Tag: Gift

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays Psymon Spine Share Two Slick Remixes from “Heady Remix Collector”

Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays Psymon Spine released their third album, Head Body Connector last year. The album is a gritty, punchy, guitar-forward studio album from a band that’s long been obsessed with production. And perhaps more than its predecessors, their third album is explicitly informed and inspired by the band’s cathartic live show. “It’s more unhinged than anything we’ve made before,” Psymon Spine’s Noah Prebish says. “Throughout the writing process, we were always asking ourselves how we could make it really fun to play live.”  

Ironically, the album, though ready-made to be performed, was mostly written in 2020 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The band split their time between various home studios and friends’ back porches in Montauk, The Catskills, Boston and Brooklyn. It was fall and the crisp autumn air, and political uncertainty and disquietude looming in the background lended itself to an undeniable longing for companionship. “It felt like we had collectively jumped from one timeline to another, more bizarre one,” Prebish says. 

The central theme of time being fractured, chopped and screwed is integral to the album’s material and its album art, which was designed by New York-based artist Bucky Boudreau and appears in the form of alternative measurements of passing seconds, minutes, days, lifetimes, tally marks on a chalkboard and infinity signs made of camp bracelets on a cracked egg.“Head Body Connector is our response to a world even more chaotic than usual,” says Peter Spears, “and an exploration of the little joys, anxieties, and absurdities that world has to offer.” While being an ode to the dissonance of temporality in our current moment, it’s also an elastic tribute to friendship and harmony in the face of that dissonance. 

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

“Boys,” a track that begins with a glistening New Wave-meets-post punk introduction before quickly morphing into a funky, synth-driven both with slashing guitars. The two seemingly disparate sections are held together with Sabine Holler’s dreamy delivery. But just under the infectious, danceable surface, is an introspective song that reveals a subtle sense of unease. 

The track was written after the band’s Sabine Holler relocated to Berlin, but she still lends her voice to the song. “By nature every Psymon Spine song must be a little cheeky to bypass our own self-criticism, but in reality ‘Boys’ is just a very earnest song about friendship,” the band notes. “Early on in the pandemic Sabine moved back to Germany and we weren’t sure what was going to happen, either to us as a unit or to the entire world. We went to Peter’s childhood home in Boston for a few days and fleshed out a demo that Michael had started a couple weeks earlier. We sent it to Sabine who almost immediately replied with the same vocal take you hear on the song today.” 

“Wizard Acid,” a woozy bit of disco funk built around a punchy bass line, glistening synth arpeggios and thumping beats paired with lyrics about coming apart at the seams — both literally and metaphorically. Consumed with cabin fever, the song’s narrator is slowly losing their mind. 

The band told the folks at Flood Magazine that the song is “part allegory, part nonsense, encapsulating elements of cabin fever, dread and humor. We melded one of Michael’s early demos with one of Peter’s, creating one unholy coupling which eventually took the form of a shapeshifting disco jam. It sat instrumental for a couple months until Peter sent over some lyrics detailing a narrator slowly consumed by their sentient house, or perhaps losing their mind (maybe both?).” 

The JOVM mainstays will be releasing Heady Remix Collector, a bold reimagining of the material off last year’s Head Body Connector. Slated for an April 4, 2025 release through their longtime label home Northern Spy, the album features remixes by some of their favorite artists and collaborators with the album’s tracks transformed into fresh, electrifying soundscapes that are perfect for both the dance floor and deep listening.

“We’re thrilled to share our most eclectic remix album yet: Heady Remix Collector. The name says it all,” the JOVM mainstays say. We asked 8 of our favorite artists to reinterpret songs on Head Body Connector and what we got back was a glimpse into how truly weird and brilliant our friends are.

We generally take a very hands-off approach to the remixes that we commission (the exception being “Love Injection’s Antimatter Kid Remix”, which Noah played guitar on); anytime we ask someone to remix something it’s because we love their work and want them to do their thing. We send out the stems, tell them to freak it, and in a couple months we find a bunch of alien babies on our doorstep.

“For the DJs, we’ve got club bangers from Sam O.B. and GIFT, as well as balearic slow burners from Love Injection and lovetempo. MGMT and Matt FX’s mixes are psychedelic, joyous, delirious. And both This is Lorelei and Disq’s remixes are a stroll through a funhouse, complete with trick mirrors and trap doors at every turn.”

The band shared the first peak of Heady Remix Collector, a double A-side single featuring MGMT’s remix of “Boys” and GIFT’s remix of “Wizard Acid.”

The MGMT remix of “Boys” pairs a chugging motorik-like groove, buzzing and crunchy guitars and twinkling synth oscillations with Holler’s dreamy delivery to create a dreamy and euphoric house music-meets-New Wave take on the original.

The GIFT remix of “Wizard Acid” turns the song into slick and glistening Echoes-era The Rapture/DFA Records dance punk-meets-house music banger with euphoric hooks.

If I were doing a DJ set, I’d play these bangers to get people moving — and if these tracks don’t get you moving, there’s something wrong with you.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Euphoric “Light Runner”

Earlier this year, Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays GIFT — TJ Freda (vocals, guitar), multi-instrumentalist Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell (bass), multi-instrumentalist Justin Hrabovsky and Gabe Camarano (drums) — signed to Captured Tracks, who will be releasing their highly-anticipated sophomore, 11-song album Illuminator on August 23, 2024.

Illuminator reportedly sees the JOVM mainstays firmly cementing their sound with a remarkably mature, self-assuredness for a relatively young band.
Professionally, the members of the rising Brooklyn-based outfit are firmly enmeshed in the local scene as talent buyers, photographers, DJs, audio engineers, art directors, and in the case of Campbell, the owner of Bushwick-based DIY venue Alphaville. The continued melting pot of their combined skills and experiences helps to make the album an even more cohesive listening experience while seeing increasing contributions from each of the band’s members: Gurewitz, a relative newcomer to making music, contributed a host of lyrics and vocal melodies. Hrabovsky, who previously engineered at Asheville, NC-based Drop of Sun Studios and Echo Mountain Recording shared production duties with Freda. And Camarano’s drumming provided the crucial rhythmic underpinning of the album’s material. 

“We had a lot more confidence going in,” Freda says. “The main goal was to take a big swing, embrace the pop sounds we love and clear the mist and clouds surrounding the last record to make it a lot punchier.”

Illuminator will feature the previously released:

“Wish Me Away,” a track anchored around a dreamy and hook-driven shoegazer soundscape of glistening, reverb-drenched guitars, woozy synths and a motorik groove paired with propulsive rhythms serving as a lush bed for Freda’s plaintive falsetto, “Wish Me Away” is continuation of the overall aesthetic they established on Momentary Presence and a decided sonic push forward, showcasing where the band is going next. The song also sees the band exploring and expressing a complex array of emotions with a lived-in specificity. 

“‘Wish Me Away’ is about giving into the feeling of everything slipping away,” GIFT’s TJ Freda explains. “Just take it all away, put me out of my misery, wish me away. While this all seems daunting and sad, there’s a feeling of optimism in this song, holding on for dear life and refusing to give up hope.”

After nearly losing a loved one, Freda found himself grappling with the fleeting nature of life, and understandably with the inevitability of mortality. “‘Wish Me Away,’ ruminates on the fear and freedom that can come knowing it can all slip away. The line ‘wish me away’ kept coming up, as in ‘take me, not them,’” Freda adds. 

“Going In Circles,” an Evil Heat-era Primal Scream take on shoegaze, built around a motorik groove, glistening and atmospheric synths, swirling reverb-soaked guitar textures and Freda’s dreamily plaintive delivery paired with the quintet’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks and chorus. But underneath the euphoria-inducing nature of the song is a bitter lament of a relationship gone a bit awry. 

“This was the first song I wrote for Illuminator that helped me realize the direction of the album,” GIFT’s TJ Freda says. “I wrote the chorus while passively playing guitar and rushed to record the idea. At that moment, something clicked and I realized where the album was going. At our shows from the Momentary Presence tour, people would stand in the crowd wide-eyed without moving. We wanted to get people moving with the new album, so we were really inspired by bands like Primal Scream, Oasis, and Massive Attack. It’s our psych-rock tribute to U.K. rave culture in the ‘90s.

“The song is about the endless cycle of a relationship,” Freda adds, “the back and forth in both euphoria and doubt. The chorus ‘I never told you why’ is about never being able to say how you really feel, not having closure and the cycle continuing.” 

The Jessica Gurewitz and TJ Freda co-written “Later,” which may arguably be one of the most brooding and uneasy song of the band’s growing catalog — while also being the most straightforward shoegazer track of the album. Anchored around a swaggering motorik groove, the track finds the band pairing glistening and reverb drenched guitars with Freda’s plaintive falsetto and the band’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses.

“While writing Illuminator I found myself clinging to intense emotions, reluctant to release them. ‘Later’ stands out as one of the darkest songs I’ve made,” Freda explains. “Making it was cathartic, diving into darker themes. The song explores surrendering to the overwhelming sensation of life slipping away before my eyes.” 

“Light Runner,” Illuminator‘s fourth and latest single sounds — to my ears, at least — like a mind-bending and slickly produced synthesis of Madchester scene, breakbeats, Ray of Light-era Madonna and shoegaze anchored around enormous, buzzy and euphoria inducing hooks and choruses. “Light Runner” also sees the band crafting a hook-driven sound that’s simultaneously dance club and arena rock friendly while retaining the widescreen quality that has won them accolades.

The accompanying video for “Light Runner” was directed by the band’s TJ Freda. “The album and song ‘Ray of Light’ by Madonna was a massive inspiration while recording Illuminator – I wanted to pay homage to the brilliant music video directed by one of my favorite directors Jonas Åkerlund. ‘Light Runner’ celebrates the triumph of emerging from a dark time while acknowledging the transformative power of overcoming it. It’s a testament to the euphoria of personal achievement.In 2023, during our first European tour, we were enthralled by the origins of 90s UK bands like Primal Scream, Massive Attack, and Oasis. Following a show in Glasgow, the promoters treated us to an underground Jungle/DnB rave, blowing our minds wide open.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays GIFT Shares Brooding “Later”

JOVM mainstays GIFT — TJ Freda (vocals, guitar), multi-instrumentalist Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell (bass), multi-instrumentalist Justin Hrabovsky and Gabe Camarano (drums) — formed just before the COVID-19 pandemic. And although 2020 wasn’t exactly the most ideal time to start a band, especially for a group of musicians with varying and diverse roots and professional backgrounds, Freda assembled the band by cherry-picking members of some of his favorite local bands, crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. Professionally, the members of the rising Brooklyn-based outfit are firmly enmeshed in the local scene as talent buyers, photographers, DJs, audio engineers, art directors, and in the case of Campbell, the owner of Bushwick-based DIY venue Alphaville. 

The JOVM mainstays signed to Captured Tracks, who will be releasing their highly-anticipated sophomore, 11-song album Illuminator on August 23, 2024. The album reportedly sees the quintet firmly cementing their sound with a remarkably mature, self-assuredness for a relatively young band. The continued melting pot of their combined skills and experiences helps make the album an even more cohesive listening experience. The album sees increasing contributions from the band’s members: Gurewitz, a relative newcomer to making music, contributed a host of lyrics and vocal melodies. Hrabovsky, who previously engineered at Asheville, NC-based Drop of Sun Studios and Echo Mountain Recording shared production duties with Freda. And Camarano’s drumming provided the crucial rhythmic underpinning of the album’s material. 

“We had a lot more confidence going in,” Freda says. “The main goal was to take a big swing, embrace the pop sounds we love and clear the mist and clouds surrounding the last record to make it a lot punchier.”

Illuminator will feature:

“Wish Me Away,” a track anchored around a dreamy and hook-driven shoegazer soundscape of glistening, reverb-drenched guitars, woozy synths and a motorik groove paired with propulsive rhythms serving as a lush bed for Freda’s plaintive falsetto, “Wish Me Away” is continuation of the overall aesthetic they established on Momentary Presence and a decided sonic push forward, showcasing where the band is going next. The song also sees the band exploring and expressing a complex array of emotions with a lived-in specificity. 

“‘Wish Me Away’ is about giving into the feeling of everything slipping away,” GIFT’s TJ Freda explains. “Just take it all away, put me out of my misery, wish me away. While this all seems daunting and sad, there’s a feeling of optimism in this song, holding on for dear life and refusing to give up hope.”

After nearly losing a loved one, Freda found himself grappling with the fleeting nature of life, and understandably with the inevitability of mortality. “‘Wish Me Away,’ ruminates on the fear and freedom that can come knowing it can all slip away. The line ‘wish me away’ kept coming up, as in ‘take me, not them,’” Freda adds. 

“Going In Circles,” an Evil Heat-era Primal Scream take on shoegaze, built around a motorik groove, glistening and atmospheric synths, swirling reverb-soaked guitar textures and Freda’s dreamily plaintive delivery paired with the quintet’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks and chorus. But underneath the euphoria-inducing nature of the song is a bitter lament of a relationship gone a bit awry. 

“This was the first song I wrote for Illuminator that helped me realize the direction of the album,” GIFT’s TJ Freda says. “I wrote the chorus while passively playing guitar and rushed to record the idea. At that moment, something clicked and I realized where the album was going. At our shows from the Momentary Presence tour, people would stand in the crowd wide-eyed without moving. We wanted to get people moving with the new album, so we were really inspired by bands like Primal Scream, Oasis, and Massive Attack. It’s our psych-rock tribute to U.K. rave culture in the ‘90s.

“The song is about the endless cycle of a relationship,” Freda adds, “the back and forth in both euphoria and doubt. The chorus ‘I never told you why’ is about never being able to say how you really feel, not having closure and the cycle continuing.” 

Illuminator’s third and latest single is the Jessica Gurewitz and TJ Freda co-written “Later.” Arguably one of the more brooding and uneasy songs of the JOVM mainstays’ growing catalog, “Later” is anchored around a swaggering motorik groove, glistening and reverb drenched guitars paired with Freda’s plaintive falsetto and the band’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. But interestingly enough, the new single may also be the more straightforward shoegazer track of the album, as well.

“While writing Illuminator I found myself clinging to intense emotions, reluctant to release them. ‘Later’ stands out as one of the darkest songs I’ve made,” Freda explains. “Making it was cathartic, diving into darker themes. The song explores surrendering to the overwhelming sensation of life slipping away before my eyes.” 

Co-directed by Sophia Feuer and the band’s Jessica Gurewitz, “the accompanying video for “Later” continues a remarkable run of cinematic and surreal visuals. We follow the band’s Gurewitz as she embarks on a lengthy journey by foot through the woods, a struggling and run down city — and in some way through time, thanks to the use of some flashbacks with stock footage, old photos and more.

“I wanted to explore the internal confusion that comes with the passage of time. I was reading a lot of horror stories while we shot this and I wanted to bring those to the screen by exploring unknown places and questioning timelines,” Gurewitz says. “Working with Sophia Feuer (Director, DP, Editor) was amazing and she made it possible to bring this vision to life.“

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays GIFT Shares Rousingly Euphoric “Going In Circles”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet GIFT — TJ Freda (vocals, guitar), multi-instrumentalist Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell (bass), multi-instrumentalist Justin Hrabovsky and Gabe Camarano (drums) — formed just before the COVID-19 pandemic. And although 2020 wasn’t exactly the most ideal time to start a band, especially for a group of musicians with varying and diverse roots and professional backgrounds, Freda assembled the band by cherry-picking members of some of his favorite local bands, crossed his fingers and hoped for the best. Professionally, the members of the rising Brooklyn-based outfit are firmly enmeshed in the local scene as talent buyers, photographers, DJs, audio engineers, art directors, and in the case of Campbell, the owner of Bushwick-based DIY venue Alphaville.

Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, the JOVM mainstays full-length debut, 2022’s Momentary Presencewas a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence featured dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated. 

The album asked the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now. 

The band leaned on their collective experiences in the behind-the-scenes and non-performing aspects of the music business as part of settling on a bold sound — a dizzying blend of early shoegaze, 90s alt rock and modern pop. The album quickly caught the attention of hungry shoegazers and cognoscenti looking for the new thing across the States, Europe and elsewhere.

The JOVM mainstays signed to Captured Tracks, who will be releasing their highly-anticipated sophomore, 11-song album Illuminator on August 23, 2024. The album reportedly sees the quintet firmly cementing their sound with a remarkably mature, self-assuredness for a relatively young band. The continued melting pot of their combined skills and experiences helps make the album an even more cohesive listening experience. The album sees increasing contributions from the band’s members: Gurewitz, a relative newcomer to making music, contributed a host of lyrics and vocal melodies. Hrabovsky, who previously engineered at Asheville, NC-based Drop of Sun Studios and Echo Mountain Recording shared production duties with Freda. And Camarano’s drumming provided the crucial rhythmic underpinning of the album’s material.

“We had a lot more confidence going in,” Freda says. “The main goal was to take a big swing, embrace the pop sounds we love and clear the mist and clouds surrounding the last record to make it a lot punchier.”

Illuminator will feature the previously released single “Wish Me Away.” Anchored around a dreamy and hook-driven shoegazer soundscape of glistening, reverb-drenched guitars, woozy synths and a motorik groove paired with propulsive rhythms serving as a lush bed for Freda’s plaintive falsetto, “Wish Me Away” is continuation of the overall aesthetic they established on Momentary Presence and a decided sonic push forward, showcasing where the band is going next. The song also sees the band exploring and expressing a complex array of emotions with a lived-in specificity. 

“‘Wish Me Away’ is about giving into the feeling of everything slipping away,” GIFT’s TJ Freda explains. “Just take it all away, put me out of my misery, wish me away. While this all seems daunting and sad, there’s a feeling of optimism in this song, holding on for dear life and refusing to give up hope.”

After nearly losing a loved one, Freda found himself grappling with the fleeting nature of life, and understandably with the inevitability of mortality. “‘Wish Me Away,’ ruminates on the fear and freedom that can come knowing it can all slip away. The line ‘wish me away’ kept coming up, as in ‘take me, not them,’” Freda adds. 

“Going In Circles,” Illumiunator‘s second and latest single is an Evil Heat-era Primal Scream take on shoegaze, built around a motorik groove, glistening and atmospheric synths, swirling reverb-soaked guitar textures and Freda’s dreamily plaintive delivery paired with the quintet’s unerring knack for rousingly anthemic hooks and chorus. But underneath the euphoria-inducing nature of the song is a bitter lament of a relationship gone a bit awry.

“This was the first song I wrote for Illuminator that helped me realize the direction of the album,” GIFT’s TJ Freda says. “I wrote the chorus while passively playing guitar and rushed to record the idea. At that moment, something clicked and I realized where the album was going. At our shows from the Momentary Presence tour, people would stand in the crowd wide-eyed without moving. We wanted to get people moving with the new album, so we were really inspired by bands like Primal Scream, Oasis, and Massive Attack. It’s our psych-rock tribute to U.K. rave culture in the ‘90s.

“The song is about the endless cycle of a relationship,” Freda adds, “the back and forth in both euphoria and doubt. The chorus ‘I never told you why’ is about never being able to say how you really feel, not having closure and the cycle continuing.” 

Directed by Dannah Gottlieb, Alexander Baumann and Robert Ruth features some dreamily hazy and intimately shot footage of the band performing the song in a studio. The video becomes increasingly hallucinogenic affair with the band’s members and their instruments morphing and twisting seemingly at will.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Ruminates on Mortality in Brooding “Wish Me Away”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet GIFT — TJ Freda (vocals, guitar), multi-instrumentalist Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell (bass), multi-instrumentalist Justin Hrabovsky and Gabe Camarano (drums) — formed just before the COVID-19 pandemic, and recorded their remarkably self-assured full-length debut 2022’s Momentary Presence during pandemic associated lockdowns and isolation.

Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence was a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated. 

The album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now. 

Sonically, the album saw the band establish an uncanny knack for crating soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous rooted in a dizzying blend of early shoegaze, 90s alt rock and even modern pop that quickly caught the attention of listeners here in the States, across Europe and elsewhere.

The rising Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays signed to Captured Tracks, who just released the quintet’s newest single “Wish Me Away,” the first bit of new material from the band in over 18 months. Anchored around a dreamy and hook-driven shoegazer soundscape of glistening, reverb-drenched guitars, woozy synths and a motorik groove paired with propulsive rhythms serving as a lush bed for Freda’s plaintive falsetto, “Wish Me Away” is continuation of the overall aesthetic they established on Momentary Presence and a decided sonic push forward, showcasing where the band is going next. The song also sees the band exploring and expressing a complex array of emotions with a lived-in specificity.

“‘Wish Me Away’ is about giving into the feeling of everything slipping away,” GIFT’s TJ Freda explains. “Just take it all away, put me out of my misery, wish me away. While this all seems daunting and sad, there’s a feeling of optimism in this song, holding on for dear life and refusing to give up hope.”

After nearly losing a loved one, Freda found himself grappling with the fleeting nature of life, and understandably with the inevitability of mortality. “‘Wish Me Away,’ ruminates on the fear and freedom that can come knowing it can all slip away. The line ‘wish me away’ kept coming up, as in ‘take me, not them,'” Freda adds.

Directed by Andrew Gibson, the accompanying video is a woozily surrealistic fever dream that takes place in the sort of mansion that would be the perfect setting of an Edgar Allan Poe novel. But throughout there’s an uneasy sense of mortality and the fleeting nature of life.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Hazy “Stuck In A Dream”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet and newest JOVM mainstays GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. As a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony and radical openness during times of tumult.

As a band, their overall approach is rooted in a desire to live in the moment. And as a result, they’ve created a live show that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions. And a result, the’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn — mostly through word of mouth.

Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick signed the rising Brooklyn psych rockers earlier this year. Building upon the growing buzz surrounding the band, the Brooklyn psych outfit’s full-length debut Momentary Presence dropped today.

Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated. 

Thematically speaking, the album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now. 

I managed to write about three of the album’s singles in the lead-up to its release:

  • “Gumball Garden,” a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY, Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind. 

  • “Feather,” a slow-burning and contemplative song with painterly textures featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, metronomic beats paired with Freda’s ethereal cooing, a soaring hook and a blazing guitar solo. While simultaneously evoking both a feather floating in the breeze, Autobahn-era Kraftwerk and The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, the song was written by the band’s TJ Freda the morning after waking from a lucid dream. 

  • “Share The Present,” a slick synthesis of Join the Dots-era Toy and The Horrors centered around glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove paired with wiry bursts of guitar. The arrangement serves as an airy bed for TJ Freda’s breathily cooed, gentle affirmations. The song manages to present the album’s central theme of being present in the present moment — without attempting to look towards the future or dwell on the past.

 “Stuck In A Dream,” Momentary Presence‘s fourth and latest single pairs Freda’s dreamy falsetto with gleaming, retro-futuristic synths, thrumming and fuzzy guitars, enormous hooks and a relentless motorik groove. Much like the previously released singles, “Stuck In A Dream” is a lysergic-induced dream that wraps the listener in warm, hazy cocoon.

“‘Stuck In A Dream’ is about being stuck in a loop,” says Freda. “The idea of being stuck in a dream, stuck in the idea of someone or something, and not being able to look at it from the outside, to reveal if it’s good or bad.”

Directed by the band’s TJ Freda, the accompanying video for “Stuck In A Dream” features hazy VHS colors and scan lines that fits the fuzzy psychedelia of the song, while seeking the eject button from the seemingly unending cycles of fast-forward, play and rewind.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Motorik-Driven Affirmation “Share The Present”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have developed and honed an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. As a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony and radical openness during times of tumult.

Their overall approach is a desire to live in the moment. In fact, live they’ve created a live experience that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions — and as a result, they’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn, mostly through word of mouth.

Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick signed the rising Brooklyn psych rockers earlier this year. The new label will be releasing GIFT’s full-length debut Momentary Presence on October 14, 2022.

Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated. 

The album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release next week, I’ve written about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • “Gumball Garden,” a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY, Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind. 

  • “Feather,” a slow-burning and contemplative song with painterly textures featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, metronomic beats paired with Freda’s ethereal cooing, a soaring hook and a blazing guitar solo. While simultaneously evoking both a feather floating in the breeze, Autobahn-era Kraftwerk and The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, the song was written by the band’s TJ Freda the morning after waking from a lucid dream. 

 Momentary Presence‘s third and latest single “Share The Present” is centered around a glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove paired with wiry bursts of guitar. The arrangement serves as a airy bed for TJ Freda’s breathily cooed, gentle affirmations. Sonically, the song seems like a slick synthesis of Join the Dots-era Toy and The Horrors.

“Sharing the present is being in the present moment. Not looking towards the future or dwelling on the past,” GIFT’s TJ Freda explains. “Being present is the most important thing you can do when you are feeling down. ‘Don’t look back, you’ll fall down’ don’t dwell on the past of who you were. Look to the present moment and appreciate who you are and where you’re going.” 

Directed by Andrew Gibson, the accompanying video for “Share The Present” follows an older couple, Claudia and Leonard. And when we’re introduced to them, we get a sense of profound loss under the superficially vibrant personas and colorful clothing. They miss a loved one, who turns out to be GIFT’s TJ Freda. While watching an informercial, they purchase an odd gift that reconnects them with their beloved TJ in a surreal universe. The couple purchases another gift box, which contains a toy car that takes them on a lysergic adventure. It’s a cinematically shot surrealistic fever dream — with a mischievous vibe.

“When I first met Claudia and Leonard, I sensed a deep sadness burrowed under their vibrant personas,” director Andrew Gibson says in press notes. “It wasn’t until a few weeks later, when they invited me over for a lovely breakfast, that I learned the source of their pain was related to the strange disappearance of their adopted nephew TJ. It was at that moment that I vowed to help them in any way I could in their quest to reconnect with the holy Taj. It has been quite a journey to say the least, but ultimately incredibly rewarding once the magical mailman arrived with the gift that would change everything. After meeting TJ it became quite clear why Claudia and Leonard were so determined to find him, to put it simply, he’s just a great kid.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Ethereal “Feather”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have developed and honed an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. As a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony during times of tumult and radical openness. Their overall approach is a desire to live in the moment. In fact, live they’ve created a live experience that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions — and as a result, they’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn, through word of mouth. (I recently saw them open for Frankie and The Witch Fingers a couple of weeks ago, and the Brooklyn-based outfit really blew me — and the entire crowd — away.)

Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick recently signed GIFT and will be releasing their full-length debut Momentary Presence on October 14, 2022. Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in the band’s belief that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated.

The album asks the listener several key questions: Can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate life in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now. 

Last month, I wrote about the album’s first single, “Gumball Garden,” a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY, Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind — but with a swaggering, self-assuredness. 

“I wrote this song way before most people knew what the word pandemic meant,” GIFT’s TJ Freda says. ““I had a dream in late 2019 where I woke up one day and there was nobody on earth. I was walking around looking for any forms of life to no avail. It was sad but also strangely peaceful. When the pandemic happened, this song took on a whole new meaning. We did wake up one day and the streets were empty. Everyone had gone away. This song is about finding peace in solitude.”
 

“Feather,” Momentary Presence‘s second and latest single is a slow-burning and contemplative song with painterly textures featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering, metronomic beats paired with Freda’s ethereal cooing, a soaring hook and a blazing guitar solo. While simultaneously evoking both a feather floating in the breeze, Autobahn-era Kraftwerk and The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, the song was written by the band’s TJ Freda the morning after waking from a lucid dream.

“This is one of the most personal songs on the record,” says Freda. “One night I connected with a loved one in a dream, except I was in their mind. I was standing right in front of them and kept trying to call to them but the world in this dream was too loud and noisy. They couldn’t see or hear me. ‘Feather’ is about trying to help someone who can’t be helped, but in the end you accept them for who they are and love them no matter what.” 

Directed by Dylan Brannigan and featuring animation by the band’s TJ Freda, the accompanying video is a series of surrealistic yet lucid fever dream-like vignettes rendered in hazy, saturated VHS-like hues.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: GIFT Shares Trippy and Self-Assured “Gumball Garden”

Brooklyn-based psych rock quintet GIFT — TJ Freda, Jessica Gurewitz, Kallan Campbell, Justin Hrabovsky and Cooper Naess — have developed and honed an uncanny knack for crafting soundscapes that are simultaneously turbulent and gorgeous. Interestingly, as a band, they share the quest of the perfect sound rooted in harmony during times of tumult and radical openness. Their overall approach is a desire to live in the moment. In fact, live they’ve created a live experience that sees them pushing their material in wildly improvisatory directions — and as a result, they’ve been selling out shows in Brooklyn, through word of mouth. (I recently saw them open for Frankie and The Witch Fingers last week, and the Brooklyn-based psych rockers impressively captured the crowd within their first song.)

The rising Brooklyn-based psych outfit recently signed to Dedstrange Records, a new label co-founded by A Place to Bury Strangers’ and Death by Audio’s Oliver Ackermann and Kepler Events‘ Steven Matrick. Dedstrange will release GIFT’s full-length debut Momentary Presence on October 14, 2022. Inspired by Ram Dass’ 1971 spiritual guide and countercultural landmark Be Here Now, Momentary Presence is a meditation on working through the anxiety and self-doubt that we all, at some point or another, carry. Specifically conceived, written and recorded with the idea of a full-length album being a fully contained work of art, the songs on Momentary Presence reportedly tease something seismic coming around the corner, while featuring dense layered productions that feel and sound self-assured, complete, definitive and impermeable. This is rooted in their believe that each moment has richness, complexity and singularity. And once it’s gone, it can’t be recaptured or repeated. So, can you truly be present? Can you open yourself up and appreciate it in its fullness — the ugliness and confusion, as well as the beauty and joy? The members of GIFT believe that the listener can. And their full-length debut is a chronicle of that chase, and a celebration of the eternal now.

Momentary Presence‘s first single “Gumball Garden” is a towering ripper centered around an expansive and densely layered arrangement featuring scorching guitar pyrotechnics, fuzzy power chords, glistening synth arpeggios, thunderous drumming and a relentless motorik groove paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and Freda’s gentle cooing. Sonically, “Gumball Garden” brings Join the Dots-era TOY, Minami Deutsch, Kikagaku Moyo, JOVM mainstays No Swoon and others to mind — but with a swaggering, self-assuredness.

“I wrote this song way before most people knew what the word pandemic meant,” GIFT’s TJ Freda says. ““I had a dream in late 2019 where I woke up one day and there was nobody on earth. I was walking around looking for any forms of life to no avail. It was sad but also strangely peaceful. When the pandemic happened, this song took on a whole new meaning. We did wake up one day and the streets were empty. Everyone had gone away. This song is about finding peace in solitude.”
 

Directed and edited by James Thomson, the accompanying video is an intimate yet stylishly shot visual that captures the band performing the song through a series of gentle closeups and a mind-bending sequence that seems to follow the band as they get into the song’s trippy groove.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed back in 2016, the Asheville, NC-based goth/post-punk act Secret Shame — Lena (vocals), Nathan (drums), Nikki (guitar), Matthew (bass) and Billie (guitar) — can trace their origins to all of its members feeling a desperate need to create. “If I couldn’t sing or play music, I would tear my skin off.” the band’s front person Lena explains in press notes. Shortly after their formation, the band released their self-titled debut EP, which quickly established a dark and atmospheric sound paired with lyrics that thematically touch upon issues of domestic abuse, mental health, political and social dissatisfaction and frustration. 

Interestingly, their full-length debut, Dark Synthetics is slated for a September 6, 2019 release through Portrayal of Guilt Records, and as you may recall, earlier this month, I wrote about the enormous Siouxsie and the Banshees and 4AD Records-like album single “Calm.” Building upon the buzz Dark Synthetics has begun to amass, the album’s latest single “Gift” is breakneck gallop of a song that will further establish their early 80s post-punk sound — in particular, the aforementioned Siouxsie and the Banshees, but the new single also subtly nods at Crocodiles and Heaven Up Here-era Echo and the Bunnymen, as the song is centered around shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars, rapid-fire drumming, enormous hooks and Lena’s plaintive vocals desperately cutting through the brooding instrumentation.

The members of Secret Shame will be embarking on a short East Coast tour to support their full-length debut and it includes a September 13, 2019 stop at The Broadway. What could be better than listening to moody post-punk on Friday the 13th? Check out the tour dates below.

Tour Dates

 

9/07 – Raleigh, NC @ Hopscotch Music Festival
9/08 – Richmond, VA @ Hypercube
9/09 – Baltimore, MD @ Ottobar
9/11 – York, PA @ Skid Row Garage
9/13 – Brooklyn, NY @ The Broadway
9/15 – Greensboro, NC @ New York Pizza
9/16 – Asheville, NC @ The Mothlight
Uncategorized by William Ruben Helms

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