Tag: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: grandson Returns with Bruising and Anthemic “GOD IS AN ANIMAL”

Jordan Benjamin is the Los Angeles-based creative mastermind behind the rising indie rock project grandson. Benjamin’s highly-anticipated sophomore grandson album, the Mike Crossey-produced INERTIA is slated for a September 5, 2025 release through XX Records/Create Music. The album reportedly marks an urgent, unfiltered chapter for Benjamin as an artist and songwriter, who’s operating on his own terms and speaking truth to power. 

Earlier this summer, I wrote about INERTIA‘S second single, “SELF IMMOLATION,” an urgent and impassioned Rage Against the Machine-meets-Incubus-era nu metal bruiser that thematically saw the rising Los Angeles-based artist unpacking what it means to have a cause to fight –and potentially die for.

Inertia’s third and latest single “GOD IS AN ANIMAL” continues a run of urgent and impassioned, mosh pit friendly rippers that seemingly channels RATM while thematically questioning what it means to be truly civilized, essentially questioning how civilized our society really is — or isn’t. If you’re enraged by the overwhelming cruelty and brutality of the status quo, this song is for you.

“Years ago while on tour I had this idea for a musical based off of George Orwell’s 1984, where a farm animal realizes to run the farm it has to move like a human,” Jordan Benjamin says. “After a couple iterations of that, I decided to release the title track from it on INERTIA, and trust that if that project is meant to be, it’ll find its way to the light someday. It’s certainly a fitting concept for the present moment in time. After all, we live in a ruthless world, supposedly ‘civilized’, where the dominating nations and religions scrapped their way to the top through the savage rule of the animal kingdom. We’re ultimately just apes, too smart (or stupid) for our own good.”

Directed by Joe Weil, the accompanying video for “GOD IS AN ANIMAL” is shot in a lushly cinematic Black and White that features Benjamin and the two funereally dressed women from the “SELF IMMOLATION” video rocking out to the song. The women’s interpretive dance, mimics the extraordinarily ordinariness of animalistic violence in our world.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Friendship Commanders Share Two More Fierce, Earnest Anthems

Nashville-based duo and JOVM mainstays Friendship Commanders — Buick Audra (vocals, guitar) and Jerry Roe (drums, bass) — will be releasing their fourth album BEAR on October 10 through their new label home Magnetic Eye Records. 

Co-produced by the duo and their longtime collaborator Kurt Ballou, who also tracked the instrumental performances and mixed the material, BEAR’s songs are unified in a theme that runs throughout in various ways: the ever-elusive idea of belonging, where it occurs and where it absolutely doesn’t. 

Written around the realization that she had essentially been kicked out of womanhood, Friendship Commanders’ Buick Audra wrote BEAR‘s material as a way to document her awarenesses while cataloging other areas of human connection: art, outsider culture, and dark rock venues — all places where empathy and creativity grow wild. She and her bandmate Jerry Roe arranged and performed the album specifically to have two sides to it musically: heavy and light. Salt and sugar. Fire and air. Lost and found. 

Last month, the JOVM mainstays excitedly shared two singles from the forthcoming album: “MELT,” a breakneck yet bold, heart-worn-on sleeve anthem that expresses the sense of betrayal, confusion and heartbreak in a sort of et tu Brute? moment. “KEEPING SCORE,” a defiant war cry of an adult, who has learned to parent and protect her childhood self — and an adult who is willing and able to defend young girls, who remind her of her younger self from the insults and ill-treatment she received when she was their age.

Building upon the momentum of the forthcoming album’s first two singles, the Nashville-based JOVM mainstays have shared two more singles: “X,” continues a remarkable run of bruising yet proudly heart worn on sleeve anthems, rooted in lived-in personal experiences. In the case of “X,” the song is built and informed by the bitter ache of unexpected and tragically unfair loss of a dear one, way too soon.

Written a few weeks after the sudden death of the band’s longtime friend and collaborator Steve Albini, Buick Audra says, ” I was grieving, but I was also watching a generation grieve in ways I’d observed my whole life—stoically, strongly, sentimentally, and somewhat individually. This song is a loving send-up to that lost generation. We wanted the track and visuals to honor some of the artists who raised us creatively, including Steve. The camera I’m holding in the second verse was his. Very moving to have and include it here. He was a young Boomer, but the absolute King of Gen X. Missed and loved.”

“MIDHEAVEN” is arguably one of the more widescreen songs of their growing catalog, a song loose enough that it lets the forceful and dexterous instrumentation and Audra’s powerhouse vocals breath while continuing to showcase the duo’s unerring knack for crafting arena rock hooks and choruses. “MIDHEAVEN goes wider; it gets into this idea of being born under a certain set of stars, and whether or not that has anything to do with who we are. As a person who feels like a lifelong misfit with a nature I can’t seem to change, I’m curious about where that starts. Is it written from the start? I’m willing to believe anything at this point. Some days, it’s tempting to blame it all on the sky.”

“I wanted the video for ‘X’ to have the vibe and look of those by our favorite bands from the Gen X/Grunge era while still being its own thing, so it’s lit, shot and performed in a way that honors that spirit without aping anything too closely (hopefully)! Everyone wanted to appear tough and cool while also not seeming to take what they were doing too seriously.” Friendship Commanders’ Jerry Roe says of the video for “X.” “There’s such a particular mood of the era that no one has captured since. It was the best time for the medium of music videos honestly, and it was a lot of fun to try and channel it. I find it moving to watch in a way that surprises me.”

“‘MIDHEAVEN’ stands out in our discography for being so instrumentally driven. The vocals and melody are just as integral a part of the song as any song in our repertoire, but large portions of this track are just the two of us ripping at each other and it’s an absolute blast to listen to and play.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Winter Teams Up With Tanukichan on Woozy “Hide-A-Lullaby”

Currently, based here in New York, Samira Winter, best known as the mononymic Winter, is a Curitiba, Brazil-born, singer/songwriter, guitarist and bandleader, who cut her teeth playing in her first bands in Boston. Winter relocated to Los Angeles in 2013 and fell in love with the city. She quickly found a sense of belonging in its DIY rock community – the basement of her longtime Echo Park home was host to countless shows and even her first practices — and she grew attached to the city’s cosmic, inspiring aura. But at a certain point, the Brazilian-born artist craved a change of scenery to facilitate self-growth, a painful but necessary realization that inspired — and brought about — a move to NYC.

2022’s What Kind of Blue Are You? was in her words “a total reset” — a dark, healing and intensely personal effort. which firmly cemented the Brazilian-born artist’s unique musical language. As she was beginning to confront the end of her decade-plus long stint in Los Angeles, she was overcome by waves of memories and nostalgia, which helped to stir feelings of deep, pure-hearted reverence for her 20s — catching shows at The Echo, driving through Southern California, the seemingly never ending sun. . .

Winter’s highly-anticipated, Joo Joo Ashworth-produced Adult Romantix is slated for an August 22, 2025 release through her new label home Winspear. Instead of exorcising personal demons, the Brazilian-born artist visited the ghosts of heartfelt memories, which had spilled into her present reality. Chronically an emotional cross-country move, the album was written across a two year period in which she found herself in a transitory, almost nomadic state: frequently in between tours, in different cities and in various sublets. In many ways, the album is reportedly a farewell love letter to her time in Los Angeles — and perhaps to her 20s. Winter describes the album as a “tunneler of summers and memories” inspired by romantic-period books like Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and 90s rom-coms, with the material indulging in heady melodrama and romantic and platonic longing — while embracing a lighthearted, youthful innocence.

Adult Romantix‘s final, pre-release single “Hide-A-Lullaby” feat. Tanukichan is a smoldering and woozy bit of dream pop that channels 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock, while seemingly evoking the dizzying giddiness of a summer love affair that you hope will last forever — even if you know, deep down, that nothing lasts forever.

“The song explores themes of the inner self-sabotager, the secrets hidden in the corners of the mind, and the dark forest as a symbol for the subconscious,” Winter explains. “It was amazing to have Hannah van Loon (Tanukichan) sing this one with me—her velvety, whispery voice perfectly complements the song’s haunted, mysterious romantic imagery.”

The accompanying video directed by David Milan Kelly features the band performing in the L.A. river, interspersed with narrative sections inspired by the album’s fictional story of an indie rock romance set during a lost L.A. summer. The second half of the video features documentary-styled interviews with Winter and local visual artists discussing their creative processes and inspirations.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ivy Shares Breezy, Motown-Inspired “Heartbreak”

Formed back in 1994, the acclaimed and beloved indie rock outfit Ivy featured Andy Chase, Dominque Durand and the late Adam Schlesinger. Understandably, Durand and Chase assumed that Ivy was in the rearview after Schlesinger […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Street Eaters Return with Doom-Tinged and Witchy “Spectres”

Oakland-based post punk outfit Street Eaters — co-founders Megan March (vocals, drums) and John No (bass, vocals), along with Joan Toledo (guitar) — will be releasing their long-awaited and highly-anticipated fifth album, Opaque on September 5, 2025 through Dirt Cult Records. The seven-song album reportedly sees the trio attempting to stitch up the bloody wounds of their past while being a meditation on birth, death, excavated trauma, and trying to find steadfast kinfolk in a world that’s increasingly splintered, fucked up and cruel. 

Much like all of us, Street Eaters have been through the wringer a bit since 2017’s The Envoy. 

The band’s guitarist Joan Toledo, left a transphobic family and government in her native Florida, eventually relocating to San Francisco, where they became an editor at Maximum Rocknroll Magazine and a radical union organizer at the world famous City Lights Books. 

The band’s front woman Megan March had a child. And while becoming a mother was, as she puts it, “an incredible joy and opportunity to rewire emotional pathways and deep wounds,” it was also a reminder of her own childhood: March’s mother was violently homophobic and eventually threw Megan and her teenage sister — both queer — from their childhood home. 

For March, childbirth was both a traumatizing and transformational experience. Ironically born on July 4, her baby immediately entered a world steeped in bureaucracy: The hospital was so understaffed that March was neglected until the last moment and was forced to endure an emerging C-section. “I was borderline dehumanized by the toxic, misogynistic nature of the American medical system and its focus on efficiency and profit before care,” she says. 

“Opaque is a record that gets deep into the stark and beautiful reality of growth and transition from trauma and loss,” Street Eaters’ March explains. “What does it mean to wake up one day and realize you are living the way you have always demanded to live  — yet with all those jagged piles of emotional, physical, and social/political baggage still slicing through the veil?” The album isn’t just confrontational; it’s complicated. It sees the band, much like the rest of us, groping towards identity, understanding, and a place in the world in the process of being curated. “It’s a transition into finding peace with the world — a resonant connection with community and chosen family, getting beyond a lot of the pain and hurt,” the band’s John No says. “We’re trying to suture up wounds at this point and create something that’s healthy.”

Last month, I wrote about Opaque‘s first single “Tempers,” a furious, adrenaline pumping ripper that as March explains is about “being in isolation and not being sure what the future is going to be like and how things will be when the storm is over.”  The album’s second and latest single “Spectres” is a doom-tinged, witchy incantation that’s deceptively belies its sweet and deeply loving core. The song’s narrator processes their complicated past while reflecting on healthy parenthood, striving to imbue love, caring and positive direction for their child — with the understanding that she also has to empower the child to be their own person. “I’m working to create a much better emotional landscape for my son o grow in — to find both understanding and healing from the breakage of cycles of abuse and isolation,” the band’s Megan March says.

Filmed by Joey Lusteman and John No, the accompanying video for “Spectres” is split between footage of the band performing in a small club and of March locking herself out in an industrial wasteland, trying to figure her way out.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Allegories Shares Broodingly Eerie “Stay Out Of The Basement”

Since the release of 2022’s Endless, the Canadian experimental pop duo and JOVM mainstays  Allegories — childhood friends Adam Bentley and Jordan Mitchell — have released a growing collection of standalone singles, including the first cover of their history, their take on Talk Talk’s 1984 smash-hit “It’s My Life” and “DREAMCRUSHER.“

The duo’s latest single “Stay Out Of The Basement” sees the duo mischievously blurring the lines between playful fantasy and broodingly eerie undertone, anchored around Bentley’s plaintive Thom Yorke-like delivery ethereally floating over a minimalist production featuring skittering beats and swirling. reverb-soaked, shoegazer-textured synths. The song evokes the simultaneous feeling of snuggling in a warm blanket — but then feeling something grab at your toes.

“‘Stay Out Of The Basement’ is the second in a series of songs that started on ukulele—but this one took a left turn. I wrote the original idea, dropped it into Pro Tools, and handed it off to Jordan. Usually, we keep parts of that first take—vocals, lyrics, melodies—but in this case, none of it made the cut.

The original version had solid ideas, but it didn’t fit the new direction. The vibe, the vocal phrasing—it just didn’t connect. So we started fresh. What you hear now is entirely built around Jordan’s instrumental, and the final vocal fits it naturally.

Each song in this series lands somewhere different. Some stay true to the original demo, others evolve into something completely new. ‘Stay Out Of The Basement’ is one of the rare ones that left the ukulele version behind entirely.”

The accompanying visual features the duo performing the song in studio, as reel-to-reel tape machines run. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sol ChYld Teams Up with Kaicrewsade on Soulful and Lived In “Travel Size”

Camden, NJ-based emcee Sol ChYld exploded into the national scene with 2023’s Something Came To Me, which featured the viral single “NBC.” Since then, the Camden-based artist has been busy: She toured with Erick the Architect, premiered a new song “PSA” in a n attention-grabbing COLORS Session and shared the “On the Radar,” freestyle, which helped bolster a growing profile.

Sol Child’s highly-anticipated third album REBIRTH. Theory is slated for a September 26, 2025 release through MNRK Music Group. The 10-track album reportedly sees the New Jersey-based artist at the peak of her powers as a lyricist and curator, collaborating with DRAM, Kaicrewsade, Kingsley Ibeneche and Eric Scott — all while eschewing the use of samples. The Dissect Podcast once compared to her to a young Kendrick Lamar, but REBIRTH. Theory sees her continuing in a more neo-soul leaning tradition of earnest, deeply felt lyricism and creativity of the likes of Eyrkah Badu, André 3000, Lauryn Hill and others.

REBIRTH. Theory‘s latest single “Travel Size,” features a vibey, neo-soul-tinged jazz groove-driven arrangement with skittering beats that serve as a lush and soulful bed for Sol ChYld and Chicago-based emceee and community organizer Kaicrewsade to spit the sort of conscious, deeply lived-in bars that would remind folks of Common, Black Thought, Mos Def and the like.

Directed by frequent collaborator Wayne Campbell, the accompanying video is a gorgeously shot and vivid visual shot in and around Camden and nearby Philadelphia.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Big Wild Teams Up With Phantogram on Slinky and Dance Floor Friendly “Too Loud”

Jackson Stell is a rising producer and artist, who initially started his career in his native Massachusetts as hip-hop producer, known as J Beatz. Following a life-altering trip to Big Sur, Stell switched creative lanes, adopting influences from the area’s natural beauty and open spaces. As Big Wild, the Massachusetts-based artist refines alt/indie electronic music by blending organic elements, lush soundscapes with bold, genre-defying creativity and panache. 

Stell’s breakthrough was back in 2015 when he toured with acclaimed electronic outfit Odesza and remixed “Say My Name.” That year also saw the release of “Aftergold,” feat. Tove Stryke, which stopped the Spotify Global Viral charts. 

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, Stell followed up with 2017’s Invincible EP and his full-length debut, 2019’s Superdream, which saw the Massachusetts-born artist taking on the roles of singer/songwriter for the first time, while blending indie, electronic and disco influences. Stell supported Superdream with extensive touring across the US, European Union and UK while helping to establish his reputation as an innovative and boundary-pushing artist. 

His sophomore Big Wild album, 2022’s The Efferusphere saw Stell continuing to explore and push the boundaries of genre and emotion. 

The past few months have been busy for Stell: Earlier this year, he released -the first bit of new material since The Efferusphere — “Love Any Longer,” “You Belong Here,” and “The Universe” feat. feat. iDA HAWK,  a sprawling dance music track that mischievously nods at James Bond-thriller-like soundtracks, cinematic psych soul and British Big Beat fueled by an infectious optimism. All three of those previously released songs will appear on Stell’s highly-anticipated sophomore album, Wild Child. Slated for an August 29, 2025 release through Giant Music, Wild Child is reportedly one of Stell’s most dynamic and personal albums to date. After The Efferusphere, Stell found himself craving the curiosity and joy that initially drew him to music. 

That search let him to reconnect with his inner a child — a creative alter ego that he has dubbed Wild Child. The album’s material reportedly sees Stell creating a richer sonic palette that draws from and meshes elements of indie pop, psych rock and ’60s music. And throughout the album, Stell embraces the kind of playful and mischievous unpredictability informed from creating without constraints. 

Primarily written and produced by Stell alongside a close-knit cast of talented collaborators, Wild Child‘s material explores themes of renewal, resilience and connection to the Earth that simultaneously echo throughout the lyrics and sonic textures while striking a balance between childlike wonder and the hard-fought wisdom of maturity. “Wild Child runs throughout the album and is fighting to stay alive and thriving despite the things the world throws at us,” Stell says. “The album’s about exploring that side of ourselves that we don’t explore much as we age. I think we’re often pushed to repress that part of ourselves when we get older, because it’s deemed silly or irresponsible, but I’ve realized that maturity is about balancing both aspects of ourselves.” 

Wild Child‘s latest single “Too Loud” feat. Phantogram is a slinky, dance floor friendly bop that showcases Stell’s unerring knack for crafting incredibly catchy hooks. Anchored around the same playful and upbeat sensibility of its immediate predecessors, “Too Loud” feat. Phantogram may arguably be the most 80s sounding track of the album to date, managing to channel Rockwell’s “Somebody’s Watching Me,” and the like. 

“I first made the demo while I was making The Efferusphere. I can’t really pinpoint inspiration besides following what excites me,” Stell says. ” I try to trust that feeling and not overthink it. As simple as the demo sounded, there was something that consistently grabbed me when I listened back. It was sexy and ethereal. I was hung up on the second verse and the lyrics until I was connected with Sarah from Phantogram. Her voice was perfect and was the last big piece to the puzzle. She smashed it and my team and I were so stoked to work with her. I remember the head of the label, Nate Albert, telling me the song needed to be finished in a week to make it to vinyl. It’s such a cliche when finishing an album, but this truly was one of those songs submitted in the final hour in a mad hellish dash.” 

Stell continues, “Sarah’s voice was meant for this track, she really occupied the imaginary space of the track,Her tone and attitude was the perfect compliment [sic] to the production. Sexy and ethereal. I’m really excited for the day when we can play this one together on stage.”

“This song makes me want to roll the windows down and turn the volume all the way up,” Phantogram’s Sarah Berthel says. “Working with Jackson has been such a blast and we can’t wait to dance with you to this soon.”

Directed by Hunter Moreno, the accompanying video for “Too Wild” features Stell and Phantogram’s Sarah Barthel driving through a psychedelic racing through a psychedelic, anime-like night time scene.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Los Angeles’ Dear Boy Teams Up with Rocket on Anthemic “After All”

Los Angeles-based indie outfit Dear Boy — founding members Ben Grey (vocals, guitar) and Keith Cooper (drums) alongside Austin Hayman (lead guitar) and Lucy Lawrence (bass, vocals) — can trace their origins back to when its founding members Grey and Cooper were living in London during their mid-twenties. The band’s Hayman and Lawrence joined once the duo returned to the States. Interestingly, despite their Stateside roots, the Los Angeles-based quartet’s work has drawn from ’80s and ’90s Brit pop and shoegaze — with the band citing Pulp, Oasis, Slowdive and The Jesus and Mary Chain as major influences, while also embracing the likes of Pixies and R.E.M.

The band’s sophomore album sophomore album, the Aron Kobayashi Ritch-produced Celebrator is slated for an October 17, 2025 release through Last Gang Records. Following the success of their full-length debut, 2022’s Forever Sometimes, the band took a step back from perfectionist production practices and leaned into spontaneity. Written in 12 sessions and recorded live in under two weeks, the album’s material reportedly bristles with a palpable energy while showcasing the band’s musical and creative chemistry. “We made this album to remember why we do this in the first place,” the band says. “Because we love it. We adore each other. Joy. Connection. Heartbreak. Celebration. We’re not interested in anything other than that.”

Celebrator‘s first single, “After All,” features Rocket’s Alithea Tuttle. Anchored around rousingly a rousingly anthemic hook and chorus, the new single immediately brings 120 Minutes-era MTV and 90s Brit Pop to mind while arguably being the most straightforward, bombastic rocker of their growing catalog to date. “It is crazy to have been a band for this long without contributing a primal-teenage-bedroom-rock riff. Happy to finally right a wrong,” the band’s frontman Ben Grey says.

The collaboration with Rocket can be traced to a deep and genuine friendship. “We first played with Rocket on New Year’s Eve a few years ago and became fast friends. We’re both from the Valley, went to the same pre-school, a tale as old as time,” Grey explains. “But truly, they’re an important band, and I think Alithea has one of the defining rock voices of this generation. We feel so honored she sang on ‘After All’. It’s the Catherine Wheel/Throwing Muses moment we’ve always dreamed of.”

Directed by the band’s Ben Grey, the accompanying video for “After All” is fittingly, a decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV-like visual that’s a slick mix of old super 8-shot home videos of family gatherings and celebrations with footage of the band playing in a studio amidst a storm of confetti.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Wombo Shares Nervous “S.T. Tilted”

Since their formation back in 2016, Louisville-based trio Wombo — Sydney Chadwick (vocals, bass), Cameron Lowe (guitar) and Joel Taylor (drums) — have carved out a unique lane for themselves, contorting post-punk structures into uncanny shapes. And with their Danger in Fives, which is slated for an August 8, 2025 release through Fire Talk, reportedly sees the band not only enhancing their formula, but routinely perfecting them.

To ace their techniques, the Louisville-based trio had to tear them apart first. Long-held , standardized practices of writing and workshopping material in Joel Taylor’s post-war basement rehearsal space were paused while the band explored different writing process. And that experimentation results in the band showcasing some subtle shifts and additions to their sonic palette, including digital texture and the incorporation of drum machine on a couple of tracks. The band’s desire to change their model was in part to “get away from a results mindset, where it’s about producing things for a certain expectation instead of doing it all for the joy of exploring,” the band’s Cameron Lowe says. Adds the band’s Chadwick, “I don’t want to be in a band that’s confined to one form of writing. Where’s the fun and the creativity and the exploration in that? You have to push yourself and try something new.”

Danger in Fives final advance single, “S.T. Titled,” sees the band at their distilled, purest essence. Anchored around Lowe’s angular, off-kilter bursts of scratchy guitar, Taylor’s skeletal yet propulsive drumming and Chadwick’s supple bass lines, the song’s arrangement serves as a nervous and uneasy bed for Chadwick’s dreamily mesmerizing delivery. By contrasting the deeply nervous and uneasy with the seemingly calm, the song somehow manages to evoke our current nightmarish moment in which we’re all slowly losing our minds — and trying not to show it. But, as always cracks will show . . .

“It’s the first song we wrote after the Slab EP that made it on Danger in Fives,” the band’s Lowe says of the single. “We weren’t sure it was going to work, but all the contrasting parts ended up being cool. It’s rare for a Wombo song to be written on guitar first like this one, with some of the bass and drum parts jammed out in the basement afterwards. The wacky guitar part came last.”

Directed by the band’s Cameron Lowe, the accompanying video for “S.T. Titled,” continues a run of entirely self-produced videos. The video sees the band in a hand-made waiting room set, constructed by Lowe and Chadwick in Chadwick’s garage. The band is seen anxiously waiting in the waiting room — with the expected anxiousness and unease that waiting rooms entail.

The Louisville-based trio will be marking on a tour to support the new album. The tour includes a September 12, 2025 stop at Baby’s All Right and a September 14, 2025 stop at one of my favorite rooms in Montréal, L’Escogriffe. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: poor effort. Shares Throbbing “talking mouth (on & on)”

Salford, UK-based singer/songwriter Matty Dagger is the creative mastermind behind the rising British synth punk project poor effort. Emerging last year with a run of pithy singles that included “You’re Wrong, I’m Right (Symphony)” and “HRMC,” which received coverage from DIY Magazine and Louder Than War, as well as airplay on BBC 6 Music. Those two singles saw Dagger quickly establishing a sound and approach that saw him parting trippy beats and pencil-sketch riffs with relatable humor. While being a barrage against a surrender to bleakness and hopelessness, the Salford-based artist has specifically set out to cultivate a distinct environment of lo-fi storytelling.

The Salford-based artist built upon a growing profile by playing with a rotating cast of musicians in venues across the region, including Colours Hoxton and The Eagle Inn — with more shows scheduled throughout the rest of this year.

Dagger’s Dean Glover-produced poor effort self-titled EP reportedly sees him dipping in and out of alternative hip-hop, post-punk and electronica while inspired by Benefits, Sleaford Mods and Kate Tempest and lengthy lockdown periods in which he put self-taught production techniques and poetry to tape.

The debut EP is slated for an October 3, 2025 release through Manchester-based Home Taping in partnership with EMI North. The EP will feature the previously released “City of Hope,” which received airplay from BBC 6 Music, BBC Introducing Manchester and Radio X. The EP’s latest single “talking mouth (on & on)” continues a run of material anchored around a minimalist as maximalist ethos that reminds me a bit of JOVM mainstays The Vacant Lots. Featuring a throbbing and propulsive bass line, driving beats and a glistening synth melody, the song’s instrumentation serves as a woozy bed for Dagger’s laconic delivery.

Thematically, the song address the chaos of communication overload and how “conclusion arrives before irony does in the slow death of nuance,” according to Dagger.

“At first ‘talking mouth’ was a lot faster and more of a thrashy garage punk song, but I struggled to get the chorus to feel right at that pace. I slowed the tempo down and found that this let it breathe a lot more while still maintaining its distinct drive,” the rising Salford-based artist says. “The synth melody and sequencers then transformed the nature of the song completely. The initial recordings are still lying around somewhere, maybe I’ll put them on the bonus compilation in 2050.”

Fittingly, the accompanying video features Dagger and band performing in a studio, shot in a grainy security-style footage with an explosion of handwritten song lyrics and musings, typed out words, Polaroid photos and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Dutch Mustard Shares Breakneck and Escapist “Life”

Dutch-born, London-based artist Sarah-Jayne “SJ” Riedel is the creative mastermind behind the rising indie recording project Dutch Mustard. With Dutch Mustard, Riedel blends ethereal dream pop, 90s alt-rock with shoegaze touches to create a soundscape that features painterly and swirling guitar textures while the Dutch-born artist’s vocals drift between a near whisper and yearning, heavenly arching shouts. 

Riedel and Dutch Mustard exploded into the British scene with the release of 2022’s debut EP An Interpretation of Depersonalisation, an effort that was featured by the BBC while receiving airplay on BBC Radio 1’s Future Artists with Jack Saunders and a co-sign from the legendary Iggy Pop.

2023’s sophomore EP,  Beauty received airplay from BBC Radio 6’s Lauren Laverne and co-signs from Don Letts and Amy Lamé. Adding to a growing profile, The Independent, The Line of Best Fit, Clash, Dork and Notion have all covered her — and The Grammy Awards selected her a one of 6 Female Fronted Acts Reviving Rock, along with Wet Leg. 

Since then, the Dutch-born, London-based artist has been busy: She has released a couple of singles — two of which I’ve written about here: “Loser” and “Dreaming,” which was released earlier this year. She followed that up with her Stateside debut at The New Colossus Festival earlier this year. Building upon a growing international profile, Riedel’s latest single, the Dean James Barrett, Craigie Dodds and Riedel co-written “Life” is a breakneck, Brit Pop meets industrial punk-like track anchored around taut, skittering beats and buzzing power chord-driven riffs that continues a run of material that showcases her unerring knack for crafting catchy, rousingly anthemic hooks. While being one of the punchiest songs of her growing catalog, “Life,” as she says “is the soundtrack to that heartbreak you should’ve seen coming, when everything gets so chaotic and absurd, all you want to do is tap out for a minute.”

Directed by Josiah Newbolt, the accompanying video is split between gritty black and white shot footage of Riedel and her backing band out in the streets, as we follow her to a studio for a carefully choreographed dance routine. The result is an urgent and vivid fever dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Public Circuit Shares Twinkling and Percussive “To The Grave”

Although they formed back in 2023, rising New York-based electronic music trio Public Circuit — Ethan Beaumont (vocals), Sean Holloway (drums) and Nelson Fisher (electronics) — exploded into the scene with last year’s full-length debut, Lamb, which they supported with sold-out shows across 30 states, including a run of the domestic festival circuit with sets at New Colossus Festival, Hopscotch and MACROCK. Building upon a growing profile, the trio’s highly anticipated sophomore album Modern Church is slated for a September 12, 2025 release through à La Carte Records.

Modern Church reportedly sees the New York-based trio dismantling and reassembling post-punk with surgical precision. The pretense of retro revivalism is swapped out for something much sharper, darker — and entirely their own. Sonically rooted in the trio’s newfound sense of collaboration between each other, the album’s material features angular electronic instrumentation and raw percussive rhythms bathed with the high gloss ache of sophsitipop.

Thematically, the material is overtly religious. But it’s used as an analogically tool to explore sexual identity, the fleeting faith of society and the illicit repercussions of unresolved trauma. And much like its immediate predecessor, the new album continues a run of material deeply influenced by New York’s constant feed of noise and relentless energy.

Modern Church‘s second and latest single “To The Grave” sees the rising New York trio pairing twinkling synths with relentlessly driving rhythmic pulse in a way that reminds me a bit of Information Society’s “What’s On Your Mind (Pure Energy)” and Violator-era Depeche Mode while rooted in a deeply neurotic and unresolved tension — and a deep seated fear to live in one’s truth.

“Life is frail – Many people live a life where they never fully resolve trauma, hatred, etc., and, therefore, take it to the grave with them,” the members of Public Circuit explain. “Whether it be childhood trauma, gender expression / exploration, or failed romances; this song is inspired by moments left unresolved or, otherwise, unspoken.”

Shot on grainy VHS by Nara Avakian and edited by the band’s Ethan Biamont, the accompanying video for “To The Grave” follows the members of the band as they dig a grave and then bury a body in the woods — a secret that has to be kept until death.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New VIdeo: Tame Impala Shares Euphoric and Trippy “End Of Summer”

Tame Impala’s latest single “End Of Summer” is the first bit of new material from the acclaimed Aussie multi-instrumentalist, producer, and singer/songwriter Kevin Parker since 2020’s The Slow Rush — and is the first release on his new label home Columbia Records.

“End Of Summer” sees the Tame Impala mastermind pushing his acclaimed project into a completely new direction as the euphoric track channels acid house, deep house while still remaining trippy and mind-bending.

“End Of Summer” is accompanied by a narrative visual directed and edited by multi-disciplinary artist Julian Klincewicz that follows Parker in the creation of the song, while on an abandoned train car and wandering through the streets of a city in a fashion that kind of reminds me of Purple Rain.