Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Inside The Trojan Horse Shares Bruising and Urgent “Stay Alive”

Inside The Trojan Horse — founding members NoOne and NoThing, along with NoBody — can trace their origins back to when its founding members were a member of Loser, an act that featured Motley Crüe‘s John 5. When Loser split up, NoOne and NoThing began honing their writing and recording with a series of projects and on their own.

While on tour with Gemini Syndrome, NoThing crossed paths with NoBody as he and NoOne had started to sow the early seeds of their latest project together, Inside The Trojan Horse. Eventually, the band’s founding duo reached out to NoBody to finalize the band’s lineup.

While drawing from Soundgarden, Audioslave, Tool, Deftones, Underoath, Periphery and Tesseract, the trio have developed a signature sound and aesthetic that sets them apart in a crowded hard rock/nu-metal field. Their fourth single “Stay Alive” is a bruising track anchored around thunderous drumming, rumbling down-tuned bass, howled vocals and some scorching guitar work. “Stay Alive” at its core, is a desperate and urgent desire and need to survive at all cost, while facing omnipresent threats; but it also evokes the zero-sum game of surviving at all costs.

The self-directed video for “Stay Alive” follows the mysterious band, clad in business suits and masks, as they rock out to the song in a nondescript van and mosh and kick around a presumably Californian suburb.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Guillaume Michaud Teams Up with JOVM Mainstay Naomi on Sultry “Poison”

Guillaume Michaud is a Montréal-based choreographer, dancer, producer and DJ. After initially gained recognition as a dancer and choreographer in season 2 of TVA’s Révolution and starring as the lead character in Cirque du Soleil’s Andorra-based 2022 production of MÜV, Michaud’s DJ career gained recognition as he played sets at Piknic Electronik, Igloofest, PY1, Burning Sun, Frontrite and a list of others.

Deriving its name for the Irish Gaelic word for “my heartbeat,” Michaud’s recently released 5 song debut EP, Macushla draws from deep techno, minimal house, house music and the raw energy and drive of the afterhours/rave scene. Sonically, the material sees the Montréal-based artist pairing deep bass grooves, immersive melodies, carefully layered buoyant percussion and catchy vocal hooks. While specifically crafted to make people dance and connect with one another, the material was written with musicality of choreography in mind, informed by the mathematically precise understanding of rhythm he developed as a dancer and choreographer.

EP single “Poison” is a collaboration with rising Montréal-based JOVM mainstay Naomi. They have a professional and personal relationship that goes back to when the pair were both 13. As they both pursued their respective careers in dance, they remained connected and eventually co-founded Audiomatique, an independent collective that organized techno and dance music events. Audiomatique helped to kickstart Michaud’s DJ career and led to building connections with many future collaborators — including DJ’ing for the rising Montréal-based artist.

“Poison” is a seductive, hook-driven club banger, featuring reverb-soaked skittering clang and clatter, trap-like triplets, broodingly atmospheric synths serving as a lush bed for Naomi’s sultry delivery. It’s the perfect song for late-night, hazy, smoke-machine, neon and strobe-lit rooms with sweaty humans dancing the night away.

Directed by Élise Lussier, the accompanying video follows Michaud and Naomi as they head to a neon-lit warehouse with a collection of fierce as fuck dancers.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Mos Def’s “Umi Says”/Jordan Neely/Black Lives Matter

Some thoughts on the Daniel Penny trial and Jordan Neely.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: AN_NA Shares Brooding “You Want Gold”

Formed over three decades ago, French-born, Montréal-based married couple and electronic music duo AN_NA have had a lengthy career in which they’ve used their experiences in electronic music, industrial and experimental music to create a unique sound of their own while playing with different styles and genres. They’ve found that their penchant for experimentation has given them the space to evolve as artists while keeping them open to new ideas and influences that could be incorporated into their own sound and approach. 

Now, if you’ve worked in the music industry long enough, you’d begin to recognize that surviving for longer than a few minutes in a cutthroat industry is extremely difficult. The members of AN_NA have managed their lengthy careers by being true to their art — and making music that they’re passionate about. 

After a busy year of live shows, the French-Canadian duo went into the studio to record new material, which includes their latest single “You Want Gold,” is a brooding yet dance floor friendly, industrial banger that sounds a bit like a synthesis of Kraftwerk, ADULT. and Snap!’s “Rhythm Is a Dancer” anchored around dense layers of glistening synth arpeggios, skittering industrial clang and clatter paired tweeter and woofer rattling thump and Annika-like vocals.

The accompanying visualizer should remind folks of when we had orange skies as a result of the Canadian wildfires — but imbued with a post apocalyptic air.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bad Robot Shares a French Touch-Inspired Banger

Micheal Ricker is a Delaware-based electronic music producer and artist best known as Bad Robot. Over the course of the year, I’ve written about a h of Ricker’s Bad Robot material, including:

  • The aptly named “Supermassive,” which features skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling thump, scorching bass synths and a woozy and wobbling synth melody. Fittingly, it’s the sort of club and festival banger that sounds as though it should knock a building over. 

  • “Close To You,” which according to Ricker, is “a bit of a departure into a brighter, more ‘pop’ sounding progressive house style.” Built around an almost mantra-like glistening synth phrase, shimmering synth arpeggios and skittering beats, the motorik-like “Close To You” is both summery and remarkably catchy, while seemingly nodding at Discovery-era Daft Punk-like French touch.

  • Max Blücher‘s remix of Year One single “Aero III.” The Blücher remix retains the original’s woozy polymeric melody but pairs it with more aggressive, skittering tweeter and woofer rattling thump, some brief bursts of industrial clang and clatter, and some ethereal synths that create a spacey, house music feel. “Inspired by the gritty sound design and frantic polymetric melodies of my original track ‘Aero III,’ Max has taken the musical DNA and infused it with his own. While the original is great, Max definitely improved the quality of the track with his production skills and imagination,” Ricker explains. “This house remix is an ethereal journey through space and time with elements of Deadmau5 that are felt even in the cover artwork.”

  • “Zombie Process” is an another deep house banger featuring tweeter and woofer thumping beats, scorching synths and a horror movie sample that’s perfect for the spooky season.

Ricker closes out the year with “Just Friends,” a house music track anchored around an incredibly catchy and hypnotic, French touch-inspired groove, glistening synths and skittering beats.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Strange New World Shares Lush and Vibey “Escape”

South Florida-based musicians Nadav H. and Sunny Strange are two friends, who have a shared passion for music and desire to build their own sonic world, which led to their music project, Strange New World. Since its formation back in 2022, the South Florida-based indie project specializes in a approach that’s inspired by classic analog sound created by the use of an Otari reel-to-reel and API mixer and more, guided by a modern edge.

Their five-song, debut EP Escape showcases the band’s unique, fluid process and sound. The EP’s first single, title track “Escape” is a meditative and vibey ballad featuring a lush arrangement of shimmering Rhodes and guitar and gently padded drumming paired with Sunny Strange’s breathy delivery. The result is a song that sounds simultaneously indebted to Beach House and 70s AM rock rooted in a bittersweet yearning.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 50th Birthday, Nick Zinner!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Nick Zinner’s 50th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 58th Birthday, Sinead O’Connor!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 58th anniversary of Sinead O’Connor’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 81st Birthday, Jim Morrison!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 81st anniversary of Jim Morrison’s birth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Uppsala’s Big Fish Shares Brutal and Forceful “Snö”

Back in 1988, four Uppsala, Sweden-based teens decided to start a band after returning from a trip to West Berlin. Heavily inspired by the avant garde scene there, Big Fish‘s original lineup featured vocals, upright bass, samplers and scrap metal percussion. With the addition of a guitarist in 1990, the newly-minted quintet became part of an emerging local scene that would subsequently birth acts like Watain, Misery Loves Co., Lost Souls, Malaise and Defleshed.

Throughout the better part of the 1990s, the Swedish outfit recorded three studio albums, including 1996’s Micheal Blair-produced Andar i Halsen, which they supported with frequently touring across Scandinavia, playing over 500 shows.

The band broke up in 1997 after its members left Uppsala for work and studies. But their fanbase’s clamoring demand for hearing their material live resulted in the Swedish band playing a handful of reunion shows in 2016.

2022’s surprise fourth album, Kalla döda drömmar was released to critical praise and was supported by extensive touring across their native Sweden. The band spent the next year writing and recording material, including a six planned singles which will appear on the band’s forthcoming fifth album, Frya liter stoft (Four liters of dust) slated for release next year.

Frya liter stoft‘s third and latest single “SNÖ” (Snow) is a brutally forceful and thrashing ripper, anchored around down-tuned and rumbling bass, fuzzy power chords and thunderous syncopated drumming, rousingly anthemic and enormous hook and chorus paired with urgent and punchily delivered vocals singing lyrics in Swedish describing a return from a bleak metaphorical winter of isolation — or perhaps intoxication — and discovering that nothing is left.

“SNÖ” manages to capture the uneasy brutal nature of our bleak, mad, mad existence. All is very dire now, y’all.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Pittsburgh’s Sunny Daze and the Weathermen Share Blistering Ripper “Wax Lips”

Pittsburgh-based outfit Sunny Daze & the Weathermen formed back in the summer of 2022. And since then, the band has been hard at work sculpting what they’ve dubbed “flower punk,” which combines elements of garage rock, psych rock and post-punk.

The Pittsburgh-based outfit released their full-length debut, Sunny Daze for President earlier this year. They close out the year with “Wax Lips,” a blistering, mosh pit friendly ripper with a wild organ solo, fuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming and shouted vocals that sounds like a synthesis of Question Mark and the Mysterians, The Mummies and Miranda and the Beat with Thee Oh Sees.

The band explains that the track is about their personal experiences of the simplicity of youth — and that it’s the first of a batch of singles to build up buzz for their sophomore album, which is slated for release late next year.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Josbel Figurita Shares Soulful “Qué Difícil”

Josbel Figurita is a Cuban-born, European-based singer/songwriter, composer and performer, who has amassed a highly accomplished career: His full-length debut, En Cuerpo Y Alma, an effort dedicated to French artist Grégory Lemarchal received over 100,000 streams. Adding to a growing profile, Figurita has collaborated with Tito Nieves, Jerry Rivera, Tony Succar, Charlie Aponte, José Alberto El Canario, Willy Garcia, Lalo Rodriguez, Ray Sepulveda, Ismael Miranda and a growing number of beloved Latin music artists.

Figurita’s latest single “Qué Difícil,” is a soulful tune that reminds me of warm, summer afternoons in Corona, East Elmhurst, Bushwick, Spanish Harlem hearing familiar — and beloved — salsa rhythms and big horn lines from car stereos, barbecues and house parties, anchored by a star vocal turn from the rising Cuban vocalist.