JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 76th anniversary of Micheal Brecker’s birth.
Tag: instrumental
New Audio: Rival Consoles Shares Upbeat Yet Cinematic “Catherine”
Ryan Lee West is a critically acclaimed, London-based electronic music producer, best known as Rival Consoles. Over the course of his nearly two-decade career, West’s work has diversified from the challenging electronic output of his earliest releases to gradually becoming more conceptual and metamorphic: 2020’s Articulation used drawings and sketches to imagine and developed each track while 2021’s Overflow explored themes of the human and emotional consequences of life surrounded by advancing technologies, including social media — and was composed for choreographer Alex Whitley‘s contemporary dance production of the same name.
West’s consistent desire to create a more organic, humanized sound often sees the acclaimed British producer often developing early ideas on guitar or piano; forming pieces that capture and evoke a sense of songwriting behind the electronics. His eighth album, 2022’s Now Is featured some of the most playful and melodic material of West’s catalog in some time, with the album’s material drawing from music, art, film, colors, shapes and even human emotions.
“The title of the record Now Is interests me because it is the beginning of a statement, but it is incomplete. I like art that is open and suggestive of ideas even if they are inspired by very specific things,” West explains. “With my previous record Overflow being very dark, heavy and almost dystopian, I wanted to escape into a different world with this music and ended up creating a record which is a lot more colorful and euphoric.”
West followed Now Is with 2023’s standalone single “Coda,” an incredibly nocturnal song built around an eerie chord progression that slowly twists, turns and morphs as it builds up tempo paired with skittering beats and a relentless motorik-like groove. The composition manages to evoke a somnambulant and woozy buzz of energy. “’Coda’ started as a really late night experiment around a chord progression that seemed haunting but also had some strange beauty,” West says. “The whole piece is centered around this theme. I wanted to embrace the dark and quiet moments of the nighttime but also the energy of people who were maybe moving around London late at night with a nod to house music.”
West’s ninth Rival Consoles album Landscape from Memory is slated for a July 4, 2025 release through his longtime label home, Erased Tapes. The album’s material blossomed following a frustrating fallow year away from the production desk.
For West, having spent the past decade producing and writing in a habitual way, falling out of love with creativity was a a sort of slowing of the clock that has long made him tick, a sense of being swallowed whole by some elementary force. And yet, the time out of the studio and writing room, helped inform what may arguably be his most invigorating album to date.
Partly stitched together from a scrapbook of discarded audio snippets, Landscape from Memory reportedly demanded a degree of openness and vulnerability from West during its assembly. “There is a kind of strange beauty to it because it involves the past, present and future in a very strong way,” West says.
The album’s climatic productions are frequently characterized by their propulsive quality and driven by West’s own push to step outside his comfort zone, having found inspiration from new and unfamiliar sources. Because his self-built Hackney studio suddenly felt too controlled of an environment, West changed up his creative process, mapping out tracks away from is studio desk. And as a result West’s forthcoming ninth album is a sort of travelogue of creativity on the move, a collection of postcards from a everywhere that features material defined by restlessness.
Landscape from Memory’s lead single “Catherine,” dedicated to West’s partner is a haunted yet remarkably upbeat track featuring propulsive, skittering and shuffling beats paired with a glistening synth-driven melody that twists and turns throughout a cinematic and expansive song structure.
“I recently came across this sketch of a melodic idea that I created many years ago,” West explains. “The title is named after the person who made me realise in that moment, that this idea had something special about it that should be returned to.”
New Audio: Chicago’s Pelican Shares Cinematic and Expansive “Cascading Crescent”
Flickering Resonance is the Chicago-based outfit Pelican‘s first full-length album in six years. Slated for a May 16, 2025 release through Run for Cover, the album sees the return of founding guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, who makes his first appearance on a Pelican album since 2009’s What We All Come To Need. The eight-song album also reportedly taps into the spirit of the band’s formative era when Schroder-Lebec along with Trevor Shelley de Brauw (guitar) and siblings Bryan (bass) and Larry Herweg (drums) played shows during the heyday of Chicago’s all-ages club Fireside Bowl.
Fireside Bowl’s booking would often result in post-hardcore, space rock, indie, metal and emo bands sharing bills, which also unwittingly provided a vast array of influences for the then-young band. “A lot of people didn’t hear it at first,” says Schroeder-Lebec of the band’s roots in a panoply of punk-related subgenres. “I was like, well, I guess the metal world is where we fit. But now we’re more willing to acknowledge all the suits we’re wearing.”
Recorded by longtime collaborator Sanford Parker, Flickering Resonance sees the band’s long-known thick sonic backbone remaining intact, but while demonstrating a more humanistic side for the band.
“When Laurent left and we were able to carry it through, there became a real sense of gratitude for the fact we still have this artistic outlet and a community of people who want to support it,” the band’s Shelley de Brauw says of Schroeder-Lebec’s ten year sabbatical from the group. Fittingly, that feeling o deep, grounded appreciation doesn’t just reside within the band’s members, it’s expressed on every track of the album.
The album’s latest single “Cascading Crescent” is a forceful, cinematic and yet soulful ripper that reminds me a bit of The Sword and others, anchored around some scorching riffage and thunderous drumming.
The members of the Chicago-based band will be embarking on a lengthy touring schedule to support the album that includes a July 20, 2025 stop at The Meadows. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.
Live Concert Photography: Winter Jazzfest 2025: Denmark, Kaja management and Copenhagen Jazz Fest Presents: Smag På Dig Selv with Josefine Opshal at Baby’s All Right 1/11/25
Live concert photography of The Kingdom of Denmark and Copenhagen Jazz Fest’s Showcase at Baby’s All Right 1/11/25.
New Audio: Davidé Shares Brooding and Cinematic “Nevrotik”
Davide Orsi is an Italian-born, French-based musician and producer, whose career started in earnest with a stint in Italian psych rock outfit Rubber Eggs. Orsi relocated to Grenoble, France, where he continued his musical career, eventually joining Bleu Tonnerre in 2019. And while with Bleu Tonnerre, he played alongside a collection of French artists including Izia and AARON.
Orsi also started his solo recording project Davidé in 2019. The project, which is inspired by Thom Yorke, Tears for Fears and others sees him blending futuristic and dreamy accents while exploring science fiction themes like dystopian worlds and altered realities.
Orsi’s sophomore Davidé EP, Plasticity, Pt. 2 was released a few months ago. The EP’s latest single “Nevrotik,” is a brooding and cinematic composition featuring glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless motorik groove that sounds as though it were inspired by John Carpenter soundtracks, Magic Sword, Umberto and others.
Throwback: Happy Belated 86th Birthday, McCoy Tyner!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates the 86th anniversary of the birth of the legendary McCoy Tyner.
New Audio: Somos el Viento Returns with Forceful and Cinematic “Exodus”
Spanish-born and-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist Óliver del Barrio is the creative mastermind being the solo recording project Somos el Viento. And with his Somos el Viento full-length debut, Mar Negro, del Barrio quickly establishes a lushly layered and expansive soundscape that blends post-rock, space rock and ambient music.
Mar Negro’s second and latest single “Exodus” is a slick synthesis of Collapse Under the Empire and Mogwai-like post rock, metal and space rock within a cinematic soundscape.
New Audio: Somos el Viento Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Fragments”
Spanish-born and-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist Óliver del Barrio is the creative mastermind being the solo recording project Somos el Viento. And with his Somos el Viento full-length debut, Mar Negro, del Barrio quickly establishes a lushly layered and expansive soundscape that blends post-rock, space rock and ambient music.
Mar Negro‘s latest single “Fragments” is a brooding and cinematic composition that sonically reminds me a bit of Collapse Under the Empire, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, The Octopus Project and others while displaying an artist, who can craft an immersive and meditative soundscape.
New Video: The Offline Shares Sun-Dappled Visual for “Fumée”
Felix Müller is a Hamburg-born and-based photographer, composer and creative mastermind behind the cinematic soul project The Offline. Müller can trace the origins of The Offline to his travels along the the Atlantic coastline of southern France with an analog camera, capturing beach life. Upon his return to Hamburg, he started writing compositions as the sonic counterpart to his visuals.
The German-born artist’s full-length debut, last year’s Timor Litzenberg co-produced La couleur de la mer was inspired by the work of Francois de Roubaix — and saw him creating a soundtrack to an imaginary film. The album’s material evoked images of manorial, fog-swept villas at the ocean’s edge, silhouetted sailing boats and cigar-chomping villains attempting to thwart the mission of the imaginary film’s hero. The album experimented with themes and atypical song structures, moving from dramatic cues to fragile romanticism while incorporating psychedelia, retro soul and hip-hop, inspired by and informed by his extensive record collection.
Slated for a Friday release through DeepMatter Records, Müller’s forthcoming Les Cigales EP reportedly builds upon the head-nodding blend of hip-hop and 70s soul jazz that he developed on his full-length debut. The EP takes it sonic tunes from the structure of film and TV music from the 1960s and 1970s, channeling the influences of film composers like Francois de Rouabix and David Axelrod while also seemingly sitting between the chilled out, summery grooves of Surprise Chef and Robohands. As the EP unwinds, its narrative reflects a love story full of longing, melancholy and drama, connecting with the story of Cyptis and Protis — the founding myth of Marseilles — whose love broke convention and welcomed the arrival of foreigners on French soil.
“Fumée,” introduces the first part of Les Cigales‘ narrative, an effort that reflects upon life on the Mediterranean during the summer months. Anchored around an arrangement featuring a gorgeous and expressive Rhodes-driven melodic theme, a brooding horn line and squiggling wah wah pedaled funk guitar paired with a subtly reggae-like drum groove, “Fumée” features alternating light and dark sections.
“Fumée” continues a run of material that seems to recall Bob James while setting up the EP’s narrative, introducing the soon-to-be star-crossed protagonists, as they hungrily search for one another, while situating the listener in and around Marseille.
“As some may know, Hamburg is not known for the best weather, especially the winters, with little daylight, cold winds and rain lashing down on your face,” Müller says. “Maybe that’s why this longing for light, warmth and the sea is always a big part of my music – by composing the songs, I can be in these places.”
The accompanying video for “Fumée” captures the sun-dappled beauty of Marseille in the summer, the lapping waves on the shore while introducing us to our two star-crossed lovers, someplace where it’s easy to fall desperately, stupidly in love. Mischievously, the video makes some slick visual nods to 70s European-based spy thrillers.
Throwback: Happy Belated 115th Birthday, Art Tatum!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms belatedly celebrates Art Tatum’s 115th birthday.
Throwback: Happy 105th Birthday, Art Blakey!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 105th anniversary of the birth of Art Blakey.
New Video: Montréal’s Yoo Doo Right Shares Stormy “Eager Glacier”
Deriving their name from one of Can‘s best known — and perhaps most covered — songs, Montréal-based experimentalists Yoo Doo Right — Justin Cober (guitar, synths, vocals), Charles Masson (bass) and John Talbot (drums, percussion) — pair noisy and melodic guitar lines, effects-laden synthesizer soundscapes, deep bass grooves and furious and driving percussion into sprawling, cathartic musical pieces that draw inspiration from post-rock, krautrock, shoegaze, classical music, electroacoustics and musique concrète.
Since their formation back in 2016, the Montréal-based trio have been prolific: Their first two EPs 2016’s Nobody Panicked and Everybody Got On and 2017’s EP2 served to introduced the band’s signature bombastic approach to psychedelia. Their 7″ split with Japanese experimentalists Acid Mothers Temple saw the trio adopting a decidedly motorik feel. The Canadian trio’s full-length debut, 2021’s Don’t Think You Can Escape Your Purpose saw the band further establishing an undeniable sound while receiving praise from the likes of Paste Magazine, who wrote “sometimes vigorous and verging on total collapse and sometimes delicate and measured [ . . .] a gift that never stops giving.”
Their Polaris Prize long-listed sophomore album, 2022’s A Murmur, Boundless to the East received praise from AllMusic, who wrote “Yoo Doo Right are skilled at employing restraint, but when they let themselves go, it feels truly earth-shaking” and Flood Magazine‘s Stephan Boissonneault writing “The post-everything krautrockers’ sophomore album is a towering release fit for nebulous contemplation and feelings of foreboding astral projection.”
Released earlier this year, The Sacred Fuck EP was a sonic departure that saw the acclaimed tiro experimenting with found sound, field recordings and sonic collage, momentarily straying away from the high-decibel eardrum shattering sound they’re best known for.
During that same period, they’ve become a highly in-demand live act that has toured across North America, including a making the rounds of the festival circuit with sets at Levitation, M for Montréal, Sled Island, Pop Montreal and New Colossus Festival. The Canadian experimentalists have opened for Acid Mothers Temple, DIIV, A Place to Bury Strangers, Wooden Shjips, Kikagkiu Moyo, FACS, Frigs, and Jessica Moss and a growing list of others.
The Montréal-based outfit’s third album, the Seth Manchester-produced From The Heights of Our Pastureland is slated for a November 8, 2024 release through Mothland. Recorded at Pawtucket-based Machines with Magnets, From The Heights or Our Pastureland is reportedly an honest and patient sonic poem about the destructive process of unbridled expansion in the name of “progress,” that expansion’s inevitable collapse and what it means to rebuild. The album sees the trio further developing ideas they previously started exploring, while creating what’s arguably one of their darkest, heaviest and ominous batch of material to date.
The trio wrote the material in a remote cabin near Saguenay, QC last winter. Snowed in, Cober, Masson and Talbot played for three days straight, archiving anything and everything, musing about “the storm of colonialism, the collapse of capitalism and the massive undertaking it is to rebuild with past mistakes taken into deep consideration.” Fittingly, the album draws major inspiration from parallels drawn between natural phenomena ranging from climate change-related bad weather to environmental disasters and the overwhelming force of our sociopolitical frameworks. Also informed by the commodification of art, AI and algorithmic art, the trio later revisited the album’s material, altering their initial compositions by way of element juxtaposition and extensive sound design. The album sees the band embracing their penchant for sonic manipulation in all of its forms while achieving an uncanny equilibrium between unresolved tensions and soothing resolutions throughout.
“We aimed for something cinematic, but not in the way of a score, rather something more experiential. We wanted to create music that could ignite drive in oneself, hopefully something of significance in and of itself,” the band says. “While we’re really not here to force understanding on people, for us the predominant themes are anxiety and patience, the storm of colonialism, the collapse of capitalism and the massive undertaking it is to rebuild with past mistakes taken into deep consideration. It draws a parallel between natural disaster and social disaster, the experience of watching an impending destructive storm roll in and watching an impending societal disaster unfold under our current colonial, capitalistic frameworks. Hopefully, folks can give themselves time to make some sensible thoughts of the album on their own.”
The album’s second and latest single, the sprawling “Eager Glacier” is anchored around a propulsive and thunderous drum beat, whirring synths, layers of swirling shoegazer-like guitar textures that build up to a brewing and malevolent storm. Featuring elements of post rock, drone, metal and shoegaze, “Eager Glacier” manages to feel like a natural phenomenon, much like a glacier breaking apart at the seams, while possessing a cinematic quality.
“I’ve recently embraced the surrealist and absurdist in me, and this project reflects my desire to blur the lines between reality and the subconscious,” the video’s director Stacy Lee explains. ” Inspired by my recent deep dive into experimental cinema, I’ve come to see genres as fluid—cinema, like music, exists on a continuum, and my work is an ongoing exploration of that entire range. This video doesn’t follow a traditional narrative but instead invites viewers into a space where they can create their own meaning. Through visual experimentation, I wanted to transport us into another dimension, where magic literally unfolds on screen.”
Throwback: Happy 98th Birthday, John Coltrane!
JOIVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 98th anniversary of John Coltrane’s birth.