Hi there!

Welcome to Music Monday!

This is a little series I tried to do on Cohost, highlighting new and/or interesting music. There's a lot out there in the indie scene, and most of it tends to fly under the radar. So I wanna spread the word!

I'm gonna try to make this a monthly thing, but you'll have to forgive me if I miss a day - life can be pretty hectic, especially when you need time to write music of your own.

A few months ago, Birch and I found The Yetee has a record store of sorts. There's "Yetee Records" for game soundtracks, of course, but they also run a storefront for Superjumbo Records in Illinois.

It's exactly the kind of record store that's missing from our local scene, with a really eclectic collection of stuff! New releases and old classics, popular artists and niche ones... pretty much whatever they can get their hands on.

We splurged a little, and ended up with some fun stuff like Plantasia and Court of the Crimson King.

Among them was an album titled 6:15 AM, by Adult Oriented Pop.

We came for the album art, and stayed for the jams:

With the grotesque doodle on the cover, I was prepared for something punk-ish. Instead, I found some of the smoothest psychedelic synth-pop I've ever heard.

AOP manages to get a lot of mileage out of some cheesy sounds. Distant Alarm in particular is my favourite track - it features an early synth flute that I associate with stuff like old Thomas episodes I watched as a kid, but then pairs it with a harsh saw and drawbar organ to deliver a powerful and melancholy hook.

The whole album kinda floats in this space between bittersweet resignation and dreamy, danceable grooves. It's a real treat to listen to when you want to chill out.

As a sidenote, it's crazy to me that AOP is as small as it is. Only a couple hundred views on each video, and just over 200 monthly listeners on Spotify. Maybe there's not a big synth-pop scene in Sweden?

If you like, you can buy 6:15 AM on Bandcamp - it's just over $7 CAD (or $5 USD), and considering how many times I've listened to it, it's easily worth twice as much.

Show these folks some love, if you can!