Tag: Montreal QC

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s Bodywash Shares Woozy and Uneasy “Massif Central”

Montréal-based shoegazers Bodywash — Chris Steward and Rosie Long Dector — can trace their origins back to when the pair met while attending McGill University. But when they met, the pair didn’t immediately share a common musical language: Steward grew up in London listening to celestial dream pop while Dector grew up in Toronto listening to folk and Canadiana. The music they began writing together saw the pair bridging their influences. And with the release of 2016’s self-titled EP and 2019’s full-length debut, Comforter, the Montréal-based duo firmly established their sound — slow-burning and dreamy material centered around ethereal vocals, intricate guitar lines and pulsating synths. 

The Canadian shoegazers’ sophomore album I Held the Shape While I Could is slated for an April 14, 2023 release through Light Organ Records. . When touring to support Comforter was cut short by the pandemic, the duo used the unexpected hiatus to write new material, which was darker, more experimental and more invigorating than its predecessor, and managed to reflect on Steward’s and Long Dector’s separate and shared experiences of losing a sense of place, the way something once solid can slip between your fingers, and their attempts to build something new from the psychological and emotional fallout.

Late last year, I wrote about the sophomore album’s expansive first single, “Kind of Light.” Beginning with a slow-burning and elegiac intro featuring glistening organ and a skittering yet propulsive kick pattern that slow builds up and breaks into a high energy boom bap-like breakbeat paired with scorching guitar squealing and wobbling bass synths. Long Decter’s ethereal and achingly plaintive vocals expressing profound, heart-wrenching despair — and hope. The song suggests that while loss is natural and sadly expected there can be hope; that there are only a handful of things in our lives that are truly permanent. And that ultimately for the most part, it can get better.

“I wrote ‘Kind of Light’ in bed,” Long Decter says. ““It was the fall of 2018 and Chris and I were both going through experiences of learning not to trust what feels like home. He sent me a plugin for a new organ sound, suggesting it might provide inspiration. I sent him back chords, a kick pattern, and some vocals about trying to pull your legs back; trying to take your energy out of the wreckage and put it into yourself. The process of deciding what’s worth keeping, what can be reworked and what gets tossed in the fire. A process that is devastating and also weirdly invigorating, because you can see new possibilities opening up in front of you. And you can start to look for light somewhere else.”

I Held the Shape While I Could‘s second single, the woozy “Massif Central” features glistening synth bursts, shimmering and angular post punk-meets-shoegaeze-like textures paired with a relentless motorik groove, stormy guitar feedback and Steward’s ethereal whispers recounting an experience of Kafka-esque, bureaucratic purgatory: a typo in a government letter caused Steward to lose his legal work status in Canada. The song manages to evoke the sensation of having your life flipped upside down, then being hopelessly stuck and having no say or agency in your situation.

“After eight years living in Canada, in the Spring of 2021, a government clerical error caused me to lose my legal status here,” Steward explains. “As a UK national, I lost my right to work. My savings trickled away during months where I could do little but pace the corners of my apartment. I was prepared to pack my bags and leave as the life I’d hoped to construct for myself seemed to vanish into a bureaucratic abyss.”
 
“‘Massif’ is the sound of wailing into a cliff and not knowing if you’ll hear an echo,” continued Steward. “The spoken word is inspired by a squirrel that was trapped in the wall behind my bed, clawing its way to salvation. With the help of friends, family, music, and a few immigration lawyers (and the rest of my savings), I’m now a permanent resident here. But this song remains as testament to my experience with an exploitative institution.”

Directed by Jordan Allen, the accompanying video for “Massif Central” is a dizzying collage of live footage, directed by Brandon Kaufman, distorted VHS-like visuals and eerie. retro-futuristic -inspired graphics. “With ‘Massif Central,’ we wanted to encapsulate the panic and urgency that Chris experienced, and have the abstracts portray the anxiety and hopelessness one can feel at the hands of bureaucracy,” Allen explains. “I chose graphics that heavily leaned into feelings of being lost in a maze, with towering structures and horizon lines pulling you into them. The idea was that the camera would be both a CCTV view of the band, but also glitching to reveal the more emotionally internal visual aspects.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: SUUNS Share Sludgy and Shoegazy “Wave”

Montréal-based experimental rock outfit SUUNS— founding members Ben Shemie (vocals, guitar) and Joe Yarmush (guitar, bass) with Liam O’Neill (drums) — can trace their origins back to 2007: Shemie and Yarmush got together to make some beats, and it quickly evolved to a few songs. The duo was joined by O’Neill and Max Henry (keys) to complete the band’s first lineup. The band signed to Secretly Canadian in 2010. That year, Henry left the band as a full-time official member to pursue a scholarly career — although he continues to record with the band.

In 2020, the trio signed to Joyful Noise Recordings, who released that year’s Fiction EP and 2021’s The Witness.

Engineered by Adrian Popovich and recorded at Mountain City Recording Studio last July, the band’s latest single “Wave” evolved over an 18 month period of touring to support The Witness. “While touring The Witness, between plane rides, car rides, van rides, and text threads, we started working on new music,” SUUNS’ Ben Shemie explains. “New sounds and a new approach seemed to take shape while testing new material. What started to emerge were really slow songs, some strange experimentations, and some unclassifiable jams. Among these tunes, ‘Wave’ emerged.”

The slow-burning dirge-like “Wave” is rooted in relentless repetition, swirling and sludgy guitar textures, droning feedback and distortion, blown-out boom bap paired with Shemie’s plaintive delivery buried a smidge under the syrupy mix. Sonically “Wave” makes a nod at fellow Montrealers The Besnard Lakes before ending with a noisy, slow-burning fade out.

The accompanying video by Ilyse Krivel consists of time lapse footage of the sun setting over a body of water, superimposed by footage of rippling waves at the shore.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montréal’s Super Plage Shares Breezy Yet Melancholy “NYE”

Jules Henry is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter and electronic music producer, best known as Super Plage. As Super Plage, Henry specializes in a seductive sound with hints of nu-disco. Over the past couple of years, the Canadian artist has rather prolific. Over the past couple of years, Henry has released:

Henry’s fourth Super Plage album Midnight Magic is slated for a March release. The album’s fourth and latest single, “NYE” is a breezy yet melancholy bit of pop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering beats paired with Henry’s achingly plaintive vocal and an enormous hook. Although “NYE” sonically nods at Daft Punk, Phoenix, and Air, the song evokes the hope and despair of another year.

Directed by Virginie Bedard, the accompanying video for “NYE” follows a young woman at a party — presumably a costumed New Year’s Eve bash. While everyone else is enjoying themselves, we see this young woman seem awkward, and fearful of what may happen next. For her the New Year, may not be as hopeful occasion as it is was for others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Naomi Teams up with Mike Clay on a New Version of Swaggering “Okay Alright”

Naomi is a rising Montréal-based multi-disciplinary artist, who after studying theater, first made a name for herself when she began to land roles on both the small and big screen by the time she turned 14. She then went on to study dance at École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. 

As a dancer, Naomi has appeared in and/or choreographed music videos for Rihanna, Marie-Mai, Cœur de Pirate and others, as well as for local dance performances. While she was establishing herself as an actor and dancer, the Montreal-based artist quietly developed a passion for singing — without fully giving herself permission to explore it fully. Cœur de Pirate, a.k.a. Beátrice Martin saw potential and took Naomi under her wing.

Encouraged by Martin’s mentorship, the rising Canadian artist began to realize that she was never far off from making her own music. All she needed was a bit of a push.

She signed with Martin’s Bravo Musique, the label home of JOVM mainstay Thaïs, Cœur de Pirate, Chocolat and lengthy list of local Francophone acts, and began writing her own original material. Since then, the rising Montréal-based artist has taken a bold leap into a career as a singer/songwriter and pop artist. Her first two singles “Tout à nous” and “Zéro stress” received airplay on WKND, Rouge FM, Arsenal, POP, CVKMand several other regional radio stations across Quebec.

Naomi went on to release three more singles, which I managed to write about on this site:

  • The club friendly, Rowan Mercille and Naomi co-written “Semblant,” which I wrote about earlier this year. Centered around glistening synth arpeggios, skittering trap-meets-Carribbean beats paired with her sultry delivery and an infectious hook, “Semblant” is a remarkably self-assured summertime banger, that also reveals a bonafide superstar in the making. 

  • “Pas le temps de jouer,” a slickly produced and self-assured banger centered around shuffling reggaeton-meets-trap beats, glistening synth bursts paired with the rising Canadian artist’s sultry delivery and her seemingly unerring knack for crafting a big, razor sharp hook. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Pas le temps de jouer” is an accessible, summertime bop that will help launch a bonafide superstar into the stratosphere. 

  • “Okay Alright,” a sultry bop that continued a remarkable run of slickly produced, genre-defying, accessible pop bangers. But with an English language hook, the song seems to show an artist reading for an audience outside of the Francophone world –but while retaining the elements of her sound and approach that have won her fans at home and abroad.

The Canadian JOVM mainstay starts off the year with a new version of “Okay Alright” that features a guest spot from Mike Clay, the frontman of Clay and Friends. Retaining the slick production and fun air of the original, the new version adds a bit more swagger and fun to the proceedings, and a reminder that Naomi is a star in the making.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Reno McCarthy Shares Wintry “Picture in Picture”

With the release of his full-length debut, 2019’s Counterglow, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, producer, and JOVM mainstay, Reno McCarthy quickly received attention for his remarkably self-assured songwriting.

Following the death of his father in 2020, McCarthy wrote Angels Watching Us Dance EP, an effort which saw the Canadian artist crafting stopped down, strikingly sensitive material informed by loss and heartbreak.

McCarthy’s sophomore album, 2021’s Run Up River featured three singles I wrote about on this site:

  • The introspective yet upbeat “Sundown,”

  • The slickly produced, St. Lucia-like ode to hesitation and indecisiveness, “For A Moment.”

  • “Nothing Less, Nothing More” is a slow-burning song that manages to evoke the uneasy swoon of a new relationship with both sides entering uncharted waters with themselves and each other. 

The Montréal-based JOVM mainstay began the year with the recently released Picture in Picture EP, which features title track “Picture in Picture.” Featuring strummed acoustic guitar, gently padded yet skittering drum beats, a sinuous bass line paired with fluttering and atmospheric synths paired with McCarthy’s plaintive crooning and his unerring knack for big, razor sharp hooks, “Picture in Picture” sees the Canadian artist balancing folk intimacy with pop bombast. Thematically, the song touches upon the existential threat of environment damage and the alienation of modern life, while evoking cold Montréal nights.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s Atsuko Chiba Shares Brooding and Hypnotic “Shook (I’m Often)”

With the release of a couple of EPs and two albums, Montréal-based psych outfit Atusko Chiba — Karim Lakhdar (guitar, vocals, synthesizer), Kevin McDonald (guitar, synthesizer), David Palumbo (bass guitar, vocals), Anthony Piazza (drums) and Erik Schafhauser (guitar, synthesizer) — have developed a reputation for crafting a cohesive and hypnotic blend of post-rock, prog rock and krautrock paired with offbeat, subversive songwriting. 

For their live shows, the Canadian psych outfit pair their unique brand of experimental rock with video and light installations trigged in real time by the band, creating an immersive multimedia, multi-sensorial environment. Over the past few years, the band has toured across Canada, the States and Europe, sharing stages with  . . . And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Big Business, Duchess Says, King Buffalo, and others. 

The band’s highly-anticipated third album, Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing officially dropped today. Recorded at Room 11, the band’s studio, alongside their sixth member, engineer Matthew Cerantola, the album stems from months of experimentation, as well as conceptual dichotomies informed by some rather strange times, and sees the band crafting an album’s worth of genre-defying, drone driven material that may draw comparisons to the likes of The Mars Volta, Beak>and Spirit of the Beehive among others. 

“As opposed to our last album, which was about introspection, spacetime and the personal journey, the themes explored on this new album are related to our environment and our reaction to it,” the members of Atsuko Chiba explain. “Though not meant to be strictly political, our references stem from highly politicized movements and ideas. Division and group ideology are heavily explored. A prime example is the weaponization of vocabulary used to distract, displace and alienate us, forcing us to pick sides on every front. Our lyrics also strongly denote our innate love for all living things, encompassing a hopeful, if somewhat violent, plea for change.

We were also influenced by musical genres that tend to be more repetitive such as electronic or drone music. We discussed topics such as drones, ragas, hypnotic rhythms, minimalism, spatial awareness, musicality through overall patience, trying a less-is-more approach, etcetera. This led to us five playing as an ensemble rather than as musicians with defined roles; we were all responsible for pushing forward the main idea.”

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I’ve written about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • The expansive, slow-burning A Storm in Heaven-meets-Dark Side of the Moon-like “Seeds.” Clocking in at 7:45, the track is centered around lush, glistening synths, swirling guitar riffs, tweeter and woofer rattling boom bap-like drumming paired with heavily distorted vocal harmonies. The single also features a gorgeous contribution from Montreal-based string quartet Quatuor Esca, who perform an arrangement by Gabriel Desjardins. While possessing a sprawling, widescreen atmosphere, “Seeds” evokes a creeping sense of impending uncertainty and doom but with the tacit understanding that perhaps not all is lost — at least not yet. 

  • “Link,” a track rooted in a chugging and aggressive rhythm section, scorching and blaring alarm-like synths, buzzing poly harmonic guitar lines paired with booming vocals. While sounding a bit like it could have been recorded during the Trace sessions, “Link” is an urgent, mosh pit friendly ripper — with a widescreen, cinematic quality. “’Link’ is about judgement; how we often tend to judge and belittle others to prop up our own self worth,” the members of Atsuko Chiba explain. “It’s about the lengths we go through to destroy others, while not taking the time to look inside.“

Water, It Feels Like It’s Growing‘s third and latest single “Shook (I’m Often)” may arguably be the most raga-like of the album’s released singles: Featuring layers of droning guitars, a relentless motorik groove paired with Lakdar’s plaintive crooning, the album’s latest single is a sprawling soundscape that’s simultaneously brooding and trippy. But underneath the trippy vibes is a song that evokes an uneasy stasis.

The accompanying video features fittingly hallucinogenic imagery animated by the band’s Anthony Piazza.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vanille Shares Shimmering and Ethereal “M’as tu vu passer?”

Rising Montréal-based singer/songwriter Rachel Leblanc, best known to the outside world as Vanille, specializes in a sound that exists somewhere between ’60s folk and French chanson and brings the listener into a dreamlike world of dense forests and swooning heartbreak.

Leblanc’s sophomore Vanille album, the Alex Martel and Leblanc co-produced La clairière is slated for a February 3, 2023 release through Bonbonbon Records in Canada and Boogie Drugstore in Europe. Recorded at Wild Studio and Le Pantoum, La Clairére sees Leblanc retaining elements of the dream pop sound and approach that won her attention — but while leaning heavily into 60s English baroque folk.

Last summer, I wrote about “À bientôt,” a swooning and expansive bit of psych folk-meets-psych rock featuring a lush arrangement of strummed reverb-drenched guitars, gently padded drumming paired with Leblanc’s achingly tender falsetto. And at its core, is tale as old as time itself: a heartbroken narrator, in the aftermath of the devastation of a newly-ended relationship i left with their memories — and the bitter taste of their heartbreak.

La clairère‘s latest single “M’as tu vu passer?” continues a run of gorgeous, baroque folk-inspired material featuring strummed guitar, atmospheric synths, gently padded drumming and percussion paired with Leblanc’s plaintive and ethereal cooing. “M’as tu va passer?” is simultaneously a song about heartbreak and depression, and of dark and cold Montréal winters without anywhere to really go or anything to really do.

Directed by Rachel Leblanc and Irina Tempea, the accompanying visual for “M’as tu va passer?” is shot on Super 8 film to give it all a hazily nostalgic, old-timey air. The video references winter in several different instances: Leblanc laying down on a furry blanket with fake snow falling on her, Leblanc holding a snow globe and edited footage of a couple fighter skating.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: La Bronze Shares Sultry and Atmospheric “Viens”

Nadia Essadiqi is a Montreal-based, Moroccan-Canadian singer/songwriter, musician and actor. An as actor Essadiqi has appeared in the French language, Canadian series Trauma, season 3 of ICI Radio-Canada Télé’s Unité 9, the TOU.TV webs series Quart de vie, the short film Forêt Noire and the sci-fi project, Projet-M,

Essadiqi is best known as the acclaimed pop artist La Bronze. 2014’s self-titled, full-length debut received an Emerging Artist of the Year Award nomination at the 2015 Canadian Music Week Awards. Although she may be best known for singing lyrics in French, in 2016, he released a Maghrebi Arabic rendition of Stromae’s hit “Formidable,” which garnered quite of buzz across Canada and elsewhere. She followed that up in 2017 with the release of her sophomore album, Les corps infinis.

The Montreal-based artist’s third album Vis-moi was released by Montreal-based label Audiogram last March. The album’s latest single “Viens” is a slow-burning and atmospheric pop ballad centered around skittering beats and glistening synth stabs paired with Essadiqi’s ethereal cooing, a soaring choral-driven hook and a woozy bridge. The song thematically focuses on something many of us have experienced at some point — the attraction towards someone or something that isn’t necessarily right for us. And as a result, the song evokes an uneasy and irresistible push and pull, full of carnal longing.

Directed by Eli Jean Tahchi, the accompanying video for “Viens” was shot during a recent trip to the small town of Salé, Morocco. The video begins with the Moroccan-Canadian artist laying down near an open window, presumably attempting to stay cool on a blistering hot morning. We later see the Montreal-based artist in a white gown, running through the town and towards a cemetery. Eventually we see La Bronze at a cliff with the waves crashing below, followed by seeing her dance at the seashore with the sun setting. While surreal, the video also manages to capture the push, pull and collision within the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Frais Dispo (formerly Foreign Diplomats) Share Gorgeous and Melancholy “Juillet”

Featuring the members of Montreal-based indie rock outfit Foreign Diplomats — Élie Raymond (guitar, vocals), Antoine Lévesque-Roy (bass), Thomas Bruneau Faubert (trombone, synths), Charles Primeau (guitar) and Antoine Gallois (drums) — Frais Dispo is simultaneously a sort of side project for the members of Foreign Diplomats and a new direction for the band. The project’s self-titled marks the members first album with lyrics written and sung entirely in French.

Deriving, its title from the French name for the month of July, “Juillet,” the first single off the new project’s first album is a melancholy yet accessible bit of pop rooted in the sort of thoughtful and deliberate craftsmanship that gives the song a sweetly anachronistic air. Centered around a gorgeous arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar, jangling and reverb-soaked electric guitar, atmospheric synths, a supple bass line, propulsive rhythm section paired with big razor sharp hooks and Raymond’s achingly plaintive and wistful vocals, “Juillet” manages to subtly recall Fleetwood Mac and others. The band explains that the song is a reflection on the languorousness of every day life and the passing of time in a small town. Everything is the same, including the simultaneous longing for the past — and for something different.

Directed by Léonard Giovenazzo, the accompanying video for “Juillet” begins around the fall as we see two buddies stealing apples from an apple orchard with their dog. We quickly fast-forward to a very Canadian winter with our two friends hitching a ride on the back of a pickup truck. Throughout the video, we see gorgeously shot scenes of rural, Canadian life, including man riding his horse and taking it back to the stable, another man ice fishing and so on, before we see the band in Western-styled garb performing on a cold night in a barn. The seasons pass and people do what they do to get by — and it’s all pretty much the same.

Photography by William Ruben Helms

Photography: Montreal Day 3 11/17/22: Basilique Notre Dame Exterior

Photography of Basilique Notre Dame’s exterior.

News/Announcements by William Ruben Helms

Just about 13 years ago, I started what has been for me, my life’s work — this site. And honestly, when I started this site, I couldn’t have imagined three-quarters of the things I’ve done and experienced over JOVM’s history to ever happen. 

  • I’ve covered roughly 1,100-1,200 shows in NYC, with a handful of shows in Chicago, Baltimore and Philadelphia. 
  • I’ve covered about a dozen or more festivals, including traveling to Montreal for M for Montreal in 2019 and again earlier this month.
  • I’ve been a panelist at Mondo.NYC Festival and at New Colossus Festival, speaking about PR, promotion and press for indie artists, giving my perspective as a indie blogger. 
  • A few years ago, I made a cameo in a JOVM mainstay’s music video. It’s a very noticeable spot towards the end of the video. It was a fun experience, but so far no one has called me about acting or dancing gigs. Maybe I need to stick to the writing and photography? 
  • I couldn’t have imagined photographing George Clinton, Patti LaBelle, Snoop Dogg, Blondie, Nile Rodgers, Roky Erickson, Philip Bailey, Blind Boys of Alabama and so many others, as well as this site’s countless mainstays.
  • I wouldn’t have met the countless colleagues and musicians, who have become supporters and friends.  

Now you’ll remember that during the very worst of the pandemic, things seemed — understandably — bleak. And although we’ve slowly managed to claw our way back to even greater degree of normalcy, being a working and touring musician has remained extremely bleak. Financially touring has always been a financial risk but rising inflation and COVID-19 has made touring much more daunting and complicated. 

We’re all trying to figure out how to maneuver in a new, confusing and uncertain landscape that may well be with us for an indefinite period of time. But with these past 12+ years under my belt, I have no intentions of going anywhere. 

I strongly believe that I’ve managed to carve out a unique spot in the blogosphere, a place that I feel is desperately necessary because both the music and media worlds are often so incredibly homogenous. Someone out there has to do something different. And representation in every aspect matters. So JOVM and my work with it has to continue. 

As I do every month, I want to thank the following folks and organizations. Without them this past few years — and especially this year — wouldn’t have been remotely possible: 

Sash

Alice Northover

Bella Fox

Jenny MacRostie

Janene Otten 

All of those folks have been generous Patreon patrons. Of course, feel free to check out the Patreon page: https://www.patreon.com/TheJoyofViolentMovement. And if you’re able to support, your support will be greatly appreciated and continuously shouted out. Any amount really helps. 

I have to thank the folks at Creatives Rebuild New York. I’m relieved, proud and humbled to be included in their Guaranteed Income for Artists program. The money I’ll receive over the next 13 months or so will be put to good use — keeping this little dream of mine going. I don’t think there’s enough words to thank them — or to show how grateful I am. (I’ll keep trying, of course!) 

There are other ways you can support. 

You can also support by checking the JOVM shop: https://www.joyofviolentmovement.com/shop 

You can also support my following me on the following platforms:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/william_ruben_helms 

Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/yankee32879 and https://www.twitter.com/joyofviolent 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheJoyofViolentMovement

And you can hire me for headshots, portraits and events. Seriously, I’m available for that, too. You can click here: https://www.photobooker.com/photographer/ny/new-york/william-h?duration=1?duration=1# or you can contact me directly.