Tag: Berlin Germany

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Carla dal Forno Shares Hazy and Dreamy “Come Around”

Over the better part of the past decade or so of moving, writing, recording and touring out of Berlin and London, singer/songwriter, musician and Kallista Records label head Carla dal Forno relocated to Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia, where she wrote and recorded her third album Come Around.

Slated for November 4, 2022 release through her own Kallista Records, Come Around reportedly sees dal Forno grappling with ideas of home, disorder and insomnia with self-assured, enlightened songwriting and pop hooks.

Come Around‘s first single, album title track “Come Around” is a narcoleptic, meandering, dub-like take on indie pop featuring reverb and delay-drenched guitar and drums paired with dal Forno’s inviting, easy-going delivery. Centered around a seemingly effortless melodic simplistic and an unerring knack for a well-placed, infectious hook, “Come Around” feels like an open-ended invitation to stop by and stay awhile, to make yourself at home . . .

“’Come Around’ was inspired by a guy I used to play in a band with,” dal Forno explains. “I really admired the way he played guitar. He had this laid back strum that was effortless and cool. I was mucking around at home one day trying to imitate the way he played and I wrote ‘Come Around.’” Further adding: ”I wrote the song during a carefree springtime and I loved working on it while recording this album. There’s a lightness and openness to it, which I feel quite liberated by. It reminds me of a life I once had with very few responsibilities.”

The accompanying video by Ludovic Sauvage is red-hued — and despite dal Forno’s clothing, evokes lazy, hazy summer afternoons of daydreaming and hanging out without a particular plan.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

MSJY is a highly sought-after, Berlin-based DJ and curator, who is affiliated with Dekmantel and has been a former resident at Amsterdam‘s De School, Groningen‘s OOST and Berlin’s Greissmuehle. Over the past eight years or so, MSJY has developed a reputation for thoughtful and playful sets that draw from trip-hop and IDM and feature big bass drops and breakbeats.

MSJY’s newest project Xades — pronounced shades — sees the highly sought-after DJ and curator boldly stepping out from behind the decks and into the limelight as singer/songwriter. With Xades, MSJY pushes her sound and approach with the project touching upon dub, downtempo electronica and contemporary R&B, while being informed by her international and multicultural roots: Her mother is Brazilian, her father is Argentinian and she has a Swiss passport.

Her latest Xades single, the playful and coquettish “Locked In” features warm and vibey, neo-soul-leaning instrumentation, including a supple bass line, fluttering flute, and Latin percussion paired with skittering beats, a garage-inspired groove and twinkling synths, an infectious hook and MSJY’s sultry delivery. While being a summery bop that’s simultaneously club and lounge friendly, the song captures and evokes the pent up energy of being locked up inside and isolated from others for months on end — and literally bouncing off your walls.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: James Chatburn and Noah Slee Team Up with Local Musicians in Intimate Visual for Woozy “Do You Wanna Live Like That”

James Chatburn is a rising, Sydney-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and producer. Since relocating to the German capital back in 2015, Chatburn has carved out a reputation for being a highly in-demand singer/songwriter and producer, who has collaborated with acclaimed Aussie hip-hop outfit Hilltop Hoods‘ certified Gold single “Higher,”  rum.gold, Jordan Rakei, Noah Slee, Sedric Perry, and a growing list of others. As a solo artist, the Sydney-born, Berlin-based JOVM mainstay has developed and honed a sound that meshes elements of soul, blues, electro pop, neo-soul and psych pop with the release of his full-length debut, 2020’s David Tobias co-produced Faible. 

During the lead-up to Fabile‘s release, I managed to write about three of the album’s singles: 

  • “In My House,” a warm and vibey, two-step inducing bit of soul, centered around introspective, earnest songwriting, reverb-drenched guitars and thumping beats.
  • “Jewellery and Gold,” one of the album’s more tongue-in-cheek tracks, featuring a narrator looking forward to a future, where he’s flush with cash, and as a result, any of the major issues of his life being settled with that newfound cash — because dollar dollar bill y’all. 
  • “The Hurt,” a ballad that saw the Aussie-born, German-based JOVM mainstay express longing and heartache in a way that reminded me quite a bit of Nick Hakim.

Chatburn’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Late Night Howling is forthcoming. The album’s latest single “Do You Wanna Live Like That,” feat. Noah Slee is an expansive and mind-bending take on neo-soul and pop centered around a unique and woozily dynamic song structure that rapidly shifts in tone, time signature and instrumentation: The song’s introduction begins with twinkling pianos in a Latin jazz like tempo before quickly shifting to tweeter and woofer rattling trap beats and then shifting again to a vibey 70s neo-soul-inspired coda. 

Lyrically, the song is intimate and introspective, with its narrator vacillating between self-doubt, analysis, progression and gratefulness. “‘Do You Wanna Live Like That’ is a track I created which ended up kind of being a few different tracks in one, inspired by people like Tyler, The Creator with just these sudden drops and Sault with this vibe – simple not perfect, but just perfectly imperfect,” James Chatburn explains. “Noah Slee and I have been friends basically since we both moved to Berlin, it just took 7 years but we finally got around to releasing a track together.” 

Directed by Dhanesh Jayaselan, the accompanying video is a live performance-styled video shot at Callie’s in Berlin and features Chatburn and Slee with a backing band featuring Berlin-based musicians Tim Granbacka (keys, vocals), Johnny Kulo (guitar, vocals), Adam Sait (bass) and Richard Young (drums). The live footage is intimate and stylish but ends with Chatburn walking over to contemplatively strum an acoustic guitar.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

James Chatburn is a rising, Sydney-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and producer. Since relocating to the German capital back in 2015, Chatburn has carved out a reputation for being a highly in-demand singer/songwriter and producer, who has collaborated with acclaimed Aussie hip-hop outfit Hilltop Hoods‘ certified Gold single “Higher,” rum.gold, Jordan Rakei, Noah Slee, Sedric Perry, and a growing list of others. As a solo artist, the Sydney-born, Berlin-based JOVM mainstay has developed and honed a sound that meshes elements of soul, blues, electro pop, neo-soul and psych pop with the release of his full-length debut, 2020’s David Tobias co-produced Faible.

During the lead-up to Fabile‘s release, I managed to write about three of the album’s singles:

  • “In My House,” a warm and vibey, two-step inducing bit of soul, centered around introspective, earnest songwriting, reverb-drenched guitars and thumping beats.
  • “Jewellery and Gold,” one of the album’s more tongue-in-cheek tracks, featuring a narrator looking forward to a future, where he’s flush with cash, and as a result, any of the major issues of his life being settled with that newfound cash — because dollar dollar bill y’all. 
  • “The Hurt,” a ballad that saw the Aussie-born, German-based JOVM mainstay express longing and heartache in a way that reminded me quite a bit of Nick Hakim.

Chatburn’s highly-anticipated sophomore album Late Night Howling is forthcoming. The album’s latest single “Do You Wanna Live Like That,” feat. Noah Slee is an expansive and mind-bending take on neo-soul and pop centered around a unique and woozily dynamic song structure that rapidly shifts in tone, time signature and instrumentation: The song’s introduction begins with twinkling pianos in a Latin jazz like tempo before quickly shifting to tweeter and woofer rattling trap beats and then shifting again to a vibey 70s neo-soul-inspired coda.

Lyrically, the song is intimate and introspective, with its narrator vacillating between self-doubt, analysis, progression and gratefulness. “‘Do You Wanna Live Like That’ is a track I created which ended up kind of being a few different tracks in one, inspired by people like Tyler, The Creator with just these sudden drops and Sault with this vibe – simple not perfect, but just perfectly imperfect,” James Chatburn explains. “Noah Slee and I have been friends basically since we both moved to Berlin, it just took 7 years but we finally got around to releasing a track together.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Florian Rodel is a Nuremberg, Germany-born, Indianapolis-based singer/songwriter, musician, who inspired by Nirvana, Guns ‘N’ Roses, CAN, Jeff Beck, Miles Davis, classical music and a lengthy list of others, started to write his own original music — based around a creative process that frequently sees him writing melodic, rhythmic and/or harmonic sketches throughout his daily routine. He’d then record this ideas on his pone and then flesh it out later.

Rodel is also the creative mastermind behind the emerging indie rock/indie pop recording project fluidarmes. Recently Rodel contacted me about “Pony Drive,” a hook-driven and melodic bit of indie rock featuring twangy, reverb-drenched guitar lines recorded by Stuttgart-based guitarist Micha Herm in his home; thumping and propulsive rhythmic drumming recorded by drummer Martin Krümmling recorded at Ghost City Recordings; propulsive and supple bass lines recorded by bassist Joe Joaquin in his Berlin-based studio; and Rodel’s plaintive vocals and atmospheric synths recorded in Indianapolis. While being deliberately crafted, “Pony Drive” is rooted in a heart-worn-on-sleeve earnestness.

Rodel explains that the song lyrically is about having the best relationship you can have with yourself and rolling with the punches, because people don’t have much control of anything beyond their limited control.


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Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Quentin Salomon is a French saxophonist, electronic music producer and creative mastermind behind the emerging solo recording project Human Pattern. Solomon can trace the origins of Human Pattern back to 2016: While on a trip to Berlin, Salomon fell in love with German minimalist techno. He challenged himself to replicate the songs and textures of samplers and synthesizers solely with the saxophone.

While living in Annecy, France, he quickly earned the support of local concert hall and rehearsal studio Le Brise Glace and Feeling and Sound Production, and eventually was signed by indie label Alpine Records. He released his debut EP Rebirth to critical praise from Tsugi Magazine and the local press — and he supported the effort with opening slots for Black Strobe‘s Arnaud Rebotini, Acid Arab, and Cyril Atef.

In 2019, he moved to Villeurbanne, France to share his vision of electronic music with saxophone with the Lyon electronic music scene, to further Human Pattern — and to explore other musical horizons.

His latest single “Stress” off his recently released Animal Instinct EP is a club banger featuring skittering hi-hat and thumping beats, looped and chopped up saxophone bleats and squeaks for the song’s infectious hook paired with a modal saxophone melody. Mixing organic instrumentation and arrangements with electronic production isn’t exactly a new thing — but it adds a human element to the proceedings: It’s a reminder that a living, breathing, feeling human created the song.

Salomon explains that the EP is inspired by and informed by human evolution, and the fact that we have gradually lost connection with our animal instincts. He goes on to say that “Stress” is informed by the emotions and emotional responses we’ve inherited as part of our survival instinct.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Cloud Cukkoo is an emerging Dutch-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and producer. According to the Dutch-born, Berlin-based artist, she “writes, produces and performs songs for blue-tinted nights. Nights of rained upon ashtrays and repressed melancholia; nights that are blinding, deafening and paralyzing; nights that are as comforting as they are disconcerting. It’s the cutting winter cold that feels like an embrace after spending hours in an overloaded club. . .”

The emerging Dutch-born, Berlin-based artist’s latest single, the slow-burning and moody “The Game” pairs Cloud Cukkoo’s soulful vocals, oscillating and atmospheric synths, fluttering electronics, strummed guitar and twinkling keys. While revealing a songwriter who can evoke a brooding, late night melancholy, “The Game” is an earnest, pop confection rooted in what feels like lived-in personal experience: The song’s narrator struggles with being tempted by lust and loneliness, knowing that she will probably get burned — badly.



Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Nashville’s Pauline Andrés Shares Sultry New Bop, “Speed Racer”

Nashville-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer and sound engineer Pauline Andrés is a true global citizen: Andrés was born in Eastern Europe, spent her childhood in France — and as an adult, she spent a stint living in Berlin.

Initially known as an Americana artist, Andrés recently decided to shift gears and focus on her other favorite genre of music — electro pop. “Speed Racer,” Andrés latest single continues a run of slickly produced, lush, retro-futuristic bops centered around glistening and oscillating synths, a sinuous bass line paired with the Nashville-based artist’s smoky crooning. Underneath the slick production though is a careful and deliberate attention to craft, revealed through razor sharp hooks and playfully coquettish lyrics.

“I let the intro roll a measure more than your usual EDM template. I put my bridge before the second chorus. I kept those lines that made everything work together. Because that’s what’s allowing the song to be its true self,” Andrés says about the production choices behind her latest single. “I wanted to give it space…I didn’t make this song for any algorithm or radio. I made it for grown ups driving at night and needing the perfect soundtrack for their ride. I think that turned out pretty good.”

The accompanying official, lyric video was shot exclusively at night in Nashville, follows Andrés driving around town in a convertible. Fitting for a late night, drive sort of anthem ain’t it?

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Parisian Electronic Act Voie81 Releases a Nostalgia-Inducing Visual for “1989”

Deriving their name from the French of word for “track” while simultaneously being a bit of a punny joke based on the French word or voice — voix — and for 1981, a paradigm shifting year that saw massive technological and societal changes, the Paris-based electro pop/New Wave outfit Voie 81 prominently features three female vocalists hailing from Paris, Madrid, and Berlin, who sing unifying and socially conscious lyrics in German, English, Spanish and French. 

Their full-length debut, Ralentir, which translates into “slow down” in French finds the act further establishing a sound that’s heavily indebted to and influenced by the analog synth sounds of the 80s while thematically focusing on humans’ resistance to an unfair and unjust world — and the hope fora much better, fairer world.

Last year, I wrote about album track “Nirvana,” a euphoric track with an arena friendly hook and sultrily delivered French vocals that — to my ears — that reminded me a bit of early-to-mid 80s New Order, Giorgio Moroder, Tour de France-era Kraftwerk and even contemporaries like DBFC.

“1989,” Ralentir‘s latest track is centered around a relentless motorik groove, glistening synth arpeggios, angular guitars, thumping beats and brief bursts of industrial clang and clatter. The end result is a song that seems to mesh John Carpenter‘s retro-futuristic soundtracks with New Order. As the band explains “1989 is more than the last year of the 80s! It symbolizes a pivotal stage, when everything has accelerated : technological, climate and enormous geopolitical changes.”

Directed by the members of Voie 81 and Oculusprime.tv, the recently released video, which was also edited by Oculusprime.tv features stock footage of some of the world-changing technology and events that happened in 1989 from new video games, the fall of the Berlin Wall, as well as young people partying and just enjoying life.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Neon Jesus’ Sultry and Bluesy Banger “Red Lips”

Rising Canadian-born and-based singer/songwriter Neon Jesus can trace the origins of his genre-defying sound — a sound that pairs blues-inspired guitar with pulsing electronic dance music — to when he lived in New York.

While in New York, the rising Canadian artist frequently caught live music, and he noticed a significant and very telling difference in terms of reaction: “I’d be out at a rock show and while people were attentive and taking everything in, the crowd’s reaction was rather lackluster, even amid great artists before them,” Neon Jesus recalls. ““But then I’d head to a rave in Brooklyn and it struck me that people there were uninhibited and just generally more invested in what they were listening to. That was when I started to wonder what would happen if someone were to bring the two genres together.”

Electronic music was uncharted territory for the rising Canadian artist. But rather than mindlessly following the short-lived trends of generic dance music, Neon Jesus invested time to understand the foundations of electronic music and began to create his own beats to accompany his own guitar playing. That approach to production caught the attention of New York-based dance music production Abe Duque, a pioneer of deep house.

Mentored by Duque, Neon Jesus was exposed to underground dance music. Together, they created a live sound featuring synths and drum machines while the Canadian artist played guitar that saw the pair playing off one-another in an improvised manner familiar to the blues and jazz. The pair took their live sound to Berlin, where Neon Jesus became the first artist to play electric guitar at the renowned Berlin-based techno club Berghain.

Interestingly, those performances laid the foundation for Neon Jesus’ forthcoming full-length debut Tabula Rosa. Tabula Rosa‘s first single, the slickly produced and sultry “Red Lips” is centered around a thumping kick drum, glistening and pulsating synths, the Canadian artist’s plaintive wailing and scorching guitar lines reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix, Prince and the like. And while pairing bluesy, power chord-driven rock with pulsating electronic dance music, “Red Lips” sonically and thematically reminds me a bit of INXS‘ “Need You Tonight” as the song is about desperate, maddening, obsessive desire — but with a sinister and uneasy undertone. “When you look back at artists like Prince or Jimi Hendrix, the blues was at the heart of their sound,” he declares. For some, this may seem a bit odd. The blues label doesn’t easily stick to them. Rather than mimic what came before them, they took the soul of blues and roots music and grew their own branches from the same tree. That’s the impetus behind my exploration of mixing blues and rock guitar with electronic music. I’m growing my personal branch on that tree.”

The recently released video was shot on grainy Super 8 film and is split between footage of the Canadian artist rocking out in a dark club, a beautiful blonde in knee high boots strutting around NYC. “With the video, we were trying to capture the sensation where love slips into obsession followed by a sudden darkness, where only the Lord can save you from its clutches,” Neon Jesus says.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: FUTURE KULT Delves Deep into our Near-Dystopian Future

FUTURE KULT is a emerging music project featuring Cardiff-based film composer Sion Trefor and Berlin-based musician and art producer Benjamin Zombori. The duo holed up in the remote Mexican region of Hildalgo to write and record their forthcoming self-titled, full-length debut, slated for a February 11, 2022 releaser through AWAL.

The duo’s work fed off what they’ve been seeing in the overall zeitgeist — an uneasy and mad world in conflict, with technology consuming the life and soul of the consumer. Thematically, the album sees the duo questioning what it even means to create art in this particular moment. Has the world accepted the all-consuming algorithm as ruler — or is it possible to make music and art that reflects and comments on our moment?

For the duo, to be human means to be engaged in a battle of retreat against overwhelming technological forces, with the soft-power of our machines hardening into a prison for our minds. They claim that it’s not long clear if humans shape their computers, phones, their avatars and the internet — or if these devices shape us, our desires, our thoughts and our expression.

FUTURE KULT’s first single “Hildago” is an expansive track that’s simultaneously cinematic and menacing, centered around a noisy and dense arrangement featuring buzzing bass synths, skittering boom bap, scorching guitar, brooding horn blasts, layers of glistening synth arpeggios, distorted vocal samples paired with breathy yet ironically detached vocals. This is the sound of our near dystopian present.

The accompanying video was shot by Zombori in the Mexican desert, just outside of its namesake town. The video shows fragments of a mysterious folk tale centered around a masked hero, who mysteriously arrives to protect the villagers from dark and unseen forces seemingly recorded on a battered VHS tape.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The KVB Return with a Hazy and Hallucinogenic visual for “Unbound”

Currently based out of Manchester, UK, the acclaimed shoegazers and JOVM mainstay outfit The KVB initially started in 2010 as the solo recording project of founder, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Wood. Wood released a series of limited cassette an vinyl releases as a solo recording project; but by 2011, vocalist, keyboardist and visual artist Kat Day joined the project. 

In the decade since Day joined the project, The KVB have released several critically applauded albums and EPs through a number of different labels before signing to Geoff Barrow‘s Invada Records,who released 2018’s Only Now Forever. Interestingly, each of the duo’s acclaimed releases saw them crafting a sound simultaneously inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cabaret Voltaire; however, with each subsequent effort, the band has managed to streamline their sound. 

Through extensive touring across the European Union, the UK, China, Russia and Japan, the duo have amassed a devoted fanbase globally. Now, as you may recall during the pandemic, Day and Wood relocated from Berlin to Manchester to work on their sixth album, the Andy Savors-produced Unity. Slated for a Friday release through Invada Records, the duo’s sixth album will reportedly represent a new and exciting development in their sonic development: Through the album’s ten songs, the duo pull together their trademark components, radiant guitars, textured synths and their penchant for moody melodies and brooding vibes paired with a renewed dynamism. 

The initial Unity writing sessions took place in Spain in early 2019, where the duo found influence from the “half built luxury villas, still unfinished from the crash in 2008. There was something eerie and beautiful about the desolate landscapes and concrete in the sunshine,” the band says in press notes. While their sound and approach has always been informed by what seems like our inevitable dystopian future, there is also more of a rapturous release to the material. Thematically, the album combines double meanings and there’s a sleight of hand present. 

In the lead up to the album’s release later this week, I’ve managed to write about two of the album’s singles:

  • “World on Fire,” a track centered around buzzing and slashing power chords, shimmering and arpeggiated synths, a relentless, motorik groove and a euphoric hook paired with the duo’s breathy boy-girl harmonies. The end result was a song, which featured elements that reminded m elf Lightfoils, BLACKSTONE RNGRS and others with a gauzy, New Order-like sheen. 
  • “Unité,” a dance floor friendly track, centered around thumping beats, shimmering synth arpeggios, a relentless and hypnotic motorik groove paired Day’s ethereal yet deadpan delivery. The end result is a song — that to my ears — sounded as though it could have been part of the Trans Europe Express or Man Machine sessions.

“Unbound,” Unity‘s final single continues a run of hazy and hypnotic material centered around glistening synth arpeggios, driving motorik grooves, the duo’s ethereal boy-girl harmonies and a euphoric hook. To my ears, the song sounds a bit like how I would imagine Evil Heat era Primal Scream covering Kraftwerk.

Directed by Sapphire Goss, the recently released video for “Unbound” follows the JOVM mainstays as they encounter a decaying monolithic structure in England. The structures seem to radiate a mysterious yet rhythmic signal of color and light — with a seemingly deeper meaning. Interestingly enough, the video manages is inspired by the album’s cover art, drawing influence from it.

“We’ve been fascinated by the sound mirrors that are on the south coast of England for a while now and were very pleased to know that Sapphire [Goss] shared our interest in these decaying, monolithic sculptures!” The KVB explain in press notes. “In fact, they were part of the inspiration for Unity’s album cover. It was great to finally visit one in real life,despite the wind and rain that came with filming there. For us, Sapphire’s dreamlike, analogue aesthetic feels like the perfect complement to Unbound’s hazy sound.”

“The video took the album cover imagery as the starting point, and the band were keen to use the sound mirrors- strange monolithic listening structures along the coastline, made obsolete by radar almost as soon as they were built,” Sapphire Goss adds. “The video reanimates these eerie monuments, showing them pulse out mysterious signals of light and colour. The film is made using a mix of analogue & digital effects- lenticular 3D & stereo loops shot on an 80s Nimslo (35mm) and an old Mamiya passport lens attachment that freeze moments in time & dance around them spatially, adding to the uncanny feeling.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Post punk outfit Sei Still — Sebastián Rojas (organ, synths), Mateo Sánchez Galán (guitar), Jerónimo Martín (drums, percussion) and Lucas Martín (vocals, guitar) — can trace its origins to when the members of the band decided to take a random trip to some desolate woodlands outside of Mexico City to work on a couple of songs. Those sessions were so productive that it led to the quartet starting the band in earnest. 

With just a couple of singles under their collective belts — 2017’s “Oto” and 2019’s “Tacticas de Guerrilla Urbana” — the band quickly earned a rapidly growing profile in their native Mexico, sharing stages with Stereolab, Kikagaku Moyo, Institute, and Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. As a result of the growing buzz surrounding them, the Mexican post-punk outfit signed to London-based label Fuzz Club Records, who released their self-titled full-length debut last year. The album quickly solidified a new European fanbase for the Mexican post punk outfit, while selling out its initial vinyl pressing. 

The band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album El Refugio is slated for a November 26, 2021 release through Fuzz Club Records, and the album marks a number of major changes for the Mexican post-punk quartet: The band relocated to Berlin, where they wrote and recorded El Refugio. And sonically, the album represents an evolution in the now-Berlin-based band’s sound. Whereas their self-titled debut was heavily indebted to the Krautrock sounds of Can and Neu!, El Refugio reportedly sees the band eschewing the expansive and hypnotic tendencies of their previously released work for a wiry, post-punk inspired sound, that’s still centered around a motorik pulse. Additionally, the songs are shorter and unapologetically to the point, while bristling with tension and anguish.

“The biggest influence on this record was the fact that our personal lives had a radical change and we felt the need to do something different, to dig deeper into the possibilities of what the band was about,” the members of Sei Still explain. “We never wanted to make the same record twice.” Understandably, the move from Mexico to Germany would normally be a massive upheaval culturally, emotionally and personally — but the band managed to move a few weeks before COVID-19 struck across the world and forced shutdowns and lockdowns. And as a result, the material possesses a visceral unease,

More expressionist than psychedelic, the and explains that El Refugio thematically  “alludes to childhood, dreams, desire, loneliness, paranoia and hope. A longing for a different reality that breaks the monotony of daily life. It’s more about sensations than something you can describe in words. I think what makes music great is that it has to be experienced so we try to part from a specific mood or emotion, which is something very abstract that people can interpret in their own way.”

Last month, I wrote about “Extraradio,”a brooding,  Joy Division-like take on post-punk centered around Lucas Martín’s dry sprechgesang delivery in Spanish, an angular bass line, bursts of wiry, delay pedaled guitar and an insistent motorik pulse. The song to me managed to evoke the profound loneliness of being an Other in a foreign land and surrounded by a culture and language you can’t speak or understand.

El Refugio‘s latest single “Exilo” is a taut and brooding bit of post-punk centered around a relentless motorik pulse, wiry bursts of guitar, glistening synths, mathematically precise electronic drum paired with forceful kick drum paired with Martín’s dry vocal delivery. Reportedly indebted to Spanish New Wave, “Exilo” personally reminds me of endlessly gray, German skies, damp rainy nights in Frankfurt’s Romer and Haupwatche sections with the seemingly permanent costume of foreigner, of man from far away.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sei Still Releases a Trippy Visual for Tense and Brooding “Extraradio”

Post punk outfit Sei Still — Sebastián Rojas (organ, synths), Mateo Sánchez Galán (guitar), Jerónimo Martín (drums, percussion) and Lucas Martín (vocals, guitar) — can trace its origins to when the members of the band decided to take a random trip to some desolate woodlands outside of Mexico City work on a couple of songs. Those sessions were so productive that it led to the quartet starting the band in earnest.

With just a couple of singles under their collective belts — 2017’s “Oto” and 2019’s “Tacticas de Guerrilla Urbana” — the band quickly earned a rapidly growing profile in their native Mexico, sharing stages with Stereolab, Kikagaku Moyo, Institute, and Lorelle Meets The Obsolete. The members of the Mexican post punk outfit signed to London-based label Fuzz Club Records, who released their self-titled full-length debut last year. The album quickly solidified new European fanbase for the Mexican post punk outfit, while selling out its initial vinyl pressing.

Slated for a November 26, 2021 release through Fuzz Club Records Sei Still’s highly-anticipated sophomore album El Refugio marks a number of major changes for the Mexican post-punk outfit: The band relocated to Berlin, where they wrote and recorded El Refugio. And sonically, the album represents an evolution in the now-Berlin-based band’s sound. Whereas their self-titled debut was heavily indebted to the Krautrock sounds of Can and Neu!, El Refugio reportedly sees the band crafting a somewhat skeletal effort: while still centered around a motorik pulse, El Refugio‘s songs sees the band eschewing the expansive and hypnotic tendencies of its predecessors for a more wiry, post-punk sound. The song are much shorter and unapologetically to-the-point, while brimming with tension and anguish.

“The biggest influence on this record was the fact that our personal lives had a radical change and we felt the need to do something different, to dig deeper into the possibilities of what the band was about,” the members of Sei Still explain. “We never wanted to make the same record twice.” Naturally, the move from from Mexico to Germany would have been a massive upheaval both personally and culturally, but the rising post punk outfit managed to do so a few weeks before pandemic-related shutdowns and quarantines, which gives the material a visceral feel.

Expressionist rather than psychedelic, the band explains that El Refugio “alludes to childhood, dreams, desire, loneliness, paranoia and hope. A longing for a different reality that breaks the monotony of daily life. It’s more about sensations than something you can describe in words. I think what makes music great is that it has to be experienced so we try to part from a specific mood or emotion, which is something very abstract that people can interpret in their own way.”

El Refugio‘s latest single is the brooding, “Extraradio.” Centered around Lucas Martín’s dry sprechgesang delivery in Spanish, an angular bass line, bursts of wiry, delay pedaled guitar and an insistent motorik pulse, “Extraradio” bears a resemblance to Joy Division while evoking the profound loneliness of being an Other in a foreign land with a culture and language you can’t understand.

Directed by Pilar Gost, the recently released video for “Extraradio” evokes the lonely and paranoid feel of the song, capturing the band’s members dancing, vamping and brooding in strobe light.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays The KVB Offers a Glimpse Into Our Dystopian Future

Currently based out of Manchester, UK, the acclaimed shoegazers and JOVM mainstay outfit The KVB initially started in 2010 as the solo recording project of founder, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Nicholas Wood. Wood released a series of limited cassette an vinyl releases as a solo recording project; but by 2011, vocalist, keyboardist and visual artist Kat Day joined the project.

In the decade since Day joined the project, The KVB have released several critically applauded albums and EPs through a number of different labels before signing to Geoff Barrow‘s Invada Records,who released 2018’s Only Now Forever. Interestingly, each of the duo’s acclaimed releases saw them crafting a sound simultaneously inspired by The Jesus and Mary Chain and Cabaret Voltaire; however, with each subsequent effort, the band has managed to streamline their sound.

Through extensive touring across the European Union, the UK, China, Russia and Japan, the duo have amassed a devoted fanbase globally. Now, as you may recall during the pandemic, Day and Wood relocated from Berlin to Manchester to work on their sixth album, the Andy Savors-produced Unity. Slated for a November 26, 2021 release through Invada Records, the duo’s sixth album will reportedly represent a new and exciting development in their sonic development: Through the album’s ten songs, the duo pull together their trademark components, radiant guitars, textured synths and an near for a moody, brooding melody paired with a renewed dynamism.

Interestingly, the initial writing sessions for their forthcoming album took place in Spain during early 2019, where the duo found influence from the “half built luxury villas, still unfinished from the crash in 2008. There was something eerie and beautiful about the desolate landscapes and concrete in the sunshine,” the band says in press notes. While their sound and approach has always been informed by what seems like our inevitable dystopian future, there is also more of a rapturous release to the material. Thematically, the album combines double meanings and there’s a sleight of hand present.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “World on Fire,” a single that found the duo continuing to refine their sound: Starting with burst of drum machine, the song was centered around buzzing and slashing power chords, shimmering and arpeggiated synths, a relentless motorik groove and a euphoric hook paired with the duo’s breathy boy-girl harmonies. Sonically, the track — to my ears, at least — found the duo pushing the boundaries of shoegaze in a similar fashion to Lightfoils, BLACKSTONE RNGRS and others while giving their sound a gauzy, New Order-like sheen. 

“Unité,” Unity‘s latest single may arguably be their most dance floor friendly track of their growing catalog: Centered around thumping beats, shimmering synth arpeggios, and a relentlessly hypnotic, motorik groove paired with Kat Day’s ethereal deadpan delivery, “Unité” sounds as though it could have easily been part of the Trans Europe Express or Man Machine sessions. The duo explains that the new single is “a homage to our time living in Berlin, with the pounding kick drum and grinding electronics.” Te song is a perfect example of the Manchester-based duo meshing dark and light sensibilities in a seamless fashion: while being a euphoric club banger, the song references urbanization and its dystopian potential.

The recently released video is set in a dystopian future, much like that in Minority Report, in which the viewer is inundated by advertisements and screens.