January Notes

January Notes
Winter in Central Park (Photo: Elke Nominikat)

Every January, we wish the best for a new year, but the devastating fires in LA have put a severe dent into those hopes. We associate fires that destroy large parts of a major city with distant history, like after the earthquakes in Lisbon in 1755 or San Francisco in 1906, but not in modern times. There will be much analysis about how it came to this and how it can be avoided in the future. Undoubtedly, LA will be rebuilt better and stronger, but in the big picture, catastrophes like this are unavoidable.

It is too early to say what this means for the thriving music industry in LA. It is not as simple as stating that rich zip codes are affected, as Ghostly founder Sam Valenti points out in his newsletter. A city’s economy is complex, and many factors influence an art scene’s health.

There are multiple ways to help those who are affected. We try to do our part here at glamglare.

Tomorrow, January 17, marks the first big release day of the year. Among others, Tamara Lindeman, aka The Weather Station, releases her seventh album Humanhood. And Gabriela Caldas, better known as Ela Minus, drops her second full-length DIA.

I have been intrigued by female electronic solo artists like Ela for a long time. Their number has grown in the past decade, but there are still preciously few of them. One reason might be that geekery and spending time with technology are still considered cool for boys, while girls are pulled into other directions and find their access to making music more through songwriting and poetry.

Ela also started as a drummer in a hardcore punk band before she attended the Berklee College of Music, where she saw the creative potential of synthesizers. She still puts her own spin on electronic music and avoids using computers for composition and performance.

That makes her sound raw, bold, and very different from the often overproduced synth-pop of today. It also leads to beautiful, unique live shows, which she performs without backing tracks. I saw her in October 2021 at Elsewhere in Brooklyn, where she played in the middle of the room with the audience dancing around her. I’m so happy that I could buy tickets in time for her show in March.

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The five new songs are early works of female electronic solo performers we have seen live. Blonde Maze is a singer, songwriter, and producer from New York City who makes chill, dreamy songs. “Diamond Eyes” can be found on her 2021 album. Expect more new music from her this year. We saw Emika playing in 2011 when she opened for Amon Tobin at the Brooklyn Masonic Temple. This was the perfect venue for her dark, melancholic synth-pop. Grimes did many different things throughout her career, but she began with mind-boggling solo shows in small venues, and we were fortunate enough to see a few of them. The songs of NYC singer/producer Mïrändä are bright and candy-colored, as are her visuals. The rare shows of I Am Snow Angel are an absolute beauty. Her 2016 song “Losing Face” was a showstopper at our 2018 SXSW showcase.

Song Pick of the Day

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RUDEY, Dilettante, Rosa Bordallo, Arny Margret, Linying, Cream With a K, and Déyyess

Listen to/watch all seven songs on YouTube. Follow our daily updated playlists on YouTube and Spotify for the 50 latest Song Pick of the Day features or subscribe here to receive them in your mailbox in real-time. Thank you for following us and sharing the excitement.

 Francesca Pidgeon, aka Dilettante, sings about feeling awkward at social gatherings in her new song “Life of a Party. "Obviously, it’s a sarcastic chorus, I am certainly not the Life of the Party," she explains. Next up is “Baby Tee,” the latest installment in the series of singles and videos by London artist Cream With a K. And again, it is a very good one. 

Heartbreaks surely spur creativity in pop music. So did "Ease My Mind," the new synth-pop song by Nashville artist RUDEY. "It says a lot of things, it’s honest," says Icelandic singer/songwriter Arny Margret about her new song, the beautiful immersive "Day Old Thoughts."

"Leavetaking" is a single from Rosa Bordallo’s upcoming album "Isidro." “It’s a wistful song, but also joyful," she says. "It’s about a beautiful, idyllic day I spent swimming in a lagoon with someone I’d just met." But there is a twist to the new track "Blondie" by LA-via-Singapore artist Linying.

In this week’s closer, London singer/songwriter Déyyess muses, "if i was ur boy." What then? Listen to her new song and find out.

Nine Photo Impressions of the Robert Frank in Dialogue Exhibit at the MoMA

While we missed the Robert Frank exhibit while it was on, the MoMA gave its members an extra weekend to visit, and we gladly took advantage of that.

Aside from the tidbit that he often portrayed famous artists from various fields, I didn’t know anything about Rober Frank and was ready to be surprised. I enjoyed seeing moving black and white images of New York in the ‘60s and ‘70s and how his style and process changed over the years. Whenever I go exploring visual arts, I feel inspired afterward. No different this time!