GUM Picks

New Noise: Los Angeles Locals

LA locals are hitting November hard. Here's what should be on your playlist.

Smoke SeasonWolves

LA’s electro-soul duo, Smoke Season, continue to reinvent their translation of sound on their latest track “Wolves.” The compulsive intent of the track – that was derived from a “heated argument”-  holds this half picked scab as a display of one of the cleanest productions delivered by the pair thus far. Mildly playful, hesitant and honey-eyed, frontwoman Gabrielle Wortman soulfully skids across this track with an underlying bite. Paired with Jason Rosen’s boastful guitar plucks and rich vocals countering Wortman’s, “Wolves” wraps a signature Smoke Season sound into a lush soundscape of passionate, yet controlled, energy.  Leave it to Smoke Season to create magic from an argument.

 

OddnesseI Used To

Rebeca Arango has a voice that tames the wildest of beasts, even more so on the latest track “I Used To.” A weightless and empowering atmosphere just drips from Arango’s emotive vocals throughout the track.  Arrango portrays a natural essence of freedom that wasn’t found but more so created through a dreamy production slated through an alternative rock heart. “I Used To” retraces lingering thoughts meeting the cross-point of this independence and codependency and beautifully exhibits bliss.

 

Loveless Death SceneSomeone Who Loves You

Multi-instrumentalist Carlos J. Ruiz III, sole composer of Loveless Death Scene, shares the first single “Someone Who Loves You” alongside the debut EP, Hopeless Dream Machine. The track is a lo-fi, indie daze of bedroom pop that holds an optimistic and heavy heart. Ruiz’s wistful and bittersweet vocals give the track a livelier demeanor as shoegazy guitars take center scene. Ruiz explains that  “Someone Who Loves You” is a song that I’ve been trying to write for, at least, two years. It’s an amalgamation of four or five songs that date back to 2015. It cross-breeds my love of sugary pop melodies with something objectively less pop. In my mind, the hybrid here was pop and psychedelia.” It’s perfect for lounging and reflecting on life and time and possesses such an easygoing flow it welcomes a listener to the EP.

 

DRÆMINGSLoveless

DRÆMINGS continue their reign of dark reverb drenched in synths with their latest track “Loveless.” Frontwoman and PLAG Records founder, Kimi Recor, explains in a press release that the track explores the loneliness of being involved in technology and the isolation humans implore as a result of this “connection” to these devices. With a profound outlook and intent, the alienated vibes resonate loudly on “Loveless” mirroring that of an outsider trying to compute an emotion. Regardless of its darker color, “Loveless” still manages to keep a fast paced, dark-wave inspired melody.

 

Magic Wands “Loveline

LA’s dream-pop duo, Magic Wands, share their latest single “Loveline” from their forthcoming  third album, ABRAKADABRA, and douse a listener in ethereal vibes; concentrated shots of what dream-pop truly is.  Perfectly fitting lyrics- “My love can play like a record / But it can skip all the time / And leave you / Hangin on the loveline/ On the loveline  / Hangin on the loveline / On the loveline”- swim across distant chords, quaint chimes, and soft textures it becomes hard to not instantly fall victim to its repetitive core, or as the duo explains “transports the listener to another world altogether.”

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