JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Janet Jackson’s 59th birthday.
Tag: dance pop
New Video: Medha Krishna Shares Flirty “Ishaare”
Medha Krishna is an emerging Indian-British singers/songwriter, who according to her Instagram “writes love songs.” Her latest single “Ishaare” is a fun, flirtatious and summery disco-meets- Bollywood tune that subtly brights Daft Punk‘s “Get Lucky” and Chic‘s 70s hits to mind — but with an 80s styled guitar solo.
As Krishna explains the song tells a story about a meet cute in which a woman meets a guy and immediately feels a spark, but there’s some mind games and mixed signals. Throughout the song, the narrator playfully chides the man on how his mixed signals — with the narrator essentially saying “Come on man, I dig you. What’s up with you, boy?”
Directed by Lutch Media, the accompanying video follows Krishna and her girlfriends on night out on the town — or more specifically to the club, where she leads a Bollywood-like dance routine, while having a flirtatious meet cute. Oh, if every time I went out, it would be like that, right?
Throwback: Happy Belated 39th Birthday, Lady Gaga!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Lady Gaga’s 39th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 62nd Birthday, Vanessa Williams!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Vanessa Williams’ 62nd birthday.
Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, Jody Watley!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Jody Watley’s 65th birthday,
New Video: Nature Loves Courage Shares Sleek and Dance Floor Friendly “Elevation”
Initially starting her career as a singer/songwriter and pianist, who drew comparisons to Annie Lennox and Kate Bush, McKenna Rowe (vocals, keys) found herself increasingly driven by an obsession with samples and beats when she founded the Los Angeles-based pop outfit Nature Loves Courage back in 2020 as a way to create her own take on lush, atmospheric grooves, inspired by the likes of Massive Attack and others. Rowe recruited Jacob Bergman (bass), Garrett Smith (drums) and Joe De Sa (guitar) to flesh out and polish the project’s overall sound.
The quartet aims to bridge electronic soundscapes with a dynamic rock sound, enveloping the listener in a pseudo live experience. Typically, the band’s material counterbalances airy string and piano arrangements with quirky synths and heavy rock and funk-inspired riffs.
Nature Loves Courage’s recently released and aptly named EP III managers to encapsulate the band’s sound and approach while seemingly drawing from Annie Lennox, Blondie, The Chemical Brothers and LCD Soundsystem. Thematically, the EP’s material dives into a completely storyline while touching upon heartbreak, practicing kindness to one another and more.
III EP‘s lead single “Elevation” is a dance floor friendly bop featuring a supple and funky bass line, twinkling, Larry Levan-like synth arpeggios and bursts of Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar paired with Rowe’s sultry pop starlet delivery and remarkably catchy hooks. Sonically meshing elements of house music and dance pop, “Elevation” thematically nudges the listener towards practicing some much-needed kindness towards others.
The Los Angeles-based quartet collaborated with Holy Smoke Photography on the accompanying video, which sees the band playfully experiment with animation to express different versions of themselves in a Nature Loves Courage multiverse.
New Audio: The Real Mack The Knife Returns with Sensual “Paris Séduit”
The Real Mack The Knife is the creative project of a rather mysterious and prolific American-based electronic music producer. His latest single “Paris Séduit” is a lush and sensual dance pop tune featuring layers of arpeggiated synths, skittering beats and remarkably catchy hooks paired with a sultrily delivered vocals in French and English.
Resembling a sleek synthesis of Ibiza house and French touch, “Paris Séduit” was inspired by a trip to Paris during the 2024 Olympic Games and captures the seductive spirit of one of the world’s most beautiful cities.
Throwback: Happy 76th Birthday, Olivia Newton John!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 76th anniversary of Olivia Newton John’s birth.
Throwback: Happy Belated 72nd Birthday, Nile Rodgers!
September is a busy month in music history. The legendary and iconic Nile Rodgers celebrated his 72nd birthday yesterday. Rodgers has produced, written, played and/or performed some of the most beloved dance and pop songs of the […]
New Audio: Ezra Collective Shares Swaggering “Streets is Calling” feat. M.anifest and Moonchild Sanelly
Acclaimed London-based jazz/hip-hop outfit Ezra Collective — Femi Koleoso (drums), TJ Koleoso (bass), Joe Armon-Jones (keys), Ife Ogunjobi (trumpet) and James Mollison (tenor saxophone) — can trace their origins back to when they met at Gary Crosby’s Tomorrow’s Warriors, a jazz music education and artist development program committed to championing diversity, inclusion and equality across the arts through jazz with a special focus on Black musicians, female musicians and those whose financial or other circumstances might lock them out of opportunities to pursue a career in the music industry.
The band’s full-length debut, 2019’s You Can’t Stay My Joy, featured guest spots from Jorja Smith and Loyle Carner. Instrumental album track “Quest for Coin” was premiered as the “Hottest Record in The World” on BBC Radio 1’s Annie Mac Show. 2022’s sophomore album Where I’m Meant To Be, which featured a mix of instrumental tracks and lyrical contributions was released to widespread critical applause across the UK.
Last year was a breakthrough year for the British jazz outfit. Their critically applauded sophomore album led to the band being named the first jazz act to ever win the Mercury Prize. The entire UK, European Union and US tour to support the album was sold-out, including 10,000 capacity Eventim Apollo and Royal Albert Hall headlining shows. They played Glastonbury Festival and Quincy Jones‘ star-studded birthday party and the final guests of the year on The Graham Norton Show and Top of The Pops Review of 2023. Adding to a busy year, they won Best Jazz Act at last year’s MOBO Awards and were named Time Out London‘s Londoners of 2023.
Continuing upon last year’s momentum, they were tapped by Daniel Lee to perform at this Burberry x Harrods takeover. They launched the British Library’s Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music exhibition. And they were profiled in ES Magazine, British Vogue, Music Week and Mixmag.
Ezra Collective’s highly-anticipated third album Dance, No One’s Watching is slated for a September 27, 2024 release through Partisan Records. Recorded at Abbey Road Studios, where the band was surprised by group of close friends and family, the Dance, No One’s Watching sessions were turned into a live, communal celebration of love, music and dancing. Written throughout the course of last year as the band toured across the world, the album not only documents the dance floors they encountered in their travels. Musically and thematically, the album guides the listener through a night out in the city, from the endless possibilities as a night out is about to start, to when you’re getting back home, with the sun rising.
The album’s third and latest single “Street Is Calling” feat. M.anifest and Moonchild Sanelly is a swaggering and strutting tune that sees the acclaimed British act effortlessly bridging the African Diaspora with a synthesis of Highlife, Amapiano, Afrobeats and hip-hop that nods at Soul II Soul — but while being a high energy call out to get your ass up on that dance floor.
“‘Streets Is Calling’ is about the feeling when people call you up and message you and say, yo, there’s this party happening tonight and that’s all you need,” the band’s Femi Koleoso explains. “The Streets have called. We’re gonna go straight to this dance floor to make it our own.”
Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, Madonna!
August is a very busy month in music history: The legendary and iconic Madonna celebrates her 66th birthday today. Jesus, we’re all getting old, eh? Madonna’s impact on pop music has been towering. Besides being a feminist […]
New Audio: LYV and Semi Team Up with Mistah FAB on a Summery and Club Friendly Bop
LYV is an emerging San Francisco-based, Mexican-American singer/songwriterand marketing manager at EMPIRE. The emerging San Francisco-based artist comes from an R&B and gospel background — but she has writing and co-writing credits for artists across a variety of genres.
Over the past 18 months or so, the emerging San Francisco-based artist has been steadily releasing material, including last year’s “Haunted,” a track that paired her sultry pop starlet vocal with an atmospheric, Quiet Storm-inspired production featuring skittering trap-like beats and ethereal synths. But at its core is an earnest expression of yearning and desire.
Her latest single “Fantasy” is hook-driven and summery, club friendly bop that’s a slick synthesis of elements of old-school house, contemporary R&B and Jungle Brothers era hip-hop that’s lush and roomy enough for LYV and Semi to croon with yearning — and for Oakland-based legend Mistah FAB to spit a few bars discussing a young, passionate, fervent love. It’s the sort of song you’d want playing in the background while you’re trying to seduce that long-held crush/love interest/sitautionship.
New Video: L’Imperatrice Share Intergalactic Visual for Soulful and Luxuriant “Any Way” feat. Maggie Rogers
Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératrice will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records in just about 90 minutes. Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off.
Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others.
The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Impératrice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found.
Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it.
Pulsar’s fourth single, and the album’s second English language single “Any Way” is a gorgeous cinematic, Quiet Storm soul-meets-French touch bop featuring shimmering strings, a supple and sinuous bass line, some Nile Rodgers-like guitar, some glistening sapce age synths and twinkling Rhodes serving as a lush and dreamy bed for Maggie Rogers soulful and yearning delivery.
Rogers was a fan of L’Imperatrice before they contacted her, having seen the band’s incredible show Stateside several times. She arrived to the studio, listened to the track, took notes and nailed her version in a few hours and as many takes. At its core, the song is a luxurious and earnest love song about savoring the moment rather than fretting the future at least too much — again, and maybe for better and worse, the American way.
“The French way is that we are pretty slow people,” the band’s Charles de Boisseguin says smiling. “We really take time to make things good. But Maggie Rogers showed up and showed us her skills and the American way. it was a magical moment.” Rogers adds, “L’Impératrice has been one of my favorite bands for a few years now, so when we started talking about working together on some music, I jumped at the opportunity to travel to Paris and create with them. The song came together really naturally and effortlessly in one afternoon and I really think it represents this perfect hybrid of what we both do. I’m so happy it’s out in the world.”
Directed by Zite and Léo, the accompanying video is an intergalactic-meets-terrestrial adventure seemingly inspired by Superman, E.T., Starman and the like, with the band playing aliens stranded after their spaceship crash lands on Earth. The aliens, who try to understand human life, get a local mechanic to assist them with repairing their spaceship. And while their spaceship is being repaired, the band calls home and watches a broadcast of Maggie Rogers singing, which fills them with longing for home — and fittingly inspires them to play alongside the broadcast.
Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératice will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records on June 7, 2024. Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off.
Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others.
The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Imperatice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found.
Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it.
The album will feature, “Me Da Igual,” a sleek and elegant, hook-driven Giorgio Moroder-era-disco-meets-French touch tune anchored by a strutting bass line, a squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar line and glistening synths serving as a sinewy and silky bed for Flore Benguigui’s sultry and ethereal delivery. Further cementing the French outfit’s reputation for crafting infectious, sensual, dance floor friendly bops, “Me Da Igual” features lyrics sung in Spanish and French while being a call to free ourselves from the injunctions to please at all costs, to reclaim your body by abandoning yourself to the euphoria of strobe lights and the dance floor — and listening to the sensations that movement and sound provides you.
The album’s second and latest single “Danza Marilú” features Italian vocalist Fabiana Martone. Continuing a bit where its immediate predecessor left off, “Danza Marilú” is a sleek, hook-driven, Giorgio Moroder-era-Italo-disco-meets-French touch bop anchored around glistening synth arpeggios, squiggling funk guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line and thumping beats. Inspired by and written as a rebuttal to Serge Gainsbourg‘s “L’Homme á tête de chou,” Pulsar‘s latest single is a defiantly feminist anthem for women of all ages, encouraging them to get on that dance floor and to be freely themselves — in spite of the looks that may ensue by insecure haters of all stripes.
The acclaimed French outfit are in the middle of a lengthy international tour that will see the sextet playing four shows in NYC: April 9, 2024 at Racket NYC; April 10, 2024 at Music Hall of WIlliamsburg; and September 7, 2024 and September 8, 2024 at Terminal 5. The September 8, 2024 show was added due to demand. And that isn’t surprising to me: I’ve caught them once, and they’re a must-see act that will have the entire room dancing the night away.
Along with the NYC area shows, they’re going to make a return to Coachella with sets April 12, 2024 and April 19, 2024, as well as stops at Austin City Limits and Outside Lands.
All tour dates are below.
Pre-order / pre-save Pulsar here: qlima.cool/PULSAR
Tour Dates
Apr 04 La Machine Du Moulin Rouge – Paris, France *SOLD OUT
Apr 09 Racket – New York, NY *SOLD OUT
Apr 10 Music Hall Of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY *SOLD OUT
Apr 16 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Tickets
Apr 23 – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Tickets
Sep 5 The Anthem – Washington, DC
Sep 6 Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA *SOLD OUT
Sep 7 Terminal 5 – New York, NY *SOLD OUT
Sep 8 Terminal 5 – New York, NY *SECOND SHOW ADDED
Sep 10 MTELUS – Montreal, QC
Sep 13 Rebel – Toronto, ON
Sept 14 The Salt Shed – Chicago, IL
Sep 16 The Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO *SOLD OUT
Sep 17 The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT
Sep 20 Malkin Bowl – Vancouver, BC
Sep 21 Crystal Ballroom – Portland, OR
Sep 22 Showbox SoDo – Seattle, WA
Sep 24 Fox Theater – Oakland, CA *SOLD OUT
Sep 25 Fox Theater – Oakland, CA *SECOND SHOW ADDED
Oct 11 L’Aéronef – Lille, France
Oct 12 Stereolux – Nantes, France *SOLD OUT
Oct 17 Le Rocher De Palmer – Bordeaux, France
Oct 18 Le Bikini – Toulouse, France
Oct 19 La Sirène – La Rochelle, France
Oct 25 Ancienne Belgique – Brussels, Belgium
Oct 26 den Atelier – Luxembourg
Oct 27 Carlswerk Victoria – Cologne, Germany
Nov 6 Alcatraz – Milan, Italy
Nov 7 La Belle Électrique – Grenoble, France
Nov 8 L’Autre Canal – Nancy, France
Nov 22 L’Olympia – Paris, France *SOLD OUT
Nov 23 L’Olympia – Paris, France *SOLD OUT
Nov 26 Roundhouse – London, UK
Nov 28 Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands *SECOND SHOW ADDED
Nov 29 Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands *SOLD OUT
Dec 8 Columbiahalle – Berlin, Germany
Dec 9 Roxy – Prague, Czech Republic
Dec 11 Gasometer – Vienna, Austria
Dec 12 X-Tra – Zurich, Switzerland
Dec 13 Thônex Live – Geneva, Switzerland