Tag: muisc

New Video: A Place to Bury Strangers Share Mournful “Song for Girl from Macedonia”

New York-based JOVM mainstays  A Place to Bury Strangers — currently Oliver Ackermann (vocals, guitar), John Fedowitz (bass) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) — will be releasing a rarities album, Rare and Deadly through Dedstrange on April 3, 2026. 

Following 2024’s SynthesizerRare and Deadly sees the band cracking open a decade-long vault of raw nerve and sonic chaos. Spanning 2015-2025, this collection of demos, B-sides, abandoned experiments and forgotten fragments reveals the band at their most unfiltered, frequently caught between breakthrough ideas and beautiful mistakes. 

Pulled from Oliver Ackermann’s personal archive of late-night recordings, blown-out tapes and half-finished sessions, the collection’s tracks pulse with the unruly energy that ATPBS has long been known for, but more dangerous with more jagged edges — on purpose. 

Countless bands have opened up their vaults to fans and others, but Rare and Deadly is truly unprecedented: Every format is different — and as a result, tells a different story. The CD, cassette, vinyl and digital editions each feature their own unique track listing. No single version features the “complete” album. Instead, each format is its own window into Ackermann’s archive, revealing alternate paths, missing links and parallel “what if” versions of the band’s inner life. It’s deliberately unstable with the album shifting depending on how you choose to hear it, mirroring the chaos of its creation. 

Across the collection’s tracks, you can hear the evolution of Ackermann’s restlessly creative mind. Some pieces feel like prototypes for future chaos, seeds that later bloomed on studio albums. Others are dead ends — ideas too volatile, too strange or too personal to ever fit the frame of a proper release. The tracks feature riffs mutated by malfunctioning pedals, songs born from gear pushed past its limits, or delicate melodies overwhelmed by towering walls of feedback. 

Rare and Deadly will include the previously released, “Everyone’s The Same,” “Acid Rain” “Where Are We Now” and the album’s fourth and latest single “Song for Girl From Macedonia.” A brooding motorik pulse and swirling and atmospheric feedback serve as a lush yet mournful bed for Ackermann’s equally mournful delivery expressing a bitter sense of “what if.”

“We played a show in Macedonia anded this girl, who deeply connected with the music. Her brother helped us load gear, pure kindness, no ego. She was killed by a drunk diver, crossing the road,” Ackermann explains. “This song is for her. A small attempt at honoring someone, who deserved more time.”

The accompanying video features some mind-bending animation created by the band’s original projectionist Spencer Bewley.

New Video: Rising French Canadian Artist Lou-Adriane Cassidy Releases a Coquettish Visual for “J’espère encore que quelque part l’attente s’arrête”

With the 2017 release of her debut single “Ça va ç va,” the young, French Canadian singer/songwriter Lou-Adriane Cassidy exploded into Quebec’s scene — and the Francophone music world. Cassidy’s full-length debut, 2019’s C’est la fin du monde à tous les jours was a critical and commercial success, earning a Lucien for Pop Album of the Year at that year’s Alternative Independent Music Gala of Quebec (GAMIQ) and nomination at that year’s Québec Association for the Recording, Concert and Video Industries (ADISQ) for a Contemporary Adult Award and Revelation of the Year.

Last year, C’est la fin du monde à tous les jours also earned the prestigious Coup de cœur Award from the Charles-Cros Academy. Building upon a growing profile, Cassidy’s highly-anticipated sophomore album is slated for a Fall 2021 release. The album’s first single, the Alexandre Martel co-written “J’espère encore que quelque part l’attente s’arrête” reveals a marked change in sonic direction for the rising French Canadian artist: whereas her previously released material was more along the lines of chanson, “J’espère encore que quelque part l’attente s’arrête” is a 90s grunge pop-inspired song centered around buzzing power chords, twinkling keys, a rousingly anthemic hook and Cassidy’s expressive, pop star belter-like vocals. Reportedly inspired by the likes of Mitski, the new single finds Cassidy at her most earnest and uninhibited.

Directed by Gabriel Lapointe, the recently released video for “J’espère encore que quelque part l’attente s’arrête” follows Cassidy as she struts, dances, claps and sings along to her song during a nocturnal walk through her hometown. The video manages to capture the rising artist’s coquettishness and youthful insouciance in a fashion that’s frankly irresistible.

New Video: Rising Hawaii-born Los Angeles-based Artist Lionel Boy Releases a Lysergic Visual for “Lately”

With the release of  critically applauded singles “Summer Fun” and “Lost” earlier this year, the rapidly rising Hawaii-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter Lionel Boy quickly received attention for crafting a unique sound that mixes spacey synths and breakbeats with bedroom-produced pop.

Building upon a growing profile, Boy’s highly anticipated debut EP Who Is Dovey? was released last month through Innovative Leisure Records. The EP’s third and latest single “Lately” is a slow-burning and breezy, yacht rock-like track featuring twinkling synths, soulful horns, blown out backbeats, shimmering guitar and Boy’s plaintive vocals. But despite its nostalgia-inducing vibes, there’s something much murkier under its placid surface.

“Last year (2019), we had a week of rain in Long Beach. It was then that I wrote ‘Lately,’” Boy says in press notes. “I just begun learning how to incorporate samples into my songwriting, and ‘Lately’ was the first project I was able to complete doing so. There was gloom, smoke and a feeling of monotony in the air— I think that comes through in the music. I can’t really put my finger on it, but I was feelin some type of way.”

The recently released video features some cinematically shot and trippy footage shot while the rising Hawaii-born, Los Angeles-based artist were on a road trip to visit friends, and as result, it evokes the song’s wistful nostalgia — with a sense of doom just underneath it all. 

“Two summers ago, Casey (Lui Liu) and I drove up the Oregon coast to visit some friends in Seattle,” the Hawaii-born, Los Angeles-based artist explains in press notes. “We documented our drive with the intention of making a music video for a completely different project but the clips didn’t end up working. Nearly a year later, when I had just finished demoing ‘Lately’ from home, Casey decided to mess around with the old footage to the song. She threw up a 20-second clip on Instagram for fun that we pretty much forgot about until the single‘s release this past June. With not much else to do on lock down, we decided to play around one more time. We had all of these random clips of Casey running or kicking sand and I guess I spent 5 minutes filming a flying kite. When we found a way to fit them into the video, it was a really accomplished feeling. We were such different people on that trip and yet, I guess not much has changed. What we ended up with was a visual representation of the moments that make up a great trip.”

New Video: Bea Kadri and Issac B Releases a Meditative and Wistful Visual for “Be Alright”

Bea Kadri is an emerging Beirut-born, London-based singer/songwriter. Much like countless young people across the world, Kadri had her Walkman and iPod practically glued to her — and she watched endless hours of MTV and YouTube to get her fix of pop, hip-hop and R&B. As a painfully shy teenager, who was afraid to express her true self and her true feelings, the Beirut-born, London-based singer/songwriter found understanding and solace through the music she was listening to at the time. And much like teens all across the world, she’d stay in her room, daydream and imitate her favorite artists in front of her mirror and jot down thoughts and lyrics in her journal.

In 2018, Kadri relocated to London to pursue a Master’s Degree in Music Business Management from the University of Westminster, with the hopes of being close to her lifelong passion and maybe landing a job somewhere within the music industry. She gradually decided to pursue a career as an artist as her confidence in her talents grew — but she can trace the origins of her career as an artist to when she put together a list of songs to show her mentor, who was writing songs for Universal Music UK. Kadri landed an opportunity to write songs and sync placements. And adding to a big year for her, she performed in the backing choirs for Justin Timberlake and Chris Stapleton during both artists’ BRIT Awards performances that year.

As a solo artist, Kadri’s work focuses on self-discovery, empowerment and matters of the heart — with a sultry yet chill air. Interestingly, the Beirut-born, London-based singer/songwriter’s latest single “Be Alright,” which features a guest spot from Issac B is a slow-burning and sultry track centered around a minimalist production featuring skittering beats and atmospheric synths — and while helping to establish Kadri’s sultry yet laid back sound, the track finds Kadri and Issac B reminiscing on simpler days, old loves an slower paces with an achingly wistful air that seems to say “if I had known then, what I know now . . .” 

“We wrote and recorded ‘Be Alright’ back in August 2019, before the madness of the pandemic, we were just reminiscing on simpler days and pace of our past but the message behind the song resonates now more than ever,” Kadri says in press notes. “In the chorus we go ‘roll in peace yeah call it pair of dice’ to highlight the nature of how we never truly know what dice life will serve us, but whatever it is, we got to roll with it peacefully and make like a paradise (“pair of dice”) in our minds, stay chill, find the balance and keep on because, really, ‘we gon’ be alright.'”

Directed Linda Dorigo, the recently released video for “Be Alright” stars the song’s creative duo, reminiscing in their bedrooms, and continuing with the dreary and ordinary routines of their lives — Kadri heading to work at a local supermarket while Issac B goes to a laundromat. There’s also a quite a bit of  nouvelle vague-like split screens, which add to the slick stylistic vibe of the video.  

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past 14 months or so, you may have come across a post or two on Luis Vasquez’s solo electronic music recording project, The Soft Moon. After the release of Zeroes, Vasquez’s sophomore Soft Moon album, Vasquez announced that it would be the last solo Soft Moon album. However, after relocating to Venice, Vasquez changed his mind. Living in almost complete solitude, as a strange in a foreign land, Vasquez retreated into his thoughts and his work. And the result was what was arguably the most visceral and emotional material Vasquez has ever written, his third full-length album, Deeper. 

Album single “Feel” consists of layers of staccato synths, wobbling low end, ominously swirling electronics, followed by buzzing synths and subtly industrial clang and clatter  paired with Vasquez’s aching vocals. Although the song possesses the sort of sound that could rock a huge club, it’s intimate as it delves into the psyche of a self-eviserating  narrator, who describes how empty, meaningless and superficial they feel. Recently a number of electronic artists have remixed Vasquez’s Deeper; in fact, Captured Tracks released Deeper Remixed Vol. 1 last year, and February will mark the release of Deeper Remixed Vol. 2. Ninos du Brasil remixed “Feel” and while their remix retains the some of the original percussion and synths as well as Vasquez’s vocals, their remix is a little bit warmer as squiggly guitars, and more propulsive percussion is added; in some way, it pushes the song gently towards the direction of scuzzy, industrial house.

 

 

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