Category: New Audio

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montreal’s Alex Elliot Releases an Introspective, Mosh Pit Friendly Single

Montreal-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Alex Elliot’s full-length debut Tommy! thematically explored its titular main character’s misguided nature and his relationship with himself. Yellow Fog, Tommy!’s follow-up was released earlier this month, and the album continues the story of Tommy — and while delving into his mind, the album thematically explores his relationships with others: “It’s all about how people can came in and out of your life,” Elliot explains in an email to me. “About how you build pieces of life iowan people coming in, staying for a while, and then leaving, before it all starts again and again. It’s not about love but more about friendship, and all kinds of human connections that help you build yourself but always end with bitterness.”

“We Are Reckless,” Yellow Fog’s latest single is a decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV alt- rock anthem, centered around fuzzy and distorted power chords, angular and propulsive bass lines and a thumping back beat, a rousingly anthemic hook, and Elliot’s disaffected yet somehow earnest delivery. But underneath the song’s mosh pit friendly air, the song feels desperate, uncertain and confused.

“‘We Are Reckless’ describes the beginning of this endless circle, when it’s all new, when you do feel reckless cause everything is still possible,” Elliot explains. “This song is about how it always begins. It is the naive track. The rest of the album drives the man to resignation.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Producer Anoraak Remixes Patawawa’s Disco Banger “Just Not With You”

Formed back in 2014, the Matlock, Derbyshire, UK-based electro pop trio Patawawa — multi-instrumentalist and producer Rory Lovatt, vocalist Sam Wilmot and vocalist Beth Garrett — burst onto the international dance music scene with an effervescent blend of disco, funk and pop that draws influence from the likes of Pet Shop Boys and Prince. Since their formation the trio have built up a massive profile and following: they’ve received airplay and praise from BBC Introducing; they’ve collaborated with French producer Tez Cadey on a Spotify viral hit; they’ve played sold-out shows in Japan; they’ve participated in a band partnership with KRK Systems; and lastly, they’ve crafted a soundtrack for Millie Bobby Brown’s fashion brand.

Building upon a rising national and international profile, the British dance trio’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Power Up is slated for a March 26, 2021 — and reportedly, the album will further cement their winning sound, which manages to be simultaneously nostalgia-inducing yet contemporary. Album single “Just Not With You”is a late 70s/early 80s disco and New Wave-inspired strut centered around a sinuous bass line, Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, and percussive polyrhythm, shimmering analog synths and soulful yet determined vocals. Sonically while recalling things like Fear of Music-era Talking Heads, Chic, Tom Tom Club, and 80s synth funk, the song is a self-empowerment anthem featuring a narrator, who has built up the confidence and self-assuredness to move on from a relationship.

Recently, French producer Anorraak remixed “Just Not With You.” While the original was a slick and nostalgia-inducing mix of disco and New Wave, Anoraak’s remix. While retaining Beth Garrett’s soulful and self-assured vocals and brief blasts of the original’s guitars Anorrak gives the song a throughout reworking: most of the original’s instrumentation is replaced by dense layers of shimmering synth arpeggios, a funkier and punchier bass line and some dub effects while retaining Beth Garrett’s soulful and self-assured vocals. The original’s message still hods but the new take, manages to remind me a bit of Yaz’s “Situation.”

“We got in contact with Anoraak through Instagram and absolutely loved his work,” the rising British trio say of their collaboration with the rising French producer. “It just seemed like a no brainer to work together and we are absolutely chuffed with the result.”

“I really loved working on this remix,” Anoraak adds. “The vocals on the track reminded me a little of CSS so I tried to give a bit of that feeling with some dirty synth sounds on top of a disco base.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Steven Bamidele is a Brighton, UK-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, has been developing and honing his sound and approach for the better part of the past decade, beginning his career performing as Mirror Signal between 2013 and 2017. In 2017, he decided to drop the moniker, to write and record with his real given name and his Nigerian mother’s maiden name. But regardless of what he called himself, the Brighton-based singer/songwriter has focused on crafting emotionally-driven music that meshes elements of soul and pop.

Bamidele relocated to Brighton back in 2018 and over the following year, he played as many shows as humanly possible, earning a foothold in both Brighton and London. With the COVID-19 pandemic putting live music at an indefinite pause, the Brighton-based artist has been busy producing music for other artists in home studio, as well as working on new, original music — including his debut EP, which is slated for release later this year through Park The Van. (I should mention that Bamidele is the first non-rock signee to the label, as well.)

In the meantime, Bamidele’s latest single “What Happens Afterwards,” features Dave Bryce on an expansive, slow-burning, neo-soul-inspired track centered around twinkling Rhodes, shimmering synths, a sinuous two-step-inducing strutting groove, Bamidele’s achingly tender falsetto. Interestingly, the song is a heady mix of longing, wishful thinking, regret and a desire to move forward that captures how complicated and confusing love and lust can be.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Best known for being a member of Me You Us Them, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and bassist Ian Ljungquist has stepped out on his own with his solo recording project Time Travel Ban.

During quarantine isolation, Ljunqquist was rather productive: he wrote and recorded Time Travel Ban’s five-song debut, Smoke & Mirrors in a Brooklyn-based rehearsal space. Seemingly inspired by 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock like My Bloody Valentine, Hum, Jawbox, Shiner, Foo Fighters, and Ringo Deathstarr, the EP’s material will likely be nostalgia-inducing yet fresh sounding.

The EP’s material was carefully assembled by stacking layers of woozy guitars and chugging low-end atop of structure of persistently pounding rhythms. The EP’s latest single “Free Me From Myself” is a great example of what listeners should expect: rousingly anthemic hooks, woozy, pedal-effected power chords, a motorik-like chug of a rhythm and thunderous drumming. And while this particular song sonically manages to remind me a bit of Finelines-era My Vitriol, the song feels urgent and desperate. As Ljungquist explains in press notes, the song is about the feeling as though you were trapped within your own malfunctioning mind — without respite or escape.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Impériuex is a mysterious Turkish-Bulgarian, Berlin-based electronic music artist and producer, who developed and honed a sound influenced by both his Turkish roots and by the Sofia underground electronic music scene.

Last year, the mysterious and emerging Bulgarian-born, Berlin-based began working on his latest EP Modus Operandi in Bulgaria and continued working on the EP as he relocated to Berlin. As Impérieux explains in press notes, his relocation and adjustment to life in Berlin was a melancholic time: dealing with the prerequisite culture shock and new language would be challenging for most people — before a pandemic that has changed just about everything. Partially inspired by his feelings of isolation and alienation, and Murukami’s novels, Modus Operandi‘s material is dark, brooding, surreal and at times simplistic.

The EP’s latest single “Terra Incognito” is a percussive and sensual bit of deep house, centered around shimmering hi-hats, glitchy synths, enormous brass and a propulsive, motorik groove that will recall Between Two Selves-era Octo Octa — but while possessing a gentle urgency that will make you move your body.


Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Switzerland’s Etienne Machine Releases a Brooding and Uneasy Single

Lausanne, Switzerland-based trip hop act Etienne Machine is a fairly mysterious, emerging indie act. Their latest single “RIFT (Erased Your Face)” is a brooding and hypnotic, Portishead-like take on trip hop centered around twinkling Rhodes, skittering beats, wobbling synths and electronics, shimmering guitars and ethereal vocals.

The song evokes the claustrophobia and unease of a relationship on the brink, full of the complicated and bitter emotions, the contradictory push and pull, the longing and regret that often accompanies relationships.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Maurin is a Nantes-based musician, electronic music producer and electronic music artist. After spending the past decade as a touring and studio drummer, the Nantes-based artist turned to sound design, composition and production — and by 2019, he launched his first solo recording project Leo Cassidy.

Informed by his professional experiences and the know-how he picked up in that time, Leo Cassidy was created as a way for the Nantes-based artist to create with complete freedom. Interestingly, his latest Leo Cassidy single “White Pills” further establishes his sound: hypnotic, club rocking industrial house centered around tweeter and woofer rattling beats, layers of shimmering, analog synth arpeggios and some metallic clang and clatter. Sonically, the track may remind some listeners of early Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and even John Carpenter soundtracks — with a primal and forceful feel.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Stockholm-based psych act Phogg released their full-length debut Slices to critical praise across Scandinavia and elsewhere — with critics comparing their sound to the likes of to Ariel Pink and Unknown Mortal Orchestra. Building upon a growing profile, the band released their highly-anticipated sophomore album Mofeto: Mashine Adamkosh, an album about “robots that take over the world,” in 2019.

If you were alive and coherent, last year may have been among the most difficult you’ve experienced in recent memory — and much like everyone else, 2020 was difficult for the members of the acclaimed Stockholm psych rock act: Riding high from the critical reception of their sophomore album, the band began the ambitious challenge of workin on two different albums simultaneously with the goal of working on each in parallel — and then releasing them at the same time. Attempting to record two albums at the same time wound up being a terrible decision, with the band experiencing extreme burn-out and fatigue.

During that period, the members of the band went through a deep existential crisis, which resulted in the band having deep-seated philosophical questions. “What does it really mean to be a rock band these days? Does anything matter?” The band writes in a statement. “The legendary days of rock have faded into the ruthless fart of the pandemic era. It’s not fun to make songs about the end times when you are in the middle of it.”

Phogg’s third album, The Sharkness is slated for an April 16, 2021 release through Ouyee Bayou Records, and the album’s material is influenced by the harrowing events and emotions of the pandemic, the band’s existential crises and heartbreak — most of the band’s members have had long-term relationships split up during the same time, as well.

Last year, I wrote about “Corme (Rental Palace),” a meditative instrumental jam with surf rock accents, centered around shimmering guitars, atmospheric and twinkling key and a propulsive rhythm section before turning into a breakneck gallop around the song’s second half. While being one of the few instrumental tracks in their growing catalog, it may be among the most brooding yet heartfelt. The Sharkness‘ fourth and latest single, album title track “Sharkness” is a trippy and deceptively upbeat song featuring looping and shimmering synth arpeggios, a propulsive, motorik-like groove and a guest spot from vocalist Indrielle, who contributes her ethereal vocals.

But as the band explains in press notes, the overall vibe of the song is much darker: “’Sharkness’, the title track of our new album, came to be while recording the album. ‘Sharkness’ means to hold a kind of self-destructive self-preservation drive. To navigate through difficulties and hardships. To push down instincts of worries and prance forward in life. This is to hold Sharkness.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay LutchamaK Releases a Sultry and Shimmering Bit of Deep House

There are few artists I’ve written about as much over the past 18 months than the frenetically prolific French electronic music producer, artist and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK. During that same period, LutchamaK has released an increasingly eclectic array of material — whether as EPs, stand-alone singles and albums — that find him bouncing back and forth between different electronic music styles, genres and sub-genres with effortless aplomb.

The French JOVM mainstay started the year with Pi, a full-length album written and recorded in a three month burst. Interestingly, Pi‘s material may arguably be among the darkest and heaviest he has written and recorded. LutchamaK has quickly followed the release of Pi with Quest EP, a six-song EP, which finds the French electronic music producer and artist crafting more melodic material — but with a more experimental direction. The EP’s second and latest single “Quest” is a melodic bit of deep house, centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, stuttering beats and tweeter and woofer rocking thump. While citing the likes of Underground Resistance, Laurent Garnier, and G-Prod, the song reminds me — to my ears, at least — of Octo Octa’s Between Two Selves.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Renée Reed Releases a Hauntingly Gorgeous Single

Lafayette, LA-born singer/songwriter Renée Reed grew up in an intensely musical home: a young Reed grew up on the accordion-bending knee of her grandfather Harry Trahan in the middle of countless jam sessions at the one-stop Cajun shop owned by her parents Lisa Trahan and Mitch Reed. And as a result, Reed wound up being surrounded by a who’s who of Cajun and Creole music legends — both backstage at the many festivals of Southwest Louisiana and at her family home. Reed also soaked up the stories and storytelling of her great uncle, folklorist Revon Reed and his brothers from Mamou.

Reed’s self-titled debut is slated for a March 26, 2021 release through Keeled Scales Records and the album will feature music that Reed describes as “dream-fi folk form the Cajun prairies.” Thematically, “this album is a collection of songs about toxic relationships, seeing ghosts, ancestral baggage and blessings, and daydreaming about love,” Reed explains in press notes. “It is about certain feelings and experiences I’ve had over my life coming to fruition in the past three years. It was all made on a four track recorder at home, in a place and in a way I feel most natural, and I believe that quality comes through in the sound.”

“Neboj,” the soon-to-be released album’s third and latest single derives its title from a Czech word that Cajuns pronounce as “nuh-boy” and represents the amalgamation of influences and cultures that inform Cajun music. Centered around a hauntingly sparse arrangement of delicately picked, looping guitar and Reed’s ethereal vocals, “Neboj” manages to be a self-assured yet vulnerable fever dream of full of earnest longing. Interestingly, for Reed the song is about letting go and not being afraid to fall in love, to just trust her heart.