Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The Black Angels Announce First Album in Five Years, Share Forceful “El Jardín”

Since their formation back in 2004, the Austin-based psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays The Black Angels —  currently Alex Maas (vocals, bass), Christian Bland (guitar), Stephanie Bailey(drums), Jake Garcia (guitar) and multi-instrumentalist Ramiro Verdooren — have remained true to psych rock forebears like Syd Barrett, Roky Erickson, Arthur Lee, and The Velvet Underground among others throughout their career, while simultaneously reflecting a wide-screen view of the world back at the listener. Thematically, their work often touches upon extremely contemporary concerns.

With five albums under their collective belts — 2006’s Passover, 2010’s Phosphene Dream, 2013’s Indigo Meadow, 2014’s Clear Lake Forest and 2017’s Death Song, the Austin-based JOVM mainstays have built a global profile on the international psych rock scene. That profile and influence has been further cemented by their long-running celebration of all things psych rock, Levitation Festival, which celebrates its 15th anniversary this year.

2022 looks to be a big year for the band: The Black Angels’ forthcoming sixth album — and first album in over five years, Wilderness of Mirrors is slated for a September 16, 2022 release through Partisan Records. Co-produced by the band and Brett Orrison with engineering by John Agnello, Wilderness of Mirrors reportedly finds the band attempting to achieve something fresh and new through a gentle and subtle refinement of the sound that has won them fans across the globe.

With Wilderness of Mirrors, the band adds mellotron, strings and an assort of keyboards to their sonic palette, which naturally adds different textures to their sound. Thematically, the album touches upon our moment: political tumult, the pandemic and the ongoing devastation of the environment and its long term implications to us and our descendants among other things.

“El Jardín,” Wilderness of Mirrors‘ expansive, first single is at first glance classic Black Angels: Bailey’s thunderous time keeping, Maas’ plaintive falsetto and supple bass lines paired with layers upon layers of guitar pyrotechnics and effects from Bland and Garcia — but the song’s sparking and brooding bridge sees the band adding bursts of twinkling Rhodes to the mix. Written from the perspective of our dear Mother Earth, “El Jardín” is a forceful and urgent warning to humanity: destroying the environment will ultimately lead to the destruction of humanity.

Directed by Vanessa Pia, the cinematic, accompanying video stars The Walking Dead‘s Austin Amelio and his son Lev in a post apocalyptic nightmare in which humans have essentially killed nature — and the only way to experience it is through virtual reality.

“Alex [Maas] came to me with a dystopian sci-fi idea of a future where Mother Nature is dead because we killed her, and the only way to experience her is through virtual reality- an already relatable feeling, as most of the world lives viscerally through social media,” Vanessa Pia explains. Who knows where we will be 100 years from now. This project has been a dream in the making and a massive labor of love and could have only been possible with such a dedicated and talented crew, especially my dear friend and cinematographer Andy Hoffman. For me as a director, it’s an honor to deliver this project on 35mm print and to have been chosen to make something for my favorite band.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Spacemoth Shares Hypnotic and Swooning “Waves Come Crashing”

Bay Area-based Afghan-American musician, composer and producer Maryam Qudus has been driven by a lifelong devotion to music: When she turned 12, she traded chores for guitar lessons; when she was 16, she took on after school jobs to pay or voice lessons. As a first-generation Afghan-American child of working-class immigrant parents, finding a place in music was nothing short of a challenge for Qudus. “Women are often discouraged from pursuing music in the Afghan and Muslim community, and those who follow that path receive a lot of heat,” she explains.

But Qudus’ career began in earnest with her first solo project Doe Eye, which quickly received radio airplay, magazine features and blogosphere buzz after 2014’s John Vanderslice-produced Television, a lush batch of indie pop and spacey rock. Working with Vanderslice at his San Francisco co-op-turned studio, Tiny Telephone opened new avenues for the Bay Area-based artist: She began studying at Bay Area-based recording arts non-profit Women’s Audio Mission, eventually interning both there and at Tiny Telephone, before becoming a staff engineer at both.

Picking up studio techniques and tricks from clients like Wax Nine Records artists Sad13, Toro Y Moi, Sasami, and Tune-Yards helped inspired the arrangements she was working on. And in between sessions, she was able to play with electronic ambiance and tape experimentations for her latest solo project Spacemoth.

Qudus’ Spacemoth full-length debut, No Past No Future is slated for a July 22, 2022 release through Wax Nine Records. Centered around lush, intergalactic, avant-pop made with vintage synths like the Yamaha CS-50 and Korg Polysix with fluttering tape manipulations paired with Qudus’ striking vocals, No Past No Future thematically serves as a reckoning point between nostalgia and nihilism, exploring the struggle to hang on to a moment as it warps in time. Overall, the album radiates in the awe of the complex emotional landscape humans contain within themselves and the preciousness of our time here.

No Past No Future‘s third and latest single “Waves Come Crashing” is a swooning and hypnotic pop song built around blown out beats, glistening analog synths, wobbling tape distortion and rumbling bass paired with Qudus’ plaintive vocals and a razor sharp hook. Sonically, the song seems to simultaneously nod at the dusty yet retro futuristic leanings of BBC Radiophonic Workshop and JOVM mainstays Pavo Pavo — but while getting emotionally and sonically darker as the song flutters and wobbles to its conclusion.

The song’s narrator confronts the inevitability of death while exploring the most difficult and heartbreaking part of falling and being in love — the fear of losing that person you love. “‘Waves Come Crashing’ was written during a period when I was haunted by the idea of losing my partner,” Qudus explains. “I would lay awake at night and all I could think of was ‘what if something happens to them tomorrow‘? While I was unable to shake these thoughts, I slowly realized my time spent worrying about loss was consuming the time we have together.”

Co-directed by Qudus and Kimber-Lee Alston, the accompanying kaleidoscopic video for “Waves Come Crashing” seems to be partially inspired by 60 French New Wave films as it follows the Bay Area-based producer and artist navigating love and loss through swirls of saturated prismatic patterns, split screens and gorgeous color patterns.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s Naomi Shares Another Sultry, Summertime Banger

Naomi is a Montréal-based multi-disciplinary artist, who first after studying theater made a name for herself when she started landing roles on both the small and big screen when she was 14. Because she has long seen art as a continuous means of expression, she went on to study dance at the École de danse contemporaine de Montréal.

As a dancer, Naomi has appeared in and/or choreographed music videos for Rihanna, Marie-Mai, Coeur de Pirate and others, as well as for local dance performances. While she was establishing herself as an actor and dancer, the Montreal-based artist quietly developed a passion for singing — without fully giving herself permission to explore it fully. Interestingly, Coeur de Pirate’s Beátrice Martin saw star potential in the Montreal based multi-disciplinary artist and took her under her wing.

Encouraged by Couer de Pirate’s mentorship and encouragement, Naomi began to realize that she was never far off from making her own music. All that she needed was a little push.

Signed to Bravo Musique, the Montreal-based artist began to write her own material and has taken a bold leap into a career as a pop singer. Naomi’s first two singles “Tout à nous” and “Zéro stress” have received airplay on WKND, Rouge FM, Arsenal, POP, CVKM and several other regional radio stations across Quebec.

The rising Canadian artist also released the club friendly, Rowan Mercille and Naomi co-written “Semblant,” which I wrote about earlier this year. Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering trap-meets-Carribbean beats paired with her sultry delivery and an infectious hook, “Semblant” is a remarkably self-assured summertime banger, that also reveals a bonafide superstar in the making.

“Pas le temps de jouer,” Naomi’s latest single continues a remarkable run of slickly produced and self-assured bangers centered around shuffling reggaeton-meets-trap beats, glistening synth bursts paired with the rising Canadian artist’s sultry delivery and her seemingly unerring knack for crafting a big, razor sharp hook. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Pas le temps de jouer” is an accessible, radio friendly and club friendly track that’s simultaneously a summertime bop and a platform to launch a bonafide superstar into the stratosphere.

Directed by Clare L’heureux-Garcia, the accompanying video follows Naomi and a diverse collection of dancers through a series of brightly colored set ups — including one, where the collection of dancers, are like paintings in a museum.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yeah Yeah Yeahs Team Up with Perfume Genius on an Urgent Power Ballad

After teasing their first new bit of music in over nine — nine! — years, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs — Karen O. (vocals), Nick Zinner (keys, guitar, drum machine, bass) and Brian Chase (drums) — recently announced their long-awaited and highly anticipated fifth album, Cool It Down.

The forthcoming album is slated for a September 30, 2022 release through Secretly Canadian and features cover photography by Alex Prager. The eight-song album reportedly is an expert distillation of the band’s gifts and will impel the listener to move, cry and listen closely.

“To all who have waited, our dear fans, thank you, our fever to tell has returned, and writing these songs came with its fair share of chills, tears, and euphoria when the pain lifts and truth is revealed, Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O writes in a statement to the band’s fans. “Don’t have to tell you how much we’ve been going through in the last nine years since our last record, because you’ve been going through it too, and we love you and we see you, and we hope you feel the feels from the music we’ve made. No shying away from the feels, or backing down from what’s been gripping all of us these days. So yes we’ve taken our time, happy to report when it’s ready it really does just flow out.”

“The record is called Cool It Down which is snagged from a lesser known Velvet Underground song. I told Alex Prager whose photo graces our record cover that her image speaks to sweeping themes in the music and sums up how I, Karen, feel existentially in these times! But there’s always more to the story. This is how our new story begins, we present to you with heads bowed and fists in the air ‘Spitting Off the Edge of the World’ featuring Perfume Genius.

Cool It Down‘s first single, the Dave Sitek-produced “Spitting Off the Edge of the World,” featuring Perfume Genius is a slow-burning and cathartic power ballad centered around glistening and droning synths, Chase’s thunderous drumming, a distortion-driven guitar solo by Zinner, arena rock friendly hooks paired with the lush interplay between Karen O’s and Perfume Genius imitable vocals. Sonically “Spiting Off The Edge” to my ears sounds like a slick yet subtle synthesis of Show Your Bones and It’s Blitz — and as a result, the song is simultaneously urgent yet an exercise in restraint.

Lyrically, the song reflects on the current state of the environment, and the need for honesty about the damage we’re inflicting on the Earth. “I see the younger generations staring down this threat, and they’re standing on the edge of a precipice, confronting what’s coming with anger and defiant,” Yeah Yeah Yeah’s Karen O explains. “It’s galvanizing and there’s hope there.”

The Yeah Yeah Yeah’s longtime collaborator Cody Critcheloe a.k.a. Ssion, who designed the cover art for Fever To Tell, and who also directed Perfume Genius’ “Queen” directed the accompanying video which stars Perfume Genius as an avenging angel limo driver to Karen O’s desert rebel queen.

“A note on this video, it’s a dream collaboration with one of our favorite artists of the 21st century Cody Critcheloe who did the artwork for our first record back in 2003 and has been making visionary music videos for the last decade,” Karen O notes. “The time to collaborate again came with ‘Spitting,’ the shoot in Kansas City was dream-like, the dreams you have after eating something really greasy right before bed; bizarre, poetic, and intense. Perfume Genius was incredibly gracious to roll in the very cold mud as my co pilot and steal scene after scene with his surreal charm.  We trusted Cody implicitly, he surpassed expectations and gave us our November Rain. YYY’s spirit is alive and well through the eyes of Cody Critcheloe. Custom Yeahs limo was largely his handiwork, fueled on love.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Emerging French Duo OJOS Share a Swaggering, Feminist Anthem

OJOS is an emerging and somewhat mysterious French male-female duo, whose work and aesthetic is rooted in duality and the tension behind that duality: Featuring lyrics half-written and half-sung in Spanish and French, the members of OJOS specialize in a sound that they’ve described as being half pop, half hip-hop. Thematically, their work frequently explores the tensions between love and hate, kindness and violence, madness and reason — all while promoting and defending the equality of the sexes.

“Peligrosa,” the first single from the duo’s sophomore EP is a swaggering banger featuring tweeter and woofer rattling trap beats, shuffling Latin-inspired percussion, wailing sirens, glistening synth arpeggios and wobbling bass lines paired with Elodie’s decidedly hip-hop-like delivery in Spanish and French and an enormous, shout-along worthy hook.

While sonically seeming like a seamless mesh of M.I.A., and JOVM mainstays Sofi Tukker, “Peligrosa” is inspired by a real fucked up life experience: Back in 2016, Elodie received death threats online from a photographer. Fast forward to 2019: The duo learns that the same photographer, who sent Elodie death threats actually made a feminist documentary about his sister. The song calls actively calls out phonies like that photographer, who are real dangers to everyone and anyone around them — but it also sees its narrator boldly taking back power without fear.

Directed by Valerian7000, the accompanying video for “Peligrosa” employs glitchy, Windows 95-inspired graphics, including the hated blue screen of death while capturing the duo rock out. It’s deceptively playful while capturing the duo’s energy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Eldorado Shares a Late Night, Shimmering Meditation on Heartache

Eldorado (born Doriane Gamba) is an up-and-coming French singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and bedroom producer, who can trace the origins of her music career to when she turned six and started playing drums. Inspired by an eclectic array of artists, who have also abided by the DIY ethos including Mac DeMarco, Men I Trust, Yellow Days, Clairo and a list of others, the French singer/songwriter and bedroom producer’s work is inspired by real life, personal experiences, which helps evoke strong emotions. 

Eldorado’s debut single, the neon and heartache-tinged “3 in the morning” is centered around glistening, reverb-drenched guitars, the French artist and producer’s achingly plaintive vocals, skittering beats, atmospheric synths and a soaring hook. Sounding as though it were inspired by JOVM mainstays St. Lucia, Washed Out, and 80s synth pop, “3 in the morning” draws from a heartbreaking, fairly universal experience: wanting to be with someone, who has no interest in you whatsoever. It’s the sort of song, I can imagine heartbroken souls singing to themselves at 3am — or at the club, along with their equally heartbroken cohorts.

Directed by Ambre Tholance, the accompanying video begins with our protagonist — Gamba — in her bed, listening to music on an old walkman. She eats puts on a shirt and tie, eats some cereal and walks out of her apartment with her bike. We then follow our protagonist riding her bike through suburban streets at golden hour. She then stops at a diner, where she has a milkshake and an appetizer, and begins writing the lyrics for “3 in the morning.” The video follows Gamba through an amusement park and elsewhere. While nodding at 80s pop videos, the video or “3 in the morning” emphasizes the late night loneliness at the core of its accompanying song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Medicine Singers Share Lysergic and Mind-Bending “Sunrise (Rumble)”

Medicine Singers is a collective that can trace its origins back to a chance encounter between the Eastern Medicine Singers, an Eastern Algonquin powwow group and Israeli-born, New York-based guitarist and producer Yonatan Gat, who invited the group to a spontaneous collaboration on stage at SXSW 2017 after seeing them play outside the venue, before he was about to play.

That chance meeting led to a five year collaboration that saw Gat and the Eastern Medicine Singers playing festival stages across the US, Canada and Europe — and in some cases, bringing powwow to audiences and places that had never heard it before. 

The collective’s long-awaited — and highly-anticipated — self-titled debut is slated for a July 1, 2022 release through Yonatan Gat’s Stone Tapes, an imprint of Joyful Noise here in the States and through Mothland in Canada. The self-titled album sees the Medicine Singers expanding into an experimental supergroup that includes Swans’ Thor Harris and Christopher Pravdica, ambient music pioneer Laraaji, former DNA drummer and no wave icon Ikue Mori and trumpeter Jaimie Branch, who’s a rising star in the world of improvised music, along with contributions from their co-producer and longtime collaborator Yonatan Gat.

With their self-titled debut, the collective have reportedly created a spellbinding and mystical musical experience that cycles through a kaleidoscopic array of sounds including psychedelic punk, electronic music, acid jazz, spiritual jazz and others. But the genre-blurring and genre-smashing approach is firmly rooted in the intense, physical power of the powwow drum and the Eastern Medicine Singers’ connection to their ancestral music and traditions. The end result is material that lovingly celebrates and honors tradition while boldly breaking free from its restrictions — or in the words of Medicine Singers’ leader Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson: “These two cultures can work together, and blend together. We created something that needs to be out there in the world, to show people how we can work together and make something beautiful.”

Last month, I wrote about “Sunset,” a mesmerizing track centered around an expansive arrangement featuring a modal-like horn line, atmospheric and oscillating synths, the Medicine Singers’ gorgeous, multi-part harmonies, intense and forceful powwow drumming and a Robby Krieger-like guitar solo that slowly builds up into a noisy psychedelic freak out. It’s a lysergic yet deeply mystical journey rooted in traditions that seem older than time itself.

“We play the Sunset song at the end of the day, when the sun goes down. Not many people sing these songs anymore: ‘Sunrise’ and ‘Sunset.’ They were given to our drummer Artie Red Medicine Crippen by the great chief Bright Canoe years ago,” the Medicine Singers explain. “They are ancient vocal songs – a thousand years old perhaps – which have the name of the creator – Yahweh. You hear it throughout the song. It’s an ancient calling to the creator. ‘Sunset’ can open up almost anything. It’s a very special song – magical and powerful. It brings great joy to people when we play it.”

The forthcoming album’s latest single “Sunrise (Rumble)” sees the collective exploring the influence of indigenous rhythms in rock and is mash-up featuring two distinct parts: “Sunrise,” a traditional powwow song and a unique cover of legendary, Shawnee guitarist Link Wray‘s “Rumble.” Much like its predecessors “Sunrise (Rumble)” is a seamless and lysergic mesh of the modern and the ancient that feels imbued with an innate and powerful mysticism.

“I’m from the Pocasset tribe and not a Shawnee, but I can relate to their struggle,” Medicine Singers’ Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson explains in press notes. “Link Wray put the pain of his people into the music. For me, it was an honor to expand this song, and bring out the tribal aspects with the drum and singing we added.”

The intimately shot, accompanying video for “Sunrise (Rumble)” is split between footage of Yonatan Gat and the Eastern Medicine singers performing the song in the round in a red-lit club and a powwow dancer in the woods.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Beacon Shares Cinematic “Until Next Time”

JOVM turns 12 later this month and over the course of it history, I’ve spilled a copious amount of virtual ink covering New York-based electronic music duo and JOVM mainstays Beacon. Their third album, 2018’s Gravity Pairs saw the JOVM mainstays — Thomas Mullarney III (vocals) and Jacob Gussett (production, keys, synths) — writing material that was a sonic left turn from their previously released work. 

Gravity Paris‘ creative process saw Mullarney III and Gussett embarking on open-ended writing sessions, in which they adopted a more linear songwriting style instead of the loop and textured-driven method they had developed and honed through the early part of their career. The initial demos the duo wrote were built around piano chords and guitar phrases paired with vocal melodies, which they then edited into a number of iterations. That allowed the JOVM mainstays to look at each individual version from a multitude of angles and directions.

As they continued through their creative process, they expanded upon song songs and pared others back. Much like the bending of light through a prism, the abstract, patient and deeply painterly process eventually turned the material they had been working on into a space in which wildly different colors, tones and textures — in the album’s case, minimalist ballads, elaborate pop spirituals and driving dance tunes — can coexist simultaneously and at different speeds.

Interestingly, with each iteration they created, the JOVM mainstays quickly discovered that they could easily expand upon how they presented Gravity Pairs‘ material in a live setting: They could play the album’s material in a straightforward fashion — or they could play that material in a very different fashion that added or subtracted color and shading, depending on the circumstances, their moods and their desires.

While Gravity Pairs found Beacon boldly pushing their sound and approach in adventurous, new directions, the material remained imbued with the vulnerability and yearning that they’ve long been known for.

A couple of years have passed since the release of Gravity Pairs, the JOVM mainstays have been busy: Back in 2019, they opened for acclaimed Aussie electro pop artist Nick Murphy during his North American tour, which included a stop at Brooklyn Steel. The duo shared a series of stripped down, live studio sessions — and they released a remix album, which featured remixes and edits by Elkka, Helios, and CRi. 

2020 saw the release, of a meditative, piano-led take on the Pixies‘ “Wave of Mutilation” inspired by the slower tempo and phrasing of the UK Surf B-side, which managed to showcase the song’s mutability. Before, the pandemic struck and put the world on an indefinite hold for the next 15 months or so, the duo went on a headlining European tour, which featured a stop in one of my favorite cities, the charming city of canals Amsterdam.

Beacon capped off 2020 with the release of “Feel Something,” which saw Mullarney III and Gussett continuing to prioritize the creative process behind Gravity Pairs while painting a surrealistic and disturbing vision of desire, longing and control that feels like a lived-in perspective of a codependent and dysfunctional relationship — with a person or a situation.

“Until Next Time,” is the first bit of new material from the duo in about two years, and the single reveals a fresh aesthetic rooted in contrasts: Rumbling electronic feedback and noise gives way to a swirling and twinkling piano-led melody paired with Mullarney’s achingly delicate falsetto, trembling metronomic beats and swirling static, which rises and crashes into Mullarney’s vocals.

“Until Next Time” is the start of a new chapter for the dup with more music to be released throughout the year. “It really captures some key dynamics of our new work,” Beacon’s Gussett reveals. “Shifts between rich, delicate piano and intense electronic noise are defining characteristics of this genre-bending, soft-loud direction.”

Directed by Beacon’s Gussett, the accompanying visual is a cinematically shot fever dream, inspired by a key line in the song “With my face to the glass, both sides of the tether . . .” The video features Mullarney with an uncanny doppelgänger, whose actions frequently mirror, fracture and distort his own throughout. It opens with them feverishly running towards one another,” Gussett explains, “drawn to this inevitable collision. Two characters so intertwined as to be almost one, their journey from connection to rupture.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Henry Carlyle Shares Intimate Visual For “A Bigger Splash”

Best known for his work in acclaimed JOVM mainstay act  The Orielles, Halifax, UK-born, Manchester-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Henry Carlyle stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist last year with his debut single “The Ground,” a song that found The Orielles co-founder eschewing the disco floor strobe lights for thoughtful and lived-in lyricism and an intimate, dusty, lo-fi-like production.

Described by Carlyle as “a song about displacement,” the song’s origins can be traced back to a winter day in which the Halifax-born, Manchester-based singer/songwriter and guitarist began writing down his fractious thoughts of his unanchored passing through time and space. “It was inspired by floating through the universe and through time bouncing off events and other humans, never really knowing where you should be or what you should be doing anyway” Carlyle explained in press notes.

Carlyle’s second solo single “A Bigger Splash,” which sees him collaborating again with Julia Bardo (vocals) and Jack Bogacki (drums), is a strangely euphoric yet uncomfortably intimate song centered around Carlyle’s aching, world wearied delivery, jutting and angular guitar attack paired with a the Halifax-born, Manchester-based artist’s unerring gift for a razor sharp hook. While sonically nodding at Damon Albarn and Pavement among others, the song’s relatively young narrator seemingly struggling with the difficulties of existence — as we all are these days.

Written as a by-product of “going through stuff and nothing the time to think properly,” Carlyle explains that “I was thinking how these formative years might affect people as they move on. Which is why the song’s initial musical idea stuck with me and interested me a lot as a theme; it fluctuates between two keys, the end improvisation being the ultimate meditation in that idea. it all feels as I felt, in turmoil.”

“The lyrics are mostly about self-medicating, trying to instantly feel better for a transient moment and then reeling from that for a longer period of time than the intended relief,” Carlyle adds. “Which is why the chorus only comes once and is only two lines long. Nothing good lasts too long and goodness changes all the time.”

The accompanying video which is shot in a dark room, features Carlyle’s face reflected against a collection of water — perhaps his tub or his sink. The end result is a video that evokes the same sense of turmoil and struggle as the song does.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Swedish Heavy Outfit BESVÄRJELSEN Shares a Forceful Ripper

Deriving their name from the Swedish word for “conjuring,” the Dalarna, Sweden-based heavy metal/heavy psych outfit BESVÄRJELSEN — founding members Staffan Stensland Vinrot (guitar, vocals) and Andreas Baier (guitar, vocals) with Lea Amling Alazam (vocals), Erik Bäckwall (drums) and Johan Rockner (bass) was formed back in 2014 by its founding duo of Vinrot and Baier, with the clear vision of channelling the spirit and traditions of the Dalarna forests, a region famous for painted wooden horses and for being the meeting ground of ancient Norse and Finnish cultures , into contemporary heavy music.

Baier, who has a lengthy background in the region’s punk and hardcore scenes had come to realize that by slowing things down, BESVÄRJELSEN’s music would gain depth while allowing haunting melodies to exist alongside a cathartic heaviness.

When Baier and Vinrot met Lea Amling Alazam, who can trace her passion for punk and stoner rock to being a 13 year-old, hanging out at the local skate park, they happy relegated their shared vocal duties to a backing role. As a trio, the band released their first two self-financed and self-released EPs — 2015’s debut Villfarelser and 2016’s sophomore effort, Exil, which received critical praise and airplay on Swedish national radio with minimal promotion. Around that time, Erik Bäckwall, a former member of Dozer and Greenleaf joined the band as a permanent member.

Bäckwall then recruited his Dozer and Greenleaf bandmate Johan Rockner to join the band. And with the band’s lineup finalized, they wrote and recorded 2018’s full-length debut, Vallmo, an effort that saw the band pair crushing riffs and thunderous drumming with sophisticated melodies and thoughtful thematic concerns. The attention on the album, helped the band land a festival slot opening for the legendary Deep Purple.

Much like every other act across the globe, the Swedish quintet had plans to support 2019’s mini-album Frost with extensive touring across Europe — but the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled those plans for the next two years. The band used the unexpected spare time to compile a wealth of ideas amassed remotely and shared virtually, which would result in the material that would comprise their Karl Daniel Lidén-produced sophomore album Atlas.

Deriving its name from the Greek mythical character Atlas, who literally carries the weight of the world on his shoulders, the members of BESVÄRJELSEN boldly take a massive step forward with their sound and approach with the album’s material featuring elements of melodic doom, prog rock, punk, folk and classic rock. Along with that the band’s frontperson embraced the melodies and phrasing of the grunge and emo that she loved as a young person, as well as African and Middle Eastern music while retaining a bluesy undertone.

Atlas‘ latest single “The Cardinal Ride” is a breakneck yet melodic, arena rock friendly ripper centered around crunchy and enormous riffs, a scorching yet bluesy solo and thundering drums paired with Alazam’s powerhouse vocals and massive hooks. With “The Cardinal Ride,” the Swedish outfit seems poised to be both their homeland’s and the heavy scene’s next big thing — while crafting an empathetic portrayal of sin, uncertainty and ugliness.

“First time I heard the riff for this song I knew I wanted to go punk and messy with the melodies and lyrics,” Lea Amling Alazam says in press notes. “”I had been reading The Seven Deadly Sins by Karin Boye and the was book lying on the table as I was listening to the track.The first line that came to mind was ‘a rollercoaster of the seven deadly sins.’ Life is a fucked-up rollercoaster and you never know how the path will turn next, so I wanted to celebrate the ugly parts of life. We live in a glass house society, in which people want to portray themselves as if they have their shit together and be on the right side of life, while most of us are messed up, confused, horny bastards with no self control. It’s okay to be a fuck-up. It’s okay to run through life not knowing where the hell the road is going. But if you are the type of person, who always gets super drunk and cries at parties, maybe it’s time to go and see a shrink. Because chaos is fun, but taking mental health serious is even much cooler. See ya’ll in hell!”

“Well, ‘Cardinal Ride’ was the only song on the album that started as a jam and evolved from there”, BESVÄRJELSEN’s Erik Bäckwall adds. “It was faster at first and had the working name ‘Sendrag’, which means ‘Cramp’ due to the effect it had on my right leg. The track went through several iterations before Johan finally nailed the arrangement and Lea came up with the perfect vocal melody and lyrics for it.”

The accompanying, cinematic video for “The Cardinal Rule” is partially shot in the forests of Northern Sweden during golden hour paired with some sultry and decadent portrayals of sin.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Jenny Stevens and the Empty Mirrors Shares a Glistening, Club Banger

Welsh-born, Finnish-based singer/songwriter and musician Jenny Stevens, a.k.a. The Ukelele Girl is the creative mastermind behind the songwriting project Jenny Stevens and The Empty Mirrors, which sees Stevens pairing dark-alt pop with quirky visuals. 

Last year, Stevens released the The Distance Between Us EP, an effort that featured “The River Rolls On,” an atmospheric track that seemed indebted to the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and Cocteau Twins. 

This year, Stevens released two more singles:

Stevens’ latest single “Unfinished Conversations” is a 90s house inspired banger featuring skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios, brief bursts of guitar, and sinuous bass lines paired with Steven’s plaintive and ethereal vocals. While revealing an act that’s restlessly experimenting and pushing their sound in new directions, including towards the dance floor, the song also reveals an artist with an innate ability to craft an infectious hook.

The accompanying video is set in the relatively near future, where we see beautiful people dancing and vamping to the song — but we also see people tuning out in virtual reality. And throughout, there’s a sense that there are things left unsaid.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MELRØSE Shares Sultry “Sexfriend”

Melrøse is an French electro pop duo — Anne-Camille and Anthony Bacou — that can trace its origins back to June 2020, when the romantic couple and musical collaborators decided to immortalize their relationship — and in turn, their love — in a song, written in a Los Angeles hotel room. 

The French electro pop duo released their debut EP, Nuit louve earlier this year and the EP features two tracks I wrote about last year:

  • “Poolside,” the first song that the duo wrote that June night back in 2020. Featuring skittering beats, swirling electronics and Anne-Camille’s achingly delicate delivery singing lyrics in French and English, “Poolside” evoked sultry, summer nights in bed with a lover while sonically nodding at Dummy-era Portishead.
  • “Insomnie,” another sensual bop featuring twinkling and arpeggiated synths paired with a relentless motorik groove and Anne-Camille’s coquettish delivery. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Insomnie” evokes a sultry summer nights — but restlessly tossing and turning because you’re sweaty, sticky and uncomfortable.

Nuit louve‘s latest single “Sexfriend” is a sultry, Quiet Storm-inspired bop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, wobbling bass lines, and skittering beats paired with Anne-Camille’s sultry delivery and the duo’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks. “Sexfriend” is a late night, cooed come-on, kisses on the neck, a longing to be touched at the right place, in the right fashion and at the right time . . .

The accompanying video for “Sexfriend” features MELRØSE’s Anne-Camille at the beach in a white, double-breasted, silk suit strolling the seashore at golden hour and swaying to the atmospheric song in the sea. Much like the song it accompanies, the video is subtle yet suggestive.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Tallies Share Shimmering and Longing “Special”

With the release of 2019’s self-titled, full-length debut, Toronto-based dream pop outfit Tallies — Dylan Frankland (guitar), Sarah Cogan (vocals, guitar) and Cian O’Neill (drums) — exploded into the national and international scenes: The album received praise from the likes of Under the Radar, DIY Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, MOJO, Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim!,  KEXP and others. And adding to a rapidly growing profile, the Toronto-based dream poppers have opened for Mudhoney, Hatchie, Tim Burgess and Weaves. 

The band’s Graham Walsh and Dylan Frankland co-produced sophomore album Patina, which was recorded at Palace Sound, Holy Fuck‘s Baskitball 4 Life and Candle Recording is slated for a July 29, 2022 release through Kanine Records here in the States, Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada and Bella Union in the UK and EU. The album, which was understandably delayed as a result of the pandemic is simultaneously a labor of love and a bold step forward for the Canadian trio: Firmly rooted in their penchant in juxtaposing light and dark, the album continues to see the band drawing from Lush, Beach House and Cocteau Twins, but with a greater emphasis on shimmering guitars, earnest, lived-in songwriting — and a well-placed, razor sharp hook.

The album will feature, the previously released “No Dreams of Fayres,” an ironically upbeat single that sonically brought The Sundays‘ “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” while documenting Sarah Cogan’s struggles with depression — in particular, thee moments, when she was trying to work it out, but just couldn’t find the energy to do so.

“‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is a reflection of thoughts that I remember going through my mind when I stayed still in bed,” Tallies’ Sarah Cogan explains in press notes. “Feeling as though staying still in bed was the only thing that would help the sadness – basically, disconnecting myself from family, friends, and having a life. Finding the way out of depression was hard but possible. ‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is also about the realization of letting yourself feel real feelings but not mistaking them for emotions. I had to learn to get a grip of what I wanted out of life and go for it with no self-sabotage – which was music, as cliché as it sounds. It pulled me out of bed, physically and mentally.”

Patina‘s latest single “Special” continues a run remarkable run of deceptively upbeat shoegazer-inspired jangle pop featuring Cogan’s plaintive vocals, Frankland’s shimmering reverb-drenched guitar lines and O’Neill’s propulsive drumming paired with their unerring knack for razor sharp, anthemic hooks. But despite its breezy nature, the song is underpinned by a an aching and familiar yearning: “‘Special,’ as Sarah Cogan explains “is about longing to be seen and heard by those who matter to you most. Sometimes, feeling invisible is particularly painful when the indifference comes from someone whose opinion means a lot to you.”

Directed by Justis Krar at IMMV Productions, the accompanying video for “Special” features carefully edited stock footage from movies and home videos: The video begins with fingers and toes — dipping into water, or shampooed hair before following a troubled and bored couple, who have deeply unaddressed issues. You can read the pain and heartache in both of their faces, and it further emphasizes the themes at the heart of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Saint Kochi’s Cinematic and Trippy “Almost Lost”

Born in London to parents, who immigrated from India and Kenya, the rising British chamber pop/psych pop artist Saint Kochi has led an extraordinary and unusual life, that for a while got in the way of his real lifetime aim — to make music his entire life, not a part of it. But there was so much else that occupied his time: a flirtation with genuine stardom as a professional cricket player, parents who doubted hat anyone could survive with a career in the arts, and an unexpected career as a seller of massive ships.

Saint Kochi continued to push forward with his lifelong dream of making music, releasing last year’s self-titled debut EP. Slated for an August 10, 2022 release, the British chamber pop and psych pop artist’s Dom Ganderton co-produced sophomore EP Almost Lost is reportedly a bold step forward as he crafts gorgeous music that transports the listener to another place.

The EP’s first single, the cinematic EP title track “Almost Lost” prominently features a throbbing bass line, twinkling keys, glistening, reverb-drenched guitar lines and Saint Kochi’s plaintive vocals paired with a gorgeous, soaring string arrangement. Sonically, the result is a song that to my ears brings The Beatles, Scott Walker, The Verve, and JOVM mainstays POND to mind — but while possessing an enormous sound, the song is rooted in intimate and lived-in lyricism that’s personal yet universal.

While primarily recorded at Saint Kochi’s purpose-built basement studio, the string arrangement performed by the 14-piece string section was recorded at RAK Studios, where iconic albums like Radiohead‘s The Bends and a lengthy list of others was recorded. The string section fulfilled the rising British artist’s ambition of “making a record that had these big cinematic James Bond, Beatleseque type of strings on them.”

Directed by Sam Hiscox, the accompanying video for “Almost Lost” is as cinematic as the song while employing a rather simple concept: We follow Saint Kochi in a white linen suit wandering the desert, alone and seemingly lost.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ganser Shares Brooding and Menacing Visual for Tense, New Ripper, “People Watching”

Acclaimed Chicago-based post-punk outfit and JOVM mainstays Ganser — founding members Nadia Garofalo (vocals, keys) and Alicia Gaines (vocals, bass) along with Brian Cundiff (drums) and Charlie Landsman (guitar) — can trace their origins back to when its founding members met while attending art school. Bonding over a mutual love of The Residents, outsider communities and the work of John Waters, the duo developed a hands-on DIY craftsmanship that eventually carried into their band: Each member of the post punk outfit shares writing duties and they collaborate on every aspect of their creative work, including videos, album art, merch and the visuals which often accompany their live shows.

Ganser’s 2018 full-length debut Odd Talk received widespread praise nationally and across the blogosphere with some critics comparing their sound and approach to Sonic Youth and Magazine. Thematically, the album focused on communication breakdowns — namely, the difficulties of being understood, avoidance, intimacy and avoidance.

2020’s sophomore album, the critically applauded Just Look at That Sky found the members of Ganser thematically probing the futility of striving for self-growth during chorus — all while evoking an all to familiar manic worry and generalized sense of existential dread and doom. It’s an album that accurately captures our slow-burning, omnipresent hellscape.

Besides last year’s Look at That Sky Remixes EP, the Chicago-based JOVM have been busy working on new material — including their Angus Andrew co-produced, three-song Nothing You Do Matters EP. The EP’s first single, the woozy and expansive ripper “People Watching” begins with a slow-burning and atmospheric, bass-driven intro before quickly morphing into a feverish thrash featuring slashing guitar attack, relentless four-on-the-four and squiggling bursts of electronics paired with Garofalo’s seething, irony-drenched delivery.

Arguably the most tense and uneasy song of their growing catalog, “People Watching” captures the mad and desperate senselessness — of well, just about everything right now.

Directed by Alicia Gaines and Nadia Garofalo, the accompanying video for “People Watching” employs the same LED Volume virtual “green screen” technology that’s used in shows like The Mandalorian: We’re thrown in the middle of a wintry and desolate bit of farmland, where we see an extremely nervous and uncertain Gaines, Cundiff and Landsman with shovels trying to bury a body — a body that turns out to be, Garofalo. It’s menacing yet there’s a campus sense of humor to the proceedings.

Nothing You Do Matters EP is slated for an October 5, 2022 digital release and a December 2, 2022 vinyl release through Felte Records.