Yet another faceless artist has emerged with a rather brilliant electronic-pop track.  We might  not yet know much about Fyfe, but what we do know is that debut release ‘Solace’ is a stripped-back, mournful sounding track littered with somber lyrics about rejection and loss.  Cheery stuff.  Nevertheless, its simplicity and clean tones are a winner and the story gets a bit perkier towards the end when it’s revealed that ‘love has overcome things I didn’t know it could’. Ahhh.

Words by: Claire Holly Davies @ClaireHolly_

The band behind much lauded single ‘Ghost’ have unveiled themselves as LA trio Sir Sly ahead of the release of a second track.  The follow-up is titled ‘Gold’ and much like their debut single, features a concoction of artful electronic textures but with a darker, harder edge.  Recorded, mixed and mastered at home by the band themselves and released in the UK by National Anthem (Haim, Chvrches…you get the picture) their trademark style of rhythmic vocals, drawn-out bass lines and of-the-moment synths is set to be adored by hipsters and hip-hoppers alike.

Have a look at the video for ‘Gold’ below:

Words by: Claire Holly Davies @Claireholly_

We love a great Dane and this Copenhagen native is really rather brilliant. Karen ‘MØ’ Ørsted makes music with a distinctive mix of influences from electro, hip hop, indie and soul.  Latest single ‘Glass’ is a sauntering display of candied pop, lacerated with MØ’s acerbic views on growing up and moving on.  Synths shatter around lithe vocal melodies, set against the swaggering bass-driven back beat that gives MØ’s music a bite of her trademark gutsy attitude.

View the video for ‘Glass’ below:

Words by: Claire Holly Davies @ClaireHolly_

As a long term fan and possessor of a borderline-obsessive girl crush on Natasha Khan, aka Bat For Lashes, the announcement of their video release for single ‘A Wall’ sent me into an internet stalking frenzy.  The single is taken from latest album ‘The Haunted Man’, released in October is a typically enigmatic, synth-pop affair.  The video features Ms Khan in a natty blonde wig, cavorting round a house party with some bloke off the telly, who bizarrely appears to be dressed as a yeti.  They won’t get invited back in a hurry.

Bat For Lashes co-headlines Field Day 2013 (I’ll be at the front, screaming like a Belieber.)  In the meantime, check out the video for yourself here:

Words by: Claire Holly Davies (@ClaireHolly_)

Skulking around the alley ways of SE8 London, is a 28 year old producer known as the Deptford Goth.  A melancholy figure, whose music contains fragments of macabre undertones against vast graceful beats.  Describing his work as “sitting somewhere between real and synthetic” it’s easy to imagine the Deptford Goth himself treading a fine line between the absolute and the illusory, traipsing between the lulls of real life and the escapism of his allegorical productions.  Latest track ‘Union’ follows this pattern of opposing sensibilities combined with an impressive composition.  The video features a rather forlorn looking Mr Goth wandering around some green space with helium balloons tied to his wrists, not exactly how I’d spend a day down the park, but to each their own.

Deptford Goth’s debut album is due for release in early 2013, but in the meantime here’s the video for ‘Union’ to keep you going:

Written by: Claire Holly Davies @ClaireHolly_

Sometimes you just really, really want to listen to a bit of French synth-pop, non?  Comin’ straight outta Rennes, O Safari deliver a blend of 80′s camp with a bit of that good old French charm.  You may not be able to understand a word of what they’re saying, but it won’t stop you shimmying around to what is an undeniably catchy piece of pop.

Words by: Claire Holly Davies @ClaireHolly_

Young Russian Enei (aka Alexey Egorchenkov) has, since he emerged on the scene in 2008, become one of the most respected producers in electronic bass.   His debut album ‘Machines’, released today, is a mix of gut wrenching bass and rolling, delicately ethereal tracks such as ‘Runnin’, featuring the transcendent vocals of Georgia Yates and possibly his best offering.

Words by Claire Holly Davies

Brooklyn’s Lorely Rodriguez introduces herself as a ‘project of sight and sound’ and intrigue in Rodriguez’s work is growing, following the release of anonymously uploaded ‘Colorminutes’ – a series of minute-long snippets of her songs, matched with a corresponding colour.  The ‘Colourminutes’ project proved to be a teasing precursor of what was to come, with Rodriguez now releasing her first single as Empress Of, titled ‘Don’t Tell Me’, an intricate electronic pop offering.  A lulling offering of celestial vocals and tangled melodies, submerged in a murky mixture of reverberated strings and synths, it gets better with every listen – try it out for yourself…

Words by Claire Holly Davies

Glasgow trio Chvrches are back with follow-up single ‘The Mother We Share’, lead by the sweet-natured vocals of singer Lauren Mayberry this lyrical-electro power pop single soars through the air on a bed of dizzy keyboards and percussion claps.  The single follows equally resplendent debut offering ‘Lies’ and is out on 5 November via National Anthem.

Words by: Claire Davies

Still buzzing from their fervent set at this weekend’s 1-2-3-4 Shoreditch festival, it’s only fair to give praise to what became one of the pivotal performances of the day.  Savages, an all-girl post-punk four piece, tore through their set with ferocious energy and skill.  On the face of it Savages appear to be incredibly in-tune with the sensibilities of the original punk movement, yet they manage to retain an innovative edge that combines agression with forboding vocals and a dash of neurosis.

Savages removed themselves from the stage to raptuous applause from an open-mouthed audience, having ripped them open and exposed them unsympathetically to a powerful concoction of menacing energy.  Listen to AA-side single and only release to-date ‘Husbands’/'Flying to Berlin’ for a dose of the good stuff and then wait, impatiently, for new material.

Written by Claire Holly Davies.

@ClaireHolly_