Flow
With edition #56, Weekly5 returns and brings you exciting tracks by ÄTNA, Julien Bracht, Moonpools, Lizki and Sophia Blenda.
The summer break is over, and I'm eager to bring five new tracks every Sunday. I'm glad you're still here and willing to listen to my recommendations. Your loyalty is priceless and my biggest motivation.
Today's edition spans from ecstatic electronica to melancholic indie rock, from ravishing rave to sombre sway. Feel the flow across the ocean. Is it just a dream? No, it's the new serenity.
Without further ado, let's dive into the selection.
Best,
ÄTNA – Flow (orbit Remix)
The brass section rises to infinite greatness while the beat slowly moves like a dreamy tortoise. Inéz Schaefer's voice wanders around, simultaneously curious and amazed.
Orbit's remix of Dresden-based electronica duo ÄTNA's Flow is an otherworldly experience. The track was initially released as part of their 2022 record Push Life, ÄTNA's sophomore album. In its original version, Flow is a reduced song that breathes early 90s hip-hop vibes with sustained synth notes. However, in the hands of producer orbit, Flow shapeshifts into an overwhelming and epic downtempo cathedral.
The remix starts unsuspecting, almost charming. Schaefer's delicate performance perfectly adds to the rhythm. But as soon as the bass, and the brass section soon thereafter, kicks in, Flow becomes a massive bulwark. It overcomes you like a gigantic wave; you start to feel small and insignificant, faced with the sonic walls that orbit builds seemingly out of thin air. What an exciting sight!
Julien Bracht – Across the Ocean
The dark beat hammers relentlessly, and the synthesizers purr like a wild cat. And as the sky opens up, a sonic vastness expands beyond the horizon into space and time.
Across the Ocean isn't the first entry by Julien Bracht at Weekly5, nor is it his latest single release. In 2021, I featured the German producer with tracks like Dancer In The Dark or the incredible Streets. After releasing his record Now Forever One, he's about to drop the EP Rave Flower in September. The latest single, Don't Chase Your Enemies, might already indicate where the journey is headed: A dark yet thrilling path to techno's glorious days in the nineties.
However, since its appearance back in July, Across the Ocean has been floating around in my heavy rotation. There's an inexplicable atmosphere to the track. It feels like a warm yet distant memory of a happy moment. The sonic fields Bracht produces stretch out far, juxtaposing the jumpy playfulness of the melodic synth notes. Across the Ocean is a song that lets you drown in sound.
Moonpools – Feel
The stinging sensation of longing drips from every instrument. A sweet agony lives within the lyrics. How can doubts and pain sound so hauntingly beautiful?
Moonpools, one of Switzerland's latest indie sensations, was formed six years ago by singer Marcie Nyffeler, drummer Jasper Nyffeler, and Francesco Vona at the synths. One year later, Matthias Gusset and David Blum joined at the guitars and bass. They released a debut EP, Turbulent Times (2019), but it's 2022 that shapes up to be their biggest year so far. With Damaged Goods, they managed to make lostness and confusion sound astonishingly energetic and hopeful.
Last week, Moonpools released the EP Damaged Goods, featuring three more songs besides the namesake track. And Feel is a bright shimmering pearl of dream pop, heavily drawing from dark wave's melancholia and indie rock's melodic qualities. It's a constant flow of self-doubt, fear, and helplessness, presented by Nyffeler's angelic voice and wrapped into a bittersweet arrangement.
Lizki – it's just a dream
Breathless and ever moving forward in an ethereal vacuum. Despairingly hopeful, with only the bass synthesizer revealing the abyss of futility. Love is a complicated thing.
Artist Lizki is again a Weekly5 veteran. With the shell-shocking Dynamite and the pleading Lift Me Up, the classically trained singer and pianist demonstrated an explosive mix of electronic sounds and her incredible voice. Despite her obvious obsession with creating a new kind of pop music, the classical repertoire shines through again and again.
It's just a dream, her latest single, deviates from the monstrous, dark atmosphere of last year's debut album Forward. The track tells a story of hopeless, imaginary love. And by Lizki's standard, the song has a surprisingly upbeat nature. Slightly distorted and excentric, she sings, "I'll love you forever," illustrating the surreality of it all. But it's the brilliant choir voice in the background, contrasting the clean hyper pop sound, that creates the song's unique character.
Bandcamp New & Notable Aug 25, 2022
Sophia Blenda – Die neue Heiterkeit
An ever-changing rhythm staggers and drags you into a mysterious, foggy world—a larger-than-life opus, poetic and thoughtful without being pretentious.
26-year-old Sophie Löw has gained artistic experience as the singer of the post-punk band CULK. Now, the Austrian musician has released her first solo album as Sophie Blenda, Die neue Heiterkeit—translated: the new cheerfulness. There's an apparent irony in the record's title as Löw's songs feature leaden, melancholic chamber pop.
The album's concluding namesake track is a stunning journey. There's no red thread in its rhythm, only the smoky voice guiding through the meandering arrangement. Die neue Heiterkeit encases the soul with its dense web of reverb, piano, lush bassline, and string-like synths. What an experience!
Bandcamp New & Notable Mar 19, 2022
