Track Of The Day: Flamango Bay – ‘LA’

Deciding to play music together whilst at high school in San Francisco, Ikaika Gunderson, Dash Goss Post, and Georgia Manou – aka Flamango Bay – have now announced their debut EP, set for release this May.

Taken from the EP, new single ‘LA’ is propelled by sunny, jangling melodies as it oozes a shimmering allure that ripples alongside smooth, crystalline vocals. Offering a twinkling sense of optimism tinged with the realisation that romantic ideals don’t always live up to one’s expectations, it’s a dreamy slice of indie-pop that glistens with an irresistible, effervescent charm. An instant ear-worm that leaves me longing to hear more of Flamango Bay’s radiant energy and lilting musicality.

Of the track, the band explain:

“Because of life circumstances and the pandemic, we really romanticized moving to LA… We put a lot of expectations on the city to fix our internal problems. However, when we actually moved there, we were still the same people with the same problems.”

Directed by Desmond O’shea and made over 2 days and over 14 hours of driving, ‘LA’ is accompanied by a new video. Watch now:

The Fool, the upcoming debut EP from Flamango Bay, is set for release on 13th May via 0800-Moshi-Moshi.

Mari Lane
@marimindles

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EP: Goth Lipstick – ‘formless, shapeless’

An EP that the band describe as “a slice-of-life isekai about the adventures of two wraiths”, formless, shapeless from San Francisco’s DIY emo duo Goth Lipstick draws you effortlessly into their candy-coated, glitch-splattered dream world. Following their full length album crystalline corset from earlier this year, formless, shapeless continues to explore themes of identity and queer liberation.

The EP consists of fairly short tracks, with most lasting less than two minutes thirty seconds. The single exception is ‘faceless, nameless’, which reaches a whole four minutes. Every track is incredibly tightly constructed. None of them feel too short; each one feels exactly long enough to tell its story and then wraps without wasting any time, leaving you with the precise impression it wanted to convey.

The collection begins with the titular ‘formless, shapeless’ – a slow, soft rumble that leads into quick, clicking percussion under high chirpy keys and husky vocals. While the tempo, energy and general style of the tracks vary, this opening song establishes some key elements early on that are consistent through the EP.

As a whole, the EP creates a distinctly unique and endlessly interesting soundscape, blending distorted and electronic sounds with gentle, clear piano notes. The relationship between the different types of sound is key to the Goth Lipstick style, with acoustic and electric notes dancing playfully around each other, with those echoing vocals floating over the top.

The use of glitches too gives these songs so much character. The jerks and digital stumbles always hit at exactly the right moment, whether that’s ripping into a vocal that’s well into its stride or distorting sounds that are just starting to build, creating a more chaotic journey from the first couple of beats.

Whilst there are massive differences in feeling from track to track, they fit so well together that they flow beautifully.

The second track, ‘wraiths awake’, brings a bigger energy into the EP. It is broadly more upbeat, but winds down into vocals that have a sense of vulnerability about them, before bouncing back into the hyped electronica.

‘identity thief’, all heavy growling, glitching bass, is followed by the light and chirpy ‘chocolate’, then the rich swollen beats of ‘fangs’, which wouldn’t be out of place heard on a nightclub dance-floor at midnight.

Somehow these seemingly conflicting songs sit very comfortably side by side on this EP. It feels much more like this is down to a matter of attitude than any one particular technical component. The songs sit so well because they feel made to be played together, and you can feel how much fun the artists had constructing every beat of the finished product.

It’s so easy to get drawn into Goth Lipstick’s story, to bathe in the cool, flowing emotions heavy in this EP. It’s not surprising to see that the first edition cassette run is already sold out.

formless, shapeless, the latest EP from Goth Lipstick, is out now. It is available to download via bandcamp.

Kirstie Summers
@ActuallyKurt

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Introducing Interview: Lyrah

Following the release of her debut EP Chemicals earlier this year, San Francisco-based artist Lyrah has been featured on the likes of Earmilk, and in popular playlists such as Spotify’s ‘Fresh Finds’.

Recently sharing the GOLDHOUSE remix of her latest single ‘Don’t Make Me’, she creates smooth, sultry dance pop, flowing with luscious, soaring vocals and pulsating beats.

We caught up with Lyrah to find out more…

Hi Lyrah, welcome to Get In Her Ears! Can you tell us a bit about yourself please?
Hello! Nice to meet y’all. I’m a writer/singer/producer in San Francisco. I make dark indie pop music and love to create things that feel like they could be the soundtrack of someone’s life.

How and why did you initially start creating music?
I’ve been making music since I was a kid. I was lucky that my parents set me up with piano lessons when I was three – the teacher didn’t want to take me on since I was so young, but my dad worked it out so that she would give us both a lesson. Piano was my gateway to writing; it started with dark, heavy piano compositions, and then grew into more structured pop songs. For the past five years or so, I’ve been writing for other people as well as stuff just for myself. It wasn’t until two years ago that I decided to go for it and put out my own music – I was getting better at production and could finally capture the sound I had been hearing in my head. I wanted to have the complete creative control to create a vision around the sound and feeling I was chasing.

Your new single ‘Don’t Make Me’ is out now, can you tell us a bit about the inspiration behind the track?
I wrote this song during a lonely night at my piano. It started because I was in a mental space of questioning someone’s love; it’s shitty to be in a situation where you feel someone pulling away and you begin to question how they feel about you and what that means going forward. When I wrote this song, I had no intention of putting it out or sharing it with anyone, but when I was picking songs for my EP around the theme of love driven chemicals, it was a piece of that spectrum that I wanted to include.

 

And you’ve recently shared the GOLDHOUSE remix of the track, how did that collaboration come about?
I first discovered GOLDHOUSE through his Billie Eilish remix of ‘Ocean Eyes’. I followed a lot of his remixes after that, so I hit him up when I was thinking about remixes for the EP and he wanted to remix ‘Don’t Make Me’. I knew there was a dancier, more energetic version of this song living within it and GOLDHOUSE nailed it.

You’ve been compared to the likes of Daughter and Halsey, but who would you say are your main musical influences?
Two influences that are constant are Sylvan Esso and Trent Reznor. But a more recent influence would be Sasha Sloan – I absolutely love her writing.

How is your local music scene? Do you go to see lots of live music?
I was talking about this recently with Parker – who is part of Cassette Tapes — that there is something cool about the SF music scene because it is not the natural place to live for music. And that difference of environment shapes the stories you wanna tell and the ways you write and produce about it. That said, the price of admission to live in San Francisco is so high that it’s unrealistic for some. Many musicians here are like me in that they have a job to support their music. I wish the city could better support creatives and people of all types of backgrounds that are currently driven away.     

And what can fans expect from your live shows?
For right now, I’m not doing any shows so that my energy goes into writing/producing/recording/designing/planning out the next releases. The songs to come are the ones that I am most excited to perform, so when that happens, I hope I give everyone a hell of a night!  

As we’re a new music focused site, are there any new/upcoming artists you’d recommend we check out?
Ooo let’s see. Here are some newer artists I’ve been excited about and the songs of theirs I love most: Banoffee – ‘Bubble‘, WENS – ‘Call’, Luka – ‘Closer‘, Hana Vu – ‘Crying On The Subway’. 

And how do you feel the music industry is for new artists at the moment – would you say it’s difficult to get noticed?
Since the barrier to create music is lower, people are inundated with tonnes of new music. This makes it harder to cut through the noise, but the part that is super interesting is that you can reach an audience that is really into your specific sound.

Finally, what does the rest of 2019 have in store for Lyrah?
All of my new stuff is pushing a darker, dancier direction. They’re living in a space that is dreamy, yet realistically cinematic. These songs to come are my favourite ones yet! You can follow me on Insta or Spotify to hear what’s to come. 

Massive thanks to Lyrah for answering our questions! 

‘Don’t Make Me’ (GOLDHOUSE Remix) is out now.

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