Tag: Single Review

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Parra for Cuva’s Chilled Out Remix of Christian Löffler’s “A Life”

Christian Löffler is an acclaimed German musician, producer and DJ, whose work is widely celebrated across electronic music circles for a distinct sound that seamlessly blends elements of ambient music, techno and house. 

Released earlier this year, Löffler’s third album A Life sees the German-born musician, producer and DJ continuing to push his sound and approach in new directions while exploring new emotional depths. The album features “Y,” a lush and flirty, crowd pleasing banger featuring Mogli‘s yearning delivery paired with woozy and glistening synth arpeggios, thumping tweeter and woofer rattling low end, skittering beats and a rousingly anthemic, euphoric set of hooks and choruses.

Album single and album title track “A Life” is a lush electro pop tune featuring bursts of twinkling piano, glistening Giorgio Moroder-like oscillations that slowly boil dup in intensity, skittering beats paired with a yearning cooing vocal sample that’s chopped up and pitched down. The result is a song that’s mediative and cinematic yet intimate.

Recently Parra for Cuva remixed “A Life.” The Parra for Cuva remix retains the yearning and cooing vocal sample but places it within an lush and soulful production that pairs squiggling, reverb-soaked The Edge-like guitars, skittering beats and woozy synth oscillations. Sonically bringing Washed Out and Brothertiger to mind, the Parra for Cuva remix retains the original’s intimate feel but while giving it a moody, chilled out vibe.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rising Irish Trio Adore Share Mosh Pit Friendly Ripper “Can We Talk”

Rising Irish outfit Adore — Lara Minchin (vocals, guitar), Lachlann Ó Fionnáin (bass, vocals) and Naoise Jordan Cavanaugh (drums) — hail from Dublin, Donegal and Galway respectively. Influenced by The Breeders, Elastica, Echobelly, The Undertones, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Sleeper, the Irish bonded over a mutual passion for melody and message, while developing a sound that pairs crunchy power chords and a driving rhythm section with incisive, thought-provoking lyrics that delve into pressing societal issues.

Since the release of their debut single, last year’s “Postcards,” the band has made the rounds of the Irish live circuit, opening for the likes of The Scratch, 86TVs, The Bug Club, Cardinals and SPRINTS. They’ve also played at Electric Picnic Festival and Whelan’s Ones To Watch 2024 showcase. Adding to a growing profile, across both Ireland the UK, the Irish trio have received coverage from the likes of So Young Magazine, DIY Magazine, Clash Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, Dork, Rough Trade and Nailler9, as well as airplay from BBC 6 Music’s Steve Lamacq and Radio X’s John Kennedy — with just a handful of singles under their collective belts.

Hot on the heels of September’s “Supermum!,” the rising trio’s latest single, the Daniel Fox-produced “Can We Talk” is a 90s alt rock/riot grrl-inspired ripper anchored around crunchy power chords, a chugging rhythm section, enormous mosh pit friendly hooks paired with Minchin’s delivery, which alternates between indignation and wry humor. For the old heads out there, this one will remind you a bit of 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock — but with a decidedly post-punk air.

“‘Can We Talk’ revolves around a pattern of abuse where one is picked up when broken, broken down even farther and is moulded into something subservient, meek and willing to please,” Adore’s Laura Minchin explains. “There is an awareness that one doesn’t get into these situations from a good start. In my experience there has been something unhealed in me that has made me lean into control in the past.

“It begins with not being allowed to disagree with small things, until dangerous patterns of behaviour come to the front and you are so beaten down and made to feel so worthless that you feel like there is no conceivable way you can leave.

It’s sort of like a horror film, where the threat is always there; it presents with small poltergeist acts, a glass is smashed, the dog keeps barking at seemingly nothing, until the force gains more and more power as it feeds from your livelihood. It’s only when it gets genuinely frightening that you realise that the threat has always been there.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Choses Sauvages Shares Tense and Danceable “En joue”

With the release of their Emmanuel Ethier-produced 2018 self-titled, full-length debut, Montréal-based dance punks Choses Sauvages — Totalement Sublime‘s Marc-Antoine Barbier (guitar), Theirry Malépart (keys), Tony Bélisle (keys), Philippe Gauthier-Boudreau (drums) and La Sécurité‘s Félix Bélisle (vocals) with Foreign Diplomats‘ and Frais Dispo‘s Charles Primeau (bass) as a touring member — exploded into the local and provincial scenes. The album was a critical and commercial success with the album topping Independent Radio Charts across Québec while receiving widespread critical applause. In 2019, the Montréal-based outfit landed Association Québécoise de l’industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video (ADISQ) Félix Award nominations for Alternative Album of the Year and Indie Rock Album of the year, with a Félix Award win for Indie Rock Album of the Year. 

Throughout 2019, the French Canadian outfit supported their full-length debut with a relentless touring schedule across the province. During that tour, the band quickly developed a reputation for a must-see live show that they’ve brought across the global festival circuit, including stops at Reeperbahn, MaMA, FIMPRO, SXSW, Le Printemps de Bourges and Wide Days. 

2021’s Choses Sauvages II found the Montréal-based outfit pushing their sound more towards electronic dane music and nu-disco influences like L’Imperatrice and Lindstrøm while still drawing from their love of funk, Bowie and Bee Gees. The album also sees them furthering their approach which pairs rigorous and meticulous songwriting with a rebellious spirit. 

Choses Sauvages’ highly-anticipated third album, Choses Sauvages III is slated for a March 28, 2025 release through Audiogram. Earlier this year, I wrote about the album’s first single “Incendie au paradis,” a decidedly New Wave/post-punk song anchored around a propulsive bass line and a guitar driven melody paired with squiggling synth arpeggios and a subtly vocodered vocal. Seemingly drawing from Heroes and Low-era Bowie and Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, “Incendie au paradis” depicts artificial intelligence as angels that can transform and improve our daily lives. While addressing the technological advance’s promises and benefits, it raises concerns with an uneasy trepidation.

“I wanted to highlight the need to think about the ethical and moral implications and the still unknown limits of these new technologies, and the influence they have on our lives,” Choses Sauvages’ Félix Bélisle explains. 

Choses Sauvages III’s second and latest single “En joue” features a propulsive bass line is paired with angular guitar stabs, bursts of glistening synths paired Bélisle’s punchy delivery and the band’s unerring knack for catchy hooks. Seemingly drawing from Freedom of Choice-era DEVO, Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan, Entertainment-era Gang of Four and even La Femme, “En Joue” manages to be simultaneously tense yet danceable.

The song as the band’s Bélisle explains “refers to the helplessness in the face of extremely violent international news of recent years. It also deals with the fear of the other, the dehumanization of certain populations taken hostage in armed conflicts.”

“En joue refers to the feeling of helplessness in the face of the extremely violent international news of recent years. It also deals with the fear of the other, the dehumanization of certain populations taken hostage in armed conflicts,” explains Félix Bélisle, the group’s singer and lyricist.

En joue pulses with a jerky rhythm, offering a danceable melody that manages to evoke the breathlessness of flight, of a race against the fears and anxieties that lie in wait for us and stick to our skin.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Wesley Reid Shares Marc O’rell Remix of “Reach Out”

British electronic music producer Iwan Bedford and American electronic music producer Wesley Reid collaborate together in the transatlantic electronic music project O.a.G., which is influenced by 80s and 90s synth pop — think Yazoo (known as Yaz in the States), Depeche Mode, Erasure, Pet Shop Boys, OMD, and others. 

O.a.G’s Wesley Reid has collaborated with German producer Marc O’rell on a sleek, hook-driven house remix of “Reach Out” that sounds a bit indebted to French touch.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Gothenburg’s Ljud & Bild Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Under Vattnet”

Gothenburg-based indie outfit Ljud & Bild was founded by co-frontpeople Karin Pallarp Nilsson (guitar, keys, vocals) and Anders Kjellberg. Expanding into a quartet that features Nillson, Klellberg, Erik Ridelius (keys, bass, percussion, vocals) and Yiva Holmdahl (drums, percussion), the Swedish outfit has become a mainstay in the local scene while developing a sound that meshes elements of shoegaze and krautrock.

The Swedish outfit’s latest single “Under Vattnet” is a brooding and slow burning track anchored around glistening and blocky synths, squiggling reverb-soaked bursts of guitar paired with a tight, driving groove. The song’s arrangement serves as a lush, Beach House-meets-post punk-like bed for Pallarp Nilsson’s and Kjellberg’s dreamy and ethereal harmonies.

“The mood is Twin Peaks for tadpoles and the song was written during a spring afternoon in the forest,” the band explains. “You fall asleep by a stream and disappear in a soft, warm light.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay LutchamaK Shares Hypnotic “Lunar Ascending”

French electronic music producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK has had a busy 2024: 

  • The JOVM mainstay began the year with a two-track release through Techno Parade titled Job Done, which featured “Job Done,” a glitchy and swaggering bit of techno meets footwork featuring machine gun-like skittering beats, glistening synth arpeggios paired with tweeter and woofer rattling thump. It’s an accessible and euphoric club banger meant to be played loudly and meant to encourage you to dance and sweat.

  • He followed that up with Flip the Funk, a four-track EP, which was digitally released through British electronic label Biotech Recordings and featured EP track “Pride,” a lush and soulful bit of deep house-meets-techno that reminded me of house music nights on WBLS back in the day. 

  • Then there was the standalone track, “Acid Drift” a slick, seamless synthesis of tribal house, deep house and drum ‘n’ bass that slaps hard while being dance floor friendly, which was released through Rue des Trois Rois Records.

  • Over the summer, he released the eight-track mini album  Great Broken Masses of Land through his own TERMusik. The album featured album opener and album title track “Great Broken Masses of Land,” a trance-inducing, late night, club banger anchored around skittering tweeter and woofer rattling thump and dense layers of oscillating yet melodic synths, a chopped up mantra-like vocal sample paired with his unerring knack for incredibly catchy hooks. “City Energy,” a crowd pleasing, club banger featuring glitchy oscillations, bursts of glistening synths and some industrial, tweeter and woofer rattling thump that showcases an artist, who actively pushes his sound and approach in new directions, while still remaining wildly accessible. And “B Queen V 2,” which featured glitchy oscillations, bursts of glistening and melodic synths, skittering beats and remarkably catchy hooks paired with a dreamy vocal sample.

The wildly prolific, French JOVM mainstay recently released the 4-track Lunar Ascending EP through Brique Rouge. The EP’s first single, EP title and opening track “Lunar Ascending” is a woozily hypnotic banger that’s heavily indebted to Detroit house and a bit of Tour de France-era Kraftwerk.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Droid Metal Share sultry Debut “Pleather”

Giuliano Pizzulo is a Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and musician, whose career started in earnest with a stint in the acclaimed indie rock outfit Incan Abraham, an act that received praise from the likes of Pitchfork, NPR and Spin. Since then Pizzulo has spent the past decade as a touring musician for Lorde, Childish Gambino and Passion Pit.

Pizzulo’s solo recording project, Droid Metal sees the acclaimed Los Angeles-based musician crafting a sound that meshes elements of 90s rave music, industrial electronica and pop. His Droid Metal debut “Pleather” is a synthesis of Downward Spiral-era Nine Inch Nails and Tweekend-era The Crystal Method and JOVM mainstay Blak Emoji featuring dense layers of woozy synths and skittering breakbeats paired with Pizzulo’s sultry falsetto.

The acclaimed Los Angeles-based artist explains that the song came out of a dance with a dangerous muse that took him to some new, illicit places both literally and metaphorically.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Somos el Viento Returns with Forceful and Cinematic “Exodus”

Spanish-born and-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist Óliver del Barrio is the creative mastermind being the solo recording project Somos el Viento. And with his Somos el Viento full-length debut, Mar Negro, del Barrio quickly establishes a lushly layered and expansive soundscape that blends post-rock, space rock and ambient music. 

Mar Negro’s second and latest single “Exodus” is a slick synthesis of  Collapse Under the Empire and Mogwai-like post rock, metal and space rock within a cinematic soundscape.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Somos el Viento Shares Broodingly Cinematic “Fragments”

Spanish-born and-based producer, composer, multi-instrumentalist Óliver del Barrio is the creative mastermind being the solo recording project Somos el Viento. And with his Somos el Viento full-length debut, Mar Negro, del Barrio quickly establishes a lushly layered and expansive soundscape that blends post-rock, space rock and ambient music.

Mar Negro‘s latest single “Fragments” is a brooding and cinematic composition that sonically reminds me a bit of Collapse Under the Empire, Mogwai, Explosions in the Sky, The Octopus Project and others while displaying an artist, who can craft an immersive and meditative soundscape.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Punks Seesters Share a Politically-Charged Ripper

Emerging French garage psych/psych punks Seesters — The Parisians‘ and Crush of Souls‘ Stevan Dinet and Sam Kaperski — pair political lyrics with garage and psych inspired sounds. Their second single “Gash” is a noisy and forceful ripper that brings a synthesis of The MC5, The White Stripes and The Stooges.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Laura Carbone Shares Brooding “Red Velvet Fruit”

Berlin-based singer/songwriter, guitarist, photographer and JOVM mainstay Laura Carbone‘s third album The Cycle was released earlier this year. The album, which debuted on North American college radio at #19 on the NACC Top Adds Chart, is a concept album that explores the emotional turmoil, triumphs and transformative experiences that the album’s protagonist experiences through the course of the passing seasons of a year. 

Each song of the represents an experience or inspiration associated with that particular season and the story of the album’s protagonist. 

Over the past handful of months, I’ve written about three of the album’s singles:

  • “Horses,” a slow-burning song built around lush and shimmering acoustic guitar, Carbone’s expressive and yearning delivery, paired with a supple bass line and dramatic drumming. Sonically bringing PJ Harvey’s “You Said Something” to mind, the song is set in the fullness of summer. The song’s protagonist is experiencing the heat, humidity and passion of the season — when fields become gold and heatwaves and wildfires turn them into ash. But there’s a reminder that Mother Earth will restore and reclaim burnt ground in time. 

  • “The Good,” a breathtakingly gorgeous song featuring shimmering and reverb soaked guitar, a supple and sinuous bass line, gently padded drumming and bursts of soaring organ serving as a lush bed for Carbone’s expressive vocal. At its core, the song is rooted in the lived-in personal experience and hard-fought, harder-won wisdom of someone who has lived a full, messy and complicated life. And a result the song is profoundly empathetic and understanding examination of human behavior that seems to say “I’ve been there, too.” Carbone explains that the track looks at our puzzling capacity for denial — not just of the truth, but of the embrace and love we owe ourselves. 

  • “Silver Rain,” a bittersweet ballad anchored around a propulsive rhythm section, shimmering reverb-soaked guitars, a cathartic hook serving as a lush bed for Carbone’s expressive, soulful vocal. While seemingly channelling Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea-era PJ Harvey, “Silver Rain,” as Carbone explains explores the relief a break-up can bring and the room in our hearts that such a bittersweet letting go creates.

The Cycle‘s latest single “Red Velvet Fruit” is a slow-burning, hauntingly gorgeous track anchored around a brooding and dramatic piano melody that seems locked in a velvety embrace with Carbone’s resonant yet ethereal delivery, which express the longing, frustration, heartache and shame that come about when one submits to temptation. But at its core, is the tacit understanding that the temptation may lead to one’s own demise — whether literally or figuratively.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Frenchie Teams Up with Frida Touray on Soulful “Love Reservoir”

Today has been a difficult day. Work has just felt stupid and next to impossible. I suspect that’ll be the case for the next few days. Pretending that things are normal and that any of this make sense right now,. is just fucking wrong. But here we are.

Initially, receiving praise from the likes of The Line of Best Fit, Clash Magazine and airplay from the BBC 6 Music’s Jamz Supernova, Jazz FM, Reprezent Radio, BBC London and BBC Introducing with the moniker, The Naked Eye, acclaimed French-born, London-based singer/songwriter Frenchie will be releasing her self-titled debut on March 28, 2025.

Produced by one of the UK’s leading lights in the jazz scene, Femi Teomowo, who has worked as a producer, guitarist, arranger and composer for the likes of Amy Winehouse, SAULT and Gregory Porter, the rising French-born, British-based artist’s highly-anticipated debut will see her collaborating with an all-star cast of some of the UK’s most talented musicians and vocalists, including Corinne Bailey Rae‘s and Chaka Khan‘s Luke Smith (keys), KOKOROKO‘s Ayo Salawu (drums), Hohnen Ford (vocals) and Frida Touray (vocals), along with additional instrumental and production contributions from Aaron Taylor, Alex Maydew, Chris Hyson and Jas Kayser.

The full-length album sees the acclaimed artist continuing to draw inspiration from the likes of Cleo Sol, Lauryn Hill, Khraungbin, Minnie Riperton, Joni Mitchell, Stevie Wonder, Carole King, Bob Dylan and The Meters to craft a sound that traverses soul, jazz and alternative R&B paired with honest, heartfelt emotion.

The album’s latest single “Love Reservoir,” a collaboration with Swedish-born, London-based artist Frida Touray is a slow-burning, Lauryn Hill and Erykah Badu-meets Soul II Soul-like take on soul, anchored around a strutting bass line, glistening Rhodes, ethereal bursts of harp, and skittering boom bap serving as a lush bed for Frida Touray’s soulful delivery and a French spoken word bridge by the acclaimed French-born, London-based artist.

Inspired by the work of SAULT, the new single thematically addresses a desire to replenish the emotional stocks of relationship, pulling things back from the brink.

“‘Love Reservoir’ lyrically explores the theme of seeking to refuel and revitalise a relationship’s emotional reservoir, symbolising a desire to overcome challenges and nurture love and connection,” Frenchie explains. “Femi and I wrote the song together – and I knew I wanted my talented friend Frida Touray to feature on the track. When she came down to record her vocals, the song was elevated to a whole new level.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Terrain Vague Shares Breezy “Funambule”

French indie duo Terrain Vague — Marion and Valentin — can trace their origins back to when the pair met at a party in Southern France. During that party, the pair talked about their common passions for Michel Berger, Haruomi Hosono, Elli and Jacno, Bonnie Banane, Véronique Sanson and André Breton’s poetry.

The following day, they texted with each other with “our duo should be called Terrain Vague.”

Terrain Vague’s latest single “Funambule,” is a breezy and mischievous synthesis of krautorck, psychedelia, 70s library music and tropicalia featuring glistening and arpeggiated analog synths, a fluttering flute line, bursts of angular guitar and a propulsive, motorik-meets-70s am rock-like groove paired with dreamy vocal melodies and harmonies singing lyrics inspired by the board game Snakes and Ladders. While sonically “Funambule” may draw comparisons to Laure Briard, Corridor, Pavo Pavo, and others, with a hint of wistful nostalgia, the song as the duo explains is inspired by the a member’s father, a former clown and magician, who spent his life walking a fine line.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jody Vukas Shares Soulful and Euphoric “Set Me Free”

Since the late 90s, electronic music label head and artist Jody Vukas has been a mainstay in the American electronic music scene for a sound that features elements of tribal house, progressive house, tech house and techno. Vukas’ latest single “Set Me Free” is a melodic and soulful bit of house, featuring dense layers of shimmering and arpeggiated synths, skittering tribal-influenced beats paired with a sultry, pop starlet vocal and Vukas’ uncanny knack for catchy, euphoria-inducing hooks.

“‘Set Me Free’ is a modern day spin- off of the early 2000s vibes,” Vukas explains.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Technasia Shares Euphoric “Together We Shine”

Technasia is a renowned French electronic music artist, who is known for a swinging take on tech house and high-energy performances. After a two-year hiatus from music, the renowned French artist launched his own label Humans Alike, which marks a new chapter in his acclaimed career.

His latest single “Together We Shine,” is one of the labels first releases, and it’s a slick and hypnotic synthesis of French touch, 90s house and breakbeats anchored around euphoric hooks and a soulful, chopped up vocal hook. It’s a fun club banger that brings memories of Stardust‘s “Music Sounds Better With You” and others.