Composer, producer and recording artist Kid Moxie (Elena Charbila) is out today, June 10, with her fifth studio album Better Than Electric (Pasadena Records). It’s a collection of tracks that drip in synths and sensuality, recalling soundtracks of 1980’s clubland.

Listen to Better Than Electric on all digital platforms: https://smarturl.it/mhjycm

“This album is as close to my emotional and sonic sensibilities as can possibly be,” says Kid Moxie, a Greek national who is now based out of Los Angeles. “It’s a blending of everything I love to listen to, every song is a cinematic scene, and the lyrics are there to ideally serve the picture.”

Leading into the album’s release this week, Kid Moxie unveiled exclusively on Under The Radar a new music video for “On A Sunday Night.” The sweeping synth pop found on the song was inspired by Charbila’s nights spent driving through LA. “Fittingly, the track is the perfect accompaniment for an evening drive through city streets, with the steady drums imitating the beating pulse of the city and the chilly beds of synths capturing its indelible neon-soaked beauty,” shared Under The Radar’s Caleb Campbell. “The track is cinematic pop in its truest form, bringing every hint of dreamlike beauty and wistful imagination to vivid life. Meanwhile, the accompanying video is an equally intoxicating neon dream, with Charbila playing the role of a chauffeur to her passengers’ hazy nighttime reveries.”
Charbila explains, “One of my favorite things to do is drive at night in L.A, I feel like nighttime is when the city radiates its magic the most. ‘On A Sunday Night’ is a song about love as much as it is an ode to the city that inspired it. In the video, I play a chauffeur in a white 70s Cadillac roaming the neon-soaked streets of Hollywood. I share dreamlike moments with the passengers while they do the same with each other.”
Watch here.

Mostly stuck in her downtown LA home during the pandemic, she used the time relentlessly to work on a collection of new material. Driven by a single phrase “Better Than Electric” and inspired by the beat of Depeche Mode’s “Behind The Wheel,” a collaboration with British producer Maps would become both the lead single and the album’s title. Her cinematic pop music creations flourish elsewhere, as heard on album cuts like “Shine,” a dark and evocative club banger co-written and produced by electro artist Faderhead Other highlights include the thundering Teutonic thump of “Lost In Time” and the early 80’s, Ultravox-referencing synths of “At The End of The Night.”

An LGTBQ-identifying artist, Kid Moxie’s accomplishments go beyond producing her own albums. She’s also collaborated with legendary composer Angelo Badalamenti on a cover of “Mysteries Of Love” which was featured in David Lynch’s film Blue Velvet (see VOGUE’s coverage here) and she’s written soundtracks for films like Not To Be Unpleasant But We Need To Have A Serious Talk, television commercials such as for Victoria’s Secret and most recently video games with several cuts on “Cyberpunk 2077.” Her latest accomplishment includes the film score for On Xeres Throne which just received the Canal+ Award for Short Film in Critics Week at the 75th Cannes Film Festival.

The full track listing for Kid Moxie’s Better Than Electric is:
1. Shine
2. Better Than Electric (Kid Moxie & Maps)
3. At The End Of The Night
4. Unbroken
5. Thunderstruck
6. Miss Robot
7. Lost In Time
8. Odyssey
9. Black Flower
10. On A Sunday Night
11. Odyssey (Remix by Die Arkitekt)
12. On A Sunday Night (Remix by Franklin)
13. Better Than Electric (Last Chance Remix by Dimitris Papaspyropoulos)
14. Shine (Remix by Die Arkitekt)