Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Belgian Artist Solstice Releases a Coquettish Visual For Latin-Tinged “Amis”

Solstice is an emerging 24 year-old, Brussels-born and-based singer/songwriter, pianist and composer. The emerging Belgian artist can trace the origins of her career to her childhood: Solstice took piano lessons throughout her life — and she eventually attended the Dalcroze Institute before spending couple of years. She also wrote her own poetry. Gradually, she began pairing the poetry in her notebooks with original compositions. Interestingly, her work has been deeply inspired by her mother and her mother’s record collection, which included classical music, psych rock, French chanson, swing and several others — and all of those influences find their way into her music.

In 2015, the Belgian artist joined Zones À Défendre, a French environmentalist group, where she met a collection of poets, activists, thinkers, assorted radicals — and producer/musician Guy Waku.

Waku went on to produce the Belgian artist’s debut ep Amis venez à moi. Released last November, the EP features the Roland Devresse co-written “Amis.” Featuring a lush vocal arrangement for three part harmony, delivered in a coquettish French “Amis” is a slickly pop song that’s centered around a looping, tango-inspired production.

Directed by Gilet Jaune Guillemette Dur, the recently released video for “Amis” sees the emerging Belgian artist meet up at a local club and leads the entire club to a night of Latin-influenced dancing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alvin Chris Releases A Radio and Club Friendly Banger

Alvin Chris is a rising French emcee, vocalist, producer and beatmaker. Two years ago, I wrote about “Question de temps,” a slickly produced, summertime banger that meshed elements of dancehall, Afropop, electro pop and alt-pop paired with an infectious hook, some 80s soul pop sax soloing and Chris sonorous and plaintive crooning. But interestingly underneath the club vibes, the song is a bit ambivalent, as it captures an all-too familiar situation: a narrator, who finds himself in a promising, new romantic situation — but it might be quickly tarnished by his doubts, fears and insecurities.

Late last year, the rising French artist announced that his forthcoming EP Aprés Vous will drop on February 4, 2022. The EP will reportedly see Alvin Chris further establishing his genre-defying sound while revealing an artist, whose songwriting and production has grown more mature.

The EP’s latest single “Bug”is a slickly produced bit of electro pop with elements of dancehall and trap, centered around glistening synth arpeggios, thumping beats, skittering hi-hats paired Chris’ dexterous bars and crooned hook. Underneath the infectious, dance floor and radio friendly vibes, the song lyrically is a subtle yet incisive send-up of our consumerist world.

Directed by Johane Riachy, the recently released video for “Bug” starts off with the rising French artist being approached by security officers while he sits a scooter and looks at his phone. But we quickly flash back to a night at the club with some gorgeous black people — and arguably one fo the oddest meals you’ve seen in some time.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays White Lies Tackle Mortality and Its Acceptance in “Am I Really Going To Die”

Acclaimed London-based post-punk act and JOVM mainstays White Lies — Harry McVeigh (vocals. guitar), Charles Cave (bass, vocals) and Jack Lawrence-Brown (drums) — released their fifth album FIVE back in 2019, and the album continued a remarkable run of commercially and critically applauded material that often sees the band balancing arena rock bombast with intimate and confessional, singer/songwriter pop lyrics, which seemingly come from a very lived-in, real place that feels uncomfortably familiar.

White Lies’ highly anticipated sixth album, the Ed Bueller and Claudius Mittendorfer co-produced As I Try Not To Fall Apart is slated for a February 18, 2022 release through [PIAS]. Recorded over two breakneck studio sessions, As I Try Not To Fall Apart reportedly features the JOVM mainstays’ most expansive material to date with the songs possessing elements of arena rock, electro pop, prog rock and funky grooves while still maintaining their penchant for crafting infectious hooks. 

Late last year, I managed to write about two of the album’s singles:

  •  “As I Try Not To Fall Apart,” a rousingly anthemic yet psychologically precise character study of a desperate man, who feels hopelessly stuck in a socially prescribed “appropriate” gender role, while also trying to express his own vulnerability and weakness.
  • “I Don’t Want To Go To Mars” arguably one of the most mosh pit friendly, guitar-driven rippers the band has released in some time that tells a story of its main character being sent off to a new colonized Mars to live out a sterile and mundane existence. The band goes on to say: “Fundamentally the song questions the speed at which we are developing the world(s) we inhabit, and what cost it takes on our wellbeing.” 

“Am I Really Going To Die,” As I Try Not To Fall Apart‘s third and latest single is a glittery, glam rocker song centered around a disco-like bass line, glistening synth arpeggios and an enormous, arena rock friendly hook that sounds as though it were inspired by Roxy Music, and Duran Duran. But under the dance floor friendly grooves, the song thematically touches upon mortality, and the uneasy acceptance of the inevitable.

“‘Am I Really Going to Die’ is a song with familiar subject matter for White Lies but a new chapter musically. It’s the first part of a two-song narrative about a self-important hot-shot given a terminal diagnosis, and the various stages of his coming to terms with it,” White Lies’ Charles Cave explains. “‘AIRGTD’ is loosely inspired by the great Danny Huston’s character in Ivan’s XTC, and musically by Station to Station era Bowie.”  

Directed by Balan Evans, the recently released video could be thought of in two different but similar ways: as from the perspective of a dying person, becoming aware of their impending mortality while their friends or strangers look on with concern, shock, indifference, malice and in at least one instance, the authorities are attempting to revive the person. You can also view it from the perspective of the onlooker, who stumbles upon a dying person or a dead person with the same sense of concern, shock and so on. But no matter what, there’s fear, despair, confusion by all involved.

 “This song has so much story in it, it was quite easy to come up with this idea. It sort of spilled out of the lyrics,” Balan Evans explains. “I was talking to a friend who was recounting being hit by a car and waking up on the ground with people hanging over him and it felt like a unique perspective. This point of view felt rich with storytelling potential, something I wanted to explore and experiment with and most importantly it matched so well with the themes of the song.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Baltimore’s Ed Schrader’s Music Beat Releases a Surreal Visual For New Ripper “This Thirst”

With the release of 2018’s Dan Deacon-produced album Riddles, the Baltimore-based post-punk duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat — Devlin Rice and Ed Schrader — turned heads nationally and elsewhere.

The Baltimore duo’s fourth album Nightclub Daydreaming is slated for a March 25, 2022 release through Carpark Records. The album’s origins can be traced back to 2019 when Schrader and Rice began writing material with the idea of making a fun, danceable album. The duo, along with touring drumming Kevin O’Meara road-tested the album’s songs while on tour with Dan Deacon in February 2020.

Of course, the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt. Sadly, that tour with Dan Deacon was one of the last experiences that Schrader and Rice had with O’Meara, who had died in October 2020. O’Meara’s death weighed heavily on their minds as they finished working on the album. It was understandably, an unshakeable moodiness and heartache. As Schrader puts it, “The cave followed us into the discotheque.”

They then went to record and mix Nightclub Daydreaming over a breakneck two-week period with Craig Bowen at Baltimore’s Tempo House. Interestingly, the end result isn’t the album of “sunny disco bangers,” that Rice says the band set out for, but something far deeper and darker. Their long-held reputation for whiplash-inducing stylistic shifts between aggressive and noisy rock and operatic, gloom pop have given way to a single aesthetic that seamless fuses those impulses in propulsive, stark arrangements.

“The fun thing about this record is that it’s all at once informed by our more recent lush productions with Dan Deacon, yet spartan and boiled-down, exuding a coldness wrapped in ecstasy, following our time honored trend of never giving people what they expect, but hopefully what they want,” says Schrader.

Along with the album announcement, the Baltimore-based duo released two singles off the forthcoming album and dates for an extensive Spring 2022 tour that the duo (optimistically) have on the books. (The tour includes an April 23, 2022 stop at Union Pool. As always, those dates will be below the proverbial jump.) But first I’ll talk about one of those singles:

“This Thirst,” Nightclub Daydreaming‘s lead single is a sparse and uneasy song featuring angular, power chord-driven guitar attack, propulsive drumming and a roaring, rousingly anthemic, synth-led chorus paired with Schrader’s coolly delivered, reverb-drenched, lyrically dense verses. The song’s narrator finds his irresistible urges lead him through a surrealistic, chemical-fueled fever dream of desperate, back-alley bartering and scheming, uncertainty and constant existential threats.

Directed by Gillian Waldo, the recently released video for “This Thirst” stars Schrader and Rice as waiters and Nicole Sexton as a waitress during the overnight shit at a small town, Carvel-like diner. The trio are bored to tears, because nothing ever seems to happen. Schrader and Rice’s waiters seem barely competent: the video begins with Schrader nodding off at the counter while Rice does the crosswords or play a mean mop handle bass. Sexton’s waitress absent-mindedly files her nails and wishes she was someplace else. Sexton’s waitress seems to the be the most competent of the three, and at one point she seems to view her coworkers as braindead daydreamers.

When we see Schrader and Rice performing at an abandoned bandshell, Sexton roller-skates around them in circles. While being surreal, the video has a sense of menace, just under the ridiculous surface.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Cloakroom Releases a Trippy and Mind-Bending Visual for Sludgy “Fear of Being FIxed”

Northwestern Indiana-based space rock outfit Cloakroom — currently Doyle Martin (vocals, guitar), Bobby Markos (bass) and newest member Tim Remis (drums) — formed back in 2012. And since their formation, the Indiana-based outfit have released an EP and two full-lengths: 2013’s Infinity EP, 2015’s Further Out and 2017’s Time Well.

The band’s third album Dissolution Wave is slated for a January 28, 2022 release through Relapse Records. The album’s material tells the story of a universe created by the band’s Doyle Martin as a way of processing the events of the past couple of years. “We lost a couple of close friends over the course of writing this record,” he says. “Dreaming up another world felt easier to digest than the real nitty-gritty we’re immersed in every day.” 

Within the space western of the album, an act of theoretical physics — the dissolution wave — wishes out all of humanity’s existing art and abstract though. In order to keep the world spinning on its axis, songwriters must fill the ether with their compositions. But the Spire and Ward of Song act as a filter for all human imagination: Only the best material can pass through the filter and keep the world turning.

With lyrics based on a detailed, imagined cosmology Dissolution Wave marks several different things for the band: Their third album will be released as the band marks their tenth anniversary as a band. The album is the first batch of recorded output with Tim Remis, who joined the band back in 2019. And importantly, the album, which was recorded at Tolono, IL-based Earth Analog reportedly sees the band expanding upon their dynamic space rock palette: the material features loops and piano by HUM‘s Matt Talbott and exterior percussion by Sweet Cobra‘s Jason Gagovski.

“Fear of Being Fixed” is a slow-burning and forceful dirge centered around sludgy power chords, thunderous drumming, chugging bass lines paired with Martin’s plaintive falsetto floating over the mix. And while sonically bringing Spelljammer to mind, the song feels haunted by profound loss and uncertainty.

Directed by Colorshift, Vin Romero and Julius Jiminez, the recently released video for “Fear of Being Fixed” features the members of Cloakroom performing the song in a studio and shot on grainy, and over processed VHS tape — to mind-bending effect.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Blushing Return with Brooding “The Fires”

Featuring two married couples — Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Noe Carmona (guitar, keys) and Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) and Jacob Soto (drums), the  Austin-based dream pop/shoegazer outfit and JOVM mainstays Blushing can actually trace its roots back to El Paso, where Jacob Soto and Noe Carrmona grew up as lifelong friends and musical partners. 

Jacob Soto and Noe Carmona relocated to Austin around 2009. Coincidentally, they both met their wives at The Side Bar and according to the band, “naturally all four of us became close friends.” As Michelle Soto was learning guitar, she also began writing material, creating guitar parts and vocal melodies in her bedroom. Christina Carmona, who is a classically trained vocalist, was recruited by Michelle Soto to contribute vocals; but Christina then taught herself bass and helped flesh out Michelle’s songs. Shortly after, Jacob and Noe began to notice how much potential the material had, and they joined in on a practice session to help further flesh out their arrangements. And from that point on, Blushing was a full-fledged band. Their natural simpatico and like-minded musical influences helped to solidify their ongoing creative process. 

The members of the Austin-based shoegazer outfit spent the bulk of 2016 writing and refining material, which eventually led to their debut EP, 2017’s Tether. Tether was released to positive reviews across the blogosphere, including this site.

Building upon a growing profile in the shoegaze and dream pop scenes, the members of Blushing returned to the studio to write and record their sophomore EP, 2018’s Weak, an effort that saw them cementing a sound indebted to Lush, Cocteau Twins and The Sundays but while also being a subtle refinement. They ended that year with the Elliot Frazier-produced and mixed “The Truth”/”Sunshine” 7 inch, which featured what may arguably be the most muscular and direct song of their catalog to date. The Austin-based shoegazers supported their recorded output with several tours, sharing stages with Snail Mail, Sunflower Bean, La Luz, BRONCHO, Illuminati Hotties, JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma and others.

2019 saw the release of their self-titled, full-length debut, which they supported with an extensive US tour with Ringo Deathstarr that included a stop at Saint Vitus Bar that November. Although touring was on an indefinite hiatus until the middle of last year, the Austin JOVM mainstays have been busy: they signed to Kanine Records, who will be releasing their highly anticipated Elliot Frazier-produced, sophomore album Possessions. 

Slated for a February 18, 2022 release, Possessions is an album born out of incredible patience and perseverance: The earliest tracking sessions started in 2019 and continued in fits and starts through the quarantines, lockdowns and re-openings of the COVID-19 pandemic. There was a break in production while Frazier welcomed his second child, and that was followed by the massive blackouts across Texas as a result of last February’s winter storm that wrecked havoc across the region.

When it was finally finished, the album revealed itself as being heavier at points and at other points much lighter. Thematically and lyrically, the album reportedly sees the band embracing the full and complicated spectrum of life and relationships but while recognizing the need for escape and whimsy. The album also sees the band collaborating with two shoegazer legends — Lush and Piroshka‘s Miki Berenyi, who contributes vocals on “Blame” and RIDE‘s Mark Gardener, who mastered the album at his OX4 Sound in the UK.

In the lead up to the album’s release next month, I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:

  • “Blame,” which fittingly features Miki Berenyi is a lush, densely layered song featuring glistening and reverb drenched guitars, an enormous hook and some eerily spectral harmonies and counter melodies between Christina Carmona, Michelle Soto and Berenyi. But just under the shimmering surface is a subtle sense of menace, expressed by the refrain “Stick around and find out . . . “
  • “Sour Punch,” a woozy and seamless synthesis of 90s indie pop and grunge centered around reverb-drenched guitars, crunchy power chords, propulsive drumming and hazy yet ethereal vocals. But underneath the shimmering melody and power chords, “Sour Punch” as the band explains explores inequality and striving for independence in a relationship. You can feel the song’s narrator bristling from being hemmed in while desiring some space to herself, to be herself. 

Possessions‘ third and final single “The Fires” may arguably be the darkest and most brooding track on the album. Featuring Michelle Soto’s chiming reverb-drenched guitars and a motorik groove built around Christina Carmona’s propulsive bass line and Jacob Soto’s metronomic four on the floor, “Fires” sees the JOVM mainstays pushing their sound into post-punk, goth and even coldwave territory while retaining their unerring knack for rousing hooks and ethereal harmonies.

The recently released video for “The Fires” also serves as a counterpoint to its brightly colored counterpart “Sour Punch” with the video featuring the band’s co-vocalists and the rest of the band in a brooding monochromatic color schemes.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Bitchos Releases a Horror Film Inspired Visual for Trippy and Groovy “Pista (Fresh Start)”

London-based instrumental outfit Los Bichos — Australia-born, London-based Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguay-born, London-based Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Sweden-born, London-based Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born and-based Nic Crawshaw (drums) — features individual members with different upbringings, who have developed a unique, retro-futuristic sound that blends elements of Peruvian chicha, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych and surf rock, as well the music each individual member grew up with: The Uruguayan-born Ruiz had a Latin-American music collection that the members of the band fell in love with. The Swedish-born Jonsson “brings a touch of out of control pop,” her bandmates often joke. Aussie-born Serra Petale is deeply inspired by her mother’s 70s Anatolian rock records. And the London-born Crawshaw played in a number of local punk bands before joining Los Bitchos. “Coming from all these different places,” Serra Petale says, “it means we’re not stuck in one genre and we can rip up the rulebook a bit when it comes to our influences.”

The band can trace its own origins through its members meeting at all-night house parties or through various friends. Los Bitchos’ highly anticipated Alex Kapranos-produced full-length debut,  Let The Festivities Begin! is slated for a February 4, 2022 release through City Slang Records. 

Recorded at Gallery Studios, Let The Festivities Begin! sees the London-based instrumental outfit further establishes their reputation for crafting maximalist and trippy, Technicolor, instrumental party starting jams — with a cinematic quality.

The album’s celebratory title is something you might say while toasting dear friends, families and even strangers at a gathering — and hopefully at the of this horrible period of despair and uncertainty, as a way to usher in a period of carefree debauchery. “It’s about being together and having a really good time,” Los Bitchos say in press notes.

In the lead-up to Let The Festivities Begin!‘s release next month, I’ve managed to write about two of the album’s singles:

  • “Las Panteras” a funky, mind-bending jam featuring shimmering synths bongos, cowbell, cabasa and wiry post punk meets Nile Rodgers and surf rock-like guitars and a sinuous bass line.
  • “Good to Go,” another mind-bending, genre-blurring composition that begins with a decidedly Western intro with shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar twang before quickly morphing into a a trippy yet chilled out Latin funk meets Turkish psych affair with glistening synths, handclaps and a blazing guitar solo. 

Let The Festivities Begin!‘s third and latest single “Pista (Fresh Start)” is a slick yet trippy synthesis of chicha, cumbia and psych rock centered around looping and glistening guitars, shuffling Latin rhythms meant to get even the party’s wallflowers moving and grooving. We are so excited to put out this track. Some people may recognise it and we hope you enjoy the sassy makeover we gave it for the album,” the members of Los Bitchos say in press notes.

Directed by frequent collaborator Tom Mitchell, the recently released video is the final installment of the story told in the videos for “Las Panteras” and “Good to Go.” The video begins with the ladies of Los Bitchos living in hiding in a witness protection program after being acquitted in the game show meets courtroom show from hell. The band seems to enjoy a quiet life in the country full of domestic errands, goofing off and jamming at a campfire. But it isn’t what may seem. Things are lurking in the shadows.

“The video transports you to our life in witness protection following our game show/courtroom victory – the good life and new beginnings. Things aren’t quite what they seem though… We had so much fun shooting this video and didn’t want to leave our cosy, wholesome nest! Thank you to Dario Argento and Are You Afraid of the Dark? for inspiring the final installment of this trilogy.”

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.