#dark electropop

[iheartmoosiq]

We’ve always been addicted to KILL J and her enthralling experimental pop, whose range of sound has been so delightfully unpredictable over the years. She’s given us a barrage of brilliant songs spread over a wide scope, from R&B pop to electronic pop to art pop and more. Her latest release is a song named Addicted, the fourth track unveiled from her next album Superposition. Its minimalist soundscape fuses electronica with pop in a edgy, forward-thinking fashion, with supple coiling vocals and dark stuttering, sparse haunting production. As always, the video for her song is an extension of KILL J’s artistic vision and imaginative creativity. Kill J’s new album will be out on June 14th. 

[alternative365]

Sulk // TR/ST // TRST

[iheartmoosiq]

I don’t think I’ll ever stop loving dark, gothy music. As such, I’ll likely always be in love with New Zealand’s So Below, too. Madeline North, the musician behind the bewitching project, lets loose a deluge of her splintered shards and dark throbbing electronic pop on recent single Bone, which comes accompanied by news of So Below’s debut album arriving later this year. We find ourselves drawn into her moody brooding world of sharp pulsing, visceral and jagged sonics. Bone is a restlessly coursing escapade much fitting of a pitch-black night, one unsettled by turbulent emotions. Stream/download Bone, here, as we look ahead for more news regarding that debut album.

[iheartmoosiq]

At a time when pop seems to be expanding in all directions, and genre lines have blurred more than they ever before, Billie Eilish has been crowned as the latest pop princess, propelled by her brother FINNEAS’ expert songwriting. But Zoey Lily might be the one to give her a run for her money. The bewitching Londoner continues to enthrall with her dark tormented, emotively enchanting pop on new song I Wish I Had A Heart. Her lithe sinuous, softly simmering voice leads us through a sparse haunting soundscape imbued with shadowy beats and a taut murkiness. I Wish I Had A Heart is the Londoner’s second release from her current song every six weeks series. The track was co-produced by Grace Carter’s drummer Toby Horton, and mixed by James Kenosha. Its artwork was designed and drawn by Zoey herself. 

Zoey explains: “I Wish I Had a Heart is about feeling stuck in your own skin and being unable to deal with the outside world and everything that is expected from you in society so you’d rather hide away and basically stop living so no one can judge you anymore. To film the music video, I teamed up with a fine art student who previously had an open heart surgery himself and  used parts of the tubes and equipment he still had at home.” Stream/purchase I Wish I Had A Heart, here.

[iheartmoosiq]

Warm Human engulfed us whole last month with the Chicago producer, composer, and lyricist’s “sludge pop” on Down, a dark and haunting ambient pop confessional that habits the space between dusky shuffling Daughter/Ex:Re and string-laced, graceful blustering London Grammar. And now, just a week ahead of her appearance at SXSW, she’s premiered a brand new track off her debut album Ghastly, out this Friday. Meredith Johnston, the musician behind Warm Human, brings us fuzzy droning ambient textures and pneumatic 808′s on ‘Y U’, a dark shuddering, edgy throbbing spell of experimental pop hypnosis. Y U comes with a captivating music video featuring a montage of clips, fittingly shot on iphone 5s considering Y U’s lyrics. While the song’s burbling soundscape feels jittery outlandish, wondering about why someone’s staring at their phone instead of paying attention to you is a familiar situation to many. No one likes to be let down by someone they cared about, but at least we now have this bold punchy tune to lift our spirits and revive or ricochet resilience.

[iheartmoosiq]

Delicious left-field pop bewitchment ensues as we lose ourselves in the shifty folds of SEiiZURE, the latest from a new English project named BABii who’s even been picked up by Iglooghost for his Diplo & Friends Radio 1 mix. The song’s icy synths and knife-like edge sends electrifying shockwaves through our ears, while BABii’s thin, ethereal voice enchants profusely. SEiiZURE’s dark bubbling electronic pop is like Keep Shelly In Athens or School Of Seven Bells gone eccentric Pixx, with a smidgen of Grimes’ unconventional whimsicality. Speaking about the new track, BABii said (and we quote with strict accuracy to her playful choice in lettering): "ii NEARLY PUT THiiS SONG iiN THE BiiN BUT iiGLOOGHOST HEARD A SMALL CLiiP FROM iiT WHEN ii USED TO POST PARTS OF SONGS ON MY iiNSTAGRAM AND ENCOURAGED ME TO FiiNiiSH iiT. NOW iiT’S ONE OF MY FAVOURiiTE SONGS ON THE RECORD."

BABii is described as a petite girl who makes big noise. She’ll be releasing her debut full length HiiDE later this year via Deathwaltz Originals, which focuses on the key themes of hiding and secrets. For more of BABii’s avant-garde electropop, which is exactly the sort of oddly scintillating music we love, stream her inky shuddering single, PHANTOM below. Follow the fascinating newcomer on Facebook, here, or Twitter, here.

[iheartmoosiq]

Vi, a compelling siren who hails from Ottawa, Canada, delivers what seems initially like deceptively simple pop on a song named ‘<3′. “I think my hearts about to explode,” the mesmeric songstress croons on the understated and stripped back beauty. It might be our hearts she’s singing about, and not hers. Vi’s deep, husky voice quickly reminds us of dark pop goddess Banks, but wedded to acoustic guitar strums rather than moody broiling synths on ‘<3′. As a tender urgency builds on the track, ‘<3′ builds emphatically into a supple and atmospheric affair. Accompanying the song is a darker, moodier R&B speckled alt pop song named Clover, which can be streamed below. This one’s a sultry prowler of a simmering track with contorted synths and twisting vocal pitches. Vi is utter bewitchment on her new songs. The rather enigmatic artist can be found on Instagram, here. Stream her music on Spotify, here.

[iheartmoosiq]

A rosé, if you’re not a wine connoisseur, is normally a pink colored ambrosial libation that’s often light and refreshing, with an ample amount of sweetness. My own preferences when it comes to wine leans towards the bold and dark, like a murky, vibrant Cabernet, which is exactly how Madi’s Rosé sounds. We’ve grown to be endlessly fond of the Los Angeles chanteuse’s sultry twisting, serpentine smoldering music, often a seamless emulsion consisting of dark pop, electro-R&B, and bristling trap. She ensnares our caliginous hearts with a spectral seething, viciously visceral fusion of those influences on bewitching Rosé and dazzles us with her beautifully contorting vocals on the intensively ravishing track, one of five songs from her scintillating debut EP Reprisal, out since last Friday on Moving Castle. Like a Banks, Sevdaliza, and FKA Twigs amalgam, Rosé twitches and arcs, taking us on a seductive tingling journey of haunting suspense. Madi’s EP, which also includes previously featured tracks like White Horse, her collaboration with Moving Castle co-founder Robokid, and revenge anthem Reprisal, can be streamed and downloaded, here.

Madi says of the inaugural EP:  “While “Reprisal” [EP] is a comeback album after a year of music hiatus, it is first and foremost a tribute to my childhood. I was taken advantage of both medically and in the setting of the church-- both are supposed to be the most “sacred”, “safest”, and “holiest” of places. A lot of songs out there in the world are love songs, therefore I wanted to push myself to write explicitly and graphically. These songs are hate songs to these childhood moments, and because of them, I face inexperience, anxiety, yet boldness and bravery in the real world now with love and adulthood.”