Category: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Legendary Johnny Marr Releases a Trippy Visual for Rousingly Anthemic “Spirit, Power And Soul”

Manchester-born and-based singer/songwriter and guitarist Johnny Marr first rose to fame as the guitarist and co-songwriter of The Smiths between 1982 and 1987. Since The Smiths split up in 1987, Marr has been extremely busy: he has played in number of different projects and has collaborated with a who’s who of acclaimed artists including the likes of The The, Electronic, Modest Mouse, The Cribs, The Pretenders, Talking Heads, The Avalanches, Billie Eilish and Hans Zimmer.

The Manchester-born and-based artist’s highly anticipated fourth album Fever Dreams Pts. 1-4 is a double album, with the first segment, Fever Dreams Pt. 1 being released through BMG on October 15, 2021. Reportedly fusing the language of soul music with his roots as a self-described “Mancunian glam rocker,” the four-song EP features lyrics that could be seen as simultaneously personal and universal — paired with an high energy electronic sound. The end result is an EP worth of material that reflects and is informed by Marr’s legendary and multifaceted past but while seeing him push his sound to a new direction.

Fever Dreams Pt. 1’s first single is the rousingly anthemic, “Spirit, Power And Soul.” Centered around heavily arpeggiated synths, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, shimmering guitars, Marr’s plaintive vocals and an enormous hook, “Spirit Power And Soul” manages to bring Movement and Power, Corruption and Lies era New Order to mind while subtly hinting at Marr’s past, beloved work.

“‘Spirit, Power And Soul’ is a kind of mission statement. I had an idea about an electro sound with gospel feeling, in my own words… an electro soul anthem,” Marr says of the new single.

The recently released video or “Spirit, Power And Soul” features the legendary Marr in series of trippy set ups, where he’s seen floating serenely through the cosmos and through repeating geometric shapes — sometimes playing his guitar, sometimes rocking out to the song or just with a Buddha-like zen calm.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Hot Garbage Release a Trippy and Menacing Visual for Anthemic, New Ripper “Sometimes I Go Down”

Toronto-based psych outfit Hot Garbage — Alex Carlevaris (lead vocals, guitar), Juliana Carlevaris (bass, vocals), Dylan Gamble (keys, synths) and Mark Henin (drums) — will be releasing their Graham Walsh-produced full-length debut RIDE through beloved Montreal-based label Mothland on October 29, 2021.

Coming hot on the heels of some extensive North American touring including opening for Ty Segall, Meatbodies, L.A. Witch and JJUUJJUU, as well as stops at LEVITATION and Sled Island Festivals, the Graham Walsh-produced RIDE was recorded mostly live off the floor at Palace Sound and Basketball 4 Life Studios to to better capture the band’s raw energy, developed and honed from relentless touring. Sonically, the 33 minute album, which also features a guest spot from Kali Horse’s Sam Maloney on percussion, reportedly sees the Toronto psych rockers meshing core elements of 60s and 70s psych music, post punk and desert rock but while also speeding through motorik krautrock, nodding at surf rock and flirting with garage rock paired with otherworldly textures. Thematically and lyrically the album’s material tackles the afterlife, depression and freedom — but also rejoices in soft mantras and uplifting verses. The end result is an album’s worth of material that simultaneously evokes dread, beauty, wonder, horror and mystery.

RIDE’s first single “Sometimes I Go Down” is metallic mesh of psych rock, post punk and kraut rock featuring scorching guitar fuzz, thunderous drumming, droning and glistening organ, boy-girl vocal harmonizing and a relentless motorik groove paired with enormous hooks. While the band mentions that the song draws influence from Sonic Youth, Wand, L.A. Witch and Kikagaku Moyo, I also hear hints of Directions To See a Ghost era Black Angels.

Hot Garbage’s Alex Carlevaris says of the new single “It’s okay to feel down sometimes and need space. We as people have to accept that, allow that and have a healthy and realistic idea about having shitty days, feeling like shit and still loving ourselves. Also recognizing that others around us may need it and being patient with people.”

Directed by William Suarez, the recently released video features the members of Hot Garbage getting on the phone to make or receive phone calls using a four-way split screen. Whether or they’re actually speaking to each other in a four way call is up to you but you’ll notice that each of the characters is acting a little off — perhaps because something is after them? A mysterious black clad figure suddenly appears and each character disappears — that is until the end when the tarot card playing woman shows the figure the card she just pulled out during her reading. Trippy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: London’s Jessica Wilde Releases a Soulful Banger

Jessica Wilde is a rising London singer/songwriter, spoon word who has been both behind the scenes and in the spotlight as a solo artist: Wilde has written songs for renowned K Pop label, SM Entertainment — and she has collaborated with Rudimental, Emeli Sande, Tough Love and Kizzo. As a solo artist, Wilde’s work has begun to receive airplay across BBC Radio with airplay from Robert Elms, Claira Hermet, Salma El-Wardany and LionHeart and Amelia Poamz, as well as Record of the Week nods from BBC Radio 1xtra and BBC Radio London. Her material has also bene played on KISS FM, Hoxton Radio, Reprezent Radio, Amsterdam’s Radio 5 and many others. Wilde has also landed material on UK Spotify’s Pride Editorial Playlist.

ng to a growing platform, Wilde has been interviewed by The Independent, featured in Clash Magazine, Wonderland, The Daily Star, WordPlay, Cool Hunting, Noctis Magazine, and SBTV’s New Music Friday. Her life story, which features battles with addiction and struggles with sobriety have caught the attention of several podcasts and influencers, who focus on sexuality and addiction, including Mouth Off, Muso Muso and a live interview with sober blogger Katie McNicol.

Wilde’s forthcoming album is a concept album with each song being much like a diary entry, in which the listener is taken on a journey from addiction, bad behavior and toxic relationships to self-love and sobriety. “Daylight,” the album’s fourth single continues Wilde’s ongoing collaboration with producers Eljay and Kris Houston. Centered around a warm and vibey production that gently nods at old school soul, paired with thumping beats, “Daylight” is roomy enough for Wilde’s big soulful vocals –before showing her off that she can spit some bars, too. But at its core, the song tells the tale of a dysfunctional and unhealthy relationship fueled by reckless and debauched partying that morphs into a destructive, self-sabotaging Groundhog’s Day.

Wilde through a seemingly endless cycle of booze and drug fueled nights with a lover, filled with passionate love making, drag out, knock down fights and early morning, hung over come downs, full of regret and shame that only ends with Wilde walks away and breaks the cycle.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Miles Francis Tackles Male Ego with “Popular”

Over the past decade, New York-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Miles Francis has developed a reputation locally and elsewhere as a musician’s musician — and arguably one of the local scene’s best kept secrets. Francis can trace much of the origins of their career to learning the drums when they turned six, then guitar, bass, keys and percussion.

As a working musician, Francis has toured the world with Arcade Fire’s Will Butler, Antibalas and EMEFE — and he has collaborated and performed with Sharon Jones, Amber Mark, Angelique Kidjo, Allen Toussaint, TV on the Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and a lengthy list of others. As a result of their various collaborations, Francis has appeared on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon and The Late Show with David Letterman. Francis stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with the release of 2018’s debut EP Swimmers, which earned praise from The Fader, Stereogum and KCRW for material that saw the New York-based artist blending an eclectic array of influences including David Bowie, Prince, Afrobeat and a childhood obsession with early 2000s boy band pop.

The New York-based artist has released two singles this year — “Service,” which was released earlier this year and the recently released “Popular,” which features Lizzie Loveless and Lou Tides (best known as TEEN’s Lizzie and Teeny Lieberson). Both tracks will appear on a forthcoming project that will explore and question masculinity, male conditioning — and their own gender identity, presumably informed by Francis coming out as a non-binary. Whereas the Prince meets Afrobeat-like “Service,” is a darkly ironic send up of the over-the-top obsequiousness of boy band pop, “Popular” is its anthesis, featuring an ego-driven, narcissist, who craves undivided attention. While centered around Francis’ unerring ability to write a rousingly infectious hook, “Popular” manages to be simultaneously breezy and full of menacing anxiety and insecurity, evoked through rapid-fire drumming, slinky and angular guitars, buzzing bass synths and twinkling keys. “I grew up with Backstreet Boys posters lining my bedroom walls, floor to ceiling,” Francis recalls. That era of music is dear to my heart, but upon closer look those songs are ridden with anxiety, songs about male adolescence written by grown men. That anxiety and impulsiveness is the place from which ‘Popular’ grows out from.”

Francis goes on to say that “Service” and “Popular” are “my own little Jekyll and Hyde. “One minute, it’s ‘I’ll do anything for you’ – the next minute, it’s ‘I don’t care for you.” They addd “I am interested in man’s two-faced-ness – our ability to show one thing to the world and someone completely different in private.” And as a result, at their core, both songs are about the male ego. “Power is essential to the male ego. That ego is a house of cards, of course, threatened by even the slightest loss of control. These songs and videos are meant to illustrate that delicate balance between control and disarray.” About “Popular,” in particular, Francis says ““Everyone indulges in having an ego and wanting to be recognized, but men seem particularly bent on the power element — whether it’s taking up space in a room or leading a country.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alea Releases a Buoyant and Defiant Feminist Anthem

Alea is a rising, La Guajira, Colombia-born and New York-based singer/songwriter, composer and musician. She attended La Colegiatura Colombiana and later Berklee College of Music.

The Colombian-born, New York-based artist’s latest album, Alborotá was released earlier this month. The album’s title is deeply personal to Alea. Alborotado(a) translates directly to rowdy, riotous, loud, disorderly; and in most of Latin America, it means being too much, too different, too sexual.

The album title Alborotá is deeply personal to Alea. Alborotado(a) translates directly to rowdy, riotous, loud, disorderly; and in most of Latin America it means being too much, too different, too sexual. Alea elaborates, “I was called an alborotada growing up by my family and friends because I was extremely driven by creativity and imagination,” the Colombian-born, New York-based artist explains. “I fought hard to keep true to this nature, but this judgment took a toll on me as a I got older, and I started to believe that I was the problem. My body was the problem, my womanhood was the problem.” She adds, “I decided it was time to redefine this word, to give it a new meaning in my life and use it as a flag that represented being free, different, independent, out spoken, equal, feminist. I named the album Alborotá because it defines who I am now and what I wish to share with others, this inner fire of strength and overcoming difficulties that liberates you and celebrates you in every way.”

Alborotá further establishes the Colombian-born artist’s unique sound and approach with the album’s 10 diverse songs that break the traditional Latin music mold while being deeply inspired by it: rooted in female and Latinx empowerment, the album’s material blends Latin folklore inspired by cumbia, porro, corrulao and huapango with pop, Afro Colombian and Latin groove. “I decided that I couldn’t let other people and the environment dictate my freedom, who I chose to love and how I decided to speak about my truths,” Alea says in press notes. “My music became a reflection of that. To be bold, fierce and unapologetic.”

Alea continues, “I wanted to write an album that spoke about my roots as a Colombian Afro-indigenous woman. So this was also an exploration of identity, one that I wasn’t close with until I moved far away and somehow labels became a permanent part of who I was. I had to honor these roots because it felt like a calling. Many dreams of spiritual encounters and re-signifying the pain of being a Latin American woman taught to be silent. With this album we explored realms of music from cumbia to currulao, from a huapango to a vallenato, from folkloric rap to ranchera music; we were bold and authentic. I’m really proud of this work. It was not an easy road, but we did it!”

Drawing from Isunza’s background of Mexican, Brazilian and Flamenco music, the tone of the album was set with an organic and authentic vibe created with only acoustic instrumentation through a highly acclaimed collection of collaborators including Latin Grammy Award winners Felipe Fournier, Luisa Bastidas and Flor de Toloache’s Jackie Coleman, as well as Latin Grammy Award nominee Sonia De Los Santos. “Among them we also featured world class artists like Renee Goust, Elena Moon Park, Jaime Ospina, Miche Molina, George Sáenz, Juan Ruiz and Kika Parra, Alea adds. “Our rhythm, our lock and groove was set by the incredible Franco Pinna on drums. We also had the help and ears of friends like Kamilo Kratc, Nacho Molina and Luis F. Herrera, who listened to mixes and gave us feedback. All arrangements were written by Sinuhé Padilla-Isunza and myself. The entire album was mastered by Grammy winner, Luis F. Herrera.”

Over the past two years, the Colombian-born, New York-based artist has been releasing singles and videos from the album, including “Échale Sal,” which was hailed as one of NPR Alt.Latino’s favorite songs of last year. Alboratá’s latest single “No Me Apaga Nadie” is a bold and defiant feminist anthem centered around a gorgeous arrangement featuring Latin and Afro-inspired percussion, strummed flamenco-styled guitar and a regal, mariachi-like horn line. And over that arrangement, Alea leads a defiant call and response vocal section. “The title refers to the fire within, the fire that you are,” Alea explains. “Not permitting anyone dim you down. It’s a call to be rebellious and free in a society where you have to claw your way in to be part of the conversation.”

streets of New York — specifically Uptown and the Lower East Side — with her homegirls. As a native New Yorker, I found the fact that she could literally dance along Delancey Street past Allen Street without anyone caring or particularly noticing anything both hilarious and very much a New York thing. But she’s also boldly taking up space with an infectious joie de vivre. We also see moments of friendship and deep affection between women, as we also follow the Colombian-born, New York-based artist help a friend hurriedly move.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Milan’s The Gluts Return with a Furious, New Ripper

Milan-based punk rock outfit The Gluts — Claudia Cesana (bass/vocals), Bruno Bassi (drums) and Nicolò Campana (vocals, synths) and Marco Campana (guitar) — derive their name from an age-old term often used to denote unsold, surplus goods. For the Milanese quartert, they’ve taken it to symbolically express a surplus of energy, much like the energy that has long driven their own work. Interestingly, since the band’s formation, the Milanese punks have established and honed an explosive and psychedelic-leaning take on noise and thrash punk with the release of their first three albums, 2014’s Warsaw, 2017’s Estasi and 2019’s Dengue Fever Hypnotic Trip. 

de Wit-produced fourth album Ungrateful Heart is slated for an October 8, 2021 release through Fuzz Club. Reportedly, the album sees the Italian quartet making a decided sonic departure from their previously released work. Ungrateful Heart’s material is deeply indebted to 70s punk, 80s hardcore and post punk — in particular, Fugazi, Gang of Four, Sex Pistols, Public Image, Ltd. and the Campana brothers’ obsession with Italian and American hardcore punk.

Recorded over a tireless week in which the band and their producer essentially lived and worked side-by-side in the studio around the clock, the Ungrateful Heart sessions were fueled by a forceful intensity and uncompromising fierceness. “Bob’s contribution to this album was essential. He pushed us beyond our limits. It was difficult, we can’t hide it, but it really was worth it,” the members of The Gluts say in press notes. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about album track “Love Me Do Again,” a slick and uncanny synthesis of Never Mind the Bollocks-era Sex Pistols and Mission of Burma rooted in unadulterated hedonism. Written by the band’s Bruno Bassi while in pandemic-related lockdown, the song was “inspired by the different versions of the myth of Dionysus (the Greek god of wine, pleasure, madness and frenzied ecstasy) and an unexpected excitement caused by imagining how great it would be to be all together again,” the band explains.

Heart’s latest single, “Mashilla” is a furious and muscular aural assault featuring scorching and angular riffage, thunderous drumming and vocal cord ripping howling. And while indebted to 70s punk and 80s hardcore, the song is centered around an alternating grunge rock-like song structure featuring hypnotic verses and ferocious mosh-pit starting choruses.

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Brace Beltempo, the recently released video is a stylish and frenetically shot visual featuring the members of the band performing the song in an abandoned office space, along with some hallucinogenic sequences during the song’s hypnotic passages.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MUNYA Reunites with a (Very) Long Distance Loved One in “Cocoa Beach”

Over the past couple of years, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering Québec-born and-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer Josie Boivin, the creative mastermind behind the critically applauded recording project and JOVM mainstay act MUNYA. 

When Boivin was asked to play at 2017’s Pop Montreal, she had only written one song. Ironically, at the time, Boivin never intended to pursue music full-time; but after playing at the festival, she quickly realized that music was what she was meant to do. So, Boivin quit her day job, moved in with her sister and turned their kitchen into a home recording studio, where she wrote every day. Those recordings would become part of an EP trilogy with each individual EP named after a significant place in Boivin’s life: Her debut North Hatley EP derived its name from one of Boivin’s favorite little Québecois villages. Her second EP, the critically applauded Delmano EP derived its name from Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based bar Hotel Delmano. The third and final EP of the trilogy, Blue Pinederived its name from the Blue Pine Mountains in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.

Since the release of her critically applauded EP trilogy, the Québecois JOVM mainstay has released a string of singles including the Washed Out-like “Pour Toi,” a single centered around the aching and unfulfilled longing of being forced to speak to a loved one from a distance. Boivin has also been busy working on her highly-anticipated full-length debut Voyage to Mars.

Voyage to Mars, an album that derives its title from Georges Méliès’ classic silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune. Slated for a November 5, 2021 release through Luminelle Recordings, the album’s material feels beamed in from another, more beautiful and whimsical world.

Co-directed by Ashley Benzwie and MUNYA, the recently released video is a direct follow-up to the video for “Pour Toi.” With the “Pour Toi,” video, we see the JOVM mainstay on the phone chatting with an unseen and distant loved one. With “Cocoa Beach,” we see who MUNYA was longing to be with — a humanoid alien, who has returned to Earth to reunite with Boivin. Hilariously, the pair spend time playing paddle ball, running on the beach and just hanging out like any other normal couple, except I’m pretty sure the phone bills would be expensive.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mexico City’s Petite Aime Releases a Hilarious and Trippy Visual for Dance Floor Friendly “Elektro”

Mexico City-based psych pop act Petite Aime was founded by Little Jesus bassist Carlos Medina. Last year, Medina (guitar) was joined by Aline Terrein (vocals), Isabel Dosal (vocals), Santiago Fernández (bass) and Jacobo Velazquez (guitar) to write and record the project’s self-titled full-length debut.

Slated for an October 1, 2021 release through Park The Van/Devil In The Woods, the Mexican psych pop act’s self-titled debut reportedly finds the band crafting material that fluctuates between different genres and styles based on psych pop and psych rock while touching upon influences like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Big Thief, Magic Potion, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Crumb. Lyrically the album’s material is generally centered around an expression of the existential angst gendered by the search for the “self” in an increasingly impersonal world,. where the line between what’s real and what’s virtual crystallizes.

The album’s latest single “Elektro” is a dreamy yet club friendly bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, a hypnotic motorik groove, and propulsive four-on-the-floor paired with ethereal French vocals, complete with a vocoder drenched coda. While sonically nodding at From Here To Eternity-era Giorgio Moroder and JOVM mainstay MUNYA, “Elektro,” was actually inspired by dreaming and dreams. “We tried to translate a dream where you don’t know exactly where you are going but you let yourself go,” the band explains. “Stars come down to Earth and transport you to another world and although you know you are enjoying it you’ll always miss the place where you come from.”

The recently released video begins with a Members Only jacket wearing man, listening to music on his Walkman and jamming out in an abandoned mall. Initially, the viewer may think our protagonist is hopefully alone in a post-apocalyptic world much like our own — but towards the vocoder-drenched coda, the protagonist is surprised when he sees a crew of friends, who invite him to join.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Heartless Bastards Release a Surreal and Gorgeous Visual for Cinematic “You Never Know”

Deriving their name from a hilariously incorrect answer on a multiple-choice trivia game (the question was: “What is the name of Tom Petty‘s backing band?”), the acclaimed indie rock act Heartless Bastards  was founded in by Dayton, OH-born singer/songwriter, guitarist and founding member Erika Wennerstrom in Cincinnati back in 2003. Initially started as a solo recording project, Heartless Bastards quickly evolved into a live band featuring a rotating cast of musicians and collaborators that regularly played throughout the Midwest.

The Black Keys‘ Patrick Carney caught the band and was so impressed by what he had heard, that he passed along a copy of their demo to Fat Possum Records, who signed the band and then released their first there albums — 2005’s Stairs and Elevators, 2006’s All This Time and 2009’s The Mountain. Between the writing and recording of All This Time and The Mountain, Wennerstrom relocated to Austin. And around that time, the band’s touring lineup featured David Colvin (drums) and Jesse Ebaugh (bass), who both played on the Heartless Bastard demos recorded six years prior. The band expanded into a quartet with the 2009 addition of Mark Nathan (guitar).

The band signed to Partisan Records, who released the band’s last two critically applauded albums — 2012’s Arrow and 2015’s Restless Ones. Wennerstrom stepped out from behind a band and released her solo debut, 2018’s Sweet Unknown to critical applause. “It was a deeply personal album and it just felt fitting to use my name,” Wennerstrom says of her solo debut. “It kind of forced me to allow myself to be a little more exposed, and stand on my own two feet. I feel like I’ve grown so much creatively and personally through this process.”

Since release of Sweet Unknown and a tour to support it, Wennerstrom, along with a powerhouse backing band featuring Okkervil River’s Lauren Gurgolo (guitar), White Denim’s Greggory Clifford, Mercury Rev’s and Midlake’s multi-instrumentalist Jesse Chandler, My Morning Jacket’s Bo Koster (keys), Patty Griffin’s David Pulkingham (guitar) and longtime Heartless Bastards bandmate Jesse Ebaugh (bass) went into the studio to write and recorded their Kevin Ratterman co-produced sixth album A Beautiful Life, the band’s first full-length album of original material in over five years.

Although Wennerstom first considered releasing A Beautiful Life under her own name as the follow up to her solo debut, she ultimately came to view the album’s material as the continuation of the journey begun on the band’s 2005 full-length debut. Sonically, the album’s material reportedly is a coalescence of a number of eclectic influences and references including French pop, Celtic folk, space rock. Disney film scores and post punk. And as a result, A Beautiful Life may arguably be their most expansive and elaborate batch of material in their catalog to date while still being centered around Wennerstrom’s lyrics, which inspire contemplation, joyful defiance, catharsis, and empathy. “For me music is a gift,” Wennsterstrom says in press notes. “I do it because I love it, and because it helps me feel more connected to the world. I think we all long for a deep connection, and I hope this record adds to the conversation on how we as a species can stop seeing ourselves as separate. I hope it helps everyone to think about how we can look out for each other, take care of each other, and lift each other up.”

Slated for a September 10, 2021 release through Sweet Unknown Records/Thirty Tigers, A Beautiful Life will feature “Revolution,” an incisive and urgent song featuring an expansive song structure that meshes elements of psych rock and blues, that that calls upon the listener to get their shit straight and make the world a better place before it’s too late.

The album’s latest single “You Never Know” may be the most cinematic songs of their entire catalog. Featuring a soaring string arrangement, flamenco-like guitar playing paired with Wennerstrom’s plaintive wailing, the song is a sweet reminder that life is short and sometimes in love and in countless other things, we should take a chance. You’ll never know what will happen, until it actually happens.

“When I wrote “You Never Know,” I imagined it being in Moonrise Kingdom, the Wes Anderson film, even though the movie has already been made. There’s a sense of adventure and innocence that youth embodies whether it’s with love or goals and dreams. This song is a reminder to stay open. Life is short. Take chances.”

Directed, shot and edited by Vanessa Pie, the recently released video stars Kaylyn Mae McClellan and Tiel Ann Larson in a surreal and cinematically shot fever dream with a sailboat to nowhere, a zebra, some expressive face paint, a doorway to another dimension. But at its core is a sweet and tender love story of two people who will be companions through some zany adventures — perhaps because they both took a chance and were open.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Canadian Artist Freddie Future Releases an Intergalactic Visual for Summery “Loving You (So High)”

With the release of 2019’s self-titled full-length album, an effort that featured the attention grabbing single “Too Heavy,” the Toronto-based indie dance pop artist Freddie Future exploded across both the Canadian and international scenes while establishing a sound that’s inspired by Rüfüs Du Sol, Elderbrook, Majid Jordan, Cannons and A R I Z O N A among others. Since the release of his full-length debut, the rising Canadian dance pop artist has received praise from the likes of Clash Magazine, Exclaim!, Variance Magazine, Northern Transmission, Toronto Guardian and Canadian Beats. He has had his work playlisted on MrSuicideSheep, Spotify’s New Music Friday Canada, Fresh Friends, JustVibing and Outliers playlists, and as a result, his work has amassed over 2.6 million streams.

Freddie Future’s latest single “Loving You (So High)” is a summery club banger featuring shimmering synths, wobbling bass lines and tweeter and woofer rocking beats paired with Future’s ethereal yet plaintive vocals and a rousingly anthemic hook. While sonically recalling Octo Octa’s Between Two Selves, “Loving You (So High)” manages to simultaneously evoke dipping into a bracingly cold pool on a sultry summer afternoon and the swooning euphoria of discovering new love.

“’Loving You (So High)’ was the first track written for this new project, and instantly I knew there was something special here,” the rising Canadian artist explains. “The song is about being so consumed with a desire for someone that their love feels like the best drug you could ever have. It’s that ultimate state of euphoria you feel when you truly love that person. The song started with a few vibey chords but really came together once the catchy vocal hook was made. “I get so high off loving you. So high, so high, so high”.”

The recently released video by Physical Presents is an intergalactic visual that features several holographic projections of the rising Canadian artist on an extraterrestrial moon with an enormous planet and a floating space cube in the background. It’s a fittingly futuristic and trippy visual that captures the song’s swooning longing.