Mathias Engwall is a Gothenburg-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, mixer and mastering engineer. He has been busy over the years: he has done remixes for Lonely Dear and a list of others, and he has collaborated with CYAMO‘s David Ahlen and a handful of others. Engwall is also the creative mastermind behind the Swedish dream pop recording project Llawagne (pronounced Luv-nyay).
With Llawgne, Engwall has released a number of critically applauded, commercially successful singles including:
2019’s “The White In Its Eyes,” which found its way onto the Swedish PSL Top 20 and several major playlists, with the song revealing a penchant for strong melodies within a stormy yet beautiful shoegazer soundscape.
Last year was a big year for the Gothenburg-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, producer, mixer and mastering engineer: Engwall signed with Brooklyn-based label Declared Goods, who released “Reverie Neverending”to a global audience. Building upon a growing profile nationally and locally, Engwall released more material to critical praise from the likes of Savantmusikmagasin, BrooklynVegan, Austin Town Hall, Mystic Sons,Backseat Mafia, White-Light/White-Heat, as well as airplay and playlisting from radio stations globally.
Engwall’s latest Llagwne single “Oh Juliana,” off his forthcoming, full-length debut Nevereveries is a hook-driven slice of 90s alt rock and shoegaze, centered around chiming and reverb-drenched guitars and thunderous drumming within a classic grunge rock song structure: alternating dreamy verses and rousingly anthemic, noisy choruses.
“‘Oh Juliana’ is a song about falling in love with a famous person – you get a crush on the public persona, not the real person,” Engwall explains. “It’s the safest kind of love – you will never meet them and you can never let each other down.” Engwall adds, “Oh and Juliana is, Juliana Hatfield that I have a very safe distant crush on. I stole the whole nineties grunge sound from her. I love you Juliana!”
Nevereveries is slated for an October 29, 2021 release through Declared Goods.
There are few artists I’ve written about as much over the past 20+ months than the frenetically prolific French electronic music producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK. During that period, LutchamaK has managed to release an increasingly eclectic array of material — through EPs, albums and standalone singles — that have seen him bouncing around effortlessly between a number of different electronic music styles, genres and sub-genres.
2021 may be among the most prolific and productive of the JOVM mainstay’s career. He started the year with Pi, a full-length album written and recorded in at three-month inspired burst that resulted in some of the darkest and heaviest material, he has written and released to date. Then he released the Quest EP, an effort, which featured experimental yet very melodic material. A few months after that, he released Rapscallion, which featured the Radioactivity-era Kraftwerk meets 90s techno-like “James Blitz 007.” Then there was Seven Hybrids, which featured the hypnotic club banger “Moonbright,” and the Larry Levan house music-like “Davai.”
After a mere month hiatus, the prolific, French JOVM mainstay released his latest full-length album Threshold. Threshold, as LutchamaK explains ” . . . an invitation to a post-techno trip with strong electro dub accents.” Last week, I wrote about “Irie Vibrations,” a track featuring tweeter and woofer rattling beats, shimmering, reverb-drenched synths and spacey vocal samples to create a song that meshes elements of Lee “Scratch” Perry-like dub with club friendly trance and house.
Threshold‘s latest single “Bitrate Scale” is a brooding yet hypnotic club banger centered around glistening synths, skittering, tweeter and woofer rattling beats, a vocal sample featuring Antonin Artaud and a relentless motorik-like groove, reminiscent of Tour de France era Kraftwerk. Much like its predecessor, “Bitrate Scale” continues a run of slickly produced yet crafted bangers.
Throughout the course of this site’s 11-plus year history, Permanent Records’ and RidingEasy Records‘ ongoing collaborative proto-metal and pre-stoner rock compilation series from the 1960s and 1970s, Brown Acid have been regularly featured. Now, as you may recall, each individual edition of the ongoing series is centered around RidingEasy Records founder Daniel Hal’s and Permanent Records co-owner Lance Barresi’s extensive, painstaking research and curation with Hall and Barresi spending a great deal of time attempting to track down the artists behind these great yet sadly under-appreciated tunes.
Frequently those bands haven’t written, played or recorded together in 30 or 40 years — but Barresi and Hall encourage the bands to take part in the compilation process. “All of (these songs) could’ve been hits given the right circumstances. But for one reason or another most of these songs fell flat and were forgotten,” Lance Barresi explains in press notes. “However, time has been kind in my opinion and I think these songs are as good now or better than they ever were.”
Having the original artists participate as much as humanly possible in the compilation process can give the artists and their songs a real second chance at the attention they had the misfortune of missing all of those years ago. And of course, for critics, audiophiles and fans alike, the material on the Brown Acid series will do three very important things:
introduce listeners to some great, sadly under-appreciated tunes that fucking rip or will melt your face right off
fill in the gaps of what was going on in and around regional, national and even international underground scenes during the 60s and 70s
push the boundaries of proto-metal, proto-stoner rock, metal and stoner rock in new directions.
The 13th edition of the Brown Acid series, Brown Acid: The Thirteenth Trip is fittingly slated for an October 31, 2021 release. Continuing in the path of its 12 predecessors, The Thirteenth Trip sees Barresi and Hall somehow digging even deeper into a very deep well of material recorded throughout the 60s and 70s — and discovering tunes still rip and rip hard.
In the lead up to the album’s release later this month, I’ve written about two of its released singles:
“Run Run,” a groovy arena rock friendly ripper, by Montreal-based outfit Max.
“Buzzin,” a party starting-anthem centered around a funky blues riff, rollicking rhythmic changes and a chugging bass line that was technically credited as being by Gary Del Vecchio with Max — not the Montreal band.
Ralph Williams and the Wright Brothers’ “Never Again” appeared on the tenth edition of Brown Acid. The group returns to the series with “Dark Street,” the A-side of their 1972 Hour Glass Records 45. Centered around a chugging riff and thunderous drumming, the song hints at Van Halen‘s famous cover of Roy Orbison’s “Pretty Woman” about a decade before they actually did the cover. Sadly, the band soon disappeared after.
With the release of 2019’s Mouth Full of You EP, rising Malmö-based shoegazer outfit and JOVM mainstays Spunsugar — Elin Ramstedt, Cordelia Moreau, and Felix Sjöström — quickly established a unique, genre-blurring sound, which meshed elements of industrial electronica, post-punk, noise rock, shoegaze and dream pop. Mouth Full of You wound up earning the band international attention with the EP receiving airplay from BBC 6 Music‘s Steve Lamacq.
Building upon a growing profile, the Swedish trio released their critically applauded, Joakim Lindberg-produced full-length debut Drive-Through Chapel last October through Adrian Recordings. The album, which featured the brooding 4AD Records-like ” “Happier Happyless,” and the breakneck ripper “Run,” a single that reminded me of Lightfoils, The Sisters of Mercy, Chain of Flowers found the members of Spunsugar actively seeking to emulate the sounds of Cocteau Twins, Slowdive, and others — but while simultaneously crafting some of their hardest hitting material to date.
Earlier this month, the members of the Malmö-based JOVM mainstay act released their latest effort Things That I Confuse. While still focusing on an overarching post-punk and dream pop aesthetic, the EP sees the band taking an opportunity to spread their creative wings to craft a broader and more diverse batch of material.
“The songs on Things That I Confuse pretty much wrote themselves in a frenzy. Still, they sound more Spunsugar than ever,” the members of the band explain in press notes. “It’s still as timeless and nostalgic as it is fresh. The four songs consist of two more poplike tracks and two that have kept the more noisy aggressive sound that has become a staple of the band. Now there’s an added layer of an icy lo-fi feel. References to giallo films and Japanese movie monsters work to tell stories of close relationships, trauma and regret that keeps one up at night. Every second is thought through, there’s no unnecessary fluff. Every note serves a purpose on this EP.”
The Swedish shoegazers started off this year with “Rodan,” the EP’s first single. Deriving its name from a Japanese movie monster, much like Godzilla, “Rodan” saw the band crafting a lushly textured song that’s sonically indebted to Cocteau Twins while arguably being their most danceable singles to date.
Much like BLACKSTONE RNGRS, Lightfoils and a growing list of others, the members of Spunsugar push the boundaries of shoegaze and dream pop into new directions and Things That I Confuse‘s latest single “Hatchet” sees the Swedish trio creating a lushly textured sound that meshes elements of industrial electronica, brooding 4AD Records-like atmospherics and shimmering dream pop centered around their unerring knack for crafting anthemic hooks.
While being one of the more aggressive songs on the EP “Hatchet” evokes the whirring thoughts of someone full of regret and self-doubt, replaying their questionable decisions, actions and thoughts over and over and over again.
There are few artists I’ve written about as much over the past 20+ months than the frenetically prolific French electronic music producer and JOVM mainstay LutchamaK. During that period, LutchamaK has managed to release an increasingly eclectic array of material — through EPs, albums and standalone singles — that have seen him bouncing around effortlessly between a number of different electronic music styles, genres and sub-genres.
2021 may bee among the most prolific and productive of the JOVM mainstay’s career. He started the year with Pi, a full-length album written and recorded in at three-month inspired burst that resulted in some of the darkest and heaviest material, he has written and released to date. Then he released the Quest EP, an effort, which featured experimental yet very melodic material. A few months after that, he released Rapscallion, which featured the Radioactivity-era Kraftwerk meets 90s techno-like “James Blitz 007.” Then there was Seven Hybrids, which featured the hypnotic club banger “Moonbright,” and the Larry Levan house music-like “Davai.”
After a mere month hiatus, the prolific, French JOVM mainstay released his latest full-length album Threshold. Threshold, as LutchamaK explains ” . . . an invitation to a post-techno trip with strong electro dub accents.” Album single “Irie Vibrations” may be the best example of what to expect of the album: Tweeter and woofer rattling beats are paired with shimmering, reverb-drenched synths and spacey vocal samples. The end result is a track that meshes elements of Lee “Scratch” Perry-like dub with club friendly trance and house.
The Rare Sounds’ debut single “Yeah You” is a gritty and urgent bit of 70s-like jazz funk and fusion centered around a relentlessly funky groove and some inspired soloing that to my ears is a slick mix of The JBs Booker, T and the MGs and Headhunters era Herbie Hancock. And at its core, is the knowing familiarity, comfort and esteem held by musicians who have played together for years in a number of different projects and configurations.
Interestingly, the Robert Walter penned composition had been workshopped in several different projects but its found a home during the band’s session at San Francisco‘s Hyde Street Studios last August. Walter describes “Yeah, You!” as “70s jazz-funk and fusion before the edges and dissonance were smoothed over to make it more commercial.”
The band will be releasing additional tracks from their Hyde Street Studios session in the coming months and plan on booking additional performances in select markets to showcase the material.
The Prisoners are a Bordeaux, France-based act that specializes in rock-based covers of film and TV composers like John Barry and Lalo Schriffin — i.e, the themes of classic TV shows like Manix and The Persuaders.
The band’s newest album is slated for an October 31, 2021 release. The album’s latest single is cover of The Persauders theme song that features some prominent changes in arrangement: The Prisoners’ cover is centered around glistening Rhodes and twangy guitars and forceful drumming. The Bordeaux-based act manage to retain the original’s cinematic quality while giving it a muscular oomph.
Silva’s debut EP was an EDM collaboration with DJ Sizigi-13 under the mononym Silva. But her full-length debut Bluest Sky, Darkest Earth, the first under her full name saw her sound leaning heavily towards singer/songwriter soul, rock and pop with 70s AM rock references.
The Boston-born, New York-based singer/songwriter’s sophomore album Purgatory Road is slated for an October 29, 2021 release. Recorded at Vinegar Hill Sound, the Reed Black-produced album’s 10 songs thematically connect to the deep, dark places that live within us while featuring complicated, flawed, strong and yet very human characters.
Interestingly, much like its immediate predecessor, Purgatory Road‘s material draws from Silva’s personal life, and the album finds the Boston-born, New York-based singer/songwriter reflecting on her mistakes in a way that offers advice to the listener.
Purgatory Road‘s first single is the slow-burning and sensual “Landline.” Prominently featuring Silva’s sultry and bluesy crooning, and an atmospheric and unfussy arrangement of twinkling Rhodes, a sinuous bass line, strummed guitar, “Landline” continues a run of material heavily indebted to 70s AM rock and soul, centered around a similar craftsmanship. Thematically, “Landline” as Silva explains is an intimate song about personal connections; a longing to bond with someone without the distractions of modern technology with the song finding Silva yearning for the days when the phone was used for one thing and one thing only — a call.
“This song reminds me of a time when people were more connected emotionally. I feel nostalgic toward a simpler time where we had a meaningful, straightforward way of communicating,” Silva further elaborates in press notes. “We may be more technologically connected than ever before, but most of us keep people at a distance and only let them see a more polished, perfect version of ourselves that can be edited and filtered. We are also constantly multitasking on, and distracted by, our phones. I long for a time when you could just focus on talking to someone special on the telephone and connecting for hours on end with them that way. I think people need something real. Modern technology is great in many ways, but it can also be a barrier between us. A simple telephone represents an authenticity that frankly, has been lost.”
Childhood friends Guillaume Adamo and Florian Deyz are the creative masterminds behind the rising Nice-based indie act Ninety’s Story. With the release of their debut single “KIKUKYU” which was quickly followed up with their debut EP, the French duo firmly established a sound and approach that was fittingly inspired by the French Riviera and by acclaimed French acts Phoenix, Daft Punk and Air.
The duo, along with their backing band have opened for Archive, Morcheeba, Pale Waves and Puggy and others. Adding to a growing profile. the duo wrote the music for a Citroën C4 Aircross ad campaign that aired in China — with the band representing the company at the Paris and Hangzhou Motor Shows. Since then the band has been busy releasing a handful of singles including the breezy and anthemic “APO” and the sultry, R&B-inflluenced “Home.”
Earlier this year, the duo along with their live band played a Groover Obsessions‘ Les Capsules sessions at La Marbrerie that featured two songs:
“Heaven,” a slow-burning and brooding song that reminds me a bit of JOVM mainstays Ten Fe and Palace Winter: a deliberately crafted, anthemic song centered around expressive and bluesy guitars, shimmering synths, plaintive vocals and lived-in lyrics.
“Ride,” a strutting bit of pop rock that — to my ears, at least — brings a slick synthesis of Steely Dan and Radiohead to mind.
The rising French duo recently released the Groover Obsessions session as a mini EP. The mini EP’s first single happens to be my favorite track from the session, the aforementioned “Heaven.” With their unerring knack for crafting earnest material with anthemic hooks, I have a sense that they’ll be stars — and very soon.
Gothenburg-based indie quartet Hux Flux features members with wildly different influences and interests: Philippe (guitar) is a punk rocker; Linda (vocals, synths) loves melodies; Kara (bass, vocals) is a rock ‘n’ roller; and Stefen (drums) is a shoegazer.
Meshing all of those influences together, the Swedish quartet specialize in what they’ve dubbed “trashdance.” “So our personal influencers are a bit different, but as a band I would say that Thee Oh Sees inspire us on the experimental part, Night Beats for the overall sound, and The Coathangers for the versatility and attitude. We take our music very seriously, but as ourselves we are more of the playful types,” the band elaborates in press notes.
Hux Flux’s latest EP Banana Brain was produced, mixed and mastered by Detroit-based producer and musician Jim Diamond, best known for his work as a bassist with The Dirtbombs, and for his production and mastering work with The White Stripes and The Sonics. “We like to experiment with different types of sounds and I guess you can hear it,” the members of Hux Flux say in press notes. “We all have a bit of a different music background, but we’re aiming for some type of ‘punk indie garage that you can dance to.’”
Banana Brain‘s latest single “Date Sweater” is a mosh pit friendly stomper centered around fuzzy, reverb-drenched power chords, thunderous drumming, enormous hooks and woozily delivered vocals. Sonically, the song is a boozier, more frenetic take on The White Stripes. “You know that desperate teenage love? When you’re willing to do whatever it takes to be seen and loved?” The band says in press notes. “This song is about that. We call it ‘Date Sweater.’ A sweet story in a tough, fuzzy and raw soundbite.”
Corridor is an acclaimed Montreal-based indie rock JOVM mainstay outfit that has a long-held reputation for being earnest DIY enthusiasts: they design their own merch and create mind-bending animated videos for their incredibly catchy material.
If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past couple of years, you probably have picked up on the fact that I’ve had an obsession with French indie rock, French hip-hop and French pop that has been sparked into overdrive after spending time in Montreal for M for Montreal. During that same period I’ve managed to spill copious amounts of virtual ink covering the Montreal-based JOVM mainstays.
With the release of their sophomore album 2017’s Supermercado, the band exploded into the international scene with the album receiving rapturous praise from NPR and from Vice, who wrote that 2017’s sophomore album Supermercado was “the best French record of 2017, 2018, 2018, 2019, 2020 2021 and even 2022 . . . ” Building upon a rapidly growing profile, the Francophone indie rockers spent the following year supporting the album with touring across Europe with stops at London Calling Festival and La Villete Sonique Festival, before making their Stateside debut with stops at SXSW and Northside Festival. They capped off a busy year or so, with a sold-out Stateside tour with Crumb.
Corridor caught the attention of Sub Pop Records, who signed the band, making them the first Francophone act on the label. Their third album, and first for Sub Pop, 2019’s Emmanuel Ethier-produced Junior is fueled by a special sort of je ne sais quoi? that comes from self-imposed restraints: Although at the time, the band had just signed to the label, they had a firm commitment to releasing a new album every two years — and they had every intention on going through with it.
When the band informed Sub Pop of their intentions, the label gently informed the band that if they wanted to release new material that fall, they would have to send the label a finished album in early May. With the ink barely dried on the contract, and a deadline looming, the band — Jonathan Robert (vocals, guitar), Dominic Berthiaume (bass, vocals), Julian Perreault (guitar), and Julien Bakvis (drums) — went into the studio, furiously writing and recording material, never stopping to second guess themselves.
Six of he album’s 10 songs were conceived in a single weekend, with the album closer “Bang” written the night before they were going to start recording. Because of the quick nature of the Junior sessions, the album features fewer expansive jams and less reliance on overdubs. “Part of the beauty of the thing is that we didn’t have time to think about it,” the band’s Dominic Berthiaume says of the Junior recording sessions.
Sonically, the album is intimate yet immediate while revealing a band with a mischievously genre-defying approach: the material draws from post-punk, Komische Musik, jangle pop, dream pop and indie rock while being completely their own.
Junior was released to widespread critical acclaim from the likes of BrooklynVegan, Clash, Paste, Stereogum, Exclaim! and a long list of others. The band supported the album with tours across Europe and North America that impressed fans and the cognoscenti, helping to establish the Québécois act as one of genre’s newest must-see acts. The tour and its shows went so well that they decided to make Samuel Gougoux, a live collaborator for the Junior tour, a full-time member.
The JOVM mainstays have returned with a new single “Et Hop,” their first bit of new material since Junior‘s release. Originally written during the Supermercado sessions, “Et Hop” was gathering dust in the band’s musical vault. Interestingly, when CISM, the student-run radio station at the University of Montreal asked if they wanted to release a song to celebrate the station’s 30th anniversary, the members of the band gave them “Et Hop,” a bit of old-timey jangle pop centered around the band’s unerring knack for gorgeous melodies paired with razor sharp hooks. But pay close attention! There are subtle nods to 60s psych rock and post punk throughout that should serve as a reminder that they never do anything in a straightforward fashion.
Corridor will be capping off the year with two previously announced shows in Montreal and Toronto in November. They’ve also added a handful of headlining Stateside dates in Spring 2022 that includes a March 31, 2022 stop at The Sultan Room. Check out the tour dates below.
Fall 2021 Fri. Nov. 19 – Montreal, QC – Fairmount Theatre Fri. Nov. 26 – Toronto, ON – The Garrison
Spring 2022 Thu. Mar. 31 – Brooklyn, NY – Sultan Room Fri. Apr. 01 – Philadelphia, PA – Milk Boy Sun. Apr. 03 – Chicago, IL – Schubas Tavern Fri. Apr. 08 – Grand Rapids, MI – Pyramid Scheme
I’ve managed to spill quite a bit of virtual ink covering the rising Québec-born and-based multi-instrumentalist, singer/songwriter and producer Josie Boivin, the creative mastermind behind the critically applauded recording project and JOVM mainstay act MUNYA over the past couple of years.
And if you’ve been frequenting this site over that same period, you may recall that when Boivin was asked to play at 2017’s Pop Montreal, she had only written one song. Ironically, at the time, Boivin never intended to pursue music full-time; but after playing at the festival, she quickly realized that music was what she was meant to do. So, Boivin quit her day job, moved in with her sister and turned their kitchen into a home recording studio, where she wrote every day. Those recordings would become part of an EP trilogy with each individual EP named after a significant place in Boivin’s life: Her debut North Hatley EP derived its name from one of Boivin’s favorite little Québecois villages. Her second EP, the critically applauded Delmano EP derived its name from Williamsburg, Brooklyn-based bar Hotel Delmano. The third and final EP of the trilogy, Blue Pine derived its name from the Blue Pine Mountains in David Lynch’s Twin Peaks.
Since the release of her critically applauded EP trilogy, the Québecois JOVM mainstay has released a string of singles including the Washed Out-like “Pour Toi,” a single centered around the aching and unfulfilled longing of being forced to speak to a loved one from a distance. Boivin has also been busy working on her highly-anticipated full-length debut Voyage to Mars.
With a background in opera and jazz, Boivin’s life has been centered around two big dreams: to be a musician — and to go to Mars. “I love space. I love aliens. I love thinking that we’re not alone in this big strange universe,” she says. “Those things give me hope.” Naturally, that hope led to Voyage to Mars, an album that derives its title from Georges Méliès’ classic silent film Le Voyage dans la Lune. Slated for a November 5, 2021 release through Luminelle Recordings, the album’s material feels beamed in from another, more beautiful and whimsical world.
Last month, I wrote about Voyage to Mars‘ first official single “Cocoa Beach.” Deriving its title from the name of a Florida town, located about 15 miles from the John F. Kennedy Space Center, the song features a driving and funky bass line, four-on-the-floor, squiggling Nile Rodgers-like guitar, glistening synth arpeggios and Boivin’s dreamily coquettish vocals singing lyrics in English and French. The song is centered around the JOVM mainstay’s unerring knack for crafting a razor sharp, infectious hook — and fittingly, a ton of space and space travel-related imagery.
“’Cocoa Beach’ is a song about being fearless, about finding your inner force and embracing failure as your path to happiness,” Boivin explains in press notes. “It’s about pushing yourself over your limits and accomplishing the impossible through sheer force of will. It takes courage, dedication and many failures to reach your dreams…and that is the origin story of MUNYA.”
Voyage to Mars‘ latest single is a slow-burning cover of The Smashing Pumpkins‘ “Tonight, Tonight.” The cover sees the JOVM mainstay stripping some of the original’s bombast away for an intimate, bedroom pop-like production centered around shimmering and reverb drenched guitars and skittering beats paired with Boivin’s ethereal and plaintive vocals. But what the MUNYA covers does is retain the song’s melancholy and wistful air within a breezy, hook driven framework.
“My sister shared the ‘Tonight, Tonight’ video with me at a very young age, I vividly remember feeling certain emotions for the first time: longing, sadness and a hopeful melancholy,” Boivin says in press notes. “In a weird way it was also my introduction to exploring space and the infinite possibilities that humans can achieve if they embrace the urgency of now. With everything going on, I felt like it was time to share my love for this song and hopefully inspire a new generation to realize life is a galaxy of endless possibilities, as long as we don’t hesitate and act now.”
Mexico City-based psych pop act Petite Aime was founded by Little Jesus bassist Carlos Medina. Last year, Medina (guitar) was joined by Aline Terrein (vocals), Isabel Dosal (vocals), Santiago Fernández (bass) and Jacobo Velazquez (guitar) to write and record the project’s self-titled full-length debut.
Slated for a Friday release through Park The Van/Devil In The Woods, the Mexican psych pop act’s self-titled debut reportedly finds the band crafting material that fluctuates between different genres and styles based on psych pop and psych rock while touching upon influences like The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Big Thief,Magic Potion, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and Crumb. Lyrically the album’s material is generally centered around an expression of the existential angst engendered by the search for the “self” in an increasingly impersonal world, where the line between what’s real and what’s virtual crystallizes.
Last month, I wrote about “Elektro,”a dreamy yet club friendly bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios, a hypnotic, motorik groove and propulsive four-on-the-floor, ethereal vocals singing lyrics in French and a vocoder drenched coda. Sonically recalling From Here To Eternity-era Giorgio Moroder and JOVM mainstay MUNYA, “Elektro,” as the band explained was actually inspired by dreaming and dreams. “We tried to translate a dream where you don’t know exactly where you are going but you let yourself go,” the band explains. “Stars come down to Earth and transport you to another world and although you know you are enjoying it you’ll always miss the place where you come from.”
“Adiós,” the self-titled album’s latest single is a delicate and introspective song centered around strummed acoustic guitar, woozy synths, and Spanish lyrics delivered with a wistful nostalgia over something or someone that you can’t ever get back — but with the understanding that it may be for the best.
“It’s a ballad where we say goodbye to someone or something forever,” the band explains. “It’s a nostalgic and introspective song that allows us to accept that saying goodbye is a way of freeing oneself and letting be.”
After spending a number of years playing in local bands like Grammar Debate! and Hilliard, Lekkas took a lengthy hiatus from writing, recording and performing music to book shows and festivals in and around the Philadelphia area. Lekkas initially started Palm Ghosts as a solo recording project — and as a creative outlet to cope with an incapacitating bout of depression and anxiety.
During a long prototypically Northeastern winter, he recorded a batch of introspective songs that at the time, he dubbed “sun-damaged American music” that would eventually become the project’s full-length debut. After a short tour in 2013 to support the album, Lekkas packed up his belongings and relocated to Nashville, enticed by the city’s growing indie rock scene.
Palm Ghosts’ third album, 2018’s Architecture was a change in sonic direction for the project with Lekkas writing material influenced by the sounds of the 80s — in particular, Cocteau Twins, Peter Gabriel, Dead Can Dance, New Order, The Cure, and others.
Much like countless acts across the world, Lekkas and his bandmates spent much of the lockdown being busy: The isolation of the lockdowns, plus socioeconomic and financial turmoil, protests and demonstrations fueled an immediacy and energy in the songs that Lekkas and company had been writing at the time.
If you’ve been frequenting this site over the past year, you might recall that the band released their fourth album Lifeboat Candidate earlier this year. The album was a fittingly dark and dystopian effort, full of confusion, fear and dread, fueled by isolation, frustration, unrest and uncertainty. And while the world feels little changed since last year, the band’s fifth album Lost Frequency is a very different album.
Initially meant for release last year, the album hearkens back to the before, when things were somewhat normal — or at least seemingly less uneasy, which is what most of us are desperately clamoring for, after endless death and fear for the better part of a year. In a loose sense, Lost Frequency feels almost celebratory — and perhaps a bit more nostalgic, than its immediate predecessor. But the material lyrically brings confrontation to the forefront, reminding the listener that at this juncture, normalcy is devastating.
Lost Frequency‘s first single “Bloodlight” continues a run of hook-driven material indebted to The Cure, Cocteau Twins, Peter Gabriel, Depeche Mode and the like with the song being centered around tweeter and woofer thumping beats, shimmering guitars, hypnotic, motorik grooves, atmospheric synths and an enormous hook. And while dance floor friendly, the song lyrically is a seething indictment of humanity and its treatment of Mother Earth.
“‘Bloodlight,’ the album opener, is a dark dance track that compares the climate crisis to a crime scene,.” Palm Ghosts’ Joseph Leekas explains in press notes. “Luminol is a chemical commonly used in forensics for the detection of blood stains. Nothing vanishes without a trace and particles of blood adhere to surfaces for years.
“The same applies to what humans have done to the earth. The damage will remain long after we are gone.”
With the release of their Jeff Berner-produced full-length debut, last year’s Unmask Whoever, the rising experimental/krautrockff act Activity, which is split between New York and Philadelphia — Grooms‘ Travis Johnson (vocals, sampler) and Steve Levine (drums), Field Mouse‘s Zoe Browne (bass) and Russian Baths‘ Jess Rees (guitar) — received attention across the blogosphere for an eerily minimalist and uneasy sound that saw the band pair modern production, electronic instrumentation and organic instrumentation. Thematically, the album’s material touched upon paranoia, exposed character flaws and the broader capacity for growth when an uneasy truth is laid bare.
In the lead-up to the album’s release, I managed to write about there of the album’s released singles:
Sadly, Unmask Whoever was released within the first full week of pandemic-related lockdowns and as a result, the band wasn’t able to support their effort with a proper tour. But after a lengthy delay, the members of Activity will be embarking on a North American tour, which begins October 6, 2020 at Mercury Lounge. Tour dates are below — as always.
Along with the tour announcement, the JOVM mainstays released a new single, the eerily spectral and expansive “Text the Dead.” Centered around Travis Johnson’s achingly plaintive vocals, layers of percussive, almost polyrhythmic beats, mutilated samples, and atmospheric synths, the new single swoons from the weight of despair and inconsolable loss — with the tacit understanding that ghosts do linger, and that grief often comes in waves.
“My mom passed away in February. We had 24 days from when we found out she was sick with pancreatic cancer until she died. I still can’t process it honestly,” Activity’s Travis Johnson explains in press notes. “I remember her telling me over the phone, when I was losing it, ‘Don’t worry, I’m not going anywhere.’ I knew how awful the diagnosis was but I didn’t want to tell her and I really tried to cling to her telling me that. Throughout the day, still, I’ll catch myself thinking ‘I should tell mom about this or that’ or ‘I wonder how my mom is doing’ and get out my phone to call or text or email her before I realize that I can’t talk to her, and that I can’t talk to her about how I can’t talk to her. Knocks the wind out of me and makes me feel insane every time. That’s a picture of her when she was probably about my age on the cover. It was built on samples I’d put together and really mutilated a long time ago and forgotten about. I was going through old stuff and found it and started singing the verse melody. Then we all added our parts and subtracted others, etc. It’s not a very ‘live’ song but we all came together on it still.”
Tour: 10.06 New York NY @ Mercury Lounge 10.08 Boston MA @ Cafe 939 10.09 Philadelphia PA @ Ortlieb’s 10.10 Toronto ON @ Drake 10.11 Cleveland OH @ Mahall’s 10.12 Chicago IL @ Schubas 10.13 Minneapolis MN @ 7th St Entry 10.15 Milwaukee WI @ Cactus Club 10.19 Atlanta GA @ Masquerade 10.20 Carrboro NC @ Backroom Cat’s Cradle 10.21 Richmond VA @ The Camel 10.23 Lancaster PA @ Tigh Mary 10.24 Washington DC @ Pie Shop
