Premieres

What is considered natural? How is female beauty defined by society? These are only exemplary questions within the larger theme that Jenobi's new single Makeup is tackling.

Swedish artist Jenny Apelmo Mattsson played bass for the Hamburg-based folk band Torpus & The Art Directors but also worked on her own ideas. In 2020, her alias Jenobi was born, an outlet for self-reliant and uncompromising creativity.

Makeup, the second single from her upcoming album Irregularity, celebrates its premiere today with Negative White:

Makeup's composition is simple, with a reduced backdrop for the almost whispered, spoken-wordy lyrics to take centre stage. Makeup is not beating around the bush with its message:

Hey, how are you doing?
You look a little tired babe
Honey, how is it hanging?
Your cheeks look a little pale

The lyrics are, and that is hardly a surprise, far from some fictional event. It refers to an experience Jenobi had in a supermarket. «The pretty employee at the checkout asked me how I was doing because I looked so tired. Of course I wasn't tired, I just didn't have any make-up on. I wrote the lyrics for the song at home that day.»

The single acts as an answer to this and similar comments so many women have to hear every day:

Didn’t put my makeup on
I’m not tired, I’m just busy
Don't you think that I look pretty
With some rings below my eyes?

And now for those men who think: «Maybe the cashier just wanted to be nice.» Ask yourself: When was the last time a stranger asked you if you were okay because of your body's appearance? The answer is most likey: never. And there you have the issue.

What is considered good music? Is it a complex composition or instrumental sophistication? Or an addictive melody? Maybe it is just something that defies expectations and provides a new perspective on sound.

Listening to Mr. Biron ultimately ends up with the question: What is considered good music? Mostly because The Conformists, self-proclaimed «rock failures» from St. Louis, Missouri, sound exactly like that: failures.

On the other hand, the 1996-founded trio simply picks up the pieces left by the punks back in the late 70s and early 80s and follows through to the extreme: rebelling against pop conformity, punching glossy, hyper-produced sound in the balls.

Mr. Biron, the penultimate song on Midwestless—the band's fifth album, coming on April 5—is confusing, even insulting to the close-minded, melody-addicted souls. The track celebrates its Swiss premiere here on Negative White today:

The Conformists are simultaneously overly simplistic and surprisingly intricate. Mr. Biron is angry, aggressive, raw—and often exceptionally weird. It is experimental punk rock jazz. The instruments diverge and converge, completely disconnected, only to collide again in glimpses of brilliance.

So, is Mr. Biron by The Conformists good music? Well, that is up to you. But one thing is sure: It is definitely exciting music for its bold approach to breaking conventions.

From the start, there is an intriguing slowness to Moving On as if Karim G just refuses to accept the inevitable. And yet, there is also a peaceful, almost lovely melody, which indicates quite the opposite: acceptance.

Karim Gandouli is a phenomenon. A multi-instrumentalist who began his project, Karim G, in Spring 2020 during the first wave of the pandemic as an emotional valve. Gandouli writes and records everything independently, yet the band remains a crucial collaborative effort to bring his songs onto the stage. But first and foremost, the only 21-year-old artist sounds as if he has written and performed music for decades by now.

In May 2022, Karim G released 2o, a brooding volcano of creativity, mixing different languages and facets, held together by a raw yet refined sound that takes the best of pop and shoegaze.

This mesmerizing fusion is omnipresent in Moving On, an ambassador for Karim G's upcoming opus, Echoes of Ephemera, which is officially released tomorrow.

I feel like moving on
The past is like a stone
That makes me drown and sink
If I could only think
Of something less absurd
To make sure that I’m heard
For time flies by so fast
Why cannot one thing last?

The song starts simply, and in some sense, remains that way, even if it Karim G builds the composition up to a towering, monumental catharsis towards the end. But simplicity is no insult here, rather it represents a resourcefulness, a cunning effectiveness in the way Moving On operates.

Lyrically, Karim G leaves room for interpretation: Is it a lost love? Or the death of a close person? And he leaves room to contemplate over the song's message; nothing that punches you in the face with explicity, more tranquil invitation to reflect in this eclectic soundscape. And maybe, just maybe, find resolve.

For a while you made me smile
Now I know, you had to go

It is highly refreshing to hear a song like Moving On. A song that takes its time, does not rush to deliver its message, does not stuff its composition with unnecessary frippery. Moving On is a true gem of artistic thought and execution, a triumphant hymn to expression over conformity.

Attention. It is what All In Your Head commands with every inch of its existence. The rumbling bassline, the gnarly trap beat, the shrieking guitar. It's a noisy affair.

The new single, officially released tomorrow by Berlin-based artist Markus Nikolaus and Simon Kaiser under the name HARTES PORZELLAN, boasts a loud and overwhelming composition like an underground construction site—filled with smoke and reverbs, clanking, hammering, and sawing.

Hartes Porzellan – All In Your Head

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Singer Markus Nikolaus, who found international success as the singer of Lea Porcelain, started with new solo endeavours in 2022. After the intimate and acoustic Never Let You Go, he now turns the volume up.

All In Your Head draws from early psychedelic rock; you'll find trace elements from the likes of The Velvet Underground. There's a flavour of krautrock, post-punk, and dark wave, all hiding and peeking quickly behind the towering sound construction.

While instrumentally, HARTES PORZELLAN wraps in many influences, All In Your Head is ultimately made complete by his vocal performance. The delivery almost seems detached, but his soft voice juxtaposes the brutal sound. And when he almost shouts the repetitive chorus, «It's all in your head», Markus Nikolaus conjures the image of Joy Division's Ian Curtis.

Together, sound and voice create a trance-provoking experience that fans of acts like Depeche Mode or the Beastie Boys might enjoy.

All In Your Head will be officially released on December 15 via the Berlin label Porzellan Bar, which is known for its unique parties at Funkhaus and other venues.

With Programmed for Pleasure, the Lucerne-based trio Laddermen ends its silence and makes a dramatic return with their evocative sound. At the same time, the single is already a promise of the intrigue we can expect in the near future.

The new song is a hauntingly atmospheric composition driven by a playful guitar, significant for classic indie rock. However, the monotonous delivery of the verses by Texan-native singer and guitarist Leopold Oakes contrasts the melodic sound and adds to the darker ambience felt throughout Programmed for Pleasure.

Today, Negative White exclusively presents Laddermen's Programmed for Pleasure alongside a stunning and spooky music video directed by Zabalik:

Despite what the gruesome video might suggest, Programmed for Pleasure isn't about murder—it's simply a narrative device. Laddermen explore the hopeless attempts to save a crumbling relationship—perfectly described by the song's first line:

Solving the murder with the killer in the room.

These few words are enough for the sobering realisation that there's no solution when the people, their programmed mechanism killing love, are around. The band doesn't sugarcoat it: Programmed for Pleasure is a despairing song, fooling you with a beautifully melodic sound, an indie rock siren that drags you overboard in the dark depths. And you drown.

A Refined, Melodic Sound

In 2021, Laddermen released their debut album, Special Kind of Violence, featuring eleven songs with a raw energy reminiscent of acts like Fontaines D.C.

Alice Teeple wrote about the single The Huntress Obeyed for post-punk.com: «The nostalgic swoon of Laddermen's sound, bolstered by unconventional singing, deviant progressions, and articulate urgency, has a dark post-punk indie vibe, comparable to Editors, with the passion of Frank Black fronting Interpol.»

With Programmed for Pleasure, Laddemen depart for these rough soundscapes, travelling to more melodic and intricate songs that will be steadily released next year.