THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #27

Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore the various individual mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. This time around, we bring you a very eclectic selection – and what we think might just be one of best SB features to date. We’ve got cosmic country; we’ve got dreampop; there’s time for a slab of indie pop with a ridiculously infectious chorus, and even a bit of bluegrass. Strap yourselves in for the ride – and, as always, if you’ve enjoyed anything here, please drop by and let us know!

*

Continue reading

ROBOTS IN LOVE – Gossip In Your Head Remixed EP

In September 2023, Robots In Love returned with a new single, ‘Gossip In Your Head’. The track presented the New Zealand dark pop band’s sound in the most effective way possible, by blending a love of old school electronica with a more modern production values. More importantly, they made a potentially cold sounding arrangement really spring to life with the help of a very inviting vocal, and the end result occasionally sounded like Dubstar colliding with something further within the alternative pop realm. Meatier than La Roux, but poppier than Garbage, it was very much the sort of single that deserved to bring the Robots a new wave of fans.

Continue reading

THE REAL GONE SINGLES BAR #25

Welcome back to the Real Gone Singles Bar, the place where we explore some of the individual mp3s that have landed in our inbox over the previous few weeks. Always a home for the varied and eclectic, this selection is no exception. In this – hopefully entertaining – batch, we bring you some solid sounding shoegaze, some synth based alt-pop from New Zealand, some hazy sounding indie folk and even a nod to big band swing sounds. As always, we hope you find something new to enjoy!

*

Continue reading

RICHARD EVANS – Dream Of The World EP

Richard Evans will be best known to some music fans as having been a member of indie-pop band James, but this solo work casts him in a very different role. The three track ‘Dream of The World’ ventures deep into synthwave, sharing cold and mechanised melodies straight from the heart of 1984. In terms of going retro, it’s both huge sounding and brilliant; a nostalgic blast of a long gone era, redressed for a detached twenty first century landscape with near perfect results.

Continue reading

STELLA WEMBLEY – Wasting My Time EP

A year on from her unsympathetic reworking of Bowie’s ‘Loving The Alien’, Stella Wembley’s ‘Wasting My Time’ brings the listener more detached post-goth/electronica that listeners will either love or hate. Stella has rarely approached her music in the most user-friendly way – which can be a good thing – and here, her love of rigid rhythms and reverbed vocals goes into overdrive. The track’s blend of robotic beats and strange synth tones sets up something that could loosely be described as goth-disco, like an old Mute Records track remixed by Georgio Moroder, but once you make it past the confronting coldness, there’s something weirdly appealing. The way Wembley shifts between strange croons and stylised yelps just accentuates any surface oddness, whilst the cold music and wantonly mechanical rhythm harks back to an alternative (early) 80s in the best possible way. Yes, this number is likely to be divisive, but at least it makes a definite impression.

Continue reading