Tag: psych pop

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays La Femme Return with Surreal and Nightmarish Visuals For Their Latest Single “Mycose”

The Parisian collective’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort Mystere was released earlier this year and you may recall that I’ve written about three of the album’s singles — Sphynx,” a track that manages to evoke a lingering fever dream, “Ou va la mode” a somewhat stripped down track that seemed as though the French act were returning to the breezy and decidedly French take on surfer rock that comprised Le Podium # 1 but with warped, carnival from hell-like organ and “Septembre,” a track that sounded indebted to 60s psych rock and psych pop with a mournful, bittersweet air. The album’s fourth and latest single “Mycose” is a moody and somewhat atmospheric track comprised of undulating synths, a propulsive bass line, some industrial clang and clatter paired with punchily cooed lyrics and a psychedelic-leaning guitar solo. And of course, Mystere’s latest single will further cement the French collective’s reputation for crating a propulsive and danceable sound that also manages to be difficult to pigeonhole.

Directed by Paul Gondry, the son of renowned director Michel Gondry, the recently released video for “Mycose” was shot on the streets of New York and while coolly seductive, the video possesses a nightmarish horror-film meetings high-fashion ad logic.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Playfully Childlike and Psychedelic Visuals for Winter’s “Dreaming”

As a newly formed quartet, the members of the band went into the studio to write and record their full-length debut Supreme Blue Dream, which Lolipop Records released last year. With material written and sung in both English and Brazilian Portuguese, the album thematically was designed to connect the listener to their inner child while writing shimmering and ethereal pop that interestingly enough sounds as though it could have been released by 4AD Records. The band is currently working on their forthcoming sophomore effort Ethereality — but interestingly enough, the album’s latest single “Dreaming” was originally written back in 2013 and was presumed lost when the band’s laptop was stolen while on tour. However, through a bit of coincidence and fate, the band found a version of the song on a backup hard drive — and interestingly enough, the single will further cement the band’s growing reputation for craft shimmering and ethereal shoegaze-leaning pop that manages to evoke the sensation of being awoken from a pleasant reverie.

Developed by Samara Winter and directed by Kevin Kearney, the 90s psych rock/alt rock-inspired video depicts Winter on the beach, connecting with her inner child as she plays on the beach, daydreams and bathes in a tub while being shot in neon bright filters and colors schemes.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: New JOVM Mainstays Pavo Pavo Release a Surreal and Old-Timey Video for “Ruby (Let’s Buy the Bike)”

Now, as you may recall the band’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, Young Narrator in the Breakers was released last month through Bella Union Records and thematically, the material according to the members of the band describes both the magic and panic of adult life — with the understanding that much like a getting caught in a vicious breaker, you have to stop fighting and ride it out until you can get to shore safely. Interestingly, the album’s latest single “Ruby (Let’s Buy The Bike)” consists of gorgeous falsetto boy/girl harmonies, a strummed and slightly ragged guitar-led melody, off-kilter percussion and soaring synths. And the result is a gorgeous and trippy acceptance of time’s passing and a swooning love song to a beautiful motorcycle named Ruby. Part of the song involves the hopes and plans the narrator has for the bike; some of which picturing himself riding around on the badass bike, potentially getting into a gruesome accident and dying — but saying “man, for the bike, it was fucking worth it.”

The video was shot, directed, produced and edited by the members of the band and as the band’s Oliver Hill explains in press notes about the video “Pavo Pavo’s Oliver Hill talks about the video, saying “There’s a great Kenneth Anger documentary about a biker gang called Scorpio Rising that peers into all the death-obsessed symbology in these gangs, and the whole bizarre environment piqued my interest. For the video we went up to Pleasantville, NY, which is both me and Ian [Romer]’s hometown, and tried to make something that captured that special type of suburban-high-school boredom where groups of friends rove around and try to find little adventures – a sort of reimagined biker gang. We directed it ourselves and shot it on Super 8, which has such a beautiful and cool character – so in a way the whole enterprise was a bit like a group of high school friends, making something on a spare Saturday.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous and Surreal Visuals and Sounds of Pavo Pavo’s “Ran Ran Run”

If you have been frequenting this site, you may have come across a couple of posts about the band when they released their “Ran Ran Run”/”Annie Hall” 7 inch, an effort that was also praised by the folks at Stereogum as “weightless pop music that sounds like it was beamed down from a glimmering utopian future,” while nodding at the psych pop sounds of the mid 60s; but just underneath the gleaming surface, there’s a bit of unease, anxiety and rot. In my mind, the song strikes me as a feverish yet whimsical dream of simmering synths and ethereal harmonies that skip about the song’s instrumentation like a pebble being tossed across a placid lake.

The band’s long-awaited full-length debut Young Narrator in the Breakers is slated for a November 11, 2016 through Bella Union Records and to celebrate the album’s upcoming release, the band released a gorgeous and artful music video for the album’s first single “Ran Ran Run.” Directed by artist collective SWIMMERS, the video features the bandmembers in a series of surreally staged scenarios that emphasize the song’s ethereal and surreal nature. As the band’s Eliza Bagg explains of the song and the video, “‘Ran Ran Run’ is a song about the joys and sorrows of growing up, the awareness of impermanence and change — ‘time is a hole in my waterbed!’ In the video we pass through some kind of portal into a completely manufactured reality — a space that is intense but also playful, full of stark contrasts and extremes (of color, texture, mood). We’re somewhere between children and adults, literally dressing up, playing, play-acting, trying on the guises of who we might be. Actually a theme throughout this record is that the whole prospect of becoming an adult involves a little bit of fantasy — reaching for a possible world or possible self, and aiming for magic, for something over the top, fantastical.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Australian Psych Pop Act Pond’s Tame Impala-Channeling, New Single

“Sweep Me Off My Feet,” is the first bit of new material from the band since last year’s Man, It Feels Like Space Again and interestingly enough the single sounds as though it could have been a Tame Impala B side — and that’s not a terrible thing, really. Sonically speaking, the band pairs boom-bap like drums, layers of buzzing synths, chiming percussion, plaintive falsetto vocals, buzzing yet bluesy guitar solo and an anthemic hook in a slow-burning and trippy bit of psych pop that possesses an urgent, carnal need and vulnerability underneath it’s arena rock swagger. Unsurprisingly, “Sweep Me Off My Feet” is also the first single from the band’s forthcoming, Kevin Parker produced, untitled full-length album slated for release in early 2017.

New Single by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Phenomenal Handclap Band‘s Daniel Collas (keyboards, production) and Morgen Phalen (vocals guitar) and members of Stockholm, Sweden-based bands Dungen and The Amazing, indie psych pop act Drakkar Nowhere can trace their origins to when Collas and Phalen had been making music in the kitchen of a rented apartment in Stockholm. And in a relatively short period of time, Collas and Phalen’s kitchen-based music project caught the attention of the members of Dragen and The Amazing, who then joined the project to flesh out its sound, a sound that’s largely influenced by cosmic jazz, soul, jazz fusion, prog rock and psych pop among others — and by their direct surroundings, including the forests that surround the Bagarmossen and Midsommarkransen neighborhoods of Stockholm.

Now you may recall that I wrote about “How Could That Be Why,” the first single off the band’s forthcoming self-titled debut, and the shuffling and trippy single has the band pairing twisting and turning synths and keys, a sinuous bass line and an infectious sense of melody to craft a song that sounds as though it could have been released in 1973. The album’s second and latest single “The Line” continues on a similar vein although it has the band pairing slow burning psych pop and psych rock with 70s AM rock — and in a fashion that nods at America‘s “Horse With No Name” and Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd but with a plaintive ache just under the song’s cosmic glow. Interestingly, the song may arguably the prettiest song the band has released to date.

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Corey Cunningham (guitar vocals), Phil Benson (bass, vocals) and Nathan Sweatt (drums), punk rock trio Terry Malts have developed a reputation for doing things in prototypical DIY fashion; in fact, the trio self-produced and self-recorded their first two albums in their rehearsal space. Since the release of their critically applauded Nobody Realizes This Is Nowhere in 2013, the members of the trio have been pretty busy — after a busy live show schedule that included both local shows and touring, Cunningham and Benson had spent the better part of the following year writing, re-writing and revising the material that would eventually comprise their long-awaited third full-length effort, Lost At The Party in Los Angeles, where Cunningham had since relocated.

During the writing sessions for Party, Cunningham and Benson had decided that for their third album, that they wanted to broaden the band’s sound by creating a kaleidoscopic pop album that had a mixture of moods, with each song turning  to a different sound inspired by the albums that influenced and inspired the band over the years. And as a result, the album’s material manages to retain the something of the gritty and grimy punk rock that first caught the attention of the blogosphere, while equally drawing from jangling and shimmering indie pop and power pop.  Once they were finished writing and felt they were ready to record, the members of the band then enlisted Monte Vallier, best known for his work with Soft Moon and Weekend Swell to co-produce the band’s first album actually recorded in a professional studio.

 

Unsurprisingly, Lost At The Party’s first single possesses an obvious professional recording studio sheen without scrubbing the band’s penchant for crafting catchy hooks, layers of buzzing and angular guitar chords and harmonized vocals; in fact, in some way the song sounds as though it drew from The Clash‘s “Spanish Bombs” and “Lost In The Supermarket.”  And interestingly enough, the sonic refinement reveals that the band can write an infectious yet carefully crafted jangling pop song that sounds as though it came out in 1983.

The band is currently touring to support the new effort, check out the tour dates below. And it includes an October 24 stop at Shea Stadium.

Tour Dates:

Sept 2 – Santa Cruz, CA – Crepe Place
Oct 8 – Carmel, CA The Rumpus
Oct 9 – Los Angeles, CA –  The Hi Hat,(Release show w/ Devon Williams & Susan)
Oct 10 – San Francisco, CA – Hemlock (Release show w/ Chook Race & Lovebirds)
Oct 22 – Baltimore, MD – U+N Fest
Oct 23 –  Philadelphia, PA – Kung Fu Necktie
Oct 24 – Brooklyn, NY – Shea Stadium
Oct 25 – Allston, MA – O’Brien’s Pub
Oct 27 – Detroit, MI – UFO Factory
Oct 28 – Chicago, IL – Subterranean
Oct 29  – St Louis, MO – San Loo
Nov 18 – Seattle, WA – Vera Project
Nov 19 – Portland, OR – Bunk Bar

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays La Femme Return with a Cinematic and Decidedly French Take on Psych Pop and Art Films

The Parisian collective’s highly-anticipated sophomore effort Mystere will officially drop today and you may recall that I’ve written about two album singles “Sphynx,” a track that manages to evoke a lingering fever dream — while cementing their growing reputation for boldly defying categorization, while the album’s second single “Ou va la mode” was a more stripped down, as though the Parisians were returning to the breezy and decidedly French take on surfer rock of Le Podium #1; but with warped, carnival from hell-sounding organs — and in some way it would force the listener to think that both songs would be heard as part of the soundtrack of a surrealistic French arthouse film. Now the album’s third and latest single “Septembre” continues along the same veins of the preceding single as the band pairs swirling and soaring organ chords, propulsive and steady drumming, whirring background noise and dreamily distracted vocals to craft a song that sounds deeply indebted to 60s psych rock and psych pop; but interestingly enough, just under the surface is a mournful and bittersweet air.

The recently released video was shot on old, grainy Super 8 film and features some of the members of the band broodingly walking on the beach — but spliced and superimposed over old home movies, which further emphasizes the song’s mournful and bittersweet air.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Trippy and Psychedelic Visuals and Sounds of Vinyl Williams

Brunei’s latest single “Feedback Delicates” is a gorgeous and trippy bit of psychedelia that has Williams and company pairing wobbling bass lines, four-on-the-floor-like drum patterns, ethereal vocals, shimmering synths and guitar chords to craft a song that sounds as though it were equally drawing from jazz fusion, psych rock and psych pop, all while sounding otherworldly and retro-futuristic.

The recently released music video is a mind-expanding interactive video that allows the viewer to experience the brightly colored psychedelic visuals in a 360º fashion. To truly capture the 360º effect, view the video though Google Chrome — or if you’re viewing it on a smartphone, make sure you’ve downloaded the most current version of the YouTube app.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Comprised of Phenomenal Handclap Band‘s Daniel Collas (keyboards, production) and Morgen Phalen (vocals guitar) and members of Stockholm, Sweden-based bands Dungen and The Amazing, indie psych pop act Drakkar Nowhere can trace their origins to when Collas and Phalen had been making music in the kitchen of a rented apartment in Stockholm. And in a relatively short period of time, Collas and Phalen’s kitchen-based music project caught the attention of the members of Dragen and The Amazing, who then joined the project to flesh out its sound, a sound that’s largely influenced by cosmic jazz, soul, jazz fusion, prog rock and psych pop among others — while being influenced by their direct surroundings, including the forests that surround the Bagarmossen and Midsommarkransen neighborhoods of Stockholm.

“How Could That Be Why?,” is the first single off the band’s forthcoming self-titled effort slated for a September 23, 2016 release through Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records — and the shuffling and trippy single has the band pairing twisting and turning synths and keyboards, a sinuous bass line, an infectious sense of melody  to craft a song that sounds as though it could have been released in 1973. And in some way, the song naturally reminds me a bit of Collas and Phalen’s work with Phenomenal Handclap Band as well as Shawn Lee‘s collaborations with AM and Tim “Love” Lee with a subtle nod to Afrobeat — but with a subtle, cosmic glow at its core.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Gorgeous and Psychedelic Visuals and Sounds of The Galaxy Electric’s “Please Come Home Soon”

Last month, I wrote about “Temporal” off their recently released full-length everything Everything Is Light and Sound, a single that had the duo pairing Caruso’s gorgeous vocals with twisting and turning synth chords, bop-era jazz syncopation and a sinuous bass line filtered through gentle layers of reverb and echo. And as I wrote last month, the single simultaneously focused on both the nature of time and our experience of it while evoking a similar vision of the future presented by the 1964 World’s Fair — a hopeful world that has used science and technology to solve humanity’s greatest problems in an efficient and timely fashion. The album’s latest single “Please Come Home” continues in the same path as its preceding single — although it’s slightly less jazz-leaning; however, more importantly, the song manages to possess a plaintive longing and heartache, as its narrator is begging her lover to come home because they’re so desperately needed.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Mournful Sounds and Surreal Visuals for Stefan Weich’s Latest Single “Louie”

Stefan Weich’s second and latest single “Louie” continues on the same vein as “Holy Night” as swirling and ambient electronics are paired with soft padded drumming, bursts of bluesy guitar chords and Weich’s plaintive falsetto crooning lyrics about a relationship in which both people are slowly drifting apart. At the heart of the song is the unspoken and built up resentments that can cause people to slowly drift apart over time, and a lingering sense of regret of what happened — and how it happened.

The recently released music video for the song also fittingly featured some warped and kaleidoscopic, psychedelic imagery — in some way, it evokes what I would imagine tripping on hallucinogens would feel like as you were wandering around a lonely and surreal city landscape.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

 

Comprised of Jacqueline Caruso (keys and vocals) and Augustus Green (bass, synth, production/beats and sound design), Washington, DC-based psych pop duo The Galaxy Electric specialize in a sound and aesthetic that mixes Brazilian bossa nova and Tropicalia, 60s psychedelia and early synthesizer experimentation; in fact, adding to that aesthetic, the duo utilizes old-fashioned, lo-fi recording techniques, as well as the use of sound design-inspired arrangements and old-timey reverb and echo devices to craft a trippy and immersive sound that seemingly comes out of 1967.

“Temporal,” the latest single off the duo’s forthcoming Everything Is Light and Sound consists of Caruso’s gorgeous vocals paired with twisting and turning synth chords, bop-era jazz syncopated drumming and a sinuous bass line filtered through gentle layers of reverb and echo, and the result is an ethereal and trippy song  that focuses on the both the nature of time and our experience of it; all while evoking a similar vision of the future presented by the 1964 World’s Fair — a hopeful world that has used science and technology to solve humanity’s greatest problems in an efficient and timely fashion.

 

 

 

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Yeasayer’s Ethereal and Psychedelic New Single

Yeasayer, the New York-based experimental/psych/electro pop trio comprised of Chris Keating (vocals, songwriting and production), Ira Wolf Tuton (vocals, songwriting and production) and Anand Wilder have been blogosphere darlings for the better part of a decade […]