Tag: house music

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lowly Light Teams Up with Mishell Ivon on infectiously Hopeful “Impossible Possibility”

Matt Gorny is an award-winning, New York-based songwriter and producer, best known as Lowly Light. As a songwriter and producer, Gorny’s work has shown continual evolution, ranging from tunes like “Get Over Yourself,” “Prayin,’” “Candy Lied” and “Down the Coast,” which bounce between nu-disco, chilled out grooves and energetic indie pop, while also collaborating with an growing number of dance music artists, including Ultra Naté, Amanda Lepore, Luca Perra and others.

Gorny’s latest Lowly Light single, “Impossible Possibility” feat. Mishell Ivon is a bit of French touch-like house/nu-disco that’s a much-needed hope and joy bomb in our desperate, uneasy moment. We have to hold tightly onto hope because the regime wants us to feel as though all is completely lost.

As the New York-based songwriter and producer explains, “Impossible Possibility” is a song about holding onto hope, bravely diving for the brand new and reaching for what may be the one-in-a-million shot.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Joshua Idehen Shares Euphoric “This Is The Place”

After nearly two decades in London‘s poetry scene, Joshua Idehen found widespread recognition with the viral success of “Mum Does The Washing,” a poignant, witty pice set to music by his creative partner Ludvig Parment, a.k.a. Saturday, Monday. The success of “Mum Does The Washing” led to sold-out shows, major festival appearances — including Glastonbury — and a new chapter in Idehen’s artistic life.

Initially drawn to film, Idehen’s poetic journey began after being captivated by Dizzee Rascal‘s Vexed on Channel U. Inspired by Scroobius Pip, he began poetry with music, collaborating with the likes of LV, Benin City and Sons of Kemet. His career as a singer/songwriter/performer alongside a series of personal channels, including a divorce and mental health struggles. Relocating to Stockholm during the COVID-19 pandemic gave him space to reflect and begin anew.

That period of rebirth led to Idehen’s highly-anticipated debut album, I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try. Slated for a March 6, 2026 release through Heavenly Recordings. Made with his longtime collaborator Parment, the album is a sonic embrace for the weary, mixing house-tinged beats, choral flourishes and lyrical meditations on hope, self-worth and collective resilience. The album will feature the previous released “It Always Was” and “Don’t Let It Get You Down.”

I Know You’re Hurting, Everyone Is Hurting, Everyone Is Trying, You Have Got To Try‘s third and latest latest single “This Is The Place” is a euphoric bit of Larry Levan-inspired house featuring glistening and woozy synth arpeggios and skittering beats serving as a lush bed for Idehen’s poetic meditations on the club being much like a church with music and dancing as a form of connection with yourself and others and as a form of freedom from your daily struggles, from the harshness of our world, from your own self-doubt and the like. It’s a much-needed joy bomb in a desperate, uneasy time — and a reminder that joy is a form of resistance.

“The way I squealed when Ludvig sent this beat over! When I heard it, I was taken back to bouncing in-between rooms early morning in Fabric, on one of those weekend nights that felt so non-special at the time ‘just another average night out’ but were a quiet healing, a ordinary burst of joy, and I wanted to capture that feeling,” Idehen explains. “‘This is the place where I pick all my pieces up; was the first line, and everything else flowed after that.”

Directed by PREHUMAN, the accompanying video is an elegant yet joyfully minimalist visual that begins with a person on the street style interview that quickly becomes a joyous dance session.

PREHUMAN adds: “Joshua is an unusually compelling performer — put him in front of a camera and much of the work is already done. The video itself is deliberately stripped back, with no distractions. I wanted the feeling of a shared space, like a club: bodies moving together, connection through rhythm.

The treatment is clean and minimal, but the movement is intentionally angular and imperfect. I love the line ‘everyone’s a bit broken here.’ Those ’90s white cyc music videos with fisheye lenses were a strong reference point throughout. Ludvig on the old MPC3000 was the icing on the cake.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinlicker Shares Euphoric “Release”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, 2024’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including last year’s “I Started A Fire.” Last year, also saw Heyboer and Achthoven inviting Baldwin to be a full-time member of the group. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — Dreams of the Machine is slated for a February 27, 2026 release through [PIAS] Électronique. Dreams of the Machine will feature the previously released singles “I Want My Freedom,” and “Reborn.”

The newly-constituted trio’s third single “Release,” is a lush, euphoria-inducing track anchored around melodic, rippling synth arpeggios, skittering, industrial-inspired breakbeats and reverb-soaked bass paired with Hero Baldwin’s sultry, commanding delivery and the trio’s unerring knack for crafting expansive, club and festival friendly tracks underpinned by a deep soulfulness.

Lyrically, the addresses the modern obsession with our cell phones — to the point that we’re not fully present with ourselves, with others or within the moments we should be enjoying and cherishing. How many times have you attended some event and 98% of the people around you are fixating on their phone — whether to text, instagram or to record every single moment? But the song also focuses on the potential conflict between human and the influence of AI-led algorithms.

“At its heart, ‘Release’ is about how easily we slip out of the moment without noticing. The habit of checking, fixing and responding instantly on our phones and how that slowly takes over our attention to each other,” the members of Tinlicker explain. “We’re not anti-technology, perhaps just quietly aware of what disappears when distraction becomes automatic. ‘Release’ is about pausing and staying in the moment with the people around you.”

The accompanying video by Carl Frazer-Lunn begins in a bustling London with businesspeople, commuters, students and others busily fixating on their phones, completely unaware of their surroundings. The video then quickly turns to live footage of the trio performing at Crystal Palace in front of an enraptured crowd. It’s proof that there are only a few truly transcendent moments in our morally bankrupt world: that moment when our favorite act plays our favorite song live — or that moment when that act gets into an irresistible groove. Put that phone down and dance already.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: KITTY@ Shares Propulsive, Club Banging “When I Think Of You”

KITTY@ is a São Paulo-born, Italian based singer/songwriter and electronic music producer who has always been connected to the arts and creative endeavors. She began working marketing product design and media with a focus on fashion, textiles, color and visual culture, which has helped shaped her perspective and the way she builds ideas.

After taking a pause for health concerns, she rediscovered her passion for creativity through music. As a singer/songwriter and producer, her work largely draws from her experiences, her memory and from her sensitivity.

KITTY@’s latest effort, Disco Vibes is a 12-song effort that features material that sees her effortlessly blending disco, soul, R&B, pop, electro pop and techno. Disco Vibes‘ latest single “When I Think Of You,” is a catchy, club banger anchored a hypnotic and downright euphoric, Ibiza-like bass line and glistening synths that serves as a lush, hook-driven bed for her Taylor Dayne-like delivery. It’s the sort of song specifically meant for dancing — with your eyes closed, longing for that special one.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Total Fucking Darkness Returns with Club Banging “Horizontal Rain”

Electronic music outfit and JOVM mainstays Total Fucking Darkness features: 

Last year, the trio released have released a handful of standalone singles, including three I wrote about on this site, “Desolation Boys,” “Take It Easy” and “Give Me Everything You Own.”

The trio begin 2026 with “Horizontal Rain,” an off-kilter, propulsive, hook-driven banger that recalls the days of sweaty, illegal basement raves. (Those who know, know, you know?) But underneath the good times, is the feverish unease, the sickening sense of sliding into a totalitarian and fascistic hellscape and the desire to connect to others. This is the party music of a dying world.

The accompanying video is a mind-bending blend of a middle aged guy dancing in various locations with video glitch, edited stock footage and more.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Albums of the Year 2025

JOVM turns 16 this year. And for first handful of years, my Best of List was an annual tradition until about 2014 or so. Between 2014 and 2020, it became sporadic and then it stopped. I haven’t done one of these in several years. There was a part of me that wondered if it really mattered much. And then life happened. 

So here we are in 2026. And with the year starting in earnest, let’s check out my best of 2025. 

  1. Big Fish Fyra liter stoft
  2. Tan Cologne Unknown Beyond
  3. Moondaddy Dove Tapes
  4. Sessa Pequena Vertigem de Amor
  5. Preservation Brass & Preservation Hall Jazz Band For Fat Man
  6. Silk Daisys S/T
  7. The Circling Sun Orbits
  8. Gabriel da Rosa Cacofonia
  9. Yoo Doo Right, Population II & Nolan Potter Yoo II avec Nolan Potter
  10. bat zoo The Upward Bird EP
  11. Public Circuit Modern Church
  12. L’Eclair Cloud Drifter
  13. Gloin All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
  14. CIVIC Chrome Dipped
  15. Population II Maintenant Jamais
  16. White Birches A New Reign
  17. Anish Kumar and Hagop Tchaparian Kino EP
  18. Friendship Commanders BEAR 
  19. The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation
  20. SHOLTO The Sirens
  21. S.C.A.B. Somebody In New York Loves You!
  22. Pierpont & Hegeleson Of Time
  23. RORO and snapir Colors Left
  24. St. Panther Strange World 
  25. Nation of Language Dance Called Memory
  26. Quad90 S/T
  27. Slumbering Sun Starmony
  28. Tunde Adebimpe Thee Black Boltz 
  29. Quad90 S/T
  30. Die Spitz Something To Consume
  31. debdepan LOVERS & OTHERS EP

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The Joy of Violent Movement is a completely independent and completely D.I.Y. media outlet. Over the course of this site’s 15+ year history, I’ve used my fiercely independent stance to cover music with an eclectic and global perspective that a lot of other publications just don’t have — and will likely never have. 

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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.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Seoul’s Amohouse Shares Hook-Driven and Woozy “Lofi House”

Seoul-based producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Amohouse blends lo-fi textures with driving house rhythms. The result is music that features a chill yet energetic vibe. The South Korean artist describes his music as “the perfect soundtrack for your daily life,” adding that “whether you’re studying, driving or just relaxing,” that he’ll give you the beats you need.

Amohouse’s latest single “Lofi House” features a woozy and looping production that brings Kainalu and MUNYA to mind: skittering and dusty beats, twinkling, reverb-drizzled synths and a chopped up, sultry vocal, paired with the Seoul-based artist’s ability to craft a razor sharp, catchy hook.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Augu Returns with Slick, Club Friendly “Industrial”

Augu is a mysterious and emerging Lithuanian electronic music producer, who has released a series of attention grabbing singles including:

  • “Foreigner,” a slick synthesis of  John Carpenter film soundtracks with deep industrial house and Kraftwerk-like minimalism into a dance floor friendly, club banger.

  • “Line,” a club friendly track that features elements of thumping industrial electronica, Kraftwerk and Daft Punk, John Carpenter soundtracks and deep house, anchored around the Lithuanian producer’s knack for big, catchy hooks

The Lithuanian electronic music producer closes out 2025 with “Industrial” another thumping banger that showcases his unique, hook-driven blend of industrial, techno, house and sci-fi soundtracks. But unlike the previously released material, “Industrial” seems to subtly nod at the work of Blanck Mass, as the track is bruising but simultaneously deeply sensitive.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tinlicker Shares Driving, Club Banging “Reborn”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest memberHero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project of its founder. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, last year’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The ealbum featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they had started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including their most recent single “I Started A Fire,” which was released earlier this year. Heyboer and van Achthoven recently invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the band. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — is slated for an early 2026 release. The album will feature the previously released “I Want My Freedom,” which begins with a slow-burning piano intro that nods at Radiohead‘s “Everything In Its Right Place,” before morphing into a festival and club banger with a euphoric bridge and hook paired with Baldwin’s defiant and resolute vocal.

The forthcoming album’s third and latest single “Reborn,” is an expansive, almost cinematic, deep house banger, anchored around glistening and arpeggiated synth oscillations, a motorik groove paired with the act’s unerring knack for crafting enormous hooks and drops. Sonically speaking, “Reborn” seemingly channels 90s-00s house, making the song a high-energy homage to the sounds of their teens.

“Music can be a reflection of the era you grow up in. You fall in love with the soundscape of your teens and drag that feeling with you, because during this period you experience so many new adventures,” the members of Tinlicker explain. “‘Reborn’ is an homage to the early sounds that shaped us as teenagers, as it is an era in music we hold close to our hearts.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: SanikVibe shares Cinematic and Dance Floor Friendly “Speak Without Sound”

Created by an anonymous and enigmatic creative mastermind, SanikVibe is a narrative-driven recording project that sees its mysterious mastermind treating sound as storytelling.

Her work blends cinematic textures, electronic minimalism and introspective emotional pacing. And rather than sticking to one particular genre, each release is much like a book chapter — with a psychological or emotional moment translated into atmosphere, vibe, pulse and tone.

Released last month, Unseen Currents EP is a four-part story about what moves us — quietly and subconsciously. SanikVibe’s mysterious creative mastermind considers the EP not quite as Jung would consider ‘a journey through the unconscious” but more as a way to learn to “stop fighting your own tide.”

Unseen Currents EP‘s latest single “Speak Without Sound” is simultaneously a cinematic and dance floor friendly track that seemingly channels Tinlicker‘s most recent material, with the new single being a sleek and lush blend of electro pop, trip-hop and house anchored by stirringly emotional, pop star delivery.

“The song explores the moment when instinct speaks before language — the quiet shift in the body that happens a split second before thought,” SanikVibe explains. “Through pauses, breath and tension, it reflects how the pulse can reveal truth long before words do.”

It serves as the final chapter of the BodyTalk Trilogy, a conceptual arc shaped around somatic markers and the psychological space where instinct overtakes reason,” she continues.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jennifer Marley Shares Swaggering Banger “It’s Callin’ Me”

Jennifer Marley is an emerging DJ and electronic music producer, who has been remarkably prolific over the past 18 months or so. Her latest single “It’s Callin’ Me” is a swaggering tech house track anchored around the sort of driving bass line and club rocking thump reminiscent of Bubba Brothers and LutchamaK — while being simultaneously euphoria-inducing.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: TONNUP Shares Flirty “Friction”

JOVM mainstay Craig Ferguson is an electronic music producer and artist best known in dance music circles as TONNUP. Over the course of the past calendar year, Ferguson has released a handful of club bangers including “I’m So Into You,” “Spymaster” and “Dream of You.“

Ferguson’s latest single “Friction” is a flirty club banger anchored around a throbbing bass line, skittering beats, glistening synths and a sultry vocal sample singing lyrics full of mischievous and naughty double entendres. Expressing the unadulterated lust, curiosity and anticipation of that moment when you make a one-on-one connection with someone on the dance floor that seems to deepen, “Friction” sonically is one-part Chicago house, one-part Giorgio Moroder disco, one-part Kylie Minogue — or in other words, all sweaty, grinding, primal desire.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Producer ARTO Shares Crowd Pleasing “Drive Me Hazy”

ARTO is a mysterious, emerging and rather prolific French electronic music producer. His latest single “Drive Me Hazy” is a lush, hook-driven and dreamy synthesis of deep house, Afrobeats and melodic house that’s club and lounge friendly — and most importantly, crowd pleasing.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: DJ Rukhlove Shares Mind-Bending “Echoes of the Cosmic Tuaregs”

DJ Rukhlove is a mysterious and emerging Spanish electronic music artist and producer, who has been busily and prolifically releasing material over the course of the past year or so.

Earlier this year, the Spanish producer released the LutchamaK and Kraftwerk-like “Zara To Astra.”  His latest single “Echoes of the Cosmic Tuaregs,” is a slickly produced, mind-bending mesh of progressive house featuring glistening and arpeggiated synths and driving groove with live instrumentation, including guitar, violin and duduk. The result is something that’s accessible and club friendly yet evokes something timeless, like a desert caravan traveling under the stars — to a rave.