Category: Video Review

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Omar Souleyman Shares a Club Banging Ode to Erbil, Iraq

Acclaimed JOVM mainstay Omar Souleyman is a Tell Tamer, Syria-born, Erbil, Iraq-based Sunni Arab vocalist, who can trace the origins of his professional career back to 1994, when he began as a part-time wedding singer.

His overall sound has largely been influenced and informed by the incredibly diverse milieu of Northeastern Syria. Souleyman and a rotating cast of musicians and producers he has worked with his early days have found ways to draw from and mesh the sounds and themes of several different ethnic groups that inhabit the region, including Kurdish, Ashuris, Turks, Iraqis and the larger Arabic world in a way that’s both familiar and novel. And as a result, Souleyman has become a regional and global pioneer of club rocking electronic music that’s also wedding hall friendly.

Since starting his career 30 years ago, Souleyman has been astonishingly prolific, releasing well over 500 studio and live albums — with about 80% of those releases specifically made at weddings. Most of those recordings were first presented to the newlywed couple and then later copied and sold at local kiosks. The acclaimed JOVM mainstay has released four compilations and four albums through Western record labels — 2013’s Wenu Wenu, 2015’s Bahdeni Nami, 2017’s To Syria with Love and 2020’s Shlon. Each of those albums have not only brought some of the Middle East’s deepest grooves and trippiest sounds to the West, Souleyman’s recorded output has helped to expand his profile to the larger world.

Adding to a rising international profile, Souleyman has played sets across the global festival circuit, including Paredes de Coura, a Caribou co-curated ATP Festival, ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, Bonnaroo, Roskilde Festival, Mostly Jazz, Funk and Soul Festival, Pukkelpop Festival, Electric Picnic, Treefort Music Festival — and oddly enough, one of the strangest House of Vans bills I’ve ever seen, in which he opened for Future Islands. Souleyman has also collaborated with the likes of Bjork and Four Tet.

The acclaimed Syrian-born, Iraqi-based dabke singer’s fifth full-length album Erbil is slated for a March 29, 2024 release through Mad Decent. The eight-song album, which sees Syrian-born singer collaborating with his longtime keyboardist Hasan Jami Alo, pays homage to Erbil, the Iraqi city that has offered him solace and embraced him during recent uneasy and difficult times. His relocation to Erbil came with rich, new experiences and friendships that are best celebrated in joyous songs specifically dedicated to a new chapter in life. Sonically, Erbil‘s material reportedly sees Souleyman and Alo crafting a forward-thinking dabke-meets-techno sound.

Erbil‘s first single “Rahat Al Chant Ymme” may arguably be the most club friendly track that Souleyman has released in some time with the production featuring dense layers glistening and arpeggiated synths, tweeter and woofer rattling thump, skittering beats, hand claps and enormous bass drops serving as a lush and sultry bed for Souleyman’s imitably cooler-than-cool yet yearning delivery.

Presumably shot in Erbil, Iraq, the accompanying video for “Rahat Al Chant Ymme” follows the global dabke sensation through a warm, mind-bending and humanistic tour through the Iraqi city that also manages to nod at hip-hop videos.

Souleyman will be supporting the new album with an extensive tour that will include live shows in Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, the wider Middle East and Europe, as well as his first Stateside shows in over 6 years — with shows in Los Angeles and NYC. More on that to come.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MAGON Shares Hauntingly Gorgeous “The Writing’s On The Wall”

Over the past handful of years, I’ve spilled a copious amount of virtual ink covering the remarkably prolific, Israeli-born singer/songwriter, musician and of course, JOVM mainstay MAGON. If you’ve been frequenting this site in that period of time, you’d remember that after the release of his fifth album, 2022’s A Night in Bethlehem, the Israeli-born artist, along with his partner and children relocated to Costa Rica, where he continued his reputation for being profile, with three more albums, 2022’s Enter By The Narrow Gate and last year’s Did You Hear the Kids? and Chasing Dreams.

The JOVM mainstay began the year with the announcement of his eighth album The Writing’s On The Wall, which will feature “Breakthrough Blitz,” a song that saw MAGON’s laconic and easy-going delivery paired with a simple yet propulsive backbeat, glistening keys and a blues Keith Richards-like guitar riff with a big hook. Thematically, the song touched upon the freedom and connection found in simple, everyday moments with the sort of contented sigh that can only comes from someone, who has lived a full and messy-life — and understands that he is truly very lucky. 

The Writing’s On The Wall‘s second single, album title track “The Writing’s On The Wall” is a slow-burning, Inner Journey Out-era Psychic Ills-like bit of country-tinged psych rock with a hauntingly gorgeous bit of wailing pedal steel by Cary Morin paired with MAGON’s meditative delivery. Rooted in seemingly lived-in experience, the song’s narrator describes the sensation of knowing when your time with a situation and place are over, and picking up your life and starting anew.

The accompanying video features footage of flowers and trees blooming shot on over-saturated film stock, which gives the proceedings a surreal yet dreamy air.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A Place To Bury Strangers Share an Explosive Ripper

Led by Death by Audio founder and Dedstrange Records co-founder Oliver Ackermann, New York-based JOVM mainstays A Place To Bury Strangers — currently Ackermann (vocals, guitar), John Fedowitz (guitar) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) — have long been fueled by Ackermann’s restless creativity and propensity to be surprising: Over the past close to two decades, A Place To Bury Strangers have delighted, astonished — and occasionally destroyed the eardrums of — their audience with a sound that combines elements of post-punk, noise rock, shoegaze, psychedelia and avant-garde music in rather unexpected ways. Their live show is often wildly unpredictable and often sees the band

In concert, A Place To Bury Strangers is nothing short of astounding — a shamanistic experience that bathes listeners in glorious sound, crazed left turns, transcendent vibrations, real-time experiments, brilliant breakthroughs.

And as the founder of Death By Audio, the company behind signal-scrambling stomp boxes and visionary instrument effect pedals, Ackerman has exported that sense of excitement, surprise and invention to other artists, who plug their instruments into his company’s gear and attempt to blow minds with wild, new sounds and approaches.

With A Place To Bury Strangers’ latest lineup, the band may arguably be at their most current sounding, courageous and accessible melodic in their lengthy and acclaimed run. The new lineup has two releases under their belt, 2021’s Hologram EP and their sixth full-length album, 2022’s critically applauded See Through You, which they’ve supported with a seemingly indefatigable touring schedule.

Continuing their long-held reputation for restless creativity, the members of APTBS are releasing a four 7-inch vinyl record series, called The Sevens. The Sevens are a treasure trove of previously unreleased tracks from See Through You. The special vinyl collection sees the band inviting listeners to dive deeper into their unique sonic universe to explore uncharted territories and hidden gems. “When looking back at the recordings that were done around the time of See Through You, there were a bunch of great tracks that just captured life back then and really had something incredible going on,” APTBS’ Oliver Ackermann says. “Even though they are a bit raw and a bit personal, I thought it would be a mistake if they didn’t come out. I thought it would be best to go back to my roots and put out a series of 7-inches the way A Place To Bury Strangers started. That strange weird format where the tracks each speak for themselves; no album context to muddy the water. These tracks are such a contrast to the way I am feeling now and the current songs we’ve been working on so slip back into this moment in time.”

The first installment of the series, “It Is Time”/”Change Your God” saw its digital release the other day and will see a physical release on Friday. “Change Your God,” the first single of the series is classic APTBS — bombastic, over-the-top post-punk and shoegaze sonic explosion rooted in fuzz and feedback saturated power chords, pummeling drumming and propulsive bass lines, grunge-like quieter-extremely loud-quieter song structures and Ackermann’s reverb-drenched, seemingly detached yet yearning delivery.

The accomapnying video features slickly edited stock footage of pulsating time-lapsed highway traffic and blooming flowers, of sledgehammers smashing things, jellyfish glowing in the dark, buildings imploding and more. And it’s all fucking awesome.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: KOKOKO! Shares Club-Rocking Ode to Kinshasa’s Nightlife

Since exploding into the scene back in 2017, the acclaimed Kinshasa-based collective KOKOKO! have captivated audiences globally with a striking, forward-thinking, dance floor friendly sound. The Congolese outfit’s full-length debut, Fongola was released to widespread critical acclaim with DJ Mag writing that it was “quite unlike anything else you’ll hear,” and The Guardian calling the collective a “commanding new voice.”

Building upon a growing profile, the band played attention grabbing sets across the global festival circuit, including All Points East, SXSW, Green Man and Pitchfork Festival. The Congolese outfit was named bad live band by the likes of AIF, NPR Tiny Desk and Boiler Room.

Thematically and aesthetically, the acclaimed Congolese outfit has had a long-held, fiercely activist and political slant. The Democratic Republic of Congo continues to experience serious human rights violations, including mass killings within the context of armed conflict and inter-communal violence, as well as crackdown on dissent and ill-treatment of detainees. People residing in regions affected by a variety of armed conflict are deeply impacted amid mass displacement and other deepening humanitarian crises. Additionally, the Democratic Republic of Congo’s wealth of natural resources are routinely exploited by large, multi-national tech companies and other conglomerates, which helps to fuel even more conflict in the region.

In the Democratic Republic of Congo, political protest using words carries a risk of imprisonment, so dissidents and performers often work with their bodies and sounds to express and signal their critiques and commentary. The acclaimed Congolese outfit’s highly anticipated sophomore album BUTU is slated for a July 5, 2024 release through Transgressive Records. The album reportedly sees the collective continuing to pair a resistant, punk-like energy and attitude, informed by the attitude and thoughts of a new generation of Congolese artists and young people with their attention grabbing block party alchemy, but pushed to new, global heights.

Kinshasa’s after-dark buzz was one of the major inspirations behind BUTU, which means “the night” in Lingala, and the album dives deep into the heart of the chaotic, throbbing city, celebrating and championing the joyful and creative spirit of its inhabits. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Belgium producer Xavier Thomas, a.k.a. Débruit, the forthcoming album reportedly sees the collective led by Makara Bianko channeling a more electronic-driven, upbeat sound while replicating the frenetic feel of their hometown’s dynamic nightlife: equipment is pushed to its limits through saturated and distorted speakers and the sonic push-and-pull of nighttime sounds.

The band employs field recordings, recorded from the city’s nighttime sounds and “ready-made percussion” like detergent bottles,. the collective fed those sounds through distortion to get closer to those nighttime sounds. “Compared to Fongola, this album is intentionally way more intense, because it’s quite upbeat and quite full-on,” Xavier Thomas says. The album’s material also pulls from much wider influences and span across West Africa and South Africa, influenced by Bianko’s global travel, which introduced him to new types of alternative electronic music and punk.

BUTU‘s first single “Mokili” is a house music-informed banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, relentlessly skittering hi-hats, tweeter and woofer rattling thump serving as a slickly produced bed for Bianko’s crooning and impassioned shouts. Continuing a remarkable run of club friendly material with an in-your-face punk attitude and ethos, “Mokili” captures the frenetic and sweaty energy of their hometown and its nightlife scene with an uncanny, novelistic realism. But along with that, the song is a forceful and joyous reminder that Africa is the present and the future. (If y’all didn’t know, by 2050 close to a quarter of the entire world will be African.)

“’Mokili’ is about moving the world so much that it’s going to tip over sort of,” the acclaimed Congolese collective explains. “This track was a track we were used to trying live in a more improvised way, we never got the chance to record till recently where we added the right touch for the studio. It was the last addition to our album BUTU and became the first single, so it’s really fresh. It has obviously influences from Kinshasa but also Kwaito and 90’s dance music.”

Filmed by Erick Abidal Editing with Creative FX BY Myrtille Moniot in Kinshasa, the video sees the Congolese collective taking over the media seemingly by force, even without Internet signal. And throughout they let the world dive into the surreal and energetic scenes and people they come across in their hometown.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Verona on Venus Shares Tool-like “Rodent”

Best known for his work in DevilDriver, guitarist and vocalist Michael Spreitzer stepped out into the spotlight as a frontman with his latest project Verona on Venus, which sees him pushing the scope of his […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video/New Audio: JOVM Mainstays METZ Share Two from Highly-Anticipated New Album

Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ‘s fifth studio album Up on Gravity Hill is slated for an April 12, 2024 release on Dine Alone Records in Canada and on Sub Pop for the rest of the world. The album, which is the JOVM mainstays’ first album in four years was engineered by Seth Manchester and features guest appearances from Black Mountain‘s Amber Webber and string arrangements by composer Owen Pallett.

Long known for blowing out eardrums with explosively loud songs of joyous rage, the Canadian JOVM mainstays — Alex Edkins (vocals, guitar), Chris Slorach (bass) and Hayden Menzies (drums) — have, over the course of their past couple of albums have begun exploring ways of turning abrasiveness into atmospherics. The evolution of their sound is not only a reflection of the band’s maturity as humans and as musicians, but also a changed world that demands much more nuance and compassion to comprehend and survive. Up On Gravity Hill reportedly finds the band continuing to bend the raw power of rock music to its most delicate, intricate ends. The album’s material may arguably be their deepest, detailed and unyieldingly personal batch of songs — and their most beautiful to date.

To spotlight this evolution in their sound and approach, the Toronto-based outfit has shared two contrasting singles:

“99,” a stomping and noisy motorik chug of a song built around their long-held penchant for shout along worthy, mosh pit friendly hooks choruses that sounds subtly informed by Edkins’ work with Noble Rot. Directed by John Smith, the accompanying video features the members of the trio performing the song in hazy and scorching VHS fuzz and computer generated 3D renderings. The single and its accompanying video are incisive commentary and criticism on our consumerist hellscape.

“Entwined (Street Light Buzz)” is a woozy and swooning song that sees the trio retaining their penchant for power chord-driven, enormous, shout along friendly hooks and choruses with a gorgeous and meditative shoegazer-like bridge.

“These two songs couldn’t be more stylistically and thematically dissimilar,” METZ’s Alex Edkins says. “‘Entwined (Street Light Buzz)’ is a song about the deep connection humans can foster with one another and how we carry people with us forever, even after death. ‘99’ is about the scourge of corporate greed and bottom-line thinking that runs rampant in modern society. Anything for a buck is the message being sent to younger generations.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Meatbodies Share Groovy “Billow”

Over the course of the past decade or so, Los Angeles-born and-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chad Ubovich has developed a reputation as a highly-sought after collaborator and mainstay of his hometown’s fertile music scene: Ubovich had a lengthy stint playing guitar in Mikal Cronin‘s backing band. He currently plays bass in Fuzz with  Ty Segall and Charlie Moothart. And he’s also the founding member and frontman of the experimental noise rock/freak rock outfit  Meatbodies.

By 2017, Ubovich reached a crossroads. After years of increasingly insane shows in front of heaving crowds with an ever-evolving and rotating door of personal, fatigue had taken its toll, and he realized that another change was just on the horizon. “It was like the car had run out of gas in the middle of the road, and I knew I had along walk ahead of me,” Ubovich recalls. He retreated to Los Angeles’ seedy underbelly — in search of meaning and a much-needed reset. But Ubovich gradually escaped into that world, ignoring his own physical and mental well-being, licking his wounds and trying to forget his successes. “I was living like a 90’s vampire out of a comic book. Stumbling around LA with the socialites, partying away my sorrows, trying to forget,” the Los Angeles-born and-based artist explains. 

Around this time, the material that would eventually comprise Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom, a project conceived and written by a man searching for new beginnings and his own sense of self. After getting sober, writing sessions began at Ubovich’s home and various studios with longtime collaborator Dylan Fujioka (drums). The official production for the album began back in 2019, but due to discrepancies with the studio and high tensions, the plug was pulled. With only about half an album, it seemed that Flora was shelved — perhaps permanently. 

After some time away, cooler heads eventually prevailed and there were many discussions about the album’s future. Ubovich finally got the green light to finish production on Flora back in 2020. But he hit another snag — the COVID-19 pandemic. And with everyone’s lives and plans at a forced, indefinite halt, so did the idea of Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom. 

Not wanting to sit still at home, Ubovich began combing through his previous demos with Fujioka while writing for Flora. And through those efforts, came Meatbodies’ third album, 2021’s 333. However, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom was never far from his mind, and he once against resisted the idea of completing the album. 

As restrictions were gradually lifted, Ubovich along with engineer Ed Mentee and a team of colleagues and friends, headed to Los Angeles-based Gold Diggers Sound to complete the album. But he now faced a new crisis, one that was more dire and terrifying than anything he had faced before: The home he had spent the past eight years in had been deemed uninhabitable and he wound up spending the next month of his life in a hospital bed. 

Having to not only learn to walk again but also learn to play again, Ubovich used an upcoming tour with FUZZ as a motivating factor and hit the road for a year trying to regain a sense of normalcy. By the time he returned from that tour, he felt centered, energized and ready to conquer his own white whale – Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom. 

Armed with a new home and a new studio, The Secret Garden, Ubovich mixed the album himself, recruited Magic Garden’s Brian Lucey to master the material — and finally Flora was completed, five years after those original demos with Fujioka. “A lot happened with this record – it took me five years, I was out of a band, I had a drug problem, the album almost didn’t happen, the pandemic made it almost not happen again, and then in the end I almost died in the hospital, lost my house, and had to learn to walk again. It’s been quite a road, but I could not be more thrilled with the final output. I guess the juice was worth the squeeze?” laughs the Meatbodies frontman.

Slated for a March 8, 2024 release through In The Red Records, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloomis in many ways a story of iron clad will and steely determination. Sonically, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom is a massive step forward, both by conventional standards and considering its tumultuous path towards completion. The album reportedly recalls the Blue Cheer-meets-Iggy Pop-wtih-psychedelia that permeated the band’s previous releases, but with elements of shoegaze, alternative rock, Brit Pop, drone and even hints of country — without ever sounding forced or alien. But the album sees Ubovich crafting an eclectic yet unmistakably cohesive work. 

Thematically, the material touches upon love and loss, escapism, defeatism, hedonism, psychedelics and much more — informed by Ubovich’s own life. “The last record was more of a cartoon version of who we were– simple and fun without delving into heavy concepts,” recalls Ubovich. “The whole thing before with Meatbodies was never sit down, next part, next part, but I wanted to make something with more depth. After everything that had happened, and my personal life, I was left with this feeling of emptiness and loss. So I wanted to make music that was absent from things– songs that were more about conveying feeling.”

So far, Ubovich has shared two singles off the forthcoming album:

  • The Siamese Dream-like Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom album track “Hole,” a song that saw the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist and his collaborators pairing fuzzy power chord-driven hooks and choruses with his dreamily yearning falsetto and a driving groove. The result was a song that will appeal to shoegazers while featuring enough guitar pyrotechnics for headbangers while possessing a power pop-like emphasis on melody.  “That was one of the first songs I wrote, and I think it’s really indicative of that time,” says Ubovich. “How I was thinking and feeling and what I wanted to accomplish with this LP before I even knew it.”

  • The Sonic Praise-era Ecstatic Vision-like “Move,” which clocks in at 7:30 and begins with a circular synth baseline before quickly morphing into a menacing, krautrock-inspired motorik groove and ending with a lysergic-fueled, power chord-driven coda. “I wanted to make a hypnotic driving song that felt kind of dangerous,” Ubovich says. “There’s an energy to it that is undeniable.” 

“Billow,” Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom‘s third and latest single is built around a spacey Stone Roses-meets-Ritual De Lo Habitual-era Jane’s Addiction-like motorik groove, gently buzzing guitars, relentless tambourine and layers of dreamy, reverb-drenched harmonies paired with some remarkably catchy hooks and choruses. It’s arguably one of the brightest, more optimistic songs on the album, seemingly evoking a pleasant psilocybin trip on a sunny, summer afternoon.

The accompanying video by CAU plays with 120 Minutes-era MTV music video tropes and captures the band goofing off and rocking out with mischievous abandon.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: MERON, deathbypeanuts and an All-Star Band Team Up on Sultry “Cold As Usual”

deathbypeanuts is a mysterious and rising Berlin-based producer, who has collaborated with an eclectic array of acclaimed and rising artists including Kelvyn Colt, Chris James, Noah Slee, Beau Diako, JOVM mainstay Marie Dahlstrom, Sipprell, J. Lamotta, and a lengthy list of others. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Superspeed,” a slickly produced track featuring a simple yet eerie piano melody, trap beats and wobbling, tweeter and woofer railing low end paired with MERON‘s delivery which alternates between hip-hop swagger and aching yearning for the song’s verses. Much like Majid Jordan‘s work, deathbypeanuts’ latest single manages to mesh the sultriness of contemporary R&B with trap swagger and catchy, pop hooks.

Recently, the rising Berlin-based producer released a live version of his debut single “Cold As Usual,” his first collaboration with MERON. The live rendition features MERON backed by a talented crew of players that includes Krept Konan’s, Lady Leshurr’s and Lion Babe‘s Jay Cobain (drums); Moses Yofee Trio‘s and Peter Fox‘s Roman Klobe-Barangǎ (guitar); A Song For You’s Alyssa Grace (keys); and deathbypeanuts (bass). The live rendition is a sultry and slow-burning, neo-soul-like take built around an easygoing and understated arrangement of fluttering keys, a supple bass line, bursts of squiggly guitar and a skittering yet propulsive backbeat serving as lush bed for MERON’s silky and yearning delivery expressing confusion, longing and frustration.

“’Cold As Usual’ captures the honesty of a situation, rather than dressing it up with unnecessary sentiment or cliches,” MERON explains. “It’s about those moments when relationships get frosty, and I wanted it to resonate with anyone who’s ever felt that same emotional distance.”

Conceived by Cycles Studio, the live video features MERON and the incredibly talented live band in a minimalist back set, shot with spotlighting and silhouettes to create a dramatic, cinematic quality.

“The vision was to translate the smooth and effortless sound of deathbypeanuts into a visual world,” Cycles Studio explains. “A minimal set, creative lighting, and a gliding camera were the tools we used to bring the song and the image together into an artistic union.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Milla Shares Lush and Gorgeous “Courbes”

24 year-old, Martigny, Switzerland-based singer/songwriter and visual artist Milla Besson is an an emerging artist best known as the mononymic Milla. Beeson studied music at College of Saint-Maurice and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, Geneva (HEAD), which she graduated in 2021. Since 2019, the young Swiss artist has also collaborated with Marc Aymon, Jérémie Kisling and Aliose.

Besson’s Frédéric Jalliard and Yann Arnaud-produced three-song EP is slated for a March 1, 2024 release. Recorded between Switzerland and Paris, the EP will feature “Courbes,” a gorgeous bit of folk/pop built around a lush arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar, atmospheric synths, gently padded drums, twinkling bursts of percussion paired with Milla’s gorgeous and expressive vocal, which manages to convey a maturity beyond her relative youth.

Directed by Loris Theurillat, the accompanying video for “Courbes” is set at a local boxing club and is shot in a dreamy and breathtakingly gorgeous black and white.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Virtual Nobodies Shares Brooding and Cinematic “Night of the Skinwalker”

Although they come from different backgrounds and styles, Newbury Park, CA-based post punk outfit Virtual Nobodies — longtime friends, co-vocalists, multi-instrumentals JAAG and Xavier Valdez — have developed a sound and genre that they’ve dubbed coastal desert alt rock, which incorporates bristling riffs, disco grooves and Beach Boys-like harmonies. As a Los Angeles– based journalist once wrote, “Virtual Nobodies are if Oasis, Kaleo, and U2 had a baby in LA, and their drummer locked them down.” 

The duo released their debut EP, Costal Desert Melancholy last October. The EP’s latest single “Night of the Skinwalker” is a brooding noir-ish bit of post-punk built around shimmering and reverb-soaked twang, bursts of soaring synths, fuzz pedaled power chords, yearning and plaintive vocals, and a propulsive rhythm section paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. While comparisons to U2 are well-founded to a degree, sonically “Night of the Skinwwalker” also reminds me a bit of JOVM mainstays Still Corners, VOWWS and others.

Virtual Nobodies’ Xavier Valdez explains “‘Skinwalker’ is about one’s temptation and at times feeding into that. Often times we carry a lot of shame for said situations. There’s a line in the song that’s my personal favorite. The other singer, Jaag, sings: “In my dreams I fly, higher than my shame,” which I think is such a powerful truth.

Directed by Jeremiah Gray and Ty Metcalfe, the Halloween-themed video for “Night of the Skinwalker” starts Dave Brown, Matthew Nordquist and Virtual Nobodies’ Xavier Vasquez. Set on a dark and fateful, moonlit night, the video tells an ancient tale of a man, who turns into a werewolf and because of primal urges does something horrible.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: ALYA Teams Up with Bhramabull on a Slick Banger

Bhramabull is an enigmatic, emerging hip-hop producer, who can trace the origins of his career back to being a fervent fan of hip-hop and hip-hop culture. Inspired by the genre’s beloved pioneers, the emerging underground producer developed and honed a gritty, hard-hitting boom bap-inspired sound with a fresh and edgy twist, fueled by an unyielding passion for crafting raw, authentic beats.

ALYA‘s latest single, the Bharamabull-produced “Crazy.Trap” feat. ALYA is a heady mix of meets-boom-bap-meets trap that’s a remarkably accessible and slickly produced bed for ALYA’s slightly processed and sultry, pop starlet delivery paired with some incredibly catchy hooks. The result is a headbanger that brings back memories of Timbaland — but with a subtly modern take.

Directed by Alya Michelson, Tim Carmon and Dilia Alshina, the recently released video for “Crazy.Trap” prominently features a rubber room: We see ALYA put her hands onto her desk top — and then suddenly her world becomes irrevocably changed. We then see her in a rubber room with a late 70s-early 80s computer, expressively dancing to the song. We also see a lone dancer in the room, dancing. Where do the worlds of tech and the human begin? Where do they end?

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Newmoon Shares Painterly “Crazing”

Antwerp-based shoegazer outfit Newmoon established a sound and approach that meshes elements of shoegaze, post-punk and alternative rock with dreamy melodies, atmospheric soundscapes and emotive lyrics with the release of 2014’s Invitation to Hold EP, 2016’s full-length debut, Space and 2019’s sophomore effort Nothing Hurts Forever.

The Belgian shoegazer outfit’s third album Temporary Light is slated for a March 22, 2024 release through PIAS Recordings across the European Union and Manifesto Entertainment, a new imprint of Quiet Panic, across the US. The album reportedly marks the next step in the band’s musical evolution, showcasing their growth as a band and musicians — and their dedication to creating transformative music.

Sonically speaking, the album sees the Belgian outfit returning to their roots to embrace an abrasive yet ethereal sound — but with a fresh approach. The band’s new drummer Conor Dawson enriches the band’s signature penchant for grand yet delicate melodies with rhythmic finesse, adding a layer of depth and musicality to the album’s material. “Thick layers of guitars always felt natural to us, and are kind of our main thing. We wanted to explore some ideas that have been in the back of our mind ever since we started this band,” Newmoon’s Bert Cannaerts explains. “As soon as we let go of trying to write a specific type of album, the songs grew organically and everything just clicked.”

Late last year, I wrote about Temporary Light‘s first single, the slow-burning and brooding “Fading Phase,” a track that channeled Souvlaki-era Slowdive and A Storm in Heaven-era The Verve that felt as comforting as pulling a warm blanket over you on a chilly night. 

“Crazing,” Temporary Light‘s third and latest single sees the band incorporating several different guitar textures — fuzzy and droning guitars, shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars — in swirling layers of enveloping sound paired with a propulsive rhythm section. An achingly plaintive vocal melody is buried within the lush and dreamy mix, seemingly yearning to burst free from their confines. For me, the result is a song that’s brooding yet yearning, noisy but painterly, heavy yet ethereal — and with a hint of bright optimism.

“‘Crazing’ is one of the noisier songs on this album”, Newmoon’s Bert Cannaerts explains. “We’re always looking for that one melody that hides within a song. With ‘Crazing’ we wanted to try our hand at a song that incorporates loads of guitar textures but still feels melodic and airy. On one hand it has these dark and droning fuzzed out guitars but on the other hand it sounds fresh and uplifting. The song exists on the edge of dark and gloomy with a hint of brightness and optimism. The exact spot where we like our music to sit”, he adds.

The accompanying video continues a run of trippy and decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV alternative rock/shoegaze-like visuals that includes the band performing the song in a bare studio with loads of VHS fuzz and feedback seemingly mimicking the song’s guitar textures. There’s also a vase of flowers, which adds to the painterly feel of everything.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Psymon Spine Returns with Punchy and Groovy “Bored of Guitar”

Psymon Spine‘s third album Head Body Connector is slated for a February 23, 2024 release through Northern Spy Records. The album is reportedly a gritty, punchy, guitar-forward studio album from a band that’s long been obsessed with production. Perhaps more than their previous releases, Head Body Connector is explicitly informed and inspired by the band’s cathartic live show. “It’s more unhinged than anything we’ve made before,” Psymon Spine’s Noah Prebish says. “Throughout the writing process, we were always asking ourselves how we could make it really fun to play live.”  

Ironically, the album, though ready-made to be performed, was mostly written in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The band split their time between various home studios and friends’ back porches in Montauk, The Catskills, Boston and Brooklyn. It was fall and the crisp autumn air, and the political uncertainty and disquietude looming in the background lended itself to an undeniable longing for companionship. “It felt like we had collectively jumped from one timeline to another, more bizarre one,” Prebish says. 

The central theme of time being fractured, chopped and screwed is integral to the album’s material and its album art, which was designed by New York-based artist Bucky Boudreau and appears in the form of alternative measurements of passing seconds, minutes, days, lifetimes, tally marks on a chalkboard and infinity signs made of camp bracelets on a cracked egg.“Head Body Connector is our response to a world even more chaotic than usual,” says Peter Spears, “and an exploration of the little joys, anxieties, and absurdities that world has to offer.” While being an ode to the dissonance of temporality in our current moment, it’s also an elastic tribute to friendship and harmony in the face of that dissonance. 

So far I’ve written about two of Head Body Connector‘s singles:

“Boys,” a track that begins with a glistening New Wave-meets-post punk introduction before quickly morphing into a funky, synth-driven both with slashing guitars. The two seemingly disparate sections are held together with Sabine Holler’s dreamy delivery. But just under the infectious, danceable surface, is an introspective song that reveals a subtle sense of unease. 

“Wizard Acid,” a woozy bit of disco funk built around a punchy bass line, glistening synth arpeggios and thumping beats paired with lyrics about coming apart at the seams — both literally and metaphorically. Consumed with cabin fever, the song’s narrator is slowly losing their mind. 

Head Body Connector‘s third and latest single, the punchy and hook-driven “Bored of Guitar” is a mischievous tongue-in-cheek provocation built around guitar that sounds indebted to Gang of Four, Talking Heads, DEVO and others but full of scathing, self-deprecating, self-aware, self-criticism that’s seemingly informed by getting older, seeing your priorities shift and change — and perhaps hating it as much as you’re accepting it.

“‘Bored of Guitar’ was one of the earlier tracks we worked on for Head Body Connector. Like many of our songs, it started as two separate ideas that Peter, Michael, and I (Noah) smashed into one and then expanded upon,” the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays explain. “The lyrics came to me piecemeal inspired by conversations I had been having with Michael about the kind of guitar-centric dude rock bands we were getting tired of seeing. The underlying fear for me, of course, was that we were one of those bands. Nothing disgusts a person like seeing in others what bothers them about themselves. The song is an amped-up meditation on (amongst other things) self-criticism, priorities shifting around, and the hilarious, painful, beautiful, humiliating, exhilarating experience of being in a band. It’s also about me working on my relationship with my younger self, the one who set most of my current life experiences into motion long ago. I love him and we’ve both got notes for each other.”   

Directed by Max Mainwood, the accompanying video for “Bored of Guitar” is a surreal, seemingly horror movie-inspired visual that features an adult and their younger self interacting with other, while being chased and haunted by menacing presences dressed in black and more. “I wanted to represent this song with a visual narrative that came from the band’s storytelling, but also pull from my personal interpretation of the song,” Mainwood explains. “This video plays as an energetic backdrop to a groovy tune, as well as an underlying story left for the audience to discover.”   

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MAGON Shares Meditative and Introspective “Breakthrough Blitz”

I’ve managed to spill a copious amount of virtual ink covering the remarkably prolific, Israeli-born singer/songwriter, musician and JOVM mainstay MAGON. After the release of his fifth album, 2022’s A Night in Bethlehem, the Israeli-born artist, along with his partner relocated to Costa Rica, where he continued his ongoing prolific period with three more albums, 2022’s Enter By The Narrow Gate, last year’s Did You Hear the Kids? and Chasing Dreams.

Chasing Dreams saw the JOVM mainstay collaborating with local indie rock outfit Las Robertas, who acted as his backing band for the recording sessions. Sonically, the album continued a slow-burn expansion of his sound with the incorporation of string arrangements, which add a lush and dreamily cinematic quality to the material.

The JOVM mainstay begins 2024 with the announcement of his eighth album The Writing’s On The Wall. The album’s first single “Breakthrough Blitz,” pairs MAGON’s laconic, easy-going delivery with a simple yet propulsive backbeat, glistening keys, and a bluesy, Keith Richards-like guitar riff with a big hook. Thematically, the song touches upon the freedom and connection found in simple, everyday moments with the sort of contented sigh that can only comes from someone, who has lived a full and messy-life — and understands that he is truly very lucky.

Shot in the fields of Oaxaca, Mexico, the video stars MAGON and his family — and features the JOVM as a sort of magical taxi driver, who picks up a woman and her young kids (the JOVM mainstay’s partner and two kids) on a dreamy and slow-burning trip through the verdant green, golden yellows and mountainous Mexican countryside.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ginger AF Share Furious Protest Anthem “Femininity”

Formed back in 2018, Florida-based duo Ginger AF — multi-instrumentalist Kristen Cannell and Jerry Black — specialize in guitar-driven indie rock paired with an undercurrent of dystopian and existential themes, seemingly inspired by the dystopian hellscape we’re currently living in.

Their latest single “Femininity” is a hook-driven, mosh pit friendly ripper that sonically — to my ears, at least — seems to be indebted to 90s grunge and the Riot Grrl movement and rooted in righteous, feminist protest against a shitty and exploitive system and society. With “Femininity,” Cannell and Black have written a protest anthem against the growing way of draconian reproductive bills and laws across the country that make it impossible for medical providers to provide the healthcare that woman need — and endanger women in critical need.

Across significant portions of the country, there have been at least 64,000 rape-related pregnancies with no legal access to healthcare. That number is outrageous and absurd. And as result, the Florida duo’s single has a palpable and forceful urgency. It’s also a reminder that as voters, we must not lose sight of the fact that the world is complicated, and we’re going to have to make difficult and unsettling compromises for our loved ones’ well-being and safety.

The accompanying video begins with a newspaper featuring a headlines that read “Roe v. Wade Is Overturned,” “Overturning Roe Is An Insult to Women” and “Abortion Bans Will Result in More Women Dying” with the duo performing where the photos would normally be. The newspapers fade to the background — but important headlines pop up right behind the duo as they perform the song in a varying settings.