ALTER.NATION #89
Andreya Casablanca, Nicole Atkins, Sweet Whirl, PINS, Deerhoof, Mrs. Piss, Linda Guilala, Jade Hairpins, Varsity, Baths, The Flaming Lips, Kacey Musgraves, Mild Orange
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Known as half of Berlin-based indie duo "Gurr", Andreya Casablanca's solo project is an experiment with genres outside of her comfort zone. Her own songs melt garage rock guitar with Linn Drums, a little bit of 2000s MTV dance music and poppy vocals.
Andreya Casablanca - Talk About It
Andreya Casablanca is one half of the Berlin garage-pop duo Gurr. And she’s also a solo artist. Because Casablanca just released her debut solo single “Talk About It,” a groove-heavy dance-pop tune that the swaps the guitars out for synthesizers. In a press release, she cites diverse artists including Grimes, Princess Nokia, Tyler, The Creator, Thee Oh Sees, Dua Lipa, Lady Gaga, Angel Olsen, and Crumb as influences...
Rich-voiced noir pop from this respected New Jersey-born singer/songwriter. With her throaty vibrato and lush pop orchestrations contributing to a self-professed "pop noir" sound...
Nicole Atkins- Italian Ice / Domino
...She follows up three years later with the also retro-minded Italian Ice. However, whereas Goodnight Rhonda Lee included collaborations with Chris Isaak and retro-soul production team Niles City Sound, the follow-up involves representatives of classic soul itself. Recorded at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Alabama, Italian Ice features bassist David Hood and keyboardist Spooner Oldham of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, both of whom recorded with Aretha Franklin and Percy Sledge, just to name two. Other prime guests here include, from the indie era, Spoon's Britt Daniel, the Civil Wars' John Paul White, and Seth Avett as well as members of the Dap-Kings and the Bad Seeds. It was co-produced by Atkins and Alabama Shakes member Ben Tanner...
Wry, sophisticated adult-alternative pop from Esther Edquist, formerly of dream pop group Superstar.
Sweet Whirl - How Much Works / Sweetness
Leading up to How Much Works, the output of Australian musician Esther Edquist underwent quite a transformation. The hazy, downcast dream pop of her band Superstar was followed by an experimental album consisting of only voice and bass (2016's O.K. Permanent Wave, her first release as Sweet Whirl). Unpredictably to outsiders, her solo work shifted toward more structured, melody-centric songwriting with a classic '60s-'70s influence for the 2019 EP Love Songs & Poetry. She uses that still-dreamy EP as a launching point for How Much Works, her first album for Chapter Music and official Sweet Whirl debut. Opening the record with a spacious arrangement of piano, keyboard, staccato bass, and crisp snare instead of the EP's reverberating guitar, "Sweetness" adds a commanding lead vocal line, organ tones, and vocal harmony for a mellow, jazzy pop that has much more in common with Joni Mitchell than with Superstar.
Manchester-based trio who play gritty yet glamorous post-punk with a female perspective.
PINS - Hot Slick / Hot Slick
Manchester trio Pins spent the first half of the 2010s as a four-piece who made drone-heavy indie-pop... in the time since, they’ve changed their lineup, collaborated with Iggy Pop, taken on the production skills of the Kills’ Jamie Hince, and leaned heavily into disco and post-punk influences. The result is Hot Slick, a self-released album of 10 airy songs that hinge on earworm 1960s girl-group melodies and a new surge of bright-eyed synths. . The result is a revitalising jolt for the band. The girl-gang chants of Set Me Off and Bad Girls Forever are enjoyably defiant... Lead single Hot Slick is a stand-out track for its driving bassline and cheery harmonies...
Highly revered indie rockers from San Francisco who play fractured, whimsical noise pop with an avant-garde edge.
Deerhoof - Future Teenage Cave Artists / Sympathy For the Baby Boo
...On Future Teenage Cave Artists, they explore what happens when that fight is lost. As Deerhoof dives into the messes that younger generations have to clean up, and art's role in the process, they sound rawer than they have in years... Future Teenage Cave Artists' startling sound feels like a call to action, even if some of its most stunning songs document how humanity is continually thwarted by destructive impulses... The contrasts that have always made Deerhoof thrillingly unlike any other band heighten the album's unpredictability, whether it's the way the boogie-rock riffs jump out of the rubble on "Sympathy for the Baby Boo"...
Heavy, hard-hitting yet atmospheric music from guitarist/vocalist Chelsea Wolfe and drummer Jess Gowrie. A collaboration between Chelsea Wolfe and Jess Gowrie, Mrs. Piss is a dark, hard-hitting act whose music is steeped in the doom-struck thunder of metal, the sinister contemplation of goth, the insistent attack of industrial, and the noisy intelligence of indie rock.
Mrs. Piss - Self-Surgery / Self-Surgery
...But the driving force behind the record were the drums of Jess Gowrie. Wolfe and Gowrie’s musical chemistry has grown over time, and now receives some deserved deeper exploration with their newly formed side project Mrs. Piss. The resulting sound is uniquely enamouring, with a style that both compiles and builds upon their collective discographies... It is this perfectly-balanced merging of ideas between two collaborative partners that makes the release work as well as it does. The way both members’ talents combine to create something new not only to the musicians themselves but to the music scene at large is perhaps the perfect example of how to do a collaborative project right....
Spanish indie pop act mixing elements of shoegaze/dream pop and energetic synth pop, Linda Guilala have continuously explored new sonic directions while refining their style of catchy yet deeply introspective songwriting, with lyrics focusing on subjects like social anxiety, alienation, and self-doubt.
Linda Guilala - Espacio de Tiempo (2009-2019) / Mucho Mejor
Emerging from the ashes of punky indie pop act Juniper Moon in 2005, Linda Guilala started out like a slightly moodier sibling of the former band before drastically changing up their sound on subsequent releases, becoming heavier, noisier, and spacier while writing increasingly darker, more personal lyrics. Espacio de Tiempo (2009-2019) collects 78 minutes' worth of highlights from the two full-lengths and numerous singles and EPs the band released during that time period, and while a lengthy, career-to-date-spanning compilation might seem like a strange move for such a relatively obscure band, listening makes it clear that this a tremendously talented, creative group who deserve wider recognition...
Jonah Falco and Mike Haliechuk, pop foraging with analog acoustics and electronic landscaping. Jade Hairpins is Jonah Falco, Mike Haliechuk, Tamsin M Leach, and Jack Goldstein.
Jade Hairpins - Harmony Avenue / Father Coin
Jade Hairpins is the work of two members of the band Fucked Up, and if anyone is looking to them for the same kind of fiery punk drama, they are barking up the wrong tree. Drummer Jonah Falco and guitarist/vocalist Mike Haliechuk's band is instead influenced by highly danceable post-punk, rambunctious indie pop, and post-Postcard Orange Juice... "Father Coin" injects a little punk attitude into the formula with good results...
Sweet-natured indie pop about the everyday from a Chicago five-piece led by Stef Smith. Varsity's sweet-natured indie pop about the everyday seamlessly balances bright and wistful guitar hooks.
Varsity - Fine Forever / Runaway
The third studio album by Chicago's Varsity, Fine Forever slightly sharpens the focus on the group's amiable indie pop with help from producer Ben Lumsdaine (Amy O, Major Murphy). It's their first album of original material for Run for Cover Records. The band is wholly recognizable here, though, on an especially compassionate outing that was conceived as a series of modern-day vignettes by lead singer and songwriter Stef Smith... The main takeaways from Fine Forever, though, are catchy tunes of a nature fit for commuting, housework, and hikes and the sense of satisfaction derived from its persistent, light-handed humanity.
The project of producer Will Wiesenfeld (also of Geotic), Baths specializes in intricate, beat-heavy electronic pop.
Baths - Pop Music/False B-Sides II / Sex
The intricate, intimate electronic pop project of Los Angeles-area producer Will Wiesenfeld, Baths immerses listeners in atmospheric songs equally inspired by fantasy and real life... In May 2020, he issued Baths' Pop Music/False B-Sides II. A set of tracks recorded during the years between Obsidian and Romaplasm that featured newly written lyrics, it arrived on Wiesenfeld's own Basement's Basement label along with a remastered reissue of Pop Music/False B-Sides.
Ever-evolving indie rockers, led by Wayne Coyne, who became critical darlings for their discordant, psychedelia-tinged garage rock.
The Flaming Lips feat.
Kacey Musgraves -
Flowers Of Neptune 6
... they’re back with a new track all of their own named “Flowers Of Neptune 6,” featuring fellow psychedelic luminary Kacey Musgraves. In a press release, Coyne writes:
“Flowers Of Neptune 6″ track started off as a very evocative series of melodies that Steven Drozd had woven together. The first time he played it for me I was stunned by its emotional flow. The 3 sections (well they seem like sections to me) seemed to hint at an older, mature mind reflecting back into a journey from younger innocence then starting to learn and understand and keeps going into the panic of becoming one with the world. The opening lyric “Yellow sun is going down so slow…Doing acid and watching the light-bugs glow like tiny spaceships in a row…” is the coolest thing I’ll ever know…and is a combination of blissful, innocent, psychedelic experiences that Steven and Kacey Musgraves (she sings harmony with me on the track) and myself all discussed.
Breezy, jangling dream pop band based in Dunedin, New Zealand. Formed in Dunedin in 2016 by childhood friends Josh Mehrtens (vocals, guitar) and Josh Reid (guitar), the two were later joined by bassist Tom Kelk and drummer Jack Ferguson. Choosing the name Mild Orange for the color's ability to inspire "a heightened sense of optimism"
Mild Orange - Mild Orange / In Flight (Two)
The appeal of Kiwi four-piece Mild Orange is indicated rather clearly by their name. The Dunedin band's specific brand of breezy bedroom pop plays just a few shades mellower than their bright primary color would suggest. Formed in 2016 by lifelong friends Josh Mehrtens (vocals, guitar) and Josh Reid (guitar), they made a rapid ascent on the streaming platforms with their self-recorded 2018 debut... While they've garnered a significant following in New Zealand, they now set their sights on the rest of the globe with this eponymous sophomore set. Produced, recorded, and mixed once again by frontman Mehrtens, Mild Orange's formula remains relatively unchanged, relying on a mix of glassy reverberating guitar tones, introspective lyrics, and pleasantly melodic jangle pop...
Andreya Casablanca, Nicole Atkins, Sweet Whirl, PINS, Deerhoof, Mrs. Piss, Linda Guilala, Jade Hairpins, Varsity, Baths, The Flaming Lips, Kacey Musgraves, Mild Orange
