Tag: New Video

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Uma E. Shares an Atmospheric Cover of 80s Synth Pop Hit

Ulriqa Fernqvist is a Swedish multi-disciplinary artist, who strongest forms of expression have always been dance, theater and singing. Over the course of two-plus decade career, she has worked on an experimental, improvisational concerts, musical installations, theater and dance performances. Along with producer and collaborator Don Gog, she runs the performing arts company Art of Spectra, a company that has been invited to perform at numerous festivals, theaters and art centers around Europe.

As a pop artist, Fernqvist is the creative mastermind behind solo recording project Uma E. Her latest single, sees Fernqvist and her longtime producer and collaborator tackling a-ha‘s 1985 song “The Sun Always Shines On TV.” The original begins with a dramatic introduction featuring twinkling keys and atmospheric synths before quickly morphing into a hook-driven, prog rock-like anthem reminiscent of Yes‘ “Owner of a Lonely Heart” and Duran Duran. Clocking in at a little under six minutes, the Uma E. rendition sees the Swedish collaborators stripping the song down to the bare bones, transforming the song into a brooding and uneasy, Portishead and Massive Attack-like bit of trip hop built around thumping kick drum beats, gently twinkling synth arpeggios, grainy bass synths and atmospheric electronics paired with Uma E.’s ethereal and plaintive delivery.

“I worked in the theatre play TOUCH by Falk Richter in Germany at Münchner Kammerspiele during the pandemic. I was asked to perform the A-ha song, ‘The Sun Always Shines on TV’ and it started off quite close to the original,” Fernqvist says. “I realised after a while I wanted to express the song in a different way to make it feel right. I got very attached to this song and the lyrics as it was a song I heard a lot growing up. I felt that I wanted to express it more like a poem – slower and more intimate.” 

Changing the style of the song was planted in the Swedish artist’s mind, and came to fruition later that summer, when she returned to Sweden. “Me and my producer Don Gog started to experiment with what that change  could be. It developed to what we came to call ‘a techno prayer’ and we started building this track with the idea that it was to be performed in this play. Later we reworked that version to make it more like a track without the theatrical context – even though those memories still live in the track. The challenging thing with the vocals was to keep it very fragile and honest even if we wanted the music to have this constant rise. It was also very interesting to blend the electronica with elements from techno. 

Directed by Fofo Altinell, the accompanying video for “The Sun Always Shines On TV” is a hazy fever dream, following the Swedish artist in the countryside during golden hour.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aloysius Bell Shares Dreamily Mischievous and Introspective “That Is Me”

Aloysius Bell is the creative alter ego of Winnipeg-born, Montréal-based singer/songwriter and indie pop artist Annick Brémault, a former member of the now defunct Juno Award-winning outfit Chic Gamine. With Chic Gamine, Brémault toured extensively internationally and appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, Vinyl Café, Radio Canada’s Studio 12 and a number of other notable broadcasts. She has also collaborated and performed with an array of artists including Damien Robitaille, Willows, Sala, and David Myles. 

While the project’s name is a nod to male pseudonyms of the Brontë Sisters, the persona is informed by deep and intense soul-searching with the aim to shed light on murky, in-between spaces.

Back in 2019, Brémault stepped out into the spotlight as a solo artist with “Mountains” and “Your Heart Is Feathers” songs offered a glimpse into the Canadian artist’s introspective world and showcasing an ethereal, opened-eyed perceptive, imaginative and atmospheric pop language and a minimalist prose style.

Brémault’s long-awaited Aloysius Bell debut EP, the David Plowman-produced Warm Thing is slated for February 2024 release. The EP reportedly sees her blending her distinctive songwriting with pop, R&B and electronic influences with her ethereal delivery being at center of it all.

Warm Thing‘s latest single “That Is Me” is a slow-burning and atmospheric pop song built around fluttering synth arpeggios, Bréamult’s ethereal delivery singing deeply introspective lyrics informed by the deeply lived-in, personal experience, thoughts and feelings of a modern woman maneuvering competing societal norms and roles.

“I wrote this song in late 2021, in my bedroom-turned-studio during a cold snap. I remember looking at the painting on my wall, by the artist Louise Gill, of a woman lying alone on a bed in a dark room and thinking, “That is me,’ right now. I was feeling cozy and nothing could induce me to go out at that point. I remembered the times I’d gone out despite not feeling like it and ended up disappointed. ‘That Is Me’ reimagines myself the way I wish I’d been in my 20s: not wasting my time trying to please other people and instead doing what feels good to me.

This song is about one other thing: rest. I’m trying to get better at it, taking breaks and naps.”

Directed and shot on Super 8 by Montréal-based filmmaker Dominique Montesano and featuring choreography by the artist’s sister Kalliane Brémauult, the video follows Annick Brémault as she returns home, goes up the stairs, gets undressed and gets into her bed.

“I started putting out music with this project in 2019. Those songs were the result of a tumultuous time, so they have an intense kind of energy to me. The pandemic gave me a breather and what I wrote in that period feels a bit more relaxed and less fraught,” the Montréal-based artist continues. She goes on to add that the song — and its accompanying video — showcases a lot of bedroom imagery, since it was written and partially produced in her bedroom.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Ghostly Kisses Shares Cinematic Visual for Swooning and Ethereal “Golden Eyes”

Québec City-based singer/songwriter Margaux Sauvé is the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed Canadian electro pop project Ghostly Kisses. The project derives its name from William Faulkner’s “Une ballade des dames perdues,” which seemed to her like the perfect reflection of her ethereal voice. 

Sauvé has received attention both nationally and international for crafting hauntingly gorgeous and spectral electro pop that pairs her ethereal vocal with moody productions featuring gently swirling and ambient electronics, twinkling keys and propulsive drumming. 

Her latest single, the swooning “Golden Eyes” sees her channeling Goldfrapp and Portishead with the song pairing skittering, UK garage beats, atmospheric house-inspired synths with her ethereal yet achingly yearning delivery. 

Sauvé explains the track is “about being in love with your best friend and how gauche it feels to finally admit it. The lyrics were inspired by a revelation from a fan we met on tour, about how hard and vertiginous it can be to express our true feelings to someone that we really love.” While party about Sauvé’s own experience falling in love with her songwriting partner Louis-Étienne Santais, the song is also inspired by Ghostly Kisses’ ‘Box of Secrets’ project, where fans submitted anonymous stories to the band.

Directed by Gerardo Alcaine, the accompanying video begins with Sauvé being the subject of an intimate photo shoot before following her across the Québec countryside in some gorgeously cinematic footage. Sauvé and her songwriting partner Louis-Étienne Santais say, “We aimed to create a visual journey, inviting viewers into a crimson-hued world and a perspective framed by a lens, offering a subtle preview of the new dimension to come in our upcoming releases.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: People Museum Share Mournful “Relic”

New Orleans-based JOVM mainstays People Museum — currently co-founders Claire Givens (vocals), Jeremy Phipps (trombone), Aaron Boudreaux (drums, keys) and Charles Lumar II (bass, tuba) — have established a sound that draws from pop music and the rich and lush musical and cultural roots of their hometown.

Additionally, each of the members of People Museum has an eclectic upbringing that informs their fresh take on electro pop:

  • Claire Givens grew up in the woods of North Louisiana and has a background in choral and sacred music.

  • Aaron Boudreaux grew up in Acadia and has spent the better part of a decade as a film composer with Maere Studios for a decade while touring the world as a member of a Grammy-nominated French Creole band. While touring with Tamino earlier this year, he was approached to write songs and score an upcoming film with acclaimed studio A24.

  • Jeremy Phipps has been a New Orleans brass band staple since he was a kid, and Charles Lumar II have toured as a member of Solange‘s backing band for years.

Sonically, the JOVM mainstays work has ranged from haunting to joyfully cathartic and dance floor friendly and rooted in a sound that meshes electro pop soundscapes with ethereal vocals and New Orleans brass.

People Museum’s long-awaited sophomore album Relic was released earlier this month. Thematically, the album sees the band exploring and unpacking their growing anxieties about climate change and preservation, the sense of communion rooted in their hometown’s deep cultural history, family and aging among others. Fittingly, the album is a poignant love letter to their hometown. And while the majority of the album focuses on the external relationships with our environment and others, at points the album does turn inward.

The album’s latest single, album title track “Relic” is a slow-burning and meditative ballad featuring a mournful reverb-soaked horn line, a steady yet forceful backbeat, fluttering and arpeggiated synths and buzzing and wobbling bass synths paired with Givens plaintive and ethereal delivery. Sonically bringing SoftSpot and KINLAW to mind, “Relic” according to the JOVM mainstays tells the bittersweet story of two lovers, who are consciously parting ways, but cherishing the memories they’ve shared while acknowledging that there’s a happier version of themselves to discover beyond the relationship. The sentiment also manages to mirror their relationship and kinship with their hometown: After being forced to evacuate during the storms, they still felt an unwavering loyalty and devotion, which the band’s Claire Givens has described as “If I can’t go back. I will be forever be imprinted with the life I lived here.” Certainly, as a native New Yorker, I can understand and empathize with that deeply.

Directed by Nicholas Ashe Bateman and conceptualized by Bateman and People Museum’s Givens, the accompanying video features the band’s members bathed in golden light with what appears to be moonlight glistening on water behind them.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Heartafiya Shares Sleek and Yearning “Don’t Leave Me”

Barbadian-born California-based reggae artist Heartafiya is well known within the global reggae scene for pairing thoughtful, earnest lyrics with soulful music. His latest single, the dance floor and lounge friendly “Don’t Leave Me” features a sleek, percussive Afrobeats-influenced riddim paired with Heartafiya’s yearning delivery and a remarkably catchy chorus.

The California-based reggae artist’s latest single reveals a songwriter, whose songwriting seems rooted in lived-in, personal experiences with the song exploring the depths of love while baring the raw feelings of fear of loss, despair and hope.

The accompanying video features a collection of gorgeous sisters wining and grooving to the remarkably catchy, hook-driven bop.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Dublin’s SPRINTS Share Cathartic and Deeply Personal “Shadow Of A Doubt”

Formed back in 2019, Dublin-based punks SPRINTS — Karla Chubb (vocals, guitar), Colm O’Reilly (guitar), Jack Callan (drums) and Sam McCann (bass) — have developed and crafted an abrasive brand of punk rock, influenced by early Pixies, Bauhaus, Siousxie Sioux, King Gizzard, Savages, and LCD Soundsystem. 

Their first two EP’s, 2021’s Manifesto and last year’s A Modern Job were released to rapturous praise from UK music outlets like DIY, The Guardian, NME, Loud & Quiet, Dork, and Clash. They also received airplay from BBC Radio 1 and BBC 6 Music.

Building upon a growing profile, the Irish punk band’s highly-anticipated full-length debut Letter To Self is slated for a January 5, 2024 release through City Slang Records. According to the band’s Karla Chubb, the album “is a deeply personal and autobiographical lyrically and in its key themes, while sonically it explores a space inspired by our love of early 80s gothic, 90s noises rock and more modern influences. It revisits our most vulnerable moments and imbues them with visceral garage-punk. It aims to take the things that are considered inherently negative – feelings of anxiety, anger and rage, and turning them into a positive. Using our experiences to fuel us and pouring them into a positive outlet. It’s cathartic, it’s honest, it’s raw.” While pain is used to fuel growth, at its core, the album is rooted in a message of self-acceptance. 

Recorded in France’s Loire Valley with Gilla Band‘s Daniel Fox over the course of 12 days, Letter to Self will feature previously released singles “Adore Adore Adore,” “Literary Mind” and its lead single “Up and Comer,” an earnest and furious ripper built around buzzing power chords, thunderous drumming and mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Chubb’s feral delivery. Thematically “Up and Comer” tackles imposter syndrome — through the perspective of embittering, lived-in, fairly universal experiences and feelings, which gives the song a cathartic air for anyone, who has felt like an imposter in their life.

“Shadow Of A Doubt,” Letter To Self‘s latest single begins with a lengthy and atmospheric slow-burn of an introduction pairing glistening and angular guitar bursts and Chubb’s emotive vocal that gradually builds up into an explosive, swirling and fuzzy power chord-driven climax before a slow-burning and atmospheric coda. The song manages to evoke a spiraling descent into dark madness with the immediacy of someone who has actually lived it — and survived to tell their story.

“‘Shadow Of A Doubt’ is our most vulnerable moment to date,” SPRINTS’ Karla Chubb explains. “It very bluntly deals with the experience of trauma, depression and the aftermath. It was written quite selfishly –  to take the weight of some of those feelings off myself by placing them on a page in an attempt to feel like I was healing, or ridding myself of them. An entirely cathartic process.

“The slow and intensifying build, the crashing drums, swirling guitars and chaotic climax all symbolize that pure terrifying fall into darkness, and the almost silent call for help. It’s the feeling of loneliness, abandonment and exile. It’s shouting out into the void and thinking everyone can hear you, but they can’t.

The vocal was recorded in three takes with jagged breaths and some misstepped lyrics purposefully left in. Here, we felt emotion was more important than perfection.”

Directed by Ellius Grace, the accompanying video for “Shadow Of A Doubt,” begins with the seemingly comatose and disaffected members of SPRINTS in a bare room with bandaged doctors checking in on them, and handing them their instruments. As the song builds up, the band members become more alive. By the time, the song reaches its explosive climax, everyone involved has descended into madness.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: NYC’s Content Blocks Share Lushly Textured and Eerie “IMDS”

Emerging New York-based electronic music outfit Content Blocks — Ian Campbell and Matthew Hord — features members, w ho have collaborated and participated together for years in various musical endeavors and events. Their near-decade of shared experiences crafting, programming and operating the electronic instrumentation in acclaimed industrial act Pop. 1280 has further informed their journey deeper into hardware experimentation — and their latest collaboration together shows the results of their experimentation into ambient abstractions, dance floor deconstructions, and fractured pop tropes into darker realms.

Campbell’s and Hord’s Content Blocks debut “IMDS” pairs off-kilter, repetitive and propulsive percussive patterns with glistening, reverb-soaked synths with reverb-drenched, ethereal yet disaffected vocals coming out like a feverish haze. While sonically seeming to channel Rival Consoles and Noble Rot, “IMDS” simultaneously manages to evoke the late night return home from the club with the music and the entire night reverberating in your head and soul — but the rest of the world may well be asleep.

Conceived as an audiovisual experience, “IMDS” is accompanied with a video created by the duo’s longtime collaborator Scott Kieran (ESP TV) that starts off focusing on an accelerating centrifuge interspersed with frames featuring cell death and electronic feedback and 3D imagery that orbit around a lone figure dancing or using a complicated elliptical-looking device. It’s fittingly eerie and trippy.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Smile Shares Eerie and Haunting “Wall of Eyes”

The Smile is an acclaimed outfit that features some of the world’s most accomplished musicians — and a couple of household names: Radiohead‘s Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood, and Sons of Kemet‘s Tom Skinner. 

Last year, the trio released their critically applauded Nigel Godrich-produced full-length debut A Light For Attracting Attention. The album saw the acclaimed outfit collaborating with London Contemporary Orchestra and a full brass section of contemporary British jazz musicians that include Bryon Wallen, Theon Cross and Nathaniel Cross, Chelsea Carmichael, Robert Stillman, and Jason Yarde. 

The Smile’s sophomore album, the Sam Petts-Davies Wall of Eyes is slated for a January 26, 2024 through XL Recordings. The album, which was recorded in Oxford and legendary Abbey Road Studios features string arrangements from London Contemporary Orchestra.

Wall of Eye‘s first single, album title track “Wall of Eyes” continues a run of haunting and eerily meditative material with the song seeing the trio pair Yorke’s imitable and yearning delivery with a glitchy arrangement of strummed guitar melody, glistening strings and gently padded drums that evokes — at least to me — a slow burning sense of dread and unease.

Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the accompanying video for “Wall of Eyes” begins with the band’s Thom Yorke sitting in a front of a mirror in a meditative pose, and then follows him walking through a busy city and sitting in a crowded pub by himself. The world rushes by him with furious intensity before a surreal, Being John Malkovich-like ending.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montréal’s DVTR Returns with Another Breakneck Ripper

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 frontwoman 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.

Over the past couple of months, I’ve managed to write about the duo’s first two 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. 

The Montréal-based duo’s latest single “Rhum CokeMD” continues a run of gritty, mosh pit friendly breakneck rippers built around scorching guitar riffs, shout along worthy choruses and hooks paired with a zero fucks given immediacy.

Shot by Andy Jon, the accompanying video for “Rhum CokeMD” features slickly edited footage of the band performing a set on a party bus during the Tourné au Festiv! at Baie Saint-Paul, Québec earlier this year.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstay Chopper Shares Atmospheric and Brooding “Moongirl”

JOVM mainstay outfit Chopper is the solo recording project of  Copenhagen-based singer/songwriter and musician Jonatan K. Magnussen, who is best known in Denmark for being the frontman of the goth band The Love Coffin. With Chopper, Mangussen specializes in what he has dubbed “shock pop,” a crowd-pleasing sound that draws from Eurodance, glam rock, industrial, disco and B horror films.

Pink Cotton Candy Records released the mini-album Shock Pop Vol. 1 earlier this year. Shock Pop Vol. 1 saw the Danish artist continuing to explore the inherent dualities of the human condition while touching upon love, sexuality and carefree joy. Sonically, the material was influenced by Pet Shop Boys, Skinny Puppy and Underworld — but while attempting to place those influences within a modern context. 

Shock Pop Vol. 2 is a stark contrast to the exuberant, dance-floor friendly material on its immediate predecessor with the forthcoming effort seeing the Danish artist crafting an atmospheric and cinematic sound that’s seemingly indebted to Rebel Yell-era Billy Idol, The Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Scary Monsters-era Bowie and others.

“Moongirl,” Shock Pop Vol. 2‘s first single is a slow-burning and remarkably cinematic track featuring atmospheric synths, a hypnotic and propulsive bass line, thunderous boom bap-like drum machines, twinkling keys, buzzing bursts of guitar paired with Magnussen’s dramatic delivery — and his penchant for crafting enormous, rousingly anthemic hooks.

The song reveals an artist, who is able to recreate that big 80s arena rock-like ballad with an uncanny specificity paired with introspective, melancholy lyrics and a subtly modern take.

Shot by Amalie Maj and Thomas Skjølstru and edited by Magnussen, the accompanying video for “Moongirl” features some fittingly brooding footage of lightning strikes, graveyards, Magnussen looking like a young Robert Smith with a lit candle in that graveyard, childhood and family photos of a dear one, who may no longer be with us, and lastly Magnussen walking along the shore. For those of you, who like me, were alive and conscious during early 80s MTV’s heyday, this one will bring back some fond memories.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Sweden’s Machine 85 Share a Driving Ripper

Swedish metal outfit Machine 85 — Jokke Patterson (vocals, guitar), Ulf Wahlgren (drums) and Alfred Anderson (bass) — specialize in a sound that meshes elements of gritty classic metal and modern heavy rock and heavy metal featuring arrangements that see the trio pairing thunderous drumming, razor sharp riffs and vocals that frequently range from haunting melodies to primal roars. As the band says “It’s a sonic onslaught designed to awaken the rebel within.”

The Swedish trio’s latest single “20 Days” is a serious ripper with a relentless motorik groove that — to my ears, at least — seems like a synthesis of Hawkwind, Black Sabbath and Queens of the Stone Age, complete with enormous power chord-driven riffs, thunderous drumming, a relentless motorik groove paired with Patterson’s punchily delivered croon.

Personally, I’d love to hear this one played at eardrum shattering volume at a sweaty club.

Directed by Death by Horse‘s Tommy Erichson, the accompanying video employs a simple concept: intimately shot footage of the band playing the song in a remarkably well-lit studio with quirky décor.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Toronto’s SWiiMS Shares Dreamy and Optimistic “In Puzzles”

Toronto-based indie outfit SWiiMS — founding duo Mai Diaz Langou (vocals)and Colin Thompson (guitar) along with Cian O’Ruanaidh (bass) — can trace their origins back to 2018 when the band’s founding duo began writing songs together that blended Thompson’s fuzzy and jangling guitar swirl with Diaz Langou’s textured melodies and languid vocal. When O’Ruanaidh joined the band, he brought a unique blend of influences and hooky bass lines. 

Sonically, the Canadian trio draw from a diverse spectrum of artists and elements including 80s New Wave, 90s Shoegaze, indie rock, Brit Pop and Dream Pop to create a sound that’s uniquely theirs. 

SWiiMS’ debut EP, 2019’s Through Waves was released to critical praise and landed on the North American College and Community College (NACC) charts. Building upon a growing profile, the trio’s full-length debut, Into The Blue Night officially dropped today.

Last month, I wrote about “All I Die For” saw the Canadian indie outfit firmly cementing their sound with fuzzy and swirling guitar textures paired with glistening synth arpeggios, a propulsive rhythm section and languid vocal melodies. The result is a song that manages to be simultaneously dreamy, uplifting and moody while channeling 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock.

Into The Blue Night‘s latest single, album opening track “In Puzzles” is a breezy, uplifting song built around swirling shoegazer textures and a propulsive rhythm section paired with Diaz Langou’s languid and ethereal vocal. Continuing a run of decidedly 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock-like indie and early shoegaze-inspired material, “In Puzzles” manages to evoke the swooning sense of excitement and optimism in a blossoming romance.

The accompanying video for “In Puzzles” is set in a dreamy, mind-bending Memento-like world in which we see the band’s Diaz Langou bearing gifts of roses and balloons — both going forward and in reverse down a suburban street.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Le Couleur Shares Icy, Retro-Futuristic Visual for Glittery and Hook-Driven “Addiction”

Montréal-based pop outfit Le Couleur — currently founding members Laurence Giroux-Do (vocals), Patrick Gosselin (bass) and Steven Chouinard (drums) along with newest members Phillipe Beaudin (percussion, synths), Jean-Cimon Tellier (guitar) and Louis-Joseph Cliche (synths, vocals) — debuted over a decade ago with 2013’s Voyage Love EP. And since then, the Canadian outfit has released 2015’s Dolce Désir EP, their critically applauded full-length debut, 2016’s P.O.P. and 2020’s Concorde, which have seen them plumb the depths of human desire, while firmly establishing a glittery and vintage-inspired electro pop sound that draws from a variety of influences including 70s erotica, psychedelia, disco, yéyé and French chanson.

Their long-awaited third album Comme dans un penthouse was released earlier this year through Lisbon Lux Records. The album is a concept album that sees Le Couleur revisiting a past album character: Barbara, the assistant, who stole her former employer’s fortune on 2016’s P.O.P. Giroux-Do was drawn back to Barbara when upon returning from the Montréal-based outfit’s most recent UK tour, she began feeling that her life was “flat, beige and pointless” and developed a “fear of falling into a routine,” while Barbara’s “search for novelty, new feelings, an addiction” was roughly the opposite. 

Over the past year or so I’ve managed to write about the following album singles:

  • “Sentiments nouveaux,” a sleek, slickly produced bop that to my ears sounded like a synthesis of Tame Impala, VEGA Intl. Night School-era Neon Indian and Nu Shooz.

  • “Autobahn,” a song fittingly built around a relentless Krautwerk-like motorik pulse, glistening synth arpeggios and the Montréal-based outfit’s penchant for crafting razor sharp, catchy hooks paired with Laurence Giroux-Do’s ethereal and sultry delivery.

  • “À la rencontre de Barbara,” another glittery, disco and electro pop-inspired track that features glistening Giorgio Moroder-like synth oscillations, squiggling Nile Rodgers-like funk guitar, tight four-on-the-floor, and a relentless motorik-like pulse. But underneath the disco vibes is a tension that’s sultry, unnerving and irresistible while simultaneously nodding at classic spy thriller soundtracks and French chanson — thanks in part to a guest spot from Choses Sauvages‘ Standard Emmanuel. 

Comme dans un penthouse‘s fourth and latest single “Addiction” continues a remarkable fun of glittery disco-tinged tunes. Pairing a sinuous bass line with glistening bursts of keys, squiggling funk guitar and Laurence Giroux-Do’s ethereal and yearning vocals, the hook-driven “Addiction” wouldn’t sound out of place on Roxy Music’s Avalon, Duran Duran’s self-titled debut or Rio.

Continuing their ongoing visual collaboration with Nathan Nardin and his team at The NNS, which includes Steven Laudat and Alizée Legrain, the accompanying video for “Addiction” follows the similar icy video for “À la recontre de Barbara” feat. Standard Emmanuel and features eerie 3D black and white visuals and figures moving about in an entirely white, 80s-inspired futuristic world. The band describes the video as ““A white universe punctuated by lines, wire structures and motifs as an allegory of addiction and desire.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Chicago’s Angry Blackmen Share Eerie and Unsettling “Stanley Kubrick”

Chicago-based hip-hop duo Angry Blackmen — Quentin Branch and Brian Warren — features members, who individually spent their time stretching their creative arms and tapping into different sounds for a couple of years, before Warren suggested that they collaborate together as a duo towards the end of the 2016.

The Chicago-based duo exploded into the underground and experimental hip-hop scenes with their debut single “OK!,” a track that showcased the pair’s adept ability to spit bars. Their second single “Riot!” was a near-complete shift in sound that remained tethered to the sonic foundation that they’d first built.

Their debut EP, 2019’s Talkshit! was released to attention and acclaim, before eventually catching the attention of Philadelphia-based progressive label Deathbomb Arc, known for its avant and eclectic roster featuring releases from Death Grips, JPEGMAFIA, JOVM mainstays clipping., Julia Holter, U.S. Girls and others.

Deathbomb Arc went on to release the duo’s full-length debut, 2020’s HEADSHOTS! and its follow-up EP, 2021’S REALITY!, both of which saw the duo expanding their range sonically while further honing their craft.

The Chicago-based duo’s highly-anticipated 11-song, Formants-produced sophomore album The Legend of ABM is slated for a January 26, 2024 release through Deathbomb Arc. The album reportedly sees Branch and Warren spinning tales of depression, existentialism, self-reflection, tragedy and survival that are unvarnished, lived-in and not always pretty paired with soundscapes that seem to come from a dystopian future — informed by our pre-apocalyptic world. The result is two emcees providing a passionate yet introspective look at the world-at-large, with their raw, pathos-infused lyrics educating the listener on our increasingly dystopian, apocalyptic world.

Clocking in at about 30-minutes, the album thematically is a coming of age narrative centered around Black men navigating America, inspired by Richard Matheson’s 1954 post-apocalyptic horror novel I Am Legend. “For us, this album is kinda like our villain origin story, a bedtime story and introduction to those who have and haven’t heard of us yet. Black men have historically been the boogie men of America, so I think it’s fitting that we tell our own legend.”

The Legend of ABM‘s first single “Stanley Kubrick” features Branch and Warren spitting dizzyingly fast, dexterous, braggadocio-filled bars and verses over Formants minimalist industrial production that pairs skittering trap-like beats with stormy bursts of feedback and distortion. The result is a song that seamlessly meshes elements of trap with the slow-burning dread and horror of There Existed an Addiction to Blood-era Clipping.

Directed by Jon Le Vert, the video features the duo in empty, dimly-lit, parking garage. The result is a video that captures the chaos, unease and apocalyptic panic of our current movement.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yeisy Rojays Teams Up with Julito Padrón on Breezy, Soulful and Politically Charged “Mama Ines”

Yeisy Rojas is a Cuban-born, Norwegian-based, classically trained, jazz violinist, singer/songwriter and composer, who played with the National Opera Orchestra in Havana before relocating to Norway back in 2016 to get her master’s degree in jazz violin.

Rojas’ work sees her blending Cuban music, Latin jazz and funk with powerful social messages — in particularly, she speaks up against racism in her homeland. Her latest single “Mama Ines,” which features Julito Padrón is an adaptation of Nicolás Guillén’s 1930 poem “Ayer Me Dijeron Negro” that pairs the poet’s words with a breezy and soulful arrangement that meshes elements of Latin soul, funk and jazz — and reminds me very fondly of the sounds of parties in the South Bronx, Lower East Side, Corona, East Elmhurst and so on.

Music is a weapon and as Rojas explains “My message is specifically for my land Cuba, where I hope there will be more equality and rights for our Afro community.”

The accompanying, gorgeously shot video for “Mama Ines” is shot in what appears to be Havana and features a collection of beautiful dancers, who are represent almost every skin complexion you’d come across in Cuba, revealing the country’s soul, heart and decency.