Tag: singles

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Rising Brooklyn-based Artist Quelle Rox Releases a Slow-burning and Shimmering Single

Raquelle, a.k.a. Rocky is a rising Brooklyn-based Latinx singer/songwriter and producer. After graduating from my alma mater, NYU, the rising Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter, delved into production with her solo recording project Quelle Rox, which finds Raquelle striving to open doors for female Latinx producers, while specializing in a sound that she has dubbed “soundtracks catered to dreamy, nostalgic memories of the past with a bad bitch twist.”

Since the release of her debut single “Dream Daises” in 2018, the rising Brooklyn artist has had material featured across the blogosphere including Ladygunn, Earmilk, Notion, and HighClouds. Herr work has appeared on Spotify New Music Friday Latin, Spotify Fresh Finds, Spotify Discovery Weekly, Spotify Latinx IndieRising, H&M Global and a number of other playlists. Adding to a growing profile, Quelle Rox has opened for the likes of Homeshake — and she’s headlined at Baby’s All Right.

Continuing upon that momentum, Quelle Rox’s highly-anticipated debut EP Lilac Rush is slated for an April 23, 2021 release. The EP’s latest single “No Surprises” is a lush slow-burning Quiet Storm-inspired, lo-fi fever dream, fueled by a bittersweet mix of longing nostalgia, heartache, betrayal and anger that brings early Washed Out and Prince to mind: the track is all shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars, sinuous bass lines, skittering typewriter keyboard-like beats with Quelle Rox’s achingly plaintive vocals.

“I originally wrote this song a few years ago to a ‘type beat’ I found online that I was just playing around with for fun while in my feelings,” the rising Brooklyn-based artist recalls in press notes. “I came across the track randomly in my archive during quarantine and even years later, it still resonated with me and resembled the storyline within the whole EP – a longing for what could have been and also a fuck you. So then I hit up my producer and collaborator Identite Crisis and asked if he could take the demo and turn it into its own version, since I wanted to include it on the EP. Shortly after he sent me this fire new beat and I ended up just keeping the old vocals and boom, ‘No Surprises’ was born.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays Junaco — Shahanna Jaffer and Joey LaRosa — derive their name for a term that they say generally means rolling with the pace of life and enjoying the present; living and working with intention, and not just running on autopilot. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you may recall that the band can trace its origins back to the duo having a mutual desire to make music for music’s sake and to write honest songs that meant something for them — and for listeners, as well. Interestingly enough, much like the term that inspired their name, the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays have developed a rather deliberate creative approach, deciding to eschew the commonly-held attempts to placate the blogosphere’s short attention span with constant releases of varying quality.

2019’s Omar Yakar-produced EP Awry last year, an effort that featured the lovelorn “Willow,” and the 70s AM Rock meets Maazy Star-like “In Between.” Last year, the duo released a reworking of “In Between,” “In Between (Reprise) ” which was an even more ethereal and softer take on the original, while evoking the confusing sensations of change, uncertainty and progress. The duo’s latest single is their first single of 2021, “Blue Room,” continues a run of gorgeous hook driven indie rock, centered around shimmering guitars and Jaffer’s ethereal vocals. But unlike their previously released material, “Blue Room” is simultaneously a contented sigh and a sigh of frustration, evoked by the fact that home can be a place of safety, security and love, as much as it can be a place of stifling boredom.

“We were coming off a high of recording, playing, working, performing, running, running – running like the rest of the world,” the JOVM mainstays explain. “We knew we wanted our next project to be upbeat and fun and we didn’t yet sink into the reality of the shitiness quickly approaching. We were sitting on this large gray couch, overlooking the hills, beginning to write this song. The cool tones from the gloominess brought the blue into the room. Throughout all of this, a reflection – don’t forget the ground below your feet. A similar, universal feeling everyone was beginning to realize – that there are so many important things we miss when we are running. So many simple things. I think this whole record reflects on that; focusing on the beauty in the simplicity of life.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays Warish Release a Feral and Bruising Ripper

With the release of their first two EPs and their full-length debut, 2019’s Down In Flames, the San Diego-based noise punk trio Warish — currently founding member Riley Hawk (guitar, vocals), Alex Bassaj (bass) and Justin de la Vega (drums) — quickly established a reputation for crafting mosh pit friendly, bludgeoning rippers with an aggressively sleazy Troma Films-like vibe that seemingly drew from early Butthole Surfers, Scratch Acid, Incesticide-era Nirvana, Static Age-era Misfits and others.

The JOVM mainstays’ sophomore album Next To Pay is slated for an April 30, 2021 release through RidingEasy Records. Reportedly, the San Diego noise punk trio’s highly-anticipated 13-song, sophomore album finds the JOVM mainstays at their darkest and bitingly vicious. “Next To Pay is about a sense of imminent doom, everyone is going to die,” Warish’s Riley Hawk says in press notes. “It’s not the happiest record, I guess.” Sonically, the album’s material finds the band drawing from the same influences as its predecessor but while pushing it in a new and forceful direction. While still centered around heavy guitars, the JOVM mainstays stray away from straightforward cookie cutter punk and lean more in the direction of Greg Ginn and Buzz Osborne — wiry contortions drenched in various chorus effects. “This album is more of an evolution, it’s a little more punk-heavy,” Hawk adds. “We figured out what our sound was.”

Unsurprisingly, that evolution necessitated a massive lineup change: the band’s original drummer Nick “Broose” McDonnell plays on about half the album’s songs while their newest drummer Justin de la Vega took over for the more recently written and recorded tracksHawk. Alex Basassj joined the band after their debut was recorded, making Next To Pay, his official Wartish debut.

“Seeing Red,” Next To Pay’s latest single is a breakneck, Bleach-era Nirvana like ripper centered around Hawk’s howled vocals, scuzzy power chords, a forceful and chugging bass line and pummeling drumming and a scorching that continues a run of mosh pit friendly material –but this time with a feral snarl.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montreal’s Ormiston Releases a Breezy and Funky Daft Punk-like Single

Nicola Ormiston is a Montreal-based singer/songwriter and producer, who steps out into the limelight as a solo artist with his recording project Ormiston. Ormiston’s debut single “Rebel” is a shimmering disco-tinged track centered around Nile Rodgers-like guitar, a strutting bass line, glistening synths and an infectious hook. And while the Montreal-based artist cites Toro Y Moi and MGMT as influences on his sound and work, “Rebel” to my ears at least, brings Random Access Memories-era Daft Punk to mind — in particular, the equally infectious and summery “Get Lucky.”

Ironically, the song’s breezy and infectious nature, “Rebel” possesses subtle yet very dark undertones. As Ormiston explains in press notes. “‘Rebel’ is a song about a turbulent relationship between two lovers,” the sort of passionate relationship that brings out the best and worst out of the people within it.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Jindoss is a mysterious, Saint Malo, France singer/songwriter, who released their debut EP Rendez-vous late last week. The EP’s latest single “Saturday Night” quickly (and boldly) establishes the French artist’s sound: swirling and brooding shoegaze centered around shimmering, reverb-drenched guitars, plaintive wailing and boom bap-like drumming. Sonically, “Saturday Night” strikes me as a seamless synthesis of PJ Harvey-like atmospherics and A Storm in Heaven-era The Verve-like textures.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Sarah Walk is a rising Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist who currently splits her time between Los Angeles and London. Walk’s full-length debut, 2017’s Steve Brown-produced Little Black Book found the Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist crafting piano-based ballads.

Last year’s Leo Abrahams-produced sophomore album, Another Me was a radical change in sonic direction for the Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist with the album’s material finding Walk going towards shimmering and contemplative synth pop centered around percussive arrangements and soaring melodies. Another Me was inspired by a period of immense challenge and transformation, and thematically, the album touched upon marginalization, survival, death, misogyny, vulnerability, reclamation of oneself, learning how to be bold and take up space and the unique challenges of being a queer woman.

The Minneapolis-born singer/songwriter and keyboardist follows up the release of Another Me with a slow-burning and spectral cover of Prince‘s “Nothing Compares 2 U” centered around atmospheric synths, twinkling keys, brief and subtle bursts of strummed guitar, Walk’s achingly tender vocals and supple and soulful bass lines. Featuring guest spots from Abe Rounds and the acclaimed singer/songwriter and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello, Walk’s cover deconstructs the song’s melody but in doing so, pulls out the song’s bitter loneliness, yearning, confusion but imbuing the proceedings with a complete detail and inability to move forward.

Walk has wanted to cover Prince for some time — partially because she’s a Minneapolis native; but also because Rounds and Ndegeocello played at the Purple One’s Paisley Park studio in the past. “Truthfully, it had been a really long time since I heard ‘Nothing Compares 2 U,’” Walk says in press notes,” and I thought that may work in my favour — I didn’t want to get too inside the other versions that already existed because I wanted to make sure I approached it my own way. 
 
“I recorded the main wurly piano part first and sort of just improvised that ending build up – I liked the idea of repeating the title over and over, almost trance-like, with these ominous chords and angry guitar sounds building up behind it. I kept seeing this visual of me singing that repetitive lyric on stage, almost trying to convince myself I was okay… while the curtain opened up behind me without me knowing it, exposing all of the memories and anger and heartbreak I was really feeling but not able to accept or admit yet.”
 
“Sometimes I think Prince would want everyone to play his music and sometimes I think he’d want it to never be played again, but I knew Sarah was the kind of spirit who would make it her own and she does,” Meshell Ndgeocello adds.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Athens-born, Barcelona-based singer/songwriter, classically trained pianist and visual artist Evripdis Sabatis is the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Evripidis and His Tragedies. The project, which finds the Athens-born, Barcelona-based multimedia artist crafting devastatingly confessional, self-deprecating and often darkly humorous pop songs centered around a queer sensibility can trace its origins back to 2004. When Sabatis relocated to Barcelona, the Greek-born multimedia artist started playing solo sets, accompanying himself on piano in small local bars before becoming a fixture in the local underground scene as a performer, DJ and independent promoter.

Since 2004, Sabatis has been rather busy. He has released four albums 2007’s self-titled debut, 2011’s A Healthy Dose of Pain, 2016’s Futile Games in Space and Time, 2019’s Mia Triti stin Cantina and an EP . . . And It Was Good While It Lasted Baby while also writing scores for short films. Those releases were primarily melancholy, piano-driven indie pop with a joyous beat, unconventional song structures, lush chord progressions and vocal harmonies that found Sabatis collaborating with an eclectic and diverse array of local and international artists, including Sarah P., The Magnetic Fields‘ LD Beghtol, and fellow Greek artist Nalyssa Green.

Sabatis has opened for internationally acclaimed artists like John Grant, Jens Lekman, Peter Bjorn and John and Arab Strap. Adding to a growing profile, he has toured internationally, playing shows in Spain, the UK, Germany, France, the US, Portugal, The Netherlands and his native Greece. The Greek multimedia artist has also made the rounds of the international festival circuit making stops at Primavera Sound Festival, FIB Festival, Indietracks, Eurosonic Nooderslag and Synch Festival.

The Athens-born, Barcelona-based multimedia artist’s fifth album Neos Kosmos reportedly finds Sabatis crating material that goes in a much more decidedly straightforward and sparse synth-driven direction with lyrics written and sung in English, Spanish and Greek while still displaying his immense love of Doo Pop, 60s girls groups, New Wave, indie pop and bedroom pop. The album’s latest single “Bitter,” which features guest vocals from The Ballet‘s Greg is a decidedly 80s inspired synth pop confection featuring shimmering synth arpeggios, a propulsive motorik groove, and a razor sharp yet infectious hook. Interestingly, “Bitter” reveals a songwriter, who has an uncanny ability to write a song that’s centered around complex and contradictory emotions: through heartfelt and earnest songwriting dripping with a bit of campy sarcasm, the song points out the fact that that love — and the search for love — can be fleeting, capricious, embittering and exhausting. And yet, love is so necessary that you can’t quite give up on it either.

“I wanted to convey a little bit of the feeling that The Smiths‘ songs gave me when I was younger — this mixture of romanticism, cynicism, and humor that is kind of camp, but also deeply heartfelt.,” Sabatis explains in press notes. “I am, after all, bitter and hopeful, grumpy and funny, all together at the same time, and I wanted to connect with those who feel these strong contradictions. I invited Greg to sing with me because I imagined an encounter of two like-minded souls who never give up on love. “

Single Review by William Ruben Helms





Cole Koch is an emerging Toronto-based producer. His debut single, “Lockdown NYC” was part of a batch of material originally conceived as a way to keep busy and sane during pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns. The project began to take a life of its own — to the point that it became a full-time endeavor.

Centered around scorching guitars, tweeter and woofer rattling 808s, squiggling synths and a rousingly anthemic hook, Koch’s urgent and forceful debut single manages to nod at The Pleasure Principle-era Gary Numan and John Carpenter soundtracks. Fittingly for a song that sounds as though it could be part of the soundtrack for our dystopian present, “Lockdown NYC,” is inspired by real life events: Last March, Koch was booked to play The New Colossus Festival. While the festival mostly continued as planned, with the occasional venue closure and cancelled artist, it wasn’t until he finished his set, which was coincidentally at the end of the festival, when the urgency of the moment snapped into focus. With shops, restaurants and most travel shut down, Koch and his friends found themselves in the middle of pandemic-related lockdowns without food, money or their passports.

After a handful of nights sleeping whenever they could, Koch and his friends decided that the only way they could do to get back home was to hitchhike — but with the complete lack of traffic on the roads, that was easier said than done. Eventually, the group of friends came upon a young couple heading back to Toronto. That couple snuggled them across the border under blankets and suitcases.

The new single, which was released by Kanine Records is a the beginning of a batch of material the Toronto-based producer will be releasing throughout the year. And I’m looking forward to hearing what’s next.

r

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Megan Nash is a Mortlach, Saskatchewan, Canada-born and-based, Juno Award-nominated, singer/songwriter, whose work has long been influenced by the endless skies, endless dust and howling winds of the Canadian prairies. With 2017’s sophomore album Seeker, Nash and her backing band The Best of Intentions — Dana Rempel (bass), Darnell Stewart (guitar) and Tannerr Wilhelm Hale (drums) — crafted a lush soundscape that thematically touched upon heartache, grief, dreams and desire, while revealing herself as the titular seeker, with the suitcase or backpack they never really empty, whose reach often exceeds their grasp.

In the years since Seeker‘s release, Nash life has taken some tumultuously turns, which have inspired and informed the material she’s been working on. According to the rising Canadian artist, the music she has written over the past few years was written “in the cracks of a foundation — in moments of reflection during years of whirlwind romance, gut wrenching heartbreak, reviving friendships and life-saving dog love.” The end result, which began with the release of “Artifact,” late last year, finds Nash at her most vulnerable and honest.

Nash’s latest single “Quiet” is brooding, hook-driven 80s New Wave-inspired anthem (think Pat Benetar, Kate Bush and the like), centered around glistening synths, a motorik-like groove and shimmering guitars that seems to seethe with the slow-burning frustration of awkward and uneasy silences between lovers, who may be on the verge of a crossroads — while literally at a crossroad. As Nash explains the song is about being deserted by a partner in Saskatchewan’s southern plains. “What an unforgiving horizon Saskatchewan has. It can really draw out a goodbye,” Nash explains. “‘Quiet’ was born out of heartbreak and I hope it serves as an anthem for the lonely, the one left behind.”

‘Quiet’, Megan’s latest track, is about lost love; being deserted by a partner in the southern plains of Saskatchewan, Canada. “What an unforgiving horizon Saskatchewan has. It can really draw out a goodbye,” says Megan. “‘Quiet’ was born out of heartbreak and I hope it serves as an anthem for the lonely, the one left behind.”
When on stage, Megan is joined by her performing outfit The Best of Intentions. Despite its antithesis to the heartbreak at the root of the track, ‘Quiet’ is one of their favourite tracks to play live. “The lyrics are personal and heavy for me yet I want to dance when we play it on stage. It contains two truths – life is pain and life is a party,” she says. The music video bubbles with energy being a how-to-guide on keeping fit on tour. The video shows the group performing their spritely keep-fit in colourful spandex – a revival of 80s jazzercize.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Montreal’s TEKE: TEKE Releases a Frenzied Balls-to-the-Wall Ripper

Featuring a collection of accomplished, Montreal-based musicians, who have played with and alongside the likes of Pawa Up First, Patrick Wilson, Boogat, Gypsy Kumbia Orchestra and others, the rising Montreal-based Japanese psych punk septet TEKE: TEKE – Yuki Isami (flute, shinobue and keys), Hidetaka Yoneyama (guitar), Sergio Nakauchi Pelletier (guitar), Mishka Stein (bass), Etienne Lebel (trombone), Ian Lettree (drums, percussion) and Maya Kuroki (vocals, keys and percussion) — was initially founded as a loving homage (and tribute) to legendary Japanese guitarist Takeshi “Terry” Terauchi.

With the release of their debut EP 2018’s Jikaku, the rising Montreal-based septet came into their own highly unique and difficult to pigeonhole sound, a sound that features elements of Japanese Eleki surf rock, shoegaze, post-punk, psych rock, ska, Latin music and Balkan music. 2020 was a big year for the Canadian psych act. They signed to Kill Rock Stars Records, who will be releasing the band’s highly-awaited full-length debut Shirushi. The band also released two singles off the album, which is slated for a May 7, 2021 release:

“Kala Kala:” Deriving its title from a phrase that roughly translates to English as clattering, “Kala Kala” is centered around a mind-melting arrangement and song structure, Kuroki’s howling and crooning. And to my ears, the track accurately captures the band’s frenetic live energy.
“Chidori,” a cinematic yet mosh pit friendly freak out that’s one part psych rock, one part Dick Dale-like surf rock, one part Ennio Morricone soundtrack delivered with a frenetic aplomb.

“Meikyu,” Shirushi’s third and latest single, derives its title from the Japanese word for labyrinth and the song is a, no bullshit, no filler, all killer headbang centered around an expansive, mind-melting song structure that features some muscular and menacing guitar work, dramatic bursts of trombone, fluttering flute, trumping tribal drumming, and some of the wildest soloing I’ve heard in the better part of a year. Maya Kuroki’s crooning and feral howling add to the song’s balls-to-the-wall, maximalist frenzy — and it kicks major ass.

Fittingly, the Montreal-based act released a DIY yet cinematically shot video that features live footage of the band performing individually — perhaps as a result of pandemic restrictions — and gorgeous animations from the band’s Serge Nakauchi-Pelletier and Maya Kuroki. “When plans with a hired animator fell through, Maya and I decided to take things into our own hands,” Nakauchi-Pelletier says. Kuroki adds, “I’ll make some drawings or paintings and then use whatever tools we have, learn new software on the spot and ways of working as we go.’’

“Musically, we wanted a fast-paced repetitive pattern that would have a hypnotic and unnerving effect,” the band explains. Kuroki continues, “the song tells the story of a young character trying to escape the grasp of a twisted spirit that took the form of a labyrinthe-like mansion in a psychedelic atmosphere, slightly inspired by visuals from Japanese art-horror flick Hausu.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

2020 was a big year for the acclaimed Malmö-born, Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer David Alexander, the creative mastermind being the critically applauded dream pop recording project and JOVM mainstay act Summer Heart: Alexander signed to renowned Swedish record label Icons Creating Evil Art, who released his critically applauded EP Ambitions.

Continuing upon the momentum of last year, Alexander released his latest single “Oceans” late last month. Centered around a sumptuous bass line, the JOVM mainstay’s plaintive vocals, skittering, blown out beats and twinkling synth arpeggios, “Oceans” finds its narrator running to beach for sea air and quiet as a salve from the heartache and confusion of a relationship, the fervent rush of city life. The track essentially invites its listener to slow down and chill out a bit — sometimes it’s necessary after all.

The track follows on from the wide success of his 2020 EP, ‘Ambitions’ which harboured the support of Noisey, FADER, The Line of Best Fit and The Guardian.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Doubleheader is a collaborative project between Arthur Comeau, a musician and producer, who has released material as Radio Radio, Nom de Plume and under his own name — and multi-instrumentalist, producer and arranger Jean Massicotte, who has worked with Patrick Wilson, Jean Leloup, Lhasa, Arthur H, Alejandra Ribera and a lengthy list of others. Interestingly, Doubleheader finds the acclaimed musicians and producers blending a wild mix of ideas, genres and sounds, including beatmaking, DJing, hip-hop, worldbeat, pop and others — as a way of showing the world what pop music can feel and sound like in the 2020s and beyond, continuing a larger push towards a genre-less world. Importantly, the duo’s sound and approach is specifically crafted to be a reflection of the world we should be aspiring to right now — a multicultural world that celebrates diversity in all of its forms.

The Montreal-based act’s 10 song, full-length debut Slim Wall finds the duo collaborating with an equally accomplished collection of Canadian vocalists including 2020 Juno Award-winning artist Dominque Fils-Aimé, 2019 AFRIMA Award-winning artist AfrotroniX, 2020 Juno Award-winner Djely Tapa, Samito, EIDHZ, Quentin Hatfield and TEKE: TEKE’s Maya Kuroki to create material that eschews genre and language constraints in an interesting yet accessible fashion.

Late last year, I wrote about “Djanto,” which featured achingly plaintive and evocative vocals from acclaimed Malian-Canadian artist Djely Tapa artist over shimmering acoustic guitar, skittering beats, twinkling synth arpeggios and a soaring hook to create a club-banging track with elements of reggaeton and Afropop.  Underneath the euphoric, club friendliness though, the song is actually centered by a thoughtful and much-needed message: we have to take care of our only home — and that taking care of nature involves protecting both animal and human life.

Slim Wall‘s latest single “Criddora,” is a strutting and laid back, sun-kissed jam centered around skittering beats, reggae-like riddims, shimmering and reverb-drenched squiggling guitar blasts paired with Samito’s achingly plaintive vocals, which to my ears, manage to evoke longing and desperate loneliness within a turn of a phrase. Because of our forced confinement and isolation, the song’s ache feels so deeply familiar to me — as it should to you.

“‘Criadora’ is a reggaeton with a deep luso blues flavour and laid back beats and guitars,” the rising Montreal-based duo explain in press notes. “The song tells the story of a tortured man in a state of near-madness searching for relief. Exploring social isolation and stereotyping, Samito offers insight into the perceived discrepancy between what is said about him and what he believes is true.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

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

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

Altin Gün’s sophomore album, last year’s Grammy Award-nominated, critically applauded Gece further established the band’s reputation for re-imagining traditional Turkish folk through the lens of psych rock and pop. Now, if you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of months, you may recall that the Dutch JOVM mainstays’ highly-anticipated, soon-to-be released third album Yol will be teh third album from the band in three years. And much like its predecessors, the album continues their long-held reputation for drawing from the rich and diverse traditions of Turkish and Anatolian folk. But because of pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, the members of Altin Gün were forced to write music in a new way for them: virtually — through trading demos and ideas built around Omnichord, 808 and other elements, including field recordings and New Age-like ideas by email. 

“We were basically stuck at home for three months making home demos, with everybody adding their parts,” Altin Gün’s Merve Dasdemir says in press notes. “The transnational feeling maybe comes from that process of swapping demos over the internet, some of the music we did in the studio, but lockdown meant we had to follow a different approach.” As a result of the new approach, which featured Ommichord and 808 driven arrangements, the album finds the band crafting material that’s a bold, new sonic direction: sleek, synth-based, retro-futuristic Europop with a dreamy quality, seemingly informed by the enforced period of reflection. Additionally, the album finds the Dutch act working with Ghent, Belgium-based production duo Asa Moto — Oliver Geerts and Gilles Noë — to co-produce and mix the album, marking the first time that the band has collaborated with outsiders. 

I’ve written about two of Yol‘s released singles:

  • “Ordunun Dereleri,” a mesmerizing re-imagining of an old folk standard and a fitting example of the act’s new sound: glistening synth arpeggios, four-on-the-floor and motorik groove. While the song finds the acclaimed Dutch act taking their sound to the dance floor, there’s an underlying brooding and dreamy introspection to the song.
  • “Yüce Dağ Başında,” a coquettish, dance floor friendly strut featuring Nile Rodgers-like guitar, glistening synths, a sinuous bass line, bursts of mellotron, copious cowbell and percussive polyrhythm centered around lead vocals from frontwoman Merve Dasdemir. Sonically, the infectious new single — to my ears, at least — reminds me of Evelyn “Champagne” King’s “I’m In Love” and “Love Come Down,” and Patrice Rushen‘s “Forget Me Nots.”

Yol’s third and latest single “Kara Toprak” is a sleek reworking of a classic folk song by Turkey’s legendary and beloved, blind poet and musician Âşık Veysel featuring wah wah-pedaled funk guitar, sinuous disco-influenced bass lines, shimmering and atmospheric synth arpeggios, copious amount of cowbell service as a lush bed over which Merve Dasdemir’s gorgeous and sultry lead vocals, ethereally float over. Much like its predecessors, the song is swooning and coquettish seduction — a gentle tug of the sleeve from a new, potential lover/a new situationship that says “Come on, let’s dance already! Show me what you’ve got!”

Interestingly enough, the song’s title translates into English as “black soil” and the song is about life’s transience and the inevitability of death. And as a result, the Altin Gün take manages to be sensual and rapturous. And in a world, in which every one of our actions is seemingly imbued with death, it’s a hauntingly gorgeous reminder of the fact that our mortality is inescapable.

Yol is slated for a February 26, 2021 release through ATO Records/Cadence Music Group.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: France’s No Money Kids Release a Brooding New Single

No Money Kids — Félix Matschulat (vocals, guitar) and JM Pelatan (bass, synths, programming) — is a rising Paris-based blues rock act that quickly established a unique take on blues rock, which incorporates vintage gear with electronics and modern production. With their first live shows, the duo set themselves apart from their cohorts, but when Matschulat suffered a violent epileptic seizure and a broken shoulder while in the studio, his music career and the band’s future was in jeopardy: hospitalized for six months, there was the very real danger that Matschulat would never be able to play guitar.

After Matschulat finished a long and difficult rehabilitation, the members of No Money Kids felt an urgency desire to return to writing and recording music, as well as to playing live. The duo went on to furiously write their full-length debut, 2015’s I don’t trust you, a raw and spontaneous album, recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered in entirely DIY fashion by the band’s JM Pelatan — and released by Roy Music/Alter-K.

Matschulat went through a long and very difficult rehabilitation but once he was well, the duo felt an urgency to return to the stage. They went on to furiously write their debut album, 2015’s I don’t trust you, which was a raw, spontaneous album, recorded, engineered, mixed and mastered by the band’s JM Pelatan. Centered around characters on the fingers, the album touched upon beauty in pain, shadow in light and other related themes. Interestingly, around the same the band developed chiaroscuro imagery that went on to catch the attention the fashion word — in particular Schwarzkopf, Stylist, Glamour, Modzik — and led to the band working with international directors on music videos.

In 2016, the duo caught the attention of the high-end, ready to wear, “designated discovery” group of the Cotélac brand, who released a special-run 15,000 copy, free promotional EP distributed to over 110 stores in France and abroad. Adding to a growing platform, the band started playing shows internationally and won over music supervisors here in the States with their music making prominent appearances in a number of TV series including Banshee, Night Shift, Veep, Killjoys, Goliath, Dollar, Legacies, Servant and Shameless, as well as major motion pictures like Misconduct, Get The Girl and Baby, Baby, Baby.

After playing more than 100 shows, they wrote and recorded their sophomore album, 2017’s Hear the Silence and 2018’s Trouble, both of which were released to praise from Les Inrockuptibles, Rolling Stone, Le Monde, France Inter, France TV, FIP, Sourdoreille. With even more growing attention of them, the duo made the rounds of the national festival circuit with sets at Rock en Seine, Solidays and Art Rock.

Of course, much like countless acts across the globe, the band’s plans were put on hold as a result of the pandemic. And as a result of pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions the duo, who for most of their history wrote their material while on the road wore forced to change their creative process. The end result, the band’s third album Factory, which is slated for release later this year was written and recorded in the isolated atmosphere of an abandoned factory-turned recording studio. Thematically, the album is influenced by the overall sense of anxiety, uncertainty and doom of our current moment.

Factory’s latest single “Crossroad” is a brooding, late night blues stomp centered around skittering beats, slashing rhythm guitar, wailing, whiskey-fueled guitar work, industrial clang and clatter and Matschulat’s sultry cooing. Thanks to some healthy reverb, the instrumentation seems to sound as though it were bouncing off massive walls and ceilings in a way that recalls Chicago’s My Gold Mask while drawing some fair comparisons to a growing number of blues rock duos.

Interestingly, as the duo explain, the song’s title is derived from the mythical story of Robert Johnson meeting the Devil on the Crossroad, and selling his soul to the Devil, so that he could be the world’s best guitarist. And as the song points out, humanity itself is at a crossroad, and the decisions we make right now can impact us and future generations. What will we do? Will we do the things we need to protect our planet? We will see.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of Oceans EP, Blonde Maze, the acclaimed recording project of New York-based singer/songwriter. electronic music artist and producer Amanda Steckler received attention from this site and elsewhere across the blogosphere for slickly produced synth pop centered around earnest lyricism, documenting her experiences, feelings and thoughts. Since Oceans EP, Steckler has released a handful of singles including “Antartica,” “Thunder” and others to praise from Billboard Pride, DJMag, XLR8R, Impose Magazine and many others, as well as love and support from BBC1, MrSuicideSheep, and MTV Radar.

Adding to a growing profile, Steckler’s material has landed on several Spotify and Apple Music playlists, including Spotify’s US Viral 50, as well as landing at #1 on Hype Machine‘s No Remixes chart. LADYGUNN named her an “artist you should’ve seen at SXSW 2018″ — and she’s opened for the likes of The Shadowboxers, Elderbrook and Vallis Alps. During that same period of time, the JOVM mainstay also released collaborations with a number of established and up-and-coming electronic music producers including including the Iowa City, IA-born, Duluth, MN-based electronic music artist and producer Kyle Stern, best known as Attom. 

The New York-based electronic music artist, electronic music producer and JOVM mainstay begins her 2021 with a cover of Mazzy Star‘s beloved, 1993 smash hit “Fade Into You.” While replacing the jangling guitars, twinkling keys and tambourine of the beloved original with shimmering and atmospheric synths, synth click and skittering beats, the Blonde Maze cover retains both vocal melody and the swooning and urgent yearning of the original — but the end result is more of a contented sigh.

“IMO it’s kind of a blissful/happy take on the beautifully yearning original,” Steckler wrote to me in an email. “I’ve been listening to the original for years — probably a decade now — and still love it. Hope Sandoval and David Roback really created a gem.”