Tag: Montreal QC

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Elephant Stone Share Dreamlike and Meditative “Parallel and Contrary Motion”

Montréal-based JOVM mainstays Elephant Stone — founder Rishi Dihr (vocals, bass and sitar), along with longtime members Miles Dupire (drums), Robbie MacArthur (guitar) and Jason Kent (keys, guitar) — just released their 10th album, ASHA today through Elephants On Parade. Limited edition signed and hand-numbered vinyl are available through Little Cloud Records.

Named after the Elphant Stone frontman’s late mother, Asha translates to “hope” in Sanskirt — and is meditation on grief, hope, and the friction between sorrow and the darkness of our time.ASHA includes the previously released “Everything Evil,” “Fascists Killed Yer Rock ‘N’ Roll,” “I’ve Got A Pill” and the album’s latest single “Parallel and Contrary Motion.” Sitting at the heart of the album, “Parallel and Contrary Motion” is an intimate and lived-in reflection on the strange space between loss and acceptance that sonically seems like a blend of 2112-era Rush (think of “Tears” in particular), Tame Impala-like psych pop, Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd and 70s glam rock. The result is a song that’s dream-like, achingly nostalgic, full of longing — and yet, anchored in a bittersweet acceptance of finality.

Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir explains, “‘Parallel and Contrary Motion’ is the emotional center of this record for me. Musically it’s something I’d been chipping away at for a couple of years. The title actually came from one of my daughter’s piano books. I liked it as a phrase before I knew what the song was about.”

He continues, “Lyrically it started as something for my friend Christian Dorey. He’d always dealt with anxiety and depression, but it became paralyzing for him during COVID. He lived about an hour and a half from me, in Bromont. A few years ago he attempted suicide. I wanted to be there for him but he told me he wasn’t ready to see me. Last year he took his life. I wrote more about him and what happened here. This song was written before I understood what it was actually about.”

John Mark Lapham, director of the accompanying music video, says, “Rishi sent me Elephant Stone’s new album to check out and this track immediately stood out to me. It felt like the 70’s shot through a modern lens and had a chorus that I couldn’t shake. Not long after, he asked if I’d like to make a video for it and it seemed fated. He initially asked about me creating an animated video but I already had some imagery that bubbled up with this song: a man in the process of dying but was in need of a little push to help let go. The concept was definitely a different spin on the lyrics (I think…) but the music and the visuals of this creature were haunting me and so I pulled a team together and we shot the video in the middle of the Texas summer at an old power plant in Abilene. It was a fantastic experience.”
 
 The JOVM mainstays will be embarking on a North American headlining tour in September to support the abum. The tour incudes a September 18, 2026 stop at TV Eye. Tour dates are below. And you can check out more information and grab tickets here.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yoo Doo Right Shares Dreamy, Lysergic “Doldrums, Doldrums, Eviler Than the Devil”

Since their formation back in 2016, Montréal-based experiential rock outfit Yoo Doo Right — currently Justin Cober (guitar, bass, VI, synthesizer, piano, tape recordings and vocals) and John Talbot (drums, percussion) — have over the course of three full-length albums, three EPs, a handful of collaborations and singles and extensive touring across Europe, the UK and North America have firmly established a unique sound where “towering monoliths of roaring riffs crash against swarms of restless rhythms,” Pop Matters once wrote.

The Canadian duo’s fourth album, the Ky Brooks co-produced Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light is slated for a November 6, 2026 release through Mothland. The album’s material ranges from eardrum shatteringly loud forays into post-rock and krautock, highly-tempered, effects-landed pieces seemingly drawing from ambient, noise and drone, and more. Eschewing genre strictures and boundaries, the album sees the duo opting for a symbolic approach to creation, with each of its different pieces free to unfold in a myriad of ways upon each listen.

From its creators’ point of view, Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light chronicles the hardships of artistic resolve, acknowledging the daily grind required to keep the momentum while embracing the shared joy of the creative process. Throughout the album’s runtime, there’s an underlying tribute to the communities that foster art: “Industriestraße 9” pays homage to a defunct Luzerne squat where they used to play. Whereas symbolism seeps through song titles like Tortue”, “Sofort, Si fort,” and “To Be a Lambskin (Or to Be the Whole Flock)”, which offer enigmatic glimpses into creative vision. Co-producer Ky Brooks contributes a spoken word poem to album track “Neighbours Report Their Neighboours.” Timothy Aaron Brynan, who recently joined the duo on tour was invited to play bass on “Doldrums, Doldrums, Eviler Than the Devil,” a song that has quickly become a live set staple. Additionally Jessica Moss (violin) and Francis Leduc-Bélanger (trumpet, flugelhorn) make vital contributions to the album.

The Ky Brooks co-produced album was recorded at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango and Studio Error 403. Seth Manchester mixed the album at Providence’s Machine with Magnets. Amal Lal mixed the album at Oakland’s Macro Sound. The album’s cover art is a photo taken in Ovronanz, Switzerland by Julia Bender.

“There is a lot of joy and laughter in this album. For the first time in a while, we were feeling enriched and energized by what we were creating, the instruments we were using, and what was coming out,” the band says in a lengthy statement. “The record is us looking at our place in the world and deciding we were still committed to making music together. Boldly doing so with as much joy as we can drag out of the dried roots of modern day life. Rather than the anxiety-inducing white knuckle ‘when is it going to break’ energy we have worked with in the past, this record is optimistic but pensive. It holds onto the idea of transcendental musical themes and is deeply rooted in repetition and a clear momentum. A momentum we hope moves people, whether it is in thought or the physical.

“The title—Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light—highlights the main themes and motifs of the record as it stands. Rest and build, and rest and build, and rest and build… What else is there in our stories? Everyday is caring for ourselves and then doing everything in your power to care for those around us. A heroic journey is nothing but helping set camp up every night and making sure everyone is fed. A person’s ‘shepherd’ is defined by themselves, whether it’s music, their friends and families, their companion animals, or the very equipment they use to create! In each of our lives, we have the potential to draw strength and find rest in what is around us, build and rest by the shepherd’s light.

“Half the record came fully-formed, the other half was born of improvisational jamming. Originally made as pieces of music to help his partner sleep, Justin created ‘Industriestraße 9’ and ‘Neighbours Report Their Neighbours’ while isolated in a cabin over the Winter. ‘Doldrums, Doldrums, Eviler Than the Devil,’ ‘Tortue,’ and ‘Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light’ were us just having lots of fun in the studio, being excited by new ideas and sounds, challenging ourselves to dive deeply into new grooves and styles. The rest were either old ideas born anew or fully conceptualized pieces brought to life. While quite exploratory in its sonic landscape, we see the record as one cohesive story. A cinematic exercise that we hope people listen to in full.

We recorded with co-producer Ky Brooks. They are one of our favourite artists and a dear friend so the choice to have them hop on was an easy and exciting one. We booked studio time with no intention of finishing a record. The goal was to lay down some new ideas and get in the mindset of recording. Hotel2Tango is an incredibly warm and creatively conductive place for us. For four days straight, we put in 12-14 hour days and routinely got lost in the haze of creative fervor. Timothy joined us to record “Doldrums […]”. Jessica, Ezra, and Francis’ instruments, as well as Ky’s vocals, were recorded at Error 403. Having finished recording, we of course turned to Seth (mixing) at Machines with Magnets and Amar (mastering) at Macro Sound  to elevate the album.”

Clocking in a little over six minutes, Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light‘s first single “Doldrums, Doldrums Eviler Than the Devil” begins with a five-beat mantra-like guitar intro before subtly morphing into a four-beat motorik rhythm paired with the sort of intricately textured post rock and krautock arrangement the Montréal-based outfit is known for. Vocals delivered with a languid, narcoleptic-like drone dart in and out of the song’s arrangement — but the lyrics are up to the listener’s interpretation. The song manages to evoke a vivid yet hazily lysergic-tinged dream.

“I think I’ll spend my entire life circling the question: ‘What makes a film…a film?’ I also make narrative work, so part of what I’m circling with this film is whether meaning can exist without relying on narrative or literal representation. I think it’s important to explore the edges of what film can be, because that’s how I figure out what the centre of my practice is,” the video’s director Stacy Lee explains. “For me, the shape a film takes begins with intention. Why was this thing made? What are we trying to say? I always start here, and work outward. I don’t want to be boxed in by my own visual language, and blindly apply a visual style to a project. I want the visual language to come from the ideas already inside the work.

“It’s been a pleasure to continue being part of Yoo Doo Right’s world-building. Their music already has such a strong sense of atmosphere. It feels meditative and psychedelic to me, which gives me a door to enter. They’ve also given me the freedom and trust to explore without needing to know exactly where the process will lead. That space has allowed my practice, and each film we make together, to evolve naturally.

“Our previous video together, ‘Eager Glacier,‘ was the beginning of my cameraless exploration. At the time, I was still scared that the audience would lose interest if the work became completely abstract. I felt like I needed to give them something recognizable. Since then, I’ve had the chance to explore and develop my own techniques. In the same way that this album is a response to From the Heights of Our Pastureland, this film became a response to “Eager Glacier”. It comes out of the same world, but a bit further along the path. Brighter, bolder, and perhaps more beautiful. This time around, I felt more courageous.

The entire film is paint on film. There is no narrative, and there are no images that correlate to the song in a literal way. It’s carried by colour, texture, rhythm, and repetition alone. In the same way, the song builds its own meaning through repetition and accumulation. I wanted the film to respond in kind and take on a similar shape. It felt like the only form that honoured the intention of the work.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Elephant Stone Returns with Jangling “I Got A Pill”

Brossard, QC-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rishi Dihr has spent the past two decades blurring the lines between Western pysch pop and Indian classical tradition. What began back in 2006 as a quest for trasncendental sound has evolved into a singlar, self-contained vision. Operating out of his Montréal home studio, Sacred Sounds Dihr has estalbihed himself as studio autuer, producing, engineering and mixing his band Elephant Stone‘s increasingly complex and cineamtic output.

The JOVM mainstays — Dihr (vocals, bass and sitar), along with longtime members Miles Dupire (drums), Robbie MacArthur (guitar) and Jason Kent (keys, guitar) – will be releasing their 10th albun, ASHA on August 28, 2026 through Elephants On Parade. Limited edition signed and hand-numbered vinyl is avaialble for pre-order through Little Cloud Records. Named after the Elphant Stone frontman’s late mother, Asha translates to “hope” in Sanskirt — and is meditation on grief, hope, and the friction between sorrow and the darkness of our time.

While the band’s reputation has long-been built on airtight pop craftsmanship and spiritual exploration, their most recent work psoesses a new, raw intensity forged through Dihr’s lengthy history collaborating with The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beck and hte psych rock supergroup MIEN.

Elephant Stone remains at the forefront of the modern movement, constantly deconstructing the past to find something visceral, haunting, and undeniably human in the present.

ASHA includes the previously released “Everything Evil,” “Fascists Killed Yer Rock ‘N’ Roll,” and its third and latest single “I’ve Got A Pill.” “I’ve Got A Pill” is a jangling and deceptively upbeat tune that asks the listener to cede control; to take that pill to forget their pain; to take that pill to stop thinking so goddamn much and let someone else do the thinking . . . But just underneath the sweet wooing is something unsettling and menacing.

Elephant Stone frontman Rishi Dihr explains, “It’s about demagogues, the populist playbook. Leaders who feed on people’s fear and offer an easy fix. The pill. Take it and your problems go away. Except it doesn’t work like that. It’s control dressed up as relief.”

Directed by Adam Traynor and featuring handcrafted puppets by Diablo Puppets, the accompanying video manages to embody the song’s false promise of escape, the video follows Futzy, Radis, and Mascot in a surreal world that involves a mind-bending trip into Fraggle Rock-styled world that quickly turns into a paranoid nightmare.
 

“The lyrics to ‘I Got A Pill’ woo and warn all at once,” Adam Traynor explains. “I wanted to put the sweetness of that voice into the mouth of a Tony the Tiger-type mascot with a special breakfast gift for kids that would be sure to kick off a trip into a sugary Wonderland, a cardboard Oz, an awe-inducing game-world of artificial colours, a Dark Crystal quest for power, a Soylent Green feeding frenzy.”
 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: James Tonic Returns with Atmospheric and Yearning “Who’s Going Down”

James Tonic is a Montréal-born, New York-based dream pop artist, who over the course of seven albums firmly established a sound built on analog synths, live drums and unflinching lyrics. 2024’s Stuck in LA, an album inspired by the West Coast wound up being a breakthrough album for the Canadian-born artist: the album helped hi establish a fanbase, the old-fashioned way while selling out during the tour. 

Last year’s Safety, the first part of a planned dream pop trilogy was a nine-song effort that thematically touched on emotional survival. The second part of the trilogy, Safety II was released earlier this year, and featured a darker, more cinematic take on dream pop paired with sharper, edgier lyricism. Thematically, Safety II covers being wide open, fighting back quietly and spotting clear bits when everything seems hopelessly jumbled. 

Safety II includes “At The Time In New York,” and its latest single “Who’s Going Down.” “Who’s Going Down” is meditative, bit of dream pop that features Tonic’s yearning, achingly tender delivery against an atmospheric and shimmering soundscape that channels Cigarettes After Sex and Thank Your Lucky Stars and Depression Cherry-era Beach House. To me, the song evokes the last hour of party that you don’t want to have end or the waning hours of an amazing trip, full of the bittersweet recognition that you’ll have to return to normal life.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lisa LeBlanc Shares Rollicking “Whole Lotta Talkin'”

Lisa LeBlanc is an acclaimed Rosaireville, NB-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist (banjo and guitar) and established Acadian icon, thanks to her sound, a unique blend of roots, rock, disco, funk and country. After achieving commercial success with 2012’s self-titled full-length debut, she switched from French to English for 2012’s Highways Heartaches and Time Well Wasted and 2017’s Why You Wanna Leave Runaway Queen, which landed on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist that year.

The Rosaireville-born, Montréal-based artist and her backing band toured relentlessly over a handful of years. But by 2019, she took a break from touring to write and travel, and also began to explore studio work, which led her to produce Édith Butler‘s 25th album, 2021’s Le tour du Grand Bois. This new creative path enabled LeBlanc to broaden her musical horizons while using her talents, creativity and passion in the service of others.

The new production skills she learned led to 2022’s Chiac Disco, a critically applauded effort that simultaneously drew from and paid tribute to Lee Hazlewood, disco and funk — simultaneously. LeBlanc supported the album with over 140 shows across North America, Europe and Japan. The album landed on the Polaris Music Prize shortlist — her second time earning the honor. And the album led to a Juno Award nomination. Since then her catalogue has amassed over 35 million streams across all DSPs.

2024’s Live avec l’Orchestre symphonique de Québec saw LeBlanc collaborating with 63 classical musicians to perform her material.

“Whole Lotta Talkin'” is the acclaimed Canadian artist’s first bit of new material since Chiac Disco — and it marks a return to English lyrics. Sonically, “Whole Lotta Talkin'” is a rollickingly fun, hooky tune featuring a classic, surf rock riff and shimmering 60s-styled organ that sounds a bit like a seamless blend of Dick Dale, Link Wray, The Castaways‘ “Liar Liar” and The B-52‘s while showcasing LeBlanc’s mischievous wit and humor. The song recalls a situation all of us have been in at some point: being cornered by someone who just won’t shut up, and doesn’t get the hint that you’re desperately trying to get away from them.

Directed by Alexandre Pelletier, the accompanying video follows the touring adventures of a dysfunctional rock band featuring LeBlanc and her puppet bandmates — two of which are irremediably thoughtless, lazy, womanizing partiers, who besides playing music aren’t holding their weight on anything else. “I wanted to tell this funny, absurd story with the utmost seriousness, as if we were watching an ultra-dramatic musical biopic,” Pelletier explains. But what starts off on a playful note ends with a double puppet murder and a shared bloody secret.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Elephant Stone Share Bruising “Fascists Killed Yer Rock ‘N’ Roll”

Brossard, QC-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Rishi Dihr has spent the past two decades blurring the lines between Western pysch pop and Indian classical tradition. What began back in 2006 as a quest for trasncendental sound has evolved into a singlar, self-contained vision. Operating out of his Montréal home studio, Sacred Sounds Dihr has estalbihed himself as studio autuer, producing, engineering and mixing his band Elephant Stone‘s increasingly complex and cineamtic output.

The JOVM mainstays — Dihr (vocals, bass and sitar), along with longtime members Miles Dupire (drums), Robbie MacArthur (guitar) and Jason Kent (keys, guitar) – will be releasing their 10th albun, ASHA on August 28, 2026 through Elephants On Parade. Limited edition signed and hand-numbered vinyl is avaialble for pre-order through Little Cloud Records. Named after the Elphant Stone frontman’s late mother, Asha translates to “hope” in Sanskirt — and is meditation on grief, hope, and the friction between sorrow and the darkness of our time.

While the band’s reputation has long-been built on airtight pop craftsmanship and spiritual exploration, their most recent work psoesses a new, raw intensity forged through Dihr’s lengthy history collaborating with The Black Angels, The Brian Jonestown Massacre, Beck and hte psych rock supergroup MIEN.

lephant Stone remains at the forefront of the modern movement, constantly deconstructing the paevst to find something visceral, haunting, and undeniably human in the present.

ASHA includes the previously released “Everything Evil,” and its second and latest single “Fascists Killed Yer Rock ‘N’ Roll.” Arguably, one of the crunchier, heavy metal-like songs of the Canadian JOVM mainstays lengthy catalog with the song anchored around Black Sabbath-like fuzz, motorik groove and bursts of wah wah pedalled guitar and shimmering sitar woven through sseveral tempo shifts.

Lyrically, the song is written in a protest-song-ike rage and addresses the global rise of fascism with both the unflinching authority of history and a cold, clear-eyed reckoning with our tempestous moment that seems to say to lisener “Let’s not beat around the bushes and bullshit ourselves. This moment is desperately urgent.”

“You’d have to be living under a rock to ignore what’s happening,” Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dihr says. “I don’t claim to have the answers; this song is about giving the threat a name. It’s a reminder that we’ve seen this script before… and we’ve overcome it before.” That defiance is embedded in tthe song’s bridge: “All you fascists, you’ve all come and gone / We know yer game, we’ve all heard that song.”

The accompanying vidoe feautres repurposed and edited footage from One Got Fatm a 1863 public domain bicycle safety film, with deeply unsettling imagery of masked children being a disturbing and fitting backdrop for the song’s tehmes of conformity, power, control and historical repetition.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Truck Violence Returns with Bruising, Self-Aware “Your name, it’s walking”

Acclaimed and rising Montréal-based experimental act Truck Violence — founding duo Karysn Henderson (vocals) and Paul Lecours (guitar, banjo, production), along with Chris Clegg (bass, banjo) and Thomas Hart (drums and slide guitar) — can trace their origins back to its founding duo’s childhood: Henderson and Lecours grew up in a small, French Canadian town of 600 people, graduating in a class of nine. By the time they both turned 15, they were running a local studio and radio station. There was no industry support, no infrastructure, no template for what they were trying to do, only the work itself — and the conviction that it was worth doing. 

When the pair turned 17, they relocated to Montréal, where they met Chris Clegg and Thomas Hart, who hail from different corners of the country and began building their band from the ground up. 

The Canadian quartet’s highly anticipated sophomore album, The weathervane is my body is slated for a June 26, 2026 release through San Francisco-based label The Flenser and Montréal-based Mothland. Their sophomore album is reportedly a product of the process of building the band from the ground up. The album’s creative and writing process, the recording, the mixing and visuals were all produced employing a fiercely DIY process. This isn’t done as an aesthetic choice or a marketing angle, it’s because for the band, it’s the only honest option album. 

The album’s cover art was shot on film by the band on Montréal’s Avenue du Parc. A figure perches atop a small Québécois-style house, hand built from reclaimed materials, spine curved, legs pulled in, bare-backed against a skyline that dwarfs everything beneath it. A rural thing dropped into the grit of a big city, small and out of place yet refusing to disappear. The body is naked and defenseless, open to the environment and every stimuli the world can deliver upon it.

Thematically, the album is a continuation and expansion of the angry statement of purpose of their debut, 2024’s Violence. Rooted in noise rock and post-hardcore traditions, the album is uncompromising in its refusal to be anything other than what is: immediate, self-determined and built entirely by the hands that imagined it. 

The weathervane is my body will feature the previously released “New Jesus” and the album’s second and latest single, “Your name, it’s walking.” The album’s new single is a furious ripper that’s captures the brutally hurtful self-talk of a troubled young person maneuvering their relationship with themselves and a brutally cruel world. Much like its immediate predecessor, the new single is an urgent, desperate howl — with some gorgeous, meditative, banjo-driven sections.

“This song is a sort of compilation of thoughts; my relationship with my birth name after having a precarious journey with gender and identity in my early teens, my feelings of inadequacy and alienation growing up with intense ADHD and anxiety from an early age, my desires for anchorage in an uncertain future,” Truck Violence’s Karsyn Henderson explains. “The hook of the song always comes off as extremely cliche to me, maybe I am hitting the nail too precisely, with too blunt a face, but perhaps that is necessary, perhaps it reflects well the thoughts of myself as I was.

Directed by Kirill Sommer, the accompanying video for “Your name, it’s walking” is a surreal fever dream that captures the mundanity and boredom of rural life, while being one-part Samuel Beckett play, one-part psilocybin trip, one-part Ingmar Bergman film.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Vendredi Sur Mer Shares Atmospheric, Hook-Driven “Si t’étais là”

With the release of her first two albums, 2019’s Premiers émois and 2022’s Metámorphose, rising Swiss singer/songwriter and photographer and Vendredi Sur Mer creative mastermind Charline Mignot quickly established a cinematic sound that features elements of synth pop, French chanson and 80s pop with retro-styled beats paired with her ethereal yet sultry delivery. Thematically her work frequently touches upon romance, sensuality and introspection.

Balancing nostalgia with a modern sensibility, the Swiss artist has won over fans globally through the release of songs like “Écoute Chérie,” “La femme à peau bleue” and “Les filles désirs.” Adding to a rapidly growing profile, she often accompanies her music with mesmerizing visuals.

Mignot’s third Vendredi Sur Mer album, Malabar Princess was released earlier this year to critical acclaim. The album, which features “Arrêter le temps,” feat. Sofiane Pamart; album title track “Malabar Princess;” “Hard,” feat. Hanni El Khatib and “Tout rèsonne” can trace its origins to a writing residency in Montréal and marks a return to the softness and nostalgia of her earlier work. Thematically, the album is nostalgic return to the mountain landscapes of her youth — and a deeper search for self.

Sam Tiba and new collaborators Adrien Gallo and Owlle helped to guide and inform the material’s more organic, intimate sound. The end result is an achingly sincere effort that sees the rising Swiss artist revealing herself fully to the world.

Mignot will be embarking on an 11-date North American tour this upcoming March. The tour includes a March 6, 2026 stop at Elsewhere. You can check out all of her tour dates for the rest of the 2025 and early 2026 below.

But in the meantime, y’all, the rising Swiss artist shares her latest single, the standalone track “Si t’étais là.” Anchored around shimmering, atmospheric synths, propulsive four-on-the-floor, a supple bass line and subtle bursts of twangy guitar, the cinematic and hook-driven production is simultaneously nostalgic yet contemporary, while being a dreamy bed for Mignot’s breathy, mesmerizing cooing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vanille Shares Slow-Burning and Swooning “Un chant d’amour”

Rachel Leblanc is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter and creative mastermind behind the critically applauded recording project Vanille, which has seen the French-Canadian artist craft a sound that meshes elements of 60s folk and chanson in a way that brings the listener into a dreamlike world of dense, verdant forests and swooning heartbreak.

Her recently released, Christophe Charest-Latif-produced third album Un chant d’amour sees the acclaimed French-Canadian artist marking the beginning of new creative chapter, that sees Leblanc’s and a talented cast of musicians, including Jules Encore and Corail‘s Julien Comptour; Velours Velours‘ and Corail’s Philippe Noël; Carla Chanelle‘s and Roselle’s Christophe Rosset-Balcer; Allô Fantôme‘s Samuel Gendron; Arielle Soucy; and Velours Velours’ Raphaël Pépin-Tanguay crafting a sound that draws from retro soul and the mid 1960s-early 1970s sunshine pop movement. Leblanc’s melodies and lyrics are rooted in sentimental overtones. And as a result, the album’s material is meant to unfold like a scented letter received from a mysterious valentine.

Un chant d’amour‘s latest single, album title track “Un chant d’amour” is a slow-burning ballad anchored around Leblanc’s achingly melancholy delivery, atmospheric Rhodes and a syrupy slow-dance inspired backbeat. And while seemingly channelling 70s AM radio rock, “Un chant d’amour” is the sort of song you’d play when you want to slow-dance at the midnight ball with your long-held crush or your loved one.

Directed by Irina Tempea and Elizabeth Landry the accompanying video for “Un chant d’amour” is an swooningly sentimental visual featuring a mixture of dusty found footage and the rising French-Canadian artist in a wedding gown to create a wedding that never really took place.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Wombo Shares Nervous “S.T. Tilted”

Since their formation back in 2016, Louisville-based trio Wombo — Sydney Chadwick (vocals, bass), Cameron Lowe (guitar) and Joel Taylor (drums) — have carved out a unique lane for themselves, contorting post-punk structures into uncanny shapes. And with their Danger in Fives, which is slated for an August 8, 2025 release through Fire Talk, reportedly sees the band not only enhancing their formula, but routinely perfecting them.

To ace their techniques, the Louisville-based trio had to tear them apart first. Long-held , standardized practices of writing and workshopping material in Joel Taylor’s post-war basement rehearsal space were paused while the band explored different writing process. And that experimentation results in the band showcasing some subtle shifts and additions to their sonic palette, including digital texture and the incorporation of drum machine on a couple of tracks. The band’s desire to change their model was in part to “get away from a results mindset, where it’s about producing things for a certain expectation instead of doing it all for the joy of exploring,” the band’s Cameron Lowe says. Adds the band’s Chadwick, “I don’t want to be in a band that’s confined to one form of writing. Where’s the fun and the creativity and the exploration in that? You have to push yourself and try something new.”

Danger in Fives final advance single, “S.T. Titled,” sees the band at their distilled, purest essence. Anchored around Lowe’s angular, off-kilter bursts of scratchy guitar, Taylor’s skeletal yet propulsive drumming and Chadwick’s supple bass lines, the song’s arrangement serves as a nervous and uneasy bed for Chadwick’s dreamily mesmerizing delivery. By contrasting the deeply nervous and uneasy with the seemingly calm, the song somehow manages to evoke our current nightmarish moment in which we’re all slowly losing our minds — and trying not to show it. But, as always cracks will show . . .

“It’s the first song we wrote after the Slab EP that made it on Danger in Fives,” the band’s Lowe says of the single. “We weren’t sure it was going to work, but all the contrasting parts ended up being cool. It’s rare for a Wombo song to be written on guitar first like this one, with some of the bass and drum parts jammed out in the basement afterwards. The wacky guitar part came last.”

Directed by the band’s Cameron Lowe, the accompanying video for “S.T. Titled,” continues a run of entirely self-produced videos. The video sees the band in a hand-made waiting room set, constructed by Lowe and Chadwick in Chadwick’s garage. The band is seen anxiously waiting in the waiting room — with the expected anxiousness and unease that waiting rooms entail.

The Louisville-based trio will be marking on a tour to support the new album. The tour includes a September 12, 2025 stop at Baby’s All Right and a September 14, 2025 stop at one of my favorite rooms in Montréal, L’Escogriffe. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.