014LN’s Darkly Sensuous and Alluring Downtempo Neo Soul Single “Creep With Me” is Overflowing With a Yearning For Complete Connection

014LN, photo courtesy Brittany Campbell

01L4N (pronounced Oilan) recently released the downtempo neo soul single “Creep With Me.” The song with production by Brittany Campbell (aka 01L4N), Aaron Day and Dayloop with vocal contributions from The Last Artful, Dodgr has a dreamlike quality that draws you into its words of desire and a yearning for complete connection and commitment with one’s beloved in a deeply emotional, physical and spiritual way. The loping bass line pulses with a lingering dynamic off which hazy atmospheric melodies flow with the sensuous vocals in luminous cool colors of tone. The mood of the song is reminiscent of the more experimental moments of Erykah Badu’s New Amerykah albums with commanding and alluring performances from Campbell that bring you back in to revisit the spell the song weaves. Listen to “Creep With Me” on Spotify and follow Brittany Campbell at the links below.

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Errunhrd’s Ambient Slowcore Single “Don’t Drink Chemicals” Vividly Sketches the Inner Edges of Romantic Dysfunction

Errunhrd, photo by Jon Lepp

The hazy, cycling drone creates a dreamlike resonance throughout Errunhrd’s “Don’t Drink Chemicals.” It and the melancholic vocal processing is fitting for a song about how it feels to be in any kind of relationship that seeks to reign you in and smother your full dimensions as a human in a warped and unsustainable co-dependent dynamic with love engaged in as an act of control and possession. To be in that situation and to perhaps convince yourself that this person is the right one when the whole situation stifles you and prevents both people from developing. Noah Brown’s video for the song is reminiscent of the work of Phil Tippett and the way it is both intimate and haunting, perfect for this song that captures a headspace many people have found themselves within not allowing themselves the knowledge that they can aspire and have for themselves a life that nurtures joy and encourages growth. Yet being able to articulate these feelings means having a greater chance of overcoming the psychological blocks that oppress and repress. Musically it’s like hearing a more ambient, witch house-adjacent iteration of HEALTH and Crystal Castles collaborating on a hypnogogic pop track. Watch the video for “Don’t Drink Chemicals” on YouTube and follow Errunhrd at the links provided. The new Errunhrd album Everything I’ve Ever Known releases May 14, 2025 on all stream platforms and CD.

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ALIAS’ Avant-Synth-Pop Single “COCKTAILS AND DREAMS” Lures Us Out of Our Own Emotional Status Quo Into a Burst of Joyful Ecstasy

ALIAS, photo by Gaelle Le Royer

ALIAS brings to bear rich and saturated tones in “COCKTAILS AND DREAMS” with warm low end to help the low key vocals stand out before the song kicks into high gear in the last third of the song. The music video looks a bit like if Chris Cunningham and Terry Gilliam collaborated on a short film set in a 1980s bureaucratic office. The soft lighting a parallel to some of the tonal haze in the song’s soundscape. When the monochrome computer monitor scrolls “EMBRACE_CHAOS” repeatedly to the pulse of the accelerating pace and spectral yet uplifting, sustained synth melody it certainly feels like something of the status quo in the setting of the song has been disrupted. And the song itself is one of breaking from one’s everyday habits in favor of something that stirs the heart as embodied by initially dispassionate vocals to those shouted with a spirited gusto. Is it a synthpop song? More a conceptual avant-pop composition? It can be enjoyed on multiple levels and its easy for the song’s shimmery melodies and sensual rhythms to get stuck in your head. Watch the video for “COCKTAILS AND DREAMS” on YouTube and follow ALIAS at the links below.

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Ringing’s “Stairwell” Takes Rhythmic Paths Less Traveled In Its Meditative, Asymmetrically Melodic Shoegaze

Ringing, photo by Juliette Boulay

Ringing immediately takes us down unpredictable musical paths from the beginning of “Stairwell.” Its loping chords like a slowcore Pavement and warped dissonance give way to huge, bombastic riffing without losing the casual, slackery attitude for peak moments before sliding back into introspective sketches of song in the outro. The song constantly feels like it’s going to fall over and coupled with its vulnerable and fragile structures there’s a sustained sense of weightiness to the meditative vocal delivery and what some might consider atonal guitar riffs. It shouldn’t work and for many people it won’t if they’re put off by the aforementioned Pavement or when Dinosaur Jr heads into territory disregarding the rules of how melodies should work or the directions rhythms are supposed to go. Much less how homespun and idiosyncratic Duster often sounds and how its own lo-fi splintery atmospheres lend themselves well to the dynamic not being dependent on symmetric song structures. Listen to “Stairwell” on Spotify where you can also find he rest of the Is It Light Out Where You Are? EP which released on August 9, 2023 via Julia’s War and Candlepin Records.

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