Songs like Tell Me a Story by Willow Grace are exactly why I started this blog. I love this song, yet there’s only a handful of plays on Soundcloud and Spotify at the moment and I feel like it really deserves a lot more attention. The song opens with some gentle guitar arpeggios and delicate vocals, but it’s all a trap. Suddenly the guitars fall out and a hammering, dark synth and a four-on-the-floor beat that might remind you of Purity Ring, or even Health, tell us that we were never in the coffee house acoustic set; that’s all an illusion and we’ve actually been in the underworld of the club scene this whole time.
The chorus is hooky, the lyrics sensitive, and the style fresh. I can’t wait to hear more. Check out Tell Me a Story on our Indie Rock Playlist.
Sovirez flex their artistry in Sat Alone – Live : a one-take recording that captures the live sound of their room and their performance prowess. Well performed and impressively captured, Sat Alone is a great slow rock jam that brings the sound of live music into your earphones.
A reference to The Matrix and DJ Khaled’s All I Do is Win in one song? I love it. Maladaptive Daydreams shines in the intro and sung vocal lines, with a solid hook, good vocal production, and underwater instrumental that shows a solid awareness of contemporary production styles.
Stuck on the Inside is a great example of doing a lot with very little. Produced on all stock or free plugins and a $20 mic, the production accomplishes an impressive amount of variety with a good contrast between verses and chorus, quite a clean mix, and some enjoyable vocal chops and vocoder work. I’d love to hear the lyrics get more personal and descriptive, and can hear some room for improvement in the vocal production, but nonetheless the layering of different vocals and effects is quite effective.
I like the laid-back doubled up vocals on youtunes by “Shinn!”, the minimal beat, and wavering warbly bass synth that emotes throughout the track. The heavy reverb on the vocals suggests a hallucinatory nature that is reflected in the lyrics of the song, creating some effective text painting, although I think this one could benefit from a bit more contrast between song parts, with greater emotional and dynamic shifts between verse, pre-chorus, and chorus.
I had no idea what to expect from My Angels by King Tris and, truly, after a listen I’m still somewhat mystified. Unapologetically dissonant and dischordant, the song features detuned guitar over 808-subs, Japanese language samples, and vocal line that feels somewhat inspired by the likes of early 00s rappers such as Nelly and Rayvon. It almost lands in the sonic world of Rill Rill by Sleigh Bells, in both chord structure and sound palette. Truly I’m impressed by the mix of genres, styles, influences, and sonic pallettes, although I think the track could benefit from more distinctive parts and some more harmonic elements to balance out the dissonance of the detuned guitar.
Set My Heart Ablaze by Oghamyst has some fun leaping synth lines that really form the core of the track. While writing an instrumental is always a tough challenge—establishing a strong hook or melodic development that can replace a vocal is never easy—I think this one could benefit from a more clear song structure and some more development in sound design.