Tag: Elsewhere

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A Place to Bury Strangers Shares Pulsing and Uneasy “Time”

New York-based JOVM mainstays  A Place to Bury Strangers — currently Oliver Ackermann (vocals, guitar), John Fedowitz (bass) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) — released a rarities album Rare and Deadly earlier this year through Dedstrange. 

Following 2024’s Synthesizer, Rare and Deadly sees the band cracking open a decade-long vault of raw nerve and sonic chaos. Spanning 2015-2025, this collection of demos, B-sides, abandoned experiments and forgotten fragments reveals the band at their most unfiltered, frequently caught between breakthrough ideas and beautiful mistakes. 

Pulled from Oliver Ackermann’s personal archive of late-night recordings, blown-out tapes and half-finished sessions, the collection’s tracks pulse with the unruly energy that ATPBS has long been known for, but more dangerous with more jagged edges — on purpose. 

Countless bands have opened up their vaults to fans and others, but Rare and Deadly is truly unprecedented: Every format is different — and as a result, tells a different story. The CD, cassette, vinyl and digital editions each feature their own unique track listing. No single version features the “complete” album. Instead, each format is its own window into Ackermann’s archive, revealing alternate paths, missing links and parallel “what if” versions of the band’s inner life. It’s deliberately unstable with the album shifting depending on how you choose to hear it, mirroring the chaos of its creation. 

Across the collection’s tracks, you can hear the evolution of Ackermann’s restlessly creative mind. Some pieces feel like prototypes for future chaos, seeds that later bloomed on studio albums. Others are dead ends — ideas too volatile, too strange or too personal to ever fit the frame of a proper release. The tracks feature riffs mutated by malfunctioning pedals, songs born from gear pushed past its limits, or delicate melodies overwhelmed by towering walls of feedback. 

Rare and Deadly includes the previously released, “Everyone’s The Same,” “Acid Rain” “Where Are We Now” “Song for Girl From Macedonia” and the album’s final single “Time.” Anchored around a motorik pulse and swirling, feedback and distortion field guitars, “Time” sounds as though it could have been a B-side on Exploding Head. “The song stares down erosion — of belief, of certainty and trust — as faith slips through your fingers, no matter how tightly you grip,” the band explains. “Suspended between hope and collapse, ‘Time’ captures the quiet panic of watching something once solid slowly disappear, and the distorted beauty hat emerges when you keep moving forward even as meaning fractures and reforms.”

Directed by Steve Ward, the accompanying video for “Time” follows a man in a bright white jacket, as he runs around and dances with exploding camera flashes around him. If you or someone you know is photosensitive, this will be a difficult watch for you — but it captures the JOVM mainstay’s long-held live aesthetic.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Femme Co-Founder, Marlon Magnée Shares Breakneck and Punchy “Plus Fort Que Toi”

Marlon Magnée, the co-founder of the acclaimed, French psych outfit and JOVM mainstay act La Femme is stepping out in the spotlight as a solo artist with his debut solo album, the Renaud Letang co-produced Dark Star, which is slated for a March 6, 2026 release through Disque Pointu.

As a member of La Femme, Magnée has earned numerous accolades including Album Révélation of the Year at the Victories de la Musique Awards and multiple RIAA Certified Gold records. He has played sets on some of the world’s biggest and most important stages, including Accor Hotel Arena, Zénith, Glastonbury, Austin City Limits, Lollapalooza and Osheaga.

 After 15 years recording, releasing music and touring the world as a member of La Femme, Magnée’s solo debut reportedly sees the La Femme co-founder reconnecting to his earliest passions. The album reflects his long-held taste for unusual blends and singular styles — with lyrics sung in both French and English.

The result is a breakneck, restless, sometimes radical music, conceived “for those with blood in their hearts and the urge to fight back.”

Recorded at Paris‘ legendary Ferber Studios, Dark Star is an oddball, frenzied collision of shadow and light with songs that wrestle with one’s darkest impulses, bad mushroom trips, ayahuasca-fueled revelations, limerence, overwhelming romantic love, family love and self-sabotage. Sonically, the album draws from 60s guitars, an “orgy of synths” from the 80s, pounding drum machines, analog delays and a deliberately raw energy, that sees the La Femme co-founder blending punk rockabilly, punk and coldwave.

Dark Matter‘s latest single “Plus Fort Que Toi” is a perfect example of what to expect from the new album: It’s a seamless and breakneck blend of rockabilly, krautrock and coldwave pulse and punchy punk rock choruses with lyrics delivered in French. Channeling his mind-bending, genre blurring work with La Femme, “Plus Fort Que Toi,” as the La Femme co-founder explains is “about familial love, affirming that when you love, you protect.”

Directed by J.F. Julian, the accompanying video for “Plus Fort Que Toi,” playfully draws from 50s rockabilly and rock tropes, and fittingly is shot in sunny California — while also proudly featuring synths.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Vendredi Sur Mer Shares Atmospheric, Hook-Driven “Si t’étais là”

With the release of her first two albums, 2019’s Premiers émois and 2022’s Metámorphose, rising Swiss singer/songwriter and photographer and Vendredi Sur Mer creative mastermind Charline Mignot quickly established a cinematic sound that features elements of synth pop, French chanson and 80s pop with retro-styled beats paired with her ethereal yet sultry delivery. Thematically her work frequently touches upon romance, sensuality and introspection.

Balancing nostalgia with a modern sensibility, the Swiss artist has won over fans globally through the release of songs like “Écoute Chérie,” “La femme à peau bleue” and “Les filles désirs.” Adding to a rapidly growing profile, she often accompanies her music with mesmerizing visuals.

Mignot’s third Vendredi Sur Mer album, Malabar Princess was released earlier this year to critical acclaim. The album, which features “Arrêter le temps,” feat. Sofiane Pamart; album title track “Malabar Princess;” “Hard,” feat. Hanni El Khatib and “Tout rèsonne” can trace its origins to a writing residency in Montréal and marks a return to the softness and nostalgia of her earlier work. Thematically, the album is nostalgic return to the mountain landscapes of her youth — and a deeper search for self.

Sam Tiba and new collaborators Adrien Gallo and Owlle helped to guide and inform the material’s more organic, intimate sound. The end result is an achingly sincere effort that sees the rising Swiss artist revealing herself fully to the world.

Mignot will be embarking on an 11-date North American tour this upcoming March. The tour includes a March 6, 2026 stop at Elsewhere. You can check out all of her tour dates for the rest of the 2025 and early 2026 below.

But in the meantime, y’all, the rising Swiss artist shares her latest single, the standalone track “Si t’étais là.” Anchored around shimmering, atmospheric synths, propulsive four-on-the-floor, a supple bass line and subtle bursts of twangy guitar, the cinematic and hook-driven production is simultaneously nostalgic yet contemporary, while being a dreamy bed for Mignot’s breathy, mesmerizing cooing.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Geneva Jacuzzi Shares Sultry and Swaggering “Laps of Luxury”

Geneva Jacuzzi is a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist, whose immersive and unhinged performances are considered legendary: they often involve a psychotropic gallery of masks, costumes, confrontation and massive art installations. Her recorded music frequently features catchy hooks and cryptic moods dusted in 4-track grit. 

Earlier this year, the bedroom darkwave stalwart., multimedia artist and performer signed to Dais Records, who will be releasing her third full-length album Triple Fire on Friday.

In the lead up to the album’s release, I wrote about the following tracks:

“Dry,” a brooding and swaying bit of 80s retro-futuristic synth pop anchored around layers of glistening analog synth arpeggios and skittering beats paired with catchy, razor sharp hooks. Jacuzzi’s seemingly detached vocal singing lyrics about disconnection and uncertainty ethereally float over the dreamy arrangement and production. 

“I took a little break from writing music and when I sat down at home to record, ‘Dry’ was the first song to burst out,” Jacuzzi recalls. “The music came together so instantly it’s as if it had been waiting and perfecting itself for years in the ether. The chorus lyrics came that same week after I went on a date with Mike Judge and he never called me back (haha). I wasn’t upset or anything, but I had never been ghosted before and couldn’t help but equate modern love to an appliance you buy on the home shopping network.”

“Scene Ballerina” Triple Fire‘s third single continued a run of remarkably period specific, 80s inspired synth pop, with the song featuring glistening and arpeggiated synths, tweeter and woofer rattling 808s and catchy hooks serving as a lush yet dance floor friendly bed for Jacuzzi’s expressive vocal. Sonically seeming to nod at a synthesis of Jane Child, I Feel For You-era Chaka Khan and Larry Levan house, “Scene Ballerina” describes a very specific, attention craving personality that many of us have come across at some point or another. 

“We all know that person: The Scene Ballerina. Stirring up a whirlpool of drama. Leaping to the center of the spotlight, spinning lies, twisting stories. All for attention,” Jacuzzi shares. “A tragic character. I can name a few ;)”

“Laps of Luxury,” is Triple Fire‘s fourth and final, pre-release single. And as the album opening track, it sets the template for the album’s sound and aesthetic while standing out on its own. Featuring skittering boom bap, glistening synth arpeggios and strutting synth bass paired with Jacuzzi’s sultry, siren-like cooing, “Laps of Luxury” is a strobe-lit, goth-leaning club banger that’s seemingly indebted to Pet Shop Boys, Yaz/Yazoo, New Order and early Depeche Mode.

“‘Laps of Luxury’ is one of my favorite tracks on Triple Fire,” Jacuzzi says. “We spent the most time perfecting it in the studio. I was listening to a lot of Pet Shop Boys at the time and wanted to capture the light/dark ghostly dreamscape of castles and discos from another time. The lyrics are quite haunting and vague. The character is escaping in a car late at night. Processing the experiences that flood her mind and recounting them to the driver. ‘I’ve seen so many things/no one should ever see’… What did she see?!?! Poor thing. Obviously something unspeakable. One could only imagine.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Geneva Jacuzzi Shares Lush and Satirical “Scene Ballerina”

Geneva Jacuzzi is a Los Angeles-based multimedia artist, whose immersive and unhinged performances are considered legendary: they often involve a psychotropic gallery of masks, costumes, confrontation and massive art installations. Her recorded music frequently features catchy hooks […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Share Breathtaking and Cinematic “Today Is The Day”

JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — will be releasing their long-awaited sixth album, Dream Talk on April 5, 2024 through the band’s own label Wrecking Light Records. 

The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says. Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound.”

The album features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaimed duo further mastering a sound and overall body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles: 

  • “Secret World,” which saw the acclaimed JOVM mainstays pairing Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. “Secret World,” continues a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rocky shore seducing sailors to their eventual watery doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession. “Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”

  • Built around a shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar line that would make Johnny Marr proud paired, Dream Talk‘s second single “The Dream” featured a quick-paced rhythm, train-like rhythm, atmospheric synths and shakers serving as a lush bed for Murray’s smoky croon describing riding on a speeding train at night and a classically epic tale of being within “a dream within a dream,” before ending with a breathtaking guitar solo. “The Dream” is classic Still Corners — shimmering yet broodingly noir-ish, and always cinematic. Thematically, the new single is inspired by and indebted to a quote from Shakespeare: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.” 

  • “Crystal Blue,” a slow-burning and atmospheric torch song featuring twinkling percussion, softly padded drums and a bit of marimba, Murray’s smoky and yearning croon and a shimmering and expressive Hughes guitar solo. Seemingly channeling a handful of great 1980s ballads, “Crystal Blue” is about two lovers, separated by the sea, dreaming of their eventual reunion. Hours, days, nights and weeks go by with the waves and the moonlight being the only companions to their longing and heartache. 

Written in Woodstock, Dream Talk‘s fourth and latest single “Today Is The Day” is anchored around a breathtakingly lush, cinematic arrangement featuring acoustic guitar, bass, reverb-soaked electric and an orchestral coda. Evoking the subtle hints of warmth in Spring’s earliest days, “Today Is The Day” reminds the listener of two essential facts: change is one of life’s few constants and that you need to live for today.

“You have all sorts of connections with songs you write but some seem to connect on a deeper level for whatever reason and this song does that for us. I think there were two sides to this song, one is that we wanted to say something about seizing the moment as life is precious and tomorrow is not promised and that is echoed in the chorus, ‘Today is the Day’ etc.  On the other side there’s this connection to nature and that’s peppered throughout the lyrics as well.  Yeats once said, ‘The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our senses to grow sharper.’  I really believe that and when we were out filming this video by all the trees and birds and just hearing that acoustic guitar out there, it felt ancient and old and it was something I had to be reminded of.  Sitting there by the brook I thought maybe I’ll be lucky and catch a glimpse of something deeper.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Still Corners Shares Atmospheric Torch Song “Crystal Blue”

JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — will be releasing their long-awaited sixth album, Dream Talk on April 5, 2024 through the band’s own label Wrecking Light Records. 

The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says. Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound.”

The album features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaimed duo further mastering a sound and overall body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:

  • “Secret World,” which saw the acclaimed JOVM mainstays pairing Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. “Secret World,” continues a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rocky shore seducing sailors to their eventual watery doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession. “Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”

  • Built around a shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar line that would make Johnny Marr proud paired, Dream Talk‘s second and latest single “The Dream” features a quick-paced rhythm, train-like rhythm, atmospheric synths and shakers serving as a lush bed for Murray’s smoky croon describing riding on a speeding train at night and a classically epic tale of being within “a dream within a dream,” before ending with a breathtaking guitar solo. “The Dream” is classic Still Corners — shimmering yet broodingly noir-ish, and always cinematic. Thematically, the new single is inspired by and indebted to a quote from Shakespeare: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.” 

Dream Talk‘s third and latest single “Crystal Blue” is a slow-burning and atmospheric torch song featuring twinkling percussion, softly padded drums and a bit of marimba, Murray’s smoky and yearning croon, a shimmering and an expressive Greg Hughes guitar solo. Seemingly channeling a handful of great 1980s ballads, “Crystal Blue” is about two lovers, separated by the sea, dreaming of their eventual reunion. Hours, days, nights and weeks go by with the waves and the moonlight being the only companions to their longing and heartache.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Still Corners Share PBS “Masterpiece Theatre”-like Visual for Lush “The Dream”

Throughout their nearly two-decade career, acclaimed JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — have managed to bounce between chilly and atmospheric pop and shimmering guitar-driven, desert noir through five albums: 2012’s Creatures of an Hour, 2013’s Strange Pleasures, 2016’s Dead Blue, 2018’s Slow Air and 2020’s The Last Exit. 

The JOVM mainstays’ long-awaited sixth full-length album Dream Talk is slated for an April 5, 2024 release through the band’s own label, Wrecking Light Records. The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says. 

Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound”

Dream Talk features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaim duo further mastering a sound and body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

Late last year, I wrote about Dream Talk‘s first single “Secret World,” which pairs Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. “Secret World,” continues a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rocky shore seducing sailors to their eventual watery doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession. “Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”

Built around a shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar line that would make Johnny Marr proud paired, Dream Talk‘s second and latest single “The Dream” features a quick-paced rhythm, train-like rhythm, atmospheric synths and shakers serving as a lush bed for Murray’s smoky croon describing riding on a speeding train at night and a classically epic tale of being within “a dream within a dream,” before ending with a breathtaking guitar solo. “The Dream” is classic Still Corners — shimmering yet broodingly noir-ish, and always cinematic.

Thematically, the new single is inspired by and indebted to a quote from Shakespeare: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.”

If the accompanying video reminds you of PBS’ Masterpiece Theatre and its spin-off Mystery!, well that was on purpose! Filmed by the band in the English countryside, the accompanying video for “The Dream” is inspired by and based on the duo’s deep and abiding love of mystery novels and cozy crime fiction. Murray plays a detective called Penelope Braithwaite, who’s called in to investigate the “Mystery of the Repeating Dream.” As the story goes, people from the fictitious town of Reverwood, Sussex have been falling into a repeating dream trap, in which when they wake up, they realize that they are in fact, in the same dream.

Eventually, our protagonist take the train to Reverwood and arrives at a mysterious and all-too English mansion set on a vast garden, where she begins to investigate the case. Does she solve the mystery? Or does she, like everyone in Reverwood get stuck in an endlessly looping dream?

The JOVM mainstays will be supporting Dream Talk with an extensive our throughout 2024 that includes an April 17, 2024 stop at Elsewhere, as well as stops in in Mexico City, the UK and the European Union. As always, tour dates are below. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: SPRINTS Shares Feral and Frenzied “Heavy”

If you had been frequenting this site as we closed out 2023, you might have come across a handful of pieces on rapidly rising Dublin-based punks SPRINTS. The Dublin-based quartet — Karla Chubb (vocals, guitar), Colm O’Reilly (guitar), Jack Callan (drums) and Sam McCann (bass) — formed back in 2019, and since then they have quickly developed and crafted an abrasive punk rock sound, influenced by early Pixies, Bauhaus, Siousxie Sioux, King Gizzard, Savages, and LCD Soundsystem. 

Their first two EP’s, 2021’s Manifesto and last year’s A Modern Job were released to rapturous praise from UK music outlets like DIY, The Guardian, NME, Loud & Quiet, Dork, and Clash. They also received airplay from BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music.

The Irish punks highly-anticipated full-length debut Letter To Self is slated for a Friday release through City Slang Records. According to the band’s Karla Chubb, the album “is a deeply personal and autobiographical lyrically and in its key themes, while sonically it explores a space inspired by our love of early 80s gothic, 90s noises rock and more modern influences. It revisits our most vulnerable moments and imbues them with visceral garage-punk. It aims to take the things that are considered inherently negative – feelings of anxiety, anger and rage, and turning them into a positive. Using our experiences to fuel us and pouring them into a positive outlet. It’s cathartic, it’s honest, it’s raw.” While pain is used to fuel growth, at its core, the album is rooted in a message of self-acceptance. 

The band’s frontperson Karla Chubb has never been afraid to confront inner turmoil. Born in Dublin, she spent a portion of her early childhood in Germany, initially turning to music as a consequence of feeling out-of-step with the world. “I lived in a constant state of existential crisis,” she recalls. “Music became an outlet for emotion, and a way for me to understand myself and society.”

Recorded in France’s Loire Valley with Gilla Band‘s Daniel Fox over the course of 12 days, Letter to Self will feature previously released singles “Adore Adore Adore,” “Literary Mind,” its lead single “Up and Comer,” and what may arguably be the album’s most vulnerable and raw track “Shadow of a Doubt.”

Letter To Self‘s latest single “Heavy” is a brutally furious, mosh pit friendly ripper built around scorching riffs and thunderous drumming paired with anthemic, shout along worthy hooks and Chubb’s urgent, feral delivery. ”The brutally cacophonous sound communicates how it feels to be paralyzed and inspired by anxiety, pairing intrusive thoughts, panic and intensity with that anxiety inducing build,” SPRITS’ Chubb explains. “Heavily inspired my early Bauhaus records and PJ Harvey’s Is This Desire?, it draws a heavy influence from 80s gothic – the purposeful space reflecting the isolating nature of panic.”

Featuring live footage shot by Glen Bollard and Fern Rose, and edited by Annie Walsh and Colin Peppard, the accompanying video for “Heavy” captures the energy of a SPRINTS set — both before the show and in the green room, and then the actual, sweaty, frenzy of the show.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Shares Funky and Anthemic “Tied Up!”

Over the past couple of years, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering the acclaimed and rapidly rising Ghanian-born, Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu.

With the release of his debut EP, 2017’s Cardrive, Owusu — born Kofi Owusu-Anash — quickly established a reputation for being a restless, genre-blurring chameleon, whose work is rooted in powerful and deeply personal storytelling. 

Owusu-Anash’s critically applauded full-length debut, 2021’s Smiling With No Teeth as the acclaimed Ghanian-Aussie JOVM mainstay explained was essentially about “performing what the world wants to see, even if you don’t have the capacity to do so honestly. Slathering honey on your demons to make them palatable to people, who only want to know if you’re okay, if the answer is yes. That’s the idea, turned into beautiful, youthful, ugly, timeless and strange music.”

Building upon the momentum of Smiling With No Teeth, Owusu released the Missing Molars EP in July 2021. The five-track EP served as an accompaniment to his full-length debut. Recorded during the Smiling With No Teeth sessions, the Missing Molars EP hit the cutting floor and didn’t make the album, but they manage to further continue the soul-baring narrative of its predecessor. “Missing Molars is an extension of Smiling With No Teeth,” Owusu-Anash explained. “A small collection of tracks from the SWNT sessions that take the already established world-building groundwork of the album, and expand that universe into new and unexplored places. These are all tracks that I felt were special in their own right and needed to be shared. This is music without boundaries.” 

Adding to a breakthrough year, Owusu-Anash made his Stateside late night TV debut and went on several sold-out tours to support both SWNT and Missing Molars EP. SWNT landed on a number of Best of Lists across the globe — with  triple j naming it their album of the year. The album also earned four ARIA Awards. including Album of the Year, Hip Hop Release, Artwork and Independent Release. 

Building upon a rapidly growing profile both nationally and internationally, last year was an even busier year for the JOVM mainstay: He spent much of last year on the road, making stops across the global festival circuit, with sets at Lollapalooza, Osheaga and others. He also made his headlining Stateside debut, which included a high-energy, captivating stop at Bowery Ballroom, which I covered for my friends at Musicology.xyz.

The JOVM mainstay also opened for a serious of internationally acclaimed and renowned artists including Khraungbin, Thundercat, and Tame Impala back in Australia. Adding to a remarkably busy period, the acclaimed and rapidly rising Aussie artist then released two standalone singles over that same period:

  • “GTFO,” a woozy and anthemic song featuring a looped, warbling choir and wobbling bass serving as an eerie yet soaring bed for Owusu-Anash’s rapid-fire flow, military beats, explosive cymbal crashes and a shout-along-worthy chorus. While further cementing his reputation for being a restlessly experimental artist, the song also finds the listener thrown even deeper into the Ghanian-Aussie artist’s innermost world with an unvarnished, unsettling honesty. 

  • “Get Inspired,” a Dann Hume and Andrew Klippel co-produced seamless synthesis of elements of New Wave, EDM, punk and hip-hop centered around an angular and propulsive bass line, a relentless mootrik groove, distorted guitars and the JOVM’s punchily delivered lyrical jabs and uppercuts. Continuing Owusu-Anash’s reputation for boldly defying and mashing genres, there’s even a falsetto delivered breakdown roughly halfway through the song. (A portion of “Get Inspired” was used in an Apple Fitness+ ad campaign. So you’ve probably heard it without realizing it.)

Along with that, Grammy-nominated musician and producer ZHU remixed “Get Inspired” turning the menacing hybrid punk song into a grimy, club track centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, trap triplets paired with tweeter and woofer rattling beats while retaining Owusu-Anash’s rapid staccato lyrical jabs and uppercuts. ZHU also contributed a couple of auto-tuned, swaggering bars that helps to step up the original’s world-dominating swagger.

The acclaimed Aussie artist’s highly-anticipated sophomore album STRUGGLER is slated for an August 16, 2023 release through OURNESS/AWAL. Where Smiling With No Teeth thematically uncovered one Black man’s battles against — and with — depression and racism, STRUGGLER is reportedly an exploration of the chaos and absurdity of life, our ability to endure and how to get through it all. The album’s material is deeply inspired by a close friend hitting the brink and coming through the other side, along with questions of life and beauty that he found himself contemplating during readings of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. 

Recorded between the States and Australia, STRUGGLER‘s producers traverse musical genres — and includes Jason Evigan, who has worked with RUFUS DU SOL and SZA; Mikey Freedom Hart, who worked on Jon Batiste’s 2021 Grammy of the Year Album, We Are; Sol Was, who worked on Beyoncé’s Renaissance; and his long-time collaborators and producers Andrew Klippel and Dave Hammer.

Additionally, Owusu has collaborated with acclaimed Kiwi-based Lisa Reihana on the album’s complete visual identity. Reihana’s work has been showcased in elite institutions throughout the States and the EU, including the Venice Biennale for her critically-acclaimed video installation, In Pursuit of Venus [Infected]. Her work spans across a diverse of media — including film, costume and body adornment and video installation, and as a result she has earned a reputation as a world-renowned artist and producer, who engages in thought-provoking dialogues around the concert of culture. 

Earlier this year, Owusu-Anash shared STRUGGLER‘s first single, the urgent “Leaving the Light.” Beginning with a spine-crawling run of bass notes before quickly morphing into a breakneck Freedom of Choice-era DEVO-like anthem paired with the JOVM’s swaggering, larger-than-life presence and his unerring knack for rousing, shout along worthy choruses. “Leaving the Light” is a cathartic song about survival and perseverance that feels necessary in a mad, mad, mad world.

STRUGGLER‘s second and latest single, the Sol Was-produced “Tied Up!” is swaggering and funky bop built around a propulsive stomp, a swirling and warping bit of funk guitar, wobbling bass synths paired the JOVM mainstay’s forceful delivery, which speaks of the struggle of getting by in an uneasy, insane world and desperaetly holding onto oneself as best as you can in the process. Much like all of his previously released work, the song seems fueled by personal experience, deep introspection.

The accompanying video for “Tied Up!” continues the JOVM mainstay’s ongoing collaboration with Reihana, and sees Owusu as a blindfolded boxer, who throughout the course of the video runs from and his chased by his demons through a dystopian landscape. At other points, he’s fighting himself in an endless battle for his soul and sanity.