Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Weird Nightmare Returns with Syrupy and Anthemic “Buzzing in My Head”

Earlier this year, longtime METZ frontman Alex Edkins released his Jim Eno co-produced sophomore Weird Nightmare effort, Hoopla through  Sub Pop globally and Dine Alone Records in Canada,

Hoopla sees the Toronto-based JOVM mainstay mixing and matching the wide ranging influences of his time slinging indie rock and hardcore records at his hometown record store while attending university — namely 60s psych rock to 1990s DIY and beyond — in fun, unexpectedly exhilarating combinations, showcasing his sophisticated musical mind, while further cementing his unerring knack for crafting ridiculously catchy, and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

Recorded at Providence‘s world famous Machines With Magnets, Hoopla also sees the acclaimed Canadian artist expanding upon Weird Nightmare’s musical palette with the addition of piano, bells and castanets, which give his long-held straightforward songwriting a shiny luster. 

The album features album tracks “Forever Elsewhere,” the Cheap Trick-like “Might See You There,” the punchy punk rock-like “Pay No Mind,” and the earnest and yearning “Where I Belong.” Today, Edkins shared the first bit of new material from Weird Nightmare since the release of Hoopla, the Graham Walsh-produced “Buzzing in My Head.” “Buzzing in My Head” is a syrupy sweet, hooky and rousingly anthemic power pop tune rooted in a unfussy, you-were-there-with-the-band-like production and Edkins earnest, seemingly lived-in lyrics. The track features a backing band of Loel Campbell (drums), Matthew Kuester (bass) continuing their ongoing collaboration, which included Hoopla.

Edkins says of the new single, “‘Buzzing in My Head’ is about that one person/place/thing/memory/experience that never really leaves your waking mind. It says with you to the point of distraction and overwhelms your ability to complete menial tasks.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: TEKE :: TEKE Shares Punchy and Expansive “Shura”

With the release of their 2021’s debut Shrirushi and 2023’s Hagata, Montréal-based Japanese psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays TEKE :: TEKE quickly cemented an explosive, genre-defying blend of psych rock, surf rock, experimental music and traditional Japanese instrumentation paired with the distinct vocals and visual artist of frontperson Maya Kuroki. The Canadian outfit’s adventurous compositions and electrify live performances have held to widespread international praise, including from The New Yorker, The Times and Billboard Canada.

Last year, TEKE :: TEKE expanded upon their international profile by contribution original compositions to Assassin’s Creed: Shadows.

Recently, the Montréal-based band have teased studio sessions for their highly-anticipated third album while going through recent a lineup change: The band has gone from a septet to a sextet while featuring a new rhythm section of Camilly (bass) and Oli Bernachez (percussion). Their newest single “Shura,” which was part of those teased studio sessions was released today through Kill Rock Stars.

The endlessly shifting “Shura” continues their remarkable run of playfully adventurous and cinematic material, blending psych rock, film scores, post-punk and traditional Japanese folk instrumentation rooted in their distinct spirited and punchy moxie before closing out with a cacophonous crescendo.

Deriving its title from an abbreviated form of Ashura (or Asura), a divine figure, whose name appears across many cultures. Often associated with a relentless, almost reckless fighting nature, the figure also represents intense struggle and conflict, while continually transforming through those experiences.

Drawing from ancient mythology and Buddhist philosophy, “Shura” explores the beauty of struggle, transformation and perseverance with a deeply human reflection on the realities of fighting through life’s seemingly endless challenges — with your dignity most intact. The song opens with the band’s Maya Kuroki singing “Shogyo Mujo,” a Buddhist expression that translates into English as “the impermanence of all things,” and is famously echoed in the opening lines of the Japanese epic, The Tale of the Heike. But rather than just simply embracing the philosophical conceit that everything is temporary, “Shura” actively questions who gets the privilege of contemplating such ideas from a place of comfort and protection, while others are in the muck and grime of every day life, desperately fighting to stay afloat. And yet, there’s something beautiful, deeply human and extraordinary when one blooms with all of their strength.

“‘Shura’ was the first song idea we explored for new music,” the band’s Sei Nakauchi Pelletier explains. “The various musical elements that make up the song emerged over a fairly long period of time in the dead of winter and the song went through several versions before settling on this one. Unconsciously, as if to honor the song’s lyrics about changes and impermanence, the music, while raw and heavy like the figure that is ‘Ashura’, also took on a somewhat unpredictable form, with a sudden change of pace for the song’s instrumental build-up finale.”

Directed by the band’s Maya Kuroki, the accompanying video for “Shura” is a mind-bending journey through the beautiful and odd muck, slime and mess of human life.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 81st Birthday, Neil Young!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Neil Young’s 81st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Twin Temple Shares Soulful and Yearning “Haunt Me”

Acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo Twin Temple — married couple Alexandra and Zachary James — released their Shooter Jennings-produced third album Doomed Lovers through their own Pentagrammation Records back in October.

Recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound‘s iconic Studio 3, Doomed Lovers marks the duo’s boldest chapter to date. Born from one of the darkest periods of their personal lives, Doomed Lovers is reportedly their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding upon the cinematic scope of the sound that has won them acclaim while remaining rooted in the timeless sound and traditions of early rock ‘n’ roll, the album is their most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement so far. The album continues the band’s commitment to analog recording while expanding upon their sound with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-member orchestra. Yes, 37!

“We poured everything into this new record that we made with Shooter,” says the acclaimed and controversial duo. “We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could – of course with our dark spin on things.”

The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives. We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life. We started smiling and laughing again. I was becoming alive again. It connected us to why we fell in love with music in the first place and became our most personal album yet.”

The album includes the breathtaking gorgeous, album title track “Doomed Lovers,” “Nothing Matters” and “Haunt Me.” “Haunt Me” is a decidedly twangy, Wall of Sound-meets-Sun Records-like tune with a subtle node to gospel that should remind the listener that country’s iconic period is heavily indebted to gospel, the blues and a early rock ‘n’ roll. That’s right, think of some of those early Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry albums — but rooted in a confusing, paradoxical mix of dread, jealousy, fear and longing that feels lived-in and deeply experienced. 

“‘Haunt Me’ is a gothic love song about fear, obsession, dread and jealousy with nods to classic American gospel, 1960s rock n roll and the blues,” the duo explain. “It romanticizes the terrifying nightmares your lover brings, and the paradox of never wanting them to stop haunting you.”

Featuring live footage of the band performing on hand-developed Super 8 film while the band was on tour back in September, the accompanying video for “Haunt Me” was shot, edited and directed by Dante Capone.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 73rd Birthday, Andy Partridge!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates XTC co-founder and primary songwriter Andy Partridge’s 73rd birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Amsterdam’s Baby Berserk Shares Trippy “French Manicure”

Born at the intersection of punk, fashion and club culture, Amsterdam-based trio Baby Berserk — Lieselot Elzinga, Eva Wijnbergen and Mano Hollestelle — have spent the past years building a world entirely of their own in which raw guitars collide with drum machines, glamour meets chaos and the boundaries between the dance floor, the stage and runway are continuously blurred.

The Dutch trio’s third album, Psycho Dance Sleaze is slated for a March 19, 2027 release through Les Disques Bongo Joe and Mothland. Drawing on their shared roots in Amsterdam’s punk and garage scenes, the trio reconnects with their visceral energy of live instrumentation while pushing deeper into the electronic territory that has defined their sound. Sonically, the material moves freely between garage rock, post-punk, indie dance and rave culture as a way of simultaneously embracing both the physical intensity of rock ‘n’ roll and the irresistible grooves of dance music.

The result is an effort that showcases the Dutch trio’s approach — instinctive, irreverent, unpredictable and driven by a deep-seated belief that exciting things happen when different worlds collide.

Psycho Dance Sleaze’s latest single “French Manicure” is a trippy blend of slashing, post punk-styled guitar attack, machine gun-like staccato beats, glistening synths and woozily buzzing bass synths paired with lyrics delivered in a punchy yet sultry mix of French and English non-sequiturs, and a remarkably catchy hook. The result is a song that sounds as though it could have been released during the height of the indie sleaze era — but with a distinctly European flair and sophistication.

Filmed and edited by Sara Elzinga, the accompanying video for “French Manicure” follows the trio driving around Amsterdam in a convertible pink Cadillac looking stylish, vamping and overall being cooler than you’ll ever be.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sinkane Teams Up with Mdou Moctar on Breezy, Ebullient “So It Goes”

Ahmed Gallab, best known as Sinkane will be releasing his sixth album, He’s Gone on February 26, 2027 through City Slang. Entirely self-produced, engineered and mixed by Gallab, the album features collaborations with Yo-Yo Ma, Mdou Moctar, Preservation Hall Jazz Band and Annie & The Caldwells.

Whereas 2024’s We Belong was an exuberant communal effort, conceived as a love letter to Black music and made with a large cast of collaborators, He’s Gone takes a different approach: Written after the death of his father, the album reflects on grief and how it surfaces in memory, faith and family. The forthcoming album sees Gallab allowing himself to sit in the discomfort of loss without letting it consume him. The album begins with the Istirjāʿ from the Qur’an: “Indeed to God, we belong and to Him we return” — words of surrender and faith traditionally spoken upon hearing of a death. And from there, the album follows grief not as a straight line towards resolution, but something unruly and at times, unpredictable. It disappears and returns — sometimes at the most inopportune and strangest times. It changes shape. It can coexist with joy, movement, love, and a deep groove.

Since the release of We Belong, Gallab followed in his parents’ footsteps, becoming a university professor, teaching music appreciation, theory and songwriting. And while making the record, he found himself inadvertently following his father. At the core of He’s Gone is the things we’ve inherited without noticing — the gestures and ideas that survive people; the moment when grief reveals that someone who has departed is still very much present in the way you think, work, teach, listen or even more through the world.

The album’s cover art features Ibrahim El-Salahi’s celebrated painting Reborn Sounds of Childhood Dreams I, used with the permission of The Tate and the artist’s family. El-Salahi, was not only one of the defining figures of modern Sudanese art, he was also a friend of Gallab’s father, continuing to add to the album’s overall themes of memory, family, history and the like.

“Making the record gave me permission to grieve and, eventually, became a kind of catharsis,” Gallab says of the album. “I thought I was making an album about losing my father. Instead, I started finding him and, ultimately, myself.”

Arguably one of Gallab’s most personal albums to date, the album sees him blending Sudanese pop, West African music, dub and Brazilian and Caribbean influences. The album’s first single “So It Goes.” feat. Mdou Moctar derives its title from the refrain that follows every death in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, drawing from the novel’s central premise that all moments in time exist simultaneously, making death only one moment among countless others in a person’s existence.

Sonically featuring a strutting groove, skittering beats and stabs of shimmering keys, “So It Goes” is a breezy and ebullient blend of Afrobeats, Eastern African music, dancehall and contemporary pop beneath Gallab’s breathy falsetto. Mdou Moctar contributes a woozy and expressive guitar solo fed through layers of distortion and haze.

“After my father died, I found that strangely comforting. Maybe being gone doesn’t mean every version of you is gone,” Gallab says.  “I wanted the song to feel like an East African psychedelic fever dream. “I asked Mdou Moctar to play the guitar solo, and he took it somewhere wonderfully unexpected.” The song gradually swells with a brightening sense of optimism and acceptance, viewing death as but a small part of a life. And it’s all underpinned by the joy of knowing that person was — and still is — a key part of your life.

“There’s something beautiful about a song about death feeling so full of life,” he adds.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sweden’s Menderbug Shares Shimmering “Swallowed Flame”

Swedish indie rock duo Menderbug specializes in a sound that draws from shoegaze, slowcore, 90s emo and a bit of post rock and pot punk. But at the core of their work is a distinctly Swedish sense of melancholy: In a country where winters seem to stretch forever and daylight can feel like a distant memory, some of that darkness will inevitably find its way into both the music and lyrics.

Sonically, fragile, almost whispered vocals drift through layers of distorted guitars while driving bass lines and restless rhythms give the music a propulsive sense of movement.

Fragile, almost whispered vocals drift through layers of distorted guitars, while driving basslines and restless drums give the music a sense of movement. Some songs lean into the quiet desolation of slowcore, others carry the emotional weight and melodic urgency of 90s emo, while darker moments venture into the heavier, noisier textures of blackgaze.

The duo tends to work quickly and intuitively, allowing songs to take shape without overthinking their overall direction. The aim is to preserve as much of the feeling that made want to write in the first place, rather than polishing away the imperfections and feeling at the core of the song.

Thematically, much of Swedish duo’s work explores the quieter form of human struggle: the distance between people, the feeling of being alone in a crowd, and the sense of not quite belonging anywhere.

Their sophomore EP, Fading Signs was released last Friday and follows their debut EP, Falling Voices, which was released earlier this year with both EPs being part of a planned trilogy. Throughout each of the EPs, there’s a loosely connected theme of things slowly slipping away — voices fading, traces disappearing, and the quiet realization that something once familiar is no long there. What’s been lost isn’t entirely clear, and perhaps that’s up to the listener’s interpretation.

Fading Signs EP‘s latest single “Swallowed Flame” is a seamless blend of emo, post punk and shoegaze featuring shifting yet propulsive rhythms and distorted, chiming guitars that’s melancholy while conveying an unease and hurt creeping just below the surface, much like a bruise.

“It’s about something burning quietly beneath the surface. A pain without a name, something that slowly becomes a part of you,”
the Swedish duo explain. “The strange feeling of moving forward while something inside remains exactly where it was.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: School of X Shares Breezy, Deceptively Sunny “Exist”

Rasmus Littauer is a Copenhagen-based producer, singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind of indie pop project School of X. School of X derives its name from Ekskole, Copenhagen’s anti-establishment, experimental art school. which featured Warhol collaborator Jørgen Leth, art historian Troels Anderson and artists Poul Gernes and Per Kirkeby. “It was about learning from each other and being progressive,” Littauer explains. “There were no labels — anyone could join. That philosophy is so cool and I really admire all those artists.” 

Inspired by Ekskole’s ethos, Littauer created a collective with a similar ethos: Over the past decade, the Copenhagen-based artist has worked with Liss, MØ, Clairo, Deb Never as a producer, songwriter or musician — and as School of X, Littauer has collaborated with Half Waif’s and Empress Of‘s Spencer Zahn, Hinds‘ Anna Perrote, Lord Siva. Soleima and JOVM mainstay Trentemøller.

He also runs a studio in Copenhagen’s Nørrebro District with friend, collaborator and fellow producer Vera.

The Danish artist’s fifth album, 2024’s Seventh Heaven was released to widespread critical praise. Building upon a growing national and international profile, Littauer’s self-titled, sixth album is slated for a January 8, 2027 release through No3. The album will include the perviously released “Not Enough Time,” and the album’s second and latest single “Exist.” “Exist” is a breezy tune, anchored around a hooky acoustic guitar-driven arrangement paired with Littauer’s sunny, downright bright delivery. But at its core, the song’s optimism is actually deceptive as the song’s narrator openly talks about suffering from regret and delusions — with both an unvarnished honesty and the hope of being able to change. ‘

“It’s a song about suffering from delusions and the anxiety that inevitably comes with them, while doing everything you can to function in the world,” Littauer explains. “For me, it has been about feeling persecuted. At times, it it became so extreme, that I thought it would kill me. That’s also why ’Exist’ is a small miracle, because I wrote it at a time when I was at my lowest.”

“Love and family are what ultimately prevail. People who lift you up and can be a source of pure life energy, giving you a new perspective on how to find your way back and move forward,” Littauer says.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Ironsides Share Sweepingly Cinematic “Passing Glance”

Led by Max Ramey (production, bass) and Joe Ramey (production, saxophone), and featuring members of JOVM mainstay act Monophonics, as well as a collection of some of the best Bay Area-based players, The Ironsides have specialized in a […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Always You Share Glistening and Breezy “Shadow Play”

Los Angeles-based duo Always You — twin brothers Christoph and Anton Hochheim –will be releasing their third album, the Jack Tatum-produced Against The World is slated for a Friday release through Hit The North Records.

With Jack Tatum at helm guiding production and mixing, he tirelessly broke down and then reconstructed all the elements of the material with the twins, pushing the album’s overall sonics to the absolute breaking point while still retaining their signature sophtisipop sheen. Throughout the album’s run time, heavy guitars and bending sheets of white noise clash over frenzied hi-hats and The Prodigy-like sub bass. Abrupt starts and stops seemingly crash down with the weight of the world. Drum ‘n’ bass and house beats thump over soaring melodies and chopped up vocal samples. The ballads seemingly sparkle with more heart and tension than anything in their previously released work.

Thematically speaking, Against The World is a statement for and against the times: a manic manifesto drawing a line in the sand, pointing out that love is the only resistance against the forces manufacturing distance and endless dissent between us. It’s a rallying cry pushing for something better, a staunch refusal of the status quo, fueled by the belief that we all deserve much better. The album’s material is rooted in the deep sense of longing for something, hell, anything else than this — a different reality, an alternate timeline, anything. Increasingly divorced from the world around us, the false promises of a new lover, a new leader, a quick and seemingly effortless salutation or a new savior become impossible to resist. That fantasy leads us further and further underground, leaving miles of rubble in its wake and keeping us all just out of reach.

Against The World will include”1994,” “Eye to Eye,” and the album’s final pre-release single “Shadow Play.” “Shadow Play” is the album’s most sophistipop-leaning tracks of the released singles. Featuring glistening synths, thumping electro pop-like beats, “Shadow Play” is a breezy tune that’s rooted in inquisitive themes.

“‘Shadow Play’ is about living for an imagined audience,” the duo explain. “We all do this to some extent in life and in love. Relationships are a type of performance, with specific roles that get cast and stories that get etched out and retold with time. It’s about love as a projection, as something very personal to a person rather than something created by two, and the dangers of copy and pasting that onto others.”
 

The accompanying video for “Shadow Play” follows a woman and one-half of the duo performing — in their own way– for an audience with concert strobe lights to emphasize the performative nature at the core of the song.