Premieres

Between the feeling of drowning and a feverish dream, a song from the beyond hails. A subtle and nuanced composition seeking infinity and finding beauty in the minutest of details.

This is Humble In Your Highspeed, the new single from Zurich’s quartet Kush K, celebrating the video premiere with Negative White.

Humble In Your Highspeed is, initially, at least, soft to the touch. The guitar pulls you into an endless, dark space—accompanied by the whispering voice. But you can already hear many things moving out of your sight.

And so the song gets louder, wilder, almost chaotic. The repetitions add to a psychedelic quality. Towards the end, Humble In Your Highspeed is literally hammering away. Slow, stomping, with only the vocals remaining in the realm of dreams.

It is, by all means, a bold song. One that doesn’t compromise and requires your entire attention, and then, in a sort of demanding and merciless act, draws you into its paralysing power.

After the album Your Humming in 2021, Kush K announced—with Humble In Your Highspeed as a first teaser—their new EP, Drum Therapy, scheduled for December 6.

The beauty of Florence Besch lies in the juxtaposition. Her soothing and velvety voice collides with energetic and almost punkish instruments. A pinch of the 90s alternative completes her sound to something one could describe as dream grunge.

Gathering Hearts is the title of this Luxemburgian-German artist, which was released last Friday. But it’s also the namesake song that receives special attention with a new video premiering here with Negative White today.

Gathering Hearts, the song, remembers difficult moments. Without sugar-coating, Besch still emphasises perseverance. «Gathering hearts, growing my skin / Collecting sparks of who we have been,» she sings, symbolising finding strength within one’s own identity.

The song’s message here isn’t convoluted; it’s staring you in the face. And it highlights the two sides of struggles: Vulnerability and even despair, represented in Florence Besch’s soft voice. And the new strength from which one can virtually resurrect from such times which is reflected in the unflinching rock sound.

What happens if one takes the tradition-heavy folk music, adds avant-garde and mystical flavours, and just runs with it? It might very well sound like Gold Flowers by Jessie Monk.

The song, releasing tomorrow, celebrates its premiere today with Negative White.—alongside a stunning video directed by Christy Chudosnik and choreographed by Lily Harding.

Although born in Canada, Jessie Monk grew up on the other side of the planet: in Australia‘s southeast, the land of the indigenous Gunaikurnai people. There, Monk discovered her passion for music and dance. In 2020, she then moved again and settled in Berlin.

Both, the very foundational, rural, even primordial, and the cosmopolitan, global, and progressive meet in Gold Flowers. However, there is no brutal collision, no stark contrast, but a symbiotic nurturing.

Death, Dream, and Trauma

Inspired by Gabriel García Márquez‘s 100 Years of Solitude, Monk tells the story of the Celtic goddess Mis, who‘s trying to bring back her dead father‘s soul but is ultimately overwhelmed by the terminal nature of death.

Evoked by the ethereal avant-garde folk composition, Gold Flowers creates a dream-like atmosphere, yet the lyrics infuse mighty metaphors that hint at the trauma of loss and grief.

Despite the song‘s heavy imagery, the lyrics remain cryptic and mysterious enough to facilitate a personal relationship uninterrupted by specificities.

And that is a testament to Monk‘s songwriting prowess; both in sound and story, Gold Flowers feels unquestionably human, grounded deeply in our emotions.

Some things seem light and breezy on the surface. But underneath, unexpected depth is waiting to be uncovered. Coquillage by Barrio Colette is a perfect illustration.

After their 2023 album, Rouge Rose, the Geneva-based quartet Barrio Colette are back with their new single, Coquillage, which will be released officially tomorrow. However, we already celebrate the track’s premiere alongside an intriguing video.

At first glance, Coquillage is a garage pop track, energetic and thrilling, though not denying its tendency to dream. No doubt: the track packs a punch, a jovial freshness.

And yet, composed by Luca Celetta and penned by Anissa Cadelli, Coquillage is more than an indie party anthem. Instead, the song explores the frustration of being unable to stick to a plan. When your intentions fall victim to the distractions of everyday life.

But ultimately, Coquillage (English: seashell) turns into a hymn to find strength within. «J’ai vue l’avenir dans une coquillage,» sings Cadelli. I saw the future in a seashell. Interpretation: Hold a seashell to your ear and listen to yourself.

Cadelli elaborates: «There are the movements of the brain and the soul, and then there is the world. We must not confuse the two, or we risk walking over our own destiny.» And it’s easy to agree: There is constant noise around us that quickly shifts our attention away from our heart’s desires.

In this light, the music’s ravish nature becomes the soundtrack of the liberation from outside influence—a bursting plea to reflection, authenticity, and self-fulfilment.

Into the brightness of the day. Neumatic Parlo's latest single shifts between light and dark, between optimism and despair, between tenderness and exclamation.

After the single carnage, released in July, the German band ups the anticipation for their debut album, play it as it lays, once again. But while carnage was a whirling-wild affair, brightness shines a different light on their musical prowess.

You can‘t kill the flame with water
When the oily ground is burning

These lines indicate that brightness is, at its core, a love song. However, the smouldering desire does come with an eery feeling of despair—maybe even pain. If you want an overly romanticised concept, this song will disappoint you.

But Neumatic Parlo's urging ode to love has its own raw beauty, meandering between soft melancholy and heavy post-rock, hailing back to 90s alternative.

Today, we proudly host the video premiere for brightness:

When dreams and gritty reality collide, it may actually sound something like The Sarandons: the sprawling colours layered over a rumbling guitar. Shining bells welcome a dirty groove.

The Sarandons are a Toronto-based band, constructing an indie rock hailing back to the 2000s but constantly leaning into an emotional, even vulnerable, side.

«It boasts compact guitar reminiscent of Albert Hammond Jr.’s solo work, and vocalist Suchon also seemingly follows in the footsteps of Canadian countrymen Wolf Parade—the effect is refreshing and yet ever-so-slightly nostalgic,» wrote Beau Heyhoe about Sightlines, the namesake title track of their 2023 debut album.

On July 12, the Canadians followed up their record with the urging single Dream Machine. Today, we proudly host the video premiere for The Sarandons' latest song:

Exploring the ethereal nature of dreams, Dream Machine celebrates the unconscious journeys to long forgotten memories and the emotional connections they represent.

The Sarandons sound raw, energetic yet somehow preserve a sense of nostalgia and bittersweetness in the song's refined composition. Child-like and innocent curiousity grabs the hand of the wild teen. It's all happening right before our ears, and still Dream Machine withstands all pull, doesn't fall apart in its stretch, and remains a beautifully crafted piece of retro-styled indie-rock.

The sound is like a hellish abyss—noisy, loud, and chaotic. A swirl of sound, a dance of two devilish violins whipped by an unforgiving drum.

Demon Lover by French trio RAVAGE is an experiment exploring the wild, sometimes dark underbelly of noise and doom. And, frankly, it is not for everyone.

Bastien Pelenc and Mathieu Werchowski extract a range of haunting sounds from their violins that sound as loud and bulldozing as a post-rock band. Adding Anthony Laguerre's daring extended drums, their song becomes the soundtrack of an ungodly ceremony. Archaic, blasphemous, but highly intriguing.

The track celebrates its premiere today with Negative White:

The video, recorded in May 2023 by Pierre Veyser at the band's first residency at La Fonderie du Mans in France, feels like uncovered footage of a ritual where the band conjures these extreme sounds—growing more unstable with the musician's relentless escalation.

But as contemporary and maybe weird Demon Lover seems, it is nothing but captivating in its ferocious delivery—and an appropriate teaser for what might come in the future of RAVAGE.

«Assume. Consume.» — Virtual Muse explores the intangible reality of the digital space and a subsequent feeling of detachment from our human nature.

Isolation is the theme of the intimate yet expressive 13 songs on Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys’ latest album, A Human Home. On this record, South African-born and Berlin-based artist Lucy Kruger explores the feeling of home, heavily influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.

One of these songs, Virtual Muse, was treated to a new visualiser video, which celebrates its premiere here today:

Kruger expands on the influences in A Human Home:

«Berlin was the place that I was living in the moment that a virus stopped the world in its tracks, but I wasn’t quite sure if it was home. There was a sea between me and my family and no way to cross it. Except through the telephone, the computer screen, and a body, heart, brain full of memories, feeling, thought, and imagination.»

The sound of Virtual Muse—a desolate soundscape of droning guitars—palpably reflects digital dehumanisation. It evokes a sense of eerie detachment, yet Lucy Kruger’s whispered monologue injects a poignant, intimate touch into the minimalist composition, creating an emphatic emotional resonance.

Virtual Muse is also a perfect example of the band’s developed sound on the album, which seems far from what the noise and art rock group displayed on last year’s record, Heaving.

Lucy Kruger abandoned the guitar at the beginning of her songwriting process for the first time: «I promised to let go of judgment in the process. A naive and feeling-based exploration of sampled drum sounds and synths, along with some more familiar guitar-based songs.»

While wandering uncharted sonic paths, they remain deeply committed to their signature depth and eccentric atmosphere.

Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys – A Human Home

Release: 31st of May, 2024

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