Tag: New Single

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Skinshape Shares Shimmering and Introspective “The Blade of a Knife”

Will Dorey is a London-based producer, singer/songwriter, producer and creative mastermind behind the solo recording project, Skinshape. And with Skinshape, the London-based artist has established himself as a master of understated soundscapes, blending rich textures with an array of eclectic influences from around the world. Dorey’s work is known for being imbued with warmth, depth and a timeless character.

Every Skinshape effort reflects the London-based artist’s meticulous approach to composition and production, rooted in the distinct sonic identity made possible by the vintage analog recording equipment he uses.

The London-based artist’s 11th Skinshape album, Chapman’s Pool derives its name from a a secluded bay on Dorset’s Jurassic Coast, near Dorey’s childhood home. The album draws inspiration from the landscapes that have remained a constant source of influence throughout his career.

Chapman’s Pool’s first single “The Blade of a Knife” is a shimmering tune that sounds as though it draws from psych soul, Northern soul and troubadour pop — and in a way that reminds me a bit of The Beach Boys, Bobby Oroza, Common Saints, and others. Rooted in an deeply introspective lyricism, the song is poignant, seemingly lived-in ode to the vicious cycles and loops that can wrap us up in down times, but while keeping a sliver of light — just in view. “This song was written about the mental struggles one faces in life. How we are a slave to our mind and the habits we form go round and round day after day. We wish to be free of our confusion as it stabs us like the ‘Blade of a Knife.'”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Delafaye Shares Introspective, Lived-In “Intrusive Thoughts”

Louisville, KY-born, Jeffersonville, IN-based singer/songwriter Andrew Shockley is the creative mastermind behind the indie folk recording project Delafaye, which derives its name after the name of a street that formed part of Shockley’s childhood memories.

Created back in 2016, the Louisville-born, Jeffersonville-based artist’s solo project sees him crafting deeply relatable, melancholy-fueled songs rooted in honest, raw, heart-worn-on-sleeve-driven reflections on modern day concerns that he records he records at his home studio, Beechwood.

Shockley’s latest Delafaye song “Intrusive Thoughts” features a gorgeous, folksy arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar, subtly bluesy electric guitar twinkling keys and a simple yet propulsive backbeat beneath the Louisville-born, Jeffersonville-based artist’s gravelly Jesse Welles-like vocal. While clocking in at a little over 2:30, “Intrusive Thoughts”focuses on a lonely guy, smoking cigarettes at a local bar with intrusive thoughts of self-doubt, self-loathing and despair with a novelist’s attention to psychological realism that feels lived-in.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Twin Temple Returns with Soulful and Yearning “Haunt Me”

Formed back in 2017, Twin Temple — married couple Alexandra and Zachary James — are an acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo, who specialize in a new sub-genre and style that they’ve dubbed “Satanic Doo Wop,” which blends their practice of Satanism with a sound that’s influenced by The Platters, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and the like. 

The Los Angeles-based duo have developed for being one of the contemporary scene’s most talked about crossover acts, earning widespread coverage from media outlets like Rolling Stone, NME, Billboard, American Songwriter, Stereogum, Consequence, Revolver, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Loudwire, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and a long list of others, and for being one of the most provocative acts out there right now. Their uncompromising artistic vision routinely sparks much larger and more serious conversations about artistic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of expression, censorship, the role of controversy in art, and on a broader sense, the wider role of art within the cultural landscape.

Some of y’all, have heard of the duo after Charley Crockett abruptly dropped the band from his shows earlier this month — specifically because of their usage of Satanic imagery. This led to Jack White publicly inviting the band to open for his Los Angeles area show in September. Serendipitously, the duo’s highly-anticipated third album Doomed Lovers will come right on the heels of their latest, and arguably biggest controversy to date.

Slated for an October 9, 2026 release through their own Pentagrammation Records, the Shooter Jennings-produced Doomed Lovers was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound‘s iconic Studio 3 and marks the acclaimed duo’s boldest chapter to date.

Born from one of the darkest periods of their personal lives, Doomed Lovers is reportedly their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding upon the cinematic scope of the sound that has won them acclaim while remaining rooted in the timeless sound and traditions of early rock ‘n’ roll, the album is their most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement so far. The album continues the band’s commitment to analog recording while expanding upon their sound with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-member orchestra. Yes, 37!

“We poured everything into this new record that we made with Shooter,” says the acclaimed and controversial duo. “We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could – of course with our dark spin on things.”

The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives. We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life. We started smiling and laughing again. I was becoming alive again. It connected us to why we fell in love with music in the first place and became our most personal album yet.”

The album will include the previously released, breathtaking gorgeous, album title track “Doomed Lovers,” and the album’s latest single “Haunt Me.” “Haunt Me” is a decidedly twangy, Wall of Sound-meets-Sun Records-like tune with a subtle node to gospel that should remind the listener that country’s iconic period is heavily indebted to gospel, the blues and a early rock ‘n’ roll. That’s right, think of some of those early Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Chuck Berry albums — but rooted in a confusing, paradoxical mix of dread, jealousy, fear and longing that feels lived-in and deeply experienced.

“‘Haunt Me’ is a gothic love song about fear, obsession, dread and jealousy with nods to classic American gospel, 1960s rock n roll and the blues,” the duo explain. “It romanticizes the terrifying nightmares your lover brings, and the paradox of never wanting them to stop haunting you.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tinlicker Teams Up With Helsloot on Euphoric “Edge Of Forever”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer along with Jordi van Achthoven and their newest member Hero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012: Heyboer initially founded Tinlicker as a solo project, releasing the act’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

In 2014 Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, 2024’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The album featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Now, back in 2020, as Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they started a successful and ongoing collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including last year’s “I Started A Fire.” Shortly after the release of ‘I Started A Fire,” Heyboer and Achthoven invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the group. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Earlier this year, the trio released their fourth album — and first as at rio — Dreams of the Machine earlier this year. The album features album singles “I Want My Freedom,” “Reborn,” and “Release.” The trio recently released the standalone single “Edge of Forever,” a collaboration with producer, longtime friend and collaborator Helsloot through Remember The Future/[PIAS]. Their latest collaboration can trace its origins to the two acts sharing a bus during their recent European tour together.

“Edge Of Forever” is a club and festival stage banger that features Baldwin’s emotive pop star-like vocal floating atop glistening synth oscillations, pulsating reverb-soaked bass lines that slowly builds up to a cathartic and euphoric frenzy. While continuing to cement the act’s long-held reputation for crafting melodic, emotional house music, “Edge Of Forever” may arguably be one of the more cinematic tracks of their growing catalog.

“The guys were noodling around while I was looking through the great sweep of glass at the front of the bus, the landscape passing almost imperceptibly beneath us,” Tinlicker’s Hero Baldiwin explains. “There is something contemplative about travelling in that way; cities, towns and villages drift past, fields give way to forests, and before long you find yourself less aware of the places themselves than the quiet passage of time between them. Later Thomas (Helsloot) and I listened back to what had been started on the bus, pressed record and the lyric and melody emerged intact in a single take.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: EELS Shares Two Gorgeous Songs from Forthcoming Album “COOKIE HAPPENED”

Since 1996’s full-length debut, Beautiful Freak, EELS the ever-evolving, critically applauded project of its creative mastermind, singer/songwriter, musician and producer E (Mark Oliver Everett) have combined heartbreak, humor, curiosity and emotional honesty in an expansive catalog that continues to resonate with audiences across the globe.

E’s 16th EELS album, COOKIE HAPPENED is slated for an October 16, 2026 release through E Works/Play It Again Sam. The album, which follows 2024’s EELS TIMES! reportedly finds the EELS creative mastermind turning his gaze inward towards life’s small victories, inevitable disappointments and the strange miracle of having been here at all, continuing a remarkable run of material that finds meaning and pathos in life’s messiest, strangest moments.

COOKIE HAPPENED will include the previously released “Cap In Hand,” and the album’s next two singles, “All Forgotten” and “I’m On Standby” “All Forgotten” is a meditative song built around strummed guitar and sweeping, cinematic strings beneath E’s gravelly vocal, which expresses a hard-fought mix of heartbreak, defiant pride and optimism on a song that explores mortality — with a sense of awe, acceptance and gratitude for the 1 in 70+ trillion chance that puts the song’s narrator at this particular place and time, because all is forgotten in due time.

“You can find the idea of your existence ending troubling or comforting.” E explains. “I try to lean towards the comforting take whenever possible: For thousands, millions of years you didn’t exist, and you and the world were fine. You’ll be fine not existing again. This is what hit songs are written about, right?”

“I’m On Standby” is by contrast is warm, melodic ode to unwavering friendship featuring a narrator expressing the comfort of knowing that your best friend in the entire world will always be there when you need them most — and that you would do the same for them in return. Certainly, when times are tough — and they get rough more often than not — having a deep friendship that you can depend on will keep you afloat, E says: “If you’re lucky you have a friend you’re always there for and vice versa. Bitch, I’ve always got time for you.”

Ahead of the release of COOKIE HAPPENED, fans can revisit E’s celebrated catalog as, for the first time evermore the definitive Meet The Eeels: The Essential EELS Vol, 1 (1996-2006) will be now available on vinyl. Originally released digitally back in 2008, this limited release will feature 24 of the project’s iconic tracks, including “Novocaine for the Soul,” “Susan’s House” “I Need Some Sleep” and more across a 2LP yellow gold 140g vinyl set. The vinyl edition will drop on Friday, July 31, 2026.

Beyond music E is also the author of the acclaimed memoir, Things the Grandchildren Should Know and the subject of the award-winning documentary Parallel Worlds, Parallel Lives, which explored his relationship with his father, the pioneering quantum physicist Hugh Everett III.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bug Facer Shares Bruising “Nuclear Bounty Hunter”

East Yorkshire, UK-based punks Bug Facer can trace their origins back to when founding duo James Cooper (bass, guitar, vocals) and Will Longton (drums, vocals) let psychedelic prog rock band Woodlouse, wanting to explore darker […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Kiefer Teams Up with Tony Stone, Erick The Architect and CARRTOONS on Soulful, Introspective “NewLevels NewDevils”

Los Angeles-based acclaimed pianist and producer Kiefer Shackelford, a.k.a. Kiefer was raised in San Diego by parents, who were both aerospace engineers and keen pianists, who both influenced him in their own way: His mother […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Avalanches Team Up with Karen O on Dreamy and Forlorn “Blue Shadows”

The Avalanches — Robbie Chater, Tony Di Blasio and Andy Szekeres — are arguably one of the most influential and original acts in the contemporary scene: Their debut album, 2000’s acclaimed Since I Left You laid the groundwork for collaborative sampology in this century.

Since then, the trio have released two more acclaimed albums, 2016’s Wildflowers and 2020’s We Will Always Love You. With over 1 million albums sold and 700 million streams across DSPs, a series of coveted collectibles and legions of fans across the globe, the acclaimed act has firmly cemented their place in popular culture.

Back in 2024, The Avalanches collaborated with Jamie xx on “All You Children,” which appeared on his 2024 effort, In Waves.

The trio recently performed at this year’s Primavera Sound Barcelona and announced a run of London headlining shows as part of Pitchfork Music Fest in November. They’ll be making a run of the international festival circuit with DJ sets at Ireland’s All Together Now, France’s Freakquenices (alongside The Dare), Italy’s Poplar and C2C and Belgium’s Les Nuits Weekender — with more dates to be announced soon. Click here for tickets and more information.

Currently based in Los Angeles, Karen O is a Seoul-born, New Jersey-raised singer/songwriter and iconic front woman of the eight-time Grammy Award-nominated Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Graduating from New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts with a focus on film, she has been instrumental in redefining the possibility of rock performance over the past two decades, influencing a new generation of female artists, including Olivia Rodrigo, Japanese Breakfast, The Linda Lindas and a growing list of others.

With the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, the Seoul-born, Los Angeles-based artist has released five acclaimed albums, including 2022’s Grammy Award-nominated Cool It Down, the band’s first album after a nine-year recording hiatus.

Outside of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Karen O has built an adventurous multidisciplinary career spanning music, film, visual art and performance: Her solo debut, 2014’s Crush Songs was released to critical acclaim. She wrote and performed music for Spike Jonze’s 2009 film, Where the Wild Things Are and she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original song for “The Moon Song” from Jonze’s 2013 film Her. Her experimental rock opera Stop the Virgens premiered at St. Ann’s Warehouse before touring internationally.

As a solo artist, Karen O has collaborated with an eclectic array of equally acclaimed artists including David Lynch, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross and fashion house KENZO. 2019’s collaborative album with Danger Mouse, Lux Prima was released to widespread critical acclaim with album single “Woman” earning a Grammy Award nomination. The album also inspired the immersive multimedia installation An Encounter with Lux Prima, which premiered at Los Angeles’ Marciano Art Foundation.

Karen O and The Avalanches recently teamed up for “Blue Shadows,” the second collaboration between the two artists since “Dial D for Devotion,” which appeared on 2020’s We Will Always Love You. “Blue Shadows” is also the third single of the year from the trio, following “Every Single Weekend” feat. Jamie xx and “Together” feat. Nikki Nair, Jessy Lanza and Prentiss. With “Blue Shadows” Karen O’s achingly forlorn vocal languidly drifts atop twinkling synths, a chugging bass line, shuffling hi-hats and a dreamy vocal sample. The result is a bittersweet, fever dream of heartache, mistakes, lost chances and what-could-have-beens from the perspective of someone who has lived a messy, complicated

“’Blue Shadows’ was an idea of Andy’s that was almost lost to time until Tony stumbled across it in an old folder and began championing it as a potential album song,” says the trio’s Robbie Chater. “It’s since become one of my favourite Avalanches tunes. Many moons later and thanks to the kindness of Claudio Casalini and the estate of Celso Valli, it looked like Tony’s dream for ‘Blue Shadows’ might come true. 

“I included it in a selection of song ideas for Karen, we wanted her to hear it although I never imagined a vocal would be possible; the demo had such a peculiar, singular mood. What she recorded still amazes me after months of listening, it’s so achingly forlorn and somehow sounds as if it always existed as a song. I don’t know how that is possible, or what she was channelling, some people just have access to a higher plane I suppose!”

Karen O adds, “When Robbie sent me ‘Blue Shadows,’ I jumped at the chance to collaborate. The Avalanches last record We Will Always Love You was a gift to humanity in 2020 and I’ll count it as one of my Top 10 forever. The Avalanches frequency is high, I’m so happy to be asked to slide into it.” 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Gotts Street Park and Celeste Team Up on Soulful Lament “Easy”

Acclaimed Leeds-based trio Gotts Street Park— Josh Crocker (bass, production), Tom Henry (keys) and Joe Harris (guitar) —acclaimed full-length debut, 2023’s On The Inside included “Got To Be Good” feat. Pip Millettt, “Fuego,” “Mountains” feat. ENNY and “Tell Me Why” feat. Olive Jones. And in the subsequent years since its release, the album has amassed over 300 million streams across all DPS with “Got To Be Good” landing in Season Three of BBC’s hit series Boarders and this year’s Finding Emily starring Spike Fearn and Minnie Driver.

Their sophomore album Somewhere Between is slated for an October 16, 2026 release through Play It Again Sam. Somewhere Between is reportedly a departure from the soul, jazz and hip-hop influenced sound of their previously released work, with the album drawing inspiration from Bill Orcutt, Dylan Day, Dick Gaughan, Jessica Pratt, Big Thief and Blaze Foley, as well as the working methods of the house bands at Stax Records and Sun Records. The result is an album that combines the collective’s signature production prowess with an even greater warmth than before, as they also draw on the spirit of the 1970s troubadour singer/songwriter movement with a cast of long-time collaborators that include Celeste, Olive Jones, Pip Millett, Matt Maltese, Sofia and The Antoinettes, anaiis and Rosie Lowe.

In an era increasingly defined by automation and AI, Somewhere Between is threaded throughout with a quiet faith as music as an inherently human act — one shared by intimation, openness and the intangible chemistry of people in a room creating together. “The title only arrived once the album was finished, and it means something slightly different to each of us,” the members of the acclaimed Leeds-based band explain. “For me, it reflects the space that collaboration creates, a place where our individual lives, moods and experiences overlap for a while to make something together. We’re all arriving from different places, but in the studio those separate worlds meet. There’s something about making music that feels like stepping into a space between the tangible and the intangible, where ideas seem to come from somewhere beyond ourselves. In many ways, that’s what this album represents: meeting somewhere between who we are individually and what we can create together.”

The album will include the previously released, acclaimed track “Some Birds Don’t Fly” feat Matt Maltese, and the album’s latest single “Easy” feat. Celeste. The Brit Award and Academy Award-nominated artist Celeste’s achingly soulful and jazzy, AmyWinehouse-meets-classic soul-like delivery strutting over a shimmering, bass-driven Daptone-like arrangement with subtle hip-hop influences.

Thematically, “Easy” examines the push and pull of a romantic relationship that’s way too complicated than what it needs to be. And as a result, the song is centered on the narrator’s bittersweet and lament-fueled realization that it’s time to move on — with the hope that she’ll find the love she deserves.

“‘Easy’ came from one of our very first sessions with Celeste around eight years ago,’ Gotts Street Park explains. “There’s a rawness and spontaneity to it that captures those early days of working together. Nothing felt overthought or overworked, which gave Celeste the space to completely own the song through her performance. We’ve held onto it for a long time, so it’s exciting to finally have the opportunity to share it.” 

The band have begun to support the forthcoming album with their Somewhere Here World Tour, which bean with a set at this year’s Montréal Jazz Festival. The tour includes an appearance at the inaugural London edition of The Roots Picnic and at this year’s Newport Jazz Festival, as well as a July 30, 2026 stop at Le Poisson Rouge. Check out the North American leg dates below.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Hayley Law Shares Self-Assured, Hook-Driven “Circle Back”

Hayley Law is a Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based actor, singer/songwriter and producer, who initially wrote, produced and recorded under the moniker Hayleau. She has since retired the moniker and project, saying “Hayleau was a version of me that I really love. Softer, shyer, and still trying to figure herself out through everyone else’s voices. I think that name became a little too shaped by perception, expectation, and who people thought i should be. Coming back to Hayley Law felt like reclaiming myself and deciding I don’t want anyone else molding who I am anymore.”

Performing under her own name, the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based artist has crafted a sound and approach that sees her blending pop, R&B and pop rock with diaristic storytelling. Her work lives between vulnerability and control in a way that’s intimate, nostalgic and quietly disarming, pulling listeners into moments that feel as impulsive as they are intentional.

As a completely independent artist, Law has built her career on her own times while amassing over four million streams across the DSPs through purely organic growth and without chasing trends or traditional industry pathways.

Alongside her music career, Law has played roles in globally distributed Netflix projects and studio films, including Riverdale, Altered Carbon and more. She’s set to star in Jackie! Zhou’s FLYOVER.

Building upon a growing profile, the rising artist’s highly-anticipated Law, Jesse Boykins III and Melo-X co-produced Last Summer is slated for an August 14, 2026 release. The album sonically is a blend of sensual alternative R&B-influenced diaristic songwriting and early 2000s pop punk, creating an album of material that’s intimate, emotionally unguarded yet cinematic. Across the album’s run-time, Law effortlessly moves between softness and control, exploring desire, performance, heartbreak, ego, femininity and the versions of ourselves we create to be loved. But the star of the show is Law and her voice: vulnerable without being self-pitying, confident without false armor and deeply self-aware of the contradiction of wanting intimacy while trying to remain in control.

The album will include the previously released album title and opening track “Last Summer” and the album’s second and latest single “Circle Back.” Subtly channeling hook-driven, late 1990s and early 000s R&B — think Brandy, Monica and the like — “Circle Back” is built around an atmospheric production twinkling keys, a soaring string sample, skittering beats and glitchy, DJ scratches beneath Law’s self-assured, self-aware delivery. The song’s narrator spends the song’s runtime recognizing that this love interest is probably just a fling — and that fling needs to back off a bit and just enjoy things for what they are.

“Have you ever had a fling that just moves sooo fast? By the time you come up for air, you realize you’ve spent 3 days with the person and aren’t even sure you see it going anywhere,” the Canadian-born artist explains. “That is ‘Circle Back.’ I wear my heart on my sleeve and fall quickly and this song is my reminder to check in with yourself. Not every fling turns into a relationship. And having two/three weeks of something HOT is awesome.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOHN DORIAN Shares Shimmering “LOVE I REMEMBER”

New Audio: JOHN DORIAN Shares Shimmering “LOVE I REMEMBER”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: belac Shares a Sultry, Club Friendly Banger

belac is a rising, Perth-born and-based producer, who is a product of the Internet Generation: After discovering a Martin Garrix breakdown of his hit song “Animals” when the Aussie producer was 11, he has spent the past decade consuming — and sometimes forming — internet tends and turning them into club bangers. Before music, he was one of the best beach sprinters in Western Australia and a qualified physicist. But as he explains, he went all-in on music, when he heard his own music being blasted by the electronic music club while walking around his university’s open day.

Since then, he has signed with [PIAS] Électronique, who has released recent singles “need it, breathe it” and “be with me 2009,” which manage to be simultaneously nostalgia-inducing and fresh, while giving younger fans a cache to experience an era of EDM that they might not have originally been around for. And interestingly, gamers have claimed that his work is the perfect soundtrack for massive gaming sessions.

Now while there’s a cheekiness to his music and his online presence, the Perth-born and-based producer has an unerring knack for understanding what delights dance music fans and brings them to the dance floor. And as a result, he’s become one of Australia’s most recognized, rising electronic producers, specializing in club friendly bangers with elements of 2010s EDM, Memphis trap, jazz and more.

The Aussie producer’s latest single “late night visions” is a subtly brooding and atmospheric take on tech house with a sultry vocal sample that reminds me of French JOVM mainstay LutchamaK and a lengthy list of others, while showcasing a producer who can craft a euphoric, remarkably catchy hook.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Twin Temple Shares Swooning and Lush “Doomed Lovers”

Formed back in 2017, Twin Temple — married couple Alexandra and Zachary James — are an acclaimed Los Angeles-based duo, who specialize in a new sub-genre and style that they’ve dubbed “Satanic Doo Wop,” which blends their practice of Satanism with a sound that’s influenced by The Platters, Roy Orbison, Buddy Holly and the like.

The Los Angeles-based duo have developed for being one of the contemporary scene’s most talked about crossover acts, earning widespread coverage from media outlets like Rolling Stone, NME, Billboard, American Songwriter, Stereogum, Consequence, Revolver, Kerrang!, Metal Hammer, Loudwire, San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Times and a long list of others, and for being one of the most provocative acts out there right now. Their uncompromising artistic vision routinely sparks much larger and more serious conversations about artistic freedom, religious freedom, freedom of expression, censorship, the role of controversy in art, and on a broader sense, the wider role art plays within the cultural landscape.

Some of y’all, will know of the duo after Charley Crockett abruptly dropped the band from his shows this past week — specifically for their usage of Satanic imagery. This lead to Jack White publicly inviting the band to open for him in Hollywood in September. Serendipitously, the duo’s third album, Doomed Lovers is coming red hot off the heels of their latest controversy.

Slated for an October 9, 2026 release through their own Pentagrammation Records, the Shooter Jennings-produced Doomed Lovers was recorded at Hollywood-based Sunset Sound‘s iconic Studio 3 and marks the acclaimed duo’s boldest chapter to date. The album continues the band’s commitment to analog recording while expanding upon their sound with lush orchestral arrangements performed by a 37-member orchestra. Yes, 37!

Born from one of the darkest periods of their personal lives, Doomed Lovers is reportedly their most intimate and emotionally revealing work to date. Expanding upon the cinematic scope of the sound that has won them acclaim while remaining rooted in the timeless sound and traditions of early rock ‘n’ roll, the album is their most ambitious and fully realized artistic statement so far.

“We poured everything into this new record that we made with Shooter,” says the acclaimed and controversial duo. “We wanted to push ourselves creatively and expand the production further than we have before, drawing inspiration from the lush orchestral productions of Roy Orbison, The Ronettes, and The Shangri-Las, and added in some Countrypolitan flair. We brought in some incredible musicians like Matt Chamberlain and Jay Bellerose, and a 37-piece orchestra. We wanted to make something as beautiful as we possibly could – of course with our dark spin on things.”

The truth is, this album was made during one of the darkest periods of our lives. We had been struggling with grief, health issues, addiction, and depression. But day by day, going into Sunset Sound, making music with incredible people who believed in us, and being surrounded by that creativity slowly brought us back to life. We started smiling and laughing again. I was becoming alive again. It connected us to why we fell in love with music in the first place and became our most personal album yet.”

Doomed Lovers‘ latest single, album title track “Doomed Lovers” features a lush, breathtakingly gorgeous, sculpted wall of sound-like production and arrangement beneath Alexandra James’ remarkably Patsy Cline-like croon singing confessional lyrics desiring an a consuming, all or nothing love along the lines of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven” and other Romantic-era literature.

The first time I heard the song, the first three or four thoughts that entered my mind were “holy shit, that’s fucking gorgeous!,” followed by “this sounds like it could have been a B-side to Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces” and “Back in Baby’s Arms” or Roy Orbison’s “Only The Lonely” and “Crying,” followed by “I’d pay to hear Alexandra James read entries in the phone book.”

“This is the philosophical centerpiece of the album – a theatrical and confessional take on all or nothing love, the dark side of devotion and centuries old mythic literary Romantic themes,” the acclaimed duo explain. “It longs for a love so enduring and eternal that it ultimately consumes, obliterates, and drives one to madness and death. At its core, it asks the question – ‘What happens when your lover dies?’”

But what makes the song unique is that it rejects the conventional and culturally accepted answer… ‘I know I should tell you to find someone new,’ in favor of raw, unfiltered and selfish desire, things that would be shameful to speak in mundane reality.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ghost Funk Orchestra Shares Sultry and Cinematic “Ocotillo”

JOVM mainstay outfit Ghost Funk Orchestra originally started as a one-man recording project, helmed by its creative mastermind, composer and multi-instrumentalist Seth Applebaum. Since then, the project has evolved into a full-fledged 10 member, powerhouse band that fleshes out Applebaum’s vision — a sonic kaleidoscope that defies genre specifications, but draws deeply from soul, psych rock, psych soul and more.

“Ocotillo” is Ghost Funk Orchestra’s first bit of new, original since the release of 2024’s A Trip to the Moon. Opening with shimmering and strutting Rhodes, “Ocotillo” continues an incredible run of mind-bending yet cinematic soul with the song evoking sultry and stifling heat, dusty blacktop in front of you and in the rearview, rest stops, highway signs, trees and small towns flash by in a blur of dizzying sameness before finally getting a reprieve — through rain or higher altitude or the like.

“The ocotillo is an imposing figure, tall and reminiscent of a torch. I dedicated this song to the desert dwelling plant after a particularly challenging tour that took our band through the southwest,” Ghost Funk Orchestra’s Seth Applebaum explains. “After days of unbearable heat and humidity, reaching New Mexico surprisingly gave us some reprieve. After landing at the venue in Silver City, I took a walk to clear my head and observe the scenery as the mountain climate provided a more manageable atmosphere to exist and reflect in.”