Category: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: POND Returns with Searching and Yearning “Through The Heather”

Perth-based JOVM mainstays POND — currently, Nicholas Allbrook (lead vocals, guitar, keys, bass, flute, slide guitar and drums); singer/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; Joe Ryan (vocals, guitar, bass, 12 string guitar, slide guitar); Jamie Terry (keys, bass, synths, organs, guitar); and Jamie Ireland (drums, keys) — will be releasing their 11th album Terrestrials on June 19, 2026 through their newly-minted Mangovision/Secretly Distribution. 

The writing and recording process for Terrestrials was subject to a simple set of rules: No fuzz pedal. No ballads. No “Pink Floyd shit.” Conceived from a place of deep reverence for a particular potent era of Oz rock, the JOVM mainstays’ 11th album reportedly mines the sound of open sky melancholia, heat haze sizzling on the plains and jangly pub backrooms that will hit an eternally poignant nerve for those familiar with the sound, time and place. And from there, the album evolved with the idea of “Goths at the pub” becoming the record’s stylistic north star — with 80s Australiana being acid-washed with the post-punk of Sisters Of Mercy, Magazine and the like. Throughout the album’s creative and recording process, they’d ask themselves “Would Goths like it? Could you have a beer to this?” If the answers were yes, it was thrust into the mix. 

Like much of their catalog, Terrestrials is a record of people and place, of exploring the identity of each, as well as where and how they intersect and interact. Thematically, the album touches upon extractive capitalism, power dynamics., inequality, Indigenous incarceration, eccentric outcasts, fire and water, diesel and dust, unity and division, blood and bauxite, unborn tomorrows and dead yesterdays. And as a result, the album’s material twitches with the desperation of people and their planet on the brink, but while betting on the beauty of both to prevail. 

The album will feature the recently released, album title track “Terrestrials,” he Sisters of Mercy-meets-Diesel and Dust-era Midnight Oil-like “Two Hands,” and the album’s third and latest single “Through The Heather.” Anchored around a chintzy and shimmering Casio keyboard-like synth melody and driving rhythms, Terrestrials‘ third single may arguably be the album’s most searching and achingly yearning tune.

“Through the Heather” was initially conceived while Pond toured Europe last year. Drummer/Keyboardist Gin kept himself entertained by conjuring musical experiments on Ableton; a few a day until something stood out. “Then him and [multi-instrumentalist + founding member] Gum worked on it more in a hotel room while watching Ice Road Truckers or something equally shit,” frontman Nicholas Allbrook explains.

“Sometimes rock and roll is a glamorous game baby, but mainly it isn’t. Funny that such a beautiful, melancholic, searching song was born surrounded by chip packets and track pants in a van full of filthy pigs,” Allbrook continues. “We had so much fun making the spring reverb thunderclaps, giving the spring a cheeky little pinch to make it go BOOM, looking out over the Indian ocean from our porch/studio in Seabird while MasterChef played silently in the corner. Let that be a lesson to all you young rockers ok? Can’t get too inspiring ya know. Gotta keep a lid on it. Chucking on the telly or making a samwich or having a nap should do it.”

Animated by Albert Pritchard, the accompanying video for “Through The Heather” is a mind-bending visual that features heather growing near a medieval-styled castle, a bat flying through a lightning storm, an army of marching red-eyed spiders and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Widowspeak Returns with Swooning “Soft Cover”

New York-based indie outfit Widowspeak — Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas— are one of many bands to crop up in the busy local scene around the time I started this site, almost 16 years ago. They started out shuffling their gear between now, long-shuttered — and deeply beloved — venues like Glasslands, Cake Shop, 285 Kent, Death By Audio and a lengthy list of others, and their practice space at Monster Island Basement, which now is a Trader Joe’s. New York has fucking changed, y’all. Speaking of changes: the duo is now a married couple, working day jobs in their own off-season. Thomas is a carpenter, Hamilton a waitress. 

Recently, the duo announced that their highly-anticipated seventh album, Roses will be released June 5, 2026 through Captured Tracks. Deeply informed by their respective day jobs, Roses isn’t populated with dramatic overtures, but with the backdrop of the minutiae and repetition of daily acts. There’s the small observations before, during and after work: the ritual-like act of pouring water or coffee for customers, the bemusement and frustration of catching a cold on your only day off. Maybe you’re daydreaming about your life if you won the lottery — or maybe realizing that you already won. 

The 10-song Roses was recorded last January at the Old Carpet Factory on the Greek Island of Hydra, a studio located in an old house, tucked into the village’s steep hills. During the winter, without the rush of tourists, it’s quiet. Longtime touring members Willy Muse, John Andrews and Noah Bond were the session backing band. 

The album’s material was then taken home and slowly, lightly tinkered with before being mixed by Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios and mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering. 

Throughout the album, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, almost sepia-toned, vaseline coated lens. As always, the beating heart of their work is the interplay between Hamilton’s languid, dreamy and textured delivery and Hamilton’s bluesy, visceral guitar work. 

Roses‘ will include the previously released “If You Change,” the lush and cinematic “No Driver,” and the album’s third and latest single, “Soft Cover.” “Soft Cover” is a shuffling driving and achingly gorgeous song anchored around featuring what may arguably the album’s most sweeping hooks and Hamilton’s swooning, heartfelt delivery. The song evokes both the sensation of daydreaming about someone, as you’re going about the mundane actions of your day — and the sensation of longing and hoping to see that special someone as soon as possible.

“Soft Cover” is about infatuation: wanting and daydreaming about someone as you’re going about your day… even if, and maybe especially if, you’ve been with them a long time,” says Hamilton. “We brought in a Rhodes for this one, so it came in a car from Athens, then took a boat, then a donkey carried it up to the studio,” Hamilton adds, describing the unique recording conditions they experienced at the Old Carpet Factory on the Greek island Hydra.

Directed by Otium, the accompanying video features the band’s Molly Hamilton as a singing telegram girl, who daydreams of a idealized Shakespearean/Renaissance Faire man (Robert Earl Thomas) courting her with old-timey poetry as she reads from her pulp novel. “The video is the last in the world of the trilogy, where the Singing Telegram Girl is dreaming about an idealized Renaissance Faire Guy while waiting around, reading a pulpy novel,” Hamilton says. “Rob was incredibly enthusiastic about this one because he loves medieval history and we got to pick out some fun costumes from Adele’s of Hollywood. He’s a star!”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s The Howlers Share Swaggering, Arena Rock Friendly “Viper”

2024 was a breakthrough year for London-based rock outfit The Howlers. Their self-funded, self-released full-length debut, What You’ve Got To Lose To Win It All received widespread acclaim across Europe. The album exploded into the UK Independent Breakers Charts Top 10 while landing on several other independent, vinyl and physical sales charts. And adding to a growing profile, What You’ve Got To Lose To Win It All received airplay from BBC Radio 1, BBC 6 Music, Radio X and Absolute Radio as well as editorial playlisting internationally across Apple Music and Spotify.

The momentum and buzz surrounding the band translated to the stage. A sold-out 18-date UK headlining tour saw the band quickly establishing themselves as one of the country’s newest, most exciting live acts. This was followed by a European Union tour that featured sold-out shows across eight countries, while they road-tested material that would ultimately shape what came next.

As the year came to a close, the band went through a massive lineup shakeup, which led to the band continuing as a duo featuring Adam Young (vocals, guitar) and Toby Richards (drums). The lineup change was a shift that redefined the band’s sound and creative direction, while bringing a renewed sense of focus and identity.

Last year, as a duo, the London-based outfit released two singles “Night Crawling” and “You Can Be So Cruel” before signing with FLG, who will release their highly-anticipated sophomore album, Heavy. Written and produced alongside longtime collaborator, Black Honey‘s Chris Ostler, The Howlers’ sophomore album sees the band deliberately eschewing traditional studio methods. The album was written and recorded remotely — with demos, ideas and reworked arrangements sent back and forth across digital platforms — stripping everything back while pushing each song to its strongest form. Only in the album’s final stages did the duo enter rehearsal spaces to capture live drums, grounding the material’s experimental edges with raw, physical energy,

“This album is those late night experiences, the after dark conversations, late night phone calls, the seductive nature of impulsiveness that seems so alluring and losing yourself in the addictive nature of recklessness — but it’s also the mirror in the morning, the wake up call, and the harsh reality of knowing those feelings won’t always last,” The Howlers’ Adam Young says. “It’s the moment you find yourself again.”

Heavy‘s latest single “Viper” is a swaggering, arena rock friendly ripper, featuring a pulsing and slithering riff and driving rhythms paired with songwriting anchored in inputs, tension, unease, desire and consequence. The song’s narrator talks about being drawn to something or someone, knowing it’s bad for you — and doing it anyway.

“Viper speaks to an experience of being totally drawn towards someone even though you can see the red flags — the desire for all of us to willingly make bad decisions for the thrill of what comes next, regardless of consequences.” says Young “You’re lost in the moment together. But no matter how much you kid yourself into believing the Bonnie & Clyde fantasy, they will always cause you pain in the end.”

The accompanying video features some sleek, stylishly shot footage of the band performing the song in the studio — as though they were in an arena.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Italy’s Way To Blue Shares Broodingly Cinematic “For All The Times”

Vincenzo Del Corno is a Pavia, Italy-born singer/songwriter, musician and producer, who developed a passion for music and film at a young age. As a teenager, he began playing drums, later learning bass and guitar, His passion for film, led to him writing for various film magazines, and by 2004 he became editor of the quarterly publication Buioinsala. Back in 2011, he published Suspira, a monograph on Dario Argento’s 1977 film Suspira.

Between 2020 and 2021, Del Corno co-wrote “Lonely,” “Bones” and “Lullaby” for Italian singer Camilla Wells, all of which received positive responses both in their native Italy and elsewhere. Back in 2024, he founded Way To Blue, a tribute to the music and production of 80s post-punk and New Wave, informed by his love of 80s memorabilia, vinyl and VHS.

Del Corno’s first two singles 2024’s Marco Barusso-produced “Love Again” and “Life Is a Big Joke” were release to positive response, as well as airplay on local and national radio. Building upon a growing profile in Italy, Del Corno released “Voices of Darkness” earlier this year, which was quickly followed by his latest single the Marco Barusso-produced “For All The Times” is a broodingly cinematic bit of synth-driven post punk that channels Depeche Mode — but with a sleek, modern feel.

The accompanying video for “For All The Time” is a shot in a cinematic black and white and evokes the brooding Romanticism and yearning at the core of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Shye Shares Brooding and Ethereal “I Always Knew”

Rising Singapore-based dream pop artist Shye is a self-taught singer/songwriter, musician, producer and engineer, whose music career began as DIY bedroom project that exploded into the international scene when she won the 2018 Vans Musicians Wanted competition when she was just 16. Since then, the Singaporean artist has released a handful of genre-defying singles while amassing a batch of awards and titles, including NME‘s Best New Act from Asia, Asia’s Forbes 30 Under 30 and sharing stages with acts like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Wisp, Clairo and Men I Trust.

Her sophomore album The Doves Came Home officially dropped today. The album features a collection of hazy, introspective songs that seamlessly transition from ethereal vocals and shimmering guitars to heavy walls of sound that draws from 90s dream pop and shoegaze. The result is material that sounds simultaneously expansive and deeply personal while exploring the push and pull between softness and tension.

The album includes the previously released “Smoke,” “Someone, Always“ and the album’s latest single “I Always Knew.” Much like its immediate predecessors, “I Always Knew,” features the rising Singaporean artist’s yearning vocal ethereally floating over a 90s inspired arrangement built around alternating shimmering, jangle pop and dream pop-like guitars for the song’s quieter verses and towering and swirling shoegazer textures for the song’s rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. But underneath the song’s anthemic and stormy exterior is a tale of a meet cute that quietly cracks apart in the sort of betrayal and heartbreak that feels inevitable.

The lyric video follows a brooding and introspective Shye wandering the countryside and riding trains with her earbuds, singing the song’s lyrics — to presumably an unseen subject.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: SHUB Teams Up with Aysanabee and Drezus on Soulful and Introspective “Rise”

Dan “SHUB” General is a Mohawk producer and member of the Six Nations of the Grand River, the largest First Nation reserve in Canada. As a co-founder of the trailblazing and acclaimed, Juno Award-winning Indigenous electronic music outfit A Tribe Called Red, now known as The Hallucci Nation, General has been instrumental in the development of powwow-step, a blend of the ancient rhythms of powwow music with scratching, hip-hop, and modern, bass-heavy electronic music production. 

In 2014, General left A Tribe Called Red and stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist and producer. His debut, 2016’s six-song PowWowStep EP featured collaborations with the Northern Cree Singers, smoke dance singer Frazer Sundown and Blackfeet Nation-based drum group, Black Lodge Singers. PowWowStep won an Indigenous Music Award for Best Instrumental Album and the Canadian Organization of Campus Activities (COCA) named him DJ of the Year in 2017. 

Since then, the Canadian producer and DJ has released two albums, 2020’s War Club and last year’s Heritage (Part One). Conceived as part of a two-part series, Heritage (Part One) saw General stepping beyond the DJ booth and boldly stepping forward as a composer, storyteller and artist dedicated to expanding the reach of Indigenous music on a global scale. 

The second part of the series Heritage (Part Two) dropped last week, and across the series’ material, SHUB brings together Indigenous artists across generations, using collaboration as a way to explore identity, community and continuity within contemporary music. “Hearing these artists step onto these tracks and take them somewhere I never could have on my own… that was the most rewarding part of making this record,” General says.

The acclaimed Canadian producer and artist is helping to actively expand the space Indigenous artists occupy within modern music. Heritage (Part Two) completes that vision, bringing together voices across cultures and styles into a single body of work. “It’s about cultures coming together through my music. If you can forget about everything else for a moment, take it in, and just feel free — that’s the real beauty. This album is about movement aned growth,” SHUB explains. “It’s not trying to be one genre — it’s just where I’m at right now.”

Last month, I wrote about “I Know,” feat. Sebastian Gaskin. With the album’s release, last week General shared “Rise,” feat. Aysanabee & Drezus is a soulful, gospel-inspired tune that details hidden struggles with mental health with a deeply personal, lived-in specificity. But at its core, is an emphasis on turning to community and family in one’s most difficult moments, because as the saying goes “you’re not alone.”

“The song to me is community,” says Aysanabee. “Indigenous people rising together.” Drezus adds: “Success doesn’t mean anything if your spirit is still suffering… this one’s for the people fighting battles no one else can see.”

Continuing an ongoing collaboration with Matt Guarrasi, the accompanying video was shot in Toronto’s St. Stephen-in-the-Fields. The trio of artists are framed within a grand, scared space that deserves — and demands — solemn contemplation and reverence. These scenes are intercut with a hand reaching into light and archival footage of children in residential schools. The result is a video grounded in a shared history while honoring the enduring resilience of Indigenous communities. As a Black man, it’s deeply familiar on an almost atomic level.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: RIP Magic Shares Woozily Claustrophobic “Screwdark”

Rising London-based quartet RIP Magic — Marco Pini, Felix Bayley-Higgins, Beth Boswell-Knight and Pedro Takahashi — recently signed to section1, the Los Angeles-based sister label to Partisan Records.

The British-based quartet’s signing to section1 is part of a breakout year that has seen early, word-of-mouth momentum turn into something much more tangible. Following last June’s self-released double single “Loot”/”Dox,” RIP Magic quickly built a reputation as one of the UK’s most compelling new live acts, balancing their own frequently sold-out headline shows with festival sets and opening spots for Tame Impala, Fcukers, Fakemink and others,

Late last year, the London-based outfit shared, the James Murphy-produced “5words,” which came out as they were opening for LCD Soundsystem. Building upon a growing national and international profile, RIP Magic’s latest single “Screwdark” is a dense, woozily claustrophobic tune that’s one-part brooding and eerie Portishead trip hop, one-part frenzied, Beck and Beastie Boys-like sample fest that’s both club and festival friendly and prefect for late-night headphone listening.

The new track comes as the rising act is opening for Tame Impala’s sold-out arena tour of Europe, and fittingly, the accompanying video directed by Velcro captures the band while in tour, edited in a frenetic fever dream of places, shows, people and experiences.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Womack Sisters Share Strutting and Urgent “Chauffeur”

Rising Los Angeles-based soul trio The Womack Sisters — Kucha, Zeimani and BG — can trace the origins of their careers to their childhood: The trio were singing before they could even walk. They grew up on stages and in studios across the globe, singing behind their parents, as well as their legendary uncle, Bobby Womack. And adding to The Womack Sisters’ remarkable pedigree, their grandfather was the iconic Sam Cooke. 

No matter where they called home at the time — London, Thailand, Amsterdam, Kenya, West Virginia, The Bahamas — music and family were always a constant at the center of their lives. Of course, as the sisters grew up, each with their own respective journeys, experiences and heartaches, they managed to find their own voices and their own path.

Each member of the trio has their own individual vocal, but they playfully trade leads and effortlessly (and perfectly) blend their harmonies in a way that only siblings can. 

Back in 2016, a mutual friend introduced The Womack Sisters to Daptone Records co-owner and producer Gabriel Roth, a.k.a. Bosco Mann, who heard them sing and fell quickly and deeply in love with their voices. Shortly after, they met, they went to Daptone’s Riverside, CA-based Penrose Studios to record their label debut, “If You Want Me“/”I Just Don’t Want You (To Say Goodbye).”

The rising Los Angeles trio’s long-awaited self-titled, full-length debut is slated for an August 14, 2026 through Daptone Records. The album’s latest single “Chauffeur” is a strutting bit of old-school-inspired soul that showcases the trio’s remarkable vocal range, impeccable sense of harmony and their deeply personal, lived-in lyrics.

On “Chauffeur,” the sisters recount the trials, tribulations they each faced while trying to make ends meet as Uber drives. In each of their respective verses, they recount the hustle and drive required to make ends meet — by any legal means possible — while having greater ambitions, and grappling with the futility of trying to stack meager fares into rent money. While deeply soulful, the song evokes the drive, unease, desperation and seething frustration of someone who has to grind — to barely survive. And it’s rooted in the plain language of struggle and cash flow.

“’Chauffeur’  is about the hustle of life that we all are in – the day to day, trying to survive, and looking forward to your day in the sun,” The Womack Sisters’ Zeimani Womack says. “It’s a song for the underdogs, and the encouragement to keep pushing. Things can be rough and get a little rocky, but as long as you have the faith, you will make it.”

Directed by Shauna Presto, the stylishly shot accompanying video features each of The Womack Sisters as the song’s titular chauffeur, driving passengers who seem completely unconcerned sit in the back seat. They may be struggling to survive but they have their dignity and their dreams of making it.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Shares Punchy, Dance Punk Anthem “Deny”

Acclaimed Montréal-based JOVM mainstay collective La Sécurité — Éliane Viens (vocals, synths, percussion and drums), Félix Bélisle (bass, synths, percussion, piano and production), Kenny Smith (drum, guitar), Laurence Anne Charest-Gagné (guitar, percussion, vocals) and Melissa Di Menna (guitar, synths, vocals, percussion and artwork) — specialize in a brand of art punk that’s equal parts jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks run through an insomniac filter that’s the result of excessive exposure to the city’s neon-lit late night scene. 

The Canadian art punk collective’s music is about living dangerously and is prefect for being blasted at deafening levels on dance floors. But lyrically, the material is deeply inspired by and shares the ethos of the Riot Grrl movement, celebrating and defiantly advocating for the autonomization of women, friendship and benevolence. 

Since the release of 2023’s full-length debut, Stay Safe!, which landed on the Polaris Music Prize long-list, the Montréal-based art punks have released 2024’s Stay Safe! REMIXED and last year’s “Detour” and “Ketchup.” Along with receiving critical praise both nationally and internationally, the outfit has made the run of the intentional festival circuit, playing sets at M for Montréal, New Colossus Festival, SXSW, End of the Road, The Great Escape, Reeperbahn and Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. They’ve toured as an opener for The Go! Team and The Rapture. And they’ve shared stages with Mauskovic Dance Band and JOVM mainstays Automatic and Death Valley Girls. During that whirlwind period, they also signed with Simon Raymonde‘s label Bella Union. 

The JOVM mainstay act’s highly-anticipated, Emmanuel Éthier and Félix Bélisle co-produced sophomore album Bingo! is slated for a June 12, 2026 release through Mothland in Canada and the States, and Bella Union for the rest of the world. The new album reportedly sees the band continuing to meander in and around the fringes of punk, new wave krautrock and dance punk, while mischievously flouting stylistic form every change they get. While continuing to implement polyrhythm, counterintuitive chord changes and subtle melodic and harmonic dissonance, the album reportedly sees them introducing more New Wave, no wave, noise rock and shoegaze elements to the sound that has won them intentional acclaim. 

The album’s material features songs that tackles knotty themes like mental health, the autonomization of women, dysfunctional relationships with their custom moxie. Other songs playfully muse about food or address everyday mundanity with sarcasm and irony. There’s a song that celebrates unsung heroes, like the elderly. Much like its predecessor, many of the album’s tracks saw the group improvising lyrics in the studio, effectively catching lightning in a bottle. 

The album was recorded with the band playing live off-the-floor, using rare ribbon microphones and vintage compressors. Adding to the overall free-flowing feel and vibe to the album’s material, many of the song’s hooks were improvised through jazz-tinged musical flights during recording sessions. The album was mixed by Bélisle and Étheir before being mastered by Robin Schmidt. 

The result is an album that harnesses the Montréal-based art punks’ natural sound, a sound that fuses calculated musical chaos and musicality with high decibels. 

Bingo! will feature the previously released “Detour” “Ketchup,” album title track “Bingo,” “Snack City,” and the album’s last pre-release single “Deny.” “Deny” is arguably Bingo!‘s most dance floor friendly song, anchored around a driving four-to-the-floor rhythm, funky polyrhythmic bass lines, slashing guitar volleys, squiggling synth blasts paired with the occasionally complex yet groovy drum fill paired with a punchy yet stern vocal exposing a noxious, dysfunctional relationship before bolting from it.

“Initially written in French and translated to English, the song deals with dysfunctional relationships and getting rid of burdens in your life. Standing up for yourself. This doesn’t work for me; I’m out,” the band explains. “The bass hook was stolen from Standard Emmanuel, Félix’s solo project…”

Directed by Béatrice Cuierrier-Legualt, the accompanying video showcases the uniqueness of each band member — with a playful nod at Tumblr and other digital creation methods. “I wanted to visually create tableaus for each character, based on different homogeneous æsthetics, centered around the concept of denial,” Cuierrier-Legault explains. “It was by delving into the band’s intimacy and consulting their personal archives that five characters were born, each representing a member and their unique traits. I wanted each character to embody elements from their real lives amidst the alter ego.Since La Sécurité is mainly composed of millennials, I wanted to highlight 90s and post-punk influences, but also the arrival of the internet and new digital creation methods.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: BRIXTONE Shares Glitchy and Brooding “The Mirror Stars”

BRIXTONE is an experimental music duo — half-brothers Paul and Pete Brixtone — that features members, who were raised in opposite musical worlds and yet drawn to the same aesthetic: One member works by instinct, noted in abrasiveness, aggression and noise. The other words with structure, discipline and an architectural melodic sensibility.

The duo’s debut Never Play To The Gallery was released earlier this year to positive reviews across music media with the album being describes as an “electro rock-post punk-jazz entity,” and a restless, shape-shifting mass of sound pulled tight between decay and precision.

Never Play To The Gallery‘s latest single “The Mirror Stars” is anchored around an industrial electronica pulse and skittering beats, bursts of scorching guitar, distorted vocal samples, eerie electronic textures, and a brooding lead vocal. Seemingly channeling early Nine Inch Nails and Earthling-era David Bowie, “The Mirror Stars,” possesses a creeping sense of dread that feels uneasy, familiar and of our deeply fucked up moment.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Marcos Jobim Shares Meditative “Silêncio”

Brazilian singer/songwriter and musician Marcos Jobim released his sophomore album, Singelinha last year. Sonically, the album sees the Brazilian artist branching out into multiple sonic directions, traversing across Brazilian popular music, folk and world music, while also featuring elements of rock and concert music. But the material is guided by the delicacy of the arrangements and the power of its poetic lyricism.

Fittingly, the album’s songs shift between intimate and expansive atmospheres. Instrumental album title track “Singelinha,” which was originally written back in 2023, was the album’s starting point — and was inspired by his desire to achieve a poetic and sonic synthesis. “I was seeking something with a synthetic character—something that could convey deeper insights through a simple, objective form,” Jobim explains.

Following the recording of “Singelinha,” the idea emerged that the Brazilian could expand upon the project. “The process was so inspiring that we realized we could create something on a larger scale,” he says. The end result was the 13-song album that featured ten songs and three compositions.

Much of the album features two versions of most of the album’s songs: one version featuring solo acoustic guitar arrangements, as originally written and another version arranged for a chamber ensemble with violin, clarinet, trombone, cello, tuba and double bass. Those arrangements were revised and edited by Pablo Schinke, who also handled production and engineering duties. “Pablo was fundamental to shaping the album’s sonic identity, in addition to performing as the cellist,” the Brazilian artist says. “He possesses a keen eye for aesthetics and brought a sense of balance and innovation to the tracks.”

Schinke went on to meticulous work to preserve the unique character of each track during the mixing process, “He always made a point
of preserving the essence of the compositions, even during moments of
greater experimentation,” Jobim adds.

Jobim will be embarking on his first international tour this year, but in the meantime, he further establishes Singelinha‘s aesthetic. The album’s latest single “Silênecio” is a meditative, introspective song anchored by a gorgeous arrangement featuring acoustic guitar, brooding strings and clarinet and gently padded drums paired with Jobim’s dreamily laid-back delivery.

Filmed by Zé Carlos de Andrade the video was shot in the Bacupari District in Mostaradas, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. The video follows Jobim in the desert. conveying solitude while serving as an invitation to the listener to slow down and listen to the void that surrounds us.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A!MS Teams Up with ZieZie, Ramz, Lillz, and leon & Brodie on Swaggering “Wait What”

A!MS is an emerging and rising Ayia Napa, Cyprus-based artist, who has received international attention for a sound that he has dubbed “Global Street,” which is informed by his multicultural background and blends hip-hop’s spirit, street culture, global sounds, and digital-era creativity. He sees this new, hybrid sub-genre as a home for artists beyond traditional scenes, and as a way to unite voices from overlooked corners of the globe with a “as street, as it is worldwide” ethos.

The Cyprus-based artist’s sophomore album, last year’s Peak Season includes the Antaeus-produced “Light & Love,” feat. Julian Marley and Hypertone, the Golden Boy-produced  Stjge co-written “Need Somebody” feat. UK-based rapper ArrDee, and the album’s latest single “Wait What?” features a collection of rising British emcees ZieZie, Ramz, Lillz, and Leon & Brodie. Clocking in at a little under two-and-a-half minutes, the song showcases each artist’s unique energy and distinct flows over a slick, hook-driven trap-meets-grime production, which features a looping, fluttering flute sample paired with bursts of twinkling keys, skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling triplets.  

While anchored around an All-Star cast of up-and-comers, along with an established veteran, “Wait What” showcases the UK scene’s remarkable talent to a global audience hungering for new talent outside of North America.

Directed by WALKMNS, the accompanying video for “Wait What” is shot in a gorgeous, cinematic black and white and is split between footage of the artists performing at a festival and hanging out at what looks like a mix of suburban hotel, house, and mall.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Atsuko Chiba Returns with Two New Singles Off Just Released Fourth Album

Montréal-based outfit Atsuko Chiba — Karim Lakhdar (vocals, guitar, synths), Kevin McDonald (synths, guitar), Eric Schafhauser (guitar, synths), David Palumbo (bass, bass VI, vocals) and Anthony Piazza (drums, electronic drums, percussion) — have firmly established a sound that’s a cohesive and hypnotic blend of post-rock, prog and krautock paired with offbeat songwriting through the release of 2013’s Jinn, 2019’s Trace and 2023’s Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing.

The Montréal-based quintet’s self-titled fourth album was released last Friday through Mothland. The album sees the band rethinking their sound and approach, drawing inspiration from Mark Lanegan, Beak>, Talk Talk, Can and Portishead, all while retaining elements of their long-established post-punk fueled psychedelia. 

Though the band has been introducing more vocals and lyrics with every subsequent release, their fourth album sees the band further wielding vocals and lyrics as a well to delve deeper into their intrinsic meta. The result is an album that’s one-part gritty post-rock and one-part intimate hymn to self-reflection with its moodiness amplifying a communal desire to eschew recurrent patterns for the sake of comfort, approval and longevity. 

The band decided upon a freeform creative process, which could only be achieved by pursuing a hands-on approach, and with each member sharing the roles of engineer and producer, 

“Overall, Atsuko Chiba is an exercise in patience and restraint. The mood of the album is melancholic, at times feeling optimistic, while other times feeling almost hopeless—there’s a sense of loss and disconnect, but also a glimmer of hope,” the band explains. “It is the most vulnerable and stripped down music we have ever made. It is a departure from the aggressive and distorted guitar sound we’ve relied on over the years. We also chose to make it a self-titled record which is something we battled with. We went with Atsuko Chiba because its overarching themes relate to us in a deep way. The material on this album presents itself as a mosaic of our interests and experiences as a band. We let the music guide us every step of the way, never forcing our will upon it, instead paying attention to what it was telling us and what we could do to further support it.

At first, we would come into the studio without a plan, just playing and recording the entire time, with no pressure as to a specific outcome: free jams during which we were just generating grooves, parts, and moments that felt good to us. We also put limitations, cutting out certain instruments from session to session, opening us to new options and pathways, generating new sound palettes. A lot of attention was put into creating space and holding back from always going for big epic moments. We focussed on keeping things simple and using dynamics to create exciting moments instead of relying on loud guitars to get us there. This album features a lot of auxiliary percussion, synthesizers, and keyboards, and places a strong emphasis on vocals. We explored acoustic guitars and created many custom percussive sounds by layering two or three sources together, also programming rhythms using samplers and drum machines.”

The album includes the previous released album opening track “Retention” “Torn” and its two latest single “Pretense” and “Future Ways,” which sequentially follow each other on the new album. “Pretense” is a brooding yet lush and melodic mediation on loss and grief, seemingly rooted in the lived-in experience of losing someone dear. Anchored around a motorik groove, “Future Ways” is a mind-bending, krautrock-inspired bit of psych rock that feels both uneasy and urgent simultaneously. “Future Ways” is meant to evoke invasive thoughts racing through one’s mind, as they attempt to make sense of foreseen tragedy. Impassioned vocals dance and dart around fuzzy and distortion pedaled guitars and glistening synth arpeggios, leading to the song’s coda and uplifting mantra: Go wild/Stay Forward/Going up . .

“’Pretense’ confronts loss and my perspective on an impossible situation with someone deeply close to me. It traces a profound depression, a daily struggle to remain alive, shaped by the belief that something inside was irrevocably broken, beyond diagnosis or repair,” Atsuko Chiba’s Karim Lakhdar explains. “‘Wanted out, couldn’t wait‘ echoes his constant proximity to the idea of ending it. Life felt unbearably tense, with no center to return to. He had a brilliant mind, always in motion—always an answer, always a reason—yet never at rest. In the end, I am left standing before the grave, realizing this is not something you move on from. It stays with you. I am not okay… I’m only learning new ways to carry it. That day, I lost someone irreplaceable: a friend, a brother, a mentor, a fellow cosmonaut.

“’Future Ways’ is intrinsically linked to ‘Pretense,'” Lakhdar continues. “They were initially conceived as a single piece. The title feels inevitable: this is life after death. It asks how we continue, how we carry what has already happened. ‘This light, it grows in spite of you‘ speaks to taking what I learned from him and using it as forward motion. In this sense, he never fully disappears, he continues through me. I learned how to listen, how to see, how to approach life and music from shifting vantage points, to question, to push beyond what is given. The second verse reflects how, even in moments of profound despair, he remained deeply charismatic, silver-tongued to the point that I believed everything he said. He predicted what would happen, how he would be seen, how people would respond. There was a rare coexistence of hysteria and startling clarity, and through it all I am left confused, powerless, unable to intervene. In the third verse, a mantra repeats as a way of keeping spirits up. It’s a commitment to forward motion. It becomes a reminder that life is still here, still unfolding, and that I must remain an active participant in it, careful not to disappear into the weight of what was lost.”

The accompanying visual features footage of the band in the studio goofing during the writing and recording process and during candid moments while on tour and outside of beloved local venue L’Esco.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sugar World Shares Buzzy “Terra Incognita”

Los Angeles-based duo Sugar World — Ryan and Katryn Stanley — can trace its origins back to 2013: The duo started their careers in earnest a member of the Tallahassee-based bedroom pop outfit Naps. After Naps split up in 2016, Ryan and Katryn Stanley started releasing a series of singles and EP as Sugar World, which saw the pair crafting a sound that’s an idiosyncratic mix of lo-fi, twee pop and fuzzy electronica.

The duo released their Sugar World full-length debut, Lost & Found back in 2022. But since 2024, the Los Angeles-based duo have been increasingly exploring a more digital sound that draws from noise pop, hyper pop and underground internet hip-hop that features fuzzy, distorted guitar noise and blown out autotuned vocals.

Their sophomore album supercassettevision is slated for release later this year. The album, which will include the previously released “In Magazines,” will see the band further cement what they’ve dubbed a “new version of classic twee pop for the 2020s” that combines catchy melodies with harsher noisy elements.

supercassettevision’s second and latest single “Terra Incognita” derives its title from the Latin phrase “unknown land,” and sonically seems to channel a woozily lysergic synthesis of Mogwai and Evil Heat-era Primal Scream. The band explains that the song “was an experiment to see if we could bring our indie rock and jangle pop songwriting into a sonic environment inspired by electronic music and digicore. It’s fundamentally about making a bunch of money and then putting that money into car, and then driving the car off a cliff.”

Fittingly, the accompanying visual is comprised of fuzzy, VHS-style shot footage, treated in harsh color negatives. The result is a video that videos the lysergic buzz of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: TANGIENTS Share Dream-like “The Ether”

Los Angeles-based duo TANGIENTS — multi-instrumentalists Chelsea Ray and Be Hussey — specialize in a unique take on shoegaze that draws from 80s post-punk, 90s shoegaze and dream pop anchored around Chelsea Ray’s dream-like delivery […]