New Artists Highlight: Go ‘Swimming at Night time’ With the Classic Poptronica of VIKINGS

Whilst you’d be hardpressed to search out anybody who desires to make the leap into the Pink River which runs by Winnipeg, Manitoba, even in the summertime. The trio of artists who comprise VIKINGS don’t see their house metropolis’s quite un-balmy climes as a deterrent to writing and releasing three enjoyable, summery synth pop anthems, nonetheless. In actual fact, thumbing a nostril on the chilly and drawing out the summer season could have been precisely the motivation for his or her twin single, “Talines”/”Swimming at NIght,” which dropped in mid-August and incorporates two remixes, making it kind of an EP. With gentle Hot Chip-meets-Nick De La Hoyde vibes, these tracks are additionally a little bit of a 180 from their final album, and apparently it’s for a cause.

2018’s clearly Tron-and-new wave-inspired album Electrical Life could possibly be described extra as indie pop, with its darker tones, assorted EDM beats (together with rave lure and future bass) and dream pop-like hooks. This album noticed fairly a little bit of pop success, particularly with the Uber-popular “Run,” which bacame TikTok well-known and was featured in rotation at Endlessly 21 shops. Can’t get extra pop than that, are you able to? As VIKINIGS inform it, nonetheless, it wasn’t pop success that precipitated them to vary their sound to the uber-pop of “Tanlines” and “Swimming….” It was a breakup.

There aren’t actually any particulars as to te cause VIKINGS’s hiatus, aside from, in fact, the pandemic. It doesn’t truly sound like they stopped engaged on music throughout that point.

After a 3 12 months hiatus, VIKINGS spent the vast majority of 2020 in a lockdown studio session the place we actually discovered our new sound….impressed by journey and love the monitor was created in a maze of experimentation…The forthcoming songs embody two very totally different vibes whereas nonetheless sustaining the sound that’s VIKINGS.

The “forthcoming songs” to which the band refer on this quote at the moment are out within the type of the singles and their remixes, however one will get the imporession that this new sound will proceed to develop thus. Regardless of the cause for the change, there may be nonetheless a pleasant, delicate indie pop core so followers of VIKINGS needn’t fear a few full fashion shift; we’re not taking a look at 2010s Hanson vs 90s Hanson right here. Followers will possible nonetheless benefit from the tracks in the event that they favored the band’s first two albums and their 2017 EP, Animal Kingdom.

So what makes “Swimming at Night time” and “Tanlines” so totally different from prevois work by VIKINGS? The fashion and heavy synth remains to be there, clearly, in addition to clear manufacturing. It’s simply typically extra upbeat, and with these tracks the trio have actually embraced that vein or pop that ran by previos iterations. The unique mixes of each songs are 100% pop development, beat and vocals, to the purpose the place it borders on bubble gum. “Tanlines,” particularly, is Harry Styles-level pop. A little bit of soul, a little bit of funk however actually all pop. “Swimming at NIght,” then again, has a extra indie pop vibe, a’la Cut Copy or Scorching Chip, a’la a deeper key within the verse.

The “Tanlines” remix is by ASH HALO, one other venture VIKINGS’s synth programmer Dave McNabb has with fellow Winnepegian artist referred to as Saratonin, of the well-known bass duo Akylla. This model performs round with manufacturing greater than the unique, and the synths are a bit deeper to match the heavier bass, making a barely extra fashionable vibe. It’s not EDM, but it surely’s adjoining and fewer new wave-influenced. The “Swimming at Night time” remix is definitely an edit that’s shortened the unique monitor considerably. This highlights the pop worth of the monitor as properly.

Since “Tanlines” and “Swimming at Night time” are technically teasers for the following album from VIKINGS, it is going to see if their “new sound” will permeate the entire album and inform all their work going ahead, or in the event that they nonetheless have some extra indie pop methods up their sleeves. The largest query there may be are they now full poptronica or will they, like thier earlier work, do a lttile style hopping into extra strong EDM territory? Guess followers must await the album to search out out.

“Tanlines” and “Swimming at Night time” and their remixes are out now and might be streamed on Spotify and Bandcamp.