Tag: La Sécurité Stay Safe! REMIXED EP

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: La Sécurité Returns with a Breakneck Ode to Food

Acclaimed Montréal-based JOVM mainstay collective La Sécurité — Éliane Viens (vocals, synths, percussion and drums), Félix Bélisle (bass, synths, percussion, piano and production), Kenny Smith (drum, guitar), Laurence Anne Charest-Gagné (guitar, percussion, vocals) and Melissa Di Menna (guitar, synths, vocals, percussion and artwork) — specialize in a brand of art punk that’s equal parts jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks run through an insomniac filter that’s the result of excessive exposure to the city’s neon-lit late night scene. 

The Canadian art punk collective’s music is about living dangerously and is prefect for being blasted at deafening levels on dance floors. But lyrically, the material is deeply inspired by and shares the ethos of the Riot Grrl movement, celebrating and defiantly advocating for the autonomization of women, friendship and benevolence. 

Since the release of 2023’s full-length debut, Stay Safe!, which landed on the Polaris Music Prize long-list, the Montréal-based art punks have released 2024’s Stay Safe! REMIXED and last year’s “Detour” and “Ketchup.” Along with receiving critical praise both nationally and internationally, the outfit has made the run of the intentional festival circuit, playing sets at M for Montréal, New Colossus Festival, SXSW, End of the Road, The Great Escape, Reeperbahn and Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. They’ve toured as an opener for The Go! Team and The Rapture. And they’ve shared stages with Mauskovic Dance Band and JOVM mainstays Automatic and Death Valley Girls. During that whirlwind period, they also signed with Simon Raymonde‘s label Bella Union. 

The JOVM mainstay act’s highly-anticipated, Emmanuel Éthier and Félix Bélisle co-produced sophomore album Bingo! is slated for a June 12, 2026 release through Mothland in Canada and the States, and Bella Union for the rest of the world. The new album reportedly sees the band continuing to meander in and around the fringes of punk, new wave krautrock and dance punk, while mischievously flouting stylistic form every change they get. While continuing to implement polyrhythm, counterintuitive chord changes and subtle melodic and harmonic dissonance, the album reportedly sees them introducing more New Wave, no wave, noise rock and shoegaze elements to the sound that has won them intentional acclaim. 

The album’s material features songs that tackles knotty themes like mental health, the autonomization of women, dysfunctional relationships with their custom moxie. Other songs playfully muse about food or address everyday mundanity with sarcasm and irony. There’s a song that celebrates unsung heroes, like the elderly. Much like its predecessor, many of the album’s tracks saw the group improvising lyrics in the studio, effectively catching lightning in a bottle. 

The album was recorded with the band playing life off-the-floor, using rare ribbon microphones and vintage compressors. Adding to the overall free-flowing feel and vibe to the album’s material, many of the song’s hooks were improvised through jazz-tinged musical flights during recording sessions. The album was mixed by Bélisle and Étheir before being mastered by Robin Schmidt. 

The result is an album that harnesses the Montréal-based art punks’ natural sound, a sound that fuses calculated musical chaos and musicality with high decibels. 

Bingo! will feature the previously released “Detour” “Ketchup,” and the title track “Bingo,” which was released earlier this year, as well as the album’s latest single “Snack City.” “Snack City” is a breakneck mix of punk rock and post punk with overt nods to Freedom of Choice-era Devo. The result is a mischievously absurdist and fidgety tune about primal, downright glutinous needs and desires.

“We wrote the song when we were hungry,” the band explains. “The segment ‘J’ai faim, j’ai faim, […],’ which translates to: ‘I’m hungry, I’m hungry, […]’ was the basis of the scat singing that remained. We had fun with food anecdotes, food-related puns, etcetera.”

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with director Phillipe Beauséjour, the accompanying video for “Snack City” is inspired by snacking and past era cookbooks and features collage animation spliced with imagery and footage of the band on tour — sometimes eating or snacking.  “The band wanted a music video with images taken from their cellphones, including photos and videos from their tours. I found the challenge very fun, considering that the most interesting content was already done,” Beauséjour explains. “So, I created a universe inspired by scrapbooking, using what I could find in my multiple 60s and 90s cookbooks. I still wanted to bring a touch of animation, by constructing Éliane’s face several times with food. A little inspired by Giuseppe Arcimboldo’s ‘Summer.’”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Share Punchy “Bingo!”

Acclaimed Montréal-based JOVM mainstay collective La Sécurité — Éliane Viens (vocals, synths, percussion and drums), Félix Bélisle (bass, synths, percussion, piano and production), Kenny Smith (drum, guitar), Laurence Anne Charest-Gagné (guitar, percussion, vocals) and Melissa Di Menna (guitar, synths, vocals, percussion and artwork) — specialize in a brand of art punk that’s equal parts jumpy beats, off-kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks run through an insomniac filter that’s the result of excessive exposure to the city’s neon-lit late night scene.

The Canadian art punk collective’s music is about living dangerously and is prefect for being blasted at deafening levels on dance floors. But lyrically, the material is deeply inspired by and shares the ethos of the Riot Grrl movement, celebrating and defiantly advocating for the autonomization of women, friendship and benevolence.

Since the release of 2023’s full-length debut, Stay Safe!, which landed on the Polaris Music Prize long-list, the Montréal-based art punks have released 2024’s Stay Safe! REMIXED and last year’s “Detour” and “Ketchup.” Along with receiving critical praise both nationally and internationally, the outfit has made the run of the intentional festival circuit, playing sets at M for Montréal, New Colossus Festival, SXSW, End of the Road, The Great Escape, Reeperbahn and Festival International de Jazz de Montréal. They’ve toured as an opener for The Go! Team and The Rapture. And they’ve shared stages with Mauskovic Dance Band and JOVM mainstays Automatic and Death Valley Girls. During that whirlwind period, they also signed with Simon Raymonde‘s label Bella Union.

The JOVM mainstay act’s highly-anticipated, Emmanuel Éthier and Félix Bélisle co-produced sophomore album Bingo! is slated for a June 12, 2026 release through Mothland in Canada and the States, and Bella Union for the rest of the world. The new album reportedly sees the band continuing to meander in and around the fringes of punk, new wave krautrock and dance punk, while mischievously flouting stylistic form every change they get. While continuing to implement polyrhythm, counterintuitive chord changes and subtle melodic and harmonic dissonance, the album reportedly sees them introducing more no wave, no wave, noise rock and shoegaze elements to the sound that has won them intentional acclaim.

The album’s material features songs that tackles knotty themes like mental health, the autonomization of women, dysfunctional relationships with their custom moxie. Other songs playfully muse about food or address everyday mundanity with sarcasm and irony. There’s a song that celebrates unsung heroes, like the elderly. Much like its predecessor, many of the album’s tracks saw the group improvising lyrics in the studio, effectively catching lightning in a bottle.

The album was recorded with the band playing life off-the-floor, using rare ribbon microphones and vintage compressors. Adding to the overall free-flowing feel and vibe to the album’s material, many of the song’s hooks were improvised through jazz-tinged musical flights during recording sessions. The album was mixed by Bélisle and Étheir before being mastered by Robin Schmidt.

The result is an album that harnesses the Montréal-based art punks’ natural sound, a sound that fuses calculated musical chaos and musicality with high decibels.

Bingo! will feature the previously released “Detour” and “Ketchup,” and the album’s title track “Bingo.” “Bingo” is a sleek blend of DFA Records dance punk, Devo-inspired New Wave-like synths, fuzzy and angular guitar attack and a muscular, Gang of Four-like bass line paired with Viens’ mischievously punchy delivery.

The song is about embracing inspiration as it comes with lyrics informed by a filename of an early voice-demoed version of the song. “‘Bingo’ was a working title Melissa used to save the demo when we were working on the song,” the band explains. “The lyrics came later following a suggestion from Félix to describe a game of Bingo, to put into words the social life from an old folks home—elderly people that are young at heart, hence the references to Orange Crush, little hats, etcetera. The bass line and its tone are a tribute to Death From Above 1979.”

Directed by Philip Beauséjour, the accompanying video is a high-energy collage full of explosive, bright colors that accurately captures the song’s propulsive energy. Beauséjour says the the track’s energy “inspired in me the anxiety of the players leaving the hall with a big sum. It’s like a light social activity evening that can turn into a frenetic obsession with combinations of letters and numbers, stimulated by repetitive movements, sugary drinks, and cigarettes. The numbered cards become calculated abstractions, and every word from the hosts, a prayer.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Shares Spiky and Danceable “Detour”

With the release of last year’s Samuel Gemme-produced Stay Safe!, Montréal-based art punks La Sécurité exploded into the national and international scenes with a manic yet surprisingly laid-back sound that mischievously meandered on the fringes of punk, New Wave, no wave and krautrock while inhabiting the ethos of Riot Grrl movement.

Building upon the momentum of their breakthrough debut, the Canadian art punks released Stay Safe! REMIXED EP, an effort that features remixes from Born at Midnite, The Mauskovic Dance Band and Freak Heat Waves. They also made the rounds of global festival circuit with sets at The Great Escape, M for Montréal, Reepeerbahan Festival, SXSW, FOCUS Wales, FIJM, The New Colossus Festival and Sled Island, while also sharing the stage with the likes of Automatic, JOVM mainstays Death Valley Girls, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, Margaritas Pordridas, Exek and Civic.

The French Canadian outfit’s latest single “Detour” is the first bit of new material from the band since last year’s Stay Safe! And it’s been release as a special joint release with beloved indie label Bella Union and their label home Mothland. “Detour” continues where Stay Safe! let off: motorik grooves paired with spiky, off kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks that bring a synthesis of DEVO and the B52s to mind. The new single continues a run of material that’s both nerdy and danceable with a sneering edge.

“We recorded the song with an old friend of mine Renny Wilson,” La Sécurité’s Éliane Viens-Synnott says. “It was refreshing to watch him work on his instincts, trying to keep takes and tones as natural as possible, keeping everything open-ended to see where it could lead us. And since we know each other so well, it felt like he already knew what our music should sound like.”

Bella Union’s Simon Raymonde adds: “Working with my wife Abbey, I have become adept at processing the subtle differences between her delivery of a report from a gig she ‘really liked’, to one she was ‘blown away’ by. In March, Abbey saw La Sécurité in New York and her messages back to me were as excitable as I could remember in the 13 years we’ve been together. Maybe only her expressions of love for Chappell Roan earlier this year were comparable!” 

He continues, “In May at The Great Escape, I was finally able to hear and see for myself. They were everything she described and more. Way more. Appeals to me on so many levels, musically and culturally, touching on my own post-punk history, but when we invited them for lunch to our house and had a beautiful getting to know each other, THAT clinched it for me. Working in today’s peculiar music industry is only made tolerable by surrounding yourself with good people, who work hard, are honest and thoughtful. They seem like they tick all those boxes. Vive La Sécurité.”

Directed by dirt and daydream, the accompanying video for “Detour” is a low budget and grainy surreal fever dream that seems indebted to Harmony Korine‘s Trash Humpers.