Tag: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

Live Footage: Mary Middlefield Performs “Atlantis”

Mary Middlefield is rising, 22 year-old Lausanne, Switzerland-based classically trained violinist, folk singer/songwriter and guitarist, who has received attention for crafting steam-of-consciousness songs that veer between pop-punk fueled intensity and folk-inspired softness inspired by Elliot Smith, Nick Drake, Jeff Buckley, Claud, Jockstrap and The Japanese House. Thematically, the young Swiss artist’s work sees her wielding high drama, desire and vulnerability as keys to making meaning in a complicated universe, where abuse and love coincide.

The young Swiss artist’s forthcoming EP is reportedly a cathartic release, that will not only allow her to move forward with a clear mind and clean palette but is also music for listeners who are stuck, scorned and lonely. The EP is essentially an invitation for those who are suffering and yearning to scream alongside her.

The EP’s latest single “Atlantis” is a breathtakingly gorgeous and remarkably accessible song built around a sparse arrangement of strummed acoustic guitar and ukelele, shimmering strings, atmospheric synths and a subtle yet supple bass line paired with Middlefield’s yearning and expressive delivery. Recorded at Lausanne-based AKA Studio with Alexis Sudan and Gwen Buord, “Atlantis” as Middlefield explains is a sadistic love ballad that explores the dilemma of being infatuated with a person who offers very little in return.

Originally written as a stripped-down track, Middlefield and Buord rearranged the song’s second part with intricate ukulele arrangements. Then also tweaked the track a bit more, by adding strings and synths and an underwater-like feel to make the song sound dreamier while readily embracing a folk pop sound.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Marta Vega Shares A Sultry, 80s-Inspired Anthem

Marta Vega is a Milan-born, London-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist, who taught herself how to play guitar as a teenager, and then started to write her own songs. Over the past several years, Vega has been playing gigs across London and Milan, developing an emotive, dark pop sound, influenced by PJ Harvey, Portishead, Massive Attack and The Cure. During that same period, she also has developed a reputation for a captivating stage presence that sees her accompanying herself on synth, guitar and electronic percussion.

Vega’s debut single “Underwater” was released back in 2021. She recently released her sophomore single, the Andrea Tripodi-produced “The Kill,” is a melodic and brooding bit of hook-driven, 80s inspired pop that sounds a bit like a sleek and seamless synthesis of Stevie Nicks‘ smash hit solo work of the early 80s, Garbage and The Kills with Vega’s haunting, pop goddess vocal floating over a pulsating synth bass line, staccato beats, buzzing power chords.

“The lyrics explore the internal battle between logic and passion, reason and impulse,” Vega explains. “It’s about being aware of self-destructive behaviours but not being able to escape them.”

Directed by Luke Shelley, the accompanying video for “The Kill” is shot in a gorgeously cinematic black and white, that capture the longing, lust, and the never-ending battle between reason and impulse that’s at the heart of the song.

Vega’s forthcoming debut EP is slated for release in 2024 and will feature a collection of material that she has been working on while splitting her time between the studio and work.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: CZARFACE Shares Mischievous Animated Visual for “Czarchimedes’ Death Ray”

CZARFACE, the collaborative project featuring beloved underground hip-hop duo 7L & Esoteric and the Wu-Tang Clan’s Inspectah Deck. The project’s name is derived from a fictional character that the trio created that’s patterned after comic book super villains with aspects of the personalities and quirks of each individual member.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past handful of years, the trio can trace their collaboration back to when 7L & Esoteric and Inspectah Deck toured together in the early 00s. That tour led to a series of collaborative singles including “Speaking Real Words” off 7L & Esoteric’s 2001 album, The Soul Purpose and “12th Chamber” off their 2010 album 1212, and a number of other singles.

Since the act formed back in 2013, they’ve released a handful of critically applauded albums: their 2013 self-titled debut, 2015’s Every Hero Needs a Villain, 2016’s A Fistful of Peril, 2018’s, Czarface Meets Metalface with the late MF DOOM and Czarface Meets Ghostface, with Wu-Tang Clan’s Ghostface Killah, 2019’s The Odd Czar Amongst Us and 2021’s posthumously released collaboration with MF DOOM, SuperWhat?

The trio’s ninth album CZARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE was released earlier this month through Virgin Music and is an action-packed odyssey that continues a run of material influenced and informed by comic books, and features guest spot from Logic, Kool Keith, Nems, Frankie Pulitzer and a cast of others. “We’re back with that off-kilter, no filter,” CZARFACE’s Esoteric says. 

The album sees the trio continuing to weave the unfiltered essence of OG braggadocio, introspective story-telling — and as always, the exploits of superheroes and supervillains that’s as engaging as when you used to flip through the pages of your favorite comic book or graphic novel. The album’s guests join CZARFACE on missions and side-quests — and the result is material that playful and lovingly explores the intersection of cosmic hip-hop and comic book culture. “The new album comes equipped with chaos, order and everything in between,” Esoteric explains. “It’s like a swirling vortex of cosmic carnage, but we bring it down to earth in places. We are, after all, in a new era. I hope what we made resonates with the people.”

CZARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE‘s latest single “Czarchimedes’ Death Ray” is built around a trippy production featuring boom bap beats paired with woozy, reverb soaked psychedelic guitars and old-school scratching. Each of the super talented emcees spits mischievously dexterous and swaggering bars full of pop culture and comic book references, while referencing the supervillain’s unique stash of weaponry. “Czar never resorts to conventional weaponry, thus the illustrious Death Ray – a sonic homage to the Greek mathematician Archimedes,” Esoteric says. 

Directed by Hoku Uchiyama and Adam Bolt, a.k.a. Hoku & Adam, the accompanying video for “Czarchimedes’ Death Ray” employs animation and live-action footage to capture and evoke the boundless imagination of a young comic book reader, who mischievously inserts her favorite arch-villain Czarface into the adventures of The Power Partners to hilariously chaotic and imaginative effect.

“We needed a visual that captured Czarface’s brand of justice and a kid’s boundless imagination,” Esoteric says of the video. “But also one that also kept a comic-like pace to match the track.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Stockholm’s Don Gog Shares Hazy and Menacing “Q”

Don Gog is a mysterious and enigmatic Stockholm-based DJ and producer, who spent a handful of years between the late 90s and early 2000s heavily involved in Gothenburg‘s hip-hop scene, working as a DJ and producer, who worked with an array of Swedish, French and American emcees, including Jeru the Damaja, Looptroop Rockers and Astma, who’s best known for his work with NoNoNo. He has also worked on TV and film scores, winning a number of international film festival awards throughout the course of his lengthy career.

The mysterious Stockholm-based DJ and producer finally steps out into the spotlight as a solo, hip-hop and electronic music artist with the forthcoming Cybernetics EP, which sees the Swedish artist and producer crating music that blends an eclectic array of influences, including Massive Attack, Portishead Aphex Twin and others, paired with visuals to create a trippy multimedia experience. By purposefully keeping the artist behind the project as ambiguous as humanly possible, the idea is that listeners and viewers can focus more on the art, as opposed to the person behind it.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “I Feel Love,” a narcoleptic and trippy fusion of dub and trip hop built around rubbery, tweeter and woofer rattling low end, staccato and percussive synths and skittering beats while Uma E’s sultry vocal sample singing “I Feel Love” bursts out of the haze. “I wanted it to feel like a trip, a journey in your head,” Don Gog explained. “To mix electronica with dub and blend the two styles… the complicated thing was to find the electronica melody that would work with the dub beats… It was challenging to blend two diverse elements into a single cohesion.”

Cybernetics EP‘s latest single, “Q” continues a run of narcoleptic and hazy, dub-inspired trip-hop that features a soulful jazz trumpet solo paired with reverb-soaked beats, atmospheric and fluttering synths and a gently vocodered vocal. The result is a song that wouldn’t sound out of place on a Massive Attack record — but with an added sense of uneasy, creeping menace. “I worked with a jazz trumpet player who improvised and then took different bits and ‘sampled’ them and created new melodies and recorded them to tape and then back to the MPC3000,” the mysterious Swedish producer explains. “And from that into the DAW again, to edit it even more.”

Directed by high fashion photographer and videographer Fofo Altinell, the hazy accompanying video for “Q” is inspired by 90s underground art and the work of directors like Chris Cunningham and David Lynch. “The visual inspiration is coming from disassociation,” Altinell explains. “Our protagonist is clearly confused, maybe traumatized or intoxicated, walking the rough streets and suddenly the daydreamy glitter comes and she’s mentally somewhere else. The things happening in her head is our fictional protagonist’s personal dreams and fears”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Eve Machines Share Hook-Driven And Anthemic “In The Garden”

Eve Machines is a solo, DIY folktronica recording project. The project’s self-titled full-length debut sees Eve Machine walking a tightrope between acoustic and electronic sounds, grungy and smooth tones, catchy hooks and experimental tangents — all held together by an emphasis on tight grooves.

The self-titled album’s latest single “In The Garden” pairs strummed acoustic guitar, hip-hop inspired boom bap and atmospheric electronics with Eve Machine’s effortlessly soulful, yearning delivery and remarkably crafted, catchy hooks. The result is a song that sonically recalls Radiohead‘s “Paranoid Android,” Incubus‘ “Drive” and Hoobastank‘s “The Reason” — while possessing an uncanny pop accessibility.

“The song was born in one night and started what would become a y year project, because it convinced me that folky guitar, hip hop drums and electronics could be actually fused in a natural and cohesive way, which up to that point had seemed impossible,” Eve Machine’s creative mastermind explains. “It’s not a sound I’ve really heard before, and I think that’s where original music comes from– from creating what you want to hear but aren’t finding yet. That’s when your subconscious imagination or whatever gets to work and poof, the song appears. Then you just have to lock yourself in a basement for 7 years to make the damn thing presentable and viola, what you want to hear is now there for everyone to hear, too.”

Directed by Jeremiah Heiss, the accompanying video for “In The Garden” features the project’s creative mastermind in a suburban basement conceiving, writing and then recording the song with various electronics in the background, including a synthesizer, a desktop computer and more. Despite the modern take on a familiar sound, the video manages to bring 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock to mind.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Still Corners Share Lush and Dreamy Visual for “Secret World”

Throughout their nearly two-decade career, acclaimed JOVM mainstays Still Corners — vocalist and keyboardist Tessa Murray and multi-instrumentalist, producer and songwriter Greg Hughes — have managed to bounce between chilly and atmospheric pop and shimmering guitar-driven, desert noir through five albums: 2012’s Creatures of an Hour, 2013’s Strange Pleasures, 2016’s Dead Blue, 2018’s Slow Air and 2020’s The Last Exit. 

Since the release of The Last Exit, the acclaimed dream pop duo released two stand alone singles:

  • 2021’s “Heavy Days,” which struck me as a synthesis of Dead Blue, Slow Air and The Last Exit — but while arguably being one of the more optimistic and sunnier songs of their catalog. 

  • Last year’s “Far Rider,” an expansive song that to my ear, sounds as though it could have been part of the Slow Air and The Last Exit sessions — but with a subtle modern, production flourish that features Murray’s smoky croon being chopped up and distorted. 

The JOVM mainstays’ long-awaited sixth full-length album Dream Talk is slated for an April 5, 2024 release 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”

Dream Talk features ten carefully-crafted songs that sees the acclaim duo further mastering a sound and 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.”

Dream Talk‘s first single “Secret World” pairs Murray’s imitable smoky croon with a shimmering and looping Western-tinged guitar line, twinkling and atmospheric synths and a gently driving rhythm. While continuing a remarkable run of dreamy yet alluring material with a subtle hint of danger — like the mythical sirens on the rock seducing sailors to their eventual 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.”

South in Southern England, the accompanying video for “Secret World” follows Still Corners’ Tessa Murray in a lush and verdant garden, in which she encounters some strange and fantastical creatures. “And the secret garden bloomed and bloomed and every morning revealed new miracles,” the band says of the video.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: OWLS Shares Abrasive and Uneasy “Bury Me”

OWLS is a rising Longford, Ireland-based producer, who crafts dark and brooding songs paring driving rhythms and grooves, dynamic vocals and abrasive textures. Sonically, his material draws largely from post-punk, techno and synth pop — or as he describes them “songs for the night, for the moon and its shadows” and “dark tunes you can dance to.” Thematically, his work focuses on the uneasy balance between love and brutality.

2023 has been a busy year for the Irish producer: He has made the rounds of the national, summer festival circuit. He has played headlining shows in Dublin — and he has performed at a slew of underground events throughout the country. He closes out the year with “Bury Me” a broody and uneasy mix of industrial and post punk built around relentless, twitter and woofer rattling, skittering beats and whirring and wobbling synths and bursts of angular guitar paired with the Irish producer’s furious howls.

Lyrically and thematically, the song sees its narrator on a tumultuous dance between life and death, hope and despair with an uneasy, unvarnished honesty.

Directed and shot by Nathan Sheridan in Longford, Ireland, the video features the Irish producer in a dilapidated and abandoned school building, a brown Ford Cortina, a woman clad in leather burying an eggplant in the woods and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Meatbodies Share Fuzzy and Anthemic “Hole”

Over the course of the past decade or so, Los Angeles-born and-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Chad Ubovich developed a reputation as a mainstay of his hometown’s fertile music scene: Ubovich had a lengthy stint playing guitar in Mikal Cronin‘s backing band. He plays bass in Fuzz with Ty Segall and Charlie Moothart. He’s also the founding member and frontman of the experimental noise rock/freak rock outfit  Meatbodies.

By 2017, Ubovich reached a crossroads. After years of increasingly insane shows in front of heaving crowds with an ever-evolving and rotating door of personal, fatigue had taken its toll, and he realized that another change was just on the horizon. “It was like the car had run out of gas in the middle of the road, and I knew I had along walk ahead of me,” Ubovich recalls. He retreated to Los Angeles’ seedy underbelly — in search of meaning and a much-needed reset. But Ubovich gradually escaped into that world, ignoring his own physical and mental well-being, licking his wounds and trying to forget his successes. “I was living like a 90’s vampire out of a comic book. Stumbling around LA with the socialites, partying away my sorrows, trying to forget,” the Los Angeles-born and-based artist explains.

Around this time, the material that would eventually comprise Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom, a project conceived and written by a man searching for new beginnings and his own sense of self. After getting sober, writing sessions began at Ubovichs’ home and various studios with longtime collaborator Dylan Fujioka (drums). The official production for the album began back in 2019, but due to discrepancies with the studio and high tensions, the plug was pulled. With only about half an album, it seemed that Flora was shelved — perhaps permanently.

After some time away, cooler heads eventually prevailed and there were many discussions about the album’s future. Ubovich finally got the green light to finish production on Flora back in 2020. But he hit another snag — the COVID-19 pandemic. And with everyone’s lives and plans at a forced, indefinite halt, so did the idea of Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom.

Not wanting to sit still at home, Ubovich began combing through his previous demos with Fujioka while writing for Flora. And through those efforts, came Meatbodies’ third album, 2021’s 333. However, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom was never far from his mind, and he once against resisted the idea of completing the album.

As restrictions were gradually lifted, Ubovich along with engineer Ed Mentee and a team of colleagues and friends, headed to Los Angeles-based Gold Diggers Sound to complete the album. But he now faced a new crisis, one that was more dire and terrifying than anything he had faced before: The home he had spent the past eight years in had been deemed uninhabitable and he wound up spending the next month of his life in a hospital bed.

Having to not only learn to walk again but also learn to play again, Ubovich used an upcoming tour with FUZZ as a motivating factor and hit the road for a year trying to regain a sense of normalcy. By the time he returned from that tour, he felt centered, energized and ready to conquer his own white whale – Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom.

Armed with a new home and a new studio, The Secret Garden, Ubovich mixed the album himself, recruited Magic Garden’s Brian Lucey to master the material — and finally Flora was completed, five years after those original demos with Fujioka. “A lot happened with this record – it took me five years, I was out of a band, I had a drug problem, the album almost didn’t happen, the pandemic made it almost not happen again, and then in the end I almost died in the hospital, lost my house, and had to learn to walk again. It’s been quite a road, but I could not be more thrilled with the final output. I guess the juice was worth the squeeze?” laughs the Meatbodies frontman.

Slated for a March 8, 2024 release through In The Red Records, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom is in many ways a story of iron clad will and steely determination. Sonically, Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom is a massive step forward, both by conventional standards and considering its tumultuous path towards completion. The album recalls the Blue Cheer-meets-Iggy Pop-wtih-psychedelia that permeated the band’s previous releases, but with elements of shoegaze, alternative rock, Brit Pop, drone and even hints of country — without ever sounding forced or alien. But the album sees Ubovich crafting an eclectic yet unmistakably cohesive work.

Thematically, the material touches upon love and loss, escapism, defeatism, hedonism, psychedelics and much more — informed by Ubovich’s own life. “The last record was more of a cartoon version of who we were– simple and fun without delving into heavy concepts,” recalls Ubovich. “The whole thing before with Meatbodies was never sit down, next part, next part, but I wanted to make something with more depth. After everything that had happened, and my personal life, I was left with this feeling of emptiness and loss. So I wanted to make music that was absent from things– songs that were more about conveying feeling.”

Flora Ocean Tiger Bloom‘s lead single is the Siamese Dream-like “Hole,” which sees Ubovich and company pairing fuzzy power chord-driven hooks and choruses with Ubovich’s dreamily yearning falsetto and a driving groove. In many ways, “Hole” will appeal to shoegazers while featuring enough guitar pyrotechnics for headbangers — but with enough of melodic quality that gives the song a power pop-like sensibility. “That was one of the first songs I wrote, and I think it’s really indicative of that time,” says Ubovich. “How I was thinking and feeling and what I wanted to accomplish with this LP before I even knew it.”

Directed by Matt Yoka, the accompanying video is fittingly 120 Minutes era MTV-era video that features Ubovich and company performing the song in the song with some trippy visual effects. Play loud, then tune in and tune out, y’all!

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Elephant Stone Share Breezy and Nostalgia-Inducing “Another Year Gone”

2023 has been a busy year for Montréal-based JOVM mainstays Elephant Stone: Earlier this year they released Dawn, Day, Dusk, which featured “Godstar,” and “The Imajinary, Nameless Everybody In The World.” Those two tracks saw the band continuing their narrative journey through crating material that deftly balanced human complexity with introspective themes paired with an evolving sound.

They followed that up with “Lost In A Dream,” a song built around a Tame Impala-like groove, while continuing their long-held reputation for dexterous guitar work, catchy hooks and introspective lyrics. “Creating ‘Lost In A Dream’ has been a thrilling journey for us, one where the fascination with dreams and their mysterious ties to reality took center stage,” the band’s Rishi Dhir says. “While there are subtle hints of inspirations like The Nazz’s ‘Open My Eyes‘ and Echo and the Bunnymen‘s ‘Killing Moon,’ this song is really about charting our own musical course. We’ve woven an auditory landscape that we hope allows listeners to dive into their thoughts and dreams. It’s all about losing yourself in the music, in the narrative it spins, and finding a resonance within your own life.”
 

Elephant Stone’s highly-anticipated seven album, Back Into the Dream is slated for a February 23, 2024 release. The album will reportedly feature a harmonious blend of introspective lyrics and entrancing melodies that represent the latest culmination of their musical evolution. Thematically, the album explores the mysteries of dreams, capturing the cycle of sleep and wakefulness. As the band’s Dhir puts it, “Our music aims to bridge the gap between the known and the unknown.” Previously released tracks “Godstar” and “The Imajinary, Nameless Everybody in the World,” draw from the themes of Isaac Asimov’s Foundation, delving into the intricacies of human existence, creation, life and death while “Lost In A Dream,” is an exploration of dream-like states and blurred realities. 

In the past couple of months, I’ve written about two more singles:

“The Spark,” a breezy power pop-meets-jangle-pop take on psych pop built around soaring electric guitar, strummed acoustic guitar and Dihr’s earnest, plaintive falsetto paired with the band’s unerring knack for crafting enormous, remarkably catchy hooks and choruses. 

“Crafting a song is like tapping into a kind of magic that exists beyond the realm of the ordinary. I’m in perpetual pursuit of that elusive sensation—the spark that turns fleeting thoughts into something immortal,” the band’s Rishi Dhir admits. “’The Spark’ is my love letter to the art of songwriting, a tribute to the creative process itself. It’s about that serendipitous moment when time and space align, allowing you to capture lightning in a bottle.”

“History Repeating,” a song that sees the band blending their dreamy, 60s psych sound with slick, modern and hi-fi flourishes: The track is built around an arrangement of swirling and washed out tambourines, jangling, reverb-soaked guitar, twinkling keys, glistening synths paired with Dihr’s plaintive delivery. But despite the song’s ethereal nature, the song lyrically is centered around Canadian indigenous history, serving as a plea for reparations owed to the country’s First Nations people. 

“History has a haunting tendency to repeat itself, from the scars of colonialism to the rise of authoritarian regimes,” says frontman and songwriter Rishi Dhir. “It’s as if we’re trapped in a loop, forever replaying the same tragedies. ‘History Repeating’ is my way of confronting these harsh realities, particularly as they relate to my home country of Canada, which was built on the deeply troubling foundations of genocide and ethnic cleansing targeted at Indigenous peoples. In recent years, thanks to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the appalling truths about our past have been laid bare…This song serves as an urgent plea: let’s break the cycle. Let’s learn from the darkest chapters of our history to create a more just and compassionate future.”

Clocking in at a little over 90 seconds, Back Into the Dream‘s latest single “Another Year Gone” is a breezy and lovingly nostalgia-inducing tribute to 60s and 70s psych pop with a mellotron-driven intro, a jaunty “Penny Lane”-esque piano-driven melody, sunny harmonies and a flanger-driven guitar solo. But underneath the breezy nostalgia, the band’s Rishi Dhir reflects on the woozy and disorientating temporality of the COVID lockdowns with a knowing acknowledgement that in uncertain times you should hold on and cherish your loved ones — they’re all you really have.

“In this repetitive existence, it was easy to become untethered, adrift in thoughts while feeling emotionally and physically suspended,” Dhir says.“’Another Year Gone’ is an anthem for these disorienting times. It’s a narrative of contrasts—between those grappling with stress, fear, and economic hardship, and those who profited from the chaos. Above all, this song is a musical embrace, a reassurance to hold close the ones you love and to tell them that, despite the world’s turmoil, everything will be okay.”
 

Directed by Laurine Jousserand, the accompanying video for “Another Year Gone” lovingly leans into the song’s vintage feel and features a playful nod to Queen‘s “Bohemian Rhapsody” and those classic Beatles clips for “Penny Lane” and others.

The JOVM mainstays will be embarking on a North American tour to support the album. The tour begins with a hometown show in Montréal on March 22, 2024 and features a March 26, 2024 stop at TV Eye. More into including tickets can be found here. And as always, tour dates are below. 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: LohArano Shares a Satirical and Politically Charged Ripper

Over the course of the past couple of years of this site’s 13-plus year history, I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink on the Antananarivo, Madagascar-based JOVM mainstays LohArano. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site during that same period, you’d recall that since their formation, the Malagasy metal outfit  — Mahalia Ravoajanahary (vocals, guitar), Michael Raveloson (bass, vocals) and Natiana Randrianasoloson (drums, vocals) — have received attention both nationally and internationally for a unique, boundary pushing sound that features elements of popular and beloved Malagasy musical styles like Tsapiky  and Salegy with heavy metal. 

Continuing upon their reputation for being one of the hardest working and prolific acts in the global scene, the Malagasy trio released the Bae Nosy EP earlier this year, which featured, the urgent, mosh pit friendly EP title track “Bae Nosy.”

Building upon a growing international profile, the Malagasy JOVM mainstays went on to tour across the UK and France. The French tour featured a handful of dates opening for the legendary Fishbone. Along with that, “Bae Nosy” landed airplay from FERAROCK, which broadcasts across France, Switzerland, Belgium and Canada, and 50 other stations globally. The EP’s previous single “Koitra” landed on Spotify’s All New Metal and New Blood playlists, Deezer’s Metal Detector and Women of Metal playlists, Tidal’s New Metal playlist and over 250 other playlists.

The band closes out the year with the standalone single “Velirano.” “Velirano” is power chord-driven, mosh pit ripper fueled by the righteous outrage of people who have been fucked with, beaten down and cheated and have had enough. It’s the sound of young people frustrated with the same ol’ okie doke when the world is on fire, and the elders and authorities don’t have the same urgency.

The band explains that the song sees the band satirizing the contemporary politics and political situation of their homeland. They go on to say that they see their politicians taking advantage of a people living in misery, and are forced to accept whatever crumbs they’re given to survive. In the song, the politician character is — perhaps for the first time — being honest. In some way, the song feels a bit like a contemporary Malagasy version of Living Colour‘s “Cult of Personality,” and The Wall in which the politician reveals a violent, dystopian dictatorial fantasy.

The accompanying video features the band’s Mahalia Ravoajanahary as a sort of headbanging politician at the pulpit ripping it up behind her. Play loud and then open up that pit — right now!

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Genesis Owusu Returns with Breakneck “SURVIVOR”

If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you’d know that I’ve managed to spill copious amounts of virtual ink covering the acclaimed, multi-ARIA Award-winning Ghanian-born, Canberra-based JOVM mainstay Genesis Owusu. 

The acclaimed Aussie JOVM mainstay’s sophomore album STRUGGLER was released earlier this year through OURNESS/AWAL. Where Smiling With No Teeth thematically uncovered one Black man’s battles against — and with — depression and racism, STRUGGLER is reportedly an exploration of the chaos and absurdity of life, our ability to endure and how to get through it all. The album’s material is deeply inspired by a close friend hitting the brink and coming through the other side, along with questions of life and beauty that he found himself contemplating during readings of Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and Franz Kafka’s Metamorphosis. 

Recorded between the States and Australia, STRUGGLER‘s producers traverse musical genres — and includes Jason Evigan, who has worked with RUFUS DU SOL and SZA; Mikey Freedom Hart, who worked on Jon Batiste’s 2021 Grammy of the Year Album, We Are; Sol Was, who worked on Beyoncé’s Renaissance; and Owusu’s long-time collaborators and producers Andrew Klippel and Dave Hammer.

Additionally, Owusu has collaborated with acclaimed Kiwi-based Lisa Reihana on the album’s complete visual identity. Reihana’s work has been showcased in elite institutions throughout the States and the EU, including the Venice Biennale for her critically-acclaimed video installation, In Pursuit of Venus [Infected]. Her work spans across a diverse of media — including film, costume and body adornment and video installation, and as a result she has earned a reputation as a world-renowned artist and producer, who engages in thought-provoking dialogues around the concept of culture. 

I’ve managed to write about three of he album’s singles:

  • “Leaving the Light,” an urgent ripper that begins with a spine-crawling run of bass notes before quickly morphing into breakneck sFreedom of Choice-era DEVO-like anthem paired with the JOVM’s swaggering, larger-than-life presence and his unerring knack for rousing, shout along worthy choruses. “Leaving the Light” is a cathartic song about survival and perseverance that feels necessary in a mad, mad, mad world.

  • The Sol Was-produced “Tied Up!,” a swaggering and funky bop built around a propulsive stomp, swirling and warped funk guitar and wobbling bass synths paired with the JOVM mainstay’s forceful delivery. The song speaks of the struggle of getting by in an uneasy, insane world and desperately holding onto yourself as best as you can in the process. 

  • “Stay Blessed” is a breakneck, mosh pit friendly anthem built around buzzing, angular guitar attack, rapid-fire beats paired with the JOVM mainstay’s punchy delivery. Much like the previously released singles, “Stay Blessed” speaks of survival and desperate resilience in a mad, mad, mad world that’s out to destroy you. 

Coming on the heels of his recent ARIA Award wins for Album of the Year, Best Independent Release and Best Hip-Hop/Rap Release for STRUGGLER — and just before his headlining December Australia tour, the JOVM mainstay closes out the year with a surprise release single “SURVIVOR,” which will be included as an additional track to his acclaimed sophomore album.

Built around a hook-driven, percussive and glitchy industrial meets trap music-inspired production “SURVIVOR” sees Owusu’s rapid-fire verses dart and ducking like a boxer deftly avoiding his opponent’s punches. Referencing Kafka’s Metamorphosis, the song’s narrator discusses the struggle to have hope in a desperate, fucked up world; the struggle to have confidence and self-worth in a world that constantly tells you that you ain’t shit and that you’ll never be worth shit; the endless sense of exhaustion and rage that you don’t quite know what to do with — and with the sort of unvarnished and uneasy honesty that Owusu has been known for. “THE STORY NEVER ENDS, THE ROACH KEEPS ROACHING. THROUGH SPACE, TIME, FIRE & BRIMSTONE,” Owusu says of the new single.

Directed by Lisa Reihana, the accompanying video for “SURVIVOR” is set in a post-apocalyptic world of fire and industrialism and features a regal Owusu leading and surrounded by a collection of choreographed dancers with a militaristic precision.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Bolis Pupul Shares Haunting and Yearning “Completely Half”

Acclaimed Ghent-based electronic duo Charlotte Adigéry and Bolis Pupul exploded into the national and international scenes with the release of 2019’s critically applauded David and Stephen Dewaele-produced Zandoli EP, which featured Paténipat” and “High Lights,” tracks that received airplay on UK Radio and were playlisted by  BBC Radio 6. 

Their official full-length debut as a credited duo, last year’s Topical Dancer was co-written and co-produced by Soulwax and the acclaimed Belgian duo, and was released through Soulwax’s label DEEWEE. The album’s material was deeply rooted in two things. The duo’s perspectives as Belgians with immigrant backgrounds: Adigéry proudly claiming Guadeloupean and French-Martinique ancestry and Pupul proudly claiming Chinese ancestry. And they’re wide-ranging conversations they’ve had between each other that touch upon cultural appropriation, misogyny, racism, social media vanity, post-colonialism, and more.

The album thematically is a snapshot of their thoughts and observations on pop culture in the early 2020s while sonically seeing the Belgian duo cementing their sound and approach. The material features thoughtful songs that slap — and slap hard — but are centered around their idiosyncratic, off-kilter and satirical take on familiar genres and styles. “We like to fuck things up a bit,” Pupul laughs. “We cringe when we feel like we’re making something that already exists, so we’re always looking for things to combine to make it sound not like a pop song, not like an R&B song, not a techno song. We’re always putting different worlds together. Charlotte and I get bored when things get too predictable.”  

The album’s songs are generally fueled by a restless desire to not be boxed in — and to escape narrow perceptions of who they are and what they can be. “One thing that always comes up,” Bolis Pupul says, “is that people perceive me as the producer, and Charlotte as just a singer. Or that being a Black artist means you should be making ‘urban’ music. Those kinds of boxes don’t feel good to us.” But they manage to do all of this with a satirical bent. For the Belgian duo, it’s emancipation through humor. “I don’t want to feel this heaviness on me,” Charlotte Adigéry says. “These aren’t my crosses to bear. Topical Dancer is my way of freeing myself of these issues. And of having fun.”

Pupul steps out into the spotlight as a singer/songwriter and solo artist with his full-length debut, the Soulwax co-produced Letter To Yu. Slated for a March 8, 2024 release through Soulwax’s DEEWEE. Coming on the heels of a whirlwind couple of years, touring the globe to support Topical Dancer, Pupul’s forthcoming full-length debut is a love letter to his mother, who was killed in 2008 in a traffic accident.

Born to a Belgian father and Chinese mother, growing up in Ghent, Pupul had not negated his Chinese roots exactly — his mother was born in Hong Kong — but he hadn’t exactly embraced them either. However, in the wake of his mother’s death, he began coming to terms with his heritage. “When I started to think about my roots, I started to embrace them. And it became more and more important for me to get in touch with them,” the acclaimed Chinese-Belgian singer/songwriter and producer says. ““I went to evening school and began learning Chinese. I did that for four years. That was the first step.”

His first visit to Hong Kong back in 2018 further cemented how he wanted to incorporate his Chinese roots into his own music. A primary intention on his first trip to Hong Kong was to find where his mother — Yu Wei Sun — was born. Not wanting to forget this overwhelming experience, Pupul began writing a letter to his mother, so he could properly grasp his thoughts. Some time later, when the album began to take shape, the acclaimed Ghent-born and-based producer remembered the letter. “It became the centerpiece of this album,” he says matter-of-factly.

Fittingly, the creation and recording of Letter To Yu has proven to be a pivotal and liberating experience for Pupul. “Even though this trip was very emotional and at times sad, I also had some great times that just made me really happy,” he concludes. “This resulted in a very uplifting melody where I felt like I could handle my life.”

Letter To Yu‘s first single “Completely Half” pairs a glistening Chinese-influenced melody, skittering beats and wobbling synths with Pupul’s dreamily yearning delivery describing the sensation of searching for your roots — and to understand someone who can no longer speak for, or explain themselves. The track also features field recordings on the Hong Kong subway, adding a vital and forceful sense of place.

Directed by Magnum photographer Bieke Depoorter, the gorgeously shot visual for “Completely Half” was shot in Hong Kong and follows Pupul wandering the city’s streets and buildings in search for his late mother. The women in the video welcomed Depoorter into their homes and daily routines to let her film intricate and intimately composed tableaux of their everyday lives — in which Pupul desperately seeks the spirit of his mother. Fittingly, the video is haunting and full of an aching longing.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Finland’s Mere Stellar Shares a Sarcastic Examination of Contemporary Dating

Milja Inkeri is a Finnish singer/songwriter, who can trace her career back to 2007: She competed on that year’s Finnish Idol and reached the Top 24. And as a result of growing national attention, her covers series on YouTube amassed over two million organic views between 2006-2007. Inkeri also has had stints in Finnish bands Kailo and Antti Kokkomäki & Tammikuun Lapset. Additionally, she has collaborated with a number of projects both nationally and internationally, including Taiwanese shoegazers The Other and Finnish metal outfit Planeetta 9, along a growing list of others.

Inkeri is the creative mastermind behind the indie pop outfit Mere Stellar. Influenced by Kate Bush, Joanna Newsom and Radiohead, the Finnish artist’s new project sees her playfully meshing experimental electro pop with acoustic elements to create a sound that is at times quirky yet melancholic. The Finnish artist explains that “Mere Stellar is the creation of a free soul, who stopped caring about external rules and authorities of music . . ” and
“started to have fun with music again and speak her true soul’s voice — the pain, the joy, the channeling of healing.” Inkeri adds “Mere Stellar is the manifestation someone who held it inside and listened to others too much, who channels pure love, fun and crazy vibes.”

Inkeri’s latest Mere Stellar single, the recently released, woozy and hook-driven “The Crush Realm” pairs a looped sample of twinkling and arpeggiated keys, skittering beats, industrial clang and clatter with Inkeri’s plaintive and yearning delivery. While sonically seeming to channel a quirky synthesis of Tori Amos, Kate Bush and Kid A-era Radiohead, “The Crush Realm” is a lived-in, bittersweet and desperate examination of contemporary dating culture, in which everyone feels simultaneously desperate to find “the one” or “someone” but tacitly recognizes that everyone feels miserable and disposable. But she does so with a sarcastic, snaky sense of humor.

Directed by the Finnish artist, the accompanying video for “The Crush Realm” captures the desperation, uncertainty and quirky sarcasm at the hear of the song, as it follows Inkeri and a snail around a rather European-looking house.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Nailah Hunter Shares Ethereal and Hauntingly Gorgeous “Strange Delights”

Nailah Hunter is a Los Angeles-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter, composer and folk artist, who can trace the origins of her musical journey to the church: As the daughter of a Belizean pastor, she played drums, guitar and sang in the choir.

Hunter continued to study music at CalArts, where she studied vocal performance and was given her first harp lesson. Associating the instrument with fantasy, psychedelia, and dream worlds, she became an immediate devotee, locking herself in a room for six hours a day to practice the instrument

The Los Angeles-based artist has been writing and recording mystical folk and ambient-inspired music since the release of her debut single, 2019’s “Apple, Maple, Willow.” She followed up with a series of singles and two EPs 2020’s Spells and 2021’s Quietude released through Leaving Records. Since then, Hunter signed with Fat Possum, who will be releasing her highly-anticipated full-length debut, the Cicely Goulder-produced Lovegaze on January 12, 2024.

To create Lovegaze‘s material, Hunter went to a small coastal city along the English Channel, where she began recording demos with a borrowed Celtic harp. After being introduced to London-based producer Cicely Goulder, the Los Angeles-based artist returned to England the following year to further develop the album’s material.

Written alongside collaborator Ben Lukas Boysen, Lovegaze is reportedly an enthralling album that draws listeners into her enchanting cosmology while being rooted in the audible and palpable emotionality in her delivery.

Hunter’s full-length debut is reportedly an enthralling album that draws listeners into her enchanting cosmology. “I was crying when I recorded those vocals,” she says. “While I was writing Lovegaze, I was thinking about humanity’s propensity to destroy the things we love,” Hunter says. “I was thinking about ancient ruins and structures that once provided shelter but no longer do. There’s beauty to be found in ruins, too.” Sonically, the album evokes the eternal with Hunter’s harp being accompanied by an electronic palette created in the studio with Goulder.

Written during a period of global and personal strife for the Los Angeles-based artist, Lovegaze manages to capture some of that sense of distress, but it’s also a willful reminder of the fortitude and beauty of Earth’s natural processes. As Hunter says: “Nature remains; we’re the passing thing.” 

“Strange Delights,” Lovegaze‘s breathtakingly gorgeous second single pairs Hunter’s expressive and soulful delivery with an eerie Portishead-meets-Tales of Us-era Goldfrapp-like production featuring twinkling harp, woozily atmospheric synths and skittering beats. While featuring contemporary electronic elements, “Strange Delights” feels timeless and evokes a sense of breathless awe.

“‘Strange Delights’ started as an improv over a modular synth loop that my partner made,” Hunter explains. “At the time, we were burning a bunch of incense in a dark room, which served as inspiration for the wandering vocal melody. Once I worked on it with producer Cicely Goulder, ‘Strange Delights’ took on a more golden quality that reminds me of a hazy and intoxicated feast in a peculiar, yet familiar wood.”

The accompanying video by Haoyan of America is a computer generated visual that follows a crocodile with glowing eyes swimming past the broken down remains of human civilization — rusted cars, dilapidated factories, broken ruins of buildings and more. As the video slowly pans out, we see a collection of crocodiles with glowing eyes swimming over what used to be a supermarket.

“The idea for ‘Strange Delights’ was developed through conversations with Nailah and inspired by her interest in crocodilian ‘tapetum lucidum’ (Latin for “shining layer”), a biologic reflector system common in the eyes of vertebrates that give them enhanced night vision,” Haoyan of America explains. “The visual arc takes cues from the song’s musical progression and highlights contrasting evolutionary ecologies.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: We Melt Chocolate Shares Trippy Visual for Dreamy “Holy Ramen”

Florence-based shoegazers We Melt Chocolate can trace their origins back to the fusion of two different bands evanicetrip and Shades of Blue back in 2012. Since then, the Italian band over a handful of releases that includes a self-released demo, and an EP and their full-length debut through Annibale Records has firmly cemented a sound and approach that equally draws from the noisier side of shoegaze — i.e.,  My Bloody Valentine, Lush, and even The Sugarcubes. 

The band has opened for a number of internationally renowned bands including The Shivas, Holy Wave, The Asteroid No. 4, The Underground Youth, His Clancyness, Magic Shoppe, Your 33 Black Angels and GIFT among a growing list of others. 

Holy Gaze, the Florence-based outfit’s highly anticipated and long awaited sophomore album was released earlier this year through Miracle Waves and features guest spots from Francesco D’Elia, Rev Rev Rev‘s Sebastian Lugli and Sensitive Club‘s Ben Moro. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about album single “No Meaning Man,” a song that alternates between dreamy and stormy passages built around a relentless motorik groove, layers of distorted and fuzzy guitar textures, shimmering synths, thunderous drumming paired with reverb-soaked vocals buried within the oceanic mix. Thematically, the song speaks of disillusionment with superficial people, who base their entire lives on appearances and conceal their vapidity and lack of empathy towards others. 

“Holy Ramen,” Holy Gaze‘s latest single showcases the Italian outfit at their dreamiest to date — with the song featuring swirling Slowdive and A Storm in Heaven-like guitar textures paired with a driving rhythm section and yearning, ethereal vocals. 

The band explains that “Holy Ramen” is an exhortation to overcome daily difficulties, look at the sky and allow yourself a special, sacred moment just for you. “For us (particularly for the singer), one of these moments is indulging in a good hot ramen.” The band goes on to say that for them, “it is the simplest moments that become sacred.”

The accompanying video fittingly seems inspired by 120 Minutes-era MTV and feature some lushly shot visuals of a bowl of ramen being prepared and then serving as a mind-bending backdrop for the band — both while performing and even enjoying a comforting meal of the stuff, often while the sky races behind them.