Music Gear
Staff Picks: 6 LANDR Distribution Artists We Loved in May
Summer is right around the corner—and for many artists, it’s the perfect time to release new music!
In May, we’ve had a taste of what the hot summer heat could be, interspersed with those rainy days that just pull you into a mood.
For this month’s Staff Picks, we’ve dug through our crate of recent LANDR Distribution releases for the tracks that’ll make it to your next park hang.
Get fast, insightful support and promotional tips, tools and tricks and distribution to 100+ music streaming platforms when you release your tracks with LANDR. Release a track.
Hot tip: If you like the music we covered here or you want to hear all the music we’ve covered in one place, check out our Staff Picks and LANDR Worldwide playlists on Spotify!
Motorama – Sailor’s Song
Russian post-punk stalwarts Motorama have had a pretty busy year, with a slew of releases being capped off with their recent EP Before The Road (2021).
While many compare this Rostov-on-Don-based group to post-punk icons Joy Division and New Order, the quartet has continued to prove their ability to branch out into new creative territory—all while keeping to their aesthetic.
One standout track that I can’t seem to shake is “Sailor’s Song” (melodic earworms, anyone?).
With the pulsing drums accentuated by jangly arpeggios, Vladislav Parshin’s matter-of-fact vocals keeps the joyful tone in check with a nice dose of melancholy.
CrySpy – SunShine
A track meant for the golden hour moments that just seem to hit differently.
Following the release of You and I (2021) CrySpy’s single “Sunshine” is a hazy lo-fi reminder that, even well into Spring, there are days that can just leave you in a mood.
Based in Vienna, Austria, CrySpy’s “Sunshine” acts as a follow-up to You and I (2021), released earlier this year. And, while Motorama’s “Sailor Song” opens our Staff Picks with a controlled dose of freneticism, “Sunshine” dials things back and gets you ready to coast.
Woman Believer – Tell Me
From the “wildest and most mundane daydreams”, Woman Believer aka Christine Hucal has quite the versatile discography.
The Detroit singer-songwriter is able to seamlessly navigate between styles (a great component of what makes genreless music): from soulful bedroom pop to more rambunctious power pop, Hucal’s “Tell Me” is a powerfully sad lullaby that explores the idea of uncertainty:
Tell me quietly
That nothing really matters
Tell me that obviously
Some things really matter
Part of Hucal’s recent EP The World and Nothing (2021), “Tell Me” is a standout track that definitely begs for your attention.
Francisco – Caught in the Rain
I’ve had my eye on this Hobart-based songwriter for a while as Oscar ‘Francsico’ Bosch has been peppering 2019-2020 with a handful of singles.
Just in the last year, Franscisco’s graced us with Love Road, a 5-track EP that—while minimal in its presentation—packs a lot of heft.
Get fast, insightful support and promotional tips, tools and tricks and distribution to 100+ music streaming platforms when you release your tracks with LANDR. Release a track.
This weight, in particular, shines with “Caught in the Rain” a track that has the singer pleading for a bit of surety: “I’ve been waiting for nothing and I found myself caught in the rain”.
The arrangement, mostly bare, emphasizes Francisco’s melancholy even further and makes for a wonderful listen.
Mason Averyy – Unrealistic
Things aren’t all gloom, however, with Mason Averyy’s standout track “Unrealistic” bringing back the sunshine and rainbows.
From the 2021 release Siblings, the New York-based songwriter showcases his indie-pop chops in this packed minute and 24-second long track.
Understated but not underwhelming, Mason makes full use of his vocal baritone with layers of doubles and harmonies that make listening to “Unrealistic” a blissful undertaking.
Less than a one-and-a-half minute is a very brief amount of time to take in the full arrangement and a vocal hook in the chorus (not that I’m complaining).
But as a listener I have to ask: Mason, can we hear some more of where that came from?
Supersloth – Animals
Reviving the 00’s era of post-punk inspired alt-rock, New York-based Supersloth is one of many projects from Singaporean transplant Noel Yeo.
We’ve featured his work before, through his lo-fi shoegaze project Baby Combat. However, Yeo’s discarded the lo-fi aesthetic for a more polished effort with Supersloth’s 2020 EP Blank.
Mastered by the legendary Howie Weinberg, Yeo channels his inner grit through tracks like “Animals” and “Sorry, it’s Getting Boring” that echoes the likes of contemporaries Pedro the Lion and Parquet Courts.
It’s a powerful and energetic collection of tracks that makes me want to see what else Yeo has up his sleeve.
If you like the music we covered here or you want to hear all the music we’ve covered in one place check out our Staff Picks and LANDR Worldwide playlists on Spotify!
Nikki Celis is a writer and editor at Sticky Rice Magazine. When he’s not writing songs for Calm Lake, he indulges in his hyper-focuses like Malaysian recipes, Muay Thai, and Asian shoegaze.
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