Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: DC’s Sutras Shares Bruising “A Daily Reprieve”

Washington, DC-based post-hardcore outfit Sutras — Tristan Welch (vocals, guitar) and Frederick Ashworth (drums, bass) — are a self-described “Dharma punk collective,” with its members acknowledging the one thing they know well: suffering. Their work is influenced by some of the DC area’s legendary post hardcore bands, including Majority Rule and Pianos Become The Teeth, their love of the “neo-crust” movement popularized by the likes of Tragedy and From Ashes Rise and their slow of the slow, heavy and dreamy approach of bands like Hum and Jesu.

The DC-based duo’s latest single “A Daily Reprieve” is a slow-burning and bruising dirge featuring thunderous drum work, scorching guitars paired with Welch’s urgent howls. Despite the band’s cited influences, “A Daily Reprieve” brings Low Praise‘s Dressing to my mind — at least to my ears — but angrier, and more desperate, echoing the extreme weirdness and uneasiness of our current moment.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: S.C.A.B. Shares a Rousingly Anthemic Rocker

Led by Sean Carmago (vocals guitar), Queens-based indie outfit S.C.A.B. — currently Carmago, Cory Best (guitar, backing vocals), Alec Alabado (bass, backing vocals), Evan Eubanks (drums, percussion), Jordan Rich (synth, piano, production) and Sean Brennan (cello) — will be releasing their first batch of new material in two years with the October 25, 2024 release of the five-song Rose Colored Glasses EP.

Carmago’s lyrics see him searching for distortions and distractions from the truth, and the interplay between truth and love. And over the pat give years, the band’s work has slowly developed to reflect a worldview created from an awareness of the interplay between truth, love and illusion — and the great comedy of it all. The new EP thematically focuses on love, the uneasy nature of reality, depression, songwriting and being severely, acutely alive.

Rose Colored Glasses EP‘s latest single “IDK New Reality” is a woozy, 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock-like track track anchored around jangling and distorted guitars, a driving groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Carmago’s earnest croon.

Frontman Sean Camargo offers some points of reference for the track “Losing grip on reality. Clinging to identity. A large crucifix in Bolivia guarded by the police. Sexuality. Don’t forget about me. Dancing in the rain. Accepting the present moment as it is.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Miami’s Diamondz Shares a Thumping Banger

Diamondz is a Miami-based DJ and electronic music producer. As an open format DJ, who has blended genres together for crowds at clubs and venues across Miami, he has shared stages with a number of luminaries including Rihanna, Lizzo, T-Pain, Darude and Roger Sanchez. 

Last year, the Miami-based DJ stepped out into the spotlight as a producer and artist, who continues his long-held genre-blending approach to his own original music, with his work blending elements of hip-hop, electronic music and pop, influenced by producers like Diplo and David Guetta. 

His latest single, “WTF” is a swaggering and high-energy, club friendly banger featuring relentlessly driving four-on-the-floor that manages to bring Larry Levan-era house music to mind. If you’re not on the dance floor, moving your ass and breaking a sweat, there’s something deeply wrong with you.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: A.K.A. Returns with a Wide-Screen, Club Friendly Banger

Paris-based sibling production and DJ duo Audio Key Architects (A.K.A)  is driven by a deep and abiding passion for electronic music and techno. The siblings’ collaborative project is guided by a shared vision of sharing what they love to create and listen to with the rest of the world.

Clocking in at seven-and-half-minutes, the French sibling duo’s latest single, “Star Lord” manages to be simultaneously cinematic and club friendly, with the song being anchored around dense layers of glistening and arpeggiated synths, tweeter and woofer rattling thump and some mind-bending melodicism. Sonically bringing Magic Sword, Giorgio Moroder, The Chemical Brothers and a lengthy list of others to mind, “Star Lord” reveals a duo that’s boldly pushing their sound in dynamic, new directions.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Schande Shares Driving and Noisy “Gregor MacGregor”

California-born, London -based singer/songwriter and guitarist Jen Chochinov has been crafting catchy, propulsive rock in DIY circles since the 1990s as a solo artist and in a variety of bands. Solo and full adventures throughout her career have included […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 79th Birthday, Bryan Ferry!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Roxy Music frontman Bryan Ferry’s 79th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 76th Birthday, Olivia Newton John!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 76th anniversary of Olivia Newton John’s birth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 52nd Birthday, Shawn Stockman!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman’s 52nd birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rhythm Scholar’s Club Friendly Remix of The Police’s “Wrapped Around Your Finger”

I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering the ridiculously prolific, New York-based producer, DJ, remixer and JOVM mainstay Rhythm Scholar through this site’s almost 15-year history. During that period, the New York-based JOVM mainstay has built a national and international profile for crafting slickly produced, crowd-pleasing mashups and remixes. 

2024 has been a rather busy year for Rhythm Scholar. He has remixed a handful of some of the most beloved songs of the 1980s:

  • A woozy remix of one of my favorite Tears for Fears tunes “Change”

  • A club friendly remix of Duran Duran‘s 1984 track “Wild Boys” a that featured chopped up vocals for the hook, several Duran Duran samples and a blazing Andy Sexton guitar solo while retaining Simon Le Bon‘s vocal, the memorable hook and the synth melody

  • A remix of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World” that retains Curt Smith‘s imitable vocal and pairs with a subtly modernized remix with bursts of strummed acoustic guitar, thumping beats, swirling atmospheric synths, twinkling keys and soulful horn solo

To celebrate the 40th — god, 40th! — anniversary of the release of The Police’s “Wrapped Around Your Finger,” one of my favorite Police songs ever, the JOVM mainstay turns the beloved song into an uptempo club banger that retains Sting’s vocal and elements of the song’s melody but paired with skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, glistening synth arpeggios. The song also features some mischievously placed samples from “Synchronicity Part 2,” “Voices In My Head” and more, as well as something from Andy Summers‘ solo work.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Frankie and the Witch Fingers Share a Scuzzy Ripper

Since initially forming in Bloomington, IN over a decade ago, the acclaimed Los Angeles-based psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Frankie and the Witch Fingers — currently founding duo Dylan Sizemore (vocals, guitar) and Josh Menashe (lead guitar, […]

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Paris’ Superjava Shares A Breezy, Hook-Driven Bop

Paris-based electro rock outfit Superjava can trace its origins back to when its founding duo Archi and Alex met in 2015 while they were studying at Berklee College of Music. Upon graduation, they relocated to Paris, where they met the band’s then-third member Arnaud. Although the band has gone through a lineup change, the members of the Parisian outfit — currently Archi and Arnaud — have managed to spread their music around the world, as a result of several global advertising campaigns.

After the release of several EPs, which were supported with tours in France and China in 2019, the duo recently released their highly-anticipated full-length debut, Get Sick, Get Better. Drawing influence from the likes of Phoenix, Justice, Jamaica, Air, Cassius, MGMT, Empire Of The Sun and Foster The People among others, the album sees the band embodying the spirit and feel of a new wave of French Touch while featuring elements of rock, pop and electro pop.

“Slowdown,” Get Sick, Get Better‘s latest single is a breezy bop featuring glistening synths, a strutting bass line and the pair’s unerring knack for crafting remarkably catchy, rousingly anthemic hooks. While seemingly indebted to Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix-era Phoenix and Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT, “Slowdown” to my ears, also subtly brings Tame Impala to mind, too. And at its core, the song is anchored in a much-needed reminder that we need to slow down and just enjoy the moment — whether it’s with our dear ones or just by ourselves.

Directed by Jules Salters, the accompanying video for “Slowdown” features the duo wandering the French countryside while being part of a pleasant psilocybin trip or while wandering a slightly alien yet familiar world — or perhaps even both.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: VICTIME Shares Woozy and Glitchy “Résonne encore”

Initially formed in Québec City back in 2016 and now currently featuring members split between the Québecois cities of Montréal, Québec City and Gatineau, VICTIME — Ponctuation’s and Pure Carrière‘s Laurence Gauthier-Brown, Album’s Simone Provencher and Corridor‘s and Kee Avii‘s Samuel Gougoux — quickly made waves across the province with 2017’s Mon VR de rêve EP, 2018’s full-length debut La femme taupe and Mi-tronic, mi-jambe EP.

With their first three releases under their collective belts, the trio began to make the rounds of the Canadian festival circuit, playing sets at Sled Island, Up Here, Francos de Montréal, FME and Taverne Tour. Adding to a growing profile across the country, the band opened for the likes of Lydia Lunch, Guerilla Toss, Frigs, Ponctuation and Jesuslesfilles, as well as a series of tour dates in France.

The band’s forthcoming effort, En conversation avec is slated for an October 25, 2024 release through Mothland. En conversation avec is the result of a new creative process for the band, informed and inspired by the band being split across different cities in the province. Written over the course of the past five years, the trio frequently relied on the spontaneity of sporadic get-togethers and remote work in which they shared files among each other.

Reportedly the effort sees the band simultaneously showing a newfound patience while being among their most layered. While still holding on to their post-punk and noise rock roots, the trio explore a wide-spanning spectrum where tensions and openings coexist, colmating breaks and ruptures, cracks and fissures with elements of trip hop, avant rock and IDM. Thematically, the material touches upon feminism, vengeance, violence, being a female, speaking out, obliterating patriarchy and more.

“It was a long process, the sum of three minds in three different cities. We felt the urge to create in a new way, to break out of our guitar-bass-drums mold, to be less of a rock band,” the band explains. “So, we started from sounds and sonic explorations, finally recentering everything around a more simple songwriting process. And though it is packed with weird sounds and whatnot, we feel this is the best music we have ever written. It is informed by the many projects, contracts, experiences, etcetera each of us took on over the past few years, a logical follow-up to our individual paths.

We were inspired by many things, namely: the Sisters with Transistors documentary film, Kim Gordon and everything she represents, the sadness of roadkills; electronic prototypes, breadboards and sonic experimentations; musique concrète [or concrete music], mechanisms, eye (but also other parts of the body) surgeries, Giacometti, The Da Vinci Code, the total solar eclipse, The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn.”

“We produced the album ourselves. We recorded everything way too hot, so it’s distorted. Also, we didn’t use a grid when tracking, so we struggled with the sessions quite a bit. Amongst the files we sent to Simon Labelle, who mixed the album, there are easily 47 tracks with takes we had no business keeping and well over a dozen tracks named “Noise 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8…”, so he probably hates us now. I guess we kept our reckless-kids-playing-in-the-back-alley mentality, all the way to the financial means. Simone [Provencher] builts effects pedals with Fairfield Circuitry, which meant we could use breadboard prototypes on a few tracks, so that’s pretty legit, right?”

En conversation avec‘s latest single “Résonne encore,” is the band’s first ever love song. Anchored around a propulsive and forceful, tribal drum pattern, “Résonne encore” features reverb-soaked vocals, angular guitar stabs and bursts of synth oscillations for the song’s first two-and-a-half minutes, before abruptly stuttering into a glitchy trip hop-like bridge seemingly inspired by Portishead’s “Machine Gun.” The song’s coda features bursts of guitar dissonance, the introductory section’s propulsive and forceful tribal drum pattern paired with an ethereal and dreamily sung vocal incantation. The result is a song that feels feverish, woozy and a bit heartsick, much like an uneasy yet new love.