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“Red Sea is a great name for a band that splits the difference between jittery noise punk and artsy indie rock. I like to imagine the four band members striding through dry sand littered with seashells, wailing on their instruments as enormous walls of waves loom on either side. Biblical allusions aside, the Atlanta band have been dealing in duality lately. Last year they put out the EP Yardstick For Human Intelligence and the full-length In The Salon as Bandcamp releases, but both are getting re-released this year by Bayonet, the label run by Beach Fossils frontman Dustin Payseur and his wife Katie Garcia. After a few singles from the album, “Vacant Ring” is the first off the EP, and it’s a looming, tense number that barrels through frenetic guitar-work to a surprisingly cathartic burst of bright vocal loops at the end.” -Caitlin White, Stereogum

Breathers challenge perceptions of synth-pop on their new album Designed to Break. Each song is a refreshingly honest dive into the modern human psyche balanced with vibrant synth lines that capture the imagination and drip like dew into our parched subconscious. Despite the pop moniker, Breathers defy categorization, drawing inspiration from the Sophisti-pop movement and the cryptic poetry of Steely Dan. Even the album title is multi-faceted, referencing both the analog gear that Breathers use to craft their sound and the disposable nature of modern technology.

Over the past few years, Breathers have laid the groundwork for Designed to Break with a series of insightful tracks featuring T. Lee Gunselman and Jake Thomson on synths and vocals, with Mike Netland providing live drums and sequencing. The result is a danceable mix of organic and synthetic sounds that warp traditional song structures into something subversive yet enticing. Throughout this album, lead singer and lyricist Gunselman offers thoughtful observations on isolation and anxiety, focusing on the corresponding weaknesses and strengths of the human spirit, and the importance of listening to oneself apart from the cacophony of an increasingly commercialized world. Each topic is couched in a comforting sensitivity which plays off the spacious chords and delicate melodies of Designed to Break.

Both sunny and cerebral, there’s an intangible generosity in the way Gunselman expounds on society and culture while the band weave jazz-influenced chords into Mediterranean hues. On Designed to Break, Breathers have jettisoned everything that doesn’t shimmer and fused what remains into a rejuvenating cosmic polyphony. Never has a synth record felt so intrinsically human. Designed to Break is out 9/12 on LP/Digital via Irrelevant Music.

There’s a muted inertia to Mannequin Lover’s new track which pressurizes the song with dark, brooding energy. Matthew DeLoach’s vocals waft around the sequenced tones and break up the expansive song into neat sectors of danceable magic. Overall, it exposes a more focused side to his surreal acid pop while invoking diverse influences; everything from the early Berlin scene to ’90s French house to DFA contemporaries Shit Robot. “Beat It with Chain” might not break new ground in the world of dance music, but it’s a clever fusion of sounds and evidence that DeLoach’s style continues to evolve in new directions. Mannequin Lover has been his solo project for over three years now and he continues to display a wide variety of inspiration, even though his overall output has been relatively sparse. Listening here, it’s not hard to see how DeLoach made the jump from pop to house, considering the razor-sharp organization behind all his tracks. But compared to the dreamy bedroom jams he was writing just a few years ago, “Beat It with Chain” is a powerful musical statement that begs to be turned up. –Immersive Atlanta

“MonteQarlo is a multidimensional artist and activist with a creative focus in music, performance art, fashion, prose,and videography. Their work observes and dissects the socioeconomics of sex work, black liberation, and Southern queer identity.”