Category: Single Review

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: DJ Piscine Shares Summery “Born Again”

Maximillian De Vos, is a Brussels-based producer and DJ, best known as DJ Piscine. He’s a founding member of the Belgian DJ collective echte ra — and is also one half of The Haze.

De Vos’ latest DJ Piscine EP, Pray, Pt. 1 is slated for a June 27, 2025 release through SWIM Records. The EP reportedly sees the Belgian producer crafting a radiant fusion of club energy and emotional depth. The EP’s first single “Born Again” is a swaggering and slickly produced banger, featuring a big, coquettish pop starlet vocal paired with glistening Euro-house synths and rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

Although it’s a chilly Memorial Day Weekend here in New York, “Born Again” is a summery, Ibizia-styled banger with a playfully mischievous bit of 00s nostalgia.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Karo V Shares Lush and Hypnotic “Jack That Body”

Karo V is a Belgian electronic music producer and DJ, who specializes in a club-ready and emotionally resonant sound, anchored by lush soundscapes, intricate melodies and driving rhythms. Her tracks have been released through a number of Belgian and international labels, which have helped lead to a growing profile in the global electronic music scene.

As a DJ, her sets see her seamlessly blending several genres and sub-genres, of electronic music into a cohesive, emotional charged and dance floor filling experience.

The Belgian producer and DJ’s latest single “Jack That Body” is a lush and hypnotic track featuring a glistening synth arpeggio-driven melody, explosive finger snaps and skittering trap-like beats. Sonically recalling Tour de France-era Kraftwerk, Between Two Selves-era Octo Octa and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK, “Jack That Body” showcases a producer that effortlessly pairs lush and soulful production with remarkably catchy hooks.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Natty Reeves Shares Dreamily introspective “Roll In, Roll Out”

Last year was a very busy year for the wildly prolific and acclaimed Brighton-based producer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Natty Reeves: With his instrumental hip-hop project Astairé, Reeves released the Greener Days EP, a tastefully seamless blend of hip-hop sensibilities with Bossa nova tinged passages that was anchored around dexterous improvisation. Reeves is also a highly sought-after collaborator in his own right, and he has collaborated with the likes of Matt Wilde, Simon Jefferis and Ahbi The Nomad along with a growing a list of others. 

2024 also saw the release of his acclaimed Mist Over Water EP. The EP is a marked sonic shift from Reeves’ beatmaking and production roots. Informed by the songwriting of Ben Watt and James Taylor, as well as the rhythmic language of Brazilian jazz pioneers João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, the EP featured a stripped back raw sound with Spanish-style guitar and Reeves’ dreamy vocal at the center.

Thematically, the material saw the British artist reflecting on the fleeting nature of life, and the importance of looking inward to grow — without putting too much pressure on each moment. “I wanted to make a project that felt honest to who I am, something that represented my thoughts at this stage of my life,” Reeves explained. “Recently I’ve been thinking about second chances, new growth and how fleeting life is – coming back to the sounds and rhythms I love, not trying too hard to make something that people would find impressive, this is a bit more introspective and forgiving of myself. I just hope that listeners enjoy the sounds and find some peace of their own in these songs!”

Reeves’ first single of this year, “Roll In, Roll Out” is a breezy yet soulful tune, featuring delicately strummed acoustic guitar and gently shuffling percussion that serves as a dreamy, Bossa nova-tinged bed for the Brighton-based artist’s introspective, lived-in lyrics and dreamy delivery. While further establishing his critically applauded, acoustic-driven singer/songwriter sound, “Roll In, Roll Out,” is a reminder — both to the listener and the artist — that life shouldn’t always be taken so seriously.

“Life’s changing a lot for me lately, big changes on the way! So, I wanted to write a reminder to myself to not take life too seriously – good and bad days will come and go but everything will be alright in the end,” Reeves explains. “Musically, I’ve enjoyed really pushing into this sound, not sure what to call this style yet, but it feels like I’m going in the right direction. As always though, I hope people can enjoy the music for what it is!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Stockholm’s Yesterday’s Princess Shares Soulful and Swaggering “Not Today (Maybe Tomorrow)”

Stockholm-based instrumental soul duo Yesterday’s Princess — Fredrick Bergsten and Marcus Larsson — can trace their origins back to 2010: Bergsten and Larsson met and struck up a friendship on making music and crate digging for records to sample for hip-hop beats. Idolizing Pete Rock, J Dilla, Madlib and Da Beatminerz the pair invested in the gear their heroes used with SP1200’s and MPC’s becoming a foundation of their early creative endeavors.

As their tastes grew, the limits of sample-based music became increasingly evident, so they began incorporating organic instrumentation into their work. But they eventually ditched sampling altogether.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the pair decided to officially collaborate together as a project, rather than just making music side-by-side, which led to the formation of Yesterday’s Princess. For the Swedish-based duo, Yesterday’s Princess is a vehicle for them to explore their desire to create an all-encompassing atmosphere, led by tone, production and well-trained ears for the perfect loop.

“Growing up as hip-hop producers and both being schooled audio engineers, we value sound almost as greatly as the music itself,” the duo explain. “Tone is very important yet often forgotten – music is what you hear and tone is a huge part of that. Chops have no value if it touches no-one, and what touches you might be the tone of the instrument, rather than the note it played.”

Although most contemporary groups in instrumental soul tend to adopt a throwback approach to the production and mixing process, Bergsten and Larsson have deliberately eschewed it; instead, they opted for a cleaner sound that takes adventure of digital production techniques. “We wanted to make the mix big and full with a modern soundscape,” the duo says.

The project’s original demos were created around drum sample packs from A.J. Hall, which were also sampled by The Alchemist, Nas and Ari Lennox. Hall was then brought in to rework the breaks into full parts. “After that we re-recorded all instruments to fit the swing of the new drums and hired a bassist to replay some of our basslines [sic],” the Stockholm-based describes their creative process.

Slated for a July 25, 2025 release through Root Records, the Swedish duo’s forthcoming, four-track, debut EP, Not Today (Maybe Tomorrow) reportedly sees the pair drawing from the groundbreaking library music style pioneered by the KPM and Music de Wolfe music libraries, as well as psychedelia, modal jazz, and Swedish folk and prog music. And because of their foundations in hip-hop, the material sees the duo crafting hooky melodies and riffs to anchor the overall spaciness of their arrangements.

The EP’s second and latest single, EP title track “Not Today (Maybe Tomorrow)” is a hooky bit of modal-tinged, neo-soul jazz, featuring twinkling Rhodes, a supple and strutting bass line and jazzy boom bap drumming. The track recalls the likes of Surprise Chef, Weather Channel-styled jazz, but with a cool, sophisticated swagger.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Frankie and the Witch Fingers Return with a Grimy, Blistering Ripper

Slated for a June 6, 2025 release through Greenway Records and The Reverberation Appreciation Society, Frankie and the Witch Fingers‘ eighth album, the Maryam Qudus-produced Trash Classic reportedly sees the JOVM mainstay happily plunging into a sewer-slick fusion of proto punk venom, fractured New Wave and industrial grime. Sonically brimming with wiry synths, angular melodies and squirming and biting grooves, the material is delivered with a sly, playful balance between smirk and sneer. The band layers playful unease while exploring themes of escapism, decay and overindulgence. 

The songs were born in the grime of Vernon, Los Angeles — a wasteland littered with gutted RVs and rusting machinery, where the air tastes like asphalt and dog food. But the alchemy happed during recording sessions at Oakland‘s Tiny Telephone Studio, where producer Maryam Qudus helped transmute the tracks into the final forms with unhinged tones, unconventional recording experiments and wild sonic detours. 

Each day of the recording sessions began with cartoons blaring at full volume — a Looney Tunes ritual that turned the madness of the recording process into something childlike. Late night, sugar-fueled candy binges kept the energy spiking, pushing the sessions into a fever dream of jittery, spastic playfulness. The end result is a raw, twisted monument to rot and excess — and to toxic glamour and nihilistic salvation.

So far I’ve written about three of the album’s previously released singles: 

  • “Economy,” which offered a glimpse of what to expect from the album: grimy synth pulse right at the front, alongside angular guitar fuzz and muscular yet mathematically precise drumming paired with punchily delivered vocals and mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. Sonically, the result is a scuzzier and grimier take on Freedom of Choice-era DEVO — with a similar, tongue-in-cheek sensibility. 

  • “Total Reset,” a sweaty ripper that sees the band pairing angular guitar fuzz with squiggling synth pulse, mathematically precise drumming and Sizemore’s punchy delivery with the band’s penchant for mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. Sonically, “Total Reset” strikes me as a being a synthesis of King Gizzard and Devo — but with a mischievous sense of menace and unease. 

  • “Dead Silence,” a track continues a run of grimy and mischievous DEVO-meets-garage rock rippers, anchored around the band’s unerring knack for rousing, mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Sizemore’s punchy delivery singing lyrics about existential dread and death. Oh, how fitting for our fucked up, dire time! 

“Gutter Priestess,” Trash Classic‘s fourth and latest single sees the band continuing with the addition of a DEVO-like sheen to the punchy, garage punk aesthetic that has won them acclaim globally. And while arguably being the grimiest, nastiest song on the album to date, “Gutter Priestess” may also be the most danceable.

“‘Gutter Priestess’ felt filthy from the get,” the band’s Dylan Sizemore says. “I was hooked up to Burroughs and his junk-sick energy, romanticizing my own bad decisions and dark thoughts, cutting up lyrics, letting meaning rearrange itself. The whole thing turned into a brown, sharded nightmare but with a seductive dancey pulse.

When we went to record it, everyone leaned into the crust. The parts feel barbed and sharp – like they crawled out of a drainpipe with glass in their gums. Hopefully the lighter synth lines in the chorus add a sugary sweetness to all the rot and decay.”

Instead of a music video, the JOVM mainstays partnered with FolksPatMedia to release a fully-playable “Gutter Priestess” video. The creators of the free-to-play browser game have contributed to beloved games like Alien: Rogue Incursion, Creed: Rise to Glory VR, Dead by Daylight, Lord of the Rings: War in the North, and more. You can check it out here.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Music 4 Diana Shares Heartfelt Ballad “Mil Años”

Diana Jiminez is a Colombian-American, New Jersey-based singer/songwriter and creative mastermind behind the emerging recording project Music 4 Diana. Jiminez’s latest Music4Diana single “Mil Años” is a slow-burning ballad that showcases Jiminez’s gorgeous vocal and deeply heartfelt lyrics.

The emerging New Jersey-based artist explains that the song was written to pay tribute to her father. And as a result, it captures a sense of gratitude while being anchored around a message about love, legacy and the eternal bond between a daughter and her father.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ John The Solomon Shares an Anthemic Rocker

John The Solomon is the recording project of an mysterious and emerging, Los Angeles-based producer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who has developed a reputation for crafting high-energy, guitar driven songs packed with riffs, big` hooks, and feel-good vibes.

The project’s latest single “Come Back For Me” continues a run of crafted, big riff and big hook-driven numbers that seemingly recalls The Smithereens and Hüsker Dü — but with a modern sensibility.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Wickham Falls Shares Hooky and Anthemic “Fallout”

New York-based indie outfit Wickham Falls — Brooke Nilson (vocals, guitar), Nigel Acard (guitar), Conor Larsen (bass) and Joey Gadonniex (drums) –features four friends, who are also music lovers and extremely talented musicians, with an uncanny and innate creative chemistry.

The New York-based quartet’s latest single “Fallout” is big, hook driven anthem that showcases some remarkably tight musicianship and playfully inventive songwriting while recalling 120 Minutes MTV-era alt rock.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Glasgow’s Cwfen Shares Stormy and Brooding “Bodies”

Over the course of the past 18 months Glasgow-based outfit Cwfen (pronounced coven) — Agnes Alder (vocals, rhythm guitar), Guy DeNuit (backing vocals, lead guitar), Rös Ranquinn (drums) and Mary Thomas Baker (bass) — have quickly built up a reputation as one of the region’s hottest, emerging doom bands. Their debut single, last October’s “Reliks” won over fans and critics, with the song landing on Kerrang‘s release of the week playlist.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Scottish quartet’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the Kevin Hare and band co-produced Sorrows is slated for a May 30, 2025 release. Recorded at Deep Storm Productions, Sorrows reportedly lives in the space around doom, where the weight of the materials riffs are matched by the weight in your chest — and with material where the lyrics and songwriting as equally as important as the music. The band intend to write material that’s big on riffs but even bigger on feeling; to create songs that you carry with you throughout your life. The album sees Cwfen’s Alder bearing her (proverbial) claws one minute, whispering and pleading the next while she and her bandmates craft a sound that’s like a brewing storm front.

“We never set out to write an album. We were just four friends making music we wanted to hear. But then Sorrows emerged, and when it did, it pulled us into its orbit. We couldn’t ignore it,” Cwfen’s Agnes Alder says.  “When we stopped trying to fit into any one space, what came out was this beautiful mix of dark and light. Something visceral and cathartic.”

The album will also feature long-anticipated reworkings of “Embers” and “Bodies,” their two self-recorded demos that are also fan favorites — and helped catapult them into the national and international scenes.

Sorrows latest single “Bodies” is a brewing and uneasy storm of a track, that features Alder’s guttural, almost crypt keeper-like delivery floating around swirling, churning and sludgy power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming and the band’s knack for enormous hooks. And at its core, the song expresses a deep-seated, seething rage that has built up to an all-consuming conflagration.

“Bodies was one of the first songs I’d written for Cwfen. I’d gone through a period of significant change in my life and had burned out to the point of caring a lot less about things that had previously been important to me when I was younger,” the band’s Alder explains. “As I was writing, I’d imagined this sort of vast, feminine cosmic horror. Sort of the opposite of what women are supposed to be. And I had this thought: what if, instead of being told to stay small and keep producing, a woman took up the biggest space possible and just… consumed? Almost a black-hole-sized matriarch hoovering up everything until there was nothing left. It was fun to think about this sort of monstrous feminine presence that can’t be stopped. So the song was sort of an exploration of those feelings, a catharsis of sorts. And permission to be terrifying.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Moon Construction Kit Shares Breezy “Long John Silver”

Olivier Cornu is a Swiss-based singer/songwriter, musician, producer and creative mastermind behind Moon Construction Kit, a project that sees him drawing from indie pop, psych pop, synth pop, late 60s pop and cinematic textures.

Cornu released his self-tiled Moon Construction Kit debut EP back in 2022. His latest single “Long John Silver” is languorous, lullaby of a tune featuring twinkling keys, shimmering synths, booming drums paired with the Swiss artist’s dreamy delivery and an incredibly catchy hook. The result is a song that feels breezily effortless yet carefully crafted.

Sonically, “Long John Silver” is anchored around a nostalgia inducing, retro-futuristic production that feels simultaneously intimate and cinematic, while delving into — and evoking — the narrator’s shifting and complicated nature.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Club 8 Shares Breezy and Nostalgia Inducing “Staying Alive”

Last year, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — released their 11th album, A Year With Club 8, which featured the Joy Division/New Order-meets-The Raveonettes-like “Something’s Wrong With My Head,” a woozily blissful and escapist song that continued a run of material dabbling in 80s New Wave nostalgia. 

The duo have been busy, releasing a single every month throughout the course of this year.

  • The Swedish JOVM mainstays began the year with “ooo,” which continued where A Year With Club 8 left off — breezy and escapist, New Wave-inspired pop featuring shimmering guitars and driving grooves paired with ethereal yet expressive vocals. 

  • February saw the release of “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead.” Clocking in at 83 seconds, “None Of This . . .” is a breakneck bit of Smiths-inspired guitar pop, anchored around shimmering guitars, a motorik groove, big catchy hook and choruses paired with Komstedt’s ethereal delivery expressing swooning heartbreak and defiance simultaneously.

The duo’s fifth single of the year, the hooky “Staying Alive” continues a remarkable run of nostalgia inducing, breakneck guitar pop that channels a synthesis of New Order and The Smiths while serving as a lush bed for Komstedt’s ethereal and yearning delivery.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: San Francisco’s Rich-Bout-It Teams Up with Guce on Bruising “F.A.F.O.”

Rich-Bout-It is a San Francisco-based emcee, who has developed a reputation for boldly delivering unapologetic and gritty bars and pairing raw street wisdom with modern West Coast hip-hop energy. His work frequently reflects loyalty, pressure and survival — crafted for those who have lived it and are about it.

The San Francisco-based emcee’s latest single “F.A.F.O.” is a collaboration with acclaimed Bay Area emcee Guce that sees the pair trading swaggering and fiery bars over a bruising production featuring eerily menacing synths and skittering boom bap that recalls Too $hort’s “Blow the Whistle” but punchier and grittier. Let this track be a reminder that real hip-hop featuring dope emcees spitting fire over hard-hitting producers is still out there — and absolutely necessary.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Bee Blackwell Shares Earnest, “120 Minutes”-Era MTV-Like “LALALA”

Bee Blackwell is a rising Austin-based singer/songwriter and musician, who back in 2023 began posting covers of her favorite emo and grunge song online, which helped to create a fanbase that revels in her brand of heartfelt and cathartic music. What began as covers, quickly accumulated into her debut EP, that year’s Calico, an effort that featured fan favorite “Blue.”

The past year or so have been very busy for Blackwell, she released three singles “Dumb,” “The Same” and “Signs.” She made her SXSW debut this past March, along with a handful of energetic live shows around Texas. And with a few months of free time, the rising Texan-based artist wrote and her recorded her highly-anticipated sophomore EP, Nine Lives.

Slated for a June 30, 2025 release, Nine Lives EP reportedly serves as a sort of personal diary entry, exposing her struggles, emotional hardships and life goals. While seeing Blackwell at her most introspective and daring, taking creative risks while maintaining the vulnerability and honesty that has won her fans. Sonically, the EP’s material showcases her knack for clear and atmospheric guitar hooks, smooth calming grooves paired with her love of 90s grunge and 2000s emo.

Self-produced and recorded at Sonic Ranch Studio over a three-day, breakneck stint, the Austin-based artist’s latest single “LALALA” is a decidedly upbeat 120 Minutes-era MTV-like tune, anchored around fuzzy, distorted yet dreamy guitars, swelling synths, Blackwell’s ethereal delivery that builds up to perfectly 90s grunge inspired bridge. And at its core, the song showcases a songwriter, who seems to effortlessly pair catchy hooks with earnest, lived-in lyricism.

“‘LALALA’ is a conversation between two people who haven’t spoken to each other in probably years, with all the weird boundaries and walls that have built up over the time lost,”  Blackwell says. “There’s a sense of familiarity, but you still don’t know if you can fully trust them, so you just make things up to fill silence or to seem interesting.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Berlin’s Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys Share Brooding “Reaching”

Over the course of six studio albums, Berlin-based art rock outfit Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys — South African-born Lucy Kruger (vocals, guitar), Liú Mottes (guitar), Jean-Louise Parker (viola, vocals), Sally Whitton (bass) and Gidon Carmel (drums) — has firmly established a sound that blends elements of art pop, ambient noise and dark folk, while drawing comparisons to Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, Sonic Youth, PJ Harvey and Aldous Harding.

Recipients of the Europavox Spotlight Prize back in June 2023, the band has built up a profile across the European Union and elsewhere with sets across the global festival circuit, including Orange Blossom Special, InMusic, Roadburn, Grauzone, Reeperbahn, MENT, Wave-Gotik-Treffen, Fusion Festival, Left of The Dial, Synästhesie, The New Colossus Festival and SXSW.

Outside of her work with Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys, Kruger has contributed vocals to songs by Swans and Underground Youth. And she was selected for the Keychange Initiative, which seeks to promote gender equality in the global music scene.

The Berlin-based outfit’s latest single “Reaching” is the first bit of new material from the band since the band’s critically applauded six album, last year’s A Human Home. “Reaching” is a brooding and tense tune that alternates between slinky and atmospheric verses built around a woozy waltz-like tempo and a bruising and noisy chorus and hook featuring slashing and churning power chords.

The song thematically explores the tension between communication and disconnection, presence and absence, silence and noise. And its core, the song is raw, evocative and probing, while rooted in deeply empathetic observation of human character and nature. “I think the song tries to capture how cacophonic the quiet can feel.” Kruger says.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Cozy Shares A Catchy and Summery Bop

Cozy is an emerging American-born, world pop artist, whose desire is to make the listener listen to him and view him as a spaceman/explorer type, who goes deep into the unknown and returns with deep truths.

His latest single “Glory” is the second single off his debut EP, Little Star. “Glory” is a summery, lounge and club friendly, Afrobeats-tinged bop featuring bursts of glistening synth arpeggios, skittering trap-inspired triplets paired with remarkably catchy hooks serving as a lush bed for Cozy’s yearning patois.