Brigitte Bardini – Start A Fire

Here at Teases & Dares we are big fans of Brigitte Bardini. Her debut album ‘Stellar Lights’ was a revelation. On that record she was trying out a host of sounds – there were certainly some glittery synths but so too more acoustic indie leanings. None of that – we mean NONE – could have prepared us for what Brigitte has returned with. The dark technoey hypnotic banger that is ‘Start A Fire’ is an evolution and reinvention. As well as growing musically, Brigitte looks increasingly confident and comfortable front of camera as the vaguely sinister femme fatale in the accompanying video for the track (amazing creative work on these visuals by the way including the cover art and styling). Loving this era already.

Primo The Alien – We All Hate Ourselves Sometimes

T&D regular Primo The Alien has just shared the fourth and final installment of her new EP and it’s the title track. We feel she’s saved the best for last with ‘We All Hate Ourselves Sometimes’. This one has melody and production (by Primo and Taylor J Webb) Christine McVie would be pleased with as well as being one of Primo’s most lyrically confessional and reflective tracks to date. We’re kinda loving her making the most of a thirty something existential crisis and turning it into dreamy AOR synthscapes. Tango in the Midnight if you will (see what we did there?).

Holiday Sidewinder – Escape And Retreat

It would appear that we finally have lift off with the new Holiday Sidewinder album. It’s been in the offing and teased (and dared) for quite a while but all is forgiven because the first taster ‘Escape And Retreat’ is delicious. We last heard from our pop superhero on a collab with Coastal Elite on Carly Simon’s ‘Why’. That track proves the perfect platform to launch into ‘Escape And Retreat’. The newbie treads a similar slo-funk yacht pop territory. The production is lush and Holiday’s vocals are as smooth as ever – it’s got a groove that we just don’t want to finish. A soundtrack to an imaginary endless summer of decadence – done only as Holiday Sidewinder can. ‘The Last Resort’ is coming soon……..

Holiday Sidewinder · Escape And Retreat

Cadenti – Bleed

Not content with having one of the synthpop albums of the year with his band W O L F C L U B, Chris Paul Martin has a new side solo project under the Cadenti moniker. He’s not messing about – first single ‘Bleed’ manages to blur the lines between Dagny’s ‘Love You Like That’ and classic MGMT to create a stadium sized indiepop banger.

Mayah Camara x Sellorekt/LA Dreams – Under Pressure/ The Rain

Mayah Camara is THE one bringing some soul to the synth/retrowave scene. She’s teamed with Sellorekt/LA Dreams (who did a top job in collaboration with Bunny X on ‘Breaking Away’) for a full album of 80s electro synth/soul bangers and moody bops. There are heaps of on the money references on ‘Emotions’ ranging from Five Star to Billy Ocean to Natalie Cole and then perhaps some Paula Abdul meets Expose on album opener ‘Under Pressure’. The pace slows with ‘The Rain’ which sounds like it could have come from one of those super smooth Nite Flite compilations in the 80s. You can grab the full album (love the artwork) from Bandcamp right now!

Colinet – Summer’s Got To End

Name The Pet (Hanna Branden) is no stranger to Teases and Dares. We thought she’d been a bit quiet and then today she popped back up with a new project! Colinet is Hanna + Vilma Colling. Their debut single is the aptly titled ‘Summer’s Got To End’. Soft synths and a touch of warm disco are the name of the day on this sun drenched blissed out delight. We’re very much looking forward to hearing more from Colinet in the coming months.

Dream Chimney · DC Promo Tracks: Colinet "Summer's got to end"

Teases & Dares’ Covers Round Up featuring: Sally Shapiro (Pet Shop Boys), Munya (New Order), Saucy Lady (Carly Simon) and Great Good Fine OK (Taylor Swift)

A smattering of quality new releases this week prompted us to share another covers round up with you. We think these 4 re-interpretations are all worth a listen in their own right and are delivered via artists previously featured on T&D.

First up on Italians Do It Better records, our dear Sally Shapiro share a twinkling cover of Pet Shop Boys’ ‘Rent’. It feels a very natural choice of cover for the duo and it’s simply perfect.

We have Munya’s ‘Jardin’ album on pre-order and the excitement ramps up with each new single dropped. Her take on New Order’s ‘Bizarre Love Traingle’ starts off with sparse beats akin to Timbaland/Nelly Furtado before blooming into her usual warm, soft synth loveliness.

Carly Simon’s ‘Why’ seems a popular choice to cover (including by T&D Hall Of Famer Holiday Sidewinder). Saucy Lady adds her trademark 80s electro funk meets City Pop luxury vibes to it and it slinks along deliciously.

Last up Great Good Fine OK take Tay Tay’s ‘Midnight Rain’ and morph it into a yachtpop poolside bop.

We hope you find something to enjoy amongst this latest batch.

Great Good Fine Ok · Midnight Rain

Teases & Dares’ Synthwave Round Up featuring; Schimanski & Lois L, Franck Choppin & VERONiYA, Fonz Tramontano & Tarabud and Driver86 & Oceanside85

We’ve done one of these for a while and there’s been a handful of top notch tracks in recent weeks which we think are worth sharing with you dear readers/listeners/lurkers!

Schimanski & Lois L alongside Franck Choppin & VERONiYA lean into the Italo disco sound on both of their new singles – ‘Meet Me At The Mall’ and ‘Only You’ respectively. Fonz Tramontano & Tarabud, meanwhile, do their best Altered Images impression on the bubbling ‘California’. We round things up with a dreamy and seductive track from Driver86’s ‘True Romance (Complete Edition)’ release – ‘Not Like Us’ comes in collaboration with Oceanside85.

We hope you enjoy this quartet, hand picked for your finely tuned ears.

italo disco forever and more · Franck Choppin & VERONiYA – Only You

Louis La Roche – Wide Awake (featuring Spell City)

September through to the end of the year is not generally a period we get too excited about album release wise. A mixture of novelty, Christmas, greatest hits and bloody Buble don’t tend to set our pulses racing (I mean we do love a GOOD festive album but they are few and far between). It was a thrill, therefore, to see Louis La Roche finally drop his new album ‘Admittedly’ yesterday.

The singles have been whetting the appetite deliciously and first play of the full album confirms this to be a pop album of the year contender. The record covers 80s pop, synthwave, nu disco and yachtpop – indeed ‘Wide Awake’ manages to capture pretty much all of those sounds in one effort. An album to drive to, dance to, holiday to and hopefully hold on to summer to by giving it a spin as autumn approaches. There’s a limited vinyl run available too so head to Louis’ socials for details about that (our order was in FAST). The visualiser imagery is gorgeous by the way.

NINA & Ricky Wilde – Causeway

After the incredible reaction to ‘LA Dreamers’, NINA and Ricky Wilde shoot for the stars with ‘Causeway’. It’s the 2nd single from their forthcoming ‘Scala Hearts’ album (announcement about that coming very soon). ‘Causeway’ features a breathtakingly heartfelt and urgent vocal from NINA alongside a soaring and epic production from Mr Wilde (not to mention their harmonies which make us swoon). This is the closest you’ll get to a ballad on the album and it’s one of many outstanding moments across the record – wistful, other worldly and emotive. The line “absolutely beautiful, totally illogical” gets us every time. Succumb to the magic of ‘Causeway’ and grab the single on Bandcamp (as it’s Bandcamp Friday today!).