Ames Harding & The Mirage — founding member Ames Harding (vocals, lyrics, production) along with Eli Weidman (drums), Mike Saunders (bass) and AJ Arnott (percussion) – formed back in 2021. And since their formation, the quartet have been busy crafting genre-bending and genre-defying material built on rich sonic landscapes, surreal lyricism and complex percussion.
The quartet’s latest single “Rain Won’t Fall” is built around a trippy and laconic groove paired with complex polyrhythmic percussion, punctuated with DFA Records level cowbell and Harding’s dreamy delivery. The result is a song that seems like a slick synthesis of Tame Impala, DFA Records, The Phenomenal Handclap Band and a few others.
Norwegian instrumental tropical funk/pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Orions Belte —Øyind Blomstrøm (guitar), Chris Holm (bass) and Kim Åge Furuhaug (drums) — features members who have spent the bulk of their lives and professional careers as touring musicians. Naturally, they’ve been on the road — a lot. When Blomstrøm’s and Holm’s paths crossed for what seemed like the umpteenth time, they bonded over a mutual desire to create instrumental music, and they then decided to start a band together. The duo then recruited Holm’s Bergen scene pal Kim Åge Furuhaug to complete the band’s lineup.
With the release of 2018’s Mint, the Norwegian trio quickly established a genre-defying, style-mashing sound that draws from a wide and eclectic array of sources including 70s Nigerian rock, postcards from the French Riviera, Formula One races at Monza and 1971’s “Fight of the Century” between Joe Frazier and Muhammad Ali.
Although the past handful of years have arguably been some of the most challenging years in recent memory for musicians and other creatives, the Norwegian trio managed to remain extremely busy: In 2020, they released a handful of singles including “Bean” and 600m per minute, an EP of experimental compositions that derived its title from an elevator in Tokyo that can transport 40 people at a time a maximum speed of 600 meters per minute. The EP found the trio pushing the boundaries of instrumental music as they possibly could.
2021’s sophomore album Villa Amorini derived its name from a popular Bergen nightclub; the place in town where everything happened — and where you needed to be, to be a part of it. Originally opened in the 80s as a fine dining spot, the business gradually evolved into an extravagant nightclub, where you’d see artists and DJs in loud t-shirts and oversized sunglasses. The album saw the trio meshing elements of underground pop, psych and world music, while further cementing their reputation for their ability to pull in listeners of diverse genres and styles. And with that understanding in mind, it shouldn’t be surprising that the album’s material sets up a particular scene: the energy and vibe of a busy downtown sidewalk with intricately layered arrangements meant to draw you in and leave the listener wondering where it will lead.
A few weeks after Villa Amorini‘s release, the trio followed up with a Lagniappe Session EP in collaboration with Aquarium Drunkard. That June saw the release of their first live album, Scenic Route, which featured recordings from their live-streamed outdoor shows from the previous year.
Continuing their reputation for restless prolificacy, the Norwegian trio released a 3LP box set consisting of a solo album from each member — just like KISS did in 1978, they’ll gladly mention. Released last November through their longtime label home Jansen Records, each individual album in the box set displayed each member’s unique talents and tastes while still being a part of of the larger Orions Belte universe.
Chris Holm’s solo self-titled album, released last November was a trippy, psych pop affair
Øyvind Blomstrøm’s solo self-titled album, which was released early last year, featured a funky mix of psych folk, psych funk and psych blues
Kim Åge Furuhaug solo self-titled album was also released last November and coincided with the release of the box set. Furuhaug’s solo album was a sonic left-turn from his work with Orions Belte: The album was a jazz album co-written and co-produced with Matias Tellez that features some of Norway’s finest jazz musicians, including Ole Morten Vågan (upright bass), Andreas Ulvo (piano, keys, organ) and Lars Horntveth (saxophone, clarinet, percussion, guitar).
The restlessly prolific Norwegian trio’s third full-length album Women is slated for an October 6, 2023 release through their longtime label home Jansen Records. Much like their previously released work, all the songwriting and production is done by the band members themselves, but with Women they’ve consciously put a lot of effort into making everything bigger and more powerful than before. String arrangements flow easily throughout the album’s material and is meant to describe a sensation that they describe as feeling “like releasing a million balloons at once while lying looking at the night sky, and dreaming of road trips on bumpy country roads through the Amazon in Brazil.”
Women will feature the previously released single “Silhouettes,” a track that manages to further cement their uncanny knack for trippy and irresistibly funky grooves but while arguably being the darkest song of their growing catalog: The song bounces back and forth between ethereal verses and crunchy, earthy guitar riffage paired with soaring hooks, paired with a supple bass line and a cacophonous string arrangement by Norwegian violinist and composer Ola Kvernberg. “Silhouettes” reveals a mischievous and adventurous group of musicians boldly pushing their sound and approach in new directions while still being rooted in their penchant for trippy grooves.
The album’s latest single is the incredibly breezy “Jai Alai.” Built around a percussive and driving drum pattern, glistening and twinkling 80s-like synths, a Steely Dan-like guitar solo paired with a dreamy Tropicalia-like coda with acoustic guitar sand shimmering mandolin paired with a bemusedly delivered lyric, “Jai Alai” is mischievously anachronistic song that sounds as though it could have been released in 1974 or maybe 1984 but while dripping in self-deprecating irony.
“‘Spent some time alone with you, a friend of mine told me to’ – everybody has gotten bad advice like this at some point,” the members of the Norwegian JOVM mainstay outfit say of the new single. “And sometimes things can go a lot faster than you thought, like Jai Alai – the world’s fastest sport. This track has a summery feel to it, percussive patterns, an in-your-face guitar solo and a dreamy ending with acoustic guitars and mandolins.”
Along with the single and album announcements, the band also announced that they’ll be embarking on yet another Stateside tour this fall that includes an October 16, 2023 stop at Baltimore’s Metro Gallery and an October 17, 2023 stop at Johnny Brenda‘s in Philly. Sadly, there isn’t a NYC date, but Johnny Brenda’s is one of my favorite venues in Philly. And you can load up on cheesesteaks while you’re there! Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
Orions Belte Tour Dates:
10/4 – Santa Cruz, CA @ The Catalyst*
10/5 – San Luis Obispo, CA @ Fremont Theatre*
10/6 – Ventura, CA @ Ventura Music Hall*
10/7 – Pomona, CA @ Glasshouse*
10/8 – Phoenix, AZ @ Crescent Ballroom*
10/11 – Los Angeles, CA @ Vencie West
10/12 – Berkeley, CA @ Cornerstone
10/13 – Portland, OR @ Jack London Revue
10/14 – Bellingham, WA @ The Shakedown (Bellingham Exit)
Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays Allah-Las — Matthew Corriea (drums, vocals), Spencer Dunham (bass, guitar, vocals), Miles Michaud (guitar, organ, vocals) and Pedrum Siadatian (guitar, synth, vocals) can their origins to when its members first bonded over psych rock vinyl in the back room at Amoeba Records. And over the course of the past 15 years, the Los Angeles-based quartet have been busy: they’ve developed a reputation for alchemically blending surf rock with folk rock jangle and rock; they’ve built up their lauded music podcast Reverberation Radio; and their record label Calico Discos.
Naturally, a lot has changed throughout the years, and their forthcoming album Zuma 85 reportedly finds the quarter facing a new world with a wealth of new sounds.
The pandemic-induced downtime between 2020-2022 opened up space for the members of the band to focus on their own lives and interests, and the time to re-envision what their creative process could look like and be. When it was safe to reconvene, a sense of looseness proved to be pivotal. Instead of bringing finished songs to the studio, they arrived at Stinson Beach-based Panoramic House with sketches, ideas and riffs.
Working with co-producer Jeremy Harris, the band crafted and shaped the album’s material over the course of three sessions, which were then mixed in Los Angeles by frequent collaborator Jarvis Taveniere. It was clear to the band that the studio’s bucolic environment — observed through picture windows overlooking Stinson Beach and Bolinas Bay — would be conducive to creating Zuma 85‘s material. “We got in real late that first night of the first session,” Allah-Las’ Miles Michaud says. “It was around midnight. We had a quick intro and Jeremy had a bottle of wine. We had a little and he said, ‘You wanna start recording?’”
They wound up recording something. When the group reassembled the following morning to listen to what they recorded, they found the session’s first song “Right On Time” mostly finished. It managed to be unlike anything the band had ever recorded, but it felt entirely natural. “Everything just worked,” Michaud says. “That studio just pulls it out of you.”
Zuma 85 derives its title from a photo of an abandoned by California-based photographer John Divola. Selected by the band’s Matthew Correia, the band’s resident photography fan and graphic designer, the photo juxtaposes a visage of man-man chaos against the natural beauty of the West Coast. It served as a reference point for the album, a symbol for the band’s new era.
Sonically, Zuma 85 reportedly sees the band leaving the familiar territory of their previously released material and embracing newer influences like late-era Lou Reed and John Cale, Peter Ivers, early Brian Eno and Roxy Music, as well as textures borrowed from Japanese pop and loner-folk obscurities. Some of the album’s material touches on komische, others are antehmic and electronic boogie, and there are even prog rock inspired material.
Zuma 85‘s first single, album title track “Zuma 85” is a dreamy composition built around a glistening and looping guitar lines, twinkling percussion, a driving groove powered by relentless four-on-the-floor and atmospheric synth textures paired with an easy-going yet catchy groove. The end result is a trippy take on the komische sound.
The JOVM mainstays will be embarking on a lengthy international tour that features an August 4, 2023 stop at The Rockaway Hotel and a September 11, 2023 stop at Amsterdam’s Paradiso, one of the world’s great music venues. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
Tour Dates
6/15 – 17 – PiP Fest – Oslo, NO
6/16 – Bergenfest (Bergenhus Fortress & Castle) – Bergen, NO
6/17 – Pumpehuset – Copenhagen, DK
6/20 – Slaktkrykan – Stockholm, SE
6/22 – Selección Sonora @ Centro Cultural Ágora – A Coruna, Galicia, ES
Diego Zevallos is Lima-born singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and DJ who splits his time between his hometown and Los Angeles. Zevallos is also the creative mastermind behind the emerging recording project Dzasko. The Peruvian artist’s Dzasko debut EP 2021’s Letters from California was recorded between Los Angeles and Joshua Tree and saw him quickly establishing a retro-futuristic sound.
The Lima-born artist’s sophomore Dzasko EP Auguries of Innocence derives its name from William Blake’s famous poem “Auguries of Innocence,” a piece about corruption and the loss of innocence. Fittingly, the EP’s material sees the Lima-born artist reflecting on corruption and the loss of innocence, inspired and informed by the political turbulence in Lima last year. The EP’s latest single “Take A Chance” sees Zevallos crating an catchy and breezy blend of psych pop, indie rock and electro pop reminiscent of Tame Impala — but dreamier and full of aching nostalgia for a place and time that can’t ever be had again.
Adam Copeland is a Verona, NJ-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who spent the better part of the past two decades in several different projects including The Meltdowns, Ben Franklin, Black Water, Adam and the Plants and The Mutts. Copeland steps out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his solo recording project Wire Crimes. And with Wire Crimes, Copeland mines his fascination with hardware synthesizers, pulsating bass lines, razor’s edge guitar and driving rhythms.
Wire Crimes’ four-song The Impermanence of ThingsEP was recorded by Copeland at his home in short bursts with drums added later in his Passaic-based studio by longtime friend and collaborator Lloyd Naideck. Thematically, the EP’s material explores memories of lost kinship, childhood reckoning, sleepless nights and miscommunication. Sonically, the material is built around shimmering synth pads, gliding melodies and multi-layered vocal harmonies.
The EP’s latest single, “Temple” is built around icy and glistening synth arpeggios, dreamily delivered multi-part harmonies paired with a driving and trippy groove. While sonically bearing a resemblance to Currents-era Tame Impala, the song according to Copeland is his electric dream that he wishes to share with the world.
Montréal-based collective and JOVM mainstays TEKE: TEKE – Yuki Isami (flute, shinobue and keys), Hidetaka Yoneyama (guitar), Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar), Mishka Stein (bass), Etienne Lebel (trombone), Ian Lettree (drums, percussion) and Maya Kuroki (vocals, keys and percussion) — initially began as loving homage and tribute band of legendary Japanese guitarist Takeshi “Terry” Terauchi, featuring a collection of accomplished local musicians, who have played with Pawa Up First, Patrick Wilson, Boogat, Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra and others.
2018’s debut, Jikaku EP saw the Canadian outfit come into their own highly unique and difficult to pigeonhole sound that features elements of Japanese Eleki surf rock, shoegaze, post-punk, psych rock, ska, Latin music and Balkan music.
They then signed to Kill Rock Stars, who released their critically applauded full-length debut, 2021’s Shirushi.
The Canadian JOVM mainstays’ highly-anticipated sophomore album, the Daniel Schlettt-produced Hagata is slated for a Friday release through Kill Rock Stars. “Hagata,” as the band’s Maya Kuroki explains “is a very deep word, something present but also something leftover from someone or something no longer there. It’s like waking up from a dream, or being connected to the other side of something.” As a band, the Canadian psych pop outfit are intimately familiar with the duality of splitting reality between past and present, complex melodies and hushed interludes, intense action and lingering response. After building their genre-defying sound on Shirushi, the septet indulged in and learned from stretching out in free-floating experimentation both on the road and with Schlett during recording sessions in Mountain Dale, NY.
Last month, I wrote about “Doppelgänger,” a track that saw the JOVM mainstays pairing a cinematic arrangement that prominently features strummed guitar, and a brooding horn line with Kuroki’s achingly wistful delivery. Part bittersweet ballad, part brooding meditation, “Doppelgänger” speaks of the duality of identity: “Being of mixed Japanese and French-Canadian culture, I always feel like in some way I’m living two parallel lives…a big part of me is here in Canada, obviously, but another part of me is on the other side of the planet…this could be said about most of us in this band” the band’s Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier says.
Hagata‘s latest single “Hoppe” may arguably be among the most mosh pit friendly punk-inspired rippers in the band’s growing catalog with the song built around slashing guitars, dreamily fluttering flute and a brooding horn arrangement while Kuroki spins a Kafkaesque fable featuring men emerging from mysterious foods. But under the seemingly playfulness of the song is a sobering admission of nothing lasting forever.
Directed, shot and edited by the band, the accompanying video for “Hoppe” pairs the band’s signature visual blend of live action and animation while capturing the band’s frenetic live energy. “I always thought of ‘Hoppe’ as having a bit of a 90’s vibe, maybe the Fugazi in me (but with Maya’s delirious tale about an old man who’s cheeks fall off after eating a rice cake… ha, ha) so we tried to simply capture the raw and punk energy of the song and keep the camera moving, with a fish-eye type lens,” Teke: Teke’s Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier explains.
Released earlier this year through ATO Records, the acclaimed Amsterdam-based Turkish psych pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Altin Gün‘s fourth album Aşk is a return to the 70s Anatolian folk rock sound that characterized their first two groundbreaking albums while capturing the urgency and power of their famously propulsive live show. Recorded using vintage equipment and techniques, the album’s ten songs feature visionary new interpretations and readings of traditional Turkish folk tunes, revealing how these old, beloved songs remain eternally resonant and ripe for constant reinterpretation.
“These songs have been covered so many times, always,” Altin Gün’s Merve Dasdemir says. “But not really in psychedelic pop versions,” Jasper Verhulst adds. “It’s definitely connecting more with a live sound – almost like a live album. We, as a band, just going into a rehearsal space together and creating music together instead of demoing at home.”
Aşk features:
The band’s dazzling reinvention of “Lelim Ley,” a classic song of lost love and exile, which features lyrics written by the late Turkish novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist Sabahattin Ali (1907–1948), taken from Ali’s 1937 short story “Ses.” Lelim Ley” was joined by music composed by Livaneli and released in 1975. Since then, the song has been lovingly embraced as one of the most well-known and beloved songs among Turkish people across the world.
“Rakiya Su Katamam” is a kaleidoscopic, space rock/psych rock-like take on the folk standard composed by Turkish writer/theologian Mustafa Öztürk, featuring a relentless motorik groove paired with wah-wah pedaled guitar, Dasdemir’s plaintive yet sultry delivery, and a scorching guitar solo paired with the band’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks.
“Su Siziyor,” a lysergic-tinged banger built around a sinuous and propulsive disco-tinged groove, Merve Dasdemir’s plaintive and yearning delivery paired with looping, glistening guitar and the JOVM mainstays unerring knack for crafting ridiculous hooks.
“Doktor Civanim,” Aşk‘s fourth and latest single is a disco-tinged banger, built around glistening synth oscillations that recall Giorgio Moroder‘s legendary 70s output,. relentless four-on-the-floor, a sinuous and ridiculously funky bass line paired with Nile Rodgers-like guitar paired with Merve Dasdemir’s sultry delivery. Simply put it’s breezy and ridiculously fun.
Directed by Ömer Deniz, the accompanying video for “Doktor Civanim” is a gloriously bonkers, sci-fi romp that features a collection of green and white-clad, gold high heel wearing, dancing nurses in a dilapidated hospital, an open heart surgery with a doctor wearing a suit, and plenty of “wait, what did I just see” moments.
“After the sci-fi movie set we all lived through during the pandemic, we wanted to recreate this song as a tribute to all the doctors and healthcare workers,” Altin Gün’s Merve Dasdemir says.
Melbourne-based psych punks and JOVM mainstays The Murlocs — King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard‘s Ambrose Kenny-Smith (vocals, guitar, harmonica) and The Orb‘s Callum Shortal (guitar), Beans‘ Matt Blach (drummer), Crepes‘ Tim Karmouche (keys) Pipe-Eye’s and King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard’s Cook Craig (bass) — will be releasing their highly-anticipated sixth album, Calm Ya Farm Friday through their longtime label home ATO Records.
Calm Ya Farm derives its title from “something my partner always says to me when I’m feeling stressed-out or anxious. It made sense with the whole country theme of the record, but it’s generally a good reminder for day to day life,” The Murlocs’ Kenny-Smith explains. Fittingly, the album, which sees the band twisting their sharply crafted psych-punk sound with country rock-conventing and pairing it with pointed commentary on the vicious tone of current political discourse, the brain-addling effect of conspiracy theories, and more. Arguably, their most collaborative effort to date, the album features more elaborate and sophisticated arrangements and sees the band’s individual members creating space to pursue their own eccentric impulses. With this record we tried to steer away from all the distortion and dirt and grit, or at least let the grit come off a bit more clean-sounding,” says Kenny-Smith.
While they still deal with the frenzied tension they’ve long been known for, the album’s material also meant to ease the listener into a much-needed and more serene state of mind. The album’s last single before its release, “Queen Pinky” is built around a funky strut, twinkling keys and Kenny-Smith’s yearning vocal, Calm Ya Farm is slow-burning, Quiet Storm-like take on their sound — and arguably, the most earnest and sincere song of their growing catalog: The song is Kenny-Smith’s sprawling, spacey and heartfelt serenade to his newlywed wife. And as a result, it exudes an enviably deep contentment.
Directed by Hayden Somerville, the accompanying video for “Queen Pinky” sees the members of the JOVM mainstays classing it up, performing the song in suits at a jazz club-like performance space along with an evil Kenny-Smith and good Kenny-Smith
Texas-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Danny Lee Blackwell is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed psych rock outfit Night Beats. With Night Beats, Blackwell creates music like one might assemble a puzzle: He builds his work from one moment, an initial spark that for him, must fit a specific criteria — it must give him goosebumps. If he gets goosebumps, then he will purse that idea relentlessly until he has a new song; if not, he moves onto the next moment, constantly looking for the perfect molecule of a song.
Rajan, Blackwell’s fifth Night Beats album is slated for a July 14, 2023 release through Suicide Squeeze/Fuzz Club. The album began much like every other Night Betas album before it: Shortly after the release of 2021’s Outlaw R&B, Blackwell had the familiar itch to create new music. Writing isn’t a process that Blackwell has to sit down and engage with, rather it’s something he’s always doing. The only differentiation between creative periods is what makes it on certain albums and what winds up falling victim to the cutting room. “Whenever my writing gets to a point where songs begin to take shape, it begins to feel like a faucet,” Blackwell explains. “As soon as Outlaw R&B was finished, I began writing and very quickly fell in love with a few ideas that encapsulated the feeling of Rajan. I think writing is a constant cycle in that it never really begins or ends, but there are definitive points where the writing is leading somewhere.”
Early on, Blackwell felt that the album would be dedicated to his mother. Although thematically, it doesn’t always reflect his tribute, the material is informed by the familial tie. “This isn’t a concept album, because every album has a concept. That term never made sense to me. But if it’s about one thing, it’s about this pursuit of freedom that was instilled in me by my mother,” Blackwell says. “In the arts, I’m very lucky in that I have 100% control over what I want to say, and how I do it,” he explains. Fittingly, the album’s material is wildly diverse and lands somewhere between Spaghetti Western film score and psych pop opus — while being among Blackwell’s most cohesive works to date. Some of the album’s songs nod at Anataolian funk and Western tinged R&B. Others with 70s Brazilian psychedelia, Chicano soul, rock steady — and even Lee “Scratch” Perry-inspired dub. “Rajan is just one of six examples of me doing exactly what I want, and not caring about whether it’s checked out or not. I’m a journeyperson. I want to make things for the sake of making them,” Blackwell says.
And while clearly indebted to its influences, Rajan is wildly innovative and finds Blackwell pursuing his wildest musical whims. “I’m here to explore. I think exploration is the underlying reason in a way, of why we do the things we do,” Blackwell explains. “I feel lucky. What can I say? I feel blessed.”
Last month, I wrote about Rajan‘s first single, album opener “Hot Ghee,” which simultaneously sets the stage for what to expect sonically from the album and establishing a scalding hot take on the interaction of psych rock, jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop and more. Built around bluesy and sultry guitar lines, swinging drumming, layers of intertwined harmonies, subtle bursts of twinkling piano, “Hot Ghee” sounds like a synthesis of Altin Gün, Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles and Free Your Mind . . . And Your Ass Will Follow-era Funkadelic that’s mind-bending while displaying Blackwell’s unerring and deft craftmanship.
“Thank You,” Rajan‘s second single is a soaring and groovy bit of gospel-tinged psychedelia built around Blackwell’s yearning falsetto, twinkling keys, dense layers of bluesy wah wah pedaled guitar, towering feedback, paired with a gospel backing chorus. Sonically nodding at a bit at Sly and the Family Stone “Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself” and Parliament Funkadelic’s “Testify,” “Thank You” expresses a sense of profound gratitude.
Directed by Vanessa Pla, the accompanying video for “Thank You” is a slick and cinematically shot visual that visually tackles the themes of the song — gratitude and transformation, as we see Blackwell physically transform by the video’s conclusion.
Montréal-based collective TEKE: TEKE – Yuki Isami (flute, shinobue and keys), Hidetaka Yoneyama (guitar), Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar), Mishka Stein (bass), Etienne Lebel (trombone), Ian Lettree (drums, percussion) and Maya Kuroki (vocals, keys and percussion) — initially began as loving homage and tribute band of legendary Japanese guitarist Takeshi “Terry” Terauchi, featuring a collection of accomplished local musicians, who have played with Pawa Up First, Patrick Wilson, Boogat, Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra and others.
2018’s debut, Jikaku EP saw the Canadian outfit come into their own highly unique and difficult to pigeonhole sound that features elements of Japanese Eleki surf rock, shoegaze, post-punk, psych rock, ska, Latin music and Balkan music. They then signed to Kill Rock Stars Records, who released their full-length debut, 2021’s Shirushi last year, and in the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about five of its singles:
The acclaimed JOVM mainstays’ highly-anticipated sophomore album, the Daniel Schlettt-produced Hagata is slated for a June 9, 2023 release through Kill Rock Stars. “Hagata,” as the band’s Maya Kuroki explains “is a very deep word, something present but also something leftover from someone or something no longer there. It’s like waking up from a dream, or being connected to the other side of something. As a band, the Canadian psych pop outfit are intimately familiar with the duality of splitting reality between past and present, complex melodies and hushed interludes, intense action and lingering response. After building their genre-defying sound on Shirushi, the septet indulged in and learned from stretching out in free-floating experimentation both on the road and with Schlett during the recording sessions in Mountain Dale, NY.
“Doppelgänger,” Hagata‘s latest single sees the acclaimed JOVM mainstays pairing a cinematic arrangement that prominently features strummed guitar, a brooding horn line with Kuroki’s achingly wistful delivery. Part bittersweet ballad, part brooding meditation “Doppelgänger” speaks of the duality of identity: “Being of mixed Japanese and French-Canadian culture, I always feel like in some way I’m living two parallel lives…a big part of me is here in Canada, obviously, but another part of me is on the other side of the planet…this could be said about most of us in this band” the band’s Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier says.
The accompanying video created by the band’s Pelletier and Kuroki was shot during a recent trip to Japan: The pair took their camera all over Kyoto, Kamakura and Chiba, places, where they have family ties. The video features footage from that trip, along with childhood footage of the band members. It’s a deep care and low that at times overcomes distance, time and change — while pointing out that change is inevitable.
Founded back in 2015, acclaimed Aussie psych pop outfit Babe Rainbow — Jack Crowther (a.k.a. Cool Breez), Angus Dowling and Elliot O’Reilly — can trace their origins to back to when the trio worked for John Cuts, a local grower near Tropical Fruit World in Duranbah, Australia.
Initially, the band’s sound was rooted in ’60s psych pop and ’70s French surf-pop, but since their formation, their sound has evolved to include elements of woodland bop, folk disco, dub, dance and international grooves while maintaining the Aquarian Age quality that has won them attention across the globe.
2018’s Double Rainbow and 2019’s Today were also released through 30th Century, which completed their three-record deal. The band now owns all of their masters — and will be releasing future released through their own label Eureka! with the assistance of AWAL Music.
The acclaimed Aussie psych pop outfit’s latest EP, the Timon Martin-produced Fresh As A Head Of Lettuce is slated for a June 16, 2023 release. Their collaboration with Martin can be traced back to a random encounter between the band and BENEE on a festival stage last year. This lead to Martin joining the band on their sold-out Stateside tour last year, which ended with recording sessions at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios. Fresh As A Head Of LettuceEP reportedly sees the Aussie outfit bringing their counter-culture vibes to a new level.
The forthcoming EP’s first single, “Super Ego” is a lush and breezy bit of psych pop built around a laid back and buoyant groove and shuffling rhythms paired with a dreamy vocal and reverb-soaked, fluttering synths. While being a dub-like beach friendly jam, “Super Ego” manages to possess a subtly wistful air of summer memories yet to come and quickly gone.
Directed by Kristofski, the accompanying video for “Super Ego” was shot on grainy Super 8 film and follows a kite flyer, getting a ride for thrills and adventures on a glorious afternoon.
Babe Rainbow will be embarking on a short Stateside town to celebrate the release of the new single that includes a stop at this year’s Shaky Knees Festival. Check out the tour dates below.
Vancouver-based dream pop/psych pop outfit FRANKIIE — founding members Francesca Carbonneau (vocals, guitar) and Nashlyn Lloyd (vocals, synth, guitar), along with Trevor Stöddärt (drums) and Jody Glenham (bass) — can trace their origins back to 2013: The band’s first lineup, which featured Carbonneau and Lloyd with Samantha Lancaster and Zoe Fuhr, met and rehearsed for what was initially meant to be a one-off gig that December. But at tehe time, each of the band’s members felt such an instant and undeniable creative chemistry that they decided they needed to go at it full-time. Within a relatively short period of time, they wound up touring across much of North America, including opening for The Charlatans on the East Coast.
The Canadian band’s Jason Corbett-produced full-length debut, 2019’s Forget Your Head featured “Compare,” a lush and shimmering track with the sort of anthemic hooks that reminded me of 80s New Wave and JOVM mainstays Wax Idols.
Slated for a June 2, 2023 release through Paper Bag Records, the Vancouver-based outfit’s long awaited sophomore album, the Jason Corbett-produced Between Dreams reportedly weaves elements of reverb-soaked dream pop, vintage classic rock, bedroom psych and beachy shoegaze into a seamless soundscape meant to evoke a world in which dreams and reality are part of one continuum, where there are no borders, and magic abounds — seemingly everywhere.
Between Dreams explores our lived experiences in a world constantly shifting and twisting abruptly around us. “What is the dream and what’s reality? What’s normal anymore and does it really matter because you’re just experiencing it all anyways,” the band’s Nashlyn Lloyd says in press notes. “I think that’s all we’re trying to do: just be in this experience and embrace it fully.”
Francesca Carbonneau explains that the boundary-free feeling emerged when the band started writing the album’s material during pandemic enforced lockdown and thereafter. “It was this weird ‘between dreams’ state because nothing was normal, or at least not how it was and we just had to carry on like everyone else,” Carbonneau says. Naturally, that influenced an overall attitude in which control and power were relinquished to some degree; whatever happened creatively would be explored. “These songs were following a sense of intuition, and not really trying to have them be anything but what instinctively came out. There was no attempt to stick to a certain genre, or take ourselves too seriously.”
Most of Between Dreams‘ material was written at the band’s dark, moldy jam space in East Vancouver, with extra pieces written at home or on writing retreats to rural British Columbia. Some of the album’s songs were written with a rotating cast of collaborators, including previous bassist Vickie Sieczka, new bassist Jody Glenham and drummer Trevor Stöddärt, while others were written with the help of a drum machine they nicknamed “Chad.” (“Chad’s so great, he always shows up on time,” Lloyd quips.)
Eight of the album’s tracks were recorded with producer Jason Corbett at Jacknife Sound and two with Connor Head at Victoria, BC-based Catalogue Studio. As the band explains, the recording sessions were full of fresh energy and vision: Glenham and Stöddärt lent new angles to the album’s material, while the world’s standstill allowed the band the time to build out the album’s sonic world. (During part of the recording sessions, the band’s Lloyd had to figure out how to sing while nine months pregnant.)
Jeremy Wallace Maclean, best known for his experience composing for film and TV, mixed the album, giving the material a broad, cinematic scope. For Lloyd and Carbonneau, the record marks an attainment of a sound they’ve been chasing for years. Carbonneau quotes Miles Davis: “Man, sometimes it takes a long time to sound like yourself…and this is the closest we’ve gotten so far,” she adds with a laugh.
Earlier this year, I wrote about album opening track “Visions.” Rooted in old-school attention to craft, “Visions” sees the Vancouver-based outfit pairing a laid-back Laurel Canyon/Fleetwood Mac-like groove with a shimmering melody and Carbonneau and Lloyd’s soaring harmonies. The song — to me, at least — evokes a half-remembered, waking dream; the sort in which you have a lingering and unshakable sense of déja vu that you can’t put your finger on.
“‘When dreams and memories entangle with our present moment, we can begin to question our entire reality. ‘Visions’ is about that feeling, about sensing something beyond what’s happening right in front of you…as if right below the surface, anything you’ve ever lost is there; waiting for you to reach out your hand and grab it back,” FRANKIIE’s Carbonneau explains. “Like déja vu, which is something I experience frequently, a single moment can feel surreal, strange and yet strikingly familiar all at once.“
“Cruel,” Between Dreams‘ third and latest single is a jangling and reverb-soaked, 70s AM rock-inspired anthem that sonically meshes Fleetwood Mac with elements of dream pop and jangle pop — and thematically nods at Carly Simon‘s “You’re So Vain.” Out of the album’s previously released singles “Cruel” features one of the most rousingly anthemic choruses the band has written to date. “In an age of celebrated self-absorption, we were inspired to write this song about a fictitious character that we sing back and forth with. It is essentially an amalgamation of all the narcissists we’ve ever met and in turn we want nothing to do with,” the band says.
The accompanying live footage, captures the band playing the song with a joyful abandon.
Kevin Parker is a highly-acclaimed, Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, best known as the creative mastermind behind the Aussie-based JOVM mainstay outfit Tame Impala. He has released four Gold-certified full-length albums, 2010’s InnerSpeaker, 2012’s Lonerism, 2015’s Currents and 2020’s The Slow Rush, making him one of the most commercially successful and perhaps influential artists of the past decade. Additionally, as a songwriter and producer, Parker has collaborated with The Weeknd, SZA, Lady Gaga, Travis Scott, Gorillaz, Mark Ronson, Kali Uchis, 070 Shake, Miguel, A$AP Rocky and a growing list of others.
The two JOVM mainstays have finally teamed up for “No More Lies,” the first new bit of material from Thundercat since 2020’s It Is What It Is. The new single is a slick synthesis of the pair’s remarkably complementary styles: Parker’s dense layers of twinkling and cascading synths are paired with Bruner’s wobbling wah-wah pedaled bass lines and skittering beats and the duo’s unerring knack for catchy hooks serving as a silky bed for the duo to trade verses lamenting a doomed relationship that they’ve royally fucked up — and for which Bruner takes responsibility The song culminates with a monologue from the bassist questioning the old adage of honesty being the best policy in relationships. You may tell the truth because you care about someone, but on occasion you might have to lie someone because you care.
“I’ve wanted to work with Kevin since the very first Tame Impala album,” Bruner says. “I feel that I knew that us working together would be special. I’ve been excited about this song for a long time and hope to create more with Kevin in the future.”
The new single arrives ahead of a huge string of tour dates for the JOVM mainstay, who will play dates with Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Strokes before heading to Australia, Asia and Europe later this summer.
Texas-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Danny Lee Blackwell is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed psych rock outfit Night Beats. With Night Beats, Blackwell creates music like one might assemble a puzzle: He builds his work from one moment, an initial spark that for him, must fit a specific criteria — it must give him goosebumps. If he gets goosebumps, then he will purse that idea relentlessly until he has a new song; if not, he moves onto the next moment, constantly looking for the perfect molecule of a song.
Rajan, Blackwell’s fifth Night Beats album is slated for a July 14, 2023 release through Suicide Squeeze/Fuzz Club. The album began much like every other Night Betas album before it: Shortly after the release of 2021’s Outlaw R&B, Blackwell had the familiar itch to create new music. Writing isn’t a process that Blackwell has to sit down and engage with, rather it’s something he’s always doing. The only differentiation between creative periods is what makes it on certain albums and what winds up falling victim to the cutting room. “Whenever my writing gets to a point where songs begin to take shape, it begins to feel like a faucet,” Blackwell explains. “As soon as Outlaw R&B was finished, I began writing and very quickly fell in love with a few ideas that encapsulated the feeling of Rajan. I think writing is a constant cycle in that it never really begins or ends, but there are definitive points where the writing is leading somewhere.”
Early on, Blackwell felt that the album would be dedicated to his mother. Although thematically, it doesn’t always reflect his tribute, the material is informed by the familial tie. “This isn’t a concept album, because every album has a concept. That term never made sense to me. But if it’s about one thing, it’s about this pursuit of freedom that was instilled in me by my mother,” Blackwell says. “In the arts, I’m very lucky in that I have 100% control over what I want to say, and how I do it,” he explains. Fittingly, the album’s material is wildly diverse and lands somewhere between Spaghetti Western film score and psych pop opus — while being among Blackwell’s most cohesive works to date. Some of the album’s songs nod at Anataolian funk and Western tinged R&B. Others with 70s Brazilian psychedelia, Chicano soul, rock steady — and even Lee “Scratch” Perry-inspired dub. “Rajan is just one of six examples of me doing exactly what I want, and not caring about whether it’s checked out or not. I’m a journeyperson. I want to make things for the sake of making them,” Blackwell says.
And while clearly indebted to its influences, Rajan is wildly innovative and finds Blackwell pursuing his wildest musical whims. “I’m here to explore. I think exploration is the underlying reason in a way, of why we do the things we do,” Blackwell explains. “I feel lucky. What can I say? I feel blessed.”
The album’s first single, album opener “Hot Ghee” both sets the stage for what to expect from the album, while establishing it as a scalding hot take on the intersection of psych rock, jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop and more. Built around bluesy and sultry guitar lines, swinging drumming, layers of intertwined harmonies, subtle bursts of twinkling piano, “Hot Ghee” sounds like a synthesis of Altin Gün, Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles and Free Your Mind . . . And Your Ass Will Follow-era Funkadelic that’s mind-bending while displaying Blackwell’s unerring and deft craftmanship.
Directed by Chris Keller, edited by Bradley Hale and featuring animation by Hale, the accompanying video for “Hot Ghee” recalls the opening sequences to 60s lysergic-tinged films, complete with line animation, footage of Blackwell rocking out and singing the song’s lyrics, superimposed with more Blackwells. Trippy.
