Category: World Music

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: John Finbury and Bruna Black Team Up on Meditative “Pérolas”

https://youtu.be/lV4VCFavzek?si=qISKiIoxuUGNoT_l

Andover, MA-based Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated drummer and composer John Finbury spent his teenaged years playing in rock bands at New York’s legendary The Bitter End. He then went on to study classical piano, music theory and composition at the Longy School of Music at Bard College and at Boston University. 

Back in 2014, the Andover-based musician and composer released The Green Flash, a four song EP of original compositions of Brazilian jazz. All four songs received nominations for the 2015 American Songwriting Awards with “SambaDan” winning for Best Instrumental. Finbury followed The Green Flash EP with 2015’s 11-song Brazilian jazz effort Imaginário featuring vocalist Marcella Camargo and some of Boston’s best players, including Fernando Huergo, Mark Walker, Tim Ray, Claudio Ragazzi, Roberto Cassan and Ricardo Monzon. Finbury surprised the Latin music world when Imaginário track “A Chama Verde” received a Latin Grammy nomination for Song of the Year.

2017’s Pitanga was released to critical acclaim. Adding to a rapidly growing profile in the Latin music scene, Finbury’s third album, the Emilio D. Miler-produced Sorte!, which saw him collaborating with vocalist Thalma de Freitas and an All-Star band featuring Vitor Gonçalves, Chico Pinheiro, Duduka de Fonseca, John Patitucci, Rogerio Boccato and Airto Moreira received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Latin Jazz album. 

2020 saw the release of two albums of originals: American Nocturnes: Final Days of July, an album of intimate chamber jazz compositions featuring arrangements for piano, cello, guitar, accordion and harmonica — and Quatro, a Latin jazz album featuring Lagos Herrera, Chano Domínguez, John Pattiucci and Antonio Sánchez. 

During the pandemic, the Andover-based musician and composer collaborated with French jazz vocalist Camille Bertault. They recorded and released “Look at What a Mess You Made of Me,” which featured Christian McBride (bass) and “Boulevard,” which featured Larry Gouldings (organ) and Billy Martin (drums). 

In 2021, following the death of the legendary Chick Correa, Finbury and de Freitas wrote and recorded “Ring The Bells” as a tribute to the man and his influential work. 

In 2022 Finbury wrote and released three original Brazilian jazz compositions recorded in São Paulo by Mestrinho (accordion), Michael Pipoquinho (bass), Cainã Cavalcante (guitar), Celso de Almeida (drums) and Leo Rodrigues (percussion). 

Last year was a very busy year for Finbury: He continued an ongoing collaboration with Magos Herrera and recorded and released three original compositions of Chamber Jazz. The Andover-based musician and composer also continued his successful collaboration with Miler, who introduced him to rising São Paulo-based singer/songwriter Bruna Black. 

Black wound up contributing vocals to Finbury’s latest album Vã Revelação, which was released earlier this year. Over the course of the past year, I’ve written about three of the album’s singles: 

“Chão De Nuvem,” a soulful year breezy tune featuring an arrangement of fluttering accordion, a supple bass line, shuffling percussion. The song gorgeously — and effortlessly — meshes elements of samba, jazz fusion and pop while being a perfect vehicle for Bruna Black’s languorous yet soulful delivery. 

“Será,” a song built around a gorgeous arrangement of shimmering acoustic guitar by Chico Pinheiro, a supple and sinuous bass line from John Pattiucci that’s roomy enough for Black’s expressive vocal. Fittingly released at the end of last year, the song is a meditation on the passing of time, the choices and plans we make that work out and the ones that fail — with the understanding that all of it influences who we are, and who we will become. 

Album title track “Vã Revelação,” a breathtakingly gorgeous yet bittersweet tune, anchored around the classic shuffle and sway of bossa nova featuring shimmering, strummed guitar, a supple bass line, twinkling and expressive bursts of piano serving as a lush bed for Black’s stunning vocal turn. Much like its predecessors, “Vã Revelação” is meditative yet breezy, a blast of summer — but full of the recognition of the passing of time, and of regrets, hopes dashed and hopes to be had again.

Vã Revelação’s latest single “Pérolas” is anchored around a swaying jazz/pop standard-meets-Bossa nova-like ballad arrangement and a gorgeous, soulful guitar solo by Chico Pinheiro paired with Black’s equally gorgeous vocal singling lyrics by Thalma De Freitas. Much like its predecessors “Pérolas” is nostalgic yet mediative, seemingly ruminating on the things that one cannot get back — youth, love, and so on.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Riga’s Bēdu Brāļi Shares Brooding and Uneasy “Drošākā vieta”

Jānis Liepiņš (bass) and Pēteris Ozols (drums) — spent their formative years among their homeland’s vibrant mid 00s punk and rock scenes. While the scene’s fiercely independent ethos and the use of Lativan lyrics rubbed off on them, they’ve managed to stand apart from their peers. 

The Riga-based outfit’s full-length debut, 2022’s Duende saw them crafting a sound that featured elements of shoegaze, psych rock, post-punk and more. Building upon a growing profile in their homeland, the trio’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Lauskas will be released through I Love You Records.

Deriving its title from the Latvian word for shards, the Riga-based outfit’s sophomore album reportedly sees the band further cementing their boundary pushing sound. The album will feature two previously released singles that I’ve written about over the course of this past year: 

“Ikdienas-dzive,” a track anchored around glistening guitars, a chugging motorik groove and a woozy, shoegazer textured guitar solo paired with Tu’s punchily delivered vocal. While recalling Montréal‘s Atusko Chiba, “Ikdienas-dzive,” captures a nagging sense of vacillating self-doubt, bored and uneasy dread and frustration that should feel familiar to anyone who’s slaved away at a soul-sucking day job. 

“Pieskaries,” is a brooding, decidedly post punk affair featuring an angular and propulsive bass line, rolling drum pattern and bursts of slashing guitars serving as an uneasy bed for Oskars Tu’s desperate wails. While continuing a run of material that reminds me a bit of Atsuko Chiba, “Pieskaries” captures a modern sense of isolation and unease while being with others. 

The album’s latest single “Drošākā vieta” is a tense and brooding song featuring an angular and propulsive bass line, swirling shoegazer textures guitars paired with Oskars Tu’s achingly plaintive delivery before ending with a noisy coda. Deriving its name for the Latvian phrase for “safe place,” “Drošākā vieta” captures the long for a safe place in a mad, mad world.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Mariaa Siga Performs “Boukanck” at Sensor Club

Over the past handful of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering Senegalese singer/songwriter, musician and JOVM mainstay Mariaa Siga. 

Siga continues an ongoing collaboration with ODDY on the slow-burning and heartfelt “Boukanack,” which pairs a shuffling and twinkling reggae riddims, bursts of soulful and meditative horn with the Senegalese JOVM mainstay’s gorgeous and expressive delivery. “Boukanack” continues a run of material that blurs and transcends cultural and international boundaries while celebrating diversity in all forms. With “Boukanack” in particular, the song is anchored in a much-needed message of peace and hope for all humanity. 

Recently, the Senegalese JOVM mainstay recorded a solo live session of “Boukanack,” that’s completely stripped down to Siga accompanying herself on guitar. The live version of ” Boukanack” gets down to the basics — songwriter, vocal and song — while reminding us that the star of the show is always her effortless and gorgeous vocal.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Choses Sauvages Shares Tense and Danceable “En joue”

With the release of their Emmanuel Ethier-produced 2018 self-titled, full-length debut, Montréal-based dance punks Choses Sauvages — Totalement Sublime‘s Marc-Antoine Barbier (guitar), Theirry Malépart (keys), Tony Bélisle (keys), Philippe Gauthier-Boudreau (drums) and La Sécurité‘s Félix Bélisle (vocals) with Foreign Diplomats‘ and Frais Dispo‘s Charles Primeau (bass) as a touring member — exploded into the local and provincial scenes. The album was a critical and commercial success with the album topping Independent Radio Charts across Québec while receiving widespread critical applause. In 2019, the Montréal-based outfit landed Association Québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) Félix Award nominations for Alternative Album of the Year and Indie Rock Album of the year, with a Félix Award win for Indie Rock Album of the Year. 

Throughout 2019, the French Canadian outfit supported their full-length debut with a relentless touring schedule across the province. During that tour, the band quickly developed a reputation for a must-see live show that they’ve brought across the global festival circuit, including stops at Reeperbahn, MaMA, FIMPRO, SXSW, Le Printemps de Bourges and Wide Days. 

2021’s Choses Sauvages II found the Montréal-based outfit pushing their sound more towards electronic dane music and nu-disco influences like L’Imperatrice and Lindstrøm while still drawing from their love of funk, Bowie and Bee Gees. The album also sees them furthering their approach which pairs rigorous and meticulous songwriting with a rebellious spirit. 

Choses Sauvages’ highly-anticipated third album, Choses Sauvages III is slated for a March 28, 2025 release through Audiogram. Earlier this year, I wrote about the album’s first single “Incendie au paradis,” a decidedly New Wave/post-punk song anchored around a propulsive bass line and a guitar driven melody paired with squiggling synth arpeggios and a subtly vocodered vocal. Seemingly drawing from Heroes and Low-era Bowie and Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, “Incendie au paradis” depicts artificial intelligence as angels that can transform and improve our daily lives. While addressing the technological advance’s promises and benefits, it raises concerns with an uneasy trepidation.

“I wanted to highlight the need to think about the ethical and moral implications and the still unknown limits of these new technologies, and the influence they have on our lives,” Choses Sauvages’ Félix Bélisle explains. 

Choses Sauvages III’s second and latest single “En joue” features a propulsive bass line is paired with angular guitar stabs, bursts of glistening synths paired Bélisle’s punchy delivery and the band’s unerring knack for catchy hooks. Seemingly drawing from Freedom of Choice-era DEVO, Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, Entertainment-era Gang of Four and even La Femme, “En Joue” manages to be simultaneously tense yet danceable.

The song as the band’s Bélisle explains “refers to the helplessness in the face of extremely violent international news of recent years. It also deals with the fear of the other, the dehumanization of certain populations taken hostage in armed conflicts.”

“En joue refers to the feeling of helplessness in the face of the extremely violent international news of recent years. It also deals with the fear of the other, the dehumanization of certain populations taken hostage in armed conflicts,” explains Félix Bélisle, the group’s singer and lyricist.

En joue pulses with a jerky rhythm, offering a danceable melody that manages to evoke the breathlessness of flight, of a race against the fears and anxieties that lie in wait for us and stick to our skin.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Hypochondrische Ängste Shares Anxious and Uneasy “Real Authentic Berlin Street Love”

Founded by Philipp Martin (guitar), and currently featuring Stimme Jan Frisch (guitar). Jorinde Minna Markert (vocals, lyrics) and Volker Heuken (vibraphone), Leipzig-based post-punk/art punk/No Wave outfit Hypochondrische Ängste was created by Martin as a way of writing and performing a radical rethinking of musical structures through knotty, off-kilter and discordant grooves and style collages paired with free associative, seemingly stream of consciousness-like lyrics.

The Leipzig-based outfit’s full-length debut is slated for a Spring 2025 release. But in the meantime, they shared the recently released, standalone single “Real Authentic Berlin Street Love,” is anchored around an expansive and uneasy arrangement featuring an angular and stuttering groove, propulsive and forceful drumming and a xylophone-driven coda paired with speak-singing lyrics. Seemingly nodding at the likes of Gang of Four, Ganser, FACS, Pop Music Fever Dream and a lengthy list of others, “Real Authentic Berlin Street Love,” evokes a creeping, feverish anxiety that defines our fearful, bitterly divisive hellscape of a moment.

Lyrically, “Real Authentic Berlin Street Love” is a love story told as a consumer story: Berlin is a brand and the love language commodification and exploitation.

The accompanying video is a surrealistic and stylish fever dream.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Terrain Vague Shares Breezy “Funambule”

French indie duo Terrain Vague — Marion and Valentin — can trace their origins back to when the pair met at a party in Southern France. During that party, the pair talked about their common passions for Michel Berger, Haruomi Hosono, Elli and Jacno, Bonnie Banane, Véronique Sanson and André Breton’s poetry.

The following day, they texted with each other with “our duo should be called Terrain Vague.”

Terrain Vague’s latest single “Funambule,” is a breezy and mischievous synthesis of krautorck, psychedelia, 70s library music and tropicalia featuring glistening and arpeggiated analog synths, a fluttering flute line, bursts of angular guitar and a propulsive, motorik-meets-70s am rock-like groove paired with dreamy vocal melodies and harmonies singing lyrics inspired by the board game Snakes and Ladders. While sonically “Funambule” may draw comparisons to Laure Briard, Corridor, Pavo Pavo, and others, with a hint of wistful nostalgia, the song as the duo explains is inspired by the a member’s father, a former clown and magician, who spent his life walking a fine line.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Shares Spiky and Danceable “Detour”

With the release of last year’s Samuel Gemme-produced Stay Safe!, Montréal-based art punks La Sécurité exploded into the national and international scenes with a manic yet surprisingly laid-back sound that mischievously meandered on the fringes of punk, New Wave, no wave and krautrock while inhabiting the ethos of Riot Grrl movement.

Building upon the momentum of their breakthrough debut, the Canadian art punks released Stay Safe! REMIXED EP, an effort that features remixes from Born at Midnite, The Mauskovic Dance Band and Freak Heat Waves. They also made the rounds of global festival circuit with sets at The Great Escape, M for Montréal, Reepeerbahan Festival, SXSW, FOCUS Wales, FIJM, The New Colossus Festival and Sled Island, while also sharing the stage with the likes of Automatic, JOVM mainstays Death Valley Girls, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, Margaritas Pordridas, Exek and Civic.

The French Canadian outfit’s latest single “Detour” is the first bit of new material from the band since last year’s Stay Safe! And it’s been release as a special joint release with beloved indie label Bella Union and their label home Mothland. “Detour” continues where Stay Safe! let off: motorik grooves paired with spiky, off kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks that bring a synthesis of DEVO and the B52s to mind. The new single continues a run of material that’s both nerdy and danceable with a sneering edge.

“We recorded the song with an old friend of mine Renny Wilson,” La Sécurité’s Éliane Viens-Synnott says. “It was refreshing to watch him work on his instincts, trying to keep takes and tones as natural as possible, keeping everything open-ended to see where it could lead us. And since we know each other so well, it felt like he already knew what our music should sound like.”

Bella Union’s Simon Raymonde adds: “Working with my wife Abbey, I have become adept at processing the subtle differences between her delivery of a report from a gig she ‘really liked’, to one she was ‘blown away’ by. In March, Abbey saw La Sécurité in New York and her messages back to me were as excitable as I could remember in the 13 years we’ve been together. Maybe only her expressions of love for Chappell Roan earlier this year were comparable!” 

He continues, “In May at The Great Escape, I was finally able to hear and see for myself. They were everything she described and more. Way more. Appeals to me on so many levels, musically and culturally, touching on my own post-punk history, but when we invited them for lunch to our house and had a beautiful getting to know each other, THAT clinched it for me. Working in today’s peculiar music industry is only made tolerable by surrounding yourself with good people, who work hard, are honest and thoughtful. They seem like they tick all those boxes. Vive La Sécurité.”

Directed by dirt and daydream, the accompanying video for “Detour” is a low budget and grainy surreal fever dream that seems indebted to Harmony Korine‘s Trash Humpers.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sheer Division Shares a Bruising Ripper

French metal outfit Sheer Division — Xavier Chaquet (guitar), Simonian Jérôme (vocals, guitar, programming) and Marie Helene Rattin (bass) — formed last year in Valence, where the band’s Jérôme worked as a sound engineer at the city’s concert venue, Mistral Palace.

The French trio describe their sound a mix of of stoner rock, punk, grunge and metal paired with lyrics inspired by sci-fi and fantasy writers like Asimov, Lovecraft, Drullet — with a bit of black humor and nihilism.

Their just released EP Saalammbö, features EP title track “Saalammbö.,” a blistering and forceful ripper that sounds like a gritty synthesis of Deftones, Queens of the Stone Age and Soundgarden, anchored around enormous, arena rock friendly hooks and choruses. Play at eardrum shattering volume.

The accompanying animated video is fittingly a dystopian and apocalyptic sci-fi visual that’s captures a world on fire and in endless war, almost like ours.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: GITKIN Shares Trance-Inducing “The One”

Brian J. Gitkin is a New Orleans-based multi-instrumentalist and Grammy-nominated producer, best known for his work as the bandleader and frontman of the road warrior, party rock outfit Pimps of Joytime. He also collaborated with  Cedric Burnside on a Grammy-nominated country blues effort.

Gitkin’s solo recording project, the aptly named GITKIN was initially conceived as a way for the Pimps of Joytime frontman and producer to “explore tonalities I’d never mess with,” as he puts it. Gradually, the instrumental project became a release from “having to write lyrics or involve my voice,” Gitkin explains.

With the release of 2018’s debut album, 5 Star Motel, the New Orleans-based Pimps of Joytime frontman, multi-instrumentalist and producer quickly established a sound that he dubbed “Outernational Psychedelic Twang,” which drew from a wide range of sounds and styles, including Peruvian Chicha, 60s Pakistani surf rock while featuring a back band with an impressive collection of players.

His sophomore GITKIN album, 2020’s Safe Passage saw the New Orleans-based multi-instrumentalist and producer expanding upon an already rich and eclectic sonic palette with melodies informed by Greek and Middle Eastern modalities, Saharan Tuareg guitar, creating a sound that was a mix of stomping blues and gritty funk.

Gitkin’s latest album, the recently released, 10-song Golden Age showcases yet another evolution of the New Orleans’ based artist’s lyrical guitar-driven sound. Exploring the endless expanses of cumbia, North African and Middle Eastern music, the acclaimed multi-instrumentalist and producer has increasingly brought his own personality to those traditions, while creating a lively interplay between distant modes and rhythms and his own New Orleans-steeped sound.

The album’s latest single “The One” seems to be a mesh of Tuareg Desert Blues, Black Sabbath-era metal and krautrock that to my ears reminds me of Here Lies Man — but with deep, lysergic-fueled grooves. Gitkin describes teh song as “Sudanese synth-trance mixed with Tuareg, Black Sabbath, and 2000s-era hipster disco.”

“My goal when creating is to think as little as possible and do what feels good,” the New Orleans-based artist and producer says. “I don’t overthink creating. If I wake up with a groove in my head or melody idea I just go into my studio and record it.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mariaa Siga Teams Up With ODDY on Hopeful “Boukanack”

Over the past handful of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering Senegalese singer/songwriter, musician and JOVM mainstay Mariaa Siga. 

Siga continues an ongoing collaboration with ODDY on the slow-burning and heartfelt “Boukanack,” which pairs a shuffling and twinkling reggae riddims, bursts of soulful and meditative horn with the Senegalese JOVM mainstay’s gorgeous and expressive delivery. “Boukanack” continues a run of material that blurs and transcends cultural and international boundaries while celebrating diversity in all forms. With “Boukanack” in particular, the song is anchored in a much-needed message of peace and hope for all humanity.

Directed by Mao Sidibé, the gorgeously shot accompanying visual for “Boukanack” is set in beautiful Senegal and offers a slice of daily life in that country; but perhaps more importantly, the video celebrates diversity — both within the country and outside.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Félix Dyotte Shares Breezy Yet Melancholy “Un vent de vanille”

Félix Dyotte is an acclaimed, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who also collaborates as lyricist, arranger and producer for Pierre Lapointe, Jean Leloup, Salomé Leclerc, Evelyne Brouchu and Cœur de Pirate.

Dyotte’s fourth album, the Felix Bélise-co-produced Aérosol was released earlier this year through Montréal-based label Bonbonbon. The album sees the acclaimed French Canadian singer/songwriter adopting a decided change in direction from its immediate predecessor, 2021’s Airs païens. Whereas Airs païens featured natural and wood-like sounds, they’ve been replaced by synths, drum machines and samplers on Aérosol. And as a result, the album’s material seemingly draws from New Wave and dream pop.

Aérosol‘s fourth and latest single, the languorous “Un vent de vanille” is a breezy track featuring a sunny synth melody, fluttering flute and a shuffling and laid-back groove serving as a lush, 80s synth pop-meets-Beach House-like dream pop bed for Dyotte’s achingly plaintive vocal. “Un vent de vanille” may be a summery sway of a tune, but it possesses an autumnal melancholy, seemingly informed by the inevitable passing of time.

The accompanying video is a decidedly lo-fi affair, that features footage that’s presumably shot in the Quebec countryside and footage of a brooding Dyotte — occasionally with splotches of pain exploding in front of him.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 86th Birthday, Fela Kuti!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 86th anniversary of Fela Kuti’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DVTR Tackles a Québecois New Wave Classic

With the release of their debut EP, BONJOUR, the French Canadian JOVM mainstays DVTR —  Le Couleur‘s Laurence G-Do and Gazoline‘s,  Kandle‘s Xavier Caféine‘s and Gab Bouchard‘s JC Tellier — burnt up the Canadian indie scene: The EP amassed a plethora of rapturous reviews, landed on a number of Best of 2023 Lists and earned the duo a handful of awards in Québec. 

Earlier this month, the duo released an expanded edition of their debut EP, BONJOUR (BIS), which featured “Les Olympiques,” a punchily breakneck ripper an anchored in scathing sociopolitical commentary — but while seeming to draw from The Hives, The Strokes and The White Stripes among others. 

The expanded EP features a cover of Dolbie Stéréo’s 1982 Quebecois New Wave classic “Pied de poule,” which also appears in the musical of the same name. Anchored around a chugging synth-driven groove and punchily delivered shouts, Dolbie Stereo’s original is an in-your-face anthem. DVTR’s cover subtly modernizes the Quéecois New Wave classic while retaining the original’s in-your-face punchiness and irresistible groove.

The accompanying video features footage shot at a sweaty and bonkers DVTR show.