JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates 50 Cent’s 50th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 56th Birthday, The RZA!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The RZA’s 56th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 75th Birthday, Huey Lewis!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Huey Lewis’ 75th birthday.
New Audio: Club 8 Returns with Shimmering and Yearning “Born The Wrong Time”
Last year, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — released their 11th album, A Year With Club 8, which featured the Joy Division/New Order-meets-The Raveonettes-like “Something’s Wrong With My Head,” a woozily blissful and escapist song that continued a run of material dabbling in 80s New Wave nostalgia.
The duo have been busy, releasing a single every month throughout the course of this year. including “ooo,” “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead” and “Staying Alive,” which I wrote about on this site.
The duo’s latest single “Born The Wrong Time” is a slow-burning and dreamy track that reminds me a bit of a lush synthesis of JOVM mainstays Still Corners, The Sundays and Souvlaki-era Slowdive paired with Konstedt’s yearning vocal, nostalgic longing for a seemingly simpler time.
New Audio: Danny Waters Shares a Euphoric Remix of Volgin and Ertan Koculu’s “I Wanna”
Danny Waters is a Portuguese DJ, producer and founder and label head of Sonic Frequency Records. As a DJ and producer, Waters has crafted material across a wide range of electronic music genres and subgenres including house, deep house, deep tech, tech house, progressive house and techno — with a deep interest in protest and probing social questions.
Waters recently shared a remix of Ertan Koculu and Volgin’s “I Wanna,” turning a woozy, Ibiza-tinged deep house banger into a euphoric, tribal house-meets-Larry Levan banger that retains the summery, dance all night vibe of the original. House music all night long, y’all.
Throwback: Happy 87th Birthday, Bill Withers!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 87th anniversary of the birth of Bill Withers.
Throwback: Happy 83rd Birthday, Dr. Lonnie Smith!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 83rd anniversary of the birth of Dr. Lonnie Smith.
Throwback: Happy 64th Birthday, Vince Clarke!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Vince Clarke’s 64th birthday.
New Audio: Auckland’s The Circling Sun Shares Meditative and Yearning “Mizu”
The Circling Sun is an Auckland/Tāmaki Makaurau-based jazz collective featuring some of New Zealand/Aotearoa’s finest players, including
- Avantdale Bowling Club‘s and Nathan Haines‘ Ben Turua (acoustic bass)
- Ladi 6’s, Avantdale Bowling Club’s and solo artist in their own right, Julian Dyne (drums, percussion)
- Yoko-Zuna‘s, CHAII‘s, Avantdale Bowling Club’s and Dave Dobbyn‘s J.Y. Lee (sax, flute)
- Troy Kingi’s, Avantdale Bowling Club’s and Bailey Wiley‘s Guy Harrison (keys, trumpet)
- Opensouls‘ and Relaxomatic Project’s Cameron Allen (saxophones, keys)
- Carnivorous Plant Society‘s and Dave Dobbyn’s Finn Scholes (trumpet, vibraphone)
- Manuka Recordings’ and Summer Vee‘s Matt Hunter, a.k.a Kenny Sterling (percussion)
The Kiwi-based collective draws from and pays homage to progressive and deeply spiritual Afrocentric jazz. And while being reverent, their approach emphasis both authentic expression and innovation, making their work strikingly original and meditative.
The acclaimed collective’s sophomore album Orbits is slated for a July 11, 2025 release through Soundway Records. The highly-anticipated follow-up to 2023’s critically applauded, full-length debut, Spirits reportedly sees the collective balancing melodic immediacy with harmonic depths with motifs that gradually unfold into complex, multi-layered arrangements. The material takes sonic cues from the mid 70s, channeling the genre-blending, genre-defying energy of Rashaan Roland Kirk and Yusef Lateef‘s Atlantic Records-era period while brining the bubbling synthetic textures on Spirits more fully into focus. Along with that, a standout feature throughout the album is the collective’s collaboration with the Love Affinity Choir, which isn’t a mere flourish or embellishment, but as the material’s textural and narrative force.
Simultaneously layered and ethereal, the choir’s harmonies and melodies float through the material like a celestial current — at times grounding, at times transcendent. Lyrically abstract yet spiritually grounded, Love Affinity Choir’s vocal contributions express universal themes of love, peace, escapism and awe, all while guiding listeners through a shared cosmic journey.
Orbits’ latest single “Mizu,” is a dreamily meditative and breathtakingly beautiful song sees the Kiwis paying homage to Brazilian jazz while intricate percussive motifs and bubbling and gurgling synths help shape the song’s melodic phrasing while propelling the song forward. Love Affinity Choir’s vocal contributions give the song a deep spiritual yearning; the sort of yearning reminiscent of John Coltrane while also being a deeply needed moment of calm and beauty in our mad, mad, mad world.
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