Łabandzi Śpiew: dark pop

:instagram:

shedfromthebody - To Hold the Ripened Sun (2021)

środa, 7 maja 2025

bdrmm - Microtonic (2025)

Despite their name, it's not another lo-fi bedroom pop project from States. Instead, the British band offer a fine quality of music that is both airy and... very much energetic. The light melodies and up-beat compositions ask anyone to dance on the artists' third album to date.

And, I have to say, this is their best one yet. Actually, when I think about it, the dreamy part of the music is slightly withdrawn. The album goes on like a good example of indietronica that is not crazy about creating the airy atmosphere but does it anyway. Sort of a side effect of the synths and samples' rich quantities. It is best audible when the band goes dark pop with spoken word vocals and the melodies woven of synths and pure, captivating flow. Yes, I'm talking about Snares. (And In the Electric Field with a guest appearance by Manchester-based artist Olivia Rees).

It's interesting how dark the album sounds while it is made of dance'able electronic sounds mostly. I love the feeling of euphoric cosiness it provides. Like one part of me wants to dance while the other just drowns in the see of sounds.

Microtonic costs 11 EUR (9 GBP).

Check: Snares

Country: UK

Genre: dreamy indietronica

Label: Rock Action Records

czwartek, 30 stycznia 2025

shedfromthebody - Whisper and Wane (2025)

It's becoming a layman tradition that if it's a winter of an odd year, there's a new album from Suvi Savikko, better known as Shedfromthebody. And it surprise anyone as the Finnish artist's music is as dark as the long, freezing nights in Scandinavia and equally mysterious.

The artist's signature style stays the same: the more dreamy than nightmarish vocals play the main role not only to boost up the atmosphere, but also convey intriguing melodies (very Scandinavian dark pop-like) and disturbing lyrics. And the music stays decisively in the background, even if it is made with metal-like instruments, it is designed to accompany the vocals, but nothing more. While usually it's something that bothers me (I'm looking at you, Dry Cleaning), here it makes a perfect sense. It's like dark ambient backgrounds but played with real (I think) instruments. And also being a bit metal. Still, it works.

It should also be mentioned that Savikko is also a talented visual artist and she painted the cover art (and company pieces available to see at her Instagram) herself. They are also really good. And unsettling. But as Shedfromthebody describes herself: she's a "provider of immaculate vibes". Checks out.

Whisper and Wane costs 7 EUR.

Check: Mooring

Country: Finland

Genre: dark doomgaze

shedfromthebody - A Dead and Aimless Hum (2020)

czwartek, 15 lipca 2021

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys - Transit Tapes (For Women Who Move Furniture Around) (2021)

Lucy Kruger, the half of the brilliant Medicine Boy duo she created with André Leo, started her solo career a while ago, but Transit Tapes (For Women Who Move Furniture Around) is the first album she releases after the band ceased to exist. She performs her music together with The Lost Boys that consist of Liú Mottes, Andreas Miranda and Martin Perret, however there's no argue that Kruger is the project's leading force.

She comes from South Africa but lives now in Germany, and this album, as a follow-up to her 2019's Sleeping Tapes for Some Girls release, "documents Lucy's first year and a half after moving to Berlin". The foundation of her music is being minimalist and dark at the same time, showing "the bare bones of the songs, a slow burning psychedelic folk that is both intimate and ambient". This puts more focus on lyrics and the artist's mesmerizing and delicate voice - it is music closer to singer/songwriter phenomenon than Medicine Boy's was, but it is filtered though the same, utterly sad and slowcore-paced vibes.

And just like on Leo's solo album earlier this year Kruger helped him with certain parts, Leo had a role to play on this album as well, and I still find it so very cute. It does make the longing after Medicine Boy less painful.

Transit Tapes (For Women Who Move Furniture Around) costs 10 EUR.

Medicine Boy - Take Me with You When You Disappear (2020) EN

Medicine Boy - Lower (2018) EN

Check: Promised Land

Country: RSA/Germany

Genre: slowcore dark pop

Label: Unique Records/Schubert Music Europe

wtorek, 18 maja 2021

MØAA - Euphoric Recall (2021)

Jancy Rae Buffington is MØAA, an artist who creates a very dreamy and moody music, which is kind of strange when you know that the moniker came from the name of a MAO-A gene, one that is connected to aggressive behaviour. She just released her debut album called Euphorics Recall on We Were Never Boring Collective label.

The music here is no punk, that's for sure. And although Rae created her music persona to write about frustrations and her "troubled past", she chose to do that in the form of very dark but also melodic, synth-rich dream pop. What's more, the album was created both in the rainy Washington state and the sunny Italy where the American met Andrea Volpato who is the second part of the project, the one responsible for co-writing the music as well as producing and mastering. This geographical factors may have influenced the way the music here combines the gloomy atmosphere with lively melodies that can be hummed from the very first listening (with the fantastic X Marks as the best example).

O2, on the other hand, combines the very ethereal ambiance and backing vocals with quite noisy form while Lam shows the more post-punk face of the project's synthpop with quite ominous vibes. And the further into the album, the more guitar-based and wavey the songs get, not losing anything from the atmosphere of the dark and moody, trip-hopish beginning.

Euphoric Recall costs 8 EUR.

Check: X Marks

Country: Washington, US; Italy

Genre: ethereal synthpop

Label: We Were Never Being Boring Collective

:instagram:

FOUDRE! - Future Sabbath (2021)

środa, 24 marca 2021

Grive - Grive (2021)

Paul Régimbeau has just appeared on the blog with his band FOUDRE! who released a brilliant, industrial, ambient-infused album Future Sabbath. And he's back already due to him being the half of the new duo called Grive who just showed their first EP.

The other half is the French singer-songwriter Agnès Gayraud, also known as La Féline, and it's her who plays the major role at the beginning of the album. The electronically-biased backgrounds are subtle here and exist to underline Gayraud's catchy and at the same time airy voice. Still, the music here has clear dark vibes: when it's pop, it's dark pop, when the electronics take over, it's dark trip-hop with industrial hints all over the place. And this happens fast, Kingdom consists entirely of a one-liner chorus drowned in murky waters of electronica and guitar sounds while Burger Shack, still very much an electronic track, gives more space for Gayraud again. Still, my favourite one here is the finisher in Coal Mine - a track that combines all of the above with heavy post-rock vibes in the final part. Great debut!

Grive costs 4 EUR.

Check: Coal Mine

Country: France

Genre: dark electronic pop

Label: Schubert Music Publishing

piątek, 9 sierpnia 2019

Sam Haven - Sanctuary (2019) EN

Sam Haven, Australian artist, on his album's cover art as well as on his own pictures shows how much darkness and shadows mean to him. And his music is also like that. You can try it on his new album called Sanctuary.

The musician creates utterly moody and very dark pop-rock that is able to "seamlessly blend ambient soundscapes with gently imposing classical elements". Based on the raw sounds of electric guitar and his poignant and deep voice gets straight to the listener's soul. To properly appreciate the album, it is recommended also to take a closer look at Haven's dark and pain-filled lyrics.

The artist sounds even better when in Heaven Sent replaces the guitar with piano and his clear vocal with whispers. And this sound makes it feel as if there was an discovery of a long-forgotten track by iLiKETRAiNS when their name was spelled like that. But the pinnacle of the emotional crispness is reached in All The Flowers Are On Fire, monumental ballad played on airy backing vocals and noise. Perfect finish of the good album.

Sanctuary costs 7 AUD.

Check: All The Flowers Are On Fire

Country: Australia

Genre: minimal dark noise

Sam Haven - Sanctuary (2019) PL

Sam Haven, muzyk z Australii, zarówno na cover arcie jak i na zdjęciach samego siebie pokazuje jak bardzo ceni mrok i cień. Taką też muzykę tworzy, a spróbować jej można na nowej płycie pod tytułem Sanctuary.

Artysta tworzy nastrojowy i bardzo mroczny pop-rock, który "płynnie łączy ambientowe soundscape'y z delikatnie zarysowanymi elementami klasycznymi". Oparty na surowych dźwiękach gitary elektrycznej i przejmującym, głębokim wokalu dociera prosto do duszy odbiorcy. Warto zagłębić się również w mroczne, pełne bólu teksty Havena by naprawdę docenić ten album.

Artysta jeszcze lepiej brzmi, gdy w Heaven Sent zamienia gitarę na pianino, a wyraźny wokal na szepty. A brzmi jakby odnalazł się dawno zapomniany kawałek iLiKETRAiNS z czasów, gdy jeszcze tak się ich zapisywało. Natomiast szczyty emocjonalnej dosadności osiąga w All The Flowers Are On Fire, monumentalnej balladzie na eteryczne chóry i noise zamykającej płytę. Idealna.

Sanctuary kosztuje 19 złotych (7 AUD).

Sprawdź: All The Flowers Are On Fire

Kraj: Australia

Szufladka: minimal dark noise