Category: electronic music

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Alex Revox Jr Shares a Daft Punk-like Bop

Deriving his stage name from Revox, one of the most beloved tape recorders produced in Europe since the late 1940s, emerging French electronic music producer and DJ Alex Revox, Jr. is influenced by the Canterbury School, the Repetitive Music scene, minimalists like Brian Eno and the contemporary electronic musicians playing Paris‘ and Berlin‘s renowned clubs. His sound sees him employing both tape manipulation and contemporary production techniques.

The French producer’s recently released, full-length debut, B77 sees him crafting material that nods at his key influences, including Pierre Henry, Kraftwerk, Gong, Amon Düül, Philip Glass and Terry Riley while showcasing a producer who pairs technical sophistication and imagination with a subtle sense of humor.

B77‘s latest single “Le monde selon” is club friendly tune that seems to nod at Discovery-era Daft Punk, while showcasing the emerging French producer’s penchant for trippy, mind-bending groove.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 78th Birthday, Florian Schneider!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 78th anniversary of the birth of Kraftwerk co-founder Florian Schneider.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

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 . . .

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lycoriscoris Shares Meditative “Light Leaks”

Yunosuke Senoo, best known as Lycoriscoris is a Japanese multi-instrumentalist, electronic music artist and producer, who over the course of the past decade has firmly established a signature blend of organic melodies made with both analog and digital equipment with intricate sound design. During that same period, he has built a cult following as a part of a new wave of Japanese electronic music producers.

His debut full-length debut was released on a Japanese indie label. But since then he has released material through Anjunadeep, KOMPAKT KX and Christian Löffler‘s Ki Records. 2018’s Flight, which was released through Anjunadeep landed in the Top 4 of the iTunes Electronic Albums Chart and received airplay on BBC Radio 1, KEXP and NTS Radio, while receiving international press coverage. 2021’s 9-track Chiyu showcased Senoo’s delicate production style while receiving praise from Mixmag Asia, DJ Mag and DJ Times while receiving spins from Nick Warren, Joris Voorn, Hernán Cattáneo and Eelke Kleijn.

Senoo’s latest Lycoriscoris single “Light Leaks” is a gorgeous track that manages to be simultaneously cinematic, mediative and deeply intimate. Featuring bursts of dramatic and twinkling piano and glistening synth oscillations paired with skittering beats, “Light Leaks” evokes a sense of wonder and awe, the recognition of our smallness in an infinite cosmos, and the recognition of our mortality. Today, things are harsh, uncertain and brutally unfair but there will always be small and profound moments of beauty and joy that you must hold on to with everything you’ve got.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rival Consoles Shares Upbeat Yet Cinematic “Catherine”

Ryan Lee West is a critically acclaimed, London-based electronic music producer, best known as Rival Consoles. Over the course of his nearly two-decade career, West’s work has diversified from the challenging electronic output of his earliest releases to gradually becoming more conceptual and metamorphic: 2020’s Articulation used drawings and sketches to imagine and developed each track while 2021’s Overflow explored themes of the human and emotional consequences of life surrounded by advancing technologies, including social media — and was composed for choreographer Alex Whitley‘s contemporary dance production of the same name. 

West’s consistent desire to create a more organic, humanized sound often sees the acclaimed British producer often developing early ideas on guitar or piano; forming pieces that capture and evoke a sense of songwriting behind the electronics. His eighth album, 2022’s Now Is featured some of the most playful and melodic material of West’s catalog in some time, with the album’s material drawing from music, art, film, colors, shapes and even human emotions. 

“The title of the record Now Is interests me because it is the beginning of a statement, but it is incomplete. I like art that is open and suggestive of ideas even if they are inspired by very specific things,” West explains. “With my previous record Overflow being very dark, heavy and almost dystopian, I wanted to escape into a different world with this music and ended up creating a record which is a lot more colorful and euphoric.”

West followed Now Is with 2023’s standalone single “Coda,” an incredibly nocturnal song built around an eerie chord progression that slowly twists, turns and morphs as it builds up tempo paired with skittering beats and a relentless motorik-like groove. The composition manages to evoke a somnambulant and woozy buzz of energy.  “’Coda’ started as a really late night experiment around a chord progression that seemed haunting but also had some strange beauty,” West says. “The whole piece is centered around this theme. I wanted to embrace the dark and quiet moments of the nighttime but also the energy of people who were maybe moving around London late at night with a nod to house music.”

West’s ninth Rival Consoles album Landscape from Memory is slated for a July 4, 2025 release through his longtime label home, Erased Tapes. The album’s material blossomed following a frustrating fallow year away from the production desk.

For West, having spent the past decade producing and writing in a habitual way, falling out of love with creativity was a a sort of slowing of the clock that has long made him tick, a sense of being swallowed whole by some elementary force. And yet, the time out of the studio and writing room, helped inform what may arguably be his most invigorating album to date.

Partly stitched together from a scrapbook of discarded audio snippets, Landscape from Memory reportedly demanded a degree of openness and vulnerability from West during its assembly. “There is a kind of strange beauty to it because it involves the past, present and future in a very strong way,” West says.

The album’s climatic productions are frequently characterized by their propulsive quality and driven by West’s own push to step outside his comfort zone, having found inspiration from new and unfamiliar sources. Because his self-built Hackney studio suddenly felt too controlled of an environment, West changed up his creative process, mapping out tracks away from is studio desk. And as a result West’s forthcoming ninth album is a sort of travelogue of creativity on the move, a collection of postcards from a everywhere that features material defined by restlessness.

Landscape from Memory’s lead single “Catherine,” dedicated to West’s partner is a haunted yet remarkably upbeat track featuring propulsive, skittering and shuffling beats paired with a glistening synth-driven melody that twists and turns throughout a cinematic and expansive song structure.

“I recently came across this sketch of a melodic idea that I created many years ago,” West explains. “The title is named after the person who made me realise in that moment, that this idea had something special about it that should be returned to.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Finnish Duo RORO and snapir Share Cinematic Yet Intimate “Fractures”

Kauri Ruohonen is an in-demand Helsinki-based singer/songwriter, electronic music producer and founder, best known in electronic music circles as RORO. Ruohonoen is also the creative director of record label/production house Booa Music. As RORO, the Helsinki-based producer and artist has developed a sound frequently characterized by deep, moody atmospheres and sophisticated elements while working extensively with a growing list of Finnish acts including joalin, Louie Blue and jambo.

Jonathan Snapir is an in demand Helsinki-based electronic producer, best known as snapir who joined Booa Music in 2020 as a studio musician and producer, contributing to tracks alongside RORO. The following year, he dove deeper into experimental electronic music, driven by a relentless curiosity for unorthodox sounds and production techniques. snapir‘s debut EP, 2022’s LUNG showcases the Finnish producer’s ability to craft diverse yet cohesive audio landscapes that are captivating.

The pair bonded over a shared passion for experimental electronic soundscapes. Last year, they released their debut single as a collaborative duo with “Mass” which will appear on their debut effort as a duo, Colors Left, slated for a January 17, 2025 release.

The material sees the pair moving fluidly between dark electro, ambient and glitch-infused soundscapes while creating a deeply personal listening experience, informed by the duo’s shared desire to process pass emotions through innovative sound design. “Our goal was to create a soundscape that represents emotional rebirth,” they explain. “Each track is a deliberate exploration of bringing color back into a monochromatic experience.” 

Colors Left‘s latest single “Fractures” is a deliberately sculptured song that’s built around delicate yet painterly layers of skittering beats, ambient synths, whirring glitch and glistening synth arpeggios paired with a motorik pulse. Through a fearless exploration of unfamiliar sounds and unconventional production techniques, “Fractures” manages to be simultaneously intimate and introspective and yet cinematic.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 74th Birthday, Tina Weymouth!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Talking Heads’ and Tom Tom Club’s Tina Weymouth’s 74th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lomotor Shares Hypnotic “Bee In A Bag”

Josh Rathburn is a Northern Massachusetts-based electronic music producer best known as Lomotor. Drawing comparisons to Boards of Canada and JOVM mainstay Rival Consoles, and inspired by hills and valleys of his rural surroundings, Rathburn’s work sees him blending modular and analog synthesizers with found sounds and early childhood cassette recordings to create songs that often feel like a scratched and faded memory of a melody heard long ago.

The Northern Massachusetts-based producer’s latest single “Bee In A Bag” is a hypnotic song featuring dense layers of oscillating synths, skittering beats, bursts of spacey feedback paired with a motorik-like groove. While seemingly recalling LCD Soundsystem‘s 45:33 and The Chemical Brothers‘ “Star Guitar” the new single manages to be trippy yet club friendly.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bad Robot Shares Max Blücher Remix of “Aero III”

Micheal Ricker is a Delaware-based electronic music producer and artist best known as Bad Robot. And if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of months, you might remember that I’ve written about two of Ricker’s latest Bad Robot singles”

  • The aptly named “Supermassive,” which features skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling thump, scorching bass synths and a woozy and wobbling synth melody. Fittingly, it’s the sort of club and festival banger that sounds as though it should knock a building over. 

  • “Close To You,” which according to Ricker, is “a bit of a departure into a brighter, more ‘pop’ sounding progressive house style.” Built around an almost mantra-like glistening synth phrase, shimmering synth arpeggios and skittering beats, the motorik-like “Close To You” is both summery and remarkably catchy, while seemingly nodding at Discovery-era Daft Punk-like French touch.

Last year, Ricker released his full-length debut, Year One, which featured “Aero III,” a gritty banger anchored around a woozy polymetric melody and skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling thump. Recently, Max Blücher remixed “Aero III” that retains the original’s woozy polymetric melody but pairs it with more aggressive, skittering tweeter and woofer rattling thump with some brief bursts of industrial clang and clatter, and some eerie ethereal synths. The result is take that gives the song a spacey, house music quality.

“Inspired by the gritty sound design and frantic polymetric melodies of my original track ‘Aero III,’ Max has taken the musical DNA and infused it with his own. While the original is great, Max definitely improved the quality of the track with his production skills and imagination,” Ricker explains. “This house remix is an ethereal journey through space and time with elements of Deadmau5 that are felt even in the cover artwork.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: LENny (IT) Shares Lush “Night Lights”

Lenny Lorenzi is a Romagna, Italy-born, New York-based electronic music producer and DJ, best known as LENny (IT). Lorenzi’s career started in earnest when he was a teenager with his first DJ sets and first original productions.

By the time, he was 17, Lorenzi was on the decks at Titilla, a room at the Riccione-based club Cocoricò. And in a short period of time, the Italian-born, New York-based producer and DJ played some of the most important, internationally renowned clubs including Ibiza‘s Sankeys, Barcelona‘s Macarena, Brooklyn’s Output and Miami‘s Clevelander, as well as the most important clubs of the Romagna Riviera.

Adding to a growing profile in the electronic music scene, back in 2011, Lorenzi started the Wave Music Boat, a traveling party that cuts across the Adriatic with stops in Catalonia and the Balearics that featured guests like Sam Divine, Michael Cleis, Argy, Supernova and a lengthy list of others. Wave Music Boat is a major backer of the Molo Street Parade, an event that pairs seafaring traditions with contemporary electronic music. Lorenzi also serves as the artistic director of the event.

Currently based in New York, the Italian-born DJ continues to push the sonic and stylistic boundaries of electronic music. His latest single “Night Lights

s” is a lush track featuring glistening and arpeggiated synths, skittering beats, bursts of African percussion, and twinkling keys that manages to be club and lounge friendly while possessing a cinematic quality.