Occurrence “Slow Violence”
Inspired by “slow violence,” a term found in environmental studies to describe ecological harm that happens imperceptibly in a community, Occurrence takes it as an analogy for their fourth studio album, Slow Violence. Based on personal experiences and introspective moments, the songs in Slow Violence tackle heavy but necessary topics. From post-partum depression to the last letter sent from an ex-partner, to the discussion of failure and philosophical questions, the narratives of Slow Violence are a microscopic portrait of life itself.
Cathartic and inspirational, the twenty-two songs in Slow Violence say what much needed to be said. There’s a story behind each of these songs, whether it is dark or bright. Slow Violence sees diversity in its sounds, palettes and influences. Ranging from infectious dark wave and palpable beats to euphoric digital funk and ethereal synth pads, the album takes listeners on an expansive ride.
Bad moments are just as important as good moments. The members of Occurrence open themselves up collectively. Written from an honest space, not afraid of being vulnerable and exposed, Slow Violence is confrontational and therapeutic. Occurrence vocalize experiences and feelings that are often buried and overlooked in our daily life. Slow Violence is a tear-jerker.
ST. NIKLAS “comfy (feat.DØSSI)”
In a beautiful, almost heartbroken duet, St. Niklas brings a sensuous single “Comfy,” along with vocalist DØSS. After taking a three-year hiatus from releasing music and focusing on making the best work possible, St. Niklas is back. “Comfy,” the very first single in the new era of St. Nicklas sonically depicts the concept of a wasteland, whether it’s emotional or mentally. It captures the state of stagnation, unable to break free from the current situation, being in a standstill.
Told through the tale of a relationship between two people, the sounds and words, along with its visual evocation go deeper than that it seems. It comes back to the silent scream behind each mundane routine and the pent-up emotions of compromising.
St. Niklas is the kind of artist who only releases the best of his work. And every time he shares his music with the world, he leaves a long-lasting impact. The world always aches for more. In 2016, his debut EP received rave reviews from outlet and instantly went viral on Spotify. His 2020 EP then received massive radio coverages and became a timeless highlight, being rotated over the years. After three years of working on his new music, “Comfy” introduces listeners to the latest of St. Niklas. Sonically sophisticated and contagious as usual, but his work also seems to further express its timelessness—it gets better the more you listen to it.
CMON CMON ‘The Crack and The Light’
Good music rarely needs a description. Once it hits your ears, you’d know that it had something special. The Crack and The Light is a game changer for CMON CMON, not that their previous self-released EP wasn’t. The album has won many hearts in the industry, including Grammy-award winning producers, labels and industry veteran managers. The Crack and The Light is addictive, but essentially, it goes back to the bitter and sweet in life.
All stories in the record are based on real life people and events. CMON CMON takes the aesthetic of art to its origin. Inspired by life and written about life, the songs are always in conversation of “the crack” and “the light.”
“The Summers We Missed” introduces listeners to an euphoric, early-Lemonheads lusciousness and jangly soundscapes. A laid-back vibe in reflection and nostalgia of first love. There was a real party, a real pool and a real girl called Julie in the summer of 1995. Two teenagers who were close but were never together. The thoughts of what could have been are intertwined with youth and the natural progression of things. Melancholia underneath the sweet, wonderful feeling of love.
CMON CMON covers manny themes in this record. Some bear a bleak and dark undertone, but they always make something out of it and lift you up. The resilience and hope is what you comes back for, but all the dark and twisted, is what makes you feel less alone.
Lewis Knaggs “Third Eye”
Some people run away from pain. Some people inflict pain upon pain, but Lewis Knaggs is here to transcend heartbreak and grief. In the memory of Knaggs’ late grandfather, who is also a great influence, “Third Eye” continues his path of articulating humanly relatable experiences in life through meaningful storytelling.
“Third Eye” is about the words of wisdom passed on from generations and those around. A way of giving back and joining the cycle of life and the world. Intimate and empowering. Knaggs’ deep and torn vocal draws you in and pulls your heartstrings. “Third Eye” follows the release of “My Father,” a song that was in honor of his late father.
Driven by Creativity and guided by heart, Knaggs’ music can rarely be defined through the envelopes of genres. Each of his songs take on a life of its own and sees an eclectic sonic palette painting in freeform inspiring soundscapes. Writing from the place of the keenest and most intense feelings, his music is both emotional and introspection, often filled with wisdom and keen observation of life. It’s songs like these that brings us closer and keeps us grounded.
PEARL “Fish”
In thought of the natural and inevitable process of death, PEARL reflects on morality in the intimately immersive single “Fish.” Written during a time of facing the loss of someone close to her, “Fish” is a tender and cathartic transcendence to acceptance. PEARL’s intricate, dulcet vocal floats on top of an impressionistic, soundscape, soaked in sunset palette while the pulsating beats evocative profound feelings.
Captivating and brutally honest, but not overly explicit. “Fish” leaves plenty of space for listeners to contemplate. Her lyrics serve as the doorway to a conversation about life and death and the complex emotions that wrap around the theme. The soundscapes explore a sort of emotional storm. Like a long gaze into the horizon, its intricate shades of light are enough to keep you afloat and drift away.
PEARL has been praised for her evocative vocals and poignant lyrics. Her captivating production also caught many’s attention in the industry. “Fish” is a breathable track, nothing too grand, and nothing too fragile, but a catalyst that immerses you in a thoughtful moment.
Oceanless “Isolation”
Among all the new bands bursting into the music scene, Oceanless is one to pay some extra attention to. With a debut release of a gritty genre-bending masterpiece, the band proves to be different. “Isolation” throws you into a raging turmoil of sonics, fiercely challenging your preexisting expectation for rock and hip hop. Dabbed with grunge, introspection, experimentation and pulsating alternative sounds, “Isolation” is something new. And just with one song, Oceanless asserts themselves at a level where most could only dream of.
“Isolation” gives you something truly unique in the ever-evolving scene of rock. Their authenticity shines very brightly throughout the track, giving you an exhilarating, hard-hitting and thunderous experience. Retro and modernity join hand in the massive reconnection of hip hop and grunge. They think outside the box, and their music feels like no other.
Oceanless is easily one of most exciting new bands to watch in the scene. They are exactly what’s needed in rock and hip hop—pure talent wrapped in authentic melodic allure.
Oceanless is currently working on their full-length debut album, set to take listeners on a meaningful journey in uncharted sonic world.
Alex Lipinski “Idiot Station”
With a reverberant glam-rock rhythm under his belt, Alex Lipinski channels the muddy fusion of The Stooges and The Black Keys in savagery allure, speaking the lost and grim in modern mainstream. “Idiot Station” is raged with literary flair of moodiness and a flash of raw live energy. Its haunting melodies and screamed-up words get under your skin, while its backbeat rhythm gives you something to dance for.
Lipinskin is amongst the serious talents on the horizon these days. His unstoppable, almost unlimited creativity is always burning an edge of emotion. “Idiot Station” draws you into a captivating sonic world crafted by Lipinski and his instrument, but it’s his robust spirit and gritty sounds that make you stay.
Lipinski has just gotten back from his European tour with Marc Almond, who chose him as sole support. The artist has also garnered a round of likes in the industry, from Liam Gallagher, Bonehead to Evan Dando. He landed his first label deal with Marquee Records/Universal Music Group, and “Idiot Station” marks the beginning of an exciting new journey.
Strange Company ‘Overrated’
Welsh’s three-piece rock outfit, Strange Company, rages back with a teeth-chattering emo-punk anthem. Born out of the lowest of lockdown, “Overrated” speaks about catastrophe and despair with double-dosed punk aesthetic while taking an emotive deeper dive into a familiar but truly horrid scenario—where one’s mind has turned against oneself.
They scratch your most nostalgic itch and offer something new to lose yourself into. Like a storm that takes your breath away and completely change the scene with a renewed perspective, Strange Company has a very distinctive sound that allows them to stand out in the crowds of genres.
“Overrated” sticks a middle finger to the naysayers’ face at the same time shedding light on mental health issues. Rebellion and resolution can exist in one place, so does angst and hope. In the intense turmoil and captivating sonics, “Overrated” in the end, is about how one would find their way out of the fearful sea.
The trio of Matt Davies, Owen Weston and Charlie Porter has over 20 years’ experience of writing, recording and touring under their belts and the stars have aligned for their time to roam. In 2022, Strange Company unleashed their debut album Metaphysical Love. With the new single and many more to come, they are here to make their marks.
Joseph Lothian ‘The Florid Verge’
Inspired by the destructive yet miraculous journey of transformation, Joseph Lothian shares his third and latest album, The Florid Verge, delving into the delicate and frightening whispers in the state of change. With rich and complex emotions woven into his soulfully expressed lines, moving melodies in resonance with synth-sprinkled folk soundscapes and rock aesthetic. Introspection meets the intense process of rebirth. Ash and flame. Beauty and destruction.
From the budding new sounds that burst out their shells for the first time to the haunting acoustic mingling with synthetic tones in an intense dance, The Florid Verge vibrates between light and dark, unraveling the connection between nature and our inner world. Sonically, it exists in the space where possibilities become endless.
The Florid Verge is an earthy album, but it also seems to have stretched out far into the distant sky. Reconnecting and rejuvenating, shedding new skins and embracing anew. Sparked with authenticity and vibrant energy, the album gives listeners another close look at the sensitive and introspective world inside Lothian’s unique songwriting. It’s more than ever meaningful, grounded and imaginative.
Passive Fix “I'll Take It All”
Following Passive Fix’s acclaimed single “Red Lights,” the genre-defying rising talent from Midlands returns with a meaningful single “I’ll Take It All,” tackling the cycles of grief and loss while pushing the envelope of genres even further. “I’ll Take It All” sparks immersion and meaningful imagination fueled by their blooming creativity. The song revolves around a protagonist, who spirals into escapism and wilderness while going through the cycles of grief with each changing tone represent a different phrase.
“I’ll Take It All” seems to have escaped the curse of genres, rerouting the sonics in direct contact with its storytelling. The song is featured in the soundtrack to the ban’d upcoming short film, A Divine Descent, scheduled to be released on June 23.
Passive Fix, of Alex McCarthy, Alex Collett-Sinfield, David Kirkham and Sam Stringer have been stirring a strong waves across venues with several successful headline shows under their belts. They are known for their innovative, genre-fluid sound that evokes waves of different emotional and physical responses as well as crafting a brand new personal universe.
Harker “Out The Window”
One of UK’s most exciting punk outfits, Harker, is coming back with another killer single—“Out The Window.” Screaming out persistent existential angst of climate crisis and the despair of a generation left to deal with this pressing problem, “Out The Window” is the cry to arms that we all been waiting for: exactly how long are we going to ignore this?
Furious but thought-provoking. Harker doesn’t have to dive too deep for “Out The Window” to come out—it’s in all of us, screaming in the back of our heads. It’s pressing on our shoulders, burned into our mind’s eyes. And today, hearing them, putting these frustration and prolonged despair into the sonics, crafting the shapes and tastes of soundscapes and lyrics to be palpable—it’s cathartic and needed to be heard.
Harker delivers with finger-licking power-pop riffs that evoke the undying iconic phantoms from the ‘90s, but not without a progressive, edgy grunge roughness that weaved together with the rawest punk aesthetic. They are the kind of band that makes you nod and say, “that’s really something.”
Punk can’t exist without angst, but the angst always comes from heart, punching a way out of the current mud state. The band have confirmed that they are releasing four new singles this year. “Out The Window” marks the second out of four, so stay tuned!
Shai Rose “Overthinking”
“Overthinking” marks the first puzzle piece from Shia Rose’s debut album, The Road. The song revolves around the experience of starting a new chapter of a new beginning, however bittersweet that might be. It was at the time when Rose has just glued herself back from the initial heartbreak. She fell in love with a friend, but ended up being heartbroken all over again. The feelings of being lost rushed back again, she found herself trapped in overthinking, just like many did and many are.
“Not every love will set you free, not every love was meant to be.” She journals what she felt into the lyrics. Charged with immense feelings but transformed by music, these lines, sang through her soft but powerful voice became the glue that mends the broken hearts. Everyone can find a piece of themselves in Rose’s song.
The Road is about the first time of heartbreak, facing one’s inner self inside a half-imagined world, somewhere between heart and mind, navigating disillusioned realization of loneliness and heartache and finding light at the end of the tunnel. Rose weaves those intricate, tender and hardening feelings into poignant soundscapes, bringing a diverse musical influences taking hints from Pink Floyd, Radiohead, Bon Iver, Coldplay, Lana del Rey, Adele and Brittany Howard. With lyrics that read like a poem and a diary, she takes listeners on a journey with no destination but a new beginning.
"Without the dark the sun won't have a reason to rise and the moon won't shine without the light of the sun." — “Alone” from The Road.
Seßler/Zeeb “Wenn”
Seßler/Zeeb shares an eclectic new single “Wenn,” following their 2022 debut album. “Wenn” sees a smash of jazzy, funky elements intertwined in the familiar and unmistakable mix of pop and hip-hop. With biting lyrics and cranky wordplay, Kurt Seßler and Werner Zeeb are taking their creative journey to the next level. “Wenn” certainly shows their versatility in creating music that isn’t bound by any specific genre, but rather by spontaneity and creativity.
With an infectious swinging groove, punchy percussions and captivating melodies, “Wenn” is a song with fierce spirit and a vivid sonic palette. Not afraid of grit and street, the charming track sparks exciting new energy in the pop duo’s song catalog.
Hailing from a small town in southern Germany, singer-songwriter Seßler and multi-instrument/producer Zeeb are long-time friends turned collaborators. Their project Seßler/Zeeb started in the summer of 2021 and is in its fierce blooming time.
Stay tuned with the eclectic duo and see what they are up to next!
Cheree ‘Factory’
Oakland’s loudest and best industrial band Cheree launches their long-waited debut EP, Factory, on Friday. Known for their ear-splitting, roof-lifting live performers around town, the four-piece band only surprise more. Experimental, highly distorted, abstract but fueled by their unapologetic attitudes , Factory is a post punk masterpiece. Released through Cherub Dream Records, their harsh, mechanical yet raw sounds go beyond aesthetic.
“I never did sleep well in this society,” lead singer Vanessa screams in the opening track “A Choice.” Coming from the same thread of their brutal, unbending sounds, Factory speaks up against capitalism, a topic that hits closer to home for men and women who live in the same reality. Irony, angst intertwined with sarcasm and hard truth, their volume is turned all the way up.
Exhilarating and unstoppable. Just as the machines and blood-sucking capitalists that exploit and overrule. Cheree’s unmistakable sounds speak louder than words. Instead of a collection of songs, Factory is more like art that rebels against those in power and represents the voices that need to be heard.
The Pink Nostalgia “Space & Time”
The Pink Nostalgia draws you into an introspective, emotive space with “Space & Time.” Setting its scene in an indie pop soundscape, haunting melodies meet mesmerizing atmosphere that leaves an unshakable aftertaste that lingers in your ears. It’s hard to forget the mood and aroma in “Space & Time.” And the length of the song is barely enough for the conversations and thoughts that it evoked—How something so deeply immersive can also be so refreshing? The answer is obvious: you need to put this song on repeat.
The Pink Nostalgia has a gift in songwriting. It appears to be something simple, but luscious and deep to the point it’s almost intoxicating. Taking cues from The 1975, The Japanese House & Christine, the Queen and such like, Joseph James, the brain and heart behind The Pink Nostalgic has already earned the support of many. He’s been featured on BBC Introducing and UK Indie Artists and will be heading out on his headline show with a band at Strongroom Shoreditch in April.
“Space & Time” marks the first single released from The Pink Nostalgia’s upcoming EP YOUTH & OBSERVATION, offering fans a teaser preview of what has yet to come. The EP is scheduled to be released on May 19.
Drew Davies “Codename: Softboi”
Drew Davies shares genre-bending, stadium-filling single “Codename: Softboi” vocalizing the toxicity that exists in today’s online dating. With lyrical sentiments that echos the work of contemporary artists such as Alex Cameron, John Grant and The Horrors, “Codename: Softboi” explores a glamorous retro soundscape with a 90s alternative rock edge, fusing nostalgic flair into the sensual modern vocabulary. As classic as it is disobedient. As timeless as it’s relevant, “Codename: Softboi” sees the beautiful collage of contrasts.
Davies calls out gaslighting, a form of manipulation, often used by modern-day playboys within the scope of online dating. Speaking about the song, Davies revealed that the song Softboi serves as a “satirical examination” of sexual predators who’d appear as “prince charming” only to reveal their true “lascivious desire” when they become impatience. “Toxic Masculinity is a theme examined often in the world of alternative pop by artists such as Kirin Calinan and Alex Cameron,” said Davies. “I wanted to take a close look through an alternative rock lens.”
As an artist, Davies engages in discussions of art and pop culture through his music-making. Drawing vast influences from the past while absorbing and adapting to changes, Davies’s work is constantly evolving. Unpredictable but always grounded, he brings back the pieces that are missing in today’s world. He gazes into the brokenness and ugliness but never fails to hope and dream. His songs are hard-hitting and thought-provoking.
Como “Worry”
Intimate and deeply revealing, Como releases “Worry,” speaking about a breakup and all its entangled threads. Inspired by her own life, “Worry” reads like a diary that gazes into her sadness and heartbreaks, but something else also happened when her words meet the music. Intense but aesthetically pleasing.
The Australia-based singer-songwriter tackles the experience of seeing your relationship fail and your partner drifting away, but instead of drowning, “Worry” is cathartic and therapeutic. With a luscious mood and intoxicating beats, the warm sounds of an old baby grand flow underneath Como’s smoothly stunning vocals as the duality of loss and hope engages in a melancholy tango. Everything is everywhere. Authentic and a little mystical.
It feels like something magical happening in her music, but to Como, it always comes back to real life. The three-time Austrian Music Award-nominated artist explains, “My muse is real life and real people, the complexity of our feelings, the good ones as well as the bad, and the fact that they sometimes come in strange couples.”
Como released her debut single “Suitcase” with Sony Music in 2013, and the track immediately took off. However, unlike most artists who would soon lose themselves in the business world, Como decided to pull back and refocus on what mattered the most to her, which was her music. Now as an independent artist with no restraint and plenty of ideas, Como is on the rise.
PREMIERE: OLEC MÜN “SUN GAZE”
“Sun Gaze” goes beyond the measurable and taps into the ancient field of energy and life force. Connecting to the magnificent being of the earth and the sun, absorbing its energy, “Sun Gaze” channels an intense, thriving form of warmth that is beyond description.
Photo credit: Paloma Arbol
Olec Mun’s “Sun Gaze” goes beyond the measurable and taps into the ancient field of energy and life force. Connecting to the magnificent being of the earth and the sun, absorbing its energy, “Sun Gaze” channels an intense, thriving form of warmth that is beyond description.
Sun gaze is a practice when one gazes into the sun at its rising and sinking, absorbing its source power without being burnt. The meditative experience creates a harmonious, active vibration between each other and between nature and individuals, which also being channeled into the tune Sergi Boal and Olec Mün created.
Olec Mün has been on the artistic journey since he was six. From Argentina to Northern India to West Africa to Spain, he was inspired to deepening the understanding of soul, ancestry, existence, and consciousness through artistry and experience. Known for a minimalistic approach in combination with field recordings, Mün’s creative work transforms personal experiences into a deeper searching and liberated expression.
Sergi Boal is a guitarist and composer from Spain. Centering the practice of meditative with spontaneity and energy, the artist continues his journey from mastery of the instrument to further expression of the unmeasurable.
The two musicians are interconnected through performances. Like the yin and yang, constantly evolving and transforming into a complete experience. Breathing in and breathing out, concentrated and hyper-aware, “Sun Gaze” further explores the subject of existence and consciousness.
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