Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Oakland’s Orchestra Gold Returns with Funky and Forceful “Gende”

Oakland-based psych outfit Orchestra Gold is rooted in the decade plus-long collaboration between Malian-born vocalist Mariam Diakite and Oakland-based guitarist Erich Huffaker. The duo first met in Bamako, Mali back in 2006. At the time, Huffaker was very busy: he was working for a nonprofit, studying djembe and dunun (drums) and immersing himself in the city’s burgeoning music scene when he had met and befriended Diakite. The duo recognized a deep and profound musical connection, which led to Diakite relocating to the States to start a band — Orchestra Gold. 

Since then, the Oakland-based psych outfit specializes in a kaleidoscopic sound that meshes Malian folk with psych rock and elements of Afrobeat and soul: Diakite delivers heartfelt and thought-provoking lyrics in her native Bambara language over a trippy and funky soundscape featuring swinging rhythms, funky brass and scorching guitar riffs. The outfit’s goal is to transcend national and musical borders while being a healing force. 

Orchestra Gold’s third album Medicine is slated for a January 20, 2023 release. The album reportedly sees the band firmly continuing their pursuit of spreading and healing and community through music. 

Last month, I wrote about album single “Koniya (No Benefit to Envy),” a song which featured shuffling rhythms, scorching feedback and distortion-driven riffage serving as a lysergic and sinuous bed for Diakite’s expressive delivery. The end result was a song that arched upward towards the cosmos while rooted in earthly matters.

Medicine’s latest single, “Gende” begins with a lengthy and dreamy introduction featuring looping and swirling guitar textures. Around the 2:25 mark or so, the song rapidly morphs into a breakneck Fela Kuti-meets-Black Sabbath-meets-Tinariwen-like ripper, reminiscent of JOVM mainstays Here Lies Man, centered around a funky horn line, scorching riffage and looping guitar textures. Diakite’s expressive vocal and shuffling, propulsive polyrhythm glide and dance around the song’s disparate parts. The end result is a song that’s lysergic but defiantly — and boldly — African and danceable.

Diakite explained the inspiration and meaning of the song to the folks at Glide Magazine:

“’Gende’ talks about the importance of family. This song uses poetic imagery to draw analogies about how important our familiar relationships are. We need to treasure them and not exhaust them.

For example, the first image compares the father to wheat. Absent-minded interaction deteriorates the relationship just as overworking wheat turns the grain to dust. This is not to be taken literally but to encourage people to be mindful of their relationship with their parents.

The second image compares siblings to soap. When you scrub soap too hard, taking more than you need, the bar disappears unnecessarily. If you take more than you give to your siblings, you could be left without an intimate, treasured relationship.

The third image compares children to mirrors. This analogy may be different from how we think about ‘mirrors’ in the west. It implies that If you judge or critique your children too harshly, you will end up damaging your relationship. This will distance them from you, and you will end up missing the intimacy that you could have had.”

The accompanying video fittingly features some lysergic imagery that’s eventually superimposed over the band performing the song. Much like its accompanying song, the video is meant to inspire the viewer to get up from their screen and dance.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Shares Mind-Bending Visual for Anthemic “Get Inspired”

With the release of his debut EP, 2017’s Cardrive, the acclaimed and rising Ghanian-born, Canberra-based, artist Genesis Owusu — born Kofi Owusu-Anash — quickly established a reputation for being a restless, genre-blurring chameleon with an ability to conjure powerful and deeply personal storytelling. 

Cardrive EP garnered an ARIA Award nomination for Best R&B/Soul Release and praise from Sir Elton John (!), NME, i-D, mixmag and others. Owusu supported the EP by opening for Dead Prez, Col3trane, Sampa The Great, Cosmo’s Midnight, Noname, Animé, Ruel and others in Australia. 

Owusu-Anash’s critically applauded full-length debut 2021’s Smiling With No Teeth as the acclaimed Ghanian-Aussie artist explains is essentially about “performing what the world wants to see, even if you don’t have the capacity to do so honestly. Slathering honey on your demons to make them palatable to people, who only want to know if you’re okay, if the answer is yes. That’s the idea, turned into beautiful, youthful, ugly, timeless and strange music.”

Each of the album’s 15 tracks can trace their origins back to studio jam sessions with a backing band that features Kirin J. Callinan, Touch Sensitive’s Michael DiFrancesco, World Champion‘s Julian Sudek and the album’s producer Andrew Klippel. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wound up writing about three of Smiling With No Teeth‘s singles:

  • “The Other Black Dog,” a mind-bending production that meshed alternative hip-hop, industrial clang, clatter, rattle and stomp, off-kilter stuttering beats and wobbling synth arpeggios that was roomy enough for Owusu-Anash’s breathless, rapid-fire and dense flow. Managing to balance club friendliness with sweaty, mosh pit energy, the song is a full-throttled nosedive into madness that reminds me of the drug and booze fueled chaos of ODB, and the menace of DMX.

  • “Gold Chains,” a brooding yet seamless synthesis of old school soul, G Funk and Massive Attack-like trip hop centered around shimmering and atmospheric synths, stuttering boom bap beats, squiggling blasts of guitar and the rising Ghanian-born, Canberra-based artist’s Mos Def/Yasiin Bey-like delivery, alternating between spitting dense and dexterous bars and crooning with an achingly tender falsetto. “‘Gold Chains’ got me thinking about the flaws of being in a profession where, more and more, you have to be the product, rather than just the provider of the product, and public misconceptions about how luxurious that is,” Owusu-Anash explains in press notes. “Lyrically, it set the tone for the rest of the album.” 

  • “Same Thing,” a jolting and uneasy future funk banger centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, skittering beats, bursts of Nile Rodgers-like guitar, a propulsive bass line and infectious hook serving as a silky bed for Owusu’s alternating dexterous and densely worded bars and soulful crooning. But at its core is an unflinchingly honest — and necessary — view of mental health struggles. 

Last July, the Ghanian-Aussie JOVM mainstay released the Missing Molars EP, a five-track accompaniment to his full-length debut. Recorded during the Smiling With No Teeth sessions, the Missing Molars EP material didn’t make the album — but further continue the soul-baring narrative of the album. “Missing Molars is an extension of Smiling With No Teeth,” Owusu-Anash explains. “A small collection of tracks from the SWNT sessions that take the already established world-building groundwork of the album, and expand that universe into new and unexplored places. These are all tracks that I felt were special in their own right and needed to be shared. This is music without boundaries.” 

Adding to a breakthrough 2021, Owusu-Anash went on several sold-out tours, made his Stateside late night TV debut, and went on a successful run of dates across both the States and Europe. Smiling With No Teeth landed on several Best of Lists, including being named triple j’s Album of the Year. The album also earned four ARIA Awards, including Album of the Year, Hip Hop Release, Artwork and Independent Release. And the album was named triple j’s Album of the Year. 

Last year Owusu-Anash was extremely busy: He spent much of the year on the road, making stops across the global festival circuit with sets at  Lollapalooza and Osheaga and more. He made his headlining stateside debut last year, included a stop at Bowery Ballroom, which I covered for the good folks at Musicology.xyz. The JOVM mainstay also opened for a series of internationally renowned artists including  Khraungbin, Thundercat, and Tame Impala,

Owusu-Anash also released the woozily anthemic, stand-alone, Andrew Klippel, Dann Hume and Jono Ma-co-produced, “GTFO.” Beginning with a looped warbling choir, wobbling bass serving as an ethereal and eerie bed for Owusu-Anash’s rapid fire flow, “GFTO” is built around in a alternating quiet-loud-quiet song structure that features a shout-along-worthy chorus paired with a marching beat and explosive cymbal crashes keeping time, and an analog instrumentation-driven hook. While further cementing his reputation for being an artist constantly experimenting with his sound and approach, the song finds the listener being thrown into the JOVM mainstay’s innermost thoughts and opinions with an unvarnished and unsettling honesty. 

The JOVM mainstay closed out 2022 with the Dann Hume and Andrew Klippel co-produced “Get Inspired,” a seamless synthesis of New Wave, EDM, punk and hip-hop centered around angular and propulsive bass, siren-like guitars and the JOVM’s punchy lyrical jabs and uppercuts, Continuing Owusu-Anash’s reputation for boldly defying and mashing genres, there’s even a falsetto delivered breakdown roughly halfway through, before the song quickly gets back to its relentless motorik-like groove. Adding to a growing international profile, a snippet of the song is used in an ad campaign for Apple Fitness+.

“Get Inspired” much like his previously released work is rooted in deeply personal experience — mainly embittering professional, personal and spiritual struggles and figuring out a way through, past or around them to achieve your dreams. If you’re a creative, the song will hit a chord with you.

Directed by Babekuhl and Chris Yee, the accompanying video — the JOVM mainstay’s first of the year — features Owusu-Anash performing the song in front of a green screen, which allows for some mind-bending computer-generated effects.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: North Carolina’s Cor De Lux Shares Angular and Trippy “Syncopated”

Formed back in 2018, Cor De Lux grew out of of the music scene of North Carolina’s Outer Banks. The band can trace their origins to a chance conversation about a deep love of music between its two founding members Tim Lusk (guitar) and Dawn Moraga (guitar and vocal) had while Moraga waited for a phone repair in Lusk’s shop. That conversation wound up being the catalyst for the band’s formation: John Bliven (bass) and Dana Quinn (drums) joined the band, completing its first lineup. Last year saw Quinn departing and being replaced by Thomas McNeely (drums).

The quartet’s music — a mixture of post-punk, goth-tinged pop and shoegaze — has earned then tongue-in-cheek nickname “shoe-gazi” by their friends.

The band’s newest album MEDIA is slated for a February 10, 2023 release. “The album draws on emotions from being on lockdown, media and uncertainty of what will happen next,” the North Carolina-based outfit explain. “The underrated silver linings we all have in common but have to fight to see. What we experience still needs to be questioned while remembering that conflicting beliefs can end with healthy discourse if we see other as equals. If we are scared to talk to each other, we have already lost.

Understandably, the band leaned on one another during the worst of the pandemic — as a sort of therapy. And that foundation helped build the structure of the album’s songs. This was paired with the powerfully undeniable urge to learn more than what they were being told both mentally and musically. “There was so much checking in on people around us and when we got together to play it was our way of forging ahead and getting the emotions put down as art.  The angst post punk driven builds in most of these songs came naturally as the entire album was recorded from jams with little direction as we wanted the songs to build emotionally. We lost our original drummer shortly after recording the last song. A personal decision by him to leave he felt like the story was written and these songs are a part of him as much as they are of us. Thank you.”

The band adds “We all agree that there’s an excitement to see what comes next and want to continue to skirt around genres and create only what comes naturally.”

MEDIA‘s latest single, the breakneck “Syncopated” is featuring glistening and angular guitar attack, carefully syncopated and propulsive groove, Moraga’s icy delivery and Gang of Four-like hooks placed within an expansive, alternating quiet, loud, quiet song structure with an explosive coda. The song is rooted in a palpable unease and uncertainty that properly captures the past couple of years.

The accompanying video features footage from a surreal cartoon by Inkwell Studios and distributed by Paramount Pictures, which features KoKo the Clown and dog and was directed by Dave Fleischer. KoKo the Clown and the dog wind up at Earth’s control rooms; While KoKo plays with the switch that controls day and night, his misbehaving dog feels compelled to pull the switch that would end the world. A series of surreal yet cataclysmic events occur from that point on. Although the cartoon was originally released back in 1928, it captures how close human are to ruining everything for future generations.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Shares Slow-Burning “Turn Away”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins to their hometown’s DIY scene: Each individual member had been immersed in the scene when they met. They started jamming back in 2017. The trio quickly became a local club circuit mainstay.

Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

The trio’s sophomore album Excess was released last year through Stones Throw Records. The album sees the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the ’70s underground met ’80s corporate culture. As the band puts it, “That fleeting moment when what was once cool quickly turned and became mainstream all for the sake of consumerism.” Using that particular point in time as a lens through which to view our uncertain and seemingly apocalyptic present, the album’s material sees the trio taking aim at corporate culture and extravagance through deadpan critiques and razor sharp hooks. 

Last year, I wrote about two album singles:

  • “Skyscraper,” a dance floor friendly bop built around glistening synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor and disco-influenced bass lines paired with an icy, insouciant delivery and razor sharp, well-placed hooks. And while sonically seeming like a slick and effortless synthesis of Blondie, Devo and Talking Heads, the song is rooted in incisive and politically charged commentary. The band’s Halle Saxon explains that “Skyscraper” is ” . . .about spending your life making money and then spending it to fill the void created by said job.” Lola Dompé adds, “Kind of like going to LA to live your dreams.”

  • “Teen Beat,” a single centered around multi-part harmonized chanted vocals, bubbling and arpeggiated synths and a relentless motorik groove that seemed like a seamless mesh of Gang of Four and Nots. Much like its predecessor, “Teen Beat” continues a run of material that rooted in incisive and urgent political commentary. “The title was taken from a preset on a dinky drum machine, and the song is about the chaos of climate change descending upon Gen Z,” the band explain. 

“Turn Away,” Excess‘ latest single is a slow-burning, bop centered around a syrupy groove rooted in a rapid-fire boom bap-like drumming, twinkling, reverb-drenched keys and a propulsive bass line paired with sultrily delivered vocals and the trio’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks.

Directed by Amber Navarro, the accompanying video for “Turn Away” begins with the band flying aboard a private jet, when something goes disastrously wrong mid-flight. The plane crashes and the trio miraculously survives what appears to be a catastrophic crash in the middle of the desert. Naturally, the members of the band are left to fend for themselves — completely alone.

“We got to work together with Ambar Navarro, our friend and director of the first music video off our album Excess, ‘New Beginning’. We have a lot of fun on set with Ambar because she gets our sense of humor and she visually adds some lightness to the heavier themes of our album, like climate change and income inequality. We become the capitalist death cult in this satirical animation of what could happen if we as a society continue on this path of excess.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Golem Dance Cult Shares an Anthemic Ripper

Split between France and England, the emerging, self-described “industrial heavy rock dance” duo Golem Dance Cult features longtime friends and experienced musicians: producer, multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Charles Why, who has played in Lotsa Noise, Nexus and L-Dopa and vocalist Laur, who has played in Sparkling Bombs, Kevin K Band, Vague Scare and Other-ed. In many ways, Golem Dance Cult can trace its origins back to when its members were teenagers, playing in their first band together, a band in which Laur played drums.

During most of the band’s short run together, the duo have written and worked on material remotely, as a result of the distance between the pair and because of pandemic-related restrictions. But their work is structured around a couple of simple, agreed-upon parameters:

  • They had to work spontaneously, with each member following their instincts.

  • Mistakes should be expanded upon.

What the duo eventually settled on was a rock-inspired approach with electronic production but without the formal structure — or strictures — of either genre.

Back in 2021, the duo released their debut EP Grotesque Radio, which featured the Bauhaus-like “Nosferatu Waltz,” a goth/horror track with a playful nod to Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker. The duo start off the year with “Dalek Rhetoric,” a song which derives its title from the Dalek in Dr. Who. As the band explains: “Dalek are extraterrestrial killing machines with a binary thinking pattern: you are either a Dalek or they were will destroy you. This seems fitting with the mentality of the world we live in.”

Centered around buzzing power chords, thunderous drumming, rousingly anthemic hooks and arena rock bombast, “Dalek Rhetoric” manages to bring White Zombie and others to mind — with a nasty, gritty edge.

The accompanying video features footage of the band performing the song in desolate and forgotten places paired with edited footage of the Dalek in Doctor Who, reels of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which the band has dubbed another Dalek-like move, and edited footage from Phantom from Space, Plan 9 From Outer Space. Max Schreck’s Nosferatu and Bela Lugosi’s Dracula also make return cameos — because, of course.

Golem Death Cult’s sophomore album Legend of the Bleeding Heart is slated for release this year.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Object of Affection Share Anthemic “Half Life”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Object of Affection features members of Death Bells, LOCK, and Fury. The project sees its members tapping into the primitivism of their diverse projects while elevating their capacity for both atmosphere and melody. While hints of gloomy punk, brooding New Wave and down-and-out Regan-era alt rock reverberate in their sound and approach, it’s not in pastiche; but rather in a sort of sonic kinship to the austerity and fatalism embedded in the previous generation’s dejected anthems. Plus. holy shit, things are really fucked.

Since the release of the project’s 2020 self-titled, debut EP, they’ve been busy: They’ve released “Through and Through” through Suicide Squeeze — and they’ve already shared the stages with the likes of Ceremony, Fiddlehead, Special Interest, Gulch, and a growing list of others. Building upon a growing profile, the members of Object of Affection signed to Profound Lore, who will be releasing their highly-anticipated full-length debut, the ten-song, Alex Newport-produced Field of Appearances on March 3, 2023.

The album reportedly sees the band expanding upon their sonic palette with the addition of drum machines, synths, acoustic guitar and auxiliary percussion, highlighting their evolution — and a growing sense of experimentalism. Each of the album’s ten songs are part of a cohesive and complete statement, while standing part on their own, with the material exploding in character, contract and excitement. Thematically, the album’s material touches upon reflection, insufficiency and Déjà vu among others.

Field of Appearances lead single and album opener “Half Life” is anthemic track that’s one-part angular post-punk, one-part mosh-put friendly grunge centered around rousingly enormous hooks, angular power chords and a forcefully propulsive rhythm section. While bearing a resemblance to Ceremony’s In The Spirit World Now, the song is underpinned by an uneasy and palpable sense of existential dread around the corner: The song thematically touches upon the inevitable passage of time and the aching effects of hopelessness — both are which are often a weird part of life.

Directed by Miwah Lee, the accompanying video for “Half Life” follows a young woman as she goes on an a surrealistic journey through Los Angeles — without an actual plan or real destination in mind.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dayton’s Nick Kizirnis Shares Bluesy and Mournful “The Distance”

Nick Kizirnis is a Dayton, OH-based singer/songwriter and guitarist, who has spent the past two-plus decades writing genre-twisting and genre-defying material on over ten solo albums, while also collaborating playing in bands like The Mulchmen, Tobin Sprout’s Eyesinweasel, Cage and others with a collection of up-and-coming local musicians.

Over the past decade or so, the Dayton-based artist has focused on guitar-driven compositions; but his latest solo album The Distance sees Kizirnis returning to writing lyrics and arrangements while simultaneously being a step forward stylistically. As Kizirnis explains, he had a desire to push himself beyond anything he had previously done. “I wanted ti to be new and different from what people had heard from me,” the Dayton-based musician and songwriter says.

Kirzirnis’ long-time friend, Austin-based drummer Mark Patterson had just temporarily relocated to Dayton to visit family and prepare touring and recording as a member of acclaimed indie outfit Son Volt. Patterson had offered to work on the material that Kizirnis had worked on, enhancing the material’s arrangements based on his experience playing in the Austin scene. During the creative process for the Patrick Himes-produced The Distance, Kizirnis began to feel that writing for his voice was limiting the material. He recruited Cincinnati-based singer/songwriter and cellist Kate Wakefield, one-half of the duo Lung, to contribute vocals.

Wakefield’s background as an opera singer, plus her years of recording and performing helped pushed the fledgling album and recording sessions into high gear. “Kate brought a completely new dimension to the songs,” Kizirnis says. “The moment she sang them, they were transformed into something so much more.”

Brooding album title track “The Distance” features contributions from Deke Dickerson’s Crazy Joe Tristchler (guitar), Himes (Hammond B3 organ) and Wakefield (cello and vocals). Along with Kizirnis, Tristchler, Himes and Wakefield craft a bluesy and mournful soundscape that recalls The Heartless Bastards and crying-in-your-beer honky tonk. The song’s narrator realizes that their relationship has come to the end of the road, and that its time for both parties to pack up their things and sadly move on,

The Katie Marks 2D animated video for “The Distance” features the song’s central couple falling in and out of love. And as they part ways, we see an animated Kizirnis playing guitar in a desolate, roadside honky tonk.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Distance H Teams Up with Saigon Blue Rain’s Ophelia on Brooding “Bitch 16”

Distance H is a post-punk/darkwave/coldwave recording project of French producer ManuH. The project sees ManuH collaborating with an eclectic array of female vocalists, who contribute melodies and lyrics.

Released earlier this year, the brooding and cinematic “Bitch 16.” sees ManuH collaborating with Saigon Blue Rain‘s Ophelia on a Cocteau Twins-meets-Sixousie and the Banshees-like song rooted in eerie atmospherics and razor sharp hooks.

Directed and edited by Anaïs Novembre, the accompanying video for “Bitch 16” is split between gorgeous and broodingly lit footage of the collaborators in studio, and Saigon Blue Rains Opehila dancing in a creepy, goth-like forest.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: South Africa’s Mikhaela Faye Shares a Slickly Produced, Hook-Driven, Feminist Anthem

Cape Town-born and-based singer/songwriter and producer Mikhaela Faye specializes in music that draws from her degree in jazz, but also informed by the punk rock, indie rock and hip hop that were part of the soundtrack of her teenaged years. Interestingly, Faye has made a name for herself through collaborations on a number of locally produced and released house and hip-hop tracks.

It shouldn’t be surprising that the South African-born and-based artist has developed and honed a reputation for being restless sonic explorer as a collaborator — and as a solo artist that describes her work as “alt pop infused with elements of jazz, R&B and electronica.” And within that framework, Faye claims that there are four distinct cornerstones that inform her creative process: “There’s ‘satirical, tongue-in-cheek, zero fucks given Faye’, and also ‘I graduated with a degree in jazz and like to play complicated chords Faye’. But there’s also ‘I’m trying to be pop but just missing the mark Faye’ and I am sensual, sophisticated and electronically curious Faye.” For Faye, the four-cornered alt pop terrain won’t be the end of the story. “My chameleon brain is birthing new Fayes as we speak,” she says of her current-state of mind.

“I Don’t Want Your Baby,” is a slickly produced pop confection rooted in enormous, shout-along-worthy hooks and seemingly lived-in lyricism while being a defiant and relatable feminist anthem. The song’s narrator expresses a real ambivalence towards motherhood — perhaps with the tacit understanding that at this point in her life, a child would be severely limiting, complicated and exhausting and that she might not be ready or interested in the sort of sacrifices children entail. What’s striking about the song is that it finds Faye being both deadly serious and mischievous.

Directed by Tom Willows, the accompanying video for “I Don’t Want Your Baby” follows Faye as she goes through “traditional” gender roles awkwardly — with Broadway styled, brightly colored dance scenes. The video manages to emphasize the song’s spirit with an uncanny fidelity.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: CIAN Shares Slickly Produced and Yearning “Far From Home”

CIAN is a young and emerging Bogota-born and-based singer/songwriter and pop artist, who spent the bulk of his life in Miami. He grew up listening to Justin Timberlake, Usher and Michael Jackson, although as a pop artist, the Colombian artist cites The Weeknd, Zayn, Drake, Khalid, Majid Jordan, Justin Bieber, and Bazzi as influences on his work.

“Far From Home,” the Bogota-based artist’s latest single is a sickly produced and woozy confection featuring glistening synths, wobbling low end paired with his achingly plaintive vocals and some well-placed, razor sharp hooks. While sonically bringing the likes of The Weeknd and other contemporary pop stars to mind, “Far From Home” manages to reveal a budding star, who can express yearning and vulnerability within a turn of a phrase.

The accompanying moodily shot video follows CIAN in a Nike jumpsuit walking through a forest before we see him the a brisk job — in slow motion. Every few feet, we see him turn his head as though expecting someone or something to chase him.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chicago’s Somi Shares Swaggering and Self-Assured “Talking”

Somi is a young, emerging Chicago-based singer/songwriter. Her latest single “Talking” is a decidedly lo-fi bit of R&B-leaning indie pop featuring gentle layers of wobbling and jangling guitars, a simple yet propulsive backbeat paired with the emerging Chicago-based artist’s self-assured, soulful delivery and a big, shout-along worthy hook. While sonically bringing early Tame Impala and JOVM mainstay Julien Chang to mind, “Talking” reveals a budding start with a swaggering self-assuredness that belie her relative youth.

The emerging Chicago-based artist explains that “Talking” is “about having confidence in yourself while still keeping an open mind, and learning to listen rather than simply talk at people.” It’s a hard lesson, even for those, who are older — yet it’s a much-needed message to help maneuver the difficulties of human nature and relationships.

Shot on grainy VHS video, the accompanying video follows the emerging Chicago-based artist skateboarding, hanging out at a local skatepark and just being a regular young person. But it has a fitting 90s nostalgia — especially for those olds, like me.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Richmond, VA’s Keep Shares Brooding And Shimmering “Dasani Daydream”

Richmond, VA-based shoegazer outfit Keep formed back in 2013. And since their formation, the Richmond-based act have developed a sound that is heavily influenced by 80s goth and post-punk, 90s shoegaze and grunge, as well as post 2000s indie rock.

Their full-length debut, Happy In Here is slated for a February 3, 2023 release through Honey Suckle Sound. The album’s latest single “Dasani Daydream” is a brooding track centered around shimmering, shoegazer-influenced guitar textures, ambient synths, thunderous drums, enormous hooks paired with achingly plaintive vocals. Rooted in earnest songwriting and performance, “Dasani Daydream” sonically brings A Storm in Heaven and The Life and Times to mind.

Shot at sunrise at the beach, the accompanying video for “Dasani Daydream” follows the band strolling along the beach and playing near the rising tides — and at an eerie amusement park and aquarium.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Say She She Share Hazy and Dramatic Visual for “Trouble”

Deriving their name as a sort of tongue-in-cheek nod to the legendary Nile Rodgers — “C’est chi-chi! It’s Chic!” — NYC-based funk and disco act Say She She features three accomplished, strong female lead vocalists: founding members Piya Malik, who has spent time in El Michels Affair, 79.5 and Chicano Batman; and Sabrina Cunningham; along with Nya Gazelle Brown, a former member of 79.5. 

The rising New York-based outfit can trace their origins back to when Malik and Cunningham found themselves living in the studio apartments directly above and below each other. The pair would hear each other singing through the floorboards and quickly became friends. “I knew the girl below me had the most beautiful voice as I would hear her early in the morning and she would hear me late at night. Between the two of us I don’t think we got a wink of sleep. Then again I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say they moved to New York City to sleep,” Malik says in press notes. 

After spending years singing in other people’s bands, Malik and Cunningham felt they were finally ready to step out into the spotlight with their own project. At first, they wrote tongue-in-cheek songs about bad boyfriends, band breakups and bad politics. But shortly after, they started writing much more serious and vulnerable tunes, like much-needed therapy sessions, detailing the lives of post-modern women. Since then, their material frequently touches upon love, lust, sex, heartbreak, betrayal and hope. 

A few years after they started the project, the duo recruited their close friend and Malik’s former 79.5 bandmate Nya Gazelle Brown to join them. At that point, the act’s core lineup was settled. 

Sonically, Say She She’s sound nods at 70s girl groups — multi-part female harmonies paired paired with funky, disco-inspired arrangements played by a backing band featuring some of New York’s most talented and accomplished players, featuring former members of  Antibalas, Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaries, Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings, The Shacks, Twin Shadow and others. Locally, they’ve developed a reputation as a must-see live act, playing sold out shows at Bowery Ballroom, Nublu 151, Brooklyn Bazaar, C’Mon Everybody and Baby’s All Right among others. 

Released earlier this month through Karma Chief Records, an imprint of Colemine Records, Say She She’s eight-song, Sergio Rios-produced, full-length debut Prism was recorded on old tape machines 
in the basement studios of friends. The album features guest spots from The Dap Kings‘ Joey Crispiano and Victor Axelrod, The Shacks’ Max Shrager, Chicano Batman’s Bardo Martinez, Antibalas‘  Superhuman Happiness‘ and Low Mentality’s Nikhil Yerawadekar, Twin Shadow’s Andy Bauer and NYMPH‘s Matty McDermot. 

Over the course of the year, Say She She have released a handful of attention-grabbing singles that include: 

  • “Forget Me Not,” the New York-based act’s debut single and their debut album’s first single. Featuring a strutting bass line, glistening wah wah pedaled funk guitar, fluttering flute and dreamy three part harmonies “Forget Me Not” is one part Patrice Rushen, one part Tom Tom Club’s “Gangster of Love,” one part ESG, one part Mary Jane Girls, centered around righteous feminist lyrics. “Forget Me Not” premiered on KCRW‘s Morning Becomes Eclectic and was played in heavy rotation, with a KCRW DJ describing the song as “The funkiest shit I’ve heard in a while!” They performed the song for a Paste Magazine session. The song has started to receive airplay on BBC6.

  • “Blow My Mind,” a slow-burning, sultry bop centered around the trio’s yearning and impassioned cries, shimmering Bollywood-inspired riffage and a strutting bass line that’s about returning to a former flame, who you’ve managed to hold feelings for — even after some period of years.

  • “NORMA,” a defiant, politically-charged, glittery dance floor anthem — and urgent call for action, for all of us. Written in response to the leaked Supreme Court draft decision to overturn Roe v. Wade, the song is a powerful reminder that the fight to have this country live up to its ideals ain’t over — and that women’s rights and their right to choose what’s best for them need to be protected. 

  • “Prism,” a glittery and silky ballad centered around glistening keys, a supple bass line and metronomic-like drumming paired with the trio’s lush harmonies. The end result is a hook-driven song that sonically nods at The Supremes, psych pop and psych soul, and sounds as though it could have been released in 1968, 1978, 2008 or — well, today. 

  • “Fortune Teller,” a glittering and slinky disco ballad featuring fluttering vintage synth-driven arpeggios, twinkling keys and a tight, strutting groove paired with the trio’s gorgeous three-part harmonies. The song’s narrator makes an urgent plea of devotion to a lover: they will do whatever they can to protect their lover, no matter what the future holds.

The Michael Buckely and Vince Chiarito co-produced “Trouble,” a standalone single, which was released earlier this year, landed at #7 on KCRW’s Top 30, is an R&B-tinged disco ballad centered around twinkling keys, a sinuous bass line and the trio’s stunningly gorgeous harmonies singing lyrics about being obsessed with a no good, inconsistent lover, who may never come back home.

Directed by Katrina Naficy, the accompanying video for “Trouble” sees the trio stepping into a ’50s-inspired series of vignettes that sees each member of the band longingly waiting for a lover, who may never come home. As the song’s operatic choruses build up to a feverish pitch, the trio losses their shit while realizing the futility of their situation. But in that moment, the members of the trio reclaim their power and agency.

The video is also accompanied by a new 45pressing from the group that features both the aforementioned “Trouble” with a new song “In My Head.” The 45s will be available in both standard vinyl and a limited edition red pression on Colemine’s site, Bandcamp, and at local record shops. You can stream and/or purchase here: https://ffm.to/kcr124

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 49th Birthday, Yasiin Bey!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Yasiin Bey/Mos Def’s 49th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Frais Dispo (formerly Foreign Diplomats) Share Gorgeous and Melancholy “Juillet”

Featuring the members of Montreal-based indie rock outfit Foreign Diplomats — Élie Raymond (guitar, vocals), Antoine Lévesque-Roy (bass), Thomas Bruneau Faubert (trombone, synths), Charles Primeau (guitar) and Antoine Gallois (drums) — Frais Dispo is simultaneously a sort of side project for the members of Foreign Diplomats and a new direction for the band. The project’s self-titled marks the members first album with lyrics written and sung entirely in French.

Deriving, its title from the French name for the month of July, “Juillet,” the first single off the new project’s first album is a melancholy yet accessible bit of pop rooted in the sort of thoughtful and deliberate craftsmanship that gives the song a sweetly anachronistic air. Centered around a gorgeous arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar, jangling and reverb-soaked electric guitar, atmospheric synths, a supple bass line, propulsive rhythm section paired with big razor sharp hooks and Raymond’s achingly plaintive and wistful vocals, “Juillet” manages to subtly recall Fleetwood Mac and others. The band explains that the song is a reflection on the languorousness of every day life and the passing of time in a small town. Everything is the same, including the simultaneous longing for the past — and for something different.

Directed by Léonard Giovenazzo, the accompanying video for “Juillet” begins around the fall as we see two buddies stealing apples from an apple orchard with their dog. We quickly fast-forward to a very Canadian winter with our two friends hitching a ride on the back of a pickup truck. Throughout the video, we see gorgeously shot scenes of rural, Canadian life, including man riding his horse and taking it back to the stable, another man ice fishing and so on, before we see the band in Western-styled garb performing on a cold night in a barn. The seasons pass and people do what they do to get by — and it’s all pretty much the same.