Tag: psych pop

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Founded back in 2020 by Little Jesus bassist Carlos Medina, the Mexico City-based psych pop act Petite Aime expanded into a full-fledged band when Aline Terrein (vocals), Isabel Dosal (vocals), Santiago Fernández (bass) and Jacobo Velazquez (guitar) joined to write and record last year’s critically applauded self-titled full-length debut.

Drawing from an eclectic array of influences including The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Big Thief, Magic Potion, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Crumb, the self-titled album saw the Mexican psych pop outfit crafting an album’s worth of material that fluctuates between different genes and styles based on psych pop and psych rock. Lyrically and thematically, the album was an expression of the existential angst entered by the speech of the
“self” in an increasingly impersonal world, a world where the line between what’s real and what’s virtual continually blurs.

Building upon a growing profile, the members of Petite Aime released an EP of remixes of album title track “Elektro,” which featured contributions from Okey Dokey, BOYO, and Lucia Tacchetti.

The Mexican psych pop outfit’s newest single “Otra Vez” sees them pushing their sound in a much more experimental direction while preserving the melodic essence that won them international acclaim. Clocking in at a little under 6:30, “the slow-burning Otra Vez” is centered around an expansive song structure that features a lengthy introduction with an atmospheric and glistening synth arpeggios, explosive hi-hat driven rhythms, a sumptuous bass line paired with ethereal harmonies for the verse, a dreamier section with strummed acoustic guitar, followed by a lengthy coda featuring electronic blips and bloops and a funky, motorik groove. The song is an exercise in restraint and subtle repetition. But it’s also a little taste of what to expect from the band’s highly-anticipated sophomore album.

While being simultaneously mesmerizing and trippy, “Otra Vez,” as the band explains is a song that . . . “reminds us how exhausting trying to adjust reality to your exceptions can be. In it, a conversation between two people takes place, or perhaps it is an internal conversation, which has been revisited time and again. Thus, the very structure of the song alludes to that repetitive cycle in which one finds oneself until reaching a breaking point. There is no reason to talk about the same things over and over, if nothing changes and even less if there is no desire to change. The only thing left to do is to accept other people, oneself and the universe as they are.”

Petite Aime will be embarking on a Stateside tour this summer. The tour includes a handful of dates with both Wild Wild Wets and Hooveriii — and a handful of headlining dates including August 28, 2022 at Berlin Under A. As always, all tour dates are below.

Tour dates

8/3 – Casbah /Soda – San Diego, CA *

8/4 – The Echo – Los Angeles, CA *

8/5 – Amados – San Francisco, CA *

8/6 – The Holland Project – Reno, NV *

8/7 – Starlet Room – Sacramento, CA **

8/9 – Fixin’ To – Portland, OR

8/10 – The Shakedown – Bellingham, WA

8/12 – Substation x Freakout Presents – Seattle, WA 

8/13 – Neurolux – Boise, ID

8/15 – Vultures – Colorado Springs, CO **

8/16 – Lost Lake – Denver, CO

8/17 – miniBar – Kansas City, .MO

8/18 – Amsterdam – St. Paul, MN

8/21 – Landline Presents @ The Burl – Lexington, KY **

8/22 – The Blue Room @ Third Man – Nashville, TN **

8/23 – 529 Bar – Atlanta, GA

8/24 – El Rocko @ Dog Day Presents – Savannah, GA

8/25 – Snug Harbor – Charlotte, NC

8/26 – Pie Shop – Washington, DC

8/27 – World Cafe – Philadelphia, PA 

8/28 – Berlin Under A – New York, NY 

* = w/ Wild Wild Wets

** = w/ Hooveriii

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Spacemoth Shares Hypnotic and Swooning “Waves Come Crashing”

Bay Area-based Afghan-American musician, composer and producer Maryam Qudus has been driven by a lifelong devotion to music: When she turned 12, she traded chores for guitar lessons; when she was 16, she took on after school jobs to pay or voice lessons. As a first-generation Afghan-American child of working-class immigrant parents, finding a place in music was nothing short of a challenge for Qudus. “Women are often discouraged from pursuing music in the Afghan and Muslim community, and those who follow that path receive a lot of heat,” she explains.

But Qudus’ career began in earnest with her first solo project Doe Eye, which quickly received radio airplay, magazine features and blogosphere buzz after 2014’s John Vanderslice-produced Television, a lush batch of indie pop and spacey rock. Working with Vanderslice at his San Francisco co-op-turned studio, Tiny Telephone opened new avenues for the Bay Area-based artist: She began studying at Bay Area-based recording arts non-profit Women’s Audio Mission, eventually interning both there and at Tiny Telephone, before becoming a staff engineer at both.

Picking up studio techniques and tricks from clients like Wax Nine Records artists Sad13, Toro Y Moi, Sasami, and Tune-Yards helped inspired the arrangements she was working on. And in between sessions, she was able to play with electronic ambiance and tape experimentations for her latest solo project Spacemoth.

Qudus’ Spacemoth full-length debut, No Past No Future is slated for a July 22, 2022 release through Wax Nine Records. Centered around lush, intergalactic, avant-pop made with vintage synths like the Yamaha CS-50 and Korg Polysix with fluttering tape manipulations paired with Qudus’ striking vocals, No Past No Future thematically serves as a reckoning point between nostalgia and nihilism, exploring the struggle to hang on to a moment as it warps in time. Overall, the album radiates in the awe of the complex emotional landscape humans contain within themselves and the preciousness of our time here.

No Past No Future‘s third and latest single “Waves Come Crashing” is a swooning and hypnotic pop song built around blown out beats, glistening analog synths, wobbling tape distortion and rumbling bass paired with Qudus’ plaintive vocals and a razor sharp hook. Sonically, the song seems to simultaneously nod at the dusty yet retro futuristic leanings of BBC Radiophonic Workshop and JOVM mainstays Pavo Pavo — but while getting emotionally and sonically darker as the song flutters and wobbles to its conclusion.

The song’s narrator confronts the inevitability of death while exploring the most difficult and heartbreaking part of falling and being in love — the fear of losing that person you love. “‘Waves Come Crashing’ was written during a period when I was haunted by the idea of losing my partner,” Qudus explains. “I would lay awake at night and all I could think of was ‘what if something happens to them tomorrow‘? While I was unable to shake these thoughts, I slowly realized my time spent worrying about loss was consuming the time we have together.”

Co-directed by Qudus and Kimber-Lee Alston, the accompanying kaleidoscopic video for “Waves Come Crashing” seems to be partially inspired by 60 French New Wave films as it follows the Bay Area-based producer and artist navigating love and loss through swirls of saturated prismatic patterns, split screens and gorgeous color patterns.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Founded back in 2010, Parisian psych pop act and longtime JOVM mainstays  La Femme — currently, founding members Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée, along with Sam Lefévre, Noé Delmas, Cleémence Quélennec, Clara Luiciani, Jane Peynot, Marilou Chollet and Lucas Nunez Ritter — managed to completely hoodwink the French music industry by lining up a DIY Stateside tour as a then unknown band, with only $3,000 Euros and their debut EP, that year’s Le Podium #1. 

After playing 20 gigs across the States, the members of La Femme returned to their native France with immense interest from the Parisian music scene. “The industry was like, ‘What the fuck? They have an EP out and they are touring in the US and we don’t know them?” Marlon Magnée told The Guardian. “So the buzz began to start. When we came back to France, it was red carpet. Fucking DIY.” 

2013’s critically applauded and commercially successful full-length debut Psycho Tropical Berlin found the Parisian JOVM mainstays making a wild, creative and sonic left turn incorporating krautrock and synths to the mix. The album eventually earned a Victoires de la Musique Award. Building upon a rapidly growing national and international profile, La Femme’s sophomore album, 2016’s Mystére to praise by Sound Opinions, The Line of Best Fit, The Guardian, AllMusic, BrooklynVegan and a lengthy list of others. 

The French JOVM mainstays long-awaited, third album Paradigmes was released last year through the band’s own Disque Pointu and distributed through IDOL. And over the course of Iast year, I managed to write about five of the album’s nine previously released singles: 

  • “Cool Colorado,” a coolly bombastic single that seemed indebted to Scott Walker and Ennio Morricone soundtracks while being an “ode to the San Francisco of the 70s — and to Colorado, the first American state to legalize cannabis. 
  • Disconnexion,” a surreal what-the-fuck fever dream centered around pulsating Giorgio Moroder-like motorik grooves, a fiery banjo solo, atmospheric electronics, twinkling synth arpeggios, a philosophic soliloquy delivered in a dry, academic French and operatic caterwauling. 
  • “Foutre le Bordel,” a breakneck freak out that meshed Freedom of Choice-era DEVO and Giorgio Moroder with ’77 punk rock nihilism. 
  • “Le Jardin,” an achingly sad lullaby written and sung in Spanish — the band’s first song in Spanish. Inspired by a trip to Spain that the band took a few years ago, the song as the band explains is a kind of an old-school slow dance, which underlines how fragile and random fate is. 
  • “Pasadena,” a slow-burning, woozy ballad that sounds — and feels — like a narcotic-induced haze. Written as an informal response and continuation of the story told in “Septembre,” off the band’s sophomore album, “Pasadena” features the main character of “Septembre” as a teenager. And as a result, the song is about budding romances — primarily their seemingly carefree nature at the time, their eventual difficulties and confusions, and the weight of peer pressure. 

April was extremely busy for the Paris-based JOVM mainstays: In early April, the members of La Femme released Paradigmes: Le Film, a full-length film co-directed by the band’s Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée and Aymeric Bergada du Cadet that’s centered around the album’s material, and highlights their humor and creativity. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Wnil2ipf0

The JOVM mainstays will be releasing an exclusive, vinyl, Record Store Day edition of Paradigmes, Paradigmes: suppléments, a deluxe edition of their critically applauded third album. You can purchase it here: https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/14923

Along with the Record Store Day exclusive vinyl release of Paradigmes: suppléments, the band released yet another single off Paradigmes, the album closing track “Tu T’en Lasses,” a slow-burning and atmospheric fever dream, centered around skittering beats, glistening synths and a distorted yet mournful horn solo paired with dreamily delivered vocals. 

To celebrate the one-year anniversary of Paradigmes, La Femme has also announced the release of a limited collection of NFTs which are made up of the original frames used for the animated video of their motorik punk party anthem “Foutre le Bordel.” The NFTs will be released by Ballad(r), an NFT launchpad for artists and institutions in the music industry. These unique digital works of art will include a unique audio track made from stems of the original song and will also unlock exclusive content and numerous real-life perks for each lucky NFT holder. More information on these La Femme NFTs can be found via Ballad(r): https://www.balladr.xyz/collection/lafemme

Just ahead of the JOVM’s North American tour, the band shared a new single “Sacate La.” Inspired by the band’s trips across South American and Southern Spain, “Sacate La” is a bright and breezy Tropicalia-inspired psych pop song with shuffling Latin rhythms and lyrics sung in Spanish paired with an infectious vocal-led hook.

The French JOVM mainstays are currently on tour and will be embarking on a North American leg throughout June that includes a June 5, 2022 stop at Brooklyn Steel. As always, tour dates are below. 

North American Tour Dates

06/03/22 – Washington DC – The Black Cat
06/04/22 – Philadelphia, PA – The Foundry At The Fillmore Philadelphia
06/05/22 – Brooklyn, NY – Brooklyn Steel
06/07/22 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
06/09/22 – Quebec, QC – Impérial Bell
06/10/22 – Montreal, QC – Les Francos de Montréal
06/11/22 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
06/14/22 – Chicago, IL – Thalia Hall
06/15/22 – Saint Paul, MN – Turf Club
06/18/22 – Seattle, WA – The Crocodile
06/19/22 – Vancouver, BC – Rickshaw Theatre
06/20/22 – Portland, OR – Wonder Ballroom
06/22/22 – San Francisco, CA – Regency Ballroom
06/24/22 – Los Angeles, CA – The Belasco
06/25/22 – Pioneertown, CA – Pappy & Harriet’s
09/19/22 – Amsterdam – Paradiso

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

I’ve managed to spill a copious amount of virtual ink covering the legendary and influential  Los Angeles-based psych rock act and JOVM mainstays The Dream Syndicate. Now, as you may recall, the band, which originally formed way back in the early 80s — currently featuring founding members Steve Wynn (guitars, vocals), a critically applauded singer/songwriter and solo artist in his own right, and Dennis Duck (drums), along with Mark Walton (bass), Jason Victor (lead guitar) and Green On Red’s Chris Cacavas (keys) —has managed to split up and reunite a few times throughout their extensive history, including their most recent one in 2017.

Since 2017, The Dream Syndicate have released a run critically applauded albums that have seen the acclaimed psych outfit at their most uncompromising — while boldly pushing their sound in radically new directions.

2020’s The Universe Inside marked the first time in their long and storied history in which every song was conceived and written as a collective whole. Sonically, the album’s material was unlike anything they’ve done together or even individually. The material draws from each individual member’s eclectic interests and passions — in particular: 

  • Dennis Duck’s love and knowledge of European avant garde music
  • Jason Victor’s love of 70s prog rock 
  • Mark Walton’s experience in Southern-fried music collectives
  • Chris Cacavas’ interest in sound manipulation 
  • Wynn’s love of 70s jazz fusion. 

The Universe Inside‘s six songs came from one completely improvised recording session in which the band came up with 80 continuous minutes of soundscapes. “All we added was air,” Wynn explains in press notes. Aside from vocals, horns and a touch of percussion here and there, every instrument is recorded live as it happened.

The Dream Syndicate’s fourth post-reunion effort and eighth overall, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns and True Confessions is slated for a June 10, 2022 release through Fire Records. Continuing to push their sound and approach in new and varied directions, Ultraviolet Battle Hymns reportedly sees the band adding British glam, German prog rock, krautrock and Brian Eno-like ambient music interwoven into their psychedelic, melodic hues. The album also features guest spots from longtime collaborator and friend, The Long Ryders‘ Stephen McCarthy and Marcus Tenney, who contributes sax and trumpet to the album’s songs. 

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

  • “Where I’ll Stand,” the album’s expansive fist single, which begins with a twinkling, synth-led prog rock intro that nods at Trans Europe Express before morphing into a circular chord progression centered around twangy, reverb-drenched guitars and a slow-burning groove.  “It feels like an attempt–via the lyrics and the circular chord progression–to impose some kind of order and logic on a world that was severely lacking in both respects at the time,” The Dream Syndicate’s Steve Wynn explained in press notes. 
  • “Damian,” a brooding and slow-burning song that may arguably be their most AM Rock-inspired song of their extensive — and still growing — catalog: Centered around a shuffling groove, the song has a California beach sheen but with a gritty and lurking sense of evil and unease.  Fleetwood Mac meets Steely Dan, perhaps? 


The Emil Nikolaisen co-written “Every Time You Come Around” is a melodic and crafted bit of psych pop that feels like a subtle refinement of The Dream Syndicate’s classic era sound but paired with fuzzy, feedback laden guitars and achingly wistful lyrics. The new single has “a sense of arrogance and fragility in the lyrics which Jason [Victor] had the good sense to fully obliterate with a tsunami of fuzz guitar” the band’s Steve Wynn says.

The JOVM mainstays will be embarking on a lengthy international tour to support the album. The tour includes a September 17, 2022 stop at Bowery Ballroom. Check out the rest of the tour dates below. 

TOUR DATES

11 Jun: Loaded Festival, Oslo, Norway

27 Jul: Soda Bar, San Diego, CA, US
28 Jul: Lodge Room, Los Angeles, CA, US
29 Jul: Harlow’s, Sacramento, CA, US
30 Jul: Cafe Du Nord, San Francisco, CA, US
15 Sep: City Winery, Philadelphia, PA, US
16 Sep: City Winery, Washington D.C., DC, US
17 Sep: Bowery Ballroom, New York, NY, US
18 Sep: Crystal Ballroom, Boston, MA, US

07 Oct: Auditorio, Murcia, Spain
08 Oct: Loco Club, Valencia, Spain
10 Oct: Universidad, Cadiz, Spain
11 Oct: El Sol, Madrid, Spain
12 Oct: Sala BBK, Bilbao, Spain
14 Oct: SPAZIO 211, Rivoli, Italy
15 Oct: Locomotiv, Bologna, Italy
16 Oct: Magnolia, Milan, Italy
18 Oct: Lafayette, London, UK
19 Oct: Petit Bain, Paris, France
20 Oct: Het Depot, Leuven, Belgium
21 Oct: De Zwerver, Leffinge, Belgium
22 Oct: Ekko, Utrecht, Netherlands
10 Nov: Turf Club, Minneapolis, MN, US
11 Nov: Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL, US

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Born in London to parents, who immigrated from India and Kenya, the rising British chamber pop/psych pop artist Saint Kochi has led an extraordinary and unusual life, that for a while got in the way of his real lifetime aim — to make music his entire life, not a part of it. But there was so much else that occupied his time: a flirtation with genuine stardom as a professional cricket player, parents who doubted hat anyone could survive with a career in the arts, and an unexpected career as a seller of massive ships. 

Saint Kochi continued to push forward with his lifelong dream of making music, releasing last year’s self-titled debut EP. Slated for an August 10, 2022 release, the British chamber pop and psych pop artist’s Dom Ganderton co-produced sophomore EP Almost Lost is reportedly a bold step forward as he crafts gorgeous music that transports the listener to another place. 

The EP’s first single, the cinematic EP title track “Almost Lost” prominently features a throbbing bass line, twinkling keys, glistening, reverb-drenched guitar lines and Saint Kochi’s plaintive vocals paired with a gorgeous, soaring string arrangement. Sonically, the result is a song that to my ears brings The Beatles, Scott Walker, The Verve, and JOVM mainstays POND to mind — but while possessing an enormous sound, the song is rooted in intimate and lived-in lyricism that’s personal yet universal. 

“Out of Time,” Almost Lost‘s latest and incredibly cinematic, second single continues in a similar vein as “Almost Lost:” a gorgeous string arrangement is paired with a sumptuous bass line, boom bap-like drums, twinkling bursts of keys paired with the rising British artist’s plaintive cooing. And much like its predecessor, the widescreen vibes are rooted in intimate and lived-in experience.

“‘Out of Time’ is for me about the ability to make yourself vulnerable enough to feel, the discomfort of letting go and the beauty of finding something that makes you do all of those things,” the rising British artist explains in press notes.

While primarily recorded at Saint Kochi’s purpose-built basement studio, the string arrangement performed by the 14-piece string section was recorded at RAK Studios, where iconic albums like Radiohead‘s The Bends and a lengthy list of others was recorded. The string section fulfilled the rising British artist’s ambition of “making a record that had these big cinematic James Bond, Beatleseque type of strings on them.” 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Saint Kochi’s Cinematic and Trippy “Almost Lost”

Born in London to parents, who immigrated from India and Kenya, the rising British chamber pop/psych pop artist Saint Kochi has led an extraordinary and unusual life, that for a while got in the way of his real lifetime aim — to make music his entire life, not a part of it. But there was so much else that occupied his time: a flirtation with genuine stardom as a professional cricket player, parents who doubted hat anyone could survive with a career in the arts, and an unexpected career as a seller of massive ships.

Saint Kochi continued to push forward with his lifelong dream of making music, releasing last year’s self-titled debut EP. Slated for an August 10, 2022 release, the British chamber pop and psych pop artist’s Dom Ganderton co-produced sophomore EP Almost Lost is reportedly a bold step forward as he crafts gorgeous music that transports the listener to another place.

The EP’s first single, the cinematic EP title track “Almost Lost” prominently features a throbbing bass line, twinkling keys, glistening, reverb-drenched guitar lines and Saint Kochi’s plaintive vocals paired with a gorgeous, soaring string arrangement. Sonically, the result is a song that to my ears brings The Beatles, Scott Walker, The Verve, and JOVM mainstays POND to mind — but while possessing an enormous sound, the song is rooted in intimate and lived-in lyricism that’s personal yet universal.

While primarily recorded at Saint Kochi’s purpose-built basement studio, the string arrangement performed by the 14-piece string section was recorded at RAK Studios, where iconic albums like Radiohead‘s The Bends and a lengthy list of others was recorded. The string section fulfilled the rising British artist’s ambition of “making a record that had these big cinematic James Bond, Beatleseque type of strings on them.”

Directed by Sam Hiscox, the accompanying video for “Almost Lost” is as cinematic as the song while employing a rather simple concept: We follow Saint Kochi in a white linen suit wandering the desert, alone and seemingly lost.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Single: The Shivas Share a Summery and Trippy Blast

Since their formation back in 2006, the Portland, OR-based psych rock outfit The Shivas — Jared Molyneux (vocals, guitar), Eric Shanafelt (bass), Kristin Leonard (vocals, drums) and their newest member Jeff City (guitar) — have honed a sound that conjures the lysergic, late ’60s-to-early ’70s rock ‘n’ roll and pop: The Mamas & The Papas-like harmonies? Sure thing! Big guitar riffs? Sure thing! And it sounds as though it were recored on top-of-the-line-quarter-inch, four-track tape machine? Yep, that too!

So recently, the folks at Suicide Squeeze convinced the members of The Shivas to take part in the label’s Pinks & Purples Digital Singles Series. The Portland-based psych rock outfit contributed “Doom Revolver,” a fittingly lysergic jam featuring enormous, power chord driven riffs, thunderous drumming, Molyneux’s and Leonard’s gorgeous and uncanny harmonies within a head-spinning song structure. Play loud, tune out, man.

“‘Doom Revolver’ was written over the last couple of years,” The Shivas’ Jared Molyneux explains. “It was recorded in January of 2022 at Trash Treasury, and was produced by Cameron Spies. The cover image is a polaroid from a real life UFO encounter in themiddle of nowhere, Oregon. . .”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Silver People Share a Mind-Bending Visual for “Dark Side of the Moon”-Like Single

Silver People is the solo recording project of singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jake Reeves, who’s an attorney by day. And although his clients may occasionally have to wait a little bit longer to see their attorney, it was a small price for them to have paid to help him create music. (Reeves is quick to point out that none of his clients have ever complained about it.) “Once the day’s primary lawyering was done,” he explains, “I would close my office door and just get onto YouTube, taking these deep dives on all these amazing free tutorials that are out there,” he says of that period, as he started dabbling in music production on the side of his full-time job as a lawyer.

What initially began as YouTube deep dives and extended research has come to full fruition with Reeves’ full-length debut Gnome Country. Part singer-songwriter exploration, part production wizardry, Gnome Country is a loving homage to late 60s and early 70s psychedelia. “I started doing a little bit of that production stuff and started recording and got an idea to make a humble, acid-folk record,” Reeves says of the album’s inspiration. ““Also, I’m a big sci-fi fantasy nerd. I thought it would be really fun to do an album that had those touches, in a tongue-in-cheek way. There was this period from about 1969 through 1972 when all of these British musicians discovered and became fascinated with The Lord of the Rings. I wanted to do something with that influence, kind of an otherworldly, mystical kind of thing.”

“That was the original concept. As I got into it, I was learning how to produce, trying to make the stuff as professional as I could. And I was also mixing it as I went, trying to focus on the songcraft without becoming too overwrought.”

While you can hear the influences of Syd Barrett-era and Dark Side of the Moon-era Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Bert Jansch and others, Reeves’ innate originally keeps the music from sounding too indebted to any one particular source. “I didn’t want it to sound pastiche,” he explains. “I didn’t want it to be mimicry. I wanted it to be loving and influenced by those genres, but I didn’t want it to sound like a tribute band.”

Although Silver People is a mostly one-man operation with Reeves playing the instruments and on the decks, he does get help from some friends — most notably from Nicole Chillemi, who contributes vocals on a couple of tracks, including two of there out-of-left-field covers.

As eclectic as the album’s material is, it could have been even more so, if Reeves’ wife Kimberly hadn’t intervened. Reeves says, “My wife Kimberly said, ‘You’re going to have a 30-song album that’s going to be unwieldy in all different places. I think you need to get back to where you started.’ I pared things down and decided to get back to the original idea.”

Considering the sci-fi leanings on the record, it’s fitting whom Jake Reeves credits for his overriding philosophy on letting these tracks live in all their unkempt glory. “George Lucas said, ‘Art is never completed, it’s abandoned,’” Reeves explains. “So a guiding principle was to not tinker with this thing and turn it into something hyper-produced or obsessively polished. It just wasn’t going to be one of those records.”

Gnome Country‘s latest single “Torn Between the Wizards of My Past and the Demons of My Present” is a slow-burning, late night lounge take on psych centered around glistening and arpeggiated Rhodes and jazz-like percussion paired with Nicole Chillemi’s smoky vocals. The end result is a song that to my ears, at least resembles a synthesis of Dark Side of the Moon-era Pink Floyd and Dummy-era Portishead.

Fittingly, the accompanying video features trippy 70s CGI footage of people flying through the cosmos and the like — and in a way that would remind you of old sci fi books and TRON.

Gnome Country is slated for a July 1, 2022 release.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Spaceface Share an Anthemic Banger

Formed back in 2012 by Jake Ingalls, a former member of The Flaming Lips, the self-professed “retro-futurist dream rock” outfit Spaceface is currently split between Memphis and Los Angeles, and features a collection of current and past members of The Flaming Lips and Pierced. In the decade since their formation, the members of Spaceface have developed a reputation for crafting catchy songs with elements of dream pop, funk, rock and post-disco.

Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the course of the past year, you’d recall that the JOVM mainstays sophomore album Anemoia was released through Montreal-based label Mothland. The album is the result of several months spent back in 2019 at Blackwatch Studios, where the band spent several months working with Jarod Evans writing material inspired by funk rock and the turn of the millennium psychedelia revival.

Although the material can be initially perceived as a feat of efficient and minimalistic songwriting by Ignalls and a cast of friends and collaborators, centered around slick melodies, lush arrangements and effortlessly flowing rhythmic grooves, each spin reportedly will reveal a new layer while painting a positive but somewhat critical portrayal of modern life.

In the lead up to Anemoia‘s release, Spaceface and Mothland released six singles off the album, including “Happens All The Time,” “Earth In Awe,” and “Piña Collider,” which featured samples and choir vocals from actual CERN scientists and “ were all previously released to praise across the blogopshere.

I’ve managed to write about three more released singles:

  • “Long Time:” a woozy and funky contemplation of life choices and alternate realities centered around a strutting bass line, glistening synth arpeggios and infectious hooks paired with guest vocals from Penny Pitchlynn, best known for her work with BRONCHO and LABRYS.
  • “Rain Passing Through:” an Oracular Spectacular era MGMT meets  Nile Rodgers-like bop with guest vocals from  Mikaela Davis about the fleeting moments one may have with former or future lovers in passing turbulent times, and despite knowing that it probably shouldn’t, wouldn’t or can’t happen, that it was okay to feel good and safe, even if it was for a brief, lovely moment. 
  • “Millions & Memes,” a hook-driven ear worm centered a buzzing, phaser-drenched guitar riff and funky boom bap beats that — to my ears, at least — sounds like a slick and seamless synthesis of Currents era Tame Impala, 70s glam rock and funk. Much its predecessors, “Millions & Memes” is rooted in deeply detailed psychological observation and overwhelmingly positive messaging. 

 Anemoia‘s seventh — that’s right seventh! — single “Classic Style” is an anthemic, hook-driven banger, centered around buzzing power chords, thumping beats, dreamy vocals and twinkling keys. While to my ears, sounding as though it were indebted to Lonerism and Currents era Tame Impala, “Classic Style” is a swaggering yet earnest pick up line to that pretty young thang at the club, who just caught your eye.

Directed by longtime collaborator Jarod Evans, the accompanying video for “Classic Style” features cameo from The Flaming Lips’ The Brothers Griiin and employs a rather simple concept: a sort of behind the scenes look at the shooting of a video, fittingly shot in a lysergic haze.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Joseph Shabason’s Trippy Re-work of Absolutely Free’s “How to Paint Clouds”

Acclaimed Toronto-based psych pop outfit Absolutely Free — multi-instrumentalist and vocalist Matt King, Michael Claxton (bass, synths) and Moshe Fisher-Rozenberg (drums, synths) — is an offshoot of experimental rock outfit DD/MM/YYYY, an act whose multi-rhythmic, boundary pushing raison d’être provided a springboard for Absolutely Free’s sound and approach. 

Their full-length debut, 2014’s Absolutely Free. received a Polaris Prize nomination and widespread critical applause from the likes of Pitchfork, The FADER, Stereogum, BrooklynVegan,Exclaim!, Under the Radar, PopMatters, AllMusic and countless others. 

Over the past decade, the members of the Absolutely Free have cultivated and developed a long-held reputation for an unorthodox approach to both conceiving and performing music: Since the release of Absolutely Free., the Toronto-based psych pop act have released an array of multimedia projects and releases including 2019’s Geneva Freeport EP, which features U.S. Girls‘ Meg Remy. Adding to a growing profile they’ve toured alongside the likes of Alvvays, Youth Lagoon and JOVM mainstays Preoccupations, and they’ve shared bills with Beak>, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, U.S. Girls and Fucked Up. 

Absolutely Free’s highly-anticipated Jorge Elbrecht-produced sophomore album Aftertouch was released last year through Boiled Records. Deriving its name from a the name of a synthesizer function, the album is fueled by the trio’s desire to “. . . to create an album that wasn’t bound by a physical ability to perform it live, to not only expand our palette, but also to consider the live performance as something completely separate.”

Culling from a myriad of influences including krautrock, New Wave, early electronic dance music, and an array of international psych and funk complications, the album sonically and aesthetically finds the trio shifting in, around and between analog and digital sounds, and real and fabricated images while simultaneously reveling in and refuting the loss of tactility. Thematically, the album explores narratives of hegemony, grief and exploitation in the present while sustaining curiosity for the unknown post-everything future. 

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

  • “Interface,” a dreamily maximalist song featuring glistening synth arpeggios, percussive and angular guitar blasts, a chugging bass line and an insistent rhythm paired with plaintive vocals that reminded me of  Amoral-era Violens — in particular, “Trance Like Turn.”
  • “Remaining Light” is a sprawling track with two distinct parts — a cinematic and atmospheric instrumental introduction featuring twinkling keys, glistening synths and clinking marimba. At around the 2:20 mark, the song slowly morphs into a slow-burning and brooding bit of pop featuring King’s plaintive, reverb drenched vocals ethereally floating over the mix. The end result is a song that — to my ears, at least — sounded like a slick synthesis of The Fixx’s “Sign of Fire” and Amoral-era Violens. 
  • “Epilogue,” a slow-burning and reflective track that slowly builds into a maximalist crescendo towards its conclusion centered around a lush, New Wave-like arrangement featuring glistening synth arpeggios, skittering beats, a relentless motorik groove paired with King’s achingly plaintive vocals ethereally floating over the mix. But underneath the breezy and expansive arrangement, “Epilogue” managed to possess a wistful, melancholy air.

Because of their exploratory approach, the members of Absolutely Free have revisited Aftertouch album track “How to Paint Clouds” with How to Repaint Clouds, an eight-track remix effort using on MIDI (Multi-Instrument Digital Interface) files — a digital language that contains harmonic and rhythmic blueprints, but no actual recordings.

“The song’s lyrics reflect upon the transcience of taste and how an artist’s feelings toward their work change over time,” the band says. “When a musician revisits their old songs, new interpretations are informed by changing contexts and evolving preferences. We wanted to stray from traditional modes of remixes based upon manipulating a song’s individual audio tracks, to provide the arftists with an unusual freedom from the original material, to create new sounds and reassemble the motifs of the song.”

The eight remixes interpret the track’s original structures untethered from its instrumentation, across a diverse aesthetic range from dark techno to psych rock. The first remix by Toronto-based musician Joseph Shabason turns the song into an otherworldly, woozy and ambient, New Age-like meditation centered around distorted saxophone bleats paired with twinkling synths.

How to Repaint Clouds is slated for a May 5, 2022 release through Boiled Records and will arrive with a tactile rendering: 20 one-of-a-kind AI-generated cloud painting turntable slipmats.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays La Femme Share Hazy and Hallucinogenic Visual For Atmospheric “Tu T’en Lasses”

Founded back in 2010, Parisian psych pop act and longtime JOVM mainstays  La Femme — currently, founding members Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée, along with Sam Lefévre, Noé Delmas, Cleémence Quélennec, Clara Luiciani, Jane Peynot, Marilou Chollet and Lucas Nunez Ritter — managed to completely hoodwink the French music industry by lining up a DIY Stateside tour as a then unknown band, with only $3,000 Euros and their debut EP, that year’s Le Podium #1.

After playing 20 gigs across the States, the members of La Femme returned to their native France with immense interest from the Parisian music scene. “The industry was like, ‘What the fuck? They have an EP out and they are touring in the US and we don’t know them?” Marlon Magnée told The Guardian. “So the buzz began to start. When we came back to France, it was red carpet. Fucking DIY.” 

2013’s critically applauded and commercially successful full-length debut Psycho Tropical Berlin found the Parisian JOVM mainstays making a wild, creative and sonic left turn incorporating krautrock and synths to the mix. The album eventually earned a Victoires de la Musique Award. Building upon a rapidly growing national and international profile, La Femme’s sophomore album, 2016’s Mystére to praise by Sound Opinions, The Line of Best Fit, The Guardian, AllMusic, BrooklynVegan and a lengthy list of others. 

The French JOVM mainstays long-awaited, third album Paradigmes was released last year through the band’s own Disque Pointu and distributed through IDOL. And over the course of that year, I managed to write about five of the album’s nine previously released singles:

  • “Cool Colorado,” a coolly bombastic single that seemed indebted to Scott Walker and Ennio Morricone soundtracks while being an “ode to the San Francisco of the 70s — and to Colorado, the first American state to legalize cannabis. 
  • Disconnexion,” a surreal what-the-fuck fever dream centered around pulsating Giorgio Moroder-like motorik grooves, a fiery banjo solo, atmospheric electronics, twinkling synth arpeggios, a philosophic soliloquy delivered in a dry, academic French and operatic caterwauling. 
  • “Foutre le Bordel,” a breakneck freak out that meshed Freedom of Choice-era DEVO and Giorgio Moroder with ’77 punk rock nihilism. 
  • “Le Jardin,” an achingly sad lullaby written and sung in Spanish — the band’s first song in Spanish. Inspired by a trip to Spain that the band took a few years ago, the song as the band explains is a kind of an old-school slow dance, which underlines how fragile and random fate is.
  • “Pasadena,” a slow-burning, woozy ballad that sounds — and feels — like a narcotic-induced haze. Written as an informal response and continuation of the story told in “Septembre,” off the band’s sophomore album, “Pasadena” features the main character of “Septembre” as a teenager. And as a result, the song is about budding romances — primarily their seemingly carefree nature at the time, their eventual difficulties and confusions, and the weight of peer pressure.

April has been very busy for the JOVM mainstays. Earlier this month, they released Paradigmes: Le Film, a full-length film co-directed by the band’s Sacha Got and Marlon Magnée and Aymeric Bergada du Cadet that’s centered around the album’s material, and highlights their humor and creativity. You can watch it here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8Wnil2ipf0

The JOVM mainstays will be releasing an exclusive, vinyl, Record Store Day edition of Paradigmes, Paradigmes: suppléments, a deluxe edition of their critically applauded third album. You can purchase it here: https://recordstoreday.com/SpecialRelease/14923

And along with the Record Store Day exclusive vinyl release of Paradigmes: suppléments, the band released yet another single off Paradigmes, the album closing track “Tu T’en Lasses,” a slow-burning and atmospheric fever dream, centered around skittering beats, glistening synths and a distorted yet mournful horn solo paired with dreamily delivered vocals.

The accompanying video for “Tu T’en Lasses” continues a run of hazy, feverish visuals: The members of La Femme are house band at a local dance, playing the slow dance song for the couples out there — including a Sid and Nancy-like couple. Is it an achingly nostalgic memory of a lost love and a time since passed — or a drug and booze-fueled hallucination? Or perhaps both? That’s up to you to decide.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Denver’s Graffiti Welfare Shares Trippy “Volume”

George Lattimore is a Denver-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and creative mastermind behind the emerging psych pop recording project Graffiti Welfare. Lattimore grew up in a music loving home, where he developed a voracious ear, listening to anything he could get his hands on.

Eventually, the Denver-based multi-instrumentalist discovered Animal Collective, Tame Impala, Radiohead, Brian Eno, Miles Davis and a few others. For Lattimore, listening to Tame Impala’s Lonerism was a life changing experience: The first time he heard the album, he bought a Roland Juno-G keyboard and started writing and recording his own material.

Lattimore used that Juno-G until the screen died; but that was fine because at that point, he was ready to grow musically and to become much more serious at pursuing a career in music.

He moved from Austin to Denver for grad school, then recorded and self-released an EP on Spotify that began to receive some positive attention. Buoyed by the positive attention from his debut, Lattimore felt that he was ready to make something much more serious, defined and complete — his full-length debut Revolving Shores.

Written, self-recorded and self-produced over the course of five years, Revolving Shores was mastered at Golden Colorado‘s The Wheelhouse Studio. Revolving Shores‘ first single “Volume” is centered around Lattimore’s laconic delivery, glistening synth arpeggios, reverb-drenched, blown out beats and a wobbling bass line. The end result is a somnambulant song that evokes a half-remembered yet very vivid dream.

The accompanying video for “Volume” features stock footage of Midtown Manhattan shot in the 50s and 60s, mass manufactured doodads, what appears to be Los Angeles in the 80s that’s slowly given trippy, mind-bending effects.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Deriving their name from the Turkish phase for “Golden Day,” the acclaimed Amsterdam-based Turkish psych pop act Altin Gün — founding member Jasper Verhulst (bass) with Ben Rider (guitar), Erdinç Ecevit Yildiz (keys, saz, vocals), Gino Groneveld (percussion), Merve Dasdemir (vocals) and Nic Mauskovic (drums) — can trace their origins to Japser Verhulst’s repeated tour stops to Istanbul with a previous band and his deep and abiding passion for ’60s and ’70s Turkish psych pop and folk, fueled by discoveries Verhulst couldn’t find in his native Holland. 

But as the story goes, Verhulst wasn’t just content to listen as an ardent fan; he had a vision of where he could potentially take the sound he loved. “We do have a weak spot for the music of the late ’60s and ’70s,” Verhulst admitted in press notes. “With all the instruments and effects that arrived then, it was an exciting time. Everything was new, and it still feels fresh. We’re not trying to copy it, but these are the sounds we like and we’re trying to make them our own.” 

Altin Gün’s sophomore album, 2020’s Grammy Award-nominated, critically applauded Gece further established the band’s reputation for re-imagining traditional Turkish folk through the lens of psych rock and pop. Last year’s critically applauded Yol was the band’s third album in three years. And while the album found the band continuing to draw about the rich and diverse traditions of Turkish and Anatolian folk, pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns forced the Dutch outfit to write music in a completely new way for them: virtually — through trading demos and ideas built around Omnichord, 808 and other elements, including field recordings and New Age-like ideas by email. 

“We were basically stuck at home for three months making home demos, with everybody adding their parts,” Altin Gün’s Merve Dasdemir says in press notes. “The transnational feeling maybe comes from that process of swapping demos over the internet, some of the music we did in the studio, but lockdown meant we had to follow a different approach.”

As a result of the new songwriting approach and arrangements prominently featuring Omnichord and 808, the album saw the band crafting material that’s a bold, new sonic direction: sleek, synth-based, retro-futuristic Europop with a dreamy quality, seemingly informed by the enforced period of reflection. Additionally, the members of the acclaimed Dutch act, enlisted Ghent, Belgium-based production duo Asa Moto — Oliver Geerts and Gilles Noë — to co-produce and mix the album, marking the first time that the band has collaborated with outsiders. 

The acclaimed Turkish psych outfit will be embarking on an extensive North American tour next month that includes a two night run at Music Hall of Williamsburg April 28, 2022-April 29, 2022. (As always, the tour dates are below.) Along with that announcement, the band released a new two-song digital single “Badu Sabah Olmadan”/”Cips Kola Kilit.” Both songs originally appeared in some fashion or another on last summer’s Bandcamp-only album Âlem.

“Badu Sabah Olmadon” may arguably be one of the harder rocking songs the Dutch JOVM mainstays have released in some time, featuring a relentless motorik groove, some scorching guitar work, glistening synths and yearning vocals.

“‘Badİ Sabah Olmadan’ is a traditional love song from the town of Kırşehir, where the poet begs his lover to come to him before the night ends,” the band explains in press notes. “We recorded an electronic version for our charity album Âlem, and then started to play it live with the band. We liked it so much that we decided to record a live band version. Happy to play it for our fans this spring!”

“Clips Kola Kilit” is a dance floor friendly, decidedly 80s synth bop centered around 808-like beats, glistening synth washes and wobbling bass synth paired with a coquettish and sultrily delivered spoken word/rap-like vocal. For those children of the 80s — like me — “Clips Kola Kilit” brings back memories of acts like Whodini, The Human League, Nu Shooz, Cherelle, and others. And interestingly enough, it sound as though it could have been on Yol but was cut from the album.

NORTH AMERICA TOUR 2022

April 4 – Montreal, CAN @ Le National

April 5- Toronto, CAN @ The Axis Club

April 7 – Chicago, IL @ Thalia Hall

April 8 – Minneapolis, MN @ Varsity Theater

April 12 – Vancouver, CAN @ Rickshaw Theatre

April 13 – Seattle, WA @ The Crocodile

April 14- Portland, OR @ Revolution Hall

April 17 – COACHELLA FESTIVAL

April 19 – San Francisco @ August Hall

April 21 – Los Angeles, CA @ Roxy (co-headline with Nilüfer Yanya)

April 24 – COACHELLA FESTIVAL

April 26 – Cambridge, MA @ The Sinclair

April 27 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

April 28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Music Hall of Williamsburg

April 29 – Philadelphia, PA @ Underground Arts

April 39 – Washington, DC @ Capital Turnaround

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Last year, the rising Brooklyn-based psych pop/dance pop outfit and JOVM mainstays Psymon Spine — Noah Prebish, Sabine Holler, Brother Michael Rudinski, and Peter Spears — released their sophomore album Charismatic Megafauna. Thematically, the album explored the complicated feelings and catharsis involved in the dissolution of human relationships — through hook-driven, left-of-center electronic dance music meets psych pop. The album received critical praise from  the likes of Paste Magazine, FLOOD, Brooklyn Vegan, Under the Radar and NME. The album and its material was added to number of playlists including NPR Music, Spotify‘s New Music Friday, All New Indie, Undercurrents and Fresh Finds, Apple Music‘s Midnight City and Today’s Indie Rock and TIDAL‘s Rising. And the album received airplay internationally from BBC, KEXP and KCRW among others. 

The Brooklyn-based JOVM mainstays capped off a big 2021 with the the digital 7 inch release “Mr. Metronome”/”Drums Valentino.” 

  • “Mr. Metronome” may arguably be the most straightforward, club friendly track of the band’s growing catalog. Featuring a German vocal hook sung by Sabine Holler, which translates to “I saw your message, I have to go work,” followed by a repeated refrain of “my schedule, my schedule,” “Mr. Metronome” is centered around tweeter and woofer rocking beats, glistening synth arpeggios and a relentless, motorik groove. Inspired by Kraftwerk, Soulwax and others, the song’s lyrics features musings on dating and social dynamics while reflecting the band’s restlessness and desire to quit all unfulfilling obligations to focus on what really matters to them — music. 
  • “Drums Valentino” is a New Wave-like single featuring industrial clang and clatter, shimmering guitars, glistening synths and an off-kilter yet dance floor-friendly groove. Sonically, the song helps to emphasize the song’s lyrics, which talk about feeling uneasy and uncertain with a psychological precision.

The members of Psymon Spine grew up in the ’00s and ’10s with a deep appreciation and love for the art of the remix. And after the release of their sophomore album, the band found themselves craving longer, even more dance-floor friendly versions of the album’s material. The band recruited a handful of producers and electronic music acts including Love Injection, Dar Disku, Each Other, Safer, Bucky Boudreau and Psymon Spine’s Brother Michael to remix material from the album. 

Charismatic Mutations, the remix album of last year’s Charismatic Megafauna, is slated for an April 1, 2022 release through the band’s label home Northern Spy Records.

Last month, Hot Chip‘s Joe Goddard tackled “Milk” feat. Barrie. Goddard’s remix retained Barrie’s coquettish and ethereally cooed vocals but placed them within a euphoric Balearic house-like production centered around skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios and cosmic space effects. “This remix was very natural and very joyful for me,” Goddard explained. ” I did it in lockdown so I felt a sense of freedom and playfulness that was really nice and actually, in retrospect, very unique.  I love the vocals on this song, so I placed them at the forefront, and I tried to sonically make the mix one that was balearic and satisfying.  Macrodosing.”

Charismatic Mutations second and latest single sees Love Injection tackling the funky, dance punk bop “Jumprope.” Clocking in at an expansive seven-and-a-half minutes, the Love Injection remix is a seemingly LCD Soundsystem-like instrumental take that retains the propulsive bass line of the original and pairs it with skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios, congo-led percussion, a relentless motorik groove and chopped up vocal samples.

“‘Jumprope’ immediately takes us back to the early 2000s and the sound that would be synonymous with the kids in Downtown Manhattan and Williamsburg, Brooklyn,” Love Injection explains. “It was the reintroduction of dance music to punk, pioneered by the likes of Suicide and Was (Not Was), but was immortalized in a new way by DFA (both the production duo and the label) in some of their earliest releases.” 

“There was one particular remix that we know, love, and have had special moments with on the dancefloor at the late David Mancuso’s Loft parties that became the guiding light for our reinterpretation. We very intentionally set out to reimagine ‘Jumprope’ in the spirit of that moment, rewriting the bassline and bringing in new synth elements. The Loft memory greatly influenced the remix’s arrangement and gave it its name.”