Tag: electro pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Marble Returns with Bouncy, New Order-like “It Always Comes To Me”

Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Black Marble creative mastermind Chris Stewart will be releasing his fifth Black Marble album, Life in Small Spaces through Sacred Bones Records on Friday. The album, which is Stewart’s first full-length album since 2021’s Fast Idol, is an album of clear-eyed commentary and analysis of the music industry as a whole, a discussion of authenticity and a heartfelt letter to all the independent creatives out in the world.

“I always knew a lot of people in music struggled to make ends meet, but it surprised me to learn that the people you thought would be doing well often weren’t. For me, seeing the business from the inside like that changed how I looked at things,” Stewart says. “When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, ‘will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed?’ The life of an artist goes on after your moment ends, you know? So who do you want to be in the end and how do you want to be seen by the people that know you? I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life. I’m doing it as a vocation, not some last-ditch effort to escape to some other world. I made this record not only as a way of saying that, but as a way of saying it’s ok to feel that way. It’s ok for people to sacrifice some degree of creature comfort in order to live a life you believe in. And it doesn’t have to be an endless search for something just out of reach, it can be a permanent way of being and something that sustains you.”

Drawing from early American left-of-the-dial “college radio” staccato guitar lines and live drum samples, the album’s material sees Stewart eschewing his usual wall of synths-driven sound for a more live sound. 

The album will include the previously released “Jim Carol New Year,” and “Anything,” and its last pre-album release single “It Always Comes To Me,” “It Always Comes To Me” continues a run of decidedly upbeat, hook-driven tunes while arguably being the most New Order-like songs I’ve heard so far. The song’s narrator is a roguish sort. who seemingly can get away with things others can’t through a mix of charm and deceit. But whether or not, the narrator is having fun with it all or is complaining about how easy it all is or has even acknowledged that at some point everyone’s luck runs out is ultimately up to the listener. And on some level, the song asks the listener, “if you can get away with it, would you?”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Avalanches Team Up with Karen O on Dreamy and Forlorn “Blue Shadows”

The Avalanches — Robbie Chater, Tony Di Blasio and Andy Szekeres — are arguably one of the most influential and original acts in the contemporary scene: Their debut album, 2000’s acclaimed Since I Left You laid the groundwork for collaborative sampology in this century.

Since then, the trio have released two more acclaimed albums, 2016’s Wildflowers and 2020’s We Will Always Love You. With over 1 million albums sold and 700 million streams across DSPs, a series of coveted collectibles and legions of fans across the globe, the acclaimed act has firmly cemented their place in popular culture.

Back in 2024, The Avalanches collaborated with Jamie xx on “All You Children,” which appeared on his 2024 effort, In Waves.

The trio recently performed at this year’s Primavera Sound Barcelona and announced a run of London headlining shows as part of Pitchfork Music Fest in November. They’ll be making a run of the international festival circuit with DJ sets at Ireland’s All Together Now, France’s Freakquenices (alongside The Dare), Italy’s Poplar and C2C and Belgium’s Les Nuits Weekender — with more dates to be announced soon. Click here for tickets and more information.

Currently based in Los Angeles, Karen O is a Seoul-born, New Jersey-raised singer/songwriter and iconic front woman of the eight-time Grammy Award-nominated Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a focus on film, she has been instrumental in redefining the possibility of rock performance over the past two decades, influencing a new generation of female artists, including Olivia Rodrigo, Japanese Breakfast, The Linda Lindas and a growing list of others.

With the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Seoul-born, Los Angeles-based artist has released five acclaimed albums, including 2022’s Grammy Award-nominated Cool It Down, the band’s first album after a nine-year recording hiatus.

Outside of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Karen O has built an adventurous multidisciplinary career spanning music, film, visual art and performance: Her solo debut, 2014’s Crush Songs was released to critical acclaim. She wrote and performed music for Spike Jonze’s 2009 film, Where the Wild Things Are and she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original song for “The Moon Song” from Jonze’s 2013 film Her. Her experimental rock opera Stop the Virgens premiered at St. Ann’s Warehouse before touring internationally.

As a solo artist, Karen O has collaborated with an eclectic array of equally acclaimed artists including David Lynch, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and fashion house KENZO. 2019’s collaborative album with Danger Mouse, Lux Prima was released to widespread critical acclaim with album single “Woman” earning a Grammy Award nomination. The album also inspired the immersive multimedia installation An Encounter with Lux Prima, which premiered at Los Angeles’ Marciano Art Foundation.

Karen O and The Avalanches recently teamed up for “Blue Shadows,” the second collaboration between the two artists since “Dial D for Devotion,” which appeared on 2020’s We Will Always Love You. “Blue Shadows” is also the third single of the year from the trio, following “Every Single Weekend” feat. Jamie xx and “Together” feat. Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza and Prentiss. With “Blue Shadows” Karen O’s achingly forlorn vocal languidly drifts atop twinkling synths, a chugging bass line, shuffling hi-hats and a dreamy vocal sample. The result is a bittersweet, fever dream of heartache, mistakes, lost chances and what-could-have-beens from the perspective of someone who has lived a messy, complicated

“’Blue Shadows’ was an idea of Andy’s that was almost lost to time until Tony stumbled across it in an old folder and began championing it as a potential album song,” says the trio’s Robbie Chater. “It’s since become one of my favourite Avalanches tunes. Many moons later and thanks to the kindness of Claudio Casalini and the estate of Celso Valli, it looked like Tony’s dream for ‘Blue Shadows’ might come true. 

“I included it in a selection of song ideas for Karen, we wanted her to hear it although I never imagined a vocal would be possible; the demo had such a peculiar, singular mood. What she recorded still amazes me after months of listening, it’s so achingly forlorn and somehow sounds as if it always existed as a song. I don’t know how that is possible, or what she was channelling, some people just have access to a higher plane I suppose!”

Karen O adds, “When Robbie sent me ‘Blue Shadows,’ I jumped at the chance to collaborate. The Avalanches last record We Will Always Love You was a gift to humanity in 2020 and I’ll count it as one of my Top 10 forever. The Avalanches frequency is high, I’m so happy to be asked to slide into it.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Allegories Returns with Menacing “They’ll Never Suspect Us”

Canadian experimental pop duo and JOVM mainstays Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — will be releasing their newest album, By accident, On purpose on October 16, 2026.

The album will include the previously released, broodingly atmospheric and introspective “Honestly, that’s enough honesty” and the album’s latest single “They’ll Never Suspect Us.” Continuing with a gorgeous and broodingly atmospheric production, “They’ll Never Suspect Us” is underpinned by a gleeful and downright giddy sense of malice.

Arguably, one of their darker songs lyrically to date, “They’ll Never Suspect Us” reframe the classic murder ballad into something more detached, swaggering and unsettling with a narrator who imagines the act — and then rubs the prospective victim’s face in the fact that no one will care about their demise. It’s a song perfect for those true crime shows many of us love watching, including yours truly.

The accompanying video was shot on VHS tape and includes tape fuzz, wavering and undulating imagery and more.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Marble Returns with Propulsive “Anything”

Singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and Black Marble creative mastermind Chris Stewart will be releasing his fifth Black Marble album, Life in Small Spaces through Sacred Bones Records on August 21, 2026. The album, which is Stewart’s first full-length album since 2021’s Fast Idol, is an album of clear-eyed commentary and analysis of the music industry as a whole, a discussion of authenticity and a heartfelt letter to all the independent creatives out in the world.

“I always knew a lot of people in music struggled to make ends meet, but it surprised me to learn that the people you thought would be doing well often weren’t. For me, seeing the business from the inside like that changed how I looked at things,” Stewart says. “When I looked up to see a new artist on a billboard, I started to wonder, ‘will I one day have to pretend to be something I’m not, in order to succeed?’ The life of an artist goes on after your moment ends, you know? So who do you want to be in the end and how do you want to be seen by the people that know you? I made Life In Small Spaces while thinking about that, and for me, it serves as my own ideal for living an artistic life. I’m doing it as a vocation, not some last-ditch effort to escape to some other world. I made this record not only as a way of saying that, but as a way of saying it’s ok to feel that way. It’s ok for people to sacrifice some degree of creature comfort in order to live a life you believe in. And it doesn’t have to be an endless search for something just out of reach, it can be a permanent way of being and something that sustains you.”

Drawing from early American left-of-the-dial “college radio” staccato guitar lines and live drum samples, the album’s material sees Stewart eschewing his usual wall of synths-driven sound for a more live sound. 

The album will include the previously released “Jim Carol New Year,” a decidedly upbeat, 1980s New Wave-inspired track and its latest single, “Anything.” Anchored around an angular and propulsive rhythmic pulse and shimmering and squiggling bursts of guitar, “Anything” manages to channel early New Order and Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are DEVO! and Freedom of Choice-era DEVO but instead of frustrated carnal desires, the song has a decidedly domestic bent. It’s not exactly content, but it has a sense of humor about daily annoyances and irritations of friends and loved ones, the frustrations of constant stimulation and instant gratification when it seems you can’t find either. And at its core, the song points out it’s difficult to connect with people, when most folks are lookin to bail on people for the smallest possible thing.

“‘Anything’ is basically a bedroom pop version of ‘Satisfaction’ but it trades the carnal undertones for more of a domestic pastiche. With lyrics about leaving the bedroom window open, casual druggy friends popping by at all hours and other relationship annoyances, the center of the struggle is less about finding temporary satisfaction but that today’s glut of options and opportunities gives every relationship an expiration date, every encounter an easy off ramp and every minor annoyance a reason to move on,” Black Marble’s Chris Stewart says. “The sentiment is the same from those old days, lack of fulfillment, but it’s due to modern circumstances. It feels like we have every option at our fingertips but we’re somehow losing the ability to connect.”

Directed by Scott Kiernan, the accompanying video was shot at New York’s Various/Artists and captures the song’s themes of overstimulation by featuring a rapid-fire barrage of vibrant images with a meditative and occasionally bemused Stewart flickers throughout the visual noise and chaos.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 77th Birthday, Trevor Horn!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Trevor Horn’s 77th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 72nd Birthday, Neil Tennant!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Pet Shop Boys and Electronic frontman Neil Tennant’s 72nd birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Genesis Owusu Returns with Shimmering and Glitchy Surprise Single “HUMAN AGAIN”

Acclaimed multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu released his highly anticipated third album REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE earlier this year through OURNESS. 

REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE sees one of Australia’s most celebrated and visionary contemporary artists construct an exposed state-of-the-day record that’s experimental yet cohesive, desolate yet ecstatic, unflinching yet free. Duality is at the core of an album that sees the JOVM mainstay layering musings on an unsettled world with piercing reflections of his, and our own places within the world. Rich in lyricism and earnest in its message, REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE is a resolute effort that confronts a divisive era in which humanity and its institutions seem to be ripping apart at the seams and heeds a desperate need for unity. 

Sonically drawing from and meshing elements funk, neo-soul, Brit rock and alt pop the album’s overall sound feels both sprawling and deliberate. “The world hasn’t ended yet,” Owusu. says. “We’re still moving, we’re still jumping, we’re still living, and so we shall continue. Through rain, shine, exploitation and warfare. We, the people, will always stubbornly persist, and hopefully persist hand in hand.”

Today, the acclaimed JOVM mainstay shares “HUMAN AGAIN,” a surprise stand-alone single and video that comes on the heels of REDSTAR WU & THE WORLDWIDE SCOURGE and his Red Star Wu’s Pirate Radio Tour, which electrified crowds in Australia and included sold-out headline shows in London and Paris, and opening dates with IDLES. “HUMAN AGAIN exists in the same mindset as REDSTAR WU — emotionally raw and reflecting deeply on our divisive, mad times. Sonically, the new single features bubbling and warbling synth glitch and skittering beats beneath Owusu alternating between a ferocious, ODB-styled snarl for the song’s punchy verses and his imitable croon. His delivery evokes a man at conflict with himself, seeming propelled forward by the digitized world that surrounds us. And yet, the song’s narrator finds a hopeful resolve, resilience in community, and inspiration in the collective fight to hold on to our humanity.

Owusu says, “I wrote this song when I was thinking about apathy. Living in the digital age of misinformation is genuinely brain-frying sometimes. So much global gaslighting, so much to cry and scream about; it’s easier to just flip the switch off and sink into base hedonism to feel human again. But it’s really important to care. You can party too. Care about the rights and freedoms that let you party. Care about all the people around the world who wanna party just like you. Keep fighting, kicking and screaming so the party doesn’t die.”

Directed by Isaac Brown, the accompanying video is a baroque, Interview with the Vampire-styled fever dream of lust, decadence and violence that collides with modern-day European streets in a way that emphasizes the tensions at the core of the song in a visceral fashion.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 65th Birthday, Andy Fletcher!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 65th anniversary of the birth of Depeche Mode co-founder Andy Fletcher’s birth.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: I WANT POETRY Shares Shimmering and Upbeat “Future Selves”

German indie electro pop duo I WANT POETRY — Tine von Bergen (vocals) and Till Moritz Moll (keys) — released their highly-anticipated third album Future Selves last month. The hopeful and transformative album is inspired by a brief moment in time when the future still felt like a bright promise, channeling the spirit of past dreams of utopia and progress. And as a result, Future Selves offers a forward-thinking vision shaped by memory, imagination and the will to create what comes next.

Sonically, the German duo’s third album is an evolution from the more reflective tones of 2023’s Solace + Light, featuring layers of shimming synths and soaring melodies. 

The album includes “Mirrors Of The Sky,” the Michael Micheal Vanja, Ghian Wright and The EmU-co-produced “No Is a Full Sentence,” “Backyard Astronauts,” and the album’s latest single, album title track “Future Selves,” Built around glistening synths, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses paired with von Bergen’s expressive, pop star-like delivery, “Future Selves” sounds a bit like it could have been part of a mid 80s movie soundtrack while pointing out to the listener that the future isn’t written yet; that it’s up to us to create that future. It’s a much-needed burst of upbeat optimism in very dark times.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Pain Gain Shares Atmospheric “Prizefighter”

Formed back in 2023, Pain Gain — Kilo‘s Chloe Kaul, SWIM’s Hamish Lefevre, and CRUSH3d’s Samuel Cooke — began as a deliberate left turn for its members. Shedding their established electronic identities, Kaul, Lefevre and Cooke retreated to the beachside forests of southern Australia with guitars, modular synths and a tape recorder. What they believed was a temporary and fun moment of escape, quickly evolved into something far more profound for the trio: a thorough recalibration of sound, process and purpose.

Despite each member’s distinct musical paths, Pain Gain is about a shared musical language discovered. Rooted in instinct and play, the project became an immersive, almost familial experience for its members. The result is their self-titled, full-length debut.

Slated for a July 17, 2026 release through Play It Again Sam/PIAS, the forthcoming album reportedly sees the trio trading velocity for gravity while moving fluidly between indie rock melodrama and expansive pop balladry, all while rejecting genre as a fixed idea.

Thematically, the ten-song album traces personal upheaval with unflinchingly honesty. Kaul’s sometimes excoriating lyrics are paired with tactile soundscapes shared by Lefevre and Cooke in which no single voice dominates. Working with an instinctive creative process, the trio embraced single takes, analog experimentation and the beauty of imperfection, allowing songs to emerge organically from their surroundings, Each room of their retreat became a makeshift studio; melodies frequently drifted through kitchen conversations, while lyrics were created from late-night exchanges by the fire.

“We went away together with only the intention of starting something new, we never expected that we would end up not only with an album, but one that feels as cohesive and collectively personal as this,” Pain Gain explains. “It’s a record that looks for beauty in friction, and finding a new start in the wreckage of something past”

The self-titled album’s latests single “Prizefighter,” is an atmospheric bit of synth pop paired with Kaul’s achingly tender delivery. The song which emerged from reversed and replayed tape experiments, sonically recalls ACES and others. But as the song slowly builds up to its crescendo, the song channels the growing exhaustion, frustrations and resentments of staying too long in something that won’t change.

As the trio explain, “‘Prizefighter’ is a centrepiece to the record. Conceptually it’s about being coaxed into a cycle that never breaks. It’s always the same fight.“