Forget all your expectations around pop music, because this artist is shifting gears. Her name is Bethlehem and she’s the artist making alternative pop that shakes things up. The name is a hopeful nod to the birth of an icon rather than the geographical site. Today she releases Rev Up with a sexually charged music video that sees the artist don a revealing body stocking and dance to her own glitched synths, blown-out drum beats and metallic vocals.
Bethlehem’s release is the first of four tracks coming out on her own label, Violation Records, as part of her debut solo EP Obsessions & Confessions. There are nods to Britney and Madonna in the video and EP — Bethlehem is blonde, framed in a language of confession and has the pop icon attitude. Nonetheless Bethlehem’s audio universe on Rev Up is a lot more Radio Frost Children feat. Kim Petras than Gimme More Britney. The forthcoming EP overall is experimental, noisy and mad. What feels fresh and her own is Bethlehem’s audacious melding of angular sonic textures, heavy doom rock bass guitar with early-2000s pop maximalism. And Rev Up truly is unique to her, it’s the artist’s first project where she’s done it all – writing, composition, production.
Directed by Viktor Naumovski, the dark, pulsing and rhythmic scenes of Rev Up show fragmented reflections of Bethlehem; like the mirrors in Don’t Worry Darling, which contrasts the dynamic audio and theme of generally being in charge brought up by directive lyrics like “hit the gas”. Both the image and sound are pixelated and compressed, primed for a party in the back of a taxi or sports car that is immediate and unpretentious. For a musician making a video, it’s a relief to notice the audio come first over video content in this TikTok-craven era. Bethlehem is an artist whose roots are in the underground; yes, whilst she has risen to play internationally as DJ Venetta at raves in Vancouver, Berghain’s Panorama Bar, Boiler Room, De School Amsterdam and Flow Festival, she’s not lost touch with what matters. Named artist to watch by Mixmag in 2024, she has played PAN parties as Venetta and her EP as Bethlehem sees her go from strength to strength. This project sets an intention, to bring out the weird girls in us all.
