Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Clément Leduc is a Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, songwriter and electronic music artist, who initially made a name for himself by collaborating with fellow Canadian artists Geoffroy, La Bronze and Dead Obies. Stepping out from behind the dials and into the spotlight as a solo artist, Leduc is also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Hologramme. In 2015, Leduc’s self-produced, Hologramme debut was released to critical applause, including landing on ICI Musique‘s Best Albums list that year and being named GAMIQ’s Best Electronic Album of the Year.

Leduc spent the bulk of 2018 living in Berlin, where he soaked up new influences and new sounds that wound up deeply influencing his sophomore album 2019’s Felicity, an effort that saw him collaborating with Les praises’ and Hubert Lenoir‘s Felix Petit, Gustafson’s Adrien Bletton, Senegalese guitarist Assane Seck, and Laurence-Anne‘s Laurent Saint Pierre to create a dream-like and sensual soundscape that draws from the  music of South Africa and South America — while continued an ongoing run of critically applauded releases.

Building upon a growing profile, the Montreal-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer and songwriter has started off 2020 with a bang: he announced the release of a 5 song remix EP of Felicity tracks that will feature remixes by Fakear, Robert Robert, Ouri and others, which is slated for a June 5, 2020 release — and the first bit of new material since the release of Felicity, his latest single “Alaska.”

“Alaska” can trace its origins back some time ago — to sometime before the release of Felicity as a rough sketch of sorts. He took that track with him to Paris and Berlin, where he tried to finish it without much success. Forgotten for over a year, Leduc stumbled upon the then-unfinished track on an hard drive, seemingly asking to be completed. And with the assistance of Laurent Saint Pierre, he completed the song. The end result is a slow burning and atmospheric  track, centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, bubbling electronics, shuffling and clattering beats, and sultry vocal samples that reminds me quite a bit of Octo Octa‘s sensuous and dream-like Between Two Selves and Bonobo — but while possessing a cinematic quality.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Tracing their origins back to 2009, when the project was started as Sister Crayon, the acclaimed Los Angeles, CA-based electro pop duo Rituals of Mine — singer/songwriter Terra Lopez and percussionist Adam Pierce — have received attention for crafting a sound that features elements of 90s trip hop, footwork and downtempo R&B through the release of their critically applauded first two albums, 2011’s Bellow and 2013’s Cynic. Building upon a growing profile, the act had spent several years relentlessly touring up and down the West Coast and elsewhere, playing house shows, DIY venues and basements before, eventually landing tours with The Album Leaf, Built to Spill, Antemasque, Le Butcherettes, Maps & Atlases, Doomtree, and others.

2015 was a harrowing and difficult year for Lopez: her father committed suicide and several months later, her best friend Lucas Johnson tragically died in an accident. Reeling from the grief of such profoundly unexpected and inconsolable loss, Lopez went through a period of deep reflection. During that time, Lopez felt the need to reassess life and her work with Sister Crayon, eventually deciding that she needed to put the name to rest and move forward with a new chapter and new moniker  — Rituals of Mine. ““It was a mantra that I repeated under my breath on a daily basis when the loss I was experiencing felt too heavy at times,” Lopez wrote at the time. “Music, the act of creating, performing, touring, writing, singing, experimenting – all the rituals we have created to get through life.”

Rituals of Mine is a bold and decided step forward for Lopez: after years of obscuring her own story and emotions through metaphorical lyrics, Lopez felt both a sudden confidence and need to write more directly about her experiences and life as a queer woman of color. Lopez with the assistance of her longtime collaborator and producer Wes Jones began to flesh out material centered around heartfelt observations and writing on her traumas by pairing her lyrics with pulsating and forceful electronic tracks. Lopez then recruited Adam Pierce to play drums — with understanding that Pierce’s background in metal would provide an intensity that could match her own and fit the material.

Back in 2018, I wrote about “No Time To Go Numb”  a defiant anti-Trump anthem centered around a tweeter and woofer rocking production of trap-like beats and chopped up and distorted vocal samples paired with Lopez’s impassioned vocal delivery, which sees her sing and spit fiery bars. Thematically, the song reminds the listener that while it may be natural to want to slink back from the horrors of an crooked and dictatorial Trump Administration, that things are too desperate, too urgent; that now is the time to be fueled by anger and fear of what could happen next, and fight like hell for those who are most vulnerable.

Much like countless artists across the globe, Rituals of Mine’s Terra Lopez has turned our period of quarantines and social distancing into an opportunity to reach out to fans while helping give to those in need through a weekly Twitch streamed DJ Series titled LOCKDOWN LOPEZ. Lopez takes over her girlfriend’s bedroom and turns into the club. This past Tuesday’s LOCKDOWN LOPEZ saw the Rituals of Mine frontwoman raise money for 174 meals for Border Kindness — and every week, she’ll be raising money to a new charity. Since we’re on the DJ and club vibe, their longtime producer and collaborator Wes jones recently created a deep house remix of “No Time to Go Numb,” for LOCKDOWN LOPEZ that’s centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, a chopped up and distorted Lopez vocal sample and a dance floor friendly groove, turning the furious anthem into a club banger.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Joe Wong’s Dreamy and Ambitious Debut Single

Joe Wong is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, composer, who has created the scores for acclaimed TV series like Master of None, Russian Doll, Ugly Delicious, Awkafina is Nora from Queens, and others — and for being host of The Trap Set podcast. Interestingly, Wong will be releasing his full-length debut Nite Creatures sometime this year and the album’s first single is the David Bowie-like “Dreams Wash Away.” Featuring an arrangement of shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars, soaring strings, thunderous drumming, a sinuous bass line, twinkling keys, Wong’s mellifluous baritone and an enormous hook, “Dreams Wash Away” is an ambitious and cinematic song centered around a hazily lysergic escapism. 

“Dreams Wash Away” will appear in the final episode of Adventure Time creator Pendleton Ward’s and comedian Duncan Trussel’s Netflix original series, The Midnight Gospel. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Savages’ Jehnny Beth Releases Intimately Shot Footage of Swaggering Album Single “Innocence”

Camille Berthomier is a Poitiers, Vienne, France-born, London-based singer/songwriter, actress, author and musician, professionally known as Jehnny Beth — and as the frontwoman of the Mercury Prize-nominated, critically applauded act Savages. Interestingly, as a member of Savages, the Poitiers, Vienne, France-born, London-based singer/songwriter has developed a reputation for a unique lyrical perspective and a stage presence that has captivated audiences across the world over the past 15 years. 

Beth’s solo debut To Love Is To Live was originally slated for a May 8, 2020 release through Caroline Records — but the album was recently pushed back to June 12, 2020, as a result of the Savages frontwoman’s desire to support local, independent record stores by ensuring that the physical album could come out at the same time. “Record stores are where I found myself as a teenager, digging through albums that ultimately shared who I have become,” Beth says in press notes. “To release my first ever solo album in a way that would leave them out felt wrong to me; luckily, we were able to find a date that would allow us to release the physical and digital album at the same time.” 

Recorded in Los Angeles, London and Paris, To Love Is To Live finds the longtime Savages frontwoman boldly stepping into and claiming the spotlight as a solo artist, while collaborating with an eclectic array of producers and artists including Flood,Atticus Ross, longtime collaborator and Savages bandmate Johnny Hostile, Adam “Cecil” Bartlett, The xx’s Romy Madley Croft, IDLES‘ Joe Talbot and Golden Globe-winning actor Cilian Murphy.

Thematically, the album sees Beth tapping into and accessing the darkest and least comfortable parts of herself to craft material that’s cathartic, abrasive, fearlessly honest and vulnerable, making the material a dark and cinematic meditation on the very strangeness of being alive. 

Earlier this month, I wrote about the album’s second single “Flower,” a brooding and atmospheric track centered around a murky and tempestuous pulse, shimming synth arpeggios and Beth’s sultry cooing and crooning. The end result is a song that’s simmers with a feverish and obsessive lust. Reportedly written about a pole dance at Los Angeles’ Jumbo’s Clown Room, the song details the complicated and confusing depths of sexuality, desire, possession and loss. “Innosence,” To Love Is To Live’s third and latest single continues a run of dark and sultry material as its centered round an off-kilter motorik rhythm  and a swaggering yet brooding trip hop-like air, while Beth purrs, howls, struts and pouts. But at its core is an eerie and uneasy feeling of isolation, loneliness and distance — and although inspired by the very things that its creator’s has experienced and felt countless times in large cities, despite being near people all the time. Recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic, the song sounds like a prescient foresight of what would eventually happen to us right now. 

The single is accompanied by live video footage filmed at rehearsals for Beth’s now-critically applauded, incendiary live show, which debuted at the BBC 6 Music Festival earlier this year. Naturally, the video gives the viewer a sense of her live show’s energy with a you-are-there intimacy. 

Along with the release of her solo debut, the acclaimed French-born, British-based singer/songwriter, musician and actress will be releasing her first book, a collection of erotic short stories paired with photography from her longtime collaborator and bandmate Johnny Hostile. Slated for a June 11, 2020 release through White Rabbit, Crimes Against Love Manifesto (C.A.L.M.) will help to establish Beth and Hostile as two of the most provocative and forward-thinking voices in contemporary fiction and erotic art.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Das Kope’s Apocalyptic and Lo-Fi Take on Psychedelia

Deriving his name from the letters within the word kaleidoscope, the mysterious São Paulo-born, Los Angeles-based psych pop multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer Das Kope has a lengthy history of adhering to a DIY ethos. Frequently creating in solitude, the Brazilian-born, Southern California-based does everything himself: he writes and plays every note of his material, produces everything and even creates animated visuals that accompany his work. 

Thematically, his work focuses on his journey from São Paulo to Los Angeles, where a seemingly infinite run of ideas, kept him hostage — figuratively speaking — in his Hollywood apartment. Sonically, developing a sound that some have compared to Tame Impala and Ariel Pink with a “Beach Boys trapped in a Black Mirror episode vibe, the Brazilian-born, Los Angeles-based artist has built up a profile touring with STRFKR — and has had tracks fated on Spotify’s Fresh Friends and Modern Psychedelia playlists, who also called his self-made visuals as “groundbreaking.” 

Das Kope’s full-length debut Where I Live officially drops today and the album is an eerily fitting apocalyptic and lysergic portrait of a rebellious and boundary pushing artist in isolation. Interestingly, the album’s latest single, the decidedly lo-fi “Fascination,” which is centered around wobbling and shimmering synths, reverb drenched boom bap beats, buzzing guitars, an infectious hook and the Brazilian-born, Los Angeles-based artist’s dreamy vocals manages to recall Black Moth Super Rainbow — as it possesses a weird mix of menace and whimsy. 

“It’s easy for me to find ideas of isolation and anxiety in the album’s lyrics that relate to the feeling that people around the world seem to be sharing because of this crisis,” Das Kope says in press notes. “Even though I originally projected those feelings because of my artistic and personal struggles as a musician, I think they’re still very relatable to right now.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sophie Strauss Releases a John Hughes-like Visual for Anthemic and Shimmering “Gone”

Sophie Strauss is a a rising, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and pop artist, who identifies as a successful queer child bride and a struggling indie musician. “Gone,” Strauss’ latest single is a swooning pop song centered around atmospheric synths, blasts of shimmering, reverb drenched guitars, dramatic yet propulsive drumming, an enormous and rousing hook and the Los Angeles-born pop artist’s achingly plaintive vocals.

While sounding as though it could be a part of the soundtracks for a John Hughes rom-com or Stranger Things, the song finds Strauss pushing the creative and thematic boundaries of her songwriting — with the song being one of her first truly love songs; a love song that’s a sigh of elation, full of the understanding that finding love can be extremely difficult.  

“’Gone’ is a new kind of song for me — it’s my first real love song.” Strauss explains in press notes. “There’s this mythology that artists need to be in miserable turmoil to create anything good, and though I’ve always believed that to be bullshit, it was nice to be able to try disproving it myself. Not that the world is short on misery to tap into right now, but being really fucking in love was a neat new place to write from and, especially right now, seemed like a small avenue for some much-needed romance and escapism while we’re all stuck inside.”

Directed by Gregory J.M. Kasunich, the recently released and incredibly cinematic video for “Gone” emphasizes the song’s swooning and nostalgic-tinged vibes: featuring Strauss and her husband Brendan Stephan, the video begins with Strauss’ character in a miserable, loveless relationship that she’s desperate to escape. Seemingly on a whim, she runs out of her house to a local tattoo shop, where she meets a tattoo artist, who immediately catches her attention. The pair begins a love affair in which both parties are swept off their feet with youthful passion and abandon. It’s a much-needed bit of escape and longing for sweetness in a bleak world. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Public Practice Releases a Glittering Dance Floor Banger

With the release of their critically acclaimed EP, 2018’s Distance is a Mirror, the New York-based New Wave/post-punk quartet Public Practice — founding duo Sam York (vocals), Vince McClelland (guitar) with Drew Citron (bass, vocals, synths) and Scott Rosenthal (drums, production) — received attention nationally and across the blogosphere for a reviving the spirit and vibe of the late 70s New York scenes with a sound that draws from No Wave and disco centered around punk, avant-garde flourishes, pop song structures, slinky rhythms and groove-driven hooks. 

York and McClelland have been creative partners for several years before the formation of Public Practice and through their long collaboration, they’ve developed an anarchic perspective that challenges the traditional notion of what a traditional song should do and what it could be. Citron and Rosenthal have a decidedly pop leaning sensibility. But instead of the contrasting styles and approaches clashing, they’ve found a way to challenge and complement each other — and the end result, the New York-based act’s highly-anticipated, full-length debut Gentle Grip is built around spiraling tensions. 

Slated for a May 15, 2020 digital relate and a June 26, 2020 physical release through Wharf Cat Records, Gentle Grip thematically explores ideas about navigating through the acts of creation, relationships and capitalism. And as we all know, in our daily lives, each of those things are at uncomfortable conflict, but at the end of the day, we have to figure out a way to be true to ourselves.  Interestingly, the album’s third and latest single, the slinky, disco banger “My Head.” Centered around a sinuous bass line, a soaring string arrangement, four-on-the floor drumming and an infectious hook the song manages to recall Blondie, Talking Heads and Donna Summer — and because the world at the moment is so bleak, it’s an even more of an escapist fantasy of strobe light and dancing fear and pain away. 

Directed by the band’s Sam York, the recently released video features a collection of dancers, who are isolated in their own little world, dancing to the song’s sultry, dance floor friendly grooves. “The video shoot for ‘My Head’ was Public Practice’s last social activity before we went into quarantine here in NYC — the final dance!” the band’s Sam York recalls in press notes. “Josie and Jon, who edited the video, were the last two people I saw, passing off the hard rive with the footage and walking home, listening to the news, not knowing that I would be spending the next month and then some inside my apartment in social isolation. With lyrics ‘I don’t want to waste my time / I don’t want to fade away’ combined with the visual of the dancers, each isolated in their own little world, the song and video feel strikingly relevant for these strange times. This video was created on the eve of isolation, edited entirely in isolation and is now coming to you while many of us are still stuck at home, but hopefully now we’re all dancing. ” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Ganser Releases a Cinematic and Sinister Visual for “Lucky”

Chicago-based post-punk outfit and JOVM mainstays Ganser can trace its origins back to when its founding members Nadia Garofalo (keys, vocals) and Alicia Gaines (bass, vocals) met in art school. Bonding over a shared love of The Residents, outsider communities and the work of John Waters and David Lynch, the duo developed a hands-on DIY craftsmanship that eventually carried over into their band — with the band, which also features Brian Cundiff (drums) and Charlie Landsman (guitar) sharing writing duties. closely collaborating on all of their music videos and album art, as well as crafting visuals to accompany their live show. 

With the release of their full-length debut, 2018’s Odd Talk, the members of the Chicago-based post-punk outfit quickly developed a national profile, with the album receiving attention nationally and across the blogosphere for a sound that critics compared to the likes of Sonic Youth and Magazine paired with incisive lyrics critiquing larger social issues — with their debut thematically focusing on communication breakdowns and the difficulties of being understood, intimacy and avoidance. Last year, the band was in the studio writing and recording material — some of which comprised their Brian Fox and Mia Clarke co-produced EP You Must Be New Here, which featured songs that focused on self-aware observations on the tenuous and dysfunctional relationship between author/creator and their audience. 

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, Ganser’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Just Look at That Sky is slated for a July 31, 2020 release through Felte Records. Thematically, the album finds the band probing the futility of striving for self-growth during chaos as the songs evoke manic worry and dread and a generalized sense of doom with a sardonic specificity. The songs also acknowledge that we’re all online all the time and that at any given moment, we have too much information about other people and other situations — and that we are all generally a tweet, a status update or an Instagram post away from truly knowing what our followers and others really think of us. The world seems like it’s ending, and it’s all overwhelming and draining mentally and emotionally. 

Just Look at That Sky’s first single, album opening “Lucky” is an tense and explosive track that’s one part Midwest noise-rock, one part post-punk and one part art rock centered around rumbling low end, discordant blasts of angular guitar, thunderous drumming and Garofalo’s desperate howling. Arguably one of the most urgent and uneasy songs they’ve released to date, the song as the band’s Nadia Garofalo explains “is a commentary on personal feelings of inadequacy and how these feelings can often result in unhealthy or extreme behaviors. Especially now, as we are in a time of uncertainty, it feels like we have even less control over what is happening to and around us. Isn’t it shitty when things don’t work out in the way we’d hoped?”

Written, directed and edited by the members of Ganser, the video stars Tom DeFrancisco and Sean Gunderson as two desperate and friends/frenemies, who spend a night drinking irresponsibly — and just like any other party, there’s a brief moment in which things inexplicably take a weird and dangerous turn. Shot in a gorgeous and cinematic black and white, the video is a bit of a mind-fuck with the action at times going forward and in reverse at will, capturing a never-ending and vacillating stream of doubt and over-examination. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Nashville-based JOVM Mainstay Marcus King Releases a Mind-Bending Visual for “One Day She’s Here”

Over the past six months or so, I’ve written quite a bit about the Greenville, SC-born, Nashville-based singer/songwriter, guitarist and JOVM mainstay Marcus King. King is a fourth generation musician, who has followed in his family’s footsteps by becoming a musician and singer/songwriter of note himself. 

Playing professionally since he was 11, King was discovered after a video of him performing at Norman’s Rare Guitars went viral. Now 23, King  has been performing for the past 15 years, establishing himself as a  world class guitarist, vocalist and highly sought-after session player.

Since 2015, King has been relentlessly touring with his backing band The Marcus King Band — Jack Ryan (drums), Stephen Campbell (bass), Justin Johnson (trumpet, trombone) and Dean Mitchell (sax, still guitar) — playing 140 dates live shows over the course of the past year. Adding to a breakthrough year, King and his backing band have played on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, made his debut at The Grand Ole Opry — and he has opened for Chris Stapleton during the country star’s last US arena tour, playing in front of 17,000 people every night.

King’s Dan Auerbach-produced full-length debut El Dorado was released earlier this year through Fantasy Recordings, and the album continues his ongoing collaboration with Auerbach with the album being co-written with the acclaimed singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer over a breakneck three days at his Nashville-based Easy Eye Sound Studio. Sonically the album finds King and Auerbach crafting a contemporary exploration of classic rock, blues, southern R&B and country soul. 

“Marcus is known by so many as a phenom guitar player, and rightfully so,” Dan Auerbach says of King. “He’s regularly the best player in the room, hands down. I was equally blown away by the way he can sing — so effortless, so soulful, straight to the heart. He’s a naturally gifted writer too, which was clear right away. Everything for him is so innate — that’s why he can always go right to the heart of a song and connect in a deeper way. He’s really one of a king and I’m proud I got to work alongside him on this record.”

“One Day She’s Here,” El Dorado’s fourth single is lush song centered around a soulful arrangement that’s indebted to Curtis Mayfield and 70s Motown, complete with a soaring string arrangement, layers of propulsive percussion, shimmering Rhodes piano and guitar,  an enormous hook and King’s effortlessly soulful vocals. Much like the specific period that seemingly inspired it, the song is an achingly earnest song about a lover, who suddenly disappears without explanation — and with a remarkable display of craft and self-assuredness that belies its creators relative youth. 

Directed by Joshua Shoemaker, the recently released video for “One Day She’s Here” is a mind-bending nod to Memento as it features action going in forward and reverse simultaneously as it focuses on the sudden disappearance of the song’s central love interest. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Beginning his professional life with working in finance and as a co-owner of London‘s The Society Club, the Norwegian-born, London-based singer/songwriter, composer and multi-instrumentalist Erik Brudvik left both to pursue a career with his solo recording project Brudini. Slated for a May 15, 2020 release, Brudvik’s forthcoming self-recorded and self-produced Brudini debut From Darkness, Light is a conceptual album that draws from his own personal experience traversing between two seemingly contradictory worlds before finding his creative voice — and of a life spent as a sort of itinerant traveler.

From Darkness, Light is reportedly a soul searching effort that thematically and narratively weaves an abstract, wandering tale through feelings of loss and longing, anger, lust and despair, towards cosmic consolation as the album features Brudvik’s lyrics and the poems of California-based poet Chip Martin paired with old-timey and atmospheric arrangements featuring creaky pianos, analog synths, syncopated jazz-inspired lyrics and occasional blasts of distorted guitar. The end result is a contemplation of the various transitions, compromises and dashed dreams of adulthood.

The album’s first three singles — “Reflections,” ‘Emotional Outlaw” and “Pale Gold” — were released to widespread critical praise in the UK with Louder Than War referring to the rising singer/songwriter as “an indescribable talent,” as well as praise from NYC music legend Danny Fields. Each of the album’s first singles have received airplay on Radio X, BBC Radio 6 and BBC Radio 2 personality Frank Skinner‘s program. Building upon a growing profile, Brudvik has developed a reputation as a must-see live act, collaborating with Lulu Gainsbourg, Lanah P, and Erasure‘s Andy Bell.

“Radiant Man,” From Darkness, Light‘s fourth and latest single finds the rising Norwegian-born, British-based singer/songwriting crafting a song that balances a thoughtful and earnest intimacy with a widescreen, cinematic quality that subtly recalls Harvest-era Neil Young, OK Computer-era Radiohead and The Invisible Band-era Travis — thanks, in part to an arrangement centered around strummed guitar, atmospheric synths, twinkling piano, shuffling jazz-like rhythms and Brudvik’s plaintive vocals.

Thematically, the song is centered around a narrative that’s older than time, and yet strangely relevant and contemporary: it follows a well-meaning protagonist, full of good intentions who fights onward despite being slowly crushed by a tidal wave of enormous forces beyond his control.  The human spirit can be indefatigable — and in these very dark and uncertain times, we’ll need to dig deep, perhaps deeper than ever before to make it to whatever awaits us on the other side.

“‘Radiant Man’ is the story of a person fighting against a tidal wave. In the midst of a crisis, I find there is something about the enduring human spirit that emerges and brings us closer. ‘Radiant Man’ is an homage to this human radiance, echoed today in streets everywhere from Wuhan and New York to Sao Paolo and Milan.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

 

Denny Soloist is a rising, Maryland-born singer/songwriter and photographer — and within a week of posting “Not Built For War” on SoundCloud back in 2015, the Maryland native quickly amassed over 10,000 streams. Building upon that momentum, Soloist released his debut mixtape 2016’s Truth or Dare, which featured “Not Built For War” and his official debut single “The Funeral.”

The following year, Denny Soloist released covers of James Arthur‘s “Say You Won’t Let Go” and JoJo‘s remix of Drake‘s “Marvins Room,” which both wound up landing one Apple Music Connect’s Top 200. 2017 also saw the release of his second official single “Out The Window,” a collaboration with rapper Pro-Lific.

The Maryland native then took most of 2018 away from the music industry to focus on his other passion — photography. During that same year, which featured a period of deep, personal reflection, Soloist came to terms with his sexuality, releasing some of his most honest material to date, including last year’s BOYS mixtape.

Soloist begins 2020 with the sultry, trap-influenced banger “Selfish.” Featuring shimmering synths, rapid-fire stuttering beats, wobbling low end and Soloist’s achingly plaintive falsetto, the track details how the song’s narrator ruined a romantic relationship through his own selfishness — cheating on his lover left and right. But the song is centered by a hilarious yet realistic irony: although the song’s narrator admittedly feels badly about his own deceitfulness, he isn’t naive; he’s aware that his lover was doing the same.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms
Matthieu Asnarez is a young and emerging, Basque Country-born and-based electronic music producer, multi-instrumentalist and producer, best known for his solo recording project Manwarp, a project that’s heavily influenced by and meshes elements of disco, electronica, house music and techno. Asnarez spent last year writing and recording his latest EP, the ambitious concept EP Don’t Quarantine in the hopes of winning over the French and international electronic scene.
Centered around his mixing and mastering technique, Don’t Quarantine isn’t a call for violating social distancing guidelines or common sense infectious disease prevention — but rather, an invitation to the listener to break up the mundane routine of our daily lives through the use of our imagination. “Just because you’re physically locked up in your home doesn’t mean you can’t travel internally,” Asnarez explains in press notes. “That’s what I did in finishing to produce this EP, and i hope that will be the case for the people, who will listen to it, It is a journey consisting of four parts, fifteen minutes of music. Everything follows naturally, you just have to let yourself be carried away.”

The EP’s latest single, EP closing track “About Coming Back” is a mind-bending track featuring shimmering and wobbling synth arpeggios, a gorgeous melody,  tweeter and woofer rocking boom bap-like beats within an expansive song structure featuring alternating quiet-loud-quiet sections meant to evoke being roused from a pleasant reverie. It is about coming back to reality,” the rising Basque Country-based electronic music artist, multi-instrumentalist and producer explains in press notes. “Penetrating melody, strong synths and percussions… I tried something different here with a lot of dynamic as if you were travelling back. I enjoyed and learned a lot by producing this one.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aesop Rock Releases a Cinematic Track off “Freedom Finger” Soundtrack

Ian Matthais Bavitz is a Syosset, NY-born, Portland, OR-based emcee and producer, best known as Aesop Rock. Releasing the bulk of his critically applauded, boundary pushing work through El-P’s Definitive Jux Records, the Syosset-born, Portland-based emcee and producer wound up being at the forefront of the underground and alternative hip-hop scenes of the late 90s and early 2000s. Bavitz has also developed a reputation as a highly sought-after collaborator, who has worked in a number of eclectic creative projects including The Weathermen, Hail Mary Mallon with Rob Sonic and DJ Big Wiz, The Uncluded with Kimya Dawson and Two of Every Animal with Cage. Whether as a solo artist or collaborating with others, Aesop Rock is considered one of hip-hop’s most verbose emcees, developing a flow that features dense and abstract wordplay and incredibly complex inner and outer rhyme schemes. 

Now, if you were frequenting this site last year, you may recall that I wrote quite a bit about Aesop Rock’s collaboration with JOVM mainstay TOBACCO, Malibu Ken, a project that released one of the most interesting and forward-thinking hip-hop albums of the year. Since the release of Malibu Ken’s self-titled debut, the acclaimed Syosset-born, Portland-based emcee has been pretty busy: “I was approached by my old friend Travis Millard to make some original music for Freedom Finger — a crazy space-shooter video game he had been developing with Jim Dirschberger and Wide Right Interactive game studio,” Aesop Rock says in press notes. ““I provided some instrumentals that pop up at various points throughout the gameplay. As the game was being rolled out, the idea arose to have me do three more tracks — this time fully fleshed out songs with lyrics inspired by Freedom Finger’s gameplay. These tracks were intended to accompany some brand new levels that would be made available as downloadable content for the game.

We’ve decided to release all of the music I made for Freedom Finger as a 10” vinyl EP available through Rhymesayers Entertainment. This includes the three full-length vocal tracks as well as their instrumentals, and four more bonus beats that loop throughout the game. Some of these tracks also feature additional instrumentation from my friends and frequent collaborators, Grimace Federation. The game is an absolute blast, and I hope you enjoy the music.  <3" "Drums on the Wheel" Music From The Game Freedom Finger's latest single is centered around a brooding and cinematic, RZA-like production featuring a looping and droning guitar sample and tweeter and woofer rocking boom bap beats -- and it's roomy enough for Aesop Rock's dense bars and mischievous wordplay influenced by the Freedom Finger's gameplay, making the track an unofficial theme song for the game.  Directed by Jim Dirschberger and featuring illustrations by Travis Millard, which were animated by Steven Gong, the recently released video for "Drums on the Wheel" draws from Freedom Finger's gameplay in a way that makes it feel like one of the coolest trailers in the entire world. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

The rapidly rising Newcastle, UK-based indie act FEVA — Sam Reynolds (vocals/guitar), Danny Castro (drums), James Gibbons (guitar) and Thomas Errington (Bass) — had a breakthrough year last year, that saw them open for Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, The Vaccines, Pip Blom, Inhaler, and Lauran Hibberd. Although currently, things are bleak and uncertain, the band hopes that they’ll be able to continue the momentum of last year with the release of new material throughout the course of this year, and hopefully live dates during the fall.

Centered around enormous, power chord-driven riffage, thunderous drumming, rousingly anthemic hooks, Sam Reynolds powerhouse vocals,  and a remarkably self-assured delivery, the Newcastle indie quartet’s latest single “I Wanna Know” may arguably be the most ambitious and arena rock friendly song they’ve released to date. To that end, it shouldn’t be surprising that the song has already received praise from the likes of The Line of Best Fit, Clash Magazine and Dork, as well as airplay from BBC Radio 1 and BBC Radio 6.

Interestingly, although the song is an arena rock friendly anthem, the band explains in press notes that the song is actually about reflection — or more specifically self-reflection, “As we make our way through life, it’s easy to lose ourselves and get caught up in things that in time, we realise never ever mattered,” the members of FEVA say in press notes. “This song is about taking a step back and remembering who you are and who you were, when life took its tool on you.”