Tag: All The Time

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: ssiv Shares Gorgeous, Painterly “all the time”

ssiv is an emerging Danish indie out that features three, individually accomplished musicians:

  • Stephen (bass, vocals), an American-born musician, who recorded and toured for over seven years as a member of Los Angeles-based psych rock band Triptides, an act that has made the run of the global festival circuit with sets at Desert Daze and LEVITATION France. He’s a founding member of experimental pop band Cosmo Gold. And he has a solo recording project Little Rituals.

  • Sasha (guitar, vocals) is a Copenhagen-based multi-instrumentalist, who originally began her career in earnest as a jazz singer, before gradually moving towards writing her own original material, which saw her experimenting across genres and styles. Since then, the Danish-born and-based artist has become a local underground scene stalwart working in a number of different projects singing, playing bass, guitar and piano.

  • Sara (drums, vocals) is a Copenhagen-based drummer rooted in pop and indie music. She is drawn to what she describes as “the living improvisation between musicians — the presence and spontaneity that allow a song to expand beyond itself.” She has played in a number of Danish-based acts including Noras Have, Radiant Arcadia, Højkvist, Kara Moon, Gurli Octavia and Josa Barck. Currently she plays with Ameli Dot and Johanne.

ssiv can trace the origin back to when Sara and Stephen shared a rehearsal room and decided to jam. After some jam sessions, Sara invited her long-time collaborator and friend Sasha to join in. Their first session as a trio, which they recorded, became “a beautiful, 2-hour fluid improvisation,” as they described.

Listening back, they realized that they had many ideas already taking root. They counted meeting, developing fragments from those early recordings and occasionally writing lyrics together on-the-fly. Eventually, the trio decided to call it a band, although they didn’t originally intend to start one. As they explain, “we didn’t want to ruin the magic.”

The band’s name manages to reflect that carefree attitude. “It’s an ‘s’ for each of other names, it means nothing really — a ‘non-name’ for our ‘non-band.'”

Sonically, the trio work in a trust-based space between dream pop, psych pop and indie folk, rooted in collective improvisation and strict limitations with arrangements anchored around guitar, bass, drums and vocals, and drawing from the likes of Galaxie 500, Low, Yo La Tengo and Big Thief. They view their work as quietly human in a cultural moment increasingly defined by generative AI systems and perfectionism.

The Copenhagen-based trio’s debut EP, 2024’s ssiv 1 drew from their first jam session, while their sophomore effort, between 1 and 2, which was released earlier this year was “made from spontaneous improvisations from another gathering.”

Their latest single “all the time” is a gorgeous, painterly tune that seemingly channels Slowdive and Forever So-era Husky that feels both improvised and deliberately crafted while showcasing their equally gorgeous harmonies.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of founding member singer/songwriter Jack Cherry, Jack Webster (bass), Howard Stewart (drums), Clark Brown (guitar) and Declan Farisse (guitar), the Athens, GA-based indie rock quintet Juan de Fuca can trace their origins back to when Cherry started the band as a solo recording project. And with the release of 2015’s cavern of EP, some of Cherry’s Athens area music friends encouraged Cherry to make something bigger happen with his material. As the story goes, Webster and Stewart opened pushed for Cherry to expand the project into a full-fledged band — and when Brown and Farisee joined the band, the newly constituted quintet because working on developing a sound that drew from shoegaze and early 00s post-punk.

With the January 12, 2018 release of their Drew Vandenberg-produced, full-length debut Solve/Resolve through Arrowhawk Records, the band reportedly attempts to channel the intimacy of early demos with a wide spectrum, layered sound and through the album’s ten tracks, the band’s material focuses on themes of struggle, nihilism, loss and redemption, like a turbulent undertow rumbling across a briefly placid surface; in fact, at the album’s first dates single “All The Time” finds the band pairing layers of jangling and shimmering guitar chords, soaring hooks and a propulsive rhythm section with Cherry’s vocals floating ethereally above the fray. And as you hear the song, it shouldn’t be surprising to see an uncanny resemblance to The Walkmen and others but with a blistering insistence.

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Trippy Visuals for Miami-based Electro Pop Duo Eons’ Latest Single “All The Time”

Comprised of Johnny D (vocals, guitar and keyboards) and Matty G (keyboards, sampling and vocals), the Miami, FL-based indie elector pop duo EONS have received praise from the likes of  Huffington Post and others for […]

Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

WISH is the creative brain child and solo side project of the 23 year-old Kyle Connolly, who may be best known for his work in Toronto-based bands Milk Lines, Breeze and Beliefs. Connolly recruited several of his bandmates and local musicians […]