Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed back in 2016, the Austin-based outfit Superfónicos — Jaime Ospina (vocals, gaita, percussion), Nicolás Sanchez Castro (bass, melodica, vibes backing vocals), Nick Tozzo (Congas, tambor alegre, timbales, percussion), Daniel Sanchez (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Chris “Zumbi” Richards (trombone, bombardino), Evan Marley Hegarty (keys), Erick Bohoroquez (guitar, backing vocals), and Andreas Villegas (guitar, backing vocals) — have specialized in a sound that features elements of Colombian funk, cumbia and Afrobeat, informed by the fact that most of the band’s members have deep roots in Colombia.

While highlight the country’s Caribbean coastal sounds, it is also a celebration of the human spirit, telling stories of the displaced, folkloric tales form the countryside, and the reminder to let go and embrace experiences that are more connected to the earth and our ancestors.

The band has played Austin City Limits Festival twice — in 2018 and 2021. They’ve also shared stages with the likes of Ozomatli, Aterciopelados, Jungle Fire, Grupo Fantasma, Brownout, Meridian Brothers, Sudan Archives and Allah-Las.

2018’s Suelta EP was recorded with Black Pumas‘ founder Adrian Quesada, 2019’s Cumbealo EP was record with Spoon‘s Jim Eno, and their full-length debut, the recently released Renaceré was recorded with Grupo Fantasma’s, Caramelo Haze’s and Money Chicha‘s Beto Martinez.

Renaceré translates into English as “I will be reborn” and thematically, the album’s material touches upon rebirth resilience and the cyclical nature of life through the lens of their unique take on Colombian Roots fusion, which owes as much to Africa and the Americas, as it does to Colombia — and the bandmembers’ Colombian heritage. According to the band’s Jamie Ospina, “This record is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit and life. We all went through hard times in the last 4 years but here we are; breathing, singing, dancing and what not.” Nicolás adds, “The cycle of life and the concept of rebirth play heavily into the theme of the record. Many ups and downs happened during this period, for the band and society as a whole, but ultimately we came out of the process stronger, like a blade forged in the flames.”

The album’s recording process spanned several years, beginning just before COVID-19 lockdowns and concluding earlier this year. Most of the album was recorded at Beto Martinez’s Lechehouse Music, where Martinez captured the sounds and textures of Colombia’s Caribbean Coast with gaita flue and tambor alegre. “We also use the Bombardino (Euphonium) on many tunes. It is commonly used in Colombian Cumbia arrangements but is not as common stateside,” the band says. Additional recording took place at Public Hi-Fi with Spoon’s Jim Eno and Electric Deluxe with Aaron Glemboski.

Renaceré latest single “La Verdad” is a lush and strutting bit of psychedelic cumbia anchored around buzzing and twinkilng keys, shuffling rhythms, expressive horn bursts paired with an incredibly catchy hook and chorus. The song’s narrator tells a tale about a juglar (a troubadour) searching for his lost love and losing his mind. Ultimately, the song — and its narrator — suggests that those who are deemed crazy often hold the truth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Alongside Eric B and as a solo artist, Rakim “The God Emcee” has released seven studio albums during his lengthy and massively influential career. His long-awaited, highly-anticipated,eighth album and first full-length studio album in 15 years, the self-produced G.O.D.’s Network (Reb7rth) is slated for a July 26, 2024 release through all formats — yes, digital, CD, cassette and 12″ and 7″ vinyl through www.rakimpresents.com in collaboration with Holy Toledo Productions, Compound Interest Entertainment, RRC Music and 1332 Records.

The album will feature guest spots and collaborations with the late Nipsey Hustle, DMX and Prodigy, as well as B.G., Method Man, 38 Spesh, Kurupt, Masta Killa, Skyzoo, Kool G. Rap, Joell Ortiz, KXNG Crooked, Planet Asia and a lengthy list of others.

G.O.D.’s Network (Reb7rth)‘s second and latest single “Now Is The Time” sees the legend teaming up with B.G., Hus Kingpin and Compton Menace. Anchored around a menacing Rakim production pairing tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap with an eerily looping, twinkling synth line, the Preemo-like production is roomy enough for Rakim, Hus Kingpin and Compton Menace to trade swaggering and bullying street shit-inspired verses. While capturing Rakim at his most inspired and vital in some time, the song also serves as a reminder that real hip-hop — dope emcee spitting real lyrics over dope and soulful production — is still out there and will always be necessary.

With “Be Ill,” Rakim holds down vocals, production and cuts, and he is joined by Dogg Pound and Wu-Tang contemporaries Kurupt and Masta Killa. “Be Ill” is now available at all DSP’s. The video for “Be Ill” will be released on 6-21.24 at 9am EST and will be premiered by Rolling Stone at 8 am EST. The video provides the viewer a golden-era esque time capsule for when all you needed to showcase your skills were two turntables and a microphone. Rakim, Kurupt and Masta Killa all shine in their very unique ways throughout the Rakim produced soundscape, and it serves as a further reminder that it was Rakim’s production that brought to life previous classics such as “Juice” (Know The Ledge), “Don’t Sweat The Technique,” “Paid In Full,” and so many others.

Now Is The Time (feat. B.G., Hus Kingpin & Compton Menace),” taken from his first new project in 15-years, G.O.D.’s Network (Reb7rth).

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Dutch-born, British-based Artist Dutch Mustard Shares Cathartic and Urgent “Loser”

Dutch-born, London-based artist Sarah-Jayne “SJ” Riedel is the creative mastermind behind the rising indie recording project Dutch Mustard. And with Dutch Mustard, Riedel blends ethereal dream pop, 90s alt-rock with shoegaze touches to create a soundscape that features painterly and swirling guitar textures while the Dutch-born artist’s vocals drift between a near whisper and yearning, heavenly arching shouts.

Riedel and Dutch Mustard exploded into the British scene with the release of 2022’s debut EP An Interpretation of Depersonalisation, an effort that was featured by the BBC while receiving airplay on BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists with Jack Saunders and a co-sign from the legendary Iggy Pop. Last year’s sophomore EP, Beauty received airplay from BBC Radio 6’s Lauren Laverne and co-signs from Don Letts and Amy Lamé. Adding to a growing profile, The Independent, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, Dork and Notion have all covered her — and The Grammy Awards selected her a one of 6 Female Fronted Acts Reviving Rock, along with Wet Leg.

SJ’s latest single, the Bill Ryder-Jones and Riedel co-written and co-produced “Loser,” is a catharsis-inducing, 120 Minutes MTV alt rock-era anthem built around swirling shoegazer guitar textures, rousingly anthemic, shout along worthy hooks and chorus serving as a lush and downright perfect vehicle for the rising Dutch-born, London-based artist’s vulnerable, yet equally enormous vocal.

Creatively, the song was fueled by a bold tale of chutzpah: SJ dropped her demos into the DMs of big-name producers she admired with the hopes that they would be willing to work with her. But at its core, the song as the rising Dutch-born artist explains is about resilience: “‘Loser’ is about making peace with heartbreak. We move on by accepting our feelings and understanding that not everyone speaks the truth. This doesn’t mean we stop being truthful, just more careful with who we trust.”

“I love working with SJ….she’s fucking hard to keep up with like. She has this knack of coming up with great ideas when I’m still admiring the last one,” Bill Ryder-Jones adds.

Directed by Josiah Newbolt, the accompanying video for “Loser” is shot in black and white, and follows the rising Dutch-born, British-based artist in a dizzying close up that evokes the swooning urgency of the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

2024 has been a busy year for the wildly prolific Brighton-based producer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Natty Reeves: With his instrumental hip-hop project Astairé, Reeves released the Greener Days EP, a tastefully seamless blend of hip-hop sensibilities with Bossa nova tinged passages that was anchored around dexterous improvisation. Reeves is also a highly sought-after collaborator in his own right, and he has collaborated with the likes of Matt Wilde, Simon Jefferis and Ahbi The Nomad along with a growing a list of others. 

The Brighton-based producer and artist has also been working on his forthcoming EP Mist Over Water. The EP which is slated for a September 25, 2024 release through DeepMatter Records is the first bit of material Reeves has released under his own name in a few years. Informed by the songwriting discipline of Ben Watt and James Taylor, as well as the rhythmic language of Brazilian jazz pioneers João Gilberto, Antonio Carlos Jobim and Luiz Bonfá, Mist Over Water reportedly sees the Reeves crafting a sound that’s stripped back and raw, with Spanish guitar and Reeves’ vocals at the center. Thematically, the material sees the British artist reflecting on the fleeting nature of life, and the importance of looking inward to grow — without putting too much pressure on each moment. 

“I wanted to make a project that felt honest to who I am, something that represented my thoughts at this stage of my life,” Reeves explains. “Recently I’ve been thinking about second chances, new growth and how fleeting life is – coming back to the sounds and rhythms I love, not trying too hard to make something that people would find impressive, this is a bit more introspective and forgiving of myself. I just hope that listeners enjoy the sounds and find some peace of their own in these songs!”

Last month, I wrote about Mist Over Water single “Bloom,” a gently swaying, slightly jazzier take on Bossa nova anchored around Bossa nova/Brazilian percussion, serene and glistening acoustic guitar, Reeves’ dreamily meditative yet upbeat delivery and warm, soulful trumpet from longtime collaborator and friend Jackson Mathod. The song encourages listeners to be open to new opportunities and to boldly take leaps of faith because things will work out how they’re meant to work out — but also because you never want to live a life in which you’ll left wondering “what if?” 

“This was the first song I made for this project, and I think it sets the tone for the rest of the EP,” Reeves says of the single. “I want to give a massive thanks to my good friend Jackson Mathod for playing horns on this – I’ve always admired his playing and he really gave this track a lift!”

Mist Over Water‘s latest single “Why Are You?” continues a run of subtly jazzier Bossa nova tunes anchored around serenely glistening acoustic guitar, shuffling Brazilian percussion, a supple bass line and gently swaying flute lines from Ruta Sipola serving as a lush and dreamy bed for Reeves’ breezily meditative delivery singing lyrics exploring the odd push and pull of manipulation within a relationship.

The song’s narrator describes the growing sense of not seeing his relationship clearly and of feeling played, but not knowing when or how it happened. And at one point, the narrator admits — somewhat bitterly — that he feels as though he’s “being used as a weapon.” The song capture the uneasy push and pull of a seemingly dysfunctional relationship with an uncannily lived-in specificity.




Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Melbourne’s Ella Thompson Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Let There Be Nothing”

Ella Thompson is a rising Melbourne-based singer/songwriter. And with her backing band, which sometimes features members of Surprise Chef and some of her favorite local players, Thompson and her band pair cinematic textures and arrangements seemingly inspired by The Shangri-La‘s, Renee Geyer, Thee Sacred Souls, Baby Rose, Back to Black-era Amy Winehouse and others with her effortlessly soulful, clear as a bell-like delivery. Lyrically, Thompson’s songwriting draws from poetry, philosophy and personal experience.

Thompson’s latest single, the Thompson, Liam McGorry and Henry Jenkins co-produced “Let There Be Nothing” features a backing of some of Melbourne’s best players on a broodingly cinematic arrangement that sounds like a synthesis of film soundtrack and classic Daptone Records.

“Let There Be Nothing” is a song about leaving your lover, and an inspired reimagining of a scenario that came up in The Sopranos: Thompson wrote the song, inspired by seeing Carmela Soprano battle with the decision to leave Tony, and to start her life again. Choosing to leave her mob boss husband directly challenges the patriarchal establishment she has existed in and has known since birth. But it also requires a complete and thorough break and remake of her identity, which is deeply intertwined with the oppressive structures she has known her entire life. In the song, Thompson envisions Carmela leaving Tony and the morally ambiguous life he offers, and instead sees her finding resilience and freedom in the novel in the unfamiliar. As Thompson says the song is “about accepting something for what it is, without trying to change or fix it — and then making the choices you need to make. That moment is difficult, but on the other side is freedom.”

The Nick McKinley and Thompson co-directed video for “Let There Be Nothing” is a gorgeously shot and highly symbolic visual: The dominoes are meant to represent the interdependent structures of patriarchy, racism and capitalism. And as a result, the video asks the viewer to consider how these structures impact our choices and what we’re willing to sacrifice. But it also suggests that our world as we know it, needs an overhaul for everyone to truly be free.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms
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Live Concert Photography: Elsewhere Festival: Day 2: 6/22/24 Feat. Vince Staples, BADBADNOTGOOD and Sudan Archives

Live concert photography of Elsewhere Festival’s second day feat. Vince Staples, BADBADNOTGOOD and Sudan Archives.

women who kick ass by William Ruben Helms
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Live Concert Photography: Elsewhere Music Festival: Day 1: 6/21/24 feat. Killer Mike, A Place to Bury Strangers, Snow Tha Product, TOKiMONSTA, D. Smoke and Zuzu’s Petals

Live concert photography from Elsewhere Festival’s first day feat, Killer Mike, Snow Tha Product, A Place to Bury Strangers, TOKiMonsta, D. Smoke and Zuzu’s Petals.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Stewart Copeland!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The Police’s Stuart Copeland’s 72nd birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers Share Anthemic and Mosh Pit Friendly “Disgust”

New York-based JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers — currently Oliver Ackermann (vocals, guitar), John Fedowitz (bass) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) — will be releasing their seventh album Synthesizer on October 4, 2024 through Dedstrange records.

While Synthesizer is the album’s title, it’s also a physical entity, a synthesizer specifically made for the album — and a synthesizer that you too, can own (in part), if you buy the record on vinyl. The album’s cover art doubles as a circuit board and functional synth for curious and enterprising fans. “It’s pretty messed up, chaotic. But it feels really human,” the band’s Oliver Ackermann says.

In an era of making music where so little is DIY and so much is left up to AI, never setting foot in a practice room or a home studio, making something that feels deliberately chaotic, messy, and human, is entirely the point. The album celebrates sounds that are spontaneous and natural, the kind of music that can only come from collaboration and community.

The writing sessions for Synthesizer started in the band’s Queens studio, shortly after the release of 2022’s See Through You. The new lineup which featured Ackermann and his friends John and Sandra Fedowitz was especially inspiring for Ackermann. “It felt like a fresh new thing,” he says. “I wanted to write songs everyone was excited about playing.”

The album captures the band at a place of reinvention, where they take a carefully honed sound and approach and crack it wide open to gut its then reimagine it. And of course, to ever so slightly reinvent one’s sound, one must also built a new instrument — the synthesizer at the core of the album’s overall sound.

Reportedly, Synthesizer is arguably one of the band’s most live-sounding albums to date, accurately capturing the rawness and explosiveness of the band in a live setting, which is a fitting for a band that is best in a live setting, where the material takes on a new energy in the presence of a crowd. “We’re artists,” Ackermann says, “Going to shows and bringing that imperfect and beautiful DIY ethos is important.”

Synthesizer’s first single “Disgust” is a bit of classic APTBS, an eardrum shattering aural assault, anchored around explosively wailing feedback and distortion pedaled guitar lines, and a relentless motorik groove featuring an arpeggiating bass line weaving in and out of the driving bass — but with subtle refinements, including some of the most rousingly anthemic, mosh pit friendly choruses and hooks I’ve heard from the band in some time.

“‘Disgust’ is a song I wrote that was inspired by the way I used to perform ‘Got That Feeling,’ a song by my old band Skywave,” Ackermann explains. “There was a long riding open note on the bass that enabled me to play the whole part with my fist in the air.  I wrote this song just on open strings so it could be played with just one hand: dumb and fun.” 

Directed by BODEGA’S Ben Hozie and filmed by Joe Wakeman, the accompanying video for “Disgust” features frames within frames within frames, and frames the band next to and within distorted images on TVs to “achieve a certain style of cine-cubism where the band members can be seen from multiple angles at once in the same frame,” BODEGA’s Hozie says, He adds, “This sense of dissociative texture is exactly what A Place to Bury Strangers music feels like to me,” Hozie says, “I was trying to create a visual accompaniment to the disorienting buzzy speed of the band’s grooves and bliss of their distorted overtones.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Two Cumbia-Inspired Bops from JOVM Mainstays Los Bitchos

Earlier this year, acclaimed London-based instrumental outfit and JOVM mainstays Los Bitchos — Australian-born, Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguayan-born Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Swedish-born, Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born Nic Crawshaw (drums) — announced that their highly-anticipated sophomore album, the Oli Barton-Wood-produced Talkie Talkie will be released through City Slang on August 30, 2024.

Deriving its name from a fictional club of the same name, Talkie Talkie is a late-night paradise, brimming with freedom and possibility; a place where partygoers can escape reality by getting caught in the groove and dancing it all away or daydream along to the invigorating soundscape. 

Recorded over a short but intense month-long series of sessions at London’s RAK Studios and Lightship 95, sonically, the album will transport the listener into a world where funk, disco, Latin and Turkish rhythms collide in a euphoric fusion fueled by adventurous experimentation and their endearingly puckish spirit. If 2022’s Let The Festivities Begin was the rowdy build up to the big night out with your homies, Talkie Talkie is the equivalent of rocking out to the groove on the dance floor. 

The album’s material is anchored in a vivid cinematic universe that takes inspiration from the band’s favorite aesthetic era — the ’80s. Think less self-serious men, gated reverb and more campy, hi-fi pop songwriting that glistens with moxie and verve. The quartet especially wanted to tap into the sonic innovation of the period, where analog and digital techniques collided to create polished texture and depth. 

The album will feature the previously released:

  • “La Bomba,” a 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. 

  • “Don’t Change,” a breezy and blissful jam anchored around a languid and reverb-drenched Spanish-tinged, psych rock-inspired guitar line, stomping percussion, glistening and atmospheric synths and an arpeggiated, funky synth bass line. It’s the perfect soundtrack for frolicking at the beach, of dreaming of heading to the beach with your best pals — or for riding a ferry and dreaming that you were on a super expensive yacht drinking mimosas. 

Today, the acclaimed London-based outfit shares the dual single “Kiki, You Complete Me” and “1K!.” Both tracks see the band reveling in the shimmering guitar tones and shuffling guacharaca rhythms of cumbia — but in mischievously different directions: “Kiki, You Complete Me” has a clean, 80s studio polish-like sound and a cinematic quality that evokes the opening sequence of Nintendo video games like Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda or Blades of Steel — or of an incredibly cheesy but wildly entertaining action movie starring Carl Weathers, Bill Duke or someone like that, complete with a blazing guitar solo.

“This track feels like the opening sequence of a comic book series,” the JOVM mainstays say. “The tom sounds we went for are outrageous, like the ‘pows’ and ‘thwacks’ of a comic strip punctuating the music… think Batman meets Bitchos! Towards the end of the song we extended this chuggy, tension building section and brought out a guitar solo before ending on the comic/video game theme vibe refrain.”

Directed by Tom Brewins, the accompanying video for “Kiki, You Complete Me” follows the quartet as they go to an arcade, where they play a video game called Los BItchos Miami Drive, which features their 16 bit video game counterparts in a a car racing game that brings back memories of Pole Position.

“We’ve leaned into the 16 bit video game aesthetic for the video,” Los Bitchos explain. “Serra has always dreamed of writing music for video games.. We’ve started playing this song live at festivals this year and it’s definitely one of the songs we’re all most enjoying playing.”

“1K!’ is a shimmery, summery yet somewhat straightforward take on cumbia that evokes lazy-because-of-the-intense-heat summer afternoons and early evenings, anchored around a languid guitar line and stripped back, traditional-inspired percussion.

“This is a really shimmery, summer tune. There’s even a can of drink being opened at some point, you can feel the heat and carefree vibes,” the band says. “I imagine a gathering with friends, maybe a BBQ, some drinks, people popping by. The drums are quite stripped back for this track, more percussion led.”

Shot by Madeline Northway on grainy Super 8, the accompanying video for “1K!” captures the quartet’s endearingly puckish spirit and best gal pal vibes, as they head off to a local pool to hang out, drink a cold Coca Cola and bullshit, giggle and attempt to stay cool on a hot summer day.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: HiFi Sean and David McAlmont Team Up on Breezily Expansive, Hook-Driven “Sun Come Up”

British duo HiFi Sean and David McAlmont features two of the UK’s most accomplished songwriters, artists and producers:

Back in the 90s, singer/songwriter, musician and producer HiFi Sean had a stint with Scottish alt-rock outfit The Soup Dragons. In the States they were best known for “Divine Thing,” a song that peaked at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100 and #3 on the Modern Rock chart. Famously, the video “Divine Thing” was filmed over the course of two days here in New York, and was later nominated for an MTV Video Music Award for best video; but it lost out to Nirvana‘s “Smells Like Teen Spirit.” Since his stint with The Soup Dragons, HiFi Sean has collaborated with the likes of Yoko Ono, Crystal Waters, Bootsy Collins and a list of others.

David McAlmont is a singer/songwriter, musician and producer, who’s best known as a frequent collaborator with Bernard Butler.

As HiFi Sean and David Mcalmont, the accomplished Brits have teamed up to to create a unique take on alternative pop through the release of a handful of singles and their full-length debut, last year’s Happy Ending.

Building upon a growing profile, the duo’s sophomore album Daylight is slated for an August 16, 2024 release. For the duo, the 12-song album represents a significant moment in their partnership: The album was produced in a remarkable burst of collaborative energy with both artists channeling and sharing the momentum throughout. Thematically, the album’s material celebrates, expresses and explores the bright and vivid colors of summer.

Daylight‘s latest single “Sun Come Up” is a breezily euphoric yet wistfully nostalgic bit of synth pop that seeming channels a synthesis of Gnarls Barkley, Gorillaz, Tears for Tears and A Flock of Seagulls‘ “I Ran (So Far Away)” but while anchored in an expansive song structure, a relentless motorik groove and the pair’s uncanny knack for a razor sharp, remarkably catchy hooks.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Christian Löffler Teams Up with Mogli on Flirty and Summery “Y”

Christian Löffler is an acclaimed German musician, producer and DJ, whose work is widely celebrated across electronic music circles for a distinct sound that seamlessly blends elements of ambient music, techno and house.

2021’s Parallels featured reinterpretations of classical arrangements by Beethoven, Chopin and several other composers paired with his crowd-pleasing electronic music production approach. The following year saw the German producer pushing the boundaries of his sound further through live shows that captivated audiences across the globe.

Released earlier this year, Löffler’s third album A Life sees the German-born musician, producer and DJ continuing to push his sound and approach in new directions while exploring new emotional depths. Album single “Y,” a collaboration with Mogli is a lush and flirty, crowd-pleasing banger anchored around Mogli’s yearning delivery paired with woozy and glistening synth arpeggios, thumping, tweeter and woofer ratting low end, skittering beats and a rousingly anthemic, euphoric set of hooks and choruses.