No April Showers but New Music 

Ethan McConnell  

Music Journalist  

For the new year there have been immense amounts of music released in just the first few months of the year. You had singles dropped by Glare, Travis Scott, and Teddy Swims, along with notable albums from JPEGMAFIA, Tate McCrae, and the king vamp himself Playboi Carti finally releasing his long-awaited album. Now I’m not here to list all new music released since the start of the year or else we’d be here quite a while. I’ll only be providing my feedback on some known artists, as well as some deep cuts from projects that I deem are enjoyable so far in this month.  

2hollis & Jane Remover 

Coming in with heavy 808’s and a plethora of digital sound, I feel like everyone should tune in to these artists who are slowly on the rise, making their lane but still receive heavy comparisons from their respective fan bases. I feel as if you’re a fan of 2hollis, you’ve heard of some tracks from Jane Remover or vice versa.  

With 2hollis, the project star takes delves into a more electronic/hip-hop while keeping cool tones like, soft spoken words meddled in with elements of liquid drum and bass making it feel energetic and punchy enough to bop your head to as well as it is angelic. You have a lot of synth keyboard going on in most tracks like, “you”, “tell me”, “sidekick”. Upon the first listen, the tracks were easily digestible given that each track had a solid progression with an easy build-up to a climax and a falling action. One thing that I felt was a total curveball on the project would be the track titled, “eldest child” where it plays out as an acoustic track which to me just didn’t fit sonically with the others. The album entirely is solid, but nothing too crazy, just adding another notch to his discography.  

Moving on to similar artist Jane Remover, Revengseekerz follows mostly the same trend as 2hollis. The only notable difference I would point out is the execution of the sound provided by JR [Jane Remover] on this. With this project I felt as if it was very experimental, having tons of sound bites being played on the track, making it hard to pinpoint what sounds were being played on some tracks. With such an evolving sound in the hyperpop scene, I feel as if it’s hard to really create a sound that’s really original that doesn’t sound like a copy of someone else’s. With that, I’m not dissing the project at all. I still mark this as an important project, just not enough time has passed to see the effects of it. You still have the metallic percussion hits and unconventional sound effects along with chopped up break-core melodies that JR uses in their own special way that makes the project an easy listening experience. Notable tracks that carry these elements heavily are, “Psycoboost”, “Dreamflasher”, and “TURN UP OR DIE” 

Panchiko & Malcolm Todd 

The famous British indie rock band has made their return, dropping the most recent project, Ginkgo. Let me just say I love this project, and I have relistened already a handful of times because of the nostalgia they bring to the table. You could honestly listen to any track on this project while doing anything, cleaning, hanging about, literally anything. Each track is smooth and still carries that original sound that Panchiko brought when they first made their debut, while still bringing in fresh ideas. On this project, it’s heavy but not too heavy, and what I mean by that is they bring in a perfect blend of acoustic and electronica to the table with one side not overpowering the other. Upon first listen, instrumental wise, it sounded like a men i trust album with soft drum hits and melodic lines that easily stick well after listening to the track from start to finish. 

Malcolm Todd also comes in with a slower project with, Malcolm Todd, bringing in clean electric guitar tones and falsetto vocals matched with harmonies as he goes on about touchy subjects in his career as he is unable to break into the pop industry if he doesn’t change himself to fit the so called “standard”. You see this theme expressed beautifully with tracks like, “Harry Styles”, “Chest Pain (I Love)”, “I’ll Come Back For You, and “Cheer Me On”. On the production side of things, this project feels much more stripped in terms of instrumentation where some tracks where some sections have a full band, while others have just vocals and one other instrument. With this component I feel as if it makes each track resonate more with the listener, leaving you wanting more and that’s exactly what this project does. Give this man Malcolm his flowers, and a tissue too if we’re being honest. (you’re doing great sweetie). 

Honorable Mentions 

Kmoe, a rising hyperpop artist that gives a sound that just itches the right part of your brain. The young artist leaves nothing but raw drums and velvety bass lines that leave your ears ringing, topped off with relatable lyrics.

If you did not know, now you do, Turnstile is coming back!!! This new single released on top of the announcement of the next project on June 6th is anything but ordinary. The production goes so far with synth with the classic rock elements and the soft vocals all the way to the smooth synth rolls at the end of the track, and it leaves you filled with anticipation for the new album.