Orchestral pop: Hooverphonic

Like many aspects of life music is subject to trends, what's hip, what's cool, what's dope, and changes accordingly. In the 1960's much of the music being played on the radio could be classified as 'orchestral pop'. Composers like Henry Mancini, John Barry and Burt Bacharach wrote hundreds of songs, featuring large symphonic orchestras, which are still well known today. However like most trends come and go, so did the orchestral pop when it was replaced by the funky disco tunes of the 1970's.

Lately I hadn't listened much to orchestral pop, that is until YouTube recommended Hooverphonic to me. Hooverphonic is a Belgian band consisting of the two musicians Alex Callier and Raymond Geerts, supported by several vocalists. Although they've already been active since 1995 I'd never heard of them. Even though their early work features some characteristics of orchestral pop it can't really be classified as such and tends to be a bit more dreamy (for instance 2 Wicky and Eden). Over the years however their sound started to change, gradually getting a more dominating orchestral sound. Mad About You and You Hurt Me are great examples of this.

In 2012 the group collaborated with an orchestra (unfortunately I couldn't find the orchestra's name) and cleverly named the album Hooverphonic with Orchestra. The videos of their concert in Antwerp are the ones that caught my ear. The orchestration of these pieces is beautiful as is Noémie Wolfs' voice which is never overpowered by the orchestra. La Horse, George's Café and Danger Zone all sound like timeless pieces, although this might also be partly due to the black/white filter that the videos use.

In 2015 Wolfs left the group but this didn't stop them from making new songs. Their latest album was released in 2016 but doesn't quite capture that classic orchestral pop sound that I love. However maybe you like their slightly more modern sound: Deep Forest.

Either way orchestral pop is back on my playlist.

Other favourites: One, Jackie Cane and One Two Three

For more videos check out Hooverphonic's VEVO channel.

J-Pop Rock: SEKAI NO OWARI

Often I discover music through association, for instance by looking at related videos when browsing YouTube. Other times it's because artists I know collaborate with artists I don't know yet. This last example was the case with SEKAI NO OWARI who I discovered while doing research for my blog about Clean Bandit. SEKAI NO OWARI, Japanese for 'End of the World', started out in 2010 as an indie-pop band. They released several songs, most of which are decent sounding like Angel and Devil, but they're not really my cup of tea.

Now try to imagine combining an auto-tuned voice, marching music, a choir and classical piano. Sounds interesting right? Well that's exactly what the group did in 2013 for their song RPG. It's a sound that works well and the group continued to use it in songs like Snow Magic Fantasy and The Flame and Forrest Carnival. However the group didn't sit still and started collaborations outside of Japan to diversify their sound. Dragon Night for instance was produced by Dutch DJ Nicky Romero, while Mr.Heartache was produced by Adam Young of Owl City. Nevertheless I like the band best when they do their own crazy Japanese thing with instrument playing animals and folk-dancing wolves in fairytale surroundings (look at Hey Ho and you'll understand what I mean).

SEKAI NO OWARI has announced that they'll release a new album this year and I for one can't wait until it's released. Meanwhile I'll keep listening to my favourite song of theirs, ANTI-HERO, which features one of the fastest piano-parts I've ever heard in a pop song.

Other favourites: Death Disco (gives an idea of their live-show)

                            Tokyo (collaboration with Owl City) 

                            SOS (amazing piano melody)

Listen to more songs on SEKAI NO OWARI's official YouTube channel

Alon Mor

The first thing you will have noticed when you started reading this post is that the genre is missing from the title. This is not a mistake, but a conscious choice. In preparation of my blogs I usually do some research into how other people classify the artists I discuss. However nobody seems to know how to categorize Alon Mor, a young and very talented producer from Israel. "What am I listening to?" is what I was thinking the first time I listened to Alon's song Jasmine. It starts out with a jazzy/Latin intro, followed by a middle-eastern sounding synth-melody and turns into a future house track. At 1.40 minutes there's a breakdown where the jazzy part returns, followed by ambient music and some classical strings which seamlessly flow into the house part again. I fell in love with the song and it became one of my favourite tracks of 2016.

In the 10 minute long song Demons Alon manages to put in even more genres. The song starts out with a spacey bass line followed by some dark techno but is then followed by middle eastern sounds, classical piano, Spanish guitar, chiptunes and even an church organ.

Two other superb songs are When Silence Kicks In, which is a blend of a fairytale soundtrack and future bass, and Adra De Khal, a very moody, more classical song featuring a concert flute.

You'd think that combining so many different styles, genres and instruments would result in a messy track, but I think that Alon manages to mix everything together in such a way that it becomes a very coherent piece. To get an idea of Alon's versatility check out some more songs below, each one is completely different from the others.

Other favourites:                 Intermission (Dark House

                                            Vega (Glitch-hop)

                                            Scattered Clouds (Electro waltz)

                                            Pablo's Place (Latin)

Check out more songs on Alon Mor's Official YouTube channel.

Post-grunge: The Pretty Reckless

If you've ever seen the movie 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas' you probably remember the cute little girl with the blond hair. Well that cute little girl, Taylor Momsen, is all grown up now and has become the lead singer of post-grunge band The Pretty Reckless.

The first song I ever heard of the band was Make Me Wanna Die which played during the end credits of the 2010 movie 'Kick-Ass' (which by the way is a very entertaining comedic/action movie). Even though I really liked the song it didn't hook me in immediately. I felt that other songs from the band's debut album, like Miss Nothing and Just Tonight, while still nice felt a bit too generic as well. Several years later, in 2014, however the band released their second album from which the title song Going To Hell clearly is an example of their newer, harder sound. I do however also like the slightly more poppy Messed Up World which has a really nice breakdown at 2.15 minutes in. Last October The Pretty Reckless released their latest album called Who You Selling For with the fast-paced Oh My God and the more classic hard rock sounding Take Me Down. Because of the broader sound now, almost six years after first hearing the band, I can finally say I'm a fan.

Other favourites: My Medicine, Kill Me and Heaven Knows

Check out more videos on the The Pretty Reckless VEVO YouTube channel