It’s that glorious time of the week again where you get to watch our top 5 favourite finds on the World Wide Web! Sobs drift off into a melancholic fever dream, LUCIANBLOMKAMP considers self-reflection, Veyns go on a hyper audio-visual exploration, Anna Calvi defies the norm, and Las Cobras meet a mysterious traveller.
Sobs – ‘Telltale Signs’
Weaving a sound well beyond the confines of their bedroom pop beginnings, Singapore-based trio Sobs captures an awkward yet endearing introversion, their music replete with playful melodies that front a dream pop backdrop. Unassuming vocals adorn crisp layers of jangling guitars that embody a kitsch, yet undeniably relatable charm, reminiscent of the likes of Alvvays, Fazerdaze, Japanese Breakfast and Frankie Cosmos. The band will release their debut album, ‘Telltale Signs’, on 22nd June via Singapore indie label Middle Class Cigars, and today share the video for the title-track. Shot by Gus Bendinelli (Snoop Dogg, Clara Mae, October London) and directed by Will Merrick, we follow frontwoman Celine Autumn in a melancholic fever dream where she searches for an impossible love, wandering through wistful apparitions and fantasies of a different place far from home.
LUCIANBLOMKAMP – ‘Endless’
LUCIANBLOMKAMP returns with news of the second instalment of his fascinating 3-part album ‘Sick Of What I Don’t Understand’. The album’s second part (to be released on Good Manners Records on July 6) features his most potent work to date, with the Melbourne-based producer today sharing his stunning new single ‘Endless’. Of his new single, Lucian states; “Endless is about self-reflection. Lyrically, its’ somewhat lecherous tone is directed at myself. The track is basically a chat between my present and past self. The different sections of the track are meant to reflect that.”
Veyns – ‘Ocean Flesh’
‘Ocean Flesh’ is the new video from London / Los Angeles based music producer and visual artist Veyns. A uniquely gender fluid slow jam, the pitched down, androgynous vocals ricochet through a lush soundscape driven by analogue, vintage horror movie synths and futuristic R&B percussion. The video is an audio-visual exploration of the need for intimacy, taking us on a trip through the uncanny valley, with twitching camera work, lurid colour palette, and primitive CGI, like some kind of cybergoth anime mescaline trip.
Anna Calvi – ‘Don’t Beat the Girl out of My Boy’
Directed by rising star and recent Kendrick Lamar collaborator, William Kennedy, and choreographed by Aaron Sillis (FKA Twigs), is the new video for ‘Don’t Beat the Girl out of My Boy’ from Anna Calvi. “It’s a song about the defiance of happiness. It’s about being free to identify yourself in whichever way you please, without any restraints from society.” explains the former Mercury Prize nominee. Taken from the forthcoming album ‘Hunter’, produced by Nick Launay (Nick Cave, Grinderman) at Konk Studios in London, Calvi presents a new level of rawness – a primal energy into which she pushes the limits of her guitar and voice beyond anything that has been recorded before.
Las Cobras – ‘Al Más Allá’
In Canelones, a small city in the south of Uruguay exists Las Cobras – a duo whose mystical psychotropic adventures have seen them, despite their very short existence, become a thing of wonder in the exploratory South American underground, and much further afield. Last year, Las Cobras – comprised of Sofïa Aguerre and Leandro Rebellato – emerged out of nowhere with their sublime debut album Temporal, their first recorded material yet a record that featured in a number of end-of-year lists and frequently saw them praised as one of modern psych’s most exciting new bands. Released on London label Fuzz Club, Temporal was a hypnotic and totally refreshing listen, its influences a varied constellation ranging from afro-beat, Tropicalia and traditional Latin American rock, all the way through to minimalistic proto-punk, Eastern European krautrock and shoegaze. From the off the album received considerable praise across the board and the vinyl sold out remarkably quickly. To celebrate Fuzz Club repressing the album, Las Cobras have unveiled a beautiful new video for ‘Al Más Allá’ (translating from Spanish to ‘the afterlife’) – a lethargic, mesmerising slow-burner that meanders its way through enchanting dual-vocals sung in Spanish, droning synths, chiming guitars and almost-tribal percussion.
