Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bad Robot Shares Spooky House Banger “Zombie Process”

Micheal Ricker is a Delaware-based electronic music producer and artist best known as Bad Robot. Over the course of hit year, I’ve written about a small handful 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.”

Ricker’s latest single “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. Dress up in your scariest, bloodiest costume and hit the dance floor y’all.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 73rd Birthday, Bootsy Collins!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Bootsy Collins’ 73rd birthday.

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Throwback: R.I.P. DJ Clark Kent

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms pays tribute to the music and live of DJ Clark Kent.

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Throwback: R.I.P. Phil Lesh

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and music of Grateful Dead co-founder Phil Lesh.

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New Video: Oslo’s Doif Shares Mischievously Genre-Defying “Red Hot Heaven”

Andreas Lanesjord is an in-demand, Oslo-based musician and producer, who has been a member of the acclaimed Norwegian pop outfit Anna Of The North’s band for the past six years. While a member of the acclaimed Norwegian pop act, the Oslo-based musician and producer quickly made a name for himself nationally with high praise for early live performances at Øya Festival, Trondheim Calling and Havstrøm Festival.

Lanesjord recently stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his recoding project Doif. He then signed with Norwegian tastemaker label Propeller Recordings, who recently released his latest single “Red Heat Heaven,” which will appear on his highly-anticipated debut EP I’m All Ears slated for a November 15, 2024.

Inspired by the likes of Thundercat, Toro y Moi and Flying Lotus among others, the Norwegian producer and musician’s work draws from and meshes elements of progressive R&B, electronic and indie pop — with a playful sense of humor.

“Red Heat Heaven” is a slow-burning and stormy bit of Quiet Storm-inspired R&B featuring bubbling and twinkling synth melodies, buzzing bass synths and a strutting bassline and a lysergic breakdown. Sonically bringing a synthesis of Thundercat and Tame Impala to mind, the song explores destructive relationships, addiction and a desire for chaos.

The self-directed, stop-motion animated video for “Red Heat Heaven” features a toxic puppet couple, who inspired by the destructive tendencies of many of the world’s current leaders, believe that they can only find true happiness in a dystopian hellscape.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Blue Herons Share Gorgeous “ladybug”

Swiss-based musician Andy Jossi, a member of The Churchhill Garden and American-born singer/songwriter and musician Gretchen DeVault, a member of The Icicles, Voluptuous Panic, The Francine Odysesys, and Hero No Hero started their transatlantic collaboration The Blue Herons back in 2020. And in a short period of time, the duo began quickly crafted a sound that draws inspiration from C86 and Sarah Records heyday — think of bands like Even As We Speak and Heavenly — and contemporaries like Alvvays and Hatchie.

With an initial batch of singles that quickly garnered attention and acclaim, the duo experienced a growing profile across the international jangle pop and indie rock scenes. Building upon a growing profile, the transatlantic duo’s full-length debut, Go On, which was released to a limited run through Subjangle Records earlier this year, is a compilation of the band’s acclaimed singles over the past couple of years, remastered and remixed, along with two previously unreleased singles. Sonically, the album’s material is rooted around catchy melodies, soaring vocals and shimmering guitar riffs.

The album’s latest single “ladybug” is a nostalgia-inducing bit of jangle pop, anchored around shimmering layers of Jossi’s Johnny Marr-like guitar, a propulsive rhythmic groove and some remarkably catchy hooks paired with DeVault’s gorgeous and expressive delivery. The song’s narrator is offering warning to its subject, that if they continue being a two-timing fool that they’ll lose their chance with a truly special woman. If you’ve been in that situation, this song will hit close to home.

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 61st Birthday, Chad Smith!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Chad Smith’s 61st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 88th Birthday, Bill Wyman!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Bill Wyman’s 88th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jaco Jaco Shares Breezy and Funky “Favorite Kind of People”

Tulsa-born, Philadelphia-based musician and visual artist Jacob Theriot’s career began in earnest when he began writing and recording music in grade school with his brother and childhood friend. Those early efforts led to the acclaimed […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GLOSSER Shares Woozy “Silver Star”

Washington, DC-based electro pop duo GLOSSER — Riley Fanning and Corbin Sheehan — developed an ethereal yet dance floor friendly sound that draws inspiration from Phantogram, Lorde and Beach House paired with lyrics that conveys a visceral truth.

After 2021’s self-titled debut EP, Fanning and Sheehan wanted to do something different. They started writing without any particular direction. And as a result, Fanning built her craft as a singer/songwriter. They eventually wrote the material that would comprise their full-length debut, last year’s DOWNER. With DOWNER, the pair created a more immediately gratifying pop experience that helped redefine who they are and what they’re capable of.

To celebrate the album’s first anniversary, the DC-based duo released a deluxe edition of DOWNER earlier this year that features a remix by Half Waif collaborator Zubin Hensler, a new version of “The Artist” with indie pop artist Sophie Coran, and a new take on “Disco Girls” remixed by Foxing‘s Eric Hudson.

Building upon growing momentum, the duo will be releasing their latest effort, Angel Dust EP on November 15, 2024 through If This Then Records. The EP reportedly sees the DC-based duo diving further into the depths of a murky, pop tinged world through the subtle incorporation of grit in the duo’s brooding dreamscapes.

Angel Dust EP‘s latest single “Silver Star” is a woozy track that features stuttering and skittering beats, glistening and arpeggiated synths, swirling guitars serving as a lush and dreamy bed for Fanning’s ethereal cooing, expressing the longing, desire, self-doubt and self-flagellation of a crush or a love that’s potentially unrequited.

The duo explain, “’Silver Star’ is about having an all-consuming, extreme infatuation with a person, and how that obsession can drive you to the edge. We really wanted to contrast the electronic and rock elements to mirror the emotional ups and downs of that kind of state of mind.”

Directed by Riley Fanning and Corbin Sheehan, the accompanying video for “Silver Star” was shot with a grainy Super 8-like feel and follows a brooding Fanning as she walks around DC and sitting on a stoop singing the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sophie Jamieson Shares Gorgeous “Camera”

London-based singer/songwriter Sophie Jamieson released two EPs in 2020 that caught the attention of Bella Union Records, who quickly signed the rising British artist, and released her Steph Marziano-produced full-length debut, 2022’s Choosing.

Choosing was a subtle reworking of the sound that Jamieson quickly established through her first two EPs. While her first two EPs flirted with playful experimentation, her full-length debut featured a much organic, simpler and intimate sound, centered around arrangements of live drums, bass, cello and piano that are roomy enough for Jamieson’s mesmerizing vocals to take the spotlight.

Jamieson described the songs on her first two EPs as “black holes” and while Choosing manages to cover similar thematic ground, it never takes its eyes from what lies beyond, never fully releases its grip when its telling her to let go. The album is deeply personal documentation of a journey from the painful rock bottom of self-destruction to a safer place, and imbued with a faint light of hope. Focusing on the bare bones of each song, the album’s material is influenced by songwriters like Elena Tonra, Sharon Van Etten and Scott Hutchinson, and sees Jamieson singing openly about longing and searching, of trying, failing and trying again, and the strength of love in its varying forms. 

“The title of this album is so important,” Sophie explained. “Without it, this might sound like another record about self-destruction and pain, but at heart, it’s about hope, and finding strength. It’s about finding the light at the end of the tunnel, and crawlingI towards it.” 

Ultimately, Choosing asks the listener to look deep within themselves and to show them that they can take whatever pain they’re experiencing, and choose, to some extent, how they let it affect them; whether they let it burn them down or whether they choose to look it straight in the face. “The songs are bursting with something, and that energy just needs to be reshaped into love for the self,” Jamieson explained. “I can say this from a place of having learned now how to love and care for myself. The love that reverberates through this album is like the green shoots of something I have happily learned to nurture into my present day.” 

The London-based artist’s highly anticipated sophomore album, the Guy Massey and Jamieson co-produced I still want to share is slated for a January 17, 2025 release through Bella Union. The album is a deeply personal reflection on the cynical nature of loving and losing, the anxiety we can’t keep out of our relationships and the perpetual longing for belonging that drives us to keep trying and failing, to find a home in others. The album sees Jamieson lifting the lid on the roots of how we love and digs in even deeper, leaning into our deficiencies but from a stronger, healthier place that is much less afraid of the pain that inevitably comes with feeling everything.

Sonically, the album’s material is reportedly much more exploratory, playful and detailed with a richer palette. The raw emotion of Jamieson’s songwriting and delivery is joined by new instrumentation, including omnichord, harmonium and sub-bass, as well as rich string arrangements by Josephine Stephenson that help to weave a yearning connection through the beating heart of the album’s material. “There’s a lot of warm autumnal colors, and then more glittery, dark, starry skies. Something about it all has really come together to illustrate some things that I didn’t know I needed to articulate in this way”, Jamieson explains.

I still want to share‘s second and latest single, album opening “Camera” is a brooding and stunningly gorgeous song which begins with Jamieson accompanying her expressive delivery with strummed acoustic guitar that swells and builds up with a cinematic arrangement of strings, shuffling drums and twinkling keys to a slow-burn fade out. The song captures a narrator, who’s slowly unraveling with a woozy precision.

“I wrote this song when my heart was broken and I was trying to hold everything when it didn’t want to be held,” Jamieson explains. “I wanted to be able to draw an outline around the pieces, fit them into a frame. Something in me knew that I’d find some peace if I just let things stay blurry, but everything in me wanted to find some focus. This song is the yearning, wrenching of trying to define a love that was less simple, more layered and less graspable than I could accept.”

Co-directed and shot by Malena Zavala and Sophie Jamieson in Brecon Beacons, Wales, the accompanying video for “Camera” features dazzlingly cinematic imagery.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MAN LEE Shares a Squiggling and Artsy Ode to Girlhood

Currently based in Brooklyn, the self-described indie rock band for the weary masses, MAN LEE — Sam Reichman and Tim Lee — began writing together while living between Richmond, DC and Baltimore before finding their collaborators in New York.

On their creative process, Reichman says, “We had always been writing our own music, but it wasn’t until we got together that we found our footing. Whether we’re physically in the same city or apart, we  are constantly tossing new ideas or phrases back and forth until something sticks. Writing music is one of the only ways to quiet my mind and I think Tim feels the same.”

Drawing inspiration from all manner of relationship, their work touches on themes of expectations of self and others while sonically blending elements of psychedelia, art rock and pop.

The duo’s latest single, the Arthur Moon-produced “Best One” is a melodic and artsy take on post-punk anchored around propulsive thump, angular and squiggling bursts of guitar, bubbling electronics paired with Reichman’s melodic and sensual delivery. As the duo, explain the song serves as a message of reassurance to a close friend, following a bad break up that simply says that despite our best efforts, there are forces at play well outside of our control.

MAN LEE’s Reichamn goes on to explain “Growing up, especially for girls, we quickly learn that the most important thing is finding ‘the one.’ That’s a lot of pressure. And we internalize it, along with everyone else’s expectations. ‘Best One’ is a sort of reassurance to my friend, on the receiving end of a terrible break, that they were not at fault. That nothing said or done differently could have changed the outcome, because it wasn’t up to them at all.”

The accompanying video is vintage-inspired visual that features a collage of archival footage from the 60s and 70s that also includes photography, ceramics and home videos from Reichman’s childhood, slickly edited in a lysergic fashion. She says, “it’s a mixed-media take on girlhood. That’s where these unshakable ideals and sense of self are so often formed, for better or worse.”

MAN LEE will be playing a full band show at Brooklyn’s Sleepwalk on November 21. Tickets are available here.