A K U A – One’s Company

A K U A   (a-koo-ah) is Montreal based electronic soul artist Akua Carson.  She’s stunning- a beautiful voice, meticulously produced tracks and an awesome sense of style.  Being a part of a pack, and let’s face it, female electronic soul artists are sprouting up like weeds, is never easy.  Standing out from that pack is even more difficult.  But A K U A manages to do just that by incorporating old world style musings in the vocal delivery lineage of India.Arie or Corinne Bailey Rae while gliding over 80s world R&B (think Sade) production- it’s deceitfully and enticingly shallow before filling out into a romantic futurist soul fantasy.  Like swirling rich colors, the sounds A K U A funnels through her debut EP are a sonic experience with visual manifestations.  It jumps out of your speakers as her voice gently corroborates a glowing pattern of light and movement. It’s only fitting then that her video for One’s Company be like visual masturbation for electronic soul lovers.  The video’s aesthetic is darkly humorous, cheeky in its cynical outlook, and delivering some of the best choreography I’ve seen in a video (well, since Haim’s latest).  A K U A’s EP has been out for a minute, and she caught my attention back in the summer of ’13 with her track Monsters, but this video is a very immediate reminder of why we should pay attention to this girl.  And we should.  Just look at that gif.

Check out her EP One’s Company:

Shimmery Existential Pop

After three LPs, Young Galaxy gives us their magnum opus, Ultramarine. Initially deceptive with a sonically upbeat and positively dreamy disposition, it dramatically unravels. Beyond the Balearic Pop influenced production an emotional underbelly is revealed, exposed through shimmery existential songs dripping in nostalgia.

Song of the Day – Another Gem from Montreal

Young Galaxy’s fourth LP, Ultramarine (out April 23rd), is a stunning and captivating electro-pop record with potential for epicness.  I am highly anticipating it, and what I’ve heard so far I’ve loved.  Here is the second single, Fall For You, following the release (and praise) of Pretty Boy.  Although Young Galaxy isn’t a new band, this feels like a new start and a fresh direction for them, and what they’ve developed is a recipe for success.  Keep your ears peeled, this is going to be a good meal.
A review of Ultramarine coming soon!

Montreal, Electronic Pop Hub

It’s no mystery that Montreal has been producing some amazing acts, consider Grimes and Doldrums.  Now there are two pop outfits hailing from Montreal that are currently dominating my sound bytes.  Bue Hawaii, an electro-pop duo who emerged with their 2010 release Blooming Summer, are back with their newest LP, Untogether.  Theirs is a particularly unique brand of pop music, a haunting, self-conscious sound that could be appropriate in a somewhat desolate club or in a pot den.