By It’s our Bandcamp Picks of the Week, including the latest Hit The North Records’ holiday charity compilation, and Elmo Aoyama’s dark, crystalizing synthpop album DEMONS!
Elmo Aoyama – DEMONS
Genre: Synthpop
Favorite Tracks: “Demons,” “Early,” “Honey”
The synthpop of Tokyo-born and Sydney-based artist Elmo Aoyama is never in stasis—her music always sounds like it’s flowing and unravelling. Her debut album, DEMONS, is consciously journeylike. It follows her breakthrough EP, SPELLS, from five years ago, a far cry from her electric fiddling and synths of previous bands Fully Feudal and Big White. Her solo venture is just as spirited, and DEMONS traverses more ground. Composed over 10 years across Australia, China, Mongolia, and Vietnam, traces from the globe are left to be gathered.
DEMONS is exciting in multiple situations, with the slow-burning, crystalline opening title-track. Crying synths lead to steady kick drums, forming a nocturnal atmosphere that would work as well soundtracking performance art as it would a chilled after-hours club. Following track “Early” establishes a thrilling one-two punch with a synth riff faintly resembling “Seven Nation Army”—perhaps that’s the Western world seeping through. The sprawling seven-minute banger quickly becomes its own with a pattering, tropical electro beat. “Honey” and “Jacket” glide with meditative kitschy synths, the former a standout because of Aoyama’s soft, echoed voice cementing the lullabylike atmosphere. The joyful naivety of Japan’s finest house producers—think Soichi Terada—are later channeled in the buoyant “Naadam” and naturalistic “Pikumin,” songs both calming and grounding. Aoyama has experienced much of the world and clearly has taken its different influences as a souvenir—that all has finally been distilled on her long-awaited debut. Check it out over on Bandcamp. [Dom Lepore]
Various Artists – HIT THE NORTH POLE VOL. 2: A FESTIVE CHARITY COMPILATION FOR THE PALESTINE CHILDREN’S RELIEF FUND
Genre: Holiday
Favorite Tracks: N/A
Last year we premiered a track from Hit the North Records’ Christmas charity compilation, and for 2025 they’re back with a second round of festive cheer benefitting the Palestine Children’s Relief Fund. HIT THE NORTH POLE, VOL. 2 features a handful of names that are near and dear to the Merry-Go-Round Magazine team, including a number of artists who have played various showcases of ours including Ruby Sparks, Steel Wool, and little bit. I’m a huge fan of Ada Lea’s spin on the Wham! staple “Last Christmas,” a song that sounds great in pretty much any context but especially with this plucky homespun sound. And Wilby, who have released one of my favorite albums of the year in CENTER OF AFFECTION, offer a soulful and beautiful look beyond Christmas with the Ella Fitzgerald closer “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?” We’re huge fans of HTN and c’mon, you need new fodder for your Christmas mix this year. Grab a copy over on Bandcamp! [CJ Simonson]
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