Tag: music video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Jenny Stevens and the Empty Mirrors Shares a Glistening, Club Banger

Welsh-born, Finnish-based singer/songwriter and musician Jenny Stevens, a.k.a. The Ukelele Girl is the creative mastermind behind the songwriting project Jenny Stevens and The Empty Mirrors, which sees Stevens pairing dark-alt pop with quirky visuals. 

Last year, Stevens released the The Distance Between Us EP, an effort that featured “The River Rolls On,” an atmospheric track that seemed indebted to the likes of Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Cure and Cocteau Twins. 

This year, Stevens released two more singles:

Stevens’ latest single “Unfinished Conversations” is a 90s house inspired banger featuring skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios, brief bursts of guitar, and sinuous bass lines paired with Steven’s plaintive and ethereal vocals. While revealing an act that’s restlessly experimenting and pushing their sound in new directions, including towards the dance floor, the song also reveals an artist with an innate ability to craft an infectious hook.

The accompanying video is set in the relatively near future, where we see beautiful people dancing and vamping to the song — but we also see people tuning out in virtual reality. And throughout, there’s a sense that there are things left unsaid.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MELRØSE Shares Sultry “Sexfriend”

Melrøse is an French electro pop duo — Anne-Camille and Anthony Bacou — that can trace its origins back to June 2020, when the romantic couple and musical collaborators decided to immortalize their relationship — and in turn, their love — in a song, written in a Los Angeles hotel room. 

The French electro pop duo released their debut EP, Nuit louve earlier this year and the EP features two tracks I wrote about last year:

  • “Poolside,” the first song that the duo wrote that June night back in 2020. Featuring skittering beats, swirling electronics and Anne-Camille’s achingly delicate delivery singing lyrics in French and English, “Poolside” evoked sultry, summer nights in bed with a lover while sonically nodding at Dummy-era Portishead.
  • “Insomnie,” another sensual bop featuring twinkling and arpeggiated synths paired with a relentless motorik groove and Anne-Camille’s coquettish delivery. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Insomnie” evokes a sultry summer nights — but restlessly tossing and turning because you’re sweaty, sticky and uncomfortable.

Nuit louve‘s latest single “Sexfriend” is a sultry, Quiet Storm-inspired bop featuring glistening synth arpeggios, wobbling bass lines, and skittering beats paired with Anne-Camille’s sultry delivery and the duo’s unerring knack for razor sharp hooks. “Sexfriend” is a late night, cooed come-on, kisses on the neck, a longing to be touched at the right place, in the right fashion and at the right time . . .

The accompanying video for “Sexfriend” features MELRØSE’s Anne-Camille at the beach in a white, double-breasted, silk suit strolling the seashore at golden hour and swaying to the atmospheric song in the sea. Much like the song it accompanies, the video is subtle yet suggestive.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s Tallies Share Shimmering and Longing “Special”

With the release of 2019’s self-titled, full-length debut, Toronto-based dream pop outfit Tallies — Dylan Frankland (guitar), Sarah Cogan (vocals, guitar) and Cian O’Neill (drums) — exploded into the national and international scenes: The album received praise from the likes of Under the Radar, DIY Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, MOJO, Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim!,  KEXP and others. And adding to a rapidly growing profile, the Toronto-based dream poppers have opened for Mudhoney, Hatchie, Tim Burgess and Weaves. 

The band’s Graham Walsh and Dylan Frankland co-produced sophomore album Patina, which was recorded at Palace Sound, Holy Fuck‘s Baskitball 4 Life and Candle Recording is slated for a July 29, 2022 release through Kanine Records here in the States, Hand Drawn Dracula in Canada and Bella Union in the UK and EU. The album, which was understandably delayed as a result of the pandemic is simultaneously a labor of love and a bold step forward for the Canadian trio: Firmly rooted in their penchant in juxtaposing light and dark, the album continues to see the band drawing from Lush, Beach House and Cocteau Twins, but with a greater emphasis on shimmering guitars, earnest, lived-in songwriting — and a well-placed, razor sharp hook.

The album will feature, the previously released “No Dreams of Fayres,” an ironically upbeat single that sonically brought The Sundays‘ “Here’s Where The Story Ends,” while documenting Sarah Cogan’s struggles with depression — in particular, thee moments, when she was trying to work it out, but just couldn’t find the energy to do so.

“‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is a reflection of thoughts that I remember going through my mind when I stayed still in bed,” Tallies’ Sarah Cogan explains in press notes. “Feeling as though staying still in bed was the only thing that would help the sadness – basically, disconnecting myself from family, friends, and having a life. Finding the way out of depression was hard but possible. ‘No Dreams of Fayres’ is also about the realization of letting yourself feel real feelings but not mistaking them for emotions. I had to learn to get a grip of what I wanted out of life and go for it with no self-sabotage – which was music, as cliché as it sounds. It pulled me out of bed, physically and mentally.”

Patina‘s latest single “Special” continues a run remarkable run of deceptively upbeat shoegazer-inspired jangle pop featuring Cogan’s plaintive vocals, Frankland’s shimmering reverb-drenched guitar lines and O’Neill’s propulsive drumming paired with their unerring knack for razor sharp, anthemic hooks. But despite its breezy nature, the song is underpinned by a an aching and familiar yearning: “‘Special,’ as Sarah Cogan explains “is about longing to be seen and heard by those who matter to you most. Sometimes, feeling invisible is particularly painful when the indifference comes from someone whose opinion means a lot to you.”

Directed by Justis Krar at IMMV Productions, the accompanying video for “Special” features carefully edited stock footage from movies and home videos: The video begins with fingers and toes — dipping into water, or shampooed hair before following a troubled and bored couple, who have deeply unaddressed issues. You can read the pain and heartache in both of their faces, and it further emphasizes the themes at the heart of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Saint Kochi’s Cinematic and Trippy “Almost Lost”

Born in London to parents, who immigrated from India and Kenya, the rising British chamber pop/psych pop artist Saint Kochi has led an extraordinary and unusual life, that for a while got in the way of his real lifetime aim — to make music his entire life, not a part of it. But there was so much else that occupied his time: a flirtation with genuine stardom as a professional cricket player, parents who doubted hat anyone could survive with a career in the arts, and an unexpected career as a seller of massive ships.

Saint Kochi continued to push forward with his lifelong dream of making music, releasing last year’s self-titled debut EP. Slated for an August 10, 2022 release, the British chamber pop and psych pop artist’s Dom Ganderton co-produced sophomore EP Almost Lost is reportedly a bold step forward as he crafts gorgeous music that transports the listener to another place.

The EP’s first single, the cinematic EP title track “Almost Lost” prominently features a throbbing bass line, twinkling keys, glistening, reverb-drenched guitar lines and Saint Kochi’s plaintive vocals paired with a gorgeous, soaring string arrangement. Sonically, the result is a song that to my ears brings The Beatles, Scott Walker, The Verve, and JOVM mainstays POND to mind — but while possessing an enormous sound, the song is rooted in intimate and lived-in lyricism that’s personal yet universal.

While primarily recorded at Saint Kochi’s purpose-built basement studio, the string arrangement performed by the 14-piece string section was recorded at RAK Studios, where iconic albums like Radiohead‘s The Bends and a lengthy list of others was recorded. The string section fulfilled the rising British artist’s ambition of “making a record that had these big cinematic James Bond, Beatleseque type of strings on them.”

Directed by Sam Hiscox, the accompanying video for “Almost Lost” is as cinematic as the song while employing a rather simple concept: We follow Saint Kochi in a white linen suit wandering the desert, alone and seemingly lost.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ganser Shares Brooding and Menacing Visual for Tense, New Ripper, “People Watching”

Acclaimed Chicago-based post-punk outfit and JOVM mainstays Ganser — founding members Nadia Garofalo (vocals, keys) and Alicia Gaines (vocals, bass) along with Brian Cundiff (drums) and Charlie Landsman (guitar) — can trace their origins back to when its founding members met while attending art school. Bonding over a mutual love of The Residents, outsider communities and the work of John Waters, the duo developed a hands-on DIY craftsmanship that eventually carried into their band: Each member of the post punk outfit shares writing duties and they collaborate on every aspect of their creative work, including videos, album art, merch and the visuals which often accompany their live shows.

Ganser’s 2018 full-length debut Odd Talk received widespread praise nationally and across the blogosphere with some critics comparing their sound and approach to Sonic Youth and Magazine. Thematically, the album focused on communication breakdowns — namely, the difficulties of being understood, avoidance, intimacy and avoidance.

2020’s sophomore album, the critically applauded Just Look at That Sky found the members of Ganser thematically probing the futility of striving for self-growth during chorus — all while evoking an all to familiar manic worry and generalized sense of existential dread and doom. It’s an album that accurately captures our slow-burning, omnipresent hellscape.

Besides last year’s Look at That Sky Remixes EP, the Chicago-based JOVM have been busy working on new material — including their Angus Andrew co-produced, three-song Nothing You Do Matters EP. The EP’s first single, the woozy and expansive ripper “People Watching” begins with a slow-burning and atmospheric, bass-driven intro before quickly morphing into a feverish thrash featuring slashing guitar attack, relentless four-on-the-four and squiggling bursts of electronics paired with Garofalo’s seething, irony-drenched delivery.

Arguably the most tense and uneasy song of their growing catalog, “People Watching” captures the mad and desperate senselessness — of well, just about everything right now.

Directed by Alicia Gaines and Nadia Garofalo, the accompanying video for “People Watching” employs the same LED Volume virtual “green screen” technology that’s used in shows like The Mandalorian: We’re thrown in the middle of a wintry and desolate bit of farmland, where we see an extremely nervous and uncertain Gaines, Cundiff and Landsman with shovels trying to bury a body — a body that turns out to be, Garofalo. It’s menacing yet there’s a campus sense of humor to the proceedings.

Nothing You Do Matters EP is slated for an October 5, 2022 digital release and a December 2, 2022 vinyl release through Felte Records.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: FIOR Shares a Coquettish and Summery, Scott Storch-Produced Banger

Zoe Fioravanti is a rising, self-taught singer/songwriter and pop artist, who can trace the origins of her musical career to her childhood: Fiovaranti’s father, who managed bands in the ’90s gifted her a toy piano that she learned to play by ear when she was just eight. Early on, her self-taught style was heavily influenced by Billy Joel, Amy Winehouse, Adele, and Michael Jackson.

As a teenager, Fiorvanti began writing her own lyrics and making beat-driven pop with elements of funk, soul, disco, electro pop and rock on her computer — while honing her lush and sultry vocal delivery. Drawing from her own life, her material celebrates the kind of vulnerability that leads to true strength while encouraging listeners to not just accept their emotions but to also embrace the importance of speaking their mind.

Fiorvanti, who writes, records and performs as FIOR spent the past two years writing, recording original material and sharing that music — including her attention grabbing and defiant single “Let Me Go” earlier this year. Her latest single, the Scott Storch-produced “YOYO (You’re On Your Own” is a sleek, slickly produced, summery banger featuring glistening synths, a strutting disco-inspired bass line, some squiggling Nile Rodgers-like guitar, skittering beats paired with Fioravanti’s self-assured and coquettish delivery and a razor sharp hook.

While being both club and radio friendly, “YOYO” is simultaneously a celebratory tell-off and a relishing of freedom: While the video implies that it’s a celebration of pushing off a dysfunctional and overbearing lover or love interest, it can also be a shitty friend, who’s a cockblock — or an overbearing paramour, who doesn’t quite get that you’re not interested.

Directed by Alfredo Flores, the accompanying video is a fun, ’90s inspired romp set on a glorious sunny day at a skate park. We see FIOR and her girlfriends in brightly colored clothing in the middle of a meet-cute with one particular dude at the skate park.