Category: Single Review

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Super Plage Teams Up with Sainte Nicole on Breezy and Flirty “Ton chien”

Jules Henry is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, electronic music producer and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed recording project Super Plage. 

“Ton chien,” is the first bit of new material since the release of Henry’s fourth Super Plage album, last year’s Magie à minuit. The new single, which features Parisian artist Sainte Nicole is a breezy and flirty bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios and skittering beats. The atmospheric and summery production serves as a lush bed for the two artist to trade dreamily ethereal delivered verses. It’s the sort of song that’s perfect for hanging out in the park with that pretty someone, who’s got your heart skipping beats.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Steve Wynn Shares Ruminative “Make It Right”

Steve Wynn is an acclaimed singer/songwriter and musician, solo artist and frontman of the revered alt-rock/indie rock outfit The Dream Syndicate and The Baseball Project.

2024 will be a very busy year for Wynn: Make It Right, the acclaimed singer/songwriter’s first solo album since 2010 is slated for an August 30, 2024 release through Fire Records. The album also coincides with the release of his new memoir I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True, which will be published by Jawbone Press.

I Wouldn’t Say It If It Wasn’t True is a vivid and revealing memoir that tells a tale of writing songs and playing in bands as a conduit to a world its author could once have barely imagined — a world of major labels, luxury tour buses and sold out theaters across, but also one of alcohol, drugs and a a low-level rock ‘n’ roll Babylon. Ultimately, it’s a tale of redemption, with music as a vehicle for artistic and personal transformation and transcendence.

Make It Right was written and recorded in tandem with Wynn’s work on the memoir. “With each chapter, I would get ideas for songs inspired by the deep dive into my past and vice versa,” Wynn explains. “The reflections became intertwined after a while, a mutual commentary between literal and metaphorical ruminating.

“The songs here aren’t directly autobiographical although the album does start with ‘Santa Monica,’ the city and boulevard where I was born and concludes with ‘Roosevelt Avenue,’ the main thoroughfare of the Queens neighborhood in New York City that I call home today. You write what you know—even when you’re not aware it’s what you’re writing about at the time.

“If the book recounted a tale of trepidation and dread and questionable choices, then that tale would turn into a song of similar intent like ‘What Were You Expecting.’ A step back for perspective and positivity, in turn, found its way into a song like ‘You’re Halfway There.’

The cataclysmic ‘one big open drain’ of ‘Simpler Than the Rain’ was resolved by the resolute ‘I’m just trying to make it right’ on the title track. A gauzy and melancholy where-did-it-go-wrong Southern California flashback on the Long Beach inspired ‘Cherry Avenue’ would steer me towards a steelier determination and reset on ‘Making Good on My Promises.’

“It was a dialogue between the memoirist and the musician, a one-man Q&A, a gentle volley in the tennis court of my mind. 40-love, game, set and match.

As I’ve found the melodies and words to stir and simmer with the stories I told in the book, I’ve simultaneously brought friends and collaborators from my recent and distant past to help flesh them out on the record. The likes of Vicki Peterson, Mike Mills, Stephen McCarthy, Scott McCaughey, Jason Victor, Dennis Duck and Mark Walton and my wife Linda Pitmon are all in the book and—look! —there they are on the record as well!”

“And much like life itself, new faces and hit-and-run collaborators would pass my radar during the sessions and provide new light as well. Chris Schlarb from California dream pop ensemble Psychic Temple added his cinematic touch, Emil Nikolaisen of Norway psych-grunge combo Serena Maneesh chimed in with his trademark sonic anarchy and then Eric “Roscoe” Ambel used his studio savvy producer chops to tie it all together at the end.

It feels perfect and very appropriate that the book and record will both be coming out in the same final week of August 2024. Not that one is needed to understand the other. Hey, you can just put on ‘Make It Right’ and use it as the catalyst to create your own life story, dig into your own past. It belongs to you now. Let it tell your own tale while I tell mine. We’re all just trying to make it right.”

Make It Right‘s first single, album title track “Make It Right” is a slow-burning and ruminative ballad, written from the perspective of someone who’s lived a fully and very messy life of triumphs, foolish and selfish mistakes, regrets, heartbreak and bitter betrayals and with the deep, wizened empathy and understanding that people are flawed, occasionally myopic, stupid and selfish. But we’re all trying to make it right somehow, in a mad, desperate world.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Soccer Mommy Shares Intimate and Introspective “Lost”

When Sophie Allison bean her musical project Soccer Mommy, she was a student at my alma mater, New York University, playing shows across the city to modest crowds just accompanied by her guitar. Since then, Allison is one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful contemporary indie artists of her era, with the release of three critically applauded albums, a slew of appearances on the late night TV talk show circuit, sets across the major global festival circuit, countless sound-out shows across the country, impressive chart debuts and a much more.

With a recent series of solo performances and her newest single “Lost,” the first bit of new material since the release of 2022’s Sometimes Forever, Allison returns to her early Soccer Mommy roots — just her and her guitar. Anchored around an atmospheric arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar, brooding and cinematic strings, Allison’s imitable delivery and rousingly cathartic hooks and choruses, “Lost,” continues the JOVM mainstays long-held reputation for crafting introspective material seemingly informed by her own life — but while being one of the intimate songs she has released in some time.

“‘Lost’ feels like something new and something old at the same time,” Allison says of the song. “It’s a song that’s full of reflection and I wanted its production to really capture that feeling. I’m happy to have a chance to play it at these more intimate solo shows, because I think it really shines in that setting.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Brijean Shares Lush and Cinematic Lullaby “Euphoric Avenue”

Brijean is an acclaimed indie pop project that features: 

  • Brijean Murphy, a Los Angeles-born percussionist, who can trace the origins of her music career to her childhood: Murphy’s father Patrick is a percussionist and engineer, who taught a young Brijean her first patterns on a pair of congas that she inherited from the late Trinidadian steel pan drum legend Vince Charles. As a percussionist, the younger Murphy initially made a name for herself as a highly-sought after touring musician with stints in the touring bands of Toro Y Moi, U.S. Girls Poolside, and several others.  

  • Doug Stuart, a jazz and pop session multi-instrumentalist and producer, who has worked with JOVM mainstays Bells Atlas, Meerna, Luke Temple, Jay Stone and others. 

2019’s debut EP WALKIE TALKIE was written and recorded in marathon sessions at their intimate home studio, during breaks in Murphy’s then-very busy touring schedule. The EP found the duo quickly establishing a unique sound that meshed Murphy’s Latin jazz and soul upbringing with Murphy’s 70s disco and 90s house-inspired production, along with psych pop. 

2021’s full-length debut, Feelings celebrated self-reflection while making sense of the worlds around and within through rhythm and lyricism. However, the months surrounding the album’s release rang extremely bittersweet with the sudden death of Murphy’s father and both of Stuart’s parents. In a haze of heartache and loss, the duo left the Bay Area to be near family, resettling in four cities in under two years. 

Their to-go rig became their traveling studio and the tracks they had started writing, along with Angelo, Murphy’s 1981 Toyota Celica became their few constants. 2022’s Angelo EP, which derived its title from Murphy’s beloved car, processed loss, informed by the duo’s own losses and the desire to move and start over. 

The acclaimed and accomplished duo’s highly anticipated sophomore full-length album Macro is slated for a July 12, 2024 release through Ghostly International. Reportedly seeing the duo at their most playful, the album’s material features the duo engaging different sides of themselves, confronting the gloriously weird paradox of being alive. They’ve leveled up to meet the complexities and harmonies of the human experience with what may arguably be their most dynamic songwriting to date. Colorful, collaborative, sophisticated and yet deeply fun, the album creates a world of macrocosm with characters moods and points of view rooted in the notion that no feeling is final — and the only way out is through.

The album’s song sequencing elicits an exploratory vibe with high-tempo peaks and breezy valleys in the psyche. The duo sees the record’s vast sonic spectrum in contrast to the expectations for their output — “we’re supposed to know the box that our art fits, in and then fully commit to it existing within that box,” Brijean’s Stuart says. Overall, the album is deeply anchored in the intention to just not just move through the ups and downs life presents you but to feel it all, and to know it intimately. 

Released earlier this year, the album’s first single “Working On It” is a funky and breezy bit of Larry Levan house-like bop anchored around a layered and strutting baseline and a loop of different percussion paired with twinkling keys serving as a lush and ebullient bed for Murphy’s mischievous crooning. The result is a song that finds the duo at arguably their most playfully light, with the song seeing Murphy riffing on self-improvement, the insomniac’s desire to finally get some sleep and life in the seeming end times in a way that’s halfway serious. 

The song started as al living room jam then as Murphy explains, “Doug played the two-layered basslines over a loop of bongos, congas an a dream machine and the rest felt like it happened in a dream.” Later Murphy asked fans to send voice memos in exchange for art, and some of those got peppered into the sound-bed. “That was a treat… Just getting to go through and hear all of these voices from around the world, an intimate and charming experience.” 

“Euphoric Avenue,” Macro‘s second and latest single is a Bossa nova and soul jazz-tinged lullaby featuring soaring and cinematic strings by Stephanie Yu, shuffling drumming by Kosta Galanopoulos, atmospheric keys, propulsive drum machine and some soulfully fluttering flute by Logan Hone serving as a lush and velvety bed for Murphy’s meditative vocal. While sonically seeming to nod at Heatwave’s “Always and Forever,” and the intro to “Boogie Nights,” “Euphoric Avenue” is a sort of psilocybin-fueled, somnambulant wander through a moonlit park, and observing everything with a sense of hyper-attentive awe.

“Being in this beautiful part of town nestled up against the Angeles National Forest played a big role in how comfortable we felt stretching out and trying to push our musical boundaries,” says Murphy. “Anytime we brought someone into the world to add their musical touch, it felt like a highlight.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Natty Reeves Teams Up with Jackson Mathod on Breezily Upbeat “Bloom”

2024 has been a busy year for the wildly prolific 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.

The Brighton-based producer and artist has also been working on his forthcoming EP Mist Over Water. The EP which is slated for a September 25, 2024 release through DeepMatter Records is the first bit of material Reeves has released under his own name in a few years. Informed by the songwriting discipline of Ben Watt and James Taylor, as well as the rhythmic language of Brazilian jazz pioneers João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, Mist Over Water reportedly sees the Reeves crafting a sound that’s stripped back and raw, with Spanish guitar and Reeves’ vocals at the center. Thematically, the material sees 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 explains. “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!”

Mist Over Water‘s first single “Bloom” is a gently swaying, slightly jazzier take on Bossa nova anchored around Bossa nova/Brazilian percussion, serene and glistening acoustic guitar, Reeves’ dreamily meditative yet upbeat delivery and warm, soulful trumpet from longtime collaborator and friend Jackson Mathod. The song encourages listeners to be open to new opportunities and to boldly take leaps of faith because things will work out how they’re meant to work out — but also because you never want to live a life in which you’ll left wondering “what if?”

“This was the first song I made for this project, and I think it sets the tone for the rest of the EP,” Reeves says of the single. “I want to give a massive thanks to my good friend Jackson Mathod for playing horns on this – I’ve always admired his playing and he really gave this track a lift!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Fen Doi Shares Upbeat and Anthemic “New Horizon”

Zurich-based producer, musician and singer/songwriter Neil Lauper is the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie electro pop recording project Fen Doi. And with Fen Doi, Lauper has crafted a sound that seamlessly blends elements of post-punk and darkwave with uptempo synth-driven electronica that also manages to be simultaneously retro and futuristic. As Lauper describes it, it’s music that “encourages you to dance into a brighter future.”

Previous releases have received support from several electronic dance music artists including Ellen Allien at Boiler Room Sydney, Curses, Perel and Rena among others. Adding to a growing profile, Lauper’s work has received airplay across Swiss National Radio.

Lauper’s full-length debut, New Horizon was released last week. The album is a nine-song, genre-bending journey of synths and infectious drum beats. The album’s latest single, album opening track and title track “New Horizon” is an incredibly upbeat bit of 80s-inspired synth pop anchored around glistening synth arpeggios, gated reverb-drenched beats, Lauper’s uncanny knack for big, catchy hooks and choruses paired with his reverb-soaked yet earnest delivery.

“New Horizon” was produced and recorded in Lauper’s home studio and initially started off as an organic piece created through improvisation on his keyboard. “‘’New Horizon’  tells a story of tender new beginnings in the aftermath of unexpected change and loss,” Lauper explains. “It is a story of maintaining an attitude of gratitude when much speaks against it.“

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: WØØLS Shares Painterly “Flooded”

Brock Woolsey is a Californian-based multi-instrumentalist, producer, electronic music artist and creative mastermind of the solo recording project WØØLS. With WØØLS, Woolsey uses a mix of acoustic and digital instruments to create a collage sound characterized by textured synths, fuzzy tones, soft pianos, heavy low end and driving drum patterns that draws from Jon Hopkins, James Blake, Tycho, Shlohmo and Weval among others.

The Canadian artist’s latest EP Santa Rosa is slated for a June 14, 2024 release through Hit the North Records. The EP’s third and final single “Flooded” is a painterly almost shoegazer-like track that opens with a symphonic-like synth melody before quickly featuring glisten synth arpeggios, skittering beats, tape saturated fuzz and twinkling keys in a song that twists, turns and morphs into different textured passages before bringing listeners back to the beginning.

“Flooded” was inspired by Woolsey’s first analog synth, a Sequential Prophet Rev 2. “I was listening to Machinedrum heavily while writing this song. The bridge is a nice break in the song. Delicate piano chords run with tape cassette saturation” says Woolsey. The track opens with a symphonic melody, eventually carrying listeners through a roller coaster of textures and passages. The bridge provides a break in the reoccurring melodies, nearly sounding like a completely different track before making a full circle, bringing listeners back to the track’s essential melodies.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Prefuse 73 Shares Cinematic “Vast Wildlife Poison”

Miami-born, New York-based Guillermo Scott Herren is a pioneering electronic musician, producer and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed recording project Prefuse 73. Slated for a June 28, 2024 release through Lex Records, Herren’s latest Prefuse 73 album New Strategies for Modern Crime, Vol. 2 serves as a companion album to New Strategies for Modern Crime, Vol. 1, which was released back in March.

New Strategies for Modern Crime, Vol. 2 reportedly continues Herren’s groundbreaking take on experimental composition through the lens of media sensationalism of crime, blended with influences from lost soundtracks, musique concréte and beat-tape music to create something wholly unique yet extremely accessible.

“I always have a movie or some random visuals playing on mute behind me in the studio,” Herren says of his creative process. “It could be horror from any era or just an old Fellini film; they tend to be playing on a loop. I will turn around from the mixing board and just stare at the images to get inspired.”

He adds, “It means that when you do finally hear my music, it’s hopefully created in a way that prompts you to see a whole scene play out in your head.”

New Strategies for Modern Crime, Vol. 2‘s second and latest single “Vast Wildlife Poison” continues a remarkable run of cinematic material that would perfectly complement a true crime series — or French Connection-meets-Mission Impossible-like thriller with the song anchored around a strutting and slithering jazz-inspired bass line, reverb-drenched, plucked guitar bursts, jazz syncopated beats and intermittent synth blasts.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Offline Shares Breezy “Pour Nael”

Felix Müller is a Hamburg-born and-based photographer, composer and creative mastermind behind the cinematic soul project The Offline. Müller can trace the origins of The Offline to his travels along the the Atlantic coastline of southern France with an analog camera, capturing beach life. Upon his return to Hamburg, he started writing song as the sonic counterpart to his visuals. 

The German-born photographer and composer’s The Offline debut, En Clair-Obscur captured the essence of his trip while evoking a chilled out, summer soundtrack that sonically channeled the likes of Surprise Chef and Robohands. 

Müller’s full-length debut, last year’s Timor Litzenberg co-produced La couleur de la mer was inspired by the work of Francois de Roubaix — and saw him creating a soundtrack to an imaginary film. The album’s material evoked images of manorial, fog-swept villas at the ocean’s edge, silhouetted sailing boats and cigar-chomping villains attempting to thwart the mission of the imaginary film’s hero. The album experimented with themes and atypical song structures, moving from dramatic cues to fragile romanticism while incorporating psychedelia, retro soul and hip-hop, inspired by and informed by his extensive record collection. 

The Hamburg-based artist’s work has received airplay from BBC Radio 6, Rinse FM, Radio FIP and Jazz FM while amassing millions of streams. Building upon a growing profile across Europe, Müller shared “Les Cavaliers” last month. The single continues his collaboration with Chris Hill (drums), Hans-Christian Stephan (flugelhorn) and Kimo Eiserback (flute) on a breezy and cinematic bit of 1970s AM radio soul anchored around a strutting, feel good groove reminiscent of Chicago and the like, wah-wah pedaled guitar and a regal flugelhorn.

“Les Cavaliers” also continued the German-born artist’s ongoing homage to surf spots in southern France, and the song manages to evoke the warm summer breeze, the smell and taste of salt in the air and the laid-back vibe of sun-kissed beach days. “’Les Cavaliers’ pays tribute to the Aquitaine region of France, which has been a big influence on my music,” the German-born artist explains. “The track came about a few days after my debut album was released, capturing a moment of relief to turn the page on one chapter, yet anticipation of what will come.”

Müller’s latest The Offline single “Pour Nael” continues the German artist’s long-held obsession of capturing the essence of the sun-kissed French Atlantic coast — but with a slightly different different message. Anchored around shimmering and jangling guitar, a laid-back yet propulsive rhythm section, twinkling Rhodes and a percussive yet languid flute and horn melody, the remarkably Bob James-like arrangement was written to pay tribute to a fan named Nael, who gave Müller some kind words about the effect of The Offline’s music had on him.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Greenville, SC-born, Atlanta-based Shadrack Bentson Shares Sultry, 90s Quiet Storm-Inspired “Hate to Miss You”

Shadrack Bentson is an emerging Greenville, SC-born, Atlanta-based singer/songwriter, who can trace much of the origins of his career to his childhood: Back in Greenville, he was heavily involved in his school’s music programs, participating in marching band, jazz band and concert band, Greenville County Youth Orchestra, playing trombone, as well as summer arts programs, where he helped to write and perform some of the music used in the final production performed at the end of the study.

After school, Benson continued to write poetry. And his debut single “Hate to Miss You” sees him exploring the possibility of transitioning his poetry into song lyrics paired with slow-burning, 90s Quiet Storm/neo-soul-like production. The song is simultaneously rooted in nostalgia and earnest, heart-worn-on-sleeve lyricism that feels lived in yet universal — and timeless in a way that’s endearing.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jessie Berkshires is a Detroit-based singer/songwriter, musician, and visual artist. As a singer/songwriter and musician, Berkshire collaborates with her husband and producer, Nat Plane to craft sleek electronic soundscapes that serve as a fitting vehicle for her songs that tell stories of love, loss, pain and hope.

Released earlier this year, “Enough” is anchored around twinkling keys, oscillating and glistening synths, thumping beats and thumping beats. Berkshires’ plaintive vocal ethereally floats over the decidedly 80s inspired, hook-driven production that brings the likes of Kate Bush, Pet Shop Boys and others to mind.

As Berkshires explains, the song is an exploration of the sort of struggles we all experience with its lyrics delving deep into the weariness of conversing with oneself and the constant retrospective gaze that can leave one feeling trapped within the confines of their mind and self-talk. Throughout the song, the song’s narrator yearns to break free from their own internal struggles and doubts.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Mzzltvv is an emerging and mysterious pop artist and producer, whose mission is to create music that means something to her — with the hopes that it’ll meaning and life for others. Much like countless contemporary artists, Mzzltvv is genre agnostic, and enjoys jumping around genres and styles with a sense of exploration and curiosity.

Their latest single “Burning Bones” is a slickly produced bit of synth pop built around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering thump and a blazing keytar solo that serves as a lush and club friendly bed for the artist’s soulful vocal delivery. While revealing an artist that seems to effortlessly craft a catchy hook, the song sonically recalls The Weeknd and 80s synth pop.

The song as she explains embodies both her personal battles and her inner fire to succeed and evolve — and as a result, the song is part of a larger quest of self-discovery and strength in which every chord and beat is a step towards owning her truth.


Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Washed Out Shares Shimmering “Running Away”

Back in 2021, Washed Out‘s creative mastermind Earnest Greene left Atlanta returned to the countryside he knew when he grew up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today, he’s preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him. 

He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion,” after the John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd. It has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large-scale visual-art experiments.

Greene’s fifth Washed Out Album, Notes From A Quiet Life is slated for a June 28, 2024 release through Sub Pop. The album, which reportedly is Greene’s most audacious effort to date, is anchored around a purity of vision. It’s also the first album of his catalog that Greene wholly self-produced with mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy and David Wrench. 

Earlier this month, I wrote about the album’s first single, “The Hardest Part,” a bit of classic Washed Out with subtle refinements” The atmospheric and achingly dream-like and nostalgia-inducing production is anchored around twinkling and arpeggiated keys, glistening bass synths, bursts of strummed guitar paired with Greene’s penchant for crafting catchy hooks and swooning choruses. And much like the JOVM mainstay’s most recently work, the song has Greene’s vocal front and center, with the song’s tale of love lost being the heartbroken star of the show. 

“Running Away” the album’s second and latest single continues a remarkable run of synth pop that’s simultaneously cinematic yet intimate and deeply vulnerable. Anchored around an alternating quiet verse, loud chorus, quiet verse song structure paired with Greene’s unerring knack for soaring and catch hooks, “Running Away” features a lush arrangement of glistening and twinkling synths, skittering and thumping beats that continues to be classic Washed Out — but with super clean production that places Greene’s gently vocodered yet plaintive delivery at the center.

“Starting a new album often means a lot of failed experiments,” Greene explains. “Basically, I’m just waiting around until I stumble into something new that I can build an album concept around.  For NFAQL, that song was ‘Running Away.’  It had all of the ingredients that ended up shaping the aesthetic for the album: a more minimal arrangement, sonic clarity, and more of an emphasis on classic songwriting technique.”
 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently split between Bath and Bristol, Night Swimming — Meg Jones (vocals), Sam Allen (guitar), Jesse Roache (guitar), Josh Nottle (bass) and Torin Moore (drums) — are a rising British dream pop quintet, whose remarkably cinematic sound draws from their collective love of film and scores, Cocteau Twins, The Cure, Radiohead, Wolf Alice, Just Mustard, Warpaint and a lengthy list of others. Meg Jones’ lyrics are often semi-veiled autobiography that draw from her own experiences and those close to her while also being influenced by Joni Mitchell, Laura Marling, Ben Howard, Daughter‘s Elena Tonra, The Cure‘s Robert Smith and Lana Del Rey.

Unlike their contemporaries, the rising British outfit has patiently taken the necessary steps to hone both their sound and live show, while landing support slots with acts like Coach Party, L’Objectif, JOVM mainstays The Orielles, The Blinders, Sad Night Dynamite, Automotion, Home Counties and a list of others.

Coming off the heels of their appearance at this year’s Dot To Dot Festival, opening the SXW Stage, on a bill that featured Picture Parlor, Mary in the Junkyard, Hovvdy and Wunderhouse, Night Swimming will be releasing their debut EP No Place To Land on September 27, 2024.

Recorded at Devon, UK‘s Middle Farm Studios last year, the Peter Miles-produced EP was recorded live to tape and features industrial rhythms set against an atmospheric soundscape, deeply influenced by Beach House‘s and Slowdive’s live shows, which the band noted combined sensory elements and a deep emotional response.

“Let That Be Enough” features propulsive and thumping percussion, shimmering and reverb soaked guitars and a rousingly cathartic and anthemic chorus serving as a lush and cinematic bed for Meg Jones’ bewitchingly ethereal delivery. Sonically bringing Thank Your Lucky Stars and Depression Cherry-era Beach House, “Let That Be Enough” thematically touches on perfectionism and obsessive thoughts with the sort of novelistic attention to psychological detail of either someone who has lived it — or has personally seen it in others. Throughout there’s a sense of aching and vacillating doubt, confusion, bargaining and then a gradually begrudging acceptance and even a sort of trust.

“‘Let That Be Enough’ is about moving on from past experiences,” Night Swimming’s Meg Jones explains, ” as well as learning to trust yourself and accepting the choices that you’ve made.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: POND Shares Funky “So Lo”

Founded back in 2008, acclaimed Perth-based JOVM mainstays POND — currently, songwriter and producer Jay Watson (vocals, guitar, keys, drums, synths and bass), who’s also the creative mastermind of acclaimed JOVM mainstay outfit GUM and a touring member of acclaimed, Grammy Award-nominated JOVM mainstays Tame Impala; Nicholas Allbook (lead vocals, guitar, keys, bass, flute, slide guitar and drums; Joe Ryan (vocals, guitar, bass, 12 string guitar, slide guitar); Jamie Terry (keys, bass, synths, organs, guitar); and Jamie Ireland (drums, keys) — have released nine critically applauded albums that have seen the band’s sound gradually morph into increasingly synth-driven psych pop.

The Perth-based outfit’s last four albums have been showcases of tidiness and brevity: 10 songs/ideas tucked into 40 minutes or so. Slated for a June 21, 2024 release through Spinning Top Music, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays’ 10th album Stung! sees the band gleefully, madly and willfully lean into the largesse of the double LP, tapping into the spirit of albums like Tusk and Sign ‘O’ the Times with a 14-song effort that may arguably be the most unfettered hour of their career.

Being a band for the better part of two decades, the members of Pond have accepted — with no small joy or relief — that they are no longer beholden to shifting expectations of cool. That idea has greatly empowered them, allowing them to play precisely what they want, to not move toward any goal but being themselves. 

Granted, it takes a lot more effort for the band to make a record these days: They’re all adults with relationships, children, professional obligations, hobbies, side-projects and/or some mix of them all. In fact, last year, Allbrook released a solo album and Watson released a fantastic GUM album — and both members went on fairly extensive tours to support those efforts. 

The band began making Stung! in piecemeal fashion with a member or two showing up at Watson’s little backyard studio to work on a new idea. They’d thinker joyously and endlessly in Watson’s little workshop, trying out a panoply of machines and widgets to get interesting sounds. This allowed them to let the songs they were working on to sit over time, so that their deeply democratic process could not only siphon and improve the best ones, but also tease out what the album was missing. 

Of course, at some time the band realized that they were running the risk of being stuck in that phase — creation, adjustment, addition — forever. So, the quintet went to Dunsborough, a scenic surfing hub on Australia’s southwestern coast, where a friend had recently finished a spacious, state-of-the-art studio. While in Dunsborough, Allbrook would run near the shore every morning. They’d all swim during the day, then record deep in the night. Most of their ancillary gear was left at home, forcing them to drill down on the songs, ideas and sounds they already had, and to make them better without getting overly carried away in endless possibility. After nearly a year of writing and workshopping, the JOVM mainstays had plenty of material for what would be the most expansive album of their career to date. 

The album’s title began as an in joke for the band, a reference to having a crush on someone or something that they began to use so often that they felt they just had to call the album that. They still laugh when they hear it now, a silly inside wisecrack suddenly open to the outside world. But for the band, it’s kind of a credo too: Despite the bruises, the callousness and suffering of both every day life and the music industry, they remain stung with music, with the idea of making songs that feel just so and doing it together, as friends. And that they’re still stung with the world, too, even when it bites back. 

Last month, I wrote about Stung album single “(I’m) Stung,” a defiantly upbeat, big-hearted and wearily resilient song anchored around strummed overdriven acoustic guitar, buzzing power chords, big shout along worthy hooks and choruses and a a laid-back trippy groove serving as a supple and dreamy bed for Allbook’s heartbroken yet proud delivery, which expresses a bitterly uneasy acceptance.

“I wrote most of this while mowing someone’s lawn. I went home and put my fingers on the piano and pretty much played the base of it first go,” Pond’s Nicholas Allbrook says. “This is a very rare and special treat and buoyed me for weeks. It’s funny because I had a mad crush on someone, and they dropped me like a sack of shit and this song just flew down and clocked me right in the forehead and I felt totally better. Then Gin and Gum added all their magic – cool sounds, passing chords.

It’s about being totally pathetically stung by someone and just having to be cool with it being unrequited. Being resilient, accepting that you are a bit of a goose, but life goes on.”

Stung‘s third and latest single “So Lo” is funky No Wave-meets-New Wave jam anchored around squiggling and angular funk guitar, reverb gated drums that sound like whip cracks, a supple and sinuous bass line, bursts of glistening synth arpeggios, and an overdrive-fueled guitar solo. “So Lo” is among the most dance floor friendly songs of their growing catalog, but while subtly recalling a synthesis of Don Henley‘s “All She Wants To Do Dance,” 80s Motown and DEVO. Allbrook’s punchy delivery sings lyrics that are times kind of goofy and at other times bitterly heartbroken. But somehow, the song’s narrator is desperately trying to keep sane and afloat in a mad, mad, mad world.

“I think Gum was just messing around on guitar playing something fun and cheesy and then realized it could be cool in a kind of cold, concrete, No-Wave way,” POND’s Nicholas Allbrook says. “I wrote the line about white dreads while waiting for a bus in Tottenham – maybe there were some hippies around, maybe there weren’t, who can really say where hippies are or aren’t at any given time… The words were ‘all these tablets got me breaking in two’ but when I first double tracked the vocals they were a bit out of time and gum thought I said, ‘these tummy tablets got me breaking in two’ which made us laugh, and thus, by the laws of Pond, became official. Some of the lyrics are sad honestly, about watching your future as you’d imagined it evaporate before your eyes – being haunted by ‘a child as brittle as paper.’ Gum thought I was saying ‘horny badger, brittle as paper’ but that was a bridge too far, even for us. This song sort of skirts between being horrendously bleak and really dumb. The vocoder Gin and Gum put on ‘so European’ absolutely kills me.”