Fresh To Death: Best New Music This Friday
Welcome to our new series ‘Fresh To Death: Best New Music This Friday’ where I hand-select some of my favorite recent releases from the week.
Featuring Dan Miraldi, Palmyra Delran, Pokey LaFarge, Jim E. Brown, UNTER STRØM, CASANDRA, Dolly Thorne, Strange Fruit, Tom Furse, Fleur bleu·e, Alexa Jaye, and BUWAN.
This edition features: a song that was mostly recorded in the artist’s bedroom using GarageBand; a song that sounds like the kind of music that plays through the halls of a toy house in a dream; a song that has the sonic timbre of a Johnny Cash song and embodies the razor-sharp spirit of Americana protest music; a song where the music video depicts the artist in a state of pure despair, eating crisps while looking out the window of a Travel Lodge; a pulsating dark electronic soundscape that will make you envision vast authoritarian structures where this sound echoes and bounces growing more powerful in the crevices and shadows; a song that sounds like a blue paradise, and more!
Fresh To Death: Best New Music This Friday
If you have an upcoming release, email me at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com.
Pokey LaFarge - Rent Money
Photo Credit: Danielle Head
There is something that the artist said about this song that stuck with me - “Rent Money’ is a little bit more of a tougher tune,but it’s not going to totally bum you out. It’s just a classic country blues song. The good lord giveth and Uncle Sam taketh away.” Specifically, the phrase “The good lord giveth and Uncle Sam taketh away”.
‘Rent Money’ has the sonic timbre of a Johnny Cash song and embodies the spirit of Americana protest music in a way that feels real and sharp, not a cheap, plastic imitation.
America was once viewed as the land of opportunity; however, this perception is starting to wane as it becomes nearly impossible for ordinary people to survive under the brutal iteration of late-stage capitalism that currently exists there, and no matter how hard you work, “Uncle Sam taketh away”.
This has a sublime, reggae-infused groove and vocal delivery, another genre with a long history of protest. As the song progresses, the bassline slips into a blissful, easy groove. The phrase “The good lord giveth and the landlord taketh away” sparked a surge of rage in me, like electricity. 10/10.
Connect with Pokey LaFarge
Website | Instagram | Facebook | X
Dan Miraldi ft. Palmyra Delran - Magic in the Air
This is a new song from New York-based Dan Miraldi. Interestingly, most of this was recorded in the artist’s bedroom using GarageBand (aside from the drums and vocals), a quality you can feel running throughout, as it has the same spirit as Arctic Monkeys’ ‘Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not.’
On the song, the artist shares, "I like to leave interpretation to the listener. But to me, it's about finding joy in everyday life. The world can get you down, but every now and then something mundane can feel miraculous and empowering. Sometimes you really have to wrestle with songs, but 'Magic in the Air' felt pretty effortless."
A wonderful outlook that will remind you of the beauty of everyday life, this song is sure to reinvigorate something in you.
Connect with Dan Miraldi
Website | Instagram | Facebook
Jim E. Brown - I Want to Get in Touch with My Inner Child
It is always a good time whenever 19-year-old popstar Jim E. Brown resurfaces to release new music - no matter how much he appears to be suffering in the process.
‘I Want to Get in Touch with My Inner Child’ opens with a lo-fi drum machine-type beat, the music video depicting the artist in a state of pure despair, eating crisps in what looks like a Travel Lodge. The video features the artist in a variety of locations holding a balloon trying to begin the process of getting in touch with the afformetnied inner child. This has echoey vocals that bemoan poor old Jim’s woes over a plush soundscape. Of note, Jim E. Brown is clearly en route to international stardom - appearing on Tim Heidecker’s ‘Office Hours Live’ call-in show at the start of the year.
Connect with Jim E. Brown
Website | Instagram | Facebook
UNTER STRØM - Orynth
UNTER STRØM have been described as “an electronic musical duo forged in the shadows” and that is exactly the darkness that this new track, ‘Orynth,’ embodies.
Waves of industrial concrete-like textures crash down over a hypnotic pulsating beat; making you envision vast authoritarian structures where this sound echoes and bounces, growing more powerful and all-consuming in the crevices and shadows. There are sparkling melodic intrusions on the concrete soundscape every so often - this would be truly glorious to experience live in a warehouse.
Connect with UNTER STRØM
Instagram
CASANDRA - ISLA TRANQUILITA
This is taken from the Miami-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s new EP of the same name.
The EP is a “tribute to her late great aunt Teresa, a Cuban émigré” who the artist spent a lot of time with during her childhood in Miami, who would say “tranquilita” to help her take a breath and find a moment of calm.
The song sounds like the blue paradise of the artwork, soothing your nervous system, allowing you to take a breath, the artist sharing the calm and peace that she was given by her wonderful great aunt.
There is an early-00s quality to this in the blissful hypnotic beat and the aquatic utopian-island-in-summer quality. Another favourite of mine from the EP is ‘WANT VS NEED’ which has a dreamy guitar-driven alt-pop 1990s vibe to it.
On the EP, the artist shares, “It was sudden. I began creating from a place that felt like home, because after all these years, I realized I had been building it inside of me, and now it’s finally ready,” and “I really feel like myself now.”
Connect with CASANDRA
Instagram | Facebook | X
Dolly Thorne - Killshot
The first thing I thought while watching the music video for this was that this is what it would be like if a 90s It Girl, Gossip Girl’s Jenny Humphrey, and Toni Collette merged into one person and made addictive pop music.
There is an early 00s style glamor to this that is done in a way that I find to be genuinely creative, new, and interesting (for example, the turtlenecked yellow leather jacket with the striped skirt). This has a fun candy-coated bedroom pop quality with a chorus that I can absolutely imagine the characters in the TV show Girls dancing to “He’s gone for the killshot/Better lock it down/Don’t turn your back/‘Cause you know that I’m always around.”
Connect with Dolly Thorne
Instagram
Strange Fruit - Monopolar (Tom Furse Remix)
This is a remix of the shoegaze-driven dreamy number from Strange Fruit’s ‘Drips’ EP, by producer and composer Tom Furse.
The remix is dark and furtive (with a bit of a Boards of Canada vibe), which makes the vocals sound like ghosts floating over the mist of an alleyway in a city in the year 1998. This has an unknowable quality to it - a shimmering object with an opaque centre.
Connect with Strange Fruit
Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram
Connect with Tom Furse
Instagram | X
Fleur bleu·e - All the Little Beings
This is taken from the Parisian duo’s new album ‘Question Marked Upon the World’, which is out today.
This has a sense of playful dispondency that I really enjoy. The lyrics will make you feel like you are looking down at the tiny dots that we are, running around in a complete frenzy, “All the/Little/Beings/Trying to get out of their/Bodies”, imagery I personally find to be very comforting.
The alt-pop gets more dreamy and romantic as time goes on, with a gorgeous string section that has a lovely Minnie Riperton ‘Come to My Garden’ era quality to it.
Connect with Fleur bleu·e
Bandcamp | Instagram
Alexa Jaye - The Breakdown
This was a Bandcamp discovery, taken from the Los Angeles-based artist and producer's album ‘she's doing her best’ which the artist wrote, produced, sang, mixed, and mastered herself.
The vocals in ‘The Breakdown’ glitter like the wand and tiara pictured above; the song itself has some serious mid-00s pop vibes mixed with R&B. The vocals (specifically the opening melody) kind of remind me of Jojo (if you know, you know that is high praise indeed).
Connect with Alexa Jaye
Instagram | X
BUWAN. - dont u wanna?
Hypnotic, delightfully strange dance-pop/electronic music (my favourite kind). It kind of has an island of lost toys quality to it - the way the soundscape combines with the angelic, slightly eerie vocals will bewitch you. The song is about “the fear of the future and being unsure about yourself and the way you're received by the world around you.” This is the kind of music that plays through the halls of a toy house in a dream.
Connect with BUWAN.
Website | Instagram | X
Spotify Playlist
About Eimear O Sullivan
Eimear Ann O Sullivan is a multi-genre music producer, audio engineer and vocalist. After receiving a Masters in Music Technology from the CIT Cork School of Music, she went on to operate as a producer under the name Blakkheart. Her releases have received critical acclaim from Ireland's biggest music publications, such as District Magazine and Nialler9, alongside receiving heavy commercial radio airplay. She currently works in Cork recording studio Flashpoint CC. Previous clients of hers include the likes of Comedy Central’s Dragony Aunt star Candy Warhol, rapper Darce and Outsider YP. (Photo credit @Fabian Boros)
Contact Eimear O Sullivan at eimear.o.sullivan@musicngear.com
In this blog section we host new music releases, artist features and handpicked playlists by the Musicngear staff.
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