Category: Single Review

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Martina and the Moons Return with Hook Driven and Anthemic “Laundry Mat”

Led by Spanish-Scottish frontperson Martina Moon, Dublin-based indie outfit Martina and the Moons can trace their origins back to when Moon relocated to Dublin to study at BIMM University, where she met and quickly connect with her then-future bandmates Ruby Levins (bass), Zahira Ellis (drums) and Sarah Morgan (guitar).

The Dublin-based quartet quickly established a sound that blended elements of post-punk, indie rock, 90s Brit Pop and the 60s and 70s Laurel Canyon sound while featuring gorgeous melodies and a youthful aggression and angst. In fact, Moon, who cites Paul Simon, Lady Gaga, Catatonia, Radiohead, Bruno Mars and a list of others, writes lyrics that frequently touch on themes of alienation, being misunderstood, being an outsider, and yearning with a deeply lived-in sensibility and earnestness.

In a short period of time, the band has played opening slots for Porridge Radio and Thumper. They’ve played Whelan’s Main Stage at Ones to Watch. And adding to a growing regional profile, they played this past year’s The Great Escape Festival, receiving mentions from BBC Introducing and praise from Golden Plec and from Hotpress, who named them one of their Hot for ’25 acts. 

Earlier this year, the band signed to Dublin-based artist developmental label, Rubarb Music, who their Ruadhrí Cushnan-produced “Baby Turtle.” “Laundry Mat,” the follow up to “Baby Turtle” is a hook-driven anthem and arguably, the Dublin-based act’s hardest rocking tune to date. And while showcasing the more Brit pop-leaning elements of their sound, “Laundry Mat,” seemingly channels more contemporary fare, like Aussie JOVM mainstays RVG and others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Gloin Teams Up with Sunglaciers on a Unique Cover of “Bucket of Blood”

Toronto-based post-punk outfit Gloin — longtime friends John Watson (guitar, vocals), Vic Byers (bass, vocals), Simon Lou (drums, vocals) and Richard Garnheim (synths, guitar) — formed back in 2018 and at the onset was a means for the band’s members to convey their shared passion for engaging and visceral live performance.

Since their formation, the band has gone on a handful of North American tours, making the rounds of the North American festival circuit with sets at SXSW, Freakout Fest, New Colossus Festival, Sled Island, Treefort Music Fest, West Fest and FME while also sharing the stage with a number of renowned acts including Snapped Ankles, Osees, Amyl and The Sniffers, Brian Jonestown Massacre, A Place to Bury Strangers, Orville Peck, Moon Duo and Night Beats. 

Throughout, the Canadian band has put precedence on delivering unforgettable live shows, driven by improvisation and experimentation, with the musicians trusting their instincts that louder is always better. And as a result, the band’s live sets are sweaty and cathartic.

The Toronto-based outfit self-released their debut EP, 2019’s Soft Monster. The EP caught the attention of Montréal-based label Mothland, who signed the band and released their 2022 Dylan Frankland produced full-length debut, We Found This, which was mixed by Graham Walsh. Inspired by Sonic Youth and Lightning Bolt, the album featured pop melodies and beautifully noisy arrangements, anchored by a distorted rhythm section that offers urgency but also soothing grooves. 

The band’s Polaris Music Prize long-listed sophomore album All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry) was released earlier this year. Described by the band as “dancey, but scary,” the album’s material sees them revamping their noise rock-driven sound, adding further elements from darkwave, industrial, and post-punk. 

The album sees the band tackling themes of bewilderment, dread and anger, while being anchored around bombastic rhythmic constructs, savvy arrangements and fervid melodies. All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)‘s material are solemn tracks about perseverance and self-determination that are cleverly subverted through sarcastic commentary. 

“We wrote the whole album as a collective, influenced by shared experiences. Half was written electronically with usually one person bringing in ideas that we all elaborated on together,” the band says in press notes. “We jammed a lot, finding things we liked that we later pieced together, while also saving pieces that we might be able to plug into a future song. One method for a few of the song was for all of us to write a complete piece, and then switch up instruments.”

Just as the Toronto-based outfit is about to embark on a UK and EU tour, released a unique double single “Buckets of Blood.” “For this release, Gloin asked us to reach out to over acts on Mothland to see if they would cover their song ‘Bucket of Blood’ with only the instrumental version and lyrics for reference,” Mothland’s Phillipe Larocque explains. “So basically Sunglaciers and We Owe did not hear Gloin’s version until their album dropped. We really dug this ‘blind cover’ initiative. We love it when moths collaborate with other artists from the label. It often pushes them to work outside their comfort zone and reinforces the bonds inside our community.”

The first release from the double single, “Bucket of Blood” feat. Sunglaciers retains the tense, Gang of Four-like post punk disco feel of the original but while being a Vulcan mind-mend — to the point that this version sounds as though it could have been a B-side on the Calgary-based outfit’s 2022 effort, Subterranea.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: moondaddy Shares Lush and Hypnotic “Great Expansion”

Founded and led by producer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Cara Potiker, San Diego-based dream pop outfit moondaddy traces its origins to the eerily uneasy quiet of the COVID-19 pandemic. And fittingly, the band embraces the age-old maxim that the only certainty in life is uncertainty.

With the release of 2023’s full-length debut, Poet Lies, moondaddy sees Poticker and her collaborators attempting to meet the haze of existence with a kaleidoscopic sound that provides peace, especially when all else feels like complete chaos. The album also saw the band quickly establishing a sound that drew from shoegaze, dream pop and trip hop that featured glistening guitars, gauzy synths and dulcet vocals singing dreamily poetic observations.

Since the release of Poet Lies, the San Diego-based dream pop outfit has gone on a sold-out tout with DeVotchKa and opened for the likes of Beabadoobee, Peel Dream Magazine and King Hannah. Building upon a growing local and regional profile, the band has headlined some of their hometown’s tastemaking venues, including The Casbah and others. 

The band’s sophomore album, the Manuel Calderon-produced Dove Tapes is slated for an October 31, 2025 release. Following upon last year’s Lightwave Lightwave EP, the San Diego-based outfit’s sophomore album may arguably be their most immersive and expressive effort to date.

Recorded at Tornillo, TX-based Sonic Ranch live to tape and mastered directly to lacquer by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering. While the core of the band is Potiker, Dove Tapes reportedly documents a maturing of the roles of her backing band — Patrick Heaney (drums), Robert Wren (bass), Gabriel Poissant (guitar) and Eric Coughanor (cello).

The album will feature the previously released, Beach House-like “Bystander,” which was released earlier this year, and the album’s second and latest single “Great Expansion.” Anchored around a propulsive rhythm section and a shimmering and looping guitar figure, “Great Expansion” continues to showcase the album’s overall gorgeous and hypnotic sound while serving as a lush bed for Potiker’s expressive, Victoria Legrand-like vocal. And much like its immediate predecessor, the new single also continues the album’s overarching thematic concern, with Potiker working to make sense of heavy forces both internal and external, including confrontations with a former friend, a brutal breakup and global events. But more specifically, the song serves as a universal love song, that sees its narrator looking back on a relationship lost to time.

“When I thought of the title, I pictured a dove carrying an olive branch,” Cara Potiker explains. ““I’m committed to creating little microcosms of love, despite what’s happening in the world. That’s what art facilitates, and what we all need to keep doing.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays Allegories Return with Atmospheric and Shoegazer-like “Baker’s Lung”

Since the release of 2022’s Endless, the Canadian experimental pop duo and JOVM mainstays  Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — have released a growing collection of standalone singles.

Earlier this year, the duo shared “DREAMCRUSHER” and “Stay Out Of The Basement,” the first two of a series of singles that originally started out as a bare-boned ukulele sketches that were gradually transformed into idiosyncratic electronic sound sculptures.

“Baker’s Lung,” the third single in the Canadian duo’s ongoing ukulele sketch series is a lush, dreamily ruminative track that sees the JOVM mainstays pairing introspective lyrics focusing on the inevitability of morality, the search for meaning in the face of mortality and the always elusive pursuit of fulfillment with swirling, shoegazer-like electronic and acoustic instrumental textures.

As the duo explain, the song sees the duo asking several questions: As you imagine the future, how do you build when the foundation of what you thought mattered no longer fills that space? What do you do when your time is consumed by the hours of a career — especially a career that’s not super fulfilling or what you’ve dreamt of doing? Can you just contemplate everything to death? Or can you follow the breadcrumbs to fulfillment, maybe even enlightenment? Probably not. But it’s worth asking. And worth trying.

The result is arguably, one of the duo’s more cinematic and otherworldly songs — while retaining the uneasy quality that they’ve been known for.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Charlatans UK Share Groovy “Deeper and Deeper”

The Charlatans UK — Tim Burgess (vocals), Martin Blunt (bass), Mark Collins (guitar), Tony Rogers (keys) and The Verve co-founder Pete Salisbury (drums) — are arguably one of the best-loved and commercially successful British bands of the past 40 years or so. Over the course of their nearly 40 run, the band has released 13 albums, 3 of which landed at #1 on the UK Albums Chart. They also have amassed 22 Top 40 UK singles, including beloved songs “The Only One I Know,” “North Country Boy” and “One to Another.” 

Their long awaited and highly anticipated 14th album, the Dev Hynes, Fred Macpherson and Stephen Street co-produced We Are Love is slated for an October 31, 2025 release through BMG. The first album from the acclaimed outfit in eight years, the longest gap in their history, was a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the individual members’ solo projects and side projects, life’s twists, turns and complexities and the fact that each of the band’s individual members live scattered across Europe. With all of that going on, it took longer than usual to figure out schedules; for the stars to align; and for the right vibe and right time. 

Recoded at two places that are almost apocryphal in the band’s history — Wales-based Rockfield Studios and the band’s Middlewich, Chesire-based Big Mushroom, We Are Love reportedly sees the band launching into a bold new era, one that finds them at peace with their past while looking forward to the future. The band’s Tim Burgess cites hauntology and psychogeography as two major concepts that swirled in his head as the band worked on the album. 

The band returned to Rockfield Studios for the first time since the recording sessions for the fifth album, 1997’s Tellin’ Stories. As a band, they hadn’t been there since keyboardist Rob Collins’ death, in the middle of that album’s sessions, in a car accident at the bottom of the track leading to the farm surrounding the studio.

Throughout the album, you can hear the band’s awareness of the things that made them — the highs and lows the desire to honor their own legacy, while not being deeply defined by it; and a career-long drive to be innovative and progressive. “The whole idea of hauntology and psychogeography is represented by us going back to Rockfield, where so much history has happened for The Charlatans,” the band’s Tim Burgess says. “That was important as a way of honoring every member who’s played in the band. So we’re honouring ourselves, our past, feeling that energy and reincarnating it, doing something fresh, brand new.” 

The album’s introspective creative process, brought home the fact that love has been the glue that has held the band together for so long, and ultimately that’s reflected on the album’s 11, forward-thinking, future-facing songs. 

We Are Love will feature the previously released, album title track “We Are Love,” a defiantly upbeat, road trip-meets-big venue/festival anthem, and the album’s second and latest single “Deeper and Deeper.” Anchored around a psych rock-inspired, Hammond organ and fuzzy guitar-driven groove paired with a supple yet propulsive bass line, “Deeper and Deeper” simultaneously channels the band’s classic, beloved sound while pushing it to a sleek, gleaming and contemporary direction.

“It kicks in with a sense of immediacy. It’s Altered States meets Pincher Martin,” the band’s Tim Burgess says. “The Hammond organ leads the way and hands you over to the irresistible and relentless bassline – a sense of giving in to what surrounds you. Sometimes it’s where you should be going. But you only get the answer once you can’t turn back.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Florida’s Jbryan Shares Meditative “Roads Not Taken”

Jbryan is a Midwest-born, Florida-based self-taught singer/songwriter and musician, whose creative career started fairly humbly: He picked up the drums and guitar and started writing songs during the COVID-19 pandemic. He then started producing songs — mainly because he really enjoyed it.

Now, pursuing music as a career, the Florida-based singer/songwriter and musician describes his work as mixing creative yet relatable lyrics with fun, laid-back melodies meant to connect with a wide range of listeners.

Released earlier this year, “Roads Not Taken,” is a mid-tempo, reflective song that showcases a songwriter, who can pair earnest, lived-in lyricism with a remarkable ability to craft a catchy hook. While seemingly channeling SANDS‘ “When It Stars to Rain” and JOVM mainstays Ten Fé, “Roads Not Taken,” as the Florida-based artist explains is about the paths in life we didn’t take and the memories that stay with us. And as a result, the song is rooted in mix of regret, wonder and acceptance of where you are right now — and how those experiences shape you.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Juana Molina Shares Atmospheric “Siestas ahí”

Acclaimed Argentine-born and-based singer/songwriter and musician and JOVM mainstay Juana Molina‘s highly-anticipated and long-awaited eighth album, DOGA is also her first album of new material in eight years. The album took six years to complete.

As the Argentine-born and-based JOVM mainstay suggests, DOGA‘s creative process was much like preparing a meal for six but with enough ingredients to feed an army. The overwhelming amount of recordings had Molina paralyzed to the point that at one moment, she thought there was no way to make an album.

“Whenever I finish making an album there’s an inertia that makes me keep recording,” the Argentine-born and-based JOVM mainstay says. But the origin of DOGA‘s material can be traced back to 2019, during the preparation for a series of concerts called “Improviset,” which Molina performed with keyboardist Odin Schwartz.

“The idea was to play as if I were at home, that is, to improvise,” Molina says. “It was a duo mostly of analog synthesizers and sequencers. We recorded everything—so many hours—because there was no way to reproduce what we did; both rehearsals and shows were unique. Some of those ideas were later picked up again.”

As the world was about to ground to a halt as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the acclaimed JOVM mainstay was finishing a set at March 2020’s NRMAL Festival in Mexico City. That festival set wound up comprising her first ever live album, ANRMAL, a live set that featured material from 2013’s Wed 21, 2017’s Halo and 2019’s Forfun EP.

The end of the pandemic saw several new developments in Molina’s career: Along with her producer and current manager Mario Agustín de Jesús González, a.k.a. Marito, founded her own label, Sonamos, which released a handful of anniversary reissues such as 1971’s Musicasión 4 ½, a foundation Uruguayan candombe-beat album and Molina’s 2000 effort, Segundo, a key record in her own growing discography. She returned to performing in several different iterations, including solo sets, “Improviset,” which Ordin Schwartz or a duo with drummer Diego López de Arcuate across the States, Europe and Asia.

She also several contractual ties with the various record companies that had previously released her work in different regions across the globe. In doing so, Molina finally became her own artist — and on her own terms.

Simultaneously, she was busy writing new material and in spring 2022, the JOVM mainstay booked ten days at Córdoba, Argentina‘s Sonorámrica Studios. “We brought a preselection of the Improviset recordings, and there the ideas for new songs appeared more clearly,” she says.

Building upon the momentum of the Córdoba momentum, her home studio in the Buenos Aires suburbs became the home for long, sprawling recording sessions. By mid last year, five songs were sketched out. And there were a trove of recordings for Molina and her collaborator to dive into and try to work into an album. “After Sonorámica I spent two more years composing; I felt I had nothing,” Molina says. “Until one day Marito started organizing what I had and we saw we’d reached 30 hours of ideas. That sparked enthusiasm but at the same time it paralyzed me having to decide which direction to take, because there were very dissimilar things. We even fantasized about making a triple album, one of them instrumental.”

Early last year, Marito proposed the idea of working with an external producer, someone with fresh ears for the new material to help the acclaimed Argentine finish the album. Around that time, Emilio Haro, best known for his work on Carolo’s 2023 full-length debut was enlisted to produce the album. And as it turned out, Haro’s influence was decisive: “He got very excited from the start, and I could say he got more out of me than anyone before,” Molina recalls. “I would record a guitar and he’d tell me to record more—different sounds, different arrangements, different ideas. Then he would take the recordings and program things on his own; many of those elements ended up on the record. I like his overall sense of the songs, the aesthetic of the mixes. I’m more of a straightforward person; I don’t usually use post-recording effects, and I thought Emilio had great command for creating spaces around things.”

Slated for a November 5, 2025 release through Molina’s Sonamos Records, DOGA reportedly sees the JOVM mainstay concentrating all the qualities that have long defined her work while going a step further in her constant pursuit for the singular. The album amy arguably be among the most genuinely original and unlike anything else of her entire career. Sonically, the album’ material features unexpected melodies, ethereal, organic songs, minimalist and subtle gestures, austere seemingly static harmonies, lyrics as concentric layers while anchored around repetition.

DOGA‘s first single “Siestas ahí,” features Molina’s processed and distorted vocals ethereally floating earound a looping guitar figure and glitchy electronics. Simultaneously intimate and cinematic, “Siestas ahí,” showcases `the acclaimed JOVM mainstays unerring knack for crafting material that’s unflinchingly difficult to pigeonhole yet remarkably accessible.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glimmer Returns with Bruising Yet Anthemic “Been Down”

Over the past couple of years New York-based grungegaze outfit and JOVM mainstays Glimmer — Jeff Moore (vocals, guitar), Jaye Moore (drums), Johnny Nicholls (guitar) and Kevin Dobbins (bass) — have released a handful of well-received singles have seen the quartet firmly establishing a sound that mixes elements of shoegaze, grunge and dream pop in a way that’s both nostalgia inducing and yet contemporary.

Building upon a growing profile, the band’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Get Weak is slated for an October 3, 2025 vinyl release through Philadelphia-based label, Abandon Everything. Recorded with Jeff Berner at Brooklyn-based Studio G and mastered by Will Yip, Get Weak reportedly sees the band pairing their more pop-leaning singles with heavy-hitting alt-rock anthems and softer, more ethereal material

The album’s latest and last pre-release single “Been Down” features big, crunchy, Dinosaur Jr.-like riffs with even bigger, remarkably catchy The Colour and The Shape-era Foo Fighters-like hooks and forcefully propulsive drumming serving as a lush yet remarkably catchy bed for Jeff Moore’s dreamily plaintive delivery. “Been Down” showcases the band’s unerring knack for pairing big hooks and arena rock-like bombast with earnest, nostalgia-including lyricism. And while clearly drawing from 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock, the new single continues a run of material that manages to sound incredibly contemporary.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Charles Mingus’ Tribute to Duke Ellington at Monterey Jazz Festival 1964

Charles Mingus was a towering giant of American music, known for his powerhouse sound and authoritative technique, irascible personality and most importantly, his original compositions, which featured a blend of jazz, European classic music, bebop, avant-garde, blues, gospel and more, a sound that he famously dubbed “Mingus Music.”

The legendary bassist and composer’s Sunday afternoon set at the seventh annual Monterey Jazz Festival in 1964 was met with breathless praise from the likes of the New York Herald, where legendary critic and Monterey Jazz Festival co-founder Ralph J. Gleason wrote, “Mingus erased the memory of any bass player in jazz” while the San Francisco Chronicle opened its review, “Monterey beyond to Charles Mingus this year. All the way.” Considering that year’s festival also featured sets from Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk and Miles Davis that wasn’t an easy feat, y’all.

Initially released on Mingus’ own short-lived mail order Jazz Workshop label and out of print for more than 40 years, Mingus at Monterey captures the legend at the height of his creativity and musical prowess. Perhaps the most consistently requested reissue by Mingus fans across the world, Mingus at Monterey proved to be a sensation upon its sold-out limited edition run for Record Store Day 2025 earlier this year, ranking as Redeye Distribution’s top-selling Record Store Day release while reaching the Top 20 on Billboard‘s Traditional Jazz Albums and Jazz Albums charts, #82 on the overall Top Catalog Albums chart and #102 on the Independent Albums Chart.

Candid Records, in conjunction with Mingus’ Jazz Workshop, Inc. will celebrate the legend’s genius with the long-overdue and highly-anticipated reissue of Mingus at Monterey, which is slated for an October 10, 2025 release on CD, 2 LP vinyl and for the first time ever on all DSPs and streaming services.

The live album has been remastered by five-time Grammy Award-winning engineer Micheal Graves with vinyl mastering by renowned engineer Jeff Powell. The two LP vinyl set includes the album’s original gatefold jacket artwork, meticulously restored and reproduced.

The forthcoming wide release of Mingus at Monterey is heralded by a hard swinging, hard-charging rendition of the Billy Strayhorn-penned, Duke Ellington-performed jazz standard “Take the A Train,” that features some incredible solos from Charles McPherson (alto sax), Jaki Byard (piano), Lonnie Hilyer (trumpet), John Handy (tenor sax) and Dannie Richmond (drums) that’s performed as a medley dedicated to the legend’s musical hero, the equally legendary Duke Ellington.

Ellington was Mingus’ lodestar, the early influence, who showed the bassist and composer how music could simultaneously hold majesty, complexity and popular appeal. Mingus’ take on the classic, standard tune is deeply loving but in no means, straightforward. It seems to swing harder than the original, evoking the A train’s length run from 207th Street in Inwood to its final stop at Mott Avenue in Rockaway Beach — from its assorted characters and neighborhoods it passes through, to the pace of the train as it races between 125th Street and 59th Street. And while retaining the familiar melody, Mingus’ tribute to his hero is roomy enough to allow each member of the band to solo in a way that highlights their talents and sensibilities.

As Mingus said of the album at the time, “It’s taken me a long time to get to where I want musically. I just wish that I could give you that picture, that moment at Monterey along with this music. This is the sound that people heard at Monterey and the life of the music is there. That’s why I bring this record to the people. I give you the Monterey music as a token of love, as a memory.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Womack Sisters Share Soulful Ballad “I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye)”

Los Angeles-based soul and R&B trio The Womack Sisters — BG, Zeimani and Kucha — are proudly carrying on their family’s legendary musical legacy. The trio’s Daptone Records debut, “I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye)” is an old-school soul-styled ballad featuring a slow-burning Motown Records-meets-Staxx Records-like groove serving as a lush bed for Kucha and Zeimani’s plaintive vocals and BG’s soulful lead to effortlessly harmonize throughout the song.

At its core, the song tells a tale of someone coming to terms with the pain of being in love with Mr. Wrong when they know they deserve Mr. Right — and in order to get to Mr. Right, they’ll have to make an uneasy, life altering decision.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Automatic Shares Dreamy “Lazy”

Formed almost a decade ago, Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon Gaines (bass, vocals) — have released two albums: 

  • Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

  • Their sophomore effort, 2022’s Excess saw the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the 70s underground met 80s corporate culture. 

After they finished touring to support their sophomore album, each member of the trio pursued their own interests: Glaudini honed her skills as a producer; Saxon Gaines enrolled in botany classes; and Dompé got married, moved out to the country and began caring for horses. 

With two albums under their collective belts, the trio wanted to do something different for their third album. Slated for a September 26, 2025 release through Stones Throw Records. Is It Now? sees the trio collaborating with producer Loren Humphrey to build upon the sound of their previous releases — minimalist yet danceable songs, which they describe as “deviant pop.”  Throughout the album’s recording process, Humphrey encouraged the band to play live and loose through long takes that allowed the rhythm section to breathe. The album’s material thematically demands the listener look at the world’s oppressive structures with a fresh urgency.

Is It Now? will feature album title track, “Is It Now?” and “Mercury,” which I’ve written about over the past couple of months.

The album’s third and latest single “Lazy” sees the band seamlessly blending elements of New Wave, post-punk and spaced-out trip-hop that continues to showcase the trio’s unerring knack for tight, focused grooves. Thematically, “Lazy” is a sort of ambivalent love song, delivered with a dark sense of humor.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Swedish Instrumental Outfit Automatism Shares Languorous Cover of Kraftwerk’s “Neon Lights”

Swedish instrumental psych rock outfit Automatism — Hans Hjelm (guitar), Gustav Nygren (guitar), Mikael Tuominen (bass) and Jonas Yrlid (drums) — will be releasing their long-awaited fourth album Sörmland Friday through German-based label Tonzonen Records.

Five years have passed since the release of 2020’s Immersion. The hiatus wasn’t completely voluntary, so when the band reconvened in September 2023 to begin the creative process for their fourth album, it felt like a special occasion for the band — much like a family reunion. Recorded in a former chapel in the Swedish rural county of Sörmland, the building’s high ceilings and open atmosphere helped set the overall tone of the soon-to-be-released album. As they were recording, they could see the verdant landscape from the building’s tall windows, which inspired them to name the album after the province.

Sörmland‘s latest single “Neon Lights” is an instrumental take on Kraftwerk‘s “Neon Lights.” Clocking in a roughly the same time as the original, which appeared on 1978’s The Man-Machine, the Automatism rendition slows both the tempo and melody down, giving the song a languorous and dreamy, psilocybin-fueled buzz.

“Another one of those occasions when the best stuff comes out when you stop trying,” the band’s Mikael Tuominen says. “We had been working on a version of ‘Neon Lights’ for a while, even played it live, that was much closer to the original in feel and tempo. We did a couple of recordings of that version and they were okay. Then, without deciding anything, we just fell into playing the theme really slowly and softly, and again, luckily enough I hit the red button. First it was almost as if we didn’t take it seriously, but soon we entered the zone, and listening to the versions back to back there was no question of which one to choose.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Swimming Pool Shares Hazy “Wednesday Kinda Weekend”

Split between The Hague and Zürich, Swimming Pool — Klyl Shifroni and Seraina Fässler — can trace their origins back to when the duo met while studying at the Institute of Sonology, where they bonded over a shared passion for songwriting, digital synthesis and code-based composition. The project’s name is derived from a photography series featuring hurricane-damaged backyard pools, which they saw a s a metaphor for the overlooked, the fractured, and the quiet beauty of ruin.

Their collaboration was born from late-night DJ sets in abandoned garages. Those sets saw their sound expanding from instinctive improvisation intoned a layered process sharped by bowed bass textures, processed vocals and subtle sampling techniques. Through a bend of ambient minimalism, lo-fi and punk, the pair blend experimental electronics and emotionally direct songwriting to not only evoke a world that is both carefully constructed and deeply vulnerable, but also allows them to balance intimacy with abstraction and warmth with fracture.

The duo’s recently released EP Line Cuts is a slow-burning exploration of the tension between clarity and distortion, closeness and distance. Rather than delivering catharsis, the EP’s material lingers in the uneasy spaces between feelings. focusing on longing, memory, repetition and collapse.

Line Cuts EP‘s latest single “Wednesday Kinda Weekend” is a slow-burning and hazy track that features glistening, reverb-soaked shoegazer-like textures, thumping beats, a supple bass line, thunderous drum cracks serving as a lush and vibey bed for reverb and distortion-drenched vocals. While seemingly channeling Beach House, the song evokes disorientation — a sense of ethereally floating without recognition or acknowledgement of space or time.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TONNUP Shares Woozy and Euphoric “Dream of You”

Craig Ferguson is an electronic music producer and artist, best known as TONNUP. Over the past year, Ferguson has released a growing collection of club bangers. His latest single “Dream of You” is a club banger featuring a punchy bass line, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and glistening synths serving as a lush bed for a soulful and yearning vocal sample.

Arguably, one of the more summery, almost Ibiza-like tunes of Ferguson’s growing catalog, “Dream of You” is a fun song with a euphoric hook that manages to capture the woozy joy of thinking about a crush — and realizing that it’s mutual.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tony Shamanski Shares a Slickly Produced and Soulful Banger

Tony Shamanski shares a slickly produced and soulful banger.