Tag: Single Review

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Charles “Wigg” Walker Shares Optimistic, Two Step-Inducing “(Feels Like) Things Are Comin’ Our Way”

Tracing the origins of his nearly eight decade-long career back to when he began singing at an early age in church and then later in school, Nashville-born and-based soul singer/songwriter Charles “Wigg” Walker released his first single back in 1959 through Ted Jarrett‘s legendary and beloved Champion Records.

Walker relocated to New York, where he became a frontman for the J.C. Davis Band, an outfit that shared bills with James Brown, Jackie Wilson, Etta James, Otis Redding and Sam Cooke. His first group, Little Charles and the Sidewinders because a New York nightclub scene staple in the early 1960s, and would then go on to record and release material through Chess and Decca Records.

After spending over a decade on the road, Walker took a staff writing role with Motown in the 70s. By the start of the 80, Walker relocated to Europe. where continued to find enthusiastic audiences. But the blues, R&B and soul revival movements that started in the 90s ultimately brought Walker back to Nashville.

This Love Is Gonna Last is the first album from the Nashville-born and-based soul artist in over a decade, while also being the first album since his stint fronting The Dynamites in the early 2010s. Recorded with longtime organist and collaborator Charles Treadway, the album’s material reportedly shifts seamlessly between different and distinct ears of soul, bouncing from Philly to Motown, to Memphis and more. The album’s richly lush arrangements are owed to Walker’s chemistry with his core backing trio — Treadway, along with Chet Atkins‘s and Lyle Lovett‘s Pat Bergeson (guitar) and Average White Band‘s and Tom Jones‘ Pete Abbott (drums).

While superficially joyous, thematically, the album’s material is underpinned by the wizened and insightful recognition of our own impending and inevitable morality, of time’s inexorable march, and the lessons and losses that come with all of it.

Underneath the album’s joyful truce, there’s the wizened recognition of time’s inexorable march, of our own mortality and the lessons and losses that come with it. In fact, the album is a dedication to Walker’s late wife, who died earlier this year.

Ultimately, the album reportedly is the sort of album he’s been building towards for his entire lengthy career, and a showcase not only for his vocal, but also for the unparalleled emotional range that’s defined his work for over 50 years. Now, with his unflagging faith and dedication as the bedrock of This Love Is Gonna Last, Walker may finally be getting his due. “I feel more appreciated now than ever,” he says. “There’s something different about this album. It just feels right.”

This Love Is Gonna Last‘s first single “(Feels Like) Things Are Comin’ Our Way” is the perfect tune for your grandma and grandpa or your uncle and auntie to sweetly sway and two-step together at a Black barbecue or a Black wedding. Those of y’all, who know, know what I’m talking about and can immediate picture it in your mind’s eye. Sonically resembling a slick synthesis of Luther Vandross‘ “Never Too Much,” Keni Burke‘s “Risin’ To The Top,” The Isley Brothers‘ legendary 70s output and gospel, “(Feels Like) Things Are Comin’ Our Way” is a sweetly earnest and school declaration of the sort of love that we all long for — the love that’s there with you, through the ups, downs and everything in between.

“This song sums up this whole album for me really,” says Walker about the new single. “After all the places I’ve been and all the bands I’ve performed with and all the recordings I’ve made, it feels like things are finally starting to come my way.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Micheal Ellsworth Shares Club Thumping “Lantern”

Michael Ellsworth is an emerging electronic music producer and artist. His latest single “Lantern” is a woozy, deep house banger, anchored around scorching synths, tweeter and woofer rattling skittering beats and a seasonal vocal sample […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bad Robot Shares Spooky House Banger “Zombie Process”

Micheal Ricker is a Delaware-based electronic music producer and artist best known as Bad Robot. Over the course of hit year, I’ve written about a small handful of Ricker’s Bad Robot material, including:

  • The aptly named “Supermassive,” which features skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling thump, scorching bass synths and a woozy and wobbling synth melody. Fittingly, it’s the sort of club and festival banger that sounds as though it should knock a building over. 

  • “Close To You,” which according to Ricker, is “a bit of a departure into a brighter, more ‘pop’ sounding progressive house style.” Built around an almost mantra-like glistening synth phrase, shimmering synth arpeggios and skittering beats, the motorik-like “Close To You” is both summery and remarkably catchy, while seemingly nodding at Discovery-era Daft Punk-like French touch.

  • Max Blücher‘s remix of Year One single “Aero III.” The Blücher remix retains the original’s woozy polymeric melody but pairs it with more aggressive, skittering tweeter and woofer rattling thump, some brief bursts of industrial clang and clatter, and some ethereal synths that create a spacey, house music feel. “Inspired by the gritty sound design and frantic polymetric melodies of my original track ‘Aero III,’ Max has taken the musical DNA and infused it with his own. While the original is great, Max definitely improved the quality of the track with his production skills and imagination,” Ricker explains. “This house remix is an ethereal journey through space and time with elements of Deadmau5 that are felt even in the cover artwork.”

Ricker’s latest single “Zombie Process” is an another deep house banger featuring tweeter and woofer thumping beats, scorching synths and a horror movie sample that’s perfect for the spooky season. Dress up in your scariest, bloodiest costume and hit the dance floor y’all.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jaco Jaco Shares Breezy and Funky “Favorite Kind of People”

Tulsa-born, Philadelphia-based musician and visual artist Jacob Theriot’s career began in earnest when he began writing and recording music in grade school with his brother and childhood friend. Those early efforts led to the acclaimed […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BUÑUEL Shares a Furiously Primal Ripper

BUÑUEL — OXBOW‘s Eugene S. Robinson, Afterhours and A Short Apnea‘s Xabier Iriondo (guitar), The Framers‘ Andrea Lombardini (bass) and Il Teatro Degli Orrori’s Franz Valente (drums) — is a transatlantic supergroup that specializes in heavy music that’s been described as beautiful, merciless and unforgiving. 

Creatively, the band has always been led by instinct and the id-like impulse to expressed completely unfiltered and unvarnished emotion through song. And through their close musical alliance, they’ve displayed a seemingly innate ability to craft material that warps and buckles with complexity, freedom, tenderness and primeval energy — simultaneously. 

“BUÑUEL is a name that embodies a certain cultural and literary reference, which evokes an entire world,” the band’s Franz Valente says. “Like his films, our Buñuel is surrealism. We take the listeners into a place that’s suspended between dream and reality.” Eugene S. Robinson adds “What we’re doing with BUÑUEL is to carve out a very specific glimpse… partly into hearts of darkness, but more specifically into the depth of our secrets. Secrets we keep from each other, ourselves and whatever futures we’ve imagined for ourselves. We are ultimately trying to communicate something direct and deadly about the human condition.”

Slated for an October 25, 2024 release through SKiN Graft Records and OVERDRIVE Records, the transatlantic supergroup’s latest album, the Timo Ellis-produced Mansuetude derives its title from an archaic word, which means “meekness’ or “gentleness.” Certainly, for a band known for being punishingly heavy, the title seems like an ironic juxtaposition. Firmly anchored in the band’s long-held penchant for surrealism, the album reportedly sees the band taking every opportunity they can to stretch their musical tendrils towards discomfort and the deconstruction of tradition, all while reaching absolute abandon. Sonically, the album’s material encompasses many moods — sometimes simultaneously — while blurring elements of post-hardcore, avant-noise, hard blues, post-industrial, symphonic thrash, metal and free-jazz, played at great cost. The record is, in Robinson’s words “extreme but articulate.” 

The album also features guest spots from Converge‘s Jacob Bannon (vocals), The Jesus Lizard‘s Tomahawk‘s and The Denison Kimball Trio‘s Duane Denison (guitar), Andrea Beninati (cello) and David Binney(alto sax, vocals). 

Earlier this month, I wrote about “Class,” an urgent, amygdala-driven teeth-bared, id-fueled ripper built around Robinson’s primal shouts and howls, thunderous drumming and scorching riffage. Seemingly featuring elements of heavy metal, No Wave, thrash punk and noise rock, “Class” sonically seems like a forceful synthesis of Boris, Bo Ningen, The Stooges and several others while being deliriously artful. But underpinning it all, the song is rooted in incisive socioeconomic criticism that’s furious yet very funny. “America is schizophrenic about class and class attributes,” BUÑUEL’s Robinson explains. “On the one hand we claim it doesn’t exist here, on the other hand like Paul Fussell lays out in his book on class it works its way through every aspect of American life and living. The song itself eviscerates the notion by placing it where it most needs to be placed: in the iD fuelled [sic] underworld.”

Mansuetude‘s latest single “American Steel” features The Jesus Lizard’s, Tomahawk’s and the Denison Kimball Trio’s Duane Denison continues a run of unhinged, amygdala-driven, id-fueled rippers anchored around Robinson’s primal shouts and howls, thunderous drumming and scorching riffage. Sounding much like a man, who has gone absolutely mad, “American Steel” captures a certain kind of power madness with the song pays tribute to something particularly American: our love of big bore hemis, assault weapons, tanks, violence and Harleys.

Duane Denison says. “Eugene Robinson’s vocals have the effect of listening to a desperately flailing drowning man, and my guitar serves as a malfunctioning floatation device–it never quite makes it long enough to provide actual safety.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Terciopelo Returns with Soulful “Nothing Can Stop Me”

Terciopelo is the solo recording project of a mysterious and emerging Costa Rican-born and-based electronic music producer and artist, who blends diverse instrumental elements, trap beats, jazz and soulful melodies into a unique and moody sound that has been described as thought provoking.

The mysterious Costa Rican-born and-based electronic music producer and artist’s forthcoming full-length debut, The Breakaways reportedly sees him collaborating with a talented and diverse group of female vocalists. Thematically, the album focuses on women and their journeys through life — with each vocalist singing lyrics that detail the trials, tribulations and joys of their life through their perspective. The album’s material delves into the depths of passion, love and all of the various aspects of human life. 

“This album represents a significant chapter in my musical journey,” the mysterious producer and artist says. The Breakaways is not just a music album, it’s a celebration of life, love and the magnetic power of music. We poured our hearts into every note, and we hope it resonates with our audience on a profound level.”

Late last year, I wrote about “Your Love . . .,” a brooding and slickly produced synthesis of Portishead-like trip hop, trap beats and contemporary electro pop paired with yearning vocals and evocative lyrics. The song thematically is a deep dive into the lives of women trapped in abusive romantic relationships. The song’s narrator paints a poignant and haunting picture of the internal and external struggles that domestic abuse victims face with a seemingly lived-in specificity. 

The Breakaways’ latest single “Nothing Can Stop Me” continues a run of slickly produced material that pairs contemporary pop with trap beats, shimmering acoustic guitar, bursts of twinkling Rhodes with a soulful vocal, pop starlet delivery. Much like its predecessor, the song capture the interior world of its narrator with a lived-in specificity.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lowly Light Teams up with Nouvelle Vague’s Liset Alea on 80s Synth Pop-Inspired “Chill Child”

Matt Gorny is an award-winning, New York-based songwriter and producer, best known as Lowly Light, who has collaborated with dance music artists like Ultra Naté, Amanda Lepore, Luca Perra and others. As a producer, Gorny’s work has show continually evolution, ranging from nu-disco jams like “Get Over Yourself,” the chilled out groove of “Prayin'” and “Candy Lied,” to the energetic indie pop of “Down the Coast.”

“Do You Feel Me” amassed over 115,000 Spotify streams. And building upon a growing profile. “Lose You (John “J-C” Carr & Bill Coleman 808 Beach Remix) along with The Weekend remix on Acid Stag and was on regular rotation on SiriusXM channel 312.

Gorny’s latest single “Chill Child” is a collaboration with Nouvelle Vague‘s frontperson Liset Alea. Alea’s ethereal pop starlet cooing floats over a percussive and ebullient, 80s synth pop and dance pop-like production that recalls Madonna‘s 1984 self-titled debut, Banarama‘s “Cruel Summer” and St. Lucia.

The New York-based songwriter and producer explains that the song lyrically is a meditation on the much-needed art of patience and perspective. Ultimately, it’s about “giving time a chance to work its magic to reveal what’s truly worth fighting for,” he says. He goes on to say that the collaboration came about when he pitched the song to Alea, who has been on the top of his list of artists he wanted to work with. She loved the track and the lyrical message and was eager to bring her own vision to the song.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jack Manley Returns with Grunge Rock-Influenced “Grow Up”

Jack Manley is a grizzled veteran music, whose career has proven to be the embodiment of resilience and rebirth: He has played in a number of projects, including Cosmonaut, The Jennifer Shop, and Spires. While touring in those projects, Manley struggled with depression and addiction. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck and the world came to a grinding halt, Manley spiraled downward. Two near-fatal overdoses served as a wake-up call that propelled him back to music. In the confines of a Poughkeepsie hospital room, armed with a broken guitar and sheer determination, Manley began to craft melodies from the threads of his experiences. 

Fueled by a hard-won, newfound clarity, Manley reunited with his childhood friend, classically trained guitarist Billy Pierson. Andy Idol (bass), Josh Eppard (drums) and Noah Sonenstein (drums) were recruited to be the grizzled indie artist’s backing band and collaborated. Since then, Manley and his backing band play regularly for audiences in and around Woodstock, NY.

Earlier this year, I wrote about “Save Your Own,” a remarkably catchy song that nodded at The Beatles, Elvis Costello and the like while revealing a slick combination of earnestness and lived-in experience. Building upon the momentum of “Save Your Own,” Manley returns with “Grow Up,” a 90s grunge-like anthem that recalls Pablo Honey-era Radiohead featuring distortion pedaled power chords, enormous raise-your-beer-in-the-air-and-shout-along worthy hooks and choruses paired with Manley’s plaintive delivery.

Anchored around a classic grunge song structure of alternating quiet verses and loud choruses, the song is arguably one of the most personal song Manley has ever written: The song sees the Kingston, NY-based artist reflecting on his life’s journey through young adulthood, addiction and loss. Thematically, the song explores Manley’s need to desperately take control of his life, a message directed at himself as he continues to navigate adulthood and sobriety. Initially dismissed as a rambling note to himself, the song’s words resurfaced after Manley’s father died from COVID in 2022. And in some way, the song unexpectedly echoes his feelings of grief and loss.

Ultimately, the song captures the complexity of adult life, of maneuvering through a life of sobriety and the grief of loss with lived-in bitterness, heartache and resolve.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: LENny (IT) Shares A Lush Club Banger

Lenny Lorenzi is a Romagna, Italy-born, New York-based electronic music producer and DJ, best known as LENny (IT). Lorenzi’s career started in earnest when he was a teenager with his first DJ sets and first original productions. 

By the time, he was 17, Lorenzi was on the decks at Titilla, a room at the Riccione-based club Cocoricò. And in a short period of time, the Italian-born, New York-based producer and DJ played some of the most important, internationally renowned clubs including Ibiza‘s Sankeys, Barcelona‘s Macarena, Brooklyn’s Output and Miami‘s Clevelander, as well as the most important clubs of the Romagna Riviera. 

Adding to a growing profile in the electronic music scene, back in 2011, Lorenzi started the Wave Music Boat, a traveling party that cuts across the Adriatic with stops in Catalonia and the Balearics that featured guests like Sam Divine, Michael Cleis, Argy, Supernova and a lengthy list of others. Wave Music Boat is a major backer of the Molo Street Parade, an event that pairs seafaring traditions with contemporary electronic music. Lorenzi also serves as the artistic director of the event. 

Currently based in New York, the Italian-born DJ continues to push the sonic and stylistic boundaries of electronic music. Earlier this year, I wrote about “Night Lights,” a lush club and lounge friendly track featuring glistening and arpeggiated synths, skittering beats, bursts of African-influenced percussion and twinkling keys.

The Italian-born, New York-based DJ and electronic music producer’s latest single “Encontarte” continues a run of lush, soulful club friendly material that recalls a slickly produced synthesis of Between Two Selves-era Octo Octa, 90s house.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: slo/tide Shares Rousingly Anthemic “Rather Be Blind”

Perhaps best known for being the frontman of the Grammy-nominated outfit Underoath, Spencer Chamberlain is the creative mastermind behind the Underoath side project slo/tide. Chamberlain collaborated with alt rock darlings Sir Sly on the project’s debut “Neck High.”

Chamberlain’s latest slo/tide single “Rather Be Blind” is crowd-pleasing synthesis of indie rock, shoegaze, indie pop and emo anchored around big power chords, twinkling synths even bigger hooks paired with Chamberlin’s plaintive falsetto. Sonically, seemingly to draw from Dark Side of the Moon and Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd, Tame Impala, Radiohead and others, “Rather Be Blind,” as Chamberlain explains “was a cry for help. We often struggle mentally, appearing to be at our “best” while feeling far from it. I wrote this in the throes of the hell I was in. It’s a bit different than my other band Underoath.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Pythies Return with PJ Harvey-like “I Pythie You”

Emerging Paris-based punk outfit Pythies — founding member Lise L. (vocals) with Thérèse La Garce (guitar) and Anna B. Void (drums) — was formed by Lise L. in late 2022 with the intent of starting an all-woman band. In early 2023, Lise L. met Thérèse La Garce and Anna B. Void through social media. The trio felt a very strong simpatico, rooted in the meshing of three distinct and strong personalities, and from that point on, the band’s lineup was solidified. 

The trio’s debut EP Disillusion was released last month. The EP featured “Toy,” a track that saw the French outfit further cementing a sound indebted to riot grrl-era punk and grunge, featuring fuzzy power chords, thunderous drumming and enormous hooks and choruses placed within the classic grunge song structure.

Disillusion’s second and latest single “I Pythie You” is a grunge and riot grrl-inspired ripper that reminds me a bit of early PJ Harvey, The Breeders and Hole anchored around Lise L. feral delivery. “I Pythie You” is the sort of song I can picture a crowd of sweaty young people bouncing around to in a dark and dank little club somewhere. As the band explains, the song is about a place in Paris, where people rot and become shadows of themselves.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Reindeer Flotilla Shares Wistful and Brooding “Today”

Los Angeles-based duo Reindeer Flotilla — Neal Harris (vocals, keys) and Josh Brown (guitar) — started jamming together in the basement of an Atwater Village wine store, playing covers of John Carpenter, Brian Eno and Elliot Smith. Those early days playing covers helped the ban develop their own sound anchored around synths and guitar, which they’ve managed to further refine through the release of a batch of singles and two studio albums.

The duo’s latest single “Today” is a swaying and shoegazey bit of New Wave or a New Wavey bit of shoegaze featuring glistening synths, reverb-soaked guitar textures paired with Harris’ wistful croon. The result is a song that seems indebted to Yes‘ “Owner of a Lonely Heart” and Avalon-era Roxy Music.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BIJOU Teams Up with Jenny Voss on a Club Rocking Banger

Best known in electronic music circles as BIJOU, Ben Dorman is a rising house music producer, who exploded into the scene with 2016’s “Hello” with Dr. Fresch. Over the past handful of years, Dorman has released a series of bangers that includes “I KNOW” with Marten Hørger, “The Players Anthem” feat. Benny the Butcher and “Gang Gang,” along with chart topping EPs 2019’s Gangsta Party and 2021’s Street Knowledge. That material revealed a producer, who melds timeless hip-hop vibes with classic house undertones that remain underground while being main stage ready.

Along with production, he started his own label, Do Not Duplicate Recordings (DND RECS) while heading out on a multiple sold-out tours.

Dorman will be embarking on a Stateside tour that will see him playing sets in NYC, Seattle and Chicago, as well as making a run of the festival circuit with a set at Orlando‘s Home Bass Festival.

Dorman’s latest track, the anthemic “Seduction” is an slick and swaggering “Rhythm Is A Dancer“-like tune with skittering beats, euphoria-inducing drops and hooks and twinkling synths anchored around Jenny Voss‘ soulful, powerhouse delivery. “Seduction” reveals a producer, who can boldly craft an enormous, crowd-pleasing, club banger.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Los Angeles’ Steel Wool Shares “120 Minutes” era MTV-like “Eyes Closed”

Los Angeles-based shoegazers Steel Wool — Sean Lissner (vocals, guitar), Jaden Amjadi (bass, screaming), Evan Landi (drums) and Sam Schlesinger (guitar) — sonically find themselves splitting the difference between drawing from early post punk and sheogaze revival, blending ethereal synths and fuzzed out guitars to create soft yet abrasive anthems for sitting in traffic on the 101.

The quartet’s debut single, “Eyes Closed” features atmospheric synths, fuzzy and swirling guitar textures, reverb-soaked boom bap-like drums paired with plaintive and earnest vocals and big hooks. While seemingly indebted to the 120 Minutes era MTV alt rock-like sound that many of us love and remember, the Los Angeles-based outfit’s debut single sees the them subtly pushing the boundaries of shoegaze in a way that reminds me of BLACKSTONE RNGRS and others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Frankie and the Witch Fingers Return with a Dystopian, DEVO-like Ripper

Since initially forming in Bloomington, IN over a decade ago, the acclaimed Los Angeles-based psych rock outfit and JOVM mainstays Frankie and the Witch Fingers — currently founding duo Dylan Sizemore (vocals, guitar) and Josh Menashe (lead guitar, synth), along with Death Valley Girls‘ Nikki “Pickle” Smith (bass) and Mike Watt’s Nick Aguilar (drums) — have a long-held reputation for restless experimentation rooted in the multiple permutations of their lineups, and for a high-powered, scuzzy, garage and thrash punk take on psych rock paired with absurdist lyrics frequently fueled by dreams, hallucinations, paranoia and lust. The result is material that can shift between mischievousness and menace. 

Last year’s Data Doom was primarily built around the cerebral yet visceral songwriting of the band’s co-founders while marking the first batch of written and recorded material featuring the band’s Smith and Aguilar. While crafting what may arguably be their most rhythmically complex work to date, the band drew influence from each member’s distinct sensibilities: Smith tapped into her extensive background in West African drumming, an art form she first discovered through her music instructor parents. Aguilar leaned into formative influences like longtime Fela Kuti drummer Tony Allen.

Self-produced by the proudly DIY-minded band and recorded direct to tape by the band’s Menashe, Data Doom ultimately took shape through countless sessions in their Southeast L.A.-based rehearsal space, with the band allowing themselves unlimited time to explore their gloriously strange impulses. “There was no pressure and no real time constraint for this record, and because of that the creativity flowed in a very free way that probably wouldn’t have happened if we’d been on the clock in a studio,” Frankie and the Witch’s Dylan Sizemore says in press notes. “It showed us that the more we take the time to communicate and share our ideas with each other, the more it feeds our creative energy and helps us to make something we’re all really excited about.”

Last month, I wrote about “Bonehead,” a scuzzy, mosh pit friendly ripper that begins with a menacing opening groove that quickly drops into a distorted, double-time cacophony of blistering power chords, thunderous drums, bursts of quivering synths paire with rousingly anthemic hooks and punchily delivered vocals. 

“’Bonehead’ is a primitive, buzzy thumper, raw and stripped down,” the band says. “In a world where it’s easy to add more, we had a blast cooking out the junk and keeping it potent and pure. We wanted to capture the chaotic energy of those unfiltered live moments. Recorded the basics in one take, warts and all.

Thrashing around with a crowd of free spirits reminds us we can push back against the parasitic noise trying to keep us controlled—this is a little slice of that in recorded form.”

“i-Candy,” is the double AA side single to the previously released “Bonehead.” Beginning with a bleep and bloop-driven synth groove and propulsive drumming, “i-Candy” quickly turns into a bombastic, churning Devo-meets-King Gizz-like ripper. It’s nerdy — but goddamn it, it’s also blood thirsty.

“Bleeps and bloops tightly wound around a precise dystopian punk nodder, these were the magic digits we needed to punch in to bring ‘i-Candy’ to life,” the band explains. “This was one of the first songs to emerge from the incubator of recent demos. ‘i-Candy’ is a female sex robot, she isn’t programmed for any man’s need; she’s out to clean up the streets and settle the score in blood.”