MAGANA: “Inches Apart” (Audio Antihero) — A beautiful and arresting song rendered in beautiful voice and guitar. You’ll be amazed how this catches your attention. The B-sides are remixes of tracks from Golden Tongue by Frog and Benjamin Shaw.
I also neglected to mention up to now Magana’s cover of “Oceans” by Chuck, which is similarly voice and guitar and every bit as attention-catching, and “Pages”, which is more of a rocker. You could just buy her whole discography off Bandcamp for £1, of course.
ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK: The Punishment of Luxury (White Noise) — OMD certainly don’t need my help, but you should know that this is a good album you won’t be disappointed by. It follows in the style of the two since their reunion: Krautrock fans with pop sensibility, and every side an A side. And they put it up on Bandcamp, clearly showing they’re on the ball, as well as Spotify. Above: “The Punishment of Luxury,” “Isotype,” “La Mitrailleuse.”
NINA: “One Of Us”; “Beyond Memory” (Aztec) — solo synthpop singer-songwriter Nina Boldt self-tags as “synthwave;” the style is pretty much ’80s-style synthwave cheesiness, but the songs and vocal are strong. “One Of Us” is the new single, “Beyond Memory” is last year’s. “My Mistake” from 2014 is not bad either.
Thanks for recommending Magana on your blog. I’m currently enjoying listening to the superb ‘Golden Tongue’ EP. ‘Inches Apart’ is especially good – gorgeous vocal, beautifully recorded.