Tag: London UK

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay SHOLTO Returns with Dreamy “Tied to the Mast”

Initially known as being one-half of indie outfit Sunglasses for Jaws, the rising London-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Oscar “Sholto” Robertson grew up with with a deep and abiding love of jazz, soul, krautrock and soundtracks from the 60s and 70s. As a producer, Robertson honed his production skills under the guidance and tutelage of Allah-Las‘ Nick Waterhouse and Inflo.

A handful of years ago, Roberston stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his recording project, SHOLTO. And with SHOLTO, the rising London-based multi-instrumentalist has firmly cemented a cinematic take on instrumental, psychedelic soul.

Robertson’s highly-anticipated sophomore SHOLTO album, The Sirens is slated for a November 21, 2025 release through DeepMatter Records. Recorded at the London-based composer, producer and multi-instrumentalist’s Hackney-based SJF Studio, the 12-song album sees Robertson continuing an ongoing collaboration with a familiar cast of musicians, who have helped flesh out the gorgeous, string section accentuated, groove-driven soundscapes he’s developed, including Syd Kemp (bass), Clementine Brown (strings) and Rachel Horton Kitchlew (harp).

The album will see Roberson and his collaborators crafting an album of material that’s emotionally unflinching and explores themes of duality, temptation and emotional dislocation, in Robertson’s words “blurring grief wit groove, seduction and surrender.” Sonically, the album’s material sees Robertson building upon the groove-driven, strings-soaked soundscapes and ethereal textures that has won him attention in the UK and elsewhere but inverting that beauty into a haunting fever dream.

Using the world of myth and the carnivalesque as a vehicle for exploring the intricacies of the human condition, The Sirens emerged from a period of uncertainty and spiritual fatigue. Drawing from ancient allegory to navigate through the inner turbulence he experienced, the album’s material is rooted in quiet defiance and tension that sometimes never quite resolves. While being deeply cinematic, the album’s material is anchored by Robertson’s rhythmic sensibility and dramatic vocal cues that drift in and out, evoking the ancient tale of the Sirens calling out to sailors while evoking dream sequences seemingly caught mid-thought. “The Sirens trades the ethereal shimmer of my earlier records with something a little more nuanced and emotionally unflinching, slightly darker. It doesn’t really resolve, just resonates – a love letter to the parts of ourselves we usually avoid.”

The Sirens‘ third and last pre-release single “Tied to the Mast” opens with a bursts of glitchy vocals being swallowed by breathtakingly gorgeous, twinkling strings before morphing into a swaggering, Motown/Daptone/Big Crown-like soul groove with an ethereal cacophony of vocals calling out from the swelling storm of sound. The song evokes a small boat out at sea that gets caught and pulled into — and then under — a swelling storm, before breaking apart and tossing its sailors into the sea.

“’Tied to the Mast’ is a stormy, myth-soaked odyssey. It opens with distant, glitchy siren-esque vocals – spectral and seductive, like ancient voices cutting through static,” Robertson says. “Then comes the drop – Odysseus lashed to the mast, as the storm climaxes the track unravels into a slow more haunting coda, melodies scattered like the wreckage. You’re left drifting and floating in the aftermath, unsure if you have survived or where always meant to crash.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: London’s Oliver Beardmore Teams Up with Brooklyn’s Punchlove on a Yearning “120 Minutes”-era MTV-like Single

Rising London-based singer/songwriter Oliver Beardmore has built up a reputation as a highly sought-after opener, playing alongside Gia Ford, Junodream, Late Night Drive Home and Steven Mason. The London-based artist has also played a number of sold-out headlining sets across the UK. And adding to a growing profile, Beardmore has received airplay from BBC Radio 1 and BBC Introducing.

The rising British artist’s latest single, the Beardmore and Xav Sinden co-produced “Ammonite” is a 120 Minutes-era MTV-like, wistful slow-burn, anchored around Beardmore’s yearning falsetto that slowly builds up into a stormy and textured climax played by Brooklyn-based shoegazers Punchlove. Sonically channeling The Bends-era Radiohead, “Ammonite,” manages to convey an uneasy push and pull of self-flagellation and blame in a dysfunctional relationship between two equally dysfunctional, hurt people.

“The song is about being drawn to people who share the same insecurities or flaws. We project our issues onto each other, but that weight often causes hurt that no one else is really to blame for,” Beardmore says. “There’s freedom in no longer searching for your flaws in someone else, and relief in calling off that search. In the end, you can hurt yourself more than anyone else ever could – but there’s something almost hedonistic in giving yourself away to someone who’ll let you.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tinlicker Shares Defiant and Euphoric “I Want My Freedom”

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 of its founder Heyboer. 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 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 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. But in the meantime, the trio’s latest single “I Want My Freedom” showcases what has made the Dutch outfit a titan in electronic music: Beginning with a slow-burning piano intro that seemingly nods at Radiohead‘s “Everything In Its Right Place,” the track quickly morphs into a festival and club banger featuring skittering beats, glistening and melodic synth arpeggios, a string section sample-led bridge, and a euphoric bridge and hook, which serves as a slickly produced and lush bed for Baldwin’s defiant and resolute vocals.

Throughout the song’s runtime, Baldwin’s lyrics are especially pertinent right now, as many countries across the world seem to be sliding backwards into a brutally abusive, authoritarian hellscape that many of us don’t want — and will resist until death.

“These lyrics circled in my mind for a long time” Baldwin says. “I started writing from that feeling of disconnection as a woman in my mid-twenties with a sharp awareness of the world moving backwards. But over time, the song grew into something bigger. ‘I Want My Freedom’ isn’t just about me, it’s about all of us. The heartbreaking truth is that the abuse of freedoms reaches far beyond gender. I wanted to create a song of inclusion, with a nod to what I personally feel I’ve lost. Freedom is never handed to us, it’s something we fight for, and I no longer have that softness in me to apologize for that.”

The accompanying video for “I Want My Freedom” consists of footage shot from their Crystal Palace Bowl set.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rising Welsh Artist CATTY Shares Pulsating and Swooning “Make You Love Me”

CATTY is a rising Caernarfon, Wales, UK-born, London-based artist, whose work is steeped in Welsh folklore, shaped by a lifetime of doomed crushes and anchored by a flair for the dramatic and a steadfast refusal to soften her edges.  “Being Welsh seeps through my veins – it feels like a punch in the gut when people don’t know I’m Welsh,” she says. “I’m just writing about my life and I happen to be a massive lesbian. If I didn’t say ‘she’ in my songs, I wouldn’t be writing honest music – and what’s the point in that?”

The Caernarfon-born, London-based artist’s debut EP, last year’s Healing Out of Spite received praise from NME, Popjustice, Dork Magazine, Clash Magazine, Official Charts, DIY Magazine and a lengthy list of others, while being championed by BBC Radio 1 personalities Jodie Bryant, Mollie King and Maia Beth. Adding to a breakthrough year, her debut headline show sold-out in 15 minutes. She also opened for Dylan McCarthy, Beth McCarthy — and she opened for the legendary Stevie Nicks at BST Hyde Park. The rising Welsh-born artist closed the year out with a sold-out show at London’s Lafayette.

This year CATTY has played sets at Birmingham Pride, London Pride, Latitude Festival, Reeperbahn Festival and the Women’s Rugby World Cup. And building upon a growing profile, her highly-anticipated, six-song, sophomore EP Bracing For Impact is slated for an October 24, 2025 release through AWAL. The EP will feature the previously released “4am (Back in His Bed),” “Joyride,” and “Prized Possession.”

Throughout the EP’s six-songs, the rising Welsh artist tells stories of queer love discovery, of desire, pain, resilience and ultimately hope. In many ways, the EP’s material is a total embodiment of queer life, capturing the euphoria, bruises and ache of her personal experience — but while pulling at something profoundly universal.

“I think I lived a year of my life trying to protect myself so much that I forgot to live. And this entire EP is basically me saying yeah, I’m shit scared of failing, I’m shit scared of getting hurt, I’m shit scared of no happy ending but I do owe myself a life,” CATTY says. “Bracing For Impact is basically me saying I’m here, I know who I am, I’ve been in this industry for ten years, put me on your stages! I’ll sing my little heart out on them and you will see it drip from my sleeve. It’s weird not to be writing break up songs right now, I really felt like that was my forte so if anyone wants me to slag off their boyfriend I am available to write for other people and I would enjoy that.”

Bracing For Impact’s final, pre-release single “Make You Love Me” opens with a swelling and dramatic string introduction before quickly morphing into a slickly produced, pulsating pop tune that channels Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks while showcasing the Welsh artist’s big, pop belter delivery and her penchant for big, euphoric hooks. “Make You Love Me” is rooted in a deeply lived in portrait of a narrator, desperately clinging to hope after a series of crushing disappointments, and steadfastly determined to rewrite the bitter endings of her previous love affairs, situationships and flings to the happily ever after that she deserves. It’s a swooning mix of desperation, desire and pride of the heartbroken and lovelorn romantic.

“‘Make You Love Me’ is me casting a little spell,” the rising Welsh-born, London-based artist says. “I love with every fibre of my being, and in the words of my lord and saviour Stevie Nicks: ‘you will never get away from the sound of the woman that loves you’ – and you won’t. I will write my little melodies and I will sing them for the rest of time. I’m such a hopeless romantic, a real f*cking idiot in love. I’ve descended from a long line of people who meet their match at a young age and hold their hands forever, which makes me see things as what I hope they are and not what they actually are sometimes – but I love being sensitive and soft and letting my heart lead me, even if it has famously taken me to the depths of hell, I will crawl back out again.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dear Boy Shares Madchester-like “The Address”

Los Angeles-based indie outfit Dear Boy — founding members Ben Grey (vocals, guitar) and Keith Cooper (drums) alongside Austin Hayman (lead guitar) and Lucy Lawrence (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins back to when its founding members Grey and Cooper were living in London during their mid-twenties. Hayman and Lawrence joined the band once its founding duo returned to the States.

Interestingly, despite their Stateside roots, the Los Angeles-based quartet’s work has drawn from ’80s and ’90s Brit pop and shoegaze — with the band citing Pulp, Oasis, Slowdive and The Jesus and Mary Chain as major influences, while also embracing the likes of Pixies and R.E.M. 

The band’s sophomore album sophomore album, the Aron Kobayashi Ritch-produced Celebrator is slated for an October 17, 2025 release through Last Gang Records. Following the success of their full-length debut, 2022’s Forever Sometimes, the band took a step back from perfectionist production practices and leaned into spontaneity. Written in 12 sessions and recorded live in under two weeks, the album’s material reportedly bristles with a palpable energy while showcasing the band’s musical and creative chemistry. “We made this album to remember why we do this in the first place,” the band says. “Because we love it. We adore each other. Joy. Connection. Heartbreak. Celebration. We’re not interested in anything other than that.”

Celebration will feature the previously released “After All,” feat. Rocket’s Alithea Tuttle, a bombastic anthem that brings 120 Minutes-era MTV and 90s Brit Pop to mind. The album’s latest single “The Address” continues the band’s Brit Pop-meets-shoegaze while featuring a Happy Mondays/Madchester-style breakbeat-driven drum groove and shoegazer textured guitar chug serving as a lush yet subtly dance floor friendly bed for Ben Grey’s plaintive and yearning delivery.

Much like its immediate predecessor, “The Address” showcases the band’s uncanny knack for paring catchy hooks and swaggering bombast with earnest, lived-in lyricism.

Fittingly, the video made by the band’s Ben Gray and Ryan Saunders, the accompanying video draws heavily from old school MTV visuals.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: ZODIAC Shares Lush and Summery “Horizon”

Formed back in 2023, the rising London-based production and DJ trio ZODIAC — Joe Doyle, Will McMullin and Ellis Moss — quickly signed to [PIAS] Électronique, the label home of artists like Tinlicker, Eli & Fur and Innellea. Each member of ZODIC brings a distinct sound and vision to the project, blending their talents to create a captivating electronic-driven soundscape that’s both evocative and immersive.

The London trio’s debut single “Blink,” featuring The Boxer Rebellion‘s Nathan Nicholson received support across the global electronic music scene, earning endorsements from Joris Voorn, Above & Beyond, Sister Bliss and Alfa Romero.. Adding to a growing profile in the global electronic music scene, the London-based trio have had opening slots for Armin Van Buuren, Korolova and a growing list of others.

The trio’s highly-anticipated debut EP Constellations I was released last week. While showcasing deep, driven and rhythmically rich melodies, the EP marks a new chapter for the group — the first batch of new material following the addition of Ellis Moss, an already established name in the electronic music scene.. The EP’s first single “Horizon” is a club banger anchored around glistening synth oscillation, a relentless motorik-like groove paired with tweeter and woofer rattling thump. The production serves as a lush and hook-driven bed for a soulful, pop belter vocal sample. Ultimately, it may be one of the more Ibiza/summery songs I’ve listened to and covered in the past few months.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Angeles’ Dear Boy Teams Up with Rocket on Anthemic “After All”

Los Angeles-based indie outfit Dear Boy — founding members Ben Grey (vocals, guitar) and Keith Cooper (drums) alongside Austin Hayman (lead guitar) and Lucy Lawrence (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins back to when its founding members Grey and Cooper were living in London during their mid-twenties. The band’s Hayman and Lawrence joined once the duo returned to the States. Interestingly, despite their Stateside roots, the Los Angeles-based quartet’s work has drawn from ’80s and ’90s Brit pop and shoegaze — with the band citing Pulp, Oasis, Slowdive and The Jesus and Mary Chain as major influences, while also embracing the likes of Pixies and R.E.M.

The band’s sophomore album sophomore album, the Aron Kobayashi Ritch-produced Celebrator is slated for an October 17, 2025 release through Last Gang Records. Following the success of their full-length debut, 2022’s Forever Sometimes, the band took a step back from perfectionist production practices and leaned into spontaneity. Written in 12 sessions and recorded live in under two weeks, the album’s material reportedly bristles with a palpable energy while showcasing the band’s musical and creative chemistry. “We made this album to remember why we do this in the first place,” the band says. “Because we love it. We adore each other. Joy. Connection. Heartbreak. Celebration. We’re not interested in anything other than that.”

Celebrator‘s first single, “After All,” features Rocket’s Alithea Tuttle. Anchored around rousingly a rousingly anthemic hook and chorus, the new single immediately brings 120 Minutes-era MTV and 90s Brit Pop to mind while arguably being the most straightforward, bombastic rocker of their growing catalog to date. “It is crazy to have been a band for this long without contributing a primal-teenage-bedroom-rock riff. Happy to finally right a wrong,” the band’s frontman Ben Grey says.

The collaboration with Rocket can be traced to a deep and genuine friendship. “We first played with Rocket on New Year’s Eve a few years ago and became fast friends. We’re both from the Valley, went to the same pre-school, a tale as old as time,” Grey explains. “But truly, they’re an important band, and I think Alithea has one of the defining rock voices of this generation. We feel so honored she sang on ‘After All’. It’s the Catherine Wheel/Throwing Muses moment we’ve always dreamed of.”

Directed by the band’s Ben Grey, the accompanying video for “After All” is fittingly, a decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV-like visual that’s a slick mix of old super 8-shot home videos of family gatherings and celebrations with footage of the band playing in a studio amidst a storm of confetti.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dutch Mustard Shares Breakneck and Escapist “Life”

Dutch-born, London-based artist Sarah-Jayne “SJ” Riedel is the creative mastermind behind the rising indie recording project Dutch Mustard. With Dutch Mustard, Riedel blends ethereal dream pop, 90s alt-rock with shoegaze touches to create a soundscape that features painterly and swirling guitar textures while the Dutch-born artist’s vocals drift between a near whisper and yearning, heavenly arching shouts. 

Riedel and Dutch Mustard exploded into the British scene with the release of 2022’s debut EP An Interpretation of Depersonalisation, an effort that was featured by the BBC while receiving airplay on BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists with Jack Saunders and a co-sign from the legendary Iggy Pop.

2023’s sophomore EP,  Beauty received airplay from BBC Radio 6’s Lauren Laverne and co-signs from Don Letts and Amy Lamé. Adding to a growing profile, The Independent, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, Dork and Notion have all covered her — and The Grammy Awards selected her a one of 6 Female Fronted Acts Reviving Rock, along with Wet Leg. 

Since then, the Dutch-born, London-based artist has been busy: She has released a couple of singles — two of which I’ve written about here: “Loser” and “Dreaming,” which was released earlier this year. She followed that up with her Stateside debut at The New Colossus Festival earlier this year. Building upon a growing international profile, Riedel’s latest single, the Dean James Barrett, Craigie Dodds and Riedel co-written “Life” is a breakneck, Brit Pop meets industrial punk-like track anchored around taut, skittering beats and buzzing power chord-driven riffs that continues a run of material that showcases her unerring knack for crafting catchy, rousingly anthemic hooks. While being one of the punchiest songs of her growing catalog, “Life,” as she says “is the soundtrack to that heartbreak you should’ve seen coming, when everything gets so chaotic and absurd, all you want to do is tap out for a minute.”

Directed by Josiah Newbolt, the accompanying video is split between gritty black and white shot footage of Riedel and her backing band out in the streets, as we follow her to a studio for a carefully choreographed dance routine. The result is an urgent and vivid fever dream.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Shawn Lee and Kelly Finnigan Team Up on a Breezy and Soulful “Say It Again”

Acclaimed singer/songwriter, musician, producer and Monophonics frontman Kelly Finnigan recently teamed up with acclaimed Wichita-born, London-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist and Young Gun Silver Fox co-founder Shawn Lee on “Say It Again,” a breezy and soulful tune that seemingly channels 1970s Isley Brothers — in particular, think of “Summer Breeze Pts. 1 & 2,” “That Lady,” and the like.

“There has always been a mutual admiration society between myself & Kelly. Over the years I’ve had the pleasure of playing on both the Monophonics & Kelly’s solo records in the studio and live onstage,” Shawn Lee says. “This is the first I’ve had Kelly on something that I’ve put together. Good things come to those who wait…and here it is!”

Colemine Records officially released the track on all DSPs today. Be on the lookout for 7″ 45RPM vinyl on September 19, 2025.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: HighSchool Shares Breakneck and Hook-Driven “149”

Rising London-based post-punk outfit HighSchool — Melbourne-born, London-based duo Rory Trobbiani and Luke Scott, along with live backing members Lilli Trobbiani and Lucy Lamb — exploded into the scene with their debut, six-song EP, 2021’s Forever at Last, an effort that saw the band distilling circa-’86 indie lo-fi, New Wave, goth and post-punk through a new, very modern lens.

With self-directed, deeply arresting videos for each of the EP’s six tracks and multiple vinyl runs selling out, the band began to receive attention globally. Beginning with a stint residing London, the duo and their live band played shows across the UK, European Union, North America, Japan and back in Australia, making a run of the international festival circuit, while sharing stages with CHVRCHES, Sam Fender, NewDad and Wet Leg among others.

The rising post punk outfit followed up with 2022’s Only a Dream, which was recorded with Dan Carey and released through his Speedy Wunderground and 2023’s “Colt.” The duo signed to [PIAS], who released their sophomore EP, last year’s Accelerator. Accelerator saw the duo taking their sound to a much darker, reflective place while being an effort that revealed new layers and added depth with each listen. The band went on to support the EP with a successful UK tour with Wunderhouse.

Building upon a growing profile, the band has received praise from NME, The Fader, Clash, DIY, Dork Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, Paper Magazine, Rolling Stone ANZ, So Young and airplay from triple j, BBC 6 Music, BBC Radio 1, KEXP and several others across the globe.

The band’s highly-anticipated full-length debut is forthcoming, and the album’s first single, the Ben Hillier and Finn Billingham-produced “149” is a breakneck, mind-melting mix of shoeagze, New Wave and jangle pop and Brit pop that reveals a band with an unerring knack for catchy hooks. And at its core, the song captures languorous, boring and seemingly carefree summers in your teens and early 20s.

“‘149’ is about slow, teenage suburban summers – long, dry days, sprinklers on cracked lawns, the smell of cut grass and cheap beer, halogen-lit tennis courts and supermarket car parks. Nothing to do but kick rocks, ride your bike, hang at the skatepark or by the pool. 

You end up at a shit house party you weren’t invited to, with the girl you’ve had a crush on all year – the one you thought never noticed you. Someone’s playing Benny Benassi on a light-up Bluetooth speaker. People spill onto the porch, your breath tastes like warm wine from a sack. Maybe you hold hands or she kisses you. ‘149’ is a brief moment in the noise, knowing it won’t last. And that’s the point”. 

The accompanying, self-directed video finds the band and friends commandeering a London double-decker bus and driving around London. The band plays an impromptu set onboard. But the video has some impromptu origins: The band borrowed the bus from Nev, who lives next door to the band’s studio. Nev runs a dub radio broadcast out of his kitchen; but he happened to own a party bus. It’s the sort of surreal set up that can only occur late at a night in a big city, with indelible characters.

“The video captures the feeling we wanted for ‘149’ — the dizzying elation of a rambunctious night out, full of promise and unpredictability. It’s about the seemingly endless possibilities a party can bring, and that fleeting feeling of being pulled out of your head and into the present, knowing it can only last until the night ends.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising London Outfit World News Shares Jangling and Anthemic “Don’t Want To Know”

Rising London-based post punk outfit World News — brothers Alex Evans (vocals, guitar) and Rory Evans (bass), along with Malte Henning (drums) and Jack Tolman (rhythm guitar) — can trace their origins back to 2018. The Evans Brothers, performing under the name Tinman cut their teeth in Brighton’s grassroots scene, relentlessly chasing opening slots in that city’s busy music scene.

Following a case of badly mistaken identity in which concert-goers arrived expecting an Austrian DJ of the same name — and a chance meeting with Malte Henning at a local Pizza Express, the band, rebranded as the extremely difficult to Google, World News.

The band, now known as World News were quickly gaining momentum, having sold out their first London area headlining show at The Shacklewell Arms when the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a halt. The band quickly established a sound inspired by 70s and 80s post-punk, indie rock and shoegaze, blending atmospheric guitar riffs with seductive melodies and a penchant for rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses, drawing comparisons to The Smiths, The Clash and Dire Straits among others.

Their debut, 2020’s Job and Money EP was released at their lowest point — COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns and was deeply informed by personal experiences: heartbreak, night shifts, desperately hustling to survive and the claustrophobia of living in a windowless London room.

Fueled by restlessness, disillusionment, impatience and yearning for more, the London-based quartet have been busy the last few years, releasing over a dozen singles and three EPs while remaining committed to a firmly held DIY ethos. That busy period included last year, which saw them releasing two EP’s Escape and Mindsnap, along with the addition of Jack Tollman (rhythm guitar). Escape EP saw the band expanding on their now, signature jangling sound. Mindsnap dove into darker, much more gothic territory and marked the first bit of material cowritten by The Evans Brothers.

The rising London-based outfit closed out last year receiving coverage from Stereogum, SPIN, The Fader and KEXP, as well as sold-out shows at London’s The Lexington and Piano’s. Building upon a growing national and international profile, the members of World News are looking forward to releasing their highly-anticipated full-length debut.

Recorded at London-based RAK Studios, the rising quartet’s latest single “Don’t Want To Know” sees the band firmly cementing a sound that immediately recalls Boy, October and The Unforgettable Fire-era U2: jangling, reverb-soaked guitars, driving rhythms, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses paired with earnest, yearning vocals.

Directed by Teddy Hansen, the accompanying video for “Don’t Want To Know” focuses on the band’s Alex Evans as he rapidly goes through a series of costume changes that shows the band’s frontman going through different scenarios — some worse than others.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: heavy wild Shares TrIppy Visual for Brooding “Wasteland”

Led by Wolfgang Harte, rising London-based lo-fi outfit heavy wild just released their highly-anticipated Paolo Ruiu-produced debut EP Death Dreams. 

Sonically, the EP sees the London-based lo-fi outfit blending elements of alternative rock, post-punk, garage rock, shoegaze, indie rock, lo-fi and grunge — and is a culmination of the project’s output date, as Harte explains: “I think having a running theme through any body of work is always important. I tend to write subconsciously and never really with a specific idea in mind so looking back through all these tracks and identifying what they’re really about has been interesting, discovering the themes that underpin my writing. There’s a couple of well-loved tracks on there but I’m excited for people to hear some new stuff too and see the direction it’s moving in.”

The EP’s first single “Wasteland” is a brooding whirlwind of a tune featuring shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars and distorted synths and driving rhythm section paired with remarkably catchy hooks and choruses and fuzzed out yet plaintive vocals. Sonically recalling a woozy mix of Interpol, Crocodiles, Grave Babies and others, the song explores themes of fractured relationships, arrests and suicide.

“Ultimately, it’s an optimistic track. It’s about going through dark times and finding a way to keep on going,” Harte explains. “I had a bassline [sic] that I was just playing on loop and I started writing, and this montage of stuff that had happened over the years was flooding my mind, and the energy of that bassline [sic] just kept dragging more stuff up. I guess it’s me sort of processing some of those situations and reflecting on it all. It’s about standing in the wreckage of life and saying fuck it… just gotta keep going.”

Harte cites Wavves, Beach Fossils, Small Black, Girls and Crocodiles as a big influence on him — and on the track. “On this track, I think I was really going back to that stuff that I loved as a teenager when I was first making music and trying to capture that frenetic sort of energy. I wanted the song to sound like it could fall apart at any moment,” Harte says.

The accompanying video is a mix of analog tape fuzz, kaleidoscopic filters and footage of the band in studio shot and edited in a way that evokes our uneasy, near apocalyptic moment.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: London’s Le Bon Jams Shares Euphoric, Club Banger “What U Need”

Le Bon Jams is a London-based dance pop/electronic dance pop quartet features an acclaimed collection of British music scene veterans, including: Last year was a breakthrough year for the collective, which blends live instrumentation and […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yumi Zouma Shares Breakneck and Melodic “Bashville on the Sugar”

Formed back in 2013 in Christchurch, New Zealand, the multinational and multi-continental JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma — Melbourne-based Christie Simpson (vocals, keys), New York-based Josh Burgess (guitar, bass, vocals, keys), London-based Charlie Ryder (guitar, bass, keys) and Wellington, New Zealand-based Olivia Campion (drums) — have had an acclaimed run that began with their shoegaze and dream pop-driven debut EP, the aptly-titled EP I and included their critically applauded albums, 2014’s Yoncalla, which saw the band dabbling with synth pop; 2017’s Willowbank, 2020’s Truth or Consequences and 2022’s Present Tense.

The JOVM mainstays have received praise from Pitchfork, Stereogum, Consequence, The FADER, SPIN, The Guardian while receiving airplay from SiriusXM and Australia’s Triple J. The multinational and multi-continental outfit have also developed a reputation as a mainstay on the global touring scene — first through opening slots for Air France, Jamie xx and Lower Dens, and then as a headlining act.

Recently, Yumi Zouma signed to Nettwerk Music Group, who will be releasing the band’s latest single “Bashville on the Sugar,” their first bit of new material in over 16 months or so. Beginning with a Foo Fighters-like “I’ll Stick Around“-like drum fill, the acclaimed outfit’s latest single may be the most downright breakneck tune they’ve released to date while continuing to showcase Simpson’s ethereal yet expressive delivery paired with cascading and chiming guitar work from Burgess and Ryder and MTA field recordings. Written in bursts across Mexico City, New York and New Zealand, “Bashville on the Sugar” captures the energetic pulse of commuting on public transportation in a large city, as well as the excitement and sense of infinite possibilities that could happen — right before that subway door closes.

“The first song on our forthcoming project that we really dug into, it’s an ode to the subway and public transport, New York’s in particular. The band has a deep affinity for it; its reliability and the access it provides are unlike anything we experienced in New Zealand,” the members of Yumi Zouma explain. “At the same time, its unpredictability—what you’ll see, who you’ll bump into—keeps each trip rooted in the present.”

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Bashville on the Sugar” features a blend of photo studio footage, Mini DV footage shots in New York and clips, and manages to capture the band’s sweet and goofy nature while evoking the endless motion at the heart of the song.