A JOVM annual tradition: DMX performing “Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer.”
Throwback: Happy 76th Birthday, Lemmy!
JOVM celebrates what would have been Lemmy Kilmister’s 76th birthday. Motörhead forever!
New Video: Introducing Toronto’s Ass-kicking, Hard Rocking SATE
SATE is a Toronto-based singer/songwriter and rock frontperson, who sings empowering messages backed by a band that meshes blistering hard rock and gritty blues. The Canadian artist and her backing band have developed and honed an emotionally charged and critically applauded live show, which has led to tours across Canada, the States and Europe, and festival appearances at Afropunk Brooklyn, Paris and London, Paleo Festival, Lott Festival and Secret Garden Party.
Her full-length debut, 2017’s Red, Black, and Blue, the Toronto-based artist thematically pursued her spiritual connection to the black panther, the red robin and the blue butterfly. With her recently released sophomore album, The Fool, the rising Canadian artist pursues her connection to the tarot — with the album’s title derived from the hero of the tarot deck, The Fool. In tarot, The Fool card is about beginnings and trust; of essentially jumping off a cliff with no real plan but an ultimate faith and trust in the universe.
According to SATE, The Fool is an anthem for anyone who has dared to dream and work towards their greatest self. Album title track “The Fool,” is a slow-burning synthesis of soul, neo-soul and power chord-based arena rock centered around SATE’s powerhouse vocals.
Earlier this year, the Toronto-based artist released a gorgeously shot, short film, which features “The Fool,” as well as a sampling of other material from the album — and from what you’ll hear, SATE is a badass, kick ass and take names sort of superstar in the making. And goodness that voice! The video is centered around themes tackled on the album, while showing the Toronto-based artist railing against stereotypes of all sorts, along with a collection of women who kick ass.
New Audio: ELEVIN Releases a Hypnotic Club Banger
ELEVIN is a mysterious, emerging electronic music producer, who specializes in creating musical experiences designed to make audiences feel — while reflecting “the geometry of existence.”
The mysterious producer is building up buzz for their forthcoming album I believe in science. The album’s latest single “Quantum” derives its title from modern physics. “In the quantum universe a particle is everywhere and nowhere at the same time,” ELEVIN explains in press notes. “It is a particle but it is also energy and a wave. It is part of the fundamental framework that allows us to describe nature. I used these concepts to create this melodic techno track that will get you dancing and make you think about the complexity of the universe.”
Clocking in at a little over eight minutes, “Quantum” is centered around oscillating synths, thumping kick drum, skittering beats and a relentless motorik groove. The end result is a melodic, club banger that may draw comparisons to JOVM mainstay LutchamaK and Tour de France era Kraftwerk — but with a hypnotic, mind-bending quality.
New Video: French Act DAISIESFIELDS Release a Trippy and Symbolic Visual for Atmospheric “Odila”
Founded in Le Mans, France back in 2016, the multinational indie outfit DAISIESFIELDS — Daisy (vocals, primary lyricist), Florent (guitar, electronic drum) and Anne (cello, looper and effects pedals) — quickly established a sound that meshed electronics with lush, organic arrangements and plaintive vocals.
Spotted by Le Mans-based venue Superforma `back in 2017, the French-based indie outfit played shows and residencies at Superforma and SMAC, as well as playing a set with Chloé Lacan as part of the BeBop Festival. They also played with Tue-Loup‘s Xavier Plumas. Building upon a growing profile, the act was selected to play at last year’s Le Mans Pop Festival — but unfortunately, as a result of the pandemic, the festival was postponed.
Last August, the act refined their set with the assistance of Alexis Hk and de Daran. And after several months of live shows, the French act went into the studio to record their Thierry Chassang produced, full-length debut Pariedolie, which was released earlier this year. Interestingly, the album’s title is derived from pareidolia, the tendency to precise a meaningful image on a random or ambiguous visual pattern. The most common instances include seeing animals, faces or other objects in inanimate objects, like clouds or the surface of the Moon — like the Man in the Moon. It can sometimes extend to hidden messages and voices within recorded music if played backwards or at higher or slower speeds.
Pariedolie‘s latest single “Odila” is a slow-burning and atmospheric song, centered around twinkling keys, thumping beats, shimmering guitars and Daisy’s plaintive and yearning vocals. The end result is a song that sees the French act meshing elements of trip-hop, alt pop and indie rock in a way that brings Portishead, Goldfrapp, and Cubicolor to mind.
The recently released video for “Odila” is a symbolic, fever dream that follows a woman performing tricks on a skateboard throughout a French town, near the sea.
Throwback: Happy 57th Birthday, Eddie Vedder!
JOVM celebrates Eddie Vedder’s 57th birthday.
Live Footage: Mysterious French Artist Kwoon Launches Guitar into Space
Kwoon is the musical project of a rather mysterious French musician, producer and composer, only known as Sandy. And with his full-length debut, 2006’s Tales & Dreams, the mysterious mastermind behind Kwoon quickly established the project’s sound — a dreamy take on post-rock and prog rock, seemingly inspired by the likes of Sigur Ros, Explosions in the Sky, and even Pink Floyd.
Sandy followed up with 2009’s When the flowers were singing and 2011’s The Guillotine Show, which was released through Fin de Siécle. Over the past year or so, the mysterious French producer and musician has released a series of live performances shot in some truly mesmerizing locations including a vocal and cliff on the island of Lanzarote, the Tévennec Lighthouse, near the stormy Breton sea.
Kwoon’s latest single, “Stratofear” continues a run of dreamy, slow-burning and cinematic material. But in this case, with the composition centered around shimmering, pedal effected guitars, a soaring string sample and skittering beats. Interestingly, “Stratosfear to my ears sees the mysterious French artist meshing elements of textured A Storm in Heaven-like shoegaze, neo-classical and Sigur Ros and Collapse Under the Empire-like post rock.
Shot at Quiberon Airport, in Quiberon, France, the live footage features the mysterious artist performing the composition on their airfield, next to a Wright Brothers-era airplane. Just behind him, a balloon with a guitar attached is launched into space. And as he performs the song, we see footage from the perspective of the newly-launched space guitar. It’s gorgeous, trippy and badass.
Throwback: Happy 81st Birthday, Frank Zappa!
JOVM celebrates what would have been Frank Zappa’s 81st birthday.
Ani Even is a mysterious self-described, Danish “electro cave/rave/chantcore artist.” Even’s latest single, “The Nearest Star” is a slow-burning yet euphoric ode to the solstice, centered around sampled layers of Benedictine monk-like chants, indigenous-like throat singing, Even’s plaintive vocals, thumping club friendly beats and glistening synths. The end result is a mind-bending mix of rave music, drum ‘n’ bass, shoegaze and spiritual music — that sounds as though it should be played at Stonehenge.
Led by founder and creative mastermind L.G. Galleon, the Brooklyn-based music and art collective, and JOVM mainstays Dead Leaf Echo emerged into the shoegaze scene with their full-length debut, 2013’s Thought and Language, an album deeply influenced by 4AD Records — with the album mixed by John Fryer, and artwork by 4AD’s legendary designer, V23’s Vaughan Oliver.
Since the release of their debut effort, the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays have developed and maintained a distinctive ethos in which they embrace their influences while forging ahead with their own sound.
Back in 2019, the members of Dead Leaf Echo had wrapped up a West Coast tour, which featured a performance on on KEXP’s John in the Morning. They returned home to New York to begin recording their highly-anticipated — and long-awaited — third album The Mercy of Women. As Dead Leaf Echo were preparing the album for release last year, with plans for a European tour that fall to support it, L.G. Galleon went on tour with his other project Clone, just before COVID-19 pandemic struck across the world.
Galleon wound up retreating to the Poconos, where his friends The Stargazer Lilies have a compound. While staying with The Stargazer Lillies, Galleon began writing new material, which eventually would comprise their forthcoming EP Milk.Blue.Kisses.and Whalebone.Wishes. Much like countless other acts across the globe, the members of the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays recorded the EP’s material virtually — with material recorded at home and the practice studio. James Arapacio mixed the EP’s title track while Galleon produced the remaining five EP tracks. Charles Neiland mastered the EP.
Slated for a January 21, 2022 digital and vinyl release through Moon Sound Records, Milk.Blue.Kisses and Whalebone.Wishes will feature artwork from V23’s Timothy O’Donnell. Thematically, the album touches upon anxiety, sex and never selling your worth for less than its true value. Sonically, the EP is a bit of a departure from the JOVM mainstays’ previously released material with the effort being much more ambient and relaxed. Each song title is a play on words of the EP’s title with themes of winter, ice and the female form represented in some form.
Milk.Blue.Kisses and Whalebone.Wishes first single is the slow-burning “Milk.Blue.Kisses.” Centered around shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars and drums and Galleon’s plaintive vocal delivery, “Milk.Blue.Kisses” brings — to my ears, at least — Garlands era Cocteau Twins but with an uneasy and desperate yearning at its core.
