A Way Forward

A Word & A Wave

On their spellbinding sophomore album, "Whispers in the Speech Machine," the young Ohio siblings from The Laughing Chimes fully embrace their Southern Gothic influences, cannily balancing the light of their infectious pop with the shadow of their rust belt environs. While attending an afterschool music program at their local opera house, Evan and his brother Quinn began recording The Laughing Chimes' debut album "In This Town," released in 2020. A string of well-received digital singles and a cassette EP for Slumberland followed, dazzling savvy pop fans with their Paisley Underground-inflected jangle that owes as much to the Flying Nun sound as it does to 80s Athens, GA.

The eight assured songs of "Whispers in the Speech Machine" prove The Laughing Chimes deserve the attention and accolades, while their approaches to songwriting and sonic aesthetics continue to evolve. "Southeast Ohio is the foothills of Appalachia, so it has this indescribable mood and atmosphere to it," guitarist/vocalist Evan Seurkamp told The Big Takeover. "Sometimes there's a haunting weight of decay you want to escape, but at the same time there is some sort of strange romanticism surrounding ghost towns. We've tried to channel those moods to add more regional flavor into our sound."

Whispers In The Speech Machine

The Laughing Chimes - High Beams

Spiral of Memories

Dan's Boogie

Cataract Time

Seven Ways of Floating

Elskavon - "How Cold"

butterfly girl

A Necessary Escape (Part 2)

The MySpace Top 8 was never meant to change the music industry. Chillwave was never meant to be a genre—it started as a blogosphere joke. And Bora York was never meant to be a band—it began as a school project. Yet all three took on a life of their own, shaping an era of indie electronic music built on hazy nostalgia, warm synths, and melodic escapism. Now, after six years away, Bora York returns with "Melting on the Moon," a shimmering sonic love letter to the chillwave movement that first inspired them.

"I think I needed to distance myself from it for a while," says songwriter Chris Bartels, who also writes music as Elskavon, Dellwood, and Hi-Fi Cali. "I was trying so hard with this, in my head, being my ‘main’ project, hoping for so much with it. I was putting so much emotional stock into it that it was probably even sucking some of that original creative magic out of it. Bora York was essentially an accident—it started as a school project and turned into something exciting and unique. Then for a while, I tried to keep recreating that. Stepping back for a few years and only writing as I felt led creatively allowed me to let go—to just let it be."

While writing, Chris started curating a playlist he facetiously called "Chillwave Revival," letting himself become fully immersed in and inspired by the sun-faded synths and woozy nostalgia of Toro y Moi, Washed Out, MGMT, and Neon Indian. Before long, that feeling took over. "Melting on the Moon" is the result—a track that embraces the fuzzy textures and dreamlike melodies of early chillwave, yet with an undeniable modern pulse. It’s laced with Chris and Rebekah’s signature vocal chemistry and an irresistible post-chorus synth hook that lingers long after the first listen.

With past syncs in Netflix’s To All the Boys, Mr. Robot, The Middle, Criminal Minds, Target, Honda, and more, Bora York’s music has resonated far and wide. Press accolades from Clash Magazine, Neon Gold, Indie Shuffle, and Earmilk hailed their sound as “sublime,” “summertime radness,” and “impossible not to get swept up in.”

Now, Bora York embraces a new chapter—one that taps into the playfulness, freedom, and MySpace-era nostalgia of their earliest influences while letting the music just be.

Melting on the Moon

Stream @ Spotify: spoti.fi/1KXI7pk
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Rush Midnight is the solo project of Russell Manning, recent bass player for acclaimed new wave revivalist, Twin Shadow, and formally trained jazz musician. Russ is Brooklyn born and bred, and his music tells the sonic story of coming up in a nonstop city.
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Rush Midnight - What We Had (Feat. Doe Paoro)

Alternative pop label based in Los Angeles.

info@cascine.us

Rush Midnight - What We Had (Feat. Doe Paoro)

CASCINE