Tag: Video Review

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alex Amor Shares Shimmering “Avalanche”

Over the past handful of years, rising Scottish singer/songwriter and musician Alex Amor haas released three EP’s 2021’s debut, Love Language, 2022’s The Art of Letting Go and 2023’s Super Sonic, all of which have received praise from The Line of Best Fit, DIY Magazine, Clash Magazine, Dork Magazine, Wonderland, Notion, 1883 Magazine, The Skinny, Ones to Watch, The Sunday Mail, and The Scotsman — and she has received airplay from BBC Radio 1‘s Jack Saunders and Sian Eleri.

The rising Scottish artist has made a run of the UK festival circuit playing sets at TRNSMT, The Great Escape, Liverpool Sound City, Live at Leeds and Dot to Dot. She has also toured extensively across the UK, playing bills with Good Neighbours, Liang Lawrence, Gretta Ray, Swim Deep, VLURE and a list of others.

Amor’s highly anticipated full-length debut Heavenly Bodies is slated for an August 21, 2026 through New York-based label VERO Music. Written and recorded between London and Glasgow with Peter Brien, Baz Kaye and Karma Kid, the album’s material is heavily informed by meditation, rune reading and the work of Swedish mystic Hilma of Klint. Weaving together celestial imagery, spirituality and the vast emotional terrain of human connection, the album’s material reflects Amor’s fascination with cosmic symbolism and the belief that personal experiences mirror the rhythms of the universe. Sonically, the album is a decided evolution from the raw indie charge of the rising Scottish artist’s earlier work as the album features diaristic, intimate and confessional songwriting is paired with shimmering guitars, ethereal synths and slow-burning arrangements.

“Avalanche” Heavenly Bodies‘ latest single is a breathtakingly gorgeous tune features Amor’s plaintive vocal singing intimate, lived-in lyrics detailing a relationship on the brink with an unusual clarity — through the perspective of someone who recognizes the relationship is ending, while the other partner is oblivious. Her vocal is paired with a shimmering, remarkably hook-driven, Laurel Canyon-like arrangement.

Amor wrote and produced the original “Avalanche” demo in her childhood bedroom in Glasgow before bringing it to her trio of collaborators in London — Brien, Kaye and Karma Kid — to complete the song.

“Avalanche is about the unsettling moment in a relationship where something has shifted, but only one of you is willing to see it,” Amor explains. ” While you’re starting to recognise it for what it is, the other person is still holding on, almost wilfully ignoring the cracks. The idea of an avalanche felt like the perfect metaphor. It’s not necessarily about destruction, it’s about release. It’s what happens when pressure has been building for too long and can’t be contained anymore. It’s sudden, overwhelming, and sometimes painful, but it clears everything out. And in that aftermath, there’s a kind of clarity – you can finally see things as they really are.”

Directed by Henry Croston, the accompanying video for “Avalanche” features Amor in a series of mod and 70s country-inspired monochromatic outfits singing and strumming her gorgeous sky blue Fender in some rooms with some decidedly 1970s era decor. A dancing alien in a suit listening to music on a Walkman is frequently off on the side, adding a surreal and playful sense of humor to a song but while also emphasizing the song’s central romantic couple.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Penelope Isles Shares Shimmering “Thinking Seat”

Today, Isle-of-Man-born, Brighton-based JOVM mainstays Penelope Isles — siblings Jack and Lily Wolter — announced that they’ll be releasing their long-awaited and highly-anticipated third album, the aptly titled 3 on September 25, 2026 through Bella Union. Three years have passed since their last live show. Somewhere in between, life happened: Lily Wolters spent six months in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, stepping back from music for the first time years and spending the bulk of her time surfing. Jack Wolters hit the road as a guitarist in rising country star CMAT‘s touring band. And over the past year, Jack and Lily have released acclaimed solo album as Cuboza and My Precious Bunny respectively.

Written on a monthlong surf trip to Lagos, Portugal, 3‘s songs have sandy feet, beach hair and sunburn shoulders with shimmering hooks and aching harmonies. A year later, the band went to the Isle of Lewis off Scotland’s northwest coast to record the album live at Black Bay Studio.

Interestingly, 3 marks a couple of firsts for the JOVM mainstays: The album is the first as a true trio with their close friend Joe Taylor (drums) joining the band, and the first album that they’ve ever recorded live. Jack and Lily Wolter trade shimmering guitars and sunlit harmonies and aching falsetto ethereally floating above while Taylor’s drumming anchoring everything. While the album’s material is carefully constructed, the songs read a bit like the pages of someone’s diary ripped out and slipped under someone’s door while evoking a perfectly built sandcastle on summer vacation that’s flattened in an instant by a loved one’s passing cruelty.

Thematically, the album’s material sees the band still hopelessly obsessed with love, with heartbreak and what lingers afters, but the band carve out something entirely new: Sonically, the album is reportedly much like a shifting coastline of sound — hazy, luminous and always on the verge of collapse. Essentially, the album is the sound of the songwriting duo finding each other again. “Penny Isles is such a big part of our personalities,” Jack Wolters says. “So it was about time we got back to it.”

3‘s first single “Thinking Seat” is a sun-dappled tune that features Lily Wolter achingly tender delivery ethereally floating over shimmering, shoegazer-like textures and twinkling synths anchored by Taylor’s steady and propulsive time-keeping. Written upon reflection of the countless hours spent behind the wheel of the Wolter siblings splitter tour van, the song is s spiraling sequence of worry, heartache, planning, remembering, forgetting and then remembering again, desperately trying to hold it all together, trying to stay on track and on time, and trying to find a parking space large enough for the van. Sure, there’s a specificity that only tiring musicians and those who know touring musicians would know; but the song is rooted in a deeply universal uncertainty about your life, your place in it and what’s next that will be familiar to just about anyone.

The song features the lyric “U.G.A.K.I.,” an acronym for “You Guys Are Killing It,” a catchphrase that they coined and have used when touring felt especially difficult, dirty, absurd and flat out stupid, as a way of injecting humor and positivity in the constant uphill struggle of being a touring band in the contemporary music industry.

Directed and shot by the duo, the video pulls back the curtain for working bands, as it features the duo desperately trying to create a groundbreaking visual on a shoestring budget. While detailing the absurd difficulties of their lives as touring musicians, they do so with a sense of humor.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: A Place to Bury Strangers Shares Pulsing and Uneasy “Time”

New York-based JOVM mainstays  A Place to Bury Strangers — currently Oliver Ackermann (vocals, guitar), John Fedowitz (bass) and Sandra Fedowitz (drums) — released a rarities album Rare and Deadly earlier this year through Dedstrange. 

Following 2024’s Synthesizer, Rare and Deadly sees the band cracking open a decade-long vault of raw nerve and sonic chaos. Spanning 2015-2025, this collection of demos, B-sides, abandoned experiments and forgotten fragments reveals the band at their most unfiltered, frequently caught between breakthrough ideas and beautiful mistakes. 

Pulled from Oliver Ackermann’s personal archive of late-night recordings, blown-out tapes and half-finished sessions, the collection’s tracks pulse with the unruly energy that ATPBS has long been known for, but more dangerous with more jagged edges — on purpose. 

Countless bands have opened up their vaults to fans and others, but Rare and Deadly is truly unprecedented: Every format is different — and as a result, tells a different story. The CD, cassette, vinyl and digital editions each feature their own unique track listing. No single version features the “complete” album. Instead, each format is its own window into Ackermann’s archive, revealing alternate paths, missing links and parallel “what if” versions of the band’s inner life. It’s deliberately unstable with the album shifting depending on how you choose to hear it, mirroring the chaos of its creation. 

Across the collection’s tracks, you can hear the evolution of Ackermann’s restlessly creative mind. Some pieces feel like prototypes for future chaos, seeds that later bloomed on studio albums. Others are dead ends — ideas too volatile, too strange or too personal to ever fit the frame of a proper release. The tracks feature riffs mutated by malfunctioning pedals, songs born from gear pushed past its limits, or delicate melodies overwhelmed by towering walls of feedback. 

Rare and Deadly includes the previously released, “Everyone’s The Same,” “Acid Rain” “Where Are We Now” “Song for Girl From Macedonia” and the album’s final single “Time.” Anchored around a motorik pulse and swirling, feedback and distortion field guitars, “Time” sounds as though it could have been a B-side on Exploding Head. “The song stares down erosion — of belief, of certainty and trust — as faith slips through your fingers, no matter how tightly you grip,” the band explains. “Suspended between hope and collapse, ‘Time’ captures the quiet panic of watching something once solid slowly disappear, and the distorted beauty hat emerges when you keep moving forward even as meaning fractures and reforms.”

Directed by Steve Ward, the accompanying video for “Time” follows a man in a bright white jacket, as he runs around and dances with exploding camera flashes around him. If you or someone you know is photosensitive, this will be a difficult watch for you — but it captures the JOVM mainstay’s long-held live aesthetic.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Babe Rainbow Shares Groovy “Polymuscalsaccharide”

Aussie JOVM mainstays Babe Rainbow — Angus Dowling, Jack “Cool-Breeze” Crowther and Dr. Elliott “Love Wisdom” O’Reilly — will be releasing their seventh album, ACID AND HONEY on July 16, 2026 through Impressed Recordings. Recorded on a houseboat-based thrift shop in Amsterdam and finished a zen master Mullarky’s Malibu ranch, the album’s material is a synthesis of country-pop beat production with hip-hop-inspired, hard rocking finger funky sounds paired with wailing vocals.

“Polymuscalsaccharide” ACID AND HONEY‘s first single is a sun-dappled, hook-driven tune that seemingly channels Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT, anchored around a hypnotic groove, bursts of twangy guitar paired with dreamy vocals. The track manages to evoke a hazy, psilocybin-fueled trip on a summer afternoon with some pals. Fittingly, the accompanying video is mind-bending while capturing the band’s goofy, surfer seeding the next big wave-like vibes.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Velatine Returns with Brooding, Trip Hop-like “Playing With The Orbits”

Melbourne-based songwriter and producer Loki Lockwood is the creative mastermind behind the darkwave/goth recording project Velatine. For the bulk of Velatine’s history, Lockwood collaborated with different vocalists while crafting a unique and fresh take on the familiar and beloved darkwave/goth sound. 

Last year’s “Till Death Do We Art” saw Lockwood collaborating with Nocturna. Lockwood discovered Holly Purnell through an Instagram ad. Purnell collaborated on “Oh See Me — The Siren,” and while working on that song, she joined as the project’s full-time vocalist.

Released in April, “Whisper Park,” the first Velatine with single with Purnell as a full-time member was a change in sonic direction, showcasing a more forceful goth and doom-like direction. Their latest single, “Playing with the Orbits” is a return to form featuring Purnell’s siren-like delivery over a broodingly atmospheric and glitchy production that seemingly draws from trip hop, industrial electronica and darkwave.

Written five years ago, “Playing with the Orbits” is inspired by Bianca Devins and her unfortunate murder. As Lockwood says, “her story shook me, and if you know the story, then the lyrics reveal its underlying complexity. It’s a song about her murder, it required sensitivity in its delivery. I didn’t see her naive, she was intelligent, creative, an individual, but sadly missed that this was coming. She was exposed and became a target, A song that somehow waited for Holly to express all of this.”

“Bianca was 17 when killed by an obsessed man, who she met online. Referred to as an ‘E-girl’ by the media, she was hardly that,” Lockwood continues, In her teens she had struggled with anxiety, depression and the net had been an escape where she had bonded with others with similar struggles. She worked hard to resolve her own personal issues, finished school and planned to study psychology.

“In her case, her killer spread photos of the aftermath on social media that exploded her into ‘stardom.’ Hardly an influencer, just popular and likable online, she had about 2,000 followers on Instagram when her short life ended. Within days of her murder though, that number had risen to more than 160,000. Incel groups were the main perpetrators spreading the pictures, also sending them to family members with vile messages, such as ‘She deserved it’,”says her mother Kim Devins. “Bianca was everything they hated. She was a really smart girl, very pretty; a lot of guys liked her. She was also intuitive and aware. She recognized grooming in her online community and had helped a lot of girls get away from some dangerous situations.”

Had she got this attention when she was alive surely she would have used it to warn others, but sadly she missed the signs herself. We all crave to be liked, but like her, most of us are happy to expose ourselves to others we don’t know. Innocent normal behavior right? Well it should be, but it’s also about what happened after she was killed that triggered the song. One of the last ‘brag’ posts her killer made was ‘You’re going to have to find someone else to orbit you fuckers.’

Her murder was a carefully planned and executed affair by someone who wanted to maximize their own notoriety. His images were seen, spread and celebrated by an online community of ‘Incels,’ who called her killer ‘a legend.’

There is plenty on-line if you want to dig deeper and so no need for me to say more except read the lyrics and hear Holly’s performance, the story is there,” Lockwood explains in a statement that includes some repurposed and edited material from articles written by Anna Moore, which appeared in The Guardian.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: she’s green Returns with Gauzy “close your eyes”

Minneapolis-based outfit she’s green — Zofia Smith (vocals), Liam Armstrong (guitar), Raimes Lucas (guitar), Teddy Nordvold (guitar) and Kevin Seeback (drums) — specialize in crafting dreamy soundscapes that transport the listener to scenes of soft summer rain and fields of swaying wheat, infused with raw emotional intensity. 

Their debut EP, 2023’s Wisteria saw the band establishing an honest and exploratory songwriting process, as well as reputation for being a force in the world of sonic surrealism. They supported the EP with tours across the Midwest and East Coast with Hotline TNT, Friko, JOVM mainstays Glixen and a list of others. 

Last year, the Minneapolis-based quartet signed to New York-based Photo Finish Records, who released their Henry Stoehr-produced sophomore EP Chrysalis. The EP included  the Souvlaki-era Slowdive-like “Graze,” and the Sundays-meets-A Storm In Heaven-like “Willow.” 

Building upon a growing national profile, the Minneapolis-based outfit will be releasing their newest effort, swallowtail EP on July 10, 2026 through Photo Finish Records. The EP will feature the previously released “mettle,” a decidedly  120 Minutes-era MTV-like bit of shoegaze and dream pop, the gauzy “paper thin” and the EP’s latest single “close your eyes.”

Much like “paper thin,” “close your eyes” is a gauzy and slow-burning tune that seemingly channels Souvlaki while evoking a slow descent into deep sleep. Smith’s ethereal and yearning voice dissolves into the shimmering and swirling guitar textures, which adds to the overall vivid dream-like feel of the song.

“‘close your eyes’ is about a mysterious person who kept recurring in my dreams,” she’s green’s Zofia Smith explains. “In those dreams, we shared a life together by the ocean. Waking up and realizing they weren’t real left a lasting impression on me, leaving me wondering about our connection to our dreams, how my mind could have created this person, or if I knew them in a past life.”

Directed by Jaxon Whittington, the accompanying video for “close your eyes” is shot in a sepia-toned blue ad recreates elements of the dream that inspired the song — with a life at the sea while Smith sings directly at the viewer, and an unseen figure of her dream person.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Alewya Shares Cinematic Visual for Dancehall-like “Maktoub”

JOVM mainstay Alewya is an acclaimed London-based singer/songwriter, producer and visual artist. Her highly-anticipated full-length debut, ZERO is slated for a June 26, 2026 release through Because London Records. The album reportedly embodies years of artistic growth into an effort that’s both deeply personal and sonically expansive. But the album also marks a significant milestone, as it sees her boldly stepping into a new creative era, defined by fearless experimentation and cultural fluidity. 

ZERO will include the previously released “Night Drive,” feat. Dagmawit Ameha and “City of Symbols,” “Eshi,” the Busy Twist-produced “Selah” and its fifth and latest single “Maktoub.” Anchored around dancehall reggae riddims, skittering industrial trap triplets, “Maktoub” continues a remarkable run of genre-defying and sweaty global club music that’s expansive yet urgent, accessible yet forward-thinking and remarkably catchy. Over the song’s dancehall riddims, the JOVM mainstay’s reggae-influenced vocal sings lyrics that touch upon themes of resistance, destiny and self-determination that are fiercely feminist and defiantly pro-Black and pan-African. 

The song features a sample from legendary Ethiopian singer/songwriter Teddy Afro, which was chosen by Alewya for sentimental reasons, as several generations of Ethiopans and Eritreans have listened to him growing up, much like she did.

“Maktoub,” which derives its title from the Arabic word “it is written,” reflects ZERO‘s recurring themes of faith, instinct and roots woven throughout. Led by feeling, rather than prescribed formula, “Maktoub” showcases the JOVM mainstay’s intuitive creative process in which rhythm and emotion guide the music before lyrics. “Sometimes songs take time to reveal themselves but ‘Maktoub’ felt immediate and effortless from day one,” Alewya says.

Directed by Lee Trigg, the accompanying video for “Maktoub” was shot in Afar, Ethiopia and follows the JOVM mainstay and a crew of friends riding motorcycles across the plains — and running. The video captures Alewya as a magnetic, carefree presence.  For the video, Alewya and the local filming crew flew two hours from the nation’s capital Addis Ababa and then drove eight across the country to reach the region, camping and hiking through its volcanic landscape along the way.

Afar lies at the junction of three tectonic plates — the Arabian, Nubian and Somali — and is one of the hottest and lowest places on the planet, where temperatures regular exceed 122º F with the land sitting at 410 feet below sea level. Despite the extreme conditions, the nomadic people of Afar have developed an unparalleled knowledge of survival and a fiercely independent culture. Historically, the Afar people have resisted colonization by neighboring empires and European powers.

“Afar is where my worlds meet — where three tectonic plates converge; Arabian, Nubian, Somali,”  says Alewya. “It is the birthplace of humanity, and a land where a new ocean is forming beneath my feet. The Afar people are warriors who have lived on their own terms for centuries, and the women carry a grace that makes me feel close to God. For ‘Maktoub,’ with Teddy’s vocals blessing the track, it felt right to create from the closest place to the beginning.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Tokyo Tea Room Shares Mesmerizing and Shimmering “Eyes Off You”

Last year’s full-length debut, No Rush saw the rising Margate, UK-based outfit Tokyo Tea Room 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 act have new music coming that will reportedly see them entering a new chapter that sees an evolution of their sound that remains rooted in the emotional depth that the band has begun to be known for. 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.

In the meantime, the rising outfit’s latest single, the Daniel James Elliott-penned “Eyes Off You” is an atmospheric, mesmerizing and hook-driven, sophitispop-inspired bop that features Beth Dunn’s yearning vocal ethereally floating over shimmering synths, Nile Rodgers-like guitar and a supple yet propulsive bass line. “Eyes Off You” captures the desperation and delusion of an all-consuming obsession, describing the inability to let go, even when it hurts.

Directed by Jacek Zmarz and starring Anders Hayward, the accompanying video for “Eyes Off You” is a cinematically shot fever dream that follows Hayward as he expressively dances in series of surreal yet gorgeous locales.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mouth Ulcers Return with Shimmering, Hook-Driven “Space”

Formed last year, London-based outfit Mouth Ulcers — Zak Watson (vocals, guitar), Josephine Rose (guitar, vocals), Jamie Lee Culver (bass) and David Zbirka (drums) — are part of a new generation of dark post-punk that’s actively reshaping the genre into something urgent, youthful and intoxicating.

With the release of last year’s “Western Horror Story” and “A Perfect End” the British quartet quickly developed a sound that they’ve playfully dubbed as “music for vampires to dance to” — i.e. brooding, groove-driven and irresistibly cool.

Recently, the rising British outfit made their live debut with sold-outs the UK and The Netherlands, And building upon a growing profile, the band signed to LAB Records, who will be releasing the quartet’s highly-anticipated debut EP, Silent Pictures on July 10, 2026. The EP reportedly sees the band firmly cementing the sound that has received praise from The Line of Best Fit, So Young, Rough Trade and Louder Than War, as well as airplay from BBC 6 Music‘s Lauren Laverne, Chris Hawkins and Steve Lamacq, BBC Radio 1‘s Daniel P. Carter, KEXP and Radio X, a blend of Joy Division, The Cure and Bauhaus, built on melodic bass lines, wiry guitars and cavernous baritone vocals.

The EP will feature the previously released “Prevail” and its latest single, “Space.” “Space” is a brooding yet hook-driven and dance floor friendly bit of goth-inspired post punk that sounds like it draws from Echo and the Bunnymen and The Cure. The band explains that, “‘Space’ explores how nostalgia can feel like both a physical presence and a permanent loss. Something that’s a common theme across the whole EP, seeing how the past is a part of you but you have to leave it behind to survive.”

Directed by the band, the accompanying video for “Space” continues a run of visuals that seem indebted to 120 Minutes-era MTV. complete with footage of the band playing the song is a haunted and extremely British forest at night and a ton of double exposure-based footage.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: FIGHTMASTER Returns with Intimate and Introspective “Minotaur”

Non-binary actor, singer/songwriter and producer E.R. Fightmaster (they/them) first came into the public eye for their roles in Grey’s Anatomy and Shrill. They built a home studio that replicated a particularly fertile creative space from a previous apartment: a cozy closet. They also learned to use Logic and sharpened their engineering techniques. “It felt like leveling up in a creative way,” Fightmaster explains. “I never have wanted to do the technical part of things, but when you’re trying to be creative, you have to set up a space that does beyond what a loop station can do.” 

They emerged as a solo artist with their recording project, the aptly named FIGHTMASTER with their debut EP, 2023’s Violence and 2024’s sophomore EP Bloodshed Baby. Building upon a growing profile, Fightmaster will be releasing their full-length debut, Tolerance on Friday, June 5, 2026. 

Tolerance is dominated by raw, unvarnished lyrics that reflect the complexities and messiness of emotional growth, and attempts to find equilibrium. When Fightmaster started writing the album’s material, they drew from their own life experience, analyzing them through the lens of hindsight and perspective. “Every song that I write is in some way a personal experience, but here I was mining a broader understanding of patterns throughout a lifetime: patterns of loving different people, patterns of watching my friends love each other,” they explain. “All of us do a relatively graceless job, but all the patterns are the same, which is endearing to me.”

“Tolerance is the most deliberate thing I’ve ever done,” they add. “I wanted to break through more personally on this album. I really waned to give people a part of myself . . . I would decided that a song felt good if it hurt a little bit. There had to be this real truth to it. And that requires a lack of wall between self and the audience.”

Fightmaster also wanted to work with more producers than they did in the past. On the album, they worked with Riley Geare, who produced both the Violence and Bloodshed Baby EP‘s; Casey Kalmensen, the creative mastermind of Little Monarch, who also plays keys for Gracie Abrams; and Gabe Goodman, who produced Del Water Gap‘s “Ode to A Conversation Stuck In Your Throat.“

The result is an album that exhibits artistic clarity and is a reflection of Fightmaster’s own self-awareness about their place in the world, musical and otherwise. “I have to have such a clear understanding of self all the time because I’m a public figure in a very queer way, and I’ve always taken that responsibility seriously,” Fightmaster says. “I don’t feel comfortable being reckless anymore . . . Nonbinary people and trans people have so few elders — I’m not an elder yet; I haven’t earned it — but I have taken on an understanding that’s the path that I’m on.”

Of course, none of this means that Fightmaster has completely figured it all out. No one really has it figured out. But in fact, Tolerance‘s songs brim with empathy — both for the narrators and others. “I want people to know that there’s still cracks in the pavement; I want them to feel safe with me,” they say. “I’ve always thought of myself as so tough, but in the last couple of years I had to realize that I get my feelings hurt every day… When I realized how much kid-heartbreak is still in there, even though I’ve been to all the therapy and I’m on the perfect amount of medication, I was able to write these songs with more kindness for myself than I ever had.”

The album will include the previously released “All Or Nothing” and the album’s third and latest single, “Minotaur.” “Minotaur” is a gorgeous, intimate and crafted waltz of a song inspired by the Greek myth of Theseus and the labyrinth. Much like the source material, “Minotaur” is a story about love, devotion and heartbreak written in a way to allow the audience to perpetually shift sympathies. “The longer I sat with this myth, the more my heartache shifted from Theseus and his father to the Minotaur himself,” Fightmaster says.

The accompanying video follows Fightmaster on some intimately shot behind the scenes tour footage that emphasizes the introspective nature of the song.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Three from Vince Staples’ Soon-to-be Released “Cry Baby”

Acclaimed Long Beach, CA-based emcee Vince Staples will be releasing his highly anticipated sixth album Cry Baby on Friday, June 5, 2026. The album is a bold musical and sonic shift for the acclaimed Long Beach-based artist, who built each track around live instrumentation, which gives the album’s material a visceral sense of immediacy and urgency.

The result is dynamic, confrontational effort that reportedly captures the tension, absurdity and emotional weight of America. The album doesn’t just document our weird, mad, urgent and brutal moment and its precedents, but actively wrestles with them. With the album dropping in a few days, I’m going to do a rare, unprecedented thing here — cover the album’s three released singles in a single post.

“Blackberry Marmalade,” Cry Baby‘s first single is built around a breakneck and angular Gorillaz-meets-punk rock inspired arrangement. Arguably one of the more bounce around and mosh friendly songs of the Long Beach-based artist’s growing catalog, the song sees Staples taking aim at America’s hyper-violent past and present, the hypocrisy, stupidity and insulting nature of racism and racial stereotypes, the deep sense of fury and insult Black Americans feel every single moment of their lives with a cool, defiant swagger and profound clarity.

Directed by Vince Staples and Bradley J. Calder, the accompanying video for “Blackberry Marmalade” is disturbing, uncomfortable, fucked up, strangely funny fever dream of gratuitous violence that’s also all too American. America is Jim Crow racism, apple pie, baseball and mass shootings — and deep down we all know this.

“White Flag,” Cry Baby’s second single features a broodingly atmospheric soul-meets-trip ho arrangement. Staples expresses a mix of world weary exhaustion, defeat, despair and stubborn pride. Listening to “White Flag” reminded me of a line in Yasiin Bey‘s “Umi Says:” “Sometimes, I don’t wanna be a solider/Sometimes, I just wanna be a man . . .

Directed by Vince Staples and Bradley J. Calder, the accompanying video for “White Flag,” follows Staples as he grabs an American flag, paints it entirely white, hangs it up again — and then proceeds to shoot at it with an assault riffle. It’s a gorgeously shot visual that’s anchored in a cool, methodical calculation.

“Cotton,” the album’s third and final pre-release single is a strutting soul pop, funk, classic rock and gospel-inspired tune that much like its immediate predecessors is urgent and irresistible hooky and anchored around astute sociopolitical observation and introspection. Throughout the song Staples openly speaks of the brutality, anger, and desperation of the folks in his hometown, and of the power and necessity of music and community. The sort of community that will “pick you up when you feel like falling” as Staples says in the song. It serves as a reminder that the only way through this is community.

Directed yet again by Staples and Calder, the accompanying video features the white painted American flag with bullet holes being used as a projection screen that features imagery of the titular cotton in the Deep South, moments of pure Black joy, scenes of America’s violence, the Civil Rights era and more.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Glasgow’s Cwfen Shares Broodingly Atmospheric and Cathartic “Whispers”

Glasgow-based quartet Cwfen (pronounced coven) — Agnes Alder (vocals, rhythm guitar), Guy DeNuit (backing vocals, lead guitar), Rös Ranquinn (drums) and Mary Thomas Baker (bass) — quickly built up a reputation as one of the UK’s hottest, emerging doom bands with 2024’s “Reliks,” which won over fans and critics and landed on Kerrang‘s release of the week playlist.

Building upon a growing profile, the Scottish outfit released their Kevin Hare and band co-produced debut Sorrows last year. Recorded at Deep Storm Productions, the album’s material lives in the space around doom, where the weight of its riffs are matched by the weight in your chest, and where the lyrics and songwriting as equally as important as the music. The band specifically intends to write songs that are big on riffs but even bigger on feeling; to create songs that speak to the listener and are carried throughout their lives. Sonically, the band sees Cwfen’s Agnes Alder bearing her (proverbial) claws one minute and howling, whispering and pleading the next one, all while her and her bandmates craft arrangements that evoke a brewing storm front on the horizon, looming larger as you approach.

“We never set out to write an album. We were just four friends making music we wanted to hear. But then Sorrows emerged, and when it did, it pulled us into its orbit. We couldn’t ignore it,” Alder says.  “When we stopped trying to fit into any one space, what came out was this beautiful mix of dark and light. Something visceral and cathartic.”

The album which included long-anticipated and long-desired reworkings of “Embers” and “Bodies,” two self-recorded demos and long-time fan favorites, received unexpected and widespread acclaim from the heavy metal music press, landing on several Best of Lists last year. Since the album’s release, the Glasgow-based quartet have toured extensively with Paradise Lost and Faetooth and they’ve made runs of the UK and European festival circuit, building a growing international presence through their live performances of Sorrows‘ material.

To celebrate a breakthrough year and the anniversary of the album’s release, the rapidly rising Scottish band have released a video for “Whispers,”a broodingly atmospheric song that’s one-part A Storm in Heaven and Souvlaki-era shoegaze, one-part doom metal and showcases Alder’s remarkable vocal range, which goes from a sultry croon to a feral howl. While cathartic, the song comes from a deeply personal place, capturing a narrator in the midst of an all-consuming mix of despair and rage.

“It’s taken a while to feel comfortable releasing ‘Whispers’ as its own thing. The song itself, lyrically, came from a very personal place, in contrast to the broader themes elsewhere on the record,” Cwfen’s Alder says. “This, for me, is a song that cuts right to the bone; it might not be too obvious in the lyrics themselves, but it’s taken a year of seeing the fans respond to it, watching it become one of their favourites, to really have the courage and the confidence to give it some of the love it deserves.

“The screams weren’t planned. They weren’t on the first version, but when we went back into the studio after a few weeks, that’s what had to come out, so what you hear in this song is the depth of that feeling,” Alder adds. “It’s one of the most cathartic, tender, and ultimately visceral songs on the album, and deciding to release it now feels like the acceptance of a direction in my songwriting that I feel ready to explore on the next record.”

Filmed and edited by Amy Greenbank, the accompanying video for “Whispers” is shot in a gorgeously cinematic black and white, and juxtaposes footage of the band playing shows across Finland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Ireland to wrapt audiences with haunting wintry landscapes across Northern Europe, the band doing promo shoots and behind the scenes tour footage.

“We were so lucky that our Creative Scotland funding allowed us to take this tour and to bring Amy Greenbank with us,” Cwfen’s Alder says of the tour and video,. “We got to work with an incredibly talented videographer, and we made a friend for life. She’s someone who will always be part of the Cwfen family. We made incredible memories on this tour and it’s so lovely to see some of them here.’”

“Following an unexpectedly busy and wonderful 12 months since the release of Sorrows, we’re proud to share our new video for ‘Whispers,'” Cfwen’s Guy DeNuit adds. “This song has become a live favourite with the band and audiences, and we are so fortunate to have had this documented and beautifully presented by our videographer and dear friend, Amy Greenbank.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: sundayclub Shares Anthemic “Blue Wave”

Winnipeg-based indie duo sundayclub — Courtney and Nikki — have quickly cemented a sound and approach that blends hazy indie pop and dreamy textures with unfiltered storytelling. The result is material that’s much like blurry photograph, grainy yet glowing, fleeting yet full of feeling and life. 

The duo’s nine-song, self-titled, full-length debut is slated for a July 10, 2026 release through Paper Bag Records. Their debut is deeply informed by the stillness of rural Manitoba, where the duo started the band as a way of processing the very strange limbo of early adulthood — that feeling of being caught between who you once were and who you’re slowly becoming. Fittingly, the album is rooted in place: in a romanticized, re-examined Winnipeg with its hard edges softened in the way that memory often soften things. Thematically, the album touches upon growing up, growing apart and growing into your own skin. 

The album includes the previously released “Camera Shy,” and the album’s latest single “Blue Wave.” Built around a motorik pulse, fuzzy guitars and a euphoric, sing-along worthy hook and chorus, “Blue Wave” is an uptempo rousingly anthemic layered with three drum kits — and the product of over 170 vocal takes. Much like its predecessor, there’s a hauntingly bittersweet undertone to the song with the single leaning into the feeling of “pre-nostalgia,” which happens when you experience nostalgia in real time and began to feel as though you might miss the current moment before it’s passed. The song also references Courtney’s first car, a 2009 blue Pontiac Wave, lovingly named Trudy after its previous owner, and the memories Courtney and Nikki associated with the car — and with a specific period of their lives. So, in some way, the car was a bit of a time machine, and a way to explore the fuzzy and hazy spacers between the past and present.

“This song reminisces on the early days of a relationship in the midst of inner turmoil and uncertainty over what the future might hold,” Carmichael explains. “It’s about wanting to be a different, better, and more evolved version of yourself despite not being there yet, and seeking escapism in the past as a way to find solace. I felt impossibly restless at the time of writing the song and was just generally tired: tired of feeling like I wasn’t progressing, tired of being patient with the record we were making, tired of feeling vulnerable and overlooked. By looking back into the past, I could escape into a feeling of wistfulness to distract myself from how frustrated I was in the present.”

Directed by Qran Zhu, the accompanying video for “Blue Wave” was shot in Toronto and follows a young couple in love, who decided to steal two old bikes and go for a joyride. But what originally was young and mischievous whimsy turns into something much more dangerous and eventually tragic.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lukka Returns with Summer of Love-like “Blue Ocean Eyes”

New York-based indie trio Lukka — Berlin-born, New York-based creative mastermind Franzi Szymkowiak (guitar, vocals), Ashley Gonzalez (bass) and Simon “SiFi” Fishburn (drums) — have long operated at the crossroads of space rock, neo-psychedelia and synth-driven indie pop. The band’s sound is anchored around hypnotic grooves, immersive textures and melody-driven songwriting, frequently blending repetition with expansive, atmospheric arrangements featuring driving bass lines, propulsive rhythms, delay pedaled guitars and layered analogy synths, and equally atmospheric production.

Syzmkowiak has travelled across the globe, seeking a musical home that felt right. She had stints living in Australia, New Zealand and Argentina before settling in New York. “New York City felt like the right place to meet like-minded people,” she says. “The reason I make music is that it serves as an escape from everyday reality and the problems of daily life. Songwriting helps me process what is happening around me. Music, and especially synthesizer sounds, takes me to another realm where I can feel at peace and experience emotions I have not felt elsewhere. Creating music almost feels like a religious act. Having a band and being an artist in this city has allowed me to meet so many other interesting people. Through these relationships, I feel that I am part of a larger creative community, which creates a strong and meaningful sense of connectedness.”

The trio’s third album, the Abe Seiferth-produced Wendekind is slated for a June 5, 2026 release. The band’s Syzmkowiak was born around the fall of the Berlin Wall. She explains that children, who were born in East Germany at that time were called wendekinder, a generation born into a new, free world. Her mom would always call her a wendekind. “It felt like the perfect title for the album,” she says. 

Recorded at Brooklyn-based Transmitter Park Studios, Wendekind reportedly sees the band expanding upon the sound of 2022’s Something Human while pushing further into much more immersive, synth-driven territory. 

Thematically, Wendekind sees the New York diving deeper into the metaphysical, tracing loss and memory, while questioning one’s place in an infinite and seemingly indifferent universe. For Syzmkowiak, the album is a deeply personal and reflective effort, moving between memories of the past, and hopes for the future while touring on space, time, chance and self-discovery. 

“Over the past three years, a series of events pushed me to look inward and question what had been driving my choices and behavior,” Syzmkowiak says. “The album became a deeply personal and spiritual journey, leading me back to my roots and to memories of where I came from.”

The soon-to-be released third album will include the meditative and slow-burning “Fabric of the Cosmos” and its latest single, album opener “Blue Ocean Eyes.” “Blue Ocean Eyes” may arguably be the most Summer of Love-inspired tune of the album to date, with a modern sensibility. Seemingly channeling contemporaries like JOVM mainstays Elephant Stone, the album’s latest single showcases Szymkowiak and company’s unerring knack for pairing earnest lyricism with catchy hooks and shimmering and jangling guitars.

Directed by Jen Meller, the accompanying video for “Blue Ocean Eyes” is split between footage of the band playing in front of psychedelic projections and footage of Szymkowiak wandering around a room strewn with trippy art and lights.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Lulla Shares Brooding and Atmospheric “Secret Garden”

Lulla is a Chinese Canadian illustrator, fashion designer, singer/songwriter and producer who currently splits her time between Toronto and NYC. As a musician, the Canadian-born artist is a classically trained pianist, who recently began to experiment with electronic music by blending dark synth pop, alternative pop and indie pop to build an immersive sonic world that’s intimate and otherworldly. Thematically, her self-produced and self-written work explores emotional turmoil, femininity and nostalgia through sci-fi and futurism.

Lullaverse is the Canadian artist’s ongoing sci-fi narrative music project in which each song functions as a standalone emotional world and as a chapter in a larger mythological universe. Her second single “Secret Garden” is a a brooding and atmospheric alt-pop song featuring reverb-soaked, skittering beats, bursts of twinkling keys. Lulla’s yearning vocal ethereally floats over a brooding production that sonically seems to channel early Beacon and others.

“The garden is not a place. It is a body. The heart is hidden inside it. The hidden shrine is a vault,” Lulla explain. “A place where everything real is kept, worshipped in private, never surfaced. Heaven would call it sin. The world would call it a waste. Does it matter? Whether the devotion is directed toward a warm body or something of higher meaning, the distinction is irrelevant. She disappeared beyond the atmosphere either way.

“You can hear ‘Secret Garden’ as a queer love story,” she continues. “You can hear it as an artist’s confession. Both readings are fully supported. Neither one is wrong, it is deliberate ambiguous.”

Directed by the artist, the accompanying video features the artist, dressed in white with ivy wrapped around her in a white studio, near a computer and microphone. At one point, we see a confused Lulla running towards a bathroom. For the artist, she’s inexplicably and dangerous drawn to music — at seemingly all costs.