Tag: electronic dance music

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: John Glacier Shares a Breezy and Hypnotic Banger

Rising Hackney-born rapper, producer and poet John Glacier released her full-length debut, last year’s critically applauded Like A Ribbon. Like A Ribbon featured a seamless blend of rap, electronic music, post-punk, ambient textures and experimental songwriting, showcasing the rising Hackney-born artist’s uniquely diaristic, stream-of-consciousness approach while quickly establishing her as an artist operating within her own lane.

The success of Glacier’s debut has also helped to catapult her into a new stratosphere within music and elsewhere. Since her debut’s release, she made her debut in British Vogue, appeared on the cover of Hypebeast and starred in Prada‘s Spring/Summer 2026 global campaign alongside Hunter Schafer, Damson Idris, Carey Mulligan, Nicholas Hoult and the cover of HommeGirls. Her reputation as a fashionista has been further cemented with collaborations and appearances with leading houses — including Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Louis Vuitton, Miu Miu, Lacoste, Gucci, Bogetta Veneta, JW Anderson and Fendi.

Musically, she has collaborated with a growing and eclectic list of artists across different genres, including Blondshell, MJ Cole, Montell Fish and dj gummy bear, Jadasea and Jamie xx.

The rising multidisciplinary talent is building upon a rapidly growing profile with the Take A Daytrip co-produced “Bond Girl,” the first bit of new material since last year’s Like A Ribbon. Bult with a breezy yet propulsive pulse and tweeter and woofer rattling low end paired with dense layers of twinkling and oscillating synth melodies beneath Glacier’s coolly swaggering delivery, “Bond Girl” is a hypnotic, club friendly banger that channels Ibiza with a pop-leaning accessibility. “Bond Girl” to me captures a bold, rising artist, who’s about to put the game in a chokehold — and in her own terms.

Directed by Léa Ceheivi, the accompanying video for “Bond Girl” is fittingly inspired by classic spy thrillers and stars the rising Hackney-born artist as a stylish and enigmatic secret agent, who’s both a heroine and a villain. Effortlessly maneuvering through a world of intrigue and excess, she continually find sways to evade, outsmart and triumph over rivals and others attempting to take what’s hers.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: belac Shares a Sultry, Club Friendly Banger

belac is a rising, Perth-born and-based producer, who is a product of the Internet Generation: After discovering a Martin Garrix breakdown of his hit song “Animals” when the Aussie producer was 11, he has spent the past decade consuming — and sometimes forming — internet tends and turning them into club bangers. Before music, he was one of the best beach sprinters in Western Australia and a qualified physicist. But as he explains, he went all-in on music, when he heard his own music being blasted by the electronic music club while walking around his university’s open day.

Since then, he has signed with [PIAS] Électronique, who has released recent singles “need it, breathe it” and “be with me 2009,” which manage to be simultaneously nostalgia-inducing and fresh, while giving younger fans a cache to experience an era of EDM that they might not have originally been around for. And interestingly, gamers have claimed that his work is the perfect soundtrack for massive gaming sessions.

Now while there’s a cheekiness to his music and his online presence, the Perth-born and-based producer has an unerring knack for understanding what delights dance music fans and brings them to the dance floor. And as a result, he’s become one of Australia’s most recognized, rising electronic producers, specializing in club friendly bangers with elements of 2010s EDM, Memphis trap, jazz and more.

The Aussie producer’s latest single “late night visions” is a subtly brooding and atmospheric take on tech house with a sultry vocal sample that reminds me of French JOVM mainstay LutchamaK and a lengthy list of others, while showcasing a producer who can craft a euphoric, remarkably catchy hook.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montréal’s DONALDA Shares Woozily Euphoric “C FOU”

Montréal-based electronic dance music duo DONALDA — Florence Lafontaine and Olivier Martin-Fréchette — derive their project’s name from the name given to the first women admitted to college in Québec in the late 19th century, and is a nod to the fictional character introduced in Claude-Henri Grignon’s 1933 novel Un homme et son péché, who, for several generations, embodied the consequences of patriarchy.

Lafontaine and Martin-Fréchette both have an academic background in digital, contemporary mixed-media and instrumental composition, as well as in jazz interpretation. Inspired by UK garage, dubstep, left field bass and other British electronic music sub-genres as well as the queer nightlife scene, the duo take a pedagogical approach to music in order to deconstruct the boundaries of musical genres. While getting people onto the dance floor is their ultimate goal, they also seek to spark musical curiosity among their audience, something that is at the core of their inclusive, unifying philosophy.

Through composition, sound design and creative coding, the Montréal-based duo tap into their wide-ranging experiences to bring every stage of DONALDA’s creative process to life. And fittingly, their versatility imbued their sound with a coherent and deeply personal artistic identity rooted in a celebration of diversity and inclusion, freedom and the French language.

The duo recently signed to Bonsound, who released their debut single “C FOU.” Meshing elements of dubstep, drum ‘n’ bass, alternative R&B and Larry Levan-era house, “C FOU” sees the duo pairing glitchy beats, broodingly atmospheric synths, soulful harmonies, catchy danceable choruses and hooks, The result is a woozy, drunken euphoric feel of freedom — but with a bit of grit, sweat and grime.

Throwback by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 86th Birthday, Giorgio Moroder!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Giorgio Moroder’s 86th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 52nd Birthday, Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Daft Punk’s Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo’s 52nd birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 51st Birthday, Thomas Bangalter!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates French touch pioneer Thomas Bangalter’s 51st birthday.

Throwback by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 85th Birthday, Giorgio Moroder!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Giorgio Moroder’s 85th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sunglow Teams Up with Rachael Brianna on Rapid-Fire “figure 8s”

Daniel B. Lynch is a Savannah, GA-born, Chicago-based DIY electronic artist, best known as Sunglow. Lynch can trace the origins of his career in electronic/computer music back to when he was 12. Starting off with experimental, electronic songs, then gradually transitioning to weirdo pop, Lynch’s relocation to Chicago marked a return to his experimental roots.

His collaborations with Furious Hooves Records and Company Businesses Inc™ have led to some rather innovative sonic explorations, which have led to defining his unique “hypo-pop” style.

Lynch’s latest album, the recently released Chocolate, Strawberry, and Pistachio, a collaborative album that sees the Savannah-born, Chicago-based producer and artist working with a series of vocalists. The recently released album’s latest single “figure 8s” feat. Rachael Brianna is a rapid-fire bop anchored around squiggling and squawking electronics, twinkling synth arpeggios and skittering beats serving as a playful and sugary bed for Rachael Brianna’s sarcastic delivery. The song seems to say, when shit has gone dark, might as well make fun on of it.