Dan Snaith can trace the origins of his solo recording project Caribou to the theft of an unused sampler from his high school’s music department program. Snaith originally began writing and recording under the moniker Manitoba — that […]
Tag: The Joy of Violent Movement
Live Footage: Jonathan Scales Fourchestra at Asheville Goombay Festival 9/12/15
Currently comprised of composer and bandleader Jonathan Scales (steel drum), Cody Wright (bass) and their newest member, Chaisaray Schenck (drums), the Asheville, NC-based jazz fusion trio Jonathan Scales Fourchestra have become JOVM mainstays since I serendipitously stumbled upon the band when […]
If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the course of 2015, you may recall that I wrote about Berlin, Germany-based producer, electronic music artist and DJ Lennart Richter. Prolifically releasing a series of singles through renowned electronic music labels Sleazy G, East Project, G-Mafia Records, GUN PWDR, Ensis Records, Blue Dye, Mondal Recordings and others, Richter quickly developed a reputation across his native Germany and internationally for exploring the gamut of electronic music subgenres including deep house, G house, nu-disco and several others with a slick, crowd-pleasing, club-rocking production. And as a result, Richter can claim several Beatport Top 25 releases under his belt, and his last EP, Berlin Brawling landed at #10 on the Beatport Indie Dance/Nu Disco Charts.
The Berlin-based electronic music artist, producer and DJ closed out 2015 with the release of “Hold Up,” a nu-disco and house track comprised of layers of shimmering and cascading synths, propulsive drum programming led by explosive cymbal shots and a looped vocal sample that comes in and out of the haze. Sonically, the song reminds me quite a bit of Octo Octa’s “His Kiss” an “Please Don’t Leave” off his fantastic Between Two Selves — or in other words, it manages to possess both a bracing iciness and a thoughtful soulfulness.
With 2016 being a few hours old, let’s get the year started on a little bit of new music. Now if you’ve been frequenting JOVM over the past year, you may recall that I wrote about the Los Angeles-based act, Mothership Collective. Their last mixtape All Nigga Radio was largely influenced by Parliament Funkadelic, Too Short, Roni Size, Bootsy Collins and others, and was written and conceived as a continuous late night radio broadcast featuring several genres of music, namely hip-hop, funk, reggae, commercials, snippets of interviews and disc jockey ramblings with a biting satirical bent as the mixtape thematically explored how mainstream media and mainstream music can pervert your soul, your perceptions of the world and others by encouraging people to see the world through dangerously cartoonish stereotypes.
The collective’s latest mixtape, Ghetto Galactic is a heady and sonically challenging mix of futuristic hip hop, funktech, alien soul, trap, trap house, G-funk-inspired hip-hop in an incredibly slick, modern production. And much like All Nigga Radio, the act’s satire still manages to be incredibly incisive as it continues to point out the ridiculousness of stereotyped imagery and marketing, and empty imagery of fame and success– while featuring dope emcees spitting fire over dope beats.
GHETTO GALACTIC SIDE A
Intro
Ghetto Galactic (JSwift / Lukecage)
Kush ( M20 / Lukecage)
Backyard Party ( Lukecage / Longevity and Some Girl)
Full Pull (Triple 7 / Lukecage)
Adamantium (Lukecage)
Interlude (Lukecage)
Bricks Bitch (Lukecage / Big Bricks)
Mr. YaYa (Big Hit / Lukecage)
Interview With Cage (JSwift / Lukecage)
They Really Beat Him (Lukecage)
IDGAF (Young Mizu / Lukecage)
Colors
AB 4 Ghetto Galactic (Abstract Butta Fingas / Lukecage)
Junky
Latin Yuji (DJ Yuji / Lukecage)
Kingslish (Bigg Doxx / Lukecage)
Dicey 101 (Lukecage)
Intermission (The Koreatown Oddity / Lukecage)
GHETTO GALACTIC SIDE B
Opra Got Weed For You (Lukecage)
Koreatown Galactic (The Koreatown Oddity / Lukecage)
Freaky Style (DJ D-Styles / Lukecage)
Mothership Malt Liquor Wine
The Body (Longevity / Lukecage)
Ash Put This In That Video (Lukecage)
Can You Smell The Flavor Coming Through Your Speakers? (Lukecage)
Phase Shift (Dynamics Plus / Lukecage)
Yeti Ship One (Sub Yeti / Lukecage)
XMHFHJHUIGGVFVV
Pimp Saint Peter (JSwift / Lukecage)
Mothership My Ass Nigga Interlude (Lukecage)
Street Meat (JSwift / Lukecage)
Human Race (Harv Nicholes)
New Audio: The Best 50+ Singles of 2015
After a two year hiatus, in which life was just way too busy, and I never got a chance to compile it, the JOVM Best Singles List returns. Out of the countless singles I’ve listened […]
Last night, I learned that JOVM has had readers and viewers from over 117 countries across the world — this year. 117! I’m honored, flattered and incredibly humbled that my childhood obsession with music and my labor of love have become a part of so many people’s lives. With 2015 coming to a close, I want to thank you, dear friends for letting me come into your screen and hopefully bring a little bit of joy, wonder and meaning into your lives. And if I’ve done that, I’ve been wildly successful in ways that I never would have dreamt.
This month’s playlist comes a couple of days early, but don’t let that faze you much. In typical JOVM fashion, the December playlist is wildly eclectic — and touches upon several decades of artists and songs both known and obscure. You’ll come across Eric B. and Rakim, R.E.M., Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, The Posies, Foo Fighters, The Smiths, JOVM mainstays The Black Angels, Johnny Cash, June Carter Cash, Patsy Cline, Nancy Sinatra, The Fixx, Pearl Jam, INXS, The Verve, New Order, Big Daddy Kane, Pink Floyd, Peter Gabriel, Michael Jackson, Los Angeles‘ Line & Circle, shoegaze pioneers RIDE, the club-rocking sounds of Neon Indian, Cameo, Twin Limb, the fantastic Charles Bradley, Black Sabbath, and a tribute to Motorhead‘s Lemmy Kilmister. And that’s just off the top of my head. Enjoy!
Although she’s the daughter of Alan Menken, the pianist and musical theater and film composer famously known for composing the scores of several beloved Disney animated films — including Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, The Little Mermaid, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Pocahontas and others, the New York-based singer/songwriter and JOVM mainstay artist Anna Rose has developed a growing national profile with the release of her self-titled EP, her full-length debut effort Nomad and her sophomore effort, Behold A Pale Horse. Whereas both her self-titled EP and Nomad were mostly acoustic-leaning singer/songwriter efforts with conversational and confessional lyrics, Behold A Pale Horse was a both a change of sonic direction and a bold, brassy announcement of an artist who finally found her most natural and singular voice. But if there’s one thing that holds all three of those efforts together, it’s the fact that all of them reveal that New York-based singer/songwriter and guitarist as a complicated and interesting woman who kicks ass and takes names, who is strong yet vulnerable, seductive yet innocent, wizened through experience and yet youthful.
Slated for release in 2016, Strays In The Cut EP is the long awaited follow-up to Behold A Pale Horse and the EP reportedly has the New York-based singer/songwriter pushing her musical and songwriting boundaries. As Anna Rose explains in press notes “I am very much an album artist and a storyteller, so the idea of scaling it all back to the size of an EP was a challenge in itself. It forced me to look at the songs in a different way, the production, everything. These six songs needed to tell the whole story. The limitations I placed on the length made the process so much more imaginative in every other aspect.” “Start A War,” Strays In The Cut‘s first single possesses a somewhat stripped down, country and blues-leaning arrangement that’s roomy enough for Rose’s unhurried and expressive vocals. It’s a slow-burning and spectral ballad full of lingering ghosts of past relationships and lovers, past resentments and a past that routinely finds a way to poke its way through your present at a random moment. But the song does so with a quiet and understanding acceptance a a subtle sense of regret.
Currently comprised of Brigid Dawson (vocals and tambourine), Petey Damnit (a.k.a. Petey Damnit!) Mike Shoun (drums) and led by the band’s founder member and creative mastermind, John Dwyer (vocals and guitar), San Francisco-based quarter Thee Oh Sees have developed a reputation both regionally and nationally for being incredibly prolific, as they’ve released over a dozen albums since their official formation back in 2004 — and for being relentlessly experimental, as each album they’ve released has been decidedly different, while remaining true to their garage rock/psych rock origins. And naturally, as result of their prolificacy, their reputation for sweaty, raucous, and punishing live set and their ability to craft mind-melting power chord-based rock, the Bay Area-based outfit has become a JOVM mainstay and blogosphere darlings.
2015 has been a big year for Dwyer and associates as they released the critically acclaimed Mutilator Defeated At Last, arguably one of the heaviest and hardest hitting efforts the band has released in recent memory. And they’ll close out the year playing a number of live shows — including a two night benefit concert for L.A. Kitchen, a Los Angeles-based charity, whose mission is to provide healthy meals to the area’s homeless and help unemployed and unskilled men and women for jobs and more. But they also will close out the year with the announcement of the release of the “Fortress”/”Man In A Suitcase” 7 inch, slated for a February 12 release through Dwyer’s renowned Castle Face Records.
The material for the new 7 inch is culled from the Mutilator Defeated sessions and acts as an addendum of sorts to the album, as well as a teaser for a full-length slated for release sometime in 2016. A Side single “Fortress” is probably the most prog rock-leaning song Dwyer and associates have released in some time, as the song consists of propulsive and forceful, motorik-like groove, a throbbing bass line, breakneck, mind-melting guitar chords and falsetto vocals — all of which give the song an anxious, buzzing and nightmarish feel that evokes the sensation of restless tossing and turning.
Tour Dates
Wednesday 12/16 Los Angeles, CA (L.A. Kitchen benefit) – Buy Tickets
Thursday 12/17 Los Angeles, CA (L.A. Kitchen benefit) – Buy Tickets
Thursday 12/31 Palm Springs CA, The Commune at Ace Hotel
Friday 1/8 Brisbane, Crow Bar
Saturday 1/9 Gold Coast, Shark Bar
Sunday 1/10 Byron Bay, The Northern
Wednesday 1/13 Newcastle, The Small Ballroom
Friday 1/15 Sydney, Newtown Social Club
Saturday 1/16 Wollongong, Wollongong Uni Bar
Tuesday 1/19 Geelong, Barwon Club
Wednesday 1/20 Melbourne, Howler
Saturday 1/23 Fremantle, Mojo’s Bar
Friday 2/12 Solana Beach, Belly Up Tavern
Wednesday 3/23 – Sunday 3/27 – Boise ID, Treefort Music Festival
If you’ve been frequenting JOVM over roughly the last 15-18 months or so, you may have come across a couple of posts on Scott Reitherman, the creative mastermind behind indie electro pop sensation, Pillar Point and the former frontman of pop act, Throw Me The Statue. With Pillar Point, Reitherman has received national attention for a melancholy yet bouncy electro pop sound primarily comprised of vintage, analog synthesizers, drum kits and sleek bass lines. It’s a sound that’s been compared favorably to several blogosphere darling acts including Washed Out, LCD Soundsystem and others.
While touring to support his solo debut with of Montreal , Reitherman was planning to write and record his sophomore full-length effort, Marble Mouth in his Seattle home when Kevin Barnes unexpectedly invited him to record the album in his home studio. As soon as the tour wrapped up, Reitherman spent several months crafting demos and went to Barnes’ home to flesh out, refine and then record Marble Mouth‘s material with contributions from Washed Out’s drummer Cameron Gardener and Kishi Bashi‘s percussionist Philip Mayer. Reitherman then spent a six month sent in New Orleans writing and refining both the album’s lyrics and vocals. And as Reitherman explained in press notes, New Orleans managed to influence the album’s lyrical direction.“New Orleans was the most meditative and mysterious part of making the record,” Reitherman explained. “I wanted to sink into that city and scrutinize the romantic southern sojourn.”
Marble Mouth’s first single, album opening track “Part Time Love” paired layers of twitchy and cascading synths with propulsive, four-on-the-floor drumming and Reitherman’s ethereal cooing to craft a sound that’s reminiscent of Talking Heads, Tobacco and others, while it subtly nodded at Top 40 pop; in other words, the sound is tense, neurotic and incredibly danceable and accessible pop with infectious hooks. The album’s latests single “Dove” pairs confessional R&B/pop-leaning lyrics sung with Reitherman’s achingly plaintive and emotive vocals with house music-leaning production comprised of layers of cascading synths, skittering drum programming, a glitchy and dramatic string sample and swirling electronics in what may be arguably the most club-friendly song of the entire album.
New Video: The Gorgeous and Haunting Visuals for We Are Temporary’s “You Can Now Let Go”
Mark Roberts, the creative mastermind behind the critically acclaimed, Brooklyn-based indie electro pop project, We Are Temporary has developed a reputation for crafting music that draws from a wide range of influences within contemporary electronic […]
New Video: The Trippy and Stylistic New Video for Chet Faker and Marcus Marr’s “The Trouble With Us”
London-based DJ, producer, electronic music artist and multi-instrumentalist Marcus Marr is an internationally recognized artist, who has released a number of critically acclaimed singles through renowned electro pop/dance music/dance punk label DFA Records. His two best known […]