Over the past couple of years, the Antananarivo, Madagascar-based JOVM mainstays LohArano — Mahalia Ravoajanahary (vocals, guitar), Michael Raveloson (bass, vocals) and Natiana Randrianasoloson (drums, vocals) — have received attention both nationally and internationally for a unique, boundary pushing sound that features elements of popular and beloved Malagasy musical styles like Tsapiky and Salegy with heavy metal.
The Malagasy JOVM mainstays further cemented their reputation for being one of the hardest working and prolific acts in the global scene with the release of last year’s Bae Nosy EP earlier this year, which featured, the urgent, mosh pit friendly EP title track “Bae Nosy,” a track that received airplay FERAROCK, which broadcasts across France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada, and 50 other stations globally. The EP’s previous single “Koitra” landed on Spotify’s All New Metal and New Blood playlists, Deezer’s Metal Detector and Women of Metal playlists, Tidal’s New Metal playlist and over 250 other playlists.
They then closed out last year with “Velirano,” a mosh pit ripper fueled by the righteous outrage of people who have been fucked with, beaten down and cheated and have had enough. It’s the sound of young people frustrated with the same ol’ okie doke when the world is on fire, and the elders and authorities don’t have the same urgency.
The Malagasy trio return with “Dinjá,” which back home is a metaphor for cheap — both in terms of monetary value and how much our society values human life. Sonically, the song sees the band meshing elements of thrash metal with thrash punk. Anchored around scorching riffage and thunderous drumming, the song’s arrangement is a seething vehicle for Mahalia Ravoajanahary’s righteous fury.
Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératrice will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records on June 7, 2024. Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off.
Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others.
The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Impératrice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found.
Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it.
Pulsar‘s third and latest single “Love from the Other Side” is the album’s first English-language single. Featuring fluttering and glistening synth arpeggios paired with a supple and propulsive bass line and bursts of strummed guitar, the song’s arrangement serves as a lush bed for Benguigui’s dreamily wistful delivery. Sonically, “Love from the Other Side” sounds as though it could have been on Gorillaz ‘ PlasticBeach or MGMT‘s Congratulations.
“The first time I heard the instrumental, I thought, ‘That’s the vibe,’ even though it’s really different than what we do,” L’Impératrice’s Charles de Boisseguin says of his encountering an arrangement that begin with tehe band’s Achille Trocellier and Tom Daveau, the most rock-orientated members of the acclaimed Parisian outfit. “There is a British side to it, like Gorillaz with a bit of MGMT.” The band’s frontperson Flore Benguigui and Nicky Green wrote the song’s melody and lyrics together, building off the idea of “the good ghosts that are around you,” inspired by the bass line’s slight spooky feel.
Deriving their name as an acronym for the French phrase “D’où vient ton riz?” (Where does your rice come from?), Montréal-based duo DVTR is a new collaborative project featuring two of the city’s most highly acclaimed artists:
Laurence G-Do, the frontperson of JOVM mainstays Le Couleur, an act that has toured internationally several times, and has opened for Giorgio Moroder, Polo & Pan and others, while amassing over 18 million streams across digital streaming platforms.
JC Tellier, who has played with Gazoline, an act that has received multiple ADISQ and GAMIQ award nominations. Tellier has also played with Kandle, Xavier Caféine, Gab Bouchard and a lengthy list of other well-regarded artists in Québec.
With the release of their debut EP BONJOUR, the French Canadian duo have been burning 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.
The acclaimed and rising French Canadian duo celebrate their first full year of the project with their latest single “Les flics (sont des sacs à merde),” which translates into English as “The cops (are shitbags)” has quickly become a staple of their live set. Anchored around a supple and propulsive bass line, G-Do’s punchy delivery, buzzing power chords, and a steady four-on-the-floor, “Les flics” brings Ting Tings’ “That’s Not My Name” to mind — but while rooted in an unequivocal message that protestors and countless others rally behind: ACAB! Throughout the song, the duo excoriate and ridicule cops, referring them as a violent, brainless bullies and a shit ton more.
The computer animated video by Romy Côté further emphasizes its accompanying song’s themes: The video begins with an out-of-shape cop driving in a police car. Fittingly, the cop looks like a clown. As he drives around town, he comes across two people vandalizing some property. After a chase, the two young vandals overtake the cop and replace his shit for brains for an actual brain.
Lo.Krain is a Siberian indie project created by a mysterious yet extremely prolific creative mastermind, whose desire and priority is to create soulful, sincere and occasionally experimental music.
The project’s latest single “Город-призрак,” which translates into English as “Ghost Town.” Anchored around glistening and chiming guitar tones, a sinuous bass line and dramatic drumming, the song’s arrangement serves as a dreamy and melancholic bed for yearning vocals. Seemingly channeling a mix of dream pop, jangle pop, post punk, bedroom pop and film noir, “Город-призрак” evokes late night commutes back home from partying or from a show with the bitterly lingering ghosts of your memories.
Acclaimed London-based instrumental outfit Los Bitchos — Australian-born, Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguayan-born Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Swedish-born, Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born Nic Crawshaw (drums) — can trace their origins to meeting at various late-night parties and through mutual friends. Inspired by their individual members’ different upbringings and backgrounds, the acclaimed British outfit have firmly established a genre-blurring and retro-futuristic sound that blends elements of Peruvian chica, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych, surf rock, and the music each individual member grew up with:
The Uruguayan-born Ruiz had a Latin-American music collection that the members of the band fell in love with
The Swedish-born Jonsson “brings a touch of out of control pop,” her bandmates often joke
Aussie-born Petale is deeply inspired by her mother’s 70s Anatolian rock records
And the London-born Crawshaw played in a number of local punk bands before joining Los Bitchos
“Coming from all these different places,” Los Bitchos’ Serra Petale says, “it means we’re not stuck in one genre and we can rip up the rulebook a bit when it comes to our influences.”
Los Bitchos’ Alex Kapranos-produced, critically applauded, full-length debut, 2022’s Let The Festivities Begin! was recorded at Gallery Studios, and saw the band cementing their reputation for crafting playful, lysergic yet party friendly grooves.
The London-based JOVM mainstays capped off a breakthrough year with two Serra Petale and Javier Weyler-co-produced singles “Tip Tapp” and “Los Chrismos,” their first Christmas-themed composition. Fittingly, “Los Chrismos” is a celebratory party-starting romp built around a psych rock-inspired, dexterous and looping guitar line, atmospheric synths, cumbia rhythms paired with holiday appropriate cheers and shouts. Simply put, the song is a much-needed hope and joy bomb in desperate, uneasy time.
The tracks were released digitally and physically on a flexi-disc, bundled with a red vinyl re-pressing of their debut — for that year’s holiday season..
Building upon a growing profile internationally, the London-based JOVM mainstays released 2023’s PAH! EP, a two-track effort that featured a mischievously, rowdy and downright boozy cover of The Champs‘ oft-covered “Tequila,” a song that has become a fan favorite during the band’s live shows. The EP also featured a reworking of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard‘s “Trapdoor.”
The British outfit’s latest single, the Oli Barton Wood-produced “La Bomba,” the first bit of new material from the band since last year’s PAH! EP. The track is an hook-driven 80s Turkish psych pop-inspired bop anchored around a shuffling dance floor rhythm, a twangy and looping guitar line, a disco-influenced bass line, some video game-like beats paired with glistening synths and ecstatic shouts.
“‘La Bomba’ is a burst of energy and power! It’s just such a fun song – we started playing it at festivals last summer and the energy felt so good!” The band says in press notes.
“The beginning stabs are what came to me (Serra) first as I was cooking in my kitchen. There’s something quite heroic and powerful about the opening guitar tone and the stabs underneath them. The twangy guitar tone cuts through the chaotic landscape of claps, pumping disco bassline and dreamy swirling synth sounds. The disco era influence is quite evident in this song, and I think the bassline sets the tone perfectly for this. Structurally the song delivers straight into a chorus (as Nile Rodgers said, ‘why wait?’). We wanted to keep this as close to a classic pop structure as possible, everything straight to the point.
“The cherries on top are the little ping pong drum sounds (think Ring My Bell, Anita Ward) – they just make the track go off and totally emulate the feelings of euphoria and pure energy running through it.”
Directed by the band’s long-term artistic collaborator Tom Mitchell, the accompanying video, features some high-energy, glittery visuals that at points playfully nods at Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody.”
The band says of the video “As it’s a high energy, pumping song, we needed to have really dynamic visuals to go with that and bring the song to life. The video has lots of shiny, glitterball moments and moves between performance and surreal segments. We had so much fun with make-up and styling for this video. Josefine saw this thing on Tik Tok where you film in a way which gives the illusion you’re riding a horse, so obviously we had a go and put that in the video last minute on set.”
Mimi, Corridor‘s long-awaited and highly-anticipated fourth album is slated for Friday release on CD, LP and DSP globally through Sub Pop and across Canada through Bonsound.
The eight-song album, which was co-produced by the band and Joojoo Ashworth, recorded at Montréal-based Studio Gamma and mastered by Brooklyn’s Heba Kadry Mastering, derives its name from Jonathan Robert’s cat and features — presumably — Mimi’s face on the album artwork. Thematically, the album as the band explains is about “getting older” and “figuring out new parts of life,” inspired and informed by the type of personal changes that accompany the passage of time. And while the album’s material reflects a newfound and perhaps hard-won contemplative maturity, sonically, Mimi is reportedly a huge step forward with the band expanding on the sound of 2019’s critically applauded Junior with ever more richly detailed music rooted in a distinct rhythm pulse that recalls post-punk’s own classic era of meshing dance and rock textures.
For the acclaimed Montréalers and their fans, Mimi will feel like a fresh break — even for a band that has established themselves as being forward-thinking. Much like its immediate predecessor, Mimi sees Corridor being impossible to pin down from song to song; however, whereas the elastic guitar rock of Junior came together quickly — or as the band’s Jonathan Robert describes the process ” in a rush” — the steady-as-they-go creative pace of Mimi marked a desire to break from the “exhausting” work ethic that birthed Junior.
“The goal was to work differently, which is the goal we have every time we work on a new album—to build something in a new way,” Robert explains. “This time, we took our time.” During the summer of 2020, the members of the band — Jonathan Robert (vocals, guitar), Dominic Berthiaume (vocals, bass), Julien Bakvis (drums) and multi-instrumentalist Samuel Gougoux — holed away in a cottage to engage in the sort of creative experimentation that would lead to Mimi‘s material. “We went there to write, and a lot of ideas came from that retreat,” Berthiaume explains. “We didn’t end up with songs as much as we did ideas, so the result is a collage of the ideas.”
After that productive writing retreat, the band continued to tinker with the songs’ raw parts digitally and remotely over the next few years with co-producer Joojoo Ashworth leading their own specific talents in the theoretical booth. This process was naturally a byproduct of not having access to their rehearsal space as the COVID-19 pandemic faded into public view, but it was also a result of the band leaning harder into incorporating electronic textures than previously.
“For a long time, we identified as a guitar-oriented band, and the goal of making this whole record was trying to get away from that,” Berthiaume says, but while admitting that the band encountered their own challenges as a result: “We had to figure out how to make new songs without having the chance to play together. It was complicated sometimes.”
Some of the album’s new energy and life may be owed to Samuel Gougoux joining the band full-time, after pitching in on live performances in the past. “I come more from a background of electronic music, so it was nice to involve that with the band more,” he explains.
In the lead-up to the album’s release later this week, I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:
“Mourir Demain,” a song built around brightly shimmering and chiming guitars, soaring synths and post-punk-like angular rhythms that served as a lush, velvety and somewhat uneasy bed for Robert’s plaintive delivery, which sees him ruminating on his looming mortality with a brutally unvarnished yet fearful realism. “I wrote it when my girlfriend and I were shopping for life insurance,” Corridor’s Robert says with a laugh. “With our little daughter growing up, we also considered making our will. I said to myself, ‘Oh shit, from now on I’m slowly starting to plan my death.”
“Mon Argent,” which features the sort of electronic glitch and squiggle that reminds me of VHS fuzz and badly tuned TVs with rabbit ears paired with jangling and chiming bursts of angular guitars, a remarkably steady and propulsive backbeat serving as a lush and shimmering bed for Robert’s plaintive delivery to bitterly muse about the role of money in his — er, the narrator’s — life. And of course, fittingly enough, the sense of shame and failure that money, and the lack of money creates with all of us. Certainly, as a writer and photographer, this is a familiar and remarkably bitter aspect of my life that I can relate to.
Mimi‘s latest single “Jump Cut” is a hook-driven song built around angular guitar bursts, a relentlessly propulsive motorik pulse and glistening synth oscillations that — to my ears, at least — playfully nod at Who Are You-era The Who.
Directed by award-winning filmmaker and designer Winston Hacking, the accompanying video for “Jump Cut” is a truly bonkers mix of edited found and stock footage, collage and animation that’s playfully surreal and GIF-tastic.
“Our video reflects the song’s theme of grappling with the overwhelming influence of technology and feeling adrift in its wake. Using AI to enhance archival footage resulted in a deliberate distortion, symbolizing the potential consequences of our intertwined relationship with it,” Hocking says of the video. “It invites reflection on how technology blurs the lines of our identities and infiltrates every aspect of our lives.”
Grand Public is a Montréal-based indie rock outfit and JOVM mainstay act that features a collection of the city’s most accomplished musicians: Gregory Paquet, the band’s founder and frontman has played with The Stills, Alvvays‘ Molly Rankin and Peter Peter. The band also features three childhood friends, who have played together in several local bands, including Reviews, an act that has shared stages with Omni, JOVM mainstays Corridor, and others.
Last year’s four-song Dominic Vanchesteing-produced debut EP Idéal Tempo featured “Lundi normal,” and “Goutte á goutte,,” two tracks that seemingly recalled Junior-era Corridor to mind with nods to 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock and 60s psych rock.
Building upon a growing profile, the Montréal-based outfit’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the recently released Sensations Diversions sees the band blending some dexterous guitar acrobatics with dazzling melodies and ironic reflections on the charm and madness of the art scene and the entertainment economy — but while also being a refinement of the sound they’ve developed on Idéal Tempo EP.
The album features the previously released single “Lisbonne, Paris La Sorbonne” is a krautrock-like song featuring shimmering and angular guitars and an explosive guitar solo before a slow fade-out. Channeling Corridor and XTC but with a decidedly post punk edge, the song’s career-orientated narrator is desperately figuring out the right moves to advance his ambitions — and at seemingly any cost.
The album’s latest single “Clap” is a decidedly post punk-meets-art rock built around chiming guitar tones, propulsive and angular drum rhythms and punchily delivered impressionistic lyrics.
Directed by Joé Pelletier, the accompanying video for “Clap” follows the band’s members on a hang-out session at the sort of swap meet/arcade/food court that you’d see in New England. Throughout the day, the band talks about film, art and music with a winking nostalgia and pretense that seems –well familiar, and somehow missed.
Virginie B is a rising, Montréal-based self-taught singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and self-described “extravagant mess” influenced by a wide range of music, including experimental electronic music, classical, old-timey jazz, 90s R&B, art pop, art rock and more. The French Canadian artist and her collaborator and co-produced Louis Jeay-Beaulieu have received attention across the province and elsewhere for crafting a unique take on hyper pop that incorporates elements of nu-jazz, funk and R&B with a refined conceptual approach informed by art pop.
Thematically, her work is informed by her studies in psychology and sees her exploring her psyche, femininity and her relationship with technology and nature. For the rising French Canadian artist, her work is an outlet which she expresses her desires and excesses with an unvarnished honesty that reflects her vulnerability and confidence, while not taking herself too seriously.
The Montréal artist’s latest single “hana” is a slinky and slow-burning bit of 80s synth funk-like pop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, wobbling bass synth, acoustic guitar and skittering yet relaxed beats. The production is a lush synthesis of organic and futuristic textures serving as a silky bed for Virginie B’s equally sultry vocal.
Deriving its title from hana, which translates to flower in Persian and Japanese, the rising Montréal-based artist refers to that etymology in the song, using it as a metaphor to symbolize femininity. Throughout the song, she expresses her unconditional love of women — especially those who are irreverent, who party, who stay out late, and who go against what is expected of them. The result is a playful yet defiantly feminist anthem.
Acclaimed Montréal-based psych rock outfit Population II — Pierre-Luc Gratton (vocals, drums), Tristan Lacombe (guitar, keys) and Sébastien Provençal (bass) — can trace their origin back a long way and are inextricably linked to their teenage memories. After years of jamming to the point of developing a unique sense of telepathy, the trio began recording independently releasing material that caught the attention of Castle Face Records head and The Oh Sees‘ frontman John Dwyer, who released the band’s full-length debut, 2020’s À la Ô Terre, an album that saw the band displaying their mastery of improvised and sophisticated composition.
The Montréal-based psych outfit then spent the better part of the next two years touring to support their full-length debut, which included stops at SXSW, Pop Montréal, Toronto, NYC, and Québec City.
Population II signed with Bonsound‘s label, booking and publishing arms. Bonsound released the French Canadian trio’s l Èthier-produced sophomore album Èlectrons libres du québec late last year. Èlectrons libres du québec is much more straightforward than its predecessor and showcases their remarkably adept musicianship and furthers their unique take on heavy psych rock, which features feverish punk rhythms, early punk energy bursts, hints of jazz philosophy and al love of minor scales informed by heavy metal’s early roots.
Èlectrons libres du québec received praise on both sides of the Atlantic from the like son Rock & Folk, Exclaim!, La Presse, Le Devoir and long list of others. And adding to a breakthrough year for the Montréal-based outfit, they also won a Breakthrough of the Year Award at last year’s GAMIQ ceremonies.
Building upon a breakthrough 2023, the French Canadian JOVM mainstays will be releasing Èlectrons libres du québec‘s highly-anticipated follow-up Serpent Échelle EP. Slated for a Friday release through Bonsound, the EP, which will be released on a limited-edition cassette tape and on all digital platforms, sees the band crafting crating material that stands out from their previously released work: Shifting between orchestrated passages and lysergic riffage without warning, the EP’s material is wilder, more adventurous and heavier. Rooted in their remarkable compositional skills, the material displays a newfound commitment to songwriting.
Thematically, the material touches upon the desperate urgency of life in the age of global doom while still enjoying life’s small pleasures — love, friendship, wine, good tunes and the like.
The album also features violin from their acclaimed friend and producer Emmanuel Éthier.
In the lead up to the EP’s release later this week, I wrote about the previous released single “R.B.” Beginning with a gorgeous string intro and an angular and propulsive bass line paired with a rapid paced hi-hat driven bit of percussion, the song quickly explodes into scorching riffage around the 35-45 second mark. Throughout the song’s run, it alternates between breathtaking beauty and scorching power chords. Gratton’s plaintive croon darts in and out of a lysergic and deceptively anachronistic arrangement that sounds as though it could have been released sometime between 1967-1973.
The EP’s latest single “Comme tu le souhaites (Ding Dong)” was written on the spur of the moment, right before its recording and was recorded during the Electrons libres du québec sessions. Reportedly one of the most self-referential tracks of their growing catalog, the song’s lyrics allude to a number of anecdotes and tales of events that they experienced in the stood while paying loving tribute to their dedicated sound engineer, Trevor Turple.
Much like its immediate predecessor, “Comme tu le soulhaites” is anchored around a mind-bending and woozy arrangement held together by a propulsive rhythm section that draw some inspiration from Miles Davis’ On the Corner Sessions paired with some prog rock-like keys and some forceful, scorching riffage. Throughout Gratton’s vocal alternates between singing and cooing.
Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératice will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records on June 7, 2024. Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off.
Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others.
The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Imperatice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found.
Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it.
The album will feature, “Me Da Igual,” a sleek and elegant, hook-driven Giorgio Moroder-era-disco-meets-French touch tune anchored by a strutting bass line, a squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar line and glistening synths serving as a sinewy and silky bed for Flore Benguigui’s sultry and ethereal delivery. Further cementing the French outfit’s reputation for crafting infectious, sensual, dance floor friendly bops, “Me Da Igual” features lyrics sung in Spanish and French while being a call to free ourselves from the injunctions to please at all costs, to reclaim your body by abandoning yourself to the euphoria of strobe lights and the dance floor — and listening to the sensations that movement and sound provides you.
The album’s second and latest single “Danza Marilú” features Italian vocalist Fabiana Martone. Continuing a bit where its immediate predecessor left off, “Danza Marilú” is a sleek, hook-driven, Giorgio Moroder-era-Italo-disco-meets-French touch bop anchored around glistening synth arpeggios, squiggling funk guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line and thumping beats. Inspired by and written as a rebuttal to Serge Gainsbourg‘s “L’Homme á tête de chou,” Pulsar‘s latest single is a defiantly feminist anthem for women of all ages, encouraging them to get on that dance floor and to be freely themselves — in spite of the looks that may ensue by insecure haters of all stripes.
Directed by Arthur Sevestre and featuring animation by Gabrielle Selnet, Vincent Albert, Armand Goxe and May Taraud with color by Laura Passalacqua, the animated video for “Danza Marilú” boldly advocates for a world in which all ages and body types can take up space and express themselves through dance and movement — as best as they can.
Lowadel Olivares Dominguez is a rising, 20-something, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic-born and-based singer/songwriter, best known as Lowa OD. And in a relatively short period of time, the young and rising Dominican artist has quickly established a sound that blends Afro-Caribbean rhythms and pop melodies pareidw with unique vocals inflections.
Last year, Olivares Dominguez took the Latin music industry by storm with the release of “Ayayai,” a song that quickly became a summer anthem for fans across Central America, South America and Europe while amassing over 200,000 streams across social media platforms. Adding to a growing international profile, DJs around the world have played his music in clubs and venues, introducing him and his work to new audiences.
Now, late last year, I wrote about “Luna Y Sol,” a slick, hook-driven and radio friendly blend of contemporary R&B, hip-hop, reggaeton an Afrobeats built around a looped Spanish guitar melody, twinkling tropical-inspired production and skittering trap beats serving as a lush bed for Olivares Dominguez’s plaintive vocal. “Luna Y Sol” is a breezy and escapist bit of pop that tells the story of young love and adventure with a lived-in specificity that gives the remarkably accessible song its beating heart.
Continuing to build upon a growing profile, the rising Dominican artist will be releasing the INEFABLEEP, an effort that thematically focuses on his different emotional experiences within the various relationships of his life. The effort’s first single “Ocasional” is a vibey bop that’s simultaneously lounge, club and radio friendly. Anchored around a reggaeton-meets-pop-meets Afrobeats production featuring skittering trap beats, glistening synths and a supple bass line serving as a lush and satiny bed for the rising Dominican artist’s easy-going yet soulful vocal.
“‘Ocasional’ or ‘Ocassional’ (in English) portrays a relationship with a woman who is after man, but the man isn’t interested in a relationship of love. This depiction of an intimate modern relationship with a smooth afrobeat style beat bumping to carry to story will get young people around the world out of their seats and moving.”
Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératice will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records on June 7, 2024. Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off.
Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others.
The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Imperatice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found.
Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it.
The album will feature, “Me Da Igual,” a sleek and elegant, hook-driven Giorgio Moroder-era-disco-meets-French touch tune anchored by a strutting bass line, a squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar line and glistening synths serving as a sinewy and silky bed for Flore Benguigui’s sultry and ethereal delivery. Further cementing the French outfit’s reputation for crafting infectious, sensual, dance floor friendly bops, “Me Da Igual” features lyrics sung in Spanish and French while being a call to free ourselves from the injunctions to please at all costs, to reclaim your body by abandoning yourself to the euphoria of strobe lights and the dance floor — and listening to the sensations that movement and sound provides you.
The album’s second and latest single “Danza Marilú” features Italian vocalist Fabiana Martone. Continuing a bit where its immediate predecessor left off, “Danza Marilú” is a sleek, hook-driven, Giorgio Moroder-era-Italo-disco-meets-French touch bop anchored around glistening synth arpeggios, squiggling funk guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line and thumping beats. Inspired by and written as a rebuttal to Serge Gainsbourg‘s “L’Homme á tête de chou,” Pulsar‘s latest single is a defiantly feminist anthem for women of all ages, encouraging them to get on that dance floor and to be freely themselves — in spite of the looks that may ensue by insecure haters of all stripes.
The acclaimed French outfit are in the middle of a lengthy international tour that will see the sextet playing four shows in NYC: April 9, 2024 at Racket NYC; April 10, 2024 at Music Hall of WIlliamsburg; and September 7, 2024 and September 8, 2024 at Terminal 5. The September 8, 2024 show was added due to demand. And that isn’t surprising to me: I’ve caught them once, and they’re a must-see act that will have the entire room dancing the night away.
Along with the NYC area shows, they’re going to make a return to Coachella with sets April 12, 2024 and April 19, 2024, as well as stops at Austin City Limits and Outside Lands.
