Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ulrika Spacek Shares Eerily Atmospheric “Build a box Then Break It”

Formed back in 2014, London-based art rock outfit Ulrika Spacek — founding members Rhys Edwards (vocals, guitar) and Rhys Williams (guitar) , alongside Joseph Stone (guitar, keys), Callum Brown (drums), Syd Kemp (bass) — can trace their origins back to a night the band’s founding duo spent in Berlin, where the pair conceptualized the project around their mutually held passions and influences — in particular, Television, Pavement, Sonic Youth and krautrock.

Upon the duo’s return to the UK, they began working on the material that would eventually comprise their full-length debut, 2016’s The Album Paranoia, which featured album tracks “She’s A Cult,” and “Strawberry Glue.”

Since then, the project which started out as a duo, expanded to quintet with the addition of Stone, Callum, Brown and Kemp – and then released 2017’s critically applauded sophomore album, Modern English Decoration, an album that saw the band pushing their sound into a more textured territory. Their third and latest album, last year’s Compact Trauma channeled the anxiety and dislocation of the modernize age through a prismatic haze of guitars, loops and elliptical lyrics.

The British art rock outfit’s highly-anticipated fourth album EXPO is slated for a February 6, 2026 release through Full Time Hobby. Unlike its predecessors, which looked within EXPO reportedly holds a mirror up to the world and captures a warped reflection. The material was deeply informed by the band’s most recent American tour and was written while the band’s Rhys Edwards was awaiting the birth of his daughter, and started to wonder what kind of future world she’d inherit.

Although their foundations have long been in art rock, they’ve been increasingly drawing from electronic elements. But as a band, they’re interested in the glitchy space that exists between the two. And as a result, their most recent work reckons with human warmth and digital isolation, while being welcoming and alienating, exploring the uneasy tension of modern life as we know it. “Our music has always been a collage – a bit patchwork, sonically – but what makes this album a landmark for us is that we went one step further and made our own sound bank and essentially sampled ourselves,” the band says.

The band creates their own doppelgängers in a world of almost-real, where the band appears as if they’re in a funhouse hall of mirrors. Digital drums are sampled and layered over real drums and the like, creating an eerie, spectral vibe. Sonically, album’s material grapples with the organic and the digital while dancing across musical languages.

EXPO‘s first single “Build a Box Then Break It” serves a de-facto album mission statement that sees the band actively pushing their sound into a new, liminal space. Seemingly channeling Geoff Barrow‘s work with Portishead and Beak>, Radiohead‘s Amnesiac and The Orielles‘ The Goyt Method EP, “Build a Box Then Break It,” features sampled upon sampled breakbeats, eerily atmospheric synths and squiggling guitars serving as a broodingly uneasy bed for Rhys Edwards’ plaintive and uncannily Thom Yorke-like delivery. The new single evokes our fractured experience of reality, reflected not through our eyes but through various screens.

The accompanying video was edited by Low Limit Vision and features live footage shot by Pedro Soler interspersed with title cards, math equations and other ephemeral imagery.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tucson’s Mute Swan Shares woozy “Hypnosis Tapes”

With the release of their debut EP, 2016’s Ultraviolet and their full-length debut, 2021’s Only Ever, Tucson-based shoegaze/dream pop outfit Mute Swan — currently, Mike Barnett (guitar/vocals), Prabjit Virdee (bass, vocals), and Gilbert Flores (drums) — quickly established a swirling, densely layered take on psych rock that some critics and others have compared to Of Montreal and Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips.

2021’s Only Ever was released to praise from The FADER, Merry-Go-Round Magazine and several others, as well as airplay on KEXP.

The band recently signed to Hit The North Records/Wooden Tooth Records, who released the Tucson-based outfit’s latest single “Hypnosis Tapes.” The new single is the first bit of new of material from the band since their debut album — and is part of a batch of material that will be posthumously released after the tragic death of founding member Thomas Sloane.

“Hypnosis Tapes” features Barnett’s breathy delivery ethereally floating over a woozy soundscape featuring glitchy and swelling electronics, fuzzy, acid-tinged guitars paired with relentlessly driving four-on-floor. While still drawing from shoegaze, “Hypnosis Tapes” may arguably be the most Brit Pop-leaning track of their growing catalog to date.

“We had only approved the final mix of this song weeks before when we lost our best friend and guitarist, Tom Sloane. It is the first of a collection of his last songs we felt especially determined to give a proper release into the world,” the band’s Mike Barnett says. “Displaying some of his best textural guitarwork, this song is about finding some kind of inner peace through the noise of chaotic times and endless mental chatter. There’s a meditation tape sampled at the end, as well as a vacuum cleaner in reverse at the beginning (an inside joke of ours).”

Directed by the band’s Mike Barnett, the accompanying video for “Hypnosis Tapes” features the band’s three surviving members hanging out in someone’s living room. Virdee and Flores are busy fiddling around while Barnett strums his guitar and sings. And it’s all set in trippy kaleidoscopic filters, which sees the members melt and morph into one another.

The new single and video comes on the heels of the Tucson-based band playing opening slots for Horse Jumper of Love, Wednesday, Tanukichan and Peel Dream Magazine, as well as a set at this year’s Levitation Festival. The band has big plans for next year, so be on the lookout.
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Errol Eats Everything Teams Up with Furious Evans and Blu on a Brooding, Hard-hitting Remix of “Beyond Yonder”

Errol Eats Everything is an emcee and Black entrepreneur, who’s actively trying to reshape the music landscape while enacting positive change in the community.

Released earlier this year, his self-titled album is a bold manifesto, which seems him addressing systemic injustices, personal struggle and the continuing fight for freedom and equality with the album’s material voicing the bitter frustrations of a society that routinely fails its marginalized and struggling. His work demands listeners confront the harsh realities of their life and then asks them to find the strength and resilience to raise about them, reaffirming hip-hop’s enduring power to challenge, uplift and transform.

For a period of time, the emcee and entrepreneur stepped away from music to focus on community-building, creating solutions that have positively impacted the lives of young Black people while solidifying a hard-earned role as a visionary leader.

The Beyond Yonder Remixes EP sees Errol Eats Everything collaborating with Blu, Don Von Jovi, Rome Streetz, Planet Asia, Brother Ali and a lengthy list of others on a series of remixes of Errol Eats Everything LP track “Beyond Yonder.”

While the album version of “Beyond Yonder” sees Errol Eats Everything spitting righteously conscious bars delivered with an MF DOOM-like flow over a DJ Premier-like production featuring a lush and soulful sample paired with tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap. The Furious Evans remix of “Beyond Yonder” features Errol Eats Everything and Blu trading bars over a production that retails the tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap of the original, but places it all within a brooding It’s Dark and Hell Is Hot-era DMX-like production.

Directed and edited by Marquan Ford, the accompanying video for “Beyond Yonder (Furious Evans Remix, feat. Blu) is set in a world of sex and vampires, inspired by Blade and Vampire Tales.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Talking Violet Shares Cathartic “Destroy”

https://youtu.be/5Jt6dWTGDno?si=ktqvo-4Q0wYmC4Ll

Windsor, ON-based quartet Talking Violet — Jillian Goyeau (vocals, guitar), Jayden Turnbull (guitar, vocals), Jeremie Brosseau (drums) and Dylan Iannicello (bass) — have quickly developed and established a sound that sees the Canadian outfit seamlessly blending elements of shoegaze, grunge and dream pop into what they’ve dubbed “dreamo.” Thematically, their work touches upon how we wrestle with the grief of personal change — especially in personal experiences. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about their Justin Meli-produced, Will Yip-mastered “In Your Mind,” a track that seemed to channel The Sundays and Tallies while capturing a very specific sense of loving someone through pain and uncertainty and not quite knowing what to do – or if there was anything you could do.

Their latest sgbnle “Destroy” continues a run of material that channels 120 Minutes-era MTV alt-rock while being anchored in earnestness and deeply lived in personal experience. Unlike its immediate predecessor, “Destroy” thematically and lyrically turns inward, offering a subtly uneasy sense of closure and acceptance. Although that relationship or chapter in your life has ended, their ghost lingers in your life — some longer than others.

“Destroy is about closing a chapter in my life where I experienced a lot of change which I talked a lot about throughout our Everything At Once record,” the band’s Jillian Goyeau says. “Before moving on I kinda needed to say goodbye, so that’s what Destroy does. It’s me finally accepting that people can both love you and hurt you at the same time and vice versa. You can love someone even when they aren’t meant to be in your life anymore.”

The Canadian band’s latest single continues the emotional thread of their latest album Everything At Once, drawing from the grief and heartache of interpersonal change. ” “These tracks draw on a lot of grief of change, most specifically, the grief of relationship changes in our lives,” Goyeau explains. “I was going through changes that I now see as necessary but were incredibly painful at the time. It made me realize how much I had depended on my relationships with others for my identity. I had to slowly relearn who I was—and spent the next few years healing my people-pleasing baseline. It’s still something I work on every day.”

Directed by Gavin Michael Booth the gorgeously shot video for “Destroy” features the members of the band smashing things to pieces — in a way that’s rousingly cathartic.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vanille Shares Slow-Burning and Swooning “Un chant d’amour”

Rachel Leblanc is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter and creative mastermind behind the critically applauded recording project Vanille, which has seen the French-Canadian artist craft a sound that meshes elements of 60s folk and chanson in a way that brings the listener into a dreamlike world of dense, verdant forests and swooning heartbreak.

Her recently released, Christophe Charest-Latif-produced third album Un chant d’amour sees the acclaimed French-Canadian artist marking the beginning of new creative chapter, that sees Leblanc’s and a talented cast of musicians, including Jules Encore and Corail‘s Julien Comptour; Velours Velours‘ and Corail’s Philippe Noël; Carla Chanelle‘s and Roselle’s Christophe Rosset-Balcer; Allô Fantôme‘s Samuel Gendron; Arielle Soucy; and Velours Velours’ Raphaël Pépin-Tanguay crafting a sound that draws from retro soul and the mid 1960s-early 1970s sunshine pop movement. Leblanc’s melodies and lyrics are rooted in sentimental overtones. And as a result, the album’s material is meant to unfold like a scented letter received from a mysterious valentine.

Un chant d’amour‘s latest single, album title track “Un chant d’amour” is a slow-burning ballad anchored around Leblanc’s achingly melancholy delivery, atmospheric Rhodes and a syrupy slow-dance inspired backbeat. And while seemingly channelling 70s AM radio rock, “Un chant d’amour” is the sort of song you’d play when you want to slow-dance at the midnight ball with your long-held crush or your loved one.

Directed by Irina Tempea and Elizabeth Landry the accompanying video for “Un chant d’amour” is an swooningly sentimental visual featuring a mixture of dusty found footage and the rising French-Canadian artist in a wedding gown to create a wedding that never really took place.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dreamwave Shares Mosh Pit Friendly “Moon Buggy”

Bristol, UK-based rock outfit Dreamwave — Benjamin Symons (vocals, guitar, synths), Hester Battin (vocals, keys, synths), Grant Cameron Organ (bass), and Alex Andrews (drums, percussion) — have quickly established themselves as one of the most exciting, up-and-coming bands in the UK psych scene. And with a growing presence across the European Union, the British quartet seem to be gaining momentum.

Dreamwave’s third EP is slated for release through Stolen Body Records, and the announcement of the forthcoming EP coincides with the unveiling of a new physical passing, which will feature this year’s Moon Dogs EP on Side A and the soon-to-be released Drifter EP on Side B. But in the meantime, the forthcoming third EP’s first single “Moon Buggy” is a sweaty and tense mosh pit friendly ripper, anchored around punchily delivered hooks and choruses that brings OSees and JOVM mainstays Frankie and the Witch Fingers to mind.

The new single originated as an improvised jam session during their live shows, gradually evolving over the course of two years into a fully fleshed out, polished song that found its way into their sets. The EP version was recorded in three takes and accurately showcases the band’s bruising live energy.

The self-directed and accompanying video for “Moon Buggy” was filmed at Mendips Raceway, a dirt-track in southwest UK. The chaotic and downright fun imagery of battered cars colliding in clouds of dust just feels perfect.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tame Impala Shares Woozy, Self-Aware “My Old Ways”

Acclaimed Aussie JOVM mainstay Tame Impala‘s highly-anticipated fifth album, Deadbeat saw its official release today through Columbia Records. 

Deeply inspired by bush doof culture and the Western Australia rave scene,Deadbeat sees Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker recasting himself as a sort of future primitive rave act. Conceived in various locations over the last handful of years, the album was largely galvanized between Parker’s hometown of Fremantle and his Inijidup, Western Australia-based studio Wave House during the first half of this year. 

Renowned for being a perfectionist, Parker’s fifth Tame Impala album showcases an artist with a leveled-up mastery of songwriting but crafted with a newfound embrace of spontaneity. The result is a collection of remarkably catchy, hook-driven, club-friendly psych pop while being some of Parker’s most direct songwriting of his career to date. Sonically, there are timbres and textures that add new dimension to the material’s overall sound paired with a much richer, more playful vocal range. 

Lyrically, the album finds Parker channeling an endless bummer with a self-deprecating fuck-up of a narrator stuck in a hopelessly negative feedback loop, when he should have long had his shit together. We all know this kind of dude — and in some cases, he is us. Thematically, the album suggests raving as self-inquiry, self-medication in lieu of self-care and the kick-on as domestic bliss. Dance and sweat your troubles, stresses and concerns away on the dance floor, y’all. Reality can wait another day or two — hell, fuck it, another three. 

Deadbeat features the previously released “End of Summer,” “Loser,” “Dracula,” and its latest single, album opener “My Old Ways.” Anchored around a looping, twinkling piano figure, “My Old Ways” begins with Parker accompanying himself just on piano for about a minute or so, before the song quickly morphs into a mind-bending, trance-inducing bit of Larry Levan-like house with fluttering and oscillating synths and thumping beats. And at its core is a deeply self-aware, self-referential narrator, who is acutely cognizant that they’ve slid into a long-held negative pattern while simultaneously forgiving themselves and being self-flagellating for that backslide.

While being a serious banger, “My Old Ways” offers what may be one of the more empathetic portrayals of a fuck up that I’ve heard in some time. I’d argue that most of us could see some of ourselves in the song.

Directed by Kristofski, the accompanying video for “My Old Ways” features cinéma vérité footage the director took, following Parker throughout the process of recording the album in studios across the world, including his native Australia.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: St. Panther Shares Slinky and Soulful “The Deal”

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.

Their forthcoming EP, the McClenney and Bojorges-Giraldo co-produced Strange World is slated for a November 7, 2025 release through art label drink sum wtr — and is their first collection of recorded output since their breakout debut EP, 2020’s These Days. The new EP’s material is reportedly a defiant, genre-transforming work that features a collection of soulful, modern pop songs that narrate and confront the wider climate of uncertainty and oblivion.

Thematically, Strange World is 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.

“I took this long pause to really listen to my village, listen to the needs of my community, and the people around me,” the St. Panther creative mastermind says. “We’re all feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders a bit. We want hope for our listeners, we want people to feel heard and that there’s someone out there representing this feeling.”

Regarding the EP, the Los Angeles-based artist remarks: “It’s been highly impactful–to say the absolute least–to witness the world in the state in today. In so many lyrics and melodies, I’m using this set of songs as a method of putting certain messages into our ether, intentionally shouting certain things from the rooftops that a friend jokingly said ‘for world peace;’ but this music is meant to activate people in some way to meditate about our relationship to each other, which feels like a good use for music right now.”

The EP will feature, the previous released EP title track “Strange World,” which received a double premiere from KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic and FLOOD Magazine and praise from Ones To Watch, Earmilk, RIFF Magazine and others, as well as the EP’s latest single “The Deal.” Featuring an old-school Quiet Storm-meets D’Angelo neo-soul-like arrangement featuring jazzy bursts of keys and a supple bass line, “The Deal” is one-part heartfelt confession of love and admiration, one-part admission of being hurtful/neglectful and one-part yearning plea to do better that feels intimately lived-in and experienced.

“Now I’m not sure if it’s always right to, but I tend to put music where prolonged silences live,” the St. Panther mastermind explains. “I’m not sure why it’s so hard to say what sometimes only music can, but in this case I wish someone had known me better and wanted to write a song like Dido’s ‘White Flag’ shortly afterward, a song that said – if nothing else – my love was true.”

The new single is accompanied by a live performance featuring the acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist in studio with a collection of their various long-time collaborators including McClenney.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aussie Punks Mini Skirt Share Bruising “Squeeze Down”

Bryon Bay, Australia-based punks Mini Skirt — Jesse Pumphrey (bass), Jacob Pumphrey (drums), Jacob Boylan (vocals) and Cam Campbell (guitar) — have received attention both nationally and internationally for a rough and tumble take on pub rock that capture the climate of present-day Australia. Their work focuses on the fact that things aren’t picturesque and idyllic; the vocals express frustration and urgency while their arrangements are melodic yet raw. But at its core, they paint a picture of hope through struggle.

The Aussie punks full-length debut, 2020’s Casino grabbed the attention of the global punk scene. Their long-awaited and highly-anticipated sophomore album, All That We Know is slated for a November 14, 2025 self-release in their native Australia and through Bad Vibrations outside of Australia.

Continuing a run of gritty, bruising punk, the album’s material is underlined by Boylan’s lyrics, which paint a picture of the modern social climate. Every verse and chorus is a well-crafted and concise assessment that ensures that the listener replays each line to make sure they didn’t miss a word.

All That We Know‘s latest single “Squeeze Down” is a bruising, mosh pit friendly ripper featuring scuzzy and wiry bursts of guitar, thunderous drumming and a chugging bass line paired with Boylan’s punchy delivery expressing pent up frustration, confusion and unease that feels sweaty, claustrophobic and inescapable in a way that reminds me a bit of Ex-Cult‘s 2014 effort Midnight Passenger.

“This track was written after our first EU/UK tour back in 2022,” Mini Skirt’s Jacob Boylan recalls. ““The lyrics are about the unshakeable sense I had of feeling isolated, misunderstood and defensive about my identity. It was the first time I realised who I am is so deeply rooted in where I am from. Cam had put the riff together for his other band Chrome Cell Torture, but they had decided it wasn’t tough enough for them, so us big whimps took it and ran with it.”

C.O.F.F.I.N.’s Ben Portnoy created the accompanying video for “Squeeze Down.” Shot on grainy VHS video, the video features live footage of the band playing in a shitty club that captures the sweaty intensity of their live performance and of their fans.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chicago’s Dendrons Share Tense and Uneasy “Monsteras”

Chicago-based indie outfit Dendrons formed back in 2018, initially starting out as an earnest collaboration between two childhood friends, who reconnected as adults, after spending years in different states. The project eventually expanded to a quintet, following the strength of DIY bookings and homemade recordings.

Since the band’s formation, they’ve developed a sound that meshes elements of post-punk, blender pop and noise. Their material frequently moves between worlds; at times, kitschy and intimate, before quickly morphing into maximalism, full of feedback, synths, multipart harmonies and combinations of propulsive drum kids and electronic beat sampling.

The band has supported their first two albums, 2020’s self-titled full-length debut and 2022’s 5-3-8 with extensively touring across the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe and the UK.

The Chicago-based outfit’s third album Indiana is slated for a November 17, 2025 release through Candlepin Records. The album reportedly found the band at a point of reinvention, with the album’s material featuring a refined sonic palette, which drew from a more diverse pool of influences among the band’s members. Songs were demoed, scrapped, rewritten and scrutinized in detail over the course of a two-year period.

Indiana‘s second and latest single “Monsteras” is a tense and urgent song that sees the band alternating between tautened restraint and noisy rock bombast, held together by the song’s relentless motorik-like groove and hushed, almost meditative vocals. Subtly recalling Canadian post punks Blessed, “Monsteras,” manages to evoke the surreal air of our current moment, in which we somehow still go to work and worry about the rent or the mortgage, while the world burns and the US slides into fascism. Nothing to see here. Get back to work, you lazy bum . . . And yet, deep in your soul, you know everything is deeply fucked up, and it’s somehow getting worse.

The accompanying video was shot over the course of a single night in Chicago. Shot in run-and-gun style, the video features elements of stop motion animation throughout. The “Dust Man,” the Sisyphean main character of the video was played by one of the band’s members. In some way, we are all Dust Man, performing absurd, often Sisyphean tasks until we die.

Long live Dust Man.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinlicker Shares Defiant and Euphoric “I Want My Freedom”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project of its founder Heyboer. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero.

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online.

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland.

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, last year’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival.

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they had started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including their most recent single “I Started A Fire,” which was released earlier this year. Heyboer and van Achthoven recently invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the band. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl.

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — is slated for an early 2026 release. But in the meantime, the trio’s latest single “I Want My Freedom” showcases what has made the Dutch outfit a titan in electronic music: Beginning with a slow-burning piano intro that seemingly nods at Radiohead‘s “Everything In Its Right Place,” the track quickly morphs into a festival and club banger featuring skittering beats, glistening and melodic synth arpeggios, a string section sample-led bridge, and a euphoric bridge and hook, which serves as a slickly produced and lush bed for Baldwin’s defiant and resolute vocals.

Throughout the song’s runtime, Baldwin’s lyrics are especially pertinent right now, as many countries across the world seem to be sliding backwards into a brutally abusive, authoritarian hellscape that many of us don’t want — and will resist until death.

“These lyrics circled in my mind for a long time” Baldwin says. “I started writing from that feeling of disconnection as a woman in my mid-twenties with a sharp awareness of the world moving backwards. But over time, the song grew into something bigger. ‘I Want My Freedom’ isn’t just about me, it’s about all of us. The heartbreaking truth is that the abuse of freedoms reaches far beyond gender. I wanted to create a song of inclusion, with a nod to what I personally feel I’ve lost. Freedom is never handed to us, it’s something we fight for, and I no longer have that softness in me to apologize for that.”

The accompanying video for “I Want My Freedom” consists of footage shot from their Crystal Palace Bowl set.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Amadou & Mariam Share Swooning “L’amour à la folie”

Over the course of their almost 50-year career run together, the iconic and beloved Malian duo Amadou & Mariam have had an illustrious career that saw them take the Malian blues that made them a household name in Africa and opened it up to rock, hip-hop and EDM/dance influences, which led to spreading their country’s culture and beloved sounds, as well as the pair’s unique joie de vivre. “We’ve always dreamed of tearing down walls and opening people’s ears to new sounds so the whole world can discover and appreciate Malian music,” Amadou & Mariam says.

Late last year, the pair released the compilation album La Vie Est Belle, an album that highlighted their legacy as one of Africa’s most famous duos and the massive influence they’ve had while paving the way for an exciting, new generation of African artists, who have begun to dominate the Western mainstream.

The legendary Malian duo have also acted as Afro-pop ambassadors, who have collaborated with some of the biggest names of Western mainstream music, including U2, Coldplay, Stevie Wonder, Sofi Tucker, BLOND:ISH, Santigold, Akon, TV on the Radio, Damon Albarn and David Gilmour — with their seven studio albums selling over one million records globally. Adding to a globally recognized profile, the duo made the rounds of the global festival circuit, playing sets at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Glastonbury. They’ve also performed at The World Cup, NPR’s Tiny Desk and last year’s Paris Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony, where they covered Serge Gainsbourg‘s “Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je Me’n Vais.” And lastly, they made the run of the late night TV circuits of both the US and UK.

The duo’s final album together, L’amour à la folie is slated for an October 24, 2025 release. Written and recorded together over the past seven years, the acclaimed and beloved Malian duo’s soon-to-be released eighth album conveys the duo’s raw joy through incandescent, exuberant music that perfectly complements their messages of love and unity — and the hope of a peaceful world in which diversity is celebrated and championed. And with love with a capital L as the driving force, music and fuel and sharing as the spark, the duo’s radiant power continues to shine on their final album.

Final mixes of the album’s material were completed last winter. They shared a deep excitement about the album’s release in October. But sadly, Amadou Bagayoko died back in April. It’s Mariam Doumbia’s wish, after the mourning period, to return to stages and perform the album she spent seven years working on with her beloved while celebrating the music and life her and beloved created.

L’amour à la folie‘s latest single, album title track “L’amour à la folie,” is a defiantly upbeat and urgent declaration of a swooning and ridiculously passionate love, featuring a propulsive and funky Afro pop-meets-dance floor groove, driving polyrhythm and Bagayako’s woozy guitar riff paired with the duo’s unerring knack for incredibly catchy hooks and their imitable harmonizing. And at its core, “L’amour á la folie,”is a much-needed joy bomb in bleak, desperate times that reminds all of us that life isn’t worth a damn without a love that drives you mad.

The accompanying video features footage of the pair performing on stages across the world, bursts of behind the scenes footage from video and album art shoots, small moments of families together, behind the scenes footage of the duo together and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sessa Shares Swinging and Strutting “Nome de Deus”

São Paulo-based singer/songwriter and musician Sergio Sayeg, best known as Sessa will be releasing his third album Pequena Vertigo de Amor on November 7, 2025 through Mexican Summer.

The nine-song album is not just an evolution of the Brazilian artist’s sound; it’s a thorough transformation. Sayeg describes the album’s material as “a bit more nocturnal, open-ended, crooked funky,” while highlighting inspiration from soulful influences across both North and South America, including Shuggie Otis, Roy Ayers, Sly Stone, Erasmo Carlos, Tim Maia, Hyldon and more.

Recorded to tape at Cosmo, the studio that the Brazilian artist co-founded with Biel Basile, over five sessions between last April and March 2025, Pequena Vertigem de Amor sees Sessa expanding his sonic palette and stretching in multiple directions simultaneously. There’s a greater emphasis on rhythm and enhanced tempos, as he experiments with new vocal cadences and textures, and the addition of instrumentation not heard in his previously released work like piano, synthesizer, wah-wah pedaled guitar and even a primitive drum machine.

Sayeg describes the forthcoming album’s songs as “a mix of personal chronicles and quiet meditations about life in the face of personal change, of experiencing something so big that you realize your insignificant size in space and time.” That new perspective and reality wound up remaking his personal life and his connection to music. “For the first time I saw music move from the center to the side of my life.” The radical reordering of priorities presented fresh opportunities in his music. “In an interesting way, music became more mixed with my life,” Sessa explains as he found ways to conjure melodies, lyrics and inspiration from the daily rhythms of life.

His personal evolution has brought into sharp contrast “the ambiguities and contradictions in life, which is a place that has always inspired my writing.” Pequena Vertigem de Amor reminds the listener that experiencing vertigo can be simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating, sentiments expressed through the material’s lyrics and overall aesthetic, a fusion of novel and familiar sounds, styles and instrumentation.

In making Pequena Vertigem de Amor, a cosmic connection by way of his son’s pre-school managed to yield a missing musical ingredient—an “element on piano, which I had never put in my music, that fulfilled my search for a classic samba jazz sound,” Sessa says.  A fellow musician and parent at his son’s pre-school suggested pianist Marcelo Maita, the younger brother of São Paulo samba legend Amado Maita. Sayeg invited the younger Maita to contribute to a few songs, including the album’s second and latest single “Nome de Deus” (“Name of God”).

Maita’s urgent, staccato piano attack paired with Biel Basile’s rolling percussion and a supple, throbbing bass line create a soulful, mischievously swinging and strutting samba-inspired bed for Sessa’s impassioned vocal defiantly asserting agency in bold defiance of deities and nonsensical laws and rules.

Directed by Rollinos, and shot in a cinematic black and white with illustrated burts of color exploding across the screen, the accompanying video features the Brazilian artist playing all of the song’s instrumentation and singing in a recording studio.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Total Fucking Darkness Returns with Woozily Hypnotic “Give Me Everything You Own”

Electronic music outfit Total Fucking Darkness features: 

The trio have released two singles, which I’ve written about on this site, “Desolation Boys,” and “Take It Easy.” Their latest single “Give Me Everything You Own” is an unsettlingly woozy and hypnotic fever dream that’s one-part Tweekend-era The Crystal Method rave, one-part brooding dream pop and one-part howl into the void.

“We live in a late-period capitalist wasteland where art is devalued and podcasters are the new creative upper class. What a fucking bore,” the trio share. “‘Give Me Everything You Own’ is a reminder of the intrinsic, anarchic power of our music. We made it to feel like a nice cold wet fish slapping you upside the head to remind you not to fall asleep in your own life, that connection matters, that a dancefloor can be the site of rebellion and dissent. Don’t forget that cunts are still running the world…” 

The accompanying video is a flop sweat-fueled fever dream of nightmarish war imagery and brightly colored summery scenes that captures our ongoing hellscape. But all is not lost, y’all. Go to shows, dance floors, theater and meet like-minded souls. Community is always the solution to fascism.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Danger Mouse and Black Thought Team Up with Rag’n’Bone Man on Cinematic and Soulful “Up”

Danger Mouse (born Brian Burton) is arguably one of the most versatile and prolific artists and producers in music right now: As an artist he has been one-half of Broken Bells and Grammy Award-winning Gnarls Barkley. As a producer, he has recorded collaborative albums with  Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ Karen O and the late, legendary MF DOOM. And he has worked with Adele, U2, The Black Keys, Gorillaz, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Kiwanuka, Parquet Courts and a lengthy list of others. 

Black Thought (born Tariq Trotter) is a co-founder and frontman of Grammy Award winning, pioneering hip-hop act The Roots. Trotter is also an accomplished solo artist who has released a critically applauded album and two EPs: 2020’s Streams of Thought Vol. 3: Cane & Able and 2018’s Streams of Thought Vol. 1 EP and Streams of Thought Vol. 2 EP, which helped further his reputation among the cognoscenti — and real hip hop heads — as one of the dopest living emcees to ever spit bars. Adding to a lengthy list of accolades and accomplishments, Trotter has acted in film and theater, along with having writing and producer credits.

The duo’s acclaimed collaborative album, 2022’s Cheat Codes simultaneously marked Danger Mouse’s first hip-hop album since 2005’s DANGERDOOM with the legendary and beloved MF DOOM and the follow=up to Black Thought’s solo trilogy Streams of Thought. But their collaboration can actually be traced back almost 20 years earlier: Trotter and Burton first met back in 2005. They started working on material — but time went on, life happened, other projects and obligations came up.

Following 2004’s acclaimed The Grey Album, Burton became one of the most in-demand and prolific producers of the day, helming several commercially and critically successful projects, which led to a bevy of accolades and awards. He also developed collaborations with a unique and eclectic array of artists while expanding upon and honing his own musicianship, production and writing. 

During that same period of time, The Roots released a batch of critically applauded albums and became the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon then The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Trotter released his aforementioned, critically applauded solo trilogy Streams of Thought. He collaborated with the likes of Eminem, John Legend, Pusha T., Griselda, and a list of others. He wrote, composed and starred in the widely-praised off-Broadway show Black No More. And adding to a lengthy list of accomplishments, he co-produced a TV series with his Roots bandmate Questlove. 

Each mistakenly thought that the other had moved on and their collaboration just died, but as it turned out, neither one never stopped wanting to work together. Burton had long felt an instinctive need to return to his roots and make a timeless hip-hop album. He knew that Trotter was one of the few emcees truly capable of fulfilling that vision. Simultaneously, Trotter was seeking a space, where he could express himself musically and creatively beyond the confines and structures of his own band. 

This time, Burton was a far more seasoned songwriter and producer, Trotter an even more extraordinary emcee.  So, setting aside all distractions, Burton played Trotter some new music he had had. The ideas and words quickly flowed — and the experience was liberating. 

Meticulously built over a period of several years, Cheat Codes found Burton pushing widescreen, soul-infused hip-hop soundscapes to new directions paired with Trotter’s commanding presence, incisive lyricism and dexterous wordplay. Unlike the typical producer-meets-rapper/side project, Cheat Codes is an effort between two like-minded collaborators, who raise each other’s games to new heights. The album also featured an equally acclaimed cast of guests including A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels, MF DOOM, Michael Kiwanuka, Joey Bada$$, Russ, Raekwon, and Conway the Machine. Simply put, dope emcees plus dope producer equals legendary album.

Danger Mouse and Black Thought recently shared “Up (with Rag’n’Bone Man),” their first bit of new material together since Cheat Codes — and a preview of their forthcoming, highly-anticipated sophomore album together. Written and performed by Danger Mouse, Black Thought and British artist Rag’n’Bone Man (drums and vocals), whose song “Human” has amassed over 2 billion views on YouTube, “Up” features a broodingly cinematic production with clattering and percussive boom bap serving as a lush bed for Black Thought’s intense and fiery yet deeply introspective lyrics and the rising British artist’s mournful, gospel-meets-soul like hook.

Directed by Joshua Ellingson, the accompanying video for “Up” continues the Cheat Codes visual aesthetic: screens upon screens, stock footage that seemingly evokes the desperate urgency of our moment and the three collaborators.