JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month and pays tribute to Billy Ocean.
Throwback: Happy 76th Birthday, Peter Gabriel!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Peter Gabriel’s 76th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Henry Rollins!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Henry Rollins’ 65th birthday.
Throwback: Happy Belated 74th Birthday, Michael McDonald!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Michael McDonald’s 74h birthday.
Throwback: Happy 84th Birthday, Peter Tork!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 84th anniversary of the birth of The Monkees’ Peter Tork.
Throwback: Happy 70th Birthday, Peter Hook!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Joy Division and New Order co-founder Peter Hook’s 70th birthday.
New Audio: Los Pulpitos Share Hypnotic “Mola Mola”
Berlin-based electronic duo Los Pulpitos features two acclaimed electronic producers: The duo follow last year’s debut EP, Octopean Union with their latest single, “Mola Mola,” the first single of their forthcoming debut album. “Mola Mola” […]
New Audio: JOVM Mainstays The Orielles Return with Hook-Driven “Tears Are”
Acclaimed, Manchester, UK-based JOVM mainstays The Orielles — Esmé Dee Hand-Halford (bass, vocals), Sidonie Dee Hand-Halford (drums, vocals) and Henry Carlyle Wade (guitar, vocals) — will be releasing their highly anticipated fourth album, the Joel Anthony Patchett-produced Only You Left through Heavenly Recordings on March 13, 2026.
Recorded last summer in two locations — the Greek Island of Hydra and Hamburg — the forthcoming, 11-song Only You Left reportedly sees the band consolidating the bold experimentation of 2022’s Tableau with the more stripped-back, song-driven approach of their earlier releases, channeling a return to the familiar. “There’s nothing more trad than a three-piece,” quips Henry, in reference to the band’s decision to return to their roots as a trio.
Now, as you may remember, the JOVM mainstays, which originally started out in Halifax gained attention both nationally and internationally with the release of their full-length debut, 2018’s Silver Dollar Moment, which will celebrates its eighth birthday this months. “These things come in like seven year cycles. So we’ve come in like a full circle back to a familiar place, just as different people,” the band says.
As for the foundations of the forthcoming album, the band’s Henry Carlyle Wade says “You’ve got to die and be reborn between albums.” “It comes naturally, the band’s Esmé Hand-Halford adds, “it’s not something we consciously do.” Interestingly through this process of creative renewal, the JOVM mainstays have managed to weather a pandemic, the fickleness of a trend-driven music industry and somehow emerge with something that’s familiar yet completely different.
According to Wade, the first ideas for the new album can be traced back to May 2023: Esmé Hand-Halford had purchased a freeze pedal, which allowed her to play around with sustained notes on her guitar. These heavy drones would later form the background of album tracks “Wasp” and “Three Halves.”
In breaks between tours, the band began to meet up and record their practice room sessions, later analyzing the voice notes with a granular attention to detail. “We recorded everything on our phones, every snippet,” explains Henry. “We went so deep into what each song needed or what we wanted to hear from it.”
While the Tableau sessions were semi-improvisational and partially written in the recording studio, Only You Left was fleshed out through a series of intense writing sessions between May 2023 and last summer. Each of the album’s 11 songs were meticulously refined and became its own distinctive work. “It almost felt really novel for us to be writing as a three-piece and really, really crafting these songs,” the band’s Esmé Hand-Halford recalls. “But Tableau gave us that confidence to know we could go into a studio and pull things together in that setting under the time pressure.”
Producer and engineer Joel Anthony Patchett, whom Esmé Hand-Halford dubs the honorary fourth member of the band, has had a massive influence on the album’s sound and approach. “Joel brings an extra level of interpretation and deep listening,” Henry Carlyle Wade says, “and it’s always exciting to explore that.” Sidonie Hand-Halford adds, “He’s constantly talking us through every step of what he’s doing and getting really, really involved with that process as well. And we’re just kind of learning together and making these mistakes and discovering things together.”
Only You Left will include the previously released “Three Halves,” the double single “You Are Eating Part of Yourself”/”To Undo the World Itself,” and the album’s latest single “Tears Are.” Arguably the track that directly channels elements of their earlier sound, “Tears Are” is anchored around the JOVM mainstays long-held penchant for post punk-like hookiness paired with dreamy vocals. But the track ultimately fades out in a brooding, minor take on the song’s motif. The song evokes an unfinished thought or something left hanging without a sense of closure. The lyrics explore paradoxes with inversions and wordplay — and are intentionally ambiguous for the listener to make their own interpretations.
“ We had this vague imagery of wood versus metal,” the band’s Esmé Dee Hand-Halford says. “Hamburg was metal and Hydra was wood. Everything fell naturally into either category.”
New Video: Tinariwen Teams Up with Jose Gonzalez on Brooding and Meditative “Imidiwan Takyadam”
Pioneering Grammy Award-winning, Tuareg musical pioneers and JOVM mainstays Tinariwen recently announced that their tenth studio album Hoggar is slated for a March 13, 2026 release through their own label, Wedge. The album derives itself from the Hoggar mountains, a defiant marker of presence visible for miles and a symbol of a homeland for their displaced people.
Long known for being fierce advocates for their people’s nomadic culture that exists in the desert borderlands between Mail and Algeria, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays bluesy, guitar-driven music has found global acclaim for its blend of dexterous, Western rock-styled guitar work, Tamasheq language-driven political bent, syncopated rhythms and soaring melodies.
More than 45 years into their lengthy and storied career, Hoggar reportedly sees the acclaimed masters of the desert blues returning to the foundations of their sound with the band returning to their early years of songwriting with acoustic guitars and communal singing around the desert campfire. The album also sees the band staking their claim as elders of the Tuareg musical tradition while also proudly passing the torch onto a younger generation of featured musicians, who can continue to keep their culture’s flame of rebellion and defiance alive.
Known for recording amid the windswept expanse of the Central Saharan desert, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays have long drawn inspiration from the rhythms of nature. With political unrest in Mali prompting the band to seek new spaces, the founding members, who are now based in Algeria recorded the album in studio set up by young Tuareg band and mentees Imarhan in Tamanrasset, which continues their legacy of innovation and collaboration.
While previously released albums like 2023’s Amatssou saw Tinariwen collaborating with acclaimed producer Daniel Lanois, on Hoggar the band looked closer to home. Gathering with the local Tuareg musical community for a month, founding members Ibrahim Ag Alhabib, Abdallah Ag Alhousseyni and Touhami Ag Alhassane began writing songs fueled by political unrest alongside young artists like Imarhan’s Iyad Moussa Ben Abderrahmane, Hicham Bouhasse and Haiballah Akhamouk. The band also collaborated with Terekaft‘s Sanou Ag Hamed and Tinariwen co-founder Liya ag Abill, a.k.a. Diarra for the first time in 25 years.
The album also marks some other firsts: The band’s lead vocalist Ibrahim and Abdallah sing together for the first time in over 30 years, breaking their long-held tradition of each songwriting performing only their own compositions. And there’s a guest spot from acclaimed longtime fan José González.
Lyrically, Hoggar explores urgent and timely themes, addressing the social and political challenges facing the Tuareg people and northern Mali. The band continues their long tradition of bearing witness through their work, balancing the joy of their celebrated lie shows with reflections on community struggles, resilience and the need for cultural preservation.
The album will include the previously released “Sagherat Assan,” a gorgeous, soulful rendition of a traditional Sudanese song, and the album’s second and latest single, “Imidiwan Takyadam” feat. acclaimed singer/songwriter and longtime fan Jose Gonzalez.
“Imidiwan Takyadam” is a meditative, almost mournful tune that’s one-part longing sigh over a past and a lifestyle that’s disappearing and may never return, one-part warning from a wizened elder, one-part call to action, anchored around the collective’s imitable pairing of gorgeous guitar work with equally gorgeous, soaring harmonies and melodies.
“Friends, look at what is unfolding before us. This is a song I wrote long ago, yet today its echo feels stronger than ever,” the band’s Ibrahim Ag Alhabib says. “It speaks of our people, the Tamasheq, scattered across distant lands, slowly losing the threads of their culture and their ancestral heritage. It is a call to memory and to conscience – a reminder not to forget our brothers and sisters who endure suffering under the tyranny of short-sighted and foolish leaders.”
Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Axel Digoix, the accompanying video for “Imidiwan Takyadam,” features some gorgeously animated snippets of everyday live for the Tamasheq people: young men trading bootlegged Tinariwen tapes, happy gatherings of women listening to music on their phones, people hitchhiking, and the occasional harassment from authorities. Throughout, the video showcases a resilient people with kind and deeply loving bonds.
Throwback: Happy 87th Birthday, Ray Manzarek!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 87th anniversary of te birth of The Doors’ Ray Manzarek.
Throwback: Happy Black History Month!/Happy Belated 47th Birthday, Brandy!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and Brandy’s 47th birthday.
Throwback: Happy Black History Month!/Happy 70th Birthday, H.R.!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and punk pioneer H.R.’s 70th birthday.
Throwback: Happy Black History Month!/Happy 52nd Birthday, D’Angelo!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Black History Month — and the 52nd anniversary of the birth of D’Angelo.
Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Sheryl Crow!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Sheryl Crow’s 64th birthday.