A Swiss-Congolese R&B artist currently based in Bern, 36birds has been recording his own songs since he was fifteen. As a PoC, queer teenager, he would usually feel out of place in the trap and R&B environments he frequented. He is now on a mission to reclaim those spaces by channelling both the inclusivity and the textures of the techno and rave scenes. His debut offering, “Boy,” encapsulates this singular work ethic: Offering an intimate take on the frantic, high-energy, and sometimes impersonal electronic music he grew up on.

Though it is a loose interpretation of Underworld’s “Born Slippy” that also references Bronski Beat’s “Hit That Perfect Beat”, “Boy” remains its very own thing. Whereas Underworld’s original is a timeless, cocaine-fueled club banger led by its kickdrum rhythm, 36birds’s take is relatively tranquil and hash-y, something that could have ended up on a chill R&B playlist if not for its sudden forays into techno territory. “Boy” transitions jarringly between these two moods, but that’s not a bad thing. It’s a song confident of its ability to throw you off, a manic interpretation of a club classic as addictive as the original. You can watch the video for the song below, featuring a lot of drinking, smoking, dancing, and, perhaps most importantly, your future next obsession 36birds singing on a platform in the middle of a pond.

Tommy Jammer is SaliYah, a 21-year-old trans artist based in Austin. The producer navigates themes of gender and race identity through different shades of electronica – in their short career, they’ve already dabbled in ambient, house, and art-pop. Their debut release, Sanctification, is an EP written and recorded throughout quarantine, when they were put on testosterone as part of their hormone replacement therapy. Making Sanctification, they say, was part of an intense process of acceptance, vulnerability and devotion to the self.

The music’s myriad experimental tones are a constant reminder of this process. A reflection of SaliYah’s own path of self-discovery, there is quite a lot of genre-hopping in this EP, from the techno-influenced “Connected” to the experimental, melody-less “Strength of The Sun”. Yet there is a common thread of melancholy and introspection running through it, both in the more song-based numbers (see the blue-toned dream pop of “Moon in Cancer”) and in the instrumental tracks – “Wicked” and its bittersweet synths splattering against an ambient background.

SaliYah is part of Growth in Decay, a US-based platform/label committed to distribute the work of independent electronica and experimental artists. One of many throwbacks to independent noughties electronica, Growth in Decay musicians share an interest in the physicality of their recordings. It’s a telling sign that they release all their records on cassette tape, a medium where the quality of the recording deteriorates slightly every time it’s played. SaliYah’s music explores this physicality not through Basinski-esque, complete deterioration but through what sounds like artificial vinyl crackle (“Moon in Cancer”) and through an exploration of distortion and its side effects (“Strength of the Sun”).

The best tracks on Sanctification are not exactly ambient, but they do take a few cues from the genre. The aforementioned “Strength of the Sun”, for instance, is a spoken-word track featuring no drums except for a few scattered sparks of synth distortion somehow resembling a manic rhythm pattern. It feels like SaliYah’s attempt to build a song out of static, a less cacophonous take on the noise electronica of the late 2000s mastered by Fuck Buttons among others.

However, SaliYah sticks to smoother tones for most of the EP. On “Wicked”, their voice is a gust of wind in a field recording, travelling through left and right ear channels over harp-like synthesizers that are an instant Vespertine call-back. On “Sleep”, 8-bit bip-bopping is combined with ominous drones, simulating the intrusive stream of thoughts of the insomniac. The music progressively resembles a dream; SaliYah’s voice, more and more modulated with every bar, ends up eclipsed by the engulfing drones by the song’s end.

The oneiric quality of their music is one of SaliYah’s biggest assets. If “Sleep” marks the beginning of Sanctification with the slow, progressive arrest of dormant trance, then closer “Moon In Cancer” is the gradual exit of this lethargic state. An outlier on the EP for its marked structure as a pop song, “Moon in Cancer” shows the artist at their most vulnerable, not singing but murmuring as if just woken up, their voice a whisper and a simple pledge: “Tell me if you want to / and I’ll be there / waiting up all night.”

Some might be taken aback by the disparate tones of electronica on Sanctification. However, that nonconformance is an integral part of the project, a neat mirroring of SaliYah’s process of self-recognition. Their navigation through different genres ends in a question mark or an ellipsis instead of a full stop – there is still space for SaliYah to traverse.

Stream Sanctification below and support the artist via Bandcamp.

We’ve got big sounds coming your way today courtesy of Creatrx, a self-proclaimed queer ATLien currently living in Brooklyn. The track is “RUN” – a hard-hitting banger with the energy of a revolution coursing through it. An anthem for an uprising, a message of solidarity and action for the disenfranchised, and a pure and simple firecracker of a track, “RUN” makes it clear that Creatrx has no interest in holding back.

It only takes seven seconds for things to get down to business on “RUN”, with Creatrx coming right out of the gate taking ownership of your speakers. There’s a huge bite to the delivery and the lyrics alike here (see: “Still decolonizing pussy, so I can’t fuck you”), seeing a return to form for that somewhat lost art in hip-hop of making a message resonate. Addictively frantic, the production feels to be constantly boiling under the surface with its clattering drums and air raid sirens, infusing the song with the same sense of a freshly imminent call to action that’s arisen across the world lately. Creatrx really puts it best: “I made this song in Jan. 2020, which felt like a precursor before the current uprisings. I made this song for black girls, trans, queer & gender expansive folk to fuck shit up & claim what is our’s. I pray people break shit (like white supremacy) while listening to my song.”

Before things wrap up, we get to hear a full flip from the heavy hip-hop vibes to something a little more psychedelic. Still with a sharp edge, “RUN”‘s outro gives a glimpse into the full well-roundedness of Creatrx’s sound with its ghostly vocals and haunting vibes.

Walking the walk as well as talking the talk, Creatrx will be donating half of the Bandcamp proceeds to Activation Residency and For the Gworls, two black, trans-led organizations doing good in the world. With the momentum of an awakening world to get it firmly rolling, “RUN” is a clear must-listen.

2020 is a weird year to put out new music, there is no doubt about it. Yes, recent releases from pop powerhouses such as Lady Gaga or Dua Lipa have enjoyed some success. However, their potential was undoubtedly thwarted by the fact that we can’t show up to the club and unabashedly show off our dance routine to “Sour Candy” while a group of drunk straight girls cheer us on until at least 2021. However, maybe the current climate is the reason we needed for pop music to fully reinvent itself? With July in full swing, this time of the year usually calls for a pop summer anthem – and Gregory Dillon might have delivered just what we’ve been looking for.

“Plastic Ferrari” is the latest release from the Brooklyn-based musician who seeks inspiration from the 80s pop sounds of his youth, from a-ha and Duran Duran to Depeche Mode and Bronski Beat.

“I can’t describe exactly why but 80’s music and driving during my youth holds so many strong emotions for me,” says Gregory Dillon. “It makes me feel like I’m in one of those films that make you just see life as this big and beautiful mystery. Now more than ever, we’re nostalgic for those simple comforts we had before the pandemic, and facing the fact we need to let some of them go knowing things won’t be the same again. Even if you weren’t alive in the 80s, that pop sound still invokes childhood nostalgia, teenage romance, and longing for the past. It’s also an escape. I really really hope that my music is either a recharge or escape for those who need it. The ability to contribute to someone’s life in that way, is a concept that I never take for granted.”

Dillon is a public advocate for LGBTQ rights and is not afraid to touch upon taboos within the gay community. Between pining for hot jocks, bad driving, and making out with trees, the music video for “Plastic Ferrari” heavily features the motif of dolls. Just like Barbie is considered the female image of perfection, her male counterpart, Ken, is just as guilty in fuelling unattainable beauty standards.

Gregory Dillon, who grew up with “a distant obsession with Barbies as a kid”, describes the music video as “a unique way to explore the pressure of perfection”.

“I can’t describe how transcending it was to use this campy acting to work through a concept I’ve been struggling with since I can remember,” he says. “I am blessed to have director Joe Fusco as a bff who, after directing the “Love Again” music video, rose to the challenge for this vision I had. Because we were limited by the quarantine, Joe and I devised a trip to the suburbs to meet our friend/actor Bryan Hartlett (the Life Size Ken Doll) to shoot over the course of an afternoon. It truly felt like making a home video for an eighth-grade school project.”

Overall, “Plastic Ferrari” is the sad pop euphoria reminiscent of Marina and the Diamond’s “Primadonna Girl” or Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream”-era from exactly a decade ago – which is, coincidentally, probably the last time many of us felt real happiness.

Dillon himself credits the awkwardness of young love as the inspiration behind the track:

“I can say there are a handful of moments that fueled this car pop song and they honestly all revolve around my crushes on the handsome nice boys of my youth… who I saw as my “everything”…. but they had no clue I liked them… yet I was clearly having an internal breakdown,” he says. “The more I think about it, “Plastic Ferrari” is a bake-off between: a fabulous kid at ten, a fourteen-year-old that is facing closeted teenage bro-mance, and the late teen that just got a car and is about to cry off into the sunset. Someone get into the passenger seat and hold my hand through this meltdown!”

Same, Gregory. Same.

NYC multi-talented artist Adi Gonzalez, aka BOSSA, has recently shared “QUICK,” an avant-pop song which arrives just in time for Pride.” Reminiscent of artists such as Jenny Hval and Mr Twin Sister, “QUICK” also features two RVA based artists, Benét (background vocals) and Not Kevin (sax).

“Upon watching Paris is Burning last summer, I couldn’t help but relate to the feeling of being an outsider and having to find my chosen family,” explained BOSSA. “My mom being the only child of 11 to leave Venezuela to seek a better, more opportune life, provided my sister and I a good life. However, with apparent class differences within the community we were raised, we coped with the shame of being poor and feeling less than by being quieter, more reserved and docile.”

Before adding:

“Once I discovered my art (being music) in my early 20’s, I discovered my voice. Which comically took my mom by surprise largely because I never studied or practised music in any technical form. When I watched the queens vogue, compete in their beautiful balls, and own their space they curated I felt validated. Moving to New York, living with burlesque performers, wandering the nightlife and meeting like-minded artists to encourage my artistic instincts had become my holy house.”

Being isolated from your friends, family, even coworkers – for weeks on end – can bring anyone down. Although the main health issue during the ongoing pandemic is obviously the coronavirus itself, the consequences of the lockdown are not always strictly physical.

With their brand new release, titled “Simulated Paradise”, Belgian act Promis3 explore the pandemic’s negative effect on mental health.

“The underlying message is about depression and the weight that daily life brings upon us. It’s something we think is also relatable right now for so many people in lockdown all over the world,” explain singer Brent Dielen and pop producer Andras Vleminckx, the masterminds behind Promis3.

“Simulated Paradise”, which also features a remix from Berlin-based producer Chambray, combines all the best elements of synth-pop and house to bring you a euphoric track which, if released a decade or two ago, could have been the perfect soundtrack to the iconic racing games of our youth. Turns out, the video game references are not accidental:

“‘Simulated Paradise’ is about a virtual world to which you can escape,” explain Dielen and Vleminckx. “A world where everything is simulated to your desires and ideals. Rules do not apply, grids are not repetitive, there is no ranking in class, gender, culture,… It is a lifelike virtualization of ‘the holy place’ as we only read about it in books.”

Explaining the origins of the concept, Promis3 credit the desire to “escape from the daily grind and linger in your digital utopia, evade the continuous duty of real-life”.

“You could say that for so many people life is simply an imposed structure that should protect them as a society, but also damages so many of them,” they say. “Burnouts are peaking in numbers and this doesn’t just come out of the blue. Socially and financially, the pressure is increasing, so that large groups can no longer lift this weight, and then break. Leave this all behind by starting up your Simulated Paradise console and let yourself drift away into arcadia.”

To celebrate the release of “Simulated Paradise”, Promis3 are also launching a T-shirt campaign, available on Everpress. All proceeds of the T-shirt sales will be donated to various Black Lives Matter fundraisers. Watch the lyric video below.

As we approach the third (fourth? Has anyone been counting?) month of self-isolation, many have already experienced being thrown into the virtual whirlwind of long-distance dating, or even full-on relationships. From one week to the next, humanity had entered an exclusively digital age of socialising, and it will be interesting to see whether the online dynamics will survive the “real”, post-lockdown world.

DOLLY BING BING’s latest explosive pop track, “Kusje”, explores the “extremely tough and harsh” realities of cyberlove. The song is based on DOLLY’s “own real experience of taking a plane across the world to reach a lover” – something that we might be able to do very soon.

“‘Kusje’ is about online love and how to make the fantasies on the screen and the pleasures in the phone come true,” explains DOLLY.

“It is absolutely wonderful that you can find soulmates or lovers from an entirely different part of the world and deeply connect with them through online media,” the artist tells HighClouds. “Yet the limits of the screen and the boundaries of the digital are frustrating; when you notice that real love is blossoming, you have to break the distance and the virtual and you have to see each other in real life.”

DOLLY BING BING describes the corona-lockdown as “just a reinforcement or a repetition of that frustration”.

“[It] made me realize all the more how extremely valuable physical contact, hugs, real sex (no cybersex), caresses, real-life encounters, intimate touch and immediate interactions are and how vital the ‘aura of closeness’ is in order to feel happy as a human being and to make a relationship work.”

“Kusje” was written by DOLLY in collaboration with New York producer ABSRDST, who has already worked for the likes of Dorian Electra, GIMI and Diveo. Just like a long-distance relationship, the collaboration was conducted mostly online.

“I was noticed by ABSRDST through Instagram, so our initial point of contact also happened online,” DOLLY BING BING tells HighClouds. “The collaboration grew naturally and (even pre-Corona) through Zoom, video chats and online exchange, a format making international cross-pollination possible that couldn’t exist before the internet and – even though I love working live in the more slow-paced tempo of the physical studio – a contemporary style of creation the fast-forward me truly believes in. I felt ABSRDST’s and my own taste and affinities were in line and on point so the way the track took shape was swift and fresh.”

Luckily for DOLLY fans, the duo “already have another track finished and are working on a whole set of new songs.”

The video for “Kusje”, which we are honoured to premiere today, compliments the track perfectly. It depicts DOLLY BING BING in an apocalyptic scenery, training with a bodybuilder, riding dirt bikes, and throwing an end-of-the-world party which we would love to have attended ourselves (we’re sure our invitation got lost in the mail).

To help create the choreography, DOLLY enlisted her live show background dancers, voguers Tine Van de Looverbosch and Michael De Geyter, who form the aptly-named BING BING CLUB. The visuals, which were directed by Kyky Kong Kong, take place on a dumpsite in the industrial harbour of the city of Ghent, Belgium.

“It was very challenging and even dangerous to film this video as the dumpsite activities were still going on and all the staff there was at work while we were doing our shoot and filming our stunts,” DOLLY tells HighClouds. “Clouds of metal dust were non-stop flying around and on top of that I had to perform my own stunts: like dancing on top of a driving Hummer, sword fighting, climbing up on piles of metal trash and, the most terrifying stunt I have ever done in my entire life, driving around between the dumpsite trucks on the back of a motorbike driven by a world champion dirt bike rider (a tough lady!) at 200km/h speed, unprotected, in my lingerie outfit. It felt like all the air was pushed out of my lungs and my adrenaline levels rose to max capacity. I never wish to repeat a stunt like that! But: everything for the arts!”

Coming with this release, DOLLY has launched a limited-edition collection which includes a T-shirt and mask scarf, which are modelled by DOLLY and her friend, the Belgian visual artist Rinus Van de Velde. Watch the video below and don’t forget to add “Kusje” to your playlists tomorrow.

Formerly known under the moniker Lila Gold, LA-via-Sydney artist Lily Lizotte has returned with a new alias and a brand new sound. Performing under The Blossom, she has been working towards the release of her debut EP Bleeding Buttercup.

Having grown up as the daughter of a Southeast Asian immigrant trying to fit into a majority white Australian culture, as well as navigating the precarious terrain of coming out as queer, The Blossom has always found music to be a cathartic release. By channelling her confusion and frustrations into her music, she has been able to create something beautiful from the darkness of her struggles with anxiety, depression and issues of self-identity.

Her latest single – and last to be released ahead of the EP launch – “Bored Baby Blues” possesses a kind of nostalgia and ennui that’s often attributed to Gen Z. It draws to mind the TV show Euphoria in places, with swirling beats interwoven with the organic sounds of a ringing and a clapping of hands.

The composition of “Bored Baby Blues” in its entirety is simply put, gorgeous. It sizzles with confidence in its serpentine route. “Bored Baby Blues” is engineered with such precision that, despite the multitude of shifts and presence of cross-genre instruments, it never jolts or feels clunky.

As the track progresses, the hard-hitting electronic drums make way for twizzling synths, before shifting into sparse, echoed guitars. It emulates a kind of manic boredom, a frantic want for freedom that can come only from within. The Blossom has captured the yearning for true, personal empowerment in a delicate bubble of sound.

The visual accompaniment, directed by New York-based Dani Aphrodite, sees a reflection of this idea. Riding around the areas that were the backdrop of her childhood, we see grainy images of The Blossom exploring these vast, empty spaces. It paints a lonely picture, but The Blossom presents us with the possibility that being truly free is that – to be alone.

Explaining the concept and creation of the visuals for “Bored Baby Blues”, Lily Lizotte said:

[su_quote]The night I filmed this footage to send to [Dani], I had finished my 2-week solitary quarantine after flying from LA to Sydney, and it was the first day I’d been reunited with my family or even left the bedroom. I went for a bike ride and a joy ride with my dad when the sun was setting and he filmed me on his iPhone. As I felt the rush of the wind, hanging out the window of the car like a dog, there was still some sort of lonesome and uncertain energy surrounding me. Nonetheless, I felt “free” for that whole couple of hours we biked around my childhood neighborhood, now quiet and dead-still.[/su_quote]