Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: On Le Ore Shares Punchy “Backroom Deal”

Split between NYC and Nashville, On Le Ore — Jon Moore (vocals, guitar), and longtime Guided by Voices producer and engineer Travis Harrison (drums) — specializes in what they dub mid-fi indie rock that’s unpolished and a bit damaged, anchored around grimy guitars, crooked, off-kilter hooks, blown out melodies and recordings that leave the seams and bolts showing.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the band cites Guided by Voices. Pavement, Sugar, MJ Lenderman, Hotline TNT and Weird Nightmare as influences and sonic references. I’ll leave that one up to y’all. Everyone’s ear is different. Their latest single “Backroom Deal” is a punchy tune that showcases their knack for punchy, off-kilter yet remarkably catchy hooks and rousingly, anthemic, shout-along worthy choruses paired with distorted guitars and equally punchy vocals. And at the core of the song is a soulful, heart-proudly-worn-on-sleeve earnestness.

The accompanying video by Dunkel features a slick collage of old-time stock footage, the digital binary code and fuzzy footage of the band’s Jon Moore playing and singing the song, further emphasizing the song’s gritty nature.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Trentemøller and The Raveonettes’ Sune Rose Wagner Team Up on Stormy “Your Love Walks Alone”

Anders Trentemøller’s self-titled eighth Trentemøller album is slated for a November 13, 2026 release through his In My Room Records. The self-titled album will include the previously released “Terrified” feat. Mew‘s Jonas Bjerre and the album’s latest single “Your Love Walks Alone” feat. The Raveonettes‘ Sune Rose Wagner.

“Your Love Walks Alone” is a stormy touch song featuring Wagner’s imitable delivery expressing despair, confusion, heartache and anger set to a brooding goth-inspired soundscape of scorching industrial-meets-shoegaze like fuzz, thunderclap-like beats. “A depiction of pure love slowly winding down and how it affects you in those moments where you realise you’re being ‘replaced,” Wagner says.

Trentemøller traces this collaboration back to an earlier collaboration: “Ever since Sune sang on my track ‘Deceive,’ we’d been talking about doing another song together. This time I had an instrumental that felt right for his voice, so I sent it over. He loved it, and pretty quickly came back with that great vocal that’s unmistakably Sune / The Raveonettes. With ‘Your Love Walks Alone,’ I feel like he hit the mood of the music perfectly. What I love is how the vocal melody is kind of ‘happy’ in a way, when the lyrics are actually pretty dark. It makes for a good contrast against the more brooding, insistent sound underneath. “

The accompanying video by DACU features brightly colored child-like, hand-drawn animation that captures the sentiment of the song while being simultaneously trippy and menacing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: St. Panther Shares Strutting, Old School-Inspired “OUT ON THE CORNER”

Los Angeles-based Mexican/Colombian producer, singer/songwriter, rapper and multi-instrumentalist Dani Bojorges-Giraldo (they/them) is the creative mastermind behind the critically applauded recording project St. Panther. Bojorges-Giraldo’s previously released work was the soundtrack to the early part of this decade for many folks, but following their departure from the major label network, the Los Angeles-based artist took time to be among their peers, friends and loved ones. 

Last year’s McClenney and Bojorges-Giraldo co-produced EP Strange World featured a defiant, genre-transforming collection of soulful, modern pop songs that narrate and confront the wider climate of uncertainty and oblivion. Thematically, Strange World was as much about Bojorges-Giraldo’ and their world — their village, their people, themselves — but also, the very strange world we inhabit right now. Drawing from soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop and alt-pop the EP’s material sets out to urge for a sense of purpose, security and love admits seemingly universal apathy and chaos. 

The EP featured the EP title track “Strange World,” the old-school Quiet Storm-meets D’Angelo-like “The Deal” and “American Dreams.”

Bojorges-Giraldo’s highly anticipated McClenney co-produced St. Panther full-length debut, East Side Love Story is slated for a November 20, 2026 release through Los Angeles-based label drink sum wtr. East Side Love Story is reportedly an effervescent, soulful set of love songs dedicated to both their hometown and their neighborhood. Work began subconsciously when the rising and acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist started Shazamming songs that their neighbors were playing every day, populating a playlist that they playfully titled “East Side Love Story,” a nod to their cat’s bustling social life. “She’s a stray, literally got her from my neighborhood outside. She has a roster of boyfriends who come to visit her at the door and window. Pretty soon, my life started mirroring hers,” explains Bojorges-Giraldo. East Side Love Story traces seasons of relationships, from the ecstasy of newness to the pitfalls of monogamy, the distance between one another on respective paths, and an evolving understanding of love in its totality.

Coloring their craft with their surrounding neighborhood and culture, the acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist’s full length debut captures a chapter in their life defined by freedom and love. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with McClenney, Bojorges-Giraldo sees the album as a culmination: “I’ve been able to apply my influences and build a world around what my signature is, pulling the best of my performances and musicality, figuring out the place that I want it all to sit.” 

East Side Love Story’s latest single “OUT ON THE CORNER” is a strutting blend of Chicano and Motown-era soul featuring twinkling keys, old-school soul drum fills, a supple bass line and soul/funk guitar stabs beneath Bojorges-Giraldo’s soulful, lullaby-like croon . While showcasing their uncanny knack for pairing catchy hooks with earnest, lived-in lyricism, “OUT ON THE CORNER” details the often complicated and fleeting nature of modern romance with a sweet, old school-inspired charm. Lemme tell y’all, sometimes a sweet love song is what you need when the world is on fire and everything is seemingly full of hopelessness and doom. I say that because life, dear friends, is often about the small moments — especially the seemingly endless process of falling in love, falling out of love, heartbreak and repeat.

“I was pacing around my apartment singing the ‘oo’s’ and quickly picked up my Cordoba to try and sound out the chords,” Bojorges-Giraldo says of OUT ON THE CORNER’S creative process. “That demo was like an ear worm, it lent all the space for a Motown approach but we still needed a modern touch. After reworking it with Chris (McClenney) I called in Brian Gazo to track some “oo’s” on top of mine. There’s these isolated moments that crack a whole album open, hearing Brian’s first takes was exactly that. By the end of that session his vocals were on four songs on the album.” 

They continued: “What was important to me was capturing this particular moment in time on a record. I think we’ll look back on records like this and be able to appreciate that from Boyle Heights to Long Beach we were a movement of brown artists, the next generation of the music we grew up loving. To be able to have him across the album felt just right, like a family photo that will be passed down for generations.”

Directed by St. Panther and Khari Cousins, the accompanying video for “OUT ON THE CORNER” follows the acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist through their neighborhood and hometown, lovingly capturing its soul and character, as well as the warmth and kindness of its people.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Super Plage Shares Breezy “MINI CLUB”

Jules Henry is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, electronic music producer and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed, JOVM mainstay recording project and Super Plage. Founded back in 2019, Super Plage sees Henry crafting slickly produced, dance floor friendly electro pop that draws from house and nu-disco. He frequently collaborates with local French Canadian artists to create a playful, fun-loving and escapist universe, where it feels good to party. 

Since 2019, Henry has released a handful of albums including 2023’s Magie á minuit, which received an ADISQ Félix Award-nomination for Electronic Album of the Year. Building upon a growing profile, Henry has made a run of both the provincial and international festival circuits, playing sets at Francos de Montréal, FME and Festival d’été de Québec, SXSW, Wide Days and others. He has opened for Miel de Montagne, Juilen Granel, Bon Entendeur, MYD and more. 

Last year’s GROSSE MAISON featured a sleek and daring blend of house, disco and French touch anchored around catchy, downright funky grooves, much like on album single “Tip Top.” 

The French Canadian JOVM mainstay’s fourth album MINI CLUB was just released today through his longtime label home, Lisbon Lux. MINI CLUB sees Henry solidifying his place within Québec’s electronic music scene while bridging the project’s multiple sonic identities throughout its history — the electro pop of MINI CLUB track “PARIS” the house music of last year’s GROSSE MAISON and a decided shift towards tech house of “SÉOUL” feat. Zéa Calla. Rooted in synth and digital driven textures, there is more than enough room for organic textures throughout — including everyday sounds recorded in the studio and on Montréal’s streets. The album’s material sonically is suited for both the club and chilling in the park, but lyrically, it’s rooted in observations and thoughts on everyday life.

MINI CLUB is arguably one of Henry’s most collaborative efforts to date — fellow JOVM mainstay Virignie B.; Zéa Calla, a childhood friend, who he reconnected with; and Hawa B have contributed both vocals and songwriting to the album.

The album includes the previously released “POOL PARTY” featuring longtime collaborator Virginie B. and the album’s latest single, album title track “MINI CLUB.” “MINI CLUB” is a club and lounge friendly that nods a bit at Larry Levan-era house with a looping whistled melody, twinkling and bubbling synths, wobbling bass and skittering beats beneath Henry’s ethereal cooing and crooning.

Directed by Henry, the recently released accompanying video follows Henry as he’s barbecuing in a Montréal park and lounging by a pool — all while playing the song. With fall in full effect in the Northern Hemisphere, the video and the song are a fond reminder of summer — and of summers to come.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s Black Doldrums Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Echoes”

London-based post punk trio Black Doldrums founding duo Sophie Landers (vocals, drums) and Kevin Gibbard (vocals, guitar) with newest member Matt Holt (bass) — will be releasing their third studio album Repetition Compulsion on November 13, 2026 through Fuzz Club. Deriving its title from a psychological concept first explored and named by Freud, the recently announced album is the final part of the London-based band’s State of Mind Trilogy, a three-album exploration of the psychological forces that shape identity, memory and human connection which began with their debut, 2022’s Dead Awake and 2024’s In Limerence. At the heart of all of their work is the creative and personal relationship between the band’s founding duo of Gibbard and Landers, whose relationship forms the emotional foundation for the forthcoming album — and the lens through which its themes are explored. As Gibbard explains, “These songs are either about Sophie, for Sophie, or inspired by her.” 

Thematically, the 11-song album reportedly sees the London-based trio exploring how repetitive patterns and behaviors shape intimate relationships, collective memory, politics and wellbeing in a way that’s both deeply personal and quietly universal. Through evocative songwriting and cinematic production, Gibbard says “the album invites listeners to confront the echoes of the past while questioning whether those patterns can ever truly be broken.” 

Inspired by 80s gothic post punk, synth pop, darkwave and the film scores of John Carpenter and Vangelis, Black Doldrums build on the emotional and sonic foundations of these influences to create something cinematic, modern and completely their own. Each of Repetition Compulsion‘s 11-songs has been crafted with intention, with the band balancing darkness with beauty to create a sod that’s melodic, broodingly atmospheric and with emotional depth. Listeners should expect to hear layers of analog synths, chorus pedal-soaked guitar and driving rhythms paired with an expansive production that gives each arrangement a sense of massive, cinematic scale. Rather than relying on nostalgia, the album presents post-punk as a living, ever-evolving form, with the band embracing atmosphere without sacrificing melody, introspection without loss of momentum and darkness without abandoning hope. 

Repetition Compulsion will feature the previously released “Repetition” “Compulsion” and the album’s latest single “Echoes.” “Echoes” is broodingly cinematic tune that’s seemingly a blend of Joy Division, Cocteau Twins and contemporaries like JOVM mainstays PLOHO and Molchat Doma as Gibbard’s remarkably Ian Curtis-like delivery glides over angular guitar attack, a relentless mototrik groove and glistening and arpeggiated synth figures.

Written in one go while the band was on tour, “Echoes” captures a rare moment of inspiration on the road. “This track was finally completed while touring and playing a show in Belgrade, Serbia, where the city’s warmth, creativity and discussions about local history inspired the song’s lyrics,” Black Doldrums’ Kevin Gibbard says. “Our time spent there won’t be forgotten. It’s one of those special moments and opportunities you wouldn’t have got if we weren’t in a band. I’ve never written a song whilst on tour before. Realistically, it never happens, but this one came out in one go, sat in the van.”

Directed by the band’s Sophie Landers, and filmed by Landers and Gibbard, the accompanying video for “Echoes” features the band playing in a hauntingly goth-like forest, and an abandoned, graffiti-strewn Cold War-era structure and the members of the band broodingly posing for the camera. It harkens back to the imagery of MTV‘s early days.

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Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lisa LeBlanc Shares Strutting and Funky “Too Many Cooks”

Acclaimed Rosaireville, NB-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Acadian icon Lisa LeBlanc will be releasing her sixth album Patchwork on February 5, 2027 through Bonsound. The roots of the album stretch from Moncton, New Brunswick to Lafayette, LA, two cities separated by about 2,200 miles/3,5000 kilometers, a distance that LeBlanc traveled in her van during a two month road trip. In the years leading up to the recording of Patchwork, Leblanc also spent time in Corsica, where she was struck by the rugged landscapes and in Ireland, where the cliffs and traditional music festivals brought her a new creative spark.

While nature plays a significant role for the album, LeBlanc channels her long-held love for 60s and 70s folk and rock to create a lush and rich tapestry of melodies, harmonies and grooves. The album also sees her drawing inspiration from traditional Cajun and Acadian music. The result is a sound that’s original, timeless — and singular. The album’s title is a nod to her grandmother, who, for over 50 years, has been making quilts meticulously from fabric scapes that weren’t originally meant to be sewn together.

Thematically, much like a travel journal, the new album offers observations of everyday life set to music with both sensitivity and humor.

Patchwork will include the previously released, rollicking “Whole Lotta Talkin‘” and the album’s second and latest single, the LeBlanc, Benoit Morier and Eric Heigle co-produced “Too Many Cooks.” A strutting and seamless blend of disco country, folk and Muscle Shoals-era soul “Too Many Cooks” may arguably the most playful and funky song LeBlanc has released to date, featuring contributions from Alabama Shakes‘ Ben Tanner and Dr. John‘s and Social Distortion‘s Ben Alleman on keys and piano; Sébastian Michaud on brass; Les Hôtesses d’Hilaire‘s Mico Roy on guitar; and Maxime Gosselin on drums. Based on the idiomatic phrase “too many cooks in the kitchen . . .,” “Too Many Cooks” points out what would happen when you’d have too many cooks in the kitchen: indecision, confusion, arguments, some sabotage, a wildly disgusting, poorly cooked meal and pissed off dinner guests.

“The music video for ‘Too Many Cooks’ is inspired by a reality cooking show where contestants host the other participants in their homes,” explains LeBlanc. “I’m competing against little mischievous puppets who are trying to sabotage my chances to win. Based on the turn of phrase ‘Too many cooks in the kitchen,’ it’s a quirky, kinda funky, kinda country fun tune!”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video Helena Deland Shares Shimmering “Tip of My Tongue”

2020’s debut studio album, Someone New, which was released by Luminelle Recordings introduced Montréal-based singer/songwriter and musician Helana Deland as a new and resonant voice to both the local and national indie scenes. She explored new soundscapes by teaming up with fellow Montréaler Ouri in the collaborative project Hildegard, which released two albums, 2021’s self-titled debut and 2024’s Jour 1596. And adding to a growing profile, Deland has collaborated with Men I Trust, JPEGMAFIA, Jonah Yano, Sam Evian, claire rousay and a lengthy list of others. During a remarkably busy period, Deland released her acclaimed sophomore solo album, 2024’s Goodnight Summerland through Chivi Chivi.

After opening for Weyes Blood, Andy Shauf, Connan Mockasin, Soccer Mommy and Iggy Pop, Deland supported her sophomore album with touring across North America and Europe.

Her highly anticipated third album, Eternity Shrugs is slated for a January 22, 2027 release through Chivi Chivi. Produced by Deland with longtime bandmates Francis Ledoux and Alexandre Larin, as well frequent collaborators Lysandre Ménard and Cedric Martel, Eternity Shrugs was recorded in rural Québec in bursts over four seasons. Piano, bass, organ, viola and woodwinds gather around her vocal and guitar in patient arrangements anchored by finely textured percussion. The result are songs that feel sparse one moment and subtly ornate the next. Deland imagines the album’s palette in browns — wood, leather, smoke. Warm and inhabited, the music never entirely settles.

Eternity Shrugs will include the previously released “How Do You Like Me Now,” and the album’s latest single “Tip of My Tongue.” “Tip of My Tongue” is a shimmering, dream pop-like tune featuring Deland’s breathy and expressive delivery floating over an vibey, autumnal arrangement of jangling acoustic guitar, bursts of shimmering synths, a gently chugging rhythm section driven by a simple yet propulsive drum pattern. But at its core is something left unsaid, an inner conversation between people with an intimate connection that has become a bit awkward yet still deeply familiar.

“I’m thinking of a long-awaited, momentous run-in, the kind that has kept a part of the mind alert,” Deland says. “Maybe you need to privately navigate how up-to-date on the other person’s life you’ve remained since the last time you spoke, or maybe you know a former version of them so well that the present-day one feels entirely, surprisingly familiar. The song was arranged with that feeling of familiarity in mind, like something that has been on the tip of my tongue for a long time.”

Directed by Jodi Heartz and Alex Blouin, the accompanying video for “Tip of My Tongue” is a dreamily surreal scenario that features Deland and her bandmates playing cards on a Montréal rooftop at a table set for 5. We see Deland as she delicately slides between both sides of the table, glancing at her hand of cards.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: AN_NA Shares Glitchy Visual for Seething “Too Much”

French-born, Montréal-based married couple and electronic music duo AN_NA formed over three decades ago. And over the course of their lengthy careers, they’ve used their experiences within electronic music, industrial and experimental music scenes to create a unique sound that sees them frequently experimenting with different styles and genres. Their long-held penchant for experimentation has given them the space to evolve as artists, while keeping them open to new ideas and influences that they readily incorporate into their own songwriting approach. 

If you’ve worked in the music industry long enough, you’ll recognize that surveying longer than a few seconds in a hyper-competitive and often cutthroat industry is extremely difficult. But for the Montréal-based duo, they’ve credited their longevity to being true to their art — and to making music that they’re passionate about. 

“Too Much,” is the French-born, Canadian-based duo’s latest single — and the first since the release of 2024’s sophomore album More Pills. Arguably one of the more confrontational songs of the duo’s catalog to date, “Too Much” is a seething song, featuring propulsive, tweeter and woofer rattling, industrial thump and scorching synth oscillations beneath an unhinged Nicola Kuperus-like vocal performance that’s defiant, furious and paranoid within a turn of a phrase. 

While being a club banger for a dystopian age that’s inching ever so much closer to the apocalypse, “Too Much” as the duo explains finds them moving a bit closer to their punk roots. “Having lost none of our rage, ‘Too Much’ explores, without embellishment, the questions surrounding violence.”

The accompanying video for “Too Much” features the duo performing the song in a darkened club with hot, analog/VHS fuzz and glitch that undulates with the song’s propulsive thump.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Shudder To Think Shares Atmospheric and Intimate “Release The Ball”

Back in 2024 Shudder To Think — currently Craig Wedren (vocals), Nathan Larson (guitar), Clint Walsh (guitar), Jherek Bischoff (bass) and Adam Wade (drums) — celebrated the 30th anniversary of their groundbreaking 1994 effort, Pony Express Record, their Epic Records debut, which followed several releases on Dischord Records. 

After the initial release of Pony Express Record, the band dove into the world of scoring films and creating music for soundtracks with the 1998 releases of Jesse Peretz’s First Love, Last Rites, Lisa Cholodenko’s High Art and Todd Haynes’ Velvet Goldmine. Shudder to Think’s Wedren and Larson have gone to be prolific film and television with Wedren working on YELLOWJACKETS, Wet Hot American Summer, School of Rock, Laurel Canyon and more; and Larson working on Our Idiot Brother, The Skeleton Twins, Juliet, Naked, the High Fidelity TV series and a list of others. 

Last year, the band made their first live performances in over a decade and released the “Thirst Walk”/”Playback” 7 inch, which drew on the band’s classic, beloved sound — melodic, unpredictable and unmistakably their own. The 7 inch vinyl sold out quickly and was repressed for the band’s most recent run of live dates. And if you’ve been frequenting this site, you’d recall that the band recently released the three-song Who Sent You EP, the first new effort from the band in almost 30 years. The EP includes the previously released, semi-autobiographical EP title track ““Who Sent You,” their cover of Depeche Mode’s “Something To Do” off 1984’s Some Great Reward and the EP’s third and final single “Release The Ball.”

“Release The Ball” is a stark, atmospheric tune built around a looping, metronomic-like guitar figure, bursts of caterwauling synths and a metronomic drum patterns beneath Craig Wedren’s yearning delivery.

“Craig had a little looping guitar figure inspired by Arthur Russell,” the band says. ” He threw the idea down so as not to forget it, sang a mostly-gibberish vocal, and sent it to the band as something that could be turned into something. But Adam was like ‘no, leave it! It’s cool.’ So we added some rhythm and texture to the demo, served with love.”

Directed by the band’s Craig Wedren, the accompanying black and white video reflects the song’s stark, intimate nature, featuring live footage of the band projected onto a glittering disco ball.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Allegories Return with Ethereal “Glorious Vanity”

Canadian experimental pop duo and JOVM mainstays Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — just released their newest album, By accident, On purpose on this past Friday.

The album includes ““Honestly, that’s enough honesty” “They’ll Never Suspect Us” “Pure Comedy” and the album’s latest single “Glorious Vanity.” Arguably, one of By accident, On Purpose‘s most minimalist and ethereal songs, “Glorious Vanity” serves as one of the more extreme examples of the JOVM mainstay’s experimental creative process with only the title remaining from the initial composition. The result is song that’s a hauntingly eerie, slow-burning, half-remembered dream rooted in palpable yearning.

The song captures the duo’s willingness to abandon a predetermined designation that largely came to define the album. Rather than ruthlessly potting their original idea, the duo allowed instinct and experimentation to dictate what the song needed to become, crafting a weightless entry point into the album.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s DONALDA Share a Glitchy, Politically-Charged Banger

Montréal-based electronic dance music duo DONALDA — Florence Lafontaine and Olivier Martin-Fréchette — derive their project’s name from the name given to the first women admitted to college in Québec in the late 19th century, and is a nod to the fictional character introduced in Claude-Henri Grignon’s 1933 novel Un homme et son péché, who, for several generations, embodied the consequences of patriarchy. 

Lafontaine and Martin-Fréchette both have an academic background in digital, contemporary mixed-media and instrumental composition, as well as in jazz interpretation. Inspired by UK garage, dubstep, left field bass and other British electronic music sub-genres as well as the queer nightlife scene, the duo take a pedagogical approach to music in order to deconstruct the boundaries of musical genres. While getting people onto the dance floor is their ultimate goal, they also seek to spark musical curiosity among their audience, something that is at the core of their inclusive, unifying philosophy. 

Through composition, sound design and creative coding, the Montréal-based duo tap into their wide-ranging experiences to bring every stage of DONALDA’s creative process to life. And fittingly, their versatility imbued their sound with a coherent and deeply personal artistic identity rooted in a celebration of diversity and inclusion, freedom and the French language. 

Earlier this year, the duo signed to Bonsound. And since then, French Canadian outfit have released “C FOU,” “C BEN D’VALEUR” and their latest single “C CHER.” Translated into English as “It’s expensive,” “C CHER” is one-part footwork, one-part Larry Levan/Chicago-styled house and one-part glitchcore with wobbling bass that references Daniel Lanois’ 1989 song “O Marie,” which focused on the grueling, back-breaking labor of French Canadians who used to work in Ontario’s tobacco fields while also being a critique of the frantic pace of capitalism and its physical and psychological effects. The result is a song that turns collective physical and mental exhaustion into a visceral, deeply universal anthem — and is both a cry of frustration and a call to question a broken system that hinders individual and collective fulfillment.

Directed by Cori & Zacksta, the accompanying visualizer features the French Canadian duo making beats, brushing their teeth, stopping a bloody nose, making beats and hanging out with VHS video glitch and in heat mapped-style footage. It’s as trippy and high energy as the song it accompanies.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Total Fucking Darkness Shares Yearning, Pop Gem “This Is The Last Time”

Electronic music outfit and JOVM mainstays Total Fucking Darkness features: 

Over the past 18 months or so, the trio have released a handful of standalone singles, including “Desolation Boys,” “Take It Easy,” “Give Me Everything You Own” “Horizontal Rain” and “Beaten to Write.” Their latest single “This Is The Last Time” is glistening sophistipop-meets-80s New Wave-meets New Order-like tune anchored around what may arguably be the most melodic and the most earnest and achingly oversized yearning song of the trio’s growing catalog.

Sonically, “This Is The Last Time” sees the JOVM mainstays looking backward to move forward. Campbell, Ramsey and McFall have had a long-held obsession with late 1980s and early 1990s electronic music, and the new single pushes that fixation towards its biggest pop-leaning instincts. There aren’t software shortcuts hiding beneath the surface either. “No plug-ins, anywhere. This track is all analog, baby.”

When asked what inspired it, Total Fucking Darkness’ Stephen Ramsey offers a characteristically economic answer, “New Order.”

“This Is The Last Time” arrived with similarly little ceremony. Ramsay had barely made it through the instrumental once before Torquil Campbell had the lyrics ready. “It may as well be called ‘Real Time’ because Torq wrote this in real time,” Ramsay explains. “By the time I played him the instrumental once, he had written the lyrics.”

“‘This Is The Last Time” is about the point where letting go becomes forward motion, following whatever dream remains, committing to it completely, and accepting that the only sensible response to uncertainty is to set your heart on fire — and see what survives.

“Every band says their latest music is the best thing they’ve ever done,”the band’s Stephen Ramsay says. “It’s obviously cliché at this point and therefore categorically untrue in almost all cases, but I’m telling you, this is the best song we’ve written.”

The accompanying video features edited footage from some movie that follows two dogs, who are in love. It’s adorable.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Normal Bias Share Surreal Visual for Thumping, Club Banger “Soft Power”

Currently split between New York and Atlanta, electro pop duo Normal Bias — Matt W.(vocals) and Chris C. (synths) — are a self-described “pump and dump scheme, mining the most bloodthirsty parts of decades of electronic music and striping it for parts” while describing their sound and approach as “equal parts techno synth pop and ruthless venture capital.” The duo have supported their recorded output — 2022’s self-titled EP and 2024’s Kingdom Come — with shows and touring with Nitzer Ebb, Boy Harsher, Nuovo Testamento, High Functioning Flesh and Phase Fatale. Adding to a growing reputation in the electronic music scene, the band is currently on tour with Spike Hellis, who has performed and collaborated with Nitzer Ebb, Boy Harsher, Pixel Grip, Buzz Kull, Nuovo Testamento, and more.

The duo’s sophomore album Ways of Keeping Clean will be released next year through DKA Records. Ways of Keeping Clean‘s first single “Soft Power” is an EBM and goth-styled banger built with thumping, wall-rattling beats, walls of glistening synths, razor sharp hooks paired with Matt W’s sultry Dave Gahan/Michael Hutchence-like vocals. Sonically seeming to channel early Depechde Mode, the song as the do explains “confronts the numbing effects of propagandized multimedia addiction that looms over the modern world and enables the worst instincts of our leaders and institutions, and leads us further into nowhere and nothing.”

Directed by Logan Devlin, the accompanying video for “Soft Power” is a sleek blend of live performance, stop-motion amination and Dali-esque landscapes with bursts of VHS glitch. While watching it, I thought of So and Us-era Peter Gabriel and Pet Shop Boys — but with a mix of mischief and menace.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rhythm Scholar Remixes Gorillaz’s “Clint Eastwood”

Over the course of this site’s 16+ year history, I’ve managed to spill a lot of virtual ink covering the ridiculously prolific New York-based producer, DJ, remixer and JOVM mainstay Rhythm Scholar. During that period, the long-time JOVM mainstay has carefully built a nationally and internationally recognized profile for slickly produced, crowd-pleasing mashups and remixes of some of the most beloved songs ever written and recorded.

So do y’all want to feel extremely old? Gorillaz’s landmark self-titled album was released 25 years ago. And to celebrate the occasion, the JOVM mainstay has given the Damon Albarn-led project’s breakthrough single “Clint Eastwood,” his unique remix treatment. The Rhythm Scholar Beatslinger remix places Albarn and Del The Funky Homosapien‘s vocals within a dizzying and mind-bending array of samples including Ice Cube and Da Lench Mob.

Visually, the accompanying video features footage from Clint Eastwood-era Spaghetti Westerns, Yo Gabba Gabba, The Kinks, footage of a young Jane Goodall in the field, Donkey Kong, the original video for “Clint Eastwood,” Dirty Harry, old-timey cartoons and a lot more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays L’Eclair Share Dubby “Excelsior”

Bulgarian-born, Geneva-based brothers Stef (guitar, keys) and Yavor Lilov (drums) were shaped in a myriad of unseen ways by the centuries-old folk music that filtered through their daily lives. It helped mold their creative spirit and inspired them to make music together at a young age — and that unique and intuitive alchemy has been a foundation of their acclaimed, JOVM mainstay act L’Eclair, which they formed a decade ago.

Their newest EP, Echo is slated for a November 6, 2026 release through Innovative Leisure. Self-produced by Stef and Yavor Lilov, Echo EP reportedly finds the acclaimed Swiss outfit once again pushing their endlessly elastic approach to rhythm, texture and groove while continuing to occupy their own peculiar corner of the dance floor. where hypnotic repetition gives way to unexpected detours, locked-in rhythms collide with warped electronics, and vintage textures meet a modern sense of space. The result is another playful, exploratory chapter from a band that has spent the better part of a decade proving that groove can be both a destination and a way of getting wonderfully, deliriously lost.

The EP also introduces some new additions to the studio lineup — James Iwa (bass), Panji Bharata (synth) and Eduardo Silva Fuentes (percussion).

Echo EP‘s first single “Excelsior” has been played during live sets over the past year, and has quickly proven itself to be a party anthem. And that’s not surprising because “Excelsior” is a sleek blend of drum ‘n’ bass, footwork, dub, funk and jazz fusion with chopped up synths, anchored by their unerring knack for hypnotically mind-bending grooves. Sonically, the new single continues on a somewhat similar thread as 2021’s Confusions and last year’s CLOUD DRIFTER but while seeing the JOVM mainstays actively pushing their sound and approach in new directions to find new ways to make the music hit harder and the groove deeper.

L’Eclair explain, “‘Excelsior’ was one of the first tracks we wrote after the release of Cloud Drifter. Post album release, we were motivated to push toward a new sound—something sharper and more direct, finally bringing the raw, wild energy of our live shows together with our modern approach to production. That’s how ‘Excelsior’ was born. It’s the fastest L’Eclair song to date and pays homage to a main influence of ours: dub music. We took the classic stepper rhythm and made it our own, layering in 303s, fuzzed-out guitars, and a cinematic bridge that keeps building and shifting until the very end. For us, the track feels like a manifesto: L’Eclair is back, with a new sound built to hit harder, travel further, and fill bigger rooms.”

Directed by Hessed Porras, the accompanying video for “Excelsior” flashing bolts of light, computerized numbers, dancing silhouettes and psychedelic imagery reflecting the song’s propulsive, constantly shifting nature.