Review: Fatima Al Qadiri “Brute” – Watch: GODMOTHER “MTFTM” – Stream: Ziemba “The Longest Night on this One Habitable Star” (exclusive) – Interview: Jamal Moss (Hieroglyphic Being) – Review: Bing & Ruth “City Lake” – Watch: Federico Albanese “Shadow Land Part II” (exclusive) – NFOP x Kometenmelodien: LA Priest, Laura Clock & Lea Porcelain – Anna Meredith “R-Type” – Sierra Manhattan “Moonburned Girl” (exclusive) – Watch: Dmitry Evgrafov “Like Foam” (exclusive) – Review: FOANS “Schema” – Watch: Erasers “Returning Home” (exclusive) – Watch: Paco Sala “Square Jaw / LGO” (exclusive) – Ocean Hope “Forever” (exclusive) – Antoine 93 “Me and the Sound” – Stream: Tara King th. & Halasan Bazar “Unreleased from ‘8’ EP” (exclusive) – Arca “Soichiro” / “EN” – Stream: Mansions and Millions “Mixtape Vol 1” (exclusive) – Born In Flamez “Easier Like That (Aïsha Devi Remix)” (exclusive) – Bersarin Quartett “Jeder Gedanke umsonst gedacht” (exclusive) – Interview: S Olbricht – Interview: Sean Nicholas Savage – Stream: Feather Beds “Ah Stop” EP – Night Trap: “Someone Like You” – Interview: Sun Araw – Review: Savant “Artificial Dance” – Interview: Hauschka – Review: Helen “The Original Faces” – Guest Post: Efterklang’s Rasmus Stolberg Recommends By the Lake Festival 2015 – Auscultation “L’étreinte Imaginaire” – Watch: Kepla “Ordinant 6” – Visionist “Victim” – Review: Ducktails “St. Catherine” – Graham Dunning “Retort” – Cherushii “Memory of Water” (exclusive) – Vogelbat “Nuuk” – Stream: Hua Li 化力 “Za Zhong” – Pat Keen “Morning” (exclusive) – Doug Bleek “Inner Demon” – Zeitgeber “Monad XX” – Michael Stasis “Venus Of Soap” – Francine Thirteen “Lady Mary, The Fire/Pars Una” – Blondes “Persuasion + Rein” – Watch: Kvien & Sommer “Kwan” (exclusive) – Interview: LYKANTHEA – Stefana Fratila “Tugging” – Watch: Katapulto “Blue Eyes” (exclusive) – Review: Good Moon Deer “Dot” – Reanimator “Damaged Bads” – Watch: The Horn The Hunt “My Face In Your Eyes” – Interview: GABI – Watch: Jannick Schou “Skov II” – Norway According to Boska – Swim Platførm “SURFACE 2” – Holly Herndon and the Fortress of Music – Review/Interview: Jenny Hval – A City Is An Island – Interview with Timothy George Kelly – Win: Paula Temple Presents “Decon/Recon” Live in Berlin – The NFOP Guide to Torstraßen Festival 2015 – Star Horse “Slower Now” (exclusive) – Stream: Tasseomancy “Palm Wine Revisited” (exclusive) – Clade “Vietnamese Piano” – Grounders “Drawing Space” – Review: Róisín Murphy “Hairless Toys” – Christian Kroupa “A Dangerous Game (909 Version)” (exclusive) – This Sunday: 5 Years of NFOP at Urban Spree – Boycrush feat. Madeira “Flirt” – The Sandwitches “Wickerman Mambo” (exclusive) – S Olbricht “Trancess” (exclusive) – The German Mob Mentality Is Still Alive – Watch: Sayth “Rare Candy” – Stellar OM Source “Nite-Glo” – Interview: Erika – Nancy Leticia “Le Big Mac” (exclusive) – Interview/Premiere: Pascale Project – Oni Ayhun, rRoxymore, Aquarian Jugs & Jaguar Woman “Decon/Recon #1” – Live Review: Colleen Green at Brooklyn’s Shea Stadium – Review: Godmother “Transgenre” – Live Review: Kiasmos at Dublin’s Opium Rooms – Ellis Swan “Dice Rolled” – Aural Cinema: An Interview with OOFJ – Watch: GABI “Falling” – Devon Loch “Sleep Scale” – Ozy “Distant Present” (exclusive) – Baby Birds Don’t Drink Milk “Bombchu Girl” (exclusive) – Moving As One: An Update on Gender Equality in Electronic Music – Psychic Reality “Harness” (exclusive) – Digital 21 + Stefan Olsdal “War” – Motorama “Corona” – Watch: IAN “If You’re Cryin” – Interview: Hama – The Next Peak Series (Twin Peaks Tribute Compilation) – Ela Orleans “The Sky and the Ghost” – Interview: Nuearth Kitchen – Watch: To You Mom “Charming Karma” (exclusive) – Yowler “The Offer” – NFOP Presents: You Dont Really Know Me with Phoebe Kiddo – Interview: Jlin – Watch: Sally Dige “Hard to Please” (exclusive) – Broshuda “Flares”

Ela Orleans “The Sky and the Ghost”

26 Mar 2015 — Richard Greenan

Our favourite alt-pop lady returns, with the first glimpse of her very exciting new record. Ela Orleans doesn't seem to be constrained by the same ideas of pop music or what's 'cool' that most of us labour under. Her vision is widescreen, and style elastic, encapsulating noirish piano solos, lo-fi keyboard malfunctions and opera. But "The Sky and the Ghost" is perhaps her best produced, most positive music so far. Like all her output, there is a bewitching torsion here: a ghostly choir pepped up by rambunctious breaks, maudlin lyrics skewered by spritely synths. All underpinned by deceptively expert songwriting and that captivating, unplaceable voice, of course. It is, in her own words, a movie for the ears.

Ela's Upper Hell LP is out soon on Howie B Recordings.