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The Underground Forest - Volume 43

Welcome to The Underground Forest 🌳

Featuring: Waz-u, G9 LUV, Lilyg, Mel Denisse, Matthew Nowhere, Lunar Twin, Trash Girl, Pry, Theo Bleak, Elle Barbara & Morriarchi.

By Eimear O SullivanMusicngear Editor

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This month's edition features a forbidden song you listened to on cassette tape on a stormy night in 1998: a song that feels like a kitsch record you came across in a thrift store in NYC; a luxurious song that is the result of a crate dig the artist did in Istanbul; a lush ambient song that feels like sunlight; a song that sounds like 1980s drive through Miami; lush, dreamy DIY shoegaze and more!

Like a Fiend - Mel Denisse

I LOVE this song - it reminded me of Poe (whose album Haunted, a companion to her brother’s book, House of Leaves, being one of my favourite albums ever), there is also a touch of the dark allure of Avril Lavigne's 2004 album Under My Skin, blended with the barbed wire dreaminess specific to 1990s rock/pop.

Like a Fiend opens with ominous bass textures, before descending into a darkly delicious 1990s adjacent verse featuring an entrancing vocal melody, the gnarled textures of that era swirling around the angelic vocals. This has the vibe of a song you used to listen to at night on cassette tape, in secret, on a stormy night in 1998.

Connect with Mel Denisse
Website / Youtube / Spotify / Instagram / X

All Bets off - Morriarchi 

Night Owl Zehra is the result of a crate dig the artist did in Istanbul, and features beats, edits from these, which are  “a mix of psych rock, pop, soul and more from around the late 60s going into the late 70s” (you can read more here).

This is the opening song from the album, and it has the elegant, cinematic feel of a large-scale movie from that era. This plays out over a hip-hop beat; with a plush musical soundscape, made up of a variety of ingenious sampling, soars over it. This will bring you into a city of romance, a city of technicolour, where coffee tastes better, where you feel alive. 

Connect with Morriarchi
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram / Facebook / X

Transforming - Matthew Nowhere, Lunar Twin

Divine synth pop that plays over a blood red sunset of 1980s Miami, as you drive towards the city skyline. 

This collaboration between Matthew Nowhere and Lunar Twin (made up of vocalist Bryce Boudreau and multi-instrumentalist Christopher Murphy) opens with a shimmering bed of synths, which rise to greet your ears, building a sense of anticipation of what is to come, before bursting into a dreamy, delightfully smooth, synth-fueled beat. Featuring the rich vocals of Boudreau, the tone of the vocals make the song feel like a daydream. Simply wonderful.

On the song Matthew Nowhere says, “The collaboration with Bryce on this song started with some impressive synchronicity, and the whole process really set the tone for a lot of the 'Crystal Heights' album itself. Bryce is incredibly gifted at inhabiting these sonic spaces – and he immediately understood exactly what the song needed and what it was trying to convey. I think working together brought out the best in both of us.” 

Bryce Boudreau adds, “I was swept away by the grandeur of Matthew’s music on this song and immediately envisioned a coastal night world populated by dreamers and drifting souls caught in between the dusk and dawn of coastal neon. The rest of the story wrote itself. I’m excited to finally be able to share this song.”

Connect with Matthew Nowhere
Website / Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram 

Connect with Lunar Twin
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram

Wind is Shaking - Trash Girl

Taken from the album, True Names: A Benefit for Trans Youth (out now and available to purchase via Bandcamp), all profits go to the Trans Youth Emergency Project, which helps families of trans youth find healthcare providers, travel to appointments, and pay for medication.

This is the work of NYC-based artist Trash Girl, the vocals possesses shoegaze levels of dreamyness, the instrumental being a lofi blend of an organ and choir synth sounds, giving this the kitsch feel of a record you came across in a thrift store.

Connect with Trash Girl
Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram

Operating Thethan: Unknown - Elle Barbara

This is the second single from the upcoming album Word On The Street; Operating Thethan: Unknown has an old Hollywood glamour running throughout, with deliciously dark lyrics, delivered in an off-hand, yet theatrical fashion, which makes it all the more entrancing. The music itself has a kind of 1970s cult movie vibe to it, which I love.

I can honestly say that I have never really heard anyone quite like Elle Barbara. I cannot wait for the album.

Connect with Elle Barbara
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram

Vermillion: G Major - Waz-u, G9 LUV, Lilyg

Taken from the Waz-u’s upcoming ambient electronic album, Preludes: Dusk Psalms (set for release on 16 May 2025 via independent label Biodiversity), ‘Vermillion: G Major’ features the talents of Lilyg and G9 LUV.

Warm ambient glory awaits your ears; the vocals feel like a stream of consciousness and are deeply soothing, the lush instrumental rising in the background, becoming even more oceanic and warm, making you feel like you are bathed in sunlight.

This feels like being at home or being out in the garden on a glorious summer day.

Connect with Waz-u
Bandcamp / Spotify / Instagram

Said Like A Poet - Theo Bleak

I was into this immediately when the drum machine beat came in, accompanied by beautifully gentle guitars flowing over the percussion. This has a warmth running throughout it that makes it feel inherently human, in the way that you can feel the soul of the artist running through every part of it.

The lyrics “Man I could I have been someone” with the swell of strings that accompany it, will knock you right over. A gorgeous song from start to finish.

On the song, the artist says, “Said Like A Poet is a scathing look at how much I idealize intellect, even though I'm entirely emotionally driven. I think ideas can be beautifully written between people, but ultimately, there are concepts that lack properness—regardless of how pretentiously you write them out. I wrote this song about very human things, things I wish I knew how to ask for.”

This is taken from the artist’s upcoming EP, Bad Luck is Two Yellow Flowers (out May 15th). 

Connect with Theo Bleak
Bandcamp / YouTube / Spotify / Instagram

Heaven - Pry

This new song from NYC duo (Simeon Beardsley and Amara Bush) hits you with a wall of lush, DIY shoegaze glory, with an indie pop/rock vibe sprinkled throughout. The vocals soar above the instrumental, this is utterly divine. 

On the song, they say: “This is the first song we rehearsed with a live band. It is a favorite part of the album for its simplicity, structure, and juxtaposition to the other tracks, and even to itself, from beginning to end. The lyrics are reflective of living in a routine that feels like it necessitates yet simultaneously limits your access to ‘escape’ in any meaningful way. So we take what we can get.”

Connect with Pry
Spotify / Instagram / YouTube

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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

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