Category: New Single

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Charm School Shares A Thumping Club Banger for Our Dystopian Hellscape

Los Angeles-based electronic music act Charm School features Louisville, KY-born, Los Angeles-based multi-hyphenate artist and frontman Andrew Sellers and his longtime collaborators Matt Filip and Dave English. Sellers grew up immersed in Louisville’s underground scene, soaking up the work of local acts like Slint, Crain and Rodan, as well as the catalogs of beloved Chicago indie labels Touch & Go and Drag City. Later, Sellers got into PIL, Swell Maps, The Fall and Fugazi and The Nation of Ulysses. All of that informs Charm School’s sound and approach.

Their debut EP, 2023’s Finite Jest introduced listeners to a philosophically-minded, crushingly loud critique of modern life’s increasingly maddening realities. Last year’s full-length debut, Debt Forever introduced a broader range of influences and a much more acerbic viewpoint with lyrics drenched in salty, satirical humor.

Released earlier this year, Schadenfreude Ploy EP picks up where Debt Forever left off, musing on humanity’s tortured psyche and the confounding implications of living in a technocratic, dystopian hellscape in which tech billionaires, AI and modern life’s various manipulative traps are ubiquitous and seemingly inescapable.

Continuing a remarkably prolific period, the Los Angeles trio’s latest single, the Matia Simovich-produced “Desolation” is a hook-driven, EBM/darkwave/goth banger featuring 80s synthclavier stabs, thumping 808s paired with Sellers dryly sardonic yet simultaneously sincere delivery. Sonically bringing the likes of early Ministry, Depeche Mode, as well as contemporaries like Public Circuit to mind, the song is a club anthem for our dystopian hellscape. The world’s on fire and everything seems hopelessly fucked, so have a little fun, dance and sweat it out with some other humans.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sam Zalta Shares Shimmering “I Might Die Tonight”

Over the past decade, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Sam Zalta is best known as a touring member of JOVM mainstays Bambara, an act that has toured alongside the likes of Foo Fighters, IDLES, Gilla Band, fellow JOVM mainstays METZ and Algiers.

As a solo artist, Zalta’s work occupies a world entirely his own, one increasingly shaped by elaborate storytelling, recurring characters, dreams, devotion and the uneasy space where beauty and pain meet over the course of four albums, 2015’s Paraiso Terminal, 2017’s o, 2019’s It All Ends The Same and 2023’s Memento Mori. The Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist crafts songs that feel superficially soothing but underneath is something more unsettled and stranger that sonically draws from dream pop, shoegaze, indie pop and the likes of The Beach Boys, Spiritualized, Big Star and Swans.

Zalta’s latest releases finds him pushing further into orchestration, narrative and world-building while still being anchored around his penchant for melodicism.

His latest single “I Might Die Tonight” is a shimmering tune that sonically brings Caveman, Tunnel of Love-era Bruce Springsteen and Cocteau Twins to mind and while expressing an aching yearning, there’s a churning unease just under the surface.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: SAOL Shares Earnest and Rousingly Anthemic “Lines”

Irish singer/songwriter and musician Zoë Gough is the creative mastermind of the recording project SAOL, a project that showcases a genre-bending sound that weaves elements of shoegaze, indie rock and grunge paired with vivid lyricism, catchy hooks and an uncanny knack for melodicism. The project is rooted in Gough’s dedication to engaging with music as a social platform while documenting her journey to situating herself within an Ireland that has undergone rapid change while holding onto the strands of the past that tie together the future and finding a way forward.

Gough’s work with SAOL has been played on RTE, RTE 2xm, Galway City Flirt FM and has received national radio play on Ireland’s Radio Nova while drawing comparisons to Hole, The Cranberries, My Bloody Valentine, Sinead O’Connor, and Garbage.

The Irish artist’s latest single “Lines”is a hook-driven tune anchored around earnest songwriting and performances, rousingly anthemic sing along worthy hooks and choruses, fuzzy power chords paired with her powerhouse delivery. While drawing comparisons to Hole, The Cranberries, Smashing Pumpkins and contemporaries like Soccer Mommy and Snail Mail, “Lines” draws out the prolonged process of loss and reckons with being the one left alone.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tony Moreno Pays Tribute to Mentor and Friend Elvin Jones on “EJ’s Blues”

Elvin Jones (1927-2004) was known for redefining jazz drumming as we know it, liberating the instrument from simple timekeeping and instead treating it as a fluid, multi-layered voice. He was also famously known for being the polyrhythmic backbone of John Coltrane’s legendary quartet, contributing to some of the most beloved and influential recordings ever made.

Back in 1967, an 11-year old Tony Moreno was determined to see the legendary drummer Elvin Jones perform live for the first time, and soon realizing he was out well past his bedtime fell asleep on the table of the jazz club he was at. He was awakened by Jones, who sat down at the table, and upon leaning that the young Moreno hadn’t owned a drum set yet, invited him up to his apartment. Jones quickly assembled and gifted Moreno, a drum set, which he played on as a member of the Coltrane Quartet. The exchange kicked off decades of mentorship and friendship. (And in case you were wondering, Moreno still owns that drum set.)

For Moreno, who has worked with Dave Liebman, Barry Harris, Mal Waldron, Frank Kimbroough, and a lengthy list of others across the globe, that day in Jones’ home marked the beginning of a career that has now spanned more than 50 years. In 2024. the 20th anniversary of Jones’ death, Moreno felt that the time was right to assemble a project to pay tribute to his most formative mento and dear friend.

Intent on celebrating the titan from his own lens, he collaborated with arranger Rich Shemaria to present the music orchestrally, providing an interpretation that combines the ferocity the drummer is widely known for with the sensitivity and attention to detail that isn’t brought into the spotlight often. He eventually assembled an all-star ensemble featuring there-time Grammy Award-nominated tenor saxophonist Troy Roberts, Grammy Award-nominated pianist Manuel Valera, Grammy Award-winning percussionist Mauricio Herrera, alto saxophonist Patrick Cornelius, and bassist Gene Perla, who spent the first half of the 1970s in Elvin Jones’ band.

Moreno’s newest effort, A Celebration of Elvin Jones is slated for a November 6, 2026 release through Mayimba Music. Playing tribute to his mento and friend, who gave him his first drum set, the album features ten tracks associated with Jones’ work as a bandleader with spirited new renditions that pain a portrait of the legendary drummer’s dynamism and humanity. A widely acclaimed, singular drummer, who came up in the famed Jazz Composer Orchestra Association (JCOA) loft scene, A Celebration of Elvin Jones served as a portal that transported Moreno back to the moments that sparked his profound love of the music. “Playing Elvin’s music is like going home,” he explains. “My formative years were based on the things that I learned from him, but every musician gets to a point where they realize that your own identity is paramount. It may be difficult to shed some of the history that you’ve lived in your music, but you realize at a certain point that you have to make personal statements, which took me in different directions. So this feels like returning home, and it’s been an emotional journey.”

The Jones tribute album’s first single “E.J.’s Blues” is a strutting, swinging blues that simultaneously marks Moreno’s return to his musical roots and showcases the adept, soulful musicianship of Moreno and his cast of collaborators.

Reflecting on the profound impact Elvin Jones had on him, Moreno said, “This album is a tribute to a man I consider to be my father figure. Elvin gave me a purpose, to live and grow and to be a musician, so this is my way of giving thanks.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sunnan Shares Wistful and Cinematic “Echoes in Time”

Swedish outfit Sunnan can trace their origins through a series of unlikely encounters, including pandemic-era change, a barn with panoramic windows in Sunnanhed and a meeting with a Stockholm rave legend. In many ways the band embodies creative serendipity — and unsurprisingly, their origin story, which feels both inevitable and improbable, echoes through their work.

The band quickly built a reputation with the release of a series of standout singles including “My Love For You,” “Wild Horses,” and “The Sound (Make It Come Back),” their collaboration with Titiyo. 2024’s debut studio album Cinema was released to widespread praise across the Nordics and earned two Swedish Grammy nominations.

Last year’s Cinema Sound System helped propel the Swedish outfit onto the global stage with its three singles receiving heavy radio rotation on Nordic radio stations, received strong DSP support and organic crossover into North American and European markets. The band supported their debut and EP with 20 sold-out dates across the Nordics and the European Union. 

Building upon a growing profile, the Swedish outfit released their highly anticipated sophomore album, Spaghetti Soul last week. The album sees the band further cementing their critically applauded cinematic sound but while blending Italian Spaghetti Western soundtrack-styled grandeur with classic soul –filtered through a decidedly modern lens.

The album includes the previously released “Sail (Lady In Waiting)” and the album’s latest single “Echoes in Time” a widescreen, twangy bit of Morricone soundtrack-tinged soul anchored in a wistful, nostalgic ache while nodding at old timey ballads and Bossa Nova. Much like their previously released material, “Echoes in Time” showcases deft, incredibly gorgeous musicianship and songwriting.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Brooklyn’s Marigny Returns with Punchy, Goth-like “I Grieve”

Marigny is post-punk/heavy rock/goth project of a mysterious Brooklyn-based artist, who blends coldwave textures, heavy analog distortion and dark atmospheres to craft material that’s simultaneously intimate and volatile. Their sound is intentionally analog and physical — loud, low end, corroded textures, cassette tape-like saturation and tension that feels more like a live room recording than a clean, polished digital mix. Thematically, the band’s work explores grief, obsession, addiction, masculinity and spiritual decay through a modern Afro-gothic lens. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about “The Still,” which served as a bold introduction to the project and its sound. The project’s latest single “I Grieve” is a bruising blend of post-punk, industrial, dark wave and goth — with the song arguably being the most decidedly goth-leaning song from the act to date. And while rooted in raw, soulful emotion, “I Grieve,” continues to showcase the artist’s ability to craft punchy, hook-driven material.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Umeå’s Mi Von Ahn Shares Atmospheric “Yet All Drifts”

Over the course of two albums and four EPs, Umeå, Sweden-based singer/songwriter, musician and self-described sound artist Mi von Ahn creates evocative, dreamlike indie rock with intensity and presence that carries a introspective melancholy and a bit of northern Swedish wistful within a lush, dynamic soundscape in which stark open spaces meet inland forests. Her debut album, 2018’s Signals earned a Swedish GAFFA Award nomination for Best Newcomer. And adding to a now-established national profile, she has toured as an opener for The Soundtrack of Our Lives, Ane Brun, Loney Dear, and Christian Kjelvander.

The Umeå-based artist’s third album Delta Veins is slated for a November 6, 2026 release. Co-written and produced alongside Martin Hederos and Anton Sundell, the album sees Von Ahn pushing her sound into a new territory — widescreen and sweeping indie rock with trip-hop and shoegaze-inspired textures. The album’s material moves constantly between the personal and the collective, often without drawing a clear line between them. A song about holding onto an unsustainable relationship is, at the same time, a song about standing beside a burning climate crisis without acting, even while knowing better. Whether a song is about a relationship, identity, or the climate crisis, there’s an undercurrent of searching beneath it.

Delta Veins also marks the first time in the Swedish artist’s career that she has written and sung lyrics in multiple languages with passages in English, Swedish and Sámi woven together throughout the album.

Album single “Yet All Drifts” is a slow-burning tune that eschews conventional verse-chorus-verse song structures in order to let the song’s atmospheric and painterly, shoegazer-inspired textures settle into its own shape, paired with trip-hop-like breakbeats and the Swedish artist’s sultry delivery. Sonically, the result is a song that to my ears seems like a blend of 90s singer/songwriter pop rock like Joan Osbourne‘s “What If God Is One of Us?,” Portishead, Radiohaed and a bit of a A Storm in Heaven-era The Verve to create a song that’s intimate yet expansive, peaceful yet deeply restless, evoking a change that’s felt before they’re seen.

“The song is written from a dreamlike state that can arise when, instead of fighting it, you manage to accept the inevitable change and let yourself drift with it,” says Von Ahn. “On the surface everything is still, but underneath a slow, almost invisible shift is taking place. A sense that we are not victims of the change, we are the change.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Twin Temple Shares Breathtakingly Gorgeous “Nothing Matters”

Formed back in 2017, Twin Temple — married couple Alexandra and Zachary James — are an acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo, who specialize in a new sub-genre and style that they’ve dubbed “Satanic Doo Wop,” which blends their practice of Satanism with a sound that’s influenced by The Platters, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and the like. 

The Los Angeles-based duo have developed for being one of the contemporary scene’s most talked about crossover acts, earning widespread coverage from media outlets like Rolling Stone, NME, Billboard, American Songwriter, Stereogum, Consequence, Revolver, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Loudwire, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and a long list of others, and for being one of the most provocative acts out there right now. Their uncompromising artistic vision routinely sparks much larger and more serious conversations about artistic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of expression, censorship, the role of controversy in art, and on a broader sense, the wider role of art within the cultural landscape.

Now, some of y’all heard of the acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo after Charley Crockett abruptly dropped the band from his tour earlier this year — specifically because of their usage of Satanic imagery. That led to Jack White publicly inviting the band to open for his Los Angeles show back in September. And serendipitously, the duo’s highly-anticipated third album Doomed Lovers will come right on the heels of their latest, and arguably biggest controversy to date. 

Slated for an October 9, 2026 release through their own Pentagrammation Records, the Shooter Jennings-produced Doomed Lovers was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound‘s iconic Studio 3 and marks the acclaimed duo’s boldest chapter to date. 

Born from one of the darkest periods of their personal lives, Doomed Lovers is reportedly their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding upon the cinematic scope of the sound that has won them acclaim while remaining rooted in the timeless sound and traditions of early rock ‘n’ roll, the album is their most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement so far. The album continues the band’s commitment to analog recording while expanding upon their sound with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-member orchestra. Yes, 37!

“We poured everything into this new record that we made with Shooter,” says the acclaimed and controversial duo. “We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could – of course with our dark spin on things.”

The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives. We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life. We started smiling and laughing again. I was becoming alive again. It connected us to why we fell in love with music in the first place and became our most personal album yet.”

The album will include the previously released, “Doomed Lovers,” and “Haunt Me,” as well as the album’s last pre-release single “Nothing Matters.” “Nothing Matters” continues a remarkable run of breathtakingly gorgeous and cinematic material that to my ears at least, sounds a bit like a blend of Patsy Cline with Roy Orbison, anchored by a similar aching sense of loss and grief.

“‘Nothing Matters’ was born out of the bleakest, lowest point of depression and apathy following a devastating loss, functioning as a modern day Gothic lament for a love that refuses to die,” Twin Temple’s Alexandra and Zachary James say. “Channeling a kind of Nihilistic and Byronic romanticism, the song tackles the abject feelings of hopelessness, disorientation, and loss of self that profound grief evokes. We wanted to make something beautiful out of that experience, pairing the tragic narrative weight with the lush, cinematic sweep of a 37-piece orchestra.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Taiwan’s Yufu Shares Euphoric “Side Effects May Include”

Yufu, “The Soulful Gent” is a Taiwanese soul musician, singer/songwriter and producer, whose deep connection to old-school/vintage soul began in childhood and has evolved into a lifelong study of Black American music and the records that have shaped it. As a self-described perpetual student to Black music, he doesn’t attempt to simply reproduced the beloved old-school sound, he approaches the tradition with respect and curiosity, studying everything from songwriting to arrangements, to recording techniques, instruments and the physical character of the classic studios and their equipment.

That philosophy is central to his work. He embraces tape saturation, microphone bleed, room sound, the imperfect timing and the energy created when musicians play in the same room together. His work is also rooted in a deep desire to keep soul music alive as a living, evolving language while building connections between musicians, DJs and listeners across his native Taiwan, Japan, the UK and the wider global soul community.

Drawing from soul, blues. funk, Northern and Latin soul, the Taiwanese artist’s work blends the warmth and imperfections of classic soul recordings with his own contemporary perspective. His full-length debut, last year’s Heal Me Good was released by Dutch label Zip Records to international press attention and radio airplay including Spotify programming and BBC Radio 6 Music — and the album won Best R&B Album at Taiwan’s Golden Indie Music Awards.

“Side Effects May Include” is the Taiwanese artist’s first bit of new material since last year’s Heal Me Good. Sonically, the new single is a euphoric dance floor friendly blend of Northern soul, classic Motown soul and contemporaries like Daptone Records, Big Crown Records and Colemine Records featuring an arrangement of horns, strings, shuffling guitar, Latin percussion, Hammond organ and a big, dynamic drum break beneath Yufu’s remarkably Tom Jones-like vocal.

Thematically exploring the sweet and often irrational symptoms of being hopelessly in love “Side Effects May Include” treats falling in love, much like a potent drug, complete with a series of side effects. In this case, missing that special someone, dancing and singing for no apparent reason and behaving completely out of character. But it’s not from a cynical viewpoint — the song approaches it from a sweet, joyous, deeply human and deeply universal thing. Love can make you act like a dopesick moron, and that’s perfectly normal.

Yufu imagined “Side Effects May Include” being performed inside a soul club in the early 1970s, shaping the production around the feeling of being physically present in that room. And as a result, the recording favors warmth, movement and imperfection over modern polish. The song also represents an ending and a beginning for the Taiwanese artist: It closes the musical world of Heal Me Good while opening a door to whatever coming next.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Vlad Holiday Shares Groovy “By Myself”

Vlad Holiday is a Romanian-born, Nashville-based singer/songwriter and musician, who cut his teeth in the NYC lo-fi scene, building an audience on his own terms. Songs like “So Damn Into You,” “Quit Playing Cool,” and “Phonograph” introduced fans and critics to an artist with a distinct point of view — romantic without being overly sentimental, nostalgic without living entirely in the past. Sonically, his work frequently sees him blending his smoky croon with tape hiss, 60s-styled guitars, 90s hiphop beats and 808 sub ass.

Back in 2024, Holiday released his full-length debut My Favorite Drug. The album saw the Romanian-born, Nashville-based artist delving into dark subject matter with the songs openly talking about low moments in his mental health, substance abuse, the thin line between sanity and insanity and cynical patterns of familial abuse, all to place an element of love into life’s heaviest topics.

Holiday went on to tour alongside frequent collaborators Cage The Elephant and Declan McKenna. He played at Austin City Limits — and he went on his own headlining tours across North America, the UK and European Union. Adding to a breakthrough year for the Romanian-born, Nashville-based artist, he co-wrote tracks on Cage The Elephant’s 2024 effort Neon Pill, including the album’s title track “Neon Pill,” which received a Best Alternative Music Performance Grammy nomination. “Neon Pill,” along with another Holiday co-write “Metaverse” wound up becoming the band’s 11th and 13th Billboard #1 Alternative Airplay radio chart hits.

Since relocating to Nashville, Holiday has made even more of a name for himself as an artist, songwriting and producer. His latest single “By Myself” is his first bit of new material since the release of My Favorite Drug. “By Myself” features dusty trip-hop styled breakbeats, twinkling synth stabs, woozy guitar lines, atmospheric synths and a swaggering groove beneath Holiday’s cool crooning singing about fucking up a relationship — and being a bit proud because his narrator is free from an abusive, dysfunctional person. It’s an odd anthem of self-determination, fueled by heartache.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: A Cat Named Monty Shares Jangling, Hook-Driven “Welcome to Life”

David Jennings is an Aussie-born, Germany-based singer/songwriter and musician, who is an Australian Songwriting Club winner and a two-time Australian Songwriting Association runner-up, who has been a part of the Melbourne music in some fashion since the late 90s as the creative mastermind of A Cat Named Monty, which released six EPs to some critical acclaim.

Since relocating to Germany, A Cat Named Monty features members spread out across the globe. The project’s latest single “Welcome To Life” is a hook-driven tune that brings Blur, The Beatles, The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and New Zealand jangle pop to mind that take a hilarious — yet sobering — look at the difficulties of living in the modern world. Yes, first world problems but problems all the same.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Shabazz Palaces Returns with New Wave-like “Tongue In Chic”

Seattle-born and-based emcee, musician, producer and JOVM mainstay Ishmael Butler has spent the better part of the last three-plus decades, exploring the outer edges of music: In the early late 80s, he co-founded the pioneering, Grammy Award-winning hip-hop trio Digable Planets, who released two landmark albums, 1993’s Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space) and 1994’s Blowout Comb, toured with Sade — and are still touring today. Butler is also the founder and creative mastermind of the JOVM mainstay act Shabazz Palaces, which released the experimental and highly influential debut, 2011’s Black Up. And with Shabazz Palaces, the Seattle-based artist has continued to push sonic and stylistic boundaries over the course of seven albums, including 2014’s Lese Majesty. 

Butler’s exemplary tastes, verve and unique talents have led to collaborations with Flying Lotus, Thundercat, George Clinton, Clipping., Battles, Onoehtirx Point Never, Animal Collective and his own son, Lil Tracy. He has also collaborated with filmmakers Khalil Joseph and Hiro Murai, and design work with Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist and fellow Black Constellation member Nep Sidhu. And with Shabazz Palaces, Butler has toured with Radiohead, TV On The Radio, and Ms. Lauryn Hill. 

The Seattle-based artist’s eighth Shabazz Palaces album, the Butler and Erik Blood co-produced, 10-song It’s a Style Sport is slated for an October 23, 2026 release globally through Sub Pop. The album, which marks the first batch of new material from the JOVM mainstay since the release of sibling mini-albums, 2023’s Robed in Rareness and 2024’s Exotic Birds Of Prey is reportedly a bold, forthright and heavy-hitting album. Throughout the album’s runtime, the Shabazz Palaces creative mastermind compiles what he’s learned from his storied and dense career into a playful, shimmering portal, yet again proving himself an artist of chameleonic ambition, fueled by curiosity, courage and a boundless imagination. 

Recorded at Brooklyn’s Circular Ruin Studios, Lake View Studios and Seattle’s Hall of Justice Studios, the album will feature guest appearances from Marquette Miller, Thaddeus “Thadillac” Turner, Evan Flory-Barnes, Gerald “Tugboat” Turner, Kassa Overall and Carlos Overall. The album was mastered by Warren Defever at Detroit’s Third Man Mastering. 

Its a Style Sport will include the woozy “Ahh World (I Won The Alpha Bet)” and the album’s latest single “Tongue In Chic.” “Tongue In Chic” is an 80s-styled New Wave-meets R&B bop that sounds as though it could have been recorded sometime around Chaka Khan’s 1984 smash hit cover of Prince’s “I Feel For You,” or as part of the Prince/Minneapolis sound while Butler humorously reflects on his dating life: He starts off with a tale of a relationship that quickly got off on a good foot before going quickly awry and controlling. After seeking a new girlfriend with whom he’d do the prerequisite relationship things, he meets a woman who says she’s a chef but hilarious, she doesn’t own utensils and has a messy kitchen. She’s fine as hell; but it ends with some craziness — and the search for another new, girlfriend.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Elisapie’s Ethereal Take on The Cranberries’ “Dreams”

Acclaimed Salluit, QC-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, musician, actor, activist and JOVM mainstays Elisapie‘s fourth album, 2023’s Inuktitut features inventive re-imaginings of songs by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica and more, with the album being an act of cultural re-appropriation that reinvigorates the poetry of these beloved songs by placing them within Inuit traditions.

Through the album’s 10 songs, the acclaimed Montréal-based artist tells her story, while offering its songs as a loving gift to her close knit community. But the album is also a testament to the power and remarkably universality of pop music and an ode to the experiences, memories, places and people, who have shaped us.

Recorded for the CBC, APTN and Netflix original series North of North, “Sinnatuumakka (Dreams)” marks the first bit of new material since 2023’s Inuktitut and sees the acclaimed Inuk artist translating and adapting The Cranberries‘ beloved smash-hit 1992 song “Dreams” into her mother tongue. While retaining the familiar and beloved melody of the original, Elisapie’s rendition of the song is a slightly slowed down, more ethereal take that pulls a yearning, escapist thread out to the forefront.

“It’s a song that really resonates with the Inuit world,” says Elisapie. “In the North, it’s cold, and life isn’t always easy. That’s why dreams take on a special place. They’re a way to escape and imagine something else.“

North of North‘s second season, which includes episodes featuring the acclaimed Iunk artist and her new song will launch globally on Netflix later this fall. Set in the Canadian Arctic, the show’s second season sees Siaja (Anna Lambe) still making bold decisions and even bolder mistakes in her effort to level up her life and prove she’s ready to take charge as winter closes in on the Ice Cove community. “It was very moving to see Siaja’s character open up and dream throughout the episodes,” Elisapie says. “This series allows us to dream, and I think the Inuit need that.”

Elisapie was invited by Red Marrow Media and Northwood Entertainment, North of North‘s production team to take part in the show’s second season, which was filmed earlier this year in Iqaluit, NU and Toronto. In addition to making a cameo, she can be seen performing “Sinnatuumakka (Dreams)” and “Arnaq.”

“During the shoot, there were times when I wasn’t sure if it was reality or fiction,” says Elisapie. “And I was lucky enough to share this experience with my band!”
 
“When we wrapped, Elisapie played a couple more songs just for the crowd so they could enjoy a performance without having to hold back their reactions,” say Stacey Aglok MacDonald and Alethea Arnaquq-Baril, North of North’s co-creators and executive producers, and founders of Red Marrow Media. “She dedicated a song to any residential school survivors in the room, and there wasn’t a dry eye. There are a few hundred Inuit who will carry that experience with them for the rest of their lives, us included.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Quantic Shares Vibey “Subterráneo”

Will Holland is a British-born, New York-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and DJ best known as Quantic. Emerging from the UK’s alternative dance scene of the early 2000s, Holland’s career features work that connects electronic production and beatmaking with soul, funk, jazz, and Latin music through recording, DJ’ing, collaboration and relentless create-digging.

Holland’s relocation to Colombia in 2007 marked a transformative chapter: He immersed himself in the country’s rich musical traditions, which led to collaborations with musicians across Latin America, as well as several different projects including Quantic Soul Orchestra, Flowering Inferno, Combo Bárbaro and Ondatrópica.

Currently based here in New York, Holland continues to combine vintage recording techniques, live musicianship and contemporary production to create music that’s rooted in the past, but specifically made for the dance floor.

Holland’s latest Quantic single “Subterráneo” is his first release on Play It Again Sam since 2024’s Dancing While Falling. “Subterráneo” is a warm, vibey blend of electronic music, melodic house and nu-jazz built with skittering beats, glistening and oscillating synths paired with a driving bass line. Evoking a rainstorm hitting on a window or a roof, “Subterráneo” reminds me a bit of Octo Octa‘s Between Two Selves.

“It brings together disparate fragments that swirl and swarm to create an emotional journey,” Holland says. “Through an organic approach, I wanted to hint at machine elements and human interactions through a collage of arpeggios and drifting sub tones.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Nouvelle Vague’s Breathtakingly Gorgeous Cover of Depeche Mode’s “A Question of Lust” feat. Beth Hirsch

Founded by Marc Collins and the late Olivier Libaux back in 2003, Nouvelle Vague was initially conceived as a one-off tribute to post-punk songwriting in a Bossa nova style. 2004’s self-titled debut, which saw them establish their unique fusion of melancholy post-punk, Bossa nova and French re-interpretational approach, unexpectedly achieved global acclaim. Since then, Nouveau Vague has become a global phenomenon.

Their 10th album, A Date with Depeche Mode is slated for an October 30, 2026 release through Kwaidan Records/[PIAS] Recordings. And as you can probably tell, the album sees the French outfit tackling the work of pioneering British electronic outfit Depeche Mode.

A Date with Depeche Mode will include the previously released “Never Let Me Down Again” feat. Brazilian artist Flavia Coehlo, “Only When I Lose Myself” feat. Mélanie Pain, and the album’s latest single “A Question of Lust” feat. Beth Hirsch. Originally released in 1986, the original is a slow-burning and atmospheric tune that balances entirely on the edge between desire vulnerability. For Nouvelle Vague, there was one choice that felt inevitable to interpret the song — Beth Hirsch, whose voice is an integral part of Air‘s ironic Moon Safari and has been etched into the collective memories of an entire generation.

Hirsch’s imitable vocal, which expresses yearning and vulnerability with an achingly wistful quality, ethereally sways over an acoustic Bossa nova arrangement of guitar and accordion. Simply put, the Nouvelle Vague rendition is a cinematic, breathtakingly gorgeous take.