Tag: Monaco

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: End of Code Releases a Brooding Visual for Soulful and Introspective “On To You”

Split between Malibu and Monaco, the emerging electronic music production and artist duo End of Code features the following:

Nicolas Saad, a Monaco-based DJ and electronic music producer, whose career can be traced back to the 1990s. Saad has developed a reputation for crafting tracks for French radio and TV.
Shawn Pereira, a Malibu-based model. who taught himself music while traveling the world modeling in campaigns for Ralph Lauren Polo Sport, Diet Coke and Tag Heuer.

Pereira met Saad while vacationing in St. Barth’s, a small French West Indies territory, that was once a Swedish colony for about 100 years. Bonding over an abiding love of deep house, the duo wound up writing, recording and producing their full-length debut, last year’s The Beginning — and since then, their music has become the official sound of BMW Monaco, playing in every new car sold.

The duo have had a busy start to 2021, as they’ve released two singles:

“Deep Into Your Soul.”a slickly produced yet soulful club banger.
“The Fall,” a brooding yet euphoric banger that reminded me quite a bit of Octo Octa’s Between Two Selves.

End of Code are working on their highly-anticipated follow-up to The Beginning, which they hope will be released later this year. Building up buzz for that album, the duo have released their third single of the year, “On To You.” Proudly nodding to Larry Levan-era house, as it features twinkling keys, skittering beats and Pereira’s achingly soulful vocals, the new single is centered around some of the most introspective lyrics of their growing catalog: the song tells the story of a character, who has cheated, lied, stole and lived a dishonest live to get over. And while initially, that character has achieved success and felt like a winner, eventually they and their ugly deeds will be exposed. Consider the song a warning. Be careful about how you do things.

Directed by Thomas Concordia and Rainer Hosch, the recently released video for
“On To You” is a brooding, cinematically shot black and white visual filmed in pre-pandemic New York. And throughout our protagonist’s lengthy walk, the viewer gets the emotional and psychological weight behind the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Split between Malibu and Monaco, the emerging electronic music production and artist duo End of Code features the following:

  • Nicolas Saad, a Monaco-based DJ and electronic music producer, whose career can be traced back to the 1990s. Saad has developed a reputation for crafting tracks for French radio and TV. 
  • Shawn Pereira, a Malibu-based model. who taught himself music while traveling the world modeling in campaigns for Ralph Lauren Polo Sport, Diet Coke and Tag Heuer. 

Pereira met Saad while vacationing in St. Barth’s, a small French West Indies territory, that was once a Swedish colony for about 100 years. Bonding over an abiding love of deep house, the duo wound up writing, recording and producing their full-length debut, last year’s The Beginning — and since then, their music has become the official sound of BMW Monaco, playing in every new car sold.

Now, as you may recall, Pereira and Saad began 2020 with the slickly produced yet soulful club banger “Deep Into Your Soul.” Coming hot on the heels of “Deep Into Your Soul,” the duo’s latest single “The Fall” continues the duo’s growing reputation for crafting slickly produced bangers. Featuring wobbling synth arpeggios, skittering beats, crooned male vocals, atmospheric electronics and an enormous hook, “The Fall” manages to simultaneously be brooding yet euphoric in a way that reminds me quite a bit of Octo Octa’s Between Two Selves.

End of Code are working on their highly-anticipated follow-up to The Beginning, which they hope will be released later this year.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Travel the World with Up-and-Coming Ukrainian Indie Rock Act and New JOVM Mainstays Indytronics

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written a bit about the Kiev, Ukraine-based indie rock/post punk band Indytronics. And as you may recall, the band, which is comprised of founding members Danil Bogadenko (guitar, vocals) and Vitaliy Koutsiuk (bass) with Ruslan Dobrov (drums) and Denys Rybchenko (guitar, backing vocals) can trace their origins to when its founding members were traveling across Europe, and while in Stockholm, Sweden, the duo came across a number of street musicians, who were playing music with an interesting and very melodic indie the rock. According to the members of the band, its founding duo were so impressed by Stockholm’s street musicians that decided that they needed to start their own band when they returned home. 

Since the band’s formation in 2012, the band has released their 2013 debut EP Vision and their 2015 full-length debut Scintilla Wave and and as a result, they’ve developed a growing profile both nationally and internationally as they’ve made a number of live appearances on several Ukrainian TV shows and have received regular radio rotation on Ukrainian Radio Roks, Europa Plus, HotMix Radio, WCSF Radio German CTdasradio and others. Along with that, they’ve been written up in the British music magazine Huck and their music has been used for fashion shows aired on the international TV channel IDFashion throughout the US, Ukraine, Italy, Austria and France. 

While “Savannah Only Temple” was slickly produced indie rock that may remind listeners of  Narrow Stairs-era Death Cab for Cutie, The Postal Service’s Give Up and Snow Patrol, thanks in part to a rousingly arena friendly hook, its follow-up “Shark” found the band pushing their sound more towards electronic rock but with some of their most ambitious songwriting they’ve released to date. Their latest single “Alien Sun” finds the band at their most atmospheric while retaining their arena friendly hooks — and although the song will further cement their growing reputation for crafting crowd pleasing Death Cab for Cutie/The Postal Service/Snow Patrol-like indie rock, bolstered by an uncanny self-assuredness and earnestness of purpose. 

As the band wrote to me, they have a dream of playing concerts across