Tag: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Homer Teams Up with girl named GOLDEN on Woozy “Wishing Well”

Acclaimed New York-born and-based drummer, songwriter and producer Homer Steinweiss has a storied career that started in earnest when he was just a teenager. He has been instrumental in helping bring the raw-but-receptive soul sound back into the mainstream through his work with Amy Winehouse, Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley. Steinwess has also been behind the kit for nearly every contemporary soul outfit that has mattered. 

The New York-born and-based musician is now one of the most in demand drummers in the world, playing with the likes of Clairo, Solange, Adele, Silk Sonic and Bruno Mars, among a lengthy list of others. And much like his longtime bandmate Dave Guy, Steinweiss is stepping into the spotlight as a both a musician and producer with Ensatina, his first solo album released under the moniker Homer. 

Slated for a November 15, 2024 release through Big Crown Records, Ensatina is reflection of who Steinweiss is now and a testament of how struggle often brings about much-needed changes. He was dealing with considerable emotional turbulence; at the same time that his band Holy Hive broke up, a long-personal relationship fell apart, putting him in an uncertain place mentally. The fallout was significant enough for him to seek professional help. “I was going through these super manic highs and then very depressive lows,” Steinweiss explains. “And being in all that, it’s just so tough to imagine that the other side is there, that it’ll be ok.” But, with time, professional help, and support from friends and family, Homer made it through and has been forever changed. This album is a product of that period of his life.

For Steinweiss, creating the album was a refuge, and it put him back on track. Creatives across the world have an innate understanding of that. But the album is also a glimpse into the different energies that influences that make the man and the artist tick. And fittingly, the album is the beginning of a new, interesting chapter of Steinweiss’ life and career. 

So far I’ve written about three of Ensatina‘s singles:

  • “Deep Sea,” feat. Hether, a slow-burning and woozy love song set over a hypnotic back beat, a gorgeous, dreamy trumpet line and a strummed acoustic guitar line. The lush and meditative arrangement compliments Hether’s dreamily romantic delivery and lyrics, which includes a sweet nod to Steinwess now wife. The song seems to suggest that when we’re struggling in life’s deep sea, love — in all of its forms — can be the lifeline. 

  • “Rollin‘” a lush and swaggering Quiet Storm-like soundscape with skittering and plinking 808s, broodingly regal horns, bursts of strummed guitar and KIRBY’s ethereal delivery, which alternates between scatting and cooing lyrics over the lush production. 

  • “So Get Up!,” a strutting and swaggering bit of hook-driven genre-blurring funk anchored around dusty and skittering boom bap, twinkling synth oscillations and glistening and arpeggiated synth melodies serving as a lush and euphoric bed for MINOVA’s and Michael Rault‘s ethereal and expressive deliveries. Sonically resembling a slick synthesis of 80s synth funk, Rush Midnight and Tame Impala, “So Get Up!” reveals an artist with an adept production style. 

Ensatina‘s fourth and latest single “Wishing Well” featuring girl named GOLDEN is a brooding track anchored around a trippy yet soulful groove that’s influenced by late Miles Davis-like jazz, electronic music, soul and trip-hop paired with skittering and chugging drums and glistening synths serving as a woozily lush soundscape for girl named GOLDEN’s sultry cooing. Much like its immediate predecessor, “Wishing Well” reveals an artist with a unique, playfully genre agnostic sound.

The song is accompanied by a trippy video featuring the album’s namesake lizard Ensatina, done in 3D animation by Alex Cascone.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: FACS Shares Angular “Wish Defense”

Back in 2013, Chicago-based post-punk act Disappears — founding member Brian Case (vocals, guitar) along with  Noah Leger (drums), Jonathan Van Herik (guitar) and Damon Carruesco (bass) — released two of my favorite efforts of the past decade or so: the atmospheric and tempestuous Kone EP and the tense, raging Era.

Damon Carruesco left the band in 2017. The band’s remaining members — Case, Leger and Van Herik — decided to continue onward, but under a new name and with a decidedly new sonic direction and songwriting approach as FACS.

With their FACS full-length debut, 2018’s Negative Houses, the trio quickly established an intense, cathartic, heavy sound — that’s not always obviously heavy. Since then the band has gone through a couple of lineup changes: Alianna Kalaba (bass) replaced van Herrik for a handful of the band’s albums. including last year’s Still Life in Decay, a decidedly focused effort that saw the band at what may arguably be their most solidified. The apocalyptic chaos of the album’s predecessor was pushed away in favor of examination with a remarkably uneasy clarity, while being a sort of addendum to 2021’s Present Tense. The album, which featured tracks like “When You Say” and “Slogan,” was the last album to feature Kalaba, who amicably left the band.

The Chicago-based post-punk outfit and JOVM mainstays’ sixth studio album Wish Defense is slated for a February 7, 2025 release on CD, cassette, black vinyl and a limited white vinyl variant while supplies last [pre-order] through Trouble In Mind Records.

The album marks the return of original band member Jonathan Van Herik, who replaces longtime bassist Alianna Kalaba. Van Herik’s return to the band reportedly brings renewed vigor and a marked angularity from the Chicago-based outfit’s more recent output. While the songs still hit hard, the approach is sideways; in fact, the roles have changed since Van Herik’s original tenure and previous time with Case and Leger in Disappears. Now on bass, Van Herik was originally the band’s guitarist while Case, the band’s current guitarist, played bass. The role reversal between Case and Van Herik has reportedly helped the band’s dynamic, offering a different musical perspective than before, while revisiting the trio’s long-held collaboration with some distance and time.

Tragically, Wish Defense is the last album engineered by Steve Albini. Two days of sessions were recorded at Electrical Audio in early May, before Albini’s untimely death. Renowned engineer and friend Sanford Parker stepped in to finish the session 24 hours later, tracking the last bits of vocals and overdubs. Longtime collaborator John Congleton mixed the albums as Albini would have, in Electrical Audio’s A Room, off the tape, using Albini’s notes about the session.

Thematically, the album focuses on the centuries old subject of the duality of man. Who is your “true self” and what do they want? The album sees the band taking a good long look in the mirror to face themselves. As the band’s Brian Case explains, the album’s lyrical content revolves about doppelgängers or doubles, tackling the idea of facing yourself and observing your ideas and motivations.

Anchored around an angular and forceful bass line from Van Herik, funky yet forcefully off-kilter rhythmic patterns from Leger, Case’s squiggling and chiming guitar lines paired with a slow-burning, noisy coda and arguably one of Case’s more melodic vocal turns in some time. Fittingly, it continues the band’s long-held reputation for material that’s psychologically probing with Case laying out the entire album’s theme in one stanza, asking the listener — and in turn himself: Are your actions and emotions your true self? Or are they a performative aspect of that “other” person you put forward into the world? Case says that ultimately, the sentiment is ” . . . don’t let the bastards get you down, there’s something beyond this moment, like hope — but not in the naive belief that ultimately people are good.”

Directed by Joshua Ford, starring Megan Paradowski, the accompanying video for “Wish Defense” was filmed at Los Angeles-based XIX Studio and plays along with the song’s thematic and lyrical concerns: While Paradowski expressively dances throughout, we see doubling — whether through shadow, visual effect or slick editing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Plumes Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Jeanne’s Visions”

Veronica Charnley is an acclaimed Montréal-born Paris-based singer/songwriter and guitarist, who is best known as the creative mastermind behind Plumes, her solo recording project that sees her drawing from contemporary pop and classical music.

Charnley’s fourth Plumes album, Many Moons Away is slated for a Friday release. The soon-to-be released album’s second and latest single “Jeanne’s Visions” is a broodingly cinematic track featuring strummed and plucked guitar, a soaring string arrangement paired with the Montréal-born, Paris-based artist’s ethereal delivery. While sonically nodding at Dark Side of the Moon-era Pink Floyd and country, the song is inspired by the story of Joan of Arc, who one afternoon while in her garden, first perceived voices, intertwined with church bells, guiding her to her calling, Charnley explains. She adds that “the arrangement uses harmonics in the guitar and viola, giving that otherworldly sound and the rhythm in the guitar during the verses is reminiscent of Jeanne’s trotting horse as she heads for battle.”

The accompanying video for “Jeanne’s Visions” features the acclaimed artist in a garden on a sun-dappled day, much like one Joan of Arc had her vision.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay MAGON Shares Madchester-like “Stoned Seclusion Blues”

Over the course of the past couple of years of this site’s nearly 15 year history, I’ve managed to spill copious amounts of virtual ink covering the remarkably prolific, Israeli-born, Costa Rican-based singer/songwriter, musician and JOVM mainstay MAGON. 

Earlier this year, the prolific JOVM mainstay released his ninth album, Wedding Song, which featured two tracks I managed to write about here:

  • Album track “The Wedding Song,” a 70s Laurel Canyon/AM rock-like number featuring shimmering guitars, a shuffling yet propulsive rhythm and a glistening and soulful guitar solo paired with MAGON’s unerring knack for crafting catchy hooks. But under the slick and seemingly effortless craftsmanship is a song that feels much like the contented sigh of someone who after much effort and struggle, has found the true, long-lasting love they’ve long hoped for. The song marks the one-year anniversary of MAGON’s wedding to his now-wife Alexa, and is dedicated to their love.

  • “Portobello’s On The Run,” a mediative and folksy bit of  Nick Drake-like psych folk anchored around an ethereal and old-timey mellotron flute lines, strummed acoustic guitar and tight-drum pattern paired with the Israeli-born, Costa Rican-based artist’s plaintively singing whimsical yet introspective lyrics.

Closing out 20240, the JOVM mainstay will be releasing his 10th — yeah, 10th overall and third this year y’all — album, World Peace. The forthcoming album’s first single “Stoned Seclusion Blues” reveals yet another shift in sound direction, with the track seemingly drawing from the Madchester sound of The Happy Mondays, The Stone Roses and others with the track anchored around a languid and and fuzzy guitar line, tambourine-driven percussion and swaggering boom bap-like drums, soaring and swelling strings paired with the JOVM’s easy-going and laconic delivery and catchy hooks.

The accompanying video by Alexa & Magon, stars presumably their children and their dog, who happily chases after the family vehicle, and footage of the kids bopping around to the song with psychedelic imagery in the background.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Vancouver’s Night Court Shares a Breakneck Ripper

Vancouver-based punks Night Court — Emilior (drums, vocals), Dave-O (guitar, vocals) and Jiffy (bass and vocals) –are lifelong friends, who started emailing song ideas to each other during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Those song ideas quickly morphed into their latest project, Night Court.

Initially released through Snappy Little Numbers and Debt Offensive Records, the Canadian punks’ debut Nervous Birds! cassette duology was later released a Greatest Hits compilation tape in Spain through Discos Peroquébien and will soon be pressed on vinyl for the first time through SNL, DOR and Drunk Dial Records.

The trio’s third album, last year’s HUMANS! was released through SNL, DOR and French label Idiotape, and paved the way for the Halloween-themed Frater Set EP released through Dromedary Records and the 90s Bay Area punk scene homage, Shit Split Part Duh split EP with Portland-based The Dumpies, which was released through Dromedary Records. The band closed out the year by landing on the cover of Fall 2023’s Razorcake Magazine.

The band’s fourth album, the 17-song $HIT MACHINE will be released Friday through Recess Recess Records. The trio have long been fans of the label and its label head Tony Congelliere. So, the Canadian punks didn’t think twice about sending Congelliere the demos of their material. And as it turned out, the material was a perfect fit for the label.

Clocking in at 114 seconds. $HIT MACHINE‘s latest single “D List” is a breakneck and punchy, old school punk ripper, anchored around a relentless rhythmic chug, remarkably melodic vocals and enormous hooks. It’s the sort of mosh pit friendly ripper that reminds me of catching cheap punk shows at The Continental and Coney Island — but at its core, the song evokes the nastiness, unease and weirdness of our moment.

The accompanying video features footage taken from The Internet Archive — and it emphasizes the furious urgency of now.

Vancouver-based punks Night Court — Emilior (drums, vocals), Dave-O (guitar, vocals) and Jiffy (bass and vocals) –are lifelong friends, who started emailing song ideas to each other during COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns. Those song ideas quickly morphed into their latest project, Night Court.

Initially released through Snappy Little Numbers and Debt Offensive Records, the Canadian punks’ debut Nervous Birds! cassette duology was later released a Greatest Hits compilation tape in Spain through Discos Peroquébien and will soon be pressed on vinyl for the first time through SNL, DOR and Drunk Dial Records.

The trio’s third album, last year’s HUMANS! was released through SNL, DOR and French label Idiotape, and paved the way for the Halloween-themed Frater Set EP released through Dromedary Records and the 90s Bay Area punk scene homage, Shit Split Part Duh split EP with Portland-based The Dumpies, which was released through Dromedary Records. The band closed out the year by landing on the cover of Fall 2023’s Razorcake Magazine.

The band’s fourth album, the 17-song $HIT MACHINE will be released Friday through Recess Records. The trio have long been fans of the label and its label head Tony Congelliere. So, the Canadian punks didn’t think twice about sending Congelliere the demos of their material. And as it turned out, the material was a perfect fit for the label.

Clocking in at 114 seconds. $HIT MACHINE‘s latest single “D List” is a breakneck and punchy, old school punk ripper, anchored around a relentless rhythmic chug, remarkably melodic vocals and enormous hooks. It’s the sort of mosh pit friendly ripper that reminds me of catching cheap punk shows at The Continental and Coney Island — but at its core, the song evokes the nastiness, unease and weirdness of our moment.

The accompanying video features footage taken from The Internet Archive — and it emphasizes the furious urgency of now.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Babel Map Shares Stormy “Pazuzu”

Initially started as s solo, trip-hop/electronic music project of then-Philadelphia-based singer/songwriter and musician Jessica Drummer, Babel Map became a full-fledged band when Drummer relocated to Harrisburg, PA in 2015. Upon her arrival to the commonwealth’s capital, Drummer started playing live shows, networking and playing with other musicians.

After a series of lineup changes, the band’s lineup settled with the addition of Steph Warner (guitar) and Michael Stipe (bass). The lineup change saw the band’s creative process becoming much more collaborative, and that was quickly followed by a decided change in sonic direction towards a sound that incorporated elements of shoegaze, post-metal and trance.

The trio recorded their full-length debut, 2020’s Raw Tomato, My Heart with Ian Scheila at Philadelphia-based Headroom Studios while cutting their teeth as a live unit, until COVID-19 pandemic restrictions and shutdowns. During the shutdowns, the band wrote their sophomore album, 2022’s CANCEL THIS!, which was recorded right after restrictions were lifted.

Slated for a Friday release through Lost Future Records, the band’s soon-to-be released third album Teeth was originally written last year with electronic drums as a result of another lineup change. The band’s newest member Brian Doherty (drums, percussion) later joined the Harrisburg-based outfit and began writing and producing drums and percussion parts for the album’s material. Babel Map explains the symbolism behind the title, as it is both about “showing your teeth,” but also “leaving a permanent piece of yourself behind for the world to reflect on.”

Recorded with God City Studio‘s Kurt Ballou, Teeth captures the band at a new creative chapter: They explain that the lineup change allowed for a progressive increase in experimentation in terms of song structure and arrangements. Their previously released efforts were written, refined and recorded mostly from playing in a live setting. But for Teeth, the newly constituted quartet came together with no preconceived notions, pressed record and slowly built songs. Once the album’s material was complete, the band began practicing as a quartet to prepare for recording and eventually live shows.

Teeth single “Pazuzu,” is an expansive, deeply brooding and forceful ripper that pairs swirling shoegazer textures and atmospheric keys with enormous stoner rock-like riffage, thunderous drumming serving as a stormy bed for rousingly anthemic hooks and Drummer’s expressive, powerhouse delivery.

The accompanying video fittingly focuses on spooky season tropes, beginning with the video’s protagonist in a creepy house with demons and witches while also nodding at 120 Minutes-era MTV alt-rock-like visuals.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rising Barcelona-born, London-based Artist Eterna Shares Woozy and Brooding “Highbury Grunge”

Rising Barcelona-born, London-based artist Eterna recently signed to section1, who released his attention grabbing label debut “Perfect Comms,” and its follow up “Whatever Reason,” an eerie, post-punk-meets-shoegaze-like take on goth that saw the him weaving murky, reverb-soaked guitar distortion with lyrical themes that touch upon modern isolation, apathy and ephemeral romance — with a frustration and despair that feels all too familiar.

The Spanish-born, British-based artist’s highly anticipated sophomore studio album Debunker is slated for a January 31, 2025 release. The forthcoming album’s lead single “Highbury Grunge” continues a run of eerie and off-kilter material that’s simultaneously alien and familiar. Anchored around distorted layers of chugging, reverb-drenched acoustic and electric guitars and industrial clang and clatter, the slow-burning “Highbury Grunge” serves as a brooding and woozy bed for the rising Spanish-born, British-based artist’s imitably distracted and detached delivery.

Directed by Really Sorry, the accompanying video is shot in black and white, and through a series of split screens, follows Eterna as he wanders around suburban London — sometimes with an unsettling and uncomfortably close close up. The video further evokes the woozy and brooding nature of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Offline Shares Breathtakingly Gorgeous Visual for “Les Amis”

Occasionally, I’ll have a weird or bad day. Yesterday was one of them. I truly fucked up a post and have corrected it. I had a lot on my mind, including an interview and a bunch of other things. So let’s have a better day today, right?

Hamburg-born and-based photographer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Felix Müller is the creative mastermind behind the rising cinematic soul project The Offline. The German photographer, composer and multi-instrumentalist can trace the origins of The Offline to his travels along the Atlantic coastline of southern France with an analog camera, capturing beach life. Upon his return to Hamburg, he started writing compositions as the sonic counterpart to his photography. 

Müller’s full-length The Offline debut, last year’s Timor Litzenberg co-produced La couleur de la mer was inspired by the work of Francois de Roubaix, and saw him creating a soundtrack to an imaginary film. The album’s material evoked images of manorial, fog-swept villas at the ocean’s edge, silhouetted sailing boats and cigar-chomping villains attempting to thwart the mission of the imaginary film’s hero. The album experimented with themes and atypical song structures, moving from dramatic cues to fragile romanticism while incorporating psychedelia, retro soul and hip-hop, inspired by and informed by his extensive record collection. 

Slated for a Friday release through DeepMatter, Müller’s latest Les Cigales EP reportedly builds upon the head-nodding blend of hip-hop and 70s soul jazz that he developed on his full-length debut. The EP takes it sonic tunes from the structure of film and TV music from the 1960s and 1970s, channeling the influences of film composers like Francois de Rouabix and David Axelrod while also seemingly sitting between the chilled out, summery grooves of Surprise Chef and Robohands. As the EP unwinds, its narrative reflects a love story full of longing, melancholy and drama, connecting with the story of Cyptis and Protis — the founding myth of Marseilles — whose love broke convention and welcomed the arrival of foreigners on French soil. 

EP track “Les amis” is a breezy yet subtly uneasy track featuring a glistening guitar, a shuffling and laid-back groove with bursts of twinkling vibraphone, brooding horns and woodwinds. The track continues the EP’s narrative with the track representing growing familiarity and intimacy between two friends, before taking a tense turn, hinting that all isn’t as it seems. A meet-cute gone somewhat wrong, perhaps?

The video begins the breeze blowing through the tress before quickly moving to our star-crossed lovers staring at each other longing from across the water. They meet in the water, where they float languidly, holding hands like beavers do. We later see our lovers walking around the ancient, sun-dappled scenery. But under the surface, something is strange and kind of off. Much like its predecessor, the video mischievously nods at 70s spy films.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Offline Shares Sun-Dappled Visual for “Fumée”

Felix Müller is a Hamburg-born and-based photographer, composer and creative mastermind behind the cinematic soul project The Offline. Müller can trace the origins of The Offline to his travels along the the Atlantic coastline of southern France with an analog camera, capturing beach life. Upon his return to Hamburg, he started writing compositions as the sonic counterpart to his visuals. 

The German-born artist’s full-length debut, last year’s Timor Litzenberg co-produced La couleur de la mer was inspired by the work of Francois de Roubaix — and saw him creating a soundtrack to an imaginary film. The album’s material evoked images of manorial, fog-swept villas at the ocean’s edge, silhouetted sailing boats and cigar-chomping villains attempting to thwart the mission of the imaginary film’s hero. The album experimented with themes and atypical song structures, moving from dramatic cues to fragile romanticism while incorporating psychedelia, retro soul and hip-hop, inspired by and informed by his extensive record collection. 

Slated for a Friday release through DeepMatter Records, Müller’s forthcoming Les Cigales EP reportedly builds upon the head-nodding blend of hip-hop and 70s soul jazz that he developed on his full-length debut. The EP takes it sonic tunes from the structure of film and TV music from the 1960s and 1970s, channeling the influences of film composers like Francois de Rouabix and David Axelrod while also seemingly sitting between the chilled out, summery grooves of Surprise Chef and Robohands. As the EP unwinds, its narrative reflects a love story full of longing, melancholy and drama, connecting with the story of Cyptis and Protis — the founding myth of Marseilles — whose love broke convention and welcomed the arrival of foreigners on French soil. 

“Fumée,” introduces the first part of Les Cigales‘ narrative, an effort that reflects upon life on the Mediterranean during the summer months. Anchored around an arrangement featuring a gorgeous and expressive Rhodes-driven melodic theme, a brooding horn line and squiggling wah wah pedaled funk guitar paired with a subtly reggae-like drum groove, “Fumée” features alternating light and dark sections. 

“Fumée” continues a run of material that seems to recall Bob James while setting up the EP’s narrative, introducing the soon-to-be star-crossed protagonists, as they hungrily search for one another, while situating the listener in and around Marseille. 

“As some may know, Hamburg is not known for the best weather, especially the winters, with little daylight, cold winds and rain lashing down on your face,” Müller says. “Maybe that’s why this longing for light, warmth and the sea is always a big part of my music – by composing the songs, I can be in these places.”

The accompanying video for “Fumée” captures the sun-dappled beauty of Marseille in the summer, the lapping waves on the shore while introducing us to our two star-crossed lovers, someplace where it’s easy to fall desperately, stupidly in love. Mischievously, the video makes some slick visual nods to 70s European-based spy thrillers.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Oslo’s Doif Shares Mischievously Genre-Defying “Red Hot Heaven”

Andreas Lanesjord is an in-demand, Oslo-based musician and producer, who has been a member of the acclaimed Norwegian pop outfit Anna Of The North’s band for the past six years. While a member of the acclaimed Norwegian pop act, the Oslo-based musician and producer quickly made a name for himself nationally with high praise for early live performances at Øya Festival, Trondheim Calling and Havstrøm Festival.

Lanesjord recently stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with his recoding project Doif. He then signed with Norwegian tastemaker label Propeller Recordings, who recently released his latest single “Red Heat Heaven,” which will appear on his highly-anticipated debut EP I’m All Ears slated for a November 15, 2024.

Inspired by the likes of Thundercat, Toro y Moi and Flying Lotus among others, the Norwegian producer and musician’s work draws from and meshes elements of progressive R&B, electronic and indie pop — with a playful sense of humor.

“Red Heat Heaven” is a slow-burning and stormy bit of Quiet Storm-inspired R&B featuring bubbling and twinkling synth melodies, buzzing bass synths and a strutting bassline and a lysergic breakdown. Sonically bringing a synthesis of Thundercat and Tame Impala to mind, the song explores destructive relationships, addiction and a desire for chaos.

The self-directed, stop-motion animated video for “Red Heat Heaven” features a toxic puppet couple, who inspired by the destructive tendencies of many of the world’s current leaders, believe that they can only find true happiness in a dystopian hellscape.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sophie Jamieson Shares Gorgeous “Camera”

London-based singer/songwriter Sophie Jamieson released two EPs in 2020 that caught the attention of Bella Union Records, who quickly signed the rising British artist, and released her Steph Marziano-produced full-length debut, 2022’s Choosing.

Choosing was a subtle reworking of the sound that Jamieson quickly established through her first two EPs. While her first two EPs flirted with playful experimentation, her full-length debut featured a much organic, simpler and intimate sound, centered around arrangements of live drums, bass, cello and piano that are roomy enough for Jamieson’s mesmerizing vocals to take the spotlight.

Jamieson described the songs on her first two EPs as “black holes” and while Choosing manages to cover similar thematic ground, it never takes its eyes from what lies beyond, never fully releases its grip when its telling her to let go. The album is deeply personal documentation of a journey from the painful rock bottom of self-destruction to a safer place, and imbued with a faint light of hope. Focusing on the bare bones of each song, the album’s material is influenced by songwriters like Elena Tonra, Sharon Van Etten and Scott Hutchinson, and sees Jamieson singing openly about longing and searching, of trying, failing and trying again, and the strength of love in its varying forms. 

“The title of this album is so important,” Sophie explained. “Without it, this might sound like another record about self-destruction and pain, but at heart, it’s about hope, and finding strength. It’s about finding the light at the end of the tunnel, and crawlingI towards it.” 

Ultimately, Choosing asks the listener to look deep within themselves and to show them that they can take whatever pain they’re experiencing, and choose, to some extent, how they let it affect them; whether they let it burn them down or whether they choose to look it straight in the face. “The songs are bursting with something, and that energy just needs to be reshaped into love for the self,” Jamieson explained. “I can say this from a place of having learned now how to love and care for myself. The love that reverberates through this album is like the green shoots of something I have happily learned to nurture into my present day.” 

The London-based artist’s highly anticipated sophomore album, the Guy Massey and Jamieson co-produced I still want to share is slated for a January 17, 2025 release through Bella Union. The album is a deeply personal reflection on the cynical nature of loving and losing, the anxiety we can’t keep out of our relationships and the perpetual longing for belonging that drives us to keep trying and failing, to find a home in others. The album sees Jamieson lifting the lid on the roots of how we love and digs in even deeper, leaning into our deficiencies but from a stronger, healthier place that is much less afraid of the pain that inevitably comes with feeling everything.

Sonically, the album’s material is reportedly much more exploratory, playful and detailed with a richer palette. The raw emotion of Jamieson’s songwriting and delivery is joined by new instrumentation, including omnichord, harmonium and sub-bass, as well as rich string arrangements by Josephine Stephenson that help to weave a yearning connection through the beating heart of the album’s material. “There’s a lot of warm autumnal colors, and then more glittery, dark, starry skies. Something about it all has really come together to illustrate some things that I didn’t know I needed to articulate in this way”, Jamieson explains.

I still want to share‘s second and latest single, album opening “Camera” is a brooding and stunningly gorgeous song which begins with Jamieson accompanying her expressive delivery with strummed acoustic guitar that swells and builds up with a cinematic arrangement of strings, shuffling drums and twinkling keys to a slow-burn fade out. The song captures a narrator, who’s slowly unraveling with a woozy precision.

“I wrote this song when my heart was broken and I was trying to hold everything when it didn’t want to be held,” Jamieson explains. “I wanted to be able to draw an outline around the pieces, fit them into a frame. Something in me knew that I’d find some peace if I just let things stay blurry, but everything in me wanted to find some focus. This song is the yearning, wrenching of trying to define a love that was less simple, more layered and less graspable than I could accept.”

Co-directed and shot by Malena Zavala and Sophie Jamieson in Brecon Beacons, Wales, the accompanying video for “Camera” features dazzlingly cinematic imagery.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MAN LEE Shares a Squiggling and Artsy Ode to Girlhood

Currently based in Brooklyn, the self-described indie rock band for the weary masses, MAN LEE — Sam Reichman and Tim Lee — began writing together while living between Richmond, DC and Baltimore before finding their collaborators in New York.

On their creative process, Reichman says, “We had always been writing our own music, but it wasn’t until we got together that we found our footing. Whether we’re physically in the same city or apart, we  are constantly tossing new ideas or phrases back and forth until something sticks. Writing music is one of the only ways to quiet my mind and I think Tim feels the same.”

Drawing inspiration from all manner of relationship, their work touches on themes of expectations of self and others while sonically blending elements of psychedelia, art rock and pop.

The duo’s latest single, the Arthur Moon-produced “Best One” is a melodic and artsy take on post-punk anchored around propulsive thump, angular and squiggling bursts of guitar, bubbling electronics paired with Reichman’s melodic and sensual delivery. As the duo, explain the song serves as a message of reassurance to a close friend, following a bad break up that simply says that despite our best efforts, there are forces at play well outside of our control.

MAN LEE’s Reichamn goes on to explain “Growing up, especially for girls, we quickly learn that the most important thing is finding ‘the one.’ That’s a lot of pressure. And we internalize it, along with everyone else’s expectations. ‘Best One’ is a sort of reassurance to my friend, on the receiving end of a terrible break, that they were not at fault. That nothing said or done differently could have changed the outcome, because it wasn’t up to them at all.”

The accompanying video is vintage-inspired visual that features a collage of archival footage from the 60s and 70s that also includes photography, ceramics and home videos from Reichman’s childhood, slickly edited in a lysergic fashion. She says, “it’s a mixed-media take on girlhood. That’s where these unshakable ideals and sense of self are so often formed, for better or worse.”

MAN LEE will be playing a full band show at Brooklyn’s Sleepwalk on November 21. Tickets are available here.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: La Sécurité Shares Spiky and Danceable “Detour”

With the release of last year’s Samuel Gemme-produced Stay Safe!, Montréal-based art punks La Sécurité exploded into the national and international scenes with a manic yet surprisingly laid-back sound that mischievously meandered on the fringes of punk, New Wave, no wave and krautrock while inhabiting the ethos of Riot Grrl movement.

Building upon the momentum of their breakthrough debut, the Canadian art punks released Stay Safe! REMIXED EP, an effort that features remixes from Born at Midnite, The Mauskovic Dance Band and Freak Heat Waves. They also made the rounds of global festival circuit with sets at The Great Escape, M for Montréal, Reepeerbahan Festival, SXSW, FOCUS Wales, FIJM, The New Colossus Festival and Sled Island, while also sharing the stage with the likes of Automatic, JOVM mainstays Death Valley Girls, Orchestre Tout Puissant Marcel Duchamp, Margaritas Pordridas, Exek and Civic.

The French Canadian outfit’s latest single “Detour” is the first bit of new material from the band since last year’s Stay Safe! And it’s been release as a special joint release with beloved indie label Bella Union and their label home Mothland. “Detour” continues where Stay Safe! let off: motorik grooves paired with spiky, off kilter arrangements and minimalistic melodic hooks that bring a synthesis of DEVO and the B52s to mind. The new single continues a run of material that’s both nerdy and danceable with a sneering edge.

“We recorded the song with an old friend of mine Renny Wilson,” La Sécurité’s Éliane Viens-Synnott says. “It was refreshing to watch him work on his instincts, trying to keep takes and tones as natural as possible, keeping everything open-ended to see where it could lead us. And since we know each other so well, it felt like he already knew what our music should sound like.”

Bella Union’s Simon Raymonde adds: “Working with my wife Abbey, I have become adept at processing the subtle differences between her delivery of a report from a gig she ‘really liked’, to one she was ‘blown away’ by. In March, Abbey saw La Sécurité in New York and her messages back to me were as excitable as I could remember in the 13 years we’ve been together. Maybe only her expressions of love for Chappell Roan earlier this year were comparable!” 

He continues, “In May at The Great Escape, I was finally able to hear and see for myself. They were everything she described and more. Way more. Appeals to me on so many levels, musically and culturally, touching on my own post-punk history, but when we invited them for lunch to our house and had a beautiful getting to know each other, THAT clinched it for me. Working in today’s peculiar music industry is only made tolerable by surrounding yourself with good people, who work hard, are honest and thoughtful. They seem like they tick all those boxes. Vive La Sécurité.”

Directed by dirt and daydream, the accompanying video for “Detour” is a low budget and grainy surreal fever dream that seems indebted to Harmony Korine‘s Trash Humpers.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: High. Shares Swooning and Rousingly Anthemic “Catcher”

Boonton, NJ-based shoegazers High. can trace their origins back to 2021 when Christian Castan (vocals, guitar) and Bridget Bakie (bass, vocals) met while playing across the Garden State’s DIY and college circuit, building Bakie’s reputation as “The Queen of The Quarter Note” and Castan’s profile as an unforgettable guitarist. After the pair played in a band together, they longed fora project that would be their sole creative focus and could tour as far and wide as possible. A few weeks and two weeks after their proper formation with the addition of Jack Miller (drums) and Danny Zavala (guitar), the quartet made their live debut at Saint Vitus. They followed that up with shows across the Tristate DIY circuit. 

The New Jersey-based quartet’s highly-anticipated Matthew Molnar-produced sophomore EP Come Back Down is slated for a January 24, 2025 release digitally and on vinyl through Kanine Records. The EP’s first sessions started last June when the band, along with Molnar went to Chairlift‘s Patrick Wimberly‘s Greenpoint studio to test new material with engineer Sam Darwish. They also brought tracks to Shane Furst and his Cloud Factory Recording to review their recent work and begin the next stages of completion. 

Come Back Down marks the beginning of the band’s partnership with Kanine Records — and a key period in the band’s development. With a greater expression of sonic range, the EP sees the band offering more noise, more hooks, more heaviness and much more emotion: The sad is much sadder and the love is more swooningly in love. There are more song about loss and being lost. For the band, it’s the culmination of their growth after the release of their well-received debut EP Bomber, which was released through Julia’s War and Suburban Creep.

Last fall, the band took a break from the sessions to do a week-long tour with Austin-based outfit STAB, as well as opening slots for DIIV, Glare, Lowertown, A Place To Bury Strangers, as well as a Midwest run with Chicago’s Smut. After touring across the nation, the band finished the EP with Jeff Ziegler at his Philadelphia-based Uniform Recording. Zeigler’s work on Nothing.’s Guilty of Everything has been a major inspiration for the New Jersey-based group. 

Last month, I wrote about album single “In A Hole,” a decidedly 120 Minutes MTV-era take on shoegaze anchored around a towering wall of stormy guitars, thunderous drumming and ethereal boy-girl harmonies. The song’s brooding soundscape evokes the stormy emotions, trauma and unease that inspired it — but also the comfort of finding friendship and a community that truly understands where you’re coming from. 

“’In A Hole’ is inspired by meeting our group of friends,” High.’s Christian Castan explains. “It’s about being depressed and the people close to you dragging you out of it. It’s about the peace and belonging I used to dream about during childhood trauma and finally finding it. There’s a lyric – ‘These are the new stars, they burst alive.’  It’s about living life at its best and never wanting that feeling to end.”

Come Back Down‘s latest single “Catcher” continues a run of 120 Minutes MTV-like shoegaze, much like its immediate predecessor while featuring remarkably blissed out choruses and hooks. Arguably one of the most swoon worthy songs of the New Jersey shoegazers growing catalog, “Catcher” is anchored around deeply introspective lyrics tackling grief with a wisdom that belies their relative youth.

“I came to the band with the structure chords and bassline of this song, I am very attached to the music personally. Then, Christian wrote lyrics over it that have massive significance to him,” the band’s Bridget Bakie says. “’Catcher’ explores the depths of grief and the unwavering hope that binds us to those we’ve lost,” the band’s Castan adds.

Directed by the band’s Bridget Bakie and filmed by Bakie and her brother Max, and edited by Shower Curtain‘s Victoria Winter, the accompanying video for “Catcher” was filmed in New Jersey and stars the band’s Jack Miller. The grainy VHS-styled video is rooted in a bittersweet nostalgia that becomes a larger and larger part of adulthood.

On directing the video, Bakie says, “I felt I should make the music video because I know the source of the lyrics so closely, but they still aren’t my own. I used the boat as a metaphor for staying afloat through grief, while still moving and trying to find peace. The vast lake and the change of seasons are also a part of that. I tried to show the combination of pain and peace that this song holds.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mariaa Siga Teams Up With ODDY on Hopeful “Boukanack”

Over the past handful of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering Senegalese singer/songwriter, musician and JOVM mainstay Mariaa Siga. 

Siga continues an ongoing collaboration with ODDY on the slow-burning and heartfelt “Boukanack,” which pairs a shuffling and twinkling reggae riddims, bursts of soulful and meditative horn with the Senegalese JOVM mainstay’s gorgeous and expressive delivery. “Boukanack” continues a run of material that blurs and transcends cultural and international boundaries while celebrating diversity in all forms. With “Boukanack” in particular, the song is anchored in a much-needed message of peace and hope for all humanity.

Directed by Mao Sidibé, the gorgeously shot accompanying visual for “Boukanack” is set in beautiful Senegal and offers a slice of daily life in that country; but perhaps more importantly, the video celebrates diversity — both within the country and outside.