JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 56th anniversary of the birth of Nate Dogg.
Throwback: Happy 86th Birthday, Ginger Baker!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 86th anniversary of the birth of Ginger Baker.
New Video: Bella Litsa Shares Dream-like “1117”
Isabella Komodromos is a Cypriot-born, Brooklyn -based singer/songwriter, pianist and the creative mastermind behind the rising cinematic, solo art pop project Bella Litsa. The Cypriot-born, Brooklyn-based artist was raised in a household steeped in classical music: She began studying the piano when she turned seven, and quickly discovered her deep love for singing.
With Bella Litsa, Komodromos has crafts intimate, lush and emotionally potent songs that echo with dreamlike intensity. And in a rather short period of time, her sound which sees her blending vintage romance with experimental textures, a sort of haunted Americana-meeting-minimalist futurism, has helped her draw comparisons to Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple and Weyes Blood — while being a vessel for connection and cantharis. “Bella Litsa is my sadness personified. It feels like the closest I can get to my shadow, consciously,” Komodromos says.
Komodromos’ second and latest single this year, “1117” is a breathtakingly beautiful song featuring a marching, classically-inspired arpeggiated piano melody and military styled drumming serving as a lush yet uneasy bed for the Cypriot-born, Brooklyn-based artist’s gorgeous and expressive vocal singing lyrics touching upon guilt, longing, love and not quite knowing her place in either. While further cementing comparisons to Lana Del Rey, Fiona Apple and Weyes Blood, “1117” brings to mind the likes of Tori Amos and French-born, Montréal-based artist Lonny — with dreamy and cinematic quality. And yet the song evokes a sense of unreconcilable inner conflict.
“This was one of the more labored-over songs on the record. I started writing it on November 17th, but only had the first half of the lyrics done,” Komodromos says. “I had to wait until certain things in life moved me, until certain things happened, something to finish the lyrics with. It’s strange because I had this dream the following February and prayed to God to give me solace in it, some sort of surrender – and He answered. Only then was I able to finish the song.”
She adds, “It’s an emotionally unstable song, as in I’m fighting with myself and trying to figure out what it is I want and why I want it to begin with. The relationship that inspired it was harmful, but I couldn’t stop myself from being allured.”
Directed by Kelli McGuire, the accompanying dreamlike video features the rising singer/songwriter and pianist spinning and expressively dancing to the song.
New Audio: Swedish Instrumental Outfit Automatism Shares Languorous Cover of Kraftwerk’s “Neon Lights”
Swedish instrumental psych rock outfit Automatism — Hans Hjelm (guitar), Gustav Nygren (guitar), Mikael Tuominen (bass) and Jonas Yrlid (drums) — will be releasing their long-awaited fourth album Sörmland Friday through German-based label Tonzonen Records.
Five years have passed since the release of 2020’s Immersion. The hiatus wasn’t completely voluntary, so when the band reconvened in September 2023 to begin the creative process for their fourth album, it felt like a special occasion for the band — much like a family reunion. Recorded in a former chapel in the Swedish rural county of Sörmland, the building’s high ceilings and open atmosphere helped set the overall tone of the soon-to-be-released album. As they were recording, they could see the verdant landscape from the building’s tall windows, which inspired them to name the album after the province.
Sörmland‘s latest single “Neon Lights” is an instrumental take on Kraftwerk‘s “Neon Lights.” Clocking in a roughly the same time as the original, which appeared on 1978’s The Man-Machine, the Automatism rendition slows both the tempo and melody down, giving the song a languorous and dreamy, psilocybin-fueled buzz.
“Another one of those occasions when the best stuff comes out when you stop trying,” the band’s Mikael Tuominen says. “We had been working on a version of ‘Neon Lights’ for a while, even played it live, that was much closer to the original in feel and tempo. We did a couple of recordings of that version and they were okay. Then, without deciding anything, we just fell into playing the theme really slowly and softly, and again, luckily enough I hit the red button. First it was almost as if we didn’t take it seriously, but soon we entered the zone, and listening to the versions back to back there was no question of which one to choose.”
Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Marvin Isley!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 72nd anniversary of Marvin Isley’s birth.
New Audio: Swimming Pool Shares Hazy “Wednesday Kinda Weekend”
Split between The Hague and Zürich, Swimming Pool — Klyl Shifroni and Seraina Fässler — can trace their origins back to when the duo met while studying at the Institute of Sonology, where they bonded over a shared passion for songwriting, digital synthesis and code-based composition. The project’s name is derived from a photography series featuring hurricane-damaged backyard pools, which they saw a s a metaphor for the overlooked, the fractured, and the quiet beauty of ruin.
Their collaboration was born from late-night DJ sets in abandoned garages. Those sets saw their sound expanding from instinctive improvisation intoned a layered process sharped by bowed bass textures, processed vocals and subtle sampling techniques. Through a bend of ambient minimalism, lo-fi and punk, the pair blend experimental electronics and emotionally direct songwriting to not only evoke a world that is both carefully constructed and deeply vulnerable, but also allows them to balance intimacy with abstraction and warmth with fracture.
The duo’s recently released EP Line Cuts is a slow-burning exploration of the tension between clarity and distortion, closeness and distance. Rather than delivering catharsis, the EP’s material lingers in the uneasy spaces between feelings. focusing on longing, memory, repetition and collapse.
Line Cuts EP‘s latest single “Wednesday Kinda Weekend” is a slow-burning and hazy track that features glistening, reverb-soaked shoegazer-like textures, thumping beats, a supple bass line, thunderous drum cracks serving as a lush and vibey bed for reverb and distortion-drenched vocals. While seemingly channeling Beach House, the song evokes disorientation — a sense of ethereally floating without recognition or acknowledgement of space or time.
New Audio: TONNUP Shares Woozy and Euphoric “Dream of You”
Craig Ferguson is an electronic music producer and artist, best known as TONNUP. Over the past year, Ferguson has released a growing collection of club bangers. His latest single “Dream of You” is a club banger featuring a punchy bass line, tweeter and woofer rattling beats and glistening synths serving as a lush bed for a soulful and yearning vocal sample.
Arguably, one of the more summery, almost Ibiza-like tunes of Ferguson’s growing catalog, “Dream of You” is a fun song with a euphoric hook that manages to capture the woozy joy of thinking about a crush — and realizing that it’s mutual.
Throwback: Happy 27th Birthday, Genesis Owusu!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu’s 27th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, Kelvin Mercer, A.K.A. Posdnous, a.k.a. Plug One!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates De La Soul’s Kelvin Mercer’s 56th birthday.
New Audio: Tony Shamanski Shares a Slickly Produced and Soulful Banger
Tony Shamanski shares a slickly produced and soulful banger.