Category: New Audio

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 12-15 months or so, you’ve likely come across a couple of posts on the Brampton, ON-born, Toronto, ON-based DJ, violinist, singer/songwriter and indie pop artist Maya Killtron. And as you may recall, Killtron first came to attention both nationally and Stateside with the 2012 release of her debut EP Hipster/Gangsta, and as a result of the attention she received, Killtron wound up making the rounds across the North American festival circuit with stops Miami’s Winter Music Conference, Pride Toronto, The Halifax Jazz Festival and CMJ. And adding to a growing profile, her collaboration with NYC-based production duo Love Taps “Back For More” received attention from the likes of Stereogum and Huffington Post for a sound that meshed moomba and R&B – and for visuals that showcased a sadly bygone NYC. Additionally, Smalltown DJs, The Slow Waves, Eyes Everywhere, Brothers In Arms and City Kid Soul have all have remixed “Back For More” — with the City Kid Soul remix being named in the Top 5 at Toronto’s Bestival.

“Bad Decisions,” which I wrote about while in Amsterdam, The Netherlands earlier this year, was a written as a review of some of Killton’s best and worst decisions when it came to affairs of the heart paired with a sound that nodded at 80s synth funk and early 80s disco in a fashion reminiscent of JOVM mainstay act Escort; in fact, that shouldn’t be surprising as Killtron explained in an email to me,  “With ‘Bad Decisions,’ as well as my first single ‘Never Dance Alone,’ I wanted to pay tribute to; but not copy my heroes — Teena Marie, Prince, and The Gap Band.”

“Whiplash,” the third and latest single off Killtron’s Never Dance Alone EP is influenced by a childhood memory of a young Killtron listening to Michael Jackson‘s “PYT‘ for the very first time. “It was my driveway one July and my dad let me take our little radio outside while I washed the car, ” the Brampton-born, Toronto, ON-based pop artist explains. “‘PYT’ jumped out of the speakers and pretty much changed my ears forever. I never listened to the music the same way again.” Sonically, Killtron describes the song as having touches of elastic funk, roller rink dance, New Jack Swing and candy-coated pop paired with modern electronic production — and while that may be true, the song reminds me of Morris Day and The Time‘s “Jungle Love,” The Gap Band’s “You Dropped a Bomb on Me,” Cherelle‘s “Saturday Love,” Chaka Khan‘s “I Feel For You” and others as it features a sinuous bass line and a stomping groove; however, Killton’s latest single is at a much faster BPM than the sources that inspired it. Of course, much like the preceding singles, “Whiplash” is a love song — this time focusing on the sort of swooning love that comes about suddenly and feels so right, even if it’s just for the moment.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Belovedx is a mysterious Toronto, ON-based electro pop act, that specializes in a sound that they described to me as dark, melodic pop/electro pop with an alternative edge, along the lines of Banks, The Neighbourhood, Travis Scott, 6lack, Deftones and Marilyn Manson among others — and with “Higher,” off their latest effort, Love x Songs, the act’s sound manages to reveal both a slick and contemporary electronic production featuring slick, yet rousing hooks paired with boom-bap drum beats,  cascading layers of shimmering synths, plaintive vocals. But just underneath the surface is a swooning Romanticism.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Bittersweet Sounds and Visuals of Leif Erikson’s “Concrete and Steel”

Deriving their name from the name of the famed Icelandic explorer, believed by many to have been the first Westerner to reach the shores of the Americas, the London-based indie rock quintet Leif Erikson have developed a reputation in their native UK for crafting what they’ve described as “quietly emotive, effortlessly, exploratory Transatlantic pop” centered around disarmingly honest, thoughtful lyrics based on intimate observation and personal experience, but interestingly enough as you’ll hear on “Concrete and Steel,” off their self-titled debut mini-album, slated for an August 25, 2017 through Arts & Crafts Records, the British-quintet’s sound, to my ears at least, reminds me quite a bit of Gold Coast, Australia-based JOVM mainstays FAIRCHILD as the band pairs an atmospheric arrangement featuring shimmering guitar chords, four-on-the-floor drumming, soaring synths and an rousing hook with plaintive falsetto vocals. However, in the case of “Concrete and Steel,” the song is a aching and meditative rumination on trying to make it as an artist in one of the world’s biggest cities while juggling the daily struggles of surviving — sometimes with a soul-sucking day job. But at the heart of the song is a narrator, who is doing whatever they have to do to survive and make their dream become reality, suggesting that on occasion you have to seek freedom and spiritual sustenance whenever and wherever you can find it.

The recently released animated music video features people, who are drawn like ants marching single file unceasingly day and night towards a city where they never escape — and in some way, the city is viewed as cruel and unforgiving.  The visuals further emphasize the narrator’s desperate struggle to survive and make himself known as a unique person in arguably difficult circumstances.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed in 2014, Island Apollo is a Southern California-based quintet  that has quickly emerged as one of the region’s up-and-coming bands for a breezy and anthemic sound that meshes indie rock and synth pop — and as you’ll hear on their rousingly anthemic Eric Lilavois-proudced new single “Feeling You,” the up and coming Southern Californian band’s sound reminds me quite a bit of Wang Chung‘s “Everybody Have Fun,” Cut Copy, Miami Horror and St. Lucia, as the band pairs a dance floor friendly, 80s synth pop inspired groove, complete with warm blasts of horns with swooning and urgently earnest sentiment and rousing, arena rock ready hooks. Interestingly enough, as the band explains in press notes, their latest single is an anthem of true loyalty and devotion, “a song about standing by someone even when they’re at their most lowest point: because that’s really when they need you the most.”

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Thom Moore (vocals, guitar), Adam Della-Grota (guitar), Sam Barron (bass, keys), Jackson Love (keys, vocals) and Thomas Eagleton (drums, vocals), the Sydney, Australia-based indie rock quintet Wild Honey quickly emerged with their self-titled debut EP, an effort that was written and recorded by Moore almost entirely in his bedroom and featured lead single “Eye To Eye.” “Eye To Eye” wound up becoming one of the most played songs by an Australian artist on Triple J during the summer of 2015-2016 — and as a result, the band found themselves opening for the likes of several national and internationally recognized bands including The Delta Riggs, The Belligerents, Hinds and Twin Peaks.

Building upon a rapidly growing national profile, the Sydney-based indie rock quintet went into the studio to record their forthcoming, Jack Mofitt-produced, full-length debut album, and the album’s first single “Break Away,” serves as an anthemic call to arms for anyone, who feels like they’re going through the motions. Interestingly, the song finds the band effortlessly meshing classic alt rock, Brit Pop and contemporary indie rock as the song features jangling guitars, an anthemic hook consisting of enormous, arena rock friendly power chords and an earnest call to go out and work your ass off to make your dreams happen — and that there’s more to life than struggling to cover the rent and your bills while working a shitty 9 to 5.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kiev Ukraine’s Indytronics Returns with a Rousingly Anthemic New Single

Last week, I wrote about the Kiev, Ukraine-based indie rock/post punk band Indytronics. Comprised of Danil Bogadenko (guitar, vocals), Vitaliy Koutsiuk (bass), Ruslan Dobrov (drums) and Denys Rybchenko (guitar, backing vocals), the Ukrainian quartet can trace their origins to when Bogadenko and Rybchenko were touring across Europe, and while in  Stockholm, Sweden the duo came across street musicians, who were playing an interesting melodic indie rock-leaning vibe. And as the story goes, the duo were so impressed by this particular group of street musicians that they decided that they needed to start their own band when they returned home to Kiev. 
Since the band’s formation in 2012, the band has released their 2013 debut EP Vision and their 2015 full-length debut Scintilla Wave and and as a result, they’ve developed a growing profile both nationally and internationally. They’ve made live appearances on several Ukrainian TV shows and have received regular radio rotation on Ukrainian Radio Roks, Europa Plus, HotMix Radio, WCSF Radio German CTdasradio and others. Along with that, they’ve been written up in the British music magazine Huck and their music has been used for fashion shows aired on the international TV channel IDFashion throughout the US, Ukraine, Italy, Austria and France.

Now, as you may recall “Savannah Only Temple” was a slickly produced indie rock and post-punk track that to my ears reminded me quite a bit of Narrow Stairs-era Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service’s Give Up and Snow Patrol, complete with a rousing arena rock-friendly hook. And while clearly nodding at 00s indie rock and post punk, as well as retaining the arena friendly sound of their preceding single, the track finds the band expanding upon the sound that first won them attention on this site and elsewhere, as the song finds the band nodding at electronic rock; but perhaps most important, is that the new single reveals some ambitious songwriting as they pair anthemic hooks around a twisting and turning song structure. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=210272287/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/track=1819739007/transparent=true/

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past three or four years of its seven year history, you would have come across a handful of posts on  the Chicago, IL-based psych rock band Secret Colours. Interestingly, the band recorded and released their self-titled debut and their sophomore effort, Peach, the band’s initial lineup featured six members; however, by the time they went into the studio to record Positive Distractions 1 and Positive Distractions 2, the band went through a massive lineup change that left Tommy Evans (vocals, guitar) and Justin Frederick (drums) as the only members remaining from the original sextet. And with the recruitment of long-time Chicago music scene friends Eric Hehr and Mike Novak, the band went through a decided change in sonic direction — partially influenced by necessity and as a result of being artists, who recognize that life pushes them forward and towards new influences and techniques.

Up until recently, some time had passed since I had last written about them and in that period of the past few years, the band went through yet another lineup change in which its founding member Tommy Evans, along with Mike Novak remain; but with its newest lineup featuring Max Brink (bass) and Matt Yeates (drums), the band find themselves pushing their sound in completely new and different directions on their latest full-length effort Dream Dream; in fact, the album’s material finds the band drawing more from guitar pop and garage rock, while retaining elements of the 60s psych rock sound that first captured the attention of the blogosphere. And as you may recall, album single “Changes in Nature” was a swooning and sweetly urgent love song reminiscent of XTC’s “Mayor of Simpleton” but with a subtly lysergic vibe. Interestingly enough, “Save Me,” Dream Dream‘s latest single manages to mesh contemporary jangling guitar pop with psych rock in a way that feels anachronistic — could the song have been released during the 60s? Or AM rock’s heyday? Or in 2017? If it weren’t for the slick production, you wouldn’t be able to tell; but perhaps more important, the single reminds listeners that the band can craft incredibly infectious, hook-driven rock with dexterous guitar work.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last month, I wrote about  Denton, TX-based psych rock/prog rock quartet Pearl Earl, an act that can trace its origins to 2014, when its founding members Ariel Hartley, Bailey K. Chapman and Stefanie Lazcano started the band as a way to jam, party and fuck around — that is until, the the band became a serious project; and in fact, by the following year, the Denton-based band began touring regionally and nationally to support their debut EP Karaoke Superstar, a wild, kaleidoscopic meshing of psych rock, glam rock, prog rock, punk rock and synth pop.

Building upon their rapidly growing profile, the band’s founding trio spent last year writing and then recording their self-titled debut effort at Dallas’ Elmwood Recording — with the band recruiting Chelsey Danielle, after the album’s completion. And although Hartley may be the band’s principle songwriting, reportedly each song is its own living, breathing animal. Album single “Star in the Sky” featured tribal-inspired percussion, shimmering and futuristic synths and bombastic power chords in a mind-bending and ambitious song structure that bears an uncanny resemblance to 2112-era Rush, thanks to a retro-futuristic vibe. The album’s latest single “Captain Howdy” continues the lysergic vibe, as it features shimmering, arpeggio synths, a propulsive rhythm section and heavily pedal effected guitars in an prog rock-leaning song structure that quickly switches from trippy synths to a lengthy, power chord guitar driven coda — and the amazing thing about the song is that they manage to do that within a 3 minute and change runtime.

The band is currently in the middle of an extensive Midwest and Southwest tour. Check out the remaining tour dates below.

 

Summer Tour Dates
07.04•High Dive (Milwaukee, WI)
07.08•Trees w/ Spoonfed Tribe (Dallas, TX)
07.15•Dan’s Silverleaf w/ Mother Tongues (Denton, TX —- Album Release)
07.18•Club Dada w/ Post Animal (Dallas, TX)
07.22•Mass (Ft. Worth, TX —- Album Release)
07.29•Taps N Caps w/ MyDolls (Denton, TX)
08.07•Andy’s Bar w/ Sailor Poon, Sunbuzzed, Thin Skin, Flesh Narc (Denton, TX)

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Gordon Raphael is a Seattle, WA-born, Berlin, Germany-based singer/songwriter, guitarist, and producer, who has worked with an impressive array of contemporary artists including The Strokes, Regina Spektor, Damon Albarn, Ian Brown, The Cult‘s Ian Astbury, Hinds and others; however, Raphael primarily sees himself as a singer/songwriter and guitarist. “I love producing, but playing guitar and writing songs is what I’ve always done,” Raphael says in press notes. “I wanted to show what I can do on the other side of the desk all the time, but producing kept getting in the way.”  Interestingly, Raphael’s long-awaited full-length debut Sleep on the Radio draws from Ziggy Stardust-era David Bowie, Mick Ronson, Kimono My House-era Sparks, Frank Zappa and prog rock among others, as you’ll hear on the album’s latest single “View From Blue.”

Reportedly “View From Blue” came to the renowned producer, singer/songwriter and guitarist in a dream and was part of over 1,000 songs he wrote over a period of time — and a section of 12 that were carefully honed and perfected to the point that they were living, breathing songs that needed to be heard, now.  And as a result, the anthemic hook-laden song possesses a forceful urgency underneath its boozy, free-flowing psychedelia.

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been following this site over the past couple of years of its seven year history, you’ve come across a handful of posts featuring the Los Angeles, CA-based indie rock/garage rock trio L.A. Witch. Comprised of Sade Sanchez (lead vocals, guitar), Irita Pai (bass, backing vocals) and Ellie English (drums), the trio have developed a reputation for crafting a grungy, garage rock sound that draws from late 50s-early 60s rock,  The Pleasure Seekers, The Sonics, The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre and others — all while bearing a resemblance to JOVM mainstay artists The Coathangers, Sharkmuffin and Death Valley Girls

Suicide Squeeze Records, the label home of The Coathangers and several others will be releasing the band’s self-titled debut on September 8, 2017, and the album’s latest single “Kill My Baby Tonight” is a sultry and swaggering murder ballad full of chugging and jangling guitar chords played through copious reverb and delay pedal. Sanchez’s sneering, venomous vocals slash through a propulsive and stormy rhythm section; but unlike any of their previously released singles, the Southern Californian trio’s latest single reveals both a steely self-assuredness and some of their most ambitious songwriting to date.