Sumil Heera, best known within electronic music circles as XO is an up-and-coming 20 year old, Staffordshire, UK-based producer and songwriter, who has quickly received both national and international attention for a sound that possesses elements of […]
Tag: Pitchfork
John Carpenter is a director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer most commonly known for working in some of the most beloved and influential, horror and science fiction films of the 70s and 80s, including Dark Star (1974), Assault on Precinct 13 (1976), Halloween (1978),The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981)The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Starman (1984), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), and They Live (1988) — with the Halloween theme being one of the most recognizable themes in movie history.
Last year, Carpenter released his first album of non-soundtrack based music, Lost Themes to critical praise from an impressive array of major media outlets including The Guardian, The New York Times, The Times, Uncut, The Wire, The Los Angeles Times, NPR, Pitchfork, Vanity Fair, Newsweek, Billboard, Entertainment Weekly, Artforum, The Wall Street Journal, Rolling Stone and others. Additionally, the album was one of the most commercially successful albums released in Sacred Bones Records history, as the album debuted on the Top 100 Charts in both the UK and US.
Unsurprisingly, the album, which was recorded with his son Cody Carpenter and the fameddirector, producer and composer’s godson Daniel Davies, the album confirms the fact that John Carpenter’s sound and aesthetic was not only ahead of its time but manages to be timeless and powerfully influential — with the work of artists like Red Traces, Umberto and others being deeply indebted to John Carpenter and his film scores. Now interestingly enough Carpenter closed out the last half of 2015 with the release of Lost Themes Remixed, an album that featured remixes from the likes of Zola Jesus, Silent Servant, Foetus‘ JG Thirwell, Skinny Puppy‘s ohGr, PAN Records‘ Bill Kouligas, and Uniform.
The incredibly prolific Carpenter will be releasing a sequel to Lost Themes, Lost Themes II which is slated for an April 15 release through Sacred Bones Records. The material on Lost Themes II is inspired by a change in the creative process with Cody Carpenter, Daniel Davies and the acclaimed producer writing, working revising and recording in the same studio — and with all three collaborators working together, the result was a more focused effort, completed on a compressed schedule, in a similar fashion to Carpenter’s early films. Additionally, the material is much more nuanced and lush, as the trio of collaborators added acoustic and electric guitar to flesh out the material, as well as add texture.
Lost Themes II‘s first single “Distant Dream” pairs John Carpenter’s unmistakable minimalist synths with live drums, bursts of angular guitar and bass chords, and swirling electronics in a moody and tense composition that sounds as though it could be part of a taut, psychological thriller set in a dystopian future.
New Video: Boogarins and O Terno Team Up for a Trippy Cover of Classic Brazilian Psych Rock
Towards the second half of 2015, the Brazilian indie psych rock quartet Boogarins quickly became a JOVM mainstay, and if you had been frequenting this site over that period dog time, I had written about a couple […]
New Video: Neon Indian’s Soul Train-Inspired Performance Video for “The Glitzy Hive”
Over the five year history of this site, Denton, TX-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist Alan Palomo and his solo recording project Neon Indian has become a JOVM mainstay — especially in the lead-up to the release […]
Frequently compared to RIDE, Smashing Pumpkins, Dinosaur, Jr. and Deerhunter, the critically praised Chicago, IL-based quartet Pink Frost originally formed under the name Apteka — and as Apteka, the quartet recorded their debut effort Gargoyle Days on analog tape before releasing the album back in 2011 to critical praise; the album landed on Time Out Chicago‘s Best of 2011 List, as well as several others. After changing their name to Pink Frost, the quartet’s 2014 sophomore effort, Sundowning was released to critical praise from nationally renowned media outlets including Pitchfork, SPIN Magazine, Noisey, Magnet Magazine, and Chicago Reader. And adding to a growing national profile, material from Sundowning appeared in The Lookalike and TV series such as The Vampire Diaries and CSI: Miami, among others.
The Chicago-based quartet will be releasing a painstakingly remixed and remastered update of the original analog masters, which reportedly will not only pack much more punch, but will also be representative of the band’s live sound. Of course, with new artwork reflecting the band’s change of name, the band intends for the re-release of their debut to be a metaphorical and literal rebirth. (Interestingly, the members of Pink Frost have been incredibly busy of late as they’ve also been busily recording the follow-up to Sundowning and Traitors EP with Gregoire Yeche at Steve Albini’s Electrical Audio Studios.)
The re-released album’s second and latest single “Where Days Go” is an power-chord based song with enormous, anthemic hooks that sounds as though it were inspired by 90s alt rock and shoegaze. I’m reminded quite a bit of The Posies‘ “Ontario,” Foo Fighters “This Is A Call” and The Black Angels‘ “Telephone” as “Where Days Go” possesses a similar forcefulness and mosh-pit ready feel while being incredibly radio friendly.
New Video: The Noir-ish and Surreal Video for Neon Indian’s “Slumlord Rising”
Alan Palomo is Mexican-born, Denton, TX-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist best known for his recording project, Neon Indian. Palomo’s 2009 debut effort, Psychic Chasms was released to critical praise across the blogosphere, as Pitchfork named it one of its best […]
If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of months, you may recall that I’ve written about Brothertiger, the solo recording project of Brooklyn-based electronic musician and producer John Jagos. The project can trace its origins to when Jagos was a sophomore at Ohio State University. His debut EP, Vision Tunnels was released to critical praise from No Fear of Pop and Pitchfork. Building upon the early buzz he received, Jagos wrote and recorded his debut full-length Golden Years, which was released through Mush Records in 2012.
Future Splendors, the follow-up effort to Golden Years was a change in sonic direction as the material was reportedly his darkest and moodiest effort to date — and it was his first effort that he supported with a tour. Lagos’ forthcoming third, full-length effort Out of Touch is slated for a December 4 release and with the release of the album’s first single, album title track “Out of Touch” and its latest single “Beyond The Infinite,” Jagos is set to firmly put himself on the national map for an 80s synth-pop based sound that channels the likes of Tears for Fears as well as, contemporary artists such as St. Lucia and Washed Out.
In particular, “Beyond The Infinite” consists of layers of propulsive and cascading synths paired with four-on-the-floor drumming and rousingly anthemic hooks with soulful vocals in a song that’s plaintive yet remarkably cinematic. Much like the album’s previous single “Out of Touch,” the album’s latest single is informed by the Jagos’ desire to create an auditory journey through a metaphorical jungle of emotional states — tribulation, despair, fatigue, serenity, joy, tranquility, etc. In this case, the song focuses on the sensation of making a connection with someone and discovering that person has been deceitful and has betrayed you. And as a result, at the core of such a breezy, pop confection is the sort of heartache that should feel profoundly familiar.
New Video: Life on the Road with Brazil’s Boogarins
If you’ve been frequenting this site for the past few weeks or so, you may remember that I’ve written about the internationally acclaimed Brazilian indie psych rock quartet, Boogarins. The Brazilian quartet can trace their origins to […]
New Audio: Neon Indian’s Latest Single Channels 80s Synth Funk and Synth Pop
If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past month or so, you may recall coming across a couple of posts on indie electro pop sensation, Neon Indian. But just in case you might be new to […]
The internationally acclaimed Brazilian indie psych rock quartet, Boogarins can trace their origins to when its founding duo, Fernando “Dino” Almeida and Benke Ferraz started playing music together as teenagers in their hometown, the central Brazilian city of Goiânia. The music that Almedia and Ferraz began to write and then eventually record was a unique vision of psych pop that drew from their country’s incredibly rich and diverse musical history — but with a decidedly modern viewpoint. Their 2013 full-length debut, written and recorded as a duo, As Plantas Que Curam was a decidedly lo-fi home studio effort, pieced together in isolation before the duo had played a live gig. By the time, their debut album was released, Almedia and Ferraz had recruited a rhythm section, and the completed lineup had started developing a profile both in their hometown and nationally, as they started booking and playing regular gigs in Sao Paulo and several of Brazil’s largest cities. Without much support from a label or from a major PR firm, As Plantas Que Curam was a critical and commercial success in Brazil, as the album received praise from Rolling Stone Brazil, who had dubbed the band “Best New Artist” in 2013, and the album was nominated for several awards on GloboTV’s annual music award shows. Arguably, a great deal of the success and attention that Boogarins has seen in their homeland comes from the fact that unlike the majority of contemporary Brazilian acts that primarily sing lyrics in English, like their British, Australian and American counterparts, Boogarins material is written and sung completely in Brazilian Portuguese.
Now, if there’s one thing the blogosphere has gotten absolutely right, its the fact that as a general rule it has given attention and praise to a number of fantastic internationally based acts that many American listeners wouldn’t have been aware of before, unless they were particularly adventurous. And over the last two years or so, Boogarins have started to receive increasing international attention as the band as toured across the globe, playing at some of the world’s most renowned and largest festivals, including Austin Psych Fest, Burgerama, Primavera Sound Festival and headlining shows in clubs in London, Paris, Barcelona and New York. Naturally, with that kind of exposure, the band started to receive praise from a number of internationally recognized outlets such as Pitchfork and The New York Times, who compared the Brazilian band’s sound to the likes of early Jefferson Airplane.
During their Spring 2014 European tour, the members of Boogarins spent two weeks in Jorge Explosion’s Estudio Circo Perrotti in Gijón, Spain, where they started tracking for material, which would wind up comprising their sophomore effort, Manual, which is slated for an October 30 release. Actually, the album’s full (and official title) is Manual,ou guia livre de dissolução dos sonhos, which translates into English as Manual, or Free Guide to the Dissolution of Dreams, and the material on the album is specifically meant to be viewed as a diary or sort of dream journal. The band eventually returned to Brazil and in between concert dates across South America, they finished the album in Ferraz’s home studio.
Manual‘s material is reportedly not only more personal than their debut, it’s also more socially conscious as it draws from the sociopolitical and class issues affecting their homeland before, during and after the 2014 World Cup as entire neighborhoods were pushed aside and destroyed for massive commercial developments that helped wealthy global corporations make even more money, instead of uplifting those who desperately needed uplift and were promised it from the World Cup. (Certainly, as a native New Yorker, the stories of increasingly gentrification changing the face, character and population of the city would seem remarkably familiar.)
Just a few weeks ago, I had written about album single “Avalanche,” a slow-burning yet breezy and percussive song comprised of shimmering guitar chords played through reverb and delay pedals, swirling feedback and a sinuous bass line paired with plaintive and ethereal vocals. And in some way, the song sonically speaking sounded as though it drew from Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd and Tropicalia but thematically drawing from Rage Against the Machine; in other words, dreamy and trippy yet grounded in the real world — and done in a way that’s powerfully accessible. The album’s latest single “6000 Dias” is a slow-burning kaleidoscopic song that’s propelled and held together by a tight rhythm section, as the song is composed of about three distinct segments — one which includes a gorgeously, twisting and turning guitar solo that’s reminiscent of Robby Krieger‘s incredible, guitar solo in “Light My Fire” before ending in a gentle fade out, which evokes the sensation of slowly waking from a pleasant reverie.
New Audio: Check Out Uniform’s Dance Floor Ready Remix of John Carpenter
John Carpenter is a director, screenwriter, producer, editor and composer most commonly known for working in some of the most beloved and influential, horror and science fiction films of the 70s and 80s, including Dark […]
New Audio: Brothertiger’s New Single, “Out of Touch” Channels Washed Out and 80s Synth Pop
John Jagos is a Brooklyn-based electronic musician and producer, and his solo recording project, Brothertiger can trace its origins to 2009. As a sophomore at Ohio State University, Jagos released his debut EP, Vision Tunnels […]
New Audio: Neon Indian’s Club-Banging, New Single “Slumlord”
Neon Indian is the solo recording project of the Mexican-born, Denton, TX-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist Alan Palomo. With the release of his first two albums, 2009’s Psychic Chasms and 2013’s Era Extraña, Palomo found his profile expanding […]
New Audio: The Sleek, 80s-Sounding Synth-Based Funk of Neon Indian’s New Single “Annie”
Neon Indian is the solo recording project of the Mexican-born, Denton, TX-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and electronic music artist Alan Palomo. With the 2009 release of Neon Indian’s debut album, Psychic Chasms, Palomo came to national […]