Category: instrumental

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BMA Shares Meditative “Beyond The Hope”

Bruno Margiotta is a French-born, Canadian-based multi-instrumentalist, composer and creative mastermind behind the post rock instrumental project BMA. After the release of his self-produced debut EP, 2020’s Asynchronous, Margiotta world with local and international studios to produce his full-length debut, Ephemeral.

Released earlier this year, Ephemeral draws from post-rock, classical music and electronic music. Album single “Beyond The Hope” features twinkling piano, a sinuous and propulsive bass line, soaring and swelling bursts of synths, and gently padded drumming in a meditative yet cinematic composition that reminds me a bit of Collapse Under the Empire and others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Alfa Mist Shares Sublime “Foreword”

Throughout the London-based producer, composer, musician and Sekito Records head Alfa Mist’s career, he has steadfastly refused to be boxed into a specific genre or style: his work has spanned everything from hip-hop beatmaking to producing for rappers like Loyle Carner, composing neo-classical works for the London Contemporary Orchestra and reworking tracks for Ólafur Arnalds and legendary jazz label Blue Note. He also hosts the Are We Live podcast with Barney Artist and Jordan Rakei. 

Since the release of his full-length debut, 2015’s Nocturne, the London-based artist and producer has also quickly established himself as one of the UK’s most focused and distinct contemporary musical voices while also working with Jordan Rakei, Tom Misch, Richard Spaven, Lester Duval and Emmavie among others.

The recently released full-length Variables finds Alfa Mist moving forward with a renewed intensity and purpose. “The whole album is more uptempo and influenced by the freedom of returning to gigs,” Alfa Mist explains. “It feels like I’m coming back to my early days of making grime beats and creating tracks that make me want to bop my head fast.” 

Last month, I wrote about “Angel Eyes” featuring longtime collaborator Kaya Thomas-Dyke. “Angel Eyes” is a gorgeous bit of trip-hop-inspired neo-soul built around a finger-plucked guitar melody by Jamie Leeming, a swelling string-driven, cinematic chorus from Peggy Nolan (cello), twinkling keys from Alfa Mist paired with Thomas Dyke’s expressive, gossamer vocal. The arrangement and Thomas Dyke’s vocal express a yearning sense of hope. 

“Foreword” Variables latest single is a sleek and stunning synthesis of bop era jazz and jazz fusion: cascading and twinkling Rhodes is paired with intricate drum patterns, a supple bass line, an enormous Dizzy Gillespie-meets-Birth of the Cool-era Miles Davis horn arrangement and gliding and guitar lines that showcases the buzz-worthy artist’s ability to craft arrangements that are challenging yet remarkably accessible — and are rooted in dexterous and sublime musicianship.

The accompanying visualizer by SPOD features some gorgeously animated watercolor paintings reminiscent of Van Gogh and the Dutch masters while being mindbending.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Divide and Dissolve Share Stormy “Blood Quantum”

Melbourne-based duo Divide and Dissolve — Takiaya Reed (sax, guitar) and Sylvie Nehill (drums) — have focused on Indigenous sovereignty: Reed is Tsalagi (Cherokee) and Black, Nehill is Māori. As a duo. they released two albums 2017’s Basic and 2018’s Abomination through DERO Arcade before signing with Invada, who released their widely acclaimed third album, 2021’s Gas Lit. Gas Lit Remix EP was also released in 2021 and featured reworkings and remixes of Gas Lit material by Moor Mother, Chelsea Wolfe and Bearcat.

Last year, the duo toured across North America and Europe, opening for Low, which included a stop at Webster Hall, as well as headline dates and festival appearances.

The acclaimed Aussie duo’s fourth album, the Ruban Neilson-produced Systemic is slated for a June 30, 2023 release through Invada. Thematically, the album sees the duo exploring the systems that intrinsically bind us — and calls fora system that facilitates life for everyone. It’s a message that fits firmly with the band’s core intentions: to make music that honors their ancestors and Indigenous lands, to oppose white supremacy, and to work towards a future of Black and Indigenous liberation. “This music is an acknowledgement of the dispossession that occurs due to colonial violence,”  Divide and Dissolve’s Takaiya Reed explains in press notes. “The goal of the colonial project is to separate Indigenous people from their culture, their life force, their community and their traditions. The album is in direct opposition to this.”

Recored as a duo, the album according to Reed is a continuation of Gas Lit. “Because of what was built with Gas Lit, Systemic is able to express itself.” She adds, “The album is a prayer to our ancestors. A prayer for land to be given back to Indigenous people, and for future generations to be free from this cycle of violence.” 

Reed emphasizes that it’s crucial for their music to be instrumental. “I believe in the power of non-verbal communication,” she continues, “A huge percent of communication is non-verbal. We learn so much without using words.”  There’s one exception on the album, the spoken word track “Kingdom of Fear,” which features writer and artist Minori Sanchiz-Fung, who contributed to previous Divide and Dissolve albums.

Systemic‘s latest single “Blood Quantum” further cements the Aussie outfit’s reputation for crafting dense, overwhelmingly heavy material. With “Blood Quantum” you hear a dissonant and insistent thumping of crashing cymbals, thunderous snare, Melvins-like guitar sludge, wavering synths and horns paired with mournful yet beautiful orchestrated passsges meant to evoke brief moments of respite. The song is rooted in — and expresses awe-inspiring beauty and heart-wrenching anguish of human existence. “The heaviness is really important,” Reed says. “It’s congruent with the message of the music, and the heaviness feels emblematic of this world’s situation.”

Fittingly, the Sepi Mashiahof, Chi Chi Castillo, and Dolor co-directed video for “Blood Quantum” is a fever dream that’s at turns hauntingly gorgeous, unsettlingly brutal and downright surreal. The video calls into question the violent process of verification of identity.

The acclaimed Aussie outfit have live shows and festival appearances planned in support of the new album,. But at this time, Nehill will be stepping back from her duties performing live with the band, due to personal reasons.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Magic Sword Shares Dramatic “The Ending”

Magic Sword is a Boise-based multimedia project that tells the ageless tale of good and evil through an expansive — and ever-expanding — graphic novel, featuring The Immortals — The Keeper of the Magic Sword (red, keyboards), The Seer of All Truths (blue, guitar) and
The Weaver of all Hearts and Souls (yellow, drums) — accompanied by an original synth-driven soundtrack and immersive live performances. Combining three mediums, the Boise-based outfit creates an epic experience for those who are bold enough to bear witness and come away with a deeper understanding of the ultimate hero’s journey.

Rooted in a musical and visual aesthetic that is unabashedly drawn from ’70s and ’80s fantasy and sci-fi, the project’s followers are brought to another plane of existence in which that ageless struggle between light and shadow is very real.

Magic Sword’s The Immortals give a direct account of their vision — and of the overarching story of The Magic Sword:

“In the beginning, there was light… and darkness. A creation of perfect balance. As time passed, evil spread over the land like a plague, slowly consuming everything in its path. In the final moments before light was lost to the shadow for all time, a weapon of infinite power was created, the Magic Sword. Thus, restoring balance to the universe. The genesis of things are often small. As the single seed grows to a mighty oak, so too did the path of the Keeper begin as a single choice in an age long past. Once a humble king, they were manipulated into unknowingly unleashing the Dark One.All of reality was torn asunder as the Lord of Shadow was released from their ancient prison, having been bound only by the power contained within the Magic Sword.From that day forth, the King was cursed to be the immortal Keeper of this powerful key. He has been relentlessly compelled for millennia to find the Chosen One who will one day unleash the true power of the weapon and cannot rest until the grand design is seen complete with the Darkness bound once again. Little is known of The Lord of Shadow but death and decay. Since the release from his ancient prison by the hapless Keeper of the Magic Sword, he has pulled all of existence slowly toward himself in a vortex of darkness and destruction. Any wayward soul that he touches is corrupted to their ultimate demise. He uses his followers, acolytes of death, with no more regard than any other, for his reason of being is simply to end all things. Ensuingly, the forces of good have been searching for the Light to push him back into his eternal prison. The key to operating this cell is the Magic Sword; when wielded by the Chosen One, it has the power to return balance to the Universe.

The Keeper of the Magic Sword searches endlessly for the Chosen One. With the help of the other Immortals, The Seer of All Things and The Weaver of Hearts and Minds, they are ever trying to stem the tide of the Great Shadow from engulfing all life. Through time and space itself, The Immortals are pulled by the power of the Magic Sword to those who hunger for true justice. Whenever the need is great, they appear with the Magic Sword and a high-stakes proposition for those who are pure of heart, perpetually hoping that their search is finally over. This prophesied being contains the ability to wield the power of the Magic Sword and seal the prison that holds Dark One for all eternity. Only then will The Keeper, The Seer, and The Weaver be able to rest. Until the chosen one is revealed, the search continues in this realm and many others throughout all of time and space. In what form will the MagicSword manifest? Who is the Chosen One? Will it be you? Answers will reveal themselves as the need arises. A tale of high adventure as old as time itself.”

In the installment in the expansive Magic Sword universe, The Keeper embarks on a righteous quest to navigate a corrupt world where the sword has been abducted by an unfathomably foul evil. Amid the conflict, he seeks to find himself and reclaim what is rightfully his “Badlands.” Originally composed as the soundtrack to a feature film and conceived as a sort-of solo album for Magic Sword’s The Keeper, Badlands, which was surprised released through Joyful Noise Recordings tells the story of loss and rediscovery of the one’s self while being a departure from the band’s trademark synthwave sound. Instead, Badlands is lovingly indebted to John Carpenter and Ludwig Emil Tomas Göransson.

Badlands‘ latest single, the cinematic and slow-burning ‘The Ending” is built around layers of glistening, retro-futuristic synth arpeggios paired with propulsive four-on-the-floor and a relentless groove. The composition manages to set a dramatic vibe and setting for its protagonist, The Keeper: I can picture The Keeper finally encountering his antagonist — and having an epic battle in a Dali-esque landscape.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bristol’s King Heron Shares Funky and Soulful “Stasis” feat. Andrew Neil Hayes

Bristol-based jazz fusion trio King Heron — Jacob Houghton (guitar), Cerith Evans (guitar) and Cameron Macdougall (drums) — features three different and distinct musical personalties, who through a modern jazz sensibility and a focus on tight grooves, mesh disparate influences into a unique, difficult to pigeonhole style.

The trio supported their debut EP, last year’s Troika with regular shows at Bristol’s grassroots and indie venues, including Trinity Centre, Thekla, The Gallimaufry and The Jam Jar. Building upon a growing profile, the trio went on to play bars, clubs and art centers across the UK, opening for the likes of Oscar Jerome, Mdou Moctar, and Lydian Collective. They’ve also played at Bristol Harbour Festival.

The rising Bristol trio’s first single “Stasis” is the first bit of new material since the release of Troika EP — and it also marks the first in a series of singles that the band plans to release this year. Featuring a guest appearance from Andrew Neil Hayes on sax, “Stasis” is rooted in the trio’s penchant for a trippy and insistent grooves paired Hayes’ soulful horn solo in a composition that seems to draw from funk, dub and jazz fusion in a seamless fashion. While displaying the musicians dexterous musicianship, the composition also manages to display the their instinctual ability to know when to lead, when to follow and when to make space.

“It was a real honour to record with Andrew — he’s a bit of a Bristol legend and someone that I’ve looked up to for a long time,” King Heron’s Jacob Houghton says. “He came in and blew our heads off. Playing with someone of his calibre made everyone raise their game, and created a special energy in the room.”

The accompanying video captures the Bristol-based trio and Hayes in the studio performing the song. And it captures the instant simpatico held by each of the musicians in the room.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Ironsides Share Soulful and Cinematic “The Web”

Led by Max Ramey (production, bass) and Joe Ramey (production, saxophone), and featuring members of Monophonics, as well as a collection of some of the best Bay Area-based players, The Ironsides specialize in a sound that meshes classic psych soul with sweeping orchestral arrangements in a way that recalls the soundtracks and library music of European composers during the ’60s and ’70s.

The Bay Area collective set out to create a collection of lush compositions that evoke a diverse arrange of feelings, emotions and memories. The band enlisted Louis Robert King, a New York-based maestro as a co-writer and arranger. King had previously created arrangements for Ramey on other projects. Once the material was finished, the Ramey Brothers started contacting a collection of local musicians, who would bring the material to life. “We hired a group of Bay Area working musicians,” Max Ramey explained. “Many of them play a range of music, from jazz to classical, in clubs and orchestras. Using these local musicians was really important to us.”

Slated for a May 19, 2023 release through Colemine Records, Changing Light was recorded at Transistor Sound Studios, the home base for The Ironsides, a growing list of Colemine Records artists, including Kelly Finnigan and Monophonics. While California is a major inspiration for the album’s material, it wasn’t the only geographical inspiration for the album: The Ramey Brothers can trace their heritage to Liguria, Italy — the birthplace of their maternal grandfather. Album track “Ligurian Dream” pays homage to their Italian heritage and the composers, who inspired the cinematic and instrumental direction of the album’s material.

Changing Light‘s material evokes the imagery of an open road, a breathtaking view and scenes of a vast landscape begging to be explored. So plug something into your GPS, play the album and just drive. “The songs are inspired by landscapes – each one could mean something to someone and create a completely different meaning for someone else,” The Ironsides Max Ramey says.

The album’s first single “The Web” is a soulful, lush and incredibly cinematic composition rooted in old-school craftsmanship featuring shimmering and soaring strings, a supple and propulsive rhythm section, a punchy horn section and a buzzing horn solo. Sonically recalling a slick and seamless synthesis of Issac Hayes‘ Hot Buttered Soul and Spaghetti Western soundtrack scores, “The Web” is the perfect mood-setting song for a road-trip playlist.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Black History Month: John Coltrane

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and pays tribute to John Coltrane.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Two from Acclaimed Toronto-Based Producer Harrison

Harrison Robinson, best known as the mononymic Harrison is a 27-year-old, acclaimed Toronto-based jazz and R&B composer, musician and producer got his start making beats and uploading sample-heavy songs on SoundCloud, where he found a following and global community of like-minded producers and collaborators including Ryan Hemsworth, Star Slinger, and a list of others.

His first two critically applauded albums, 2016’s Juno Award-nominated Checkpoint Titanium and 2018’s Juno Award-nominated Apricity, which revealed his versatility as a musician and producer, lead to him producing for some of Canada’s most forward-thinking, boundary-pushing artists including al l i e, Daniela Andrade, DijahSB, Sean Leon and Juno Award-winning artist TOBi, among a list of others.

Over the past couple of years, the Toronto-based musician, composer and producer has been busy: He has released a string of standout songs, including last year’s “Outta This World” with TOBi. He also released a couple of instrumental singles, “Around You’ and “Like When We Were Kids,” which amassed over 3 million combined streams globally. The acclaimed Torontonian has also been busy with compositional work with Nintendo Switch’s LOUD and commercials for NERF and Play-Doh.

Harrison starts off 2023 with two releases:

  • “Float,” feat. Kahdja Bonet, a slow-burning, Quiet Storm-meets-throbbing funk number built around tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap-like beats, a sinuous bass line, glistening synths paired with Bonet’s ethereal and sultry cooing. Fittingly, “Float” is a seemingly effortless love song that captures the dizzy swooning of new love but while subtly acknowledging the inherent uncertainty and fear we all feel.

  • “A View From The Sky,” a J. Dilla beat-tape-meets-bop jazz instrumental rooted in a swinging arrangement of twinkling keys, stuttering yet propulsive drumming, fluttering synths that’s simultaneously meditative and head banging.

Both tracks see the acclaimed Canadian musician, composer and producer boldly pushing his sound into new directions while retaining the elements that have won him acclaim.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Satir Monter Shares Expansive and Cinematic “Ligea”

Satir Monter is an Italian-born and-based electronic music producer, who can trace the origins of his career back to when he started as DJ in 1994. As a DJ and as a producer, Saint Monter’s work is influenced by jazz, soul, Afro pop, funk, pop, blues, deep house, techno, electro pop, dance, house, underground house and progressive house among a lengthy list of others. And while his work manages to be indebted to eclectic sources, the Italian-born and-based artist’s sound is rooted in progressive evolution informed — simultaneously — by the past and the future.

His latest single “Ligea” is a club friendly, deep house banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering tweeter and woofer rattling beats paired with shimmering strings, and euphoric hooks. The end result is a song that brings Octo Octa, De Lux, and others to mind — but with a cinematic quality.

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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Brighton’s The Fuchsias Share Dynamic “Elephante”

Brighton UK-based ambient music/post rock duo The Fuchsias — Bobby Fage and Stephen Ingham — can trace their origins back almost 20 years: Fage and Ingham played together in a now-defunct ambient collective that played in venues across Brighton, as well as The Big Chill Festival and Beautiful Days Festival. Ingham went on to tour with Dark Horses for over a decade. Fage worked on several songs on Towards Nova Zembla’s 2005 full-length debut, and did compositional work for installation artist Sean Kubsia’s Mysteres des Memoires and Recall, which displayed his fascination with utilizing experimental methods.

The duo wound up reconnecting over a mutual desire to create new minimalistic material — with live electronic elements. The British duo’s recently released four-track debut EP Isle sees them delving into modular guitar experimentation while simultaneously reflecting their unique tastes and passion for expansive, immersive music.

Isle EP‘s latest single, the expansive and cinematic “Elephante” alternates between glistening and looping guitar lines paired with tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap and ambient sections with twinkling electronics. While being decidedly beat driven, “Elephante” is rooted in the sort of patient, patiently textures of Mogwai, Public Service Broadcasting, and others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Houis (pronounced “weece”) is French-American, New York-based multi-instrumentalist, producer and visual artist, who has developed an R&B lo-fi sound with elements of indie electro pop and indie house, influenced by Bonobo and Tom Misch.

The New York-based multi-instrumentalist, producer and visual artist’s debut album Outgrown is slated for release early next year through Berlin-based label Lekker Collective. The album reportedly depicts the full range of Houis’ influences, including UK garage inspired lo-fi instrumentals, 80s inspired indie pop, R&B and neo soul while featuring guest spots from Emmett Kai, Blush’ko and and others.

Outgrown‘s second and latest single “Longtemps” is woozy, neo-soul-like instrumental centered around boom bap beats, glistening keys, reverb-drenched guitars and funky hook. “Longtemps” manages to subtly nod at J. Dilla instrumental beats while evoking a much-needed feeling of serenity in a mad, mad, mad world.

“With ‘Longtemps’, I was definitely gravitating towards a more mellow/cozy vibe than some of the other tracks on my upcoming album,” Houis explains. “The intention was to write something with a romantic essence: like being in the arms of the person you love and feeling a sense of serenity.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Bitchos Share a Joyous and Seasonal Visual for “Los Chrismos”

London-based instrumental outfit Los Bitchos — Australian-born, Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguayan-born Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Swedish-born, Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born and-based Nic Crawshaw (drums) — can trace their origins to meeting at various late-night parties and through mutual friends. Inspired by their individual members’ different upbringings and backgrounds, Los Bitchos have developed a unique, genre-blurring and retro-futuristic sound blends elements of Peruvian chicha, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych and surf rock, as well the music each individual member grew up with: 

  • The Uruguayan-born Ruiz had a Latin-American music collection that the members of the band fell in love with. 

  • The Swedish-born Jonsson “brings a touch of out of control pop,” her bandmates often joke. 

  • Aussie-born Serra Petale is deeply inspired by her mother’s 70s Anatolian rock records. 

  • And the London-born Crawshaw played in a number of local punk bands before joining Los Bitchos.

“Coming from all these different places,” Los Bitchos’ Serra Petale says, “it means we’re not stuck in one genre and we can rip up the rulebook a bit when it comes to our influences.”

Los Bitchos’ Alex Kapranos-produced full-length debut,  Let The Festivities Begin! was released earlier this year. Recorded at Gallery Studios, Let The Festivities Begin! sees the London-based instrumental outfit further establishing their reputation for crafting maximalist and trippy, Technicolor, instrumental party starting jams — with a cinematic quality. 

The album’s celebratory title is something you might say while toasting dear friends, families and even strangers at a gathering — and hopefully at the of this horrible period of despair and uncertainty, as a way to usher in a period of carefree debauchery. “It’s about being together and having a really good time,” Los Bitchos say in press notes.

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of this year, you might recall that I managed to write about four of the album’s singles:

  • “Las Panteras” a funky, mind-bending jam featuring shimmering synths bongos, cowbell, cabasa and wiry post punk meets Nile Rodgers and surf rock-like guitars and a sinuous bass line. 

  • “Good to Go,” another mind-bending, genre-blurring composition that begins with a decidedly Western intro with shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar twang before quickly morphing into a a trippy yet chilled out Latin funk meets Turkish psych affair with glistening synths, handclaps and a blazing guitar solo. 

  • “Pista (Fresh Start),” a slick and trippy synthesis of chicha, cumbia and psych rock featuring looping guitars and dance floor friendly Latin rhythms. 

  • “The Link Is About To Die,” a trippy party friendly groove featuring looping and glistening guitars, twinkling synths and shuffling rhythms.

The rapidly rising JOVM mainstays will cap off a momentous year with two singles “Los Chrismos,” their first-ever Christmas themed composition and “Tipp Tapp,” both which were released digitally and physically earlier this month on a flexi disc bundled with a red vinyl re-press of their debut album. Co-produced, by the band’s Serra Petal and Javier Weyler, the two new tracks were recorded at 5db. 

The first single of the batch, the Christmas-themed “Los Chismos,” is a celebratory party, starting romp with cheers and shouts, centered around a dexterous and looping guitar line, atmospheric synths that’s one-part cumbia, one-part psych rock and 100% unadulterated joy. Considering the continued strange and uneasy state of our world over the past couple of years, “Los Chrismos” is a much-needed joy and hope bomb.

“‘Los Chrismos’ is our ‘80s nostalgic Christmas dreamland. Shoop-shooping down the slopes into a cosy chalet strewn with fairy lights, join us for a glass of bubbly and a cosy Christmas party full of festivities!” The band shares. “We can’t wait to get dressed up and play this song on our Chrismos tour.” 

Directed, shot and edited by Tom Mitchell, the accompanying video continues the 80s vibes of the song: We the women of Los Bitchos skiing down the slopes before meeting up for a meal and bubbly in a cozy, chalet complete with fireplace, seasonal lights — and the exchanging of gifts. If you’re a child of the 80s as I am, the video is a playful and nostalgia-inducing walk down memory lane.