Hamburg-based duo N/CTRL — Sven Enzelmann (vocals, electronics, production) and Carsten Lienke (guitar, bass, songwriting) — specialize in a sound that moves freely between post-punk, New Wave, synth pop and indie rock paired with atmospheric […]
Tag: Single Review
New Audio: Rome’s Absorbance Shares Mind-Bending “Step Out”
Created by a mysterious Rome-based multi-instrumentalist and Roman music scene veteran who has played guitar, bass and drums in several different projects that have helped to broaden his tastes, Absorbance is an electronic and math […]
New Audio: E Lundquist Teams Up with Michael Damani on Breezy “Chasing”
Los Angeles-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Borders is the creative mastermind behind E. Lundquist, a project that derives its name from a loving nod to his family lineage, bringing the focus back to his own story. With E. Lundquist, Borders specializes in a warmly cinematic sound rooted in Rhodes-driven soul jazz, funk, R&B, library records and live band groove and analog synth textures, reflecting a shift to an intimate, reflective and composer-led approach.
Borders’ forthcoming album Chasing My Reflections will touch upon themes of identity, resilience and self-reflection while featuring collaborations with Michael Damani, India Blue, Michael Edwards and JOVM mainstay Kendra Morris.
Chasing My Reflections will include “Wishing” feat. Kendra Morris and the album’s latest single “Chasing” feat. Michael Damani. “Chasing” is an upbeat and breezy tune, anchored around a Motown/Daptone/Big Crown/Colemine Records-like arrangement featuring reverb-soaked Rhodes or Wurlitzer, melodic rhythmic guitars and a steady backbeat beneath Damani’s yearning, equally old-school-like falsetto. Lyrically, the song touches upon themes of optimism, self-discovery and acceptance — all while feeling like a warm summer day.
New Audio: Yoo Doo Right Shares Cinematic “Sofort Si Fort”
Since their formation back in 2016, Montréal-based experiential rock outfit Yoo Doo Right — currently Justin Cober (guitar, bass, VI, synthesizer, piano, tape recordings and vocals) and John Talbot (drums, percussion) — have over the course of three full-length albums, three EPs, a handful of collaborations and singles and extensive touring across Europe, the UK and North America have firmly established a unique sound where “towering monoliths of roaring riffs crash against swarms of restless rhythms,” PopMatters once wrote.
The Canadian duo’s fourth album, the Ky Brooks co-produced Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light is slated for a November 6, 2026 release through Mothland. The album’s material ranges from eardrum shatteringly loud forays into post-rock and krautock, highly-tempered, effects-landed pieces seemingly drawing from ambient, noise and drone, and more. Eschewing genre strictures and boundaries, the album sees the duo opting for a symbolic approach to creation, with each of its different pieces free to unfold in a myriad of ways upon each listen.
From its creators’ point of view, Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light chronicles the hardships of artistic resolve, acknowledging the daily grind required to keep the momentum while embracing the shared joy of the creative process. Throughout the album’s runtime, there’s an underlying tribute to the communities that foster art: “Industriestraße 9” pays homage to a defunct Luzerne squat where they used to play. Symbolism seeps through song titles like Tortue”, “Sofort, Si fort,” and “To Be a Lambskin (Or to Be the Whole Flock)”, which offer enigmatic glimpses into creative vision. Co-producer Ky Brooks contributes a spoken word poem to album track “Neighbours Report Their Neighboours.” Timothy Aaron Brynan, who recently joined the duo on tour was invited to play bass on “Doldrums, Doldrums, Eviler Than the Devil,” a song that has quickly become a live set staple. Additionally Jessica Moss (violin) and Francis Leduc-Bélanger (trumpet, flugelhorn) make vital contributions to the album.
The Ky Brooks co-produced album was recorded at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango and Studio Error 403. Seth Manchester mixed the album at Providence’s Machine with Magnets. Amal Lal mixed the album at Oakland’s Macro Sound. The album’s cover art is a photo taken in Ovronanz, Switzerland by Julia Bender.
“There is a lot of joy and laughter in this album. For the first time in a while, we were feeling enriched and energized by what we were creating, the instruments we were using, and what was coming out,” the band says in a lengthy statement. “The record is us looking at our place in the world and deciding we were still committed to making music together. Boldly doing so with as much joy as we can drag out of the dried roots of modern day life. Rather than the anxiety-inducing white knuckle ‘when is it going to break’ energy we have worked with in the past, this record is optimistic but pensive. It holds onto the idea of transcendental musical themes and is deeply rooted in repetition and a clear momentum. A momentum we hope moves people, whether it is in thought or the physical.
“The title—Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light—highlights the main themes and motifs of the record as it stands. Rest and build, and rest and build, and rest and build… What else is there in our stories? Everyday is caring for ourselves and then doing everything in your power to care for those around us. A heroic journey is nothing but helping set camp up every night and making sure everyone is fed. A person’s ‘shepherd’ is defined by themselves, whether it’s music, their friends and families, their companion animals, or the very equipment they use to create! In each of our lives, we have the potential to draw strength and find rest in what is around us, build and rest by the shepherd’s light.
“Half the record came fully-formed, the other half was born of improvisational jamming. Originally made as pieces of music to help his partner sleep, Justin created ‘Industriestraße 9’ and ‘Neighbours Report Their Neighbours’ while isolated in a cabin over the Winter. ‘Doldrums, Doldrums, Eviler Than the Devil,’ ‘Tortue,’ and ‘Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light’ were us just having lots of fun in the studio, being excited by new ideas and sounds, challenging ourselves to dive deeply into new grooves and styles. The rest were either old ideas born anew or fully conceptualized pieces brought to life. While quite exploratory in its sonic landscape, we see the record as one cohesive story. A cinematic exercise that we hope people listen to in full.
We recorded with co-producer Ky Brooks. They are one of our favourite artists and a dear friend so the choice to have them hop on was an easy and exciting one. We booked studio time with no intention of finishing a record. The goal was to lay down some new ideas and get in the mindset of recording. Hotel2Tango is an incredibly warm and creatively conductive place for us. For four days straight, we put in 12-14 hour days and routinely got lost in the haze of creative fervor. Timothy joined us to record “Doldrums […]”. Jessica, Ezra, and Francis’ instruments, as well as Ky’s vocals, were recorded at Error 403. Having finished recording, we of course turned to Seth (mixing) at Machines with Magnets and Amar (mastering) at Macro Sound to elevate the album.”
Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light will include the album’s first single “Doldrums, Doldrums Eviler Than the Devil,” and its second and latest single “Sofort Si Fort.” Sonically, “Sofort Si Fort” is a meditative, cinematic composition that hints at a mystical tale of a mysterious hero’s journey as told by a balladeer or a Spaghetti Western soundtrack, thanks to reverb-laden melodic guitars, supple bass VI lines and a driving, mid-tempo bass groove.
New Audio: Niia Shares Two Previously Unreleased Tracks off “V (Goth Jazz Edition)”
Born Niia Bertino, Niia is a Needham, MA-born, Los Angeles-based classically trained composer, pianist and vocalist. Deeply rooted in jazz, her work blends elegance, edge and a timeless voice with razor-sharp, seemingly lived-in songwriting. Her fifth album, last year’s Spencer Zahn co-produced V was the culmination of years spent experimenting at the intersection of tradition and reinvention.
Existing in the tension between control and collapse, V saw the acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist seamlessly blending the electronic textures of contemporary, experimental pop with the interplay of live, jazz-rooted instrumentation and musicianship. The album’s arrangements stretch — sometimes restrained, sometimes theatrical– but always with intention. As a classically trained musician, who grew up watching Italian cinema, Bertino explains, “I pulled from the harmonic language of jazz pianists like Bill Evans and from the psychological atmosphere of film scores.”
Arguably, one of Bertino’s most personal albums to date, V thematically explores the full spectrum of the self — self-harm, self-delusion, self-awareness and in rare moments, self-love. “Not in a moralizing way, but in a very human one,” she adds. “The good and bad live side by side, often in the same verse. One minute I’m performing heartbreak like it’s a role I’ve rehearsed, the next I’m quietly admitting I caused the whole thing. That contradiction is the truth.”
The album featured “Pianos and Great Danes,” which I wrote about on this site.
Last week, Bertino released V (Goth Jazz Edition), a deluxe edition of her acclaimed fifth album through Candid Records. V (Goth Jazz Edition) features three bonus tracks, a cover of Chet Baker‘s “I Get Along Without You Very Well (Except Sometimes) and two, previously unreleased tracks “Been A Long Night” and Show Me Love.” “There were a few directions on the album that I still wanted to explore a little deeper, and these new songs felt so connected to the world of V that they really wouldn’t have made sense anywhere else,” Niia says of the deluxe edition of V.
“Been A Long Night” features an intricate, jazz-driven arrangement of broodingly cinematic piano and a supple yet propulsive bass line with skittering drum ‘n bass-meets footwork-styled beats beneath the acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist’s yearning delivery. While being both club and lounge friendly, “Been A Long Night” is rooted in a late-night longing and desire that’s simultaneously fun and a little dangerous.
“Show Me Love” is a slow-burning, gorgeous, Quiet Storm-like tune that showcases Niia’s effortlessly soulful, pop star vocal confessing a desire to wholly accept and love while asking her lover to show some much-needed vulnerability. “Show Me Love” may arguably be the deluxe edition’s most straightforward yet earnest tune.
New Audio: Elena Pinderhughes Teams Up with Immanuel Wilkins on Ethereal and Soulful Debut Single “life goes on”
Raised in the Bay Area’s progressive cultural landscape, Elena Pinderhughes is a groundbreaking composer, flutist and vocalist, who has become known for expanding jazz’s emotional range by crafting music that’s tender and sensual, mysterious and direct and grounded in a feminine creative vision without apology. Her work channels an unguarded, deeply personal voice that few in the genre have dared to show.
Informed by shaping the music of her collaborators, Pinderhughes’ work sees her seamlessly weaving R&B and neo-soul while being rooted in the jazz tradition.
Pinderhughes debut single as a solo artist “life goes on” feat. Immanuel Wilkins follows a decade of being one of the most sought-after collaborators across genres and styles: She has toured with Herbie Hancock and Chief Xian aTunde Audah, played at Coachella with Future and Metro Boomin — and sh has appeared on tracks by Giveon, Victoria Monét, Ambrose Akinmusire, Robert Glasper, Esperanza Spalding, Common and a lengthy list of others.
While marking Pinderhughes’ bold step forward into the spotlight as a solo artist, “life goes on” features two of jazz’s most distinct young voices playing off one another as they trade and weave lyrical flute and saxophone lines over a harmonic piano and a propulsive rhythm section and bursts of Kid A and Amnesiac-like-glitchy electronics. The result is a composition that’s ethereal yet soulful, cinematic yet deeply introspective while effortlessly pushing the boundaries of contemporary jazz.
“I’ve been playing the flute for almost my entire life, and for so much of that time I was searching…learning everything I could, trying different things, and figuring out what actually sounded like me,” Pinderhughes says. “Somewhere along the way, I started to hear a voice emerge that felt like my own. That’s what feels different now. I’m not searching in the same way anymore. I feel like I have a sound I believe in and something of my own to say with this instrument. And now I want to show you what the flute can do. I want people to hear how powerful, beautiful, intimate and alive it can be. ‘life goes on’ feels like the beginning of a much bigger story I want to tell about what the flute can be.”
New Audio: TOMORA Shares Dazzling and Euphoric “Celebration”
TOMORA is a collaborative project featuring:
- The Chemical Brothers‘ Tom Rowlands: As one-half of The Chemical Brothers, Rowlands has produced and recorded six widely acclaimed UK #1 albums and won six Grammy Awards.
- Norwegian artist AURORA: AURORA has released four studio albums and has quickly become one of Norway’s most influential and globally recognized contemporary artists. Her single “Runaway” has amassed over one-billion Spotify streams to date.
TOMORA builds upon a creative relationship that can be traced to the recording sessions for The Chemical Brothers’ 2019 album No Geography. AURORA contributed vocals to three tracks, including “Eve of Destruction.” Rowlands then went on to contribute to AURORA’s 2024 effort, What Happened to the Heart?, which landed on the UK Top 10.
Released earlier this year through Capitol Records, the duo’s full-length debut, COME CLOSER was written and produced jointly by Rowlands and AURORA. The 12-song album sees the duo pairing the Norwegian artist’s distinctive vocal with the acclaimed British producer’s unparalleled studio expertise. The album sees the duo creating their own unique space, somewhere they can produce the kind of magic that comes from flicking through a perfect record collection, flowing from wigged-out 1960s psychedelia to the hyper-futurism of sounds imagined for the 2060s.
The critically applauded album includes the previously released singles “COME CLOSER” “SOMEWHERE ELSE” and “I DRINK THE LIGHT.”
After two wildly successful tour runs that included festival sets at Coachella, Fuji Rock and others, the duo went to Rowlands’ Sussex, UK-based Rowlands Audio Research Studio to record COME CLOSER‘s highly-anticipated follow-up, the five-song CELEBRATION EP. Slated for an October 16, 2026 digital release and a November 27, 2026 physical release through Capital Records. The physical release will include a standard 12″ black vinyl, a special marbled vinyl and CD formats. You can pre-order the EP here.
The acclaimed duo say of the EP: “Celebration is a privilege. Celebration is a person. Celebration is a funeral and celebration is a ritual. It’s human nature. And it’s a human need. We should all be celebrated, as real human beings.”
The new EP will include the expanded, ten-minute version of album track, “IN A MINUTE,” and EP title track “Celebration.” “Celebration” features a dazzlingly hypnotic production anchored around motorik-like electronic pulse and club rocking, thumping beats beneath AURORA’s imitable, ethereal and yearning delivery. The result is a track that feels simultaneously immediate and expansive, introspective yet outward-looking, and yearning for ecstatic release.
New Audio: Zachhae’us Paul Teams Up with donSMITH, Safa and Milena Casado on Down To Mars-Produced, Quiet Storm-like “STAY”
Atlanta-born and based producer, singe/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Zacchae’us Paul will be releasing his highly-anticipated sophomore album JAZZ MONEY VOL. 2: SWINGIN’ R&B on October 16, 2026 through Candid Records. Sonically, the album sees the rising […]
New Audio: Leon Bridges Returns with Sultry and Soulful “Watch You Dance”
Atlanta-born, Fort Worth, TX-raised singer/songwriter and musician Leon Bridges quickly established himself as one of America’s most exciting new artists with 2015’s platinum-certified, Grammy Award-nominated debut Coming Home, which featured breakout singles “Coming Home” and “River.” Bridges followed up with 2018’s critically applauded Good Thing, which saw him expanding upon his sonic panic while earning a Grammy Award-nomination for Best R&B Album and a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand.”
2021’s Gold-Diggers Sound was the acclaimed Atlanta-born, Fort Worth-based artist’s most adventurous album to date, and the album received critical applause while earning another Grammy Award-nomination for Best R&B Album. His most recent album, 2024’s Lean is an introspective effort inspired by his Texan roots and his artistic evolution.
Along with his solo work, Bridges has collaborated with the equally acclaimed act Khraungbin on two albums — 2020’s Texas Sun and 2022’s Texas Moon. In a relatively short time he has earned six Grammy Award-nomiations — three for Best R&B Album — and a Grammy Award-win, has also collaborated with an eclectic array of artists, including John Mayer, Kacey Musgraves, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Gunna, The Avanlanches, Gary Clark, Jr. and Shaboozey, all of which showcase a remarkably versatile artist.
Adding to a rapidly growing profile, Bridges has a long-held reputation as a captivating live performer, who has made a run of the global concert and festival circuit, playing an increasing number of the world’s major festivals while making appearances on Saturday Night Live, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and Austin City Limits.
Bridges’ fourth album, the J Lloyd-Watson and Lydia Kitto-produced fifth album, Happiness Anytime is slated for a Friday release through Columbia Records. Happiness Anytime reportedly sees the acclaimed Atlanta-born, Fort Worth-based artist returning to the warmth of his 2015 debut but while seeing the members of Jungle and Bridges’ signature sensibilities blending to create something entirely new — an expansive, borderless sound and approach that pushes the Grammy Award-winning artist into brand new territory. The material reportedly echoes Fela Kuti, Paul Simon’s 1990 effort The Rhythm of The Saints and Jorge Ben without feeling overly referential. At its core, the album is reportedly boundary pushing while remaining unmistakably Leon Bridges, rooted in his imitable vocal, effortless charisma and melodic sensibilities.
The album was written and recorded across three fast and furious sessions with Lloyd-Watson and Kitto, a collaboration that can trace its origins to the trio repeatedly crossing paths across the global festival circuit. The trio decided to attempt a low-pressure writing session at Los Angeles-based Chaplin Recording Studios. Four days later, they had come up with six songs — half of the completed album. Pino Palladino contributed bass during the sessions. The overall end result is a timeless body of work that feels unfussy and breezy — that they all hope will make the listener feel happiness anytime they play it.
“For me, happiness is not a feeling that you chase,” Bridges says,“I want this album to be something that lingers with people and lingers in people’s bones. There’s this feeling that we have to fix the problems of the world; you feel inadequate or it can be debilitating. My role is to be light. I hope that comes across with this album.” With Happiness Anytime, Bridges actively sets out with a desire to not only find joy but to find movement again.
Early in his career, Bridges was out in front dancing — and that was something that has wanted recently. He wanted to get back to making music to dance to, music to excise the stresses and frustrations of modern life, and to feel grounded in the rhythms of the present. Interestingly, over the summer, he has been introducing audiences to the new album with sets in Paris, Cannes, Los Angeles, Montreux Jazz Festival, London, Chicago and Outside Lands. And as he has being playing the new material live, he has unveiled “Leon Bridges Presents Happiness Anytime,” a reimagined stage production featuring a vinyl DJ, a horn section, three backing vocalists and Bridges out in front dancing and singing. Partly inspired by the communal spirt of Jamaican dancehall culture, the live set mirrors the album’s emphasis on movement — and on dancing your stresses and frustrations away for a bit. You can see what the live show will look like during his most recent appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, where he performed medley of tunes from the soon-to-be-released album — the strutting Afrobeat-meets-1970s Motown soul-like “Light The Way” and “Illusion” and jubilant, joyous ode to working things out “Talk It Over.”
“Watch You Dance,” Happiness Anytime‘s latest single is a strutting and sultry bit of neo-soul meets classic soul that feels like a funky, dance floor friendly synthesis of Black Pumas, Cody Chesnutt, Daptone Records and Marvin Gaye‘s “Got To Give It Up” but anchored in old-school craft, earnest, seemingly lived-in lyricism and a grown ass folks sensuality. The song’s narrator knows that seduction is a game that you have to play — and he knows how to play it well.
New Audio: MONØLO Shares a Hypnotic Club Banger
Samuel Lachaud is a French electronic music producer and artist, best known as MONØLO. Lachaud is a classically trained pianist and with MONØLO, the French electronic producer and artist has developed a sound that blends organic piano with contemporary techno.
The French artist’s latest single “H14” is the first release on Other Dimension Records‘ new techno imprint while also showcasing a new sound. Featuring listening analog synths, skittering. tweeter and woofer rattling thump and a relentless motorik groove, the song is anchored in hypnotic repetition, tension and delayed release. Arguably one of the more raw tracks of Lachaud’s growing catalog, “H14” sonically seemingly channels a blend of Tour de France-era Kraftwerk and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK.
New Audio: San Francisco’s Blord Shares Sultry and Euphoric “Frequency”
Brett Ferrera is a San Francisco-based electronic music producer, electronic music artist and DJ, best known as Blord. Citing influences that run the gamut from Tinlicker, Zhu and Kavinsky, Ferrera’s career journey has been at times tumultuous and painstaking, but that has also managed to inform his most recent work.
He believes that music serves as a bridge between the world we see and the one we feel — a powerful, celestial language. Sonically, his mission is to blend the heavy and melodic depths of melodic techno with the collective energy of dance pop to create a space for unity and healing.
Ferrera has quickly built a reputation for crafting mesmerizing house music: Last year, he landed two tracks on Beatpot’s top 10 Melodic Techno and Progressive House genre charts — “Hustlin‘” and “Till The End.” And building upon a growing profile, he has played Madarae, Paname, and Bergerac alongside Denis Horvat.
His latest single “Frequency” is a sultry and euphoric bit of melodic techno featuring thumping, tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, glistening synth arpeggios and euphoria-inducing hooks and choruses beneath a yearning vocal melody. Perfectly suited to get bodies moving, and to perhaps have you dance and sweat away your stresses and troubles, “Frequency” is about finding someone that matches your wavelength.
New Audio: AN_NA Shares a Seething, Industrial Club Banger
French-born, Montréal-based married couple and electronic music duo AN_NA formed over three decades ago. And over the course of their lengthy careers, they’ve used their experiences within electronic music, industrial and experimental music scenes to create a […]
New Audio: Baltimore’s Little Lungs Share Gorgeous, Introspective “Strangest Thing”
Baltimore-based indie rock outfit Little Lungs — Leena Rhodes (vocals, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, piano, synth), Brendan Russell (bass). Ricky Schwarzenberg (guitar) and Eli Simms (drums) — combine intimate and sincere lyricism with intricate guitar melodies and pulsating rhythms to create a sound that blends elements of folk and indie rock. Never shying away from vulnerability, the Baltimore-based quintet’s work dives into the obscure, difficult to explain emotions, like the innate feeling of absence, the flux of infatuation, the beauty of intoxication.
Recorded at Charm City’s The Watermelon Room last spring, the Ricky Schwarzenberg-produced sophomore album The Heat was released earlier this year. Arguably, their most cathartic effort to date, The Heat examines the love, loss and rebirth left in the wake of a tumultuous and volatile relationship — with vivid imagery and decisive storytelling.
“Strangest Thing,” The Heat‘s latest single is a breathtakingly gorgeous and soulful blend of folk, country and dream pop built around strummed acoustic guitar, jangling electric guitar and bursts of shimmering pedal steel with Rhodes’ introspective lyricism, big hooks and choruses and Rhodes’ equally gorgeous delivery.
The song is full of small, novelistic details and observations, which gives the song a deeply lived-in feel, while the narrator confesses a seemingly undying devotion to their lover.
New Audio: Soccer Mommy Shares Yearning “Rings of Saturn”
Nashville-based singer/songwriter and musician Sophie Allison, the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed project Soccer Mommy, has made a name for herself over the past decade as one of indie rock’s most beloved and distinct voices. Her latest single, the Eliott Kozel-produced “Rings of Saturn” is the first bit of new material from the JOVM mainstay since 2024’s Evergreen. and it comes on the heels of the Allison opening for her heroes Liz Phair and Sleater-Kinney on their tour.
Featuring an introduction that has Allison accompanying her yearning vocal with strummed acoustic guitar that serves as the backbone of the song. the song quickly showcases her penchant for rousingly anthemic choruses featuring glitchy boom bap breakbeats and fuzzy guitars and twinkling keys. But at its core is a relatable narrator, who’s lost and desperately looking for hope from anywhere. They’re trying to hold on but they don’t know if they could hold on — or for how long.
“This song is about feeling lost and looking for hope from anywhere,” Allison explains. “I wrote it during a difficult time when I would often take my telescope out into the yard to look at the moon or at planets. There’s something about feeling small that can kind of take the weight off.”
New Audio: LutchamaK Shares a Thumping, Glitchy Banger
Restlessly prolific French electronic music producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK recently released his latest EP, Digital Display, which features five songs that bounce between techno and breakbeat — with a bit of urban swagger.
Digital Display EP’s latest single “Naughty” is a swaggering techno banger, anchored around glitchy synth arpeggios and tweeter and woofer rattling, skittering thump that gradually morphs to subtly reveal different textures and variations throughout the song’s run time. It’s the sort of tune you’d expect to rock a club at 3:00am and 4:00am while rooted in the melodicism the JOVM mainstay has long been known for.