TOVI and the melancholy grooved pop noir attraction of "Progress"

 

"I hate myself a little bit less than I did yesterday, I'm making progress..."

Listening to the pointed words of "Progress" by TOVI, the synth-rock project of Alberta born, Toronto-based artist, Rebecca Emms, as they are stroked with slippery synths pushing arpeggios, cool sort of mysterious noir pop guitars, a hip hop beat that swings and Rebecca's darkly somber vocal aesthetic AND I feel both hypnotized and heartbroken. I mean, the opening line ""I hate myself a little bit less than I did yesterday, I'm making progress..." that is a melancholic stew of self reflections and self deprecation is coyly funny because it is exquisitely relatable.

Press Notey info (bracketed) reveal how unique talent seems to magnetically attract other creative collaborators:

[After her longtime rock-duo, Girl Meets Bear, disbanded in 2017 Emms debuted TOVI with downtempo EP Midnight Hum produced by Mike Rocha (Electric Youth). Midnight Hum earned TOVI a Western Canadian Music Award nomination, placement on mini-drama series “Realization” and charted number 4 on !earshot’s National Electronic Charts.

Collaborating with Japanese Grammy-nominated artist/producer starRo during the COVID-19 lockdown, the pair released a single that was featured in a national Sapporo Beer campaign and gained significant international traction across music streaming platforms.

After writing a collection of songs while attending the prestigious Singer-Songwriter Residency at Banff Centre for the Arts and Creativity, TOVI completed her sophomore EP, Hard Feelings, in Toronto with producer Josh Korody (Beliefs, Nailbiter) and mastered by Jesse F Keeler (MSTRKRFT, Death From Above 1979).]

The rest, as they say....

Totally digging this, truly.

-Robb Donker Curtius

TOVI · Progress

THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:

https://www.facebook.com/tovimusic

https://soundcloud.com/tovimusic/89-san-francisco

https://www.instagram.com/tovimusic/

https://tovimusic.com/

TOVI (pronounced toe-vee) is the synth-rock project of Alberta born, Toronto-based artist, Rebecca Emms. Described as “noirish, melancholic pop music powered by big hip-hop drums ” (Ian Steaman, CBC Music), TOVI evokes the ethereal melancholia of Lana Del Rey, mixed with a dark playfulness of Gorillaz.

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 TOVI, singer songwriter, musician, creator, artist, Girl Meets Bear, Western Canadian Music Award nomination, "Progress", pop noir, avant pop, synthwave, divergent pop,