Tag: Because Music

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: The Limiñanas Perform “One Blood Circle” at Because Beaubourg

Founded back in 2009, acclaimed Cablestany, France-based duo The Limiñanas — Lionel Limiñana (guitar) and Marie Limiñana (drums) — have firmly established a sound that meshes French yéyé with contemporary garage and psych rock with lyrics sung in French and English.

Through their collaborations with a diverse array of artists, the French duo have a unique ability to distill the cachet of a nostalgic, highly cinematic era while revisiting it with through a modern lens. They’ve built up an international profile through collaborations with The Brian Jonestown Massacre‘s Anton Newcombe and New Order‘s Peter Hook.

During their early years, their material was released through labels here in the States; for a while, they had a much bigger profile Stateside than their native France. And adding to a growing international profile, they have high-profile admirers ranging from Primal Scream and Franz Ferdinand to Iggy Pop, who regularly plays them on his BBC 6 Music show.

After a 2015 collaborative album with Pascal Comeleade, the duo signed to French label Because Music, who re-issued their catalog in Europe. And since then they’ve continued to captivate audiences and critics globally through extensive touring across Europe, the UK and Australia.

The duo celebrate their extensive catalog with the release of their first live album, Live at Beaubourg, which is slated for a June 19, 2026 release through Because Music. Recoded during an exceptional weekend at Centre Pompidou, Live at Beaubourg brings the psych rock sounds of the acclaimed French duo with the visuals of contemporary artist SMITH.

The collaboration between The Limiñanas and Smith goes back to Normandie Impressionniste 2024. Festival director Philippe Platel thought it would be a great idea to bring both artists together. “I had already been listening to The Limiñanas for a long time, so I was delighted,” he says. At the time, the duo were working on their most recent effort, Faded, an album dedicated to Golden Era Hollywood actresses, who are no longer with us. This resonated with SMITH’s work, which often employs the use of thermal cameras. “What the camera sees is not the body but the heat it gives off, a kind of aura left behind before it disappears,” Smith says. That’s exactly what Faded is about: bringing these ghosts back through music.

Conceived to match the architecture and energy of Because Beaubourg, where the label turns the museum into a playground where performances, carte blanche events and even DJ sets from the likes of Thomas Bangalter and Fred Again.. , Live at Beaubourg serves as the only recording from that weekend and was envisioned as a documentary of the event, rather than a simple live “best of” album.

SMITH and the acclaimed French duo had imagined a collaborative show that would take place October 24, 2025 during Because Beaubourg at Centre Pompidou. The album captures the hypnotic eight-song performance in a continuous flow, featuring a backing band of five musicians and their longtime collaborator Pascal Comeleade playing songs across their catalog. That’s right, no interruptions. “What I love about live shows is achieving a kind of trance naturally through the performance. We had agreed there would be no interruption in the sound, with a ceremonial aspect as well, since we were closing Beaubourg before renovations,” Lionel Limiñana says.

Along with the album announcement, the duo will be embarking on their first-ever North American tour. The tour includes an October 24, 2026 stop at Le Poisson Rouge. And of course, the rest of the tour dates are below. But in the meantime, the acclaimed French duo shared a live version of broodingly cinematic “One Blood Circle,” featuring their longtime collaborator Pascal Comeleade. Anchored around a persistent and relentless pulse, “One Blood Circle” evokes the unease, dread and brutality of our late-stage capitalist, fascistic hellscape. And fittingly, SMITH’s visuals are haunting yet profoundly gorgeous.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Fabien Gravillon Shares a Breezy, Swooning Bop

Paris-born singer/songwriter Fabien Gravillon specializes in Zouk, Kizomba and Afro pop — but in his native France, he may be best known as an actor, who starred in the hit French soap opera Plus belle la vie.

After the release of his debut album through Because Music, Gravillon went to Los Angeles and appeared in several videos by internationally acclaimed artists including Macklemore and Patrick Stump‘s “Summer Days,” Collapsing Scenery and others.

He also participated in several projects filmed at Fox Studios in Hollywood and for The Jim Henson Company. Interestingly enough, inspired by animation and by his experience as a voiceover artist, Gravillon decided that his music videos should be cartoons. . .

“Bonita,” Gravillon’s latest single is sleek and swooning, genre-defying bop featuring skittering, reggaeton beats. glistening synth arpeggios and Gravillon’s sultry and vulnerable cooing (in French and Spanish) paired with a two-step inducing hook. While being slick and modern pop song, “Bonita” is a sweet and old fashioned plea of devotion and love.

The animated video features cartoon version of Gravillon and the song’s titular Bonita on a romantic date that’s sweet in its old-fashioned feel.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Omar Souleyman Releases a Playful, Animated Visual for Club Banging Album Title Track “Shlon”

JOVM mainstay Omar Souleyman is a Tell Tamer, Syria-born, Istanbul, Turkey-based Sunni Arab vocalist, whose music career started in earnest back in 1994 when he began as a part-time wedding singer. His overall sound has largely been influenced by  the incredibly diverse milieu of Northeastern Syria — and as a result, Souleyman and a rotating cast of musicians and producers he has worked with since his early days have found a way to draw from and mesh the sounds and themes of the Kurdish, the Ashuris, the Turks, the Iraqis and the larger Arabic world in a way that’s both familiar and novel. Since then, Souleyman has become the region’s pioneer of dance floor friendly wedding music.

Amazingly since 1994, Souleyman has managed to be wildly prolific, releasing well over 500 studio and live albums with about 80% of those releases made at weddings. Most of those recordings were first presented to the newlywed couple, and then later copied and sold at local kiosks.  Souleyman has released four compilation albums and three full-length albums of original material: 2006’s Highway to Hassake, 2009’s Dabke 2020, 2010’s Jazeera Nights, 2011’s Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts and 2011’s Leh Jani,  2013’s Wenu Wenu, 2015’s Bahdeni Nami and 2017’s To Syria, with Love — and all of those albums have not only brought the sounds and grooves of the Middle East to the West, his recorded output has helped to expand the Tell Tamer-born, Istanbul-based vocalist’s profile internationally.

Adding to a rapidly rising international profile, Souleyman has played sets at some of the world’s biggest festivals, including Paredes de Coura, a Caribou co-curated ATP Festival, ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, Bonnaroo, Roskilde Festival, Mostly Jazz, Funk and Soul Festival, Pukkelpop Festival, Electric Picnic,  Treefort Music Festival — and oddly enough, one of the strangest House of Vans bills I’ve ever seen, in which he opened for Future Islands. And before I forget, he’s also collaborated with Bjork, contributing vocals for three remixes, which appear on an Biophilia.

Last November, the Tell Tamer-born JOVM mainstay released his fourth album Shlon, through Mad Decent/Because Music. Deriving its title from the Arabic word “how” or more literally “which color,” the album featured double keyboard work from Hasan Alo, a fellow native of the Hasaka region of Northeastern Syria, who has recently been active in Dubai’s vibrant nightlife scene, a well as saz work from Azad Salih, a fellow Syrian, who currently resides in Mardin, Turkey. The album also finds the Tell Tamer-born, Istanbul-based vocalist continuing his longtime collaboration with Syrian-born, Turkish-based lyricst Moussa Al Mardood, who the wrote most of the album’s lyrics spontaneously during the recording sessions.

Shlon is vintage Souleyman: 6 songs which mesh the dabke and baladi music beloved by the Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, the Kurdish and Iraqis with thumping, synth-led techno, and as always, the material thematically is comprised of swooning tales of devotion, adoration and love. So far I’ve written about two album singles — the club banging “Layle,” a slick and seamless synthesis of classically inspired poetry and modern electronic music production and “Shi Tirdin” a swooning declaration of love, centered around a club thumping production. Interestingly, the album’s latest single, album title track “Shlon” continues an incredible run of swooning, dance floor bangers: this time Souleyman sings of a woman, who has intrigued him from afar, whose kiss would be worth 10 million other kisses over a slick production that meshes Kurdish and Arabic dabke and baladi styles with contemporary electronic dance music production featuring layers of shimmering synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rocking beats. Interestingly, the material may be the most ambitious and accessible of Souleyman’s career. 

Directed and animated by Sound Visuals Club, the recently released video for “Shlon” depicts an animated Omar Souleyman set in which the acclaimed Syrian wedding singer turned global dance music star plays his pan Arabic take on dance music in front of a energetic crowd, who at one point dances hand-in-hand. It’s a delightful and playful video that should remind the viewer that on the dance floor, we’re all the same. 

Indie Electro Pop by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Omar Souleyman Releases a Mesmerizing, Club Banging, Love Song

Omar Souleyman is a Tell Tamer, Syria-born, Istanbul, Turkey-based Sunni Arab vocalist, whose music career started in earnest back in 1994 when began as a part-time wedding singer. His overall sound has largely been influenced by  the incredibly diverse milieu of Northeastern Syria — and as a result, Souleyman and a rotating cast of musicians and producers he has worked with since his early days have found a way to draw from and mesh the sounds and themes of the Kurdish, the Ashuris, the Turks, the Iraqis and the larger Arabic world in a way that’s both familiar and novel. Since then, Souleyman has become the region’s pioneer of dance floor friendly wedding music. 

Amazingly since 1994, Souleyman has managed to be wildly prolific, releasing well over 500 studio and live albums with about 80% of those releases made at weddings. Most of those recordings were first presented to the newlywed couple, and then later copied and sold at local kiosks. Now, as you may recall Souleyman has released four compilation albums and three full-length albums of original material: 2006’s Highway to Hassake, 2009’s Dabke 2020, 2010’s Jazeera Nights, 2011’s Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts and 2011’s Leh Jani,  2013’s Wenu Wenu, 2015’s Bahdeni Nami and 2017’s To Syria, with Love — and all of those albums have not only brought the sounds and grooves of the Middle East to the West, his recorded output has helped to expand the Tell Tamer-born, Istanbul-based vocalist’s profile internationally. 

Adding to a rapidly rising international profile, Souleyman has played sets at some of the world’s biggest festivals, including Paredes de Coura, a Caribou co-curated ATP Festival, ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, Bonnaroo, Roskilde Festival, Mostly Jazz, Funk and Soul Festival, Pukkelpop Festival, Electric Picnic,  Treefort Music Festival — and oddly enough, one of the strangest House of Vans bills I’ve ever seen, in which he opened for Future Islands. And before I forget, he’s also collaborated with Bjork, contributing vocals for three remixes, which appear on an Biophilia.

Deriving its title for the Arabic word “how” or more literally “which color,” Shlon, which is slated for a November 22, 2019 release through Mad Decent/Because Music is the first batch of new material from Souleyman in a couple of years. The forthcoming album featres double keyboard work from Hasan Alo, a fellow native of the Hasaka region of Northeastern Syria, who has recently been active in Dubai’s vibrant nightlife scene, a well as saz work from Azad Salih, a fellow Syrian, who currently resides in Mardin, Turkey. The album also finds the Tell Tamer-born, Istanbul-based vocalist continuing his longtime collaboration with Syrian-born, Turkish-based lyricst Moussa Al Mardood, who the wrote most of the album’s lyrics spontaneously during the recording sessions.

Unsurprisingly, his fourth album is vintage Omar Souleyman — 6 songs which mesh the dabke and baladi music of music beloved by the Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, the Kurdish and Iraqis with thumping, synth-led techno — but at its core, the material is comprised of swooning tales of devotion, adoration and love. Now, as you may recall Shlon’s first single was the propulsive, club banging “Layle,” which was centered around Alo’s dexterous and dense layers of synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rocking polyrhythmic beats and Souleyman’s imitable vocals. But at its core, the song is a slick synthesis of classically-inspired poetry and modern production.  The album’s second and latest single “Shi Tirdin,” which translates into English as “What Do You Wish For?” is a high energy, club banger featuring mesmerizing layers of synth arpeggios and thumping beats and fluttering synths. And while continuing the album’s overall vibe of meshing techno and dabke music, the track is a swooning declaration of devotion, in which the song’s narrator readily offers his love anything she wishes for. 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Internationally Acclaimed Omar Souleyman Returns with a Swooning, Club Banger

Omar Souleyman is a Tell Tamer, Syria-born, Istanbul, Turkey-based Sunni Arab vocalist, whose music career started in earnest back in 1994 when he was a part-time wedding singer. His overall sound has largely been influenced by  the incredibly diverse milieu of Northeastern Syria — and as a result, Souleyman and a rotating cast of musicians and producers he has worked with since his early days have found a way to draw from and mesh the sounds and themes of the Kurdish, the Ashuris, the Turks, the Iraqis and the larger Arabic world in a way that’s familiar and novel. In fact, Souleyman is considered the region’s pioneer of dance music/wedding music. 

Amazingly Souleyman has managed to be wildly prolific, releasing well over 500 stdio and live albums with about 80% of those releases made at weddings. Those recordings are first presented to the newlywed couple and then copied and sold at local kiosks. Over the better part of the last decade, Souleyman has released four compilations 2006’s Highway to Hassake, 2009’s Dabke 2020, 2010’s Jazeera Nights, 2011’s Haflat Gharbia: The Western Concerts and 2011’s Leh Jani and three full-length albums to the West, 2013’s incredible Wenu Wenu, 2015’s Bahdeni Nami and 2017’s To Syria, with Love –and all of those efforts have brought the sounds and grooves of the Middle East to the West, while expanding the Tell Tamer-born, Istanbul-based vocalist’s profile internationally. Adding to a rapidly rising international profile, Souleyman has played sets at some of the world’s biggest festivals, including Paredes de Coura, a Caribou co-curated ATP Festival, ATP Nightmare Before Christmas, Bonnaroo, Roskilde Festival, Mostly Jazz, Funk and Soul Festival, Pukkelpop Festival, Electric Picnic,  Treefort Music Festival — and oddly enough, one of the strangest House of Vans bills I’ve ever seen, in which he opened for Future Islands. And before I forget, he’s also collaborated with Bjork, contributing vocals for three remixes, which appear on an Biophilia.

Dericing its title for the Arabic word “how” or more literally “which color,” Shlon, which is slated for a November 22, 2019 release through Mad Decent/Because Music is the first batch of new material from Souleyman in a couple of years. The forthcoming album features double keyboard work from Hasan Alo, a fellow native of the Hasaka region of Northeastern Syria, who has recently been active in Dubai’s vibrant nightlife scene, a well as saz work from Azad Salih, a fellow Syrian, who currently resides in Mardin, Turkey. The album also finds the Tell Tamer-born, Istanbul-based vocalist continuing his longtime collaboration with Syrian-born, Turkish-based lyricst Moussa Al Mardood, who the wrote most of the album’s lyrics spontaneously during the recording sessions. 

Unsurprisingly, his fourth album is vintage Omar Souleyman — 6 songs which mesh the dabke and baladi music of music beloved by the Lebanese, Jordanians, Syrians, the Kurdish and Iraqis with thumping, synth-led techno — but at its core, the material is comprised of swooning tales of devotion, adoration and love. “Layle,” Shlon’s propulsive, club banging first single is centered around Alo’s dexterous and arpeggiated synth work, layers of tweeter and woofer rocking polyrhythmic percussion and Souleyman’s imitable vocals. And while the track instantly reminds me of the sounds of my home borough — particularly Astoria and Jackson Heights — the song is centered around some gorgeous poetry,. describing a woman’s lips as sweet as the dates of Hillah, making the song a slick synthesis of the classic and the modern. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Acclaimed French Electro Punk Act Kat Bambino Releases VHS-Styled Video For Rousingly Anthemic Single

Comprised of Caroline Martial (vocals) and Orion Bouvier (electronics, production), the Bordeaux, France-based electro punk act Kat Bambino formed back in 2001, and since their formation they’ve released four full-length albums that includes, 2002’s Love, 2006’s Zero Life Night Vision, 2009’s Blacklist and 2012’s Devotion, a handful of singles and an exciting and uncompromising live show. And as a result, they’ve been featured in NME, Another Magazine, Dummy Mag and Dazed & Confused Magazine — and they’ve played at a number of festivals, including ZXZW/Incubate, Dot to Dot and SXSW. 

Slated for an April 12, 2019 release through Because Music, the French electro punk duo’s fifth, full-length album Dust, Fierce, Forever features 12 tracks that reportedly nod at Eurodance and hardcore. The album’s latest single is the brash and anthemic “Erase.” Centered around propulsive and thunderous beats, layers of arpeggiated and undulating synths, industrial squealing and squawking and Martial’s shouted vocals. Sonically speaking, the song reminds me quite a bit of Atari Teenage Riot and Nine Inch Nails, complete with rousing and enormous hooks. 

The recently released video is a decidedly lo-fi affair, as it prominently features the duo performing the song and captures their energy, while being shot on grainy VHS-like tape and through some old school effects and fade outs. Essentially, it’s an appropriately abrasive, in-your-face vibe. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Slick Electro Pop Sounds of Belgium’s Selah Sue

With the release of her acclaimed, multi-platinium debut effort, five years ago, Belgian singer/songwriter  Selah Sue quickly became a household name across the European Union. The Belgian singer/songwriter’s forthcoming, long-awaited sophomore effort Reason is slated for […]