Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: J. Bernardt Shares a Woozy and Lush Contemplation of Heartache

Jinte Deprez is a singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, programmer and producer, best known as being one-half of the songwriting duo behind the acclaimed Belgian indie outfit Balthazar. Over the course of the past two decades, the members of Balthazar have played across the global festival circuit with sets at All Points East, British Summer Time, and others — while selling over 600,000 albums globally.

Throughout his career, Deprez has firmly cemented a reputation for being a wildly talented generalist: Along with his songwriting partner Maarten Devoldere, Deprez has co-produced three of Balthazar’s five albums to date.

As the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed solo recording project, J. Bernardt, Deprez wrote, recorded and produced his full-length debut, 2016’s Running Days, an album with a sound molded from electronics. That album has amassed over 40 million streams globally since its release.

Deprez’s sophomore J. Bernardt album, the Tobie Speleman and Deprez co-produced Contigo is slated for a May 17, 2024 release through Play It Again Sam. Deriving its name from the Spanish phrase “with you,” the album sees Deprez crafting an old-school band-based sound featuring a collection of the Belgian artist’s super-talented friends that he guided through intense rehearsals and performances, “searching for that spark.” The string and orchestral arrangements were written by Deprez, who’s a classically trained violinist.

Contigo sonically is reportedly a dramatic, compelling and colorful body work and brought to life by sumptuous melodies, vocals and production flourishes from an acclaimed singer/songwriter and producer. Thematically, the album explores all the phases of a break-up: shock, sadness, denial, anger and acceptance while being viciously romantic. “I know a break-up record is a cliché,” says Deprez. “But I’m growing to love cliches! I wasn’t afraid to go all the way. Forgetting about the break-up by singing about it is like self-sabotage, but I’m having fun with it too.”

Contigo‘s latest single “Taxi,” is a taut pop gem featuring a slinky bass line-driven groove, a soulful female choir, propulsive percussion, twangy bursts of guitar and cinematic strings serving as a lush bed for Deprez’s plaintive and heartbroken delivery. The song’s narrator is in a taxi, desperately wanting an escape to contemplate a recent break-up — but throughout the ride, he endlessly replays and questions everything that led to the split. And for the heartbroken narrator, he’s left without any real answers to anything, other than raw hurt, confusion and shock.

Directed by Wannes Vanspauwen and Pol de Plecker, the accompanying video for “Taxi” is shot on a moonlight and foggy night and begins with a white-suit wearing Deprez sitting in the backseat of a cab that’s hopelessly stuck in traffic. The bored cabbie isn’t paying attention to anything Deprez might be saying to him — and even if he was, he wouldn’t care. At one point, the Belgian artist walks out of his cab, down the road and steps into the backseat of a sports sedan. He then is back out on the road again. As the video progresses, the video captures the wooziness of a man, who’s had the rug pulled out from under him.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Sunglaciers Share Punchy Post Punk Ripper “Fakes”

Regular Nature, Calgary-based post-punk/psych pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Sunglaciers‘ highly-anticipated third album is slated for a March 29, 2024 release through Montréal-based label Mothland. While the material sees the band further continuing to blur the boundaries between polished melodcism and opaque experimentation, the material also blurs the lines between auspicious Romanticism and unbridled dissent. Firmly anchored in the strange and uneasy reality of our time, the album’s songs are laced with a certain optimism, through well-calculated psych elements and vibrant rhythms, creating a unique strange of kaleidoscopic pop.

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with co-producer Chad Van Gaalen, the Calgary-based JOVM mainstays’ forthcoming third album was purposely designed to be enjoyed in many ways, from solitary headphone listening to a crowded live venue, while sonically seeming to nod at Deerhunter, Ought, MGMT, DEVO, Talking Heads and others. The album also features a guest spot from acclaimed Zoon creative mastermind Daniel Monkman. 

“We wanted to make a concise yet explosive record, continuing to find the balance between familiar and novel sounds and approaches. We have not and may never make ‘dance music,’ but we make continued efforts to bring sounds that we like from dance and electronic genres into our own, delighting in the process as much as the product,” the band explains. “We love to play and experiment, defying expectations and discovering new sounds. This record shows how these novel (to us) elements interact with the rock and roll world we comfortably inhabit.

“We want to make you dance. We want to make you think. We want to make you think while you’re dancing and dance while you’re busy thinking. This is an album for the body, brain and heart. It’s compassionate, frustrated, communal and dreadful. In a world of information overload, where everything comes at you at once, Regular Nature is trying to normalize the phenomenon. This is chaotic music for a chaotic world, a three-way conversation between outer self, the subconscious and the mad world. As expressed on penultimate track ‘One Time or Another:’ ‘There’s always somebody talking.’”“We wanted to make a concise yet explosive record, continuing to find the balance between familiar and novel sounds and approaches. We have not and may never make ‘dance music,’ but we make continued efforts to bring sounds that we like from dance and electronic genres into our own, delighting in the process as much as the product,” the band explains. “We love to play and experiment, defying expectations and discovering new sounds. This record shows how these novel (to us) elements interact with the rock and roll world we comfortably inhabit.

“We want to make you dance. We want to make you think. We want to make you think while you’re dancing and dance while you’re busy thinking. This is an album for the body, brain and heart. It’s compassionate, frustrated, communal and dreadful. In a world of information overload, where everything comes at you at once, Regular Nature is trying to normalize the phenomenon. This is chaotic music for a chaotic world, a three-way conversation between outer self, the subconscious and the mad world. As expressed on penultimate track ‘One Time or Another:’ ‘There’s always somebody talking.’”

Late last month, I wrote about “Cursed,” a woozy dream pop-meets-psych pop-meets-post-punk track that features glistening and fluttering synth arpeggios, a motorik rhythm section, an Avalon-era Roxy Music-like guitar solo and hazy and yearning vocals. The achingly nostalgic song sees its narrator discussing a love passing them by with a weary and bitterly resigned sense of regret. “Oh, if I had only known what I know now,” the song’s narrator seems to say. 

“‘Cursed’ is quite probably Sunglaciers’ biggest downer to date. It is a piece about shattered, unsaid expectations, and reflecting on the reality of a situation after it has passed, and all that remains is its memory,” the band explains. “It is a slow dance between regret and acceptance, a song about lost love and lost potential. It is being caught in a moment, blinded by short-term desires, only to wake up on the other side when everything has passed and it is too late to reconcile (“You wish your head could unremember this/ But memory is all there ever is”).

“Fakes,” Regular Nature‘s second and latest single is a Freedom of Choice-era DEVO and Remain in Light-era Talking Heads like ripper built around a relentless four-on-the-floor, angular chorus pedal-drenched baselines and squiggling guitars and atmospheric synths paired with Resnik’s punchily uneasy delivery and bursts of gossip and shit-talking. The song captures the inner monologue of someone struggling to keep up with appearances and with keeping up with others, while recognizing — with an excoriating sense of humor — that practically everything in our lives has a veneer of phoniness.

“‘Fakes’ is a song about performance, artifice, and image,” the Calgary-based outfit explains. “Partly a direct narration of a social scene, partly an inner monologue. It is about how our priorities have changed or are distorted. Instead of who we truly are, the importance seems to be on what we appear to be or how we act. Sometimes these intersect, but oftentimes are at odds. We are desperate to mold a certain self-image, a certain perception from the outside, despite what we really think about a situation. We run a risk of being seen as ‘all style, not a lot of substance.’ All social interactions are performative. We are striving to be seen as having a certain character, whether or not that’s who we truly are or how we believe we “ought” to be. ‘Fakes’ is like the subconscious taking over the controls of someone engaging in society (‘Don’t tell me your thoughts about the weather’), then abruptly turning its focus back inward (‘I’m anxious, always acting up’).”

Directed by the band’s Evan Resnik, the accompanying video is inspired and informed by 90s MTV/Muchmusic music video aesthetics, while also nodding at some of DEVO’s videos from the 80s. Featuring the band playing a sparse, white studio space, at points we see some uncanny mash-ups of their faces and bodies that seem startlingly real and unsettlingly weird.

“Everyone in the band grew up on the aesthetics of 90s MTV/Muchmusic, so it’s no surprise that many of our videos look like they belong to that era,” Resnik says. “When conceptualizing the ‘Fakes’ video, Mathieu (Blanchard) told me he wanted it to be our ‘Big Bang Baby,’ a music video by Stone Temple Pilots. I hadn’t seen the video in years, but the vibe is unforgettable. I freshened it up to fit our weirdness, and adjusted for our complete lack of budget. I tend to go off the rails during the editing process, so I spliced our faces to exaggerate the fakeness. And there are parallels to ‘Big Bang Baby’ that found their way in without my realizing (the old TV, neon colours in the bridge). I think Scott Weiland passed these elements to me from the great beyond.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pissed Jeans Share a Bruising and Ripping Meditation on Harsh Truths

Allentown-based punks Pissed Jeans’ highly-anticipated sixth album Half Divorced further cements their longtime reputation for crating feral punk with their acerbic sense of humor. Thematically, the material mercilessly skewers the tension between youthful optimism and the sobering realities of adulthood but while still managing to be — perhaps inadvertently — fun. “Half Divorced has an aggression within it, in terms of saying, I don’t want this reality. There’s a power in being able to say, I realize you want me to pay attention to these things, but I’m telling you that they don’t matter. I’m already looking elsewhere,” the band’s Matt Korvette says.

Slated for a March 1, 2024 release through Sub Pop Records, the band’s members — Matt Korvette (vocals), Brad Fry (guitar), Randy Huth (bass) and Sean McGuinness (drums) — weren’t in a rush to finish the album, which was recorded and co-produced by Don Godwin at Takoma Park, MD-based Tonal Park. “We’re not the kind of band that bangs out a new record every two years,” Korvette says. “Pissed Jeans is truly like an art project for us, which is what makes it so fun.” The material’s distilled energy makes the album sound menacing and dangerous — with the songs unexpectedly veering into classic hardcore punk territory. Korvette says, “We realized we’d never really fucked with pop punk, and we thought, this is something that isn’t going to be immediately recognizable as cool. So let’s challenge ourselves to make it feel cool to us.”

The word divorce in the album’s title falls in line with the moments of humiliation, shame and defeat that are held up for all to see on the album. “If you say something enough or if you just allow it to exist publicly, then it loses its evil monster-in-the-closet thing,” Korvette says. 

In the lead up to the album’s release later this week, I’ve managed to write about two album singles:

  • “Moving On,” a hard-charing, balls-to-the-wall, mosh pit friendly ripper with some of the most shout along friendly anthemic hooks and choruses the band has ever written, buzzsaw-like power chords and propulsive, thunderous drumming paired with Korvette’s classic punk rock snarl. But at its core “Moving On” is as much about trying to put your best foot forward, as it is about throwing your hands up and accepting defeat. 
     

  • “Sixty-Two Thousand Dollars in Debt,” a bruising, mosh pit friendly, hardcore punk-inspired ripper that recalls classic Bad Religion, NOFX, Murphy’s Law and the like, complete with a scorching guitar solo. The song is about the heady — and all too adult — excitement of shrinking debt-to-credit ratios, which in this day and age, is a depressingly Sisyphean task. 

Clocking in at 90 seconds, Half Divorced‘s third and latest single “Cling to a Poisoned Dream” is a bruising ripper that, much like its immediate predecessor, recalls classic, mosh pit friendly hardcore punk: three scorching power chords, thunderous drumming and snarled vocals. The song thematically is an uneasy mediation of harsh, very adult truths: We’re desperately trying to survive with our sanity and dignity intact, in a world that’s rotten and may well be irreparably fucked. And in turn, that would mean the unsettling realization that we’re also completely fucked. Time is flying by. Anything we’re clinging to might be stupid and pointless, too. Fun times around here ain’t it? The only thing left is to roar into the void.

Directed by Joe Stakun, the accompanying video for “Cling to a Poisoned Dream” is shot with a fish-eye lens in a dark, strobe-lit warehouse, and features the band ripping while wearing work jumpsuits.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Marseille’s Social Dance Shares Upbeat and Funky “Sometimes”

Formed back in 2020, Marseille, France-based electro pop trio Social Dance — Faustine, Thomas and Ange — are best friends and former roommates, who craft uninhibited and absurd pop inspired by their common experiences and complementary music tastes.

Their debut EP 2022’s Rumeurs featured material that was featured in the Netflix series Emily In Paris. As result of their music appearing in the hit Netflix series, the Marseille-based trio toured across Europe and Canada last year, playing over 70 shows.

The trio’s latest single “Sometimes” is their first single of 2024 — and the first bit of new material since their debut EP. “Sometimes” is a feel good slice of dance punk rooted in a euphoric, dance floor friendly groove featuring squiggling bursts of Nile Rodgers-like guitar, punchy, mathematically precise drum machine, angular bass lines paired with glistening synths serving as a sleek and supple bed for dueling bilingual boy and girl vocals that seems to channel LCD Soundsystem, JOVM mainstays Psymon Spine and others — while being remarkably mischievous.

The Wes Anderson-like accompanying video for “Sometimes” is a behind-the-scene look at the filming of the video for “Sometimes,” that begins with the production company ironing and preparing outfits for the trio, styling hair and makeup before they hit the set. During the shooting, we follow the boldly colored outfit trio rocking out and goofing along to the song. The video manages to capture the mischievous air of the trio and of the song — and in a way that’s adorable.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Italian Shoegazers Kodaclips Share Brooding and Stormy “Gone is the Day”

Cesena, Italy-based shoegazers Kodaclips formed in late 2021 by four friends, who each came from a different musical and artistic background ranging from psych rock, stoner rock and prog rock. Drawing from and meshing the sounds of their own backgrounds, shoegaze’s second wave and the Italogaze scene, the Italian quartet bring a new take and approach on shoegaze that frequently sees them experimenting with melodic ideas and arrangements.

Kodclips made their live debut as 2021 came to a close. And after a few local shows, they landed a slot opening for A Place To Bury Strangers during their 2022 Italian tour. The Cesena-based quartet followed the tour with the release of 2022’s full-length debut Glances, an album that derived its title from the lyrics of Slint’s “Don, Aman” off 1991’s Spiderland.

2023’s “Not My Sound” put the band on the map of the international shoegaze scene: The video was premiered on Backseat Mafia and the track received heavy rotation on DKFM and Eardrum Buzz. Building upon a growing profile in the national and international shoegaze scenes, the Italian shoegazers’ sophomore album, Gone is the Day will be released on September 6, 2024 through Sister 9 Recordings.

Gone is the Day‘s first single, album title track “Gone is the Day” sees the members of Kodaclips crafting a hypotonic sound that seamlessly meshes 90s shoegaze guitar textures and bruising post-punk in a grunge-inspired, alternating loud-quiet-loud, even louder song structure. At the song’s core, is an achingly longing nostalgia over a past that can’t never be back. The band explains that “the shifts between lighter and heavier sounds reflect the inner voyage behind the composition, exploring and confronting the scars left on the self from dysfunctional family relationships.”

Directed by Alessandro Mazzoni, the accompanying video for “Gone is the Day” was shot at Hangar, a Cesena, Italy-based video store that has seen much better days. Split between footage of the band in the store and fittingly psychedelic imagery, the store evokes fond memories for the band, who spent hours in the store looking for their favorite movies. The bright, surreal colors of the store and the movie paraphernalia are a metaphor for the song’s theme: the longing to catch and hold on to fading memories from a world and time that’s becoming more distant and paler.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chopper Shares Brooding “Living for the Night”

Copenhagen-based singer/songwriter and musician Jonatan K. Magnussen is the frontman of Danish goth outfit  The Love Coffin, and the creative mastermind of the solo recording project and JOVM mainstay act Chopper. With Chopper, Magnussen specializes in what he has dubbed “shock pop,” a crowd-pleasing sound that draws from Eurodance, glam roc, industrial electronica, disco and B horror films.

Thematically, last year’s Shock Pop Vol. 1 was an exploration of the inherent dualities of the human condition that touched upon love, sexuality and carefree joy. Sonically, the mini-album was influenced by Pet Shop Boys, Skinny Puppy and Underworld — and saw Magnussen attempting to play those influences within a modern context.

The forthcoming mini-album Shock Pop Vol. 2 is reportedly a stark contrast to the exuberant, dance floor friendly material of its predecessor. Shock Pop Vol. 2 sees the Danish artist crating a broodingly atmospheric, cinematic sound that’s seems indebted to Rebel Yell-era Billy Idol, The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Scary Monsters-era Bowie and others. 

Last year, I wrote about Shock Pop Vol. 2 single “Moongirl, a slow-burning, cinematic track featuring atmospheric synths, a hypnotic and propulsive bass line, thunderous boom bap-like drum machines, twinkling keys, buzzing bursts of guitar paired with Magnussen’s dramatic delivery — and his penchant for crafting enormous, rousingly anthemic hooks. The song reveals an artist, who is able to recreate that big 80s arena rock-like ballad with an uncanny specificity paired with introspective, melancholy lyrics and a subtly modern take.

Shock Pop Vol. 2’s second and final single “Living for the Night” sonically channels the late 80s-early 90s Madchester scene and “Walk on the Wild Side” — with the song built around a relentless motorik-like grove, twinkling keys, buzzing synths, mournful jazz trumpet and saxophone and skittering beats paired with Magnussen’s breathy croon. Conveying a blend of cool, sleaze and melancholy, the song captures and evokes the essence of being young, reckless and carefree, the irresistible temptation of nighttime activities, and a bit of denial of the inevitability of aging and death.

Filmed by Amalie Maj and Thomas Skjølstrup, the accompanying video for “Living for the Night” follows Magnussen on romp through the seedy underbelly of presumably Copenhagen’s nightlife.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Omar Souleyman Shares a Club Banging Ode to Erbil, Iraq

Acclaimed JOVM mainstay Omar Souleyman is a Tell Tamer, Syria-born, Erbil, Iraq-based Sunni Arab vocalist, who can trace the origins of his professional career back to 1994, when he began as a part-time wedding singer.

His overall sound has largely been influenced and informed by the incredibly diverse milieu of Northeastern Syria. Souleyman and a rotating cast of musicians and producers he has worked with his early days have found ways to draw from and mesh the sounds and themes of several different ethnic groups that inhabit the region, including Kurdish, Ashuris, Turks, Iraqis and the larger Arabic world in a way that’s both familiar and novel. And as a result, Souleyman has become a regional and global pioneer of club rocking electronic music that’s also wedding hall friendly.

Since starting his career 30 years ago, Souleyman has been astonishingly prolific, releasing well over 500 studio and live albums — with about 80% of those releases specifically made at weddings. Most of those recordings were first presented to the newlywed couple and then later copied and sold at local kiosks. The acclaimed JOVM mainstay has released four compilations and four albums through Western record labels — 2013’s Wenu Wenu, 2015’s Bahdeni Nami, 2017’s To Syria with Love and 2020’s Shlon. Each of those albums have not only brought some of the Middle East’s deepest grooves and trippiest sounds to the West, Souleyman’s recorded output has helped to expand his profile to the larger world.

Adding to a rising international profile, Souleyman has played sets across the global festival circuit, including Paredes de Coura, a Caribou co-curated ATP Festival, ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, Bonnaroo, Roskilde Festival, Mostly Jazz, Funk and Soul Festival, Pukkelpop Festival, Electric Picnic, Treefort Music Festival — and oddly enough, one of the strangest House of Vans bills I’ve ever seen, in which he opened for Future Islands. Souleyman has also collaborated with the likes of Bjork and Four Tet.

The acclaimed Syrian-born, Iraqi-based dabke singer’s fifth full-length album Erbil is slated for a March 29, 2024 release through Mad Decent. The eight-song album, which sees Syrian-born singer collaborating with his longtime keyboardist Hasan Jami Alo, pays homage to Erbil, the Iraqi city that has offered him solace and embraced him during recent uneasy and difficult times. His relocation to Erbil came with rich, new experiences and friendships that are best celebrated in joyous songs specifically dedicated to a new chapter in life. Sonically, Erbil‘s material reportedly sees Souleyman and Alo crafting a forward-thinking dabke-meets-techno sound.

Erbil‘s first single “Rahat Al Chant Ymme” may arguably be the most club friendly track that Souleyman has released in some time with the production featuring dense layers glistening and arpeggiated synths, tweeter and woofer rattling thump, skittering beats, hand claps and enormous bass drops serving as a lush and sultry bed for Souleyman’s imitably cooler-than-cool yet yearning delivery.

Presumably shot in Erbil, Iraq, the accompanying video for “Rahat Al Chant Ymme” follows the global dabke sensation through a warm, mind-bending and humanistic tour through the Iraqi city that also manages to nod at hip-hop videos.

Souleyman will be supporting the new album with an extensive tour that will include live shows in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, the wider Middle East and Europe, as well as his first Stateside shows in over 6 years — with shows in Los Angeles and NYC. More on that to come.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MAGON Shares Hauntingly Gorgeous “The Writing’s On The Wall”

Over the past handful of years, I’ve spilled a copious amount of virtual ink covering the remarkably prolific, Israeli-born singer/songwriter, musician and of course, JOVM mainstay MAGON. If you’ve been frequenting this site in that period of time, you’d remember that after the release of his fifth album, 2022’s A Night in Bethlehem, the Israeli-born artist, along with his partner and children relocated to Costa Rica, where he continued his reputation for being profile, with three more albums, 2022’s Enter By The Narrow Gate and last year’s Did You Hear the Kids? and Chasing Dreams.

The JOVM mainstay began the year with the announcement of his eighth album The Writing’s On The Wall, which will feature “Breakthrough Blitz,” a song that saw MAGON’s laconic and easy-going delivery paired with a simple yet propulsive backbeat, glistening keys and a blues Keith Richards-like guitar riff with a big hook. Thematically, the song touched upon the freedom and connection found in simple, everyday moments with the sort of contented sigh that can only comes from someone, who has lived a full and messy-life — and understands that he is truly very lucky. 

The Writing’s On The Wall‘s second single, album title track “The Writing’s On The Wall” is a slow-burning, Inner Journey Out-era Psychic Ills-like bit of country-tinged psych rock with a hauntingly gorgeous bit of wailing pedal steel by Cary Morin paired with MAGON’s meditative delivery. Rooted in seemingly lived-in experience, the song’s narrator describes the sensation of knowing when your time with a situation and place are over, and picking up your life and starting anew.

The accompanying video features footage of flowers and trees blooming shot on over-saturated film stock, which gives the proceedings a surreal yet dreamy air.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A Place To Bury Strangers Share an Explosive Ripper

Led by Death by Audio founder and Dedstrange Records co-founder Oliver Ackermann, New York-based JOVM mainstays A Place To Bury Strangers — currently Ackermann (vocals, guitar), John Fedowitz (guitar) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) — have long been fueled by Ackermann’s restless creativity and propensity to be surprising: Over the past close to two decades, A Place To Bury Strangers have delighted, astonished — and occasionally destroyed the eardrums of — their audience with a sound that combines elements of post-punk, noise rock, shoegaze, psychedelia and avant-garde music in rather unexpected ways. Their live show is often wildly unpredictable and often sees the band

In concert, A Place To Bury Strangers is nothing short of astounding — a shamanistic experience that bathes listeners in glorious sound, crazed left turns, transcendent vibrations, real-time experiments, brilliant breakthroughs.

And as the founder of Death By Audio, the company behind signal-scrambling stomp boxes and visionary instrument effect pedals, Ackerman has exported that sense of excitement, surprise and invention to other artists, who plug their instruments into his company’s gear and attempt to blow minds with wild, new sounds and approaches.

With A Place To Bury Strangers’ latest lineup, the band may arguably be at their most current sounding, courageous and accessible melodic in their lengthy and acclaimed run. The new lineup has two releases under their belt, 2021’s Hologram EP and their sixth full-length album, 2022’s critically applauded See Through You, which they’ve supported with a seemingly indefatigable touring schedule.

Continuing their long-held reputation for restless creativity, the members of APTBS are releasing a four 7-inch vinyl record series, called The Sevens. The Sevens are a treasure trove of previously unreleased tracks from See Through You. The special vinyl collection sees the band inviting listeners to dive deeper into their unique sonic universe to explore uncharted territories and hidden gems. “When looking back at the recordings that were done around the time of See Through You, there were a bunch of great tracks that just captured life back then and really had something incredible going on,” APTBS’ Oliver Ackermann says. “Even though they are a bit raw and a bit personal, I thought it would be a mistake if they didn’t come out. I thought it would be best to go back to my roots and put out a series of 7-inches the way A Place To Bury Strangers started. That strange weird format where the tracks each speak for themselves; no album context to muddy the water. These tracks are such a contrast to the way I am feeling now and the current songs we’ve been working on so slip back into this moment in time.”

The first installment of the series, “It Is Time”/”Change Your God” saw its digital release the other day and will see a physical release on Friday. “Change Your God,” the first single of the series is classic APTBS — bombastic, over-the-top post-punk and shoegaze sonic explosion rooted in fuzz and feedback saturated power chords, pummeling drumming and propulsive bass lines, grunge-like quieter-extremely loud-quieter song structures and Ackermann’s reverb-drenched, seemingly detached yet yearning delivery.

The accomapnying video features slickly edited stock footage of pulsating time-lapsed highway traffic and blooming flowers, of sledgehammers smashing things, jellyfish glowing in the dark, buildings imploding and more. And it’s all fucking awesome.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: KOKOKO! Shares Club-Rocking Ode to Kinshasa’s Nightlife

Since exploding into the scene back in 2017, the acclaimed Kinshasa-based collective KOKOKO! have captivated audiences globally with a striking, forward-thinking, dance floor friendly sound. The Congolese outfit’s full-length debut, Fongola was released to widespread critical acclaim with DJ Mag writing that it was “quite unlike anything else you’ll hear,” and The Guardian calling the collective a “commanding new voice.”

Building upon a growing profile, the band played attention grabbing sets across the global festival circuit, including All Points East, SXSW, Green Man and Pitchfork Festival. The Congolese outfit was named bad live band by the likes of AIF, NPR Tiny Desk and Boiler Room.

Thematically and aesthetically, the acclaimed Congolese outfit has had a long-held, fiercely activist and political slant. The Democratic Republic of Congo continues to experience serious human rights violations, including mass killings within the context of armed conflict and inter-communal violence, as well as crackdown on dissent and ill-treatment of detainees. People residing in regions affected by a variety of armed conflict are deeply impacted amid mass displacement and other deepening humanitarian crises. Additionally, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s wealth of natural resources are routinely exploited by large, multi-national tech companies and other conglomerates, which helps to fuel even more conflict in the region.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, political protest using words carries a risk of imprisonment, so dissidents and performers often work with their bodies and sounds to express and signal their critiques and commentary. The acclaimed Congolese outfit’s highly anticipated sophomore album BUTU is slated for a July 5, 2024 release through Transgressive Records. The album reportedly sees the collective continuing to pair a resistant, punk-like energy and attitude, informed by the attitude and thoughts of a new generation of Congolese artists and young people with their attention grabbing block party alchemy, but pushed to new, global heights.

Kinshasa’s after-dark buzz was one of the major inspirations behind BUTU, which means “the night” in Lingala, and the album dives deep into the heart of the chaotic, throbbing city, celebrating and championing the joyful and creative spirit of its inhabits. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Belgium producer Xavier Thomas, a.k.a. Débruit, the forthcoming album reportedly sees the collective led by Makara Bianko channeling a more electronic-driven, upbeat sound while replicating the frenetic feel of their hometown’s dynamic nightlife: equipment is pushed to its limits through saturated and distorted speakers and the sonic push-and-pull of nighttime sounds.

The band employs field recordings, recorded from the city’s nighttime sounds and “ready-made percussion” like detergent bottles,. the collective fed those sounds through distortion to get closer to those nighttime sounds. “Compared to Fongola, this album is intentionally way more intense, because it’s quite upbeat and quite full-on,” Xavier Thomas says. The album’s material also pulls from much wider influences and span across West Africa and South Africa, influenced by Bianko’s global travel, which introduced him to new types of alternative electronic music and punk.

BUTU‘s first single “Mokili” is a house music-informed banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, relentlessly skittering hi-hats, tweeter and woofer rattling thump serving as a slickly produced bed for Bianko’s crooning and impassioned shouts. Continuing a remarkable run of club friendly material with an in-your-face punk attitude and ethos, “Mokili” captures the frenetic and sweaty energy of their hometown and its nightlife scene with an uncanny, novelistic realism. But along with that, the song is a forceful and joyous reminder that Africa is the present and the future. (If y’all didn’t know, by 2050 close to a quarter of the entire world will be African.)

“’Mokili’ is about moving the world so much that it’s going to tip over sort of,” the acclaimed Congolese collective explains. “This track was a track we were used to trying live in a more improvised way, we never got the chance to record till recently where we added the right touch for the studio. It was the last addition to our album BUTU and became the first single, so it’s really fresh. It has obviously influences from Kinshasa but also Kwaito and 90’s dance music.”

Filmed by Erick Abidal Editing with Creative FX BY Myrtille Moniot in Kinshasa, the video sees the Congolese collective taking over the media seemingly by force, even without Internet signal. And throughout they let the world dive into the surreal and energetic scenes and people they come across in their hometown.