Caleb L’Etoile Two More Years Starting with the kind of garage-influenced percussion leveraged by Hot Chip, Caleb L’Etoile’s Two More Years is a song made of just two notes. The whole record rides along in the same grunge-y, dirty synth pattern. With L’Etoile’s vocals layered into the mix, and atop one another, the simplistic nature of his performance contrasts to the distorted chaos of the instrumentation. The combination of the vocal and instrumental elements provide the song a kind of internal innocence. As a song, Two More Years is about the experience of losing someone important from you ..read more

Ambergrove lØve! lØve! is a chaotic, psychedelic and beautiful collage that recently I have found myself consistently coming back to it. Originally created to be a b-side by the artist collective Ambergrove, lØve! is a song they have been sat on for some time. Having initially decided not to release it, the group unearthed it again, just as they wrapped up the recording of their debut album. The song lØve! is actually a riff on an Ambergrove fan favourite, dØves!, taking that earlier song and reversing it. Despite being just two minutes long, dØves! moves through two distinct movements, creat ..read more

Jodie Nicholson You Wanted This It has been almost four years since Newcastle-upon-Tyne musician Jodie Nicholson first appeared on BlackPlastic.co.uk with Move, a sophisticated, dark piece of progressive pop. Since then, we have also heard from Jodie with her single Why Would You (Go), a song with the drama of far off thunderstorms. The fact that even this song is now almost three-years-old breaks my brain a little. Jodie’s music has stuck with me in a way that means I find myself often coming back to it, and I had no concept of how much time had passed since first hearing of her. The good ne ..read more

Primer Round And Round Starting with a grimy, robotic synth line, Round And Round quickly establishes itself as a song of contrasts. Post-intro, the crunchy electronic sounds are swapped for soft instrumentation and slow drums, LA-based musician Primer’s angelic vocals introducing a serene atmosphere. Round And Round is at its best, however, when it brings the robotic and angelic together, in the chorus. The analogue-sounding synths give the song concrete foundations upon which the vocals have the room to explore. The resulting song has the hallmarks of the glam-rock-channeling work of Goldfr ..read more

Just A Leo Change Your Life Just A Leo are a duo who look to create a sense of nostalgia, with an electronic DIY aesthetic from their bedroom studio. With Kalliope providing vocals, and Andie on drums and bass, the pair share keys and production duties, as they fuse elements of dance, synth and electronic pop, soul, and house. On new single Change Your Life, Just A Leo have created a deep, synth-led piece of pop music. The song is a tribute to the experience of embarking on life-changing actions and decisions. Inspired by the pair’s planned move from Australia to Europe, the song was created ..read more

Derek Simpson Wonka Opening with warm, analogue keys and gentle guitars, Wonka feels like the warm afternoon California sun falling through a window, resting on my skin. That west coast sound reflects Derek Simpson’s journey, as an artist, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who moved from Boston to the music scene of Long Beach in LA. The sound employed by Simpson on Wonka has a beautiful subtlety and richness. With an ever so slightly cracked vocal style creating a sense of emotional authenticity, Derek’s performance slips between a standard register and a falsetto performance, like someone ..read more

Thavoron Body Based in Seattle, Thavoron is a Cambodian American musician who creates queer pop whilst channeling the intimacy and inventiveness of the likes of Frank Ocean, Faye Webster and Bon Iver. Growing up, Thavoron felt underrepresented within the music industry, and now hopes to create a sense of community and visibility for queer Southeast Asian Americans within music. Talking about the experience, Thavoron says, ‘Being surrounded by people I couldn’t fully relate to resorted to me locking myself up in my bedroom to just write to try and make sense of all my differences as a person ..read more

Jakke Reckoning Having originally establishing is career in alternative rock, Jakke gradually found his creativity transcended genre classifications. He began making dance music and evolving as a DJ, blending live instrumentation and electronic elements together to move audiences. On his latest single, Reckoning, Jakke continues to experiment across genres, fusing the confessional potential of the singer-songwriter format with the emotional resonance of electronic music. Created with the fans of Lane 8 and Chris Martin’s Coldplay in mind, the song looks to wrestle with the negative consequenc ..read more

Kacey FiField Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. With a gently strummed guitar introduction, Left Behind sees Kacey Fifield’s vocals take centre-stage from the song’s beginning. The vocal initially hooks you in, the earnest delivery exposing a trusting sense of vulnerability. It is the pulsing bass and racing melodies that kick in, approximately a quarter into the song’s duration, that set the song’s pace, however. The song creates the feeling of running to keep up, like a sprint down a hill that will only end when you either fall over, or reach th ..read more

Holly Wild Cuts Me Up Opening with Holly’s own bluesy, smoky vocals, and a lilting, strummed guitar, Drives Me Wild gives the impression of a certain timidity. That is shattered, however, as the song hits its first chorus, an earth-shaking bass-drop underlining Wild’s delivery. The result is a song that feels both coy, and knowing. As Holly sings about living with the aftermath of a relationship turned sour, she appears to be both heartbroken, and completely in control. She sings about being cut up, and yet, notably, admits ‘I know I was the one with the knife’. Born and raised in a musical f ..read more