A press release states this is Future Island’s first new music since releasing their 2017 album The Far Field. Technically, though, the band released a standalone single called “Calliope” back in 2018 for Adult Swim’s Singles Series. Regardless, “For Sure” marks a welcome return for the band, especially because there could potentially be more new music on the way. “For Sure” is a soaring number that feels like you’re being filled with hope — something we could certainly use a little more of this year. Armed with their usual blend of synthpop, nonstop drums, and big ...
Failure Share New Cover of Depeche Mode’s “Enjoy the Silence”: Stream
Failure have released a newly recorded version of the Depeche Mode classic “Enjoy the Silence” more than 20 years after originally covering the song for a tribute album. Back in 1998, Failure contributed a cover of the song to the Depeche Mode tribute compilation For the Masses. However, with the LP long out of print, the Los Angeles rockers decided to record an updated version of the track, which originally appeared on Depeche Mode’s landmark album Violator. As Failure frontman Ken Andrews explained, “We originally recorded a cover of ‘Enjoy the Silence’ for the 1998 Depeche Mode tribute, For the Masses. That album has all but disappeared, no longer in print and not available via streaming platforms but we as a band are proud of our take on that song and had wanted to re-record it for som...
Sonic Boom Breaks Down His First Album in 30 Years, All Things Being Equal, Track by Track: Stream
In Track by Track, artists are given the chance to take their fans through their latest album one song at a time. Today, Sonic Booms details All Things Being Equal. Spacemen 3 co-founder Peter Kember is back with his first solo album under his Sonic Boom moniker in 30 years, All Things Being Equal. Out via Carpark Records, the 10-track LP in streaming in full below via Apple Music and Spotify. His first Sonic Boom full-length since 1990’s Spectrum, Kember laid the groundwork for All Things Being Equal back in 2015, recording a number of electronic instrumentals with no firm plans. Though Stereolab’s Tim Gane told him he should release the tracks as is, Kember felt “the vibe in them was so strong that I couldn’t resist trying to ice the cake.” When he moved to Sintra, Portugal in 2018,...
Lady Gaga’s Chromatica Dances Through the Pain and Trauma: Review
The Lowdown: It feels strange listening to dance music at a time when dance clubs themselves, nights out with friends, and, for many, friends in general are impossible to access in person. Like so many of the joys people have managed to find in quarantine, kitchen-floor dance parties and celebrations shared via Zoom and FaceTime — while necessary reliefs and real, genuine joys — can also sometimes feel tinged with a hint of delirium. But Chromatica feels like an appropriate answer to the vacancy created by this dissonance — as a lot of Lady Gaga’s work has done in the past, it offers up some honest-to-God bangers side by side with some honest-to-oneself reckonings with trauma, pain, addiction, and the very idea of what it means to be flawed and how this idea shifts depending on who’s defin...
Tei Shi on What to Expect After “Die 4 Ur Love”
Kyle Meredith With… Tei Shi Listen via Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | Stitcher | Radio Public | RSS Valerie Barbosa, aka Tei Shi, calls up Kyle Meredith to discuss her new single “Die 4 Ur Love” and her upcoming EP. The Columbian-Canadian singer talks about the difference in writing in Spanish vs. English, how this new set of songs came together in six days, and what to expect from the tracks we haven’t heard. She also discusses the mood during her last handful of pre-quarantine shows and the artistic chemistry she finds with collaborator Blood Orange. Kyle Meredith With… is an interview series in which WFPK’s Kyle Meredith speaks to a wide breadth of musicians. Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, Meredith digs de...
Tei Shi Releases New Song “Die 4 Ur Love”: Stream
Tei Shi, the Canadian-Columbian artist known for her collaborations with Blood Orange, has released the new song called “Die 4 Ur Love”. For the songwriter born Valerie Teicher, “Die 4 Ur Love” is her first new music of the year. It’s faster and more danceable than the tracks on her 2019 album, La Linda, and the way she repeats, “Die, die, die, die, die for your love now,” recalls a songwriter like The-Dream, who finds the stickiest part of a hook and runs it past the ear over and over again until you can’t get it out of your head. Via Stereogum, Tei Shei explained that the song is about feeling like the world is ending. She said, “Die 4 Ur Love” is a song about the end of the world as you know it. About losing someone or something you never knew you could lose, and then all...
