Pan-European journey

It’s been a hell of a week. Video calls back to back, conflicts, uncertainty, and sleepless nights. On such demanding days, I don’t have any time to listen to music, making it even less bearable.

To me, music is a source of energy, an escape to relax, and a temple of reflection. If that’s missing, I start to spiral. In today’s B-Side, I’ll reveal some songs that fall into these three categories.

However, the five curated songs today feature a broad variety of genres: German electro-pop, English brat-punk, Welsh dream-folk, French EBM, and Swiss rock.

Let’s start this pan-European journey.

LIN – Doubts

Back in 2015, when I started with playlist curation, I stumbled over Bender & Schillinger’s achingly beautiful song Rendevouz. Six years later, half of the now-disbanded duo crosses my paths once again: LIN released the debut single Doubts.

Besides LIN’s captivating voice, Rendevouz and Doubts haven’t much in common. LIN displays a crisp electro-pop. The singing meanders and floats over the evermore exploding beat. Starting doubtful, the single winds itself to exciting highs. Discussing her own fears, LIN embraces anger, sadness, and also joy.

Delilah Bon – I Don’t Listen To You

“I don’t listen to you,” might say anybody thin-skinned about this single. The song by British brat-punk artist Delilah Bon is – pardon my French – fucking angry. Bending reality with a dangerous cocktail of hip-hop, nu-metal, and punk, I Don’t Listen To You kicks patriarchy in the balls.

I Don’t Listen To You started as an empowering message from Delilah Bon to her TikTok community. Overnight, the short clip exploded. “My inbox filled up with girls begging me to release the full song, thanking me for the confidence the words gave them,” the artist explains. “It was really an empowering moment for myself as a writer and producer, knowing my words were so important for people.”

Novo Amor – Haven

What can be said about Ali John Meredith-Lacey, aka Novo Amor, except that he always guarantees tender songs that make you shiver? The Welsh artist with an incredible voice released Haven, another of those musical dreamscapes.

Delicately composed, Haven is like honey in your ears. Sweet, slightly melancholic, but always full of wonder. One might say, Novo Amor’s songs are borderline kitsch. On the other hand: We all need some peace and beauty once in a while. And Haven is the definition of beauty.

Potochkine – Possédée

Introducing Potochkine. A French duo celebrating the abysmal baptism. Dark romantic techno, poetic industrial, sweating electronic body music. Inspired by genre classics like DAF, Nitzer Ebb, and Front 242.

After releasing the relentlessly banging Pogo, Potochkine pile up the hellish fire with Possédée. Still beat-driven, the latest single features a more occult atmosphere. Especially since the mystic, haunting chant wafts over the dance-provoking sound.

Andrea Bignasca – Stranded

Andrea Bignasca features one of Switzerland’s most distinct voices. On Friday, he released Keep Me From Drowning, his third studio album – packed with passionate rock songs that aren’t always as simple as suspected.

Stranded is one of the more catchy tracks on the album. Groovy at the beginning, the song soon expands into a full-fletched hymn full of longing. It’s an opulent composition filled with excitement.

As I mentioned in the introduction, I’ll showcase some of my current favourite songs to energize, relax, and reflect.

In the morning, I need to get started and motivated. Lately, I’ve been listening extensively to New Order’s classic True Faith. The 80s are vibrating in every fiber of this brilliant track. Not really from the decade of blow dryer hairstyle, but certainly echoing the era is Take Me There by the US synth-wave duo Dance With the Dead.

Australian artist Angie McMahon’s Missing Me was featured in the Weekly5 back in 2019 when they were part of Negative White. The song is still roaming in my playlists and one of my go-to tracks to relax. Another one of these relaxation songs is utterly beautiful Until the Rain by the Swedish duo Friska Viljor.

For approximately two years, I dedicated time to reflection. Music is a very effective catalyst for getting into the right state of mind. Here, I prefer to stay purely instrumental. Martin Kohlstedt’s KSYCHA and Max Richter’s On The Nature Of Daylight are two entries on my extensive reflection playlist.

All the best,