Py – Ghostdance
Back in the halcyon days of December 2012, London-based singer-songwriter Py released a mixtape, Tripping on Wisdom, featuring collaborations with a host of producers including Breton, Lapalux, George Fitzgerald, Raffertie and Greenwood Sharps. As with most mixtapes, it was a bit all over the place. Since then she’s been awarded PRS Momentum funding (alongside Lapsley and BBC Music Sound of 2015 winners Years & Years) and used the money to set up her own label, Tilehouse, and record a proper EP in Paris with producer Throwing Snow. Fancy. Premiered here are the first fruits of their labour in the shape of the twitching, oddly undulating title track, Ghostdance. Melodically slippery and with unsettling production touches throughout – that strange, descending synth line that underpins the chorus, the dead-eyed backing vocals that haunt the verses – it’s all glued together by Py’s soft, multilayered vocal that manages to make the whole thing seem simultaneously alluring and sinister.
Eternal Death – Hole
As you can probably tell from the name, this Swedish duo are a cheery, happy-go-lucky pair whose DayGlo, EDM-tinged megapop would be perfect for a kids’ birthday party. (Not really, of course – that was me being sarcastic.) Eternal Death – AKA singer-songwriter Elin Berlin and producer Johan Angergard – seem intent on setting themselves apart from their Swedish pop peers, hence the moniker, track titles such as Violence, and the fact that their press release calls them “anti-pop stars” and describes their music as “credible pop”. All of this posturing is slightly distracting, especially when you consider that their particular strain of expansive, darkly hued electropop is as immediate as anything by the likes of fellow countrymen Kate Boy or Niki and the Dove. In fact, Hole – taken from their forthcoming self-titled debut album and premiered here – may nod towards Austra and Zola Jesus in the verses. But no amount of ominous widescreen synths can camouflage the pure joy that leaps out of the frenetic chorus, even if they are probably singing about death.
Katelyn Tarver – Weekend Millionaires
American actress/singer Katelyn Tarver, 25, has already had quite an eventful career. As well as releasing her debut album back in 2005, she’s starred in teen dramas Big Time Rush and The Secret Life of the American Teenager, and once stood in for the actual Barbie in the straight-to-DVD motion-capture spectacular, The Barbie Diaries. Music seems to be her passion, with that debut album arriving six years later with an independently funded EP, the knowingly titled A Little More Free. This week she released the first taste of her forthcoming second album proper in the shape of the candy-coated, achingly arch Weekend Millionaires. The central premise of the song – we’re all just sheep spending money we don’t have in a vain attempt to emulate a life projected to us by celebrities – seems a little heavy-handed, but it’s refreshing to hear the American dream being poked from the inside. There aren’t many choruses that start “all the young fools, we’re starving in Bel Air”, or even songs that revolve around the slightly depressing and ultimately unfulfilling hope of “one day we’ll be there”. It would all seem horribly preachy if the music wasn’t so light and fluffy, with Tarver’s sociopolitical lyrics skipping over delicate synth droplets and big bouncing synths on the chorus.
Vanbot – Trooper (Gabriel Gassi remix)
It’s been almost four years since Vanbot released her self-titled debut album of crystalline pop. As nearly everyone with fully functioning ears pointed out at the time, Vanbot’s way with a sad lyric and an uplifting synth line was reminiscent of fellow Swede Robyn – which was not a bad place to start. The plan was to release the follow-up album last spring, but just before it was finalised Vanbot, AKA Ester Ideskog, got cold feet. “Something was missing,” she explained. “I took 10 steps back and started all over again, started from scratch. After rebooting I was challenged to do it so much better. It was the perfect storm.” The first track to emerge from this painful sounding reboot is Trooper, which has been given a playful makeover here by fellow Swede Gabriel Gassi. Speeded up from its glacial original, the new version pops and fizzes over a surprisingly jaunty bassline. Newcomer Gassi experiments with the vocal pitch and transforms the whole thing into something a lot less sombre and ponderous.
Tori Kelly – Nobody Love
Chances are, UK listeners will know California’s Tori Kelly from Professor Green’s recent top five hit Lullaby, after the singer supplied the soaring chorus to another of the rapper’s navel-gazing radio behemoths. In the US, however, you might be more familiar with her vocal talents if you happen to have been watching various talent shows. As well as reaching Hollywood week (the bit before they whittle the contestants down to the top 24) on American Idol in 2010, she appeared on pop institution Star Search and won the 2004 edition of America’s Most Talented Kid. This TV talent-show groundwork, or the fact that she was once signed to Geffen Records aren’t the reasons why she’s currently signed to Capitol Records, however. When the Geffen deal collapsed, Kelly took to uploading covers on YouTube and amassed more than 80m plays. Justin Bieber’s manager signed Kelly in 2013, and she’s since been working on her debut album with the likes of Toby Gad, Pharrell Williams, Ed Sheeran (who she’s supported on tour) and Max Martin. The latter has cowritten her new single Nobody Love, a bold, Ariana Grande-esque belter that’s not afraid to showcase Kelly’s 90s diva vocal. In fact, just like Grande’s Problem (which Martin also co-created), Nobody Love experiments with typical pop structure by going full out on the verses and ramping things up to a massive chorus, only for it all to drop down to something surprisingly minimal.
