Gaumar is a nomadic French singer/songwriter, who started her career as the eldest of a sibling group that toured across France. After graduating from the Cours Florent Music School, the young and rising French artist released her full-length debut in 2019, an album that received attention and praise from its songwriting, which saw her meshing elements of contemporary pop, hip-hop and French chanson.
The young and rising French artist’s latest single “Follow” is a slickly produced bop featuring glistening synths, a woozy bass line and skittering trap beats paired with an anthemic, sing-along worthy hook. The production serves as a silky bed for Guamar’s boldly, self-assured delivery, which sees her alternating between spitting fiery, staccato bars in French and sultry, pop hooks in English.
But at its core, the song is a defiantly feminist tribute to all women — in particular, a mother, sister, friend or even better half, who can guide you, accompany you, hold your hand through the difficult times or with a simple look can make you understand that everything has a meaning. As the French artist explains, the song is inspired by strong personal experience, and yet is rooted in universal experience.
Directed by Théo Massart and Joshua Gopee, the accompanying video for “Follow” is an incredibly cinematic visual that follows the young and rising French artist trekking through a difficult pass in the French mountains by herself. Essentially, the French artist forging a path for herself — and in turn, for others.
With the release of their Emmanuel Ethier-produced 2018 self-titled, full-length debut, the Montreal dance punk outfit Choses Sauvages — Totalement Sublime‘s Marc-Antoine Barbier (guitar), Theirry Malépart (keys), Tony Bélisle (keys), Philippe Gauthier-Boudreau (drums) and Félix Bélisle (vocals, bass) — exploded into the local and provincial scenes: The album was released to widespread critical applause across the province while landing a a Félix Award nomination for Alternative Album of the Year at the 2019 Association Québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) and winning a Felix Félix Award for the Indie Rock Album of the Year. The album also topped the Independent Radio Charts across the province.
The following year, the quintet along with friend and touring member, Foreign Diplomats‘ Charles Primeau (bass), supported their self-titled album with a relentless your schedule that saw them literally playing every joint and festival stage across the province. But by doing so, they developed a reputation for an explosive live show. And adding to a growing profile across the province, the Montreal-based dance punk outfit toured with acclaimed act Half Moon Run.
Choses Sauvages sophomore album, Choses Sauvages II was released last year, and the album saw the rising French Canadian outfit boldly pushing their sound towards electronic and nu-disco influences, like L’Imperatice and Lindstrøm while still drawing from their love of funk, Bowie and Bee Gees. The album’s material also sees the band balancing a rigorous and meticulous songwriting approach with their long-held rebellious spirit.
Last year, I wrote about album single “Chambre d’écho” is a slinky Duran Duran meets Talking Heads banger centered around squiggling Nile Rodgers-like guitar, handclaps, a sinuous bass line, glistening synths, propulsive four-on-the-floor and an enormous, arena rock friendly hook. It’s the sort of song that will make you long for strobe-lit dance floors and sweaty clubs dancing the night — and your concerns — away.
Just before the rising French Canadian outfit is about to jet off to Paris for this year’s MaMA Festival, the band shared a video for “Conseil Solaire,” a sleek, trance-inducing bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, wah wah pedaled guitar, bursts of gorgeous flute, and a motorik groove paired with dreamy and ethereal vocals and the band’s unerring knack for infectious hook. To my ears “Conseil Solaire” seems like a slick and breezy synthesis of Kraftwerk, DBFC, and Duran Duran — but perhaps even more dance floor friendly.
Directed by the band’s Marc-Antoine Barbier, the accompanying video mixes reality and fantasy in a seamless fashion: “Inspired by the natural monoliths of the St. Lawrence archipelagos, the clip takes place in a river environment where we follow the sectarian dance of a group celebrating the sun,” Barbier explains. The small group of followers perform a jerky dance routine while the members of Choses Sauvages look on passively, until the explosive climax of the ceremony.
Founded back in 2010, Parisian psych pop act and longtime JOVM mainstays La Femme — currently, founding members Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée, along with Sam Lefévre, Noé Delmas, Cleémence Quélennec, Clara Luiciani, Jane Peynot, Marilou Chollet and Lucas Nunez Ritter — managed to hoodwink the French music industry by lining up a DIY Stateside tour as a then unknown band, with $3,000 Euros and their debut EP, that year’s Le Podium #1.
After playing 20 gigs across the States, the members of La Femme returned to their native France with immense interest from the Parisian music scene. “The industry was like, ‘What the fuck? They have an EP out and they are touring in the US and we don’t know them?” Marlon Magnée told The Guardian. “So the buzz began to start. When we came back to France, it was red carpet. Fucking DIY.”
2013’s critically applauded and commercially successful full-length debut Psycho Tropical Berlin found the Parisian JOVM mainstays making a wild, creative and sonic left turn incorporating krautrock and synths to their unique take on surf rock and psych pop. The album eventually earned a Victoires de la Musique Award.
The French JOVM mainstays long-awaited, third album Paradigmes was released last year through the band’s own Disque Pointu and distributed through IDOL. And if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of this year, you’d recall that it’s been a very busy on for the Paris-based outfit: In April, La Femme released Paradigmes: Le Film, a full-length film co-directed by the band’s Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée and Aymeric Bergada du Cadet that highlights the band’s humor and creativity while being primarily centered around Paradigmes‘ material. (You can watch it on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Wnil2ipf0)
The also released an exclusive, vinyl Record Store Day edition of Paradigmes, Paradigmes: suppléments, a deluxe edition of their critically applauded third album. To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Paradigmes, La Femme announced the release of a limited collection of NFTs made from the original frames used for the animated video for “Foutre le Bordel.” The NFTs were released by by Ballad(r), an NFT launchpad for artists and institutions in the music industry. These unique digital works of art included a unique audio track made from stems of the original song and unlocked exclusive content and numerous real-life perks for each lucky NFT holder.
During the JOVM mainstays’ time touring across Latin America and Spain, the band wrote their first song entirely in Spanish, “Le Jardin,” which appeared on the aforementioned Paradigmes. “Le Jardin” led the band down the path to write Teatro Lucido. Deriving its name from a mythic theater, where the band has played many times while touring in Mexico, the album, which is slated for a November 4, 2022 release will be their first album with lyrics written and sung entirely in Spanish. Teatro Lucido will also be the first of a planned thematic series of albums that the band calls Collection Odyssèe.
Teatro Lucido is informed by their adventures in Seville, Granada, Madrid, Mexico City, Cuautepec, Padul — all of which hold important places in their hearts, because they had a ton of laughs, joys, tears and disappointments in each. The album also reportedly draws from a number of different inspirations including Spain’s Semana Santa — or holy week; pasodoble, reggaeton, Brazilian and Andalusian rhythms, classical guitars and 80s Movida among others. Much like their previous releases, the members of French JOVM mainstays wrote, composed and produced the album entirely by themselves, while inviting numerous female vocalists to participate in the process.
Just before the JOVM mainstays last North American tour, La Femme shared “Sacatela,” a breezy, Tropicalia-like take on psych pop centered around an infectious, call-and-response vocal-led hook, snuggling Latin rhythms and lyrics sung entirely in Spanish.
The album’s second and latest single “Y Tu Te Vas” is centered around cinematic, flamenco-inspired guitars and a tweeter and woofer rocking reggaeton beat that might bring Rosalía, Bad Bunny, and others to mind. The song features a sultry, Shakira-like turn from Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Tatiana Hazel.
“Tatiana is an artist living in Los Angeles where I recorded the track in 2019,” La Femme’s Marlon Magnée says of their collaboration. ‘Y Tu Te Vas’ is one of the more powerful tracks voice-wise on the album. Tatiana brings the track to another dimension, she really is one of the new artists to follow on the American scene.”
Directed by JF Julian and the members of La Femme, the accompanying video for “Y Tu Te Vas” continues a remarkable run of gorgeous, cinematically shot visuals that display their unique sense of style and fashion, along with their eccentric and deliriously campy sense of humor. Fittingly, the new videos is full of creepy season motifs — we see Tatiana Hazel dressed as though she were in mourning in a dense fog-filled forest; Hazel with two flamenco styled guitarists sitting in front of a roaring fireplace and so on.
Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, musician and producer John Jagos is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed chillwave/synth pop, JOVM mainstay act Brothertiger. And with Brothertiger, Jagos has released four full-length albums and a handful of EPs featuring brooding and introspective material, Tears for Fears cover album and Fundamentals, a four-volume series of livestreamed improvisations.
Jagos’ self-titled fifth album was co-produced with longtime collaborator Jon Markson. Slated for a November 4, 2022 release through Satanic Panic Recordings the self-titled album reportedly sees Jagos moving through his chillwave roots and into the refined glitz of sophistipop, a British micro genre made famous in the 80s and 90s by the likes of Roxy Music, Bryan Ferry, Prefab Sprout, Scritti Politti and others. Jagos’ take on the style though is pure escapism — immaculate, lushly produced and engineered, retro-leaning songs meant for romantic vagabonds and urbane daydreamers alike.
Typically, the self-titled album is reserved for an artist’s debut effort. But for Jaogs, the album serves as an introduction to a playful and escapist new era for him that can trace its origins back to the early days of the pandemic: Like a lot of artistic city-dwellers, the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstay was restless. That changed after he scoured eBay for vintage gear, impulsively snagging some some sophisitpop-era synths and samplers manufactured by Ensoniq, a now-defunct company.
Armed with this new gear and a completely new sonic palette, Jagos wrote, recorded and released “Dancer on the Water,” a lush and cinematic track centered around glistening synths and bursts of pan flute. Initially released as a standalone single last spring, both longtime fans and new fans were smitten by the song’s unselfconscious optimism and its throwback, feel-good energy. “I was like, I want to make music like this for a while and see what happens,” Jagos explains.
What happened next was that new songs spilled out of the JOVM mainstay with an unexpected ease. “I felt more connected to my songwriting than I’ve ever felt before,” Jagos recalls. That self-synchronicity was infectious, leading to productive sessions with some unexpected collaborators including Covet‘s Yvette Young and Underoath‘s Spencer Chamberlain.
But Jagos was also conscious about leaving space for kitsch and absurdity, often embracing the inherent cheesiness of the album’s slick influence. “Trying to be less serious about the music business is a big theme,” Jagos explains. “I’m not trying to conform to the specific ideals the algorithm machine wants me to be a part of; I’m just trying to make music that sounds good.
The self-titled album’s latest single “Be True” is slick, hook-driven bop built around glistening synth arpeggios, pan flute and a sinuous bass line that manages to subtly recall 90s R&B and Avalon-era Roxy Music — but with a longing, escapist vibe.
“I had this syllabic rhythm in my head for months and I felt like I needed to make a song around it,” the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstay says of the song’s origins. “It had this specific ‘90s RnB’ vibe to it which I loved. That evolved into the mantra of the song, and from there, I just built around it. Then Jon came in and we added specks of detail all over. I love how heavy it became.”
The accompanying video features cinematic footage shot in some of the world’s most gorgeous and breathtaking places — and it happens to link up nicely with the song’s lyrics.
Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have developed and honed an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. As a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony and radical openness during times of tumult.
Their overall approach is a desire to live in the moment. In fact, live they’ve created a live experience that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions — and as a result, they’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn, mostly through word of mouth.
Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick signed the rising Brooklyn psych rockers earlier this year. The new label will be releasing GIFT’s full-length debut Momentary Presence on October 14, 2022.
Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated.
The album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now.
In the lead-up to the album’s release next week, I’ve written about two of the album’s previously released singles:
“Gumball Garden,” a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY,Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind.
“Feather,” a slow-burning and contemplative song with painterly textures featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, metronomic beats paired with Freda’s ethereal cooing, a soaring hook and a blazing guitar solo. While simultaneously evoking both a feather floating in the breeze, Autobahn-era Kraftwerk and The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, the song was written by the band’s TJ Freda the morning after waking from a lucid dream.
Momentary Presence‘s third and latest single “Share The Present” is centered around a glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove paired with wiry bursts of guitar. The arrangement serves as a airy bed for TJ Freda’s breathily cooed, gentle affirmations. Sonically, the song seems like a slick synthesis of Join the Dots-era Toy and The Horrors.
“Sharing the present is being in the present moment. Not looking towards the future or dwelling on the past,” GIFT’s TJ Freda explains. “Being present is the most important thing you can do when you are feeling down. ‘Don’t look back, you’ll fall down’ don’t dwell on the past of who you were. Look to the present moment and appreciate who you are and where you’re going.”
Directed by Andrew Gibson, the accompanying video for “Share The Present” follows an older couple, Claudia and Leonard. And when we’re introduced to them, we get a sense of profound loss under the superficially vibrant personas and colorful clothing. They miss a loved one, who turns out to be GIFT’s TJ Freda. While watching an informercial, they purchase an odd gift that reconnects them with their beloved TJ in a surreal universe. The couple purchases another gift box, which contains a toy car that takes them on a lysergic adventure. It’s a cinematically shot surrealistic fever dream — with a mischievous vibe.
“When I first met Claudia and Leonard, I sensed a deep sadness burrowed under their vibrant personas,” director Andrew Gibson says in press notes. “It wasn’t until a few weeks later, when they invited me over for a lovely breakfast, that I learned the source of their pain was related to the strange disappearance of their adopted nephew TJ. It was at that moment that I vowed to help them in any way I could in their quest to reconnect with the holy Taj. It has been quite a journey to say the least, but ultimately incredibly rewarding once the magical mailman arrived with the gift that would change everything. After meeting TJ it became quite clear why Claudia and Leonard were so determined to find him, to put it simply, he’s just a great kid.”
Deriving its name from the Spanish word for “kite,” JOVM mainstay Nick Hakim‘s fourth album Cometa was recorded between studios and domestic spaces throughout Texas, North Carolina, California and New York. Featuring contributions from Alex G. (piano) and Abe Rounds (drums), and collaborations with DJ Dahi, Helado Negro and Arto Lindsay, the 10-song album is a collection of romantic songs written through different lenses, guided by Hakim’s experience of falling in love that made him feel like he was floating.
That dizzying, out-of-body sensation is the central theme that anchors the album’s material, with Hakim using the extreme distance between a kite and a comet as a metaphor for the depth of one’s love for someone else — and being humbled by it. “The key is to find that extremity of love for yourself,” Hakim says in press notes. “It’s about growing into someone you want to be; it’s about finding pure love within yourself when the world around us seems to be crumbling.”
For Hakim, the purpose of Cometa is less about constructing a narrative around romance and more about exploration through 10 complex compositions woven with aching metaphors throughout. Of course, while for Hakim there are special memories attached to each song, he prefers to leave them open to interpretation, offering the listener a comfortable space to develop their own connections to the material. “I think it’s nice to have love in your life and to have people that are sharing and wanting that,” Hakim explains. “It’s my interpretation of a really romantic way to express love in my own way.”
So far I’ve written about two of Cometa‘s single:
Centered around a sparse and unfussy arrangement of strummed guitar, bursts of twinkling keys, atmospheric synths and cymbal-driven percussion paired with Hakim’s breathily cooed delivery, “Happen,” sees the JOVM mainstay subtly pushing his sound and approach in a new direction while still maintaining the dreamy and earnest essence at the core of his work. But ultimately, the song evokes the sensation of weightlessness — and then gently floating away beyond your control.
“Vertigo,” a woozy song centered around a dusty, analog-like production featuring an arraignment of strummed guitar, skittering boom bap and layers of whirring synths paired with Hakim’s achingly tender vocals. The song depicts the dizzying sensation of trying to stay focused on someone when it feels like the world around you in spinning out of control.
Cometa‘s third and latest single, the DJ Dahi co-produced “M1” is centered around a breezy arrangement consisting of a skittering beat loop, choir-like synth stabs paired with wobbling low-end. The arrangement serves as a silky and ethereal bed for Hakim’s achingly plaintive and soulful falsetto. Interestingly “M1” is an easy-going laid back bop that captures Hakim having fun — while capturing the sweet, swooning ache of love.
“I’ll never forget when Nick was opening up sessions he had previously been creating for the album and ‘M1’ was just a DJ Dahi drum loop, a choir synth take plus a sub bass sound with minimal editing,” producer Andrew Sarlo recalls. “It was an immediate head turner and we knew we had to mine it. Later that night Nick delivered an insane scratch vocal take that still gives me chills just recalling the first moment I heard him ascend melodically during the chorus refrain. We tend to have one song during the final stages of the album process that is a hard one to crack and the adrenaline rush of finishing ‘M1’ in time was very gratifying. It’s definitely solidified as one of my favorite Nick songs”
Cometa is slated for an October 21, 2022 release through ATO Records.
Hakim has three album release shows in NYC (TV Eye), Los Angeles, and London to celebrate the album — and those three shows sold-out immediately. He also announced a headline North American tour throughout January and February 2023, and a headline European tour in March.
The Winter North American tour features a January 21, 2022 stop at Brooklyn Steel. Tickets for all the dates go on sale Friday at 10:00am local time.
Live Dates
Album release shows
10/20 – Nick Hakim presents COMETA – New York, NY @ TV Eye (SOLD OUT)
10/24 – Nick Hakim presents COMETA – Los Angeles, CA @ Zebulon (SOLD OUT)
10/27 – Nick Hakim presents COMETA – London, England @ Avalon Café (SOLD OUT)
Singer/songwriter, musician and Kallista Records label head Carla dal Forno has spent the better part of a decade or so moving, writing, recording and touring out our Berlin and London, before recently relocating to Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia, where she wrote and recorded her third album Come Around.
Slated for November 4, 2022 release through her own Kallista Records, Come Aroundreportedly sees dal Forno grappling with ideas of home, disorder and insomnia with self-assured, enlightened songwriting and pop hooks.
Earlier this year, I wrote about album title track “Come Around,” a narcoleptic, meandering, dub-like take on indie pop centered around reverb and delay-drenched guitar and drums paired with dal Forno’s inviting, easy-going delivery and a well-placed, infectious hook. The end result is a song that feels like an open-ended invitation to stop by and stay awhile, to make yourself at home.
Come Around‘s latest single “Side By Side” is a dreamy and slow-burning, dub-inspired take on indie pop centered around a sinuous bass line, reverb and delay-drenched beats and bursts of twinkling, buzzing and atmospheric synths paired with dal Forno’s yearning, come hither delivery. It’s a slinky and sultry song, full of nocturnal desire.
“‘Side By Side’ is about the anticipation of hooking up with someone and the feelings of inevitability, transparency and impatience,” dal Forno explains. “It’s all in the lyric, ‘Make your move / I recognise the method you use.’ I’ve been sitting on this track for a few years. The production was really slow at first, leaning towards ‘ballad’ territory but it really seemed to find its groove when I increased the tempo and leaned into the bassline hook.”
Directed by Ludovic Sauvage, the haunting accompanying video complements the track’s nocturnal longing as it features a shadowy, blue-lit dal Forno superimposed over a shot of blooming, pink tulips in a stark, black backdrop.
2022 has been a massive year for 22 year-old producer, singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and pop Jordana: Earlier this year, she released her sophomore album Face The Wall, which she has supported with non-stop touring both as a headliner and as an opener for the likes of Local Natives and Wallows.
Building upon a momentous year so far, the rising, young multi-hyphenate will be releasing a new EP, I’m Doing Well Thanks For Asking. Slated for a November 11, 2022 release through Grand Jury Music, I’m Doing Well Thanks For Asking reportedly sees the New York-based artist and producer getting to know her various selves. During her relatively young career, Jordana has quickly developed a reputation for being a shapeshifter: 2020’s Classical Notions of Happiness was an album of homespun indie folk. It’s follow-up Something To Say To You EP was spindly bedroom pop. The following year’s collaboration with TV Girl, Summer’s Over saw her veering into a dreamy haze. While Face The Wall saw Jordana crafting glossy pop.
As a result of the constant touring, I’m Doing Well Thanks For Asking sees the rising young, multi-hyphenate pulling from and synthesizing a little bit of everything that came before. Thematically, the material remains obsessed with love and neuroses, being left and leaving, pitying yourself and learning to stop.
The EP’s latest single “SYT” is an indie rock-tinged pop banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, blown-out boom bap-like beats, bursts of slashing guitars and an enormous, catharsis-inducing hook paired with Jordana’s heartbroken yet resilient delivery. The song’s narrator may be jilted and hurt, but they’ve dug deep to tell that lover off. If you’ve been there, you’ve likely sung along lustily to the song, dreaming off how your unworthy flame would respond.
“It channels the feelings of empowerment and emotional awareness after a tough breakup,” Jordana says.
Directed by Graham Epstein, the accompanying video for “SYT” is shot with a lysergic haze as it follows the rising multi-hyphenate through a series of fantastic set ups.
Texas-born singer/songwriter and musician Katy Rea left Texas 12 years ago for the promise and opportunity of New York. Rea auditioned for several television parts and stage plays, occasionally earning a role in someone else’s story, basking momentarily in the flickering glow of rare, unsteady and infrequent success. However, songwriting was her true love and solace, and for her, the only way she could reliably self-soothe.
For years, she floated around the city as if in a daze and found herself drawn to those, who couldn’t love well. After closing bar shifts, she’d return home to write and strum along to the voices and sirens outside, often lulling herself to sleep.
One day during a rehearsal, Rea’s drummer and friend Joshua Jaeger, audibly observed that she’d be happier without her habits, but warned that it would take courage to overcome them. She knew in her heart that Jaeger had been right, so two weeks before recording her full-length debut The Urge That SavesYou, Rea quit drinking.
Slated for a November 11, 2022 release, The Urge That Saves You was recorded at Figure 8 Recording entirely live, including main vocals, all in one go. It was during the album’s recording sessions that Rea realized, for the first time with complete certainty that making music was exactly what she needed — and should — be doing.
Sonically, the album is reportedly hook-driven empath rock that splits off into cinematic, dark psychedelia in a seamless and effortless fashion. Her backing band, which features members, who have played with Angel Olsen, Fleet Foxes, Widowspeak and a lengthy list of others play with a touching restraint and makes for a collection of Rea calls “premonitions, prayer and warnings.”
The album’s songs reflect Rea’s life journey in a way that’s not exactly autobiographical and isn’t always obvious. As a songwriter, Rea prefers to use characters and metaphors in her stories. But they’re rooted in a gritty, psychological realism that feels novelistic.
During quarantine, the Texas-born, New York-based artist took it upon herself to learn how to engineer and mix her own album after an inspiring phone call with musician and producer Sam Evian, who urged to make the work her own in every way that she could. She spent countless hours at Phil Weinrobe’s Rivington 66 overdubbing and mixing. Learning to mix wasn’t without difficulty. At times, Rea felt like she was learning a different language. Luckily, she had engineers like Spencer Murphy, Andrew Forman and others around to answer questions and help along the way.
The post-production process was just as rewarding as the recording sessions because Rea succeeded in making the album sound exactly how she wanted it to, while also proving to herself that she was more than capable of taking the reins. So it’s understandable that Rea celebrates the album’s completion with a well-earned pride. She’s also inspired to continue engineering and producing future albums on her own.
The Urge That Saves You‘s latest single, the “Lord Try” is centered around a lush and expansive arrangement consisting of alternating sparse, brooding passages with lightly strummed guitar, supple and propulsive bass lines and gently padded drumming and stormier passages with swirling, reverb-drenched guitar and bursts of mournful trumpet from Lessie Vonner. The song’s two distinct sections are held together by Rea’s achingly yearning delivery. The entire song evokes the seemingly inescapable and lingering ghosts of regrets, old selves, bad memories of bad people and bad places.
Directed by Kaitlin Scott and shot by Rachael Batashvili on 16mm film, the gorgeously cinematic accompanying video for “Lord Try” was filmed at the site of an abandoned Upstate New York summer camp.
“Kaitlin and I were aiming to capture subtle moments of temptation that often creep up in the still, quiet moments of life,” Katy Rea explains. “Growing up I spent a lot of time alone, daydreaming, fantasizing the mundane away. And as a girl who grew up in the church everything became sweet or evil, right or wrong. Natural desires felt like something bad within me, but eventually I started to become friendly with close calls and cheap thrills. I put myself in dangerous places and learned my strength through escaping them. Eating a flower with thorns, swimming in murky waters, wearing little clothing knowing maybe the neighbor would see, was just the start of some of this flirtation with ‘darkness’ I knew as a girl. The grassy landscape reminded me of Texas, the church down the road, and the neighbors shaking their heads through their windows.”
Hudson, NY-based indie duo Babehoven — Maya Bon and Ryan Albert — have built a solid partnership over the past handful of years, with the duo releasing several EPs since 2018. Through those EPs, the duo’s work displays Bon’s emotionally incisive approach to songwriting that draws as much power from abstract poetry that asks the big questions, as specific, personal vignettes.
The duo’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Light Moving Time is slated for an October 28, 2022 release through Double Double Whammy. Interestingly, much like their previously released work, Light Moving Time is centered around lyrics that zoom in and out, inviting listeners to bring their own experiences to the album’s songs when Bon’s writing is decidedly cryptic — and to stew in the moments when she presents her entire heart on a platter.
Sonically, the album reportedly continues the duo’s reputation for material with a wide range of dynamics with the band pushing those sounds even further. The album features songs that seem to draw from country and 80s power ballads, indie folk and even shoegaze. But the album sees the Hudson-based duo utilizing Bon’s voice with a greater emotional impact.
Light Moving Time‘s latest single, album closer “Often” is a slow-burning, spectral track built around strummed guitar, gently accented percussion, twinkling keys and atmospheric synths paired with Bon’s vocal, which expresses heartache, grief, loss and resiliency within a turn of a phrase. While sonically bearing a resemblance to Mazzy Star, and rooted in a deeply personal experience of loss, the song is universal, as it focuses on something we’ve all experienced — and will experience many times over.
“‘Often’ is a song about grief, about holding love for a person I’ve lost, about trying to let go and find new paths for myself,” Babehoven’s Maya Bon. “This song changed my life when I wrote it and has provided clarity for me in times of chaos. I hope that, through sharing it, others will find in it comfort and clarity, too.”
Directed and shot by Kevin Prince, the accompanying video for “Often” is comprise of footage that Prince shot around the Hudson Valley and from footage shot on road trips that he has taken. The video loosely follows two characters — a man and a woman — through various moments in time, and with a hazy, heartbreaking nostalgia, full of the understanding that nothing lasts forever.
Sophie Katz is a Toronto-based singer/songwriter, musician and creative mastermind behind Shirley Hurt, her latest music project. Katz’s self-titled Shirley Hurt debut is slated for a December 2, 2022 release through Telephone Explosion Records.
Recorded with a highly-accomplished backing band that features Fresh Pepper‘s and The War on Drugs‘ Joseph Shabason (sax, flute), Chris Shannon (bass), Harrison Forman (guitar), Jason Bhattacharya (percussion), Jacques Mindreau (violin) and Nick Durado (piano), the Nathan Vanderwielen-produced, nine song album reportedly sees Katz and company traversing into the furthest corners of experimental indie folk, pop and country to create a singular sound that integrates elements of each with self-assured elegance, ease and unpredictability. Sonically, the album’s material is centered around skeletal arrangements that tastefully slink around Katz’s delivery, which subtly recalls the likes of Joni Mitchell, Carole King and others.
“This album feels lonely and roadworn to me. The woman who wrote this was definitely in the winter of her life,” Katz says. “The landscape feels blue and burnt orange. There is a wistfulness and longing, whether I like it or not.” The album’s persistent tone of propulsive contemplation wasn’t by chance; Katz came up with many of the album’s lyrical and structural ideas while on the road.
The self-titled album’s first single “Problem Child” is built around a 70s AM rock/troubadour-like arrangement featuring Bhattacharya’s assertive and propulsive percussion, Dorado’s dreamy and twinkling keys, meditative strummed and looping guitar lines and fluttering bursts of Shabason’s flute. The sparse arrangement allows Katz’s husky delivery and observant, longing and conversational lyrics to take the spotlight. The end result is akin to Nabokov being paired with gorgeous, spectral arrangements.
Directed and edited by Eli Spiegel, the accompanying video for “Problem Child” is set in a warm and gorgeous, suburban home, and features two women — presumably a grandmother and her granddaughter spending an afternoon together. The older woman is teaching the younger woman a recipe for pie. Throughout the video, there’s a palpable sense of tradition and love –and in a very lovely place.
Over the past couple of years, I managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering Los Angeles-based indie electro rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Carré, an act that features:
Julien Boyé (drums, percussion, vocals): Boyé has had stints as a touring member of Nouvelle Vague and James Supercave. Additionally, he has a solo recording act Acoustic Resistance, in which he employs rare instruments, which he has collected from all over the world.
Jules de Gasperis (drums, vocals, synths, production and mixing): de Gasperis is a Paris-born, Los Angeles-based studio owner. Growing up in Paris, he sharpened his knowledge of synthesizers, looping machines and other electronics around the same time that Justice, Soulwax and Ed Banger Records exploded into the mainstream.
Kevin Baudouin (guitar, vocals, synth, production): Baudouin has lived in Los Angeles the longest of the trio — 10 years — and he has played with a number of psych rock acts, developing a uniquely edgy approach to guitar, influenced by Nels Cline, Jonny Greenwood and Marc Ribot.
Deriving their name for the French word for “square,” “playing tight” and “on point,” the Los Angeles-based trio formed back in 2019 — and as the band’s Jules de Gasperis explains in press notes, “The making of our band started with this whole idea of having two drummers perform together. It felt like a statement. We always wanted to keep people moving and tend to focus on the beats first when we write.”
Carrè fittingly specializes in a French electronica-inspired sound that frequently blends aggressive, dark and chaotic elements with hypnotic drum loops. And thematically, their work generally touches upon conception, abstraction and distortion of reality through a surrealistic outlook of our world.
2020’s attention-grabbing self-titled EP featured:
Since the release of their debut EP, the members of Carré have shared remixes of material off their self-titled EP. But earlier this month, the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays released “Brothers,” their first single of 2022. Centered around a dense and woozy production featuring copious amounts of cowbell, buzzing guitars, layered arpeggiated synths, industrial clang and clatter, thumping and propulsive four-on-the-floor, the expansive “Brothers” is a slick synthesis of Pink Floyd‘s “On The Run,” Kraftwerk, Nine Inch Nails, and LCD Soundsystem that’s arguably the act’s trippiest and most dance floor friendly track of their growing catalog.
The band explains that the track “is a surrealistic allegory on climate change and human relationships with Mother Earth.”
The accompanying video was made by San Diego-based artist Jerry Scott Lopez and is an uneasy and lysergic nightmare featuring stop motion animation vaguely inspired by Darron Anrofski’s Mother.
Currently split between Bristol and Paris, indie electro pop duo Lynda — Russ Harley and Youcef Khelil — can trace their origins to a writing session in London‘s Lewisham section back in 2016. With the release of a handful of singles and Lynda Tapes [2018-2020], the duo quickly established a sound influenced by Japanese synth pop outfit YMO, Hiroshi Sato, Vangelis‘ Blade Runner soundtrack and Badalamenti’s Twin Peaks soundtrack.
The duo is set to release their four-song, debut EP LEMONRIVER EP. Mixed by French touch legend Alan Braxe, the EP reportedly sees the duo crafting an ethereal synth wave sound featuring vintage 80s and 90s drum machines, vintage synths paired with Khelil’s plaintive vocal delivery. The end result is a sound that’s dreamy and cinematic and tinged with a bittersweet nostalgia.
LEMONRIVER EP‘s second and latest single “Calliope” derives its title from the Greek muse of epic poetry. Centered around a lush and dreamy soundscape featuring a strutting yet funky bass line, glistening synth arpeggios, Khelil’s achingly plaintive vocal and the duo’s penchant for infectious, razor sharp hooks. Thematically, the song is focused on a familiar scenario for most, if not all of us: That recognition that your lover has changed and become a stranger right before your eyes — and that maybe it’s time for the things to end, even if you don’t want it to end.
Directed by Ikonë Studio, the accompanying video was shot in Kosovo and follows the duo in 90s-styled suits and sneakers, driving through tree-lined suburban streets and downtown Kosovo at night in a red convertible, goofing off at a quirky Wes Anderson-like hotel and dancing on the roof of skyscraper. Underneath the stylishness and quirkiness of the visual is a bittersweet, nostalgic ache.
Danish singer/songwriter Kleo exploded into the national and European scenes with her debut single “Miss You,” that paired the rapidly rising Danish artist’s achingly tender and vulnerable vocal delivery is paired with a sparse and dreamy soundscape of strummed guitar, twinkling keys, atmospheric synths and persistent, uptempo beats. Rooted in seemingly lived-in experience , “Miss You” features a narrator, who is haunted by longing and their memories of a relationship that they’ll never get back. But it’s core, the song has a bigger message, encouraging the listener to see that all of our experiences help us grow as people, and perhaps most important, there’s almost always a light at the end of the tunnel.
“Beautiful Life,” the Danish artist’s second and latest single is a defiantly upbeat, slickly produced pop anthem centered around glistening synth arpeggios, Kleo’s earnest pop belter delivery and earnest lyricism paired with a penchant for rousingly anthemic, enormous hooks. The song sees Kleo reinterpreting the motto carpe diem through her own lens with the song encouraging the listener to embrace life and to fully immerse themselves in the euphoric feeling of falling — and being — in love. The song is also a reminder that the world can still be beautiful, and that love has a unique power for good.
“For me, it’s about being open and holding on to the feeling of happiness I feel in the present moment,” Kleo explains. “For example, the feeling I get when I meditate, or when I’m completely head over heels in love with someone. I woke up one morning and thought: This is the canvas – it’s the backdrop for life itself. And not days of clouds and hurricanes. If I can wake up in the morning and feel bliss, then it must be reality itself.”
Directed by Stine Emil Thorbøll, the accompanying black and white visual for “Beautiful Life” is shot is inspired by 90s pop culture and is shot in a gorgeously cinematic black and white. We see the Danish pop star dancing blissfully with actor Ask Berntsen. And for the pair of star-crossed lovers, time and the entire world itself just seems to melt away.
Chicago-based indie outfit Smut — Tay Roebuck (vocals), Andrew Min (guitar), Bell Cenower (bass, synth), Sam Ruschman (guitar, synth) and Aidan O’Connor (drums) — will be releasing their new album How the Light Felt on November 11 through Bayonet Records.
While 2020’s Power FantasyEP saw Smut dipping its toe into more experimental waters, How the Light Felt reportedly sees the band diving head-first into their vast array of 80s and 90s influences, including Oasis, Cocteau Twins, Gorillaz, and Massive Attack — while pushing their sound in a new direction.
How the Light Felt‘s material can be traced back to 2017: Following her sister’s death, Tay Roebuck turned to writing to help her navigate a labyrinth of grief and heartache. “This album is very much about the death of my little sister, who committed suicide a few weeks before her high school graduation in 2017,” Roebuck explains in press notes. ” “It was a moment in which my life was destroyed permanently, and it’s something you cannot prepare for.”
Roebuck’s bandmates composed the song’s arrangements, excavating underutilized 90s guitar tones and drum beats to build an expansive sonic world for her lyrics. “A couple weeks after the funeral we played a show and I couldn’t keep it together,” Roebuck says, “but we just kept playing and started writing because it was truly all I felt I had, it was all I could do to feel any sense of purpose. For the past five years now I’ve been chipping my way through grief and loss and I think the album itself is just the story of a person working through living with a new weight on top of it all.”
While rooted in profound heartbreak and loss, the album’s material pairs nostalgic inducing guitar tones, lush yet unfussy production, lived-in lyricism, and earnest vocals in a way that turns pain into a bittersweet yet necessary catharsis. Certainly, if you’ve lost a loved one, the album will likely resonate with you on a deeper level than most.
Earlier this month, I wrote about “After Silver Leaves,” an infectious 120 Minutes era MTV alt rock-inspired anthem centered around reverb-drenched guitar jangle, driving rhythms paired with Roebuck’s gorgeous and expressive vocals, an enormous, sing-a-long worthy hook and a scorching guitar solo. While sonically recalling Reading, Writing and Arithmetic-era The Sundays, “After Silver Leaves” is rooted in deeply personal, embittering experience.
“This song is about a former relationship I was in, it was really horribly abusive. But the approach to this one was to just spell it all out and see how silly it feels once shit really hits the fan,” Roebuck says. “The song sounds so happy, but I’m talking about driving someone to a hospital when they’ve overdosed. And having to detach myself and realize that maybe it’s not my job as a teenage girl to save some sad sack of a guy. I think a lot of young women will relate to that, unfortunately.”
How the Light Felt‘s latest single “Let Me Hate” continues the 120 Minutes MTV-era vibe with Roebuck’s gorgeous and plaintive vocal paired with glistening, reverb drenched guitars, a gently propulsive rhythm section and a soaring chorus. But unlike its immediate predecessor, “Let Me Hate” directly addresses the aftermath of a tragic death with an unvarnished honesty. And as a result, the song is equally frustrated, grief-stricken, confused, angry, lost and embittered — within a turn of a phrase.
“For years after my sister’s death I could not dream about her. I’d hear my family members talk about her visiting them in dreams and telling them she’s okay or misses them, there was a lot of mysticism going on the first few years,” Smut’s Tay Roebuck explains. “When I did start having dreams she was always out of reach, walking into another room as I entered or people would be assuring me she was present somewhere if I could find her. ‘Let Me Hate’ is about the first time I had a dream where my little sister spoke to me after she died. I knew if I let her go she’d slip away and when I woke up I was angry at myself. So it’s a very literal song.”
Created by the band’s Aidan O’Connor, the accompanying lyric video features photos from the band’s summer North American tour with indie darlings Wavves.
