Category: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: St. Panther Shares Slinky and Soulful “The Deal”

Los Angeles-based Mexican/Colombian producer, singer/songwriter, rapper and multi-instrumentalist Dani Bojorges-Giraldo (they/them) is the creative mastermind behind the critically applauded recording project St. Panther. Bojorges-Giraldo’s previously released work was the soundtrack to the early part of this decade for many folks, but following their departure from the major label network, the Los Angeles-based artist took time to be among their peers, friends and loved ones.

Their forthcoming EP, the McClenney and Bojorges-Giraldo co-produced Strange World is slated for a November 7, 2025 release through art label drink sum wtr — and is their first collection of recorded output since their breakout debut EP, 2020’s These Days. The new EP’s material is reportedly a defiant, genre-transforming work that features a collection of soulful, modern pop songs that narrate and confront the wider climate of uncertainty and oblivion.

Thematically, Strange World is as much about Bojorges-Giraldo’ and their world — their village, their people, themselves — but also, the very strange world we inhabit right now. Drawing from soul, R&B, jazz, hip-hop and alt-pop the EP’s material sets out to urge for a sense of purpose, security and love admits seemingly universal apathy and chaos.

“I took this long pause to really listen to my village, listen to the needs of my community, and the people around me,” the St. Panther creative mastermind says. “We’re all feeling the weight of the world on our shoulders a bit. We want hope for our listeners, we want people to feel heard and that there’s someone out there representing this feeling.”

Regarding the EP, the Los Angeles-based artist remarks: “It’s been highly impactful–to say the absolute least–to witness the world in the state in today. In so many lyrics and melodies, I’m using this set of songs as a method of putting certain messages into our ether, intentionally shouting certain things from the rooftops that a friend jokingly said ‘for world peace;’ but this music is meant to activate people in some way to meditate about our relationship to each other, which feels like a good use for music right now.”

The EP will feature, the previous released EP title track “Strange World,” which received a double premiere from KCRW’s Morning Becomes Eclectic and FLOOD Magazine and praise from Ones To Watch, Earmilk, RIFF Magazine and others, as well as the EP’s latest single “The Deal.” Featuring an old-school Quiet Storm-meets D’Angelo neo-soul-like arrangement featuring jazzy bursts of keys and a supple bass line, “The Deal” is one-part heartfelt confession of love and admiration, one-part admission of being hurtful/neglectful and one-part yearning plea to do better that feels intimately lived-in and experienced.

“Now I’m not sure if it’s always right to, but I tend to put music where prolonged silences live,” the St. Panther mastermind explains. “I’m not sure why it’s so hard to say what sometimes only music can, but in this case I wish someone had known me better and wanted to write a song like Dido’s ‘White Flag’ shortly afterward, a song that said – if nothing else – my love was true.”

The new single is accompanied by a live performance featuring the acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist in studio with a collection of their various long-time collaborators including McClenney.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aussie Punks Mini Skirt Share Bruising “Squeeze Down”

Bryon Bay, Australia-based punks Mini Skirt — Jesse Pumphrey (bass), Jacob Pumphrey (drums), Jacob Boylan (vocals) and Cam Campbell (guitar) — have received attention both nationally and internationally for a rough and tumble take on pub rock that capture the climate of present-day Australia. Their work focuses on the fact that things aren’t picturesque and idyllic; the vocals express frustration and urgency while their arrangements are melodic yet raw. But at its core, they paint a picture of hope through struggle.

The Aussie punks full-length debut, 2020’s Casino grabbed the attention of the global punk scene. Their long-awaited and highly-anticipated sophomore album, All That We Know is slated for a November 14, 2025 self-release in their native Australia and through Bad Vibrations outside of Australia.

Continuing a run of gritty, bruising punk, the album’s material is underlined by Boylan’s lyrics, which paint a picture of the modern social climate. Every verse and chorus is a well-crafted and concise assessment that ensures that the listener replays each line to make sure they didn’t miss a word.

All That We Know‘s latest single “Squeeze Down” is a bruising, mosh pit friendly ripper featuring scuzzy and wiry bursts of guitar, thunderous drumming and a chugging bass line paired with Boylan’s punchy delivery expressing pent up frustration, confusion and unease that feels sweaty, claustrophobic and inescapable in a way that reminds me a bit of Ex-Cult‘s 2014 effort Midnight Passenger.

“This track was written after our first EU/UK tour back in 2022,” Mini Skirt’s Jacob Boylan recalls. ““The lyrics are about the unshakeable sense I had of feeling isolated, misunderstood and defensive about my identity. It was the first time I realised who I am is so deeply rooted in where I am from. Cam had put the riff together for his other band Chrome Cell Torture, but they had decided it wasn’t tough enough for them, so us big whimps took it and ran with it.”

C.O.F.F.I.N.’s Ben Portnoy created the accompanying video for “Squeeze Down.” Shot on grainy VHS video, the video features live footage of the band playing in a shitty club that captures the sweaty intensity of their live performance and of their fans.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chicago’s Dendrons Share Tense and Uneasy “Monsteras”

Chicago-based indie outfit Dendrons formed back in 2018, initially starting out as an earnest collaboration between two childhood friends, who reconnected as adults, after spending years in different states. The project eventually expanded to a quintet, following the strength of DIY bookings and homemade recordings.

Since the band’s formation, they’ve developed a sound that meshes elements of post-punk, blender pop and noise. Their material frequently moves between worlds; at times, kitschy and intimate, before quickly morphing into maximalism, full of feedback, synths, multipart harmonies and combinations of propulsive drum kids and electronic beat sampling.

The band has supported their first two albums, 2020’s self-titled full-length debut and 2022’s 5-3-8 with extensively touring across the US, Canada, Mexico, Europe and the UK.

The Chicago-based outfit’s third album Indiana is slated for a November 17, 2025 release through Candlepin Records. The album reportedly found the band at a point of reinvention, with the album’s material featuring a refined sonic palette, which drew from a more diverse pool of influences among the band’s members. Songs were demoed, scrapped, rewritten and scrutinized in detail over the course of a two-year period.

Indiana‘s second and latest single “Monsteras” is a tense and urgent song that sees the band alternating between tautened restraint and noisy rock bombast, held together by the song’s relentless motorik-like groove and hushed, almost meditative vocals. Subtly recalling Canadian post punks Blessed, “Monsteras,” manages to evoke the surreal air of our current moment, in which we somehow still go to work and worry about the rent or the mortgage, while the world burns and the US slides into fascism. Nothing to see here. Get back to work, you lazy bum . . . And yet, deep in your soul, you know everything is deeply fucked up, and it’s somehow getting worse.

The accompanying video was shot over the course of a single night in Chicago. Shot in run-and-gun style, the video features elements of stop motion animation throughout. The “Dust Man,” the Sisyphean main character of the video was played by one of the band’s members. In some way, we are all Dust Man, performing absurd, often Sisyphean tasks until we die.

Long live Dust Man.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinlicker Shares Defiant and Euphoric “I Want My Freedom”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project of its founder Heyboer. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero.

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online.

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland.

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, last year’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival.

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they had started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including their most recent single “I Started A Fire,” which was released earlier this year. Heyboer and van Achthoven recently invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the band. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl.

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — is slated for an early 2026 release. But in the meantime, the trio’s latest single “I Want My Freedom” showcases what has made the Dutch outfit a titan in electronic music: Beginning with a slow-burning piano intro that seemingly nods at Radiohead‘s “Everything In Its Right Place,” the track quickly morphs into a festival and club banger featuring skittering beats, glistening and melodic synth arpeggios, a string section sample-led bridge, and a euphoric bridge and hook, which serves as a slickly produced and lush bed for Baldwin’s defiant and resolute vocals.

Throughout the song’s runtime, Baldwin’s lyrics are especially pertinent right now, as many countries across the world seem to be sliding backwards into a brutally abusive, authoritarian hellscape that many of us don’t want — and will resist until death.

“These lyrics circled in my mind for a long time” Baldwin says. “I started writing from that feeling of disconnection as a woman in my mid-twenties with a sharp awareness of the world moving backwards. But over time, the song grew into something bigger. ‘I Want My Freedom’ isn’t just about me, it’s about all of us. The heartbreaking truth is that the abuse of freedoms reaches far beyond gender. I wanted to create a song of inclusion, with a nod to what I personally feel I’ve lost. Freedom is never handed to us, it’s something we fight for, and I no longer have that softness in me to apologize for that.”

The accompanying video for “I Want My Freedom” consists of footage shot from their Crystal Palace Bowl set.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Amadou & Mariam Share Swooning “L’amour à la folie”

Over the course of their almost 50-year career run together, the iconic and beloved Malian duo Amadou & Mariam have had an illustrious career that saw them take the Malian blues that made them a household name in Africa and opened it up to rock, hip-hop and EDM/dance influences, which led to spreading their country’s culture and beloved sounds, as well as the pair’s unique joie de vivre. “We’ve always dreamed of tearing down walls and opening people’s ears to new sounds so the whole world can discover and appreciate Malian music,” Amadou & Mariam says.

Late last year, the pair released the compilation album La Vie Est Belle, an album that highlighted their legacy as one of Africa’s most famous duos and the massive influence they’ve had while paving the way for an exciting, new generation of African artists, who have begun to dominate the Western mainstream.

The legendary Malian duo have also acted as Afro-pop ambassadors, who have collaborated with some of the biggest names of Western mainstream music, including U2, Coldplay, Stevie Wonder, Sofi Tucker, BLOND:ISH, Santigold, Akon, TV on the Radio, Damon Albarn and David Gilmour — with their seven studio albums selling over one million records globally. Adding to a globally recognized profile, the duo made the rounds of the global festival circuit, playing sets at Coachella, Lollapalooza and Glastonbury. They’ve also performed at The World Cup, NPR’s Tiny Desk and last year’s Paris Paralympic Games Closing Ceremony, where they covered Serge Gainsbourg‘s “Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je Me’n Vais.” And lastly, they made the run of the late night TV circuits of both the US and UK.

The duo’s final album together, L’amour à la folie is slated for an October 24, 2025 release. Written and recorded together over the past seven years, the acclaimed and beloved Malian duo’s soon-to-be released eighth album conveys the duo’s raw joy through incandescent, exuberant music that perfectly complements their messages of love and unity — and the hope of a peaceful world in which diversity is celebrated and championed. And with love with a capital L as the driving force, music and fuel and sharing as the spark, the duo’s radiant power continues to shine on their final album.

Final mixes of the album’s material were completed last winter. They shared a deep excitement about the album’s release in October. But sadly, Amadou Bagayoko died back in April. It’s Mariam Doumbia’s wish, after the mourning period, to return to stages and perform the album she spent seven years working on with her beloved while celebrating the music and life her and beloved created.

L’amour à la folie‘s latest single, album title track “L’amour à la folie,” is a defiantly upbeat and urgent declaration of a swooning and ridiculously passionate love, featuring a propulsive and funky Afro pop-meets-dance floor groove, driving polyrhythm and Bagayako’s woozy guitar riff paired with the duo’s unerring knack for incredibly catchy hooks and their imitable harmonizing. And at its core, “L’amour á la folie,”is a much-needed joy bomb in bleak, desperate times that reminds all of us that life isn’t worth a damn without a love that drives you mad.

The accompanying video features footage of the pair performing on stages across the world, bursts of behind the scenes footage from video and album art shoots, small moments of families together, behind the scenes footage of the duo together and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sessa Shares Swinging and Strutting “Nome de Deus”

São Paulo-based singer/songwriter and musician Sergio Sayeg, best known as Sessa will be releasing his third album Pequena Vertigo de Amor on November 7, 2025 through Mexican Summer.

The nine-song album is not just an evolution of the Brazilian artist’s sound; it’s a thorough transformation. Sayeg describes the album’s material as “a bit more nocturnal, open-ended, crooked funky,” while highlighting inspiration from soulful influences across both North and South America, including Shuggie Otis, Roy Ayers, Sly Stone, Erasmo Carlos, Tim Maia, Hyldon and more.

Recorded to tape at Cosmo, the studio that the Brazilian artist co-founded with Biel Basile, over five sessions between last April and March 2025, Pequena Vertigem de Amor sees Sessa expanding his sonic palette and stretching in multiple directions simultaneously. There’s a greater emphasis on rhythm and enhanced tempos, as he experiments with new vocal cadences and textures, and the addition of instrumentation not heard in his previously released work like piano, synthesizer, wah-wah pedaled guitar and even a primitive drum machine.

Sayeg describes the forthcoming album’s songs as “a mix of personal chronicles and quiet meditations about life in the face of personal change, of experiencing something so big that you realize your insignificant size in space and time.” That new perspective and reality wound up remaking his personal life and his connection to music. “For the first time I saw music move from the center to the side of my life.” The radical reordering of priorities presented fresh opportunities in his music. “In an interesting way, music became more mixed with my life,” Sessa explains as he found ways to conjure melodies, lyrics and inspiration from the daily rhythms of life.

His personal evolution has brought into sharp contrast “the ambiguities and contradictions in life, which is a place that has always inspired my writing.” Pequena Vertigem de Amor reminds the listener that experiencing vertigo can be simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating, sentiments expressed through the material’s lyrics and overall aesthetic, a fusion of novel and familiar sounds, styles and instrumentation.

In making Pequena Vertigem de Amor, a cosmic connection by way of his son’s pre-school managed to yield a missing musical ingredient—an “element on piano, which I had never put in my music, that fulfilled my search for a classic samba jazz sound,” Sessa says.  A fellow musician and parent at his son’s pre-school suggested pianist Marcelo Maita, the younger brother of São Paulo samba legend Amado Maita. Sayeg invited the younger Maita to contribute to a few songs, including the album’s second and latest single “Nome de Deus” (“Name of God”).

Maita’s urgent, staccato piano attack paired with Biel Basile’s rolling percussion and a supple, throbbing bass line create a soulful, mischievously swinging and strutting samba-inspired bed for Sessa’s impassioned vocal defiantly asserting agency in bold defiance of deities and nonsensical laws and rules.

Directed by Rollinos, and shot in a cinematic black and white with illustrated burts of color exploding across the screen, the accompanying video features the Brazilian artist playing all of the song’s instrumentation and singing in a recording studio.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Total Fucking Darkness Returns with Woozily Hypnotic “Give Me Everything You Own”

Electronic music outfit Total Fucking Darkness features: 

The trio have released two singles, which I’ve written about on this site, “Desolation Boys,” and “Take It Easy.” Their latest single “Give Me Everything You Own” is an unsettlingly woozy and hypnotic fever dream that’s one-part Tweekend-era The Crystal Method rave, one-part brooding dream pop and one-part howl into the void.

“We live in a late-period capitalist wasteland where art is devalued and podcasters are the new creative upper class. What a fucking bore,” the trio share. “‘Give Me Everything You Own’ is a reminder of the intrinsic, anarchic power of our music. We made it to feel like a nice cold wet fish slapping you upside the head to remind you not to fall asleep in your own life, that connection matters, that a dancefloor can be the site of rebellion and dissent. Don’t forget that cunts are still running the world…” 

The accompanying video is a flop sweat-fueled fever dream of nightmarish war imagery and brightly colored summery scenes that captures our ongoing hellscape. But all is not lost, y’all. Go to shows, dance floors, theater and meet like-minded souls. Community is always the solution to fascism.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Danger Mouse and Black Thought Team Up with Rag’n’Bone Man on Cinematic and Soulful “Up”

Danger Mouse (born Brian Burton) is arguably one of the most versatile and prolific artists and producers in music right now: As an artist he has been one-half of Broken Bells and Grammy Award-winning Gnarls Barkley. As a producer, he has recorded collaborative albums with  Yeah Yeah Yeahs‘ Karen O and the late, legendary MF DOOM. And he has worked with Adele, U2, The Black Keys, Gorillaz, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Michael Kiwanuka, Parquet Courts and a lengthy list of others. 

Black Thought (born Tariq Trotter) is a co-founder and frontman of Grammy Award winning, pioneering hip-hop act The Roots. Trotter is also an accomplished solo artist who has released a critically applauded album and two EPs: 2020’s Streams of Thought Vol. 3: Cane & Able and 2018’s Streams of Thought Vol. 1 EP and Streams of Thought Vol. 2 EP, which helped further his reputation among the cognoscenti — and real hip hop heads — as one of the dopest living emcees to ever spit bars. Adding to a lengthy list of accolades and accomplishments, Trotter has acted in film and theater, along with having writing and producer credits.

The duo’s acclaimed collaborative album, 2022’s Cheat Codes simultaneously marked Danger Mouse’s first hip-hop album since 2005’s DANGERDOOM with the legendary and beloved MF DOOM and the follow=up to Black Thought’s solo trilogy Streams of Thought. But their collaboration can actually be traced back almost 20 years earlier: Trotter and Burton first met back in 2005. They started working on material — but time went on, life happened, other projects and obligations came up.

Following 2004’s acclaimed The Grey Album, Burton became one of the most in-demand and prolific producers of the day, helming several commercially and critically successful projects, which led to a bevy of accolades and awards. He also developed collaborations with a unique and eclectic array of artists while expanding upon and honing his own musicianship, production and writing. 

During that same period of time, The Roots released a batch of critically applauded albums and became the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon then The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Trotter released his aforementioned, critically applauded solo trilogy Streams of Thought. He collaborated with the likes of Eminem, John Legend, Pusha T., Griselda, and a list of others. He wrote, composed and starred in the widely-praised off-Broadway show Black No More. And adding to a lengthy list of accomplishments, he co-produced a TV series with his Roots bandmate Questlove. 

Each mistakenly thought that the other had moved on and their collaboration just died, but as it turned out, neither one never stopped wanting to work together. Burton had long felt an instinctive need to return to his roots and make a timeless hip-hop album. He knew that Trotter was one of the few emcees truly capable of fulfilling that vision. Simultaneously, Trotter was seeking a space, where he could express himself musically and creatively beyond the confines and structures of his own band. 

This time, Burton was a far more seasoned songwriter and producer, Trotter an even more extraordinary emcee.  So, setting aside all distractions, Burton played Trotter some new music he had had. The ideas and words quickly flowed — and the experience was liberating. 

Meticulously built over a period of several years, Cheat Codes found Burton pushing widescreen, soul-infused hip-hop soundscapes to new directions paired with Trotter’s commanding presence, incisive lyricism and dexterous wordplay. Unlike the typical producer-meets-rapper/side project, Cheat Codes is an effort between two like-minded collaborators, who raise each other’s games to new heights. The album also featured an equally acclaimed cast of guests including A$AP Rocky, Run The Jewels, MF DOOM, Michael Kiwanuka, Joey Bada$$, Russ, Raekwon, and Conway the Machine. Simply put, dope emcees plus dope producer equals legendary album.

Danger Mouse and Black Thought recently shared “Up (with Rag’n’Bone Man),” their first bit of new material together since Cheat Codes — and a preview of their forthcoming, highly-anticipated sophomore album together. Written and performed by Danger Mouse, Black Thought and British artist Rag’n’Bone Man (drums and vocals), whose song “Human” has amassed over 2 billion views on YouTube, “Up” features a broodingly cinematic production with clattering and percussive boom bap serving as a lush bed for Black Thought’s intense and fiery yet deeply introspective lyrics and the rising British artist’s mournful, gospel-meets-soul like hook.

Directed by Joshua Ellingson, the accompanying video for “Up” continues the Cheat Codes visual aesthetic: screens upon screens, stock footage that seemingly evokes the desperate urgency of our moment and the three collaborators.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Weird Nightmare Shares Defiantly Upbeat Anthem “Forever Elsewhere”

Known for his decade-plus stint as frontman of Toronto-based JOVM mainstays METZ, singer/songwriter and guitarist Alex Edkins developed and honed a reputation for being a master craftsman of eardrum splitting, hooky rippers.

Edkins’ recording project Weird Nightmare saw the longtime METZ frontman showcasing a sugary and distorted pop sensibility to his long-established reputation for enormous power chord riffs and rousingly anthemic hooks with the project’s 2022 self-titled, full-length debut and a handful of one-off singles.

His latest single, the Jim Eno co-produced “Forever Elsewhere” is a rollicking and defiantly upbeat, hook-driven anthem that sounds to me a bit like a synthesis of Edkins’ work with METZ and The Replacements. While retaining the anthemic hooks of his Weird Nightmare debut album, “Forever Elsewhere” is a decided departure from the lo-fi bedroom approach, and step forward into the high-fiddly, shout-along with your friends anthems. And lord knows, we need a few more of those right now.

“‘Forever Elsewhere’ is the most optimistic song I’ve written to date. I wanted to send an unequivocal positive message into the world,” Edkins explains. “The line ‘Love, it will come,’ summarizes the overall theme: if things feel hopeless and the world is bleak, don’t give up, keep pushing. I like to think of it as a pep talk wrapped in fuzzy guitars. 
 
“I recorded with Seth Manchester (he engineered the last two METZ records) and Jim Eno (Spoon), and we tracked this one really quickly. Drummer Loel Campbell (Wintersleep) and Roddy Kuester (Julianna Riolino/Sadies) nailed it in 2 takes, and you can really hear the ramshackle energy in the song where the wheels almost fall off a couple of times. We tried to keep it loose.”

Directed by Colin Medley, the accompanying video for “Forever Elsewhere,” is an adorable and fairly accurate portrayal of adolescence turning into young adulthood, with the bitter recognition that occasionally adulthood is some asshole trying to take advantage of you. And yet, love and kindness somehow sets things straight.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: King Black Acid and Birdie Swann Sisters Team Up on Darkly Seductive “Rats In The City”

Daniel Riddle is Portland, OR-based is a singer/songwriter and musician, who has written and recorded music under the moniker King Black Acid since the late 1980s, while spending time as a member of industrial outfit Hitting Birth. Since the early 90s, Riddle has led a number of different collectives and projects that have toured and shared stages with Elliott Smith, Nirvana, Low, Moby, Sonic Youth, The Dandy Warhols, Faith No More, Dead Moon, Menomena, The Fugees, Arctic Monkeys, Spacemen 3, Danzig, Nine Inch Nails and more.

Throughout his career, Riddle’s music has been featured on CSI: Miami, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, The Mothman Prophecies, Witchblade, Dream With Fishes, Do Me a Favor and CNN Sports, as well as ad campaigns for Nike, Reebok, Tiger Woods Golf, CNN, Coca-Cola, Abercrombie and Fitch, Gap and The Olympics.

Birdie Swann Sisters is a collaborative project featuring:

  • Birdie Moon, a French producer, engineer and musician, who has played with M83, AIR, Beck, The Knife and a lengthy list of others.

  • Daisy Rae Swann, an Icelandic producer and singer/songwriter, who has written and recorded material with acts like Coldplay, Florence and the Machine, Gorillaz and countless others.

The Birdie Swann Sisters met King Black Acid’s Daniel Riddle while working on film soundtracks for television/streaming services. Working remotely and trading sound files, the trio bonded over their mutual love of vintage analog instruments, lo-fi guitars and an emphasis on rare synthesizers and drum machines.

Their initial film and TV score collaborations lead to Dream School Dropout, the trio’s 10-song collaborative album. Sonically, the album sees the trio mixing elements of cinematic 80s dream pop, 70s soul and R&B, yacht rock and psych rock into a lush, dreamy tapestry.

Dream School Dropout‘s latest single “Rats In The City” is a slickly produced, hook-driven, club friendly bop featuring glistening and oscillating synths and skittering boom bap that brings Evil Heat-era Primal Scream, Tame Impala, POND and even Midnight Juggernauts to mind paired with darkly seductive, somewhat menacing lyrics.

The accompanying video is a slickly edited mashup of B movie footage, stock footage and psychedelic imagery pulsing and undulating to the song’s propulsive beat.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Polish Shares Bruising “Lush”

Black Polish mastermind Jayden “Jay” Binnix is a young, rising artist who spent their formative years split between Florida and Maryland, before later relocating to Los Angeles. Binnix, who says that they “popped out of the womb singing,” took piano lessons at five, and later picked up ukulele and guitar. After receiving encouragement from a vocal teacher, Binnix wrote their first song “Sophie,” inspired by their childhood girlfriend.

Released back in 2020, “Sophie” saw the young artist quickly establishing their own style of earnest, emotionally piercing lyricism and a dynamic sound blending alternative, electronic and pop music influences like Halsey, Twenty One Pilots and girl in red.

Binnix’s emotive and lived-in songwriting was sharpened through their 2021 Out of Place EP and last year’s full-length debut, Forest, which examined how their upbringing made it difficult for them to fully explore and express their identity — but eventually finding clarity through the other side. Their songs have landed on Spotify’s New Music Friday and All-New Indie playlists, and building upon a growing profile, they contributed “Armageddon,” to the acclaimed Hulu series, Love, Victor.

“I just want to make people feel less alone, to remind people that they don’t have to hate themselves, to inspire others to pursue creativeness and passion without embarrassment,” Binnix says. “I love hearing a listener respond to my music and say, ‘This is my comfort song.’ It makes me feel so sure about myself.

Binnix’s highly-anticipated Black Polish sophomore album YUNA is slated for an October 29, 2025 release through BMG. The album is a work of fiction and fantasy that centers around Black Polish’s alter-ego “Yuna,” a man-eating succubus, who allows Binnix to explore their most depraved instincts and hyperfeminine abilities to beguile and seduce.

Throughout the album, Binnix dives deep into the Yuna character’s psyche while presenting playful, dark-sided lyrics and ever-shifting sonics to relay the album’s intricate narrative. Ultimately, the album’s story suggests that some aspects of ourselves can never be fully banished or hidden, but must be understood and accepting. And at the core of the material, is the question: Can you learn to forgive and accept the darkest, most fucked up parts of yourself?

YUNA will feature the previously released singles “BONDAGE” AND “BE WITH YOU,” which received praise from Alternative Press, Paste Magazine, Out Magazine, Queerty and more, and the album’s third and latest single “LUSH.” Sonically channeling 90s grunge, Paramore and others, “LUSH” reveals an artist with an uncanny knack for pairing forceful rock bombast and arena rock friendly hooks with earnest, seemingly lived-in lyricism. The song also evokes the weird — and sometimes thrilling — push and pull of a dysfunctional relationship.

 “I don’t talk to anyone, knowing I won’t hear what’s good for me,” Binnix says of the new single. “If dysfunction is all you know, naturally, you’ll gravitate towards the familiar. Ignoring the fact that this will ultimately fail creates the illusion of freedom so you can experience a relationship without feeling trapped.”

The accompanying video features the rising Los Angeles-based artist as both Black Polish and their alter-ego Yuna at the beach at night, alternating between seductiveness and unhinged fury.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dear Boy Shares Madchester-like “The Address”

Los Angeles-based indie outfit Dear Boy — founding members Ben Grey (vocals, guitar) and Keith Cooper (drums) alongside Austin Hayman (lead guitar) and Lucy Lawrence (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins back to when its founding members Grey and Cooper were living in London during their mid-twenties. Hayman and Lawrence joined the band once its founding duo returned to the States.

Interestingly, despite their Stateside roots, the Los Angeles-based quartet’s work has drawn from ’80s and ’90s Brit pop and shoegaze — with the band citing Pulp, Oasis, Slowdive and The Jesus and Mary Chain as major influences, while also embracing the likes of Pixies and R.E.M. 

The band’s sophomore album sophomore album, the Aron Kobayashi Ritch-produced Celebrator is slated for an October 17, 2025 release through Last Gang Records. Following the success of their full-length debut, 2022’s Forever Sometimes, the band took a step back from perfectionist production practices and leaned into spontaneity. Written in 12 sessions and recorded live in under two weeks, the album’s material reportedly bristles with a palpable energy while showcasing the band’s musical and creative chemistry. “We made this album to remember why we do this in the first place,” the band says. “Because we love it. We adore each other. Joy. Connection. Heartbreak. Celebration. We’re not interested in anything other than that.”

Celebration will feature the previously released “After All,” feat. Rocket’s Alithea Tuttle, a bombastic anthem that brings 120 Minutes-era MTV and 90s Brit Pop to mind. The album’s latest single “The Address” continues the band’s Brit Pop-meets-shoegaze while featuring a Happy Mondays/Madchester-style breakbeat-driven drum groove and shoegazer textured guitar chug serving as a lush yet subtly dance floor friendly bed for Ben Grey’s plaintive and yearning delivery.

Much like its immediate predecessor, “The Address” showcases the band’s uncanny knack for paring catchy hooks and swaggering bombast with earnest, lived-in lyricism.

Fittingly, the video made by the band’s Ben Gray and Ryan Saunders, the accompanying video draws heavily from old school MTV visuals.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tame Impala Returns with Yearning, Club Friendly “Dracula”

Acclaimed Aussie JOVM mainstay Tame Impala‘s highly-anticipated fifth album, Deadbeat is slated for an October 17, 2025 release through Columbia Records.

Deeply inspired by bush door culture and the Western Australia rave scene, Deadbeat sees Tame Impala mastermind Kevin Parker recasting himself as a sort of future primitive rave act. Conceived in various locations over the last handful of years, the album was largely galvanized between Parker’s hometown of Fremantle and his Inijidup, Western Australia-based studio Wave House during the first half of this year.

Renowned for being a perfectionist, Parker’s fifth Tame Impala album reportedly showcases an artist with a leveled-up mastery of songwriting but crafted with a newfound embrace of spontaneity. The result is a collection of remarkably catchy, hook-driven, club-friendly psych pop while being some of Parker’s most direct songwriting of his career to date. Sonically, there are timbres and textures that add new dimension to the material’s overall sound paired with a much richer, more playful vocal range.

Lyrically, the album finds Parker channeling an endless bummer with a self-deprecating fuck-up of a narrator stuck in a hopelessly negative feedback loop, when he should have long had his shit together. We all know this kind of dude — and in some cases, he is us. Thematically, the album suggests raving as self-inquiry, self-medication in lieu of self-care and the kick-on as domestic bliss. Dance and sweat your troubles, stresses and concerns away on the dance floor, y’all. Reality can wait another day or two — hell, fuck it, another three.

Deadbeat will feature the previously released “End of Summer,” the recently released “Loser,” and the album’s third and latest single “Dracula.” “Dracula” continues a run of club friendly bops, anchored around euphoric hooks — but while arguably being the funkiest song off the album to date. Lyrically, the new single is arguably one of the playfully self-deprecating and self-referential tunes of Parker’s growing catalog, while simultaneously expressing the swooning yearning that he’s long been known for.

Directed by multi-disciplinary artist Julian Klincewicz, the accompanying video for “Deadbeat” follows Parker and a big rig carrying a house, as the acclaimed Aussie artist struts his way to and through a rave in the rural Australia.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rafa Tena Teams Up With Sandra Carrasco on Elegant “Gitano soy”

Madrid-born singer/songwriter, composer and music producer Rafa Tena‘s career started behind the scenes as a lyricist and composer, who wrote a number of internationally recognized hits performed by other artists. Tena has also spent time working as a producer, a musical director for TV, and interestingly enough as an apprentice poet. Talk about a renaissance man, right?

Deeply enamored with Cuban music and culture, Tena has spent lengthy stints residing in Havana, where he collaborated with some of the country’s most prominent artists, before stepping out into the spotlight as a ember of Son DOS, with whom he has plans to release an album inspired by Cuba’s beloved son music.

If you were frequenting this site earlier this year, you might recall that I wrote about “Morcilla,” a collaboration with gypsy band Las Negris, a rowdy and raucous party starting tune, which saw the Madrid-born artist and Las Negris meshing elements of flamenco, tango and Cuban guagancó that featured mischievous lyrics referring morcilla (blood sausage), a beloved delicacy across the Spanish speaking world — with some regional differences in ingredients and how its prepared. The song also is peppered with references to Tena’s travels between Spain and Cuba, making a point of how much food

The Madrid-born artist’s latest single “Gitano soy,” is a collaboration with Sandra Carrasco, a highly sought-after flamenco artist, who has worked with musicians across jazz, classical and contemporary music. The song is an elegant and sophisticated blend of flamenco bolero and pop rock with a gorgeous string arrangement that feels simultaneously old world and contemporary, while rooted in earnest, seemingly lived-in lyricism and performances from Tena and Carrasco.

Directed by Lorena Flores, the accompanying video for “Gitano soy,” is a gorgeous and elegantly shot visual that feels a bit like a travel film-meets-pop music video.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Québec City’s David Emme Shares a Melancholy Yet Breezy Bop

Québec City-based singer/songwriter and musician David Emme is a self-described “sensitive courtier of melancholy,” whose sound frequently sees him making a delicate balance between New Wave, coldwave and post punk. Rather than choosing between light and shadow, Emme weaves light and shadow together in a way that expresses a deep, lived-in vulnerability.

“Encore” marks a new chapter for the Québec City-based artist. Anchored around glistening, reverb-drenched, New Order-like guitars paired with a breakneck, motorik-like groove and Emme’s plaintive delivery, “Encore” is a deceptively upbeat, almost anthemic song that manages to evoke a swooning, lived-in melancholy and longing. The new single channels classic New Order and contemporary bedroom pop while showcasing an artist, who can craft an earnest song with remarkably catchy hooks. “I decided to return to my first loves in terms of sound. It feels like a song I should haver eleased 10 years ago, but I wanted to wait until I had the experience and maturity to do it justice,” Emme says.

Directed by Ara3, the accompanying video follows Emme as he enters in a Québécois cafe/bar with a handful of roses. Shot in one, languorous and extended take, we see the Québec City-based artist handing out roses to a bored bartender, a romantic couple on the brink and pals having a bitter argument. And for a moment, all of these folks had remembered the joy and caring of their connection to that other person — thanks to our intrepid, Cupid-like protagonist.