Tag: New Single

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Artist Comett Releases a Plaintive and Yearning Single

Alexandre Canale Parola is a Tours, France-born, Paris-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the solo, indie rock recording project Comett. Founded back in 2005, Parola has released four full-length albums and a handful of singles and EPs with Comett, including last year’s The Ghost Inside Me, which amassed over 500,000 streams.

Parola begins the new year with “Peace of Mind,” the first bit of new material since The Ghost Inside Me‘s release. Written during pandemic-related lockdowns, “Peace of Mind” reveals a subtle sonic shift. While still centered around shimming and looping guitar, seemingly influenced by Radiohead, the song features atmospheric synths paired with decidedly Latin rhythms.

Interestingly, at the song’s core is a world-weary narrator’s desire to achieve the titular peace of mind in a mad, mad, mad world. While that may seem lucky and rare, it’s a desire and hope many of us are desperately clinging to during these desperate times.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Ed Schrader’s Music Beat Releases a Sleek and Brooding Single

With the release of 2018’s Dan Deacon-produced album Riddles, the Baltimore-based post-punk duo Ed Schrader’s Music Beat — Devlin Rice and Ed Schrader — turned heads nationally and elsewhere. 

The Baltimore duo’s fourth album Nightclub Daydreaming is slated for a March 25, 2022 release through Carpark Records. The album’s origins can be traced back to 2019 when Schrader and Rice began writing material with the idea of making a fun, danceable album. The duo, along with touring drumming Kevin O’Meara road-tested the album’s songs while on tour with Dan Deacon in February 2020. 

Of course. the COVID-19 pandemic brought everything to a screeching halt. As it turned out, sadly, that Dan Deacon tour was one of the last experiences that Schrader and Rice had with O’Meara, who had died in October 2020. O’Meara’s death weighed heavily on their minds as they finished working on the album. It was understandably, an unshakeable moodiness and heartache. As Schrader puts it, “The cave followed us into the discotheque.”

They then went to record and mix Nightclub Daydreaming over a breakneck two-week period with Craig Bowen at Baltimore’s Tempo House. Interestingly, the end result isn’t the album of “sunny disco bangers,” that Rice says the band set out for, but something far deeper and darker. Their long-held reputation for whiplash-inducing stylistic shifts between aggressive and noisy rock and operatic, gloom pop have given way to a single aesthetic that seamlessly fuses those impulses in propulsive, stark arrangements. 

“The fun thing about this record is that it’s all at once informed by our more recent lush productions with Dan Deacon, yet spartan and boiled-down, exuding a coldness wrapped in ecstasy, following our time honored trend of never giving people what they expect, but hopefully what they want,” says Schrader.

Along with the album announcement, the Baltimore-based duo released two singles off the forthcoming album and dates for an extensive Spring 2022 tour that the duo (optimistically) have on the books. (The tour includes an April 23, 2022 stop at Union Pool. As always, those dates will be below the proverbial jump.)

Earlier this week, I wrote about Nightclub Daydreaming‘s sparse and uneasy lead single “This Thirst.” Featuring a narrator, who finds his irresistible urges leading him through a surrealistic, chemical-fueled fever dream of desperate back-alley bartering and scheming, uncertainty and existential threats, “This Thirst” is a gritty yet sleek post-punk ripper centered around angular guitar attack, a forceful and driving groove, a rousingly anthemic synth-led chorus and Schrader’s cool delivery. The duo manage to make bleakness and anxiety intense and sexy.

“Berliner,” Nightclub Daydreaming‘s second single is dark and brooding bit of post-punk centered around rumbling and distorted bass, scorching angular attack and unrelenting four-on-the-floor paired with Schrader’s coolly delivered baritone. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Berliner” evokes a bleak and intense, creeping anxiety, flop sweat and bleary-eyed late nights fueled by booze and drugs, lingering ghosts, and fever dreams.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Oakland-based funk and soul outfit The Grease Traps can trace their origins back through about two decades and two previous projects: Back in 2000, Aaron Julin (keys) answered a classified ad by Kevin O’Dea (guitar), searching for players who were hip to the grooves laid down by Blue Note Records artists like Grant Green and Lou Donaldson. The duo quickly formed Groovement, an act that covered those artists, along with other jazz-funk staples. 

When Groovement’s rsax player and frontman moved, Julin and O’Dea switched gears and formed Brown Baggin’, an act that got into the harder hitting funk of The JBs, The Meters, Kool & The Gang, Mickey & the Soul Generation and a lengthy list of others. They increasingly became influenced by the rare funk compilations released by Keb Darge, Gerald Jazzman Short and labels like Harmless, Ubiquity, Soul Jazz and Now-Again, as well as contemporary outfits like Breakestra, The Whitefield Brothers and the Daptone and Soul Fire crews. 

Back in 2005 while still with Brown Baggin,’ Julin and O’Dea began to get fed up juggling the schedules of seven band members, who each had their own varying professional and personal obligations. The pair put out a classified ad seeking a bassist and drummer to jam with as a quartet. The first two musicians, who answered the ad and showed up were Goopy Rossi (bass) and Dave Brick (drums). It was clear from those early jam sessions, that the quartet had a great musical and creative chemistry. 

Originally intended as a fun side project, The Grease Traps quickly became a priority as Brown Baggin broke up. Performing as an instrumental quartet for a handful of years, the band expanded their lineup with the addition of a horn section and lead vocalist The Gata. Over the years, the band has shared stages with the likes of Shuggie Otis, Robert Walter, Durand Jones and The Indications, Monophonics, Neal Francis and Jungle Fire. 

Now, as you might recall, the Oakland-based outfit released their full-length debut Solid Ground through Italian purveyors of funk and soul, Record Kicks. Six years in the making, Solid Ground was recorded at Kelly Finnigan‘s San Francisco-based Transistor Sound by Finnigan and Ian McDonald and at Oakland-based Fifty Filth Studio by Orgone‘s Sergio Rios, live and straight to eight-track tape on a Tascam 388 to recreate that old-school analog sound. The album’s material features guest spots from the Monophonics’ horn section, backing vocals by Bay Area-based vocalists Sally Green and Bryan Dyer, as well as strings arranged by Kansas City-based violist Alyssa Bell. 

Solid Ground features a mix of covers and originals. The originals draw from the band’s various influences including funk, psych soul and lowrider soul among others. Lyrically and thematically, the album’s originals see The Gata discussing the pressing issues of our moment — racism, finding hope in a world that seems pitted against you and more. The albums’ covers manage to capture the energy of the band’s live set.

In the lead up to the album’s release late last year, I wrote about album single ”Birds of Paradise,” a strutting synthesis of Muscle Shoals-like soul, The Meters and The JB’s featuring shimmering and arpeggios Rhodes, old school breakbeats, a chugging bassline, wah-wah pedaled guitar, a funky horn line and enormous hook paired with The Gata’s soulful crooning, yelps and howls. Fittingly, the song is focuses on affairs of the heart: the song’s narrator brags, struts and attempts to do anything and everything he could to prove that he’s the man for the woman he desires. 

“Roots,” Solid Ground‘s album opener and latest single is a strutting synthesis of Muscle Shoals, Isaac Hayes-like orchestral psych soul and The Payback era James Brown centered around an expansive song structure that includes the song’s underpinning guitar riff, some bluesy harmonica riffs, an alternating verse chorus verse section, featuring a rousingly anthemic hook, a trippy freak out reminiscent of The Isley Brothers‘ “Shout,” as part of the song’s lengthy outro. Lyrically, the song focus on gathering up the strength to face a hateful and brutal world that’s pitted against you at every single turn. But during the outro, the personal struggle becomes universal with the song pointing out that we need to band together and rise up against those who keep us down. Power to the people, indeed!

“‘Roots’ was the last song we recorded for the album in our studio,” The Grease Traps’ Kevin O’Dea says. “It started off with just the basic riff you hear over the verses. While the main rhythm section groove was cool on its own, we knew we wanted to build up the energy over the course of the song. I wrote some horn lines and added fuzz guitar on top which helped, but we still felt like the song needed something uptempo and driving after the darker beginning. After a false ending, we ramp up the tempo with a faster four-on-the-snare soul groove, followed by a breakdown to just guitar and drums, before building up to a feverish pitch on the outro. We decided to convert most of my original horn arrangements to strings which we felt added to the depth of this track. The Gata did a fantastic job with the lyrics, keeping it heavy on the slower verses, but imploring for change and unity during the outro. His harmonica work also lends an earthy poignancy which really suits the overall feeling we were trying to convey. This was the first and only take we did of the song, including the scratch lead vocals the Gata laid down, because the vibe was just right. Sergio Rios of Orgone created a brilliant mix, blending the many elements into one cohesive unit and making it one of the tracks we’re most proud of.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sweden’s Cult of Luna Releases a Dreamy and Yearning New Single

Acclaimed and prolific Umeå, Sweden-based post-metal outfit Cult of Luna — currently, Johannes Persson (guitar, vocals), Andreas Johansson (bass), Thomas Hedlund (drums, percussion), Fredrik Kihlberg (guitar, vocals), Krisitian Karlsson (keys, vocals) and Magus Lindberg (production) — formed back in 1998 and can trace their origins to the breakup of a local hardcore punk band by the name of Eclipse. The Swedish band’s first two albums — 2001’s self titled debut and 2003’s The Beyond — slowly gained attention in underground circles and among the press.

Beginning with their breakthrough, third album 2004’s Salvation, the members of Cult of Luna, released a string of critically applauded albums that included 2006’s Somewhere Along The Highway, 2008’s Eternal Kingdom and 2013’s Vertikal. The band capped off a busy year, which included extensive European touring and the release of the Vertikal II EP, a companion effort that featured three songs recorded during the Vertikal sessions and dropped from the album and a remix of album single “Vicarious Redemption” by Justin Broadrick.

Shortly after the release of the Vertikal II EP, the band went on hiatus. Although they didn’t publicly announce it until 2016, during the recording sessions and tours to support Vertikal, the band went through two major lineup changes: The band’s original keyboardist Anders Teglund left the band during the Vertikal sessions and was replaced by the pg.lost’s Krisitian Karlsson. Founding member Erik Olofsson (guitar) left the band after their Beyond the Redshift Festival appearance in 2014. Olofsson was released by Kongh‘s David Johansson.

2016 saw the release of the Swedish post-metal outfit Mariner, an effort that found the band collaborating with Made Out of Babies‘ and Battle of Mice‘s Julie Christmas. While Vertikal thematically was city and industrial-based, Mariner, explored themes related to outer space and space travel.

Before the release of Mariner, the members of the Swedish post-metal outfit had begun writing material for what would be their eighth album. The end result was 2019’s critically applauded A Dawn to Fear an album that landed on Loudwires’ 50 Best metal albums of that year.

Over the course of their two decade run, Cult of Luna’s sound has moved from being heavily doom metal-influenced to a sound centered around lush orchestration — and more towards post-metal, progressive metal and even sludge metal. Sonically, they’re best known for crafting long. slow-burning songs featuring crushingly heavy and distorted guitar-driven sections, interspersed with with orchestral interludes and extended post-rock-like forays.

They’ve long eschewed conventional song structures, opting for a sound that tends to evolve throghout a song, sometimes towards a climatic crescendo, instead of say, a verse-chorus-verse pattern. And as a result, their work has been compared to Isis, Callisto, Pelican and even Neurosis.

Slated for a February 11, 2022 release through Metal Blade Records, Cult of Luna’s ninth album The Long Road North continues a run of material centered around shifting dynamics and sonic density — but perhaps even more so with The Long Road, an effort that featured guest spots from composer Colin Stetson, Pheonix‘s Christian Mazzalai and Laurent Brancowitz and Wildbirds And Peacedrums’ Mariam Wallentin. “It’s a big and cinematic sounding album,.” Cult of Luna’s Johannes Persson says in press notes. “I think one of the reasons why we have been able to be so productive the last couple of years is that we have been consistently writing from the heart. We have let our instincts guide us, and I think it’s getting clearer where we are heading.”

“The long road north is a long road home. A direction dictated by a call that penetrates rock and echoes through the forest,” Persson continues. “It flows over every lake, accelerated by the wind. When it reaches you, you know it’s time. Time to move forward. You don’t know where it will lead but you put the trust in it. With eyes raised towards the midnight sun it pulls you closer. The road is long and the end is uncertain.”

Clocking in at a little under seven minutes The Long Road‘s latest single “Into the Night” is a slow-burning and dreamy song that begins with a lengthy strummed, reverb-drenched guitar and vocal-based introduction before the addition of glistening keys that lead into an extended shoegazer-like section with swirling guitars and thunderous drumming before ending with howling feedback. The seemingly disparate yet hauntingly gorgeous parts are held together by Frederik Kihlberg’s plaintive yet sonorous baritone, which kind of sounds a bit like JOVM mainstay Mark Lanegan to me. But at it’s core is the yearning and desperate search for something — or someone — that’s been lost, perhaps forever.

“‘Into the Night’ is about the search for something or someone that’s been lost. It’s about being in the state between conscious and unconscious, awake and dreaming,” the band’s Frederik Kihlberg explains. “Seeing, hearing and experiencing things and not knowing if it’s real or imagination.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Led by founder and creative mastermind L.G. Galleon, the Brooklyn-based music and art collective, and longtime JOVM mainstays Dead Leaf Echo emerged into the shoegaze scene with their full-length debut, 2013’s Thought and Language, an album deeply influenced by 4AD Records — with the album mixed by John Fryer, and artwork by 4AD’s legendary designer, V23’s Vaughan Oliver.

Since the release of their debut effort, the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays have developed and maintained a distinctive ethos in which they embrace their influences while forging ahead with their own sound. 

Back in 2019, the members of Dead Leaf Echo had wrapped up a West Coast tour, which featured a performance on on KEXP’s John in the Morning. They returned home to New York to begin recording their highly-anticipated — and long-awaited — third album The Mercy of Women. As Dead Leaf Echo were preparing the album for release last year, with plans for a European tour that fall to support it, L.G. Galleon went on tour with his other project Clone, just before COVID-19 pandemic struck across the world. 

Galleon wound up retreating to the Poconos, where his friends The Stargazer Lilies have a compound. While staying with The Stargazer Lillies, Galleon began writing new material, which eventually would comprise their forthcoming EP Milk.Blue.Kisses.and Whalebone.Wishes. Much like countless other acts across the globe, the members of the Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays recorded the EP’s material virtually — with material recorded at home and the practice studio. James Arapacio mixed the EP’s title track while Galleon produced the remaining five EP tracks. Charles Neiland mastered the EP. 

Slated for a January 21, 2022 digital and vinyl release through Moon Sound Records, Milk.Blue.Kisses and Whalebone.Wishes will feature artwork from V23’s Timothy O’Donnell. Thematically, the album touches upon anxiety, sex and never selling your worth for less than its true value. “Overloading your body with sex is both a physical act and a drug that can simultaneously stimulate and depredate your physical and mental well being,” Dead Leaf Echo’s Galleon says in press notes. “The over sexualization of America can often be an unconscious struggle in the dream of everlasting beauty that is sold to the youth in this world. This is a call to realization of our role as consumers and how it could possibly ruin our place in society.”

Sonically, the EP is a bit of a departure from the JOVM mainstays’ previously released material with the effort being much more ambient and relaxed. Each song title is a play on words of the EP’s title with themes of winter, ice and the female form represented in some form. 

Late last year, I wrote about the EP,’s first single, the slow-burning “Milk.Blue.Kisses,” a song that brought Garlands era Cocteau Twins but with an uneasy and desperate yearning at its core. The EP’s second and latest single “And.Projecting.Windows.Of.Ice.And.Misconduct” is a slow-burning and brooding instrumental centered around shimmering and swirling, reverb-drenched guitars, thunderous drumming, industrial clang and clatter and delicate percussion. The end result is a song that — to me, at least — evokes brisk wintry days and nights with the gentle crunch of snow at your feet. But just under the surface, a hint of recrimination and accusation.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalists, producers and siblings Ryan and Joey Selan are the creative masterminds behind the rising indie rock/indie pop outfit The Lagoons. With the release of their debut single “California,” which was written, recorded and produced out of their home studio, the duo quickly established a sound that featured their unique blend of a number of different genres and styles.

Since its release, “California” has amassed over 50 million Spotify streams, appeared in the Netflix series Easy, a BMW ad campaign with Kate Upton, a Seiko Australia ad and featured on product placement in Bose stores globally. The duo quickly followed that up with the Gems EP and Escape EP.

Building upon a growing profile, the Los Angeles-based sibling duo have completed two national headlining tours with Tim Atlas and Future Generations as openers. Interestingly, those two tours have helped the Selan Brothers become a must-see act — thanks in part to a live set that features live looping and electronic elements, a live drummer, and the duo effortlessly switching between instruments.

With the release of their critically applauded, full-length debut, 2020’s Midnight Afternoon, the duo’s growing catalog has received praise from the music cognoscenti while being added to over 100,000 Spotify playlists including New Music Friday, Ultimate Indie, Essential Indie, Hanging Out and Relaxing, Indie Rock Road Trip, The Ones That Got Away, Late Night Vibes and more. NPR has also included the duo in their heavy rotation for “10 Songs Public Radio Can’t Stop Playing,” along with their Song of the Day.

Released last week, The Lagoons’ sophomore album Daybreak is influenced by the state of our world over the couple of years. Thematically, the album touches upon love, resolution, hope and desire on a hero’s journey to look forward, rather than be stuck in the past.

Daybreak‘s latest single, the slow-burning and cinematic “Long Road To Nowhere” sees the duo pairing atmospheric synths, glistening guitars, twinkling keys and achingly plaintive song that sonically brings JOVM mainstays Washed Out, ACES and Cones to mind. And while initially being brooding and melancholic, the song slowly builds up to a positive conclusion — the hope that while things are profoundly difficult, that there’s a light at the end of the proverbial tunnel.

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Giulia and Paxtech Give Mark Wise’s “Rumble in the Jungle” a Slick Remix

Mark Pompeo is a New Jersey-based electronic music producer, best known as Mark Wise. Pompeo emerged into the electronic music and techno scenes with 2017’s Loco Motive EP, a collaboration with Mike Stein. 

The New Jersey-based producer’s debut 2018’s Blizzard EP was released through Reflekt Records. And since then, Pompeo has been remarkably prolific, releasing material that sees him blending elements of minimal, progressive techno, house and heavy metal while receiving support from the likes of Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin, Cristian Varela, Spartaque, Lisa Lashes, Phaedon, Vikthor, Illario Alicante, and DJ Dialog. 

Continuing his prolific streak, Pompeo begins this year with the Rumble in the Jungle EP, which was released this week through Beatport, YouTube, and SoundCloud with a Spotify release on January 16, 2022, along with remixes from Giulia & Paxtech and Sisko Electrofanatic. Yesterday, I wrote about EP title track “Rumble in the Jungle,” an expansive banger that saw the rising New Jersey-based producer meshing elements of trance, techno, jungle house and deep house in an accessible, crowd pleasing fashion.

The digital release will also feature, a remix of “Rumble in the Jungle,” by Giulia and Paxtech. While retaining the original’s melodic breakdown and relentless tweeter and woofer rattling thump, the remix places in a new context — trippy high energy, acid techno with a subtle cosmic sheen paired with sampled vocals.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Delvon Lamarr Trio Releases a Strutting and Soulful Bit of Funk

Acclaimed Seattle-based soul jazz outfit Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio formed back in 2015 and currently features:

  • Delvon Lamarr, a self-taught virtuosic musician, with perfect pitch, who taught himself jazz — and can play several different instruments, besides organ
  • Jimmy James, a guitarist, whose style meshes acid rock freak outs with slinky jazz
  • Dan Weiss, the Reno, NV-born drummer, the band’s new full-time drummer, who’s best known for his work with the soul and funk collective The Sextones

Since their formation, the Seattle-based trio has released two albums of what the band dubs “feel good music” that includes 2018’s full-length debut, Close But No Cigar and last year’s critically and commercially successful sophomore effort I Told You So, which debuted on the top of multiple Billboard Charts: #1 on the Contemporary Jazz Album Chart, #3 on the Jazz Album Chart, #4 on the Tastemaker Album Chart, and #12 on the Heatseaker Album Chart.

I Told You So also received praise by Under the Radar, AllMusic, American Songwriter, Popmatters, KEXP, Live For Live Music, Jazziz, Jambase, Glide Magazine and NPR, who named it one of their favorite albums of the first half of last year.

Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio’s third album Cold As Weiss is slated for a February 11, 2022 release through Colemine Records. Cold As Weiss is the first recorded output with Weiss, the band’s newest member. And while finding the band at its tightest, the album reportedly finds the band continuing to push funky instrumental music to a new generation of fans.

“Don’t Worry ‘Bout What I Do,” Cold As Weiss‘ second and latest single derives its title from a quote by the band’s Jimmy James. “No matter what you say to this cat, ‘Yo bro, your butt crack is showing,’ he always says the same thing: ‘Man . . . don’t worry ’bout what i do,” the band’s Delvon Lamarr explains. “Don’t Worry ‘Bout What I Do” is an old-school pimp strut, centered around an expansive arrangement featuring Weiss’ quickly building up a tight, rhythmic swing, Lamarr’s sultry organ lines and James’ psych rock-like guitar lines. The end result is a composition that seems indebted to the likes of The Meters and Booker T and the MGs.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: New Jersey’s Mark Wise Releases a Thumping Banger

Mark Pompeo is a New Jersey-based electronic music producer, best known as Mark Wise. Pompeo emerged into the electronic music and techno scenes with 2017’s Loco Motive EP, a collaboration with Mike Stein.

The New Jersey-based producer’s debut 2018’s Blizzard EP was released through Reflekt Records. And since then, Pompeo has been remarkably prolific, releasing material that sees him blending elements of minimal, progressive techno, house and heavy metal while receiving support from the likes of Marco Carola, Richie Hawtin, Cristian Varela, Spartaque, Lisa Lashes, Phaedon, Vikthor, Illario Alicante, and DJ Dialog.

Continuing his prolific streak, Pompeo begins this year with the Rumble in the Jungle EP, which was released this week through Beatport, YouTube, and SoundCloud with a Spotify release on January 16, 2022, along with remixes from Giulia & Paxtech and Sisko Electrofanatic. Rumble in the Jungle EP‘s latest single, EP title track “Rumble in the Jungle” is an expansive banger centered around relentless, tweeter and woofer rattling thump, industrial clang and clatter, glistening synth arpeggios, animal nosies and a euphoric hook. Sonically, the song sees the rising New Jersey-based producer meshing elements of trance, techno, jungle house and deep house in an accessible, crowd pleasing fashion.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Chris Sherman is a Cincinnati-born and-based bassist, best known as Freekbass. Sherman, who graduated from his hometown’s School for Creative and Performing Arts started his career in earnest, when Bootsy’s Rubber Band vocalist Gary “Mudbone” Cooper recruited Sherman to record a track, which would appear on a Jimi Hendrix tribute compilation.

Sherman was introduced to the legendary Bootsy Collins, who had given him his stage name. In 1992, Sherman along with guitarist Chris Donnelly formed SHAG. Two years, later the band released their debut effort, Bootsy Collins Presents SHAG Live.

In 1998 Freekbass went solo, releasing his full-length debut, 1998’s Ultra-Violet Impact. Since then, the Cincinnati-born and -based bassist has gone to release seven more albums leading his own band, including 2019’s All the Way This. All the Way That.

Freekbass begins 2022 with the Eddie Roberts-produced “Under Krameria,” a swaggering and strutting bit of gritty funk that seems indebted to Funkadelic and Mandrill, centered around Freekbass’ thumping bass playing creating woozy melodies, Sky White’s soaring organ chords and some old school breakbeats. It’s the sort of soundtrack for strutting down the street in your finest threads.

After the session, the band was waiting for a title to come to them and found their van stopping under the Krameria street sign in Denver. As the story goes, the band realized that this odd bit of happenstance worked. It also manages to mirror, the song’s organic nature.