JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder’s 61st birthday.
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.
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New Video: Nicklaus Rohrbach Shares Dreamily Cinematic and Nostalgic “Jigsaw”
French composer, producer, arranger, sound engineer and musician Nicklaus Rohrbach has spent the bulk of his career collaborating with an eclectic array of artists including Verlatour, omega violet, Sangue, Shoefti, Jamika and The Argonauts, Kohhen el Kef, Carole Cettolin and a lengthy list of others.
Rohrbach stepped out into the spotlight as an artist with a handful of singles and his debut EP, Selfie. The EP’s latest single “Jigsaw” is a lush and cinematic tune featuring some dramatic, swelling piano, twinkling synths and buzzing synths paired with Rohrbach’s plaintive vocal and a big, euphoric hook and chorus. Sonically, “Jigsaw” reminds me of a synthesis of M83 and A Rush Of Blood To The Head-era Coldplay, with the song being anchored around a similar sense of dreamily wistful nostalgia., and a tinge of hope.
Rohrbach explains that the song is “a synth-wave, progressive pop song, where I’m dealing with multiple selves through space and time.
Designed, directed and edited by Maria Rieger, the accompanying video for “Jigsaw,” captures almost everyday scenes in Paris, seemingly full of possibilities.
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Luther Campbell!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Luther Campbell’s 65th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 76th Birthday, Maurice and Robin Gibb!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 76th anniversary of the births of Maurice and Robin Gibb.
New Video: Aure Shares Meditative “L’orage”
Music has always been a vital form of expression for Paris-based Aure, who found her path as a professional musician after a career in architecture. The Paris-based artist specializes in a minimalist, stripped back folk sound inspired by the likes of Sibylle Baier, Jessica Pratt and Nico with multilingual lyrics.
Her debut EP, 2023’s a few notes was released to praise from Télérama, France Inter, RFI, Les inRocks, and more. She supported the album with touring across Europe, opening for Andy Shauf and Tom McRae.
Building upon a growing profile, Aure’s full-length debut, printemps is slated for a March 20, 2026 release through Belgian label MayWay Records. Informed by the poetic minimalism of artists like Atahulpa Yupanqui, Facundo Cabral, Lhasa, Jessica Pratt and Nico, the album sees the French artist drawing from a wide range of musical influences and languages, while allowing them to intertwine as different facets of her own identity. The album’s songs unfold in a visual world informed by the photography of Graciela Iturbidem and Katrien De Blower and Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire.
Thematically, printemps is an album of thresholds, written in that liminal, in-between space where one chapter has just ended and another one is about to begin. And as a result, the album thematically evokes new beginnings, shifting bearings, turbulent crossings towards safer harbors.
printemps‘ third and latest single “L’orange,” which features arrangements by Aure and her collaborator Corentin Oliver is a meditative song built around a gorgeous arrangement of plucked and twinkling guitar and gently padded drumming serving as a lush bed for the Parisian artist’s hauntingly ethereal yet yearning delivery in French and English. Sonically, the track subtly recalls a synthesis of the psych folk of Nick Drake and of contemporaries like French-born, Montréal-based artist Lonny, evoking an impressionistic painting.
“Two people are looking for shelter, and the storm is still close. This song evokes a flight and tries to capture the fleeting moment of a break in the clouds – uncertain how long it will last, yet filled with a particular kind of grace. English and French answer each other throughout, leaving us unsure whether we’re hearing two voices or just one, inviting the other to join in their escape,” the French singer/songwriter explains.
The accompanying visualizer features the French singer/songwriter flying a kite on the beach, split in a way to look like a collage.
Throwback: Happy 85th Birthday, Frank Zappa!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 85th anniversary of Frank Zappa’s birth.
New Audio: Anchorage’s dreamcat Shares Breezy “Heaven”
Anchorage-based indie electro pop duo dreamcat — couple Em Glaves and Colton Ciufo — can trace a portion of their origins back to when they were children: Glaves and Ciufo grew up in the same small town, and for them music has always been their escape.
The Alaskan duo specialize in homemade, heartfelt, positive indie synth pop that draws from M83, Chromeo and others. Last year, the pair gained recognition regionally by playing at two of Alaska’s biggest music festivals — Sundown Festival and Girdwood Forest Fair.
Over the past 12-18 months, the duo have built upon a growing profile across Alaska, with at the release of a handful of standalone singles and their debut EP joie de vivre earlier this year.
Glaves and Ciufro close out 2025 with “Heaven,” a breezy bit of synth pop that seemingly channels BRIJEAN, M83 and Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT while showcasing the duo’s ability to craft a remarkably catchy hook. But underneath the track’s breezy hookiness, the song, as the duo explain is about addiction.
Throwback: Happy 59th Birthday, Chris Robinson!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Chris Robinson’s 59th birthday.
New Audio: Sunset Images Shares Sprawling and Brooding “El Tiempo Oscila y Muere al Incio (Tommy)”
With the release of their debut album, 2021’s Traumatismo Nacional and 2024’s NADA/CERO/INFINITO EP, Sunset Images, led by Mexico City-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind Samuel Osorio has firmly established a layered soundscape of dissonance, cathartic release and emotional depth that draws from krautrock, shoegaze and punk. Thematically Traumatismo Nacional was a scathing indictment on violence, racism and misogyny while NADA/CERO/INFINITO explored loneliness, anger and desperation, laying bare the emotional devastation of modern life.
The project has built a reputation for intense live performances while sharing stages with the likes of Mogwai, Godflesh, Boris, The Raveonettes, Acid Mothers Temple, Gnod, HIDE, RAKTA, Vinnum Sabbathi and more.
Eventually, they caught the attention of Dedstrange Records, who signed the Mexican project and will be releasing their highly anticipated sophomore album Oscilador on January 23, 2026. Reportedly, the album sonically is a reflection of the perpetual cycles that rules our world — birth, decay, chaos and resolution, fueled by the collision of fractured synths, pulsating vocals, primitive drum beats and feedback-drenched guitars. The result is a soundscape that’s hypnotic, disorientating and irresistible.
Oscilador‘s second and latest single “El Tiempo Oscila y Muere Al Incio (Tommy)” is a sprawling motorik dirge with a cinematic quality that’s one-part krautrock, one-part shoegaze, one-part noise featuring a throbbing, distortion pedaled bass line, bursts of swirling feedback-drenched guitar guitars, a relentless backbeat paired with Osorio’s hauntingly spectral vocal. The result is a song that’s intense yet with an almost fanatical attention to precision.
Sonically reminding me a bit of the likes of Yoo Doo Right JJUUJJUU and others, the song as Osorio explains explores “humanity’s self-destruction,” “conjuring visions of a world ravaged by toxic masculinity and patriarchy. This is a song about the abyss that awaits, how we cannot escape the passage of time & how it will ultimately consume us.”
New Audio: Club 8 Returns with Nostalgia-Inducing “Daydreams”
Last year, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — released their 11th album, A Year With Club 8. Since then, the the duo have been busy, releasing a single or so a month over the course of the year, including the previously released “ooo,” “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead,” “Staying Alive,” “Born The Wrong Time,” and “Sneaky Feelings.”
The Swedish JOVM mainstays’ latest single “Daydreams” continues a remarkable run of breezy, hook-driven and nostalgia-inducing material anchored around Komstedt’s ethereal and yearning vocal, expressive and shimmering bursts of guitars and a motorik groove. The song evokes a pleasant reverie — but with the bittersweet realization that it like all things won’t last forever.
Throwback: Happy 84th Birthday, Maurice White!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 84th anniversary of the birth Earth Wind & FIre’s Maurice White.