Tag: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Joe Kaplow Shares Bitter and Heartbroken Lament “Rock and Roll”

Joe Kaplow is a New Jersey-born, Santa Cruz, CA-based singer.songwriter and musician. Before his music career got serious he had to make a serious decision: Take over his parents’ thoroughbred fam in New Jersey or pursue music in California and relinquish the family home to sale. And although on occasion, he wonders if he could have made a music career work, if he had stayed on his parents farm, he’s happy where he is.

The New Jersey-born, California-based artist’s work is deeply inspired and informed by his life’s moments — “smelling 4 acres of freshly cut grass, watching the steam from a horse’s breath in the early morning, finally holding the neck of my guitar after holding bridles and worn wooden handles all day,” he says. “And then — smelling 4000 acres of freshly burnt wildfire, watching the steam from the Pacific Ocean’s breath in the early morning, finally holding the neck of my guitar after holding the worn steering wheel of the tour van all day.”

Kaplow’s third album Posh, Poodle, Krystal and Toe is slated for a May 17, 2024 release through Fluff and Gravy Records. Deriving its title, appropriately enough, after his bandmates’ nicknames, the album is more of a cohesive “band” statement than his previously self-recorded material. Most of the album’s tracks were cut over a five-day span, performed live at Enterprise, OR‘s OK Theater with engineer Bart Budwig.

The album’s songs were learned and workshopped on the spot, capturing very honest, energetic “fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants” moments and takes Kaplow’s honest and raw songwriting style and propels it forward with spontaneous collaboration and undeniable rhythm.

Posh, Poodle, Krystal and Toe‘s latest single “Rock and Roll” is a slow-burning and meditative track anchored in the lived-in, bitterly harsh and shitty realties of being a struggling musician/artist/writer/creative featuring a deceptively simple arrangement of strummed and plucked, acoustic twang, easy-going backbeat paired with Kaplow’s achingly plaintive wail. The song seems to ask the question — “when does the struggle to make it work get too overwhelming to continue?” While sounding a bit like a heartbroken S/T-era The Band, the song is inspired by an actual experience while on tour:

“We had a bad show. Overall, it wasn’t a very good tour,” Kaplow explains. “After playing a show to three people in the back corner of some bar in San Diego that was decorated more appropriately for a football game than a concert, our drummer had a breakdown. On the sidewalk outside the venue he began to cry. Then his despair turned to rage, screaming at me how foolish I was for booking this show and booking the tour, how he had to take time off work and lost money, how he spent 2 weeks away from his girlfriend who was now questioning dating a musician, and how he hadn’t gotten a good night’s sleep since tour began. I thought to myself, ‘I know, isn’t it great?’ ‘Rock and Roll’ is a song about how it feels to be a touring musician before you get the tour bus. It’s hard. The late Robbie Robertson of The Band said, ‘It’s a goddamn impossible way of life.’ ” 

Directed by Ben Judkins and Joe Kaplow, filmed by Ben Judkins and edited by Rob Armenti, the accompanying video for “Rock and Roll” was shot on a grainy Super 8 and follows Kaplow on tour through California. While there are moments of sublime beauty, pride and goofy joy, there’s also a sense of struggle and hard-won experience throughout.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Réunion Island’s Flo Assy Teams Up with Phantom on Brooding “Rien n’est Certain”

Flo Assy is a French-born, Réunion Island-based rapper, who spent a portion of his childhood in Côte d’Ivoire. The Francophone emcee burst into the French hip hop scene with his first two releases — 2015’s C’est La Vie and 2016’s Et Ta Dame? EP. 

His latest single, the Dony Dark-produced “Rien n’est Certain” is a collaboration with fellow Réunion Island-based emcee Phantom that see the duo spitting densely worded bars and verses over a brooding and atmospheric trap-meets-trip hop-like production featuring tweeter and woofer rattling thump and eerie synth arpeggios. The two emcees rhyme about the struggles they face as artists and (most importantly) as people in an uncertain, uneasy world.

Shot on Réunion Island, the seemingly DIY video follows the two emcees in an abandoned and decrepit suburban pool, a children’s park, a forested area and more with a strobe light, further emphasizing the brooding and uneasy air of the single.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s Yoo Doo Right Shares Expansive “FULL HEALTH (BBB)”

Deriving their name from one of Can‘s best known — and perhaps most covered — songs, Montréal-based outfit Yoo Doo Right — Justin Cober (guitar, synths, vocals), Charles Masson (bass) and John Talbot (drums, percussion) — have firmly developed an improvisational-based approach that sees them blending elements of krautrock, shoegaze, post-rock and psych rock that the band has described as “a car crash in slow motion.” 

Since their formation, the Montréal-based trio have become a highly in-demand live act that has toured across North America, including a run of the festival circuit that has included stops at

Since their formation, You Doo Right have become a highly in-demand live act that has toured across North America, including making a run of the festival circuit with stops at Levitation, M for Montréal, Sled Island, Pop Montreal and New Colossus Festival. Adding to a growing profile, back in 2018, the Canadian experimentalists were the support for Acid Mothers Temple‘s North American tour — and as a result, they’ve shared stages with the likes of DIIV, A Place to Bury Strangers, Wooden Shjips, Kikagkiu Moyo, FACS, Frigs, and Jessica Moss and several others. 

The Canadian outfit’s latest effort, The Sacred Fuck EP sees them straying away from their reputation for being high-decibel, ear drum shattering juggernauts and crafting spacious essays in sound design that meanders along found sound, field recordings and sonic collage. The trio add an old portable cassette tape recorder, other various tape machines, as well as a shortwave radio to their sonic palette, while taking listeners on a journey that sees the trio attending a protest, capturing sublime artistic spontaneity, visiting a remote cabin in the woods before landing at Studio Mixart, where they hammered out the EP’s closing track and latest single “FULL HEALTH (BBB).” Clocking in at a little over eight minutes, the expansive “FULL HEALTH (BBB)” features a melodic arpeggiated guitar figure and a relentless motorik groove paired with thunderous and shuffling drum patterns that ebb and flow between alternating, brooding and stormy atmospheric passages punctuated with twangy Western-like guitar — before closing out with an explosive coda. Throughout the song vacillates and blurs the lines of angst and hope.

Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Jared Karnas the accompanying video follows a cyclist riding head first into the world — with disregard for their own safety. “This video is basically two simple loops playing over and over (and over) along this epic journey of a song that Yoo Doo Right crafted,” Karnas explains. “It follows a cyclist riding head first into the eye of a storm (or into the chaos of life) with total disregard of their own safety.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Still Corners Share a Colorful and Summery Visual for “Crystal Blue”

JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — will be releasing their long-awaited sixth album, Dream Talk on April 5, 2024 through the band’s own label Wrecking Light Records. 

The album’s material was written in Southern France, East Sussex, UK and Woodstock. “The songs came together quickly and being able to write from anywhere kept up our momentum,” Still Corners’ Tessa Murray says. Produced by the band’s Greg Hughes at their Woodstock-based studio, Hughes says, “We tried various things like different mics, amps and effects before committing to anything. Everything was mixed analog through our new SSL console, there’s a gleam to the sound.”

The album features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaimed duo further mastering a sound and overall body of work that is focused, stylish and incredibly seductive. “The genesis for a lot of these songs came from dreams. Every night I would write down the dreams I could remember,” Still Corners’ Murray says. “While recording I would pull out my book of dreams and sing over various looped phrases Greg had been working on. The repetitive nature of the looping and singing almost felt like going into a trance. A lot of the songs came from that process, it was fun and what I thought were sort of ramblings ended up surprising us with their various meanings and imagery.”

So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles: 

  • “Secret World,” which saw the acclaimed JOVM mainstays pairing Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. “Secret World,” continues a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rocky shore seducing sailors to their eventual watery doom. Thematically, the song ruminates upon the perils of obsession. “Sometimes the thought of someone, wanting to know them, get into their world is dangerous,” Tessa Murray explains. “The real person doesn’t matter anymore, just the fantasy of them, which is totally wrong but feels right.”

  • Built around a shimmering and reverb-drenched guitar line that would make Johnny Marr proud paired, Dream Talk‘s second and latest single “The Dream” features a quick-paced rhythm, train-like rhythm, atmospheric synths and shakers serving as a lush bed for Murray’s smoky croon describing riding on a speeding train at night and a classically epic tale of being within “a dream within a dream,” before ending with a breathtaking guitar solo. “The Dream” is classic Still Corners — shimmering yet broodingly noir-ish, and always cinematic. Thematically, the new single is inspired by and indebted to a quote from Shakespeare: “Are you sure that we are awake? It seems to me that yet we sleep, we dream.” 

Dream Talk‘s third and latest single “Crystal Blue” is a slow-burning and atmospheric torch song featuring twinkling percussion, softly padded drums and a bit of marimba, Murray’s smoky and yearning croon, a shimmering and an expressive Greg Hughes guitar solo. Seemingly channeling a handful of great 1980s ballads, “Crystal Blue” is about two lovers, separated by the sea, dreaming of their eventual reunion. Hours, days, nights and weeks go by with the waves and the moonlight being the only companions to their longing and heartache. 

The new accompanying video, directed by Lucy Dyson is a gorgeous, noveau vague-like visual that combines Super 8 footage of the band in the sun-drenched Mediterranean and beach-inspired illustrations and visual effects that firmly give the video a fittingly summery specificity.

l”‘Crystal Blue’ is my fourth music video for Still Corners,” Lucy Dyson says, “and as always, it’s so lovely to get to develop a visual concept for their music, and this song has so many gorgeous elements; it sounds like the sea and a summer breeze, and the peacefulness I feel when snorkeling (is there a more peaceful creature than the seahorse?). So, working with the beautiful 8mm footage they provided me with, and Tessa’s lovely silk shirt as the perfect color pallet, I created a multifaceted video piece bringing together the elements that the music evokes for me; the gentle sway of a coral reef, mottled Neptune hues, and the mesmerizing motions of seagulls hovering to the music carried by the wind.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DVTR Shares a Breakneck Spanish Language Version of “Rhum CokeMD”

Deriving their name as an acronym for the French phrase “D’où vient ton riz?” (Where does your rice come from?), Montréal-based duo DVTR is a new collaborative project featuring two of the city’s most highly acclaimed artists:

  • Laurence G-Do, the frontpweaon of JOVM mainstays  Le Couleur, an act that has toured internationally several times, and has opened for Giorgio Moroder, Polo & Pan and others, while amassing over 18 million streams across digital streaming platforms. 

  • JC Tellier, who has played with Gazoline, an act that has received multiple ADISQ and GAMIQ award nominations. Tellier has also played with Kandle, Xavier Caféine, Gab Bouchard and a lengthy list of other well-regarded artists in Québec. 

With the release of their debut EP BONJOUR, the French Canadian duo have been burning up the Canadian indie scene: The EP amassed a plethora of rapturous reviews, landed on a number of Best of 2023 Lists and earned the duo a handful of awards in Québec.

If you frequented this site over the course of last year, you might recall that I wrote about three of BONJOUR EP‘s singles:

  • “DVTR,” a breakneck, blistering and incisive ripper built around scorching riffage, a relentless motorik-like groove, a shouted mantra-like chorus and mosh pit friendly hooks paired with G-Do’s feral shouts. The result is a song that kind of sounds like a wild yet seamless synthesis of Wild Planet-era The B-52s and La Femme’s “Foutre le bordel.“

  • “Vasectomia” another breakneck ripper built around scorching guitar riffage, G-Do’s shouted vocals and a relentless groove paired with the duo’s penchant for wildly catchy hooks and anthemic choruses. But underneath the attention to slick craftsmanship, is furious and incisive criticism of the modern condition, delivered with zero fucks given. With the song, it feels as though G-Do would shout “fuck you!” to every man she passes by while suggesting that if men don’t want unwanted pregnancies or are truly concerned about overpopulation that maybe they should get a vasectomy. 

  • “Rhum CokeMD,” a gritty mosh pit friendly, breakneck ripper featuring scorching guitar riffs, shout along worthy choruses and hooks paired with a balls-to-the-wall, zero fucks given immediacy.

The duo also supported the EP with stops across the global festival circuit.

Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the duo recorded a Spanish language version of “Rhum CokeMD” “Ron Coca MD” after a recent sold-out appearance at Mexico City‘s Hipnosis Festival — and it was their first show in Mexico, to boot. The Spanish version of the song sonically is a breakneck and furious mix of The B52s-like New Wave, psych punk and bedroom punk — while retaining the same breathless urgency.

The accompanying visual features footage of the band shot during their Mexico City tour stop.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Boise’s Street Fever Shares Brooding and Sultry “Fate”

Street Fever is a mysterious and enigmatic, Boise-based multimedia and mixed media artist who crafts gritty soundscapes that incorporate elements of hardcore, hip-hop, industrial techno, EBM, noise, electronica, pop and classical music. The mysterious Boise-based artist cites Three 6 Mafia, and the DIY hardcore scene as major influences on his sound.

For the mysterious Idahoan, his work is anchored in an ongoing and continuous spiritual awakening informed by a desire to better understand themselves as an artist, spiritual speaker and human — and by the profound experiences and circumstances of his life: After losing all their professions, being institutionalized several times and nearly losing their life in a Southeast Asian prison, the mysterious Boise-based artist has used the project as a platform to speak on their own addiction and recovery with the hopes that they will connect with others who are seeking personal and spiritual growth. Aesthetically and thematically, the Idahoan’s work is a journey of self-discovery and enlightenment through thought-provoking creations while seeing them deftly balancing between destructive possession and holy reclamation.

The Boise-based artist’s latest single “Fate” is a sleek and slickly produced, club friendly bit of industrial electronica that seemingly channels Downward Spiral-era Nine Inch Nails, A Place to Bury Strangers and Out of the Black-era Boys Noize featuring aggressive, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, wobbling synths, buzzing guitars and a yearning vocal that pieces through the haze. “Fate,” as the artist explains is a reflection of self-love and desire, and a deep look into one’s shadow to embrace who out is that we want to be. It’s also a call for the listener to dive deeper into th love we want to give ourselves and the feeling of an indescribable love from a power beyond ourselves. And as a result, the song evokes the tug of war between desire and presence.

Directed by Street Fever, the accompanying video is shot in a cinematic black and white, and seems to channel the video for Nine Inch Nails’ “Closer.“

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Italian Punks The Gluts Share Explosive and Breakneck “Cade Giù”

Milan-based punk rock outfit The Gluts — Claudia Cesana (bass/vocals), Bruno Bassi (drums) and Nicolò Campana (vocals, synths) and Marco Campana (guitar) — derive their name from an age-old term often used to denote unsold, surplus goods. For the Milanese outfit, they’ve taken the term to symbolically express a surplus of energy, much like the energy that has long driven their work.

Since their formation, they’ve released three 2014’s Warsaw, 2017’s Estasi and 2019’s Dengue Fever Hypnotic Trip which have seen the band establish and hone an explosive, psychedelic-tinged take on noise punk and thrash punk. 2021’s Bob de Wit-produced Ungrateful Heart saw the band making a decided sonic departure from their previously released work: The album’s material was deeply inspired by and indebted to 70s punk, 80s hardcore and post punk — in particular, Fugazi, Gang of Four, Sex Pistols, Public Image, Ltd. and the Campana brothers’ obsession with Italian and American

Recorded over a tireless week in which the band and their producer essentially lived and worked side-by-side in the studio around the clock, the Ungrateful Heart sessions were fueled by a forceful intensity and uncompromising fierceness. “Bob’s contribution to this album was essential. He pushed us beyond our limits. It was difficult, we can’t hide it, but it really was worth it,” the members of The Gluts said in press notes. 

The band’s highly-anticipated fifth album Bang! is slated for a May 31, 2024 release through Fuzz Club. The album’s material sees the band balancing between punchy, breakneck punk and noisy experimentalism, while accurately capturing a distilled sense of the fierce energy and power of their notoriously wild, noisy live shows, which they’ve taken internationally across the international festival circuit with stops at New Colossus Festival, The Great Escape, Eurosonic and others, as well as shows across Europe, South Africa and the States.

Clocking in at a little over two minutes, Bang!‘s first single “Cade Giù”is a searing and punchy blast of psych punk power chord-fueled feedback, thunderous drumming and howled vocals — in Italian. While sonically channeling JOVM mainstays A Place to Bury Strangers, as well as Dion Lunadon, My Bloody Valentine and others, “Cade Giù” is the first song that the band has ever written, sung and recorded in their native Italian. The song, as the band explains speaks about the blurry reminiscences of a typical after-show party while on tour, and focuses on a particularly wild night with their friend and booking agent. You can picture the friends heading from bar to bar to bar, the copious beers, shots, gin and tonics, acting like drunken louts through town — and the vertigo-like disorientation of being fucked up out of your mind. But goddamn it, you’re having the time of your life!

Edited by Dario Bassi Bruno the video features footage from several different copyright-free, B movies including Gregory Bateson and Margaret Mead’s 1951 film Trance and Dance, Jean Rollin’s 1979 film Fascination, Jack Arnold’s 1954 film The Creature from the Black Lagoon, George Romero’s 1968 film Night of the Living Dead, Abel Ferrera’s 1979 film The Driller Killer and Pavel Klushantsev’s and Peter Bogdanovic’s 1968 film Voyage to the Planet of Prehistory Women.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Beharie Shares Quirky Video for Buoyant and Catchy “Desire”

Acclaimed and rising Norwegian singer/songwriter and pop artist Beharie released his highly-anticipated, 12-song full-length debut, Are You There Boy? last year. The album met the artist where he was at that particular moment and invited listeners into a carefully curated sonic world that featured vibrant melodies and delicate, smooth.

Thematically, the album touched upon love. self-doubt, desire, longing and pain with his heart unironically and proudly worn on his sleeve — and with a remarkable sense of nuance. Throughout, the album follows a multifaceted, fully-fleshed out character, who seeks meaningful connections, follows his curiosity wherever it takes him and ultimately discovers himself. And as result, the album sees its main narrator — and in turn, its creator — exploring the ever-changing, versatile aspects of their own humanity and identity while showcasing his insecurities, complexities, passions and growth in a very real fashion.

“This album has given me the opportunity to delve into various aspects of my own identity, and in the process, I have explored the complexity inherent in my personality and expression,” Beharie explains. “We have nurtured different characters and played with their distinct expressions. These characters have been assigned unique names: Washed-out jeans boy, float in space boy, constant fear boy, make believe boy, and lost in thought boy.” Each of those characters represents fragments of Beharie’s soul, personality and essence — all in search of a sense of belonging.

The album also features collaborations with two rising singer/songwriters — Dublin‘s Uly and The Netherlands’ Judy Blank. 

Album single “Desire,” is built around a buoyant melodic groove, skittering boom bap serving as an ethereal and silky bed for Beharie’s tender and yearning delivery. The song’s narrator sweetly wants to prove to a prospective love interest, that he’s the right one for them — and for the rest of their lives. Beharie explains that “Desire” is a confident love song about “insisting on being the right one for someone you like and telling them without any doubt, and being willing to do anything to make it happen.” 

“Desire” reveals a songwriter, who seems to effortlessly craft a catchy, buoyant songs rooted in earnest, lived-in lyricism that playfully eschews cliches and formulas.

Directed by Martin Kopperud, the accompanying video features the acclaimed and rising Norwegian artist as part of a weird, sociological and psychological experiment in which he discovers — much to his own frustration — that he can’t fit a square peg into a round hole. At some point, Beharie gets up and escapes into the streets. The video offers two important lessons: learning self-acceptance and standing firm in being yourself and in your beliefs, even in the face of a world that often enforces conformity and the path of least resistance.

“We explore the idea of self desire, to do and be yourself, and how we often meet forces that don’t necessarily agree or comply with what you believe in, that’ll rather tell you how something works,” the video’s director Martin Kopperud says on the video. “We hope this can be a reminder to always stay true to yourself and to stand for your beliefs.” 

“It has been a really fun and interesting experience working with Martin Kopperud,” Beharie explains. “The track is a quite playful and energetic tune, but put together with this visual universe it becomes a bit more mysterious and quirky.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Naomi Shares Club Friendly “Phénoméne”

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spilled quite a bit of virtual ink covering rising Montréal-based multi-disciplinary artist, singer/songwriter and pop artist Naomi. After studying theater, the Canadian artist first made a name for herself acting in roles on both the small and big screen by the time she turned 14.

Naomi went on to study dance École de danse contemporaine de Montréal. As a dancer, she has appeared in and/or choreographed music videos for the likes of Rihanna, Marie-Mai, Cœur de Pirate and others, as well as for local dance performances.

While she was establishing herself as an actor and dancer, the Montréal-based artist quietly developed a passion for singing — without giving herself permission to explore it fully. However, Cœur de Pirate, a.k.a. Beátrice Martin saw potential and took Naomi under her wing. Encouraged by Martin’s mentorship, the rising Canadian artist began to realize that she was never far off from making her own music. All she needed was a bit of a push. 

Naomi signed with Martin’s Bravo Musique, the label home of JOVM mainstay Thaïs, Cœur de Pirate, Chocolat and lengthy list of acclaimed local Francophone acts, and began writing her own original material. Since then, the rising Montréal-based artist has taken a bold leap into a career as a singer/songwriter and pop artist. Her first two singles “Tout à nous” and “Zéro stress” received airplay on WKND, Rouge FM, Arsenal, POP, CVKM and several other regional radio stations across Quebec.

She went on to release a batch of sleek, slickly produced singles that I’ve written about on this site, including last year’s “Hot Ex,” a song that paired the JOVM mainstays’ sultry delivery with a soulful, Larry Levan-like house music-inspired production featuring twinkling keys, bursts of sexy Quiet Storm-like horn, skittering beats and a remarkably catchy hooks. Despite the sultry exterior, “Hot Ex” was part break-up song, part tell-off, part revenge fantasy, full of the bitterness disappointment over a relationship ending, tiger heartbreak over what could have been, the crazed desire for revenge, and the stupidly desperate and dim hope for reconciliation that can only come from randomly running into an ex-lover on the street — or at a party.

The French Canadian JOVM mainstay’s latest single “Phénomène” is a slickly produced bit of dance floor friendly bop built around a hook-driven house music-meets- Rihanna-like production featuring glistening synth arpeggios, a propulsive and infectious groove serving as a lush, silky bed for Naomi’s sultry delivery singing lyrics in both French and English.

Thematically, the song has a powerfully feminist message — that it’s time to take responsibility for your life and your life’s path, to be proud of yourself and accomplishments and perhaps more important, to just be your damn self.

Directed by Ariana Tara, the video is set at a nightclub and captures the ebullience and joy of the nightclub — everywhere.

New Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Paris’ PYTHIES Share a Slick, Self-Assured Ripper

Emerging Paris-based punk outfit Pythies — founding member Lise L. (vocals) with Thérèse La Garce (guitar) and Anna B. Void (drums) — was created by Lise L. in late 2022 with the intent of starting an all-woman band, inspired and informed by riot grrl and grunge bands like L7, 7 Year Bitch, Babes in Toyland, Hole and her interest in witchcraft. In early 2023, Lise L. met Thérèse La Garce and Anna B. Void through social media. The trio felt a very strong simpatico, rooted in the meshing of three distinct and strong personalities, and from that point on, the band’s lineup was solidified.

Their work frequently references Delphi oracles and resistance against the patriarchy while sonically being indebted to riot grrl grunge and punk. So, fitting this sound is mosh pit inducing.

“Eclipse,” the French punks third-ever single is a swaggering, remarkably self-assured and polished ripper with rousingly anthemic choruses and hooks that sonically feels like a slick, modern take on a familiar and beloved sound. Written around the lunar eclipse last October, “Eclipse” reveals a band that has an uncanny knack for a catchy hook.

Directed by Ben Berzerker, the accompanying video is inspired by the early 2000s indie sleaze period — but rooted in the band’s desire to give women a new power.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: ALIAS Teams Up with Virginie B and Meggie Lennon on Woozy “TRUTH OR TRUST”

Emmanuel Alias is a French-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter multi-instrumentalist, composer, producer, dilettante and polymath who had had a varied career in music before he started his eponymous psych rock project ALIAS. After spending nine years studying jazz […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Emerging Nigerian Artist Rukmani Shares a Swaggering and Much-Needed Call to Unplug

Rukmani is an emerging Port Harcourt, Nigeria-born and-based R&B artist, who prides herself in sharing her unvarnished life stories, feelings and thoughts through her music.

Released a few weeks ago, the Nigerian artist’s latest single “No Social Media” is a slickly produced, hook-driven bop featuring soaring and cinematic bursts of strings, skittering boom bap, squiggling funk guitar, a supple bass line and a supple bass line serving as a lush bed for the emerging Nigerian artist’s swaggering and self-assured delivery, which sees her alternating between spitting bars and soulful crooning. “No Social Media” is rooted in a bold, much-needed message for all of us: stop doomscrolling, unplug from the apps, embrace your true self and reject the pressures to be airbrushed perfect.

More than that just ditching the apps, “No Social Media” is also a call to snatch back your time, your energy and your voice — and to create a space for genuine connection and for chasing dreams that really move you, not just amassing likes. “This isn’t just a song; it’s a movement,” says Rukmani. “I want this to inspire people to break free from the shackles of online validation and embrace their true selves, flaws and all. You are enough, just as you are.”

Directed by Planetsbb, the accompanying video follows the emerging Nigerian artist through an eerily empty amusement park.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s Grand Public Shares Trippy Visual for Krautrock-Like “Lisbonne, Paris La Sorbonne”

Grand Public is Montréal-based indie rock outfit that features a collection of some of the city’s most accomplished musicians: Gregory Paquet, the band’s founder and frontman has played with The Stills, Alvvays‘ Molly Rankin and Peter Peter. The band also features three childhood friends, who have played together in several local bands, including Reviews, an act that has shared stages with Omni, JOVM mainstays Corridor, and others. 

Last year’s four-song Dominic Vanchesteing-produced debut EP Idéal Tempo featured “Lundi normal,” and “Goutte á goutte,,” two tracks that seemingly recalled Junior-era Corridor to mind with nods to 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock and 60s psych rock.

The Montréal-based outfit’s highly-anticipated full-length debut is slated for an April 2024 release through Lisbon Lux Records. The album’s second single “Lisbonne, Paris La Sorbonne” is a krautrock-like song featuring shimmering and angular guitars and an explosive guitar solo before a slow fade-out. Channeling Corridor and XTC but with a decidedly post punk edge, the song’s career-orientated narrator is desperately figuring out the right moves to advance his ambitions — and at seemingly any cost.

Directed by Joel Pelletier, the accompanying video features a montage and animation from Pelletier and follows the members of the band on a surrealistic and psilocybin-fueled romp to battle a karate master — with instruments.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Blushing Shares Playful and Anthemic “Tamagotchi”

Austin-based dream pop/shoegazer outfit and JOVM mainstays Blushing — married couples Christina Carmona (vocals, bass) and Noe Carmona (guitar, keys) and Michelle Soto (guitar, vocals) and Jacob Soto (drums) — can actually trace some of its roots to El Paso, where Jacob Soto and Noe Carrmona grew up as lifelong friends and musical partners. 

Jacob Soto and Noe Carmona relocated to Austin around 2009. The pair coincidentally met their spouses at The Side Bar and according to the band, “naturally all four of us became close friends.” As Michelle Soto was starting to learn guitar, she also began writing material, creating guitar parts and vocal melodies in her bedroom. Christina Carmona, who’s a classically-trained vocalist, was recruited by Michelle Soto to contribute vocals to her initial musical ideas; but Christina then taught herself bass and helped flesh out Michelle’s songs. Shortly after both Jacob and Noe began to notice how much potential the material had, and they joined in on a practice session to help further flesh out those initial arrangements. And from that point on, Blushing was a full-fledged band. Their natural simpatico and like-minded musical influences helped to solidify their ongoing creative process. 

The quartet spent the bulk of 2016 writing and refining the material, which eventually led to their debut EP, 2017’s Tether, an effort that received positive reviews across the blogosphere, including this site.

Building upon a growing profile in the shoegaze and dream pop scenes, the band returned to the studio to write and record their sophomore EP, 2018’s Weak, which saw them cementing a sound seemingly indebted to Lush, Cocteau Twins and The Sundays but while also being a subtle refinement. They ended that year with the Elliot Frazier-produced and mixed “The Truth”/”Sunshine” 7 inch, which featured what was arguably the most muscular and direct song of their catalog to date. They supported their recorded output with several tours that saw them sharing stages with the likes of Snail Mail, Sunflower Bean, La Luz, BRONCHO, Illuminati Hotties, JOVM mainstays Yumi Zouma and others.

2019 saw the release of their self-titled, full-length debut, which they supported with an extensive US tour with Ringo Deathstarr that included a stop at Saint Vitus Bar that November.

During the pandemic, the Austin-based JOVM mainstays signed to Kanine Records, who released their sophomore album, 2022’s Possessions.  Possessions was an album born out of incredible patience and perseverance: The earliest tracking sessions started in 2019 and continued in fits and starts through the quarantines, lockdowns and re-openings of the pandemic. There was also breaks in production: Frazier and his spouse welcomed their second child and that was followed by massive blackouts across Texas as a result of the winter storm that wrecked havoc across the region.

When the album was finally finished, the material saw the band embracing the full and complicated spectrum of life and relationships, but while recognizing the need for escape and whimsy. The album also saw the band collaborating with two legendary shoegazers — Lush and Piroshka‘s Miki Berenyi, who contributes vocals on “Blame” and RIDE‘s Mark Gardener, who mastered the album at his OX4 Sound in the UK. 

Immediately after the band wrapped the Possessions recording sessions, they began writing new material. Noe or Christina would upload a new song idea to a Google Drive almost daily, and within the hour, Michelle would have melody and lyrics fully formed. The band didn’t want to create an album, where each song was made to fit into the same aesthetic mold. Instead, they decided to run with each each, no matter which direction it went, resulting in material that feels a bit like a sampler of the quartet’s collective influences — and much like a band playfully expanding and experimenting with their sound.

While there are tracks that will be immediately recognized as being Blushing songs, the band’s third album Sugarcoat reportedly sees the band taking the opportunity to explore their love of post-punk, psych-gaze, grunge pop, indie pop, slowcore and more. Thematically and lyrically, the album asks many questions and sees its narrators reaching out to someone to provide answers or for the answers to come from within. Much of the questioning is informed by the constant uncertainty of our world and the inherent uncertainty of one’s life. Of course, one gets older. But with the accumulation of mistakes and wisdom, there are moments where you’re forced to confront yourself and question past decisions and actions. And you do so in the face of an unknowable, even more uncertain and uneasy future.

Sugarcoat‘s first single “Tamagotchi” is a decidedly playful, Blushing-like song that’s lovingly indebted to 120 Minutes-era MTV rock featuring fuzzy and crunchy guitars, Christina Carmona’s and Michelle Soto’s ethereal harmonies, thunderous drumming and an enormous chorus. The song’s narrator tells a tale of being indecisive with a matter of the heart and desiring to be playable character that has the big decisions made for you. Would you still feel heartache and regret, if someone else were pushing the buttons?

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Tamagotchi” follows the band as they’re about to hit the stage. In the adrenaline-fueled chaos to start the show, a tamagotchi manages to escape from its game-based confines as a result of a spilled drink on stage, and begins to interact with the outside world, at one point becoming both the band’s 2D mascot and a third guitarist. I hope Gizmo the dog isn’t too jealous! Seriously though, the video is an adorable and playful complement to the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Belfast’s Chalk Teams Up with Fears on Brooding “Bliss”

Rising Belfast-based outfit Chalk — Ross Cullen (vocals), Benedict Goddard (guitar, sampler) and Luke Niblock (drums) — features three award-winning musicians and filmmakers, who can trace the origins of the band to when they met while attending film school and bonded over having the same musical vision and ambitions. Inspired by the ferocity and live shows of Dublin‘s guitar band scene and the sweaty hardcore dance scenes of their native Belfast, the band have crafted a sound that has been dubbed by some critics as techno-infused, gothic post-punk — and as the band has dubbed Berghain-rock blended with techno punk.

Last year saw the Northern Irish-based post-punk trio release their debut EP Conditions. As a live unit, the band quickly exploded out of the gates with opening slots for London-based outfit PVA for their first ever shows, before selling out shows across the UK. Quickly building upon a growing profile across the region and elsewhere, the band landed sets across the European major festival circuit, closing out 2023 with a set at Rencontres Trans Musicales and a KEXP live session, which will be released on March 8, 2024.

Coming off the heels of a Northern Irish Music Prize 2023 Best Live Act win, the band has begun to make noise globally: Their sophomore EP, the Chris Ryan and Ross Cullen co-produced Conditions II is slated for a Friday release through Nice Swan Records, and the EP will feature previously released singles “The Gate” and “Claw,” which received praise from The Independent, NME, DIY, Dork, Rolling Stone UK, So Young, The New Cue, Rough Trade, Consequence and others while landing on a BBC 6 Music playlist with tracks from PJ Harvey, IDLES, Sampha, Yard Act and more. Thematically, the album continues upon the themes of its immediate predecessor but sees the band diving deeper into subconscious feelings and self-discovery while leaning into the industrial/techno rock sound that they established with their debut EP. Aesthetically, the trio also continue the monochromatic, goth-inspired goth visual landscape in an evocative and seamless manner.

“We see Conditions II as a natural evolution from our debut EP, Conditions. These new tracks are a product of our first year as a touring band. They were tried and tested at most of our shows before being taken into the studio,” Chalk’s Ross Cullen says. “We wanted to expand upon existing themes and ideas we touched upon in our debut, but with this continuation, we could explore ourselves and the world we had created deeper, both lyrically and sonically. In this second installment, we wanted to dive further into the electronic element of our music, bringing the experience of our live shows to our recordings.”

“Bliss” Conditions II‘s hazy third and latest single features angular and reverb-drenched shoegazer-like guitar textures with relentless four-on-the-floor and bursts of glistening synth serving as a brooding yet cinematic bed for Ross Cullen’s punchy yet stoic shouts and Constance Keane, a.k.a. Fears‘ ethereal voice acting as a dreamy counterbalance. Sonically nodding a bit at Joy Division, New Order, Luminous and V-era The Horrors and others, the track thematically moves from longing to loss and regret.

Directed by the band’s Benedict Goddard, the video features two solitary dancers — a man and a woman — dancing ecstatically to the song, cut with intimate shots of each band member performing the song in a cinematic black and white. Visually, the song channels and mirrors the emotional movement of the song.