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#
Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: thistle. Shares a Breakneck, Grungy Ripper

Rising British indie rock outfit thistle. — Cameron Godfrey (vocals, guitar), Carey Judwynn Rushton (bass, backing vocals) and Lewis O’Grady (drums) released there debut EP, it’s nice to see you, stranger earlier back in July. The EP, which explores themes of isolation, the trials and tribulations of adulthood and ennui was released to praise on both sides of the Atlantic, including Stereogum, Dork Magazine, Clash Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, Rolling Stone UK and So Young — and received airplay from BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and Radio X personalties Steve Lamacq, Deb Grant and Nathan Shepherd.

The band has played stages across the UK and Europe alongside Westside Cowboy, Upchuck, Witch Post, Cryogeyser and Man/Woman/Chainsaw and are currently opening for Humour on their UK headlining tour. The British trio will be announcing 2026 tour dates and festival appearances shortly. But in the meantime, building upon a growing profile, thistle. recently signed to REX RECS, who released their latest single, “tied,” which sees them collaborating with REX RECS founder, producer, songwriter and musician Macks Faulkron.

Clocking in at a little over 90 seconds, “tied” is able to blistering and breakneck grungy ripper that simultaneously channels 120 Minutes MTV-era grunge/alt-rock and emo, as well as contemporaries like Glimmer and others. The song evokes the uneasy push-and-pull of balancing the grind of 9-5 life, and creative ambitions — especially when they seem wildly incompatible.

“’tied’ is a tribute to the emotional hardcore bands that we grew up on. The lyrics explore the relentless grind of 9-5 work,” the band explains. “It flips between optimism and a feeling of defeat… something we’re always looking for in our music.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Allegories Share Dreamy and Uneasy “Mid Century Nothing”

Since the release of 2022’s Endless, the Canadian experimental pop duo and JOVM mainstays  Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — have released a growing collection of standalone singles. 

Earlier this year, the duo shared “DREAMCRUSHER” “Stay Out Of The Basement,” and “Baker’s Lung,” the first three of a series of singles that originally started out a bare-bonded ukulele sketches, which gradually transformed into idiosyncratic electronic sound sculptures.

The Canadian duo’s latest single “Mid Century Nothing” is a spacey and subtly uneasy fusion of shoegaze, electronic rock and electro pop that’s arguably the most band-orientated release from the duo in some time, while also capturing the tension between introspection and assertion. And as a result, the song possesses a quiet, unguarded defiance.

“It came from our ukulele songs and slowly turned into one of our weirdo electronic tracks,” the duo shares. “We were about 85 percent of the way through arranging it when we decided to perform it at a winter festival. We don’t play live very often – we’ve only done it twice in the last 10 years. Something about rehearsing and being on stage changes the way we approach the music. This song became more defiant, touched on what’s happening in the world, and ended up way more assertive and confrontational than anything we made in the studio.”

“It reminded us that we actually come from jamming things out in a rehearsal space,” they add. “Maybe we should spend more time in that mode. Either way, we could probably play live more than twice a decade.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Augu Returns with Melodic and Club Friendly “Industrial”

Augu is a mysterious and emerging Lithuanian electronic music producer, who caught my attention with singles like “Foreigner,” “Line“ and “Silence.”

The Lithuanian artist’s latest single, the aptly named “Industrial,” is an industrial electronic banger that subtly channels Ministry and Blanck Mass, complete with the prerequisite thump, and clang and clatter — but with a melodic sensibility.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lucid Express Shares Woozy “Something Blue”

Hong Kong-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Lucid Express will be releasing their long-awaited and highly-anticipated sophomore album Instant Comfort on February 20, 2026 through Kanine Records.

Mixed by Kurt Feldman during marathon overnight, transpacific sessions on Discord, Instant Comfort reportedly captures the unsettling stillness of the nighttime hours. The album’s material sonically sees the Hong Kong-based outfit pairing ethereal melodies with towering walls of jangling guitars and hazy, swirling feedback while being more clear-eyed, complex and layered than anything they’ve released to date.

Instant Comfort‘s first single “Something Blue” is anchored around a classic grunge and shoegaze song structure — shimmering and dreamily meditative soundscape-driven verses and stormy walls of churning and fuzzy power chords for the song’s enormous hooks and choruses. The song’s woozy and uneasy nature, helps to further emphasize the band’s Kim Ho’s ethereal delivery exploring the sense of creeping dead and melancholy that comes from uncertain relationships/situationships.

The accompanying video for “Something Blue” features the band in front of projections of footage submitted by fans and friends from across the globe.

Now, as you may know, since the release of 2021’s self-titled full-length debut, the band has amassed praise from fans and critics across the globe, toured internationally and made a run of the international festival circuit with stops at Slide Away and LEVITATION. They will return to North America next year for a sting of Stateside dates, including a return to play New Colossus Festival in March. More details on that to come.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 63rd Birthday, Kirk Hammett!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Metallica guitarist Kirt Hammett’s 63rd birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 97th Birthday, Sheila Jordan!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 97th anniversary of the birth of Sheila Jordan.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 58th Birthday, Ronnie DeVoe!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Ronnie Devoe’s 58th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 59th Birthday, Jeff Buckley!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 59th anniversary of Jeff Buckley’s birth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: DJ Rukhlove Shares Mind-Bending “Echoes of the Cosmic Tuaregs”

DJ Rukhlove is a mysterious and emerging Spanish electronic music artist and producer, who has been busily and prolifically releasing material over the course of the past year or so.

Earlier this year, the Spanish producer released the LutchamaK and Kraftwerk-like “Zara To Astra.”  His latest single “Echoes of the Cosmic Tuaregs,” is a slickly produced, mind-bending mesh of progressive house featuring glistening and arpeggiated synths and driving groove with live instrumentation, including guitar, violin and duduk. The result is something that’s accessible and club friendly yet evokes something timeless, like a desert caravan traveling under the stars — to a rave.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Magic Fig Shares Ethereal Fever Dream “Goblin”

San Francisco psych pop supergroup Magic Fig — Inna Showalter (vocals, mellotron), Jon Chaney (keys), Muzzy Moskowtiz (guitar), Matthew Ferrara (bass) and Taylor Giffin (drums) — features members of The Umbrellas, Healing Potpourri, Almond Joy, Whitney’s Playland and Blades of Joy.

The quintet’s full-length debut, Valerian Tea is slated for a Friday release through Exploding In Sound Records. The album reportedly feels like a deep-dive down the rabbit hole into a bold, new world that feels much more vivid and flamboyant. Valerian Tea‘s material touches upon themes of memory, myth and melancholy while seeing the quintet quickly establishing a swirling mass of exploratory songwriting built around arrangements featuring piano, synths, glockenspiel, organ, 12-string acoustic and electric guitar.

Already the album has earned praise from NPR’s Into Music, Tour Stories with Joe Plummer Podcast, AudioFuzz, Post-Trash, Punknews.org, New Commute and others.

Valerian Tea‘s final pre-release single “Goblin” is anchored around a gorgeous and ethereal, krautrock-meets-prog rock fever dream of an arrangement of twinkling piano and shimmering guitars that morphs into psilocybin-fueled Dark Side of the Moon-like psych rock territory for the song’s second half or so.

Magic Fig’s Inna Showalter describes the new single as being “about the fickleness of inspiration.” She continues, “It’s also a song about wearing disguises and not being authentic, which causes harm in the long run. The desire to be accepted and ‘good’ cannot always coexist with following your heart.”

The accompanying video by Playland Studio‘s Elyse Shrock encapsulates the song’s themes but with Monty Python and Yellow Submarine-styled animated visuals.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Silk Daisys Share Swooning “honeymilk”

Atlanta-based dream pop/post-punk duo Silk Daisys — James Abercrombie and romantic partner Karla Jean Davis — have been making music together for some time, but their Silk Daisys and Damon Moon co-produced debut will be their first, official release. Interestingly, the Silk Daisys name has been around even further, with Abercrombie using the name on Soundcloud for about a decade to upload random covers and the occasional original song. 

“We recorded our album over two weeks with Damon Moon (Bathe Alone, Sleepers Club) at this studio Standard Electric Recorders in Atlanta. Damon was awesome to work with,” the duo says. “We spent a ton of time just talking about music the three of us love and sharing songs back and forth. We’d name some obscure part of a song as a reference and he’d get it immediately, and dial in the tones perfectly. Damon also played drums and percussion on the album. The three of us produced it together, and it was all really collaborative and fun.”` 

The Atlanta-based duo’s full-length debut is slated for a December 5, 2025 release and will feature the previously released Halloween-themed “Haunted House,” a track that seemingly channels Pygmalion and Souvlaki-era Slowdive, and the album’s final pre-release single “honeymilk.”

One-part early 90s shoegaze fuzz, one-part 60s bubble gum pop, complete with boy-girl harmonies, “honeymilk” is simultaneously a contented sigh, full of the recognition of your dearest, beloved one is right by your side, and the fluttering swoon of being madly, obsessively in love.

“This one is about pure infatuation. That feeling when you’re awake but the love of your life is asleep beside you, and you’re in disbelief that you get to be next to this beautiful person,” the Atlanta-based duo explain. “Musically, this one has so many influences, and influences that were influenced by other influences, that it’s almost cannibalistic to talk about it, but I’ll try. I tried to think of this one as if we were a band in the ‘90s covering a ‘60s song. Equal parts shimmer and fuzz. I wanted it to have a doo-wop vibe, almost like ‘I Only Have Eyes For You’ by the Flamingos, but also the album version of ‘Crimson and Clover’ by Tommy James and The Shondells is one my favorite tunes of all time, so I wanted to give it this super fuzzed out solo. Damon put a lot of Space Echo on it, which helped give it even more ‘60s vibe.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Les Arca Shares Yearning “Passenger”

Les Arca is a Saudi-born producer, singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, who creates music with a global, cinematic lens. He describes his sound as blending alternative pop with atmospheric textures, while drawing inspiration from nostalgia, longing and internal conflict to shape someting that’s emotional, deeply visual and feels universal.

The Saudi-based artist’s debut single “Passenger” is a widescreen, nostalgia-inducing track featuring glistening and dreamy synths, swirling shoegazer-like textures serving as lush bed for Les Arca’s yearning, achingly sensitive delivery while showcasing his ability to craft enormous, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. “Passenger” evokes a sense of motion, the sort of restless, heartbroken and drifting energy of driving or riding through a city at night with your own thoughts, and no obvious destination.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Night Teacher Shares Lived-In “Past Life”

Singer/songwriter and musician Lilly Bechtel is the creative mastermind behind the indie project Night Teacher, a project that derives its name from Bechtel’s day job — she has worked asa trauma-informed yoga instructor for the past 15 years — and perhaps more poignantly, to the nature of the lesson. As Bechtel says, “Pain can be a teacher. It can have some really important things to tell you — if you’re willing to listen.”

Along with producer and collaborator Matt Wyatt, Bechtel’s Night Teacher work feel like notes slipped under the door or knowing winks across a table, little hints and nods of solitary that acknowledge struggle without demanding explanation or solution. “Healing doesn’t have to be linear,” says Bechtel. “It’s usually not.” Sonically, Bechtel and Wyatt craft a gritty, propulsive and often off-kilter sonic world that has drawn comparisons to Margaret Glaspy, Thom Yorke and Cate Le Bon among others, which can be heart on Bechtel’s 2020 Night Teacher self-titled debut.

Bechtel’s sophomore Night Teacher, the recently released Year of the Snake refers to the Chinese Zodiac and to this year, which according to the Chinese Zodiac is The Year of the Snake — a time for transformation. The album’s material was written during a period of profound personal hardship, including family challenges, a bitter breakup, and a relapse after 12 years of sobriety, all intensified by the isolation of the COVID-19 pandemic. “I kept asking myself, ‘Can I survive this?’” Bechtel says.

Year of the Snake‘s second and latest single “Past Life” is a gritty and lived-in fever dream of lingering heartache, regret, failure and old ghosts haunting its narrator — and in turn, listener — in the present. And if you have lived a full and messy life, as I have, the song should feel familiar, expressing thoughts, feelings and observations that you’ve felt and seen, but haven’t been able to put in words. At its core, is a deeply humanistic tale of stubborn survival, hope, and of the recognition that recovery and healing are often a slow, uneasy, painful and necessary process.

Directed by Cat Rider, Zap McConnell and Lilly Bechtel, the accompanying video for “Past Life” is a surreal fever dream of doppelgängers, being watched and watching, of past, present and future constantly and uncomfortably colliding.