Category: Electro Pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Us and I Share Shimmering and Melancholy “Crushed”

Formed back in 2018 in  Bangalore and currently based in Düsseldorf, the emerging synth pop duo Us and I — Bidisha Kesh (vocals) and Guarav Govilkar (production) — features members who come from very different backgrounds and who bonded over having similar musical sensibilities: When the pair started to work together, they quickly realized that they shared a unique way of crafting songs with deeply personal lyrics paired with the melancholia of the orange and yellow colors leaking from their synthesizers.

The duo then spent the next two years developing and honing a sound they felt acted as a bridge between the synth-driven work of Chromatics and the slow-burning, dream pop of Beach House — with subtle nods to darkwave and post-punk. Thematically, the duo’s material generally draws from everyday life and the relationships around them. 

The duo’s debut EP, 2021’s Loveless thematically focused on a deeply universal subject, love — in particular, a past love, and how the nostalgia and grief of that past love can hit us like a wave hitting the shore. Since the release of Loveless EP, the duo relocated to Düsseldorf — for work and for potentially better opportunities for their music.

Their latest single, the bittersweet and hook-driven “Crushed” features Kesh’s achingly expressive delivery ethereally floating over shimmering synth arpeggios and stomping beats. Interestingly, “Crushed” strikes me as a subtle refinement of their sound that still sees them channeling Beach House and Still Corners — but with a decidedly 80s tinge.

“‘Crushed’ thrusts you in a crystal capsule where the lull of a bittersweet spell and the deluge of impeccable love caresses your every bone,” the Düsseldorf-based duo say. “And yet when the virulent pain of this beautiful guise emerges again, you seek to escape this perfect dream, lest you’re crushed to death.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe Shares Dance Floor-Friendly “Somebody New”

Tunde Adebimpe, the frontman of the critically acclaimed Brooklyn-based band TV On The Radio will be releasing his long-awaited, highly-anticipated solo debut Thee Black Boltz Friday (!) through Sub Pop Records.

The Adebimpe and Wilder Zoby co-produced album features additional production and contributions from TV On The Radio’s Jaleel Bunton and Japhet Landis and more. The album’s material will not only showcase Adebimpe imitable voice and visionary soundscapes, but is a nod to his propensity to write and sing about the human condition — in all its form, under all its stressor, both big and small. 

Thee Black Boltz isn’t a TV On The Radio album. But for Adebimpe, in a lot of ways, the excitement of doing something on his own for the first time ignited a similar creative spark as during the early TVOTR days. The songwriting process is the same, he says, but with his bandmates, Adebimpe always knew that have didn’t have to complete his musical ideas. “I’ve been doing this thing with this group of people for so long, that I can just have a vague sketch of a concept and I know Jaleel or Kyp will have five brilliant ideas on where it can go,” he says. “But for Thee Black Boltz, I didn’t have that scaffolding to hang on. That was both terrifying and exhilarating.”

The album’s title is Adebimpe’s response to the macro unease of a post-pandemic world careening towards violent authoritarianism and the immense grief that has come from deeply personal losses, specifically the sudden passing of his younger sister while making it. In many ways, Thee Black Boltz is the TVOTR frontman’s desperate grasping of small moments of joy amidst the dissonance, chaos and sadness in any way he could. And understandably, the album was a way of processing everything in his life. “It was my way of building a rock or a platform for myself in the middle of this fucking ocean,” he says. 

As he writes in his notebook, “The sparks of inspiration/motivation / hope that flash up in the midst of (and sometimes as a result of) deep grief, depression or despair. Sort of like electrons building up in storm clouds clashing until they fire off lightning and illuminate a way out, if only for a second.”

“Also,” he adds. “it’s a good name for a cool metal band, and I think that most people would describe me as akin to a very cool metal band.” 

Earlier this year, I wrote about the Jahpet Landis-produced “Drop,” a meditative and deeply introspective song featuring looped beatboxing, shimmering and strummed bursts of guitar, whistling and skittering beats serving as a dreamy and subtly uneasy bed for Adebimpe’s plaintive delivery questioning the purpose of it all, when things seem so brutally nonsensical.

Thee Black Boltz‘s fourth and latest single “Somebody New” is a dance floor friendly synth-driven bop that recalls 80s synth pop — i.e., Nu Shooz “I Can’t Wait,” Depeche Mode‘s “I Can’t Get Enough,” Yaz‘s “Situation” and the like — but while rooted in modern thematic concerns.

The Adebimpe-directed video for “Somebody New” is a feverishly trippy and surreal bit of time travel back to the days of Soul Train and American Bandstand as we see the TVOR frontman performing the song in a crowded room of beautiful young people dancing — and a glammed out Gritty-styled puppet.

“I’m positive I fell asleep on a couch with the TV on sometime in 1982 and fever dreamt this exact thing,” Adebimpe says of the new video.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 52nd Birthday, Pharrell Williams!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pharrell Williams’ 52nd birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: L’Eclair Teams Up With Phoebe Coco and A Ghost Column on Dance Floor Friendly “ODESSOS”

With recorded output that includes 2018’s full-length debut, Polymood, 2019’s Sauropoda, 2020’s Noshtta EP and 2021’s Confusions, the acclaimed Swiss-based group L’Eclair, founded and led by Bulgarian-born siblings Stef and Yavov Lilov established themselves as masters of a mind-bending, spacey grooves. Along with two live sessions for KEXP, which amassed over 900,000 views combined, the Swiss-based group have built up an international following, while landing on the playlists of adventurous listeners and DJs seeking deep grooves,.

L’Eclair’s fourth album Cloud Drifter is slated for a June 20, 2025 release through Innovative Leisure. Meticulously crafted over the last four years, Cloud Drifter makes a decided departure from the group’s signature instrumental music, with the album’s material featuring vocal contributions from a wide array of frequent collaborators they’ve worked with over the past few years, including Pink Slifu, Girl Named GOLDEN, Gelli Haha, A Ghost Column, and more. Having toured with The Cinematic Orchestra and W.I.T.CH. — including writing and recording W.I.T.C.H.’s 2023 effort Zango and The Cinematic Orchestra’s forthcoming album this year, and production work with Varnish La Piscine and Maston, the Lilov brothers have assembled a vast network of likeminded musicians. And across the entire album, they keenly curate a cohesive vision incorporating many disparate contributions.

Cloud Drifter‘s first single, “ODESSOS,” features Phoebe Coco‘s and A Ghost Column’s ethereal vocals paired with twinkling and oscillating synths and a dub-inspired motorik groove. Arguably one of the most club friendly songs the Swiss outfit has ever released, the new single is a bold, sonic left turn that retains their long-held penchant for crafting mind-bending grooves. And unlike their previously released material, “ODESSOS” manages to convey the freewheeling, improvisation-driven and infectious energy of their live shows.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 39th Birthday, Lady Gaga!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Lady Gaga’s 39th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Total Fucking Darkness Shares a Sardonic and Uneasy Banger

Besides being an awesome band name, Total Fucking Darkness features: 

Earlier this year, the trio shared “Desolation Boys,” a slick yet chaotic synthesis of Tweekend-era Crystal Method and Come With Us-era Chemical Brothers-like big beat, LCD Soundsystem and deep house with glistening synth arpeggios delivered with a nihilistic, tongue-in-cheek absurdity.

Created in the final hours of a manic, 72-hour writing spree with McFall flying in from London, “Desolation Boys” encapsulates the band’s volatile energy. The song is anchored around spontaneous, stream-of-consciousness-like lyrics and a raw vocal take where Campbell can be faintly heard yelling “go fuck yourself,” mid-chorus. Who is he yelling at? Himself, perhaps? 

The song reflects the band’s ongoing exploration of themes like the futility of existence, the exciting pointlessness of class war and the rejection of everything that doesn’t BANG. 

The trio returns with “Take It Easy,” a relentlessly pulsing and unsettling track that pairs propulsive dance floor friendly energy with a tongue-in-cheek and irreverent sense of despair. The song finds the trio daring listeners to embrace the void rather than resist it; to readily acknowledge that the world and everything you know is on fire and there may be little you can do about it. As the old saying goes “Might as well laugh, ’cause it hurts too much to cry.”

The irony of the song’s title isn’t an accident. The song is anchored around a platitudinous phrase used as a bitingly sardonic weapon in an our hellish, at times, Kafka-esque moment.

Written in real-time, “Take It Easy” was born from pure instinct. The trio’s Torquil Campbell wrote the lyrics while listening to the track for the first time, which baffles his bandmates Stephen Ramsey and Tom McFall. And there are sheep. Yeah, sheep.

“There are sheep involved in the track. It’s not the first song I’ve heard with sheep in it this year,” Total Fucking Darkness’ Ramsey says. “If you think about it, songs with sheep in them are an incredibly good sign, because there’s never been a bad song that mentions, or actually features sheep. Think about it.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Martin Oh Shares Breezy and Euphoric “Neverland”

Martin Oh is a rising singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who recently released his SOHN co-produced debut EP Better Place. The EP is features shimming, euphoric electro pop that specifically designed to get you dancing — and to set hearts on fire.

Better Place EP’s latest single “Neverland” is a slickly produced breezy bop that recalls a mix of 80s pop, St. Lucia and Rush Midnight, anchored around earnest lyricism and the rising artist’s knack for remarkably catchy hooks. Simply put, it’s a much-needed reminder of joy and fun in our dark, uncertain times.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 57th Birthday, Damon Albarn!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Damon Albarn’s 57th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Baltimore’s Devin Nash Shares Swaggering and Strutting “Sounds Like Pain”

Devin Nash is a Baltimore-born and-based singer/songwriter and musician, who quickly established a sound that blends contemporary R&B and 80s synth pop with the release of his full-length debut, 2016’s Her. 

Her achieved commercial success with the album’s songs appearing on VH1’s Black Ink Crew Chicago and MTV’s Teen Mom — and he performed at the BET Awards. 

The Charm City-based artist released his latest EP Sounds Like Pain last month. “It is a soundtrack centered around love, relationships and heartbreak,” Nash explains.

EP single, title track and opening track “Sounds Like Pain” is a slickly produced, strutting bop anchored around a sinuous bass line, skittering cowbell-driven beats, atmospheric synths that serve as a lush bed for Nash’s yearning delivery singing lyrics about a love interest, who quickly proves to be cold-hearted and cruel — for no particular reason. But underneath the heartache are moments of self-reflection and pride, in which the song’s narrator realizes “Wait, what the fuck am I doing?”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Welsh Artist Mali Hâf Shares Boldly Feminist “HWFM”

With the release of her debut EP, 2023’s Jig-So, 24 year-old Cardiff, Wales, UK-based Celtic Soul singer/songwriter Mali Hâf quickly established a bold and remarkably modern yet anachronistic sound that sees her pairing traditional Welsh folk melodies with experimental electronic production. The result is an innovative approach on what contemporary Welsh music could be and sound like this century.

The rising Welsh artist is currently working on her highly-anticipated full-length debut, which is slated for an early 2026 release. The forthcoming album’s first single “HWFM,” is short for “Hen Wlad Mamau,” a boldly feminist reimagining of the Welsh National Anthem “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadhau” (Old Land of My Fathers).”

The song sees the Welsh artist flipping the song’s original perspective to celebrate and honor the contributions of women to the country’s history and culture, actively reframing Wales as the “Old Land of My Mothers.” Anchored around a hook-driven and brooding, Portishead meets Paramore-like production, “HWFM” sees the Welsh-based artist adopting a playfully cheeky and defiantly in-your-face delivery.

But underneath the cheekiness, Hâf expresses a deep, heartfelt longing for Wales — and all nations — to be places of true equality, to be safe havens for women and nurturing spaces for everyone. The song also challenges listeners to think beyond traditional gender roles and stereotypes, openly calling for empathy, care and compassion as a nation’s defining values.

“I wrote this song out of frustration – seeing women still unsafe inside and outside their homes, hearing the same stories about abusive behaviour on the news, and remembering my own experiences. These are highly painful personal experiences where the hurt will last a long time but now is not the time to mention details,” the Welsh artist says.

 “Wales may be small, but why can’t we lead the way?” She continues. “This song really isn’t just about women; it’s about creating a Wales where everyone, all genders and LGBTQ can feel emotionally and physically safe to be themselves. It’s cheeky and playful, with an unapologetic attitude and grit, but mainly Hopeful. I love Wales, our anthem, and our traditions, but it doesn’t help to sugarcoat things. So parts of the anthem, Land of my Fathers are name checked in the song.  If we call ourselves a land of poets, singers, and creatives, are we really listening to all the voices? Let’s ride the wave, the wave of change where diversity is welcomed and room is made for all, and make sure we are doing what ‘officially’ we say we’re doing. It should be obvious to all that respecting diversity and women’s rights are under real threat right now in most countries on this planet – not just the obvious example of the USA. Change starts somewhere – why not here in this country that we are so proud of”. 

Directed by Trigger Happy, the accompanying video features Mali Hâf as a mischievous and rebellious Harley Quinn-like character with her backing band. It captures the cheekiness of the song, as well as the bond she has with her band.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 70th Birthday, Howard Jones!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Howard Jones’ 70th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Andy Korg Shares Cinematic Yet intimate “Echoes of Yesterday”

Jürgen Oman, a.k.a. Andy Korg is an Austrian electronic music producer and artist, who made a name for himself his homeland’s and the international house and pop scene as a member of A.G Trio and as the co-founder of Ages.

Alongside his bandmates Roland von der Aist and AKA Tell, A.G. Trio landed a number one hit on Austrian Radio FM4. The band was named Soundpark Act of the Year and received three Amadeus Music Award nominations. The trio also landed several tracks on international dance charts. Adding to a growing profile, the trio supported their material with international tours between Mexico and South Korea. But after some time, the trio went through a massive change in sonic direction that necessitated a rebrand.

As Ages, the trio of Oman/Korg, von der Aist and AKA Tell released the critically applauded Roots. But when they artistic paths diverged, the trio went on hiatus.

After a several year hiatus, Oman felt the itch to create again. “The most important thing for me is that I‘m enjoying producing again,” he says. This time with new energy and a fresh approach, Oman is stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist, who refuses to be pigeonholed into a specific genre or style.

Oman’s latest Andy Korg single “Echoes of Yesterday” is dreamy and meditative track that to my ears sounds a bit like a synthesis of Pavo Pavo and Depeche Mode — and in some way as though it could have been released sometime in 1983. The track is anchored around a lush production that pairs layers of glistening synth pulse, skittering beats, some remarkably catchy hooks paired with a dreamy falsetto, creating a song that’s both cinematic and intimate.

As Oman explains, the song “is a meditation on memory, time and the fleeting nature of moments.” Throughout the lines between dreams, reality, the past and the future intertwine and blur creating a sense of experiencing a vivid yet half-remembered dream.

The accompanying video follows a beautiful Black man as he heads to the dance studio where he elegantly dances to the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Black History Month/Happy 62nd Birthday, Seal!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and Seal’s 62nd birthday.