FRIDAY OCT 04, 2019
Video Age
"Video Age is the project of Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli, longtime friends from their early years coming up in New Orleans’ DIY scene. Together, they use a host of vintage synthesizers to craft music that taps into a vein of early ’80s synth-pop. Previously, they released a more guitar-driven debut in 2016 called Living Alone. Now they’re about to return with their sophomore outing, with the fitting title of Pop Therapy.
They’ve already previewed the album with lead single “Hold On (I Was Wrong).” It was a slick, funky track, and it clues you in to the nature of Pop Therapy: Video Age’s new music is all rubbery grooves with a dusty sheen, and it makes them one of those bands looking back to the early ’80s who are also sort of hard to trace to any actual antecedent there. As it turns out, their inspiration for Pop Therapy did come from some less-than-customary sources, McCartney II and Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly among them.
Today, they’re back with another new song from Pop Therapy. It’s called “Lover Surreal,” and the band described it as a “dance ballad about an imaginary love affair. Someone is reaching out into the void, patiently waiting for love to respond.” It is indeed a slightly dreamier composition than “Hold On (I Was Wrong),” a gauzy piece of yearning that does line right up with the way we perceive the era Video Age are drawing from." -Stereogum
"Video Age is the project of Ross Farbe and Ray Micarelli, longtime friends from their early years coming up in New Orleans’ DIY scene. Together, they use a host of vintage synthesizers to craft music that taps into a vein of early ’80s synth-pop. Previously, they released a more guitar-driven debut in 2016 called Living Alone. Now they’re about to return with their sophomore outing, with the fitting title of Pop Therapy.
They’ve already previewed the album with lead single “Hold On (I Was Wrong).” It was a slick, funky track, and it clues you in to the nature of Pop Therapy: Video Age’s new music is all rubbery grooves with a dusty sheen, and it makes them one of those bands looking back to the early ’80s who are also sort of hard to trace to any actual antecedent there. As it turns out, their inspiration for Pop Therapy did come from some less-than-customary sources, McCartney II and Donald Fagen’s The Nightfly among them.
Today, they’re back with another new song from Pop Therapy. It’s called “Lover Surreal,” and the band described it as a “dance ballad about an imaginary love affair. Someone is reaching out into the void, patiently waiting for love to respond.” It is indeed a slightly dreamier composition than “Hold On (I Was Wrong),” a gauzy piece of yearning that does line right up with the way we perceive the era Video Age are drawing from." -Stereogum
J Fernandez
Occasional Din is a sunny shoebox diorama for the eternal pessimist. Over the past half decade, songs by Chicago artist J Fernandez have appeared like unexpected gifts, each time invoking a holiday we didn't realize existed. Like all good holidays, his songs are imbued with a mythical energy, full of curious moods, charmed settings and the timelessness of a familiar moment.
J Fernandez started as the eponymous home recording project of Arkansas born Justin Fernandez, who came to Chicago in 2008 to work for map company Rand McNally. After three EPs, his 2015 debut LP ‘Many Levels of Laughter’ attracted high praise from the music press – including 8/10s from UNCUT and NME, plus end of year nods from Under The Radar and Brooklyn Vegan (who called it “one of 2015’s most underrated albums”).It’s also seen him tour with the likes of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Alvvays, Mitski, Ezra Furman and Kikagaku Moyo.
With ‘Occasional Din’ he mines the sound of the past – drawing influences from vintage Italian pop and soundtrack composers like Bruno Nicolai, Alessandro Alessandroni and Mina, as well as their American contemporaries like The Free Design and Margo Guryan. Enlisting the mixing services of Cooper Crain (Bonnie Prince Billy, Circuit Des Yeux, Bitchin Bajas), along with utilizing instruments such as vibraphone and clavinet, Fernandez fleshes out the orchestration and flair for experimentation he began to explore in his debut. This also meant a diligent month-long search for a harpsichord which ended with him recording in a stranger’s basement.
Occasional Din is a sunny shoebox diorama for the eternal pessimist. Over the past half decade, songs by Chicago artist J Fernandez have appeared like unexpected gifts, each time invoking a holiday we didn't realize existed. Like all good holidays, his songs are imbued with a mythical energy, full of curious moods, charmed settings and the timelessness of a familiar moment.
J Fernandez started as the eponymous home recording project of Arkansas born Justin Fernandez, who came to Chicago in 2008 to work for map company Rand McNally. After three EPs, his 2015 debut LP ‘Many Levels of Laughter’ attracted high praise from the music press – including 8/10s from UNCUT and NME, plus end of year nods from Under The Radar and Brooklyn Vegan (who called it “one of 2015’s most underrated albums”).It’s also seen him tour with the likes of Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Alvvays, Mitski, Ezra Furman and Kikagaku Moyo.
With ‘Occasional Din’ he mines the sound of the past – drawing influences from vintage Italian pop and soundtrack composers like Bruno Nicolai, Alessandro Alessandroni and Mina, as well as their American contemporaries like The Free Design and Margo Guryan. Enlisting the mixing services of Cooper Crain (Bonnie Prince Billy, Circuit Des Yeux, Bitchin Bajas), along with utilizing instruments such as vibraphone and clavinet, Fernandez fleshes out the orchestration and flair for experimentation he began to explore in his debut. This also meant a diligent month-long search for a harpsichord which ended with him recording in a stranger’s basement.
Dots
"It’s been just over a year since Dot.s released their sophomore full length, the whimsical and prismatic We Swim, and while the band has kept plenty busy with shows and touring, their musical output has remained noticeably quiet. Today, however, we’re happy to announce the group is finally breaking their silence with “Rose Lens,” a taut and sleek new single that highlights Dot.s penchant for turning bubbling synths and twitching rhythms into art/dance rock of the highest caliber. Recorded with Damon Moon at Standard Electric Recorders Co., the track unfurls in steady waves, each atmospheric pulse and burbling groove striding confidently into the next. Yet, despite its swaggering self-assurance, “Rose Lens” finds the band working in a darker mood than in the past, confronted by the dread of isolation, fallible memories, and the silent voices that keep us awake at night. Still, the vibe here is more meditative than dreary, more coming to terms than a statement of disillusion. Throughout it all, the methodical beat and throbbing ambience thrust inexorably forward, shrouding any thoughts of gloom in a shimmering haze of brooding electropop. Life is still full of wonder, after all, even if it isn’t always pretty." -Immersive Atlanta
"It’s been just over a year since Dot.s released their sophomore full length, the whimsical and prismatic We Swim, and while the band has kept plenty busy with shows and touring, their musical output has remained noticeably quiet. Today, however, we’re happy to announce the group is finally breaking their silence with “Rose Lens,” a taut and sleek new single that highlights Dot.s penchant for turning bubbling synths and twitching rhythms into art/dance rock of the highest caliber. Recorded with Damon Moon at Standard Electric Recorders Co., the track unfurls in steady waves, each atmospheric pulse and burbling groove striding confidently into the next. Yet, despite its swaggering self-assurance, “Rose Lens” finds the band working in a darker mood than in the past, confronted by the dread of isolation, fallible memories, and the silent voices that keep us awake at night. Still, the vibe here is more meditative than dreary, more coming to terms than a statement of disillusion. Throughout it all, the methodical beat and throbbing ambience thrust inexorably forward, shrouding any thoughts of gloom in a shimmering haze of brooding electropop. Life is still full of wonder, after all, even if it isn’t always pretty." -Immersive Atlanta