Since the beginning of this magazine that we have been receiving great electronic tracks. For some reason, we didn’t post about those submissions because we felt they should be integrated into a specific mood. We are now building that mood with a monthly post focusing the best of indietronica. Because we want to also give our support to other types of arts we invited Wilson Gracart to illustrate it. This is Electromental – part 4.
Amal Lad – Fight or Flight
Amal Lad is the musical project of a doctor. This fact is relevant because this organic music fan includes scientific elements into the track, with the inclusion of his heartbeat serving as a beautiful showcase for his music. Fight Or Flight is served by his heartbeat in a constant manner but goes so much beyond that. From electronic elements to a post-punk feel, the whole track grows and surprises the listener as it goes on. It also builds up a momentum that grows until the very end, almost like the heart’s releasing endorphins from high paced exercise. The guitar solo elements, in the end, are fit in perfectly too, contributing to the song’s gorgeous nirvana.
Pastel – Caninha Love
Pastel is a twenty-six years old French/Polynesian and London-based producer and multi-instrumentalist. That mix of cultures and spaces can easily be found in his sonority, with elements from all over the world finding a funky shared space where they can go party. Caninha Love is his 8th (!!) release this year and is the first song he ever played live. Many many things could be said of this track, but it is the overall feel-good sonority with elements of Samba, Funk, RnB, Jazz, and electronics that feels natural and embraces us every single time. We can even feel a bit of Bossa Nova in it, with the vocals being minimal and working like an additional element that contributes to the progressive feel of the track. This is gorgeous and contagious:
Dabu Davout – Drill Me
“This track is about the duality of the nature of relationships, about choice, pleasure or suffering, addiction or freedom, surrender or domination” – that is how Dabu Davout introduces the newest track Drill Me. Dabu Davout is now a full band project that was first originated on a solo project. The necessity of sonority and of introducing new musicians capable of responding to more and more power composed in the tracks made it much more than originally was. The guitar and the vocals sound like two distinct elements that go hand-in-hand throughout the track, with the heavier and bass-er elements actually dictating the main track hooks and changes. Sounding like a tasteful trip-hop track with elements of Massive Attack, Portishead, or even Prodigy and Radiohead. There is a lot of familiar elements in this, but there is also a renovated way of layering them all.
Flõstate – Home Ground
Fantasy RnB duo Flõstate takes influences from the UK garage and mixes them with indie electronic and pop elements. In Home Ground, they take elements very common in the London underground scene and light them up with gorgeous pop hooks and the very melodic vocals of Avery Florence. Enticing and exploring, this is a band that is not afraid of risking on making a new type of sound. The result is a track that sounds both radio proper, but also very relatable with underground vibes, with that duality giving it an edge over so many other projects trying to explore the London scene. Home Ground is about finding ourselves and what we want amidst the chaos with only our intuition to guide us home. Very relatable also in lyrics, this is probably the easiest and most engaging song you listen all week.
kamaraum – Thalassophobia
We’ve written about kamaraum before, and we are lucky to have discovered him on the very first releases. Based in Portugal, this guy makes electronic tracks that sound out of the box, alternating from more general pop sounds to underground guitar-based variations, but in all his tracks you can feel a typical breeze. One that leaves us feeling breathy and engaged and at the same time we feel an urge to small dance. In Thalassophobia he goes from minimal electronics to big guitar-driven hooks that sound taken from a Tame Impala b side project. A beautiful sound-stacked track!
Wavescapes – Drift Away
The perfect song to start an electronic set? Maybe you are looking for a song that builds up and builds a vibe, maybe you are looking for a track that can evolve while creating a strong feel, leaving space for dreaming out loud, while it can still be danced along. Wavescapes’ type of sonority can do exactly that, and their latest track entitled Drift Away is the perfect example of just that. A super easy-to-listen-to track that takes in a slow evolution and a dreamy ambiance that never transmits less than positivity and a soft electrization of our spirit.
You can listen to all these tracks (and previous others) in our ElectroMental playlist on Spotify or here: