British indie outfit Hallucinophonics exists as the crossroads of consciousness and sound, creating immersive, psychedelic soundscapes that defy and blend the boundaries between reality and dreams. Drawing inspiration from Pink Floyd, Tame Impala, NEU! and others, they attempt to create […]
Category: Psych Rock
New Audio: Jonathan Personne Shares Groovy “Rêve américain”
Initially known for his roles as co-founder, co-lead vocalist, guitarist, lyricist and songwriter in internationally acclaimed JOVM mainstay act Corridor, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, animator and visual artist Jonathan Robert is by both necessity and nature, a prolific and versatile artist.
Back in 2015, he began archiving his overflowing ideas, when his girlfriend gave him a Tascam four-track recorder. This opened a world of possibilities for the French Canadian artist, fueled by his enthusiasm for a wide range of musical genres aligned by his lo-fi sensibilities. He began compiling demos with similar sounds and inspirations, and before publicly releasing a song, a discography was taking shape.
This creative process eventually evolved into Robert’s solo project, Jonathan Personne, which derives its name from the French version of John Doe — or perhaps a bit more accurately, Jonathan Nobody. The project’s name reflects his determination to simultaneously not represent a specific person and to better reflect his multifaceted artistic identity. Over the past seven years, he released four albums that saw him drawing from a wide range of influences including desert dream pop, Morriocone-esque Spaghetti Western rock, The Clean-like jangle pop, Latin-influeinced grooves, Galaxie 500 and Yo La Tengo-like indie rock, as well as sampling, sequencing and beatmaking. And he’s done this while working on albums with his primary gig, Corridor.
Typically, Robert finds himself working three albums simultaneously. Although he gives each project the time it needs to be distinctive, there’s always one that’s on the verge of completion. The French Canadian artist’s Jonathan Personne debut, 2019’s Histoire Naturelle drew from desert dream pop, Morricone-esque Spaghetti Western rock and jangle pop, showcasing some of the project’s earliest written and recorded material. Thematically, the album’s material focused on the potential end of the world, which with the album’s timing, may have been alarmingly prescient.
His sophomore Jonathan Personne album, 2020’s Guillaume Chiasson-produced Disparitions was primarily written while the Montreal-based artist was touring with Corridor and his full-length debut was being mixed.
He began 2022 by signing with Bonsound, who released his Emmanuel Éthier-produced self-titled third album. Written alone on an acoustic guitar in a cottage, the album took an unexpected turn, when the Montreal-based artist went to Quebec City-based Le Pantoum with his friends and frequent collaborators Samuel Gougoux (drums), Julian Perreault (guitar), Mathieu Cloutier (bass) and the aforementioned Éthier (violin, synths, mellotron, vocals and production), who helped flesh out the album’s material with arrangements featuring electric guitar, 12-string acoustic guitar, Rhodes, timpani, mellotron, synths, violin and samples from obscure TV shows and movies. But unlike his previously released Jonathan Personne work, the self-titled album had a much more polished production.
His fourth album last year’s Nouveau mode was a melodic, sometimes noisy effort that brought together previously unreleased songs from different periods of the project.
Robert’s fifth Jonathan Personne album, Répertoire is slated for an August 28, 2026 release through Bonsound. The album’s material can trace its origins back six years ago: When he began working on what would eventually become Repertoire, the Montréal-based artist sensed a significant change in direction and chose to focus on another set of songs instead. This lead to his acclaimed, self-titled third album. Répertoire reportedly sees Robert bringing some light to his firmly established melancholic sound, with the album’s material drawing from yacht rock and dream pop to create something entirely unexpected. Anchored around melodic bass lines, looping figured and self-sampled guitars, the result is a sound that’s groovy yet contemplative, dreamlike yet noisy.
Thematically, the 10-song album sees the French Canadian JOVM mainstay reflecting on his relationship with music, vacillating between moments of repulsion and ones that remind him why he chose — and loves — his career.
Répertoire‘s first single, album opening track “Rêve américain” may be the funkiest song of Robert’s growing solo catalog to date. Seemingly a mind-bending blend of yacht rock, Les Imprimés and Monophonics-like blue-eyed soul and indie pop, “Rêve américain” explores the feeling of disillusionment over an idealized notion of success, specifically referencing his last tour across a dysfunctional, fucked up Trump-era United States with a droll sense of irony, exasperation and fear.
New Video: Atsuko Chiba Returns with Two New Singles Off Just Released Fourth Album
Montréal-based outfit Atsuko Chiba — Karim Lakhdar (vocals, guitar, synths), Kevin McDonald (synths, guitar), Eric Schafhauser (guitar, synths), David Palumbo (bass, bass VI, vocals) and Anthony Piazza (drums, electronic drums, percussion) — have firmly established a sound that’s a cohesive and hypnotic blend of post-rock, prog and krautock paired with offbeat songwriting through the release of 2013’s Jinn, 2019’s Trace and 2023’s Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing.
The Montréal-based quintet’s self-titled fourth album was released last Friday through Mothland. The album sees the band rethinking their sound and approach, drawing inspiration from Mark Lanegan, Beak>, Talk Talk, Can and Portishead, all while retaining elements of their long-established post-punk fueled psychedelia.
Though the band has been introducing more vocals and lyrics with every subsequent release, their fourth album sees the band further wielding vocals and lyrics as a well to delve deeper into their intrinsic meta. The result is an album that’s one-part gritty post-rock and one-part intimate hymn to self-reflection with its moodiness amplifying a communal desire to eschew recurrent patterns for the sake of comfort, approval and longevity.
The band decided upon a freeform creative process, which could only be achieved by pursuing a hands-on approach, and with each member sharing the roles of engineer and producer,
“Overall, Atsuko Chiba is an exercise in patience and restraint. The mood of the album is melancholic, at times feeling optimistic, while other times feeling almost hopeless—there’s a sense of loss and disconnect, but also a glimmer of hope,” the band explains. “It is the most vulnerable and stripped down music we have ever made. It is a departure from the aggressive and distorted guitar sound we’ve relied on over the years. We also chose to make it a self-titled record which is something we battled with. We went with Atsuko Chiba because its overarching themes relate to us in a deep way. The material on this album presents itself as a mosaic of our interests and experiences as a band. We let the music guide us every step of the way, never forcing our will upon it, instead paying attention to what it was telling us and what we could do to further support it.
At first, we would come into the studio without a plan, just playing and recording the entire time, with no pressure as to a specific outcome: free jams during which we were just generating grooves, parts, and moments that felt good to us. We also put limitations, cutting out certain instruments from session to session, opening us to new options and pathways, generating new sound palettes. A lot of attention was put into creating space and holding back from always going for big epic moments. We focussed on keeping things simple and using dynamics to create exciting moments instead of relying on loud guitars to get us there. This album features a lot of auxiliary percussion, synthesizers, and keyboards, and places a strong emphasis on vocals. We explored acoustic guitars and created many custom percussive sounds by layering two or three sources together, also programming rhythms using samplers and drum machines.”
The album includes the previous released album opening track “Retention” “Torn” and its two latest single “Pretense” and “Future Ways,” which sequentially follow each other on the new album. “Pretense” is a brooding yet lush and melodic mediation on loss and grief, seemingly rooted in the lived-in experience of losing someone dear. Anchored around a motorik groove, “Future Ways” is a mind-bending, krautrock-inspired bit of psych rock that feels both uneasy and urgent simultaneously. “Future Ways” is meant to evoke invasive thoughts racing through one’s mind, as they attempt to make sense of foreseen tragedy. Impassioned vocals dance and dart around fuzzy and distortion pedaled guitars and glistening synth arpeggios, leading to the song’s coda and uplifting mantra: Go wild/Stay Forward/Going up . .
“’Pretense’ confronts loss and my perspective on an impossible situation with someone deeply close to me. It traces a profound depression, a daily struggle to remain alive, shaped by the belief that something inside was irrevocably broken, beyond diagnosis or repair,” Atsuko Chiba’s Karim Lakhdar explains. “‘Wanted out, couldn’t wait‘ echoes his constant proximity to the idea of ending it. Life felt unbearably tense, with no center to return to. He had a brilliant mind, always in motion—always an answer, always a reason—yet never at rest. In the end, I am left standing before the grave, realizing this is not something you move on from. It stays with you. I am not okay… I’m only learning new ways to carry it. That day, I lost someone irreplaceable: a friend, a brother, a mentor, a fellow cosmonaut.
“’Future Ways’ is intrinsically linked to ‘Pretense,'” Lakhdar continues. “They were initially conceived as a single piece. The title feels inevitable: this is life after death. It asks how we continue, how we carry what has already happened. ‘This light, it grows in spite of you‘ speaks to taking what I learned from him and using it as forward motion. In this sense, he never fully disappears, he continues through me. I learned how to listen, how to see, how to approach life and music from shifting vantage points, to question, to push beyond what is given. The second verse reflects how, even in moments of profound despair, he remained deeply charismatic, silver-tongued to the point that I believed everything he said. He predicted what would happen, how he would be seen, how people would respond. There was a rare coexistence of hysteria and startling clarity, and through it all I am left confused, powerless, unable to intervene. In the third verse, a mantra repeats as a way of keeping spirits up. It’s a commitment to forward motion. It becomes a reminder that life is still here, still unfolding, and that I must remain an active participant in it, careful not to disappear into the weight of what was lost.”
The accompanying visual features footage of the band in the studio goofing during the writing and recording process and during candid moments while on tour and outside of beloved local venue L’Esco.
Live Footage: The Limiñanas Perform “One Blood Circle” at Because Beaubourg
Founded back in 2009, acclaimed Cablestany, France-based duo The Limiñanas — Lionel Limiñana (guitar) and Marie Limiñana (drums) — have firmly established a sound that meshes French yéyé with contemporary garage and psych rock with lyrics sung in French and English.
Through their collaborations with a diverse array of artists, the French duo have a unique ability to distill the cachet of a nostalgic, highly cinematic era while revisiting it with through a modern lens. They’ve built up an international profile through collaborations with The Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s Anton Newcombe and New Order‘s Peter Hook.
During their early years, their material was released through labels here in the States; for a while, they had a much bigger profile Stateside than their native France. And adding to a growing international profile, they have high-profile admirers ranging from Primal Scream and Franz Ferdinand to Iggy Pop, who regularly plays them on his BBC 6 Music show.
After a 2015 collaborative album with Pascal Comeleade, the duo signed to French label Because Music, who re-issued their catalog in Europe. And since then they’ve continued to captivate audiences and critics globally through extensive touring across Europe, the UK and Australia.
The duo celebrate their extensive catalog with the release of their first live album, Live at Beaubourg, which is slated for a June 19, 2026 release through Because Music. Recoded during an exceptional weekend at Centre Pompidou, Live at Beaubourg brings the psych rock sounds of the acclaimed French duo with the visuals of contemporary artist SMITH.
The collaboration between The Limiñanas and Smith goes back to Normandie Impressionniste 2024. Festival director Philippe Platel thought it would be a great idea to bring both artists together. “I had already been listening to The Limiñanas for a long time, so I was delighted,” he says. At the time, the duo were working on their most recent effort, Faded, an album dedicated to Golden Era Hollywood actresses, who are no longer with us. This resonated with SMITH’s work, which often employs the use of thermal cameras. “What the camera sees is not the body but the heat it gives off, a kind of aura left behind before it disappears,” Smith says. That’s exactly what Faded is about: bringing these ghosts back through music.
Conceived to match the architecture and energy of Because Beaubourg, where the label turns the museum into a playground where performances, carte blanche events and even DJ sets from the likes of Thomas Bangalter and Fred Again.. , Live at Beaubourg serves as the only recording from that weekend and was envisioned as a documentary of the event, rather than a simple live “best of” album.
SMITH and the acclaimed French duo had imagined a collaborative show that would take place October 24, 2025 during Because Beaubourg at Centre Pompidou. The album captures the hypnotic eight-song performance in a continuous flow, featuring a backing band of five musicians and their longtime collaborator Pascal Comeleade playing songs across their catalog. That’s right, no interruptions. “What I love about live shows is achieving a kind of trance naturally through the performance. We had agreed there would be no interruption in the sound, with a ceremonial aspect as well, since we were closing Beaubourg before renovations,” Lionel Limiñana says.
Along with the album announcement, the duo will be embarking on their first-ever North American tour. The tour includes an October 24, 2026 stop at Le Poisson Rouge. And of course, the rest of the tour dates are below. But in the meantime, the acclaimed French duo shared a live version of broodingly cinematic “One Blood Circle,” featuring their longtime collaborator Pascal Comeleade. Anchored around a persistent and relentless pulse, “One Blood Circle” evokes the unease, dread and brutality of our late-stage capitalist, fascistic hellscape. And fittingly, SMITH’s visuals are haunting yet profoundly gorgeous.
New Video: Atsuko Chiba Shares Hypnotic “Torn”
With the release of 2013’s Jinn, 2019’s Trace and 2023’s Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing, 2016’s Figure and Ground EP and The Memory Empire EP, as well as a handful of singles, all which were self-produced and recorded at their Room 11 Studio, Montréal-based outfit Atsuko Chiba — Karim Lakhdar (vocals, guitar, synths), Kevin McDonald (synths, guitar), Eric Schafhauser (guitar, synths), David Palumbo (bass, bass VI, vocals) and Anthony Piazza (drums, electronic drums, percussion) — have firmly established a sound that’s a cohesive and hypnotic blend of post-rock, prog and krautock paired with offbeat songwriting.
The Montréal-based quintet’s self-titled fourth album is slated for an April 24, 2026 release through Mothland. The album reportedly sees the band rethinking their sound and approach, drawing inspiration from the likes of Mark Lanegan, Beak>, Talk Talk, Can and Portishead, all while retaining elements of their long-established post-punk fueled psychedelia.
Though the band has been introducing more vocals and lyrics with every subsequent release, their fourth album sees the band further wielding vocals and lyrics as a well to delve deeper into their intrinsic meta. The result is an album that’s one-part gritty post-rock and one-part intimate hymn to self-reflection with its moodiness amplifying a communal desire to eschew recurrent patterns for the sake of comfort, approval and longevity.
The band decided upon a freeform creative process, which could only be achieved by pursuing a hands-on approach, and with each member sharing the roles of engineer and producer,
“Overall, Atsuko Chiba is an exercise in patience and restraint. The mood of the album is melancholic, at times feeling optimistic, while other times feeling almost hopeless—there’s a sense of loss and disconnect, but also a glimmer of hope,” the band explains. “It is the most vulnerable and stripped down music we have ever made. It is a departure from the aggressive and distorted guitar sound we’ve relied on over the years. We also chose to make it a self-titled record which is something we battled with. We went with Atsuko Chiba because its overarching themes relate to us in a deep way. The material on this album presents itself as a mosaic of our interests and experiences as a band. We let the music guide us every step of the way, never forcing our will upon it, instead paying attention to what it was telling us and what we could do to further support it.
At first, we would come into the studio without a plan, just playing and recording the entire time, with no pressure as to a specific outcome: free jams during which we were just generating grooves, parts, and moments that felt good to us. We also put limitations, cutting out certain instruments from session to session, opening us to new options and pathways, generating new sound palettes. A lot of attention was put into creating space and holding back from always going for big epic moments. We focussed on keeping things simple and using dynamics to create exciting moments instead of relying on loud guitars to get us there. This album features a lot of auxiliary percussion, synthesizers, and keyboards, and places a strong emphasis on vocals. We explored acoustic guitars and created many custom percussive sounds by layering two or three sources together, also programming rhythms using samplers and drum machines.”
Atsuko Chiba will include the previously released, album opening track “Retention” and the album’s second and latest single “Torn.” “Torn” is a hypnotic, brooding tune anchored around a looping synth and guitar melody paired with reverb-drenched vocals. The song manages to be expansive yet introspective, while conveying a sense of unease and distrust.
“‘Torn’ explores the struggle with anxiety through the lens of overconfidence, transforming imposter syndrome from a state of paralysis into propulsion. By constructing a false reality, the protagonist earns the trust of those around him through promises he can not keep,” the band explains. “He embarks on a quest to control the world around him, while gradually losing himself in the deception of others—and his own. Eventually, he stares into the mirror and no longer recognizes the person looking back. Over time, he becomes a composite of the characters and narratives he has invented, dissolving into his own fiction. The game becomes indistinguishable from reality, breeding a deep and growing unease. Panic attacks and episodes of depersonalization follow, each one pushing him further, eroding sleep, stretching time, tightening the tension in his chest. At the edge of a cliff—unsure how long he has been awake—he searches for release as the pressure becomes unbearable. This release is marked by the shift at the end of the song. What happens next remains unresolved: does he jump, or does an old photograph—himself beside his father—surface from his wallet, pulling him back toward the memory of who he once was? We don’t know. . . “
The visualizer for “Torn” features footage of the band shot by the band and edited by the band’s Anthony Piazza that captures the band in the studio, working on the new album and traveling snow-covered roads.
New Audio: Minneapolis’ Solid Gold Shares Shimmering, Politically Charged “Government Grade”
Minneapolis-based electro rock trio Solid Gold — Zachary Coulter, Adam Hurlbut and Matthew Locher — have released two critically applauded albums to date, 2008’s Ryan Olcott-produced Bodies of Water and 2012’s BJ Burton-produced Eat Your Young, as well as a handful of singles. The trio have supported all of their recorded output with a busy international touring schedule.
The trio are currently working on their long-awaited third album. Recorded at Cannon Falls, MN-based Pachyderm Studios, their new album reportedly showcases a dramatic shift in sound and approach: According to the band, the new songs are “maximalist psychedelic dreamscapes filled with shimmering synthesizers and pop vocal hooks.” They add that the album’s “sound is a reflection of the modern world, beautiful, but with an underlying essence of tragedy.”
Solid Gold’s latest single “Government Grade” is a a remarkably crafted and meditative song anchored around a shimmering psych pop arrangement, some incredibly catchy, well-placed hooks and a gorgeous melody. The song as the band explains is a direct response to the ongoing, violent occupation of Minnesota by ICE. And as a result, the song is a forcefully urgent documentation of our moment — one of many, of course — that also feels timeless and absolutely fucking necessary.
The band will be donating all proceeds from the sale of the song on Bandcamp to Minnesota Mutual Aid groups to support the good, resilient. diverse and deeply proud folks of the Twin Cities.
The Bandcamp link to purchase is here: https://solidgold.bandcamp.com/track/government-grade
New Audio: Lukka Shares Dreamy and Meditative “Fabric of the Cosmos”
New York-based indie trio Lukka — Berlin-born, New York-based creative mastermind Franzi Syzmkowiak (guitar, vocals), Ashley Gonzalez (bass) and Simon “SiFi” Fishburn (drums) — have long operated at the crossroads of space rock, neo-psychedelia and synth-driven indie pop. The band’s sound is anchored around hypnotic grooves, immersive textures and melody-driven songwriting, frequently blending repetition with expansive, atmospheric arrangements featuring driving bass lines, propulsive rhythms, delay pedaled guitars and layered analogy synths, and equally atmospheric production.
Syzmkowiak has travelled across the globe, seeking a musical home that felt right. She had stints in Australia, New Zealand and Argentina before settling in New York. “New York City felt like the right place to meet like-minded people,” she says. “The reason I make music is that it serves as an escape from everyday reality and the problems of daily life. Songwriting helps me process what is happening around me. Music, and especially synthesizer sounds, takes me to another realm where I can feel at peace and experience emotions I have not felt elsewhere. Creating music almost feels like a religious act. Having a band and being an artist in this city has allowed me to meet so many other interesting people. Through these relationships, I feel that I am part of a larger creative community, which creates a strong and meaningful sense of connectedness.”
The trio’s third album, the Abe Seiferth-produced Wendekind is slated for a June 5, 2026 release. The band’s Syzmkowiak was born around the fall of the Berlin Wall. She explains that children, who were born in East Germany at that time were called wendekinder, a generation born into a new, free world. Her mom would always call her a wendekind. “It felt like the perfect title for the album,” she says.
Recorded at Brooklyn-based Transmitter Park Studios, Wendekind reportedly sees the band expanding upon the sound of 2022’s Something Human while pushing further into much more immersive, synth-driven territory.
Thematically, Wendekind sees the New York diving deeper into the metaphysical, tracing loss and memory, while questioning one’s place in an infinite and seemingly indifferent universe. For Syzmkowiak, the album is a deeply personal and reflective effort, moving between memories of the past, and hopes for the future while touring on space, time, chance and self-discovery.
“Over the past three years, a series of events pushed me to look inward and question what had been driving my choices and behavior,” Syzmkowiak says. “The album became a deeply personal and spiritual journey, leading me back to my roots and to memories of where I came from.”
Wendekind’s first single, “Fabric of the Cosmos” is a meditative slow-burn that features Syzmkowiak’s dreamily yearning delivery ethereally floating over glistening synths, boom bap-like drumming and phased out guitar. Seemingly channeling Pavo Pavo, the cinematic new single, as Syzmkowiak explains is “about trying to see beyond the three-dimensional world and being only able to-do that through e-motion (electric motion/vibrations), dreams or day visions. The song slips into the metaphysical world.”
New Video: GUM Returns with Meditative “In Life”
Over the course of his career, JOVM mainstay and acclaimed Aussie singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jay Watson has developed a reputation as one of his homeland’s most prolific and exploratory artists, and as arguably one of the country’s busiest musicians: He currently splits his time between JOVM mainstay acts, Tame Impala, POND and his own project GUM.
Watson recently signed to King Gizz‘s p(doom) records, who will be releasing his self-produced seventh album Blue Gum Way. The album’s title reference Australia’s blue gum eucalyptus trees, while subtly nodding to melancholy, place and atmosphere.
The album, which dropped today follows his 2023 GUM effort Saturnia and his 2024 collaboration with King Gizz’s and The Murlocs‘ Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Ill Times.
The JOVM mainstay’s seventh album marks a deliberate shift in approach. While his previous releases embraced restless experimentation and stylistic left turns, Blue Gum Way finds Watson focusing on a singular mood and sonic identity, allowing atmosphere, emotion and restraint to take center stage.
The nine-song album inhabits a widescreen, jazz-influenced psychedelic soundscape, drawing from Talk Talk, John Martyn and Radiohead. Elegant, patient and quietly melancholy, the album showcases an artist comfortable with vulnerability and clarity of expression, unburdened by the desire to prove anything. Interestingly, the album emerged in complete contrast to his concurrent work with POND and his collaboration with Kenny-Smith, and sees him favoring harmonic density and unhurried ambience over immediacy or roots-driven simplicity.
Written largely in insolation, the album allowed Watson to lean into deeply personal thoughts and emotions. Lyrics, which were one secondary in his creative process, now play a much more central role, exploring anxiety, adaptation and life’s pivotal moments with an impressionistic touch.
Blue Gum Way includes the previously released “Expanding Blue” “Celluloid” and the album’s latest single “In Life.” “In Life” is a meditative tune featuring atmospheric synths, a supple bass line and arguably some of the most gorgeous and expressive guitar work Watson has recorded to date. And while mediative, it’s not sad. But it does carry a wizened sense of “well, what if x instead of y. Where would I be? Who would I be?”
“This song is about a fork in the road, a sliding doors moment where your life could have been completely different based on one decision,” Watson says.
Directed by Sam Eastcott, the accompanying idle for “In Life” features Watson as a stranded man, akin to Castaway in the brush. Desperately trying to survive and to keep himself entertained, he sets up a place to play music. Because I mean, of course.
Throwback: Happy 80th Birthday, David Gilmour!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates David Gilmour’s 80th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 83rd Birthday, George Harrison!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 82nd anniversary of the birth of George Harrison.
New Audio: Population II Shares Brooding “Magouilleux”
Last year’s 14-song Dominic Vanchesteing-produced Maintenant Jamais saw the acclaimed Montréal-based psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Population II — Pierre-Luc Gratton (vocals, drums), Tristan Lacombe (guitar, keys) and Sébastien Provençal (bass) — saw the trio dating from their formative influences with a deep sense of sophistication.
The trio’s third album included “Le thé set prêt,” and “Mariano (Jamais je ne t’oublierai)” a krautrock/prog rock-like take on psych rock and the brooding organ and synth-driven “La Trippance.”
And just before they were about to head to Austin to play last year’s SXSW, the trio shared the Dominic Vanchesteing-directed live short film, Carillon — Population II in concert. Shot among the massive, brutalist-inspired concrete monoliths of the Monument québécois à la mémoire des héros du Long-Sault, the footage seemingly channels Pink Floyd‘s Live at Pompeii — but shot with a camera eye that languorously floats and circles around both the band and the enormous monoliths around then.
The JOVM mainstays supported the album with extensive touring across Europe, the US, Mexico and their native Canada.
Continuing upon that momentum, the Montréal-based trio will be releasing Maintenant Jamais‘ follow-up, Gimmicks EP through Bonsound on April 3, 2026. The vinyl edition will see an April 24, 2026 release and will include Serpent Échelle EP, which was previously only available digitally and on cassette on the B-side.
Featuring a blend of vocal and instrumental tracks, Gimmicks serves as a companion to Maintenant Jamais. “It’s an extension of the electronic sounds we explored on Maintenant Jamais, with tracks like “13 1 3 1” and “Poudreuse Blues”, the band’s Pierre-Luc Gratton explains. “Even though we added upright piano and fuzz bass to some of the songs, our number one rule for this project was: keyboards and synthesizers, first and foremost!” With the new material seeing the trio completely eschewing guitar, they continue to showcase their remarkable versatility.
The use of drum machine allowed the musicians to push their own boundaries while further exploring a synth-driven sound. “It made us rethink our rhythmic habits and add bursts of intensity by experimenting with timbres and sound dynamics,” the band says. The result is an EP of material that’s at times unsettling and other times dreamy but perfectly calibrated to the point where constraint gives way to ingenuity, freedom and friendship.
Gimmicks EP’s first single “Magouilleux” quickly unfolds with dreamy synth arpeggios and droning keys paired with buzzing synths and propulsive drumming. Gratton’s husky delivery effortlessly blends with the song’s brooding arrangement, which subtly conveys a sense of menace and unease. And as a result, the song showcases the band’s ability to be intense and forceful — but with a deliberate restraint.
Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, Steve Wynn!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Steve Wynn’s 66th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 87th Birthday, Ray Manzarek!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 87th anniversary of te birth of The Doors’ Ray Manzarek.
New Video: GUM Shares Cinematic “Celluloid”
Over the course of his career, JOVM mainstay and acclaimed Aussie singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jay Watson has developed a reputation as one of his homeland’s most prolific and exploratory artists, and as arguably one of the country’s busiest musicians: He currently splits his time between JOVM mainstay acts, Tame Impala, POND and his own project GUM.
Watson recently signed to King Gizz‘s p(doom) records, who will be releasing his self-produced seventh album Blue Gum Way. The album’s title reference Australia’s blue gum eucalyptus trees, while subtly nodding to melancholy, place and atmosphere.
Slated for a March 6, 2022 release, Blue Gum Way follows 2023’s GUM effort Saturnia and his 2024 collaboration with King Gizz’s and The Murlocs‘ Ambrose Kenny-Smith, Ill Times.
The JOVM mainstay’s seventh album reportedly marks a deliberate shift in approach. While his previous releases embraced restless experimentation and stylistic left turns, Blue Gum Way finds Watson focusing on a singular mood and sonic identity, allowing atmosphere, emotion and restraint to take center stage.
The nine-song album inhabits a widescreen, jazz-influenced psychedelic soundscape, drawing from Talk Talk, John Martyn and Radiohead. Elegant, patient and quietly melancholy, the album showcases an artist comfortable with vulnerability and clarity of expression, unburdened by the desire to prove anything. Interestingly, the album emerged in complete contrast to his concurrent work with POND and his collaboration with Kenny-Smith, and sees him favoring harmonic density and unhurried ambience over immediacy or roots-driven simplicity.
Written largely in insolation, the album allowed Watson to lean into deeply personal thoughts and emotions. Lyrics, which were one secondary in his creative process, now play a much more central role, exploring anxiety, adaptation and life’s pivotal moments with an impressionistic touch.
Blue Gum Way will feature the previously released “Expanding Blue” and the album’s second and latest single “Celluloid.” Beginning with a lush and dreamy string arrangement and quivering feedback, “Celluloid” quickly turns into a broodingly cinematic tune that captures the creeping unease and dread of our seemingly unending techno-fascist hellscape, fueled by doom scrolling and rage-bait.
“Everything feels worse in the middle of the night, it’s where peak worry and catastrophizing happens,” Watson says. “Exacerbated by a slow death from blue screen light and brain rot.
Directed by Kristofski, the accompanying cinematically shot video for “Celluloid,” was filmed in a lush park just outside what appears to be Melbourne. The camera slowly zooms in on a figure on a hill in the horizon playing guitar.
