Category: post punk

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Choses Sauvages Shares Tense and Danceable “En joue”

With the release of their Emmanuel Ethier-produced 2018 self-titled, full-length debut, Montréal-based dance punks Choses Sauvages — Totalement Sublime‘s Marc-Antoine Barbier (guitar), Theirry Malépart (keys), Tony Bélisle (keys), Philippe Gauthier-Boudreau (drums) and La Sécurité‘s Félix Bélisle (vocals) with Foreign Diplomats‘ and Frais Dispo‘s Charles Primeau (bass) as a touring member — exploded into the local and provincial scenes. The album was a critical and commercial success with the album topping Independent Radio Charts across Québec while receiving widespread critical applause. In 2019, the Montréal-based outfit landed Association Québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) Félix Award nominations for Alternative Album of the Year and Indie Rock Album of the year, with a Félix Award win for Indie Rock Album of the Year. 

Throughout 2019, the French Canadian outfit supported their full-length debut with a relentless touring schedule across the province. During that tour, the band quickly developed a reputation for a must-see live show that they’ve brought across the global festival circuit, including stops at Reeperbahn, MaMA, FIMPRO, SXSW, Le Printemps de Bourges and Wide Days. 

2021’s Choses Sauvages II found the Montréal-based outfit pushing their sound more towards electronic dane music and nu-disco influences like L’Imperatrice and Lindstrøm while still drawing from their love of funk, Bowie and Bee Gees. The album also sees them furthering their approach which pairs rigorous and meticulous songwriting with a rebellious spirit. 

Choses Sauvages’ highly-anticipated third album, Choses Sauvages III is slated for a March 28, 2025 release through Audiogram. Earlier this year, I wrote about the album’s first single “Incendie au paradis,” a decidedly New Wave/post-punk song anchored around a propulsive bass line and a guitar driven melody paired with squiggling synth arpeggios and a subtly vocodered vocal. Seemingly drawing from Heroes and Low-era Bowie and Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, “Incendie au paradis” depicts artificial intelligence as angels that can transform and improve our daily lives. While addressing the technological advance’s promises and benefits, it raises concerns with an uneasy trepidation.

“I wanted to highlight the need to think about the ethical and moral implications and the still unknown limits of these new technologies, and the influence they have on our lives,” Choses Sauvages’ Félix Bélisle explains. 

Choses Sauvages III’s second and latest single “En joue” features a propulsive bass line is paired with angular guitar stabs, bursts of glistening synths paired Bélisle’s punchy delivery and the band’s unerring knack for catchy hooks. Seemingly drawing from Freedom of Choice-era DEVO, Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, Entertainment-era Gang of Four and even La Femme, “En Joue” manages to be simultaneously tense yet danceable.

The song as the band’s Bélisle explains “refers to the helplessness in the face of extremely violent international news of recent years. It also deals with the fear of the other, the dehumanization of certain populations taken hostage in armed conflicts.”

“En joue refers to the feeling of helplessness in the face of the extremely violent international news of recent years. It also deals with the fear of the other, the dehumanization of certain populations taken hostage in armed conflicts,” explains Félix Bélisle, the group’s singer and lyricist.

En joue pulses with a jerky rhythm, offering a danceable melody that manages to evoke the breathlessness of flight, of a race against the fears and anxieties that lie in wait for us and stick to our skin.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 71st Birthday, Andy Partridge!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates XTC co-founder Andy Partridge’s 71st birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Somos el Viento Returns with Forceful and Cinematic “Exodus”

Spanish-born and-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist Óliver del Barrio is the creative mastermind being the solo recording project Somos el Viento. And with his Somos el Viento full-length debut, Mar Negro, del Barrio quickly establishes a lushly layered and expansive soundscape that blends post-rock, space rock and ambient music. 

Mar Negro’s second and latest single “Exodus” is a slick synthesis of  Collapse Under the Empire and Mogwai-like post rock, metal and space rock within a cinematic soundscape.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: FACS Shares Angular “Wish Defense”

Back in 2013, Chicago-based post-punk act Disappears — founding member Brian Case (vocals, guitar) along with  Noah Leger (drums), Jonathan Van Herik (guitar) and Damon Carruesco (bass) — released two of my favorite efforts of the past decade or so: the atmospheric and tempestuous Kone EP and the tense, raging Era.

Damon Carruesco left the band in 2017. The band’s remaining members — Case, Leger and Van Herik — decided to continue onward, but under a new name and with a decidedly new sonic direction and songwriting approach as FACS.

With their FACS full-length debut, 2018’s Negative Houses, the trio quickly established an intense, cathartic, heavy sound — that’s not always obviously heavy. Since then the band has gone through a couple of lineup changes: Alianna Kalaba (bass) replaced van Herrik for a handful of the band’s albums. including last year’s Still Life in Decay, a decidedly focused effort that saw the band at what may arguably be their most solidified. The apocalyptic chaos of the album’s predecessor was pushed away in favor of examination with a remarkably uneasy clarity, while being a sort of addendum to 2021’s Present Tense. The album, which featured tracks like “When You Say” and “Slogan,” was the last album to feature Kalaba, who amicably left the band.

The Chicago-based post-punk outfit and JOVM mainstays’ sixth studio album Wish Defense is slated for a February 7, 2025 release on CD, cassette, black vinyl and a limited white vinyl variant while supplies last [pre-order] through Trouble In Mind Records.

The album marks the return of original band member Jonathan Van Herik, who replaces longtime bassist Alianna Kalaba. Van Herik’s return to the band reportedly brings renewed vigor and a marked angularity from the Chicago-based outfit’s more recent output. While the songs still hit hard, the approach is sideways; in fact, the roles have changed since Van Herik’s original tenure and previous time with Case and Leger in Disappears. Now on bass, Van Herik was originally the band’s guitarist while Case, the band’s current guitarist, played bass. The role reversal between Case and Van Herik has reportedly helped the band’s dynamic, offering a different musical perspective than before, while revisiting the trio’s long-held collaboration with some distance and time.

Tragically, Wish Defense is the last album engineered by Steve Albini. Two days of sessions were recorded at Electrical Audio in early May, before Albini’s untimely death. Renowned engineer and friend Sanford Parker stepped in to finish the session 24 hours later, tracking the last bits of vocals and overdubs. Longtime collaborator John Congleton mixed the albums as Albini would have, in Electrical Audio’s A Room, off the tape, using Albini’s notes about the session.

Thematically, the album focuses on the centuries old subject of the duality of man. Who is your “true self” and what do they want? The album sees the band taking a good long look in the mirror to face themselves. As the band’s Brian Case explains, the album’s lyrical content revolves about doppelgängers or doubles, tackling the idea of facing yourself and observing your ideas and motivations.

Anchored around an angular and forceful bass line from Van Herik, funky yet forcefully off-kilter rhythmic patterns from Leger, Case’s squiggling and chiming guitar lines paired with a slow-burning, noisy coda and arguably one of Case’s more melodic vocal turns in some time. Fittingly, it continues the band’s long-held reputation for material that’s psychologically probing with Case laying out the entire album’s theme in one stanza, asking the listener — and in turn himself: Are your actions and emotions your true self? Or are they a performative aspect of that “other” person you put forward into the world? Case says that ultimately, the sentiment is ” . . . don’t let the bastards get you down, there’s something beyond this moment, like hope — but not in the naive belief that ultimately people are good.”

Directed by Joshua Ford, starring Megan Paradowski, the accompanying video for “Wish Defense” was filmed at Los Angeles-based XIX Studio and plays along with the song’s thematic and lyrical concerns: While Paradowski expressively dances throughout, we see doubling — whether through shadow, visual effect or slick editing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Hypochondrische Ängste Shares Anxious and Uneasy “Real Authentic Berlin Street Love”

Founded by Philipp Martin (guitar), and currently featuring Stimme Jan Frisch (guitar). Jorinde Minna Markert (vocals, lyrics) and Volker Heuken (vibraphone), Leipzig-based post-punk/art punk/No Wave outfit Hypochondrische Ängste was created by Martin as a way of writing and performing a radical rethinking of musical structures through knotty, off-kilter and discordant grooves and style collages paired with free associative, seemingly stream of consciousness-like lyrics.

The Leipzig-based outfit’s full-length debut is slated for a Spring 2025 release. But in the meantime, they shared the recently released, standalone single “Real Authentic Berlin Street Love,” is anchored around an expansive and uneasy arrangement featuring an angular and stuttering groove, propulsive and forceful drumming and a xylophone-driven coda paired with speak-singing lyrics. Seemingly nodding at the likes of Gang of Four, Ganser, FACS, Pop Music Fever Dream and a lengthy list of others, “Real Authentic Berlin Street Love,” evokes a creeping, feverish anxiety that defines our fearful, bitterly divisive hellscape of a moment.

Lyrically, “Real Authentic Berlin Street Love” is a love story told as a consumer story: Berlin is a brand and the love language commodification and exploitation.

The accompanying video is a surrealistic and stylish fever dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 61st Birthday Johnny Marr!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Johnny Marr’s 61st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 63rd Birthday, Larry Mullen, Jr.!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates U2 co-founder and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr.’s 63rd birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Melbourne’s Delivery Shares Punchy “Only A Fool”

Formed back in 2020 by romantic partners and collaborators Rebecca Allan (lead and backing vocals, bass) and James Lynch (lead and backing vocals, guitar, synths), rising Melbourne-based garage punk outfit Delivery initially featured members of several local bands including The Vacant Smiles, Gutter Girls and Blonde Revolver.

2021 saw the release of the Aussie outfit’s debut EP Yes We Do. Building upon a growing profile, the band released their full-length debut, 2022’s Forever Giving Handshakes, which featured singles “Baader Meinhof” and “The Complex” to critical applause from the likes of NME, who called the album “a lively record full of guitar interplay and sociopolitical critique” and Tone Deaf, who wrote that the album was “an exercise in controlled chaos, songs threatening to fall apart at any moment, but it all coolly remains together . . . ” The album also landed on Rolling Stone Australia‘s Top 10 albums list of 2022 while receiving airplay on Henry Rollins’ KCRW show.

The band’s current lineup Allan and Lynch, along with Jordan Oakley (guitar, backing vocals), Scarlett Maloney (guitar, backing and lead vocals) and Liam Kenny (drums) will be releasing their highly-anticipated sophomore album Force Majeure on January 17, 2025 through Heavenly Recordings. The 12-song album reportedly builds upon the promise that their full-length debut showed while featuring material that’s concise, direct yet forceful.

Force Majeure‘s third and latest single “Only A Fool” is a punchy, hook-driven post-punk stomp that quickly settles into a steady, chugging “Psycho Killer” groove paired with a languid yet forceful guitar solo, and an insouciant, bratty and too-cool-for-school vocal, before concluding with a loose jammy coda.

“‘Only A Fool’ might just be the most uninhibited moment in capturing this album’s all-in dynamic at full steam,” the band explains. “Lisa brought in the guitar chords, vocal line and lyrics, and then gave everyone free rein to do their thing which means everyone’s individual flare gets a moment across the track. Also might explain why this song features Delivery’s only ever jam-out ending.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Barcelona-born, London-based Artist Eterna Shares Woozy and Brooding “Highbury Grunge”

Rising Barcelona-born, London-based artist Eterna recently signed to section1, who released his attention grabbing label debut “Perfect Comms,” and its follow up “Whatever Reason,” an eerie, post-punk-meets-shoegaze-like take on goth that saw the him weaving murky, reverb-soaked guitar distortion with lyrical themes that touch upon modern isolation, apathy and ephemeral romance — with a frustration and despair that feels all too familiar.

The Spanish-born, British-based artist’s highly anticipated sophomore studio album Debunker is slated for a January 31, 2025 release. The forthcoming album’s lead single “Highbury Grunge” continues a run of eerie and off-kilter material that’s simultaneously alien and familiar. Anchored around distorted layers of chugging, reverb-drenched acoustic and electric guitars and industrial clang and clatter, the slow-burning “Highbury Grunge” serves as a brooding and woozy bed for the rising Spanish-born, British-based artist’s imitably distracted and detached delivery.

Directed by Really Sorry, the accompanying video is shot in black and white, and through a series of split screens, follows Eterna as he wanders around suburban London — sometimes with an unsettling and uncomfortably close close up. The video further evokes the woozy and brooding nature of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MAN LEE Shares a Squiggling and Artsy Ode to Girlhood

Currently based in Brooklyn, the self-described indie rock band for the weary masses, MAN LEE — Sam Reichman and Tim Lee — began writing together while living between Richmond, DC and Baltimore before finding their collaborators in New York.

On their creative process, Reichman says, “We had always been writing our own music, but it wasn’t until we got together that we found our footing. Whether we’re physically in the same city or apart, we  are constantly tossing new ideas or phrases back and forth until something sticks. Writing music is one of the only ways to quiet my mind and I think Tim feels the same.”

Drawing inspiration from all manner of relationship, their work touches on themes of expectations of self and others while sonically blending elements of psychedelia, art rock and pop.

The duo’s latest single, the Arthur Moon-produced “Best One” is a melodic and artsy take on post-punk anchored around propulsive thump, angular and squiggling bursts of guitar, bubbling electronics paired with Reichman’s melodic and sensual delivery. As the duo, explain the song serves as a message of reassurance to a close friend, following a bad break up that simply says that despite our best efforts, there are forces at play well outside of our control.

MAN LEE’s Reichamn goes on to explain “Growing up, especially for girls, we quickly learn that the most important thing is finding ‘the one.’ That’s a lot of pressure. And we internalize it, along with everyone else’s expectations. ‘Best One’ is a sort of reassurance to my friend, on the receiving end of a terrible break, that they were not at fault. That nothing said or done differently could have changed the outcome, because it wasn’t up to them at all.”

The accompanying video is vintage-inspired visual that features a collage of archival footage from the 60s and 70s that also includes photography, ceramics and home videos from Reichman’s childhood, slickly edited in a lysergic fashion. She says, “it’s a mixed-media take on girlhood. That’s where these unshakable ideals and sense of self are so often formed, for better or worse.”

MAN LEE will be playing a full band show at Brooklyn’s Sleepwalk on November 21. Tickets are available here.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Shares Spiky and Danceable “Detour”

With the release of last year’s Samuel Gemme-produced Stay Safe!, Montréal-based art punks La Sécurité exploded into the national and international scenes with a manic yet surprisingly laid-back sound that mischievously meandered on the fringes of punk, New Wave, no wave and krautrock while inhabiting the ethos of Riot Grrl movement.

Building upon the momentum of their breakthrough debut, the Canadian art punks released Stay Safe! REMIXED EP, an effort that features remixes from Born at Midnite, The Mauskovic Dance Band and Freak Heat Waves. They also made the rounds of global festival circuit with sets at The Great Escape, M for Montréal, Reepeerbahan Festival, SXSW, FOCUS Wales, FIJM, The New Colossus Festival and Sled Island, while also sharing the stage with the likes of Automatic, JOVM mainstays Death Valley Girls, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, Margaritas Pordridas, Exek and Civic.

The French Canadian outfit’s latest single “Detour” is the first bit of new material from the band since last year’s Stay Safe! And it’s been release as a special joint release with beloved indie label Bella Union and their label home Mothland. “Detour” continues where Stay Safe! let off: motorik grooves paired with spiky, off kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks that bring a synthesis of DEVO and the B52s to mind. The new single continues a run of material that’s both nerdy and danceable with a sneering edge.

“We recorded the song with an old friend of mine Renny Wilson,” La Sécurité’s Éliane Viens-Synnott says. “It was refreshing to watch him work on his instincts, trying to keep takes and tones as natural as possible, keeping everything open-ended to see where it could lead us. And since we know each other so well, it felt like he already knew what our music should sound like.”

Bella Union’s Simon Raymonde adds: “Working with my wife Abbey, I have become adept at processing the subtle differences between her delivery of a report from a gig she ‘really liked’, to one she was ‘blown away’ by. In March, Abbey saw La Sécurité in New York and her messages back to me were as excitable as I could remember in the 13 years we’ve been together. Maybe only her expressions of love for Chappell Roan earlier this year were comparable!” 

He continues, “In May at The Great Escape, I was finally able to hear and see for myself. They were everything she described and more. Way more. Appeals to me on so many levels, musically and culturally, touching on my own post-punk history, but when we invited them for lunch to our house and had a beautiful getting to know each other, THAT clinched it for me. Working in today’s peculiar music industry is only made tolerable by surrounding yourself with good people, who work hard, are honest and thoughtful. They seem like they tick all those boxes. Vive La Sécurité.”

Directed by dirt and daydream, the accompanying video for “Detour” is a low budget and grainy surreal fever dream that seems indebted to Harmony Korine‘s Trash Humpers.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s APACALDA Shares Cinematic and Woozy “She’s Not Coming”

Cassandra Angheluta is a Romanian-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project APACALDA. Deriving its name from the Romanian word for “warm water,” Angheluta’s solo project is both a reflection of her movement through her art and life, and a reminder to reconnect with the warmth that can calm and ground her, despite the chaos and unpredictability of outside circumstances.

Much like countless other artists, the Romanian-Canadian artist has found that through creating music, she can process and alchemize emotional traumas from throughout the course of her life, while giving her a sense of peace. Her work typically touches upon themes of devastation and transcendence.

With 2022’s self-titled, debut EP, which featured collaborations with Robert Robert; FHANG‘s Luca Fogale‘s and Half Moon Run‘s Sam Woywitka; FHANG’s, Patrick Watson‘s and TEKE :: TEKE’s Mishka Stein; Half Moon Run’s Isaac Symonds and the Esca Quartet, Angheluta quickly established a fresh take on indie rock, electro pop and New Wave/post-punk, crating a sound that has been described as melancholic, dreamy, enigmatic and hauntingly beautiful.

The Romanian-Canadian artist’s Miskha Stein and Sam Woywitka co-produced full-length debut, There’s a Shadow In My Room and It Isn’t Mine is slated for release next year. Thematically, the album delves into mental illness, obsession, jealousy and deceit.

The album’s first single “She’s Not There” features distorted and churning guitar tones, skittering and propulsive beats, atmospheric synths serving as a woozy and uneasy bed for Anghuleta’s achingly plaintive yet defiant delivery, evoking the turmoil and restlessness of its narrator. According to the Montréal-based artist, “She’s Not Coming” tells the story of a woman, who chooses to end her life, despite her outward devotion to God. While capturing the hidden struggles behind its narrator’s stoic exterior, the track sheds light on the pervasive nature of suicide. “I write these songs as an extension of healing—I want to be a medium. I often feel others’ pain and I want to express it in honour of them,” Angheluta says.

Directed by Mallis, a Montréal-based filmmaker, art director and production designer, known for visually rich storytelling, the accompanying video for “She’s Not Coming” was funded by The MVP Project and shot in Georgia, not too far from Angheluta’s homeland. While anchored in the themes of its accompanying song, the video follows the final journey of Louisa, an elderly woman, who ends her life, and is based on the true story of a friend, whose mother’s death was suspected to be a suicide. The friend’s mother was a deeply religious woman, who ultimately chose to leave the church. This lead to her exclusion from her religious community.

The friend’s mom was known to walk along the shores of a beach near her home. One morning, local news outlets reported that a woman’s body washed ashore. The friend knew it was his mother, realizing that he’d never speak or see her again. “Through her story, we really wanted to emphasize the impact of community on someone’s mental and emotional well-being,” the director and artist explain.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: VICTIME Shares Woozy and Glitchy “Résonne encore”

Initially formed in Québec City back in 2016 and now currently featuring members split between the Québecois cities of Montréal, Québec City and Gatineau, VICTIME — Ponctuation’s and Pure Carrière‘s Laurence Gauthier-Brown, Album’s Simone Provencher and Corridor‘s and Kee Avii‘s Samuel Gougoux — quickly made waves across the province with 2017’s Mon VR de rêve EP, 2018’s full-length debut La femme taupe and Mi-tronic, mi-jambe EP.

With their first three releases under their collective belts, the trio began to make the rounds of the Canadian festival circuit, playing sets at Sled Island, Up Here, Francos de Montréal, FME and Taverne Tour. Adding to a growing profile across the country, the band opened for the likes of Lydia Lunch, Guerilla Toss, Frigs, Ponctuation and Jesuslesfilles, as well as a series of tour dates in France.

The band’s forthcoming effort, En conversation avec is slated for an October 25, 2024 release through Mothland. En conversation avec is the result of a new creative process for the band, informed and inspired by the band being split across different cities in the province. Written over the course of the past five years, the trio frequently relied on the spontaneity of sporadic get-togethers and remote work in which they shared files among each other.

Reportedly the effort sees the band simultaneously showing a newfound patience while being among their most layered. While still holding on to their post-punk and noise rock roots, the trio explore a wide-spanning spectrum where tensions and openings coexist, colmating breaks and ruptures, cracks and fissures with elements of trip hop, avant rock and IDM. Thematically, the material touches upon feminism, vengeance, violence, being a female, speaking out, obliterating patriarchy and more.

“It was a long process, the sum of three minds in three different cities. We felt the urge to create in a new way, to break out of our guitar-bass-drums mold, to be less of a rock band,” the band explains. “So, we started from sounds and sonic explorations, finally recentering everything around a more simple songwriting process. And though it is packed with weird sounds and whatnot, we feel this is the best music we have ever written. It is informed by the many projects, contracts, experiences, etcetera each of us took on over the past few years, a logical follow-up to our individual paths.

We were inspired by many things, namely: the Sisters with Transistors documentary film, Kim Gordon and everything she represents, the sadness of roadkills; electronic prototypes, breadboards and sonic experimentations; musique concrète [or concrete music], mechanisms, eye (but also other parts of the body) surgeries, Giacometti, The Da Vinci Code, the total solar eclipse, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.”

“We produced the album ourselves. We recorded everything way too hot, so it’s distorted. Also, we didn’t use a grid when tracking, so we struggled with the sessions quite a bit. Amongst the files we sent to Simon Labelle, who mixed the album, there are easily 47 tracks with takes we had no business keeping and well over a dozen tracks named “Noise 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8…”, so he probably hates us now. I guess we kept our reckless-kids-playing-in-the-back-alley mentality, all the way to the financial means. Simone [Provencher] builts effects pedals with Fairfield Circuitry, which meant we could use breadboard prototypes on a few tracks, so that’s pretty legit, right?”

En conversation avec‘s latest single “Résonne encore,” is the band’s first ever love song. Anchored around a propulsive and forceful, tribal drum pattern, “Résonne encore” features reverb-soaked vocals, angular guitar stabs and bursts of synth oscillations for the song’s first two-and-a-half minutes, before abruptly stuttering into a glitchy trip hop-like bridge seemingly inspired by Portishead’s “Machine Gun.” The song’s coda features bursts of guitar dissonance, the introductory section’s propulsive and forceful tribal drum pattern paired with an ethereal and dreamily sung vocal incantation. The result is a song that feels feverish, woozy and a bit heartsick, much like an uneasy yet new love.