Category: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Fotoform Shares Lush and Woozy “Grief is a Garden”

Deriving their name from a mid-century, avant-garde photography movement, Seattle-based post punk outfit Fotoform — longtime collaborators and married couple Kim House (bass, vocals, synths) and Geoffrey Cox (guitar), along with  Death Cab for Cutie‘s and The Long Winters‘ Michael Schorr (drums) — can trace their origins back to the formation of a previous project,  the goth-adjacent dream pop act C’est la Mort, which formed shortly after House and Cox married. 

Specializing in what they dubbed “pointy-shoegaze,” C’est la Mort released their full-length debut through their own Dismal Nitch label, as well as various compilation tracks, including a limited split 7 inch with Stars for American Laundromat‘s The Smiths‘ tribute Please Please Please. After a series of lineup changes, House and Cox re-emerged as Fotoform in late 2016. 

House and Cox released their Fotoform self-titled debut in 2017. Supported with tours of the West Coast and Europe, the album received airplay and praise both locally and nationally: Album single “I Know You’re Charming” was featured as a KEXP Song of The Day. The self-titled album was voted as one of KEXP Listeners’ Top 90.3 Albums of 2017 and it landed on several year-end lists, including The Big Takeover and Part-Time Punks. 

Building upon a growing profile, the band followed up with 2018’s Part-Time Punks EP, which was selected as one of The Big Takeover’s EPs of 2018. Schorr joined the band back in 2019 and by the following year, they released two benefit singles as a newly minted trio “Yves Klein Blue,” which was recored for voter outreach and the Christmas-themed “They Say It’s Always Lonely” to benefit local food banks. Both singles found the trio expanding upon their sound with the addition of synths. 

In early 2020, the trio went into the studio with Evan Foster to record the material for their sophomore album, Horizons. Recording sessions were interrupted as a result of COVID-19 pandemic-enforced quarantines and restrictions and continued a year later with Foster and Matt Bayles recording drum parts. The album saw the band pivoting from the towering wall of guitars-driven sound of their previously released work and towards a much more nuanced sound that drew equally from shoegaze, dream pop and post-punk with the band continuing to pair synths with layers of guitars and driving bass lines.

The Seattle-based trio’s third album Grief is a Garden (Forever in Bloom) is slated for an April 18, 2025 release. The album reportedly sees the band’s evolving yet again, with the band further refining their long-held crystalline sound into a lush and introspective soundscape that blends the emotional weight of post-punk with the ethereal beauty of shoegaze with the album’s material increasingly drawing from classic 4AD heyday artists like This Moral Coil, Pale Saints and Lush.

The album’s material thematically touches upon loss, change, heartache, pain and transformation, while tackling the big existential questions. The album, also features some of the band’s most vulnerable and disarmingly honest lyrics of their growing catalog.

Album title track “Grief is a Garden,’ is a brooding slow-burning tune anchored around shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars, Kim House’s yearning and ethereal delivery paired with a soaring hook and chorus. Sounding a bit like Garlands-era Cocteau Twins and 4AD Records classic heyday period, “Grief is a Garden” sees the band thematically into delving deeply into personal themes of grief, loss, and in time, gradual acceptance.

“The title track to our upcoming album, ‘Grief is a Garden’ reflects on the enduring, ever-evolving nature of grief and how it changes over time,” Fotoform’s Kim House explains. “Grief blooms, decays and nourishes itself, embodying love, beauty, pain and transformation. As we move through life, we accumulate grief, and the song contemplates the evolving nature of our relationship to loss and love, as grief becomes a part of us, forever changing us and informing our new selves as we continue with life after loss.

“My brother Jeff passed away suddenly and unexpectedly at the end of February, right after we released our first single. I am still trying to absorb the devastating reality that he is gone. I never could have imagined I would lose another brother just as we are starting to release songs off our album, which is centered around grief, loss, resilience and healing. The lyric ‘Waves keep crashing, unforeseen, losing someone is never what it seems‘ has been swirling around me as I feel blindsided by the loss of my brother. We’d been planning on talking about grief with the new record, but it’s another thing to suddenly find yourself newly grieving again. 

“The longing for answers to life’s unknowable questions is palpable throughout this song, as I’ve wrestled with existential doubts since childhood, questioning everything from the stories I was raised with to the mysteries of life and death itself. ‘Into the ether, we all call out‘ is a reference to the unknowable place we enter when we die – an acknowledgement and a cry for connection.

Loved ones who touch our souls meld with our spirit and never leave us. Tethers to those we’ve lost surround us when we open our hearts. We often feel these connections after we lose someone: a certain song comes on the radio or a shared symbol appears at the most poignant time. Heightened awareness of these synchronicities tethers us to those we’ve lost.

“Grief, so deeply personal yet also universal, is hanging heavy for so many of us these days. We all find ourselves in mourning, whether for loved ones, the erosion of societal values, social injustice, dismantling of democracy, upheaval from natural disasters and the intensifying climate crisis, loss of relationships, former versions of ourselves after injury and disability and anticipatory grief of what’s to come – the list is endless.

Creating this album was a ritual in reflecting on grief, sitting with it, metabolizing, and letting it sink into all the cracks and crevices, fully absorbing grief to understand – and eventually release – some of its tight hold / energy. As I return to this familiar and tender state of fresh sorrow and loss, I take comfort in the knowledge that with time, grief will soften around the edges and the warmth of love will reclaim its position in the foreground.”

Directed by Erik Foster, the accompanying video for “Grief is a Garden” is a lush and woozy fever dream shot in a verdant garden that would have been perfect in an Edgar Allan Poe short story or in a Mary Shelley novel.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pelican Shares Swaggering and Expansive “Indelible”

Flickering Resonance is the Chicago-based outfit Pelican‘s first full-length album in six years. Slated for a May 16, 2025 release through Run for Cover, the album sees the return of founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, who makes his first appearance on a Pelican album since 2009’s What We All Come To Need.

The forthcoming eight-song album also reportedly taps into the spirit of the band’s formative era when Schroder-Lebec along with Trevor Shelley de Brauw (guitar) and siblings Bryan (bass) and Larry Herweg (drums) played shows during the heyday of Chicago’s all-ages club Fireside Bowl.

Fireside Bowl’s booking would often result in post-hardcore, space rock, indie, metal and emo bands sharing bills, which also unwittingly provided a vast array of influences for the then-young band. “A lot of people didn’t hear it at first,” says Schroeder-Lebec of the band’s roots in a panoply of punk-related subgenres. “I was like, well, I guess the metal world is where we fit. But now we’re more willing to acknowledge all the suits we’re wearing.”

Recorded by longtime collaborator Sanford Parker, Flickering Resonance sees the band’s long-known thick sonic backbone remaining intact, but while demonstrating a more humanistic side for the band. 

“When Laurent left and we were able to carry it through, there became a real sense of gratitude for the fact we still have this artistic outlet and a community of people who want to support it,” the band’s Shelley de Brauw says of Schroeder-Lebec’s ten year sabbatical from the group. Fittingly, that feeling of deep, grounded appreciation doesn’t just reside within the band’s members, it’s expressed on every track of the album. 

Last month, I wrote about “Cascading Crescent,” a forceful, cinematic yet soulful ripper that recalls The Sword and others, while anchored around some scorching riffage and thunderous drumming. 

“Indelible,” Flickering Resonance‘s latest single continues a run of expansive, cinematic rippers that seemingly draws from desert and stoner rock, psych rock, Hawkwind and others, anchored around forcefully scorching and swaggering riffage paired with thunderous drumming and big hooks and choruses.

Much like its predecessor, “Indelible” is accompanying with a mind-bending psychedelic visual by multidisciplinary artist Joshua Ford that features geometric shapes and seemingly supernatural and natural phenomena.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Night Beats Shares Slinky “Behind The Green Door”

As the creative mastermind of Night Beats, Texas-born Danny Lee Blackwell has spent the past 15 years exploring a nexus of vintage rhythm and blues, after-midnight soul and sun-scorched psychedelia.

Slated for an April 11, 2025 release through Suicide Squeeze, the “Behind The Green Door”/”Behind The Green Door (Rah John Version)” 7″ sees Blackwell presenting two markedly different renditions of “Behind The Green Door.” The A-side single “Behind The Green Door” is a slinky, late night psych soul/psych blues number that sounds like the soundtrack to dimly lit, smokey bars and dance halls filled with drunken revelers swaying to the beat in unison; sultry, late night drives in which you’re hypnotized by brush and trees and white lines on hot blacktop, lost in thought or memory.

“This song started as a lone star instrumental, something I pieced together in my studio in 2024,” Blackwell explains. “I imagined dusty roads and dimly lit dance halls. I wanted the guitars to shimmer like heat waves on an openroad. The rhythm to pull like footsteps across a wooden floor, soaked in smoke and neon. The lyrics followed, drawn from past and present—unwavering love, transcendence. The ‘green door’ is that threshold between devotion and disillusionment. The story lives not just in the words, but in the tones and textures, if uncovered.”

Directed by Blackwell, the moody and hallucinatory accompanying video for “Behind The Green Door” is heavily inspired by giallo films.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rhythm Scholar Shares Dizzying Remix of The Rolling Stones’ “Miss You”

Over the bulk of this site’s 15 — yes, 15! — year history, I’ve spilled a lot of virtual ink covering the ridiculously prolific New York-based producer, DJ, remixer and JOVM mainstay Rhythm Scholar. During that period, the long-time JOVM mainstay has carefully built up a national and international profile for crafting slickly produced, crowd-pleasing mashups and remixes of some of the most beloved songs ever written and recorded.

The JOVM mainstay recently tackled one of my favorite Rolling Stones tunes ever 1978’s “Miss You.” The song and its accompanying visual uses over dizzying array of 125 audio and video sources, including the deep catalog of Rolling Stone tunes, funk, disco and more. The result is a thrilling, dance floor friendly re-imagining of a deeply familiar and beloved song that gives it a completely new life while lovingly hewing to the period that it originally came from.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Welsh Artist Mali Hâf Shares Boldly Feminist “HWFM”

With the release of her debut EP, 2023’s Jig-So, 24 year-old Cardiff, Wales, UK-based Celtic Soul singer/songwriter Mali Hâf quickly established a bold and remarkably modern yet anachronistic sound that sees her pairing traditional Welsh folk melodies with experimental electronic production. The result is an innovative approach on what contemporary Welsh music could be and sound like this century.

The rising Welsh artist is currently working on her highly-anticipated full-length debut, which is slated for an early 2026 release. The forthcoming album’s first single “HWFM,” is short for “Hen Wlad Mamau,” a boldly feminist reimagining of the Welsh National Anthem “Hen Wlad Fy Nhadhau” (Old Land of My Fathers).”

The song sees the Welsh artist flipping the song’s original perspective to celebrate and honor the contributions of women to the country’s history and culture, actively reframing Wales as the “Old Land of My Mothers.” Anchored around a hook-driven and brooding, Portishead meets Paramore-like production, “HWFM” sees the Welsh-based artist adopting a playfully cheeky and defiantly in-your-face delivery.

But underneath the cheekiness, Hâf expresses a deep, heartfelt longing for Wales — and all nations — to be places of true equality, to be safe havens for women and nurturing spaces for everyone. The song also challenges listeners to think beyond traditional gender roles and stereotypes, openly calling for empathy, care and compassion as a nation’s defining values.

“I wrote this song out of frustration – seeing women still unsafe inside and outside their homes, hearing the same stories about abusive behaviour on the news, and remembering my own experiences. These are highly painful personal experiences where the hurt will last a long time but now is not the time to mention details,” the Welsh artist says.

 “Wales may be small, but why can’t we lead the way?” She continues. “This song really isn’t just about women; it’s about creating a Wales where everyone, all genders and LGBTQ can feel emotionally and physically safe to be themselves. It’s cheeky and playful, with an unapologetic attitude and grit, but mainly Hopeful. I love Wales, our anthem, and our traditions, but it doesn’t help to sugarcoat things. So parts of the anthem, Land of my Fathers are name checked in the song.  If we call ourselves a land of poets, singers, and creatives, are we really listening to all the voices? Let’s ride the wave, the wave of change where diversity is welcomed and room is made for all, and make sure we are doing what ‘officially’ we say we’re doing. It should be obvious to all that respecting diversity and women’s rights are under real threat right now in most countries on this planet – not just the obvious example of the USA. Change starts somewhere – why not here in this country that we are so proud of”. 

Directed by Trigger Happy, the accompanying video features Mali Hâf as a mischievous and rebellious Harley Quinn-like character with her backing band. It captures the cheekiness of the song, as well as the bond she has with her band.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ecca Vandal Shares Skateboard Culture-Inspired Visual for “Cruising to Self Soothe”

South African-born, Melbourne-based Tamil multidisciplinary artist Ecca Vandal strutted her way into the music scene back in 2016 in traditional punk style with an edgy disposition and something to say. Her musical work is fearlessly genre-bending and frequently sees her weaving together punk, hip-hop, jazz, trip-hop and electronic influences, informed in part by her formative years as a jazz musician and her passion for improvisation. which lead her to fall in love with the DIY punk world. Her work is anchored around a boldly rebellious, tenaciously politically-charged voice that demands to be heard. 

Her unrelenting stage energy has brought her a history of touring alongside globally renowned acts like Queens of the Stone Age, Incubus, IDLES and The Prodigy. Adding to a growing international profile, she has made the rounds of the global festival circuit, playing sets at Download, Reading and Leeds Festivals in the UK, Afropunk Paris, as well as, Splendour in the Grass, Falls and Laneway Festivals in Australia. 

Fresh off a recent tour supporting IDLES, Ecca Vandal shares her latest single, “Cruising to Self Soothe,” a bruising and grungy punk ripper that subtly nods to Nirvana, Bikini Kill and 80s New Wave while displaying the South African-born artist’s knack for razor sharp hooks and shout along worthy choruses. 
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“‘Cruising to Self Soothe’ is about cultivating your inner strength when navigating life on your own, even when it feels a bit isolating,” Ecca Vandal says. “It’s about that pivotal moment when you recognize that you’re stronger without the people who were weighing you down, and there’s a real sense of empowerment in that for me. It captures the feeling of breaking free and moving forward, no matter the challenges that come. Even when others are waiting for you to fall, you’re still rising — stronger than ever.”

Directed by Ecca Vandal and Richie Buxton, the stylish accompanying video for “Cruising to Self Soothe” was shot in Knox, Australia and finds Vandal and her backing band in and around the various shaped bowls of a local skate park. At one point, we see her riding one of those little supermarket trains you’d beg your parents to pay a quarter or 50 cents for you to ride — all day.

“The idea for the ‘Cruising to Self Soothe’ video came during the pandemic when I took up skateboarding,” Ecca Vandal told Alternative Press. “I’d always loved skate culture, but it wasn’t until I started learning to skate in a heart-shaped bowl in a little suburb called Knox that I really felt its impact. Skating there, so offline and present in the moment, became a form of self-soothing for me. The song is about shedding negativity and finding self-belief, and the many days I spent at that skate bowl perfectly represented that journey—feeling small and unsteady at first, then gradually owning every curve. And I’ve got to shout out the adorable ‘Ecca Train’, a prop that symbolises the back-and-forth ride of building confidence—doing it with style and as if nobody’s watching.”

She adds, “‘Cruising to Self Soothe’ was actually written in 2018 when I was living in London. My partner and I were listening to so much Fugazi and Ritual-era Jane’s Addiction – we definitely owe a serious debt to those great bands whose music, perhaps not incidentally, is so perfect to skate to. Guy Picciotto’s vocals in particular actually had a huge impact on me at the time.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bedridden Shares Roaring “Chainsaw”

Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter and musician Jack Riley can trace the origins of his music career to when he was five and making music on a thrift-store emblazoned with Kurt Cobain‘s name. Riley moved to New Orleans for college, […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Maz Shares Breezy “Too Bad”

22 year-old, Marley “Maz” Guevara is a rising Logan, UT-born, Salt Lake City-based singer/songwriter. She first adopted the Maz moniker as a child, insisting ti was meant to be her middle name. As she dug into indie rock as a teenager, it took an added meaning for its connection to Mazzy Star, with the rising Utah-based artist’s earliest explorations aiming for their ethereal dreaminess. Now, the name has come to signify the development of her sound and world, something that’s indebted to and nostalgically honors the past, but while building something new.

Her debut EP, NPC is slated for an April 4, 2025 release through Winspear. “I grew up on early 2000s alternative music, and NPC reaches for that raw, cool, nostalgic sound,” she says. “These songs turn my day-to-day into something badass—a mix of vulnerability and strength.” 

Temporal back and forth is echoed in the material’s creation. Guevara started writing the EP’s songs at her Salt Lake City apartment while attending community college and working full-time. But she had to return to Logan after the death of her grandfather. “I found myself back in Logan, writing songs in my grandmother’s basement when my grandpa died,” she says “during that time I found a lot of solace in music—it gave me freedom to reflect and unpack everything I was feeling. And it made me appreciate the people around me and the opportunities and art I have in store for me in the future. It felt like a refresh button.”

Guevara’s return to Salt Lake City months later was bittersweet, but bolstered by her deepened connection to her family roots, she tapped into a vibrant, roiling, modern energy in her approach to music, and NPC began to take form.

The six-song NPC reportedly find the Utahn playfully picking apart growing up, relationships and self-empowerment. Drawing from Blondie, Santigold and Daft Punk among others, the EP’s material builds upon the buzz she has quickly amassed over the course of a brief, attention-grabbing run of singles.

Bobbing and Cole Williams, members of Still Woozy‘s production crew, build crisp sonic environments for Guevara for flex, explore and play across. The EP’s latest single “Too Bad” comes on the heels of her successful live debut opening for Wallice on a run of West Coast dates.

“Too Bad” is a breezy, hook-driven bop featuring reverb-soaked, squiggling post-punk like guitar stabs, relentless four-on-the-four and a twangy, Western-styled guitar solo serving as a lush bed for Guevara’s hushed Debby Harry-inspired cooing. “Too Bad” reveals a young singer/songwriter with an uncanny knack for crafting a catchy hook — and a self-assuredness that belies her relative youth.

“While writing this song, I was inspired by Blondie and Grimes,” Guevara explains “Vocally, I wanted to give off an ethereal vibe mixed with early, surfy Blondie. The meaning is just about faith and also shedding ego-driven desires.”

Directed by Enzo Peltz, the accompanying playful video for “Too Bad” follows the rising young artist through churches and the beach on a glorious sunny day.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Anika Shares Unflinchingly Honest “Walk Away”

Acclaimed British-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and musician Annika Henderson, best known as Anika will be releasing her fourth album Abyss through Sacred Bones on April 4, 2025. 

Abyss was born out of the frustration, anger and confusion Henderson feels from existing in our contemporary world. Reportedly much heavier than 2021’s Change, the 10-song album is raw, urgent and fueled by strong emotions, the album’s material takes the acclaimed British-born, Berlin-based artist on a new sonic journey. 

The forthcoming album was recorded live to tape at Berlin’s legendary Hansa Studios. Recording live and with minimal overdubs was an important decision, Henderson stresses, in order to capture the raw immediacy of the album. Much like previously released material, she wrote the songs herself before fleshing them out with Exploded View‘s Martin Thulin, and then assembled a live band to join the pair in the studio that included Andrea Belfi (drums), Mueran Humanos‘ Tomas Nochteff (bass) and The Pleasure Majenta‘s Lawrence Goodwin (guitar). Studio engineering was done by Nanni Johansson and Frida Claeson Johansson. “I always work with people I respect and admire,” Henderson says. “It’s very genuine in that way.” 

The acclaimed British-born, Berlin-based artist consciously sought to make an album that was inherently physical — one that would take the listener out of their heads and back into their body. The physicality of the album and its material is further emphasized by its album cover, which features androgynous bodies from a drawing by a teenage friend of Anika’s. Fittingly, teenage angst plays a part in the album. “These days it feels like you have to have very catered opinions – like language has gone out the window,” Henderson says. “It makes you feel very much like a restricted child again.” 

With Abyss, the acclaimed British-born, Berlin-based artist was determined to break free from holding back genuine emotions — even if they might seem uncomfortable or too much. “It’s like I’m doing all the things that I never allowed myself to do,” she says. Anika hopes this pure emotion will position the listener to fully immerse themselves in the album. “There needs to be room for people to put themselves in this album, and put their own narratives on it,” she says. “This is a space for you.”

“There’s so much going on in the world, and you have to sit there and watch it through a screen that you’ve allowed into your home, like a vampire who had been preying at your door, then immediately digest it, have an opinion, and publicly comment on it,” Henderson continues. “The state of the world just feels like an abyss right now.” With this new album, she wants to create a place where people can feel safe to be themselves, and to unite in their diversity. “Abyss is like a call to action,” she says. “To come and figure it out together.”

Last month, I wrote about Abyss‘ lead single and album opening track “Hearsay,” a gritty Joy Division– meets-PJ Harvey-like tune, anchored around an angular and driving bass line, stuttering four-on-the-floor and slashing guitars paired with Henderson’s melodic, Nico-like croon. The song hones in on the extreme divisions between the left and right in contemporary society with Anika explaining that “this song is about media moguls – about the power of the media, whether social, tv or beyond – we are as much under its spell as we ever were and some nasties are exploiting it for their own gains. Parasites feeding off the blood of the public — PJ Harvey inspired for sure.” 

Abyss‘ second and latest single “Walk Away” is a surprisingly upbeat 90s alt rock-influenced track that sounds a bit like a synthesis of Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea-era PJ Harvey and the likes of Hole/Courtney Love paired with the most blatant and unflinchingly honest lyrics of the British-born, German-based artist’s career. The song reveals an artist, who is no longer concerned with how others may think or feel about what she feels she has to say. It’s zero-fucks mode, informed by a world that’s gone to completely to hell anyway.

“This song is saying all the things I want to say but am too scared to say or that society doesn’t accept me to say. It is dealing with mental health – the state of poor mental health in these fucked up, divided, isolated, social media, war, pest, rise of the right times,” Anika explains. “It is the deconstruction of the feminine – of topics considered to be private realm.”

Henderson cites “the reckless nature of 90s/2000s Hole/Courtney Love records — of not giving a shit — telling it how it is, not scared to offend, not scared to be cancelled. We have also lost the space for healthy debate, for difference of opinion, shutting down those we don’t agree with, removing them from our social networks.”

Directed by Laura Martinova, the accompanying video was shot in and around a former brothel in Berlin and “plays with the socially constructed ideas of femininity, of sexuality, of sexual restriction and confronts them,” Henderson explains. “The character is quite sufficient by herself, sexually and socially liberated – and also a bit of a mess, destroying the prim and proper idea of how a good wifey should be. She is a hedonist, she lets herself go, she shows anger, she shows being drunk, she seems to enjoy dusting the pictures of the naked ladies very much, she is independent and breaking out of all the bars imposed by the patriarchy. The guy in the video never finds her, never even gets close, doesn’t in the slightest disrupt her life, he continues to look but she seems to always be a step ahead.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dutch Mustard Shares Hazy and Vulnerable “Dreaming”

Dutch-born, London-based artist Sarah-Jayne “SJ” Riedel is the creative mastermind behind the rising indie recording project Dutch Mustard. With Dutch Mustard, Riedel blends ethereal dream pop, 90s alt-rock with shoegaze touches to create a soundscape that features painterly and swirling guitar textures while the Dutch-born artist’s vocals drift between a near whisper and yearning, heavenly arching shouts. 

Riedel and Dutch Mustard exploded into the British scene with the release of 2022’s debut EP An Interpretation of Depersonalisation, an effort that was featured by the BBC while receiving airplay on BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists with Jack Saunders and a co-sign from the legendary Iggy Pop.

2023’s sophomore EP, Beauty received airplay from BBC Radio 6’s Lauren Laverne and co-signs from Don Letts and Amy Lamé. Adding to a growing profile, The Independent, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, Dork and Notion have all covered her — and The Grammy Awards selected her a one of 6 Female Fronted Acts Reviving Rock, along with Wet Leg. 

Anchored around swirling guitar textures, propulsive and thunderous drumming SJ’s latest Dutch Mustard single, the hazy “Dreaming” not just showcases the rising Dutch-born, London-based artist’s gorgeous vocals, but reveals a songwriter with an unerring knack for pairing earnest, seemingly lived-in songwriting with catchy, rousingly anthemic hooks while subtly pushing the boundaries of shoegaze in new directions.

“’Dreaming’ captures that strange grey area at the start of a relationship—when you’re unsure if it’s real or just a dream,” SJ explains. “It’s about a rare, true connection and the vulnerability of opening yourself up, letting someone in, and wondering if they’ll meet you in the same world.”

Directed by Josiah Newbolt, the accompanying video for “Dreaming” is a hazily shot fever dream that shows the Dutch Mustard mastermind expressively dancing through screens in a moody lit room, a forest and elsewhere, which further emphasizes the vulnerability at the heart of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DG Solaris Shares Warm and Heartfelt “I Believe in You”

London-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Danny Green’s career started in earnest as the frontman of acclaimed British folk pop act Laish. During his time with Laish, Green wrote and recorded four critically applauded albums, which were supported by extensive touring across the UK, the European Union and the States.

In 2019, Green went through a series of major life changes: That March, he met Leanna Green — and by the end of the year, they got married. For their honeymoon, the Greens decided to spend six months traveling across South America with a simple recording setup that they carried with them in a backpack. During that trip, the couple won dup and recording a series of demos that would eventually become the earliest DG Solaris songs. “In between swimming with sea-lions, exploring sacred plant medicines and climbing mountains, we had been searching for beautiful spaces to set up our backpack studio,” the Greens explained in press notes. “All of our recordings feature the sounds of birds, cicadas and crickets.”

Returning home to London after their honeymoon, Danny and Leanna recruited Tom Chadd, Matt Canty and Matt Hardy to help flesh out the material they demoed during their honeymoon. The end result was 2020’s full-length debut Spirit Glow, which drew from and meshed elements of 70s psych pop, synth pop, krautrock and prog rock in a unique and playful fashion — with the album’s material written as a textural journey through emotional realms. “We wanted to explore the idea of two voices, two spirits, two creative minds and see where this dynamic could take us,” DG Solaris’ Leanna Green says in press notes. Danny Green adds, “It has been an incredibly inspiring trip. We came back with over forty songs and it has been a challenge to chose our favourites for this first album.”

Green spent between 2021-2022 or so, collaborating with Somerset, UK-born, London-based singer/songwriter  Jeremy Tuplin. The pair’s collaboration can trace their origins through some unusual circumstances: Although Green and Tuplin have been writing and recording albums over the course of the past decade, they’ve only been vaguely aware of each other’s existence. One night in Peru, following an intense shamanic ceremony, Green had a vivid dream that he and Tuplin were floating high above the ocean. The next morning, Green contacted Tuplin to share his strange, astral encounter. The pair began a correspondence, which lead to their first EP together, Crashing In The Waves. 

Released earlier this year, “I Believe in You” sees Green’s warm, sonorous delivery with a lush, unhurried arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar, a regal horn solo and boy-girl harmonies for the song’s hook and chorus. But at its core, “I Believe in You,” is both a sweet, old-timey declaration of enduring love and devotion and a gentle, heartwarming recognition of self-acceptance of your foibles and of those whom you love, all while offering support when you might need it the most. And it’s done in a way that will remind some of The Beatles “When I’m 64,” with the same playfully bittersweet acknowledgement of aging.

The accompanying video features home footage of Danny Green, Leanna Green and their adorable family in their daily life both at home, going on hikes and what not, the inevitable leak at home, the family cat, Green performing live and recording sessions with fellow folkies Beth Rowley, Rachael Dadd and The Gentle Good.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Reijy Shares Heartbreaking “SI Te Vas”

Jhon Edison Villamizer is a rising Cúcuta, Colombia-born, Medellín-based singer/songwriter, best known in the Latin music world as Reijy. Villiamizer’s career started in earnest over a decade ago, with a string of hits that captivated audiences in his hometown and elsewhere. Since then he has collaborated with a who’s who list of acclaimed Latin music artists including Feid, Amaro, Kevin Florez and a lengthy list of others. 

Solidifying himself as an up-and-coming artist in Colombia, Villamizer recently relocated to Medellín, where he signed with DINASTIA Inc, one of the country’s highly renowned labels. 

Last year, the Colombian artist announced plans to release a new song over the course of a year to showcase his unwavering dedication and passion for his craft. One of the singles in that year-long series including “EFECTO w,” a lounge and club friendly bop featuring skittering trap beats, fluttering atmospheric synths and remarkably catchy hooks. The production serves as a lush and sainty bed for Villamizer’s delivery, which sees him alternating between vulnerable croon and swaggering braggadocio. The song reveals an artist, who seems to write an effortless and summery hook-driven bop.

Villamizer’s latest single “Si Te Vas” continues a run of club and lounge friendly material featuring skittering trap beats, twinkling keys paired with the rising Colombian artist’s achingly plaintive delivery. The song and the accompanying video tells a story about the narrator’s lover, who hides a terrible breast cancer diagnosis, which initially raises suspicious of infidelity. Understandably, it leads to a fight. The video suggests that the narrator’s lover tragically succumbs to cancer, leaving the narrator with bittersweet memories of both good times and bad — with the heartbreaking sense of “what could have been.”

Villamizer hopes that the video and song raise awareness of breast cancer and the need for honest communication and trust in all relationships — especially romantic relationships.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: France’s The Flying Bones Shares a Bruising Ripper

The Flying Bones — Fabien Joffard (drums, vocals) and Thibault Talmont (guitar, vocals) — are a St. Malo, France-based garage rock duo, whose work draws from and seamlessly meshes several influences including Thee Oh Sees, Pneu and Francky Goes To Pointe-à-Pitre among others.

Equipped with just drums, guitar, some effects pedals, guitar and bass amps and two microphones for vocals, the duo pairs the wildness of garage punk with live looping of guitar and other instruments when necessary to create a sound that can easily vacillating between fast and fierce to trance-inducing and contemplative within a musical phrase.

The French duo spent several years refining their live show and they recently managed to compile the best tracks from their garage punk and math fuzz periods into a collection of nine muscular and abrasive tracks — the pair’s forthcoming album Who Are The Flying Bones.

Who Are The Flying Bones‘ latest single “Muscles” is a bruising and forceful ripper that brings DEVO, Frankie and the Witch Fingers, The Oh Sees and even Cinemechanica to mind while displaying the duo’s remarkable musicianship and penchants for motorik-lke groove paired with punchily delivered vocals.

Directed by Thibault Talmont, the accompanying video follows Arthur Boury, a nerdy and nebbishy sort of guy, desperate to turn into a muscle man through weights, exercise, powders and the like — until his dopplegänger shows up to wreck havoc.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Deep Sea Diver Shares Anthemic “What Do I Know”

Deep Sea Diver‘s long awaited and highly-anticipated fourth album, the 11-song, Jessica Dobson and Andy Park co-produced Billboard Heart is slated for a February 28, 2025 release through Sub Pop. The album reportedly puts the band – currently, Dobson, her spouse Peter Mansen (drums) and Elliot Jackson (guitar, synths) — in the company of acts like St. Vincent, TV on the Radio,Flock of Dimes and others, that have found ornate and magnetic ways to make indie rock by discarding notions of how it must sound or what it must say. 

The album features additional production from Adam Schatz and additional contributions from The Shins‘ Yuuki Matthews, Caroline Rose and Greg Leisz. It was mixed by Park and mastered by Greg Calbi and Steve Fallone. 

Some background is needed here: Back in July 2023 while recording in a Los Angeles-based studio, Dobson played a guitar solo but somehow felt nothing. Just a few days earlier, her band played a series of semi-secret shows for fans at a hometown bar, de facto rehearsals for cutting a new record. The sets had gone well; but almost immediately, the sessions didn’t. The songs’ essence seemed muddled, Dobson’s conviction lost somewhere in the 1,000 miles or so between Southern California and the Seattle-based home studio she shares with her spouse and frequent cowriter Peter Mansen. 

On that first night of recording sessions, Dobson broke down, wondering what she was doing there and what her band could do to fix it. For the first time in their history, the band retreated and headed home without a completed album. Did they need to scrap the entire thing and start again with new material? 

As it turned out, no. Following a brief break, Dobson found a renewed sense of self, a trust in her vision for her band and songs and her ability to capture them. After the Los Angeles hiccup a few months before, longtime collaborator and producer Andy Park asked Dobson how the new material was going over at an early fall dinner. She admitted that she needed help. And in that humbling confession, she seen found ways of working that helped her reimagine and reinvigorate the band — and directly led to their fourth album. 

For Dobson, the album is a triumph over self-doubt in which what initially felt like failure became an opportunity to find new freedom, belief, and even strength. 

As it turned out, the massive success of their third album Impossible Weight caused Dobson to doubt her impulses, and to begin thinking about what an idea’s impact or reception might be as much the strength of the idea itself. During this period of second-guessing, she and Mansen sat near the wide windows of their Seattle living room, with her on piano as he hammered a guitar nearby. Album track “See in the Dark” — a song about coveting your notions, despite the occasional sense they’re slipping away — emerged in that setting. 
 
That particular moment of domestic creation was essential for a number of reasons. Before Impossible Weight, Dobson and Mansen wrote many of Deep Sea Diver’s songs together; this was a return to that bond, which managed to carry over to more than half Billboard Heart‘s material. The pair began recording more at home, too. They borrowed microphones and a small batch of essential gear to record guitars and vocals in their basement. 

When discussions later began in earnest with Park, following the Los Angeles incident, Dobson began revisiting those earlier recordings, realizing that she had captured much of that ineffable spark at home, where the atmosphere was of her own design. Mansen and Park helped convince her that these wasn’t just good enough to use, but riveting in their realness. These early versions became templates to build upon and a frame, and a way for Dobson to believe again in the material, and most importantly, herself. 

The album will feature the album title track “Billboard Heart,” as well as two singles I wrote about on this site:

  • “Let Me Go,” a slow-burning Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea-era PJ Harvey-like anthemic ballad that sees the ballad collaboration with Grammy Award-winning singer/songwriter Madison Cunningham 

  • “Shovel,” a Kate Bush-meets-St. Vincent-like tune that sees the band crafting hook-driven arena rock friendly anthems informed by lived-in, personal yet somehow deeply universal experience 

“What Do I Know,” Billboard Heart‘s third and latest single continues a run of punchy post-punk-like numbers with a rousingly anthemic, arena rock friendly hook and chorus. But much its predecessors, “What Do I Know” reveals the band’s remarkably adroit yet earnest, heart worn proudly on sleeve-driven songwriting while serving as a forceful reminder of Dobson’s powerhouse vocals and dexterous guitar work.

Directed by Eric Luck and Deep Sea Diver’s Peter Manson, the vibrant jump-cut style accompanying video features the band playing the song in a small room with the family dog, various friends in costume and other surreal things go on around them. The band continues onward — playfully accepting whatever is going on around them.

“‘What Do I Know’ holds a special place on the record. It is the first song that I engineered all of the instruments myself at my home studio,” Dobson explains. “At the time, I thought I was recording a demo and most of the parts are first takes. We kept all of the imperfections, and nothing was overthought. For the music video, we wanted to lean into that same spirit and gave ourselves only a few hours to film in a very small space. The song is equally existential as it is tongue in cheek, and we wanted the video to reflect more of the raw elements of who we are as a band.” 
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Gloin Shares a Furious and Chaotic Ripper

Toronto-based post-punk outfit Gloin — longtime friends John Watson (guitar, vocals), Vic Byers (bass, vocals), Simon Lou (drums, vocals) and Richard Garnheim (synths, guitar) — formed back in 2018 and at the onset was a means for the band’s members to convey their shared passion for engaging and visceral live performance. Since their formation, the Toronto-based quartet have gone on a handful of North American tours, making the rounds of the North American festival circuit with sets at SXSW, Freakout Fest, New Colossus, Sled Island, Treefort Music Fest, West Festand FME while also sharing the stage with a number of renowned acts including Snapped Ankles, Osees, Amyl and The Sniffers, Brian Jonestown Massacre, A Place to Bury Strangers, Orville Peck, Moon Duo and Night Beats. 

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

Gloin’s self-released their debut EP, 2019’s Soft Monster. They signed with Mothland, who released their full-length debut, 2022’s Dylan Frankland produced We Found This, an effort, which was mixed by Graham Walsh. Inspired by Sonic Youth and Lightning Bolt, the album featured pop melodies and beautifully noisy arrangements, anchored by a distorted rhythm section that offers urgency but also soothing grooves. 

Gloin’s highly-anticipated sophomore album All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry) is slated for a March 28, 2025 release through Mothland. Described by the band as “dancey, but scary,” the album’s material sees them revamping their noise rock-driven sound, adding further elements from darkwave, industrial, and post-punk. 

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

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

Last month, I wrote about the album’s sarcastically titled first single, “controlfreak69,” a tense, uneasy yet somehow dance floor friendly track that sounded a bit like a synthesis of Gang of Four, Ministry and Evil Heat-era Primal Scream, anchored around a whirring motorik groove driven by a phased-out, down-tuned bass and relentless four-on-the-floor stomp paired with Watson’s punchy shouts and howls. 

The band describe the song as “trying to stay on top and trying to keep up, all the while thinking that you have control, when you actually don’t.” 

All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)‘s second and latest single “Horse Fighting” is chaotic and furious ripper with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses that reminds me a bit of BLOODSWEAT-era Plague Vendor — but while capturing the churning of self-anguish and self-doubt. The band describe the song as being about “childhood trauma, shame and public standards.”

Directed by Rose Cormier, the accompanying video is glitchy, noisy analog chaos. “Everything about this track screamed chaos to me. The discombobulated short lyrics lend themselves well to a rather rough and choppy editing style, and the overarching chaos of the instrumental really lent itself well to the use of analog visual synthesizers,” Cormier explains. “Being handed over a bunch of corrupted footage, some of which was very, very glitchy, seemed like a nightmare scenario, but in this case, I figured that by really leaning into the chaos, I could create this big, glitchy, colourful, high energy mess.