Tag: singles

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Spelljammer Releases a Bruising New Single

Stockholm-based doom metal/stoner rock act Spelljammer — currently, Niklas Olsson (vocals, bass), Robert Sorling (guitar) and Jonatan Remsbo (drums) have crafted a unique sound centered around a long-held penchant for massive, sludgy power chord riff-driven dirges with dramatic interludes.

The Swedish doom metal act’s third album, 2015’s Ancient of Days was in many ways a rebirth of sorts for the band: it was their first recorded output as at trio — and sonically, the album was a decided move towards a heavier, doom metal-leaning sound. Lyrically, the album was inspired by Swedish author and Nobel laureate Harry Martinson’s epic poem “Aniara,” in which a spaceship leaving an uninhabitable Earth is hurtled off course, sending its thousands of passengers on a steady course in the wrong direction — and there’s nothing they can do about it. The poem ends with the spaceship’s passengers dying as the ship continues on its journey through the vast nothingness of the solar system.

Spelljammer’s fourth album is the first batch of new material from the acclaimed Stockholm-based act in over five years, and the album reportedly finds the band bridging their earlier desert rock/stoner rock leanings with their recent, massive, slow-burning sludgy riffs. Continuing Olsson’s long-held obsession with the vastness of everything, Abyssal Trip derives its name from the perpetually dark, cold, oxygen-free zone at the bottom of the ocean. Interestingly, the album’s six songs embody that bleak and dark realm with rumbling and oozing guitars and dramatic melodic interludes. But unlike the band’s previously released material, the album finds the band crafting material that slowly unfurls, which gives the album a hypnotic quality.

The album’s six songs manage to embody that bleak and dark realm with rumbling and oozing guitars and dramatic melodic interludes. But unlike its predecessors, the album finds the band crafting material that slowly unfurls, which gives the proceedings a hypnotic quality. “The lyrical themes we address, like the ultimate doom of man, and the search and longing for new and better worlds, are still there,” Olsson says. “The concept of something undiscovered out there in vast emptiness is pretty much always present.” Additionally, the band employed a much different recording process: the trio opted to capture the performances live while holed up in a house in the countryside, just outside of Stockholm. “The songs benefitted from the relaxed environment of being away from everything,” Olsson explains.

The album’s first single, the expansive “Lake” was seven-and-a-half minutes of alternating sections of crushing and sludgy doom-laden dirge and menacing, galloping trash paired with a shimmering and gorgeous melodic break, and a scorching guitar solo, centered around enormous mosh pit friendly hooks. The song manages to evoke the vastness and power of a brewing storm over an enormous body of water — and the smallness and powerlessness of humanity.

Beginning with some ominous film dialogue discussing blood sacrifices, album title track and latest single “Abyssal Trip” is an unrelenting bruiser of a song, centered around rumbling down-tuned guitars, thunderous drumming and howled vocals. There’s a brief respite from that punishing dynamic through a scorching lead solo before the song ends with an abrupt jerk. The song evokes the vast and unfathomable power of nature — and its ability to crush everything and everything in its path. And as a result, the song seems like a desperate howl into the indifferent and uncaring void.

Abyssal Trip is slated for a February 26, 2021 release through RidingEasy Records.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer Christopher Goett may be best known for his work in Washington, D.C.-based act Silo Halo. After a decade in the District, Goett returned to Los Angeles and quickly amassed a growing collection of songs that were different than his work in Silo Halo. Goett credits his longtime friend, Sleepmask’s and Dreamland’s Adam D’Zurilla with encouraging him to further explore and expand upon those early song ideas. And interestingly enough, the end result turned out to be Goett’s latest project, the post punk/shoegaze act Blackout Transmission. 

The project’s sound and arrangements were fleshed out with the addition of Kevin Cluppert (bass) and Teenage’s Wrist’s Anthony Salazar (drums). Late 2019 saw the band playing their first shows together, which helped to develop and harness their chemistry, as well as cement the song’s arrangements. They then went to Long Beach-based Dream Machine Studio to record most of their Scott Holmes co-produced, eight song, full-length debut, Sparse Illumination. “Scott pushed me in the best way to reimagine elements of my approach” says Goett, “as such we captured the vibe and feel that I was seeking with these songs.”

As a result of pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, Goett was forced to finalize his overdubs at his home studio, Twin Dragon West, where he wound up writing and recording two of the album’s eight songs. Despite where the material was written and recorded, the end result is an album that finds the band crafting material that’s a seamless lysergic journey that sonically seems influenced by Echo and the Bunnymen, The Verve, The Church and others.

So far, I’ve managed to write about two of Sparse Illumination‘s released singles:

  • “Portals,” a track that possessed the painterly and lysergic sonic textures of The Verve’s A Storm in Heaven.
  • “Heavy Circles,” a track, which featured brooding and shimmering atmospherics paired with a dusty, desert road quality that brought Starfish and Gold Afternoon Fix-era The Church to mind.

Sparse Illumination’s third and latest single “Since She Guided You Away” has brought comparisons to the aforementioned Echo and the Bunnymen — but much like “Heavy Circles,” I hear quite a bit of The Church’s Starfish in the mix with the track is centered around Goett’s expressive crooning, shimmering and reverb drenched guitars, thunderous drumming and brooding atmospherics. All three tracks so far, make me think that this record would be perfect for lengthy road trips — but the sort full of lonely contemplation of who you are, what you’ve done and what you hope to be once you get to your destination.

Sparse Illumination is slated for a February 19, 2021 through Etxe Records.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

With the release of their full-length debut, last year’s A Modern Man’s Way to Improve, Royal Horses — Shelby Kemp (vocals, guitar), Kenny Mann (bass) and Daniel Firth (drums) — firmly established a style that the band’s Shelby Kemp describes as “Mississippi Pine Stump Jangle,” and it draws from the genres that helped shaped the New South, including 70s rock, blues, rockabilly and folk but in a swaggering, genre-bending fashion, built around the trio’s deep and undeniable simpatico.

The trio’s Color Red debut “Time Wounds All Heals” is a dust kicking stomp that brings early electric Dylan and Creedence Clearwater Revival to mind — but with a friends bullshitting, jamming and sharing a bottle of cheap rotgut to pass the time sort of air. So it shouldn’t be surprising that the song’s lyrics describes spending a batch of nights with a dear friend, some wine and wild tales.

​

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Matteo Longbois is an emerging, 20-something, Honfluer, Normandy, France-based electronic music producer and electronic music artist. He can trace the origins of his love for electronic music to when his father played David Guetta‘s 2006 Sensation White Festival set for him. Since then, Longbois has created his own original music, influenced by Daft Punk, Paul Kalkbrenner, Lauant Garnier (a.k.a. Chance) and Todd Terry among others.

Clocking in at a little under three minutes, Longbois’ latest single, the minimalist “Techno Medicament” is centered around hypnotic repetitions of dense synth arpeggio layers, tweeter and woofer rattling polyrhythmic thump. Sonically, the song strikes me as a sleek and energetic synthesis of Kraftwerk and The Chemical Brothers‘ “Star Guitar.” Interestingly, as Longbois explains the song is influenced by several different electronic music styles and genres including minimalist techno, IDM and house. Ideally, the song was created as a a way to escape one’s troubles after a hard day’s/night’s work.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms


Influenced by The Cure, Cocteau Twins and Joy Division and others, the rising Swiss-American shoegaze duo The Churchhill Garden — currently, founding member Andy Jossi (guitar) and Whimsical‘s Krissy Vanderwoude (vocals) — was originally founded as a solo recording project back in 2010 as a way for Jossi to plug into his emotions and to focus on writing music without any pressure.

A friend had showed Jossi how to use GarageBand, which he used for some of his earliest recordings. The Swiss guitarist was determined to become a better guitarist and he learned from his mistakes, which helped his musicianship and songwriting flourish and grow. As he was growing as a musician and songwriter, Jossi discovered Logic, which led to an improved and lusher quality to his recordings.

Jossi began to notice that the songs he was writing became more expansive and while inspired by Phil Spector’s Wall of Sound, shoegaze, post punk and jangle pop had gradually revealed his own take on the sounds he had long loved. The Swiss guitarist originally posted his instrumental songs on Myspace without expecting much in return but he was pleasantly surprised and encouraged by the positive response he received. Although Jossi enjoyed writing the songs he had posted on MySpace, he felt that the material was missing something important — vocals.

Hoping to broaden his musical horizons, the Swiss guitarist and songwriter sought out a few local vocalists to collaborate with: his first collaboration was with The Reaction’s Max Burki, one of Jossi’s local musical heroes. Jossi went on to record two more tracks with Eva Tresch. Technological advances — i.e., home recording studios and programs, as well as file sharing — allowed Jossi to collaborate with vocalists outside of his native Switzerland. His first collaboration with a foreign vocalist, “Noisy Butterfly,” which featured Italian vocalist Damiano Rosetti helped expand The Churchhill Garden’s audience and fanbase outside of Switzerland.

Jossi followed “Noisy Butterfly” with more collaborations with international vocalists including Craig Douglas (USA), Alistair Douglas (AUS) and Hideka (Japan). The Swiss guitarist and songwriter first crossed paths with Whimsical’s Krissy Vanderwoude back in 2016. Vanderwoude had been a fan of Jossi’s music for some time: She commented on Jossi’s “Sleepless,” on Facebook, letting him know that she loved his music, had been a big fan and was deeply moved by the emotionality of his work. Her message went on to say that she could “hear his heart” through his work and that they resonated deeply with her.

Vanderwoude and Jossi had a mutual friend, Kev Cleary, who chimed in the comment thread, that the two should work on a song together. The duo were very excited about the idea but didn’t quite know what to expect. Jossi sent Vandewoude files for a couple of different instrumentals and encouraged her to choose which one she wanted to work on. As the story goes, the Whimsical frontwoman gravitated to one of the tracks in particular and remembers being moved to tears when she first heard it. The end result became their first song together “The Same Sky.”

“The Same Sky” was released to an overwhelmingly positive response with people generally commenting that they felt a magical chemistry between the two — and after a couple of songs together, they realized that Vanderwoude should be a permanent and full-time member of The Churchhill Garden. Of course, while Vanderwoude is a permanent fixture in The Churchhill Garden universe, Jossi has continued collaborated with other vocalists, including Seashine’s Demi Haynes and Fables‘ and Swirl’s Ben Aylward.

Churchhill Gardens songs were coming together quickly with a new single being released every few months. With every new release, they found their fanbase steadily growing. And although, they were releasing material through Bandcamp and other DSPs, a growing number of people expressed interest in owning a physical copy of the songs — and they started asking if there would ever be an actual Churchhill Garden album.

Last year, the Swiss-American duo released their full-length debut, a double LP album Heart and Soul. Since the release of Heart and Soul, the duo have been busy working on new material, including the album’s follow-up single — and their first single of the year, the slow-burning and swooning “Fade Away.” Centered around layers of reverb-drenched, shimmering guitars, Vanderwoude’s plaintive and ethereal vocals and soaring hooks “Fade Away” will likely draw comparisons to Souvlaki-era Slowdive, So Tonight That I May See-era Mazzy Star, compete with a similar aching yearning at its core.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay LutchamaK Releases a Futuristic Dub-inspired Banger

Over the course of the past 13 months or so, I’ve spilled copious amounts of ink covering the frenetically prolific, French electronic music artist, producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK. And during that same period, the French JOVM mainstay has released an array of EPs, standalone singles and albums with material that generally draws from techno, with elements of deep house and EDM among other electronic music genres, sub-genres and styles.

The French JOVM mainstay started off this year with the release of his latest full-length album Pi. Written and recorded in an inspired three month burst, Pi finds LutchamaK crafting the darkest and heaviest material of his rapidly expanding catalog to date. So far I’ve written about two of the album’s singles:

“KindaHot.” an expansive, trance-inducing track that brings Tour de France-era Kraftwerk to mind.
“Gesture,” a swaggering and infectious banger centered around squiggling and wobbling synth arpeggios, tweeter and woofer rocking beats, a glistening melody and a sample from the 2013 major motion picture The Family. The track managed to be deceptively faster than what it seems — but as LutchamaK explained in press notes, he attempted to be craft a simpler composition that mixes techno and pop, while paired with a message that he says is close to his heart.

“Jump in Time,” Pi’s third and latest single is a futuristic and swaggering take on dub with a cosmic sheen, centered around skittering tweeter and woofer rocking beats beats and squiggling synth arpeggios. Much like its immediate predecessor, it’s deceptively faster than what it seems.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Electro Society Releases an 80s Inspired Banger

Stéphane Béguin is a Toulouse, France-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, whose musical career began in earnest in the late 80s/early 90s: Although initially influenced by punk rock, ska, dub, New Wave, the New Romantics, funk and house music, Béguin started out in playing keys, guitar and bass in a traditional rock band set up, as a duo with a drummer and as a solo act.

Professional success as a graphic designer, graphic recorder and constant took Béguin away from music for a number of years but through a lucky combination of circumstances, he wound up with a home studio and started creating music with his latest recording project, The Electro Society. Through a handful of singles and a full-length album, 2018’s Melancholia, Béguin firmly established the project’s genre-defying eclectic sound and songwriting approach — one that finds the Toulouse-based artist drawing from pop, rock, electronica, disco, blues, reggae and a variety of French lyricists.

Since the release of his The Electro Society debut, Béguin has been very busy: he’s currently working on a couple of singles, new material for an EP or an album — and he’s collaborating with Toulousain on a n EP. But in the meantime, his latest single “Sometimes” is slickly produced and euphoric club banger centered around shimmering synth arpeggios, skittering tweeter and woofer rocking beats, a sinuous and propulsive bass line and spoken word lyrics delivered in French and English. If you’re a child of the 80s like me, “Sometimes” may bring nostalgic longing for the likes of Dead or Alive, New Order, Frankie Goes to Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys, and others — but while possessing a slick, modern production.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

French-Lebanese, Canadian-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Alex Le Play quickly won audiences on both sides of the American-Canadian border with the release of 2019’s Oblique, an album that thematically touches upon feminist empowerment and environmentalism while sonically featuring hypnotic melodies, global percussion, hazy ballads and carnal rock ‘n’ roll.

Late last year, Le Play released her sophomore album Still Life. Inspired by the solitude, grief, frustration, uncertainty and devastating personal loss of a year of pandemic-related lockdowns and restrictions, the album thematically is a meditation on our vitality, perseverance and drive. Sonically, the album finds Le Play pushing the sound she established on her debut in a much more atmospheric and broodingly melancholy direction.

Still Life‘s latest single “Have I Ever Been This Broken?” is a brooding and atmospheric lament featuring shimmering and reverb-drenched guitars, a propulsive bass line, dramatic drumming and Le Play’s crooning vocals. And while sonically bringing PJ Harvey and Chelsea Wolfe to mind, the track celebrates human resilience, perseverance and our ability to stand strong against even the strongest wind and tide.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bruno Bisaro Releases a Brooding and Cinematic Single

Bruno Bisaro is a Paris-based singer/songwriter, poet, actor, playwright and multi-disciplinary artist, who has been deeply involved in France’s avant-garde theater, writing and music scenes over the past decade or so:

He received theater training at Blanche Salant’s and Paul Weaver’s International Theater Workshop.
Poet and friend Geneviève Pastre helped him publish his first book 2005’s L’intrépide.
Bisaro adapted one of his major poems “Octavia Or The Second Death of the Minotaur” to the theater.
In 2009, the French multidisciplinary artist performed at the Winter Shifts Festival and was handpicked by Didier Desmas for recognition in the festival’s avant-garde song category.
Bisaro had a role in a production of Chekhov’s The Seagull — and he collaborated on a show dedicated to Marina Tsvetaïeva.
He also collaborated on two different projects — a new staging of Les Valises with actors Hélène Arié and Jean-François Chatillion and a multidisciplinary performance featuring music, poetry and theater based on Yves Navarre’s poems “Chants de tout et de rien” and “Chants de rien du tout” with Ines Hammache.

In 2013 Bisaro released his full-length debut Beaujeau. Last year, he released his long-awaited Julien Vonarb-produced sophomore album Bruno Bisaro & Les Ourgans Gris. The album is a concept album, a musical novel of sorts, which features traditional songs, originals, spoken word, sound poetry and protest theater among others, dedicated to Bisaro’s friend and producer, Alain Moisset, who was a member of French punk rock act Via Viva, as well as to other lost friends.

Interestingly, Bruno Bisaro & Les Ourgans Gris’ latest single is the brooding and atmospheric “Etranger à demeure.” Centered around acoustic guitar, twinkling piano, soaring strings and Bisaro’s dramatic, baritone crooning, the album’s latest single possesses a cinematic quality while reminding me quite a bit of Untitled #23-era The Church.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay LutchamaK Releases a Trance-Inducing Banger

Over the course of the past 13 months or so, I’ve spilled copious amounts of ink covering the frenetically prolific, French electronic music artist, producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK. And during that 13 month period, the French JOVM mainstay has released an incredibly array of EPs, standalone singles and albums that features material that generally draws from techno, while reflecting a lifelong love of eclecticism, as his work frequently possesses elements of deep house and EDM among other electronic music genres, styles and sub-genres.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Throughout the course of this site’s decade-plus history, I’ve spilled copious amounts of virtual ink covering JOVM mainstays HAERTS. Tracing their origins back to a budding high school romance in Munich, the acclaimed indie pop act have evolved as its founding (and core) duo — Nini Fabi (vocals) and Benny Gebert (keys, guitar) — have evolved: HAERTS was formed when the duo met their now-former bandmates while studying at Berklee College of Music. And upon graduation, the quintet relocated to Brooklyn, where they quickly built up a profile and released their major label, self-titled, Jean-Philip Grobler-produced. full-length debut. 

After a series of lineup changes, the JOVM mainstays settled to its current lineup — its founding and core duo — and relocated to the Upstate New York woods, where they wrote and recorded their sophomore album, 2018’s New Compassion. Since the release of New Compassion, Fabi and Gebert have fully embraced their multi-national roots by splitting time between Berlin and New York. Around the same time, the duo have found themselves fueled by a renewed spirit of collaboration with artists and visual artists they’ve long admired, including Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste and Julian Klincewicz, who they worked with on POWER/LAND. 

As you may recall, the duo’s third album Dream Nation is slated for a March 12, 2021 release, and reportedly the album’s material is marked by a sense of urgent intensity: Fabi and Gebert wrote the album over the course of about a month — and as soon as they finished, they recorded most of the album with their touring band during a week-long, live recording session in New York. Then they went to Los Angeles, where they put the finishing touches on the album and collaborated with Ed Droste on the album’s first single “For the Sky.”

Sonically, Dream Nation will continue to draw their long-held comparisons to Fleetwood Mac and First Aid Kit, but with subtle nods at Portishead and Lamb. “We went into the studio without setting limits or parameters other than that we wanted to make a record that moves you emotionally and physically,” Fabi and Gebert explain. “We wanted it to feel like an invitation into the strange and fantastical night time world, like the songs they play just before the lights come on, when the party is almost over, and the polish is gone.”

I’ve written about two of the album’s released singles:

  • The aforementioned “For the Sky.” Prominently featuring Fabi’s gorgeous vocals, shimmering guitars, persistent drumming, a soaring hook and a guest spot from Grizzly Bear’s Ed Droste, “For the Sky” continues a run of carefully crafted pop centered around lived-in lyricism.
  • “It’s Too Late” is a glistening, hook-driven pop confection that sonically — to my ears, at least — is a slick synthesis of Fleetwood Mac, Shuggie Otis, Avalon-era Roxy Music.

“Shivering,” Dream Nation’s latest single is centered around an arpeggiated organ groove, stuttering four-on-the-floor, a shimmering guitar solo, jazz funk and disco vibes and Fabi’s gorgeous and plaintive vocals. But just under the sinuous, dance floor friendly surface, there’s something much darker — with the song subtly evoking the desperate attempt to get one’s quickly racing mind in check.

“The song came from this organ groove Benny came up with and the onomatopoeic quality of the word ‘Shivering’ itself,” HAERTS’ Fabi explains in press notes. “It’s about the obsession and attraction of the things which give us anxiety and disturb us. In a way it’s our soundtrack to a panic attack.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Singer-Songwriter Laure Briard Releases a Breezy and Bittersweet New Single

Throughout the course of last year, I wrote a bit about the rising Toulouse, France-based singer/songwriter Laure Briard. Briard has had an uncommon path to professional music: the French singer/songwriter bounced around several different interests and passions, including studying literature and criminology, and even doing a bit of acting before concentrating on music full-time on music back in 2013.

The Toulouse-based singer/songwriter initially signed with Tricatel Records, who released her debut EP. After the EP’s release, Briard met with Juilen Gasc and Eddy Cramps and began working on what would become her attention grabbing full-length debut, 2015’s Révélation, an effort inspired by Françoise Hardy, Margo Guryan and Vashti Bunyan that featured a very modern and poetic lyricism. She then signed with Midnight Special Records, who released her sophomore album, 2016’s Sur la Piste de Danse.

Since Sur la Pisa de Danse, Briard’s work has increasingly been influenced by Bossa nova: 2018’s Coração Louco, featured lyrics written and sung in Portuguese — and a guest spot from acclaimed Brazilian JOVM mainstays and Latin Grammy Award nominated act Boogarins. 2019’s Un peu plus d’amour s’il vous plâit, which was released through Michel Records in Canada, Midnight Special Records in Europe and Burger Records here in the States continued Briard’s ongoing love affair with Bossa nova and Brazilian music.

Slated for a February 19, 2021 through Michel Records in North America, Dinosaur City Records in Australia and Midnight Special Records in Europe, the Toulouse-based singer/songwriter’s forthcoming EP En Voo sees Briard continuing her successful collaboration with Boogarins, as well as with her longtime collaborators Vincent Guyot, a.k.a. Octopus and Marius Duflot. If you were frequenting this site over the course of last year, you may recall that I wrote about En VOO’s first single, EP title track “En Voo,” 60s Scott Walker-like orchestral psych pop meets 70s AM radio rock-like take on Bossa nova, featuring Briard’s ethereal vocals cooing in Portuguese, twinkling Rhodes, shimmering guitars and jazz-fusion that evokes the swooning euphoria of reuniting with a long-lost love.

“Supertrama,” En Voo’s second and latest single continues in a similar vein as its predecessor: 60s Scott Walker-like orchestral psych pop meets 70s AM rock featuring twinkling piano, shuffling jazz-like drumming, a sinuous bass line, a regal horn arrangement, angular bursts of guitar and a soaring hook within an expansive yet breezy song arrangement. But just underneath the breezy surface, the song evokes a familiar bittersweet ache. The track can trace its origins to a piano melody that Briard wrote in France. She then took the track too Brazilian musician and composer Giovanni Cidreira, who helped write the song’s lyrics. The track, along with the rest of the EP was recorded in São Paulo-based Dissenso Studio with Boogarins as her backing band.

“I met Giovani through the Boogarins, who he both collaborates and shares a friendship with,” Briard says of her collaboration with Cidreira. “I admire Giovani’s voice, his words, his stories, and the possibility of working with him one day quickly became a reality. Once I’d written the melody of ‘Supertrama,’ I took the plunge and asked Giovani if he would write the lyrics with me. He took the melody and wrote lyrics which don’t quite tell a story, but rather feelings, impressions, and memories. Just like the rest of the EP, the arrangements were made in real time in the studio. Pieuvre Convex was responsible for the final modulation of the track – he’s a king in that area!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Singer/songwriter, guitarist and producer Christopher Goett may be best known for his work in Silo Halo. And after a decade stint in Washington, D.C., Goett returned to Los Angeles — and he quickly amassed a growing collection of songs. Interestingly, Goett credits his longtime friend, Sleepmask’s and Dreamland’s Adam D’Zurilla with encouraging him to further explore and expand upon those early song ideas. The end result is Goett’s latest project, the post punk/shoegaze act Blackout Transmission. 

With the addition of Kevin Cluppert (bass) and Teenage’s Wrist’s Anthony Salazar (drums), the band’s lineup was solidified, and their sound and arrangements were fleshed out. Late last year, the members of Blackout Transmission started playing shows, developing and harnessing their live chemistry before they went to Long Beach-based Dream Machine Studio to record most of their Scott Holmes co-produced, eight song, full-length debut, Sparse Illumination. “Scott pushed me in the best way to reimagine elements of my approach” says Goett, “as such we captured the vibe and feel that I was seeking with these songs.”

As a result of pandemic-related restrictions and lockdowns, Goett was forced to finalize his overdubs at his home studio, Twin Dragon West, where he wound up writing and recording two of the album’s eight songs. Despite where the material was written and recorded, the end result is an album that finds the band crafting material that’s a seamless lysergic journey seemingly influenced by Echo and the Bunnymen, The Verve, and others. 

Late last year, I wrote about Sparse Illumination‘s first single, the brooding and expansive “Portals,” a track centered round a sinuous bass line, thunderous drumming, swirling reverb and delay pedaled guitar that possessed the painterly and lysergic textures of The Verve’s A Storm in Heaven. The album’s second single “Heavy Circles,” continues a bit in the vein of its immediate predecessor — brooding and shimmering atmospherics paired with dramatic and forceful drumming; but while having the sort of dusty, desert road quality that reminds me of Starfish and Gold Afternoon Fix-era The Church.

Sparse Illumination is slated for a February 19, 2021 through Etxe Records.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Foo Fighters Release a Socially Conscious Anthem

Early last year, Foo Fighters — Dave Grohl, Taylor Hawkins, Nate Mendel, Chris Shiflett, Pat Smear, and Rami Jaffee — finished work on what would eventually become their tenth full-length album, the Greg Kurstin and Foo Fighters co-produced Medicine at Midnight. At the time, Grohl and company intended for the album’s release to coincide with a massive world tour that the applauded act was about to embark on to celebrate the band’s 25th anniversary. But like countless other acts around the globe, the COVID-19 pandemic threw a monkey wrench into their plans.

Because of the uncertainty of the situation, the members of the band waited for a while, trying to figure out what their next steps were, but eventually they all came to the realization that music is meant to be heard, no matter“whether it’s in a festival field with 50,000 of our coolest friends or alone in your living room or on a Saturday night with a stiff cocktail,” the band’s Dave Grohl wrote in an letter accompanying press notes.

Now, as you may recall, Foo Fighters’ tenth album Medicine at Midnight is slated for a February 5, 2021 release through Roswell Records/RCA Records — and they managed to start off the New Year with the enormous arena rock friendly ripper “No Son of Mine,” a track that nods at Ace of Spades-era Mötorhead, Kill ’em All-era Metallica and Queen‘s “Stone Cold Crazy, complete with anthemic, raise-your-beer-in-the-air and shout along worthy hooks.

Medicine at Midnight’s third and latest single “Waiting On A War” continues a remarkable run of arena rock anthems — but in this case, the new single manages to pull from several different Foo Fighters eras — The Colour and the Shape, There Is Nothing Left to Lose and One By One in particular come to mind as a result of its song structure: Beginning with acoustic guitar and string arrangement driven verses and an enormous, rousingly anthemic hook, the song slowly builds up in intensity until the 3:15 mark or so, when the song turns into a cathartic explosion of power chords and thunderous drumming. Lyrically, the song manages to recall ’80s anthems like Nena’s “99 Luftballons,” Sting’s “Russians” and others, and it seems to suggest, much like the old saying, “the more things change, the more things remain the same.” Decades have changed, and we still seem to be on brink of our own annihilation . . .

Interestingly, as Dave Grohl explains in press notes, the song is inspired by personal events — and may be among the more personal songs in the band’s extensive catalog:

“Last fall, as I was driving my daughter to school, she turned to me and asked, ‘Daddy, is there going to be a war?’ My heart sank as I realized that she was now living under the same dark cloud that I had felt 40 years ago,” Grohl recalls.

I wrote ‘Waiting on a War’ that day.

Everyday waiting for the sky to fall. Is there more to this than that? Is there more to this than just waiting on a war? Because I need more. We all do.

This song was written for my daughter, Harper, who deserves a future, just as every child does. “

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Toronto-based psych rock duo Lammping — vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Mikhail Galkin and drummer Jay Anderson — released their critically applauded full-length debut Bad Boys of Comedy last summer. The album, which featured the noise rock meets shoegazer-like “Greater Good,” helped the band establishing a fresh and eclectic approach to psychedelia while eschewing easy categorization, with the material drawing from Tropicalia, Turkish psych, New York boom-bap hip hop beats and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Shortly after the release of Bad Boys of Comedy, the Canadian psych rock duo started working on a new batch of songs, songs that found the duo further pushing the boundaries of psych music in new directions. While their newest material is still rooted in Anderson’s thunderous drumming and Galkin’s melodic riff, the duo have added samples, drum machines and some expanded instrumentation, adding to their overall sonic palate. The end result, New Jaws EP is equally indebted to Stereolab, De La Soul, Kraftwerk, Black Sabbath, Blue Cheer and Sleep. As the duo explain in press notes, the EP serves as a bridge to their sophomore, full-length album an effort that reportedly will find the Canadian duo eschewing cliched stoner and psych rock tropes while attempting to find a new path in heavy music.

“Jaws of Life,” New Jaws EP‘s latest single is a trippy song centered around a morphing and mind-bending song structure: the song’s heavy metal-like first half is centered round Anderson’s thunderous drumming, Galkin’s fuzzy, Black Sabbath-like riffs and distorted vocals. But roughly half way through the song, it quickly turns into a jazzy and lysergic jam featuring twinkling keys, and an extended, wah wah pedaled guitar solo. Sonically, the track is a heady synthesis of 70s AM rock, psych rock and grunge with enormous hooks.