Category: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The Money War Release an Intimate Visual for introspective “Blood”

Perth-based dream pop duo and JOVM mainstays The Money War — married duo Carmen and Dylan Ollivierre — can trace their origins to a road trip that the pair took across the States in 2015. During their trip, they were so inspired that they wrote and recorded a ton of iPhone demos. After a chance meeting with producers Thom Monahan and Arne Frager in a San Francisco dive bar, the duo were convinced of the value of their demos, and began to further flesh out their material, which eventually lead to their full-length debut, 2019’s Home. 

Since their formation, the duo have managed to attain a national and international profile: They’ve toured with acclaimed Aussie acts Meg Mac, Dope Lemon, Holy Holy, and Neil Finn across their homeland, and they’ve received an Australian Music Prize nod for Home. They’ve made the rounds of the global festival circuit with stops at SXSW, BIGSOUND and others. And adding to a growing profile, they’ve received airplay on Double J, Triple J, BBC 6, KCRW, NPR — and they’ve cracked Stateside college radio charts. They’ve also been covered by Rolling Stone Australia, Tone Deaf, Pile Rats, and theMusic.

The Olliverres have been rather busy over the past 18 months or so: They released their sophomore, full-length Morning People. They signed a global publishing deal with Mirror Music/BMG. They had a baby. And then they released two standalone singles, the Still Corners meets 80s Bruce Springsteen-like “Miles Away” and “Zoom.” Interestingly, during all of that, the Perth-based JOVM mainstays managed to write and record their forthcoming EP Blood, which is slated for a November 5, 2021 release.

The EP’s first single, title track “Blood” is a deliberately crafted, 70s AM rock and Nashville country inspired song prominently featuring Carmen Ollivierre’s achingly plaintive vocals, twinkling keys, gently layered harmonies, a twangy yet soulful electric guitar solo. But at its core the song is centered around the duo’s unerring knack for writing infectious hooks and introspective lyrics that come from deeply lived-in places and experiences. In”Blood,” the song finds its narrator reflecting on the complexities of familial relationships, bloodlines, genetics and dysfunctional patterns, with its narrator, a new parent wondering about the age old debate of nature vs. nature while worrying that they might screw their child up, the way they were screwed up.

“It’s written about the complexity of family relationships and bloodlines, and delves into the nature vs nurture debate I suppose,” The Money War’s Carmen Ollivierre explains in press notes. ” The character in the song has a very tricky relationship with their parents and they’re reflecting on whether they will become like them or learn from them. I think having a kid makes you think about things differently and we’ve been watching our song grow and change, with different characteristics starting to show through from both of us. It’s a topic that both of us have been thinking about a lot”

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Dan Beard, the recently released video for “Blood” employs a simple concept: We get intimate footage of Carmen and Dylan Ollivierre performing the song with their backing band performing the song in studio.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lost Horizons Teams Up with KookieLou on a Slow-burning and Gorgeous Standalone Single and Visual

The members of the acclaimed duo Lost Horizons — Cocteau Twins‘ and Bella Union Records label head Simon Raymonde (bass. guitar, keys, production) and Dif Juz’s Richie Thomas (drums, keys, guitar) — each ended a 20+ year hiatus from creating music with the release of their full-length debut together, 2017’s Ojaiá, which derived its title from the Spanish word for “hopefully” or the the idiomatic expression, “God willing.” “These days, we need hope more than ever, for a better world,” Thomas said in press notes at the time. “And this album has given me a lot of hope. To reconnect with music . . . And the hope for another Lost Horizons record!” 

Seemingly, the state of the world has gotten much worse and much more dire since the release of Ojalá. The COVID-19 pandemic revealed the viciously inequitable flaws of our socioeconomic systems and our blind selfishness and greed. We’re on the brink of irrevocable climate catastrophe. Millions across the world are risking life and limb, migrating to wherever they can as a result of climate change, socioeconomic instability and civil war. But one small portion of Thomas’ hopes have been fulfilled: the duo reconvened to write and record their acclaimed sophomore album In Quiet Moments. 

Written and recorded during pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, In Quiet Moments‘ material is inspired by the sense of existential doom, fear, uncertainty and anxiety of the larger world — and deep heartache: Just as the duo were settling into the studio to craft the largely improvised, instrumental bedrock of the album’s material, Raymonde’s mother died. 

As a response, Raymonde threw himself into his work as a way to channel his grief. “The way improvisation works,” he says, “it’s just what’s going on with your body at the time, to let it out.” The duo forged ahead, crafting 16 instrumental tracks that they sent to an eclectic array of guest vocalists including Ural Thomas, Penelope Isles‘ Jack Wolter, The Hempolics Nubiya Brandon, Tim Smith, Gemma Dunleavy, the innocence mission’s Karen Peris, Horse Thief‘s Cameron Neal, Marissa Nadler, Porridge Radio‘s Dana Margolin, John Grant, Ballet School‘s Rosie Blair, Penelope Isles’ Lily Wolter (as her solo recording project KookieLou) and an impressive list of others. 

When they sent the instrumental tracks to their then-prospective guest vocalists, Raymonde suggested a guided theme for their lyrics: “Death and rebirth. Of loved ones, of ideals, at an age when many artists that have inspired us are also dead, and the planet isn’t far behind. But I also said, ‘The most important part is to just do your own thing, and have fun.” Roughly half of the album’s lyrics were written during the middle of pandemic-related lockdowns but as it turns out, Raymonde in particular, saw a sliver lining: people were forced to slow down and take careful stock of themselves and their lives. Interestingly, after having heard a lyric written by Ural Thomas, Raymonde singled out on the phrase “in quiet moments,” and thought it would be a perfect album title. “It just made sense,” he says. “This moment of contemplation in life is really beautiful.” 

Although generally centered around loss and heartbreak, the album’s material is imbued with a sense of hope. And as a result, the album subtly leans in the direction of rebirth more so than death. “I think it’s more joyous than Ojalá,” Thomas says. “But both albums have a great energy about them.” That shouldn’t be surprising as both Lost Horizons albums find the duo and their various collaborators on a journey through a dizzying area of moods and voices. 

Lost Horizons’ teamed up with Penelope Isles’ Lily Wolter (a.k.a. KookieLou) on In Quiet Moments single “Heart of a Hummingbird,” a widescreen yet hazy bit of shoegaze that focuses on the confusing and often contradictory feelings that love and heartache inspire — in particular, longing, desperation, uncertainty, acceptance and denial.

Lost Horizons’ Simon Raymonde, along with Penelope Isles’ Lilly Wolter teamed up on slow-burning and gorgeous standalone single “Florida.” Centered around atmospheric synths, shimmering pedal steel, sinuous bass lines and Wolter’s ethereal cooing, “Florida” is a dreamy and introspective song featuring a narrator, who looks at herself and a romantic relationship with a very adult, unvarnished honesty.

Directed by Jack and Lily Wolter, the video for “Florida” further establishes the duo’s reputation for doing as much as possible in a DIY fashion: Featuring a mix of hand-made illustrations and animation, the video follows Lily Wolter in a paper mâché air balloon on a journey through weird and fantastical landscapes and views.

“Like most videos my brother Jack and I make, this one was most certainly trial and error,” Lily Wolter explains. “A lot of the time we find ourselves surrounded in a jungle of paints, flowers, glitter, string, lava lamps and makeshift green screens and say, ‘what have we gotten ourselves into?’ Despite the hours of drawings and the former attempts to make something that suited the trance-like, flowing, softness of the song, we got there in the end! The lyrics are about a time I spent on tour in America a few years back. We wanted to show an abstract journey overlooking all sorts of weird and wonderful views. I’ve always wanted to go up in a hot air balloon, but I reckon it would be pretty damn scary. Big thanks to our mum for assisting with the paper-mâché balloons, to our dear friend Josh for the helping hand, and to Lost Horizons for wanting me to sing on their music, I’m once again, truly honoured.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montreal’s Reno McCarthy Releases a Feverish Visual for Slickly Produced New Bop “For A Moment”

With the release of his full-length debut, 2019’s Counterglow, Montreal-based singer/songwriter and pop artist Reno McCarthy quickly received attention for his remarkably self-assured songwriting. The Montreal-based artist also received praise for his debonair stage presence — and for having a backing band that plays a groove-heavy live set.

Following the loss of his father last year, McCarthy wound up writing and recording a moving and deeply moving EP, Angels Watching Us Down, which found the Montreal-based artist crafting much more stripped down and strikingly sensitive material. Since the release of the EP, McCarthy has been busy writing and recording a string of standalone singles including the introspective yet upbeat “Sundown.”

Released earlier this year, “Sundown” was centered around an expansive song structure featuring twinkling synths, glistening guitars, McCarthy’s plaintive vocals, a soaring hook and a brooding bridge; but more importantly, the song managed to reveal an artist with an unerring ability to craft songs drawing from lived-in, personal experience: Lyrically, the song touches upon infatuation and obsession in a way that should feel familiar to anyone who has been — or felt — unrequited love/lust/desire.

McCarthy’s latest single, the Jesse Mac Cormack co-produced “For A Moment” is a slick, hook-driven confection centered around thumping beats, glistening synth arpeggios, a driving yet funky bass line, dub-like tape echo and reverb paired with the Canadian artist’s plaintive achingly plaintive vocals. While sonically recalling JOVM mainstay St. Lucia and 80s synth pop, the song lyrically deals with hesitation and decisiveness, capturing the push and pull of a complicated and uncertain romantic relationship.

“For A Moment” will appear on the Canadian artist’s soon-to-be released album, RUN UP RIVER, slated for an October 29, 2021 release.

Edited by Reno McCarthy and Charles-David Dubé, the recently released video for “For a Moment” is a frenetic fever dream that follows McCarthy brooding in an abandoned, post apocalyptic-like downtown area, driving around in a gorgeous, classic Mustang and being chased, as well as McCarthy trying to maneuver through a wild party. In some way, the video suggests that all of this may very well be in his own head.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: High Waisted’s Jessica Louise Dye Steps Out as a Solo Artist with Dance Pop Project Hello Lightfoot

New York-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Jessica Louise Dye is best known for being the co-founder and frontwoman of acclaimed New York-based surf pop/surf rock outfit and JOVM mainstays High Waisted. Founded back in 2014 by Dye and her bandmate Jono Bernstein (drums), High Waisted has toured across the country both as an opener and as a headliner, with stops at SXSW and Riot Fest.

High Waisted contributed a song inspired by and written about the Eighth Amendment, which was featured on NPR’s More Perfect and 27: The Most Perfect Album alongside a who’s who list of indie artists. They were also featured on a Record Store Day compilation with Lenny Kaye, and fellow JOVM mainstays Atmosphere.

Besides being an acclaimed songwriter and musician, Dye has made a name for herself as a DJ, playing sold out rooms across the — and for throwing some of the city’s wildest themed parties in basements, rooftops and on boats. Just as a party organizer, she has received praise from the likes of NYLON, GQ, Noisey, BrooklynVegan, Consequence, Billboard, Paste and High Times. I’ve been to a couple of the High Waisted at Sea parties and they were they legendary.

2021 sees the High Waisted frontwoman stepping out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her brand new, solo recording project Hello Lightfoot. “I finally had the courage to finish the solo EP I stared nearly ten years ago, after the sudden death of my best friend,” Dye explained through email. “It was a heavy, cathartic process and I am really proud of myself for pushing through the pain to complete it.”

While we await details of the EP, Dye’s debut single as Hello Lightfoot “Twenty-Seven” is a slickly produced, hook-driven, club friendly confection featuring glistening synth arpeggios, thumping beats and a relentless motorik groove. While being a decided sonic departure from her acclaimed work with High Waisted, the song is centered around confessional lyrics delivered with an aching vulnerability informed by lived-in experience of heartbreak, self-doubt and uncertainty.

Directed by Zach Wright and Zack Bass, the accompanying video for “Twenty-Seven” is shot with hazy, candy colored hewed color palette and follows Dye as she navigates Las Vegas with an Elvis impersonator.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MAGON Releases an Introspective New Single and Visual

With the release of Out in the Dark, the Israeli-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and JOVM mainstay MAGON quickly established a sound that he has publicly dubbed “urban rock on psychedelics.” Sonically, to my ears, the material seemed indebted to Ziggy Stardust era David Bowie and T. Rex. 

Late last year, the Israeli-born, Paris-based artist released his critically applauded sophomore album Hour After Hour. Featuring tracks like  “Change,” a dreamy meditation on the passing of time, “Aerodynamic,” a decidedly glam rock-inspired take on psych rock and the No Wave meets post-punk like album title track “Hour After Hour,” MAGON’s sophomore album was a decided change in direction with the album’s material being “somewhere between Ty Segall, Allah-Las and The Velvet Underground” according to MAGON.

MAGON’s third album In The Blue is slated for release in December. The forthcoming album reportedly finds the Israeli-born, French-based JOVM mainstay’s work inspired by two different sets of influences 70s rock like Lou Reed and Led Zeppelin and contemporary influences like Mac DeMarco and Devendra Banhart. Additionally, the album’s material is centered around contemplative songwriting.

In The Blue‘s first single “The Willow” continues a remarkable run of 70s rock inspired material, but paired with some of the most contemplative and introspective songwriting of the JOVM mainstay’s growing catalog: The song follows its characters through a trip to Egypt, where the narrator sees the titular willow. But the trip also serves a larger metaphor for its characters, who are trying to find something — themselves? some deeper, hidden truth? Whether they find something or not, is up to you.

Directed and shot by Magon and Alexa Rotarescu, the video for “The Willow” was gorgeously shot at the Coco Reef Ecolodge and follows the Parisian-based artist on a trip through Zanzibar.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Brazilian JOVM Mainstays WRY Releases a Sunny and Optimistic Bit of Power Pop

Sorocaba, São Paulo, Brazil-based psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays WRY — Mario Bross (vocals, guitar), Luciano Marcello (guitar), Ítalo Ribero (drums) and William Leonotti (bass) — are at the forefront of Brazil’s indie rock and psych rock scenes, releasing six albums of material that have firmly established a sound that features elements of Brit pop, alt-rock, shoegaze and post punk — with a distinctly Brazilian flavor.

After a stint living and working in London, the Brazilian JOVM mainstays earned a growing international profile, which led to several tours across the UK and the European Union, including some stops on the European festival circuit, most notably, Barcelona’s Primavera Sound. 

Along with their growing recorded output, the members of the band own a very popular club in their homeland, which has frequently hosted their internationally acclaimed countrymen, fellow JOVM mainstays and friends  Boogarins. 

Last year’s brilliant Noites Infinitas was released to critical praise, with the album receiving airplay on radio stations across Brazil and the States. The album also landed on a number of Best of Lists globally. Continuing upon the momentum of Noites Infinitas, the Brazilian psych rock outfit will be releasing their seventh full-length album Reviver on November 12, 2021 through Deaf Haus.

Reviver‘s first single “Where I Stand” is a sunny and overwhelmingly optimistic bit of power pop centered around WRY’s unerring knack for crafting enormous Brit Pop-like hooks, fuzzy power chords and thunderous drumming. The band explains that lyrically the song is about hope — but it can be read about hope returning after a bleak and very dark period, much like our current one. As long as we breathe, feel, think and experience, all is never lost.

Directed by Alex Batista, the recently released video for “Where I Stand” features the members of the Brazilian quartet riding bicycles on an airport runway while rocking out to the song. It’s playful, goofy and necessary.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: JOVM Mainstays Kælan Mikla Teams up with Alcest on Brooding and Atmospheric “Hvítir Sandar”

2018 was a breakthrough year for Reykjavik-based post-punk/industrial act and JOVM mainstays Kælan Mikla— Sólveig Matthildur Kristjánsdóttir (synths, vocals),  Margrét Rósa Dóru-Harrysdóttir (bass), and Laufey Soffía Þórsdóttir (vocals): The Cure’s Robert Smith championed the Icelandic trio, and handpicked them to open for the legendary British act’s festival stops through the UK and US. The Icelandic post punk outfit played that year’s Roadburn Festival, and they toured with King Dude. Interestingly enough, all of that happened before the release of their critically applauded third album Nótt eftir nott. 

Undir Köldum Norðumljósum, the Reykjavik-based trio’s soon-to-be released, Barði Jóhannsson-produced fourth album is slated for release next week through their longtime label home Artoffact Records. Undir Köldum Norðumljósum reportedly sees the trio crafting lush and cinematic material centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, ethereal vocals sung in their native Icelandic, spine-chilling background screams, relentless motorik grooves and programmed drums while pulling the listener into their unique world full of folklore, fairytales, magic, spells and mysticism. The album will also feature a guest spot from Alcest, who toured with the trio across the European Union before the pandemic. 

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

  • “Sólstöður,” a brooding and cinematic track centered around droning and shimmering synths, nightmarish screams and an ethereal and gorgeous vocal melody. Sonically, “Sólstöður,” evokes horror soundtracks — especially those featuring witches and demons slinking out into the night to perform ancient rituals involving human or animal sacrifices. “’Sólstöður’ is an ode to the darkest night of the year, when witches summon winter spirits in the frozen vastness of Icelandic landscapes,” the members of the Icelandic trio explain in press notes. “The song represents the strength of unity, Kælan Mikla in its truest form, fueled by the power of harsh and raw nature.”
  • “Ósýnileg,” a dance floor friendly track centered around shimmering and atmospheric synth arpeggios, relentless motorik grooves, rapid fire, four-on-the-floor beats and blood curdling screams in the background. Interestingly, the track manages to evoke strobe lit discos and howling wintry winds and unexplained phenomena simultaneously. 
  • “Stormurinn,” a decidedly widescreen take on the sound that has won them attention internationally: While you’ll still hear shimming synth arpeggios, rapid fire four-on-the-floor, motorik grooves and razor sharp hooks paired with the trio’s ethereal vocals, you’ll also hear some a gorgeous flute arrangement and howling winds, which evoke Icelandic’s stormy and unpredictable weather.

Undir Köldum Norðumljósum‘s fourth and latest single is the slow-burning and brooding “Hvítir Sandar,” a collaboration with French act Alcest. Sólveig Matthildur Kristjánsdóttir’s hauntingly ethereal vocals float over a stormy mix of glistening and icy synths and industrial clang and clatter.

“‘Hvítir Sandar’ is about feeling like you’re being defeated by your inner faults and demons. It’s about self-acceptance,” the Icelandic JOVM mainstays explain in press notes. ” Even if you carry a darkness within, it’s what makes you who you are, and you shouldn’t have to change for other people.”

“We felt really honored when Kælan Mikla offered us to be guests on their song ‘Hvítir Sandar,'” the members of Alcest say in press notes. “Alcest and Kælan Mikla toured together in 2020 and from the start we definitely saw connection between the two bands, despite the stylistic difference. ‘Hvítir Sandar’ is one of our favorites on the album and before even starting to work on it we had a vision of what the aesthetics of Alcest could bring to the song. We are so proud of how it turned out and we hope that the fans of Kælan Mikla will enjoy this collaboration just as much as we did!”

Directed by Máni Sigfússon, the recently released video for “Hvítir Sandar” continues a run of gorgeous and cinematically shot and incredibly eerie visuals paired with computer generated graphics.

Album pre-order is available here: https://kaelanmikla.bandcamp.com

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Robert Finley Returns with a Soulful Plea for Empathy and Kindness

Robert Finley is a 67 year-old Winnsboro, LA-born, Bernice, LA-based singer/songwriter and JOVM mainstay, who was one of eight children in a family of sharecroppers. As a child, a young Finley was unable to regularly attend school and often worked with his family in the cotton fields. When he was a teenager, he briefly attended a segregated school; but he dropped out in the 10th grade to help the family out financially.

As an adult, Finley has lived a full, complicated and often messy life: he’s an army veteran and a skilled carpenter, who has survived house fires, a bad auto accident and a divorce. Sadly, the Louisiana-born and-based JOVM mainstay lost his sight in his early 60s as result of glaucoma. And although, he was forced to retire from from carpentry, Finley realized that he now had an opportunity to purse a lifelong dream — becoming a professional musician and singer.

Finley believes that his sight was improved by the power of prayer — and that his faith has also helped him focus on launching a music career in his 60s. According to Finley “losing my sight, gave me the perspective to see my true identity.”

Finley’s rise has been rapid: As the story goes, Dan Auerbach immediately saw Finley’s potential, quickly proclaiming that the Louisiana-born and-based artist is “the greatest living soul singer.” As Auerbach recalls in press notes, “He walked in like he was straight out of the swamp.” He adds, “He had leather pants, snakeskin boots, a big Country & Western belt buckle, a leather cowboy hat and a three-quarter-length leather duster. The final touch was the folding cane the legally blind Finley wore on his hip, in a holster. Basically, he was dressed for national television.” 

Auerbach went on to produce Finley’s 2017 breakthrough sophomore album Goin’ Platinum, an album released to widespread critical acclaim from the likes of the Associated Press, who praised Finley’s ability to lend “instant credibility to any song” and The Observer, who wrote “Finley’s versatile voice ranges from prime Motown holler to heartbroken falsetto croon.” The Louisiana-born and-based singer/songwriter went on to support the album with international touring across 10 countries — with his live show drawing praise from a number of publications, including The New York Times and several others. Finley was also profiled on PBS NewsHour, which led him to becoming a contestant on the 2019 season of America’s Got Talent, eventually reaching the semi-finals. 

Finley’s third album Sharecropper’s Son was released earlier this year through Easy Eye Sound. The album continues the Louisiana-born and-based JOVM mainstay’s successful collaboration with Auerbach and features songwriting and cowrites from Finley, Auerbach, Bobby Wood and Pat McLaughlin. Much like other Easy Eye Sound releases, the album features an All-Star backing band that includes Auerbach (guitar); Kenny Brown (guitar), a member of R.L Burnside‘s backing band; studio legends Russ Pahl (pedal steel) and Louisiana-born, Nashville-based Billy Sanford (guitar); Bobby Wood (keys and as previously mentioned songwriting); Gene Chrisman (drums), who’s a Memphis and Nashville music legend; as well as contributions from The Dap Kings‘ Nick Movshon (bass), Eric Deaton (guitar); Dave Roe (bass), who was member of Johnny Cash‘s backing band; Sam Bacco (percussion) and a full horn section. 

Sharecropper’s Son may arguably be the most personal album of Finley’s growing catalog, drawing directly from his life and experience. “I was ready to tell my story, and Dan and his guys knew me so well by then that they knew it almost like I do, so they had my back all the way,” Finley says in press notes. “Working in the cotton fields wasn’t a pleasant place to be, but it was part of my life. I went from the cotton fields to Beverly Hills. We stayed in the neighborhood most of our childhood. It wasn’t really all that safe to be out by yourself. One of the things I love about music is that, when I was a boy growing up in the South, nobody wanted to hear what I had to say or what I thought about anything. But when I started putting it in songs, people listened.”

In the past few months, I’ve written about three of the album’s released singles:

  • “Country Boy,” a swampy and funky bit of country soul featured a tight, strutting groove, bluesy guitar lines, shimmering organ and Finley’s soulful and creaky falsetto paired with autobiographic lyrics, which were improvised on the spot with the tape rolling. “When we play live, I always leave room in the show for lyrics I make up on the spot while the band hits a groove,” Finley explains. “I guess the younger generation calls it free-styling, but for me, it’s just speaking from my mind, straight from my soul.” While lyrically, the song touches upon classic blues fare — heartbreak, loneliness, being broke, being a stranger far away from home and the like, the song is fueled by Finley’s sincerity. He has lived through those experiences, and you can tell that from the vulnerable cracks in his weathered croon. 
  • Album title track “Sharecropper’s Son,” a strutting blues holler featuring James Cotton-like blasts of harmonica, shimmering Rhodes, a chugging groove, a classic blues solo, and Finley’s creaky and soulful crooning and shouts. And much like its predecessor, the song is fueled by both the lived-in experiences of its writer and the novelistic details within the song: you can feel the hot sun on Finley’s and his siblings’ skin, the sore muscles of backbreaking and unending labor in the fields. But throughout the song, its narrator expresses pride in his family doing whatever they could do legally to survive and keep food on the table. 
  • “Make Me Feel Alright,” is a swampy boogie that’s one part John Lee Hooker barroom blues, one part Mississippi Delta Blues centered around a twangy blues guitar line, a shuffling rhythm and Finley’s expressive crooning. While being the sort of song you want your bartender to play loudly on a Friday or Saturday night, as you try to spit some game to some pretty young thing, the song as Finley explains in press notes “is about not looking for love, but for companionship. Sometimes you want to find someone to have a good time, You meet someone, have a fun night and then go on your separate ways with your own problems at the end of the night but still experience love in the moment.” 

Sharecropper’s Son‘s latest single “I Can Feel Your Pain” is an old school soul ballad centered around twinkling Rhodes, Finley’s expressive crooning, a two-step inducing rhythm, bluesy guitar blasts and a soaring chorus. But at its core, the song is an earnest expression of empathy for everyone who has had a difficult time of things, during this most unusually difficult period. And it comes from the deeply lived-in place of someone who’s experienced profound difficulties and inconsolable loss.

From my own experience, sometimes you just need someone to say to you, “I’ve been there. I know how that feels. Grief and heartache come in waves but somehow, some way, life will push and shove you forward.” And this song says exactly that — and at a time when we all really need it.

“‘I Can Feel Your Pain’ relates really to what is going on today,” Robert Finley explains in press notes. “From people losing loved ones to the pandemic, all the marches going on, people being slaughtered by the police. Even if you don’t really know about the situation from a personal perspective you feel sympathy for that person who had to go through those things and this song is for them.”

Directed by Tim Hardiman, the recently released video for “I Can Feel Your Pain” is shot with a hazy and nostalgic-tinged filter but makes far larger, more powerful points: the righteous struggles for justice and equality of Finley’s youth sadly still go on. Life is a struggle. Heartache and loss are constant. But choose empathy and love, and you’ll get by.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Artist Alewya Returns with a Sultry and Playful Banger

Dubbed “this decade’s triple threat” by Love Magazine, Alewya is a rapidly rising London-based singer/songwriter, producer and visual artist. Born in Saudi Arabia to an Egyptian-Sudanese father and an Ethiopian mother, Alewya has spent her life surrounded and nurtured by diaspora immigrant communities: she grew up in West London and after spending several years in New York. she returned to London. Upon returning home, the rising British artist developed and honed her ear for music through the sounds of the Ethiopian and Arabic music of her parents and the ambient alternative rock albums of her brother. 

The translation of the Saudi-born, Ethiopian-Sudanese, British-based artist’s name from Arabic to English into “most high” or “the highest,” and interestingly enough, her work generally is thematically concerned with transcendence. She sees her music as an accessible space for her and her listeners to connect on a deeply spiritual level — with her work challenging the listener to remember the last time that they felt truly connected to themselves and their emotions. “I want to move people to themselves. I want them to feel the same way that I felt when I had a taste of a higher power and felt there was a presence over me,” Alewya says. “I want people to feel that.” 

Last year, Alewya had an attention-grabbing feature on Little Simz‘s “where’s my lighter,” which caught the attention of Because Records, who signed the rising artist and released her The Busy Twist-produced debut single “Sweating,” a forward-thinking Timbaland-like mesh of trap, reggae and electro pop. The rising London-based quickly followed that up with “Spirit_X.” Centered around a forward-thinking production featuring skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and arpeggiated synths paired with Alewya’s punchy delivery that saw her alternating between spitting fire and sultry crooning, the song is indebted to the relentless energy of classic drum ‘n’ bass.

Alewya will cap off a big 2021 with her highly anticipated debut EP Panther In Mode. Slated for a November 18, 2021 release through Because London Records, the seven-song EP will feature three of her previously released, critically applauded, singles — the aforementioned Busy Twist-produced “Sweating,” the drum ‘n’ bass-informed “Spirit_X,” and “Jagwa.”

The EP’s fourth and latest single “Play” continues the rising British artist’s collaboration with Busy Twist. Featuring a sultry production featuring wobbling bass, skittering beats, glistening synths that rise and fall around Alewya’s self-assured and equally sultry crooning, “Play” continues a run of slickly produced, forward-thinking club bangers centered around positive messages — while being defiantly feminist. “’Play’ is a song about my love and gratitude for pleasure and play and how it has and can unlock deeper feelings of connections,” Alewya explains in press notes. “It’s overtly feminine and innately primal and most of all light and fun!”

Co-directed by Alewya and Jack Bowden, the recently released video for follows a collection of beautiful Black people, who get together at sunset to dance all night. Each person is having the unadulterated, joyous fun that is sorely missed.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising London Instrumental Act Los Bitchos Solve Crimes, Dance and Kick Ass in New Visual for Expansive “Las Panteras”

Rising, London-based instrumental act 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. 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. And interestingly enough, the London-based outfit’s 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! further establishes Los Bitchos reputation for crafting maximalist and Technicolor, instrumental party jams with a cinematic quality. The celebratory title is something you might say while toasting dear friends, families and even strangers at the end of this horrible period 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.

The album’s first single “Las Panteras” is an expansive disco funk strut featuring wiry post punk meets Nile Rodgers funk meets surf rock-like guitars, a sinuous bass line and shimmering synths paired with bongos, cowbells and cabasa that hits at Turkish pop and 80s rock. It’s funky and mind-bending jam that will get the party started y’all.

Directed by Tom Mitchell, the recently released video for “Las Panteras” features the members of the band as a part of the cast of a crime-fighting and crime-solving unit, like Charlie’s Angels. Fittingly, while the quartet is busy trying to find their new arch enemy, Las Panteras, there is some some sassy choreographed dance breaks that add even more levity to the affair.

“We wanted to show the mystery of the song combined with sassy dance moves. Inspirations for the video are Kill Bill, Scooby Doo & Spice Girls’s ‘Wannabe’ video,” Los Bitchos’ Agustina Ruiz explains in press notes. “The huge battle climax at the end is a Bram Stoker Dracula inspired fight which will leave you hanging for what’s in store next, between Las Panteras and the girls. A tacky ‘70s show in which the band must solve the mystery of Las Panteras, taking a break now and then to bust out some sassy choreographed dance sequences to keep their spirits up! To be continued… “

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Laure Briard Takes VIewers on a Tour of a Surreal Cinematic Universe

Toulouse, France-based singer/songwriter Laure Briard has had a highly uncommon path to professional music. Briard bounced around several different interests and passions she studied literature and criminology and even acted for a bit before concentrating on music full-time back in 2013.

After the release of her debut EP through Tricatel Records, Briard met Juilen Gasc and Eddy Cramps, and the trio began working on the material that would eventually become her full-length debut, 2015’s Révélation. Inspired by Françoise Hardy, Margo Guryan and Vashti Bunyan, Révélation featured modern and poetic lyricism.

Briard then signed with Midnight Special Records, who released her sophomore album, 2016’s Sur la Piste de Danse. Since Sur la Pisa de Danse, Briard’s work has increasingly been influenced by Bossa nova: 2018’s Coração Louco, featured lyrics written and sung in Portuguese — and a guest spot from acclaimed Brazilian JOVM mainstays and Latin Grammy Award nominated act Boogarins. 2019’s  Un peu plus d’amour s’il vous plâit, which was released through Michel Records in Canada, Midnight Special Records in Europe and Burger Records here in the States continued Briard’s ongoing love affair with Bossa nova and Brazilian music. 

Released earlier this year through Michel Records in North America, Dinosaur City Records in Australia and Midnight Special Records in Europe, the Toulouse-based singer/songwriter’s latest effort Eu Voo sees Briard continuing her successful collaboration with Boogarins, as well as with her longtime collaborators Vincent Guyot, a.k.a. Octopus and Marius Duflot.

In the lead up to the EP’s release, I wrote about two of the EP’s released singles:

  • EP title track “Eu Voo,” 60s Scott Walker-like orchestral psych pop meets 70s AM radio rock-like take on Bossa nova, featuring Briard’s ethereal vocals cooing in Portuguese, twinkling Rhodes, shimmering guitars and jazz-fusion that evokes the swooning euphoria of reuniting with a long-lost love. 
  • “Supertrama,” which continues in a similar path as its predecessor — 60s Scott Walker-like orchestral psych pop meeting 70s AM radio rock     featuring twinkling piano, shuffling jazz-like drumming, a sinuous bass line, a regal horn arrangement, angular bursts of guitar and a soaring hook within an expansive yet breezy song arrangement. But just underneath the breezy surface, the song evokes a familiar bittersweet ache. 

Eu Voo’s latest single “Não Me Diz Nada”is a breezy, orchestral psych pop meets 70s AM radio rock meets smooth jazz take on Bossa nova centered around two guitar-led melody, twinkling keys, shuffling jazz drumming, a clarinet solo and Briard’s dreamy and ethereal delivery. The song’s title, which translates into English as “Don’t Tell Me Anything” references how body language and gestures often speak for themselves — and loudly. Briard explains that she came into the studio with some words in Portuguese about a man, who gave off mixed messages.

Directed by Ruby Cicero, the recently released video for “Não Me Diz Nada” stars Briard as a wanted, gun toting criminal, criss-crossing France while on the run. Visually, the video references Thelma and Louise, Pulp Fiction, David Lynch, Hitchcock and Ridley Scott among others as we see Briard’s outlaw encountering odd characters.

“Thanks to Laure’s training as an actress, and her studies in criminology, we have created a woman with multiple facets: a candid thief who, with her changes of hairstyle and identity, looks a bit like Tippie Hedren in No Springtime for Marnie. Bold as a lonely Thelma who doesn’t have Louise’s nostalgia, Laure meets singular characters on her path, both comical and disturbing, whom she knows how to face,” Ruby Cicero explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The KVB Offers a Glimpse Into Our Dystopian Future

Currently based out of Manchester, UK, the acclaimed shoegazers and JOVM mainstay outfit The KVB initially started in 2010 as the solo recording project of founder, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Wood. Wood released a series of limited cassette an vinyl releases as a solo recording project; but by 2011, vocalist, keyboardist and visual artist Kat Day joined the project.

In the decade since Day joined the project, The KVB have released several critically applauded albums and EPs through a number of different labels before signing to Geoff Barrow‘s Invada Records,who released 2018’s Only Now Forever. Interestingly, each of the duo’s acclaimed releases saw them crafting a sound simultaneously inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cabaret Voltaire; however, with each subsequent effort, the band has managed to streamline their sound.

Through extensive touring across the European Union, the UK, China, Russia and Japan, the duo have amassed a devoted fanbase globally. Now, as you may recall during the pandemic, Day and Wood relocated from Berlin to Manchester to work on their sixth album, the Andy Savors-produced Unity. Slated for a November 26, 2021 release through Invada Records, the duo’s sixth album will reportedly represent a new and exciting development in their sonic development: Through the album’s ten songs, the duo pull together their trademark components, radiant guitars, textured synths and an near for a moody, brooding melody paired with a renewed dynamism.

Interestingly, the initial writing sessions for their forthcoming album took place in Spain during early 2019, where the duo found influence from the “half built luxury villas, still unfinished from the crash in 2008. There was something eerie and beautiful about the desolate landscapes and concrete in the sunshine,” the band says in press notes. While their sound and approach has always been informed by what seems like our inevitable dystopian future, there is also more of a rapturous release to the material. Thematically, the album combines double meanings and there’s a sleight of hand present.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “World on Fire,” a single that found the duo continuing to refine their sound: Starting with burst of drum machine, the song was centered around buzzing and slashing power chords, shimmering and arpeggiated synths, a relentless motorik groove and a euphoric hook paired with the duo’s breathy boy-girl harmonies. Sonically, the track — to my ears, at least — found the duo pushing the boundaries of shoegaze in a similar fashion to Lightfoils, BLACKSTONE RNGRS and others while giving their sound a gauzy, New Order-like sheen. 

“Unité,” Unity‘s latest single may arguably be their most dance floor friendly track of their growing catalog: Centered around thumping beats, shimmering synth arpeggios, and a relentlessly hypnotic, motorik groove paired with Kat Day’s ethereal deadpan delivery, “Unité” sounds as though it could have easily been part of the Trans Europe Express or Man Machine sessions. The duo explains that the new single is “a homage to our time living in Berlin, with the pounding kick drum and grinding electronics.” Te song is a perfect example of the Manchester-based duo meshing dark and light sensibilities in a seamless fashion: while being a euphoric club banger, the song references urbanization and its dystopian potential.

The recently released video is set in a dystopian future, much like that in Minority Report, in which the viewer is inundated by advertisements and screens.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Brussels’ Romina Palmeri Releases a Gorgeous Bachata Ballad

Romina Palmeri is a Brussels-born and-based, Italian-Belgian singer/songwriter and dancer, who can trace the origins of her music career to her childhood: growing up in a family of musicians and performers, Palmeri was surrounded by the music and rhythms of the Mediterranean and of her Italian heritage. At a very young age, the Italian-Belgian artist trained in classical dance and hip-hop and began singing.

After studying sports and animation in high school, Palmeri’s love of the stage and of performing led her to the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where she earned a Master’s Degree in theater and speech. Upon graduation, she landed several roles as an actor including Solange in Lucy Mattot’s A coups de ciseaux de couture, a montage of Jean Genet’s Les Bonnes. Since 2016, the Brussels-born and-based artist has landed roles in Festival Bruxellons! productions of musicals like Evita, Sunset Boulevard and My Fair Lady. Palmeri has also played Studio 100’s and Ketnet’s Mega Mindy.

In late 2019, the Italian-Belgian artist played Yvette in Bertolt Brecht’s Mére Courage et set enfants, directed by Christine Delmotte. She then joined the cast of the musical Notre Dame de Paris, playing the roles of Esmeralda and Fluer-de-Lys. And since last year, she has has been the understudy for the roles of Maria, Elvira and Isabel for he musical, Don Juan.

Despite what seems like an already busy schedule, Palmeri has managed a music career: she has contributed backing vocals to several albums by Francesco Palmeri and Frédéric François‘ 2013 effort Amor Latino. She is currently working and recording her own original material, as well as covers in French, Spanish, Italian and English.

Earlier this year, Palmeri released a gorgeous cover of Selena’s “Dame un beso.” Building upon the momentum of that cover, the Italian-Belgian’s latest single is an original track, “Dulce Miel,” written in the traditional bachata ballad style. Centered around shimmering acoustic guitars and bachata rhythms, “Dulce Miel” is roomy enough for Palmeri’s gorgeous and expressive pop star-like vocals. As a native Queens boy, the song brought back memories of hearing bachata out of the windows of local house parties — but as Palmeri explains, the song is a passionate love song with a very simple message: love always wins.

Directed by Georges Vanev, the recently released and sensual video for “Dulce Miel” stars Palmeri and Julio César Gutarra as a beautiful, young couple, who are madly in love.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Emerging French Duo The Pink crows Take Viewers Through a Tour of the Galaxy

Emerging French electro pop duo The Pink Crows — Swedish-born, French-based Hanna Hågglund (vocals) and French-born and-based Franck Rapp (production) — can trace their origins to a chance meeting that for the duo may have been destined. The French electro pop duo specialize in and sound and approach that meshes 70s and 80s rock and funk with electronic production.

The duo’s latest single, “Les Montagnes Russes” is centered around a sinuous, 70s disco-inspired bass line, twinkling keys, shimmering synths, skittering four-on- the-floor, Hågglund’s ethereal cooing and a rousingly anthemic hook. The end result is a song that finds the duo crafting a slick and infectious synthesis of Giorgio Moroder-like disco and Dead Blue era Still Corners.

Produced by Franck Rapp and Antonio Maria Da Silva, the recently released video for “Les Montagnes Russes” features a collection of humans leaving an Earth-like planet being bombarded by asteroids on a traveling club that travels through the galaxy, like a sort of intergalactic subway. At each stop, a few more gorgeous people and some aliens join the non-stop party, a part that goes past the planets of our solar system, past a black hole and towards a cosmic disco ball — because, of course.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Orielles’ Henry Carlyle’s Gorgeous Solo Debut

Halifax, UK-born, Manchester-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Henry Carlyle is best known for his work in acclaimed JOVM mainstay act The Orielles. Carlyle steps into the spotlight as a solo artist with the release of his debut single “The Ground.”

Clocking in at a smidge under six minutes, “The Ground” which features guest spots from Julia Bardo, (backing vocals, bass, sax) and Jake Bogacki (drums), is centered around Carlyle’s world weary and heartbroken delivery, wiry guitars, bursts of twinkling glockenspiel, and an intimate and dusty, lo-fi like production. Although the “The Ground” possesses an expansive song structure, it’s a decided sonic departure from Carlyle’s primary gig, the song finds The Orielles co-founder eschewing the strobe lights of the disco for thoughtful and lived-in lyricism and earthy arrangements — while sounding a bit like Daman Albarn’s solo work.

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