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

Created by Portland, OR-based Southerly and Sndtrkr frontman and SELF Group founder Krist Krueger as a shoegaze/experimental rock side project, Yardsss has received critical applause with the release of Fama, the first part of a Kurt Vonnegut-inspired trilogy that also featured a companion short film of the same name. Granfalloons is the second part of that trilogy and it features Krueger collaborating with Southerly bandmate Eli Savage and Gardening, Not Architecture‘s Sarah Saturday.

The album’s first single “Granfalloons II” is a slow-burning, introspective and shoegazey track consisting of dirge-inspired power chords, soaring backing vocals, swirling electronic and feedback and anthemic hooks paired with Krueger’s earnest and yearning baritone underneath the arena-filling bombast, the song sounds as though it could be a moody, shoegazer-inspired version of Live‘s “I AloneI Alone” — but with an art school sheen.

 

 

 

 

 

synth rock by William Ruben Helms

Montreal, QC-based psych rock trio Elephant Stone — comprised of Rishi Dihr (lead vocals, sitar, bass), Jean-Gabriel Lambert (drums, backing vocals), and Miles Dupire (drums, backing vocals) — have developed a national profile across their native Canada and Stateside for a vintage psych rock sound reminiscent of The Beatles, The Kinks and severals as the Canadian trio’s earliest material paired elements of Eastern instrumentation — mainly, the sitar — with Western songwriting, arrangements and instrumentation. And rather unsurprisingly, over the past few years the Montreal-based trio have also become a JOVM mainstay artist.

With the 2014 release of Elephant Stone’s third full-length effort, The Three Poisons, the Canadian trio went through a major and rather decided change of songwriting approach and sonic direction in which sitar was pushed back to the background — and when it was employed, it was seemingly used to add additional texture and color. Since then, the Canadian trio have released a batch of singles including “The Devil’s Shelter,” which was released at the end of last year. That single, which featured a guest spot from The Black Angels‘ Alex Maas was yet another example of the trio experimenting with their sound as tense, undulating synths, shimmering sitar and guitar chords and a driving motorik-like rhythm were paired with Dihr’s and Mass’ alternating vocals to create an ominous and murky sound that channeled The Black Angels “Don’t Play With Guns.”

Early last month, the trio released “Where I’m Going” a single that continued the band’s most recent sonic experimentations while suggesting that the band may have been listening to Evil Heat-era Primal Scream — in particular, I think of “Autobahn 66” and “Detroit”  as Dihr’s ethereal cooing is paired with shimmering guitar chords, a tight and propulsive, motorik groove, four-on-the-floor drumming and layers of shimmering and undulating synths in what may arguably be the most dance-floor ready songs that they’ve released to date. “Andromeda,” the band’s latest single sounds like a return to the vintage psych rock sound that first caught the blogosphere’s attention as shimmering guitar chords and a propulsive and driving rhythm are paired with Dihr’s plaintive cooing about the nature of the universe; however, swirling synths and a brief burst of tribal drumming manage to reveal a band that’s relentlessly experimenting and attempting new ways to expand upon their sound while retaining familiar elements.

The band will be on tour throughout March, and it includes an NYC date. Check out the tour dates below.

 

ELEPHANT STONE TOUR DATES
03/10 Toronto ON – Sneaky Dee’s (Tickets)
03/11  Indianapolis IN – Joyful Noise (Tickets)
03/12  Little Rock AR – Vino’s (Tickets)
03/14  Austin TX – SXSW
03/18  Memphis TN – Hi-Tone (Tickets)
03/19  Cincinnati OH – MOTR (Info)
03/20  Brooklyn NY – Baby’s All Right (Tickets)
04/14  Montreal QC – La Sala Rossa (Tickets)
Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Wander Through Hidden and Surreal Los Angeles in La Sera’s New Video for “I Need An Angel”

Initially begun as a solo side project from her time in Vivian Girls and All Saints Day, Katy Goodman’s recording project La Sera has developed a growing national profile through the release of three critically applauded albums — the project’s self-titled […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Detroit-born, Los Angeles-based producer Sam Baker, best known under the moniker Samiyam can trace the moment his musical career truly started in earnest to when he was at a Detroit strip club Platinum, where he encountered a self-described fan of his, who told him that he needed to take his music more seriously. At the time, Baker was among a group of post-J. Dilla Donuts producers, who focused on instrumental work, rather than the traditional emcee/producer collaborations — and he was circulating beat tapes among local crew in Michigan and through zip files to friends on the web. Eventually, many of those Donuts-inspired producers, including Baker began relocating to Los Angeles and were created a scene around the Low End Theory in East Los Angeles.

As a part of East Los Angeles’ burgeoning producer and artist scene, Baker wound up meeting Flying Lotus, who quickly signed Baker to his Brainfeeder Records and then released the Detroit-born producer’s first two albums, 2008’s Rap Beats Vol. 1 (which was coincidentally, Brainfeeder’s first release) and 2011’s Sam Baker’s Album. 2013 was a big year for Baker as he released his third album Wish You Were Here and did production work for Earl Sweatshirt, Captain Murphy (the alter-ego of the aforementioned Flying Lotus) and Pharoahe Monch.

Animals Have Feelings is his Stone Throw Records debut, and as Baker explains in press notes, he considers the effort a creative sequel to Rap Beats Vol. 1. “Animals has roots in beats made around the time of Vol. 1, and the new stuff on the record has some of the same sound.” And as a result the material on the album is mostly instrumental, beat-driven hip-hop mixed with a few rap tracks he did with a few emcees, who are his few yet frequent collaborators — Earl Sweatshirt, Action Bronson, Jeremiah Jae and Oliver the 2nd.

Two singles from the album were recently released –“Mr. Wonderful” a collaboration with Action Bronson, that has Bronson rhyming and crooning over boom-bap beats and flashes of synth in a song that channels Raekwon‘s Only Built 4 Cuban Linx; and “Dartgun,” an instrumental track consisting of layers of buzzing synths, boom bap drum programming which channels the legendary and beloved work of J. Dill and of Dam-Funk — while evoking a singular, funky vision.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Back in 2013, I wrote quite a bit about Anika Henderson, best known under the mononym that she writes, records and performs under, Anika . Initially, Henderson spent her professional career as a political journalist, who split time between Berlin and Bristol, UK. While in Bristol, Henderson was introduced to Geoff Barrow, who’s best known for his work with Portishead. And at the time, Barrow was looking for a vocalist, who would work with his band Beak> for what would be a side project. As the story goes, Henderson and Barrow bonded over a mutual love of punk, dub and 60s girl groups — and about a week later, Barrow, Henderson and the members of Beak>  went into the studio to record what would eventually turn out to be Henderson’s 2010 self-titled full-length debut, completely live with Henderson and the band in the same room without overdubs — and in 12 days.

2013 saw the release of Henderson’s self-titled EP, a collection of covers and remixes that included Henderson’s murky, Portishead and The Velvet Underground and Nico-inspired cover of Chromatics’ “In the City.” And what the self-titled EP revealed is that Henderson, Barrow and company have a way of covering a song with a unique take that makes a song their own — and in the case of Chromatics’ “In The City,” their cover feels as though it was always their song. That’s a rare thing, indeed. Last week, as February was coming to a close, Invada Records, released an icy, lo-tech analog synth electro pop and dub-leaning cover of Nena’s “99 Red Balloons” by the mysterious Invada All Stars featuring Anika on vocals as part of that weekend’s Stop Trident National anti-nukes demonstration in London, a demonstration protesting the renewal of Britain’s nuclear weapons system. Proceeds from the digital single will go to the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND).

Also in that post, I mentioned that Henderson is part of a new project Exploded View — and as it turns out, Exploded View is something of a side project  from her solo work with the members of Beak>. Although the project’s full-length debut is slated for release later on this year through Sacred Bones Records, they will be performing several sets at this year’s SXSW. But before that, the project released their single “No More Parties in the Attic,” that draws from post-krautrock, krautrock, dub and industrial music as the band pairs electronic bloops and bleeps, industrial clang and clatter, buzzing and angular synth and guitar chords with Anika’s signature icy delivery to craft a sound that’s tense and icy  — while evoking the contemporary zeitgeist of trying to navigate in a world that’s gone absolutely mad all the time.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past two or three years or so, you may recall that I wrote about Colchester, UK-based electronic producer and multi-instrumentalist Dominc Gentry. Originally starting his career with his solo writing and recording project Attaque, the British multi-instrumentalist and producer has had a rather interesting career trajectory — he initially wrote and produced hard techno singles released to critically praise through some of the world’s renowned electronic music labels including Kitsune, Boys Noize, Turbo and others. However, with the release of his acclaimed full-length Only You — in particular, album single “Only You” — Gentry’s sound had gone through a decided change of sonic direction with his sound becoming breezily ethereal and atmospheric in a fashion that reminded me quite a bit of Octo Octa’s impressive Between Both Sides. 

Gentry spent the better part of 2015 touring to support Only You — playing Secret Garden Party and London’s renowned club KOKO among countless others; however, after last November’s terrorist attacks in Paris, Gentry felt it was inappropriate to continue with the Attaque moniker and decided it was time for a new direction. And so he starts off 2016 with his latest project Light Falls.

“Prism” the latest single from the British producer pairs shimmering and bubbling cascades of synths with distorted and chopped up vocal samples and stuttering drum programming in a hyper-modern, sleek and sinuous club banger that reminds me quite a bit of the aforementioned Octo Octa’s Between Both Sides and Snap!‘s “Rhythm Is A Dancer,” as the song possesses a swooning Romanticism.

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Last month, I wrote about the NYC-based electro funk/neo-disco production and artist duo Holy Ghost!. And with the release of their 2011 self-titled debut, 2013’s Dynamics through renowned indie dance label DFA Records and their 2015 self-released remix album, Work For Hire, the duo comprised of Alex Frankel and Nicholas Millhiser have seen a growing national and international profile, which has resulted in the duo remixing the work of Katy Perry, LCD Soundsystem, Moby and a lengthy list of others; made national TV appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and The Late Show with David Letterman; toured with the legendary New Order; and played sets at some of this country’s and the world’s biggest festivals including Coachella, Outside Lands, Primavera Sound and Bonnaroo.

April 29, 2016 will mark the release of the Crime Cutz EP through DFA Records, and the EP’s first single and title track “Crime Cutz” further cements the duo’s reputation for crafting slickly produced  retro-futuristic electronic funk as the duo pairs shimmying synths, early 80s hip-hop break beats, undulating and swirling 8 bit electronics and a sinuous bass line paired with ethereal yet sensually cooed vocals and anthemic hooks. Sonically, the song seems to draws so much influence from Herbie Hancock’s “Rockit,” that it sounds as though it could easily back in 1983.

Recently, Eli Escobar remixed “Crime Cutz” and while his remix retains the retro-futuristic feel of the original, as well as its anthemic hooks, Escobar’s remix is much more propulsive and forceful — layers of shimmying and shimmering synths are paired with stuttering and skittering drum programming, a driving motorik groove, 8 bit bloops and bleeps and ethereal yet sensually cooed vocals that pushes the song in the direction of The Man Machine and Radioactivity-era Kraftwerk and classic house music; in other words, it’s an infectious and slickly produced club banger with an expansive groove.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Last month, I wrote about the New York-based dream pop/electro pop duo Paperwhite. And with the release of their 2014 debut EP, Magic,  the duo comprised of siblings Katie and Ben Marshall exploded onto the blogosphere; in fact, the duo earned the title of “Most Blogged Abotu Artist” twice — and that shouldn’t be surprising as their incredibly contemporary sound pairs lush melodies and super anthemic hooks. Building on that buzz that they received a few years ago, the duo’s forthcoming EP Escape is slated for a Spring release, and if you were frequenting last month you might recall that I wrote about the EP’s first single “Unstoppable,” a single that I think will further cement the duo’s reputation for pairing lush melodies and anthemic hooks with Katie Marshall’s ethereal in a way that’s contemporary  as it’s reminiscent of St. Lucia and yet is also reminiscent of radio friendly 80s synth pop.

Escape‘s latest single “On My Own” continues on the same sonic path as “Unstoppable” as the duo pairs Marshall’s plaintive and earnest vocals with layers of propulsive and undulating synths and anthemic hooks in a song that clearly draws from 80s synth pop — but with a breezy and contemporary production sheen that’s reminiscent of St. Lucia, Haerts and several others.