Category: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Night Beats Shares Soaring and Groovy “Thank You”

Texas-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist Danny Lee Blackwell is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed psych rock outfit Night Beats. With Night Beats, Blackwell creates music like one might assemble a puzzle: He builds his work from one moment, an initial spark that for him, must fit a specific criteria — it must give him goosebumps. If he gets goosebumps, then he will purse that idea relentlessly until he has a new song; if not, he moves onto the next moment, constantly looking for the perfect molecule of a song. 

Rajan, Blackwell’s fifth Night Beats album is slated for a July 14, 2023 release through Suicide Squeeze/Fuzz Club. The album began much like every other Night Betas album before it: Shortly after the release of 2021’s Outlaw R&B, Blackwell had the familiar itch to create new music. Writing isn’t a process that Blackwell has to sit down and engage with, rather it’s something he’s always doing. The only differentiation between creative periods is what makes it on certain albums and what winds up falling victim to the cutting room. “Whenever my writing gets to a point where songs begin to take shape, it begins to feel like a faucet,” Blackwell explains. “As soon as Outlaw R&B was finished, I began writing and very quickly fell in love with a few ideas that encapsulated the feeling of Rajan. I think writing is a constant cycle in that it never really begins or ends, but there are definitive points where the writing is leading somewhere.” 

Early on, Blackwell felt that the album would be dedicated to his mother. Although thematically, it doesn’t always reflect his tribute, the material is informed by the familial tie. “This isn’t a concept album, because every album has a concept. That term never made sense to me. But if it’s about one thing, it’s about this pursuit of freedom that was instilled in me by my mother,” Blackwell says. “In the arts, I’m very lucky in that I have 100% control over what I want to say, and how I do it,” he explains. Fittingly, the album’s material is wildly diverse and lands somewhere between Spaghetti Western film score and psych pop opus — while being among Blackwell’s most cohesive works to date. Some of the album’s songs nod at Anataolian funk and Western tinged R&B. Others with 70s Brazilian psychedelia, Chicano soul, rock steady — and even Lee “Scratch” Perry-inspired dub. “Rajan is just one of six examples of me doing exactly what I want, and not caring about whether it’s checked out or not. I’m a journeyperson. I want to make things for the sake of making them,” Blackwell says. 

And while clearly indebted to its influences, Rajan is wildly innovative and finds Blackwell pursuing his wildest musical whims. “I’m here to explore. I think exploration is the underlying reason in a way, of why we do the things we do,” Blackwell explains. “I feel lucky. What can I say? I feel blessed.”

Last month, I wrote about Rajan‘s first single, album opener “Hot Ghee,” which simultaneously sets the stage for what to expect sonically from the album and establishing a scalding hot take on the interaction of psych rock, jazz, blues, soul, hip-hop and more. Built around bluesy and sultry guitar lines, swinging drumming, layers of intertwined harmonies, subtle bursts of twinkling piano, “Hot Ghee” sounds like a synthesis of Altin Gün, Sgt. Pepper-era Beatles and Free Your Mind . . . And Your Ass Will Follow-era Funkadelic that’s mind-bending while displaying Blackwell’s unerring and deft craftmanship. 

“Thank You,” Rajan‘s second single is a soaring and groovy bit of gospel-tinged psychedelia built around Blackwell’s yearning falsetto, twinkling keys, dense layers of bluesy wah wah pedaled guitar, towering feedback, paired with a gospel backing chorus. Sonically nodding at a bit at Sly and the Family Stone “Thank You For Letting Me Be Myself” and Parliament Funkadelic’s “Testify,” “Thank You” expresses a sense of profound gratitude.

Directed by Vanessa Pla, the accompanying video for “Thank You” is a slick and cinematically shot visual that visually tackles the themes of the song — gratitude and transformation, as we see Blackwell physically transform by the video’s conclusion.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Shares Bouncy Dance Punk Anthem “Serpent”

Montréal-based art punk quintet La Sécurité features a collection of acclaimed local players, with the band featuring current and past members of Choses Sauvages, Laurence-Anne, Silver Dapple, DATES, Pressure Pin, and others. Since their formation last year. the Canadian quintet have quickly developed and cemented their sound and approach: Meandering around the fringes of punk, New Wave and krautrock, the quintet’s take on art punk pairs jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements and minimalistic yet melodic hooks, run through an insomniac filter. And while their music is razor sharp and danceable, their lyrical content is rooted in the feminist community-centric ethos of the Riot Grrrl movement. “It’s not just fun and games… it also bites. It’s catchy earworms delivered with a punk attitude,” guitarist Melissa Di Menna says. 

In a relatively short period of time, La Securité has quickly made a name for themselves in both the national and international scene: They’ve been invited to play at SXSW, FME, Phoque Off, Taverne Tour and DISTORSION Psych Fest, and they’ve shared stages with Automatic, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, TVOD, Margaritas Podridas, CIVIC, and Duchess Says. Building upon a growing profile, the French Canadian quintet’s highly-anticipated Samuel Gemme-produced full-length debut, Stay Safe! is slated for a June 16, 2023 release through Mothland. 

Recorded at Gamma Recording Studio, Stay Safe! reportedly features songs that are manic yet surprisingly laid-back, empowering and urgent, reflective yet melancholy — all while mischievously flouting stylistic form every chance they can get.

Last month, I wrote about album single “Anyway,” a scorcher built around buzzing and slashing power chords, a chugging motorik groove, bombastic hooks and choruses paired with a cooler-than-you swagger. But underneath the frenetic energy is a song informed by a deeply personal yet universal and super heavy subject: “This song was written in the early stages of dealing with grief related to miscarriage and pleads a sort of surrender to the strain it can put on a couple processing it,” La Securité’s vocalist Éliane Viens-Symott explains in press notes. 

Stay Safe!‘s second and latest single “Serpent” sees the Montréal-based post punk outfit quickly locking into the sort of dance punk groove that brings Echoes-era The Rapture and early LCD Soundsystem to mind paired with insistent shaker-driven percussion, twinkling keys, the collective’s unerring knack for dance floor friendly hooks and choruses and lyrics — in French — describing friend group drama. The song is a cheeky and sarcastic ode to complicated friendships that despite the language is very familiar. As the band puts it, “The person it is directed towards loves dancing. It’s a pretty dancy song. We hope they dance to it.” 

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Serpent” features lo-fi, vintage camera shot footage during their most recent run SXSW that showcases the band’s adventures around Austin — and the snarky and playful joy at the heart of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Death Bells Shares Brooding and Anthemic “Take My Spirit Now”

Since their formation in Sydney back in 2015, Death Bells — Will Canning (vocals) and Remy Veselis (guitar) — have firmly cemented a sound that effortlessly blurs elements of post-punk and garage rock, centered around Canning’s baritone and Vessels’ wiry, reverb-soaked guitar lines. And as a result, the duo quickly became a mainstay in the national and international alternative/underground/indie scenes.

As Canning and Vessels have grown up and matured, the band has evolved through a handful of releases — 2016’s self-titled debut EP, 2017’s full-length debut, Standing at the Edge of the World and a seven inch through Funeral Party Records and a 2019’s “Around The Bend”/”Life Stands Still” single through Metropolitan Indian. 

The Aussie duo relocated to Los Angeles in 2018. The band’s current iteration has managed to really blossom: They signed to Dais Records, who released their sophomore album 2020’s New Signs of Life, an effort that saw them embracing their diverse tastes to craft expansive, hook-driven songs. As a response to pandemic-related quarantines and lockdowns, the duo secluded themselves at Bombay Beach last year, to record a live session that featured five tracks off New Songs of Life titled Live from Bombay.

Last year’s Between Here & Everywhere was recorded with Colin Knight at Paradise Studios. The nine-song album saw the duo adopting a collaborative approach, as they collaborated with an experienced cast of players on keys, strings, piano and backing vocals. The album’s material represents the pair’s continued growth as artists and people and deeply inspired — and informed — by the the vastness, messiness and oddness of their adopted home. Featuring lyrics that the duo consider “narrative, but not autobiographical,” the album’s material ebbs and flows from harrowing to hopeful, and are born of intrigue, intimacy and a sense of “looking outward,” as the Sydney-born, Los Angeles-based duo explain.

The album featured two singles I managed to write about:

  • “Hysteria,” which bristled with a sense of urgency and immediacy while being rooted in the personal and deeply universal — the search for meaning in a seemingly meaningless, mad world, and the desire to just pack up and leave it all behind. “’Hysteria’ was one of the last songs we wrote as we were putting together the new album,” the duo explain. “It was one of those moments where the tune just figured itself out. It feels urgent, immediate and honest, and we’re very proud of it.”

  • “Lifespring” a brooding and hypnotic bit of post punk featuring Vaselis’ wiry bursts of guitar, thumping four-on-the-floor, glistening synths and a relentless motorik groove paired with a rousingly anthemic chorus. And while being inspired — and deeply indebted — to the sounds of the late ’70s and early ’80s, the song describes our bleak moment with an uncanny specificity.

Between Here & Everywhere‘s highly-anticipated follow-up Take My Spirit Now is slated for a July 21, 2023 release through Dais Records. Written and recored late last year in intimate, focused sessions at Paradise Studios, after months of touring across North America and Europe, the new material sees the band introducing a decidedly new sound — jagged guitars careening through towering feedback and textured drums. The band enlisted longtime friend Burning Rose Records’ Morgan Wright to mix the EP. Wright’s background in electronic music influenced the more programmed elements of the material.

“Take My Spirit Now,” the first single and title track off the forthcoming EP is built around a sinuous and propulsive bass line, fluttering feedback, boom bap-like drumming, angular and jagged. reverb-soaked guitars paired with Canning’s achingly plaintive baritone, a dreamy bridge section and the duo’s unerring knack for writing bombastic, rousingly anthemic hooks. But the song is thematically touches upon love, paranoia and destiny — and features a weary and uncertain narrator seemingly questioning everything.

“Take My Spirit Now” was the first song that began to feel fully realized when we were recording late last year,” Death Bells’ Will Canning explains. “There’s something wild and dangerous about the sound of it, which inspired some of the chorus’ lyrics. The song is more about a feeling than a specific time or place. 

Directed by Colin Fletcher, the accompanying video follows an assortment of characters, including the band’s Will Canning sitting in the backseat of a car, going off on a ride — to an unknown and unseen destination. At points, the car drives on, without passengers. “We’re portraying a simple analogy — the idea that sitting in the backseat, going along with the ride, is fun. Sometimes you’re on the ride alone, sometimes with someone else,” Colin Fletcher says. “Who’s driving? Doesn’t matter. Where are they going? Doesn’t matter.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sweden’s The Background World Shares Heartbreaking “Love Ends”

Skövde, Sweden-based indie outfit The Background World was founded by primary songwriters Martin Platan (lead guitar0 and Hanna Leijon (vocals) back in 2017. As the duo quickly began to amass a collection of songs, they started playing live shows together. But they realized that the material they had been writing, needed to be further fleshed out to fulfill their vision. Platan and Leijon first recruited Marcus Helmmer (keys). They then recruited Oscar Hjerpe (guitar) and Mikel Åkerman (drums) old friends, who the band’s founding members had collaborated with in several different projects over the years. The last additions to the band were high school friends Edwin Muratovic (bass) and Tove Håkansson (backing vocal).

As a newly-minted septet, The Background World recorded a live session on YouTube and a live EP, which was released on all the DSPs. Whether as a duo or as a septet, the band’s material thematically touches upon addition, mental health, searching for something better and even just the simple things in everyday life.

The members of The Background World are working on their full-length debut, which will feature last year’s “Why” and the Swedish band’s latest single “Love Ends.” Built around shimmering guitars, Leijon’s achingly plaintive vocals and enormous hooks and choruses, the new single is a lived-in anthem about the heartache of being in a relationship that’s petering to an inevitable breakup that sonically recalls Til Tuesday‘s “Voices Carry” and JOVM mainstays FRANKIIE.

Directed by Oskar Andersson, the accompanying video for “Love Ends” stars the band’s primary songwriting pair as a couple on the verve of a disastrous and heart-wrenching breakup: Platan’s character is a catatonic and disinterested. And at points, if you pay close attention, you see Platan blink in and then out of the frame. Leijon’s character is desperately trying to hold on to the relationship — and perhaps her own sanity. Is their relationship real or a simulation? That’s up to you to decide. The video ends with Leijoin’s character noticing something being off, waking up to see that her man has left her in the middle of the night. But the video pulls out into her real world, suggesting that her video game and life have imitated each other.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Wombo Shares Dreamy “Slab”

Louisville-based trio Wombo — Sydney Chadwick, Cameron Lowe and Joel Taylor — exploded into the national scene with last year’s critically applauded Fairy Rust. Building upon a growing profile, the Louisville-based trio’s follow-up effort, Slab EP is slated for a June 16, 2023 release through Fire Talk Records.

Recorded by Nick Roeder, the forthcoming EP is reportedly a loose, instinctual grouping of songs that gradually morph into sonic territory that’s familiar to those familiar with the band’s experimental and surrealistic escapism, as well as sweeter. stripped-down sets. Most of the EP’s guitar parts are scratch takes that fit both the dealing energies and international imperfections of the songs with overlaid vocals recorded on the same day. The result is an of-the-moment snapshot of a band that’s settling naturally into their own sound while in constant evolution.

The EP’s latest single, EP title track “Slab” is built around wiry and scratchy bursts of guitar, relentless four-on-the-floor paired with Chadwick’s dreamy and detached delivery singing lyrics that feel and sound like stream-of-consciousness non-sequiturs. “Slab” manages to be forceful yet dreamy and reveals an uncanny sense for catchy melody. The band explains that the lyrics were inspired by a book Chadwick had red abated dissociation, and came from improvising lyrics in the band’s basement practice space.

Directed by the band, fittingly, the video is a surrealistic fever dream that follows Chadwick as she walks from the basement studio through a pharmacy, a replica of her house, front porch and imaginary bedroom — and features a journal entry about a dream she had superimposed over it all.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Nashville’s Friendship Commanders Share Grungy Ripper “Fail”


Nashville-based melodic, heavy duo Friendship Commanders — Buick Audra (vocals, guitar) and Jerry Roe (drums, bass) — have released two albums 2016’s Dave, 2018’s  Steve Albini-produced Bill and two EPs 2020’s Hold On To Yourself and last year’s Release The Rest, an exclusive vinyl compilation of singles released since 2020, including “Stonechild”/”Your Reign Is Over,” which continued their ongoing collaboration with the engineering and mixing team of Kurt Ballou and Brad Boatright.

The Nashville-based duo’s forthcoming Kurt Ballou and Friendship Commanders co-produced third album MASS was recorded in Ballou’s Salem, MA-based studio, GodCity. The album’s second and latest single “Fail” is grunge-inspired ripper built around fuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming, enormous mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses paired with Audra’s expressive, Ann Wilson-like delivery. The song evokes both a desperate cry for help and a desperate attempt to connect with another that sadly seems to fall short. The duo explains that the song was written to honor the memory of Spore‘s and Sunburned Hand of the Man‘s Marc Orleans, who committed suicide in June 2020. “We chose to make the song energetic, dissonant, and big, just as he would like it. Bit of a departure for us from our usual doomy vibe, but it’s still the same band, we think,” the band says.

Directed, edited and shot by the band’s Jerry Roe, the accompanying video features Audra, Roe and Daniel Skiver, and is split between the band playing performing the song in a bare loft space and intimately shot footage of a desperate man, who’s at the end of his rope.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays TEKE: TEKE Shares Bittersweet “Doppelgänger”

Montréal-based collective TEKE: TEKE – Yuki Isami (flute, shinobue and keys), Hidetaka Yoneyama (guitar), Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar), Mishka Stein (bass), Etienne Lebel (trombone), Ian Lettree (drums, percussion) and Maya Kuroki (vocals, keys and percussion) — initially began as loving homage and tribute band of legendary Japanese guitarist Takeshi “Terry” Terauchi, featuring a collection of accomplished local musicians, who have played with Pawa Up First, Patrick Wilson, Boogat, Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra and others. 

2018’s debut, Jikaku EP saw the Canadian outfit come into their own highly unique and difficult to pigeonhole sound that features elements of Japanese Eleki surf rock, shoegaze, post-punk, psych rock, ska, Latin music and Balkan music. They then signed to Kill Rock Stars Records, who released their full-length debut, 2021’s Shirushi last year, and in the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about five of its singles:  

The acclaimed JOVM mainstays’ highly-anticipated sophomore album, the Daniel Schlettt-produced Hagata is slated for a June 9, 2023 release through Kill Rock Stars. “Hagata,” as the band’s Maya Kuroki explains “is a very deep word, something present but also something leftover from someone or something no longer there. It’s like waking up from a dream, or being connected to the other side of something. As a band, the Canadian psych pop outfit are intimately familiar with the duality of splitting reality between past and present, complex melodies and hushed interludes, intense action and lingering response. After building their genre-defying sound on Shirushi, the septet indulged in and learned from stretching out in free-floating experimentation both on the road and with Schlett during the recording sessions in Mountain Dale, NY.

“Doppelgänger,” Hagata‘s latest single sees the acclaimed JOVM mainstays pairing a cinematic arrangement that prominently features strummed guitar, a brooding horn line with Kuroki’s achingly wistful delivery. Part bittersweet ballad, part brooding meditation “Doppelgänger” speaks of the duality of identity: “Being of mixed Japanese and French-Canadian culture, I always feel like in some way I’m living two parallel lives…a big part of me is here in Canada, obviously, but another part of me is on the other side of the planet…this could be said about most of us in this band” the band’s Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier says.

The accompanying video created by the band’s Pelletier and Kuroki was shot during a recent trip to Japan: The pair took their camera all over Kyoto, Kamakura and Chiba, places, where they have family ties. The video features footage from that trip, along with childhood footage of the band members. It’s a deep care and low that at times overcomes distance, time and change — while pointing out that change is inevitable.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Babe Rainbow Shares Breezy “Super Ego”

Founded back in 2015, acclaimed Aussie psych pop outfit Babe Rainbow — Jack Crowther (a.k.a. Cool Breez), Angus Dowling and Elliot O’Reilly — can trace their origins to back to when the trio worked for John Cuts, a local grower near Tropical Fruit World in Duranbah, Australia.

Initially, the band’s sound was rooted in ’60s psych pop and ’70s French surf-pop, but since their formation, their sound has evolved to include elements of woodland bop, folk disco, dub, dance and international grooves while maintaining the Aquarian Age quality that has won them attention across the globe.

2015’s debut effort, The Babe Rainbow EP was recorded at an office space in Murwillumbah, and received airplay from triple j and support from King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s Flightless Records. The band signed with Columbia Records‘ 30th Century imprint, who released their Stu Mackenzie-produced 2017 full-length, self-titled debut. The trio supported the album with international touring with Allah Las, Tomorrow’s Tulips and JOVM mainstays King Gizzard and La Femme.

2018’s Double Rainbow and 2019’s Today were also released through 30th Century, which completed their three-record deal. The band now owns all of their masters — and will be releasing future released through their own label Eureka! with the assistance of AWAL Music.

The acclaimed Aussie psych pop outfit’s latest EP, the Timon Martin-produced Fresh As A Head Of Lettuce is slated for a June 16, 2023 release. Their collaboration with Martin can be traced back to a random encounter between the band and BENEE on a festival stage last year. This lead to Martin joining the band on their sold-out Stateside tour last year, which ended with recording sessions at Brooklyn’s Figure 8 Studios. Fresh As A Head Of Lettuce EP reportedly sees the Aussie outfit bringing their counter-culture vibes to a new level.

The forthcoming EP’s first single, “Super Ego” is a lush and breezy bit of psych pop built around a laid back and buoyant groove and shuffling rhythms paired with a dreamy vocal and reverb-soaked, fluttering synths. While being a dub-like beach friendly jam, “Super Ego” manages to possess a subtly wistful air of summer memories yet to come and quickly gone.

Directed by Kristofski, the accompanying video for “Super Ego” was shot on grainy Super 8 film and follows a kite flyer, getting a ride for thrills and adventures on a glorious afternoon.

Babe Rainbow will be embarking on a short Stateside town to celebrate the release of the new single that includes a stop at this year’s Shaky Knees Festival. Check out the tour dates below.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Olivia Jean Shares Creepy and Groovy “Raving Ghost”

Growing up on the outskirts of Detroit, Olivia Jean found her first musical love in 1960’s instrumental surf bands. Taking up guitar at an early age, she became enamored by the city’s thriving garage rock scene, drawing inspiration from its unique rawness. By the time, she was a teenager, the Detroit-area based singer/songwriter and musician began regarding her own surf music compositions. After years of self-recording, she put together a demo that led to the founding of the Black Belles and the band’s signing to Jack White‘s Third Man Records.

After the release of the Black Belles’ 2011 self-titled full-length debut, Olivia Jean stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with her full-length debut, 2014’s Bathtub Love Killings. She then followed with her self-produced sophomore album, 2019’s Night Owl.

Slated for a Friday release through Third Man Records, Olivia Jean’s highly-anticipated third album Raving Ghost is populated by mysterious characters in various states of danger — cursed lovers, doomed souls, women deliriously hunted by unseen forces. Featuring backing from a collection of top players, including My Morning Jacket’s Bo Koster (keys), Jellyfish‘s Roger Joseph Manning, Jr. (keys). T-Bone Burnett‘s and Nikki Lane‘s Carla Azar (drums) and The Raconteurs‘ and The Afghan Whigs‘ Patrick Keeler (drums), the 11-song album sees Olivia Jean amplifying the drama with her wildly melodic take on garage rock, with each riff handled with the power and precision she’s shown as a member of the Black Belles and as an in-demand session and touring musician. As a whole, the album is reportedly an evolution of the retro-surf sound featured on her previously released solo work while arguably being among the most mesmerizing material she’s released to date.

The album’s latest single is the slinky and darkly seductive album title title track “Raving Ghost.” Built around a looping, Link Wray-meets-Jack White gutter line paired with twinkling keys, a rousing anthemic, power chord-driven chorus paired with Olivia Jean’s mesmerizing vocal, “Raving Ghost” is a groovy but unsettling tale of a woman being hunted by a creepy and determined, unseen force.

Directed by Erica Salazar and Olivia Jean, the accompanying video for “Raving Ghost” fittingly features the acclaimed singer/songwriter and musician being followed by monstrous and shadowy figures, who at times surround her.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Nonô and Baby Tate Share Playful Visual for Swaggering Feminist Anthem “ATM”

Rising Rio de Janeiro-born, London-based artist Nonô has quickly made a name for herself for a unique brand of pop that pairs Brazilian rhythms with topical lyrics and catchy melodies. She was dubbed “the UK’s freshest talent” by Notion and was selected as one of NME‘s “100” artists last year. She also released two singles through Helix Records, “Lovesick” and “Good Times,” and played headlining shows at The Grace, Colours, and Victorious Festival.

Nonô also hosts the Controversia radio show with Brazilian DJ Alok, and their collaboration together “Sky High” has amassed over 14 million streams. Collectively, the rising Rio de Janeiro-born, London-based artist’s discography has racked up over 200 million streams all the DSPs. 

The rising artist’s latest single “ATM” features Baby Tate a hip-hop and R&B wunderkind, who since the age of 13 has honed her skills as a singer/songwriter, emcee, producer and engineer. Baby Tate exploded into the mainstream with 2019’s Girls. Now. a VMA-nominated artist. she has toured with Ashnikko and Charlie XCX. Her work has appeared on Netflix and HBO Max, and as a result has amassed over 88 million streams. Her 2016 hit “Hey Mickey” has recently enjoyed a resurgence in popularity after going viral again on TIkTok. Beginning with tweeter and woofer rattling bass, skittering trap triplets and woozy synths., “ATM” is a club friendly vehicle for Nonô to effortlessly switch between spitting bars and crooning in English, Spanish and Brazilian Portuguese. Baby Tate joins in after the seductive and infectious chorus to spit some fire self-assured fire. 

The end result is a banger that’s also a defiant yet playfully feminist anthem delivered with a sultry self-assuredness of two artists, who seem set to take over the world right now. “ATM is about being a provider and sharing your material and non-material wealth with your loved ones,” Nonô explains. “It represents what I’ve learned from my family, especially from the women, taking care of each other in every way we can.”Baby Tate adds:“When I heard ‘ATM,’ I was so excited because it’s such a dope song. I know I have a lot of fans in Brazil and to collaborate with a Brazilian artist is exciting. I’m grateful Nonô thought of me and I was able to add my energy to it!”

Directed by Christian D.K. Long, the accompanying video for “ATM” features a stylish and swaggering performance from the rising artists, set at a backyard family birthday party. The video’s cast is populated by several generations of women — mothers, grandmothers, sisters, cousins, friends — engaged in the things that happen at every single backyard, birthday party. But the video’s protagonists ensure that fun — and a helluva lot of money is brought to the festivities. And it’s made obvious that they did it through their own pluck, moxie and determination — without the assistance of a man.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Protomartyr Shares Tense and Uneasy “Elimination Dances”

Detroit-based post-punk outfit Protomartyr — Joe Casey (vocals), Greg Ahee (guitar), Alex Leonard (percussion), and Scott Davidson (bass) — have become synonymous with caustic, impressionistic assemblages of politics and poetry, the literal and oblique over the course of five albums — 2012’s No Passion All Technique, 2014’s Under Color of Official Right, 2015’s The Agent Intellect, 2017’s Relatives In Descent and 2020’s Ultimate Success Today.

Protomartyr’s sixth album, the Greg Ahee and Jake Aron co-produced, 12-song Formal Growth In The Desert is slated for a June 2, 2023 release through Domino Recording Co. Although the band’s Joe Casey had a humbling experience staring at awe-inspiring Sonoran rock formations and reckoning with his own smallness in the scheme of things during the recording sessions at Tornillo, TX-based Sonic Ranch, the album’s title isn’t necessarily a nod to the sand and sun-blasted expanses of the southwest. Detroit or anyplace else on Earth can be its own desert. “The desert is more of a metaphor or symbol,” Casey says, “of emotional deserts, or a place or time that seems to lack life.” The desert brings an existential awareness that is ultimately internal.

The “growth” referenced in the album’s title came from a period of profound, life-altering transitions for the band’s Casey, including the death of his mother, who struggled with Alzheimer’s for 15 years. Now, 45, Casey had lived in the family home in northwest Detroit all his life. In 2021 though, a rash of repeated break-ins signaled that it was time to move out. Protomartyr’s music — this time more spacious and dynamic than ever before — helped pull Casey up. “The band still being viable was very important to me,” Casey adds, “and it definitely lifted my spirits.”

Having long served as the band’s unofficial musical director, Greg Ahee knew what Casey had been going through and the challenges he’d been processing, and as he was conceptualizing the music, he thought about how to make it all “like a narrative film.” The cinematic sensibility also manifest itself in Casey’s song-as-story-like lyrics, which see him critiquing ominous techno-capitalism, processing aging, the future and the possibility of love. But the underlying them as Casey describes it, is a testament to “getting on with life,” even when it feels impossibly hard.
 

Post quarantine, the band regrouped with an understandable sense of uncertainty, questioning if and how to continue after the turbulence of the past few years. They found themselves channeling that ambivalence to hone a song they named after a chapter from a 1950’s teen dance manual. “Elimination Dances,” Formal Growth In The Desert‘s second and latest single refers to a game where “‘you get tapped out when you lose the dance,” and that felt an apt metaphor for just surviving. “Life is a struggle, but “you might as well keep dancing until the tap comes,” Casey says.

Fittingly “Elimination Dances” is a cinematic yet tense and uneasy waltz built around rolling and propulsive drumming, angular and wiry bursts of guitar and a sinuous bass line paired with Casey’s urgent, snarling delivery. The song partially recounts Casey’s experience feeling small in the vast and indifferent desert, the existential acknowledgement of time and the struggle to survive with your dignity and wits intact.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toulouse’s BEAR Shares Atmospheric “Foreigner”

Toulouse, Franee-based electro pop duo BEAR — Rachel Balma (vocals) and Adrien Sabathier (production) — have developed a dreamy and atmospheric sound inspired by Kate Bush, Björk, Peter Gabriel, and Billie Eilish among others.

Their latest single “Foreigner” is a swooning track built around woozy synths, tweeter and woofer rattling bass and skittering beats paired with Balma’s expressive vocal. The end result is a song that sounds a bit like a slick synthesis of Kate Bush and contemporary alt pop — delivered with a heart-worn-on-sleeve earnestness.

Directed by Lionel Pesqué and Joakim Coutouly, the accompanying video for “Foreigner” is a hazy fever dream featuring sequences in which BEAR’s Balma is in a bare, white studio wearing white and the duo performing the song in a hazy red plastic, that looks a bit like an embryo.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Entrée Libre Shares Krautrock-like MedItation on Fame “Je voudrais que tout brûle”

Paris-based duo Entrée Libre formed back in 2019 and derives its name from the first letters of the childhood friends’ first names. The pair quickly developed a joyful, spontaneous and hook-driven pop sound, which for the duo — and in turn, their listeners — has served as an escape from our ongoing strange and uncertain moment.

The French duo’s debut EP, last year’s Avant-Premiére featured three singles I managed to write about on this site:

  • “Aller Simple,” a dance floor friendly track that’s one-part 80s New Order, one- part JOVM mainstays DBFC, one-part Daft Punk 

  • “Corps à corps,” a hook-driven,  LCD Soundsystem-like bop that’s perhaps even more danceable than its immediate predecessor.

  • “Pixel” is a breezy yet wistful bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, a chugging motorik groove, skittering beats paired with plaintive harmonies that brought Trans Europe Express-era Kraftwerk and La Femme to mind

The duo’s sophomore EP Mémoire de formes is slated for release this year. The EP’s first single “Je voudrais que tout brûle” is a swaggering and decidedly krautrock inspired song built around a relentless motorik groove, shimmering synth arpeggios and angular bursts of guitar paired with the duo’s unerring knack for catchy hooks. While sonically bringing DBFC to mind, “Je voudrais que tout brûlée” as the duo explains “deals with the wild and absurd quest for success, and the desire to be heard.”

Directed by Leïla Macaire, the accompanying video features the duo dreaming — and then realizing some of their wildest dreams of fame and attention to delirious and hilarious effect.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MAGON Shares Breezy “Havana Bay”

Over the past handful of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering the wildly prolific Israeli-born. Costa Rica-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and JOVM mainstay MAGON. 

Immediately after the release show for his fifth album, A Night in Bethlehem, MAGON, along with his girlfriend and daughter relocated to Costa Rica. He closed that year with “Simple Mind,” a song that saw the JOVM mainstay gently refining his sound yet again with hints of surf rock and jangle pop while retaining the hook-driven nature of his previously released material. Written during a major life transition, ‘Simple Mind” features a narrator, who’s closing a major chapter of his life — and perhaps career, as well — and is moving on to a new start, new possibilities, and new horizons. 

Continuing his reputation for being wildly and restlessly prolific, MAGON’s sixth album Did You Hear The Kids? reportedly features a broader and more expansive sonic palette than ever before. The album’s first single, the lush and laid-back “Onie Was A Kid” meshes elements of 60s psych rock, lo-fi singer/songwriter pop and contemporary indie rock paired with lyrics that are simultaneously autobiographical and deeply introspective. The song also features a guest spot from Paris-based indie duo SOS Citizen, who contribute shimmering guitar work and soaring backing vocals.

“Havana Bay,” the forthcoming sixth album’s second and latest single is an upbeat and summery tune built around jangling guitars, a shuffling and propulsive rhythm paired with the JOVM mainstay’s laid back delivery and his unerring knack for catchy hooks. While sonically reminding me of Psychic Ills‘ Inner Journey Out and Rolling Stones‘ Exile on Main Street, the song sees MAGON telling a story that shifts between two characters – a stoned jokester and a sincere balladeer — and describes a desire to escape ugliness and writer’s block.

Directed by Alexa Rotarescu and Magon, the accompanying video follows the JOVM mainstay as he cleans up a horse stall and grooms a couple of them before going on a lengthy ride on one of the horses. At one point, we see the JOVM mainstay and his daughter riding the same horse — with his daughter being thrilled beyond measure.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Pearl & The Oysters Share Woozy and Dreamy “Fireflies”

Released earlier this year through Stones Throw Records, Pearl & The Oysters‘ fourth album, Coast 2 Coast is heavily influenced by the pair’s move from Paris to Los Angeles — with a stop in Florida. Written mostly in Juliette “Pearl” Davis’ and Joachim Polack’s 1-bed apartment, the album’s material was fleshed out by a collection of friends and collaborators including Stereolab‘s Lætitia Sadier, Unknown Mortal Orchesta‘s, Caroline Rose’s and La Luz’s Riley Geare, Neon Indian creative mastermind Alan Palomo, Dent May, Mild High Club‘s Alex Brettin, and Shags Chamberlain, who mixed the album.

Because it was inspired so much by the pair’s relocation, the album thematically explores the idea of travel — physical, mental, experienced and fantasized. The album draws on an eclectic array of aesthetics and images, including Barbarella followed by an Agnés Varda triple bill; Florida swamps and sandy L.A. beaches under a mirrorball-like sun; a radio picking up a faraway broadcast before it fades into an oldies pop station, and crashing waves that melt into the sound of Davis’ white noise machine, among other things.

Coast 2 Coast‘s latest single “Fireflies” is a breezy and nostalgia-tinged bop built around woozy analog synths, twinkling keys, a supple bass line and a steady yet propulsive backbeat paired with Davis’ plaintive delivery. Sonically. “Fireflies” reminds me a bit of a synthesis of Young Narrator in the Breakers-era Pavo Pavo and 70s AM rock. Inspired by the late composer Ryuchi Sakamoto, the song explores dream states and insomniac visions.

Directed by Ambar Navarro, the accompanying video for “Fireflies” is informed by old sci-fi films: We see Davis hatching from a pearl and throughout the video, she plays a a daydreaming Tinkerbell type, who travels freely from planet to planet. Police acts as a controller of the universe while trying to capture Juliette, who has teleportation powers.”