Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bodywash Shares Dreamy, 90s Alt-Rock Inspired “Lapsung”

Montréal-based JOVM mainstays Bodywash — Chris Steward and Rosie Long Decter — will be releasing their third album, Laughing at Noise on November 20, 2026 through Light Organ. The album reportedly finds the duo taking stock of the ambivalent feelings that have gathered behind them over the past decade of their professional music careers: Steward and Long Decter, who started playing together in a dorm room practice space while at university are now in their early 30s. And in that time, the city that nurtured their creative expressive has become a decidedly harsher place. Rents rise as abounded properties known locally as brownfields are transformed into new developments and pricey real estate; DIY spaces wither in structural shadow; summer is hazier and heavier.

Laughing at Noise doesn’t indulge in nostalgia or cynicism — rather, it sees the duo sorting through what it means to grow older and keep on with both wariness and wisdom 2023’s I Held The Shape While I Could was swirling, elegant and elastic, but as they began writing new material, the duo found themselves pulled towards a more stripped-back approach. Steward was enamored with acoustic guitar and Long Decor was writing on guitar and bass rather than on keys.

The songs that would eventually comprise their third album are much more playful and worn-in, and the overall sound of the album follows. It’s a bit rougher around the edges, seeing the JOVM mainstays trading an adherence to fidelity for a looser, nosier sound that gradually developed over months of experimentation.

The duo produced the album over the course of a year at Autoland Audio in Montréal’s Parc-Ex neighborhood and enlisted Asher Gould-Murtagh for mixing duties. Sonically, the album further cements their unique blend of shoegaze and dream pop but with a scrappier 80s indie rock sensibility in tone and point of view, seemingly nodding at the likes of Elliott Smith and Kim Gordon, complete with a dialing up of distortion and fuzziness.

But the album is rooted in a Montréal perspective — a point of view, along with its melodic sensibilities that buoys it all from being overly world-weary. Long Decter says that she might call Laughing at Noise, the band’s “Montréal album.” The album embodies the perceptive on home that can only come with time. Steward adds, ” “The longer you stay somewhere, the more you become the yardstick against which everything is measured.”

Laughing at Noise’s first single “Lapsang” is a seamless — and downright effortless — blend of dream pop, indie folk and 90s alt rock featuring swirling synths, strummed acoustic, glitchy feedback beneath Steward’s dreamy delivery and their uncanny melodic and harmonic sensibility. At one point Steward sings “I took the bus down the bike lane” — a snow globe-like image of the city’s uniquely charming and unruly frustrations — before reflecting “I’ve lived around here for a long time.”

Steward explainss, “‘Lapsang’ is an ode to Montreal’s Little Italy neighborhood and the years I spent there, waiting for the 55 bus. It’s named after my favourite, impossibly smokey blend of tea, which has the most sing-song of names: Lapsang Souchong. The riff and verse were written during an ice storm, where the resulting power outage forced me to write most of the song without a computer. The frozen tree tendrils looked a lot like the leaves of the tea I was brewing, prompting a working title that would never be changed. Later, Rosie and I would record separate melodies for the chorus in the studio, only to realise they could be woven together seamlessly.”

Directed by Evangelos Desborough, the accompanying video for “Lapsung” follows an Elvis impersonator as he amps himself for a gig at a community center/VFW. But throughout the gig, he seems woefully out of place with the guests not paying much attention to him. We then see the Elvis impersonator on the Montréal Métro, walking home and lost in his own melancholy. Some of the locations are familiar, including one that looks like Rue Sherbrooke near I think Rue St. Denis.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Rousingly Anthemic, Arena Rock Friendly “Hand To The Flame”

Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays GIFT — TJ Freda (vocals, guitar, production), Jessica Gurewitz (synths, vocals, guitar), Kallan Campbell (bass), Justin Hrabovsky (synths, guitar) and Gabe Camarano (drums) — will be releasing their third album, the TJ Freda and Teddy Mars co-produced Frenzy For The Thill on January 15, 2027 through Captured Tracks.

The JOVM mainstays began in earnest during the pandemic with the band’s Freda holed up in Brooklyn building the lush layers of what would become the band’s 2022 full-length debut, Momentary Presence. Both Momentary Presence and it’s follow-up, 2024’s Illuminator saw the band blending various strains of psychedelic music — krautrock, New Wave, electronic music and shoegaze — while cataloging Freda’s ongoing battles with panic attacks, frequently seeking to counter anxiety with transcendence. However, before the creation of GIFT’s third album, TJ Freda found that particular metaphorical drug wasn’t working.

The tours to support Illuminator had left Freda ragged and burned out. When a friend offered to let him stay at their Los Angeles home for two months, it seemed — at the time — to be a perfect way to decompress, to take time and write songs for other artists, and to put GIFT to the side for a bit. However, Freda arrived in Los Angeles as firefighters put out the final fires of early last year, to a house full of ash and not much else than the instruments he brought him. Moved by the renewal and resilience he saw in Angelenos coming together in the wake of the wildfires, the GIFT frontman suddenly felt a creative outpouring.

New GIFT songs arrived much more angst-ridden than in the past, yet not within their own sense of release. For the GIFT frontman, the songs were vehicles to ask the big, existential questions: Now, in his 30s, had watched friends settle down, but he found he was not doing searching. “Making Frenzy For The Thrill was partially about exploring the balance of living as an artist without disappearing into it,” Freda explains. From despondence, Freda emerged with a revitalized sense of creative purpose and direction.

Freda found himself gravitation towards grittier, angstier inspirations including 90s alt-rock, grunge and brasher iterations of electronic music. Combined with the band having become a tight, deeply connected unit honed by rigorous touring. Freda wanted to create something more visceral and collaborative. And as a result, Frenzy For The Thrill may arguably be the most-band orientated album of their catalog to date, anchored around the sound of five musicians diving into the madness together with an “one-for-all, all-for-one” sort of approach.

While adopting much of the ethos and structure of dance music, the album reportedly harnesses the energy the immediate energy the band cultivated onstage, while also incorporating more of their individual personalities and instincts in the overall arrangements and songwriting, Frenzy For The Thrill is anchored in far-seeing melodies and synth textures the band has become known for, while paired with what may be the most muscular performances to date.

Lessons are learned by the end of the album, including a soft of hard-won self-acceptance on the other side of the album’s violence, a healthier, more balanced life after staring into the void. “We’re always looking for resolutions, but life isn’t like that,” Freda concludes. “Frenzy For The Thrill is about still being in love with the chase knowing we might not find answers on the other side. This is the sound of us crashing headlong into the unknown.” 

Frenzy For The Thrill’s first single “Hand To The Flame'” is a seamless blend of fuzzy grunge and shoegaze-inspired riffs, dance punk and post-punk-like four-on-the-floor and glistening synth arpeggios paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. Seemingly nodding at Mellon Collie and The Infinite Sadness-era Smashing Pumpkins, “Hand To The Flame” may arguably be the JOVM mainstay outfit’s most ambitious, most arena rock friendly songs they’ve written and released to date.

Taking some inspiration from the hubris parable of the story of Icarus, fire became a crucial organizing image for the GIFT frontman as he considered the border between ambition and ego, the pitfalls of obsession and the idea of cleansing one’s past by letting it all go up in smoke. “‘Hand To The Flame’ is holding onto passion, and what makes us human while the world falls apart. Desperately chasing passion in a passionless world,” Freda explains. “Like charging full speed towards something you know will eventually hurt you. Repeatedly putting your hand in the flame with the same outcome, knowing it will always be the same outcome but hoping it will be different.  There’s romance in the chase, regardless of whether or not its going to hurt when you get to the end.”

Directed by Sydney VillacortaBuer, the accompanying video for “Hand To The Flame” is decidedly 90s inspired — and perhaps takes cues from Hole’s Celebrity Skin album art: The video is split between the band wandering around the smokey embers of a smoldering fire and dancing around an enormous bonfire, conjuring something ancient and primitive.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Locust Shares Yearning “Love Stays”

Mark Van Hoen is a London-born and based electronic music artist, who has written, recorded and released music with his best-known project Locust, with Autocreation and under his own name. Originally influenced by Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream and others, Van Horn’s music career started in earnest back in 1993 hen he signed with  Belgian-based label R&S. His initial releases as Locust saw him using vintage analog synthesizers and tape recorders. But as his sound moved towards an increasingly vocal orientated approach in the late 1990s, he also began releasing material under his own name. 

Van Hoen also collaborated with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead in Black Hearted Brother, a project that released their debut Stars Are Our Home in 2013. 

The London-born and-based electronic music artist’s latest Locust album. the 10-song, Spectral + was released last week through TODO Records. The album follows significant anticipation from fans of the project since Van Hoen assembled a new live band featuring musician and KCRW/NTS Radio DJ Olive Kimoto (vocals, keys), Derek Mabra (guitar) and Jaelyn Valero (drums). The Locust live band played their first shows last year, the project’s first live shows since opening for Massive Attack back in the 1990s. And since then, the project has fleshed out and road-tested the material, which would eventually comprise Spectral + – with some portions of the material developed further onstage. “We’re establishing this identity as a live band — we’ve really bonded, all really good friends, all rooting for it,” Locust creative mastermind Mark Van Hoen says. “People can see we’re a tight band, they’re not hired hands.”

The albums’s material moves between oceanic drone and pop songcraft, threading orchestral stings and understated guitars through Van Hoen’s signature synth work. The seems him working with the sound that helped create IDM in the 90s while finding new shapes to move in.  “This record contains a broad spectrum of songs that are an assimilation of my influences and my own earlier music,” Van Hoen says. ” It’s contemplative, sometimes melancholy, sometimes abrasive and pastoral.” The album’s tile reflects the sheer variation, the range of color across the album’s songs.

“Olive Kimoto (vocals, keyboards) instigated all this.,” Van Hoen says of his collaborations with Kimoto. “I was playing a solo show in September 2024, and she came to that – she had been running a club called Heaven or Los Angeles, a Cocteau Twins reference which I immediately liked. We met, and she said how much she liked my music. She did a two-hour radio special with me on my music, and we decided to collaborate.”

Spectral + includes the previously released “Long Distance Lover,” a collaboration with Slowdive‘s Neil Halstead and Natasha Morrow and the album’s latest single “Love Stays.” “Love Stays” features a seemingly Surrender-era The Chemical Brothers-like production of twinkling keys and skittering and chugging boom bap beneath guest vocalist Omotola’s soulful and yearning delivery singing lyrics about love and working things out.

The video by Locust’s Mark Van Hoen features Omotola as a spectral and technicolor siren, singing the song’s lyrics directly to the viewer.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: EL Drez Teams Up with Jessmine and Lavien on Breezy “We Outside”

Marphus L. Drez Stewart, is a Buchanan, Liberia-born and-based Afro pop/R&B singer/songwriter, best known as EL Drez. The emerging Liberian artist can trace his passion for music and the origins of his music career to his upbringing: As a teenager, he was the choir director for his church.

Since then, Stewart caught the attention of Relumae Liberia, who signed him, and have released a handful of singles over the past 17-18 months or so, including sleek, hook-driven, KrisBeatz-proudced “Hosanna” and his latest single, the Masterkraft-produced “We Outside” feat. Jassmine and Lavien.

“We Outside” is breezy and hooky blend of dancehall, Afrobeats and hip-hop that’s simultaneously club, lounge and radio friendly. The song manages to capture the effortless, playful simpatico between each collaborator while being remarkably accessible — and just a much-needed bit of joy. Each collaborator gets their moment to strut and shine creatively; but at its core, “We Outside” is the sort of song meant to get you to the dance floor, dance away your worries and to live a little bit.

The accompanying video is a gorgeous, stylishly shot visual that’s meant to bring the party — directly to you and your home.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Virginie B. Shares Euphoric “Chamaille”

JOVM mainstay Virginie B is a rising, Montréal-based self-taught singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and self-described “extravagant mess” has long been influenced by a wide range of music, including experimental electronic music, classical, old-timey jazz, 90s R&B, art pop, art rock and more. 

Her full-length debut, 2022’s INSULA was released to praise from ICI Première, Le Devoir, La Presse, Montreal Rocks!, and PAN M 360. The album also earned a GAMIQ. Pop Album of the Year nomination. And adding to a growing profile, the French Canadian artist has made a run of the provincial festival circuit, playing sets at Francofoiles de Montréal, Coup de Cœur Francophone, Le Phoque OFF, Santa Teresa Festival, Taverne Tour, 2022’s M for Montréal. She also played at SXSW back in 2023.

2024’s Astral 2000, which featured album opener and title track “Astral 2000” saw the Montréal-based artist releasing what may arguably be the province’s first hyper pop album. Since then she’s been busy collaborating with fellow JOVM mainstay Super Plage and a list of others.

Produced by long-time collaborator Louis Jeay-Beaulieau, “Chamaille,” the acclaimed JOVM mainstay’s first bit of new material since Astral 2000 is a high-octane bop that has become a staple of her live shows since she first played it on stage over a year ago. Live, the new single is often paired with her techno cover of “Lost Woods,” the iconic Koji Kondo-composed theme, which appears on the soundtrack of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. She typically blends both tunes seamlessly into one another during he live sets, culminating into one of her set’s most exhilarating moments.

Originally written on piano with French pop artist Mylène Farmer in mind, the new single may arguably be the most dance floor friendly and euphoric tunes of her growing catalog to date. Reportedly, the new single is a transitional track that’s meant to bridge the gap between 2024’s sophomore album and the next chapter of her career. Built around production featuring glistening synths and skittering beats, “Chamaille” is a hooky, club banger that seemingly blends elements of footwork and Euordance beneath the JOVM mainstay’s yearning delivery.

“I was thinking about those long, late nights spent sitting on the sidewalk outside the bar, confiding in strangers. Sharing the intensity of life—even in half-spoken words, even when it’s late, even if we’re hurting ourselves a little in the process—and pouring ourselves into the other person to forget the immensity of the surrounding chaos. Finding comfort in the now, courage in sharing, to face the next day—is it really so bad if it makes us feel better, even just a little?” The acclaimed Montréal-based artist says of the new song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Wine Lips Shares Punchy “If You Don’t Know”

Over the past decade, the Toronto-based psych punk outfit Wine Lips — currently Cam Hilborn (vocals, guitar), Aurora Evans (drums), Jordan Sosensky (guitar) and Charlie Weare (bass) — have quietly become one of their homeland’s most successful indie acts: They’ve amassed over 50 million Spotify streams, while receiving praise from Iggy Pop on BBC Radio and landing material on film, television and video games. Adding to a growing globally recognized profile, the Toronto-based quartet have relentlessly toured a sweat-soaked, high energy live show across North America, the European Union, the UK, Hong Kong and China while sharing stages with the likes of Frankie and the Witch Fingers and Death From Above 1979. Throughout their history, the Canadian punk rockers have carved their own lane, where fuzz pedals, frantic energy and razor-sharp songwriting coexist in a perfect balance.

Wine Lips’ fifth album, TV Dinner was released last Friday through Stomp Records. Drawing from an The Hives, Osees, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, Bad Nerves and the melodic punch of Nirvana at their most immediate, the new album may arguably be their most observant, strangely relatable and complete statement to date while still rooted in their signature blend of garage punk, blown-out psychedelia and fuzzy rock.

TV Dinner superficially features 13 adrenaline-fueled, loud, hook-driven rock songs. But if you deeper, the album offers a snapshot of what it feels like to live right now in our dystopian, late-stage capitalist hellscape: Everyone and their mom and cousin are selling shortcuts. Everyone is an expert. Your phone constantly pings with updates. Your rent and grocery bills rocket skyward while the apartments somehow get smaller. Dopamine arrives in short bursts through nicotine, sugar, social media feeds, alcohol, dreams of escaping the rat race and whatever else gets you through another day. Somewhere between the doomscroll, another trip to the doctor, another dead-end job, and another microwaved meal, Cam Hilborn found thirteen songs hiding in plain sight. The songs are written from the perspective from someone who’s neck deep int the shit, like everyone else, desperately trying to make sense of a mad, mad, mad world.

Recorded at London Ontario‘s The Sugar Shack with longtime collaborator Simon Larochette, the new album captures the band trusting instinct over perfection. Mistake sand happy accidents stayed. So did strange noises. They left the edges and roughness because they believe that’s where the life lives. The album also sees the band’s Aurora Evens taking up lead vocal duties on album track “Projector.”

The album’s latest single “If You Don’t Know” is a punchy and anthemic blend of garage punk, glam rock and pub rock, showcasing the band’s unerring knack for crafting catchy hooks paired with fuzzy power chord-driven. shout- along-with-an upraised-beer-in-hand choruses. Arguably the most direct, in-your-face ripper the band has released to date, the song features a narrator wrestling with something familiar to me — and to most of y’all — growing older. Yes, there’s the tacit realization that time races by, but it’s rooted in something far deeper — that age is supposed to come with some earned wisdom, some sort of forward progression and a shit ton of nostalgia. But what if there isn’t much wisdom and no real forward progression? Is the dream of being a rock god childish? Who the fuck really knows?

The accompanying video follows a man-child living out his fantasy of being a superhero in a very real world, including his seemingly real super powers, which help him save lives and do good.

The band are currently in the middle of a rather extensive European tour. They’ll tour across North America to close out 2026 and their North American tour includes a December 4, 2026 stop at Warsaw. Check out the tour dates below.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: THIEF Shares Bruising, Expansive “Moon and Kill”

Starting his career as a member of San Francisco-based experimental black metal outfit BOTANIST, contributing hammered dulcimer and bass for their acclaimed 2017’s Collective: The Shape of He to Come, the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dylan Neal initially split his time with BOTANIST and his solo recording project THIEF, with which he has released 2016’s Thieves Hymn in D Minor, 2019’s Map of Lost Keys, 2021’s The 16 Deaths of My Master and the Cicatrix/Diamond Brush split album with BOTANIST and 2024’s Bleed Memory.

Neal’s fifth THIEF album, Sermons from the Pit is slated for a November 27. 2026 release through Prophecy Productions. Reportedly, Neal’s most ambitious and uncompromising effort to date, Sermons from the Pit socially pairs the project’s manipulated liturgical choirs with his self-described and self-developed “Cathedral Clipping” production technique, in which reverberant sounds are reportedly overdriven through successive gain stages to produce dense, harmonic distortion, feedback and cavernous textures. Sonically, Sermons from the Pit is THEIF as its most visceral and forceful: ethereal choirs are paired with pummeling rhythms and towering walls of sound. The result is something both intimate and unsettling. Neal describes the album as “transmissions from an unspeakable place”—a descent beneath the surface of consciousness into the murkiness of the subconscious and where belief takes shape.

Sermons from the Pit’s first single “Moon and Kill” is a bruising and anthemic blend of industrial, goth, trap and New Wave featuring skittering tweeter and roofer rattling beats, scorching synths and guitars paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. The song moves through furious mosh pit-inducing rage, melancholy and meditative introspection and acceptance throughout its expansive structure.

“Sermons from the Pit moves through stages of frenetic energy which are tempered by sullen, meditative moments of respite. “’Moon and Kill’ is a microcosm of that, encapsulating the album’s broader thematic movement from rage to despair and acceptance,” THEIF creative mastermind Dylan Neal says. “The ending is one of my favorite moments on the album, where the vocals are just kind of cooing over a time-stretched organ and choral sample. The track’s voice oscillates between executioner and victim. At the risk of stealing the listener’s meaning away, I’ll speak of the track by saying that when love and trust collapse, the same anger and disbelief experienced by murderers and saints alike are experienced. Which implement do you choose? Weapon or forgiveness?”

The accompanying video was shot, edited and features visual effects by Dylan Neal and is fittingly haunted, while depicting what appears to be an execution before its eerie coda.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Trentemøller and Mew’s Jonas Bjerre Team Up on Shimmering and Anthemic “Terrified”

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’s latest single “Terrified” feat. Mew‘s Jonas Bjerre is a collaboration that finds the Danish artists crafting an anthemic bit of uplift that’s seamlessly blend of shoegaze and twinkling, hook-driven dream pop paired with stream-of-consciousness lyrics.

Throughout the song’s runtime, Bjerre sings lyrics that focus tackling the specter of fear head-on. “When the instrumental was done, I sent it to Jonas Bjerre with a few melody ideas, which he took further while adding new melodies of his own,” Trentemøller says. He then reshaped the track, explaining “‘Terrified’ is probably the poppiest song on the album. In its original form it sounded a bit more shoegazey, but I wanted it to be crisper and clearer, less washed out. So I went for synths that almost sound like human voices, with a magical, otherworldly quality to them.”

“I think sometimes when you dream about things that make you fearful and uneasy, it’s your mind trying to prepare you for any scenario, like you’re processing catastrophes that have not and may not ever happen,” Mew’s Jonas Bjerre says of the song’s themes.

Directed by Jonas Bjerre, the accompanying video for “Terrified” is a mind-bending blend of animation, live action footage and photography that turns the collaborators’ hometown of Copenhagen into a lysergic, brightly colored dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Elephant Stone Share Dreamlike and Meditative “Parallel and Contrary Motion”

Montréal-based JOVM mainstays Elephant Stone — founder Rishi Dihr (vocals, bass and sitar), along with longtime members Miles Dupire (drums), Robbie MacArthur (guitar) and Jason Kent (keys, guitar) — just released their 10th album, ASHA today through Elephants On Parade. Limited edition signed and hand-numbered vinyl are available through Little Cloud Records.

Named after the Elphant Stone frontman’s late mother, Asha translates to “hope” in Sanskirt — and is meditation on grief, hope, and the friction between sorrow and the darkness of our time.ASHA includes the previously released “Everything Evil,” “Fascists Killed Yer Rock ‘N’ Roll,” “I’ve Got A Pill” and the album’s latest single “Parallel and Contrary Motion.” Sitting at the heart of the album, “Parallel and Contrary Motion” is an intimate and lived-in reflection on the strange space between loss and acceptance that sonically seems like a blend of 2112-era Rush (think of “Tears” in particular), Tame Impala-like psych pop, Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd and 70s glam rock. The result is a song that’s dream-like, achingly nostalgic, full of longing — and yet, anchored in a bittersweet acceptance of finality.

Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir explains, “‘Parallel and Contrary Motion’ is the emotional center of this record for me. Musically it’s something I’d been chipping away at for a couple of years. The title actually came from one of my daughter’s piano books. I liked it as a phrase before I knew what the song was about.”

He continues, “Lyrically it started as something for my friend Christian Dorey. He’d always dealt with anxiety and depression, but it became paralyzing for him during COVID. He lived about an hour and a half from me, in Bromont. A few years ago he attempted suicide. I wanted to be there for him but he told me he wasn’t ready to see me. Last year he took his life. I wrote more about him and what happened here. This song was written before I understood what it was actually about.”

John Mark Lapham, director of the accompanying music video, says, “Rishi sent me Elephant Stone’s new album to check out and this track immediately stood out to me. It felt like the 70’s shot through a modern lens and had a chorus that I couldn’t shake. Not long after, he asked if I’d like to make a video for it and it seemed fated. He initially asked about me creating an animated video but I already had some imagery that bubbled up with this song: a man in the process of dying but was in need of a little push to help let go. The concept was definitely a different spin on the lyrics (I think…) but the music and the visuals of this creature were haunting me and so I pulled a team together and we shot the video in the middle of the Texas summer at an old power plant in Abilene. It was a fantastic experience.”
 
 The JOVM mainstays will be embarking on a North American headlining tour in September to support the abum. The tour incudes a September 18, 2026 stop at TV Eye. Tour dates are below. And you can check out more information and grab tickets here.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Doldrums Return with Joy Division-like “Repetition”

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” its second single, “Compulsion.” is a brooding and hook-driven, Joy Division-like song featuring angular guitars and a motorik pulse beneath Kevin Gibbard’s yearning Ian Curtis-like delivery.

“I wrote ‘Compulsion’ as the second part of our first single, ‘Repetition’. It originally started life as one piece of work, but naturally split into two separate songs,” Kevin Gibbard explains. “That gave us the opportunity to directly reference ‘Repetition; while continuing the central themes of the album and reinforcing the idea that all of the songs are connected in some way. The opening line, “Here we are again, repetition once more”, immediately brings the two songs together. Where ‘Repetition’ has a more dirge-like feel that literally reflects the idea of repetition, ‘Compulsion; has a greater sense of forward motion, building in intensity as it develops. We’re really proud of how the track fits within the wider concept of the album. We wanted to take a considered, interconnected approach, and I think ‘Compulsion’ really captures that idea. It feels like a natural progression from ‘Repetition’, while also taking the story and the sound somewhere new.”

Directed by the band’s Sophie Landers, the accompanying video for “Repetition” references the video for its immediate predecessor as it features the band performing the video in an abandoned factory with the imagery previous video’s imagery projected behind them. And another set of characters watching the video for “Compulsion” in a darkened room.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: RIP DUNES Shares Driving and Brooding “Living In Fear”

Matthew Iwanusa is best known for being a founding member and the frontman of acclaimed JOVM mainstay act Caveman. He’s also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project RIP DUNES. Iwanusa’s sophomore RIP DUNES album Tales From The Ripped is slated for release this fall.

Tales From The Ripped reportedly plays like a soundtrack seen through the lens of late-night television, practical effects, unexplained phenomena and half-remembered imagery that somehow gets more difficult to separate from reality over time.

The Abe Seiferth and Matthew Iwanusa-co-produced “Living In Fear,” Tales From The Ripped‘s first single is a dark and brooding bit of post punk built around angular and slashing guitars, analog synths and muscular. reverb soaked drum machines paired with the firmly established melodic sensibilities and penchant for big hooks Iwanusa developed with Caveman.

Iwanusa directed and edited the accompanying video for “Living In Fear”is a mix of handmade and stop motion animation and live action footage which gives the visual a dreamy, late-night cartoon vibe.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Jonathan Personne Shares Shimmering and Dreamy “Je pense toi”

Initially known for his roles as co-founder, co-lead vocalist, guitarist, lyricist and songwriter in internationally acclaimed JOVM mainstay act Corridor, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, animator and visual artist Jonathan Robert is by both necessity and nature, a prolific and versatile artist. He’s also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project, Jonathan Personne, which derives its name from the French version of John Doe — or perhaps a bit more accurately, Jonathan Nobody. The project’s name reflects his determination to simultaneously not represent a specific person and to better reflect his multifaceted artistic identity.

Over the past seven years, he released four albums that saw him drawing from a wide range of influences including desert dream pop, Morriocone-esque Spaghetti Western rock, The Clean-like jangle pop, Latin-influeinced grooves, Galaxie 500 and Yo La Tengo-like indie rock, as well as sampling, sequencing and beatmaking. And he’s done this while working on albums with his primary gig, Corridor. 

Robert’s fifth Jonathan Personne album Répertoire officially drops today through Bonsound. The album’s material can trace its origins back to six years ago: When he began working on what would eventually become Repertoire, the Montréal-based artist sensed a significant change in direction and chose to focus on another set of songs instead. This lead to his acclaimed, self-titled third album. The new album sees Robert brining some light to his firmly established melancholic sound, with the album’s material drawing from yacht rock and dream pop to create something entirely unexpected. Anchored around melodic bass lines, looping figured and self-sampled guitars, the result is a sound that’s groovy yet contemplative, dreamlike yet noisy. 

Thematically, the 10-song album sees the French Canadian JOVM mainstay reflecting on his relationship with music, vacillating between moments of repulsion and ones that remind him why he chose — and loves — his career. Répertoire‘s will include the previously released, album opener “Rêve américain,” “Superstar,” and the album’s latest single “Je pense à toi.” “Je pense à toi” is an intricate and lush tune, built around a shimmering and looping guitar figure, some mysterious, dream-like samples and a laid back yet supple and propulsive groove beneath Robert’s equally dreamy and ethereal deliver. The song may make you want to go for the sort of walk in which you lose yourself in your thoughts, which is apparently what the song is actually about.

Robert is also an accomplished visual artist and graphic designer, and he designed the album’s cover art. But for the new album, he swapped illustrations for a small-scale model of an idyllic mountain village, which helps set the material’s overall tone and vibe. Fittingly, the accompanying video features the Montréal-based artist and his backing band in the cover art’s idyllic mountain village performing the song in a mix of stop-motion styled animation and real life.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: J. Bernardt Returns with Swaggering and Strutting “Love Is On My Mind”

Jinte Deprez is an acclaimed singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, programmer and producer, best known as being one-half of the songwriting duo behind the acclaimed Belgian JOVM mainstays Balthazar. Over the course of their two-plus decades together, the acclaimed Belgian outfit has played across the global festival circuit with sets at All Points East, British Summer Time, and others — while selling over 600,000 albums globally. And during that same period of time, Deprez has firmly cemented a reputation for being a wildly talented generalist: Along with his songwriting partner and bandmate Maarten Devoldere, Deprez has co-produced three of Balthazar’s five albums to date. 

Deprez is also the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed solo recording project J. Bernardt, With J. Bernardt, Deprez has released two albums, 2016’s self-produced Running Days and 2024’s Tobie Speleman and Deprez co-produced Contigo. His third J. Bernardt album, the Paul Butler-produced Wild Swim is slated for a November 13, 2026 release through Play It Again Sam.

Unlike his previously released work, Deprez chose to step outside of anything familiar in his creative process. He travelled alone to Los Angeles, where he leaned hard into a caricature of himself: a washed-up European musician landing in America to reinvent his life and his carer. He learned so hard into the caricature that it was as though Jinte Deprez didn’t get on the plane; but rather, J. Bernardt.

Recorded at Los Angeles-based 64 Sound Studio, Wild Swim‘s producer Paul Butler created an initiative environment in which Deprez found what may arguably be the most liberated vocal performance of his entire career to date. “On my third solo record, I truly felt for the first time what singing can feel like.” he says. Los Angeles itself also left its mark on both Deprez an the recording sessions. The city’s uncompromising and frenetic energy collided head-on with the acclaimed Belgian artist’s West Flemish instinct for restraint “In the US, there is no time for subtlety. You surrender to your impulses,”

Many of the songs were recorded in fiery one-take performances with Alabama Shakes‘ Lewis Wright (drums), Adele‘s Peter Randall (bass) and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’ Mitchell Yoshida (keys). The result is a more ope and expansive sound that retains the project’s signature but expands into a retro-modernist sound with smoldering rhythms and sprawling melodies. The Motown-like backing vocals of Lex Noblitt, Isabel Whelan and Dasha Chadwick are woven throughout the album’s material, acting as a counterpart to Deprez’s vibrato. And Butler’s kaleidoscopic production makes the album’s material feel as though every window in the Belgian artist’s mind has been thrown open at once. The result is album that’s euphoric and reckless.

Thematically, Wild Swim sees Deprez take a new direction. Whereas his previously released albums were fairly autobiographical, the new album features a more universal perspective, embracing a manic celebration of life’s randomness. The song’s aren’t anchored in reason, but rather in feeling with the album being a balancing act between lust for life and a sort of euphoric nihilism. “After the wreckage of a breakup, eventually you reach the point where you can see the humor in life again,” Deprez says.

Wild Swim will include the previously released “Four In The Morning” and the album’s latest single “Love Is On My Mind.” The new single is a strutting and soulful pop tune that showcases Deprez’s uncanny knack for remarkably catchy hooks — but while arguably being among the most euphoric, playful tunes of his growing catalog.

“’Love Is on My Mind’ is a guitar-driven song I wrote on an old piano, while feeling watched by the stars,” Deprez explains. “It’s about a new, unintentional starting point — ‘I hear it coughing around the corner, ready to cause a scene, how the hell did love get in my mind.’ Who knows when or how, but you always seem to pick yourself back up one day, right when you weren’t paying attention.”

Directed by SJ Spreng, the accompanying video is a cinematically shot GQ-like visual sho tin Los Angeles earlier this year and features the Belgian artist in some snazzy outfits, strutting and vamping in the hills.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tokyo Tea Room Returns with Breezy “Hypnotised”

Last year’s full-length debut, No Rush saw the rising Margate, UK-based outfit Tokyo Tea Room — Daniel James Elliot, Beth Dunn, Ben Marshall, Sam Teather and Sam Ewens — quickly establishing a sound and approach that takes listeners on a journey within a tender, comfortable bubble. Their music is inspired by lived-in, human emotions while thematically exploring longing and the ephemeral nature of existence. The album eventually led to millions of monthly listeners across the DSPs and a sold-out North American tour, helping the band amass a rapidly growing global audience.

The Margate-based quintet’s highly anticipated sophomore album, the Daniel James Elliot and Kristofer Harris co-produced Feel Forever is slated for a September 18, 2026 release through Nice Guys. The album, which marks the first time Elliot has worked with a producer, reportedly sees the rising taking a bold step forward with their sound. And while being a decided evolution, the material remains rooted in the emotional depth that they’ve begun to be known for. “We took a yacht rock approach to the recording, taking our time to smooth all the edges and make something that felt more polished than the last record,” Elliot says of Feel Forever‘s recording process. “Both of us spent hours obsessing over the smallest detail, which felt very apt for this album. The result is something that we are all very proud of, it’s a different kind of Tokyo Tea Room that has come out the other side of it, but it feels right and I hope people enjoy listening.”

Feel Forever will include the previously released “Eyes Off You” “Always In The Sun” and album’s fourth and latest single “Hypnotised.” Featuring glistening synth stabs, a sinuous and strutting disco groove beneath Beth Dunn’s yearning, ethereal delivery, “Hypnotised” is a hook-driven and breezy tune that’s seemingly one-part yacht rock, one-part Yumi Zouma — and wholly escapist fantasy of eloping to balmier climates with a lover or love interest. But beneath the laid-back two-step including groove and beach club-meets-lounge vibes, “Hypnotised” captures the woozy and euphoric glee of madly obsessive love.

“‘Hypnotised’ is about that feeling of being completely drawn in, when everything else around you seems to blur,” says the band’s Daniel James Elliot. “It’s the uncertainty and fantasy that contribute to the excitement of something new, and I wanted to reflect that in this song, kinda like a soundtrack to your mind wandering into a daydream.”

Directed and animated by CC Mulligan, the accompanying video for “Hypnotised,” features some mind-bending, brightly colored and downright trippy imagery.

The rising British act will return to North America for a fall tour, supporting their new material. The tour includes two NYC area dates — October 13, 2026 at Music Hall of Williamsburg and October 14, 2026 at Bowery Ballroom. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Julia Jacklin Returns with Anthemic “The Hardest Thing”

Acclaimed Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and musician Julia Jacklin will be releasing her highly-anticipated fourth album, the Robert Muiños and Jacklin co-produced, 10-song album  The Gem through 4AD Records digitally and on CD, cassette and vinyl on September 25, 2026. Exclusive color vinyl editions with retailers will include turquoise, green opal, ruby and rose quartz. Pre-order information can be found here.

The album will include the previously released “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You),” the album’s closing track ” “I Wish” feat, Aussie folk sibling duo The Maes, and the album’s third single, “The Hardest Thing.” is a proudly heart-worn-on-sleeve anthemic ballad featuring a narrator, whose relationship on the brink, detailing a relationship at a crossroads — or about to peter out to an inevitable conclusion. Lyrically, the song is rooted in small, lived-in details that give the song a personal yet deeply universal touch.

Directed by Danny Cohen, the accompanying video was shot in one lengthy take and filmed from a helicopter winding through Melbourne’s skyline, gradually showcasing the acclaimed artist performing the song on top of skyscraper.