Tag Archives: Experimental

[EP Review] NVDES – La Nvdité Vol. 2

NVDES
This High
NVDES
D.Y.T (Do Your Thing) feat. REMMI
NVDES
Everyday
NVDES
Amsterdam In My Mind
NVDES
Walls
NVDES
Where Is Your Mind

As a much anticipated follow-up to Vol. 1 released this summer, music collective NVDES has released the sequel La Nvdité Vol. 2 today. De-facto frontman Josh Ocean enlists the help of his musically talented friends once again to produce yet another energy and emotion packed EP. NVDES continues to deliver on their mission of soul-baring creative expression.

Volume 2 takes a decidedly more experimental approach than pop-heavy Volume 1. There’s a bit of everything on this latest EP, but you begin to hear some new musical inspirations come through on this production.

On first track “This High”, the EP kicks off with the familiar post-punk, distorted guitar twangs you’ve come to associate with NVDES. If you keep listening, Ocean and crew lace in some ethereal, almost spiritual crooning. By the end of the song, you’re left with a trappy banger. Quite the musical journey on this track.

Another standout is lead single “D.Y.T.”, a fun, minimalistic dance tune that we featured previously here on TMN. NVDES draws on the help of talented vocalist Remmi for this tune. The following track, “Everyday”, shows a soulful side of NVDES that we haven’t quite seen before. Alongside a distinctly retro sampling/production style, this track introduces a new funky side to the lost love that Ocean so often enjoys writing songs about.

On the whole, Vol. 2 makes it evident that Ocean is delving deeper into certain aspects of his creative repertoire, going beyond the pop-punk electro sound that NVDES initially became known for. Leaning on heavier and darker beats, and lacing in funk and soul elements, NVDES makes an unexpected yet welcome musical pivot, while staying true to their roots of free-flowing, unstructured musical exploration. 

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[Throwback] Nicole Dollanganger – Chapel

Nicole Dollanganger
Chapel

Hearing something for the first time is great, but how good is re-hearing something that you forgot existed for 9 months? That’s magic. How did it come up again? We don’t know. But it did. And it’s glorious. The throwback is real, and today we’re throwing it back to a song released by an artist named Nicole Dollanganger whose innovation is welcomed by us time and time again.

Nicole Dollanganger has been releasing completely angelic music for the last few years and we’re happy to see her getting some more spotlight. Her release “Chapel” is especially representative of some of Dollanganger’s most enjoyable artistic characteristics—her vocal and lyrical talents. With a voice that possesses its own dialed-in breathy reverb that any artist strives to attain strictly in the studio, Dollanganger showcases her blessedly-toned voice in conjunction with some of our favorite lyrics she’s released yet with this release.

A song for the tragic, “Chapel” has lyrics that impart a kind of emotional gravity on the listener that they might not have been ready for, and we’re fans of songs that can move like that. One of our favorite lines comes at the end of the sorrow-stricken chorus: “You know I don’t love anyone, but I love you.” Wow. That’s real. Nicole Dollanganger makes us feel. We can say that for certain. Oh, and let us not forget– our favorite superstar Grimes is a big fan of her, too. She brought her on to her Eerie project pretty much before anyone else, and anyone who’s a friend of Grimes is most certainly a friend to us.

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[Indie] Daisy Chain – Bianca Casady

Bianca Casady
Daisy Chain

You may have heard of the talented sister duo CocoRosie some time in the recent past. They’ve been making some pretty innovative stuff—characterized by experimental vocals, depth of lyrics, and feminine power. Today we bring you a release from half of the CocoRosie project, Bianca Casady. The Paris-based producer has released her track, “Daisy Chain,” and we’re pretty stoked about how different it is.

The best way we can describe this tune is beautifully morbid, and its morbidity lies equally in the instrumentation as it does the lyrics. Demonstrating her French influence, Casady opens “Daisy Chain” with Mr. Sad Accordion, which is our name for her accordion sample, not an actual person. We wish. She simultaneously brings in a sample of a piano, but it’s like one of those pianos you’d find in an abandoned house off the interstate that you really shouldn’t go in. She continues to play on these creepy versions of accordion, piano and eventually guitar in ways that perfectly compliment her death-ridden lyrics: “We’re all in line for the daisy chain… nothing but a chain gang pickin’ wild flowers by the roadside. No one in the boneyard bringing milk and honey to their loved ones.” We’ll leave the interpretation up to you. But the interpretation we will leave you with is that of the whole song—a creepy success.

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[Experimental] Arca – Urchin

arca
Urchin

As we sit here writing this post and listen to Arca’s newest track release, “Urchin”, we’re sort of frightened. For us this isn’t a new feeling when listening to the London-based gender neutral producer’s music in the night, but it is one that we welcome. Arca reminds us that there is beauty in ambiguity and darkness—the feelings many of their tracks leave us with.

After a critically acclaimed EP release with Mutant, we were really happy to see that they’d released another track so soon. After listening to “Urchin” we understand why this one came separately from the epic EP, however. This track embodies an industrially ambient density unlike any of their tracks from the unleashed Mutant, and that was made apparent upon the first listen. Retaining their quintessential qualities of stop-motion aesthetic synths, Arca creates an unprecedented low-end depth in this new track. Please keep releasing like wildfire. We can’t get enough.

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[Electronica] Mano Le Tough – Half Closed Eyes

Mano Le Tough
Half Closed Eyes

Mano Le Tough, aka Niall Mannion, is a now Berlin based producer who’s been making crazy moves in the European electronic scene, and we’re hoping it’s not long before he’s as big of a hit with the States as he is with TMN. Getting his start in a seaside village close to Dublin, Ireland, Mano Le Tough brings some electronica serenity to the latest track off his newest EP Trails.

“Half Closed Eyes” is a track that hits us a few tunes deep into the album and changes up its pace at just the right time. Beginning with the kind of experimental “off beat” electronic percussions you might have the pleasure of hearing in a Nicolas Jaar track (*pause for a moment of silence for Darkside please*), the song also opens with a sample of some chopped up and looped vocals. Next Mannion brings in a house bass line and this is when the track really gets us going. The tune starts morphing into something you might hear Bonobo spin—-a progression of symbols and bells, all while continuing with the vocal sample, which is now uttering “on and on…” like any good electronica song should. But don’t worry, the track never maintains its normalcy because the off beat percussions come right back along with some Doppler effect synths and industrial noise, and you can feel good about being weird again.

On top of making madly good music, Mano Le Tough also throws this hot dance party in Berlin called Passion Beat where he hosts himself as a resident DJ along with his buddy, The Drifter. Hosting other names like Nicolas Jaar and John Talabot, we’ve made this a must-go destination in our electronic dance party geo-calendar. Because that is definitely a thing.

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[Electronic] Botany – Bad CGI

Botany
Bad CGI

Austin-based producer Spencer Stephenson, known by the moniker Botany, stepped out onto the electronic scene in a big way with his new LP Dimming Awe, The Light Is Raw. Demonstrating a significant command of the frequency spectrum, Stephenson has once again created a work that effortlessly combines ambient, hip-hop and psych in a landscape that transports the listener to a place of heightened auditory perception upon the first listen. Stephenson’s artistic interest in paying homage to all the freaks (aka frequencies) is hugely seen in this LP’s own “Bad CGI”, a track that will get you vibing all around.

Opening with a drone-y vocal sample that will come back to haunt you later on in the song, the track has an experimental low end pulse that fittingly follows, setting the driving bass rhythm for the rest of the track. The intro flows seamlessly into a funkier tune as the bass line comes in along with the highs of ambient flutter effects that fill the background of the track. It soon becomes apparent that this is one you can get down to. The transition from a chanty bass track to the track that could easily be dropped at a club is impeccable, and I think that’s what attracts us to Botany’s work the most. Check out the rest of his stuff for a groove-ridden train ride across his Texas-made bridge between the experimental and beats that anyone can feel.

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[Indie/Rock] Unknown Mortal Orchestra – Can’t Keep Checking My Phone

Unknown Mortal Orchestra
Can't Keep Checking My Phone

If you’re reading this on a mobile device we apologize for the irony.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra have revealed ‘Can’t Keep Checking My Phone’ to be their second single ahead of their third LP Multi-Love which is due out May 26th, and it’s a hand-clapping psych-soul groove.

In a newsletter sent to fans, frontman and multi-instrumentalist Ruban Nielson explains it’s about “missing somebody and that point where you refuse to accept online ‘connectivity’ as a substitute for being with someone IRL.”

Opening with a bit of meandering horns and classical guitar, ‘Can’t Keep Checking My Phone’ bounces around lyrical topics that include eating crickets, the aurora borealis, and wondering if the universe is really a hologram, all before putting the phone down and regrettably picking it up once again.

“Do you fall in love with the idea of someone? Or the chemicals they give off in person? Either way, I’ve got to get off my phone,” Nielson concludes.

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