Category: Synth Pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Melbourne’s SHOUSE Releases a Euphoric New Single paired with 80s VHS-like Visuals

Rising Melbourne, Australia-based electro pop/house music act SHOUSE is the latest collaborative project of two of that city’s grizzled music scene vets — IO’s Ed Service and The Harpoons’ Jack Madin. The duo specialize in a unique take on house music, collaborating with a collective of local vocalists and musicians. Additionally, they showcase talent at their OPENHOUSE parties, as a way to cement a sense of community while providing fertile ground for new ideas.

The duo’s latest single “Love Tonight” finds the duo collaborating with an All-Star cases of local scene talent they love and admire that includes Oscar Key Sun, Client Liaison’s Monte Morgan, The Harpoons’ Bec Rigby, HABITS, Pillow Pro and a lengthy of others, creating a crew that champions unity. As for the song itself, it alternates between slow-burning verses featuring plaintive solo serves atmospheric synths and two-step inducing house featuring stuttering and thumping beats, shimmering synth arpeggios and Gospel-inspired choral arrangements. Yearning sax lines and euphoric hooks hold the two different sections together, making the song a trippy and infectious synthesis of Quiet Storm-like Soul, yacht rock and house music. As the duo explain in a statement. “‘Love Tonight’ was written as a message of hope and unity for the underground!”

“Love Tonight” has amassed over 15 million streams across Europe — in particular the Viral 50 Spotify playlists in France, Estonia, Ukraine and Lithuania — and is rising on several other streaming charts, as a result of love from the likes of Solomun, Tensnake, The Blessed Madonna, Agoria, Tim Sweeney, Kraak & Smaak and others.

Directed and edited by James Robinson, the recently released video for “Love Tonight” is shot on a grainy VHS tape, and may remind some folks of security footage — but interestingly enough, the video takes cues from the video for “We Are The World.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

David Halsey is a rising 23-year-old Bay Area-based singer/songwriter and producer, best known as Petticoat. The rising pop artist has received attention across the blogosphere for crafting a shimmering synth pop sound that draws from 80s New Wave and dance music and bubblegum bass. “I love the music from eras that have had an eye towards futurism,” Halsey says. “Things like 2000s RnB and modern club/pop music.” And as a result, the young pop artist’s work evokes a swooning nostalgia — while being remarkably contemporary. Thematically, the rising Bay Area-based artist’s work explores contemporary life in the 21st century and gender expression and more.

Last year, Hasley released his debut EP, InFormat. The five song EP thematically examined the impact of modern technology on human connection. Sonically, some parts of the material echoed algorithmic structures while other parts were distinctly human. Building upon the momentum of InFormat, Halsey’s latest single “The Middle” finds the rising Bay Area artist further establishing his decidedly 80s inspired sound while gently expanding upon it. Centered around shimmering space age synths, tropical rhythms, a propulsive four-on-the-floor, Halsey’s plaintive falsetto and a euphoric, two-step inducing hook, “The Middle” is a crafted pop confection that brings Bananarama‘s “Cruel Summer,” The Thompson Twins and Tears for Fears to mind — but with a modern production slickness.

“‘The Middle’ is a direct inspiration from 80’s New Wave that I grew up on,” Halsey explains in press notes. “I was listening to a lot of Bananarama and Thompson Twins making this track. The song is a simple ‘break-free’ type song about leaving a hometown situation. The song is sprinkled with events and places that transpired when I was 18, all based around my home with my brother and father.”

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Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: JOVM Mainstay Washed Out on SiriusXM’s “Live for SirusXMU Sessions”

Throughout the course of this site’s 10-plus year history, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering Perry, GA-born, Athens, GA-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Ernest Greene, best known as the creative mastermind behind the critically applauded synth pop/chillwave project Washed Out.

Earlier this year, the Perry-born, Athens-based artist released “Too Late,” a track that sonically was a return to form: a swooning yet bittersweet bit of synth pop centered around layers of arpeggiated synths, stuttering beats, Greene’s ethereal and plaintive vocals and a soaring hook — but with a subtly Mediterranean feel.

As it turned out, “Too Late” was unofficially the first single off Greene’s fourth album Purple Noon. Written, recorded by Greene with mixing handled by frequent collaborator Ben H. Allen, the album’s production followed a brief stint of writing with other artists — most notably writing with Sudan Archives on her debut Athena. Those collaborations allowed Green to explore R&B and modern pop and those sounds have made there way into Purple Noon‘s material. Not only is the material reportedly the brightest and more robust sounds he’s ever worked out; it’s also a decided step forward: unlike his previous released work, the vocals are placed front and center at the mix, with slower tempos, bolder, harder-hitting beats and a more comprehensive dynamic depth.

Deriving its name from Rene Clement’s 1960 film Purple Noon, which was based on Patricia Highsmith’s novel The Talented Mister Ripley, the album’s material is deeply inspired by the coastlines of the Mediterranean — with Greene paying tribute to region’s island-based culture, elegance and old-world charm. But the surroundings serve as the backdrop to stories of passion love and loss — with a deeper, perhaps more urgent emotional intensity: the album’s unofficial first single “Too Late” is a tale of a first meet, with all the confused and swooning emotions that come about.

Recently Greene recorded a live session for SiriusXM’s Live for SiriusXM Sessions with his backing band shot in his candlelit front room. The session includes a live version of one of my favorite tracks off Purple Noon, the aforementioned “Too Late,” and a slow-burning, shimmering and absolutely fitting cover of Sade’s “Cherish The Day,” which points at the lush, Quiet Storm-like R&B influences of the album — while reminding the viewer of how great Sade really is.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Brothertiger Releases an Atmospheric New Single

I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, electronic music producer and electronic music artist John Jagos. Best known as the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed JOVM mainstay act Brothertiger, Jagos started the project while he was studying at Ohio State University — and since then Jagos has released a handful of critically applauded EPs including Vision Tunnels, Out of Touch and last year’s A Chain of Islands EP and three albums 2012’s Golden Years, 2013’s Future Splendor and 2015’s Out of Touch. Each of those releases helped established the project’s sound, a sound that seems indebted to Tears for Fears, St. Lucia, Washed Out and In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy.

Released last Friday, Paradise Lost is Jagos’ first full-length album of original material in five yeas. “This record was, for me, the culmination of a lot of time and development,” the JOVM mainstay says in press notes. “Since my last album was released 5 years ago, I had been building on top of that sound, trying to make it even more dynamic and distinct. This record is also my most personal, and I think that shows not only in the subject matter, but in the choice of sounds as well. I find that in electronic music, you can capture an emotion honestly with synthesized sound, not just with lyrics.”

Sonically speaking, the album reportedly finds Jagos expanding upon the sound that has won him critical applause — with the album ranging from hook-driven indie pop to club-banging electronica centered around the Ohio-born, Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstay’s plaintive vocals singing lyrics that thematically touch upon aging gracefully, longing for purpose and celebrating life’s simple pleasures among others. I’ve written about two of the album’s previously released singles, Washed Out-like “Livin‘,” which thematically focused on comforting the weirdness and uncertainty of life as you age — and “Shelter Cove,” a bracingly chilly track that evokes dipping into colder than expected water for the first time.

Paradise Lost’s third and latest single is the atmospheric and cinematic album title track “Paradise Lost.” Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, stuttering beats, Jagos’ plaintive vocals and a soaring hook, the song sounds — to my ears, at least — as though it would fit in a scene in which the protagonist reminisces about a beautiful moment with a loved one, that they may never get back, while continuing a run of bracingly chilly material.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Psymon Spine Teams Up with Barrie on a Shimmering Pop Confection and Playful Visual

Rising Brooklyn-based psych pop/dance pop act Psymon Spine can trace its origins back to when founding and core members Noah Prebish and Peter Spears met while attending college. Bonding over mutual influences and common artistic aims, the duo went off to tour Europe with Prebish’s electronic act Karate. While in Paris, Spears and Prebish wrote their first song together and when they got to London, they were offered a record deal.

Upon returning to the states, Spears recruited Micheal “Brother Micheal” Rudinski and their Karate bandmates Devon Kilbern, Nathaniel Coffey to the band — and with that lineup they fleshed out the demos, which would eventually become their full-length debut, 2017’s You Are Coming to My Birthday, which they supported with immersive art and dance parties through their Secret Friend series across Brooklyn and some relentless touring.

Simultaneously, Prebish’s work with rising Brooklyn-based dream pop act Barrie began to receive quite a bit of attention across the blogosphere and elsewhere with a handful of buzz-worthy singles and their critically applauded full-length debut, last year’s Happy to Be Here. Interestingly, this led Prebish to meet his Barrie bandmate, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Sabine Holler, who then joined Psymon Spine.

“Milk” feat. Barrie is the first bit of new material from the Brooklyn-based psych pop/dance pop act in three years — and it’s the first recorded output with their newest member Sabine Holler. Since the single’s release, it has received airplay on BBC Radio 6 and it has earned praise from a number of media outlets including Vanyaland, High Clouds, Echowave Magazine, The Revue, Hype Machine and a list of others. The track also landed on a number of YouTube channels including David Dean Burkhart’s. Nice Guys’ and Birp.fm, as well as Spotify playlists like Undercurrents, All New Indie and Fresh Finds. Additionally, Apple Music’s Matt Wilkinson featured the track. And when you hear the new track, the attention its earned shouldn’t be surprising: the track is centered around an angular bass line, shimmering guitars, glistening synth arpeggios, thumping beats, a punchy and anthemic hook, and Barrie’s sultry vocals. Sonically, the track may remind some listeners of In Ghost Colours-era Cut Copy and Soft Metals’ Lenses –but with a mischievously coquettish air that makes it a club friendly banger.

Directed by Maya Prebish, Noah’s sister, the recently released video for “Milk” uses the wildly popular video game Animal Crossing: New Horizons and features each member of the band as a game avatar. And of course, each member of the band does something within the game — including play (sort of) an outdoor set, fish, sit in cafes and daydream.

“We were trying to come up with a way to shoot a music video together during a pandemic, with Sabine stuck in Germany and Barrie being god-knows-where,” Noah Prebish says of the new video made during pandemic-related social distancing and quarantine guidelines. “I remembered that my sister is a genius wizard and Nintendo dork and thought: ‘what’s more quarantine than a hap-hazard Animal Crossing video organized via a bunch of confusing Zoom calls?'” The video’s director, Maya Prebish, adds: “When Noah came to me with the idea, I jumped onboard right away. It was a lot of fun turning Psymon Spine and Barrie into villagers, and I think it was a super fun way to bring everyone together even though they’re dispersed all over the world at the moment. I don’t think any of them know how to fish in real life, but that’s creative license.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Crammed Discs to Re-issue Zazou Bikaye’s Forward-Thinking Electro Take on Afrobeat/Afrofunk Originally Released in the 80s

Tracing their origins back to an encounter between Congolese vocalist and composer Bony Bikaye, French musician and producer Hector Zazou and modular synth act CY1, Zazou Bikaye released a groundbreaking Afro pop/experimental electronic album with their 1983 full-length debut Noir et Blanc, an album that has since garnered cultish devotion by music cognoscenti, musicians and fans.

After the release of Noir et Blanc, Zazou Bikaye turned into a proper band that started to develop and hone their own special brand of digital Afrobeat/Afrofunk. Zazou took on writing and programming duties while Bikaye expanded on the extroverted side of his vocal stylings. They then set out to record a large batch of material with five tracks eventually being released in 1985 as the 32-minute mini album Mr. Manager, an effort released to acclaim through Crammed Discs in Europe and through Pow Wow in Japan and the States. The act toured Europe and played a couple of shows in New York — and two of the album’s tracks “Angel” and “Nostalgie” became underground club hits across the States and Europe.

With a backing band that featured Philipe “Pinpin” de la Croix Herpin (woodwinds), Tuxedomoon’s Luc van Lieshout (trumpet and harmonica), Vincent Kenis (guitar), Chris Jouris (percussion), Bigoune (percussion), Mwamba Kasuba (backing vocals), Nicole MT (backing vocals) M’Bombo K (backing vocals) and Marc Hollander (sax), the Hollander, Zazou Kenis produced sessions recorded between 1985 and 1986 were supposed to be appear on a full-length album. But as it turned out, the members of Zazou Bikaye moved on and recorded an entirely different album of material, 1988’s Guilty. Some of the tracks from those 1985-1986 sessions came out as remixes but most of the material was left aside, unfinished.

Slated for an October 16, 2020 release through Crammed Discs, the expanded and remastered reissue of Mr. Manager features the mini-album’s original five tracks plus nine rediscovered tracks recorded during those abandoned 1985-1986 sessions. And to celebrate the occasion, Zazou Bikaye and Crammed Disc re-released album single “Nostalgie. Centered around shimmering and arpeggiated blocks of synths, thumping polyrhythm, call-and-response vocals, an ebullient, Branford Marsalis-like sax solo and an enormous, crowd pleasing hook, “Nostalgie” may strike some listeners as a sleek and mischievous synthesis of 80s Peter Gabriel synth pop, Man Machine-era Kraftwerk and Fela Kuti. But interestingly enough, it actually presages the wildly experimental dance pop coming out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo — i.e. Kokoko! and Tshegue among a growing list of others.

Mr. Manager also featured a colorful album cover art and the recently released video for “Nostalgie” features animation by Sylvia Baldan that draws from the album’s artwork, which she originally designed.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay LutchamaK Releases a Swaggering Banger

I’ve managed to spill quite of virtual ink covering the French electronic music artist, producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK over the past year. And as you may recall, the French JOVM mainstay grew up as a voracious music listener and fan with eclectic and wide-ranging tastes that include hip-hop, rock. techno and countless others. As a solo artist, LutchamaK’s work is deeply influenced by and generally draws from techno — but while reflecting his lifelong devotion to eclecticism: his work generally possesses elements of techno, deep house and EDM among other electronic music genres and subgenres.

During that same year period, LutchamaK has been incredibly prolific, releasing new material through an increasing number of EPs, standalone singles and a couple of albums, which now includes his latest album. the recently released Moments. The French electronic music artist and producer has released three singles off the album, and I’ve already written about two of them — the album’s opening track Moment,” and “Their Future.” The album’s third single “Won’t Be Scared” continues a run of sleek, futuristic productions. Centered around rapid fire, stuttering beats, glistening synths and a sultry vocal sample, the JOVM mainstays latest club banger manages to add a hip hop-like swagger to an enormous house anthem.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Yumi Zouma Releases a Stylish Visual for Glistening Pop Rework of “My Palms Are Your Reference To Hold Your Heart”

Throughout the course of this site’s ten-plus-year history, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering the acclaimed synth pop act Yumi Zouma. Last year, the JOVM mainstays fiend Polyvinyl Record Co, who released their critically applauded, self-produced, third album Truth or Consequences earlier this year, an album that thematically focuses on distance — both real and metaphorical; romantic and platonic heartbreak, disillusionment and feeling (and being) out of reach.

For the overwhelming majority of the acts I’ve covered throughout this site’s history, touring is often the most important part of the promotional campaign for their new release. Frequently, before the tour, the band/artist/collective in question will begin to figure out how to re-contextualize both brand new and older material for a live setting, imagining how a crowd will react to what they’ll play in their live set. Of course, much like countless acts across the world, Yumi Zouma’s hopes to tour and play the material off Truth or Consequences to their devoted fans was canceled as a result of pandemic-related shutdowns.

Slated for an October 28, 2020 release, Truth or Consequences (Alternate Versions) is the JOVM mainstay act’s response to the lost opportunity to re-contextualize and explore the boundaries of the original album’s material through live fan engagement. Truth or Consequences (Alternate Versions)’ latest single is a reworked version of “My Palms Are Your Reference To Hold Your Heart.” Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, Christie Simpson’s ethereal yet plaintive vocals, a sinuous bass line, shimmering guitars, propulsive polyrhythm, the reworked version retains the song’s strutting hook but manages to give the song a tropical disco like air — all while retaining the original’s achingly wistful air.

Directed by the band, the recently released and incredibly stylish visual for “My Palms Are Reference to Hold Your Heart” features live footage of the individual members of the band playing the song, projected on the wall behind the band’s Christie Simpson, further evoking the sense of isolation from our friends and loved ones — and the other very human experiences we can’t have right now.

“This version of the song we affectionately shorten to ‘Palms’ started with just a few chords that I’d tried out underneath the vocal melody – I felt a little stuck with what to do next, but I sent the minimal scraps I had along to Charlie anyway, so he could give it a crack,” Yumi Zouma’s Christie Simpson explains in press notes. “When it came back the mood was completely transformed – into this sparkly, ABBA-esque dark disco feel that it has now. This video came about much in the same way, starting as an idea from Josh to shoot a live performance against projections of the rest of the band when we couldn’t all be together – and transforming into this James-Turrell inspired installation in an infinity-walled space, with programmed lights and a makeup artist and a black suit. Both ended up more slick, more fun, more flashy – and in (what felt like) the blink of an eye. So we hope you enjoy, and dance in your bedroom, and take a little moment of spontaneous silliness in a world that is undoubtedly weighing pretty heavy on us all right now.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Over the course of this site’s ten-plus year history, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering the internationally acclaimed, Malmö-born and-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, electronic music producer and electronic music artist David Alexander, best known for his solo recording project Summer Heart.

Last year, Alexander released a batch of new material in a new-single-of-the-month series 12 Songs of Summer. According to Alexander, the series allowed him to “show people what I am currently working on instead of what I was doing two years ago, which can be the case if you release an album. It’s definitely a way of challenging myself, thinking less and having more fun creating music!”

Alexander began 2020 signing to renowned Swedish label Icons Creating Evil Art, who will be releasing his forthcoming Ambitions EP on November 6, 2020. Interestingly, much like his previously released work Ambitions draws from the JOVM mainstay’s daily life — with the material revealing the story of the man behind the breezy and infectious synth pop songs. Written between a recent trip to California and Malmö, the new EP’s material touches upon a blend of tales about his love-life and allowing himself to let go and experience life as it happens. “Before going on tour I always make sure to wrap up all the work I have postponed or ignored so I can come back to a blank slate,” the acclaimed Swedish JOVM mainstay says of the forthcoming EP. “But since my tour got cancelled it was the first time in my adult life I actually didn’t have anything to do. It was very freeing and I could sit down and think about what I wanted to create and what I had struggled with in the past. I realised I’ve just wanted too much and never really been able to slow down and see things from a different perspective. The EP itself is about having high ambitions and wanting to do so many things at the same time but not always knowing where to put your focus.”

“Good Together,” Ambitions EP‘s latest single is a swooning pop confection featuring Alexander’s plaintive vocals and earnest songwriting paired with a breezy and atmospheric production centered around shimmering synths, strummed acoustic guitar, stuttering beats, a propulsive bass line and the acclaimed Swedish JOVM mainstay’s unerring knack for writing an infectious hook. And at its core is a achingly nostalgic love song in which its narrator making a plea to a former lover, with the hope that this time they can get it right.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay TOBACCO Releases a Glistening Pop-Inspired Ballad (Of Sorts)

Best known as TOBACCO, Thomas Fec is a a Pittsburgh-born and based producer, multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter, and throughout his two decade-plus music career, Fec has used analog synthesizers and tape machines to create a boundary-pushing sound that evokes a woozy and uneasy intertwining of tension, anxiety, bemusement and pleasure as the frontman and creative mastermind of Black Moth Super Rainbow, as a solo artist and through his production work.

Earlier this year, the JOVM mainstay released his first batch of solo material since Sweatbox Dynasty, the “Hungry Eyes”/”Can’t Count On Her” 7 inch which featured Fec’s woozy and scuzzy take on Eric Carmen‘s Franke Previte and John DeNicola co-written smash hit “Hungry Eyes.” But as it turned out, the “Hungry Eyes”/”Can’t Count On Her” 7 inch may have been a bit of a preview of the JOVM mainstay’s forthcoming full-length Hot Wet & Sassy.

Slated for an October 30, 2020 release through Ghostly International, Hot Wet & Sassy reportedly oozes with anti-love, self-hate and disappointment in others — while further refining the pop impulses that have underpinned his unique sound — blown out, bass, fuzzy analog synths, drum machines and Fec’s analog gurgle and hiss. “I feel like it’s the most I’ve been able to refine what I’m doing,” says Fec. “For the past decade I’ve had this motherfxcker on my shoulder that makes me pick away at structure and melody. Purposely covering up moments because I can. That really came to a peak on Sweatbox. So I wanted the opposite this time. Write the songs without ripping them in half. I went from ‘what would the Butthole Surfers do?’ to ‘what would Cyndi Lauper do?’”

Last month, I wrote about Hot Wet & Sassy’s second single, “Babysitter,” a collaboration with Nine Inch Nails’ mastermind and fellow Pennsylvanian Trent Reznor — and the song was a deranged and unsettling lurch between a menacingly saccharine bridge and what sounds like someone gleefully running a rusty manual lawnmower through someone’s carpet: hot hi-hats and thumping toms battle against scorching synths and gurgling and bubbling hiss and distortion paired with some of the most accessible, pop-leaning hooks of Fec’s career. “This was new for me, but I wanted to write a song that was everything I am and have been, and then like one notch further. Trent was the notch further,” adds Fec.

“Jinmenken,” Hot Wet & Sassy’s latest single is a slow-burning and atmospheric Quiet Storm-like ballad of sorts, featuring glistening and twinkling synth arpeggios, bouncy beats, and Fec’s vocoder’ed vocals. Somewhat downcast and woozy, the track is centered around what may arguably be some of the JOVM mainstay’s most earnest songwriting of his lengthy — and often very weird — career. To my ears, the track seems to mischievously nod at 80s synth pop ballads. “It’s me trying to write a Jets song,” Fec says.

The official visualizer is prototypical Tobacco: surreal, hilarious, creepy and dystopian — and in a way that feels familiar.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Born Frantz-Lee Leonard, Montreal-based jazz-trained, drummer RockLee started his music career as a member of Lazy Lee. And since then, Leonard has spent the bold of his career as a hired gun playing pop and world music, sharing stages with Corneille and Wesli, Muzion, Claude Dubois, Paul Cargnello, Dominque Fils-Aimé and a lengthy list of others.

Recently Leonard transitioned from being on the state to being behind the scenes as a songwriter and producer. Drawing from his extensive experiences as a performer and songwriter, Leonard quickly developed a reputation for being one of his hometown’s best secrets. However, with the forthcoming release of his full-length debut album, Leonard hopes to make a name for himself outside of Montreal while collaborating with some of the province’s best up-and-coming talent. Describing his sound as “a fusion of sounds meant to evoke a sense of nostalgia,” his goal as a producer is to offer a new generation of music listeners and fans the chance to sonically reconnect with the most important moments — with the tacit understanding that music is most often the emotional center of our lives. Earlier this year, I wrote about the Paul Cargnello cowritten single, the Quiet Storm-like “It’s A Feeling.” The track featured up-and-coming, local R&B talents Featuring two of Montreal’s up-and-coming R&B artists  Mel Pacifico and Uness, and their sultry vocals over a sleek production centered around skittering beats, shimmering and arpeggiated synths, squiggling blasts of guitar, twinkling keys and an infectious, radio friendly hook.

Continuing the momentum of “It’s A Feeling,” the Montreal-based artist, producer and songwriter teamed up again with Paul Cargnello on the shimmering, 80s inspired synth soul and pop anthem “I’m Right Here.” Featuring some blazing guitar work, soulful and plaintive vocals, shimmering synths and a rousingly anthemic hook, the song is centered around a two-step inducing groove reminiscent of the oft-mentioned Cherelle, Purple Rain and 1999-era Prince and several others.

“The very first idea behind the song was to create a nostalgic homecoming sound the same way MGMT did with their record “Time to Pretend.” Leonard explains in a statement. “Along the way, the song musically evolves to a groove that represents the spirit of Prince. This musical production is an attempt to perceive what would Prince and MGMT would sound like if they were to collaborate on a record.”

Indie Electro Pop by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay LutchamaK Returns with a Mesmerizing Banger

Throughout the course of this year, I’ve spilled quite a bit of ink covering French electronic music artist, producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK. LutchamaK grew up as a voracious music listener and fan with eclectic and wide-ranging tastes that include hip-hop, rock. techno and countless others. As a solo artist, LutchamaK’s work is deeply influenced by and generally draws from techno — but while reflecting his lifelong devotion to eclecticism: his work generally possesses elements of techno, deep house and EDM among other electronic music genres and subgenres.

The French JOVM electric music artist, producer and JOVM has managed to remain remarkably prolific, releasing new material through an increasing number of EPs, standalone singles and a couple of albums, which include his latest album, the recently released Moments. The album’s latest single, album opening track “Moment” is a mesmerizing and expansive bit of deep house centered around a slick yet minimalist-leaning production featuring stuttering hi hat-driven beats, chopped and looped vocal samples and a insistent, motorik groove. Much like an earlier single “Back to Finland,” “Moment” is a fairly straightforward take on deep house that sounds like it could have been played at The Limelight, as well as on Ibiza.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Flamingods’ Kartik Poduval Returns with a Kaleidoscopic Visual for Summery Club Banger “Mañana Groove”

Karthik Poduval is a London-born, Indian-British DJ and producer, best known as a founding member of the acclaimed tropical psychedelic band Flamingods. Poduval’s latest solo project Mera Bhai, which derives its name from the affection Hindi greeting “my brother,” is informed by his own personal experiences: he’s spent time living in Italy, Albania, Saudi Arabia, Dubai and Nigeria — and naturally that experience has seeped into his own globe-spanning, border-crossing, genre-defying take on dance music, which incorporates elements of Indian Carnatic, Arabic Rai, 70s disco, Acid House, Detroit techno and Tropicalia. “Having grown up all over the world, I was surrounded by a wealth of different sounds — i’m just trying to weave the cultural through line that I hear in music.”

Earlier this year, I wrote about Poduval’s Mera Bhai debut, a bootle remix of Ahmed Fakroun‘s “Jama El F’na,” which retained the shimming instrumentation of the original and Fakroun’s vocals but sped the tempo up quite a bit, to give the song a decided Tour de France-era Kraftwerk/Primal Scream/Kasabian-like feel to the proceedings: layers of synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rocking boom bap and industrial clang and clatter. Both the original and its remix are club bangers — but the remix manages to sound as though it could have been released in 1992, 2002, 2020 or 2032.

Poduval’s latest Mera Bhai single “Mañana Groove,” a summery club banger, centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, hot hi hats, stuttering tweeter and woofer rocking beats and vocodered vocals within an expansive mind-bending song structure. Sonically, it’s one part Kraftwerk, one part Primal Scream and one part deep house. And its core is a carefree, let’s worry about it all tomorrow vibe, which feels so very appropriate right now. While continuing upon his growing reputation for synthesizing a wide variety of sounds, “Mañana Groove” is inspired by Todd Terje’s “Inspector Norse” and features a samples from Mr. Bongo Records reissue of Cissé Abdoulaye’s “A Son Magni.” “I wanted to take this tune that’s already in my DJ record bag to another dimension,” Poduval says. “It also gives a nod to one of my favourite anthems ‘Pacific State’ by 808 State, which frames summertime feels for me. 

“I wrote this track during a pretty tumultuous time of my life where I was grieving recently lost family members and coming to terms with fraught relationships,” Poudval recalls. “I escaped to India for a few months by myself and set up my studio there, and this was one of the first tracks that I wrote.”

Having started on the path to total sobriety, he continues: “I really needed to feel the carefreeness that comes with being in a club/festival environment and wanted to know that I wouldn’t be excluded from feeling that by being sober. I also felt the need to free myself from what I was going through and transmute my challenging experiences into something positive and happy, and that I could share.”

Adds Poduval, “it’s a sun-soaked anthem to blast out the windows as you cruise out of town. It’s a careless, ‘I’ll do it mañana’ answer to life’s responsibilities, a getaway tune, here to take us out of lockdown into sunnier times ahead.” 

Directed by Niall Trask, the recently released video for “Mañana Groove” is an appropriately kaleidoscopic and hallucinogenic VHS taped fever dream that follows a our protagonist as he plays a racing game and rocks out to an album on his record player. 

Mera Bhai’s debut EP Futureproofing is slated for an October 9, 2020 release through Moshi Moshi Records.