Tag: women who kick ass

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Remington Super 60 Shares Shimmering, Dance Floor Friendly “Time to breathe”

Remington Super 60 — currently founding member, primary songwriter and producer Christoffer Schou, Elisabeth Thorsen and longtime collaborator Magnus Abelsen — is a Fredrikstad, Norway-based indie pop outfit the can trace its origins back to 1998 when its founder, Christoffer Schou started the project as a Casio synth pop band. Over the course of the Norwegian outfit’s almost 30 year history, the band’s sound has frequently bounced back and forth between Casio synth pop and 60s-inspired bubblegum pop drawing from Burt Bacharach, Brian Wilson, The Beach Boys, The Velvet Underground, Stereolab, The High Llamas, Cornelius, Yo La Tengo, Eggstone, New Order, The Cure and Adore-era Smashing Pumpkins, while releasing a handful of albums, EPs and singles through a number of labels across the globe.

The Norwegian outfit’s latest single “Time to breathe” is a decided change in sonic direction. Featuring a disco-influenced bass line and shimmering synth arpeggios, the song’s upbeat, hook-driven, ABBA-meets-Comme dans un penthouse-era Le Couleur-like arrangement serves as a lush bed for Elisabeth Thorsen’s ethereal vocal.

“’Time to Breathe’ is a little more energetic than our usual dream‑pop leanings — built around a groovy bassline and our singer’s soft, airy vocals,” Remington Super 60 founder Christoffer Schou explains, It was recorded in my living‑room studio, surrounded by guitars, basses, and a pile of well‑worn 80s Casio and Yamaha toy keyboards that have quietly shaped our sound over the years.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Locust Teams Up with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead and Natasha Morrow on Yearning “Long Distance Lover”

Mark Van Hoen is a London-born and based electronic music artist, who has written, recorded and released music with his best-known project Locust, as well as with Autocreation and under his own name. Originally influenced by Brian Eno, Tangerine Dream and others, Van Hoen’s music career started in earnest back in 1993 when he signed with Belgian-based label R&S. His initial releases as Locust saw him using vintage analog synthesizers and tape recorders. But as his sound moved towards an increasingly vocal orientated approach in the late 1990s, he also began releasing material under his own name.

Van Hoen also collaborated with Slowdive’s Neil Halstead in Black Hearted Brother, a project that released their debut Stars Are Our Home in 2013.

The English electronic music artist’s latest Locust single “Long Distance” features Neil Halstead on guitar and vocals from Irish musician Natasha Morrow. The lush and dream-like collaboration came together over the past few years and features shimmering and pulsating, Giorgio Moroder-like synths, Halstead’s reverb drenched shoegazer textured riffs meticulously draped and sculpted over the synths while Morrow’s yearning delivery expresses a longing for intimacy despite a physical distance.

“The music was recorded back in 2020 originally as a collab between Neil Halstead and I,” Van Hoen recalls. “It sat around for a few years, and I had the idea to send it to Natasha to see if it inspired anything vocally. She came up with the idea of long-distance phone calls between lovers. It struck a chord with me as I had experienced a couple of relationships like that. The idea of repeating these expressions of desire and longing over and over, because you are aching to be together. I had actually never met Natasha, and generally, I find that remote collabs don’t work because there’s a connection missing somehow. But in Natasha’s case, I had several long phone calls with her, and I think we connected that way. Not in any romantic sense, but as musical collaborators, which has its own particular need for a personal connection and understanding. I found it interesting that it related to the song’s lyrics in that she and I established a different kind of personal bond over the phone.”

The accompanying video by Mark Van Hoen features the song’s collaborators in silhouette dipping in and out of the frame, which helps further accentuate the distance, longing and ephemeral nature of the song’s central relationship.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 55th Birthday, Rachel Goswell!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Slowdive co-founder Rachel Goswell’s 55th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 60th Birthday, Janet Jackson!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Janet Jackson’s 60th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Night Talks Shares Strutting and Defiant “People Pleaser”

Los Angeles-based trio Night Talks — Soraya Sebghati (vocals), Jacob Butler (guitar, synth, vocals) and Josh Arteaga (bass, synth, vocals) — features three lifelong friends, who wanted to start a band. And perhaps unsurprisingly, the three Angelenos are also filmmakers and film lovers, because Los Angeles, after all. Their music is sparkly alt-rock/indie rock that’s inspired as much by the films they’ve created and consumed, as much by LCD Soundsystem and Queens of the Stone Age. Fittingly, their work is centered around cinematic stories, dance floor friendly grooves and intricate layers of sound, meant to transport you to a dance floor anywhere you’re listening to their music.

The trio’s 2022 effort Same Time Tomorrow featured “On and On” KROQ’s #1 Locals Only song of the year. Written and produced during the pandemic, the band was able to create an entire visual world of music videos for each track of the album. As a result of both the album and its music videos, the Los Angeles-based trio received rapturous praise and coverage from GrimyGoods, Buzzbands LA and more, as well as airplay from KROQ’s Locals Only. Their songs have been featured on playlist like Fresh Finds, All New Rock and All New Alternative.

Building upon a growing profile, the band has opened for the likes of Couch, Circa Waves, Wolf Parade’s Dan Boeckner and Kississippi. Last year, the band returned to the studio with a fresh pop-forward approach to their songwriting for a new album. Those recording sessions resulted in the release of two singles, “Shadows On The Run” and “Targets” feat Grammy Award-nominated, genre-defying songwriter, producer and guitarist Cory Wong. The collaboration can trace its origins back to 2024, when Night Talks’ Soaya Segbhati appeared as a surprise guest at several shows on Wong’s 2024 tour.

This year, they did a Jam In The Van session and with a renewed energy and big plans ahead, they’re gearing up for a big year. The Los Angeles trio’s latest single, the Eric Palmquist co-written and produced “People Pleaser”features a disco and pop-leaning groove, rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses and Segbhati’s soulful, powerhouse delivery. The song is a defiant celebration of a woman finally putting herself first, instead of bending over backwards to people people who aren’t remotely worth her time.

“‘People Pleaser’ is a celebratory song about overcoming your tendencies to put everyone else first, and not wasting time with a person who makes you bend for them constantly,” Night Talks’ Sebghati explains, “Lyrically, we wanted it to be vague whether it’s about a friend or a partner, since this kind of dynamic can apply to any relationship.”The band’s Jacob Butler adds, “We tried to create something more sparse than songs we’ve done before, with fewer layers that each serve to either be either funky or percussive; even the acoustic guitars feel more like shakers in the track.”

Directed by Logan Sage, the accompanying video for “People Pleaser” is a slick, feverish yet textured daydream that features the band’s Sebghati singing, dancing and vamping it up in a studio and various locations in and around Los Angeles. Shot at the band’s Night Talks HQ, Butler says, “We shot on three different cameras, one regular, one with an old TV zoom lens, and a VHS, so that gave the video a bit of a multimedia effect that added to the daydreaming angle.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Body Type Shares Languid and Shimmering “Mulberry”

Body Type’s highly-anticipated third album, Tally is slated for a July 24, 2026 release through King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s p(doom) records. Recorded at Los Angeles-based Velveteen Laboratory Studios with producer Stella Mozgawa, Tally reportedly marks a deliberate evolution for the quartet. While 2023’s Expired Candy arrived on a wave of post-pandemic momentum, their third album takes long to breathe — the material’s ambitions are quieter, its craft more considered. ‘

The album cones as the band celebrates their tenth anniversary together. Featuring a blend of big, jagged riffs, moody post-punk and 60s pop, Tally may arguably be their most self-assured and expansive batch of material to date, capturing band maturing and taking stock but while wit and playfulness still are supreme. Thematically, the album chronicles mundanity’s mystical implications, the deformations of romance and love’s confounding elasticity and more.

Tally’s latest single “Mulberry” is a languid, sun-dappled tune, featuring shimmering guitars, a relentlessly driving rhythm paired with the Aussie outfit’s uncanny sense of melodicism and catchy hooks. Sonically resembling a mix of Stories from the City, Stories from the Sea-era PJ Harvey, The Breeders and a bit of Marquee Moon-era Television, “Mulberry” is anchored around a mediation on self-dissolution with the song’s lyrics a rollicking bit of free-association with a narrator, who bites into a piece of purple fruit and ruminates on similarly colored phenomenon, the heavens, the changing of the seasons, and more.

Directed by Jack Saltmiras, the accompanying video for “Mulberry” follows each of the band’s members as they walk around a very busy Sydney, encountering city life.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Healing Power of Horses Share Slinky “i wait, i sink”

The Healing Power of Horses is a mysterious and emerging East Anglia, UK-based duo, who defy easy categorization, as they prefer. They’ve spent too much time in the attic making music and not enough time outside, and as a result, they’re pallid, bug-eyed, knock-kneed and on and on.

The duo caught the attention of Los Angeles-based section1, who signed the UK-based duo and released their debut single, “i wait, i sink.” “i wait, i sink” is a slinky and sultry bit of Garbage-like trip hop that rattles, shakes and stomps about the room before fading out into the ether. Their debut single showcases a remarkably self-assured outfit that can craft a brooding yet sexy tune with incredibly catchy hooks.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Widowspeak Returns with Swooning “Soft Cover”

New York-based indie outfit Widowspeak — Molly Hamilton and Robert Earl Thomas— are one of many bands to crop up in the busy local scene around the time I started this site, almost 16 years ago. They started out shuffling their gear between now, long-shuttered — and deeply beloved — venues like Glasslands, Cake Shop, 285 Kent, Death By Audio and a lengthy list of others, and their practice space at Monster Island Basement, which now is a Trader Joe’s. New York has fucking changed, y’all. Speaking of changes: the duo is now a married couple, working day jobs in their own off-season. Thomas is a carpenter, Hamilton a waitress. 

Recently, the duo announced that their highly-anticipated seventh album, Roses will be released June 5, 2026 through Captured Tracks. Deeply informed by their respective day jobs, Roses isn’t populated with dramatic overtures, but with the backdrop of the minutiae and repetition of daily acts. There’s the small observations before, during and after work: the ritual-like act of pouring water or coffee for customers, the bemusement and frustration of catching a cold on your only day off. Maybe you’re daydreaming about your life if you won the lottery — or maybe realizing that you already won. 

The 10-song Roses was recorded last January at the Old Carpet Factory on the Greek Island of Hydra, a studio located in an old house, tucked into the village’s steep hills. During the winter, without the rush of tourists, it’s quiet. Longtime touring members Willy Muse, John Andrews and Noah Bond were the session backing band. 

The album’s material was then taken home and slowly, lightly tinkered with before being mixed by Alex Farrar at Drop of Sun Studios and mastered by Greg Obis at Chicago Mastering. 

Throughout the album, intimate spaces and stages of love are captured with a nostalgic, almost sepia-toned, vaseline coated lens. As always, the beating heart of their work is the interplay between Hamilton’s languid, dreamy and textured delivery and Hamilton’s bluesy, visceral guitar work. 

Roses‘ will include the previously released “If You Change,” the lush and cinematic “No Driver,” and the album’s third and latest single, “Soft Cover.” “Soft Cover” is a shuffling driving and achingly gorgeous song anchored around featuring what may arguably the album’s most sweeping hooks and Hamilton’s swooning, heartfelt delivery. The song evokes both the sensation of daydreaming about someone, as you’re going about the mundane actions of your day — and the sensation of longing and hoping to see that special someone as soon as possible.

“Soft Cover” is about infatuation: wanting and daydreaming about someone as you’re going about your day… even if, and maybe especially if, you’ve been with them a long time,” says Hamilton. “We brought in a Rhodes for this one, so it came in a car from Athens, then took a boat, then a donkey carried it up to the studio,” Hamilton adds, describing the unique recording conditions they experienced at the Old Carpet Factory on the Greek island Hydra.

Directed by Otium, the accompanying video features the band’s Molly Hamilton as a singing telegram girl, who daydreams of a idealized Shakespearean/Renaissance Faire man (Robert Earl Thomas) courting her with old-timey poetry as she reads from her pulp novel. “The video is the last in the world of the trilogy, where the Singing Telegram Girl is dreaming about an idealized Renaissance Faire Guy while waiting around, reading a pulpy novel,” Hamilton says. “Rob was incredibly enthusiastic about this one because he loves medieval history and we got to pick out some fun costumes from Adele’s of Hollywood. He’s a star!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Alaska Blue Shares Brooding and Groovy “White Spaces”

Over the past couple of years, I’ve spilled a bit of ink covering the Italian indie duo and JOVM mainstays Alaska Blue — singer/songwriter Elisabeta Giordano and musician Davide Cast. The duo recently released their third full-length album, personal troubles are public issues last week.

personal trouble are public issues’ latest single “White Spaces” is a brooding, deeply introspective tune that sees the band blending elements of synth pop, indie soul and soul, featuring a strutting and sultry groove and shimmering synths paired with Giordano’s soulful delivery and the duo’s uncanny knack for catchy hooks. The result is a song that’s perfect for restless, late night drives and makeout sessions while channeling the likes of Geowulf, Still Corners and Tan Cologne among others.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jazen Happy Teams Up with Solara Harris on Euphoric “Las Guardianas”

Jazen Happy is an electronic producer and artist, who has developed a reputation for crafting an upbeat and vibrant fusion of techno and electronic dance music paired with catchy lyrics that’s inspired from both underground rhythms and mainstream trends. His latest single, “Las Guardianas” feat. Solara Harris is an upbeat and summery bit of melodic house, anchored around glistening synth arpeggios and Harris’ soulful delivery that’s simultaneously club and festival friendly — and showcases the producer’s ability to craft a remarkably catchy hook.

Jazen Happy explains that the song is inspired by Tulum sunrises and is specifically designed to create a real emotional lift.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Lyric Video: Shye Shares Brooding and Ethereal “I Always Knew”

Rising Singapore-based dream pop artist Shye is a self-taught singer/songwriter, musician, producer and engineer, whose music career began as DIY bedroom project that exploded into the international scene when she won the 2018 Vans Musicians Wanted competition when she was just 16. Since then, the Singaporean artist has released a handful of genre-defying singles while amassing a batch of awards and titles, including NME‘s Best New Act from Asia, Asia’s Forbes 30 Under 30 and sharing stages with acts like The Jesus and Mary Chain, Wisp, Clairo and Men I Trust.

Her sophomore album The Doves Came Home officially dropped today. The album features a collection of hazy, introspective songs that seamlessly transition from ethereal vocals and shimmering guitars to heavy walls of sound that draws from 90s dream pop and shoegaze. The result is material that sounds simultaneously expansive and deeply personal while exploring the push and pull between softness and tension.

The album includes the previously released “Smoke,” “Someone, Always“ and the album’s latest single “I Always Knew.” Much like its immediate predecessors, “I Always Knew,” features the rising Singaporean artist’s yearning vocal ethereally floating over a 90s inspired arrangement built around alternating shimmering, jangle pop and dream pop-like guitars for the song’s quieter verses and towering and swirling shoegazer textures for the song’s rousingly anthemic hooks and choruses. But underneath the song’s anthemic and stormy exterior is a tale of a meet cute that quietly cracks apart in the sort of betrayal and heartbreak that feels inevitable.

The lyric video follows a brooding and introspective Shye wandering the countryside and riding trains with her earbuds, singing the song’s lyrics — to presumably an unseen subject.