Kynsy is another act that I first heard back in April on (the essential and newly redesigned) BuffaBLOG, and I’ve had her song “Money” in steady rotation since. It’s got a great guitar hook and a strong 90’s alt-rock/powerpop sound to it:

She’s since released another single called “Stereo Games”, and a live performance of a third single “Formaldehyde”. These will be collected on an EP called Utopia to be released October 25.

Here’s “Stereo Games”, my favourite of the new releases, with a fun, weird video. Watching the two leads try and fail to keep a straight face made me laugh:

Kynsy has been releasing music since 2021. Her first two EPs, 2021’s Things that Don’t Exist and 2022’s Something To Do With Love combined keyboards and sequencers to make a much poppier sound, with songs like “New Year” and “Simple Life” adopting a Franz Ferdinand-ish guitar-driven dance feel:

According to this piece in Clash Music, she’s gone through a bit of a reinvention period leading up to these new singles:

Kynsy admits for the first time that two or three years ago she was struggling quite a lot with anxiety, imposter syndrome, and with her mental health in general.[…]“The old music was very much me experimenting,” she continues, “when I listen back to it I can hear my anxieties and the chaos of it and it now feels more mature, more realised and the new material encapsulates that change and where I’m at now.”

The new sound is a more clearly defined, melodic power-pop sound. Here’s a performance of “Money” and the unreleased “Formaldehyde”.

Bit of a bummer that there’s only one new song on the EP, but her recent signing to Nice Swan records is encouraging stuff – some of my favourite releases from this year are Nice Swan bands.

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