Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Medicine Singers Share Explosive and Joyous “Hawk Song”

Medicine Singers is an experimental 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 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 many cases, those shows saw the Algonquin powwow group bring powwow to audiences and places that had never heard of it before.

The collective’s highly-anticipated self-titled debut was released last yer 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 a full-fledged 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, a rising star in the world of improvised music, along with contributions from their co-producer and longtime collaborator Yonatan Gat. 

Through their live shows and their debut album, the collective creates a spellbinding, mystical musical experience that cycles through a kaleidoscopic array of sounds including psychedelic punk, electronic music, acid jazz, spiritual jazz and a list of others. But, the genre-blurring approach is firmly rooted in the intense, physical power of the power of the powwow drum — and the Eastern Medicine Singers’ deep connection to their ancestral music and connections. The end result is material that lovingly honors and celebrates 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.”

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two album singles:

“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.”

“Sunrise (Rumble)” which saw 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 self-titled album’s latest single, “Hawk Song” is a modern powwow favorite written by the collective’s Ray Two Hawks Watson, which seamlessly meshes the Eastern Algonquin tradition with psych rock: the thunderous drumming and harmonic chants of the drummers are paired with Yonatan Gat’s blazing guitar lines. The song is a explosive fireball of joy and thankfulness to the Creator — for both the big and small things: Mother Earth, the sky, the trees, rocks, water, life and perhaps just as important, for this very moment we have here together.

“The guitar turned it into a rock song,” Medicine Singers’ Daryl Black Eagle Jamieson says in press notes. “The two styles mesh together so well, it’s like a fireball taking off, and you can see it in the audience when we play it live.”

Directed by Roy and Gigi Ben Artzi, the accompanying video for “Hawk Song” features intimate, handheld camera shot footage of the collective performing “Hawk Song” in a small, New England-style church: The Eastern Medicine Singers in a circle around the powwow drum, chanting and playing the song’s forceful, propulsive rhythm. Gat and his backing band are just behind them wailing along with them.

The video captures the power and profundity of the collective’s live show — and of the album’s material.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Killer Mike Teams up with NO I.D., Young Thug and Dave Chappelle on Righteous “RUN”

Over the past decade Killer Mike has been rather busy: He’s one-half of acclaimed hip-hop duo Run The Jewels, which has released four critically applauded albums. He’s also become a highly regarded cultural commentator, who has had two of his own shows — Love and Respect on PBS/Revolt TV and Trigger Warning on Netflix, as well as regular appearances on Late Show with Stephen Colbert and Real Time with Bill Maher. His public comments in the wake of the Ferguson verdict and the police killing of George Floyd went viral. And as you may recall, he famously had a stint as a campaign surrogate for Bernie Sanders. Lastly, Killer Mike was the recipient of Billboard‘s inaugural 2020 Change Maker Award.

The NO I.D.-produced “RUN” is the acclaimed emcee and social commentator’s first bit of solo material in over a decade. Centered around a brooding and uneasy production featuring skittering snare and hit-hat, chopped up and reverb-drenched horn samples “RUN” sees one of this era’s greatest emcees spitting some righteous bars that actively reframes American history to include the entirety of Black history as an integral part of the country’s history — while being a visceral reminder that the struggle to make this place live up to its ideals has been constant, seemingly unending yet entirely necessary. The song also includes a guest verse from Young Thug.

Directed by Adrian Villagomez and featuring an introductory monologue from Dave Chappelle inspired by the song’s themes that compares the Black experience in America to storming the beach at Normandy, the accompanying, cinematic video for “RUN” portrays the just and righteous fight for freedom and equality in a visceral context: a collection of Black folks and allies righteously rising up and fighting tyrannical, neo-Nazi-like secessionists that want to take the country back 150 years.

Yes the video in many ways is a nightmarish repetition of our country’s ugly and violent past. But until we honestly confront our nation’s history, we will be doomed to endlessly repeat it.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Kwoon Shares Cinematic “King of Sea”

Kwoon is the musical project of a mysterious French musician, producer and composer, only known as Sandy. With his full-length debut, 2006’s Tales & Dreams, Sandy quickly established his project’s sound and aesthetic — a dreamy take on post-rock and prog rock, that seemed inspired by Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, and Pink Floyd. 

Sandy followed that up with two more albums — 2009’s When the flowers were singing and 2011’s The Guillotine Show, which was released through Fin de Siécle.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of last year, you may recall that Sandy released a series of live performances filmed in some mesmerizing locations including a cliff on the island of Lanzarote, the Tévennec Lighthouse, on the stormy Breton sea, where he performed an early version of his latest single “King of Sea,” and Quiberon Airport, in Quiberon, France for the slow-burning and shoegazey “Stratofear.”

Kwoon’s latest single “King of Sea” continues a run of slow-burning and gorgeously, cinematic material. Featuring an orchestral arrangement consisting of twinkling and looping piano, dramatic drumming and percussion, soaring backing vocals and textured layers of guitars drenched in delay and reverb pedal paired with Sandy’s David Gilmour-like vocals, “King of the Sea” sounds as though it could be drawing from The Wall-era Pink Floyd (think of “The Trial”) or A Momentary Lapse of Reason-era Pink Floyd.

Written while staying in the Tévennec Lighthouse in Finistere, France on the Breton Sea, the song is inspired by the lighthouse, which has a lengthy and terrifying reputation among sailors for strange and terrible phenomena that have happened around the site. In fact, many sailors have referred to the lighthouse and island as “the gateway to hell.”

Directed by Stéphane Berla, the hauntingly gorgeous, stop-motion animated visual for “King of the Sea” is set in Brittany in the 1800s and follows the life of a Breton sailor, who leaves his young family and drowns in the stormy sea. Once drowned, the man comes across strange, otherworldly phenomena.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Beirut’s Sandmoon Shares a Cinematic Visual for Slow-Burning and Shoegazey “Wake Up”

Beirut-based outfit Sandmoon — Sandra Arslanian (vocals, guitar), Sam Wehbi (guitar), George Flouty (bass) and Dan Shurki (drums) — have developed and honed a unique take on indie rock that draws from the Arslanian’s multicultural, international background: the Sandmoon frontperson is Armenian-Lebanese and was born in Beirut and spent her formative years in Belgium.

Throughout their growing catalog, which includes 2014’s full-length debut, Home, 2016’s #InTheEnd EP, 2018’s Put A Gun/Commotion EP and 2020’s Fadi Tabbal-produced sophomore album Put A Gun/Commotion, the members of the Beirut-based quartet have infused Western indie rock with subtle Middle Eastern intonations and melancholy and an unerring sense of melodicism.

Adding to a growing profile in Lebanon, the band wrote the soundtrack to Phillipe Aractingi’s 2016 film Listen, which received Best Soundtrack Award at 2017’s Lebanese Movie Awards.

Sandmoon’s Sandra Arslanian has also been very busy with a number of side projects including “Odyssée, Ode to the City” with poet Corinne Boulad, which has been selected in festivals in Beirut, Germany, Italy, Greece and California — and has won Best Spoken Word Poetry Award at the Monologues & Poetry International Film Festival.

Sandmoon’s highly-anticipated third album While We Watch the Horizon Sink is slated for release later this year. The album’s first single, the slow-burning and atmospheric “Wake Up” is centered around painterly and shoegazer-like textures: twinkling synth arpeggios, slashing, reverb-drenched guitars, Arslanian’s plaintive vocals, cinematic keys paired with a soaring hook. While the band describes the song as sounding “like a crossover of Radiohead and Laura Marling with an imperceptible Middle Eastern flavor,” the song sonically to my ears recalls shoegaze titans like Cocteau Twins and Slowdive.

The band explains that the song is “about looking beyond the surface, going to the essence of things.”

Directed by Selim Mourad, the accompanying video for “Wake Up” is shot in a gloriously cinematic black and white and captures small every day details — a woman and her child folding laundry on the terrace, clothes in the spin cycle of a washer before following what appears to be a religious cleansing ceremony, complete with women patiently whispering comforting things.

“I believe suffering stops when we open our eyes,” Mourad explains. “As most of us keep struggling, we can rest assured that we are nonetheless never unattended, never alone. Beautiful beings, often through their feminine energy, are patiently whispering the sweet words of remembrance in our ears.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: French Psych Pop Outfit Polycool Shares a Sultry New Bop

With the release of their full-length debut, 2091’s Lemon Lord, the up-and-coming French psych pop outfit Polycool quickly established a unique sound that drew from Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Air, Sebastian Tellier, Nick Hakim, Connan Moccasin and others. The band has received airplay on Radio Nova, FIP, France Inter, Les Inrocks and others.

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

The French psych pop outfit’s latest single, “Something Between Us” is a breezy and infectious bop centered around a strutting bass line, glistening synth arpeggios, Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar paired with a dance floor friendly hook and and a seductive falsetto delivery. The end result is a song that to my ears is a bit like the Bee Gees-meets-Tame Impala — or in other words a sinuous and sultry dance floor friendly come on to trip with that pretty young thing.

Fittingly, the accompanying video is a lysergic fever dream in which the members of the French outfit jam out in what looks like an enormous lava lamp.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: _telemaque_ Celebrates Life’s Simple Pleasures in New Single

Pierre Grech is a Toulon, France-based singer/songwriter, composer, producer and guitarist, who has long been influenced by folk, indie rock, hip hop, jazz, contemporary classical and electronica. Grech began writing songs as a child but he can trace the origins of his music career to the early 2000s: He was the frontman of experimental electronica act SLiDD — and around the same time, he co-wrote and arranged material on three Jen H. Ka albums. 

As a solo artist and bandleader, Grech has played shows across Paris and Southern France with re-arranged and re-imagined renditions of his material in several different iterations including electro rock, acoustic, cello-guitar duo, rock trio and more. But over the past few years, the French singer/songwriter, guitarist, composer, arranger and producer has been refining and honing his songwriting and compositional approach, as well as his guitar playing. The end result is Grech’s latest project _telemaque_,which finds the Toulon-based artist drawing from his long-held influences while crafting pop that’s energetic yet sensitive. 

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year or so, you may recall that Grech’s _telemaque_ debut June EP, which featured the gorgeous, OK Computer-era Radiohead-like June last year.

His full-length debut _telemaque_ album is forthcoming — and the album features “December Sun,” which Greech says is the most rock-leaning song on the album. Interestingly, “December Sun” saw the French artist refining his overall sound and approach: While still drawing from Radiohead, the song subtly nods at krautrock and folk

Gre h’s latest _telemaque_ single, is the breezy samba meets OK Computer/Kid A-era Radiohead-like “Your liquid smile.” Featuring guest spots from Kentaro Suzuki (bass) and Joakim Toftgaard (trombone), “Your liquid smile” is centered around a loose yet hypnotic groove featuring a supple bass line and skittering beats, a looping guitar-driven melody and a mournful, modal trumpet line, which gives the song a wistful, nostalgic air.

“It’s a song on the theme of simple joys, as its title does not quite indicate,” Greech explains. “This piece has the sole ambition to please. Like a good dish of spaghetti with tomato sauce. You will see it with your ears.”

The accompanying video is shot on grainy, security camera-like VHS tape and follows someone making a simple dish of spaghetti and tomato sauce, complete with ingredients and instructions. It’ll make you hungry — while reminding you of life’s simple pleasures: a good meal, a good pint or a glass of wine, dear friends, a lovely song and so on.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Dilettante Shares Bitter and Heartbroken Pop Anthem

Toronto-based indie outfit  Dilettante can trace their origins back to 2016: During the spring, mutual dog lovers Natalie Panacci and Julia Wittman started a band so their dogs could hang out more. Along with The Black Cats’ Zachary Stuckey; Said the Whale’s, Iskwe’s, The Recklaws’ and Scott Helman’s Bradley Connor; and Candice Ng, they started For Jane, a self-described dog rock pop band with a Kate Bush meets Sinead O’Connor sensibility that prominently featured Panacci’s and Wittman’s contrasting vocals and mesmerizing harmonies.

For Jane released their debut EP, 2018’s Married with Dogs, which featured “Car,” a track featured on CBC Music and The Edge. But by early 2021, For Jane announced a name change, largely influenced by a massive lineup change that left Panacci and Williams as its creative core, and a decided shift in sonic direction.

The duo’s Maks Milczarcyk produced-self-titled, full-length debut was released earlier this year, and the album featured “Bonnie,” an 80s New Wave inspired, synth-driven confection that to my ears sounded like a sultry take on  Til Tuesday‘s “Voices Carry” as it featured glistening synth arpeggios, wiry post-punk-like guitars fed through a bit of reverb and an angular bass line paired with the duo’s plaintive and mesmerizing vocals.

The self-titled albums latest single, the Maks Milczarcyk written “Monster” is a gauzy synth bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, relentless four-on-the-floor, burst of angular guitars, and an achingly bitter and heartache-fueled vocal delivery paired with a rousingly anthemic hook and chorus — before ending with a strummed acoustic guitar-driven coda.

While sonically bringing A Flock of Seagulls and others to mind, at its core, the song’s narrator delivers a bitter and heartbroken tell-off to an ex, she would like to forget. Rooted in a deeply personal experience, the song is simultaneously profoundly universal — to the point that I know many of us have been in the same situation and would be singing along with bitter tears streaking down our faces.

Shot by Video Business, the accompanying video follows one-half of the Canadian duo as she runs down a suburban street while singing the song past empty parking lots and a mall, where she eventually meets up with her bandmate — and they walk off together, perhaps suggesting that healing is in your friends, loved ones and in music.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Warhaus’ Cinematic and Slow-Burning Ode to Denial and Heartbreak

Maarten Devoldere is a Belgian singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, known for being one-half of the songwriting and vocalist duo of critically applauded, indie rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Balthazar — and for his equally acclaimed solo project, Warhaus.

With Warhaus, Devoldere cemented a reputation for crafting urbane, literature and decadent art rock with an accessible, pop-leaning sensibility: Devoldere’s Warhaus debut, 2016’s We Fucked A Flame Into Being derived its title from a line in DH Lawrence’s seminal, erotic novel Lady Chatterley’s Lover. And naturally, the material on the album thematically focused on lust, desire, the inscrutability of random encounters, bittersweet and aching regret with the deeply personal, confessional nature of someone baring their soul.

Interestingly, the material on Devoldere’s sophomore Warhaus album 2017’s self-titled album saw the acclaimed Belgian artist moving away from decadence, lust and sin towards sincere, honest, hard-fought and even harder-won love with some of the songs being influenced by Devoldere’s relationship with vocalist Sylvie Kreusch. The recording sessions for the album was a much more spontaneously affair, heavily influenced by Dr. John‘s Night Tripper period: Throughout the album, there are nods to voodoo rhythms and New Orleans jazz despite the fact that his backing band wasn’t technically known for being jazz musicians.

The slow-burning “Open Window” is the first bit of new Warhaus material since 2017’s self-titled album. Centered around Devoldere’s brooding baritone, strummed acoustic guitar, a Quiet Storm-like groove, twinkling piano and a gorgeous, cinematic string arrangement, “Open Window” is the sort of song meant to gently sway along to with eyes closed, drifting off into your own nostalgic dreams — or perhaps delusions.

In fact, the song is rooted in delusion — in particular, the delusion that the breakup isn’t permanent, that she (or he) will return soon enough. But it’s all just vapor and denial.

“Open Window is about keeping reality at bay in that comfortable bubble of denial. Definitely my favourite stage of heartbreak,” Delvodere explains.

Directed by Pieter De Cnudde, the accompanying video for “Open Window” follows Devoldere as he eats steamed mussels alone at a table for two. About half way into the video, we see what appears to be Devoldere’s possessions being tossed out into a window and smashing to the ground behind him. All of this occurs in a surreal, dream-like slow motion.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Emerging French Act Curseurs Share a Sun-Dappled Visual for Slow-Burning “Bolide”

Emerging French trio Cursuers formed earlier this year. Influenced by Vansire, Men I Trust and L’Imperatice, the members of the emerging French trio specialize in an ethereal and romantic, synth pop that thematically touches upon the nostalgia of adolescence and the crossroads of adulthood with a swooning Romanticism.

Their debut single, the ethereal and slow-burning “Bolide” sees the trio pairing glistening synth arpeggios, a sinuous bass line, skittering boom bap-like drumming with plaintive vocals and a soaring hook. While sonically recalling JOVM mainstays ACES, Washed Out, Brothertiger and Summer Heart, “Bolide” is a summery bop full of aching nostalgia for a time — or for things — that you can’t possibly get back.

Directed by Rayane Mghezzi, the accompanying video was shot in and around the gorgeous French coast and follows the band hanging out and goofing off on a sun-dappled afternoon.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Besnard Lakes’ Sheenah Ko Shares a Dance Floor Friendly Anthem

Montreal-based singer/songwriter and synth pop artist Sheenah Ko may be best known for being a core member of acclaimed Montreal-based shoegazer outfit Besnard Lakes. Interestingly, as a solo artist Ko has gained a reputation for being a fearless musical warrior, who marches to the beat of her own drum.

Ko’s recently released nine-song, sophomore album Future Is Now was written to encourage listeners to broaden their horizons, break the cycle, effect change and to live life to the fullest. Future Is Now‘s latest single “Wake Up” is a glittery dance floor banger seemingly drawing from Ray of Light-era Madonna and 90s house music: Thumping beats are paired with Giorgio Moroder-like oscillating synths, wobbling bass synths, Ko’s sultry pop star delivery, relentless four-on-the-floor and infectious hook.

But while being a dance floor friendly banger, the song is rooted in a much-needed, positive message: the time to change the world is now! There’s no time to waste!

Produced by Ken Atwind and Martine Groulx, the accompanying video for “Wake Up” follows a collection of corporate worker bee types, who are bored and dissatisfied automatons at their boring jobs. They slowly begin to wake up and connect back to their more youthful, fun loving selves in an epic dance party in the snow and in a club. But more important, by connecting with their youthful selves, they have hopes and dreams of a better world.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Eldorado Shares a Breezy and Summery Bop

Eldorado (born Doriane Gamba) is an emerging and 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. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about Gamba’s Eldorado debut, the neon and heartache-tinge “3 in the morning.” Featuring Gamba’s achingly plaintive vocals, glistening, reverb-drenched guitars and atmospheric synths paired with a soaring hook, “3 in the morning” manages to recall JOVM mainstays St. Lucia and Washed Out, while drawing from a fairly universal experience: wanting to be with someone, who has no interest in you whatsoever.

The French singer/songwriter, musician and producer’s latest single “Another Day” is a breezy and infectious summertime bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, 80s pop and funk-inspired guitar lines, a sinuous bass line, thumping backbeats paired with Gamba’s easy-going yet self-assured delivery and her seemingly uncanny and unerring knack for infectious hooks.

Underneath the breezy and infectious nature of the song, is a bittersweet and familiar story of trying to move forward from heartbreak and not quite knowing how to go about it. And then you see your ex, who has clearly moved on when you haven’t. But throughout, there’s the tacit understanding that it’s a day-by-day process in which ghosts do linger from time to time.

Continuing an ongoing collaboration with Ambre Tholance, the accompanying video is a nostalgia-inducing dream of long summer days and nights at the beach or the lake. But it also captures Gamba’s playful yet earnest spirit in a way that’s endearing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Laufey Shares Cinematic and Dream-like Visual for “Fragile”

22 year-old Laufey Lin is a rapidly rising Reykjavik-born, Los Angeles-based, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, best known as Laufey. Born to a Chinese-born violinist mother and a Icelandic-born, jazz-loving father, Lin grew up immersed in both classical music and jazz — and unsurprisingly both genres are major influences on the rising artist and her work.

By the time Lin turned 15, she performed with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. But despite her deep and abiding love of the music that has served as her musical foundation, she yearned to express herself by creating music that seamlessly blended her classical and jazz background with much more modern and contemporary influences.

\While attending Berklee College of Music, Lin began collaborating with some of her peers and recorded her debut single “Street By Street,” a blend of jazz melodies with slow-burning R&B grooves. Making the best of the unexpected downtime as a result of the pandemic, Lin decided to release “Street By Street” through social media. The song, along with a collection of covers and originals quickly went viral. Eventually, “Street By Street” hit #1 on the Icelandic charts — and she began to amass a massive following that includes Billie Eilish, Willow Smith, dodie, and others.

Since then, the Icelandic-born, Los Angeles-based artist has been busy: Last year saw the release of her debut EP Typical of Me, which features the aforementioned “Street by Street,” “Best Friend” and “Like the Movies,” which she performed on Jimmy Kimmel Live! earlier this year.

Lin’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Everything I Know About Love is slated for an August 26, 2022 release through AWAL Recordings. The 12-song album will reportedly see Laufey effortlessly blending contemporary song structures and sensibilities with the classic and jazz stylings she learned as a violinist, pianist and guitarist. The end result is an album’s worth of material that translates the intimate feelings, thoughts and observations of a young, modern woman into grand, cinematic moments, seemingly inspired by both the jazz age and Hollywood’s golden age.

Everything I Know About Love‘s latest single “Fragile” features samba-inspired arrangement featuring strummed acoustic guitar and rhythms, twinkling piano paired with Lin’s gorgeous and expressive vocals. But much like Lin’s critically applauded work to date, “Fragile” manages to be deceptively old-timey: while indebted to jazz, the song’s swooningly heartsick narrator talks of falling for someone much older, and not knowing what to do or how to act — with the tacit fear of making a complete fool of yourself.

Directed by Erlendur Sveinsson, the accompanying cinematic video for “Fragile” was shot in some stunningly gorgeous and entrancingly dream-like locations including Iceland’s foggy, rocky shore and an ornate seaside home.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Thee Sacred Souls Share Slow-Burning and Sun-Dappled “Easier Said Than Done”

Rising San Diego-based soul act Thee Sacred Souls — founding members and multi-instrumentalists Alex Garcia and Sal Samano, along with Josh Lane (vocals) — can trace some of their origins back to simpatico that Garcia and Samano felt while cutting bedroom recorded demos of rhythm tracks that weaved elements of Chicano, Philly, Chicago, Detroit and even Panama soul, which the pair grew up listening to and loved.

When Garcia and Samano connected with Lane, the newly constituted trio quickly settled upon their sound: Lane’s tender falsetto ethereally floating over Garcia’s and Samano’s old-school, two-step inducing rhythms.

Their first live set caught the attention of bassist and Daptone Records co-founder and producer Gabriel Roth, who was so impressed by what he had seen that he invited the band to stop by his Riverside, CA-based studio, Penrose Recorders, where they started putting their first notes on tape. Back in 2020, Daptone Records imprint Penrose Records released the San Diego soul outfit’s debut single “Can I Call You Rose?”/”Weak For Your Love,” a single which caught attention across both the national and international soul scenes.

Building upon a growing profile, Thee Sacred Souls released “Give Us Justice,” a song written in response to George Floyd’s murder. “Give Us Justice,” caught the attention of multi-Grammy Award-nominated JOVM mainstay act The Black Pumas, who mentioned the song as their  “The song that will define 2020 for me” in Rolling Stone. Proceeds from the track were donated to organizations that promote and advocate for the freedoms, rights and well-being of Black people, beginning with the Movement for Black Lives.

Last year, the band released “It’s Our Love,” a slow-burning and swooning, old school-like ballad, featuring soaring organ chords, glistening guitar, shuffling rhythms paired with Lane’s achingly tender falsetto and an enormous hook. The song talks about love in sweetly old-school terms: the deep bond and affection between a romantic couple that’s in it for the long haul. Lucky and rare are those to find it.

Thee Sacred Souls will be releasing their highly-anticipated Gabriel Roth-produced self-titled, full-length debut through Daptone Records on August 26, 2022. The album reportedly sees the San Diego-based soul outfit proudly continuing in the tradition of beloved Daptone Records artists like Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley — both on album and live.

The self-titled album’s latest single, the slow-burning, sun dappled ballad, “Easier Said Than Done” will further cement the act’s growing reputation for effortlessly putting down tight grooves paired with glistening guitar licks, Lane’s achingly plaintive vocals and their unerring knack for infectious hooks. Lyrically, the song captures the fact that love is difficult and requires constant work — both individually and as a couple.

Directed and cinematically shot by Casey Liu, the accompanying video for “Easier Said Than Done” is equally sun dappled, as it follows the trio and their live band through some gorgeous Southern California scenery.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Javier Moreno and Los Amigos Perform “La Escalera” at Masterlink Studios

Javier Moreno is an emerging Barcelona-born and-based singer/songwriter and guitarist. Along with his backing band Los Amigos which features musicians from Spain, Cuba, Brazil and Peru, Moreno has spent the past 12 years touring extensively throughout London and the rest of the UK.

Although Moreno has returned to Barcelona to work on his forthcoming Joe Dworniak-produced third album, earlier this year, Moreno and his backing band recorded a live session at Masterlink Studios in Guildford, UK. The two song session features “Despedida” off last year’s Uno EP and “La Escalera” a shuffling groove-based cumbia that’s a feel good summer banger paired with an unfitting message.

The live footage of the band performing “La Escalera” was shot in a single take and captures their live energy and unbreakable simpatico.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Working Men’s Club Share a Hook-Driven Banger

Led by frontman Syd Minksy-Sargeant, the rising British outfit Working Men’s Club exploded into the national and international scene with the release of 2020’s self-titled, full-length debut. Featuring some songs written when Minsky-Sargeant was 16, the album saw the Working Men’s Club frontman processing a teenage life in Todmorden in England’s Upper Calder Valley. “The first album was mostly a personal documentation lyrically, this is a blur between personal and a third-person perspective of what was going on,” Minsky-Sargeant explains in press notes.

Working Men’s Club highly-anticipated Ross Orton-produced sophomore album Fear Fear is slated for a July 15, 2022 release through Heavenly Recordings. Featuring songs created in the shadow of terror and loss, the album bristles, crackles and pops with defiance while exploring juxtaposition: life and death, acceptance and isolation, hope and despair, environment and humanity, the real world and the digital world. And while Fear Fear reportedly documents the past two years with all its bleakness and uncertainty, the album’s material is rooted in hope and empathy. “I like the contrast of it being happy, uplifting music and really dark lyrics. It’s not a minimal record, certainly compared to the first one,” Minsky-Sargeant says. “That’s because there’s been a lot more going on that needed to be said.”

Fear Fear‘s latest single “Ploys” has received praise internationally from BrooklynVegan, Northern Transmissions, Vanyaland, NME and a lengthy list of others. And that’s not surprising. The song is a decidedly 80s New Order inspired banger, centered around a dense layered production featuring tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, glistening synth arpeggios, a relentless groove and Minsky-Sargeant’s irony-drenched vocals paired with an enormous hook.

But despite the retro sound and feel, the song is rooted in a deeply modern sense of disconnection, uncertainty, crippling insecurity and anxiety; the song essentially is the theme song to a Tinder/Hinge/OKCupid date gone terribly off to the point of not being salvageable.

The accompanying video follows a determined woman in the gym as she dead lifts. But it’s shot through a grainy and glitchy VHS-like fuzz and effects that find the weights being dropped in unison with the 808s of the song.