minus32heartbeat wears his heart on his sleeve with his debut albumDHRICMV. The album was released on September 6th, via Big Leather Jacket Music.
Produced, written and recorded by Matt Friedlander (minus32heartbeat), the album has eight magical tracks that capture the bustling chaos of New York (where he lives), while offering a magnificent exploration of love and life. With a fresh blend of indie rock, electronic music and alt-pop, this album is a valiant and genuine reflection of minus32heartbeat’s artistic vision. Before going solo, he was a member of the band The GoSation, which garnered attention from notable outlets like NME and Spin in the mid-2000s.
Creating DHRICMV was profoundly personal for Matt, as he drew inspiration from his own lived experiences with love and the complexities of relationships. The journey began in 2023 during a challenging financial period. However, he was fuelled by the passion to create music, and took the leap to invest in equipment and follow his artistic instincts. Inspired by legends like The Velvet Underground and Oasis, he has crafted a distinctive soundscape marked by poignant songwriting and sublime compositions.
Neacal has unveiled ‘Unrest’, the third single from his forthcoming debut album. The single was released on 13 September, with an otherworldly music video on Neacal’s YouTube channel. The producer, singer-songwriter has been a composer for over 16 years and has shifted directions from progressive rock to orchestral pop music.
Stream Neacal – ‘Unrest’ below:
Neacal’s music is healing and transformative. It doesn’t shy away from the dark aspects of life such as severe mental health conditions and chronic internal struggles, instead it embraces it. Through his music, Neacal makes peace with his demons, trauma and path, a key reminder to be as courageous as possible when faced with your shadow.
‘Unrest’ serves as a turning point in his personal journey as well as his debut album Stranger from Long Ago set for release in October this year. He explains; “’Unrest’ is the culminating point of my upcoming debut album, where the emotional stakes are at their highest, and the drama peaks. Despite its sombre mood and underworld-themed imagery, this is not a song about embracing death, but about conquering it. And such victory may only come at a very high cost. For me personally this song was a harbinger of my inevitable mental meltdown, an internal collapse that had already begun by that time unbeknownst to me, and that took months to overcome.”
The track features his endearing vocals and enigmatic songwriting, with lyrics like – “Raise our black flag, unrest in peace, grieving bliss, death gave us each a parting kiss” – creating a unique take on death and ultimately re-birth. The single has a minimalist start, with Neacal’s vocals driving it forward into a more ceremonial climax, featuring signature orchestral pop elements. The music video is a mystical feast, and was shot on the Scottish shores with black and white colour grading emphasising its esoteric and otherworldly nature.
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.”
