Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Brooklyn’s SAVAK Follows a Down-On-His-Luck Loser Through Brooklyn in Visual for New Ripper “Cold Ocean”

Brooklyn-based post-punk outfit SAVAK — multi-instrumentalist and co-vocalists Sohrab Habibion and Michael Jaworski, along with Matt Schultz (drums)– formed back in 2015. And since their inception, Habibion and Jaworski have shared vocal and songwriting duties, often taking turns singing their respective songs while playing guitar or other instruments.

There Brooklyn-based trio have been busy releasing a string of rippers — including their latest single “Cold Ocean”/”Adolescence Obsolete.” Penned by the band’s Jaworski, who also takes up lead singing duties, “Cold Ocean,” the A-side is centered around a relentlessly driving bass line, darting and wiry guitar blasts paired with Jaworski’s deadpan delivery before turning into a rousingly anthemic, ripper during the song’s hook. While seemingly inspired by Wire, “Cold Ocean” manages to evoke a neurosis and frustration that’s familiar to me as a native New Yorker.

The members of SAVAK will be releasing their fifth album later this year. But in the meantime, the recently released video for “Cold Ocean” was directed by Rob Kassabian and stars Mark Weills as “Walker Slim.” The band’s Michael Jaworski and Sohrab Habibion have supporting roles as “Babyshoes” and “Sniffles” respectively. They play two hustlers on the grind, scamming and scheming on to another payday.

Shot on a cold November day, the video features Weills/Slim, a down-on-his-luck loser, who must hawk a prized possession to buy a ring for a lover, who never shows. We follow Weills/Slim through several locales in Brooklyn, including the Brooklyn Museum, Prospect Park, and empty Brighton Beach and Coney Island Boardwalks, where we see poor, stood up Walker Slim, frustrated by — and facing both unrequited love and dreams of what will never be. Heartbreak is endless, like the tide.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: French Act Chafouin Releases a Punishing New Single

Chafouin is a Brest, France-based outfit with a rotating cast of collaborators. Clocking in at a little under two-and-a-half minutes, “Tout Casser,” the French outfit’s latest single is a slow-burning and bruising bit of doom metal centered around sludgy power chords, thunderous drumming and vocals delivered with a menacing yet child-like sing-song delivery.

The end result is a song that to my ears reminds me a bit of The Melvins and Spelljammer among others.

The recently released video for “Tout Casser” features home video of the band’s members shot in 1995. It’s sweetly nostalgic — and a reminder of how the time has flown by.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising British Act Palace Releases a Gorgeously Shot Live Performance Visual For Soaring “Shame on You”

Led by frontman Leo Wyndham, the rising London-based indie outfit Palace formed back in 2014. And since then, the members of Palace have released two full-length album’s 2016’s So Long Forever and 2019’s Life After, as well as a handful of EPs, including last year’s Gravity and Lover (Don’t Let Me Down).

The rising British indie outfit’s third album Shoals is slated for a January 21, 2022 release through Avenue A/Fiction. As the band’s Wyndham explains:“Shoals is a record about confronting our own fears and anxieties. Through the pandemic we were confronted more than ever with ourselves with little distraction, suddenly seeing who we are in the rawest of forms. It held a mirror up to our flaws and imperfections and forced us to see the real ‘us’. 

“The record symbolises how our minds can have beautiful yet dangerous depths, like the ocean, and how our fears and thoughts are like shoals of fish that move and shift constantly from place to place; chaotic, often untameable and unpredictable.” While understandably being of our wildly uncertain and uneasy time, the album’s material also draws major inspiration from the sea — with the album positing the ocean’s violent yet beautiful energy as the ebb and flow between sheer panic and euphoric relief.

“Shame On You,” Shoals third and latest single is centered around a spacious and unhurried arrangement of glistening, reverb-drenched guitars, a steady backbeat, atmospheric synths, Wyndham’s soaring, achingly plaintive falsetto and arena rock friendly hooks. The song is brooding yet rooted in an unvarnished honesty.

Directed by filmmaker and photographer David J. East, the recently released video for “Shame On You” is a live performance video that sees the band performing in a bare yet massive loft or factory space.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Cy Dune Releases a Breakneck Punk Rock-Inspired Ripper

Seth Olinsky is a singer/songwriter, guitarist, composer, producer and studio owner best known as the co-founder and lead vocalist of acclaimed, underground, experimental noise folk outfit Akron/Family. He’s also the creative mastermind behind the equally acclaimed solo recording project Cy Dune, a project that has found Olinsky exploring the blues, 50s rock and 60s/70s photo-punk through his unique lens.

Interestingly, Olinsky’s various projects have displayed a post-genre approach in which he collages several different genres simultaneously to create multiple meanings while purposely juxtaposing authentic and pure songwriting sincerity with self aware meta-meaning and pranksterism.

Olinsky’s latest Cy Dune effort Against Face is slated for a March 3, 2022 release through Lightning Studios. Clocking in at a breakneck 18 minutes, the album is a meta-punk blast through 20th Century art school punk forms mashed together.

Against Face‘s second and latest single, album title track “Against Face” is centered around a relentless tom pattern, buzzing power chords, mosh pit friendly hooks and a jab filled rant-like vocal turn from Olinksy that seems indebted to Bob Dylan and The Stooges self-titled album — in particular “No Fun.” Play loud and get out your frustration over our unending shittiness.

“But ultimately, as with much of Cy Dune songs, the new track represents fun with music’s societal forms more than a hardline ideological perspective, and fits mostly in line with the truly committed aspect of the Cy Dune music again and again to Energy Music and its positive impact on humanity,” Olinsky says.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lyon, France’s Ashinoa Releases A Trippy Visual For Mind-Bending “Disguised in Orbit”

With the release of their full-length debut, 2019’s Sinie Sinie, the Lyon, France-based experimental synth act Ashinoa quickly exploded into the national and international scene: Sinie Sinie saw the French act establishing a minimalist krautrock approach.

The members of the Lyon-based act supported the album with tours around France opening for JOVM mainstays METZ and Flamingods, Warrmduscher, Bo Ningen, Kikagaku Moyo and others. Ashinoa’s forthcoming sophomore album L’Orée is slated for a March 25, 2022 release through Fuzz Club, and the album reportedly sees the band building upon the minimalist karutrock of their debut while taking the listener on a journey through the wilderness through shape-shifting, psychedelic electronics.

Although centered around a largely synthesizer-driven soundscape, L’Orée‘s material sees the members of Ashinoa exploring a much more natural, organic sound than their previously released work, a sound that at times is percussive and dance floor friendly and other times hypnotic and expansive — thanks in part to the environment it was written and recorded in. Recorded in a house, tucked away in the French countryside, which bordered on a surrounding forest, the band recalls that the album sessions were spent soaking up their immediate surroundings with a number of collaborators coming in and out to play on the record:

“The house we recorded the album in was kind of in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by Douglas Pine trees. From this proximity to the forest, we wanted to take our soundscapes to a place we’ve never been before,” the members of the French-based experimental act explain. “Before we were surrounded by concrete, and then far from it. We were looking for a new listening place, to discover new intriguing sounds. We had laid down the basis of the album and then musician friends that would visit us at the time were invited to participate in the making of the album, each one of them bringing a touch of their own.”

L’Orée‘s first single “Disguised by Orbit” is banger centered a trance-inducing, trippy groove, polyrhythmic breakbeats and undulating synths. The end result — to my ears — is a slick synthesis of L’eclair and Mildlife-like cosmic grooves, old school boom bap and Brit Pop swagger.

“This song feels like those beautiful night skies,” the members of Ashinoa explain. “You’re feeling tipsy, a bit high maybe. When the colours surrounding you aren’t really what they seem. Everything sparkles like crazy as if everything was disguised.”

Directed by Jeremy Labarre and Matteo Fabri, the recently released video for “Disguised by Orbit” follows a mutton chop wearing man as she angrily walks through a damp European downtown before encountering a gorgeous robe that encourages him to strut, vamp and dance through town. We also see a woman in the same rob, dancing in the desert.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: JOVM Mainstay Yola Performs “Dancing Away in Tears” on “The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon”

Back in 2020, the Bristol, UK-born, Nashville-based, multi-Grammy nominated singer/songwriter, guitarist and JOVM mainstay Yola had hopes of building upon the momentum of 2019’s breakthrough debut Walk Through Fire with a series of enviable opportunities that came her way.

Early that year, it was announced that she was casted as gospel, blues and rock ‘n’ roll pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe in Baz Luhrmann’s musical drama Elvis alongside Austin Butler in the title role, Tom Hanks as Colonel Tom Parker and Maggie Gyllenhaal as Presley’s mother. Much like everyone else across the globe, the pandemic threw a massive monkey wrench into her planes — and her hopes: Hanks wound up contracting COVID-19 while in Australia for filming and pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions added further delays.

During breaks in the Elvis film ing schedule, the JOVM mainstay was supposed to play a series of dates opening for Chris Stapleton and Grammy Award-winning acts  The Black Keys and Brandi Carlile. All of those tour dates were either cancelled or postponed indefinitely. (Her tour with Chris Stapleton was rescheduled and took place late last year and included a stop at Madison Square Garden, which is a helluva long way from Rockwood Music Hall.)

Luckily, she was able to finish her first Stateside headlining tour, which included a stop at Music Hall of Williamsburg, about a month or so before our collective and seemingly unending nightmare. In lieu of live, in-person touring, Yola made the rounds of the domestic, late night TV show circuit: She performed Walk Through Fire bonus track “I Don’t Want to Lie” on The Late Late Show with James Corden, and a gospel-leaning cover of Nina Simone‘s classic and beloved “To Be Young, Gifted and Black” filmed at The Ryman Auditorium for Late Night with Seth Meyers. 

Besides the virtual performances, much like the rest of us Yola wound up with a lot of time on her hands. She used the unexpected gift of time and space to ground herself physically and mentally as she began to write the material that would eventually become her critically applauded sophomore album Stand For Myself.

Some of the album’s material was written several years previously and inspired by deeply personal moments, like her mother’s funeral. Other songs were written during pandemic isolation, and as a result they reflect on her personal and collective moments of longing and awakening — inspired and informed by Black Lives Matter, #MeToo and other movements. 

Tracks were also cowritten with Ruby Amanfu, John Bettis, Pat McLaughlin, Natalie Hemby, Joy Oladokun, Paul Overstreet, Liz Rose, Aaron Lee Tasjan, Hannah Vasanth and Bobby Wood. But importantly, the album’s material was written to specifically connect with those who have experienced the feeling of being an “other” or a token, while simultaneously urging the listener to challenge the basis and assumptions that fuel bigotry, inequality and tokenism — all of which have had impacts on her personal life and career. “It’s a collection of stories of allyship, black feminine strength through vulnerability, and loving connection from the sexual to the social. All celebrating a change in thinking and paradigm shift at their core.” Yola says in press notes. “It is an album not blindly positive and it does not simply plead for everyone to come together. It instead explores ways that we need to stand for ourselves throughout our lives, what limits our connection as humans and declares that real change will come when we challenge our thinking and acknowledge our true complexity.”

Ultimately, the JOVM mainstay’s hope is that the album will encourage both empathy and self actualization, all while returning to where she started, to the real Yola. “I kind of got talked out of being me, and now I’m here. This is who I’ve always been in music and in life. There was a little hiatus where I got brainwashed out of my own majesty, but a bitch is back.”

Stand For Myself continues Yola’s ongoing collaboration with acclaimed producer, singer/songwriter, musician and label head Dan Auerbach. Recorded late last year at Easy Eye Sound, the album sonically is inspired by the seminal albums in her mother’s record collection and the eclectic mixtapes she recorded while listening to British radio as a teenager. Those mixtapes featured neo-soul, R&B, Brit Pop and other styles.  

Featuring a backing band that included Nick Movshon (bass), best known for his work with Amy Winehouse and Bruno Mars alongside Aaron Frazier (drums), a rising solo artist in his own right, the album is a noticeable shift from her debut, with the album’s aesthetic meshing symphonic soul, disco and classic pop while occasionally hinting at the country soul of her critically applauded debut. 

In the buildup to the album’s release, I wrote about three of the album’s released singles:

  • “Diamond Studded Shoes,” a woozy yet seamless synthesis of densely layered Phil Spector-like Wall of Sound pop, country, 70s singer/songwriter pop and late 60s/early 70s Motown soul centered around the JOVM mainstay’s powerhouse vocals and some of the most incisive sociopolitical commentary of her growing catalog. “This song explores the false divides created to distract us from those few who are in charge of the majority of the world’s wealth and use the ‘divide and conquer’ tactic to keep it,” Yola explained in press notes. “This song calls on us to unite and turn our focus to those with a stranglehold on humanity.”
  • “Stand For Myself,” a bold and proudly feminist anthem written from the perspective of a survivor, who wants to do more than just survive; she wants to thrive and be wholly herself — at all costs. While featuring a rousing, shout-along worthy hook. a clean pop-leaning take on the famous Nashville sound and a the JOVM mainstay’s powerhouse vocals, the song, much like its immediate predecessor is undermined by incisive social commentary: Essentially, the track reflects on Yola’s belief in the possibility of paradigm shift beyond the mental programming that creates both tokenism and bigotry. “The song’s protagonist ‘token,’ has been shrinking themselves to fit into the narrative of another’s making, but it becomes clear that shrinking is pointless,” Yola explains. “This song is about a celebration of being awake from the nightmare supremacist paradigm. Truly alive, awake and eyes finally wide open and trained on your path to self actualisation. You are thinking freely and working on undoing the mental programming that has made you live in fear. It is about standing for ourselves throughout our lives and real change coming when we challenge our thinking. This is who I’ve always been in music and in life.”
  • “Starlight,” a sultry and lush, Quiet Storm-inspired song featuring twinkling keys, a sinuous bass line, a soaring hook, strummed guitar, shuffling rhythms paired with Yola’s vocals expressing vulnerability and longing for human connection and touch. “‘Starlight’ is a song about looking for positive physical, sexual and human connections at every level of your journey towards love,” Yola explains. She adds: “The world seems to attach a negative trope of cold heartlessness to the concept of any sexual connection that isn’t marriage, this song looks through a lens of warmth specifically when it comes to sex positivity. Understanding the necessity of every stage of connection and that it is possible for every stage of your journey in love, sex and connection to be nurturing. Temporary or transitory doesn’t have to be meaningless or miserable. In the right situations every connection can teach us something valuable about who we are, what we want and what is healthy.”

Last night, the Bristol-born, Nashville-based JOVM mainstay was on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon to perform Stand For Myself‘s fourth and latest single, the glittery, disco meets country soul ballad “Dancing Away in Tears.” While subtly hinting at Donna Summer‘s “Last Dance,” the song thematically focuses on having that sadly profound last romantic moment with a soon-to-be ex lover before you part forever. From the perspective of the song’s narrator, while the breakup is heartbreaking, they have an adult acceptance of it: while they’re glad to have met this particular lover, but they both know that the relationship has come to the end of its road — and that it’s time to say “farewell” and “good luck.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: São Paulo-born, Paris-based Gabriella Lima Releases a Quirky Visual for Breezy “Samba de l’amour”

São Paulo-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter Gabriella Lima relocated to Paris back in 2014. And since locating to The City of Light, Lima has been busy crafting material that pushes genre and cultural boundaries.

Released last year, Lima’s full-length debut, the nine-song Bálsamo finds the Brazilian-born, French-based artist drawing from soul, pop, samba, chanson and several other styles. Bálsamo‘s latest single, album closing track “Samba de l’amour” is breezy bit of samba centered around twinkling keys, fluttering synths, strummed acoustic guitar, gently swaying samba rhythms paired with Lima’s gorgeous vocals singing bittersweet lyrics in French and Brazilian Portuguese detailing love gained and quickly lost.

Directed by Marion Guadino, the accompanying video is a gorgeously shot, quirky fever dream that follows Lima through a half-awake dream in a field that includes an entire living space, complete with a serving of tea. I’ve watched the video a number of times before writing this — and I’ll tell you, I can’t help but fall in love with Lima’s smile, which seems simultaneously coquettish and mischievous.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Acclaimed JOVM Mainstays Low Release an Aching and Feverish Visual for “I Can Wait”

Founded back in 1993, the acclaimed Duluth-based indie act and JOVM mainstays  Low — married couple Alan Sparhawk (guitar, vocals) and Mimi Parker (drums) — are considered pioneers of slowcore, an indie rock sub-genre featuring slowed down tempos and minimalist-leaning arrangements. despite the fact that the band has gone through a series of lineup changes, they’ve been consistent in their disapproval of the term slowcore. And gradually, the band has managed to completely shrug off the sub-genre’s established strictures altogether.

2015’s B.J. Burton-produced Ones and Sixes began an ongoing series of uncompromising and challenging material. With the critical success of Ones and Sixes, the members of Low wanted to go further with Burton and his aesthetic, to see what someone, who as Sparhawk has described as a “hip-hop guy” could do to push their music in radically new directions. Unsurprisingly, working with Burton has resulted in a completely different creative process: Instead of obsessively writing, revising and rehearsing in Duluth, before heading to the studio, the band went to  Eau Claire, WI with rough ideas and sketches for one of the most collaborative writing sessions they’ve ever had with a producer. 

During the Double Negative sessions, they’d build pieces up, break them down and build them up again until each individual song found its purpose and force. Over the two year writing and recording sessions, the outside world slid deeper into madness and instability — and in some fashion Double Negative may be seen as a document of our peculiar moment: the material is at times loud, contentious, chaotic and jarring. Sparhawk’s and Parker’s gorgeous harmonies sometimes seem to be desperately fighting against the noise and chaos, other times hidden with it. 

As you’ll recall, the Duluth-based JOVM mainstay’s critically applauded, Grammy-nominated 13th album HEY WHAT was released last year. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with B.J. Burton, the album finds Sparhawk and Parker focusing on their craft, staying out of the fray and holding fast to their faith to find new ways to express the discord and delight of being a living human being, while turning the duality of existence into modern day hymns we can share. The album’s 10 songs are individually built by their own undeniable hooks — but they’re turbocharged by the vivid textures surrounding them. 

In the lead up to the album’s release and its release, I’ve managed to write about four of the album’s singles:

  • “Days Like These,” a disorientating track featuring hushed passages with strummed guitar fighting for space between dense layers of noise and distortion that accrete and then fall apart. The entire affair is held together by Sparkhawk and Parker’s gorgeous and slightly Autotuned harmonies, serving as a lifeline from the shore, thrown out to the poor soul just about to drown in the breakers. At its core, “Days Like These” is a yearning plea for meaning and peace in a world that’s completely mad and doesn’t make much sense. 
  • “Disappearing,” a meditative slow-burn centered around ebbing and waning feedback and distortion. Sparhawk’s and Parker’s yearning harmonies ride the uneasy crests and valleys of the song’s oceanic-like production. The song is an an aching meditation of loneliness, isolation and the unknown beyond all of this.
  • “More,” a disorientating track featuring heavily distorted and scorching power chords paired with Parker’s gorgeous lead vocal turn, singing lyrics expressing frustration while yearning — and demanding — more in a world that’s grossly unfair and inequitable.  
  • “White Horses,” which featured Sparhawk’s and Parke’rs gorgeous harmonies floating over scorching synth fuzz and feedback with bursts of shimmering strings peeking out of the fray. Much like its predecessors, “White Horses” balances the uneasy and abrasive with the breathtakingly gorgeous.

“I Can Wait,” HEY WHAT‘s fifth and latest single lyrically vacillates between patience, impatience, regret, shame and yearning in a way that captures the thoughts of someone who has been trapped within their heads. Sonically, the Duluth-based duo’s achingly yearning vocals uneasily float atop undulating synths and guitar feedback — before slowly fading out into droning feedback.

Directed by Manuel Aragon, the recently released visual for “I Can Wait” follows a collection of diverse, every day people as they try to go about their day-to-day lives but while haunted by their past mistakes and heartbreaks and longing. The end result is a brightly colored, collective fever dream that’s very human.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Detroit’s VAZUM Releases a Brooding Visual for Atmospheric “Gallows”

Zach Pliska is a Detroit music scene vet, who has played drums in a number of local bands, which has given him valuable hands-on experience writing, recording and touring. Pliska founded VAZUM back in 2017, and over the course of six self-released albums that have found the band’s sound bouncing around and spanning across several different genres and styles including post-punk and doom. 

During most of the band’s history, the band has gone through a series of lineup changes but Pliska found a deep connection with Emily Sturm (vocals, bass), who joined in 2019. With a background in the visual arts, Sturm has been instrumental in giving the project, a new, uncompromising aesthetic edge, which has resulted in what Pliska and Strum have dubbed as “deathgaze,” as they combine the raw energy of death rock with the sonic depth of shoegaze.

Last year, the Detroit-based duo was rather busy: They released two albums, V+, which featured the Sioxuise and the Banshees meets Sisters of Mercy meets The Verve-like “Haunted House,” a song based on a haunting, real-life experience, and Unrated V. VAZUM closed out last year with the “Gallows” double single, which featured two different versions of the song — with the first being, a slow-burning shoegazer version of “Gallows” centered around an arrangement of dreamy guitars, forceful drums and Shrum’s achingly plaintive vocals. Sonically speaking “Gallows” is slick mixture of A Storm in Heaven-like textures and brooding Siouxsie and the Banshees-like atmospherics.

Along with the double single, the band released an Emily Strum-directed video for “Gallows” that features the duo — Strum in a wedding dress and occasionally and Plinska in black peering into binoculars in a wintry forest. The brooding and gorgeous visual seems heavily indebted to Edgar Allan Poe.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Houston’s Victorian Death Photos Release a Brooding Single and Visual

Victorian Death Photos is a Houston-based post-punk/darkwave act that’s shrouded in a cloak of mystery: The Houston-based act features two anonymous artists, a man and a woman, who publicly go by He and She. The duo’s latest project can trace its origins back to a series of multimedia collaborations between the pair. Interestingly enough, the duo initially intended for Victorian Death Photos to be a metal album — but the best laid plans of mice and men, as they say.

Once they started working on original material together, they wound up zeroing in on a “haunted synthy post-punk electronic sound,” which wound up comprising their Victorian Death Photos debut, The Basement Tapes EP released earlier this year. “We went with it,” She says in press notes.

Back in July, I wrote about “Radium Girls,” a song, as the duo explained was based on a true story: In the early 1920s, female workers in watch factories, painted watch dials with radium paint. The women were repeatedly told that the paint was harmless. But after being around and ingesting massive amounts of radium, the female factory workers wound up contracting severe radiation poisoning: the factory workers wound up with their teeth falling out, and bone deterioration in the jaw — to the point of having bones removed.

Ultimately, the track with revealed the duo’s ability to craft a rousingly anthemic hook within a song that bearded a resemblance to Garbage‘s self-titled debut and Version 2.0.

The Houston-based act ends 2021 with “Home.” Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, tweeter and woofer rocking beats and She’s yearning vocals, “Home” is simultaneously a brooding and icy bit of post-punk/darkwave seemingly inspired by early Depeche Mode and an earnest ballad expressing profound heartbreak and longing over a relationship and lover, who was confusing and dysfunctional.

Shot in a gorgeous and cinematic black and white, the recently released video for “Home” begins by following a young boy, who dreams of being an astronaut and of space exploration. In one of his dreams, he lands on an Earth-like planet, where he sees a woman digging in the sand. We see the boy as he explores a forest. The video ends with the boy being flung out into space.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Guiss Guiss Bou Bess Teams up with ISS814 on a Heady Mix of African Diaspora Music

Sabar is a beloved and traditional folk music, played with a sabar, a traditional drum, generally played with one hand and a stick, throughout Senegal and The Republic of The Gambia. Most often you’d hear the style at weddings and other special celebrations.

Guiss Guiss Bou Bess—Mara Seck, Aba Diop, and Stephane Costantini — is a Dakar, Senegal-based act with some bonafide credentials:

  • Mara Sack is the son of beloved griot and musician Alla Seck.
  • Aba Diop is a rising sabar percussionist, from a family with a deep lineage with the instrument.
  • Stephane Constanti is a producer with extensive knowledge and experience in electronic music and drum ‘n’ bass.

Since their formation, the Senegalese trio have attempted to modernize the ancient and beloved sabar style, creating what they’ve dubbed Electro Sabar, a mix of ritual percussion, trap, dubstep, UK garage, drum ‘n’ bass, bass house, Afrobass and kuduro that manages to simultaneously respect Senegalese traditions while being inspired by the bustling, exuberant, working class neighborhoods of their hometown.

Back in March, opposition Ousmane Sonko was arrested for rape allegations. His arrest led to ongoing mass protests, demonstrations and riots across the country, which has left more than 13 dead. Mackay Sall, Senegal’s President has responded with restrictions to Internet, social media and other other forms of expression and communication as a way to curb protests.

Coincidentally, the Senegalese trio’s latest single “Sunu Gal (La Pirogue)” off their album Set Sela manages to be remarkably timely: Featuring Senegalese emcee ISS814, “Sunu Gal,” as the band explains was written for their homeland’s young people: Partially written as a loving ode to Senegalese culture and values, the song sees the collaborators calling for their homeland’s young people to peacefully protest, while demanding that the government respect and honor the rights and concerns of its people.

Sonically, “Sunu Gal (La Pirogue)” is a heady and slickly produced mix of traditional rhythms and instrumentation, skittering trap hi-hat, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, dialogue, traditional chants and some fiery and dexterous bars delivered in French and local dialects — presumably Wolof. While obviously being a meeting across the African Diaspora, the song is a powerful reminder that hip-hop is the lingua franca of young people across the globe.

Directed by Jean-Baptiste Joire, the vidoe for “Sunu Gal (La Pirogue)” is a gorgeously shot glimpse into daily life in Senegal with a playful and fantastical bent, before heading to the club, where we see dancers doing a mix of traditional and modern steps to the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Emerging New York-based Artist Michael Love Michael Vamps Through Paris in Visual for “Richard”

Michael Love Michael is an emerging, New York-based singer/songwriter and pop artist, who crafts earnest and heartfelt material that’s inspired by and draws from a number of different genres — often simultaneously.

The New York-based artist is putting the finishing touches on their forthcoming sophomore album. The album’s second album “Richard” is a heady and slickly produced synthesis of trap, synth pop and neo-soul centered around atmospheric synths, skittering beats and Michael Love Michael’s plaintive falsetto. Underneath the sleek, hyper modern production is an achingly wistful and nostalgic song, detailing the memories of a loved one, who has passed away way too soon.

Directed by André Atangana, the recently released video for “Richard” follows the New York-based artist through beautiful Paris as they vamp, wander around and just be fierce as fuck. As Michael Love Micheal explains, the video was shot during a trip to Paris during their birthday in July.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Introducing Toronto’s Ass-kicking, Hard Rocking SATE

SATE is a Toronto-based singer/songwriter and rock frontperson, who sings empowering messages backed by a band that meshes blistering hard rock and gritty blues. The Canadian artist and her backing band have developed and honed an emotionally charged and critically applauded live show, which has led to tours across Canada, the States and Europe, and festival appearances at Afropunk Brooklyn, Paris and London, Paleo Festival, Lott Festival and Secret Garden Party.

Her full-length debut, 2017’s Red, Black, and Blue, the Toronto-based artist thematically pursued her spiritual connection to the black panther, the red robin and the blue butterfly. With her recently released sophomore album, The Fool, the rising Canadian artist pursues her connection to the tarot — with the album’s title derived from the hero of the tarot deck, The Fool. In tarot, The Fool card is about beginnings and trust; of essentially jumping off a cliff with no real plan but an ultimate faith and trust in the universe.

According to SATE, The Fool is an anthem for anyone who has dared to dream and work towards their greatest self. Album title track “The Fool,” is a slow-burning synthesis of soul, neo-soul and power chord-based arena rock centered around SATE’s powerhouse vocals.

Earlier this year, the Toronto-based artist released a gorgeously shot, short film, which features “The Fool,” as well as a sampling of other material from the album — and from what you’ll hear, SATE is a badass, kick ass and take names sort of superstar in the making. And goodness that voice! The video is centered around themes tackled on the album, while showing the Toronto-based artist railing against stereotypes of all sorts, along with a collection of women who kick ass.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: French Act DAISIESFIELDS Release a Trippy and Symbolic Visual for Atmospheric “Odila”

Founded in Le Mans, France back in 2016, the multinational indie outfit DAISIESFIELDS — Daisy (vocals, primary lyricist), Florent (guitar, electronic drum) and Anne (cello, looper and effects pedals) — quickly established a sound that meshed electronics with lush, organic arrangements and plaintive vocals.

Spotted by Le Mans-based venue Superforma `back in 2017, the French-based indie outfit played shows and residencies at Superforma and SMAC, as well as playing a set with Chloé Lacan as part of the BeBop Festival. They also played with Tue-Loup‘s Xavier Plumas. Building upon a growing profile, the act was selected to play at last year’s Le Mans Pop Festival — but unfortunately, as a result of the pandemic, the festival was postponed.

Last August, the act refined their set with the assistance of Alexis Hk and de Daran. And after several months of live shows, the French act went into the studio to record their Thierry Chassang produced, full-length debut Pariedolie, which was released earlier this year. Interestingly, the album’s title is derived from pareidolia, the tendency to precise a meaningful image on a random or ambiguous visual pattern. The most common instances include seeing animals, faces or other objects in inanimate objects, like clouds or the surface of the Moon — like the Man in the Moon. It can sometimes extend to hidden messages and voices within recorded music if played backwards or at higher or slower speeds.

Pariedolie‘s latest single “Odila” is a slow-burning and atmospheric song, centered around twinkling keys, thumping beats, shimmering guitars and Daisy’s plaintive and yearning vocals. The end result is a song that sees the French act meshing elements of trip-hop, alt pop and indie rock in a way that brings Portishead, Goldfrapp, and Cubicolor to mind.

The recently released video for “Odila” is a symbolic, fever dream that follows a woman performing tricks on a skateboard throughout a French town, near the sea.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Mysterious French Artist Kwoon Launches Guitar into Space

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

Sandy followed up with 2009’s When the flowers were singing and 2011’s The Guillotine Show, which was released through Fin de Siécle. Over the past year or so, the mysterious French producer and musician has released a series of live performances shot in some truly mesmerizing locations including a vocal and cliff on the island of Lanzarote, the Tévennec Lighthouse, near the stormy Breton sea.

Kwoon’s latest single, “Stratofear” continues a run of dreamy, slow-burning and cinematic material. But in this case, with the composition centered around shimmering, pedal effected guitars, a soaring string sample and skittering beats. Interestingly, “Stratosfear to my ears sees the mysterious French artist meshing elements of textured A Storm in Heaven-like shoegaze, neo-classical and Sigur Ros and Collapse Under the Empire-like post rock.

Shot at Quiberon Airport, in Quiberon, France, the live footage features the mysterious artist performing the composition on their airfield, next to a Wright Brothers-era airplane. Just behind him, a balloon with a guitar attached is launched into space. And as he performs the song, we see footage from the perspective of the newly-launched space guitar. It’s gorgeous, trippy and badass.