JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates LCD Soundsystem frontman and DFA Records founder James Murphy’s 56th birthday.
Category: dance punk
New Video: debdepan Shares Playful Visual for Cathartic “Ghost”
Margate, UK-based duo debdepan — Chelsea and Grace — officially formed back in 2022, but can trace their origins back to writing sessions during pandemic lockdowns. The duo quickly made a name for themselves through Pie Factory Music’s Emerging Artists Program, which lead to their breakthrough single “Darkest Hour.” “Darkest Hour” gained radio play across the US and Europe, landing on the Deutsche Alternative Charts — and earning the duo a publishing deal with Archangelo Music.
The pair’s debut EP, 2023’s OMEN saw the band firmly establishing dark pop bonafides. The EP’s material received airplay from BBC Introducing, BBC London and BBC 6 Music. Adding to a growing profile across both the UK and European Union, the Margate-based duo has started to make a run of the European festival circuit with standout sets at Portugal’s Westway Lab, Spain’s Pro Weekend and Focus Wales, as well as opening slots for cumgirl8, Miki Berenyi and Pete Doherty. Earlier this year, they opened for The Wants during the New York-based trio’s UK tour. And this month they will be opening for TRAITRS.
The duo’s highly-anticipated sophomore EP Lovers & Others is slated for a November 28, 2025 release through Silent Kid Records. The EP reportedly sees the duo leaner more into dance music-leaning arrangements while still retaining the harder, grunge-inspired roar and bite that have helped them win attention across Europe and elsewhere. And as a result, the rising British duo showcase a refined, genre-blurring sound that’s still emotionally charged — but is also physically irresistible.
Written in the year since the duo relocated to Margate, the EP reportedly sees them balancing introspective vulnerability with a”pretty sad girl but also kind of party” bit of duality — a reflection of the late-night emotional shifts in their town’s nightlife scene paired with long, contemplative costal walks.
Lovers & Others EP will feature the previously released “Habit,” and “The Girl,” and the EP’s final, pre-release single “Ghost.” “Ghost” begins with a mid-tempo bit of melodic pop-inspired post punk and goth that seems to channel Florence and the Machine, before making a rapid left turn to a throbbing bit of Echoes-era The Rapture-like dance punk banger. But at its core, is the hopefulness of a new potential love, followed by the bitter ache of having that hope dashed when they inexplicably ghost. And then, there’s the release of bilious anger of discovering that person is a coward, who couldn’t — or wouldn’t — tell you the truth. “This song had to feel like a journey,” the band explains. “It needed a big fat pop chorus to juxtapose the dark and miserable verses.”
Recorded in Ramsgate, UK with engineer Mike Collins, “Ghost,” is informed by his inspired production choices. “Mike had a wicked idea to layer a bunch of guitars in the middle 8 to really build some tension,” the duo says. The end result is a song that showcases the band’s ability to balance aching vulnerability with explosive catharsis.
The playful, Halloween-inspired video for “Ghost.” was shot by the band across various Margate-based locations and features them dressed as DIY-styled ghosts, complete with goofy errors, including a visible drone controller peeking out beneath one of the duo’s costume.
“I borrowed my dad’s drone to film it, and if you look closely you can spot the controller under the ghost sheet!” they explain. “We wanted something playful with the ghost theme that we could shoot ourselves. Filming around Margate was pretty embarrassing, but at least the costumes meant we couldn’t see most people laughing at us.”
New Audio: Pacifica Shares Club Banging “Indie Boyz”
With the release of their full-length debut, 2023’s Freak Scene and last year’s acoustic Freak Scene: NAK Sessions, Buenos Aires-based duo Pacifica — Inés Adam and Martina Nintzel — quickly became a global sensation, for their unique blend of early 2000s garage rock, post-punk and 90s alt rock, and for their reputation for blistering live shows that channel friendship, chaos and catharsis in equal measure.
The Argentine duo have played sold-out shows across North America, Europe and South America, sharing stages with internationally renowned acts like Franz Ferdinand, St. Vincent, Kim Gordon and Måneskin while amassing over 880,000 followers across social media platforms, and over 25 million streams, plus millions of viral moments on Instagram, YouTube and TikTok.
Pacifica’s recently released sophomore album, In Your Face marks a bold new era for the Buenos Aires-based duo, an era that captures their trademark mix of vulnerability and rebellion with more bite, confidence and self-awareness than ever before, while anchored in lived-in, deeply personal experience.
“In Your Face is an introspective journey that brushes through themes of heartbreak, betrayal, lust, spite, immaturity, and regret — all with a pinch of humor and light-heartedness,” the band explains. “It’s about cause and consequence. Accepting fate and flaws, realizing some things really are the other person’s fault, falling in love and wanting to jump off a building for someone, learning to be patient, and just living through it — Tokyo streets, Maseratis, vibes.”
Album single “Indie Boyz” is thumping, tongue-in-cheek, DFA Records-era dance punk/indie sleaze-inspired banger, anchored around a scuzzy power chords and a Gang of Four-like bass line that sees the duo mocking the shit out of the sort of indie scene fuckbois that they would come across at the club.
The band notes that it’s “not to be taken too seriously — just a description of a week of going out almost every night. No poetry, just vibes.,” They also note that the song is also a nod to a trendy LA club, Tenants of the Trees.
News/Announcements: FME Announces 2025 Venue Showcase Lineups
FME announces the venue showcase lineups for the 2025 edition.
New Audio: LCD Soundsystem and Tom Sharkett Share a Lovingly Club Friendly Edit of “Home”
Back in 2010, LCD Soundsystem released their critically applauded third album This Is Happening, an album that landed on the Best Of lists of countless publications and blogs across the world.
Tom Sharkett is an acclaimed Manchester, UK-based producer, engineer, remixer, songwriter and sound designer, who has released an array of music that has landed on the UK Album Charts while receiving airplay from BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music and KEXP. His work has been featured in publications on both side of the pond, including The Guardian, Stereogum, Loud and Quiet and others. But Sharkett may be best known for being a member of Manchester-based dance punks W.H. Lung and the touring band for Julie Byrne.
Quietly, Sharkett released an edit of This Is Happening album closer “Home,” creating a thumping, deep house-meets –Echoes-era The Rapture/early DFA Records-meets ambient dream pop take on the song — purely out of love for song and for the band. Initially sitting online unnoticed, Sharkett’s edit caught the attention of NTS Radio Breakfast Show DJ Flo Dill, who played the track twice in one show.
Eventually, the Sharkett edit caught the attention of the members of the acclaimed band, worming its way into their hearts. So, they felt there was only one thing they could do — bless it with an official release digitally on all the DSPs and on 12″ vinyl.
New Video: SWOLL Shares a Swaggering Homage to DC’s Puff Pieces
Led by Baltimore-based singer/songwriter and musician Matt Dowling, who is best known for his work playing bass in The Effects, Deleted Scenes, and Paperhaus, SWOLL originally formed as a studio collaboration with BLIGHT. Records founder and producer Ben Schurr.
The project’s 2018 self-titled, full-length debut was released to critical praise while establishing a sound anchored around brooding bass lines, minimalist textures and Dowling’s falsetto. Since then SWOLL has evolved into a full-fledged live band, featuring multi-instrumentalist Erik Sleight (drums) and lighting design by Zak Forrest.
Live , the band creates an immersive live performance that combines atmospheric visuals with a thunderous, genre-defying, synth-driven soundscape while exploring vulnerability and the human condition. Adding to a growing profile, the band has shared stages with Gang of Four, Moderat and JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers.
SWOLL’s third album AVOID ATTACH is slated for a September 26, 2025 release. The album was tacked by Dan Angel and Ben Schurr in Philadelphia, mixed by Alex Tebeleff in Los Angeles and mastered by Sarah Register in Brooklyn. Sonically, AVOID ATTACH reportedly sees the band further cementing a sound that meshes elements of live rock with electronic music and trap beats.
“I wanted to turn the psychological condition of avoidant attachment style into a verb that feels relevant right now,” SWOLL’s Matt Dowling says of AVOID ATTACH‘s thematic concerns. “Avoidant attachment style is perhaps best described by Kevin Barnes’ Of Montreal lyric ‘I need you here, and not here too.’ It’s a particularly modern condition that’s simultaneously psychological and physical. It sort of sounds bad and unhealthy (it is on the clinical edge of a disorder), but things like social media and AI, which are simply wildly popular modern tools, are particularly good places to ‘avoid attach.’ I also think things sort of feel overall bad and unhealthy in the world right now, but that could just be a coincidence, or my own projection.”
AVOID ATTACH‘s lead single “SCAR” features glitchy electronic pulse, skittering boom bap and an angular Gang of Four-like bass line as a dreamy and uneasy bed for Dowling’s punchily urgent delivery. The song manages to be brooding and yet dance floor friendly while anchored around lyrics that offer incisive social critique that eerily captures our weird, deadly, fucked up moment. The song also is a loving homage to the now-defunct Washington, DC-based band Puff Pieces, a descendant project of Antelope, and the social commentary of their 2016 effort, Bland in D.C.
“I directly take lyrics from Puff Pieces in this song,” Dowling says. “The two lyrics, which are also their song titles, are ‘Pointless People’ and ‘Women and Men with Guns.’ I think I went there simply because I felt like I was really echoing Puff Pieces sonically while writing the song. So I figured ‘why not take it all the way and use some Puff Pieces lyrics, provided I can get prior approval?’ (which I did, don’t worry!). I wrote the song probably two years ago, and now that it’s coming out, I’m like ‘whoa, this is timely.’ Puff Pieces were astoundingly accurate at predicting the future while writing songs from 2013-2016. The current time is simply a labored continuation of what they were concerned about while creating those songs. So ‘Scar’ is basically an homage to Puff Pieces’ astute ability to cut right to the center of it all with simple, dancey punk rock music.”
The accompanying video for “Scar” follows the band’s Dowling on a glitchy and fuzzy, analog, security footage-styled late night walk and studio footage — with a world-beating swagger.
New Audio: Creange Shares a Neurotic, Club Friendly Bop
Creange is a an intentionally recognized Paris-based DJ and producer, who has developed a reputation for creating high energy, positive and downright fun songs. And as a result, the French DJ and producer has spent the past decade or so, playing some of Europe’s renowned clubs, including Ibiza‘s Pacha, London‘s Ministry of Sound and Amsterdam‘s Escape. He has also been a resident DJ at one of Paris’ most beloved and groundbreaking clubs, Chez Raspoutine for eight years.
Adding to a growing profile in the electronic music scene, Black Coffee, Whomadewho, Faithless, Joris Delacroix, Jamie Jones, Âme, Gorgon City and a list of others have spun his work in their sets.
The Parisian producer and DJ’s latest single “Mad” is an LCD Soundsystem-like bop featuring an angular, post-punk-meets-disco-influenced bass line, angular and squiggling bursts of guitar, oscillating synths, cowbell punctuated four-on-the-floor serving as an nervous yet dance floor friendly bed for a neurotic James Murphy and David Byrne-inspired sing-songy delivery.
While showcasing a producer with an uncanny knack for incredibly catchy hooks, “Mad” captures the zeitgeist of our moment: Everything has been upended. Left is right. Right is left. War is peace. Fascism and economic ruin is everywhere. It’s a mad, mad, and world — and it’s on fire. Might as well have fun and dance until the flames engulf everything we care about . . .
New Audio: Choses Sauvages Shares Groovy “Cours toujours”
With the release of their Emmanuel Ethier-produced 2018 self-titled, full-length debut, Montréal-based dance punks Choses Sauvages — Totalement Sublime‘s Marc-Antoine Barbier (guitar), Theirry Malépart (keys), Tony Bélisle (keys), Philippe Gauthier-Boudreau (drums) and La Sécurité‘s Félix Bélisle (vocals) with Foreign Diplomats‘ and Frais Dispo‘s Charles Primeau (bass) as a touring member — exploded into the local and provincial scenes. The album was a critical and commercial success with the album topping Independent Radio Charts across Québec while receiving widespread critical applause. In 2019, the Montréal-based outfit landed Association Québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) Félix Award nominations for Alternative Album of the Year and Indie Rock Album of the year, with a Félix Award win for Indie Rock Album of the Year.
Throughout 2019, the French Canadian outfit supported their full-length debut with a relentless touring schedule across the province. During that tour, the band quickly developed a reputation for a must-see live show that they brought across the global festival circuit, including stops at Reeperbahn, MaMA, FIMPRO, SXSW, Le Printemps de Bourges and Wide Days.
2021’s Choses Sauvages II found the Montréal-based outfit pushing their sound more towards electronic dance music and nu-disco influences like L’Imperatrice and Lindstrøm while still drawing from their love of funk, Bowie and Bee Gees. The album also sees them furthering their approach which pairs rigorous and meticulous songwriting with a rebellious spirit.
Choses Sauvages’ highly-anticipated third album, Choses Sauvages III is slated for a March 28, 2025 release through Audiogram. In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of the album’s singles late last year:
- “Incendie au paradis,” a decidedly New Wave/post-punk song that seemingly drew from Heroes and Low-era Bowie and Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan that depicts artificial intelligence as angels that can transform and improve our daily lives. But while addressing the technological advance’s promises and benefits, it raises serious and sobering concerns on its impact on all of us. “I wanted to highlight the need to think about the ethical and moral implications and the still unknown limits of these new technologies, and the influence they have on our lives,” Choses Sauvages’ Félix Bélisle explains.
- “En joue,” which saw the band seemingly drawing from Freedom of Choice-era DEVO, Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, Entertainment-era Gang of Four and even La Femme to create a song that was simultaneously tense yet danceable. The song as the band’s Bélisle explains “refers to the helplessness in the face of extremely violent international news of recent years. It also deals with the fear of the other, the dehumanization of certain populations taken hostage in armed conflicts.”
Choses Sauvages III’s third and final pre-release single “Cours toujours” is anchored around a dreamily narcotized yet driving groove, twinkling keys and slashing, post punk-like guitars, which serve as a lush bed for Félix Bèlisle’s ethereal cooing. Bélisle explains that “Cours toojours is a song that discusses the impossibility of escaping oneself, of the need to face the anxieties that inhabit us. The song is “a New Wave-flavored piece about personal questioning. As if we identified a problem at the centre of our being without being able to explain it,” he says.
Throwback: Happy 55th Birthday, James Murphy!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy’s 55th birthday.
New Audio: Choses Sauvages Share Post Punk-LIke “Incendie au paradis”
With the release of their Emmanuel Ethier-produced 2018 self-titled, full-length debut, Montréal-based dance punks Choses Sauvages — Totalement Sublime‘s Marc-Antoine Barbier (guitar), Theirry Malépart (keys), Tony Bélisle (keys), Philippe Gauthier-Boudreau (drums) and La Sécurité‘s Félix Bélisle (vocals) with Foreign Diplomats‘ and Frais Dispo‘s Charles Primeau (bass) as a touring member — exploded into the local and provincial scenes. The album was a critical and commercial success with the album topping Independent Radio Charts across Québec while receiving widespread critical applause. In 2019, the Montréal-based outfit landed Association Québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) Félix Award nominations for Alternative Album of the Year and Indie Rock Album of the year, with a Félix Award win for Indie Rock Album of the Year.
Over the course of 2019, the French Canadian outfit supported their full-length debut with a relentless touring schedule across the province. And through this tour, the band quickly developed a reputation for a must-see live show that they’ve since brought across the global festival circuit, including stops at Reeperbahn, MaMA, FIMPRO, SXSW, Le Printemps de Bourges and Wide Days.
2021’s Choses Sauvages II saw the French Canadian outfit boldly pushing their sound more towards electronic dance music and nu-disco influences like L’Imperatrice and Lindstrøm while still drawing from their love of funk, Bowie and Bee Gees. They also managed to further establish their approach with pairs rigorous and meticulous songwriting with a rebellious spirit.
The Montréal-based outfit’s highly-anticipated third album, Choses Sauvages III is slated for a Spring 2025 release through Audiogram. The album’s first official single “Incendie au paradis” is a decidedly New Wave/post punk song anchored around a propulsive bass line, a guitar-driven melody paired with squiggling synth arpeggios and a subtly vocodored vocal harmony. Seemingly drawing from Heroes and Low-era Bowie and Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, “Incendie au paradis” depicts artificial intelligence as angels that can transform and improve our daily lives. But while addressing the technology advance’s promises and benefits, it raises concerns with an uneasy trepidation.
“I wanted to highlight the need to think about the ethical and moral implications and the still unknown limits of these new technologies, and the influence they have on our lives,” Choses Sauvages’ Félix Bélisle explains.
New Video: Bear Hands Shares Comically Menacing and Catchy “Adderall/Ambien”
Brooklyn-based dance punks Bear Hands — Dylan Rau (vocals, guitar), Val Loper (bass) and TJ Orscher (drums) — formed back in 2006. They gained early attention with 2010’s “What a Drag,” which led to the trio signing with Cantora Records, who released their full-length debut, that year’s Burning Bush Supper Club. 2014’s sophomore effort Distraction was a critical and commercial success with the album reaching #23 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers chart. The trio followed up with 2016’s You’ll Pay For This and 2019’s Fake Tunes.
The band’s Dylan Rau relocated to a tiny town on the Oregon coast in 2019, where he made an attempt to step back from music, spending his time “chopping some wood and learning how to use power tools.” For Rau, those activities proved to be passing fancies, the adopted passions of a five-year role playing game as a different person. “I don’t really know how to stop writing songs,” Bear Hands’ Rau says. “Even if no one is listening or we have no team or infrastructure supporting us, I like to think we’d be like those graffiti artists who paint in the subway tunnels where no one will ever see it.”
New songs were shaped was shaped remotely over the following few years between band members on opposite coasts.
Along with producer, collaborator and touring guitarist Alex Marans, the band reconvened in Cherry Hill, NJ for in-person recording sessions fueled by generic pharmaceuticals and a persistent fear of irrelevance. Marans wrote some guitar leads and also prepared elaborate breakfast scrambles on most mornings. Finishing touches were put on by co-producers Elliot Kozel and Caleb Wright.
“The record is mostly about trying to keep it together when it’s already fallen apart, learning skills that no longer have any applications today and true and total pointlessness,” the Bear Hands frontman explains. “Kinda like singing into the void to see if we hear anything back, but your headphones no longer connect because the void updated its hardware and doesn’t have an aux jack anymore.”
“This album was a heavy ass lift and took forever to get done,” Rau adds. “Some of the songs are five years old and have changed a lot since inception. Being the only person on the West Coast meant we had to work through email or have intensive face-to-face sessions when I would go to Philly for a week or whatever. That kind of time sensitivity can make things kind of volatile emotionally.
“If you just get a little something done on most days, you’ll eventually reach the finish line. Maybe,” he adds. “Or at least we did.”
Slated for an October 18, 2024 release through the band’s long-term label home Cantora Records, The Key To What will feature the previously released “Intrusive Thoughts,” a track that features glistening synth stabs, a sinuous bass line and percussive, skittering, twitter and woofer rattling thump paired with stream-of-consciousness-like lyrics that capture the irritation, confusion, self-doubt, self-flagellation and doubt of intrusive thoughts with an uncannily precise psychological detail.
“’Intrusive Thoughts’ is the song that’s playing in my head all day and I can’t get it out,” Rau explains. “Not that I really want to. Well sometimes I do when I’m trying to do basic math or pick a restaurant to eat at with my girlfriend. I think I wrote it about being bored of everything and feeling dissatisfied with everyone and everything around me. Not that I’m super misanthropic in general but this song might make you that way if you get it stuck in your head so watch out.”
“Adderall/Ambien,” The Key To What‘s latest single is a mind-bending electro slog featuring woozy and glistening synth arpeggios, swirling and ambient synths, skittering and plinking beats, a Gorillaz-like acoustic guitar-driven bridge paired with Rau’s dreamily distracted falsetto delivery and a pitched down vocal for the song’s ridiculously catchy hook and chorus. The effect is a song that feels like a pleasant trip that has suddenly taken a comically menacing left turn. Drugs are good — until they’re bad, y’all. And sometimes, the bad can be interesting. “This song chronicles a personal history with drugs and includes a discussion of which ones will ruin your life and which ones will make life worth living,” Rau explains. He further notes, “Your mileage may vary!”
Directed by Rau, along with old friend and acclaimed photographer Christopher Saunders and producer Ursula Strauss, the accompanying video for “Adderall/Ambien” was conceived as a more malevolent sequent of their video for 2014’s “Agora.” The video follows the band’s Rau, seemingly alternating between both opped up and listlessly tuned out, doom-scrolling, watching TV. Rau says “the visuals for ‘Adderall / Ambien’ paint a portrait of life in the grip of addiction and isolation whilst also having a pretty good time.”
New Video: Bear Hands Shares Eurodance-like “Intrusive Thoughts”
Brooklyn-based dance punks Bear Hands — Dylan Tau (vocals, guitar), Val Loper (bass) and TJ Orscher (drums) — formed back in 2006. They gained early attention with 2010’s “What a Drag,” which led to the trio signing with Cantora Records, who released their full-length debut, that year’s Burning Bush Supper Club. 2014’s sophomore effort Distraction was a critical and commercial success with the album reaching #23 on Billboard‘s Heatseekers chart. The trio followed up with 2016’s You’ll Pay For This and 2019’s Fake Tunes.
The trio is making a highly anticipated return with the first bit of new music in over five years with their newest single “Intrusive Thoughts.” The track was recorded at a small Cherry Hill, NJ-based home studio and was co-produced by Elliott Kozel, Alex M and the band. Anchored around glistening synth stabs, a sinuous bass line and percussive and skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling thump paired with seemingly stream-of-consciousness lyrics, which accurately capture the irritation, confusion, self-doubt, self-flagellation and denial that intrusive thoughts so frequently create.
“’Intrusive Thoughts’ is the song that’s playing in my head all day and I can’t get it out,” Bear Hands’ Dylan Rau explains. “Not that I really want to. Well sometimes I do when I’m trying to do basic math or pick a restaurant to eat at with my girlfriend. I think I wrote it about being bored of everything and feeling dissatisfied with everyone and everything around me. Not that I’m super misanthropic in general but this song might make you that way if you get it stuck in your head so watch out.”
Directed by Orson Oblowtiz and edited by Alex Russek, the accompanying video for “Intrusive Thoughts” follows a megalomanic motivational speaker/drummer, who does a chintzy anti-drug stage show that also includes McGruff the Crime Dog. It’s the sort of show and message that its intended audience would probably derisively roll their eyes at while watching.
“The video was deeply influenced by a motivational speaker/drummer who toured all the elementary schools in my home state with a massive 30+ piece drum kit and chintzy light show,” Rau explains. “He loved drums, hated drugs, and was easily identified as a crazed megalomaniac by at least one naive fifth grader (me). I think I remember him saying he could be touring with Bowie if he wanted but that it was more important to educate the youth. Ha!”
