JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Depeche Mode frontman Dave Gahan’s 64th birthday.
New Video: Italy’s Way To Blue Shares Broodingly Cinematic “For All The Time”
Vincenzo Del Corno is a Pavia, Italy-born singer/songwriter, musician and producer, who developed a passion for music and film at a young age. As a teenager, he began playing drums, later learning bass and guitar, His passion for film, led to him writing for various film magazines, and by 2004 he became editor of the quarterly publication Buioinsala. Back in 2011, he published Suspira, a monograph on Dario Argento’s 1977 film Suspira.
Between 2020 and 2021, Del Corno co-wrote “Lonely,” “Bones” and “Lullaby” for Italian singer Camilla Wells, all of which received positive responses both in their native Italy and elsewhere. Back in 2024, he founded Way To Blue, a tribute to the music and production of 80s post-punk and New Wave, informed by his love of 80s memorabilia, vinyl and VHS.
Del Corno’s first two singles 2024’s Marco Barusso-produced “Love Again” and “Life Is a Big Joke” were release to positive response, as well as airplay on local and national radio. Building upon a growing profile in Italy, Del Corno released “Voices of Darkness” earlier this year, which was quickly followed by his latest single the Marco Barusso-produced “For All The Times” is a broodingly cinematic bit of synth-driven post punk that channels Depeche Mode — but with a sleek, modern feel.
The accompanying video for “For All The Time” is a shot in a cinematic black and white and evokes the brooding Romanticism and yearning at the core of the song.
New Audio: George Aletras Shares Shimmering “Τώρα”
George Aletras is a Greek singer/songwriter and musician, whose work sees him moving between indie rock, post rock and cinematic soundscapes, frequently blurring the boundaries between them. At times, his work leans into experimental territories, not as a statement of style, but a a natural consequence of exploration, where form isn’t followed but discovered,
Aletras’ latest single “Τώρα” is a shimmering, hook-driven bit of 80s-inspired post punk and New Wave that’s cinematic while channeling Heaven Up Here-era Echo and the Bunnymen and contemporaries like PLOHO.
New Audio: FRACTILES Share Bruising “Call Me Slick”
German electronic music duo FRACTILES — Christoph Schauer and Max Filges — features two internationally acclaimed musicians and film composers, who combine their individual energies into an uncompromising sound that meshes elements of industrial electronica, […]
New Audio: Modern Ideas Shares Glistening “This Is How It Hurts”
Modern Ideas is a Melbourne/Naarm-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who specializes in dark synth pop rooted in a belief that pop isn’t about perfection, but transformation. In particular, our power to change shape, to become new forms, to have new feelings and new identities.
Drawing from 80s synth pop and contemporary darkwave, Modern Ideas’ is anchored around a simple conceit: Although modern life may be artificial, within that artifice lies the possibility of something beautiful, strange and new.
The Aussie synth pop project’s latest single “This Is How It Hurts” serves as the perfect introduction to its overall sound and approach. Built around glistening analog synths, a tight, skittering four-on-the-floor paired with an understated yet aching vocal and a remarkably catchy hook, “This Is How It Hurts” seemingly channels Depeche Mode, New Order and TR/ST while anchored around a spacious and clean, modern production.
Lyric Video: Shye Shares Brooding and Ethereal “I Always Knew”
Rising Singapore-based dream pop artist Shye is a self-taught singer/songwriter, musician, producer and engineer, whose music career began as DIY bedroom project that exploded into the international scene when she won the 2018 Vans Musicians Wanted competition when she was just 16. Since then, the Singaporean artist has released a handful of genre-defying singles while amassing a batch of awards and titles, including NME‘s Best New Act from Asia, Asia’s Forbes 30 Under 30 and sharing stages with acts like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Wisp, Clairo and Men I Trust.
Her sophomore album The Doves Came Home officially dropped today. The album features a collection of hazy, introspective songs that seamlessly transition from ethereal vocals and shimmering guitars to heavy walls of sound that draws from 90s dream pop and shoegaze. The result is material that sounds simultaneously expansive and deeply personal while exploring the push and pull between softness and tension.
The album includes the previously released “Smoke,” “Someone, Always“ and the album’s latest single “I Always Knew.” Much like its immediate predecessors, “I Always Knew,” features the rising Singaporean artist’s yearning vocal ethereally floating over a 90s inspired arrangement built around alternating shimmering, jangle pop and dream pop-like guitars for the song’s quieter verses and towering and swirling shoegazer textures for the song’s rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. But underneath the song’s anthemic and stormy exterior is a tale of a meet cute that quietly cracks apart in the sort of betrayal and heartbreak that feels inevitable.
The lyric video follows a brooding and introspective Shye wandering the countryside and riding trains with her earbuds, singing the song’s lyrics — to presumably an unseen subject.
Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Philip Bailey!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the legendary Philip Bailey!
Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Chris Frantz!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Talking Heads’ and Tom Tom Club’s Chris Frantz’s 75th
Throwback: Happy 73rd Birthday, Alex Van Halen!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Van Halen co-founder Alex Van Halen’s 73rd birthday.
New Video: SHUB Teams Up with Aysanabee and Dreezus on Soulful and Introspective “Rise”
Dan “SHUB” General is a Mohawk producer and member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest First Nation reserve in Canada. As a co-founder of the trailblazing and acclaimed, Juno Award-winning Indigenous electronic music outfit A Tribe Called Red, now known as The Hallucci Nation, General has been instrumental in the development of powwow-step, a blend of the ancient rhythms of powwow music with scratching, hip-hop, and modern, bass-heavy electronic music production.
In 2014, General left A Tribe Called Red and stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist and producer. His debut, 2016’s six-song PowWowStep EP featured collaborations with the Northern Cree Singers, smoke dance singer Frazer Sundown and Blackfeet Nation-based drum group, Black Lodge Singers. PowWowStep won an Indigenous Music Award for Best Instrumental Album and the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities (COCA) named him DJ of the Year in 2017.
Since then, the Canadian producer and DJ has released two albums, 2020’s War Club and last year’s Heritage (Part One). Conceived as part of a two-part series, Heritage (Part One) saw General stepping beyond the DJ booth and boldly stepping forward as a composer, storyteller and artist dedicated to expanding the reach of Indigenous music on a global scale.
The second part of the series Heritage (Part Two) dropped last week, and across the series’ material, SHUB brings together Indigenous artists across generations, using collaboration as a way to explore identity, community and continuity within contemporary music. “Hearing these artists step onto these tracks and take them somewhere I never could have on my own… that was the most rewarding part of making this record,” General says.
The acclaimed Canadian producer and artist is helping to actively expand the space Indigenous artists occupy within modern music. Heritage (Part Two) completes that vision, bringing together voices across cultures and styles into a single body of work. “It’s about cultures coming together through my music. If you can forget about everything else for a moment, take it in, and just feel free — that’s the real beauty. This album is about movement aned growth,” SHUB explains. “It’s not trying to be one genre — it’s just where I’m at right now.”
Last month, I wrote about “I Know,” feat. Sebastian Gaskin. With the album’s release, last week General shared “Rise,” feat. Aysanabee & Drezus is a soulful, gospel-inspired tune that details hidden struggles with mental health with a deeply personal, lived-in specificity. But at its core, is an emphasis on turning to community and family in one’s most difficult moments, because as the saying goes “you’re not alone.”
“The song to me is community,” says Aysanabee. “Indigenous people rising together.” Drezus adds: “Success doesn’t mean anything if your spirit is still suffering… this one’s for the people fighting battles no one else can see.”
Continuing an ongoing collaboration with Matt Guarrasi, the accompanying video was shot in Toronto’s St. Stephen-in-the-Fields. The trio of artists are framed within a grand, scared space that deserves — and demands — solemn contemplation and reverence. These scenes are intercut with a hand reaching into light and archival footage of children in residential schools. The result is a video grounded in a shared history while honoring the enduring resilience of Indigenous communities. As a Black man, it’s deeply familiar on an almost atomic level.
New Video: RIP Magic Shares Woozily Claustrophobic “Screwdark”
Rising London-based quartet RIP Magic — Marco Pini, Felix Bayley-Higgins, Beth Boswell-Knight and Pedro Takahashi — recently signed to section1, the Los Angeles-based sister label to Partisan Records.
The British-based quartet’s signing to section1 is part of a breakout year that has seen early, word-of-mouth momentum turn into something much more tangible. Following last June’s self-released double single “Loot”/”Dox,” RIP Magic quickly built a reputation as one of the UK’s most compelling new live acts, balancing their own frequently sold-out headline shows with festival sets and opening spots for Tame Impala, Fcukers, Fakemink and others,
Late last year, the London-based outfit shared, the James Murphy-produced “5words,” which came out as they were opening for LCD Soundsystem. Building upon a growing national and international profile, RIP Magic’s latest single “Screwdark” is a dense, woozily claustrophobic tune that’s one-part brooding and eerie Portishead trip hop, one-part frenzied, Beck and Beastie Boys-like sample fest that’s both club and festival friendly and prefect for late-night headphone listening.
The new track comes as the rising act is opening for Tame Impala’s sold-out arena tour of Europe, and fittingly, the accompanying video directed by Velcro captures the band while in tour, edited in a frenetic fever dream of places, shows, people and experiences.