Author: William Ruben Helms

William Ruben Helms is a Corona, Queens, NYC-born and-based African American music journalist, freelance writer, editor, photographer and founder of the DIY, independent music and photography site, The Joy of Violent Movement. Over the course of the past two decades, Helms’ writing and photography has been published in Downbeat, Premier Guitar Magazine (photography), Consequence, The Inventory, Glide Magazine.com (words and photography), Publisher’s Weekly, Sheckys.com, Shecky’s Bar and Nightlife Guide 2004, New York Press, Ins&Outs Magazine, Dish Du Jour Magazine, Aussie music publication Musicology.xyz (photography) and countless others, including his own site. With The Joy of Violent Movement, Helms specializes in covering music with an eclectic, globe-trotting, and genre-defying perspective that’s deeply inspired by and informed by his birthplace and home, arguably one of the most diverse places in the world. Since its founding back in 2010, The Joy of Violent Movement can proudly claim readers across the US, Canada, the UK, The Netherlands, France, Australia, and several others throughout its history. https://www.joyofviolentmovement.com https://www.joyofviolentmovement.com/shop https://www.instagram.com/william_ruben_helms Twitter: @yankee32879 @joyofviolent become a fan of the joy of violent movement: https://www.facebook.com/TheJoyofViolentMovement support the joy of violent movement on patreon: https://www.patreon.com/TheJoyofViolentMovement hire me for headshots, portraits and event photography: https://www.photobooker.com/photographer/ny/new-york/william-h?duration=1?duration=1#

Throwback: Happy 59th Birthday, Philip Selway!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Radiohead drummer Philip Selway’s 59th birthday.

New Audio: C.M. Samuels Shares an Industrial Techno-Inspired Banger

Best known for handling synths, samples and drum machines as a member of Western post-punk outfit Ritual Howls and for being a member of ambient post-industrial project Mission to the Sun, C.M. Samuels stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with the release of his solo debut EP After Selection, which was released earlier this month.

Samuels has long been deeply rooted in Detroit — its environments and ever-evolving music scene that has shaped the core of his sound. He cut his teeth decades ago in industrial projects and now, he channels that foundation while crafting electronics for Ritual Howls and exploring much more experimental directions with Mission to the Sun. Fittingly, the EP which was released earlier this month through Detroit Industrial, the five-song After Selection draws from Samuels’ long-time love of classic EBM, early Wax Trax! Records, Skinny Puppy, and others.

His five-song debut EP is an instrumental EP firmly entrenched in EBM and industrial techno. Anchored around driving rhythms, pulsing synth lines and a sharp sense of momentum, Samuels’ debut effort is specifically designed to energize the dance floor and keep bodies moving.

The EP’s latest single, EP opener “Body Interface” is a club banger anchored around punchy industrial thump and a buoyant bass line that lock into a relentless and forceful motorik-like groove. Sonically, the track seemingly channels early Nine Inch Nails and 90s industrial techno while possessing a remarkably modern sensibility.

New Audio: Winnipeg’s sundayclub Shares Wistful, Bittersweet “Camera Shy”

Winnipeg-based indie duo sundayclub — Courtney and Nikki — have quickly cemented a sound and approach that blends hazy indie pop and dreamy textures with unfiltered storytelling. The result is material that’s much like blurry photograph, grainy yet glowing, fleeting yet full of feeling and life.

The duo’s nine-song, self-titled, full-length debut is slated for a July 10, 2026 release through Paper Bag Records. Their debut is deeply informed by the stillness of rural Manitoba, where the duo started the band as a way of processing the very strange limbo of early adulthood — that feeling of being caught between who you once were and who you’re slowly becoming. Fittingly, the album is rooted in place: in a romanticized, re-examined Winnipeg with its hard edges softened in the way that memory often soften things. Thematically, the album touches upon growing up, growing apart and growing into your own skin.

The forthcoming album’s latest single “Camera Shy” is a superficially euphoric tune that actually expresses an underlying bittersweet ache, featuring Courtney’s wistful yet dreamy delivery ethereally floating over swirling shoegazer textures and atmospheric synths. The result is a song that’s simultaneously cinematic and deeply personal — with the song describing a hazy New Year’s Eve that starts off full of promise but somehow spirals out of control, and ends somewhere you and others never intended or even wanted. The song also orbits around a tension the band knows intimately: the compulsion to document and be documents versus the desire to simply disappear into a moment. There’s an acknowledgment that being seen, and being photographed, filmed, captured comes with the territory, even when you’re not quite feeling up to it.

The band add: “It’s about a good night gone very wrong — one of those back and forth, hazy NYE nights bound for absolute disaster. It references our obsession with the ‘moment’ and ever-present FOMO, but also introduces Court’s complicated feelings towards being photographed or ‘captured,’ as it’s referred to in the song. It can get really overwhelming and all-consuming when so much of your energy is put into your physical looks, especially when you just don’t feel like being in the spotlight.”

Directed by Qran Zhu, the accompanying video for “Camera Shy” captures a young couple in love, celebrating New Year’s Eve — with all the bright hopes and dreams of the upcoming year and future before the night spirals out of control with a drunken confrontation during a sundayclub show that leaves one of our protagonists by themselves just before midnight.

New Audio: maticulous Teams Up with El Gant and Brother Ali on Politically Charged “Wordle”

maticulous is a Pittsburgh-born, Brooklyn-based producer, who can trace the origins of his music career to being an on-air DJ at Indiana University of Pennsylvania‘s WIUP‘s The Underground while in college. Soon after relocating to Brooklyn back in 2004, he landed an internship at beloved, now-long shuttered, local underground hip-hop record shop Fat Beats. He quickly moved up the ranks: He was a buyer managed by DJ Eclipse and then became an A&R/sales representative for Fat Beats Records and Fat Beats Distribution.

Being fully immersed in hip-hop cemented the Pittsburgh-born, Brooklyn-based producer’s true passion and desire — to create and release his own original music. His debut effort 2011’s The maticulous EP featured the critically applauded “Body The Beat,” featuring Ruste JuxxR.A. The Rugged Man and Heltah Skeltah‘s Rock. The accompanying video eventually amassed over 130,000 YouTube views.

maticulous’ full-length debut, 2015’s The maticulous LP features guest spots from Masta AceM.O.P.’s Lil FameRah Digga, Guilty SimpsonBlu, and Your Old Droog while highlighting his versatility as a producer. Back in 2017, a chance meeting with Justo The MC at SiriusXM led to a long running collaboration that began with 2019’s Mind of a Man, an album that was named one of Bandcamp‘s Top Albums in the month of its release — January 2019. They quickly followed up with that summer’s Bonus Room EP. They capped off a busy year with Mind of a Man landing on several Best Of the Year lists. They continued their collaboration with 2020’s County of Kings.

2021’s no caps featured guest spots from Homeboy SandmanSkyzooBreeze BrewinUptown XO, Guilty Simpson, yU and a lengthy list of others. Continuing a now, long-held reputation for being prolific, the Brooklyn-based producer released two more albums, 2022’s Three and 2024’s The Expanse.

maticulous will be teaming up with New York scene veteran emcee El Gant and beloved indie emcee Brother Ali on a collaborative album House of Cards, which is slated for a summer release. House of Cards‘ first single, “Wordle” sees El Gant and Brother Ali trading fiery and impassioned verses tackling socioeconomic inequality with astute observations of our late stage capitalistic hellscape over a boom bap-driven production that seemingly channels BDP‘s DJ Scott La Rock and DJ Premier. Arguably one of the most politically-charged songs of the Pittsburgh-born, Brooklyn-based producer’s growing catalog, it’s a song that captures the frustration and desperation to survive that many of feel right now.

New Audio: Riga’s Les Attitudes Spectrales Return with Scorching “Absorbed”

Riga-based noise punks Les Attitudes Spectrales — co-founders French-born, Latvian-based Julien Stark (vocals, guitar) and his Latvian-born spouse Rūta Stark (bass, vocals), along with Adrians Grīns (guitar) and Mārtiņš Kuzmins (drums ) — was initially founded in 2014 as a duo featuring its co-founders Julien Stark and Rūta Stark. And as a duo, the band released two lo-fi albums 2014’s Floral Wreck and 2015’s Where’s My Ghost Milk?

Shortly after the release of Where’s My Ghost Milk?, the Riga-based outfit expanded into a quartet with the addition of Grīns and Kuzmins. As a quartet, the band released 2019’s Vampire in the Summer and 2022’s award-winning Songs For No One on vinyl through boutique French label Specific Recordings

The quartet signed to Latvian underground tastemaker label I Love You Records, who will be releasing the band’s fifth album, Watch The Sword About To Drop on May 26, 2026. The 10-song album is reportedly one of the most fearless and heaviest albums they’ve written and recorded to date, while capturing a band on the verge of exploding into the global noise and rock scenes. 

Watch The Sword About To Drop will feature the previously released, breakneck  King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Osees-like “A Trip Down Memory Loss” and the album’s second and latest single, “Absorbed.” Arguably one of the more straightforward songs of the forthcoming album, “Absorbed” is a scorching ripper that seemingly channels Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, The Men and others. It’s two-and-a-half minutes of raw, forceful playing and mosh pit friendly vibes.