Tag: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: THIEF Shares Bruising, Expansive “Moon and Kill”

Starting his career as a member of San Francisco-based experimental black metal outfit BOTANIST, contributing hammered dulcimer and bass for their acclaimed 2017’s Collective: The Shape of He to Come, the Los Angeles-based singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Dylan Neal initially split his time with BOTANIST and his solo recording project THIEF, with which he has released 2016’s Thieves Hymn in D Minor, 2019’s Map of Lost Keys, 2021’s The 16 Deaths of My Master and the Cicatrix/Diamond Brush split album with BOTANIST and 2024’s Bleed Memory.

Neal’s fifth THIEF album, Sermons from the Pit is slated for a November 27. 2026 release through Prophecy Productions. Reportedly, Neal’s most ambitious and uncompromising effort to date, Sermons from the Pit socially pairs the project’s manipulated liturgical choirs with his self-described and self-developed “Cathedral Clipping” production technique, in which reverberant sounds are reportedly overdriven through successive gain stages to produce dense, harmonic distortion, feedback and cavernous textures. Sonically, Sermons from the Pit is THEIF as its most visceral and forceful: ethereal choirs are paired with pummeling rhythms and towering walls of sound. The result is something both intimate and unsettling. Neal describes the album as “transmissions from an unspeakable place”—a descent beneath the surface of consciousness into the murkiness of the subconscious and where belief takes shape.

Sermons from the Pit’s first single “Moon and Kill” is a bruising and anthemic blend of industrial, goth, trap and New Wave featuring skittering tweeter and roofer rattling beats, scorching synths and guitars paired with rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. The song moves through furious mosh pit-inducing rage, melancholy and meditative introspection and acceptance throughout its expansive structure.

“Sermons from the Pit moves through stages of frenetic energy which are tempered by sullen, meditative moments of respite. “’Moon and Kill’ is a microcosm of that, encapsulating the album’s broader thematic movement from rage to despair and acceptance,” THEIF creative mastermind Dylan Neal says. “The ending is one of my favorite moments on the album, where the vocals are just kind of cooing over a time-stretched organ and choral sample. The track’s voice oscillates between executioner and victim. At the risk of stealing the listener’s meaning away, I’ll speak of the track by saying that when love and trust collapse, the same anger and disbelief experienced by murderers and saints alike are experienced. Which implement do you choose? Weapon or forgiveness?”

The accompanying video was shot, edited and features visual effects by Dylan Neal and is fittingly haunted, while depicting what appears to be an execution before its eerie coda.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Trentemøller and Mew’s Jonas Bjerre Team Up on Shimmering and Anthemic “Terrified”

Anders Trentemøller’s self-titled eighth Trentemøller album is slated for a November 13, 2026 release through his In My Room Records. The self-titled album’s latest single “Terrified” feat. Mew‘s Jonas Bjerre is a collaboration that finds the Danish artists crafting an anthemic bit of uplift that’s seamlessly blend of shoegaze and twinkling, hook-driven dream pop paired with stream-of-consciousness lyrics.

Throughout the song’s runtime, Bjerre sings lyrics that focus tackling the specter of fear head-on. “When the instrumental was done, I sent it to Jonas Bjerre with a few melody ideas, which he took further while adding new melodies of his own,” Trentemøller says. He then reshaped the track, explaining “‘Terrified’ is probably the poppiest song on the album. In its original form it sounded a bit more shoegazey, but I wanted it to be crisper and clearer, less washed out. So I went for synths that almost sound like human voices, with a magical, otherworldly quality to them.”

“I think sometimes when you dream about things that make you fearful and uneasy, it’s your mind trying to prepare you for any scenario, like you’re processing catastrophes that have not and may not ever happen,” Mew’s Jonas Bjerre says of the song’s themes.

Directed by Jonas Bjerre, the accompanying video for “Terrified” is a mind-bending blend of animation, live action footage and photography that turns the collaborators’ hometown of Copenhagen into a lysergic, brightly colored dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Erykah Badu and The Alchemist Team Up on Woozy and Mind-Bending “Witch Doctor”

In the 11 years since her last release and 16 since her last studio album, Erykah Badu has been busy, gathering not conclusions but rather, a series of existential insights through whirlwind touring, teaching, motherhood, doula work and the sort of deep reflection informed by living and raising children in a rapidly changing, increasingly dystopian world. During that same period, her cultural influence has only expanded: The five-time Grammy Award-winner with 20 nominations appeared on the cover of Vogue back in 2023. received the CDFA Fashion Icon Award in 2024 and Billboard‘s Icon Award last year. And she has done this while continuing to collaboration across generations with the like software Janelle Monáe, Tyler, the Creator, Flying Lotus, Robert Glasper, Teyana Taylor, Rapsody, and a lengthy list o others.

The Alchemist has firmly established a reputation for being one of hip-hop’s most prolific producers, releasing multiple efforts a year including, last year’s Alfredo 2 with Freddie Gibbs, the sequel to their Grammy Award 2020 album Alfredo; last year’s Life Is Beautiful with Larry June and 2 Chainz; this year’s Spiral Staircases with Larry June and Curren$y and LIQUID FORM. Continuing a remarkably prolific and productive period, The Alchemist and Erykah Badu teamed up for Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment.

Abi is Badu. Alan is The Alchemist. Released today through Control Freaq Records /YOUNG, the acclaimed duo’s collaboration finds Badu contemplating which parts of ourselves and our stories — love, innocence, dreams, memories, womanhood — are worth protecting before the world breaks apart and fragments. Meditative and fluid, the album’s material unfolds across four movements, charting the progression of the self through the prisms of of love, art and identity while inviting the listener to sit with difficult and complex feelings. Throughout the album’s runtime, passion blurs with desire, hope with grief — with each song revealing another facet of Badu’s universe. Or shall we call it the Baduverse?

The collaboration between the two acclaimed artist can trace its origins back to roughly 2023: Badu told her longtime creative partner Cold Cris that she always wanted to rap over Mobb Deep’s “The Realest,” a gritty, thumping yet soulful Alchemist production. The Alchemist — who had quietly been hoping to work with Badu for years — was introduced soon after, and their conversations grew into a full-fledged collaborative effort. The duo’s first studio session together in Los Angeles yielded the previously released “Next to You.” which laid the foundation for what would become an entirely new sonic language. Later, The Alchemist sent Baud a collection of instrumental beats, which she deconstructed and sculpted into tracks that felt uniquely hers, embellishing his warm, punchy samples with kalimba, immersive chord structures and drums. The’s album material sonically moves fluidly and effortlessly between soul, blues, funk, jazz and underground hip-hop and yet somehow belongs entirely to none of them.

Between 2024-2025, Badu and The Alchemist road-tested the album’s material live, performing in intimate, phone-free settings with Badu’s digital collective The Cannabinoids and The Alchemist on the MPC, fine tuning tracks along the way. The result is quite possibly the most forward-thinking batch of material of either artist’s career, an album that’s meant to live and evolve with you through space and time while inviting the lister to continually explore themselves, to have one more kiss, one more hit, one more dance, one more joke, all before the world blows.

“Witch Doctor,” Before the World Blows: The Abi and Alan Experiment‘s latest single is a woozy and strutting blend of neo soul, soul jazz, hip-hop, voodoo and experimental pop within an expansive, endlessly mothering, kaleidoscopic production branch Badu’s imitable, jazz-like croon. Throughout the song Badu referencing witches having a deeper, more mystical connection with both their universe and their surroundings — unlike those cornball TV witches.

Directed by and starring Erykah Badu with a brief cameo by The Alchemist, with cinematography by Ayinde Anderson, the accompanying video for “Watch Doctor” is both a companion piece and a sort of continuing of the Dallas-born artists 2010 short film “Window Seat.” 16 years later, Badu returns to the same Dallas neighborhood with a new perspective, exploring what remains after the world as taken everything it can from an artist, and pointing towards the one thing it can never manufacture, characterize or possess: the very source itself.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Elephant Stone Share Dreamlike and Meditative “Parallel and Contrary Motion”

Montréal-based JOVM mainstays Elephant Stone — founder Rishi Dihr (vocals, bass and sitar), along with longtime members Miles Dupire (drums), Robbie MacArthur (guitar) and Jason Kent (keys, guitar) — just released their 10th album, ASHA today through Elephants On Parade. Limited edition signed and hand-numbered vinyl are available through Little Cloud Records.

Named after the Elphant Stone frontman’s late mother, Asha translates to “hope” in Sanskirt — and is meditation on grief, hope, and the friction between sorrow and the darkness of our time.ASHA includes the previously released “Everything Evil,” “Fascists Killed Yer Rock ‘N’ Roll,” “I’ve Got A Pill” and the album’s latest single “Parallel and Contrary Motion.” Sitting at the heart of the album, “Parallel and Contrary Motion” is an intimate and lived-in reflection on the strange space between loss and acceptance that sonically seems like a blend of 2112-era Rush (think of “Tears” in particular), Tame Impala-like psych pop, Wish You Were Here-era Pink Floyd and 70s glam rock. The result is a song that’s dream-like, achingly nostalgic, full of longing — and yet, anchored in a bittersweet acceptance of finality.

Elephant Stone’s Rishi Dhir explains, “‘Parallel and Contrary Motion’ is the emotional center of this record for me. Musically it’s something I’d been chipping away at for a couple of years. The title actually came from one of my daughter’s piano books. I liked it as a phrase before I knew what the song was about.”

He continues, “Lyrically it started as something for my friend Christian Dorey. He’d always dealt with anxiety and depression, but it became paralyzing for him during COVID. He lived about an hour and a half from me, in Bromont. A few years ago he attempted suicide. I wanted to be there for him but he told me he wasn’t ready to see me. Last year he took his life. I wrote more about him and what happened here. This song was written before I understood what it was actually about.”

John Mark Lapham, director of the accompanying music video, says, “Rishi sent me Elephant Stone’s new album to check out and this track immediately stood out to me. It felt like the 70’s shot through a modern lens and had a chorus that I couldn’t shake. Not long after, he asked if I’d like to make a video for it and it seemed fated. He initially asked about me creating an animated video but I already had some imagery that bubbled up with this song: a man in the process of dying but was in need of a little push to help let go. The concept was definitely a different spin on the lyrics (I think…) but the music and the visuals of this creature were haunting me and so I pulled a team together and we shot the video in the middle of the Texas summer at an old power plant in Abilene. It was a fantastic experience.”
 
 The JOVM mainstays will be embarking on a North American headlining tour in September to support the abum. The tour incudes a September 18, 2026 stop at TV Eye. Tour dates are below. And you can check out more information and grab tickets here.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Black Doldrums Return with Joy Division-like “Repetition”

London-based post punk trio Black Doldrums founding duo Sophie Landers (vocals, drums) and Kevin Gibbard (vocals, guitar) with newest member Matt Holt (bass) — will be releasing their third studio album Repetition Compulsion on November 13, 2026 through Fuzz Club. Deriving its title from a psychological concept first explored and named by Freud, the recently announced album is the final part of the London-based band’s State of Mind Trilogy, a three-album exploration of the psychological forces that shape identity, memory and human connection which began with their debut, 2022’s Dead Awake and 2024’s In Limerence. At the heart of all of their work is the creative and personal relationship between the band’s founding duo of Gibbard and Landers, whose relationship forms the emotional foundation for the forthcoming album — and the lens through which its themes are explored. As Gibbard explains, “These songs are either about Sophie, for Sophie, or inspired by her.”

Thematically, the 11-song album reportedly sees the London-based trio exploring how repetitive patterns and behaviors shape intimate relationships, collective memory, politics and wellbeing in a way that’s both deeply personal and quietly universal. Through evocative songwriting and cinematic production, Gibbard says “the album invites listeners to confront the echoes of the past while questioning whether those patterns can ever truly be broken.”

Inspired by 80s gothic post punk, synth pop, darkwave and the film scores of John Carpenter and Vangelis, Black Doldrums build on the emotional and sonic foundations of these influences to create something cinematic, modern and completely their own. Each of Repetition Compulsion‘s 11-songs has been crafted with intention, with the band balancing darkness with beauty to create a sod that’s melodic, broodingly atmospheric and with emotional depth. Listeners should expect to hear layers of analog synths, chorus pedal-soaked guitar and driving rhythms paired with an expansive production that gives each arrangement a sense of massive, cinematic scale. Rather than relying on nostalgia, the album presents post-punk as a living, ever-evolving form, with the band embracing atmosphere without sacrificing melody, introspection without loss of momentum and darkness without abandoning hope.

Repetition Compulsion will feature the previously released “Repetition” its second single, “Compulsion.” is a brooding and hook-driven, Joy Division-like song featuring angular guitars and a motorik pulse beneath Kevin Gibbard’s yearning Ian Curtis-like delivery.

“I wrote ‘Compulsion’ as the second part of our first single, ‘Repetition’. It originally started life as one piece of work, but naturally split into two separate songs,” Kevin Gibbard explains. “That gave us the opportunity to directly reference ‘Repetition; while continuing the central themes of the album and reinforcing the idea that all of the songs are connected in some way. The opening line, “Here we are again, repetition once more”, immediately brings the two songs together. Where ‘Repetition’ has a more dirge-like feel that literally reflects the idea of repetition, ‘Compulsion; has a greater sense of forward motion, building in intensity as it develops. We’re really proud of how the track fits within the wider concept of the album. We wanted to take a considered, interconnected approach, and I think ‘Compulsion’ really captures that idea. It feels like a natural progression from ‘Repetition’, while also taking the story and the sound somewhere new.”

Directed by the band’s Sophie Landers, the accompanying video for “Repetition” references the video for its immediate predecessor as it features the band performing the video in an abandoned factory with the imagery previous video’s imagery projected behind them. And another set of characters watching the video for “Compulsion” in a darkened room.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Jonathan Personne Shares Shimmering and Dreamy “Je pense toi”

Initially known for his roles as co-founder, co-lead vocalist, guitarist, lyricist and songwriter in internationally acclaimed JOVM mainstay act Corridor, Montréal-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, animator and visual artist Jonathan Robert is by both necessity and nature, a prolific and versatile artist. He’s also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project, Jonathan Personne, which derives its name from the French version of John Doe — or perhaps a bit more accurately, Jonathan Nobody. The project’s name reflects his determination to simultaneously not represent a specific person and to better reflect his multifaceted artistic identity.

Over the past seven years, he released four albums that saw him drawing from a wide range of influences including desert dream pop, Morriocone-esque Spaghetti Western rock, The Clean-like jangle pop, Latin-influeinced grooves, Galaxie 500 and Yo La Tengo-like indie rock, as well as sampling, sequencing and beatmaking. And he’s done this while working on albums with his primary gig, Corridor. 

Robert’s fifth Jonathan Personne album Répertoire officially drops today through Bonsound. The album’s material can trace its origins back to six years ago: When he began working on what would eventually become Repertoire, the Montréal-based artist sensed a significant change in direction and chose to focus on another set of songs instead. This lead to his acclaimed, self-titled third album. The new album sees Robert brining some light to his firmly established melancholic sound, with the album’s material drawing from yacht rock and dream pop to create something entirely unexpected. Anchored around melodic bass lines, looping figured and self-sampled guitars, the result is a sound that’s groovy yet contemplative, dreamlike yet noisy. 

Thematically, the 10-song album sees the French Canadian JOVM mainstay reflecting on his relationship with music, vacillating between moments of repulsion and ones that remind him why he chose — and loves — his career. Répertoire‘s will include the previously released, album opener “Rêve américain,” “Superstar,” and the album’s latest single “Je pense à toi.” “Je pense à toi” is an intricate and lush tune, built around a shimmering and looping guitar figure, some mysterious, dream-like samples and a laid back yet supple and propulsive groove beneath Robert’s equally dreamy and ethereal deliver. The song may make you want to go for the sort of walk in which you lose yourself in your thoughts, which is apparently what the song is actually about.

Robert is also an accomplished visual artist and graphic designer, and he designed the album’s cover art. But for the new album, he swapped illustrations for a small-scale model of an idyllic mountain village, which helps set the material’s overall tone and vibe. Fittingly, the accompanying video features the Montréal-based artist and his backing band in the cover art’s idyllic mountain village performing the song in a mix of stop-motion styled animation and real life.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: J. Bernardt Returns with Swaggering and Strutting “Love Is On My Mind”

Jinte Deprez is an acclaimed singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, arranger, programmer and producer, best known as being one-half of the songwriting duo behind the acclaimed Belgian JOVM mainstays Balthazar. Over the course of their two-plus decades together, the acclaimed Belgian outfit has played across the global festival circuit with sets at All Points East, British Summer Time, and others — while selling over 600,000 albums globally. And during that same period of time, Deprez has firmly cemented a reputation for being a wildly talented generalist: Along with his songwriting partner and bandmate Maarten Devoldere, Deprez has co-produced three of Balthazar’s five albums to date. 

Deprez is also the creative mastermind behind the acclaimed solo recording project J. Bernardt, With J. Bernardt, Deprez has released two albums, 2016’s self-produced Running Days and 2024’s Tobie Speleman and Deprez co-produced Contigo. His third J. Bernardt album, the Paul Butler-produced Wild Swim is slated for a November 13, 2026 release through Play It Again Sam.

Unlike his previously released work, Deprez chose to step outside of anything familiar in his creative process. He travelled alone to Los Angeles, where he leaned hard into a caricature of himself: a washed-up European musician landing in America to reinvent his life and his carer. He learned so hard into the caricature that it was as though Jinte Deprez didn’t get on the plane; but rather, J. Bernardt.

Recorded at Los Angeles-based 64 Sound Studio, Wild Swim‘s producer Paul Butler created an initiative environment in which Deprez found what may arguably be the most liberated vocal performance of his entire career to date. “On my third solo record, I truly felt for the first time what singing can feel like.” he says. Los Angeles itself also left its mark on both Deprez an the recording sessions. The city’s uncompromising and frenetic energy collided head-on with the acclaimed Belgian artist’s West Flemish instinct for restraint “In the US, there is no time for subtlety. You surrender to your impulses,”

Many of the songs were recorded in fiery one-take performances with Alabama Shakes‘ Lewis Wright (drums), Adele‘s Peter Randall (bass) and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’ Mitchell Yoshida (keys). The result is a more ope and expansive sound that retains the project’s signature but expands into a retro-modernist sound with smoldering rhythms and sprawling melodies. The Motown-like backing vocals of Lex Noblitt, Isabel Whelan and Dasha Chadwick are woven throughout the album’s material, acting as a counterpart to Deprez’s vibrato. And Butler’s kaleidoscopic production makes the album’s material feel as though every window in the Belgian artist’s mind has been thrown open at once. The result is album that’s euphoric and reckless.

Thematically, Wild Swim sees Deprez take a new direction. Whereas his previously released albums were fairly autobiographical, the new album features a more universal perspective, embracing a manic celebration of life’s randomness. The song’s aren’t anchored in reason, but rather in feeling with the album being a balancing act between lust for life and a sort of euphoric nihilism. “After the wreckage of a breakup, eventually you reach the point where you can see the humor in life again,” Deprez says.

Wild Swim will include the previously released “Four In The Morning” and the album’s latest single “Love Is On My Mind.” The new single is a strutting and soulful pop tune that showcases Deprez’s uncanny knack for remarkably catchy hooks — but while arguably being among the most euphoric, playful tunes of his growing catalog.

“’Love Is on My Mind’ is a guitar-driven song I wrote on an old piano, while feeling watched by the stars,” Deprez explains. “It’s about a new, unintentional starting point — ‘I hear it coughing around the corner, ready to cause a scene, how the hell did love get in my mind.’ Who knows when or how, but you always seem to pick yourself back up one day, right when you weren’t paying attention.”

Directed by SJ Spreng, the accompanying video is a cinematically shot GQ-like visual sho tin Los Angeles earlier this year and features the Belgian artist in some snazzy outfits, strutting and vamping in the hills.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tokyo Tea Room Returns with Breezy “Hypnotised”

Last year’s full-length debut, No Rush saw the rising Margate, UK-based outfit Tokyo Tea Room — Daniel James Elliot, Beth Dunn, Ben Marshall, Sam Teather and Sam Ewens — quickly establishing a sound and approach that takes listeners on a journey within a tender, comfortable bubble. Their music is inspired by lived-in, human emotions while thematically exploring longing and the ephemeral nature of existence. The album eventually led to millions of monthly listeners across the DSPs and a sold-out North American tour, helping the band amass a rapidly growing global audience.

The Margate-based quintet’s highly anticipated sophomore album, the Daniel James Elliot and Kristofer Harris co-produced Feel Forever is slated for a September 18, 2026 release through Nice Guys. The album, which marks the first time Elliot has worked with a producer, reportedly sees the rising taking a bold step forward with their sound. And while being a decided evolution, the material remains rooted in the emotional depth that they’ve begun to be known for. “We took a yacht rock approach to the recording, taking our time to smooth all the edges and make something that felt more polished than the last record,” Elliot says of Feel Forever‘s recording process. “Both of us spent hours obsessing over the smallest detail, which felt very apt for this album. The result is something that we are all very proud of, it’s a different kind of Tokyo Tea Room that has come out the other side of it, but it feels right and I hope people enjoy listening.”

Feel Forever will include the previously released “Eyes Off You” “Always In The Sun” and album’s fourth and latest single “Hypnotised.” Featuring glistening synth stabs, a sinuous and strutting disco groove beneath Beth Dunn’s yearning, ethereal delivery, “Hypnotised” is a hook-driven and breezy tune that’s seemingly one-part yacht rock, one-part Yumi Zouma — and wholly escapist fantasy of eloping to balmier climates with a lover or love interest. But beneath the laid-back two-step including groove and beach club-meets-lounge vibes, “Hypnotised” captures the woozy and euphoric glee of madly obsessive love.

“‘Hypnotised’ is about that feeling of being completely drawn in, when everything else around you seems to blur,” says the band’s Daniel James Elliot. “It’s the uncertainty and fantasy that contribute to the excitement of something new, and I wanted to reflect that in this song, kinda like a soundtrack to your mind wandering into a daydream.”

Directed and animated by CC Mulligan, the accompanying video for “Hypnotised,” features some mind-bending, brightly colored and downright trippy imagery.

The rising British act will return to North America for a fall tour, supporting their new material. The tour includes two NYC area dates — October 13, 2026 at Music Hall of Williamsburg and October 14, 2026 at Bowery Ballroom. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Julia Jacklin Returns with Anthemic “The Hardest Thing”

Acclaimed Melbourne-based singer/songwriter and musician Julia Jacklin will be releasing her highly-anticipated fourth album, the Robert Muiños and Jacklin co-produced, 10-song album  The Gem through 4AD Records digitally and on CD, cassette and vinyl on September 25, 2026. Exclusive color vinyl editions with retailers will include turquoise, green opal, ruby and rose quartz. Pre-order information can be found here.

The album will include the previously released “Get Away From Me (I Think I’ll Love You),” the album’s closing track ” “I Wish” feat, Aussie folk sibling duo The Maes, and the album’s third single, “The Hardest Thing.” is a proudly heart-worn-on-sleeve anthemic ballad featuring a narrator, whose relationship on the brink, detailing a relationship at a crossroads — or about to peter out to an inevitable conclusion. Lyrically, the song is rooted in small, lived-in details that give the song a personal yet deeply universal touch.

Directed by Danny Cohen, the accompanying video was shot in one lengthy take and filmed from a helicopter winding through Melbourne’s skyline, gradually showcasing the acclaimed artist performing the song on top of skyscraper.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sour Widows Share Hypnotic and Urgent “Lucky Star”

Bay Area-based duo Sour Widows — Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson — will be releasing their highly-anticipated Melina Duterte-produced sophomore album Sigil on October 23, 2026 through Julia’s War Recordings.

Not long ago, Sour Widows’ Maia Sinaiko had a nightmare that morphed into an epiphany. While they slept, Sinaiko imagined that the world was ending, that the Earth itself was about to be swallowed by a black hole. From their perch in an old bedroom in a long-ago apartment, Sinaiko saw that physics itself was rupturing — water ran in reverse, doors locked and unlocked without a touch, traffic lights hung upside down. All traces of human civilization would soon be obliterated, our collective efforts lost forever; no one would ever know, Sinaiko realized in their nocturnal terror, about the films their sister had made. Sinaiko cried to their father, who responded to this looming end-of-everything scenario with an unexpected bit of sanguine wisdom: “But it could be amazing.” 

That dream is the premise of the album’s opener a title track “Sigil,” an album that derives its name from a dream that Susanna Thomson had about making an album called Sigil. The album’s material navigates a wasteland of human cruelty, brutality and loss to emerge with a defiant, hard-won hope. Throughout the album’s runtime, terrible things happen: A genocide leaves bodies rotting in the sun. Lovers subjugate their counterparts with empty promises, emotional abuse, and physical dominance. Parents are lost, leaving behind massive chasms emotionally and psychologically that continue to grow. And yet, the conflicts and crises described throughout the album’s songs alternately produce righteous rage, welcome solidarity and revelatory freedom. Thematically, the album touches on growth and persevering through hard shit — as we are right now — and as a result, the songs reportedly feel like deep, personal breakthroughs. In life, an end is always nearby. But what comes after can be fucking amazing.

Sonically, Sigil‘s material curves in unexpected directions and is anchored in a newfound immediacy that feels as though the duo have urgent findings and thoughts to share with the listener, making the album arguably the most magnetic they’ve written and recorded to date.

Sigil‘s latest single “Lucky Star” manages to be a hypnotic yet urgent, searing yet melodic tune that alternates between dreamily melodic verses and noisy, screeching electronics-driven hooks and anthemic, mosh pit friendly choruses — and it’s all underpinned by a shimmering, looping guitar line. The song twists, turns and morphs in odd, prismatic directions. “‘Lucky Star’ is a spell for achieving your dream. Sing the chorus to yourself before bed and maybe it’ll come true,” says Maia Sinaiko.

Directed by the band’s Maia Sinaiko and Susanna Thomson, the accompanying video for “Lucky Star” was shot on VHS tape — and accurately captures 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock vibes.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Leon Bridges Shares Strutting and Buoyant “Talk It Over”

Atlanta-born, Fort Worth, TX-raised singer/songwriter and musician Leon Bridges quickly established himself as one of America’s most exciting new artists with 2015’s platinum-certified, Grammy Award-nominated debut Coming Home, which featured breakout singles “Coming Home” and “River.” Bridges followed up with 2018’s critically applauded Good Thing, which saw him expanding upon his sonic panic while earning a Grammy Award-nomination for Best R&B Album and a Grammy Award for Best Traditional R&B Performance for “Bet Ain’t Worth the Hand.”

2021’s Gold-Diggers Sound was the acclaimed Atlanta-born, Fort Worth-based artist’s most adventurous album to date, and the album received critical applause while earning another Grammy Award-nomination for Best R&B Album. His most recent album, 2024’s Lean is an introspective effort inspired by his Texan roots and his artistic evolution.

Along with his solo work. he has collaborated with equally acclaimed act Khraungbin on two albums — 2020’s Texas Sun and 2022’s Texas Moon. Bridges who has earned six Grammy Award-nominations — three for Best R&B Album — and a Grammy Award-win, has also collaborated with an eclectic array of artists, including John Mayer, Kacey Musgraves, Robert Glasper, Terrace Martin, Gunna, The Avanlanches, Gary Clark, Jr. and Shaboozey, all of which showcase a remarkably versatile artist.

Adding to a rapidly growing profile, Bridges has a long-held reputation as a captivating live performer, who has made a run of the global concert and festival circuit, playing an increasing number of the world’s major festivals while making appearances on Saturday Night Live, NPR’s Tiny Desk Concert and Austin City Limits.

Bridges fourth album, the J Lloyd-Watson and Lydia Kitto-produced fifth album, Happiness Anytime is slated for a September 25, 2026 release through Columbia Records. Happiness Anytime reportedly sees the acclaimed Atlanta-born, Fort Worth-based artist returning to the warmth of his 2015 debut but while seeing the members of Jungle and Bridges’ signature sensibilities blending to create something entirely new — an expansive, borderless sound and approach that pushes the Grammy Award-winning artist into band new territory. The material reportedly echoes Fela Kuti, Paul Simon’s 1990 effort The Rhythm of The Saints and Jorge Ben without feeling referential. At its core, the album is reportedly boundary pushing while remaining unmistakably Leon Bridges, rooted in his imitable vocal, effortless charisma and melodic sensibilities.

The album was written and recorded across three fast and furious sessions with Lloyd-Watson and Kitto, a collaboration that can trace its origins to the trio repeatedly crossing paths across the global festival circuit. The trio decided to attempt a low-pressure writing session at Los Angeles-based Chaplin Recording Studios. Four days later, they ha come up with six songs — half of the completed album. Pino Palladino contributed bass during the sessions. The end result is a timeless body work of that feels unfussy and breezy — that they all hope will make the listener feel happiness anytime they play it.

“For me, happiness is not a feeling that you chase,” Bridges says,“I want this album to be something that lingers with people and lingers in people’s bones. There’s this feeling that we have to fix the problems of the world; you feel inadequate or it can be debilitating. My role is to be light. I hope that comes across with this album.” With Happiness Anytime, Bridges actively sets out with a desire to not only find joy but to find movement again.

Early in his career, Bridges was out in front dancing — and that was something that has wanted recently. He wanted to get back to making music to dance to, music to excise the stresses and frustrations of modern life, and to feel grounded in the rhythms of the present. Interestingly, over the summer, he has been introducing audiences to the new album with sets in Paris, Cannes, Los Angeles, Montreux Jazz Festival, London, Chicago and Outside Lands. And as he has being playing the new material live, he has unveiled “Leon Bridges Presents Happiness Anytime,” a reimagined stage production featuring a vinyl DJ, a horn section, three backing vocalists and Bridges out in front dancing and singing. Partly inspired by the communal spirt of Jamaican dancehall culture, the live set mirrors the album’s emphasis on movement — and on dancing your stresses and frustrations away for a bit.

In the meantime, Bridges recently released the second of three, 4-song EPs that will comprise the entire album. The second EP features album title track “Happiness Anytime,” “All Day All Night” feat. Lydia Kitto, “Fly Baby,” and “Talk It Over.” Featuring a strutting and jubilant, dance at the function groove beneath Bridges’ effortless, old-school soul-inspired delivery, “Talk It Over” is an ode to working things out and trying to make it all work that seemingly channels a blend of Al Green’s “Let’s Stay Together,” and The Rhythm of the Saints while showcasing his unerring knack for catchy hooks.

Directed by D+Y and shot in Amsterdam, the accompanying video features Bridges and a multi-racial collection of beautiful dancers performing choreography by the Plue Agency. The video is centered around the album’s inspirations — movement, dancing and ebullient, infectious joy. And honestly, we could all use a lot more joy in our lives.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Rival Sons’ Scott Holiday Fuzzy and Trippy Solo Project HOL1D4Y Shares Hook-Driven “AUTONOMATIC”

Scott Holiday is a singer/songwriter and guitarist, best known for his work with rock outfit Rival Sons. For more than three decades, Holiday has built a career by following his instincts. Before the idea of […]

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Brighton’s Split Dogs Shares Bruising and Anthemic “Suffer”

Deriving their name from the classic zombie film Return of the Living Dead, Brighton, UK-based punks Split Dogs — founding duo and romantic couple Harry Atkins (vocals) (they/them) and Mil Martinez (guitar) (he/him), along with Chris Hugall (drums) (he/him) and Suez Boyle (bass) (she/her) — can trace their origins back to 2015: The band’s founding members had the idea to start a band fueled by their frustration over music they saw as soulless and commodified product made to sell the listener and fans more useless shit.

As a youngster in South London, Mil Martinez would hear Status Quo, Bachman-Turner Overdrive and Dire Straits on the car radio while his father drove him to school. At home, he would invade his older brother’s record collection, which leaned towards punk and heavy metal. In the UK’s Black Country, Harry Atkins’ mother instilled a love of Northern Soul, Slade and rock ‘n roll, with stories of nights out at Club Lafayette and family singalongs at home. According to Martinez, “Our sound is a culmination of all those early influences and, to be honest, it really shows.”

Split Dogs officially appeared on the scene in 2022. Suez Boyle, a prominent figure in the queer punk scene, best known for her work with The Walking Abortions joined the band in 2023. Up until that point, Chris Hugall, an old friend of Martinez and a former member of ska punks Mouthwash, an act that was once signed on Rancid‘s Hellcat Records, helped design the band’s artwork. Hugall joined the band full-time last year, cementing the band’s current lineup. 

The quartet quickly won over Bristol’s accepting and tolerant punk scene, a scene that has always welcomed LGBQT+ folks and marginalized people, with raucous live shows featuring infectious lyrics. As word spread, the gigs increased and in short order, the Brighton-based punk outfit was playing sold-out rooms across the European Union, which caught the attention of British label Venn Records. 

The Brighton-based quartet released their Peter Miles-produced sophomore effort, Here to Destroy last year. Recorded over a breakneck three day session at Middle Farm Studios, the album, which featured album track “Lafayette” was laid straight to a 16-track reel-to-reel tape machine without autotune, effects pedals, and computers. Adding to the visceral authenticity of the recording, the album’s material was recored with Atkins singing along in a vocal booth. No cutting and pasting on a program. And it meant that everyone had to nail their takes. “It was a blast!” Split Dogs’ Martinez says. “We fully immersed ourselves, sleeping in a small apartment below the studio, cooking meals and listening to Pete’s extensive record collection.” 

The quartet’s third album, Nice N’ Rough is slated for a September 25, 2026 release through Venn Records. Its predecessor, Here To Destroy was recorded while the band’s then-new lineup was still feeling their way while Mil and Harry were in the midst of early parenthood; however, Nice N’ Rough is a bolder, brassier, even more fun effort. The new ingredients are “confidence and time,” says the band’s Mil Martinez. “We’ve not lost what we were, but we’ve evolved and tightened the screws, cleaned it up, made it a little slicker. The songs are more thought-out and everyone’s had a hand in them.” The album’s lyrics are brutal and funny, continuing a long-held and beloved rock ‘n’ roll tradition.

“Rock’n’roll’s meant to be fun, isn’t it?” Mil says. “There aren’t enough bands doing that OTT [“over the top”], tongue-in-cheek thing. When I was younger, I wanted to seem cooler and tougher than I was. Now, I don’t care what people think of me, so I wear my heart on my sleeve. We’re quite shameless, really.” 

Nice N’ Rough’s latest single “Suffer” is a bruising, arena rock ripper that seemingly channels Highway to Hell-era AC/DC, Ace of Spades-era Motörhead, Joan Jett and JOVM mainstays Amyl and the Sniffers. But beneath the power chord driven riffs and the rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses is a lived-in emotional and psychological turmoil. The result is a song that showcases a band that can deftly pair old school OTT rock riffs and bombast with deeply heartfelt, earnest lyricism.

Fittingly the accompanying video for “Suffer” features some hilarious rock tropes: The lead guitarist playing his explosive riffs as lightning bolts explode around him. Skulls, skulls and more skulls. The band playing the song in an eerie graveyard and more. It’s a bit of goofy fun.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: E. Lundquist Teams Up with JOVM Mainstay Kendra Morris on Upbeat “Wishing”

Los Angeles-based producer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Eric Borders is the creative mastermind behind E. Lundquist, a project that derives its name from a loving nod to his family lineage, bringing the focus back to his own story. With E. Lundquist, Borders specializes in a warmly cinematic sound rooted in Rhodes-driven soul jazz, funk, R&B, library records and live band groove and analog synth textures, reflecting a shift to an intimate, reflective and composer-led approach.

Borders’ forthcoming album Chasing My Reflections will touch upon themes of identity, resilience and self-reflection while featuring collaborations with Michael Damani, India Blue, Michael Edwards and JOVM mainstay Kendra Morris.

Chasing My Reflections‘ latest single “Wishing” features the Florida-born, New York-based JOVM mainstay’s effortlessly soulful croon over the sort of warm, buoyant, two-step-inducing neo-soul-like arrangement that would make the Soulquarians proud while being being a defiantly optimistic tune focused on the need to get back on your feet and get on with it, no matter how shitty everything seems.

“This song’s music had an overall upbeat, warm feel to it, so in writing it, I felt hopeful. . . .,” Kendra Morris says. “I’ve written plenty of sad songs, and it’s nice to just flip that sometimes. When Eric mentioned his inspiration behind the album and his working title at the time, ‘Reflections’, that got me thinking about my own perspective on life and struggling and how it’s great pushing forward and looking up rather than wallowing behind.”

Filmed and edited by Tony Delerme, the accompanying video for “Wishing” follows the JOVM mainstay walking down a brownstone-lined block rocking out to music on headphones, stopping to people watch before stopping at local bodega for snacks and hitting the subway. The video captures summertime in New York in a way that will bring a smile to New Yorkers faces.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Yoo Doo Right Shares Dreamy, Lysergic “Doldrums, Doldrums, Eviler Than the Devil”

Since their formation back in 2016, Montréal-based experiential rock outfit Yoo Doo Right — currently Justin Cober (guitar, bass, VI, synthesizer, piano, tape recordings and vocals) and John Talbot (drums, percussion) — have over the course of three full-length albums, three EPs, a handful of collaborations and singles and extensive touring across Europe, the UK and North America have firmly established a unique sound where “towering monoliths of roaring riffs crash against swarms of restless rhythms,” Pop Matters once wrote.

The Canadian duo’s fourth album, the Ky Brooks co-produced Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light is slated for a November 6, 2026 release through Mothland. The album’s material ranges from eardrum shatteringly loud forays into post-rock and krautock, highly-tempered, effects-landed pieces seemingly drawing from ambient, noise and drone, and more. Eschewing genre strictures and boundaries, the album sees the duo opting for a symbolic approach to creation, with each of its different pieces free to unfold in a myriad of ways upon each listen.

From its creators’ point of view, Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light chronicles the hardships of artistic resolve, acknowledging the daily grind required to keep the momentum while embracing the shared joy of the creative process. Throughout the album’s runtime, there’s an underlying tribute to the communities that foster art: “Industriestraße 9” pays homage to a defunct Luzerne squat where they used to play. Whereas symbolism seeps through song titles like Tortue”, “Sofort, Si fort,” and “To Be a Lambskin (Or to Be the Whole Flock)”, which offer enigmatic glimpses into creative vision. Co-producer Ky Brooks contributes a spoken word poem to album track “Neighbours Report Their Neighboours.” Timothy Aaron Brynan, who recently joined the duo on tour was invited to play bass on “Doldrums, Doldrums, Eviler Than the Devil,” a song that has quickly become a live set staple. Additionally Jessica Moss (violin) and Francis Leduc-Bélanger (trumpet, flugelhorn) make vital contributions to the album.

The Ky Brooks co-produced album was recorded at Montréal’s Hotel2Tango and Studio Error 403. Seth Manchester mixed the album at Providence’s Machine with Magnets. Amal Lal mixed the album at Oakland’s Macro Sound. The album’s cover art is a photo taken in Ovronanz, Switzerland by Julia Bender.

“There is a lot of joy and laughter in this album. For the first time in a while, we were feeling enriched and energized by what we were creating, the instruments we were using, and what was coming out,” the band says in a lengthy statement. “The record is us looking at our place in the world and deciding we were still committed to making music together. Boldly doing so with as much joy as we can drag out of the dried roots of modern day life. Rather than the anxiety-inducing white knuckle ‘when is it going to break’ energy we have worked with in the past, this record is optimistic but pensive. It holds onto the idea of transcendental musical themes and is deeply rooted in repetition and a clear momentum. A momentum we hope moves people, whether it is in thought or the physical.

“The title—Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light—highlights the main themes and motifs of the record as it stands. Rest and build, and rest and build, and rest and build… What else is there in our stories? Everyday is caring for ourselves and then doing everything in your power to care for those around us. A heroic journey is nothing but helping set camp up every night and making sure everyone is fed. A person’s ‘shepherd’ is defined by themselves, whether it’s music, their friends and families, their companion animals, or the very equipment they use to create! In each of our lives, we have the potential to draw strength and find rest in what is around us, build and rest by the shepherd’s light.

“Half the record came fully-formed, the other half was born of improvisational jamming. Originally made as pieces of music to help his partner sleep, Justin created ‘Industriestraße 9’ and ‘Neighbours Report Their Neighbours’ while isolated in a cabin over the Winter. ‘Doldrums, Doldrums, Eviler Than the Devil,’ ‘Tortue,’ and ‘Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light’ were us just having lots of fun in the studio, being excited by new ideas and sounds, challenging ourselves to dive deeply into new grooves and styles. The rest were either old ideas born anew or fully conceptualized pieces brought to life. While quite exploratory in its sonic landscape, we see the record as one cohesive story. A cinematic exercise that we hope people listen to in full.

We recorded with co-producer Ky Brooks. They are one of our favourite artists and a dear friend so the choice to have them hop on was an easy and exciting one. We booked studio time with no intention of finishing a record. The goal was to lay down some new ideas and get in the mindset of recording. Hotel2Tango is an incredibly warm and creatively conductive place for us. For four days straight, we put in 12-14 hour days and routinely got lost in the haze of creative fervor. Timothy joined us to record “Doldrums […]”. Jessica, Ezra, and Francis’ instruments, as well as Ky’s vocals, were recorded at Error 403. Having finished recording, we of course turned to Seth (mixing) at Machines with Magnets and Amar (mastering) at Macro Sound  to elevate the album.”

Clocking in a little over six minutes, Build and Rest by the Shepherd’s Light‘s first single “Doldrums, Doldrums Eviler Than the Devil” begins with a five-beat mantra-like guitar intro before subtly morphing into a four-beat motorik rhythm paired with the sort of intricately textured post rock and krautock arrangement the Montréal-based outfit is known for. Vocals delivered with a languid, narcoleptic-like drone dart in and out of the song’s arrangement — but the lyrics are up to the listener’s interpretation. The song manages to evoke a vivid yet hazily lysergic-tinged dream.

“I think I’ll spend my entire life circling the question: ‘What makes a film…a film?’ I also make narrative work, so part of what I’m circling with this film is whether meaning can exist without relying on narrative or literal representation. I think it’s important to explore the edges of what film can be, because that’s how I figure out what the centre of my practice is,” the video’s director Stacy Lee explains. “For me, the shape a film takes begins with intention. Why was this thing made? What are we trying to say? I always start here, and work outward. I don’t want to be boxed in by my own visual language, and blindly apply a visual style to a project. I want the visual language to come from the ideas already inside the work.

“It’s been a pleasure to continue being part of Yoo Doo Right’s world-building. Their music already has such a strong sense of atmosphere. It feels meditative and psychedelic to me, which gives me a door to enter. They’ve also given me the freedom and trust to explore without needing to know exactly where the process will lead. That space has allowed my practice, and each film we make together, to evolve naturally.

“Our previous video together, ‘Eager Glacier,‘ was the beginning of my cameraless exploration. At the time, I was still scared that the audience would lose interest if the work became completely abstract. I felt like I needed to give them something recognizable. Since then, I’ve had the chance to explore and develop my own techniques. In the same way that this album is a response to From the Heights of Our Pastureland, this film became a response to “Eager Glacier”. It comes out of the same world, but a bit further along the path. Brighter, bolder, and perhaps more beautiful. This time around, I felt more courageous.

The entire film is paint on film. There is no narrative, and there are no images that correlate to the song in a literal way. It’s carried by colour, texture, rhythm, and repetition alone. In the same way, the song builds its own meaning through repetition and accumulation. I wanted the film to respond in kind and take on a similar shape. It felt like the only form that honoured the intention of the work.”