Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Barry Adamson Returns with Sexy Slasher Film-Inspired Visuals for Latest Single “They Walk Among Us”

If you’ve been frequenting this site at some point over the course of its almost 7 year history, you’ve come across a couple of posts on the renowned Manchester, UK-born and-based singer/songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, producer and filmmaker, Barry Adamson. Tracing the origins of his musical career to stints a member Magazine, Visage, The Birthday Party, and Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Adamson has had a lengthy and critically applauded solo career, in which he’s recorded and released 8 full-length albums, 7 EPs and a retrospective compilation, including I Will Set You Free, one of my favorite albums of 2012.

Now up until last year, it had been some time since I had written about or heard from Adamson. In 2013, the Manchester-born and-based musician and singer/songwriter rejoined Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds for the recording of Cave’s critically applauded Push the Sky Away and over the subsequent few years, Adamson was busy composing soundtracks and getting more involved in film; however, Adamson released Know Where to Run last year, an effort that found the renowned multimedia artist and multi-instrumentalist pushing his sound in a number of different directions with the album’s material drawing from film noir, pop standards, jazz, dub, trip-hop and indie rock — but in Adamson’s imitable style.

Adamson’s 8th EP, Love Sick Dick is slated for an April 14, 2017 release and reportedly the EP will thematically explore the deepest, inner workings of a lovelorn, sad sack bastard in all of his downhearted, paranoid, self-flagellation and grief paired with a sound that the renowned British artist and producer has dubbed “futuristic blues” — and as he explains in press notes, ‘The blues is the blues and if the heart aches then that’s the sound that will come out, whether you are playing guitar, a synth, a piano or performing futuristic guitar solos on your iPhone!” Of course, Love Sick Dick will also further cement Adamson’s reputation for writing, playing, sampling and recording every note, frequently employing the use of new technology to replicate his sound both in the studio and live.

Love Sick Dick’s second and latest single “They Walk Among Us” is a sultry and propulsive track in which Adamson’s husky baritone crooning is paired with a dance floor-friendly production featuring stomping, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, layers of shimmering arpeggio synths, ominously swirling electronics, a sinuous bass line and an infectious, ear worm of a hook to create a song that evokes the murkily foreboding, late night prowl of someone looking for action while being remarkably cinematic — as though it could easily be part of a soundtrack of a psychological horror film. Interestingly, as Adamson explained to the folks at Dangerous Minds the song and its accompanying, “‘They Walk Among Us’ explores the conviction of who or indeed what lies beneath the mask we present. The fantasy, the illusion, and all too often foreboding reality.”

Directed by Adamson himself, the recently released video also stars the Manchester, UK-born artist as a debonair English gentleman walking back to his flat, when he comes across a stunning woman, who he invites back to his place — but it ends with a horrible and bloody conclusion that hints at the fact that people aren’t what they seem or what they really are.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

With the release of their 2014 full-length debut This Is Not A Bedroom, the Austin, TX-based indie rock quartet Alex Napping — comprised of Alex Cohen (vocals, guitar), Adrian Sebastian Haynes (guitar), Tomas Garcia-Olano (bass) and Andrew Stevens (drummer) — quickly developed a reputation for a guitar rock/guitar pop sound with album material that thematically focused on a nostalgia for a period of youthful self-discovery and early romantic stirrings — while simultaneously drawing from collective conversations about their own youth and its limitations. The band followed that up in 2016 with a pair of expressive singles “Trembles Part 1 and 2,” which drew from a short story Cohen, and captured the attention of NPR and BBC Radio 1, who both covered them during the band’s SXSW sets.

 

Mise En Place, the band’s forthcoming sophomore effort is salted for a May 5, 2017 release through Father/Daughter Records and the album reportedly will thematically focus on the uncertainties of adulthood with a personal desire to establish some sort of existential structure as the album’s narrative revolves around a formative relationship in which the narrator explores the conflicting roles as an individual and as part of a couple. And with the album’s second and latest single “You Got Me” manages to sound as though it draws from power chord-based 90s alt rock, complete with anthemic hooks and an ethereal melody; but the song manages to be moody and remarkably direct, as it evokes the inherent uncertainty, baggage and self-doubts that everyone has whenever they’re in a relatively new relationship. After all, the one thing we’re all certain of is that a romantic relationship is a frantic, desperate leap of faith that this time it’ll be different.
Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Bold International Women’s Day-Themed Visuals for Sofi Tukker’s “Johnny”

As I mentioned in a previous post, with today being International Women’s Day, it’s necessary and appropriate to spend some portion of the day both here and on Twitter honoring the female artists, musicians and producers that have inhabited the JOVM universe — and of course, to continuing to cover both new and sometimes established female artists, producers and musicians throughout the day as much as humanly possible.

Now, as you may recall over the past couple of years, the New York-based, Grammy-nominated electro pop duo Sofi Tukker have become JOVM mainstay artists while simultaneously seeing both critical and astronomical, commercial success with the release of the duo’s debut EP, Soft Animals. “Johnny,” off their critically applauded and commercially successful debut features a slick and sensual production featuring a looped sample of a sinuously languid guitar line, propulsive handclaps, boom bap-like beats and Hawley-Weld singing with a languorous and sultry Spanish accent. And while further cementing the duo’s reputation for crafting world music-inspired, accessible, dance floor-friendly pop, “Johnny” manages to arguably be their most seductive and boldly self-assured song off the EP.

The accompanying video, released in time for International Women’s Day features a trio of unapologetically bold women expressing themselves and their individuality — and having a shit ton of fun for not giving a single fuck about what anyone thinks of them; but importantly, these young ladies radiate with an infectious and undeniable vivaciousness

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Rachel K. Collier Performs New Single “Paper Tiger”

With today being International Women’s Day, I felt it was appropriate and necessary to spend some portion of the day both here and on Twitter honoring the female artists, musicians and producers I’ve written about throughout the site’s history and to writing about new (and sometimes, firmly established) female artists, producers throughout the day as much as humanly possible.

Rachel K. Collier is a accomplished Swansea, Wales, UK-born, London-based singer/songwriter and producer, who has quickly achieved both commercial and critical success across the UK. Collier is credited as a co-writer or producer or several chart-topping, smash hits including Ray Foxx’s “Boom Boom (Heartbeat),” which peaked at nubmer 12 on the UK Singles chart back in 2013; Mat Zo’s Grammy-nomiated album Damage Control, which peaked at number 1 on the iTunes Dance Album charts; and on legendary garage producer Wookie’s comeback single “2 Us.” As a solo artist, she recorded a cover of Jimmy Cliff’s “Hard Road to Travel,” which landed at number 79 on the UK Singles chart, and her debut original single “Predictions” was named Sarah Jane Crawford’s “Smash of the Week” on the radio personality’s BBC Radio 1Xtra show. Collier has also received airplay and praise from the likes of Annie Nightingale, Capitol Xtra, Tiësto and Oliver Heldons.

Building upon a growing national profile, Collier released her self-produced, debut EP Words You Never Heard through Love and Other records in late 2015 and followed that up with “Ships,” a single she released during the last few months of 2016. “Paper Tiger,” Collier’s first single of 2017 and the single features a slick yet unfussy, dance floor-friendly production consisting of wobbling low end, twinkling synths and stuttering drum programming, enormous tweeter and woofer rocking beats, and a chopped up vocal sample paired with a rousingly anthemic hook; but interestingly, Collier’s production manages to be roomy enough for her swaggering, cocky vocals.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Miles Francis Releases Infectious Darkly, Ironic Experimental Pop Single

Miles Francis’ solo debut single “You’re a Star” employs mischievously complex and propulsive polyrhythm, bursts of jerky and motwinkling 8 bit Nintendo-like synths, a breezy and infectious hook wrapped around hushed and whispered vocals. And while clearly drawing from Afropop and Afrobeat, the song also seems to draw from Fear of Music and Remain in Light-era Talking Heads, as well as contemporaries like Rubblebucket and others, “You’re a Star” sound like a bit of departure from Arntzen’s previously recorded work as the material possesses a darker and more ironic tone, as the song’s narrator is desperate for the greater validation that he may never actually see. In some way, it pokes fun at the musician’s life, darkly suggesting that maybe part of the endeavor is pointless and ridiculous.

Directed by Charles Billot, and featuring the Star Dancers, comprised of Magdalen Segale, Colin Fuller, Ashton Muniz, Matilda Nakamoto and Taner Van Kuren, as well as the Miles Francis backing band, comprised of Katherine Lieberson and Lizzie Lieberson, the recently released music video has the pop artist in a white, linen suit as he goes through a series of surreal, dream-like situations — including sitting in sparsely furnished apartment and on a beach with brightly costumed dancers moving to the song’s jerky instrumentation. And it ends with Miles Francis in the ocean, being overtaken by the waves. While being gorgeous, it’s surreal and is rife with several levels of symbolism left for the viewer to interpret in any way they felt fit.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past few years, you’ve likely come across Brooklyn-based indie dance pop act Body Language. Currently comprised of founding members Matthew Young and Grant Wheeler, along with Ian Chang and vocalist Angelica Bess, the Brooklyn-based act can trace its origins to when its founding duo had began crafting their own mixes and relies at a weekly party they curated and DJ’d while they were both living in Hartford, CT. And as the story goes, shortly after they had started their party, they met and recruited Angelica Bees, with whom they began writing their own original material, material that wound up comprising their debut effort Speaks. 

Interestingly, once the trio of Young, Wheeler and Bees began working on their sophomore EP Social Studies, they had hooked up with Theophilus London on an album — and during those sessions, they met the band’s fourth member Ian Chang who contributes to the band’s latest effort, 2016’s Mythos.  Now, if you had stumbled across JOVM during the course of last year, you might have come across a post on “Addicted,” the first single off Mythos — and the single revealed that the quartet went through a subtle change of sonic direction as the single found the act drawing from New Jack Swing and classic house.

Recently, the Brooklyn-based dance act shared Mythos‘ closing track, “Free,” a sensual and shimmering, classic house-inspired track featuring arpeggio synths, Bees’ sultry vocals a chopped up vocal sample and propulsive drum programming to create a song that sounds as though it drew influence from Crystal Waters‘ house music classic “Gypsy Woman (She’s Homeless).” But along with “Free,” the dance pop act released previously unreleased remixes of “Free” by Wrestlers and the album’s lead single “Addicted,” by Memoryy.

The Wrestlers remix of “Free,” begins with an introduction reminiscent of the introduction of Chaka Khan and Rufus‘ “Ain’t Nobody” before pairing Bees’ sultry vocals with a slick production that balances a retro-futuristic vibe with hyper contemporary recording techniques as it featuring wobbling and distorted arpeggio synths and chopped up vocal sample — and while still retaining the dance floor vibe of the original, the remix manages to push the song in a contemporary direction.

Closing out the singles package is Memoryy’s remix of “Addicted” pushes the song towards goth and industrial-leaning electronica  as tense and wobbling, arpeggio synths are paired with cowbell-led percussion and tweeter and woofer rocking beats. And in some way the remix manages to put an accessible spin on an industrial-like production, retaining the dance floor-friendliness and infectious hooks of the original.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’d know that members of the Philadelphia, PA-based heavy psych act Ecstatic Vision, currently comprised of Doug Sabolik, Michael Field Connor, Jordan Crouse, and Kevin Nickles initially formed in 2013 to primarily play “what they wanted to hear.” And with the release of their 2015 debut effort, Sonic Praise, an effort that drew from a wild variety of influences including Krautrock, Fela Kuti, Sun Ra, Hawkwind,  Aphrodite’s Child, Olatunji, Can, and early Amon Duul ll and for primal, psychedelic and intense live sets. Adding to a growing profile, the band toured with an impressive list of internationally renowned acts including Enslaved, YOB and Uncle Acid and The Dead Beats, Earthless, Red Fang, Acid King and others, and followed that with a lengthy European tour that included dates with Bang and Pentagram, as well as a set at the Roadburn Festival.

The Philadelphia-based hard psych band’s much-anticipated, sophomore follow up,  Raw Rock Fury is slated for an April 7, 2017 release through Relapse Records and as the band explained of the album in press notes, “With Raw Rock Fury, we set up to make an album that would remind listeners  of what an unpolished, dangerous rock recording should sound like.” And the album’s first single, “You Got It (Or You Don’t),” which I wrote about last night, is as the band described it as a “searing mash-up of the driving rhythms of Sly and the Family Stone mixed with the sound of Hawkwind playing Funhouse-era Troglodyte Rock.” And in many ways, the new single revealed a wild sense of unpredictability and danger that most contemporary rock sorely lacks. The album’s latest single “The Electric Step” manages to mesh the trippy, cosmic, stoner rock vibe of their debut with a swaggering, raw, unbridled and improvised energy as the band pairs blistering guitar work with guitar chords played through layers and layers of effects pedals, a forceful, propulsive rhythm and howled vocals to create what may be the band’s most explosive, insistent and primal stomp yet.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of two husband and wife couples, Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Noe Carmona (guitar, keys)  and Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) and Jake Soto (drums), the Austin, TX-based dream pop/shoegaze quartet Blushing can trace its origins to the summer of 2015 when its founding member Michelle Soto recruited her classically trained friend Christina Carmona to join her new project, after several years of writing material on guitar.  Soto and Carmona then recruited their spouses to complete the band’s lineup and after about a year of writing and revising their material, the newly formed quartet went into Bad Wolf Recordings to record their debut EP Tether, which was mixed and mastered by Philip Odom and released earlier this year.

“Tether,” the EP’s title track  and immersive first single finds the band pairing Carmona and Soto’s ethereal harmonizing with shimmering guitar chords, a propulsive rhythm section, a soaring hook and some guitar pyrotechnics during an immense solo in a way that brings to mind Cocteau Twins, The Sundays, Belly, Beach House, Real Estate and A Storm in Heaven-era The Verve and Lightfoils, complete with a subtly cosmic glow.

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The 120 Minutes-Era, Alt Rock Sounds and Visuals of Aarhus, Denmark’s Shocking White

Currently comprised of founding member Jan Petersen (guitars, vocals), along with Rune Randlev (bass) and Marco Bøgehøj (drums), the Aarhus, Denmark-based trio Shocking White have released three studio albums in which they’ve experimented with energetic post-punk, nihilistic No Wave and furious garage rock while the material’s backbone had always been decidedly noise rock. And although the act can trace its origins back to when Petersen founded the band in 2009, the band has started to receive attention across their native Denmark, the rest of Scandinavia and elsewhere over the past couple of years as the trio have played at Recession Festival, Pop Revo, Mejlgade for Mangfoldighed and Spot Festival. Adding to a growing profile, the band has toured across their native Denmark with Norwegian space rock act Kal-El and Canadian avant-garde punk act Alpha Strategy — and their “Tweet Scientists” 7 inch, which was released last may through Copenhagen-based label Tigermilk Records has received airplay on French and Canadian radio, and will be included on a compilation featuring internationally-based alternative rock/indie rock bands.

March 24, 2017 will mark the release of the band’s fourth studio album, Ghosting, an album that continues the band’s continuing collaboration with producer Rasmus Bredvig, who along with the members of the band, recorded the album in a frenzied 3 days at Arhus’ Tapetown Studio. And from Ghosting’s first single and album opening single “Into The Sun,” the band’s sound seems to draw from 90s grunge rock — i.e., Pixies, Sonic Youth and Nirvana — as the Danish trio pairs power chords played through reverb and distortion pedals with a rousingly anthemic hook, a propulsive and chugging rhythm section and a playfully pop-leaning sense of melody while thematically focusing on a profound and palpable fear of death that gives the song an underlying sense of menace and unease.

The recently released video for the song features footage shot in color-treated film negatives which create an otherworldly, psychedelic feel to the proceedings while being reminiscent of the thousands of videos I’ve watched during 120 Minutes-era MTV.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Currently comprised of Julia Kugel (vocals and guitar), Meredith Franco (bass), and Stephanie Luke (drums), the Atlanta, GA-based trio and JOVM mainstay The Coathangers in over a decade together have released five full-length albums in which each album found the band refining their sound and songwriting approach, balancing a brash, raw and seemingly spontaneously simplicity and urgency with a razor sharp wit and irony. And with the band’s last two full length efforts, Suck My Shirt and Nosebleed Weekend, the band was at their most streamlined and direct, giving the material off both of those albums a primal urgency — but with the sort of anthemic hooks that you can envision a room full of sweaty concertgoers lustily yelling along in a tiny, dark club.

Parasite, the band’s latest EP is slated for a June 30, 2017 release through Suicide Squeeze Records and the album’s material has the Atlanta-based trio balancing the unbridled and furious expressionism of their debut and the increasingly nuanced, pop-leaning sensibility of their last two albums. As the band’s Julia Kugel explains in press notes  “During the making of our last album, I didn’t want to scream anymore, I just wanted to sing and focus on melody. When we came to this recording, I just wanted to scream and curse.” And in some way, it shouldn’t be surprising that the EP’s material is partially inspired by both the bandmembers’ personal lives and the current political climate, rife with kleptocracy, hypocrisy, blatant sexism, racism and gratuitous cruelty while managing to be akin to a journey through them band’s existence and development.

 

“Captain’s Dead,” the first single off the EP manages to sound as though it could have been a B-side to any of the singles off Nosebleed Weekend while drawing from 90s grunge rock as the song structurally consists of alternating quiet and loud, anthemic hooks, and a surfer rock-inspired bridge, a propulsive rhythm section and a sneering punk rock air — but paired with twisting and buzzing organ chords. And much like the  band’s previously released material, the new single possesses an underlying mischievous feel underneath the scuzzy, give no fucks swagger.

The renowned garage rock trio will be embarking on a lengthy US and EU tour throughout the Spring and it’ll include two NYC area dates — April 20, 2017 at Sunnyvale and April 21, 2017 at Baby’s All Right. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

TOUR DATES:
03.09.17 – Visalia, CA @ The Cellar Door
03.10.17 – San Francisco, CA @ Brick & Mortar
03.11.17 – Oakland, CA @ Starline Social Club
03.12.17 – Santa Rosa, CA @ Arlene Francis Center
03.13.17 – Reno, NV @ The Holland Project
03.16.17 – Eugene, OR @ The Boreal
03.17.17 – Portland, OR @ Mississippi Studios
03.18.17 – Vancouver, BC @ Fortune Sound Club
03.19.17 – Seattle, WA @ Chop Suey
03.21.17 – Spokane, WA @ The Observatory
03.23.17 – Boise, ID @ Treefort Music Fest
03.24.17 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Diabolical Records
03.25.17 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Bunkhouse Saloon

04.15.17 – Durham, NC @ Pinhook
04.16.17 – Richmond, VA @ The Camel
04.18.17 – Washington, DC @ DC9
04.19.17 – Philadelphia, PA @ Ortliebs
04.20.17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Sunnyvale
04.21.17 – Brooklyn, NY @ Baby’s All Right
04.22.17 – Boston, MA @ Do617 Pop-Up Record Shop @ Brighton Music Hall
04.24.17 – Montreal, QC @ L’ Esco
04.25.17 – Toronto, ON @ Silver Dollar
04.26.17 – Buffalo, NY @ Tralf Music Hall
04.27.17 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Mr. Roboto
04.28.17 – Baltimore, MD @ Metro Gallery
04.29.17 – Charlotte, NC @ Reverb Fest 5

05.12.17 – UK Manchester @ Night & Day
05.13.17 – UK Brighton @ The Joker
05.15.17 – UK Bristol @ The Exchange
05.16.17 – UK Oxford @ The Bullingdon
05.17.17 – UK London @ Oslo
05.18.17 – UK Hastings @ The Printworks
05.19.17 – UK Leicester @ The Cookie
05.20.17 – UK Leeds @ Gold Sounds at Brudenell Social
05.21.17 – UK Sheffield@ The Harley
05.23.17 – UK Ramsgate @ Music Hall
05.24.17 – BE Gent @ PSYCH OVER 9000
05.25.17 – NL Eindhoven @ Stroomhuisje
05.26.17 – NL Rotterdam @ Girls Go Boom Night @ Roodkapje
05.27.17 – NL Amsterdam @ Pacific Park
05.28.17 – NL Utrecht @ dB’s
05.30.17 – DE Hamburg @ Molotow
05.31.17 – DE Berlin @ Cassiopeia

06.01.17 – DE Munich @ Orangehouse
06.02.17 – DE Cologne @ MTC
06.03.17 – FR Paris @ Le Batofar
06.04.17 – IT Ravenna @ Beaches Brew Festival
06.08.17 – FR Clermont @ Ferrand Le Barraka
06.09.17 – FR Nimes @ This is not a Love Song
06.10.17 – FI Helsinki @ Sideways Festival