Artist Spotlight: Mouth Water

An introduction to the Italian producer making waves with a new single, ‘Smoke’.

Coverage of ‘Smoke’ and Mouth Water was pitched to me; if you’d like to request that I cover an artist on GAY POP, I’m currently accepting submissions.

For a genre as overdone as synth-pop, Mouth Water sounds remarkably at home when doing it. The musical project of producer and prodigy Lawrence Fancelli, Mouth Water’s been established in the electronic scene for some time, making his name on nostalgic electro-pop gems that call back to a bygone era. Having made waves with both recorded tracks and live shows – including the renowned Primavera Sound in Barcelona last year – Mouth Water’s performances revolve as much around the producer’s mesmerising music as they do the dazzling graphics that accompany them.

‘Smoke’, the producer’s latest single, is classic Mouth Water: a pacy track built atop charged drums and buzzing synth lines, coalescing to create an atmosphere that’s hazy like a summer memory. The track’s dreamlike quality speaks to its subject matter, a curious tale of escape hindered by circumstance. A press release notes that it’s about “a quiet rebellion […] a girl trying to leave her past behind, crossing borders,” ultimately concluding that her past is a burden clinging to her back – and that this is a starkly universal truth.

A striking feature of the song is its lead male vocal, which recalls The Strokes’ Julian Casablancas with its conversational tone. Filtered through what sounds like smoky vocoder, the singer narrates this tale coolly and with a detached ease, yet still manages to draw the listener in. If the single is the first taste of a forthcoming album, it’s sure to contain much of the same rose-coloured vintage pop that ‘Smoke’ trades in. Fans of modern synth-pop and electronic music, rejoice.

‘Smoke’ is out now via Through The Void Records.