San Francisco trio KARMACODA released their new album, You and I, on July 26, 2024, through Sola Musa Music. With a diverse twenty-year career spanning electronica, chill, trip-hop, R&B, rock, and dream pop, they’ve earned multiple awards and acclaim. Their evolving sound blends R&B and jazz lounge, drawing comparisons to artists like Adele, Lana Del Rey, and Massive Attack. KARMACODA has garnered support from CLASH Magazine, Wonderland Magazine, NOTION, EARMILK, and others, with airplay on NPR Music and RTÉ 2XM.
The album’s standout track, ‘You and I’, is an ethereal love ballad showcasing Jessica’s captivating vocals and a mesmerizing blend of piano melodies and lush instrumentals. It explores the complexities of a tumultuous relationship filled with love amidst challenging highs and lows.
Jessica shared: “This album is always going to hold a very special place in my heart. It is filled with love, friendship, joy and emotion. It is creative and doesn’t squeeze us into a specific genre. It is just KARMACODA. I love it.”
Multi-talented French artist Gabriel Seize released his debut EP Prologue on May 10th via his own imprint Gabriel Seize Music. The EP is an ode to his love for synths, nostalgia and all things retro. In the 6-track EP Gabriel dives into his arsenal of vintage synths, as he explores themes associated with 16-bit video games and electronic music loops. Gabriel combines electronic music, 3D visuals, storytelling, and vocals to create an unforgettable experience for his audience.
‘Beautiful Lie’ was co-written with Belgian writer Adeline Deieudonné, and pays homage to The Truman Show and the book Les Murailles de Samarisby Schuiten and Peeters.The trackcleverly blends a cinematic narrative with societal critique, while Gabriel’s powerhouse vocals steal the show. ‘Beautiful Lie’ is mostly sung in French, with Gabriel including snippets of English throughout.
The music video is a cinematic visual feast, as the viewer is transported into an alternate dystopian reality with the use of 3D visuals. Gabriel is seen driving a spaceship-like vehicle through stunning desert landscapes that use parts of the human body as natural landforms like mountains. As the music video progresses, the illusion of this surreal beauty is slowly stripped away as the viewer gets a more accurate view of Gabriel’s eerie reality.
Singer-songwriter, musician, producer and composer Neacal, is the emerging solo chamber pop project of a musician based in Belgrade, Serbia. His debut single ‘The Bell’ released on July 19th, 2024 via Neacal Music and premiered on tastemaker CLASH Magazine.His musical journey began as the founder of one of the most well-known instrumental progressive/post-rock bands from Eastern Europe, boasting nearly 5 million streams across platforms, tours acrossEurope and Asia, along with writing original soundtracks for numerous video games.
‘The Bell’ was written, produced and mixed by Neacal, with co-mixing by Ivan Lubianyi and mastering by the revered Ian Shepherd (Deep Purple, New Order). Neacal has been a composer for over 16 years, mostly specialising in instrumental music. He has redefined his sound, crafting orchestral pop songs as a means to navigate through trauma and reinvent his musical language.
‘The Bell’features twirling piano motifs which create movement and prepare for a cascading array of delightful melodies.It’s contrasted by a rich, velvety voice and builds to a full-bodied ending that leaves the listener grasping for more.
The music video is eerie and ominous, with Neacal donning a stoic facial expression throughout. Shot in a natural landscape, the video features lush greenery, rustic abandoned buildings, and gloomy skies. With Neacal as the focal point throughout, he’s seen in various settings taking part in seemingly random activities like wandering aimlessly, throwing stones, removing a blindfold and hanging upside down from a tree. All of this brilliantly expands on the theme of confinement and the illusion of powerlessness, which form the foundation of the track. The video ends with Neacal standing among an expansive field of grass, while the sky cracks open with lightning and thunder symbolising his breakthrough.
Neacal shared: “’The Bell’ is a song of a then suppressed part of myself that came to recognise its own power. A fraction of me which I buried deep down and hadn’t been in contact with since the beginning of my cognition was slowly getting stronger throughout the period when this album was created… and the “prison” holding this inmate started to slowly crumble. In ‘The Bell’, the prisoner explores the inevitable escape, and it realises its agency—it knows that the change that is to come will take place not just when the barrier is weak enough, but when the prisoner will apply the pressure as well, leading on the charge with other demons kept locked at the time.”
I’MMORTAL, an avant-pop artist straddling New York and London, unveiled a mesmerising music video for her third single, ‘KILLED U IN A DREAM’, on 7 June under her label, Immortality. Initially from California, I’MMORTAL honed her musical talents in orchestras and high school productions. Praised by Metal Magazine, this release comes after her debut tech-house track, ‘Versace Spaceship’, and the electropop hit ‘Supervillain’, which received accolades from CLASH Magazine and Earmilk. Despite being a newcomer, her first two singles have amassed 50,000 streams, with an ever-increasing audience and playlist features. I’MMORTAL‘s EDM-driven sound is enhanced by her audio-visual synesthesia, blending imaginative beats with vibrant visuals that delve into themes of mortality, rebirth, and her AAPI heritage.
The music video for ‘KILLED U IN A DREAM’ unfolds as a mesmerising fever dream, where I’MMORTAL embodies a dark, almost divine presence. Directed by the acclaimed PXKRW, known for their expertise in creating hypnotic, hyper-realistic dreamscapes and alternate realities, the video is a hauntingly surreal experience. It immerses viewers in a mystical realm where themes of destruction, death, and renewal are vividly explored. The visuals, bathed in dim light and punctuated by fleeting flashes, evoke a disorienting yet compelling atmosphere. I’MMORTAL captivates with her entrancing movements and evocative gestures, drawing audiences deeper into her enigmatic and fantastical world. The video masterfully blends dark aesthetics with immersive storytelling, showcasing I’MMORTAL‘s distinctive artistic vision and leaving a profound impact on viewers.
I’MMORTAL shared: “This music video is a reflection of the concept metamorphosis. I had the wonderful chance to collaborate with the directing duo PXKRW over the span of a couple months. Since the song is about rebirth, PXKRW fleshed out the concept to encapsulate this supernatural being undergoing a very raw transformation. PXKRW wanted to create a performance-based video with stunning styling and makeup to compliment their signature VFX. The styling and makeup was very intentional to the metamorphosis theme, as we wanted there to be a stark difference between the initial white dress look and the final black dress look. My personal favorite was the second neo-baby bump look, which combined with PXKRW’s VFX genius ultimately became a representation of the chrysalis stage of metamorphosis. This was also the first time I did a movement-based project, and I spent a lot of time working with the movement director (Donna Kim) to put intention behind the movement. I pushed myself out of my comfort zone in a good way, and I feel inspired to learn more about movement for future projects!”
