Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Whose Rules Share Breezy and Anthemic “I Don’t Care”

Marius Elfstedt is a Norwegian producer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who grew up on a flower farm in a Hasler, Norway, a rural area roughly an hour outside of Oslo. Four years ago, while exploring his family’s farm, he came came across an abandoned cabin and then re-purposed it into a recording studio, where he writes. produces and record music with his friends and artists like Dev Lemons, Tigerstate, Selmer, Ralph Castelli, Elah Hale, Isabelle Eberdean, Mall Girl, Svømmbesseng, Joe’s Truly, Bikelane, Fish, Overcity, Pikekyss, and others.

Elfstedt works and records his own material as Whose Rules. Back in 2020, the Norwegian producer and artist released his self-titled debut EP, which he followed up with a handful of collaborative releases with Dev Lemons.

The Norwegian producer and artist’s full-length debut, Hasler is slated for a February 22, 2023 through 777 Music. The album was created from the solitude found within the walls of pandemic-related isolation within the walls of his Hasler, Norway-based studio, in the middle of the Scandinavian wilderness. Wooden log walls, haplessly strewn posters, old second-hand couches and a teeming collection of guitars and synths helped create a perfect environment to escape into a world of creation.

Written and produced entirely by Marius, Hasler is the culmination of years of sonic experimentation and rumination — both melancholic and hopeful — over adolescence gradually blossoming into adulthood. Thematically and lyrically, the material touches upon loneliness. love, friendship and self-doubt while sonically the album pairs whiting electronics and indie rock.

Hasler‘s third and latest single “I Don’t Care” is a woozy yet breezily melancholic bop featuring shimmering, strummed acoustic guitar-driven melody, fluttering synths, and a buzzing guitar solo paired with Elfstadt’s languid, delivery, instantly catchy melodicism and a penchant for easy-going yet anthemic hooks. “This is the first track I made for this LP. After a long time with writer’s block, this song pops out of nowhere,”Elfstadt explains. “The dissonant guitar melody reminded me of Weezer’s ‘Undone’ and ‘Say it Ain’t So‘ which I thought was dope.”

Directed and shot by Fabio Enzo, the accompanying video for “I Don’t Care” follows the Norwegian producer and artist on the family farm, at the studio and while watching a glorious sunset.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Bristol Act Saloon Dion Shares Anthemic “I Don’t Feel”

Bristol, UK-based post punk outfit Saloon Dion quickly exploded into the national scene and international scene with a handful of singles released through Nice Swan Records and Permanent Creeps, which have widespread critical praise from The Fader, Brooklyn Veganr, Clash Magazine, Dork Magazine, NME, So Young, The New Cue, CRACK and a lengthy list of others. That early material has also received airplay on from BBC Radio 1 personality Jack Saunders, BBC Radio 6 personalities Lauren Laverne and Simone Butler, as well as Radio X personality John Kennedy.

Building upon a growing profile, the rising Bristol-based outfit will be opening for Pip Blom on their UK tour next month. They’ll then make their Stateside debut at this year’s SXSW in March. They’re one of the first 26 British acts to be announced on the festival lineup. (As always, tour dates are below.)And the band’s highly-anticipated, debut EP is slated for release later this year.

Their latest single “I Don’t Feel” was released yesterday through Mucker Records. Centered around swirling and angular guitar attack, a driving groove. crooned verses and shout-along friendly choruses with sneeringly ironic lyrics, “I Don’t Feel” is a decidedly Brit pop-take on post punk: think Blur-meets-Gang of Four.

“’I Don’t Feel’ is a song about being reluctant to seek help from others. What it isn’t, is a song about having no feeling, but more of choosing what to feel and when to feel it,” the members of Saloon Dion explain. “It speaks of the barriers we all put up to protect ourselves, no matter the damage they may do in the long run.”

Directed and created by Clump Collective, the accompanying video shows the members of the band struggling with social ettiequte, and taking part in a handshake class — perhaps to better learn an awkward yet necessary social interaction.

Live Dates
31st Jan – Elsewhere, Margate*
1st Feb – Portland Arms, Cambridge*
3rd Feb – Face Bar, Reading*
4th Feb – Boileroom, Guildford*
5th Feb – Moles, Bath*
17th Feb – The Cluny, Newcastle
18th Feb – Exchange, Bristol
24th Feb – The Old Blue Last, London
13th-19th Mar – SXSW
16th Apr – Outer Town Festival, Bristol

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: SUUNS Share Sludgy and Shoegazy “Wave”

Montréal-based experimental rock outfit SUUNS— founding members Ben Shemie (vocals, guitar) and Joe Yarmush (guitar, bass) with Liam O’Neill (drums) — can trace their origins back to 2007: Shemie and Yarmush got together to make some beats, and it quickly evolved to a few songs. The duo was joined by O’Neill and Max Henry (keys) to complete the band’s first lineup. The band signed to Secretly Canadian in 2010. That year, Henry left the band as a full-time official member to pursue a scholarly career — although he continues to record with the band.

In 2020, the trio signed to Joyful Noise Recordings, who released that year’s Fiction EP and 2021’s The Witness.

Engineered by Adrian Popovich and recorded at Mountain City Recording Studio last July, the band’s latest single “Wave” evolved over an 18 month period of touring to support The Witness. “While touring The Witness, between plane rides, car rides, van rides, and text threads, we started working on new music,” SUUNS’ Ben Shemie explains. “New sounds and a new approach seemed to take shape while testing new material. What started to emerge were really slow songs, some strange experimentations, and some unclassifiable jams. Among these tunes, ‘Wave’ emerged.”

The slow-burning dirge-like “Wave” is rooted in relentless repetition, swirling and sludgy guitar textures, droning feedback and distortion, blown-out boom bap paired with Shemie’s plaintive delivery buried a smidge under the syrupy mix. Sonically “Wave” makes a nod at fellow Montrealers The Besnard Lakes before ending with a noisy, slow-burning fade out.

The accompanying video by Ilyse Krivel consists of time lapse footage of the sun setting over a body of water, superimposed by footage of rippling waves at the shore.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: Joseph Shares Anthemic “Nervous System”

Portland, OR-based sibling indie pop trio Joseph — Natalie Closner Schepman and her two, younger twin sisters Meegan and Allison — derive their name from two different sources: their grandfather Jo and the tiny town of Joseph, OR, in which he was born and raised. The Closner Sisters grew up in a musical household: their dad was a jazz singer and drummer, while their mom was a theater teacher. But their group can trace its origins back to around 2014: Closner Schepman had been pursuing a career as a singer/songwriter, recruited her sisters to join her in a new project.

When the Closners began working together, they quickly recognized an irresistible and undeniable creative chemistry.

The trio quickly developed a reputation for playing intimate house shows, in which they would accompany themselves with acoustic guitar and a foot drum. Within their first yet of being a group, they self-released their debut, 2014s Native Dreamer Kin, which caught the attention of ATO Records, who signed the group the following year.

After releasing 2015’s, ATO Sessions EP, an acoustic, two song, digital EP and accompanying video series, the sibling trio went on to release their Mike Mogis-produced, label debut 2016’s I’m Alone, No You’re Not, which featured the smash hit “White Flag.” “White Flag” landed on Spotify’s US Viral Top Ten Chart within days of its release. By that October, the track landed at #1 on the Adult Alternative Charts.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the trio made appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, Later . . . with Jools Holland, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, Conan, CBS This Morning and Today. They also opened for James Bay during a sold out, 2016 arena tour — and they made festival stops at Coachella, Lollapalooza, Bonnaroo, Newport Folk Festival, Sasquatch Festival, Glastonbury Festival, Outside Lands Festival, Pilgrimage Music Festival and several others.

2019’s Christian “Leggy” Langdon-produced album Good Luck, Kid saw the trio pushing their sound in a grittier, more dynamic direction while retaining the gorgeous harmonies and earnest vocal deliveries that won them acclaim across the blogosphere and elsewhere. “The through-line of the album is this idea of moving into the driver’s seat of your own life-recognizing that you’re an adult now, and everything’s up to you from this moment on,” Natalie Closner Schepman says in press notes.  “You’re not completely sure of how to get where you need to go, and you don’t have any kind of a map to help you. It’s just the universe looking down on you like, ‘Good luck, kid.’”

The sibling trio’s fourth official album, the Tucker Martine and  Christian “Leggy” Langdon co-produced The Sun is slated for an April 28, 2023 release through their longtime label home ATO Records. The album reportedly sees the group working with a collection of new collaborators and making yet another vibrant sonic shift while retaining the craft, three-part harmonies and hard-fought and harder-won lyrical wisdom that they’ve been known for throughout their career. But unlike its predecessors, The Sun sees the sibling trio taking a decidedly more hands-on role in the production process. The result is an album of material that sees Joseph spinning incredibly complex concepts into anthemic, sing-along ready pop that serves as a backdrop for the trio’s fearless and deeply personal storytelling from each of their perspectives.

Thea album sees the trio focusing their soul-searching songwriting on the quietly damaging force that keep us from living fully in our truth — e.g., gaslighting, cultural condition, unconscious yet painfully limiting self-beliefs and the like. Drawing on hard lessons from relationships and personal growth through therapy, The Sun reportedly shares stories of taking control of your own fate, making difficult decisions in the name of becoming yourself and weathering the highs and lows of love while keeping the faith — and tending to ourselves with presence and compassion. “All of our therapists were a huge influence on this album,” the sibling trio say in press notes.

The Sun‘s first single “Nervous Single” is a punchy pop song rooted in deep, personal experience, rousingly anthemic, sing-along friendly hooks and big-hearted, heart-on-sleeve compassion. Fittingly the song — and its narrator — discusses being our own lifeline during times of anxiety, struggle and uncertainty. “It’s about self regulating and tending to ourselves with presence and compassion, rather than frantically reaching outside of ourselves,” the trio explain. Alison Closner adds “I’ve struggled with a lot of anxiety over the years, at times a constant inner storm, and it’s been easy to look outside myself to feel safe and secure. I’ve fought to find my inner peace, and through that process I’ve found that so much of the time I already have what it takes to calm my nervous system.”

Directed by Vanessa Pla, the accompanying woozy video for “Nervous System” features the sibling trio in matching sienna-colored suits with blue tops and black boots in a blue and white background. Through the use of spinning camera, slow pans and surreal activities, the video evokes and emphasizes the song’s central themes.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montréal’s Super Plage Shares Breezy Yet Melancholy “NYE”

Jules Henry is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter and electronic music producer, best known as Super Plage. As Super Plage, Henry specializes in a seductive sound with hints of nu-disco. Over the past couple of years, the Canadian artist has rather prolific. Over the past couple of years, Henry has released:

Henry’s fourth Super Plage album Midnight Magic is slated for a March release. The album’s fourth and latest single, “NYE” is a breezy yet melancholy bit of pop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering beats paired with Henry’s achingly plaintive vocal and an enormous hook. Although “NYE” sonically nods at Daft Punk, Phoenix, and Air, the song evokes the hope and despair of another year.

Directed by Virginie Bedard, the accompanying video for “NYE” follows a young woman at a party — presumably a costumed New Year’s Eve bash. While everyone else is enjoying themselves, we see this young woman seem awkward, and fearful of what may happen next. For her the New Year, may not be as hopeful occasion as it is was for others.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s Atsuko Chiba Shares Brooding and Hypnotic “Shook (I’m Often)”

With the release of a couple of EPs and two albums, Montréal-based psych outfit Atusko Chiba — Karim Lakhdar (guitar, vocals, synthesizer), Kevin McDonald (guitar, synthesizer), David Palumbo (bass guitar, vocals), Anthony Piazza (drums) and Erik Schafhauser (guitar, synthesizer) — have developed a reputation for crafting a cohesive and hypnotic blend of post-rock, prog rock and krautrock paired with offbeat, subversive songwriting. 

For their live shows, the Canadian psych outfit pair their unique brand of experimental rock with video and light installations trigged in real time by the band, creating an immersive multimedia, multi-sensorial environment. Over the past few years, the band has toured across Canada, the States and Europe, sharing stages with  . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Big Business, Duchess Says, King Buffalo, and others. 

The band’s highly-anticipated third album, Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing officially dropped today. Recorded at Room 11, the band’s studio, alongside their sixth member, engineer Matthew Cerantola, the album stems from months of experimentation, as well as conceptual dichotomies informed by some rather strange times, and sees the band crafting an album’s worth of genre-defying, drone driven material that may draw comparisons to the likes of The Mars Volta, Beak>and Spirit of the Beehive among others. 

“As opposed to our last album, which was about introspection, spacetime and the personal journey, the themes explored on this new album are related to our environment and our reaction to it,” the members of Atsuko Chiba explain. “Though not meant to be strictly political, our references stem from highly politicized movements and ideas. Division and group ideology are heavily explored. A prime example is the weaponization of vocabulary used to distract, displace and alienate us, forcing us to pick sides on every front. Our lyrics also strongly denote our innate love for all living things, encompassing a hopeful, if somewhat violent, plea for change.

We were also influenced by musical genres that tend to be more repetitive such as electronic or drone music. We discussed topics such as drones, ragas, hypnotic rhythms, minimalism, spatial awareness, musicality through overall patience, trying a less-is-more approach, etcetera. This led to us five playing as an ensemble rather than as musicians with defined roles; we were all responsible for pushing forward the main idea.”

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I’ve written about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • The expansive, slow-burning A Storm in Heaven-meets-Dark Side of the Moon-like “Seeds.” Clocking in at 7:45, the track is centered around lush, glistening synths, swirling guitar riffs, tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap-like drumming paired with heavily distorted vocal harmonies. The single also features a gorgeous contribution from Montreal-based string quartet Quatuor Esca, who perform an arrangement by Gabriel Desjardins. While possessing a sprawling, widescreen atmosphere, “Seeds” evokes a creeping sense of impending uncertainty and doom but with the tacit understanding that perhaps not all is lost — at least not yet. 

  • “Link,” a track rooted in a chugging and aggressive rhythm section, scorching and blaring alarm-like synths, buzzing poly harmonic guitar lines paired with booming vocals. While sounding a bit like it could have been recorded during the Trace sessions, “Link” is an urgent, mosh pit friendly ripper — with a widescreen, cinematic quality. “’Link’ is about judgement; how we often tend to judge and belittle others to prop up our own self worth,” the members of Atsuko Chiba explain. “It’s about the lengths we go through to destroy others, while not taking the time to look inside.“

Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing‘s third and latest single “Shook (I’m Often)” may arguably be the most raga-like of the album’s released singles: Featuring layers of droning guitars, a relentless motorik groove paired with Lakdar’s plaintive crooning, the album’s latest single is a sprawling soundscape that’s simultaneously brooding and trippy. But underneath the trippy vibes is a song that evokes an uneasy stasis.

The accompanying video features fittingly hallucinogenic imagery animated by the band’s Anthony Piazza.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Laure Briard Shares ’70s-Inspired “The Smell of Your Hair”

Laure Briard is a Toulouse, France-based singer/songwriter, who has a had a highly uncommon path to professional music. Briard bounced around several different interests and passions for some time: She studied literature and criminology and even acted a bit, before concentrating on music full-time in 2013.

After the release of her debut EP, 2013’s Laure Briard chante la France, Briard met Juilen Gasc and Eddy Cramps, and the trio began working on the material that would eventually become her full-length debut, 2015’s Révélation. Inspired by Françoise Hardy, Margo Guryan and Vashti Bunyan, Révélation featured modern and poetic lyricism. 

Briard then signed with Midnight Special Records, who released her sophomore album, 2016’s Sur la Piste de Danse. Repeated trips to Brazil inspired and informed her next three efforts –2018’s Coração Louco EP, 2019’s Un peu plus d’amour s’il vous plâit and 2021’s En Voo EP, which were heavily indebted to Bossa Nova and saw the Toulouse-based artist writing and singing lyrics in Brazilian Portuguese and French. Those three efforts were rooted in a successful series of collaborations between the Toulouse-based JOVM mainstay, the equally acclaimed JOVM mainstays,  Latin Grammy Award nominated, Brazilian psych rockers Boogarins, Marius Dufflot, and her longtime collaborators Vincent “Octopus” Guyot

The JOVM mainstay’s fourth album Ne pas trop rester bleue is slated for a February 10, 2023 release through Midnight Special Records. Inspired and informed by Joshua Tree, a remote national park that’s a no man’s land, where space and time seem to stretch on forever. An odd fantasy land, where America’s simultaneously obsolete and haunted by its myths and past legends. But ultimately, the album celebrates rebirth and letting go.

Although Ne pas trop rester bleue took three long years to finish, the album was enriched and informed by her travels, and as a result, the effort was liberating. Reportedly much lighter and more optimistic than Sur la piste de dance, an album rooted in broken destinies, disillusionments and heartbreaks, Ne pas trop rester bleue is a cathartic, deeply autobiographical effort that allows the Toulouse-based JOVM mainstay to essentially free herself from lingering ghosts — and to conjure new ones.

The album’s material is influenced quite a bit by the legendary Carole King, Lee Hazlwood, the poet Don Gibson and Bobbie Gentry. Briard continues her ongoing collaboration with Julien Gasc and Vincent “Octopus” Guyot, who assisted in the material’s arrangements. Sonically, the result is an album that draws from soul, pop and country featuring string and brass arrangements paired with the JOVM mainstay’s breezy delivery.

Featuring twinkling keys, brooding and shimmering strings and soulful brass arrangements paired with Briard’s coquettish delivery, Ne pas trop rester bleue‘s latest single “The Smell of Your Hair” sounds as though it could have been a unreleased track from the Tapestry sessions that was cut from the album. And much like Tapestry, “The Smell of Your Hair” tells a story about a heartbreaking encounter — but in this case, with a lonesome cowboy type in Joshua Tree, where fleeting passion under the desert sun was lulled by birdsong and the sound of wind. And instead of lamenting over the inevitable separation and giving into bitterness, heartbreak or even melodrama, the song’s narrator attempts to turn heartbreak into a playfully sunny and sensual memory.

Directed by Benjamin Marius Petit, the accompanying video for “The Smell of Your Hair” features Briard and her band playing in a full, behind-the-scenes styled visual. Fittingly, Briard and band are in ’70s-inspired costumes, playing in a ’70s-styled white box studio. Shot from four different camera perspectives, the clip utilizes diverse image styles and distortion effects (wide angle, fisheye, 360 tracking…), evoking “a psychedelic LSD trip in Woodstock, but also a mixing of eras, with visual references that could belong at once to the 70’s and to contemporary times,” explains the director Benjamin Marius Petit. “The goal was not to make a strictly ‘retro’ clip but, to best reflect the atmosphere of Laure’s music, to keep one foot in the past and the other in the present.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vanille Shares Shimmering and Ethereal “M’as tu vu passer?”

Rising Montréal-based singer/songwriter Rachel Leblanc, best known to the outside world as Vanille, specializes in a sound that exists somewhere between ’60s folk and French chanson and brings the listener into a dreamlike world of dense forests and swooning heartbreak.

Leblanc’s sophomore Vanille album, the Alex Martel and Leblanc co-produced La clairière is slated for a February 3, 2023 release through Bonbonbon Records in Canada and Boogie Drugstore in Europe. Recorded at Wild Studio and Le Pantoum, La Clairére sees Leblanc retaining elements of the dream pop sound and approach that won her attention — but while leaning heavily into 60s English baroque folk.

Last summer, I wrote about “À bientôt,” a swooning and expansive bit of psych folk-meets-psych rock featuring a lush arrangement of strummed reverb-drenched guitars, gently padded drumming paired with Leblanc’s achingly tender falsetto. And at its core, is tale as old as time itself: a heartbroken narrator, in the aftermath of the devastation of a newly-ended relationship i left with their memories — and the bitter taste of their heartbreak.

La clairère‘s latest single “M’as tu vu passer?” continues a run of gorgeous, baroque folk-inspired material featuring strummed guitar, atmospheric synths, gently padded drumming and percussion paired with Leblanc’s plaintive and ethereal cooing. “M’as tu va passer?” is simultaneously a song about heartbreak and depression, and of dark and cold Montréal winters without anywhere to really go or anything to really do.

Directed by Rachel Leblanc and Irina Tempea, the accompanying visual for “M’as tu va passer?” is shot on Super 8 film to give it all a hazily nostalgic, old-timey air. The video references winter in several different instances: Leblanc laying down on a furry blanket with fake snow falling on her, Leblanc holding a snow globe and edited footage of a couple fighter skating.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The C.I.A. Shares Menacing “Bubble”

The C.I.A. are a indie all-star trio featuring Denée and Ty Segall and Emmett Kelly. The trio’s newest album Surgery Channel is slated fora a Friday release through In The Red. Written in 2021, the album was recorded Mike Kriebel at Ty Segall’s Harmonizer Studios, and is reportedly an astute observation and blunt critique — both inward and outward. It’s also an exploration into how harshly intimate that process can be. 

Surgery Channel also sees the band crafting an electrified, pulsating, metallic playpen that will get listeners strutting and moving. Essentially, the album shows punks a new way to move while remaining loyal to the punk traditions of catharsis and social commentary. 

Late last year, I wrote about Surgery Channel‘s second single, “Inhale Exhale.” Centered around buzzing and slashing bass attack, skittering beats and rattling thump, electronic pulse and Denée’s punchy shouting. Seemingly meshing elements of industrial electronica, classic punk and old school hip-hop, “Inhale Exhale” is confrontational and abrasive yet accessible — and mosh pit friendly.

Just ahead of the album’s release, the trio share the album’s latest single, “Bubble.” Featuring buzz and slashing dual bass attack, metronomic-like beats, malevolent atmospherics paired with Denée’s sultry cooing. The song tells a tale of dysfunctional, anxiety-driven desire — the sort that drives the song’s main character to self-destruction.

Directed by Joshua Erkman, the accompanying video features the members of The C.I.A. dressed entirely in white for much of the video — with Denée Segall appearing like a crazed Nurse Hatchett. We see the band in front of a white tiled wall, stuffing themselves with a messy and gluttonous abandon.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Heartworms Shares Startling and Cinematic Visual for Brooding “Retributions Of An Awful Life”

Jojo Orme is a South London-based singer/songwriter, producer and mastermind behind the rapidly rising, goth-inspired post-punk outfit Heartworms. Uniformity plays a huge role with Orme and Heartworms: the metronomic music and meticulous fashion of acts like Interpol and Kraftwerk have been a major influence on the South London-based artist. But she also cites PJ Harvey, whose dark sense of humor and lyrical dexterity permeates her own songwriting.

Orme’s Heartworms debut, “Consistent Dedication” quickly exploded across both the British and international scene: She received nods from the NME 100 and Dork Hype List for 2023, and she received critical applause from The FADER, The Quietus, Loud and Quiet, The Line of Best Fit, So Young Magazine, Clash Magazine and a lengthy list of others. The song was added to BBC Radio 6 Music‘s playlist following airplay from the station’s Chris Hawkins, Steve Lamacq, Lauren Laverne and Tom Ravenscroft. And the song received airplay from Radio X‘s John Kennedy and BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders and Gemma Bradley.

She has also made a name for self on the national live circuit in the past year: She played DIY Magazine and So Young Magazine showcases at The Great Escape. She opened for Lime Garden. And lastly, Sports Team invited her to play their annual Margate bus trip.

Building upon a growing profile, the rising South London-based artist’s debut EP A Comforting Notion is slated for a March 24, 2023 release through Speedy Wunderground. The EP’s latest single “Retributions Of An Awful Life” further cements an uneasy and deeply goth-inspired take on post-punk featuring ambient noise, glistening synth oscillations, skittering beats and slashing guitars paired with Orme’s defiant and swaggering delivery, which seems equally indebted to hip-hop and punk rock. The song reveals a singular artist, crafting something completely new from the familiar, while delving deep into her own psyche.

Directed by Niall Trask and Dan Matthews, the accompanying video for “Retributions Of An Awful Life” is shot in a cinematic yet intimate black and white, and stars Orme, along with Natalia Tonner, Lizzy Walsh, Lizzy Walsh, Pip Smith, Marko Andic, Tom White, Simone Reca and Jazz as a military regiment going through some brutal military training exercises. Throughout we see the members of the miserable regiment, covered in dust and mud, wincing in pain, fighting to continue through the wet and cold. Their suffering is real and difficult to watch yet compelling and symbolic: We all have to figure out some way to push through in the face of terrible suffering — whether from outside forces larger than us or from within — and in face of our own fears.

“The song itself lyrically is deeply unsettling, I wanted it to come alive in action. I had an idea of being kitted up in full militaria of no specific regiments, in black and white, putting my body through cold water and wet mud,” Orme explains. “This was stepping outside my comfort zone because I’m not a skilled swimmer; deep water frightens me immensely, especially when cold and in full military gear.”

She continues: “Not many artists/bands I know have done something this raw. I didn’t want to go for a fancy video with pretty dancers or lovely wallpaper plastered with an airbrush filter – I wanted to imbibe a new pain, bring to life punishment, fight fears while abiding relentlessness with my friends by my side. To have put my body through something I found frightening just for the art… there’s something exhilarating about it.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: SEMH Shares Sultry and Accessible “Please”

Susi Eva Maria Herzberger, best known as SEMH is a German singer/songwriter and pop artist, who crafts electro pop rooted in profound, earnest and lived-in emotions and experiences with the expressed purpose to move the listener to dance and to feel deeply.

Last year, the German artist released four singles, “Best of Me, “Shout It Out (SIO),” “Soul Stealer,” and “Mr. W,” all of which will appear on her self-titled full-length album slated for a March 3, 2023 release.

Herzberger artist starts the new year with her self-titled album’s fifth and latest single, “Please.” Centered around Giorgio Moroder-like synth oscillations and shimmering bursts of guitar paired with SEMH’s sultry delivery and an enormous hook, “Please” is a remarkably accessible pop song rooted in longing for a love that’s unspoken and/or possibly unrequited.

Directed by the German artist, the accompanying video seems to nod at Janet Jackson’s “Pleasure Principle,” as it features SEMH in a sparse, yet well-lit loft studio space, brooding and dancing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Wroclaw, Poland Shoegazers Give Up To Failure Share Brooding “Slow Collapse”

Wroclaw, Poland-based shoegazer outfit Give Up To Failure — Mark Magick, Krzysztof Młyńczak, Rafał Wekiera, Michał Szczypek, and Dominik Półtorak — will be releasing their sophomore album Cocoon through Polish indie label Requiem Records on February 20, 2023.

The Polish shoegazers explain that they’ve developed on Cocoon is a definite transformation from the sound of their full-length debut, 2020’s Burden. The ten-song Cocoon sees the band’s sound evolving with material that ranges from shoeagze, post-rock and post-metal with nods of post-punk, ambient and dream pop in a swirling and cohesive fashion. “We describe the sound of this album as: from chaos in the head to peace in the heart,” the Polish outfit said through email. Lyrically and thematically, the albums material touches upon love, depression, self-destruction, insomnia, trying to find yourself and trying to become a better person.

Cocoon‘s second and latest single, “Slow Collapse” is a slow-burning and brooding track centered around swirling and malevolent guitar atmospherics, propulsive and dramatic drumming paired with achingly plaintive vocals, buried a bit in the mix, expressing regret and self-loathing that brings A Place to Bury Strangers to mind. The song’s narrator begs for for another chance, for their love interest to just talk — for a chance to explain what happened from their perspective. But throughout there’s a sense that it’s just too late.

The accompanying video features some trippy and brooding imagery, including fuzzy black and white, VHS-style footage of an exceedingly European forest, a couple of embracing, a couple walking through a trippy background and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Polycool Shares Slow-Burning “Spiral”

French psych pop outfit Polycool quickly established a unique sound that drew from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Air, Sebastian Tellier, Nick Hakim, Connan Moccasin and others with the release of 2019’s full-length debut, Lemon Lord. The album’s material received airplay onRadio Nova, FIP, France Inter, Les Inrocks and others. 

Building upon a growing profile in their native France, the rising psych pop outfit has played sets at 2019’s Printemps de Bourges and 2020’s We Love Green. 

If you were following this site last year, you might recall that the members of the rising psych pop outfit related two singles:

  • “Something Between Us,” a breezy and infectious bop centered around a strutting bass line, glistening synth arpeggios, Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar paired with a dance floor friendly hook and and a seductive falsetto delivery. The end result was a song that sounded like a slick synthesis of the Bee Gees and Tame Impala. 

  • “Unlike You,” a swaggering and sultry song centered around glistening synth arpeggios, a strutting, Quiet Storm-like groove and buzzing guitars paired with a plaintive falsetto delivery and the band’s ability to craft an infectious hook. But underneath the sultry facade is something much more uneasy and menacing — the dysfunctional past relationship that you can’t escape from, that you can’t stop obsessively thinking of. 

Polycool starts off the new year with “Spiral,” a sultry. slow-burning and atmospheric bit of synth pop that to my ears seems like a slick synthesis of brooding melancholy, Quiet Storm soul and MGMT-like psych pop centered around a strutting bass line, glistening synths, and a buzzing yet soulful guitar solo paired with an achingly plaintive falsetto and the band’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks. The song describes an uneasy and complicated affair of the heart — one in which lust and love are hopelessly confused.

Directed by Tino Gelli, the accompanying video for “Spiral” is shot in grainy yet sumptuous Super 8-styled black and white in the countryside.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: La Bronze Shares Sultry and Atmospheric “Viens”

Nadia Essadiqi is a Montreal-based, Moroccan-Canadian singer/songwriter, musician and actor. An as actor Essadiqi has appeared in the French language, Canadian series Trauma, season 3 of ICI Radio-Canada Télé’s Unité 9, the TOU.TV webs series Quart de vie, the short film Forêt Noire and the sci-fi project, Projet-M,

Essadiqi is best known as the acclaimed pop artist La Bronze. 2014’s self-titled, full-length debut received an Emerging Artist of the Year Award nomination at the 2015 Canadian Music Week Awards. Although she may be best known for singing lyrics in French, in 2016, he released a Maghrebi Arabic rendition of Stromae’s hit “Formidable,” which garnered quite of buzz across Canada and elsewhere. She followed that up in 2017 with the release of her sophomore album, Les corps infinis.

The Montreal-based artist’s third album Vis-moi was released by Montreal-based label Audiogram last March. The album’s latest single “Viens” is a slow-burning and atmospheric pop ballad centered around skittering beats and glistening synth stabs paired with Essadiqi’s ethereal cooing, a soaring choral-driven hook and a woozy bridge. The song thematically focuses on something many of us have experienced at some point — the attraction towards someone or something that isn’t necessarily right for us. And as a result, the song evokes an uneasy and irresistible push and pull, full of carnal longing.

Directed by Eli Jean Tahchi, the accompanying video for “Viens” was shot during a recent trip to the small town of Salé, Morocco. The video begins with the Moroccan-Canadian artist laying down near an open window, presumably attempting to stay cool on a blistering hot morning. We later see the Montreal-based artist in a white gown, running through the town and towards a cemetery. Eventually we see La Bronze at a cliff with the waves crashing below, followed by seeing her dance at the seashore with the sun setting. While surreal, the video also manages to capture the push, pull and collision within the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Altin Gün Shares Kaleidoscopic Visual for Expansive and Anthemic “Rakiya Su Katamam”

Acclaimed Amsterdam-based Turkish psych pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Altin Gün — founder Jasper Verhulst (bass) with Ben Rider (guitar), Erdinç Ecevit Yildiz (keys, saz, vocals), Gino Groneveld (percussion), Merve Dasdemir (vocals, keys) and Nic Mauskovic (drums) — can trace their origins to Japser Verhulst’s repeated tour stops to Istanbul with a previous band, which led to a deep and abiding passion for ’60s and ’70s Turkish psych pop and folk, and fueled by music discoveries Verhlust couldn’t find in his native The Netherlands.

Verhlust wasn’t just content to listen to the sounds he loved as an ardent fan; he had a vision of where he could potentially take that sound. “We do have a weak spot for the music of the late ’60s and ’70s,” Verhulst admitted in press notes. “With all the instruments and effects that arrived then, it was an exciting time. Everything was new, and it still feels fresh. We’re not trying to copy it, but these are the sounds we like and we’re trying to make them our own.” 

The Amsterdam-based JOVM mainstays’ sophomore album, 2020’s critically applauded,  Grammy Award-nominated Gece helped to further establish their reputation for re-imagining traditional Turkish folk through the lens of modern psych rock and psych pop.

2021’s Yol, their third album, in three years, found the band continuing to draw from the rich and diverse traditions of Anatolian and Turkish folk but because of pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, the members of Altin Gün were forced to write in a completely new fashion for them: virtually — through the trading demos and ideas built around Omnichord, 808 and other elements, including field recordings and New Age-like ideas by email. “We were basically stuck at home for three months making home demos, with everybody adding their parts,” Altin Gün’s Merve Dasdemir explained in press notes. “The transnational feeling maybe comes from that process of swapping demos over the internet, some of the music we did in the studio, but lockdown meant we had to follow a different approach.”

The new songwriting approach, which featured arrangements built around Omnichord and 808s resulted in a bold, new sonic direction for the JOVM mainstays: sleek, synth-based retro-futuristic Europop with a dreamy quality, seemingly informed by an enforced period of uneasy reflection. Along with the change in sound and approach, Yol was the first album of the band’s growing catalog that saw them working with outside producers, Ghent, Belgium-based production duo Asa Moto — Oliver Geerts and Gilles Noë — to co-produce and mix the album.

Just before the acclaimed JOVM mainstays went on an extensive North American tour, which included a two-night run Music Hall of Williamsburg last year, they shared the two-song digital single “Badu Sabah Olmadan”/”Cips Kola Kilit.” Both songs originally appeared in some fashion or another on the previous year’s Bandcamp-only album Âlem.

  • “Badu Sabah Olmadon” may arguably be one of the harder rocking songs the Dutch JOVM mainstays have released in some time, featuring a relentless motorik groove, some scorching guitar work, glistening synths and yearning vocals. “‘Badİ Sabah Olmadan’ is a traditional love song from the town of Kırşehir, where the poet begs his lover to come to him before the night ends,” the band explains in press notes. “We recorded an electronic version for our charity album Âlem, and then started to play it live with the band. We liked it so much that we decided to record a live band version. Happy to play it for our fans this spring!”

  • “Clips Kola Kilit” is a dance floor friendly, decidedly 80s synth bop centered around 808-like beats, glistening synth washes and wobbling bass synth paired with a coquettish and sultrily delivered spoken word/rap-like vocal. For those children of the 80s — like me — “Clips Kola Kilit” brings back memories of acts like Whodini, The Human League, Nu Shooz, Cherelle, and others. And interestingly enough, it sound as though it could have been on Yol but was cut from the album.

Slated for a March 10, 2023 release through ATO Records, Altin Gün’s highly-anticipated album, Aşk reportedly is a return to the ’70s Anatolian folk rock sound that characterized their first groundbreaking albums while capturing the urgency and power of their famously propulsive live show. Recorded using vintage equipment and techniques, the album’s ten songs feature visionary new interpretations and readings of traditional Turkish folk tunes, revealing how these old, beloved songs remain eternally resonant and ripe for constant reinterpretation.

“These songs have been covered so many times, always,” Altin Gün’s Merve Dasdemir says. ““But not really in psychedelic pop versions,” Jasper Verhulst adds. “It’s definitely connecting more with a live sound – almost like a live album. We, as a band, just going into a rehearsal space together and creating music together instead of demoing at home.”

Aşk will include the band’s dazzling reinvention of “Lelim Ley,” a classic song of lost love and exile, which features lyrics written by the late Turkish novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist Sabahattin Ali (1907–1948), taken from Ali’s 1937 short story “Ses.” Lelim Ley” was joined by music composed by Livaneli and released in 1975. Since then, the song has been lovingly embraced as one of the most well-known and beloved songs among Turkish people across the world.

The forthcoming album’s latest single “Rakiya Su Katamam” is a kaleidoscopic, space rock/psych rock-like take on the folk standard composed by Turkish writer/theologian Mustafa Öztürk, featuring a relentless motorik groove paired with wah-wah pedaled guitar, Dasdemir’s plaintive yet sultry delivery, and a scorching guitar solo paired with the band’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks.

Produced and directed by Sylvain Rusques and Simon Moreaux, the accompanying animated video features both line animation and collages of dancer Manon Colin dancing and running through two dimensional and three dimensional, kaleidoscopic realms. It’s fittingly mind-bending.