Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Emerging Artist Poppa Chi Shares Swaggering New Bop

Bryan Manazanres is an emerging Los Angeles-based Nicaraguan-American emcee, poet, photographer, director and entrepreneur, best known as Poppa Chi. His debut single, the Elijah Williams-produced “Me Dicen/The Say” pairs Manazanres’ features dense, rapid-fire Spanish and Spanglish flow over a sleek production that pairs shuffling Reggaeton and trap beats with a wobbling piano sample. The end result is a self-assured headbanger that’s simultaneously club and arena friendly.

Co-directed by Manazanres and Sayder Vision, the accompanying visual for “Me Dicen/They Say” follows the emerging Los Angeles-based artist as he drives around his town and in a number of different sets up — including a wall full of gold and silver records, a 90s Puff Daddy-like room and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Nashville’s Pauline Andrés Shares Sultry New Bop, “Speed Racer”

Nashville-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and sound engineer Pauline Andrés is a true global citizen: Andrés was born in Eastern Europe, spent her childhood in France — and as an adult, she spent a stint living in Berlin.

Initially known as an Americana artist, Andrés recently decided to shift gears and focus on her other favorite genre of music — electro pop. “Speed Racer,” Andrés latest single continues a run of slickly produced, lush, retro-futuristic bops centered around glistening and oscillating synths, a sinuous bass line paired with the Nashville-based artist’s smoky crooning. Underneath the slick production though is a careful and deliberate attention to craft, revealed through razor sharp hooks and playfully coquettish lyrics.

“I let the intro roll a measure more than your usual EDM template. I put my bridge before the second chorus. I kept those lines that made everything work together. Because that’s what’s allowing the song to be its true self,” Andrés says about the production choices behind her latest single. “I wanted to give it space…I didn’t make this song for any algorithm or radio. I made it for grown ups driving at night and needing the perfect soundtrack for their ride. I think that turned out pretty good.”

The accompanying official, lyric video was shot exclusively at night in Nashville, follows Andrés driving around town in a convertible. Fitting for a late night, drive sort of anthem ain’t it?

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tess Roby Returns with Ambient and Nostalgia-inducing “Path”

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written a bit about Montreal-based singer/songwriter and producer Tess Roby. Roby is a classically trained vocalist and self-taught synth player, who has developed and honed an exploratory sound and approach that blurs the lines between pop, ambient electronica and alternative folk with a decided emphasis on voice as its own instrument.

The Montreal-based artist’s sophomore album Ideas of Space is slated for an April 22, 2022 release through her own label SSURROUNDSS. The album reportedly sees Roby moving towards full artistic independence with the Montreal-based artist acting as songwriter, producer, musician, video director and art director throughout the entire creative process.

Ideas of Space features guest spots from BRAIDS‘ Austin Tufts, Joseph Shabason and Ouri, who contribute drums, woodwinds and cello respectively, adding intricate textures to material centered around fuller-bodied production and expansive song structures. The album’s songs shift effortlessly from jubilant highs to contemplative lows, evoking the concepts of duality, which run throughout the album’s material. 

So far I’ve written about two album singles:

  • The mesmerizing,  Kate Bush and Flourish//Perish era BRAIDS-like album title track “Ideas of Space,” which featured glistening and looping synth arpeggios, dramatic drumming and Roby’s achingly plaintive vocals. “‘Ideas of Space’ signals the beginning of a new chapter. This song is hypnotic and sinuous, and sonically possesses a certain power and urgency,” Roby says in press notes. “When I listen to it I imagine vast landscapes, a climb, a journey. Two distinct voices speak to each other; one lost, questioning, and the other guiding the way. I wanted to visually represent those voices and the journey I was on while making this album; one of self-discovery, hardship, adventure and in the end, confidence and strength.” 
  • The mediative “Up 2 Me,” which featured skittering beats programmed by BRAIDS’ Austin Tufts paired with glistening synth arpeggios and Roby’s plaintive vocals. “The making of this song was very meditative. It was the first song I wrote following a situation that had taken a toll on my mental health, and had kept me out of the studio for a long time,” Roby explains in press notes. “The first iteration came in the summer of 2020, and it rested as an instrumental demo for a while. When I was close to finishing the album, I searched through all my recordings to find a final track – this one stood out to me. I wrote the vocal melody and arranged the song, then brought the instrumental to Austin Tufts along with a beat and asked him to program and expand on the idea. At this point we had been working together for a while and he was totally immersed in my sonic universe and knew the mood I was after.”

“Path,” Ideas of Space‘s third and latest single features an atmospheric production centered around gentle layers of ambient and glistening synth arpeggios, skittering tribal house-like beats paired with layers of Roby’s plaintive vocals. Thematically, the song focuses on time — but through the prism of an older, wizened version of yourself speaking to a younger, more innocent version of yourself.

The accompanying visual features 16mm footage shot back in 2019 by Hugo Bernier before the song was even conceived. We see a slightly younger Roby dancing and swaying and running during golden hour — and during what now seems like a simpler, more carefree time.

“The 16mm footage in this video was shot in 2019 before ‘Path’ was written. Hugo & I sat with that footage for a while, at times forgetting about it completely, but always coming back to its beauty and simplicity,” Roby says in press notes. “I had the footage in the studio with me while I was writing and it ended up inspiring parts of the song. I had never worked in that way before; video footage influencing songwriting – it was an interesting process, reversing the way in which I usually work with video. So much has changed since that footage was shot. It was only natural to pair it with footage of me now, in this very moment, speaking to myself then: ‘you’re looking down, I’m reaching out, if only I could see it like you do.’”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Smile Returns with Cinematic “Pana-Vision”

The Smile features a highly accomplished collection of familiar names and faces — Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood (maybe you might have heard of them?), and Sons of Kemet‘s Tom Skinner. The Radiohead and Sons of Kemet side project has released three critically applauded singles this year “The Smoke,” “You Will Never Work in Television Again,” and “Skirting On The Surface,” a gorgeous, meditative slow-burn centered around Greenwood’s looping and shimmering guitar, stuttering jazz syncopation, a supple yet propulsive bass line, mournful saxophone and Yorke’s weary falsetto singing lyrics contemplating impermanence and mortality.

The Smile’s fourth single, “Pana-vision” is centered around a mesmerizing piano line, jazz syncopated drumming, a supple bass line and a gorgeous string arrangement paired with Yorke’s imitable falsetto singing the refrain “like a newborn child” throughout the song. While sonically bearing a bit of a resemblance to Amnesiac era Radiohead, “Pana-vision” possesses a remarkably sublime, cinematic quality.

The accompanying visual features Stanley Donwood‘s haunting artwork coming to life through Sabrina Nichols‘ gorgeous animation.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Agua Tinta’s Coquettish and Summery Bop “El Fuego”

Agua Tinta is an emerging Mexican singer/songwriter, who can trace the origins of her career back to 2015 when she wrote her first song on a piano. Tinta then went on to attend Berklee College of Music, where she studied Songwriting and Contemporary Writing and Production.

Since attending Berklee College, Tinta’s work sees her meshing Mexican folk music with contemporary pop paired with lyrics that draw from her own experiences and those of others.

The emerging Mexican artist’s latest single “El Fuego” is a breezy and summery love song about the push and pull of new love that pairs Tinta’s coquettish delivery with a production that meshes reggaeton and electro pop beats with mariachi horns. The end result is a song that to my ears recalls Selena and Daddy Yankee — with a decided pop accessibility.

The accompanying video for “El Fuego” follows Tinta as she hangs out with her girlfriends and has an adorable and flirtatious meet cute. The video manages to capture the sweetly coquettish nature of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mariaa Siga Shares a Surreal and Playful Visual for Infectious “Lagne Boote”

Mariaa Siga (born Mariama Siga Goudiaby) is a Senegalese singer/songwriter, who can trace the origins of her music career to winning a local talent show and catching the attention of acclaimed Senegalese act Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc’s frontperson mentored the young Goudiaby, helping her refine her style and further develop her musical skills. Shortly after that, Goudiaby landed a role in Mon Réve, a film which aired on RDV. 

As a musician, Goudiaby was long accustomed to the traditional rhythms of the Casamance region of Southern Senegal; but her curiosity led her to discover and experiment with Western styles including the blues and jazz, which she incorporates into her own work.

In 2016, she was one of the winners of the Festival des Vielles Pirogues‘ Tremplin competition. Building upon that momentum, she released two singles the following year, “Ya sama none” and “Asekaw.” Building upon a growing profile, the Senegalese artist performed in her native Casamance for the first time with a set at 2018’s Kayissen Festival. That same year, Yoro Ndiyae featured Goudiaby on his Sunu Folk compilation. She capped off a big 2018 with a French tour that November.

Goudiaby’s full-length debut released her full-length debut Asekaw (which translates as “woman” in her native Diola) back in 2019. That year, she won Baco Records‘ One Riddim Contest, which led to sets at Morocco’s Festival MarcoFoiles, France’s Midem Festival and to an invite to play Quebec’s Festival Mondial des Femmes d’Ici et d’Ailleurs. 

“Lagne Boote,” which in Goudiaby’s native Diola translates to “back to basics” was recorded at Vagh and Weinmann Studio in Salernes, France — with the support of the African Culture Fund. The breezy and infectious “Lagne Boote” is centered around shimmering and looping acoustic guitar, shuffling African polyrhythm and Goudaiby’s gorgeous, expressive vocals subtly hints at sounds across the African Diaspora, including Afropop, soca, roots reggae and others. But at its core is a powerful message to listeners imploring them to never forget their roots. “When you get lost and don’t know where you’re going, go back to your sources,” Goudiaby explains.

Directed by IMAGEMOTION, the accompanying video for “Lagne Boote” follows the radiant Goudiaby as she walks barefoot through the forest, following an unspooled line of yarn, and encountering surreal sights including a contortionist, a fire eater, a psychic with a crystal ball, an elaborate costumed dinner party and so on.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Phebe Starr Shares Trippy Visual for “My Magic Moon”

Aussie indie pop singer/songwriter Phebe Starr first emerged onto the Australian scene with her breakthrough 2013 single “Alone With You,” a track that grabbed the attention of the national music industry and received heavy rotation on Triple J. Since then, Starr has been extremely busy: her work has appeared on Spotify editorial playlists globally including New Music Friday, Fresh Finds, Young and Free, Indie Arrivals, Indie Pop, Women of Pop and thousands of fan generated playlists, which has resulted in millions of streams. Her work has appeared in ad campaigns for Sony, Samsung Galaxy — and in HBO’s Ballers.

https://youtu.be/ws1xKHhrzpM

Starr has written songs for some of the world’s biggest and most beloved artists and bands. And adding to a growing profile, she has shared stages wqiuth Of Monsters + Men, Cub Sport, and The Paper Kites and a growing list of others.

The Aussie pop artist’s full-length debut, Heavy Metal Flower Petal was released earlier this week. The album reveals an artist, who has become more in touch with self than ever before. Arguably, some of her most liberating and honest work to date, the album’s material was written in the wake of divorcing a man she married as a 21-year-old. Featuring guest spots from Cloud Control‘s and VLOSSOM‘s Alister Wright, Xavier Dunn, and Japanese Wallpaper, the album sees Starr peeling back the layers and exploring new territory and depths within her, showing a contrast between the toughness (the “heavy metal”) and the softness (the “flower petal) that exists within her life. 

“The whole album is about my process of letting myself feel things that I was afraid to,” she says. “It’s about letting myself be tender and vulnerable, learning how to incorporate the feminine into my narrative,” Starr explains. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about album “Everything,” a slinky  Stevie Nicks and Still Corners-like slinky bop centered around a a sinuous bass line, Starr’s sultry and plaintive vocals, finger snaps, strummed acoustic guitar and a soaring hook. While revealing an unerring knack for craftsmanship — and a great hook — the song sees the Aussie pop artist examining the ways in which the quest and desire for love can often lead us to strange and unfamiliar places.

“My Magic Moon,” Heavy Metal Flower Petal‘s continues a run of slinky and glittery, hook-driven bops — but while arguably being the most disco friendly and upbeat track on the album, thanks to a punchily propulsive bass line and relentless four-on-the-floor paired with Starr’s sultry delivery.

“I was so sick of writing heartache songs. I wanted to write a song about how I wanted to feel and how future me would feel, but I didn’t have a muse,” Starr explains in press notes. “I looked outside the window and I always felt like the moon looked like it had it figured out, so as one does looking up to the moon pining for vibes, I found my muse…My Magic Moon.”

The accompanying, trippy, black and white video sees Starr performing the song with some self-playing instruments and getting down with her beau, Lizard Man in outer space while she fantasizes about her lunar muse.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: JOVM Mainstays Amyl and The Sniffers Perform “Maggot” at Williamstown, Australia

Acclaimed Melbourne-based punk act and JOVM mainstays Amyl and The Sniffers — Amy Taylor (vocals), Gus Romer (bass), Bryce Wilson (drums) and Declan Martens (guitar) — formed back in 2016, and shortly after their formation, they wrote and self-recorded their debut EP Giddy Up. The following year, saw the release of the Big Attractions EP, which was packaged as a double 12 inch EP with Giddy Up released through Homeless Records in Australia and Damaged Goods in the UK.

The Aussie punk quartet exploded into the international scene with a set at The Great Escape Festival, a series of sold out London area shows and a Stateside tour opening for JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard. They added to a busy year with a headlining tours across both the UK and US before signing to King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Flightless Records for distribution across Australia and New Zealand and Rough Trade for the rest of the world. The year was capped off with a Q Awards nomination for Best New Act and won the $30,000 Levis Prize.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Aussie punk quartet took 2019’s SXSW by storm. And then the band promptly released their self-tiled, full-length debut to critical applause globally while further cementing a feral and anarchic take on ’77 era punk. Adding to a breakthrough year, Amyl and the Sniffers won an ARIA Award for Best Rock Album. 

Comfort To Me, the Aussie punk quartet’s Don Luscombe-co-produced sophomore album was released last year through ATO Records.  Written during a long year of pandemic quarantining, in which the members of the band lived in the same house, the album’s material sonically draws from a heavier set of references and influences including AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, Mötorhead,  Wendy O. Williams, Warthog, Power Trip, Coloured Balls and Cosmic Psychos. Taylor’s lyrics and delivery were also inspired by her longtime love of hip-hop and garage rock. 

“All four of us spent most of 2020 enclosed by pandemic authority in a 3-bedroom rental in our home city of Melbourne, Australia. We’re like a family: we love each other and feel nothing at the same time,” Amyl and the Sniffers’ Amy Taylor says in a lengthy statement on the album. “We had just come off two years of touring, being stuck in a van together eight hours a day, and then we’re trapped together for months in this house with sick green walls. It sucked but it was also nice. We spent heaps of time in the backyard listening to music, thrashing around in shorts, eating hot chips. The boys had a hard time being away from the pub and their mates, but it meant we had a lot of time to work on this record. Most of the songs were really intuitive. Main thing, we just wanted it to be us. In the small windows we had in between lockdowns, we went to our rehearsal space, which is a storage locker down the road at National Storage Northcote. We punched all the songs into shape at Nasho and for the first time ever we wrote more songs than we needed. We had the luxury of cutting out the songs that were shit and focusing on the ones we loved. 

“We were all better musicians, as well, because that’s what happens when you go on tour for two years, you get really good at playing. We were a better band and we had heaps of songs, so we were just different. The nihilistic, live in the moment, positivity and panel beater rock-meets-shed show punk was still there, but it was better. The whole thing was less spontaneous and more darkly considered. The lyrics I wrote for the album are better too, I think. The amount of time and thought I put into the lyrics for this album is completely different from the EPs, and even the first record. Half of the lyrics were written during the Australian Bushfire season, when we were already wearing masks to protect ourselves from the smoke in the air. And then when the pandemic hit, our options were the same as everyone: go find a day job and work in intense conditions or sit at home and drown in introspection. I fell into the latter category. I had all this energy inside of me and nowhere to put it, because I couldn’t perform, and it had a hectic effect on my brain. 

“My brain evolved and warped and my way of thinking about the world completely changed. Having to deal with a lot of authority during 2020 and realising my lack of power made me feel both more self destructive and more self disciplined, more nihilistic and more depressed and more resentful, which ultimately fuelled me with a kind of relentless motivation. I became a temporary monster. I partied more, but I also exercised heaps, read books and ate veggies. I was like an egg going into boiling water when this started, gooey and weak but with a hard surface. I came out even harder. I’m still soft on the inside, but in a different way. All of this time, I was working on the lyrics. I pushed myself heaps and heaps, because there were things that I needed to say. The lyrics draw a lot from rap phrasing, because that’s what I’m into. I just wanted to be a weird bitch and celebrate how weird life and humans are. 

“The whole thing is a fight between by my desire to evolve and the fact that somehow I always end up sounding like a dumb cunt. So anyway, that’s where this album comes from. People will use other bands as a sonic reference to make it more digestible and journalists will make it seem more pretentious and considered than it really is, but in the end this album is just us — raw self expression, defiant energy, unapologetic vulnerability. It was written by four self-taught musicians who are all just trying to get by and have a good time. 

“If you have to explain what this record is like, I reckon it’s like watching an episode of The Nanny but the setting is an Australian car show and the Nanny cares about social issues and she’s read a couple of books, and Mr. Sheffield is drinking beer in the sun. It’s a Mitsubishi Lancer going slightly over the speed limit in a school zone. It’s realising how good it is to wear track pants in bed. It’s having someone who wants to cook you dinner when you’re really shattered. It’s me shadow-boxing on stage, covered in sweat, instead of sitting quietly in the corner.”

In the lead up to the album’s release, I managed to write about three of the album’s released singles: 

  • “Guided by Angels,” a riotous, mosh pit friendly ripper centered around Taylor’s frenetic energy and punchily delivered vocals, buzzing power chords and a pub friendly, shout along with a raised beer in your hand hook. But underneath all of that, “Guided by Angels” is fueled by a defiant and unapologetic vulnerability and a rare, unshakeable faith in possibility and overall goodness; that there actually are good angels right over your shoulder to guide you and sustain you when you need them the most. 
  • “Security,” a Highway to Hell-era AC/DC-like anthem full of swaggering braggadocio, boozy power chords, thunderous drumming, shout along worthy hooks and Taylor’s feral delivery. Much like its immediate predecessor, the song is fueled by its narrator boldly and unapologetically declaring that they need and are looking for love — right now! “
  • “Hertz,” an AC/DC-ike ripper fueled by the frenetic energy of the bored, lonely and trapped within their heads and those desperately desiring something — hell, anything — different than the four walls that they’ve gotten sick of. Interestingly, “Hertz” captures a feeling that I’ve personally struggled with during the pandemic, and I’m sure you have too. And it does so with a urgency and vulnerability that’s devastating. 

Since its release last year Comfort to Me has been a commercial and critical success: The album hit #1 on Billboard‘s Alternative New Albums Chart, #2 on both the Heatseekers and Top New Artist Albums Charts, #4 on the Independent Albums Chart, #7 on the Rock Albums Chart, #9 on the Alternative Albums Chart and it landed on the Top 20 on the Albums Sales Chart. In the UK, the album was named BBC 6 Music‘s Album of the Day, and chartered at #21 on the UK charts. And in the band’s native Australia, the album was named Triple J’s Featured Albums of the Week while charting at #2. 

Just ahead of the band’s almost extensive and entirely sold-out Stateside tour, which includes stops at Coachella and Shaky Knees, the Aussie JOVM mainstays announced a deluxe, expanded edition of Comfort To Me. (As always, tour dates, which includes a May 19, 2022 stop at Brooklyn Steel are below. And you can get the small handful of remaining tickets here: https://www.amylandthesniffers.com/shows)

Slated for a vinyl release on May 13, 2022, Comfort To Me (Expanded Edition) will be a double LP that features the original full-length album and a bonus live LP recorded on a dock outside of Melbourne, a fold-out poster and new artwork by graphic designer Bráulio Amado.

Amyl and The Sniffers are giving Stateside fans a sneak peek of their live show with a live version of Comfort To Me album single “Maggot,” shot on a dock outside of Melbourne. Much like the rest of the album’s previously singles “Maggot” is an infectious and winning mix of mosh pit-friendly fury and aching, unabashed vulnerability.

As for the live footage, it’s a peak into their must-see live show: Taylor is an explosive, nuclear bomb of energy and unbridled passion and the band is ferocious and forceful.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Weird Nightmare Returns with the Feel Good Power Pop Anthem “Lusitania”

Alex Edkins has developed and honed a reputation for being a master craftsman of sweaty, mosh pit friendly rippers as the frontman of Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ.  Interestingly, Edkins’ new side project Weird Nightmare sees the METZ frontman showcasing […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slow Crush Shares Woozy and Stormy “Blue”

Belgian shoegazer outfit Slow Crush — currently Isa Holliday (vocals, bass), Jelle Harde Ronsmans (guitar), Jeroen Jullet (guitar) and Frederik Meeuwis (drums) — exploded into the international shoegaze scene with the release their full-length debut, 2018’s Aurora. Between 2018 and 2020, Slow Crush supported the album with nonstop, relentless touring across the world with acts like Pelican, Torche, Soft Kill, and Gouge Away — and with festival stops at Roadburn, ArcTanGent, 2000Trees and Groezrock.

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the members of the Belgian shoegazer outfit was forced to cancel plans for two European tours and a Stateside tour at the last minute. But interestingly enough for the band, the pandemic was a bit of a curse and a bit of a blessing: The time off from touring allowed the band a period of time to re-think and re-group. Aurora‘s unexpected success and the demands of heavy touring had taken a toll on everyone’s personal lives. This was intensified with a massive lineup change, which saw two members leave. Eventually Holliday and Ronsmans recruited the band’s newest members Julioet and Meuwis to complete the band’s second lineup. And adding to a stormy period of change and uncertainty, the band’s label Holy Roar Records collapsed, leaving the band without a home. 

Slow Crush’s sophomore album Hush was released earlier this year through Quiet Panic. Written in between tours and the unexpected downtime during pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, the album’s material is heavily influenced by turbulent times — both personal and global. While further cementing their sound, featuring abrasive and whirling layers of guitars and thunderous drumming paired with Holliday’s ethereal vocals, Hush sees then and growing as musicians and songwriters. While the album was informed by and inspired by our dark and heavy times, the material isn’t completely bleak either; rather, it’s filled with the hope for a bright, new day somewhere over the horizon.

In the lead up to the album’s release, I’ve written about three of Hush‘s released singles: 

  • Brooding album title track “Hush,” which was centered around an expansive song structure with towering layers of feedback and fuzz pedaled guitars, thunderous drumming and Holiday’s sensual yet ethereal cooing. And at its core, the song expresses an aching and unreciprocated longing. 
  • “Swoon,” a breakneck ripper with mosh pit friendly hooks that brought Finelines era My Vitriol and Lightfoils to mind but paired with introspective and impressionistic lyrics. The song can be read in a number of different ways: it could be read as touching upon the loneliness, uncertainty and longing that comes about as a result of a seemingly bitter breakup. But it can also be read as a desire to escape a bleak world through connecting with someone equally as lonely as you are. 
  • “Lull,” a lush and painterly textured synthesis of A Storm in Heaven, Slowdive and My Bloody Valentine featuring lyrics that expressed a profound and bitter ache.

Hush‘s fourth and latest single, the woozy “Blue” continues a run of stormy and textured shoegaze, centered around thunderous drumming, layers of pedal distorted power chords and enormous hooks paired with Holiday’s ethereal and achingly plaintive vocals. Much like its predecessors, “Blue” captures the complicated and contradictory feelings of a dysfunctional, tortured relationship — and in a way that feels lived-in.

The accompanying video by Vince Van Hoorick was filmed at Ancienne Belgique and featuring intimately shoots footage of the band performing the song in front of strobe lights.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pink Mountaintops Cover Black Flag

Founded by British Columbia-born singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Black Mountain frontman Stephen McBean in 2004, Pink Mountaintops has always supplied him an outlet for his more arcane fascinations and obsessions.

The 12-song Peacock Pools, the first batch of new material from Pink Mountaintops in over eight years, is sparked from his self-described magpie-like curiosity for a diverse and wild array of pop culture: the sci-fi boy horror of David Cronenberg, Disney Read-Along Records from the 1970s, early Pink Floyd, mid-career Gary Numan, John Carpenter movies, Ornette Coleman live videos, a 1991 essay on the cult of bodybuilding by postmodern feminist writer and thinker Camille Paglia, and more.

Featuring contributions from Redd Kross‘ Steven McDonald, Melvins‘ Dale Crover recorded live in the studio, the Peacock Pools‘ material took shape from a bath of songs McBean first pieced together during the pandemic’s early days: “I’d moved into this cool little ’50s rancher house outside L.A. and was just mucking about in my bedroom studio, and pretty soon I started reaching out to some friends who were also shacked up and craving broadband sonic collaboration,” Black Mountain and Pink Mountaintops’ Stephen McBean recalls.

Over the next few months, McBean began working remotely with an All-Star lineup of indie rock, psych rock and garage rock players that included Destroyer and Black Mountains’ Joshua Wells (drums, piano); Feels and Death Valley Girls‘ Leana Myers-Ionita (violin, vocals); Ryley Walker and Steve Gunn‘s Ryan Jewell (drums); Ty Segall‘s and Emily Rose & The Rounders’ Emily Rose Epstein (vocals); and Black Mountain’s and Sinoia Caves‘ Jeremey Schmidt (keys).

Produced by McBean and mixed in Vancouver by Dave “Rave” Oglivie, Pink Mountaintops‘ fifth album may arguably be the most eclectic, strangest and unpredictable batch of songs to date.

Peacock Pools‘ second and latest single sees McBean and company crafting a piano-laced and bluesy, garage psych take on Black Flag‘s pent-up and wiry “Nervous Breakdown” that unspools with a cool, surfer dude on shrooms-like insouciance.

“Steven McDonald used to always play a disco version of that bassline to annoy [Black Flag co-founder] Keith Morris when they were sound-checking for OFF!, and it ended up fitting perfectly with the demo I’d made,” McBean reveals, referring to McDonald and Morris’s hardcore supergroup. Speaking of Morris, he emphatically approves of the Pink Mountaintops cover, sharing the following: “Great job taking a song that’s been beaten to death by numerous punker dunkers and turning it into your own song! BRAVO!!!!”

McBean created a mischievous accompanying visual for “Nervous Breakdown” that features found footage and appearances from McBean, Red Kross’ Steven McDonald, Feels and Death Valley Girls’ Leana Myers-Ionita, Destroyer and Black Mountain’s Joshua Wells and Ryley Walker’s and Steve Gunn’s Ryan Jewell rocking out in their respective homes.

Peacock Pools is slated for a May 6, 2022 release through ATO Records and Cadence Music Group.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bohemian Cristal Instrument Teams Up with Drum & Lace on Atmospheric “Evapora”

Splitting her time between Los Angeles and the Czech Republic, the Czech-born singer/songwriter, producer and musician Lenka Moravkoa is the creative mastermind behind the indie electro pop project My Name Is Ann. Moravkova is also the creative mastermind behind the rising, solo, experimental pop project Bohemian Cristal Instrument.

The Czech-born artist hails from the Bohemia region of the Czech Republic, a region famed for its glass industry. Inspired by the region’s history, Moráková created several striking multimedia installations based on the sound of local glass factories during their decline. Those installations also helped inspire and inform the Czech-born artist’s Bohemian Cristal Instrument project — and the unique instrument at the center of the project.

In the early 1950s, siblings Bernard and François Baschet developed a new instrument, the Cristal Baschet. With a Cristal Bachet, metal rods are embedded into a heavy plate to form the elements. Each metal rod is accompanied by an attached glass rod. The metal rod’s length, weight and position at the equilibrium point help to determine the sound’s pitch. The player gently strokes and/or rubs the glass rods with wet fingertips.

Moravkova’s Bohemian Cristal Instrument is a unique version of the Baschet’s Cristal Baschet that follows the Czech-born artist’s original design. With her unique instrument, the Czech-born artist creates immersive and hypnotic soundscapes that pair the otherworldly acoustics of the Bohemian Cristal Instrument with ambient and pulsating electronics and her vocals.

2017-2019 was a busy, breakthrough period for the Czech-born artist: In 2017 she went on her first European tour, which included a one-off collaboration with William Close and The Earth Harp Collective as a headliner at that year’s Colours of Ostrava. She performed at a TEDx Talk and with Grammy-nominated artist Bora Yoon at Los Angeles’ The Broad Museum. Live footage of Moráková in the California desert went viral, amassing over two million views.

UNICODE EP, Maravkova’s Bohemian Cristal Instrument debut was released in 2018. The following year, she performed at Eurosonic Nooderslag. She was shortlisted for SXSW in 2020 and this year. And adding to a growing profile, she has performed at Summit LA.

Maravkova’s latest Bohemian Cristal Instrument single “Evapora” is a cinematic collaboration with Sofia degli Alessandri-Hultquist, an Italian-born composer, sound artist and performer, who writes compositions for film and media, best known as Drum & Lace. Centered around glistening and ambient synth pulses, the theremin-like Bohemian Cristal Instrument and Maravkova’s processed yet ethereal vocals, “Evapora” is a slow-burning fever dream that feels as though it evokes water slowly evaporating away.

Accompanying the song is a gorgeous and cinematically shot live footage of Maravkova performing the song in the snow covered mountains of her native Czech Republic.

Moravkova and her Bohemian Cristal Instrument will be playing at this year’s Lighting in a Bottle Festival. The lineup is actually pretty bonkers — and her set will be on May 26, 2022.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: WORLD GOVERNMENT Shares Contemplative “Rain, Drops”

WORLD GOVERNMENT is a mysterious post rock outfit that formed back in 2007. After several releases and numerous live shows, the members of WORLD GOVERNMENT focused on a writing and recording a full-length album.

While working on their full-length debut, they fell into the trap of perfectionism and the band wound up secluding themselves for a period of several years. However, that period did result in new material — including the slow-burning and meditative composition “Rain, drops.” Centered around glistening guitars and a sinuous bass line, brief bursts of clink and clatter and wobbling electronics “Rain, drops” manages to evoke rainy Spring afternoons — to the point that you can almost hear the drops hitting hitting the windows or your windshield . . .

The accompanying video wasn’t planned — but it manages to evoke the meditative mood of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Jenny Stevens and the Empty Mirrors Share Brooding Trip Hop-like “Beneath Smooth Waters”

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. 

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site you may recall that she began the year with “No, I Wouldn’t Call It Love,” a bit more uptempo song that expresses nostalgia and aching longing. Her latest single “Beneath Smooth Waters” is a slow-burning and brooding track that sees the project adopting a 90s trip hop sound: glistening, reverb-drenched synth arpeggios, sinuous bass lines paired with Stevens’ achingly plaintive vocals. According to Stevens, Bjork’s “Play Dead” and several other tracks were a major inspiration on the song — but to my ears, I’m reminded of Dummy era Portishead.

Stevens goes on to explain that the song is “also a literal siren song — don’t go too near the water’s edge . . . “

The trippy accompanying visual features a beautiful siren calling a random pedestrian closer to the water’s edge.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Calgary’s Sunglaciers Share Brooding and Uneasy “Best Years”

Calgary-based post-punk outfit Sunglaciers can trace its origins back to 2017 as a caollaboration between its founding — and core — members: multi-instrumentalist Matthieu Blanchard and lead vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Evan Resnik. When they started the project, Blanchard had completed his studies in medicine, working in family medicine and addiction and Resnik had returned from a trip hitchhiking through France.

Since the project’s formation, the Calgary-based act has released a couple of EPs and their full-length debut, 2019’s Foreign Bodies. Foreign Bodies saw the Canadian post-punk outfit saw them crafting a maximalist approach that saw them blurring the lines between dazzling indie rock melodicism and icy, post-punk experimentation.

During that same period, the duo have seen a steadily rising profile: They’ve shared stages with the likes of JOVM mainstays Preoccupations, Omni and Daniel Romano while topping the charts of college radio stations across Western Canada.

When the pandemic put their touring plans on a then-indefinite pause, the band quickly shifted their focus to writing material, dedicating 40-plus hour weeks to music during the early months of 2020. Those writing sessions wound up becoming their sophomore album Subterranea, which Montreal-based purveyors of all things psych and trippy, Mothland released today.

Continuing an ongoing collaboration with Chad VanGaalen, who co-produced the album, Subterranea  sees the band eschewing the maximalist approach of their previous releases and crafting material with a decided laser focus. The end result is a frenetic, breakneck album of material that never overstays its welcome. “We tried to write vertically instead of horizontally,” Sunglaciers’ Matthieu Blanchard explains. “Our last album Foreign Bodies and the EPs that came before it had lots of long songs with different parts drifting back and forth. For this album, we decided to strip our songs down to two or three minutes with only a few ideas in each of them.”

“The bulk of this album came together during the pandemic and the changing of gears that we had to do,” Sunglaciers’ Evan Resnik says. “I was out of work and Mathieu was working half as much as usual, so we had lots of time on our hands. We flipped a switch and started playing music everyday. It’s a good indicator of how we were writing at the time while we wrapped our heads around some new gear and saw what came out of it. Essentially, we took all of our favourite musical tendencies and put them together. We were listening to a lot of McCartney II at the time and loved how eclectic it was, which led to us mirroring that vibe.”

With an extended timeframe to write and record, the album, which was recorded at Bruce Crews’ voiceover studio On Air Studios allowed Blanchard and Blanchard the opportunity to learn engineering skills and for the opportunity to experiment with swapping the instruments that each member typically played, a strategy that was employed during the writing and recording of Portishead‘s Third and David Bowie‘s “Boys Keep Swinging.”

The album also features contributions from the aforementioned Chad VanGaalen, Hermitess‘ Jennifer Crighton and Roman66′s Louis Cza The Black Greek God. The end result may arguably be Sunglaciers most urgent and cohesive batch of material, an effort that draws from the likes of Deerhunter, Total Control, and BEAK> among others.

In the lead up to the album’s release today, I wrote about two of Subterranea‘s singles:

  • “Avoidance,” a woozy and uneasy ripper full of guilt and recriminations delivered with a breakneck freneticism centered around a persistent synth-driven groove. And while sounding a bit like Plague Vendor and Atsuko Chiba, “Avoidance” lyrically touches upon themes of alienation, abandonment and guilt in a way that should feel familiar to most of us during this unusual moment of our lives. 
  • “Out of My Skull,” another breakneck track full of foreboding, uneasy menace centered around hypnotic, glistening synth arpeggios, a sinuous bass line and propulsive drumming paired with Resnik’s anxious delivery. And as a result, the song evokes a frustrated, restless boredom — and it should feel familiar for most of us, stuck at home with nothing to do, nowhere to really go and no one to see. 

“Best Years,” Subterranea‘s latest single features a guest spot from the aforementioned Chad VanGaalen and may be the dreamiest, most Wolf Parade-like song on the entire album with the song featuring wobbling synth arpeggios, a slow-burning grinding groove, glistening guitars and Resik’s plaintive vocals. But underneath, the seemingly placid surface is a gnawing and uneasy dissatisfaction.

“The song is about getting stuck in what comforts you and losing years inside passive contentment,” the band’s Evan Resnik explains. “Time passes, you realize all those plans you had for yourself have charred on the back burner or disappeared completely. You thought you were happy, but it was just the safety of your situation, a relationship or a decent job, that made you feel this way. Suddenly the world is dull and you feel like your time is up. I’m very afraid of that feeling and these days I try my best to avoid it.

The video was made by Calgary-based multimedia artist Ryan Kostel. He reworked old film footage and ran it through different media (weird lenses, old TVs, VCRs, etc.) to create a visual story for the song.”