Tag: W.I.T.C.H.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: L’Eclair Teams Up With Phoebe Coco and A Ghost Column on Dance Floor Friendly “ODESSOS”

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 established themselves as masters of a mind-bending, spacey grooves. 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,.

L’Eclair’s fourth album Cloud Drifter is slated for a June 20, 2025 release through Innovative Leisure. Meticulously crafted over the last four years, Cloud Drifter makes a decided departure from the group’s signature instrumental music, with the album’s material featuring vocal contributions from a wide array of frequent collaborators they’ve worked with over the past few years, including Pink Slifu, Girl Named GOLDEN, Gelli Haha, A Ghost Column, and more. Having toured with The Cinematic Orchestra and W.I.T.CH. — including writing and recording W.I.T.C.H.’s 2023 effort Zango and The Cinematic Orchestra’s forthcoming album this year, and 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.

Cloud Drifter‘s first single, “ODESSOS,” features Phoebe Coco‘s and A Ghost Column’s ethereal vocals paired with twinkling and oscillating synths and a dub-inspired motorik groove. Arguably one of the most club friendly songs the Swiss outfit has ever released, the new single is a bold, sonic left turn that retains their long-held penchant for crafting mind-bending grooves. And unlike their previously released material, “ODESSOS” manages to convey the freewheeling, improvisation-driven and infectious energy of their live shows.

Music Festivals by William Ruben Helms

Generally speaking, the music festival experience is pretty much the same — whether you’ve been to one or dozens of them, like myself. Reinvented last year, Pickathon redefines the music festival experience as an immersive choose-your-own-adventure experience, where attendees can discover music, arts and culture perfectly integrated into the natural wonders of Happy Valley, Oregon‘s Pendarvis Farm, located 16 miles outside of Portland.

Late last month, festival organizes announced that the 2023 edition will take place August 3, 2023-August 6, 2023, along with the festival’s music lineup. This year’s edition will continue the festival’s reputation for eclecticism and its ability to spot the next breakout band across a variety of genres while featuring: indie roots outfit Watchhouse, the legendary Lee Fields, alt-glam band Dehd, rising singer/songwriter Madison Cunningham, Zambian psych rockers W.I.T.C.H., Thee Sinseers, The Altons, the acclaimed Mailian artist Vieux Farka Touré, desert blues outfit Imarhan, rising bluegrass banjo and Venezuelan harp duo Larry & Joe, Bay Area African psych rock outfit Orchestra Gold, post-internet jazz project MonoNeon, the Native American powwow-meets-electroinc music-meets-Bon Ives-like soundscapes of Joe Rainey, Yot Club, Columbian psychedelic cumbia outfit Meridian Brothers, Peruvian electro pop group Novalima, Mexican punk rockers Sgt. Papers, acclaimed Canadian rapper TOBi, Tampa-based experimentalists They Hate Change and jazz funk outfit Butcher Brown.

As always country and honky tonk still holds a strong presence with acts like Nick Shoulders, The Kernal and Courtney Marie Andrews on the bill. Rising indie rock artists Wednesday, MJ Lenderman and Florist are also on the bill. The full lineup and festival playlist are below.

Pickathon 2023 Full Lineup

  • Watchouse
  • Lee Fields
  • Dehd
  • Madison Cunningham
  • Vieux Farka Touré
  • Florist
  • W.I.T.C.H.
  • Wednesday
  • MonoNeon
  • Ocie Elliott
  • Butcher Brown
  • Yot Club
  • Courtney Marie Andrews
  • Imarhan
  • Say She She
  • MJ Lenderman
  • Madison McFerrin
  • The Po’ Ramblin’ Boys
  • They Hate Change
    Andrew Marlin
  • Pachyman
  • Wine Lips 
  • Nikki Nair
  • GA-20
  • Nick Shoulders
  • Wayne Graham
  • Mike Dillon’s Punkadelic!
  • Rich Ruth
  • The Altons
  • Thee Sinseers
  • Novalima
  • Logan Ledger
  • Meridian Brothers
  • TOBi
  • Emily Nenni
  • Mikaela Davis 
  • Joe Rainey
  • Riddy Arman
  • The Mountain Grass Unit
  • The Kernal
  • Larry & Joe
  • Hooveriii
  • Gel
  • Jackie Venson
  • Nat Myers 
  • Allison de Groot & Tatiana Hargreaves
  • Sgt. Papers
  • Orchestra Gold
  • WHIMZ
  • Sprig of That
  • The Shivas
  • MØTRIK

“Reinventing Pickathon last year around the concept of integrating music, arts, and culture into the natural settings of Pendarvis Farm was an incredible endeavor,” Pickathon founder Dale Schoenborn says. “2023 not only presents our best lineup ever, but now we understand the new Pickathon Neighborhoods even better, and we’re excited to refine all the details to make this year our most immersive experience to date. I can’t wait for everyone to join us at Pendarvis Farm!”

Early bird tickets end today. Camping, parking, shuttles and everything else you need to get to the farm is on sale now, too. That information can be found here.


Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Rising Amsterdam-based, global post-punk outfit Mauskovic Dance Band — W.I.T.C.H. touring member Nicola Mauskovic, Donnie Mauskovic, Marnix Mauskovic and Mano Mauskovic — can trace their origins back to school age, with all of the members growing up in the Amsterdam metropolitan area: Nicola Mauskovic is half-Dutch and half-Sicilian and spend his formative years in nearby Haarlem. Embryonic teenage chops were later fleshed out by playing weekday jam sessions in Amsterdam bars among “1960s rockers and Latin groovers”.

With the release of their full-length debut, 2019’s Shedance Hall, Mauskovic Dance Band quickly established a madcap sound and approach intent on expanding musical universes by flipping global music traditions and creating new, sound-system stylized, synth-driven dance floor experiments. Shedance Hall saw the band crafting a frenetic mix of elements of Colombian champeta, Ghanian highlife and spaced-out disco.

The Dutch outfit’s sophomore album Bukaroo Bank is slated for an October 28, 2022 release through Swiss purveyors of weird and funky global music, Bongo Joe Records. Bukaroo Bank reportedly sees the band reinventing their sound and approach with the material drawing from the industrial sounds of New York, post punk and the pioneers of electronic music, but at the center of it all, the material is guided by the work of legendary dub pioneer Lee “Scratch” Perry.

Recorded in 2020 during one of the Netherlands’ intermittent lockdowns, the four members of the band, plus second drummer Chris Bruining, a.k.a. Juan Hundred wanted to step up from their home base Garage Noord, an ad hoc space for recording, practice and after-hours parties. They chose Kasper Frenkel’s Electric Monkey. His stacks of what Nicola calls “very strange equipment,” and ability to sprinkle magic dub dust over everything, suited the vibe perfectly. The results glow and shiver with assembled synth sounds, rhythms spliced and echoed in a way that pays homage to Lee Perry.

Frenkel’s role in the creative process was just one way in which Bukaroo Bank saw the Amsterdam-based outfit function as a full-fledged band. Previously, songwriting was more or less handled by the band’s founder Nicola Mauskovic, who would bring songs to the band’s other members to be recorded. But this time, the material began in the studio from unstructured jams firmed up by discipline and edited down to the final 12 song album. However, one facet of their creative process that has remained is their tendency to build everything from the drums up.

Bukaroo Bank‘s first single, album title track “Bukaroo Bank” is a trippy and dance floor friendly synthesis of Lee “Scratch” Perry dub, no wave and post-punk centered around skittering beats, a sinuous bass line, wiry bursts of guitar, shouted mantra-like call and response vocals and wailing saxophone drenched in cavernous reverb. The end result is a song that sounds and feels as though it came from Jupiter sometime in the 22nd or 23rd Century.

The band is currently touring here in the States, and the tour includes a highly anticipated stop at this year’s Desert Daze. Check out the rest of the tour dates below.

MAUSKOVIC DANCE BAND

LIVE 2022

Sept 16 – No Fun – Troy, NY

Sept 17 – The Drake – Amherst, MA

Sept 18 – Monkey House – Winooski, VT

Sept 20 – Beachland Tavern – Cleveland, OH

Sept 21 – The Empty Bottle – Chicago, IL

Sept 22 – Cactus Club – Milwaukee, WI

Sept 24 – FORMAT FESTIVAL – Bentonville, AR

Sept 25 – Rubber Gloves – Denton, TX

Sept 26 – Sahara Lounge – Austin, TX

Sept 28 – Valley Bar – Phoenix, AZ

Sept 29 – The Echo – Los Angeles, CA

Oct 1 – Desert Daze – Lake Perris, CA