Tag: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Austin’s Die Spitz Shares a Bruising, Mosh Pit Friendly Ripper

Rising Austin-based outfit Die Spitz — Ava Schrobilgen, Chloe De St. Aubin, Ellie Livingston and Kate Halter — can trace some of their origins back to when Schrobilgen and Livingston met in preschool. They befriended Halter in middle school. And they brought De St. Aubin into their friend group when they started the band back in 2022.

Initially, the quartet was looking to find reasons to hang out more often, and decided they should start a band after a late-night viewing of the Mötley Crüe biopic The Dirt. They settled on the name Die Spitz over a “brown bag of Fireball,” opting for the feminine German definite article in place of the English. “It reminds me of the Grim Reaper spitting,” Livingstone jokes.

Their first live shows saw them pairing originals with covers from some of their early inspirations including Black Sabbath, Pixies, Mudhoney, PJ Harvey and Nirvana. Unsurprisingly, they express their ideas and themselves through a shameless blend of classic punk, hardcore metal, alt rock and more. They’ve also become known for riotous live show, where dueling cartwheels, members climbing rafters and solos while crowdsurfing could happen at just about any moment.

The Texan quartet’s highly-anticipated full-length debut, the Will Yip-produced Something to Consume is slated for a September 12, 2025 release through Third Man Records. The album reportedly sees the members of Die Spitz combining their passion, friendship, identity and artistry to fight against the seemingly inescapable decay and chaos that surrounds modern life. “There’s a political side to it, but addiction and love can also be all-consuming,” the band’s Ellie Livingston says.

As the band trades off instruments, swapping songwriting and vocal duties, and generating powerful songwriting on concussive bursts, they have managed to create their own little pocket of the world, where we can all stand on the edge together.

Something to Consume‘s 11 tracks reportedly contains multitudes and yet feels like a singular epicene, an expansive and expressive collection, unified in its camaraderie and freedom. “We depend on our freedom — freedom to do what we want, present the ideas we want, make the music we want,” Livingston says. “Whether it’s based in metal or something soft, no matter which of us wrote the song, we all contribute and work together. As a person, I don’t have a strong ego or voice, but within this band each one of us is capable of so much more.”

“Something to Consume is an album experience for everyone. Whether you’re craving a smack of lively metal or a melancholy wave of grungey violin, there’s a piece of all of us injected. Something to Consume is a call to the multitudes of ways we as humans allow consumption to enrapture our culture as well as ourselves.”

Though they’ve only been playing together for a few years, the album also shows a maturity and technical prowess wielded and wed to the service of their deep and abiding friendship — and a hope to inspire change. “Some people aren’t interested in being political activists via music, but it weighs on me heavily and I feel misaligned with my calling if I don’t,” Chloe De St. Aubin says. “The four of us are free spirits with multiple interests, and there’s no limit or power dynamic that can derail us.”

Something to Consume‘s first single, “Throw Yourself to the Sword” is a bruising, most pit friendly synthesis of Slayer and long-haired Metallica era thrash metal, The Sword-like stoner rock and punk anchored around some of the hardest and grimiest riffs I’ve heard in some time paired with punchily delivered verses and feral howls for the song’s hooks and choruses. Play loud and open up that fucking pit — right now!

“‘Throw Yourself to the Sword’ is a high-energy ode to what we want young people to feel. There’s a lot of existentialism and despair in other songs on the album that still sheath the same theme, but ‘Throw Yourself to the Sword’ is the raise of optimism. Despite living in a state of mundanity or hopelessness, you can still rise up and fight the unknown, as long as you’re willing to throw yourself to it,” Ellie Livingston explains.

Fittingly, the accompanying video directed by Emily Sanchez is set in and around a local laundromat, supermarket and farm with young women playing “Throw Yourself to the Sword,” as the band’s frontperson appears and inspires them to be mischievous and joyful as a form of resistance and when necessary to pick up the sword and fight.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Sex Week Shares Brooding and Lynchian “Lone Wolf”

Brooklyn-based indie duo Sex Week — collaborative and romantic partners Richard Orofino and Pearl Amanda Dickson — can trace their origins back to 2022: Orofino, a prolific musician and producer since he was in grade school, feel in love with Dickson’s taste through a wildly eclectic playlist she made for his roommate. Orofino excelled at, “honing structural strangeness into something more recognizable,” as he put it. And Dickson’s precocious perspective and natural appetite for the stranger corners of music was an uncannily natural fit.

Their innate creative chemistry led to the whirlwind writing and recording of their self-titled, debut EP, which received praise from Rolling Stone, PAPER Magazine, Nylon Magazine, Paste Magazine, Consequence and a lengthy list of others.

The Brooklyn duo’s recently announced new EP Upper Mezzanine is slated for an August 1, 2025 release through Grand Jury Music. “The approach for Upper Mezzanine felt more inquisitive,” Sex Week’s Pearl Amanda Dickson says. Where the music of their debut felt like momentary glimpses of something scary and exciting, the EP reportedly feels far more visceral, each track a focused punch delivered directly from the gut. “I still want people to be singing along and taking the melodies away with them, but the darkness of the EP is obviously there,” Dickson says. “The world is scary right now. I’m scared in lots of ways, and I think that omnipresent feeling definitely snuck into Upper Mezzanine.” 

The duo’s DIY ethos sees them firmly dedicated to helming multiple aspects of each release, including designing the art and making music videos themselves. But the EP sees Dickson learning to use her novel songwriting approach as a sort of superpower. “It’s not second nature to me yet,” she says. “So I’m always wanting to do more and be more involved than I have the capability to. And somehow at the same time, I still have the gusto to say ‘no that’s not it’ or ‘yes, that’s it.'”

The EP also sees Orofino continuing to harness his ability to make the alien feel somehow universal. “I feel it stretched me out wide creating these songs with peal and it just made me feel excited and hopeful that things can be weird and also totally accessible if you allow yourself to just be open.”

Upper Mezzanine‘s latest single “Lone Wolf,” is a brooding and eerily atmospheric tune that simultaneously channels David Lynch soundtracks and Me Moan and Carnation-era Daughn Gibson with the song featuring swirling, spectral harmonies, reverb-soaked twangy guitar. The duo’s individual verses capture an uneasily tense relationship at the brink.

The duo explain that “‘Lone Wolf’ is about communication and testing the limits of a relationship.” The accompanying self-directed video for the new single is fittingly a Lynchian fever dream.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: bat zoo Returns with Aching “Lemon”

bat zoo is a rising American-born, Berlin-based singer/songwriter and producer, who has developed a reputation for boundless creativity — and for genre-agnostic work. 

As a child, the rising artist and producer was immersed in a melting pot of musical influences, as a result of his father’s eclectic record collection. He grew up listening to soul, R&B, hip-hop and much more — and it opened his young years to kaleidoscope of sounds and styles, which helped informed his genre-blurring sound and approach. 

He also brings his artistic vision to life by seamlessly blending his work with dynamic visuals. Embracing authentic and innovation, the American-born, Berlin-based artist continues to push boundaries as a jack-of-all-trades creative director of his solo recording project, a culmination of many years of trial and error. He’s extremely busy: while developing his own sound as a solo artist, he’s also a part of the acclaimed Berlin-based vocal ensemble A Song For You and one-half of R&B duo GOLDA. 

bat zoo’s forthcoming EP, The Upward Bird is slated for a July 22, 2025 release through Lekker Collective. And in the lead-up to the EP’s release in just a few weeks, I’ve written about “Frozen Milk,” and “Diamond Lane.”

The EP’s third and latest single “Lemon” is a classic soul-tinged ballad that seemingly channels contemporaries like Monophonics and Bobby Oroza while featuring warped guitar, a supple bass line, bursts of twinkling synths as a lush bed for bat zoo’s achingly tender falsetto, which expresses urgent, desperate yearning defiant pride within the turn of a phrase. But throughout the sense of yearning and pride simmer with an unresolved, uneasy tension that churns and shifts without resolution.

The accompanying video for “Lemon” sees the American-born, Berlin-based artist reflecting back on the bittersweet moments of a presumably recent breakup, seemingly focusing on the moments in which he should have done better, said more, worked for the relationship and so on — with the ache of regret and shame.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Paris’ Bliss My Heart and Cliff Estatof Team Up on Anthemic “Sinner Sinner”

With the release of their debut EP, 2020’s Morningstar, the Paris-based artist Bliss My Heart quickly developed a sound that draws from Bauhaus, Depeche Mode and Lana Del Rey. Thematically, the EP’s material touched upon love, travel, childhood and life.

The Parisian’s latest single, the Cliff Estatoff co-written and co-produced “Sinner Sinner” continues a run of material that channels Bauhaus and Depeche Mode while showcasing an artist with an uncanny knack for a catchy hook and a rousingly anthemic chorus.

Thematically, “Sinner Sinner” focuses on how you can take control of your life back through your choices and emotions — if you trust in yourself, your own energy and in your energy. “Everything is possible, just see it and believe it,” the Parisian artist says.

The accompanying video is shot in a cinematic yet subtly glitchy black and white, and features the Parisian artist and her collaborator, Cliff Estatoff singing and performing the song in a stylish series of closeups.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: L’Eclair Teams Up WIth girl named GOLDEN on Languorous and Glittering “THE GLITCH”

With recorded output that includes 2018’s full-length debut, Polymood, 2019’s Sauropoda, 2020’s Noshtta EP and 2021’s Confusions, the acclaimed Swiss-based group L’Eclair, founded and led by Bulgarian-born siblings Stef and Yavov Lilov firmly established themselves as masters of mind-bending, cosmic-leaning groove. 

Along with two live sessions for KEXP, which amassed over 900,000 views combined, the Swiss-based group have built up an international following, while landing on the playlists of adventurous listeners and DJs seeking deep grooves. 

Meticulously crafted over the past four years, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays, highly-anticipated and recently released fourth album Cloud Drifter is a decided and radical departure from the Belgian group’s long-held instrumental approach with the album’s material featuring vocals from a wide and eclectic array of frequent collaborations that they’ve worked with over the past few years, including including Pink Slifu, Girl Named GOLDEN, Gelli Haha, A Ghost Column, and more. 

Having toured with The Cinematic Orchestra and W.I.T.C.H. — including writing and recording W.I.T.C.H.’s 2023 effort Zango and The Cinematic Orchestra’s forthcoming album this year, as well as production work with Varnish La Piscine and Maston, the Lilov brothers have assembled a vast network of likeminded musicians. And across the entire album, they keenly curate a cohesive vision incorporating many disparate contributions. 

In the lead-up to Cloud Drifter‘s release, I’ve written about three of the album’s singles:

CLOUD DRIFTER’S latest single “The GLITCH” feat. girl named GOLDEN is anchored around a slow-burning, languorous disco groove that serves as a lush bed for girl named GOLDEN’s dreamily yearning cooing.

The accompanying video for “THE GLITCH” features kaleidoscopically edited super 8 filmed footage of girl named GOLDEN performing at The Sultan Room, life on tour and in the studio with the acclaimed Belgians.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Smut Shares Expansive and Anthemic “Waste Me”

After spending years in the Cincinnati DIY scene, Smut — currently Tay Roebuck (vocals), Andie Min (guitar), John Steiner (bass), Sam Ruschman (guitar) and Aidan O’Connor (drums) — caught the attention of Bayonet Records, who signed the band and released their sophomore album, 2022’s critically applauded How the Light Felt. The album brought the band to Chicago, a city with more room for their growing sound. 

But despite their early successes, they still faced the struggles of the modern working musician: instability, financial precarity, objectification and more. The band channeled a period of touring, personnel changes and personal upheavals into their third album, Tomorrow Comes Crashing. 

Officially dropping today, through Bayonet Records, Tomorrow Comes Crashing marks the band’s first recorded output with O’Connor and Steiner while seeing the band re-energized and trained on the limitless potential that comes with making music with people you love.

The band specifically focused on capturing the big emotions that come with falling in love with music for the first time. The result is ten of what may arguably be their most intense, bombastic and focused songs to date.

The Chicago-based band recorded the album’s material “as live as they could,” alongside Momma‘s Aron Kobayashi Ritch in a Red Hook, Brooklyn-based studio over the course of a breakneck 10-day session. Right before they went off to New York, Roebuck and Min got married, with the rest of the band by their side. 

“We have so much energy right now,” Smut’s Roebuck says. The recording sessions were a true labor of love — driving from Chicago with all their equipment, returning from 12 hour studio days to sleep on friends’ couches and floors, Roebuck completely blowing her voice by the end. Fittingly, the album is culmination of the band’s long-held DIY spirit — with the band creating a record that encompasses the intensity, moodiness and emotions of their journey so far. 

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about two of the album’s previously released singles:

  • “Syd Sweeney,” a song inspired by and named after the actor that describes the profound strangeness to be a woman, and how easily as a woman it is to be constantly misunderstood and misconstrued.

  • “Touch & Go,” a full-throated, 120 Minutes MTV-era power ballad that showcases the band’s knack for pairing rousingly anthemic hooks with, big riffs and earnest, lived-in lyricism and songwriting.

Tomorrow Comes Crashing‘s latest single “Waste Me” continues a run of hooky and anthemic material that recalls 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock — but under the big power chords and arena rock swagger is a softness that’s feminine but also thoughtful, lived-in and deeply earnest while arguably being the most dynamic, expansive and The Cure-like song they’ve written and recorded to date.

“Waste Me” is inspired by Greek mythology. “I wanted to write about ego, about building people up in our minds to unreachable heights, and pride,” Smut’s Roebuck explains,. “The story of Icarus was really ripe to elaborate on so I just extended the story. What if Icarus lived? What if someone thought he was the answer to their prayers?”

The accompanying video by Michael Fanos features collage-styled animation loosely based on the song’s lyrics.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: The Besnard Lakes Share Woozy “In Hollywood”

Acclaimed and beloved Montréal-based shoegazers The Besnard Lakes — husband and wife Jace Lasek and Olga Goreas, along with Kevin Laing, Gabriel Lambert and Sheenah Ko — recently announced their seventh album, The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation. “I feel like it’s a very formidable title, symbolic of the times,” the band’s Jace Lasek says. “It’s talking about the death of nations, the threat of Canada being the 51st state. There is the desire to be left alone, to let community be community, all of those things that feel like they might be under siege; that’s what the ghost nation is.”

Slated for an October 10, 2025 release through Full Time Hobby, The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation was recorded at Lost River Studios. During the course of the five-day session, the band experienced creative solitude in the woods with some of their family members accompanying them while the band experimenting and compiled the album’s material. The Besnard Lakes’ forthcoming seventh album reportedly sees them creating their most playful yet thoughtful and heartfelt songs to date.

The acclaimed Canadian shoegazers admit that this was partly in response to 2021’s The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings. “The last album was so heavy,” the band’s Jace Lasek explains. “There was so much weight and heavy themes, like my dad dying. It was just death everywhere on that record. This album doesn’t really seem to be that. To me, it seems very playful.”

The Besnard Lakes Are the Ghost Nation‘s first single “In Hollywood” is a slow-burning dirge anchored around woozy, reverb-drenched guitars, the Montréal-based band’s penchant for rousingly anthemic hooks paired with dreamy vocals and a twangy, psilocybin-tinged solo. Sonically, “In Hollywood” sounds a bit like a synthesis of 2010’s The Besnard Lakes Are the Roaring Night and The Besnard Lakes Are the Last of the Great Thunderstorm Warnings but with a woozy, synth-driven coda.

As the band’s Olga Goreas explains, “The first cut lifted from the album ‘In Hollywood’ dates back to 2010 and…are the Roaring Night era. It’s a melody that was circulating in Jace’s mind for many years. Unable to let it go, Jace sat with it and finally brought it to light. Written in a dropped D tuning, ‘In Hollywood’ is atypical in the Besnard canon. Some very creative synth work from Sheenah in the outro. A beautifully bizarre guitar solo from Gabriel. This one shows off Jace’s vocal stylings and has an intriguing lyrical journey for the listener to discover.”

The accompanying video features edited, old-timey, Super 8 and black and white footage of Golden Era Hollywood that emphasizes the dreamy vibe of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: STIMULUS Teams Up with K, Le Maestro on Brooding “sEMi”

STIMULUS is a rising Brooklyn-born, Berlin-based artist, DJ and event curator. And if you were frequenting this site earlier this year, you might recall that I wrote about “swiTCH,” a collaboration with Malik Work, Greg Paulus, Taylor Bense and Swim Good that to my ears sounded a bit like a synthesis of Stereo MCs and C+C Music Factory with Larry Levan — but with a modern, self-assured swagger. 

His latest single, the K, LE MAESTRO-produced “SeMi” is a woozy, genre-defying track that pairs the Brooklyn-born, Berlin-based emcee’s swaggering yet deeply introspective, heartbroken flow with an eerily brooding production featuring a looping and twinkling piano sample and skittering trap beats. The song sees STIMULUS completely turning the concept of “keeping it 100” on its head by exploring the beauty and truth in being “semi” — kind of messy, and yet fully human and proud of it.

 “Keeping things ONE HUNDRED is the new keeping it real,” the Brooklyn-born, Berlin-based artist says. “100 is also a popular emoji representing 100% authenticity and 100% certainty. In the song I admit all of the ways in which I am not 100%.”

STIMULUS continues, “sEMi” is about inner struggle, social alienation, and the pursuit of identity. “

The accompanying video is part of a short film associated with the music, which has already won 7 awards at film festivals around Europe. And as you tell is part of a dystopian, near future in which the film’s protagonist goes through a bizarre procedure that gives him odd super powers.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Automatic Shares Restless “Is It Now?”

Los Angeles-based post punk outfit Automatic — Izzy Glaudini (synths, vocals), Lola Dompé (drums, vocals) and Halle Saxon Gaines (bass, vocals) — formed nine years ago. And in that time, they’ve released two albums:

  • Their full-length debut, 2019’s Signals saw the trio quickly establishing their sound, which paired motorik grooves with icy atmospheres. 

  • Their sophomore effort, 2022’s Excess saw the band sonically riding an imaginary edge where the 70s underground met 80s corporate culture.

After they finished touring to support their sophomore album, each member of the trio pursued there own interests: Glaudini honed her skills as a producer; Saxon Gaines enrolled in botany classiest; and Dompé got married, moved out to the country and began caring for horses.

With two albums under their collective belts, the Los Angeles-based trio wanted to do something different for their third album. Slated for a fall release through Stones Throw Records. Is It Now? sees the trio collaborating with producer Loren Humphrey to build upon the sound of their previous releases — minimalist yet danceable songs, which they describe as “deviant pop.”

Is It Now?‘s first single, album title track “Is It Now?” is a continuation of the sound that they established on their first two albums while simultaneously being a subtle yet noticeable refinement. “Is It Now?” features what may arguably be the tightest groove they’ve written to date paired with icy synths and a call-and-response chorus while showcasing their unerring knack for catchy hooks. But at its core is a modern sense of restlessness and unease that just feels — well, familiar.

The new single celebrates being authentically yourself. The call-and-response chorus vies between two points f view — a rebellious perspective and the manufactured, mass culture one. Automatica’s Izzy Glaudini explains that, increasingly, “the thing I think about the most on a day-to-day basis is: how do you have a sense of joy while the world seems to be collapsing, and you feel so powerless?” 

She adds, “I feel like, as American citizens, we have a responsibility to pull the levers to stop the machine. ‘Is It Now?’ is about trying to not feel like a victim in this environment. It’s important to still feel a sense of joy, even amongst all the horrible shit going on in the world.” 

Directed by Nicola and Juliana Giraffe, the accompanying video for “Is It Now” features the trio in an I Love Lucy-like scenario at a factory while they pack boxes and load them onto a truck while evoking the restlessness at the core of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: San Diego’s moondaddy Shares Gauzy “Bystander”

Fronted by producer, singer/songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Cara Poticker, the San Diego-based dream pop outfit moondaddy traces its origins to the eerily uneasy quiet of the COVID-19 pandemic. And as a result, the band embraces the age-old maxim that the only certainty in life is uncertainty.

With the release of their full-length debut, 2023’s Poet Lies, the project attempts to meet the haze of existence with a kaleidoscopic sound that provides peace — especially — when all else feels like chaos. Poet Lies saw the band quickly establishing a sound featuring glistening guitar, gauzy synths and dulcet vocals singing dreamily poetic observations while drawing from sheogaze, dream pop and trip hop.

Since then, the San Diego-based dream pop outfit has gone on a sold-out tout with DeVotchKa and opened for the likes of Beabadoobee, Peel Dream Magazine and King Hannah. Building upon a growing local and regional profile, the band has headlined some of their hometown’s tastemaking venues, including The Casbah and others.

Last year’s Lightwave Lightwave EP laid the foundation for what may arguably be the band’s most immersive and expressive effort to date, their sophomore album Dove Tapes, which is slated for release later this year. Both Lightwave Lightwave EP and Dove Tapes was produced by producer/engineer Manuel Calderon at Tornillo, TX-based Sonic Ranch and recorded live to tape. The material was mastered directly to lacquer by Paul Gold at Salt Mastering.

Dove Tapes‘ first single “Bystander” is a lush, breathtakingly gorgeous tune that seemingly recalls a synthesis of early 90s shoegaze and Beach House with swirling and glistening, reverb soaked guitar textures, gauzy and atmospheric synths and skittering and shuffling beats serving as a dreamy bed for Poticker’s remarkably Victoria Legrand-like vocal. Throughout “Bystander” expresses a woozy, desperately yearning lovesickness that’s both frustratingly unfulfilled and unrequited.

Directed by Sylvie Lake, the accompanying video for “Bystander” is fittingly a hazy and kaleidoscopic, half-remembered dream that’s just out of reach.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tan Cologne Shares Celestial “Cool Star”

Enigmatic Taos, NM-based duo Tan Cologne — Lauren Green and Marissa Macias — have released work rooted in terrestrial and earthen landscapes: Their debut, 2020’s Cave Vaults on the Moon in New Mexico explored the topography of cultures and subcultures on the surface of New Mexico. Their sophomore album, 2022’s Earth Visions of Water Spaces was inspired by past, present and future water and waterways, embodying the power of water and how it has shaped our planet. 2023’s Pescetrullo (soundscapes) captured a series of on-site instrumental and field recordings made in the remote architectural Pescetrullo in Puglia, Italy, immortalizing the contrasts of ancient buildings, new bold structures, insects, and lapping water of the surrounding environment.

The New Mexico-based duo’s third album Unknown Beyond is slated for a Friday release through Labrador Records. Unlike their previously released material, Unknown Beyond sees Green and Macias reaching for the heavens and an intangible greater existence; the infinite and unexplainable while embracing the beauty of timeless uncertainty. 

Written, performed and recorded entirely by the duo at their Taos, New Mexico-based home, the album found the pair seeking solitude and retreat as they attempted to come to terms with the personal loss of family, friends and childhood homes — within a relatively short period of time. The album’s creative process quickly became a therapeutic outlet for grieving, dealing, changing and understanding new life transitions and ways of being, with each track being a part of the story of the entire album. 

The album reportedly sees Green and Macias seeking a more spiritual process. “We looked for signs and signals during the recording process” they say. “If we saw a shooting star, imagined a fire burning on a hill, or remembered an old satellite dish in someone’s yard, we explored that lyrically. Those visual guides became our pathways to the album. They were the signs to move forward.”

Interweaving and layering hypnotic beats, hazy shoegazer textures, abstract live drum patterns and sounds of searching for signals — of comfort and communication — from the invisible web, Unknown Beyond may arguably be their most immersive and emotive work to date. 

In the lead up to the album’s release later this week, I’ve written about two of the album’s previously release singles, “Cloud of Mirrors,” and “Infinity.“

The album’s third and final pre-release single, the slow-burning and celestial album opening track “Cool Star” features swelling, billowing and swirling guitar textures serving as a lush bed for the duo’s dreamily delivered lyrics describing seeing a shooting star — and the belief act that you can communicate with the beyond; that there are signs and signals all over, if you’re paying attention. “It’s also our sensory transmission of the shade, tide, and temperature shift from the moon and planets as they orbit, and the coolness and pull made by them,” they add. 

The accompanying video features lost, found and archived imagery that’s be been carefully edited and stitched together by filmmaker and frequent collaborator Carly Short. Fittingly, it features cosmic imagery, cars drag racing and more.
 
The duo have a handful of Stateside dates, which you can check out below.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Singapore’s Blush Shares Deceptively Upbeat “X My Heart”

Slated for an August 1, 2025 release through Kanine Records, rising Singapore-based indie outfit Blush‘s sophomore album Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever sees the band with a revamped lineup featuring Soffi Peters (vocals), Daniel Pei (bass), Sobs‘ Darrell Laser (guitar) and Forests‘ Jared Lim (guitar, production).

Continuing the “tangled family tree” collaboration of the contemporary Singaporean indie scene, the album features songwriting contributions from Peters, Laser and Lim with the material showcasing subtle influences from the latter two bands. The album reportedly finds the members of Blush attempting to create pristine pop that simultaneously explores life’s bittersweet moments while featuring intricately crafted arrangements that swirl between dreamscapes and noise.

Yesterday, the band announced their signing to Kanine Records while sharing Beauty Fades, Pain Lasts Forever‘s latest single “X My Heart.” “X My Heart” is an undeniably sunny yet ironically deceptive bit of pop that sees the band pairing jangling guitar and a catchy hook and chorus with a deeply melancholy and heartbroken lyrics.

Shot, directed and produced by Goh Koon How, the accompanying video for “X My Heart” is viral visual that sees its protagonist take spiral from wistful lovesickness into murderous and obsessive delusion.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Marseille’s Joe La Truite Shares Bruising “Octogone 8000”

Marseille-based metal outfit Joe La Truite — currently founding members Julien Liphard (Guitars/Vocals) and Charles Roussel (Bass/Vocals), along with Martin Denquin (drums) — originally started as a bit of fun back in 2017, releasing their debut EP that year River Metal, which quickly established their sound, a mind-melting blend of punk, metal and psych rock paired with tongue-in-cheek storytelling.

The Marseille-based outfit followed up with their sophomore EP, 2019’s Just A Little Thing Smooth and Wet. Shortly after that, the band’s founding duo met their current drummer, Denquin, with whom they felt an immediate and undeniable simpatico.

As a trio, the band wrote and recorded their full-length debut 2020’s Trapped In The Cosmos, which received critical applause locally and helped the band build up a following in and around the Marseille live music scene.

Last year, the band signed to Australia’s Blue Tongue Management, who helped the band undertake an introductory campaign to international media and music industry folks, which resulted in album material picking up rotation on multiple syndicated metal programs across the globe.

Building upon a growing profile in the international metal scene, the French trio’s sophomore album Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: Full Zguen was released last Friday through Full Zguen Records. Recorded at Southern France’s dBd Studio, Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: Full Zguen is a concept album based on the characters that inhabit video games. So what’s zguen? The band refers to this at the wild energy of their live performances, which always lead to fans and audiences headbanging until their they nearly broke their necks. The band likens it to controlled chaos.

Sonically, the album sees the band continuing to effortlessly weave elements of metal, punk and psych while showcasing adept musicianship. But unlike their previously released material, there’s a bit of hip-hop thrown in, too.

“Octogone 8000,” Ultimate Ninja Storm 2: Full Zguen‘s third and latest single is a bruising mosh pit ripper that shifts between math rock, heavy metal and trash metal with bombastic aplomb and a ton of sweat-fueled mischief. The song and the accompanying video hurls listeners and viewers into a surreal kaleidoscopic, Mortal Kombat-like arena, where two outlandish characters — Little Ninja Zombie Cyborg and disco-warrior-turned-nightclub-owner Cosmozouk clash in a seemingly never-ending battle of wills.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Godkomplex Shares Bruising “Satanica”

Godkomplex — Mr. Panik and Download — was formed back in 1998 with the intention of revitalizing hard industrial music and features two accomplished stalwarts of the industrial scene:

  • Download’s career began in the mid 1980s with stings playing in a number of bands, including Servo Sector, which featured members of Kevorkian Death Cycle and Hex RX.

  • Mr. Panik is currently involved in a number of side projects, including Chaos Frequency and Skinprobe among others.

With Godkomplex, the duo combine elements of several electronic genres, including drum ‘n’ bass, power noise, techno, trance and coldwave to produce a sound that preserves the integrity of early industrial music while employing a more modern approach.

The duo released their full-length debut, 2000’s World Below through Chaos Records. The album was re-released in 2003 through ANR/Hexagon with national distribution through DSBP.

Their sophomore album, 2006’s Audial Apostasy saw the duo expanding into a quartet with the addition of Reload and The Loch Ness Monster. The duo returned with last year’s “Torture” and “Race-4-Power,” which was released last year.

Building upon the momentum of those singles, the duo recently released “Satanica,” a bruising and forceful yet club friendly bit of industrial that channels the likes of Ministry and Rammstein, while hinting at much more contemporary fare.

Fittingly, the accompanying video for “Satanica” features imagery of witchcraft, accused witches being burned at the stake, folks head banging at a festival show to hard music and more.

Both “Race-4-Power” and “Satanica” will appear on the duo’s forthcoming best of compilation, Best of Godkomplex 1999-2024, which is slated for release late this year.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Nation of Language Share Woozy “I’m not Ready for the Change”

Acclaimed Brooklyn-based synth pop act and JOVM mainstays Nation of Language — Ian Richard Devaney (vocals, guitar), Aidan Noell (synths) and Alex MacKay (bass) — have managed to amass a rapidly growing and devout national and international fanbase as a result of a dance floor friendly sound that draws from New Wave, post-punk and shoegaze. The JOVM mainstays three albums, 2020’s Introduction, Presence, 2021’s A Way Forward and 2023’s Strange Disciple have received coverage from Billboard, The New York Times, Document Journal, BrooklynVegan, MOJO, NME, Pitchfork, Stereogum and lengthy list of others, including this site.

Adding to a rapidly rising profile, the band has performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. Recently,  “Weak In Your Light” was featured in the series finale of the Netflix hit show You. They’ve also become a mainstay on the international festival circuit, playing sets at Austin City Limits, Desert Daze, Pitchfork Festival, Primavera Sound, Pukklepop, Corona Capital, Outside Lands, Bonnaroo, and a growing list of others globally.

Last month, the acclaimed JOVM mainstays announced they signed to Sub Pop Records, who will be releasing their new material globally in 2025 and beyond, including the band’s highly-anticipated fourth album, Dance Called Memory. Slated for a September 19, 2025 release, the 10-song album was recorded, produced and mixed by Holy Ghost‘s Nick Millhiser, who produced 2023’s Strange Disciple. “What’s so great about Nick is his ability to make us feel like we don’t need to do what might be expected of us,” says Nation of Language’s Aidan Noell. The album was mastered by Heba Kadry, who has worked on some of the most acclaimed records of the past decade or so.

Sonically, the album is imbued with a subtly shifted palette: On some tracks percussion is smashed through a synthesizer to nod at early-2000’s electronic music. Chopped-up drum break samples make appearances, too.

Ultimately, for the trio, the hope was to weave raw vulnerability and humanity into a synth-heavy album. “There is a dichotomy between the Kraftwerk school of thought and the Brian Eno school of thought, each of which I’ve been drawn to at different points. I’ve read about how Kraftwerk wanted to remove all of the humanity from their music, but Eno often spoke about wanting to make synthesized music that felt distinctly human,” Nation of Language’s Ian Richard Devaney says. “As much as Kraftwerk is a sonically foundational influence, with this record I leaned much more towards the Eno school of thought. In this era quickly being defined by the rise of AI supplanting human creators, I’m focusing more on the human condition, and I need the underlying music to support that… Instead of hopelessness, I want to leave the listener with a feeling of us really seeing one another, that our individual struggles can actually unite us in empathy.”

Dance Called Memory will feature the previously released “Inept Apollo,” which continues a run of nostalgia-inducing, 80s New Wave-inspired material, while furthering their unerring knack for crafting slickly produced dance floor numbers anchored around earnest lyricism.

“I’m Not Ready for the Change,” Dance Called Memory‘s second and latest single features chopped up drum breaks seemingly inspired by Loveless-era My Bloody Valentine, glittering arpeggiated synths paired with whirring guitars and the band’s long-held penchant for enormous hooks and lived-in lyrics.

Directed by longtime collaborator John McKay, the accompanying, stylishly shot video features the trio performing the song in a studio — and for you fellow old heads, will subtly remind you of early 1980s MTV.

Along with the single and album announcements, the JOVM mainstay will be busy throughout the summer and fall. They’re will be opening for Death Cab for Cutie on their Plans: 20th Anniversary Tour for four dates: Seattle’s Climate Pledge Arena on July 31, 2025 and August 2, 2025 and for two-sold out shows in Chicago’s Chicago Theatre, August 5, 2025 and August 6, 2025.