Tag: indie electro pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Washed Out Shares Surreal, Dream-like Visual for Achingly Nostalgic “The Hardest Part”

Back in 2021, Washed Out‘s creative mastermind Earnest Greene left Atlanta returned to the countryside he knew when he grew up. Where escapism once flooded his thoughts, today, he’s preoccupied with the universe of wonder in the reality around him.

He named the former horse farm he moved to “Endymion,” after the John Keats poem about a lovesick shepherd. It has shaped all that he’s created there, from his music to his albums’ creative direction to his planned large-scale visual-art experiments.

Greene’s fifth Washed Out Album, Notes From A Quiet Life is slated for a June 28, 2024 release through Sub Pop. The album, which reportedly is Greene’s most audacious effort to date, is anchored around a purity of vision. It’s also the first album of his catalog that Greene wholly self- produced with mixing assistance from Nathan Boddy and David Wrench.

Notes From A Quiet Life‘s first single “The Hardest Part” is classic Washed Out with subtle refinements: The atmospheric and achingly dream-like and nostalgia-inducing production is anchored around twinkling and arpeggiated keys, glistening bass synths, bursts of strummed guitar paired with Greene’s penchant for crafting catchy hooks and swooning choruses. And much like the JOVM mainstay’s most recently work, the song has Greene’s vocal front and center, with the song’s tale of love lost being the heartbroken star of the show.

Unabashed and unafraid to pioneer and incorporate new technologies within his art, Greene enlisted multi-disciplinary artist, writer, and director Paul Trillo to direct the music video for the album’s lead single, “The Hardest Part.” Created using OpenAI’s Sora, “The Hardest Part” marks the first collaboration with an artist and filmmaker to be generated entirely utilizing this technology.

Before I forget some background here: OpenAI is an AI research and deployment company. Their mission is to ensure that artificial intelligence benefits all of humanity. OpenAI’s Sora is an AI model that can create realistic and imaginative videos from text instructions. Although the model isn’t publicly available as of this writing, OpenAI is currently working with a number of visual artists, designers and filmmakers to gain feedback on how to advance the model to be the most helpful for creative professionals.
 
“I had the seed of this video concept 10 years ago, where we do an infinite zoom of a couple’s life over the course of many decades, but I have yet to attempt it because I figured it’d be too ambitious for a music video,” Paul Trillo says. “While the technology is experimental and cutting-edge, I wanted to do something that also felt like a classic music video that would hold your attention no matter what tech was being used in the process. I was specifically interested in what makes Sora so unique. It offers something that couldn’t quite be shot with a camera, nor could it be animated in 3D, it was something that could have only existed with this specific technology. The surreal and hallucinatory aspects of AI allow you to explore and discover new ideas that you would have never dreamed of.  Using AI to simply recreate reality is boring. I wasn’t interested in capturing realism but something that felt hyperreal. The fluid blending and merging of different scenes feels more akin to how we move through dreams and the murkiness of memories. While some people feel this may be supplanting how things are made, I see this as supplementing ideas that could never have been made otherwise. Many artists in this industry are constantly compromising and negotiating their ideas with the reality of what can be made. This offers a glimpse at a future where music artists will be given the opportunity to dream bigger. An overreliance on this technique may become a crutch and it’s important that we don’t use this as the new standard of creation but another technique in the toolbelt.”
 

“‘The Hardest Part’ is a story about nostalgia and love lost.  With the video, I wanted to bring this narrative to life in a sincere way that was also exciting and unexpected. I’ve been a fan of Paul for a long time and he is amazingly skilled at incorporating cutting-edge visual effects that elevate a story instead of simply supplementing it with shock and awe,” Washed Out’s Ernest Greene says. “He was at the top of my list of potential collaborators. 
 
“What he’s come up with is nostalgic, sad, uplifting, and often quite strange.  However, he still manages to make you feel for the characters and invested in the journey of how their lives progress.

“I think that Paul is right when he says that this video could only be made using this new AI technology.  In my opinion, the hallucinatory quality of Sora clips feels like the beginning of a new genre unto itself – one that is surreal and unpredictable and entirely unique to traditional cinema or even animation.”
 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: KOKOKO! Shares Throbbing and Propulsive “Bazo Bango”

The acclaimed Congolese collective KOKOKO!’s highly-anticipated sophomore album BUTU is slated for a July 5, 2024 release through Transgressive Records. BUTU sees the collective continuing to pair a defiantly resistant punk-like energy, informed and inspired by the attitude and thought of a new generation of Congolese artists and young people with their neck-snapping, attention-grabbing block party alchemy — but pushed to new, global heights.

Kinshasa’s after-dark buzz was one of the major inspirations behind BUTU, which means “the night” in Lingala, and the album dives deep into the heart of the chaotic, throbbing city, celebrating and championing the joyful and creative spirit of its inhabits. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Belgian producer Xavier Thomas, a.k.a. Débruit, the forthcoming album sees the collective led by Makara Bianko channeling a more electronic-driven, upbeat sound while replicating the frenetic feel of their hometown’s dynamic nightlife: equipment is pushed to its limits through saturated and distorted speakers and the sonic push-and-pull of nighttime sounds. 

The band employs field recordings, recorded from the city’s nighttime sounds and “ready-made percussion” like detergent bottles, which they fed through distortion to get closer to their city’s nighttime sounds. “Compared to Fongola, this album is intentionally way more intense, because it’s quite upbeat and quite full-on,” Xavier Thomas says. The album’s material also pulls from much wider influences and span across West Africa and South Africa, influenced by Bianko’s global travel, which introduced him to new types of alternative electronic music and punk. 

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written about the following singles:

“Mokili” a house music inspired banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, relentlessly skittering hi-hats and tweeter and woofer rattling thump serving as a slickly produced bed for Bianko’s crooning and impassioned shouts. Continuing a remarkable run of club friendly material with an in-your-face punk attitude and ethos, “Mokili” captures the frenetic and sweaty energy of their hometown and its nightlife scene with an uncanny, novelistic realism. But along with that, the song is a forceful and joyous reminder that Africa is the present and the future.

“’Mokili’ is about moving the world so much that it’s going to tip over sort of,” the acclaimed Congolese collective explains. “This track was a track we were used to trying live in a more improvised way, we never got the chance to record till recently where we added the right touch for the studio. It was the last addition to our album BUTU and became the first single, so it’s really fresh. It has obviously influences from Kinshasa but also Kwaito and 90’s dance music.”

“Salaka Bien,” a euphoric, trance-inducing banger anchored around percussion created on heavy ceramic pots and pans, glistening house music synth stabs and skittering beats that helps to emphasize Bianko’s punchy and swaggering delivery singing lyrics full of winking sexual innuendo. If this track doesn’t fire you up and get you moving, you’re probably dead — literally and figuratively. 

“It’s a bass line driven track, with a lot of influences, like punk funk meeting old house stabs with a trance feeling!” The acclaimed Congolese collective explain. “When we play it live there are moments of overwhelming feeling building till it explodes and people let go totally. Do it, do it good, do it till you break it”.

BUTU‘s third and latest single “Bazo Bango,” derives its title from a Lingala phrase that translates to English as “they are scared,” a chant sung by crowds as a way to vent frustration, the collective explains. Anchored around a looping and propulsive electric bass line, skittering electronic beats, twinkling and percussive polyrhythm and bursts of woozy synth arpeggios pared with chanted call and response vocals, “Bazo Bango” is a euphoric, riotous banger that captures Kinshasa’s chaotic, throbbing and irresistible energy with a mischievous aplomb.

The accompanying video is a woozy mix of digital and electronic glitch shot in and around Kinshasa that pulsates to the song’s relentless throb.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Stefan Certic Shares Broodingly Cinematic “World of Mine”

Stefan Certic is a Serbian multi-instrumentalist, songwriter, composer and producer, who will be releasing his latest solo album World of Mine. The album will feature the previously released “Human,” featuring Steve Sims, a brooding and cinematic bit of 80s-inspired synth pop that nodded OMD and Eurythmics, “Human” is a remarkably cinematic track with melancholy and reflective lyrics discussing the human condition in a deeply lived-in fashion.

The album’s latest single, album title track “World of Mine” continues Certic’s collaboration with vocalist Steve Sims, as well as a run of material built around broodingly cinematic and atmospheric soundscapes while featuring elements of dark wave, synth pop and alternative pop. And much like its predecessor, the song is rooted in melancholy and reflective lyrics that discuss the human condition: The song’s narrator acknowledges that life is often full of unbearable pain, misery and darkness — but that there’s also profoundly sublime light and beauty if you know where to find it.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: L’Impératrice Shares Dreamy and Wistful “Love from the Other Side”

Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératrice  will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records on June 7, 2024.  Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off. 

Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others. 

The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Impératrice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found. 

Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it. 

Pulsar‘s third and latest single “Love from the Other Side” is the album’s first English-language single. Featuring fluttering and glistening synth arpeggios paired with a supple and propulsive bass line and bursts of strummed guitar, the song’s arrangement serves as a lush bed for Benguigui’s dreamily wistful delivery. Sonically, “Love from the Other Side” sounds as though it could have been on Gorillaz ‘ Plastic Beach or MGMT‘s Congratulations.

“The first time I heard the instrumental, I thought, ‘That’s the vibe,’ even though it’s really different than what we do,” L’Impératrice’s Charles de Boisseguin says of his encountering an arrangement that begin with tehe band’s Achille Trocellier and Tom Daveau, the most rock-orientated members of the acclaimed Parisian outfit. “There is a British side to it, like Gorillaz with a bit of MGMT.” The band’s frontperson Flore Benguigui and Nicky Green wrote the song’s melody and lyrics together, building off the idea of “the good ghosts that are around you,” inspired by the bass line’s slight spooky feel.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Menthüll Shares Club Banging Yet Yearning “Parade”

Gatineau, QC-based indie electronic/goth duo Menthüll–Gabriel and Yseult — formed in 2021, and in short order, the French Canadian duo quickly established a retro-futuristic sound that draws from New Wave and electro pop with lyrics written and sung primarily in French.

The French-Canadian duo’s latest single “Parade” is an upbeat, club friendly bop that sounds like a slick and playful synthesis of New Order’s “Blue Monday” with thumping house music-like beats and enormous euphoria-inducing hooks paired with yearning vocals.

The song as a the duo explains takes the listen on a view of some of downtown Hull’s streets, the oldest neighborhood in their hometown. And while openly acknowledging that Hull isn’t beautiful or anything special, it’s their town — and because of that, they love it. But without loved ones, what does it really mean?

“Parade’s initial tempo was much slower and its rhythm was more subtle with lots of rolling toms,” the Hull-based duo recall. “We just decided to turn up the tempo and the house kicks!”

The accompanying video takes the viewer on a tour of downtown Hull, pointing out the boredom, frustration, love and yearning that their hometown — hell of anyone’s hometown — brings.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Geneva Jacuzzi Shares a Striking Visual for a Brooding and Retro-futuristic Bop

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.

Jacuzzi recently signed to Dais Records, who shared the following about the signing: “As long-time fans of Geneva’s immersive world-building, singular songwriting and unforgettable live performances, we are honored to welcome her to the Dais roster.” She adds, “So excited to join the Dais crew. It’s definitely the coolest label in LA. Exciting new adventures on the horizon!” 

The Los Angeles-based multimedia artist’s latest single “Dry” is a brooding yet 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 about disconnection and uncertainty ethereally floats over the dreamy arrangement.

“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.”

The accompanying video is shot in a strikingly cinematic black and white, and features Geneva suspended upside down in an elaborate art installation-meets-costume, being literally hung out to dry.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kai Tak Teams up with There’s Talk on Ethereal and Brooding “Flood The Harbour”

Born in Hong Kong and adopted by American parents, who worked at a camp for Vietnamese refugees seeking opportunity in the city nicknamed the Pearl of the Orient, the Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist and producerChris King may be best known for his work in Cold Showers and his production work for a list of artists that include Tamaryn, House of Harm and Fearing. 

Led by King, the Los Angeles-based collective Kai Tak derives its name from the now-retired Hong Kong airport, famously known for its harrowing approach just above and through the city’s skyscrapers. Founded during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, when King started to write songs as a vehicle for connecting with his own unconventional roots — and as a platform for collaboration with the numerous musical friends made from his lengthy career as a producer and engineer.

Operating without any deadlines or creative constraints allowed King to use and explore every technique he had learned over the years, incorporating re-sampling, drastic pitch shifting, time-stretching, liberal use of tape delay, recording live drums with MIDI drum triggers, and creating his own sample-based synthesizers using found sounds recorded during various trips to Hong Kong.

The Los Angeles-based collective’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Designed In Heaven Made In Hong Kong is slated for a June 21, 2024 release through á La Carte Records. The album sees King and collaborators specializing in sculpted, moody soundscapes that draw inspirations from shoegaze, trip hop and electronica. The album will feature three previously released tracks:

“Jalen Rose,” feat. Draag

“Villains In My Mind,” feat. Foie Gras

“Blush,” feat. Dol Ikara‘s Claire Roddy. The collaboration can be traced back to when the two artists were placed together by chance at a live show. “Blush,” is built around a brooding and cinematic arrangement that — to my ears — sounds like a synthesis of Massive Attack and Cocteau Twins with the song featuring skittering boom bap and a looping glistening string sample paired with swirling shoegazer guitar textures serving as a lush bed for Roddy’s soulful, smoky croon.

“Chris came to me with this transportive instrumental while I was dealing with a bit of a writer’s block,” Roddy explains. “These lyrics are an ode to that very moment of inspiration where suddenly feelings, words, and melodies spring right out from the drought, as instantly and vulnerably as a blush.”

“When Claire explained the meaning behind her lyrics, I almost couldn’t believe it,” Kai Tak’s Chris King explains. “The music also came to me during a bout of writer’s block, which was broken by one of my old tried and true methods – watching a visually stunning movie on mute and composing music inspired by the imagery.  In the case of ‘Blush,’ the inspiration was Fallen Angels, which has always made me feel like I’m permanently suspended in the most beautiful fever dream.” 

Designed In Heaven Made In Hong Kong‘s fourth and latest single, the brooding “Flood The Harbour” seems to sonically channel Garlands and Heaven or Las Vegas-era Cocteau Twins: swirling shoegazer guitar textures are paired with swaggering and thumping, boom bap-like drums and a supple bass line create a lush and dreamy bed for There’s Talk’s Olivia Lee’s gorgeous and expressive vocal fed through a little bit of reverb. Throughout the song evokes the existential unease and dread of our current moment — with the acknowledgment that the our current world is on its death knell, and the hope that we’re on the precipice of a new, fairer world for all.

“The music for ‘Flood The Harbour’ was written on the same day I wrote ‘Blush.’ After feeling uninspired for a long time, I spent the day repeatedly watching Fallen Angels on mute while messing around with instruments, and 90% of both songs were written in a few hours,” King explains. “Whenever I’m working on something new, I always give the songs a temporary working title of the neighborhood that inspired the tune, or that I’m using found samples from, and this song drew from Yau Ma Tei. Formerly a little fishing bay, Yau Ma Tei has been built extensively upon reclaimed land. Because of Hong Kong’s limited usable land and massive population density, land reclamation has been a central part of the city’s growth over the past century – over 60 km of land has been added to the city from land reclamation projects, including part of the old Kai Tak airport, and just thinking about land reclamation and its endless ripples helped shape the song.”

“I aligned on inspiration with Chris – the lyrics came to mind after simmering on the working title for the song, Yau Ma Tei, as well as hazy neon-lit montages from Fallen Angels,” There’s Talk’s Olivia Lee adds. “Sinking into the broodiness of the song, images of a revolution on the heels of the end of the world engulfed in flames and flood came to mind. Perhaps a meditation on the consequences of colonialism and corporate greed, and who will have the last word.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Virginie B is a rising, Montréal-based self-taught singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, and self-described “extravagant mess” influenced by a wide range of music, including experimental electronic music, classical, old-timey jazz, 90s R&B, art pop, art rock and more. The French Canadian artist and her collaborator and co-produced Louis Jeay-Beaulieu have received attention across the province and elsewhere for crafting a unique take on hyper pop that incorporates elements of nu-jazz, funk and R&B with a refined conceptual approach informed by art pop.

Thematically, her work is informed by her studies in psychology and sees her exploring her psyche, femininity and her relationship with technology and nature. For the rising French Canadian artist, her work is an outlet which she expresses her desires and excesses with an unvarnished honesty that reflects her vulnerability and confidence, while not taking herself too seriously.

The rising Montréal-based producer and artist collaborates with a number of local acts including  Super Plage, Maggie Lennon, Georgette, Félix Dyotte and Marie-Gold among others.

Her full-length debut, 2022’s INSULA garnered praise from ICI Première, Le Devoir, La Presse, Montreal Rocks!, and PAN M 360, which led to a nomination for Pop Album of the Year nomination at 2022’s GAMIQ. Adding to a growing profile, Virginie B played sets across the provincial festival circuit, including Francofoiles de Montréal, Coup de Cœur Francophone, Le Phoque OFF, Santa Teresa Festival, Taverne Tour, 2022’s M for Montréal — and last year’s SXSW.

The Montréal artist’s latest single “hana” is a slinky and slow-burning bit of 80s synth funk-like pop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, wobbling bass synth, acoustic guitar and skittering yet relaxed beats. The production is a lush synthesis of organic and futuristic textures serving as a silky bed for Virginie B’s equally sultry vocal.

Deriving its title from hana, which translates to flower in Persian and Japanese, the rising Montréal-based artist refers to that etymology in the song, using it as a metaphor to symbolize femininity. Throughout the song, she expresses her unconditional love of women — especially those who are irreverent, who party, who stay out late, and who go against what is expected of them. The result is a playful yet defiantly feminist anthem.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chicago’s Clubdrugs Share a Dance Floor Anthem for the Heartbroken

Chicago-based, self-described goth pop duo Clubdrugs have developed a reputation both locally and regionally for a genre-defying sound and for captivating live performances. The duo’s latest single, the recently released “Waiting” is a sleek and slickly produced, hook-driven and club friendly bop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rattling thump and a sinuous and propulsive bass line that serve as a lush bed for Maria’s yearning vocal to ethereally float over. It’s the sort of song that’s perfect for the lovelorn and heartbroken to dance while crying their hearts out on the dance floor.

While being a dance floor anthem, the song as the duo explain is a love song — but at its core, a sad one. “‘Waiting’ tells the story of that excruciating, kick in the chest love can be sometimes be — where the heartbreak takes over all of your senses, all your thoughts, every moment of the day.” Clubdrugs’ Maria adds “You lay in bed at night, begging for sleep to come, but the pain and regret just reverberates inside your head — pleading desperately for relief.”

The accompanying self-directed video for “Waiting” encapsulates the set up of a live Clubdrugs set — the duo performing in front of fuzzy yet slickly edited stock footage from old movies, advertisements, art and of the band themselves.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: L’Impératice Shares Brightly Colored and Playfully Animated Visual for “Danza Marilú”

Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératice  will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records on June 7, 2024.  Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off. 

Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others. 

The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Imperatice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found. 

Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it. 

The album will feature, “Me Da Igual,” a sleek and elegant, hook-driven Giorgio Moroder-era-disco-meets-French touch tune anchored by a strutting bass line, a squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar line and glistening synths serving as a sinewy and silky bed for Flore Benguigui’s sultry and ethereal delivery. Further cementing the French outfit’s reputation for crafting infectious, sensual, dance floor friendly bops, “Me Da Igual” features lyrics sung in Spanish and French while being a call to free ourselves from the injunctions to please at all costs, to reclaim your body by abandoning yourself to the euphoria of strobe lights and the dance floor — and listening to the sensations that movement and sound provides you. 

The album’s second and latest single “Danza Marilú” features Italian vocalist Fabiana Martone. Continuing a bit where its immediate predecessor left off, “Danza Marilú” is a sleek, hook-driven, Giorgio Moroder-era-Italo-disco-meets-French touch bop anchored around glistening synth arpeggios, squiggling funk guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line and thumping beats. Inspired by and written as a rebuttal to Serge Gainsbourg‘s “L’Homme á tête de chou,” Pulsar‘s latest single is a defiantly feminist anthem for women of all ages, encouraging them to get on that dance floor and to be freely themselves — in spite of the looks that may ensue by insecure haters of all stripes. 

Directed by Arthur Sevestre and featuring animation by Gabrielle Selnet, Vincent Albert, Armand Goxe and May Taraud with color by Laura Passalacqua, the animated video for “Danza Marilú” boldly advocates for a world in which all ages and body types can take up space and express themselves through dance and movement — as best as they can.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kenon Chen Returns with Slick and Anthemic “Driving Sunday (Route 1 Remix)”

Kenon Chen is a prolific extra pop singer/songwriter, who over the course of last year released four albums — Electric Winter, The Tide: Wave I, Electric Spring, Electric Summer and Electric Fall. 

Chen released the Electric Seasons Remixed album earlier this year. Last week, I wrote about the  Get Ready-era New Order-meets-St. Lucia-like “Safer In Your Arms (Lunar New Year Edit),” a slickly produced, hook-driven bop featuring skittering beats, strummed guitar and glistening synths serving as a lush and cinematic bed for Chen’s achingly plaintive falsetto.

Continuing upon a prolific run, Chen also released a standalone single “Driving Sunday (Route 1 Remix),” a lounge friendly, club banger anchored around glistening synth oscillations and skittering beats paired with a relentlessly infectious motorik groove serving as a lush, satiny bed for Chen’s dreamy and yearning falsetto. The result is a song that — to my ears, at least — seems to channel a slick, hook-driven synthesis of 80s New Wave, Giorgio Moroder, Tour de France-era Kraftwerk.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kenon Chen Shares Slickly Produced Bop “Safer In Your Arms (Lunar New Year Edit)”

Kenon Chen is a prolific extra pop singer/songwriter, who over the course of last year released four albums — Electric Winter, The Tide: Wave I, Electric Spring, Electric Summer and Electric Fall.

Continuing a wildly prolific run, Chen released the Electric Seasons Remixed album earlier this year. The album’s latest single “Safer In Your Arms (Lunar New Year Edit)” is a slickly produced, hook-driven bop featuring skittering beats, strummed guitar, glistening synth arpeggios serving as a lush and cinematic-bed for Chen’s achingly plaintive falsetto.

Rooted in deeply heartfelt and earnest lyrics, “Safer In Your Arms (Lunar New Year Edit)” seemingly channels — to my ears, at least — Get Ready-era New Order and St. Lucia.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératice  will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records on June 7, 2024. Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off.

Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others.

The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Imperatice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found.

Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it.

The album will feature, “Me Da Igual,” a sleek and elegant, hook-driven Giorgio Moroder-era-disco-meets-French touch tune anchored by a strutting bass line, a squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar line and glistening synths serving as a sinewy and silky bed for Flore Benguigui’s sultry and ethereal delivery. Further cementing the French outfit’s reputation for crafting infectious, sensual, dance floor friendly bops, “Me Da Igual” features lyrics sung in Spanish and French while being a call to free ourselves from the injunctions to please at all costs, to reclaim your body by abandoning yourself to the euphoria of strobe lights and the dance floor — and listening to the sensations that movement and sound provides you. 

The album’s second and latest single “Danza Marilú” features Italian vocalist Fabiana Martone. Continuing a bit where its immediate predecessor left off, “Danza Marilú” is a sleek, hook-driven, Giorgio Moroder-era-Italo-disco-meets-French touch bop anchored around glistening synth arpeggios, squiggling funk guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line and thumping beats. Inspired by and written as a rebuttal to Serge Gainsbourg‘s “L’Homme á tête de chou,” Pulsar‘s latest single is a defiantly feminist anthem for women of all ages, encouraging them to get on that dance floor and to be freely themselves — in spite of the looks that may ensue by insecure haters of all stripes.

The acclaimed French outfit are in the middle of a lengthy international tour that will see the sextet playing four shows in NYC: April 9, 2024 at  Racket NYC; April 10, 2024 at Music Hall of WIlliamsburg; and September 7, 2024 and September 8, 2024 at Terminal 5. The September 8, 2024 show was added due to demand. And that isn’t surprising to me: I’ve caught them once, and they’re a must-see act that will have the entire room dancing the night away.

Along with the NYC area shows, they’re going to make a return to Coachella with sets April 12, 2024 and April 19, 2024, as well as stops at Austin City Limits and Outside Lands. 

All tour dates are below.

Pre-order / pre-save Pulsar  here: qlima.cool/PULSAR  

Tour Dates

Apr 04 La Machine Du Moulin Rouge – Paris, France *SOLD OUT

Apr 09 Racket – New York, NY *SOLD OUT

Apr 10 Music Hall Of Williamsburg – Brooklyn, NY *SOLD OUT

Apr 16 Indio, CA – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Tickets

Apr 23 – Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival Tickets

Sep 5 The Anthem – Washington, DC

Sep 6 Union Transfer – Philadelphia, PA *SOLD OUT

Sep 7 Terminal 5 – New York, NY *SOLD OUT

Sep 8 Terminal 5 – New York, NY *SECOND SHOW ADDED

Sep 10 MTELUS – Montreal, QC

Sep 13 Rebel – Toronto, ON

Sept 14 The Salt Shed – Chicago, IL

Sep 16 The Ogden Theatre – Denver, CO *SOLD OUT

Sep 17 The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT

Sep 20 Malkin Bowl – Vancouver, BC

Sep 21 Crystal Ballroom – Portland, OR

Sep 22 Showbox SoDo – Seattle, WA

Sep 24 Fox Theater – Oakland, CA *SOLD OUT

Sep 25 Fox Theater – Oakland, CA *SECOND SHOW ADDED

Oct 11 L’Aéronef – Lille, France

Oct 12 Stereolux – Nantes, France *SOLD OUT

Oct 17 Le Rocher De Palmer – Bordeaux, France

Oct 18 Le Bikini – Toulouse, France

Oct 19 La Sirène – La Rochelle, France

Oct 25 Ancienne Belgique – Brussels, Belgium

Oct 26 den Atelier – Luxembourg

Oct 27 Carlswerk Victoria – Cologne, Germany

Nov 6 Alcatraz – Milan, Italy

Nov 7 La Belle Électrique – Grenoble, France

Nov 8 L’Autre Canal – Nancy, France

Nov 22  L’Olympia – Paris, France *SOLD OUT

Nov 23  L’Olympia – Paris, France *SOLD OUT

Nov 26 Roundhouse – London, UK

Nov 28 Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands *SECOND SHOW ADDED

Nov 29 Melkweg – Amsterdam, Netherlands *SOLD OUT

Dec 8  Columbiahalle – Berlin, Germany

Dec 9 Roxy – Prague, Czech Republic

Dec 11 Gasometer – Vienna, Austria

Dec 12 X-Tra – Zurich, Switzerland

Dec 13 Thônex Live – Geneva, Switzerland