Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Black Cashmere Shares Woozy “In My Head”

Emerging, Venice, CA-based indie duo Black Cashmere — Devon Sellers and Harry Weil — will be releasing their debut EP, In My Head in July. Recorded at Dream House Studios, the six-song EP introduces their remarkably close creative partnership while exploring their love of retro sounds, soulful house and jazz-tinged cadences.

The EP’s first single, EP title track “In My Head” features Sellers’ sultry, jazz-tinged cadence with a woozy production and arrangement, which sounds a bit like a synthesis of psych pop, neo-soul and trip-hop — in a way that reminds me a bit of JOVM mainstays The Lovelines. The song’s narrator describing swooning and yearning for a love interest, while still recognizing that they’re still stuck in their head.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: 17 Year-Old Nevi Outlyr Shares Deceptively Breezy “Stuck”

17 year-old, emerging artist Nevi Outlyr started rapping in church when he turned 15. Originally, he didn’t take either seriously. But that changed after he started college and a particularly difficult breakup. “I was hitting open mics everywhere, partly trying to get her attention, mostly trying to prove to myself I was worth listening to,” the young artist explains.

As for his name, there’s a story behind that: “I ask my mom to give me an artist name. She says, ‘Inevitable.’ Long, but it felt like,” he recalls. “After a few versions, I landed on Nevi. That Outlyr part came from, believe it or not, a math class. I learned about how one number way off from the rest can shift the whole average, an ‘outlier.'” He says, “It stuck. Never thought I’d relate to numbers, but somehow that felt like me.”

Gradually for the young artist, his efforts became less about being heard and more about being honest. “Every track I make is just me trying to make sense of whatever’s going on in m head,” he says, “Anxiety, joy, the awkwardness of being all — it’s al in there.” He goes on to describe his sound as “ambivalent, experimental hip-hop with a hint of toxic positivity. Think ‘Hey Ya,’ by OutKast for reference. People tell me that I give Chance the Rapper, Andre 3000, Smino, sometimes even Mac Miller, depending on the track.”

“But most of the time,” he adds, “I feel like a character stuck in an episode of Seinfeld. At the end of the day I make music for people like me, the overthinkers, the soft-spoken loud minds, people trying to laugh through the heavy stuff. My songs might not save the world, but they might make you feel like you’re not alone in it.”

His latest single “Stuck” is a deceptively upbeat and breezy track that features the young artist’s remarkably Andre 3000-meets-Mac Miller-meets-Chance the Rapper-like flow darting around carnival ride in hell-inspired production featuring an eerily twinkling synth melody, a breakneck and propulsive synth bass line and a lysergic break and guitar solo. But underneath upbeat and breezy vibes, the song describes a familiar sensation for anyone who’s a go-getter — the feeling that you’re somehow stuck in place while everyone else around you is racing past you.

Honestly, even in my 40s I’ve felt this! And I’d bet that many of you readers have felt the same at various times, including now. But with age, there’s occasional moments of wisdom that reminds you that it’s usually just perception, ego and your stupid brain.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: The Color of Cyan Performs “Hail the Mountains” at Chicago’s Electrical Audio

Chicago-based post rock/post-metal outfit The Color of Cyan — Henry Cole (drums), Jorge Santana (bass) and Eduardo Cintron (guitar) — originally formed in San Juan, Puerto Rico back in 2000. The band re-emerged during the height of the pandemic as a solely instrumental project that created intricate soundscapes with aggressive guitar.

2021’s Agape featured multi-layered material that patiently built up in pressure and impact.

2023’s Egress, which was recorded between Puerto Rico, Chicago and Mexico City saw the band blurring the boundaries of a sound that featured elements of post metal, post rock and neo-classical while exploring emotion through introspective and delicate compositions. “Our music arrangements are purposely in constant motion, guided by emotions, impossible to replicate perfectly, like waves in the sea. Nothing is ever the same as before,” the Chicago-based outfit explained in press notes.

The Color of Cyan’s forthcoming third album As Human reportedly sees the band expanding upon their sound further with organic and abstract compositions that are central to the album’s identity. According to the band, “the album feels like a film without words — an exploration of what it means to be fragile, to endure, and to feel deeply.”

As Human’s first single “Hail the Mountains” is a cinematic and shoegazer-like composition featuring swelling, swirling and towering feedback-drenched guitars paired with shimmering strings that manages to evoke wind-swept, mountainous vistas while sonically recalling Collapse Under the Empire and You Doo Right. “This song is a towering ode to resilience. With swelling orchestration and tremolo-driven peaks, it captures the sublime tension between permanence and solitude, grandeur and stillness,” The Color of Cyan explains. “It’s a soundscape carved into stone, echoing long after the final note fades into an acoustic denouement.”

The band recorded a live session at Chicago‘s Electrical Audio, which features the band and an orchestra performing the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Develour Shares Lush and Breezy “Celle qui”

Mysterious and mischievous French artist Develour emerged into the Francophone indie pop scene with the release of “La Part des Agnes,” a song which saw him quickly establishing a sound that he playfully dubbed “French touch disco,” a sound that draws from and features elements of chanson, soul, funk, disco and pop. 

“La Part des Agnes” and the French artist’s second single “Un Matin,” which I described as a breezy and summery bop built around a swaggering and infectious 80s-inspired groove, appeared on his debut EP, 2023’s Vert Galant. 

The emerging French artist forthcoming sophomore EP will feature the previously released “Dealer d’Amour,” a dreamy and lush song that prominently features Developer’s yearning, achingly plaintive cooing, and the EP’s latest single “Celle qui.”

“Celle qui” continues a run of lush and breezy, hook-driven tunes, featuring glistening synth arpeggios, a supple and funky bass line serving as a lush bed for the French artist’s yearning delivery. While breakneck and infectious, thematically, the new single, as Develour explains focuses on the fantasies and stories we tell ourselves while deeply fascinated with a potential love interest. He goes on to say that the song sonically and structurally plays on the contrasts between the longing and self-doubt in the pursuit of a desired one.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Smut Shares Expansive and Anthemic “Waste Me”

After spending years in the Cincinnati DIY scene, Smut — currently Tay Roebuck (vocals), Andie Min (guitar), John Steiner (bass), Sam Ruschman (guitar) and Aidan O’Connor (drums) — caught the attention of Bayonet Records, who signed the band and released their sophomore album, 2022’s critically applauded How the Light Felt. The album brought the band to Chicago, a city with more room for their growing sound. 

But despite their early successes, they still faced the struggles of the modern working musician: instability, financial precarity, objectification and more. The band channeled a period of touring, personnel changes and personal upheavals into their third album, Tomorrow Comes Crashing. 

Officially dropping today, through Bayonet Records, Tomorrow Comes Crashing marks the band’s first recorded output with O’Connor and Steiner while seeing the band re-energized and trained on the limitless potential that comes with making music with people you love.

The band specifically focused on capturing the big emotions that come with falling in love with music for the first time. The result is ten of what may arguably be their most intense, bombastic and focused songs to date.

The Chicago-based band recorded the album’s material “as live as they could,” alongside Momma‘s Aron Kobayashi Ritch in a Red Hook, Brooklyn-based studio over the course of a breakneck 10-day session. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married, with the rest of the band by their side. 

“We have so much energy right now,” Smut’s Roebuck says. The recording sessions were a true labor of love — driving from Chicago with all their equipment, returning from 12 hour studio days to sleep on friends’ couches and floors, Roebuck completely blowing her voice by the end. Fittingly, the album is culmination of the band’s long-held DIY spirit — with the band creating a record that encompasses the intensity, moodiness and emotions of their journey so far. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • “Syd Sweeney,” a song inspired by and named after the actor that describes the profound strangeness to be a woman, and how easily as a woman it is to be constantly misunderstood and misconstrued.

  • “Touch & Go,” a full-throated, 120 Minutes MTV-era power ballad that showcases the band’s knack for pairing rousingly anthemic hooks with, big riffs and earnest, lived-in lyricism and songwriting.

Tomorrow Comes Crashing‘s latest single “Waste Me” continues a run of hooky and anthemic material that recalls 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock — but under the big power chords and arena rock swagger is a softness that’s feminine but also thoughtful, lived-in and deeply earnest while arguably being the most dynamic, expansive and The Cure-like song they’ve written and recorded to date.

“Waste Me” is inspired by Greek mythology. “I wanted to write about ego, about building people up in our minds to unreachable heights, and pride,” Smut’s Roebuck explains,. “The story of Icarus was really ripe to elaborate on so I just extended the story. What if Icarus lived? What if someone thought he was the answer to their prayers?”

The accompanying video by Michael Fanos features collage-styled animation loosely based on the song’s lyrics.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: R.I.P. Walter Scott

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the life and music of The Whispers co-founder Walter Scott.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Dream Bodies Shares Shimmering, Brooding, and Dance Floor Friendly “Circle of Light”

Steven Fleet is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, poet, writer and artist, who has been in several music projects that have allowed him to play shows across the US, the UK, Germany and the Czech Republic. He is also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Dream Bodies. With Dream Bodies, Fleet crafts “witchy, dreamy, gothy, post punk, dream pop, cold wave with poetic, philosophical lyrics.” 

The Los Angeles-based artist’s recently Dream Bodies debut EP, Circle of Light features the previously released “Dream Hangover,” and the EP’s latest single, EP title track “Circle of Light,” a dance floor friendly bit of post punk/coldwave featuring skittering beats, squiggling, reverb-drenched guitars and broodingly atmospheric synths serving as a dark yet lush bed for Fleet’s sonorous baritone.

Fleet explains that the song’s lyrics focus on occult themes, and a liminal space between light and darkness, life and death. This new single, along with its predecessor helps introduce Fleet’s mystical, occult oeuvre.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Besnard Lakes Share Woozy “In Hollywood”

Acclaimed and beloved Montréal-based shoegazers The Besnard Lakes — husband and wife Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, along with Kevin Laing, Gabriel Lambert and Sheenah Ko — recently announced their seventh album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation. “I feel like it’s a very formidable title, symbolic of the times,” the band’s Jace Lasek says. “It’s talking about the death of nations, the threat of Canada being the 51st state. There is the desire to be left alone, to let community be community, all of those things that feel like they might be under siege; that’s what the ghost nation is.”

Slated for an October 10, 2025 release through Full Time Hobby, The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation was recorded at Lost River Studios. During the course of the five-day session, the band experienced creative solitude in the woods with some of their family members accompanying them while the band experimenting and compiled the album’s material. The Besnard Lakes’ forthcoming seventh album reportedly sees them creating their most playful yet thoughtful and heartfelt songs to date.

The acclaimed Canadian shoegazers admit that this was partly in response to 2021’s The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings. “The last album was so heavy,” the band’s Jace Lasek explains. “There was so much weight and heavy themes, like my dad dying. It was just death everywhere on that record. This album doesn’t really seem to be that. To me, it seems very playful.”

The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation‘s first single “In Hollywood” is a slow-burning dirge anchored around woozy, reverb-drenched guitars, the Montréal-based band’s penchant for rousingly anthemic hooks paired with dreamy vocals and a twangy, psilocybin-tinged solo. Sonically, “In Hollywood” sounds a bit like a synthesis of 2010’s The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night and The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings but with a woozy, synth-driven coda.

As the band’s Olga Goreas explains, “The first cut lifted from the album ‘In Hollywood’ dates back to 2010 and…are the Roaring Night era. It’s a melody that was circulating in Jace’s mind for many years. Unable to let it go, Jace sat with it and finally brought it to light. Written in a dropped D tuning, ‘In Hollywood’ is atypical in the Besnard canon. Some very creative synth work from Sheenah in the outro. A beautifully bizarre guitar solo from Gabriel. This one shows off Jace’s vocal stylings and has an intriguing lyrical journey for the listener to discover.”

The accompanying video features edited, old-timey, Super 8 and black and white footage of Golden Era Hollywood that emphasizes the dreamy vibe of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy Belated 55th Birthday, Colin Greenwood!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Colin Greenwood’s 55th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 70th Birthday, Mick Jones!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates The Clash’s and Big Audio Dynamite’s Mick Jones’ 70th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 62nd Birthday, George Michael!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 62nd anniversary of the birth of George Michael.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Slow Crush Shares Stormy and Swooning “While You Dream Vividly”

After a frenetic and overwhelming touring schedule to support their first two albums, 2018’s Aurora and 2021’s Hush, the acclaimed Belgian shoegazers Slow Crush — Isa Holliday (vocals, bass), Frederik Meeuwis, Jelle Ronsmans (guitar) and Nic Placlé — took a couple years off from touring, which allowed the quartet the space to breathe and create new material.

Slow Crush’s highly-anticipated third album, Thirst is slated for an August 29, 2025 release through Pure Noise Records. Recorded at Southampton, UK-based The Ranch, the Lewis Johns-produced album reportedly sees the band’s dynamic textures, propulsive rhythms and gauzy riffs shimmer as brightly as ever — but the album sees the band adding a bit more grit and grime to their sound. The album features arguably the heaviest riffs they’ve ever recorded, as well as some of Holliday’s dreamiest and most vulnerable vocals to date. During the recording process, there were sons she couldn’t record without dissolving into tears.

Thirst‘s overacting theme is what Holliday describes as “the romance of being with a loved one.” Although being away from loved ones for long periods of time might put a strain on that relationship, the return can feel euphoric and the connection can be feel almost like it were brand new. Throughout the album, the members of Slow Crush set out to create the feeling of being tethered yet simultaneously weightless, absorbed in the beauty of quiet moments with that special someone.

“We want people to let themselves go and feel embraced by the music, so that they can experience it in 4D,.” Slow Crush’s Isa Holliday explains. “That’s what we hear a lot from people who come to see us live, or people who’ve listened to our previous albums, is that we take them to another dimension. I think that’s something that we miss in this day and age with everything that’s going on in the world, making us very aware of everything outside, but not allowing us to just be in the moment as much as you should. We want to let people take a moment for themselves and let the music take them wherever they would like to go.”

Thirst‘s first single “While You Dream Vividly” is a slow-burning and hypnotic tune anchored around swirling and painterly guitar textures, thunderous drumming that serve as a stormy bed for Holliday’s ethereal and yearning delivery singing “true blue” lyrics like an echoing promise. The result is to leave the listener swooning and desperately yearning — seemingly forever.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Brisbane’s The Valery Trails Share an Anthemic Ode to Nostalgia and Aging

Formed back in 2011, Brisbane-based indie rock outfit The Valery Trails — currently, Andrew Bower (vocals, guitar), Sean Bower (bass), Dan McNaulty (drums) and longtime collaborators Screamfeeder‘s Tim Steward (guitar, vocals) and We All Want To‘s Skye Staniford (vocals) — traces their origins back to when the band’s frontman, Andrew Bower, an expatriate Aussie then residing in Houston, enlisted his brother Sean Bower and Dan McNaulty to start the band.

With the assistance of file-sharing through the internet and some occasional intercontinental travel, the trio develop da set of songs started in Andrew Bower’s home studio into the band’s full-length debut, 2012’s Ghosts and Gravity.

2014’s Buffalo Speedway and 2016’s Chameleon Bones further cemented their melodic and atmospheric rock sound while receiving college and speciality airplay in the States and critical applause from media outlets like PopMatters, The Big Takeover and many others across the globe.

Following Andrew Bower’s return to Brisbane in 2020, the band began their transition to writing in a much more conventional manner, gathering to to record 2022’s The Sky Is Blue with long-time collaborators Steward taking a more active role in the band while Staniford continued to provide backing vocals, as she has since the band’s second album. Radio airplay in several Aussie cities and an east coast tour helped to increase the band’s profile at home, while The Sky Is Blue charted on Stateside college and specialty radio.

The band’s extended lineup gathered last year to work on a set of songs, which would become the band’s forthcoming album, Winter Palace. Slated for a September 12, 2025 release, the Aussie indie rock outfit’s fifth album continues the eclectic approach of its immediate predecessor, with the material seeing the band explore synth-pop stylings, horn-driven retro flavors and some straightforward rock and roll sprinkled among the band’s long-held power pop crunch and jangle.

“Everything Is Temporary” Winter Palace‘s breakneck first single continues a remarkable run of hook-driven, crunchy, 120 Minutes-era MTV alt-rock-meets-Husker Dü -like rock. Thematically, the song leans a bit on familiar nostalgia while also viewing with a healthy and wizened suspicion of too much nostalgia. As LCD Soundsystem‘s James Murphy once sang “I wouldn’t trade one stupid decision for another five minutes of life” and maybe that’s a healthier way of looking back on things.