Tag: women who kick ass

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Tinlicker Shares Driving, Club Banging “Reborn”

Acclaimed Utrecht-based electronic music outfit Tinlicker — founding member Micha Heyboer, Jordi van Achthoven and their newest memberHero Baldwin — can trace their origins back to 2012, when the project was founded as a solo project of its founder. As a solo project, Heyboer released Tinlicker’s debut EP, 2012’s My First Time Here and the 2012’s Remember The Future demo compilation through his own label, Zero Three Zero. 

Jordi van Achthoven was introduced to Heyboer through a mutual contact in 2014. The pair bonded over their mutual inspirations of Paul Kalkbrenner, Trentemøller and Moderat, and at that point, Tinlicker expanded to a duo, releasing three EPs through Feed Me‘s Sotto Voce, 2014’s Like No Other, 2015’s Into The Open and The Space In Between, which featured “Oudegracht,” a track that amassed significant attention online. 

2017 saw the duo releasing material through Anjunadep, Armada Music and deadmau5′s mau5trap before singing a record deal with Anjunadeep, who released their breakthrough full-length debut, 2019’s This Is Not Our Universe, which featured contributions from alt-J, Run Rivers, Thomas Oliver and Belle Doron. The album reached #1 on the dance charts in the US, Australia, India, Canada and Finland and #2 in the UK, The Netherlands and Poland. 

The duo’s sophomore album In Another Life was released in February 2022. But by November 2023, the duo announced that the third album, last year’s Cold Enough for Snow would be released through [PIAS] Électronique. The ealbum featured collaborations with Brian Molko, Editors‘ Tom Smith and Circa Waves. The Dutch duo supported the album with sets at Pinkpop Festival, CRSSD Festival, Crystal Palace Bowl, Coachella and Sziget Festival. 

Back in 2020, as the Dutch duo were achieving commercial and critical success, they had started a successful collaboration with London-based signer/songwriter and producer Hero Baldwin that has continued through a series of singles including their most recent single “I Started A Fire,” which was released earlier this year. Heyboer and van Achthoven recently invited Baldwin to be a full-time member of the band. “Jordi and Micha seem to pull something out of me that resonates with my emotional landscape every time we make a song,” the London-based singer/songwriter and producer says. “I think it’s so important to feel creatively and emotionally secure, and Jordi and Micha always afford me that privilege.”

The act’s Melkweg Amsterdam show was their official debut as a trio. She also joined the duo for their biggest live show to date, Tinlicker In The Park at Crystal Palace Bowl. 

Tinlicker’s highly-anticipated fourth album — and first as a trio — is slated for an early 2026 release. The album will feature the previously released “I Want My Freedom,” which begins with a slow-burning piano intro that nods at Radiohead‘s “Everything In Its Right Place,” before morphing into a festival and club banger with a euphoric bridge and hook paired with Baldwin’s defiant and resolute vocal.

The forthcoming album’s third and latest single “Reborn,” is an expansive, almost cinematic, deep house banger, anchored around glistening and arpeggiated synth oscillations, a motorik groove paired with the act’s unerring knack for crafting enormous hooks and drops. Sonically speaking, “Reborn” seemingly channels 90s-00s house, making the song a high-energy homage to the sounds of their teens.

“Music can be a reflection of the era you grow up in. You fall in love with the soundscape of your teens and drag that feeling with you, because during this period you experience so many new adventures,” the members of Tinlicker explain. “‘Reborn’ is an homage to the early sounds that shaped us as teenagers, as it is an era in music we hold close to our hearts.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Trentemøller’s Atmospheric Take on “Silent Night”

Copenhagen-based producer, multi-instrumentalist, producer, electronic music artist and Trentemøller creative mastermind Anders Trentemøller has a long-held reputation for creating extraordinarily memorable melodies paired with brooding and dark soundscapes. Throughout his career, the Danish artist’s work has frequently explored contrasts, paradoxes, reminiscence and remembrance — but while eschewing overt nostalgia.

Trentemøller’s sixth album, last year’s 10-song Dreamweaver saw the acclaimed Dane meshing elements of shoegaze, darkwave, komische musik and noise rock with somber, introspective takes on dream pop — but in a decidedly immersive and psychedelic fashion that’s perfect for repeated listens on headphones. Icelandic vocalist DiSA contributes vocals on nine of the album’s 10 tracks.

His first single since the release of Dreamweaver sees the Copenhagen-based tackling the classic and beloved Christmas carol, “Silent Night.” The Trentemøller rendition of “Silent Night” features his girlfriend Lisbet Fritze, whose ethereal delivery sings the song’s beloved melody paired with a wintry arrangement of churning guitar, twinkling bells, drum machine-driven beats and atmospheric synths. The song evokes both Christmas time generally and what Christmastime would look like and feel in his native Denmark — cold winters, fireplaces, ice skating, carolers, Christmas markets and the like, but with mix of gentle, sepia-toned nostalgia and a modern sensibility.

The cover is extremely fitting. The acclaimed Danish artist has always loved Christmas. Since childhood. the season has held a special place for him, and for years he wanted to record his own version of one of the great Christmas songs. He chose Silent Night for his timeless melody, which for him captures the essence of Christmas.

Originally written as a lullaby, the song took on new meaning after Trentemøller became a father. Lisbet Fritze’s vocals and the single’s cover art, a Christmastime photo of a young Anders Trentemøller with his mother give the single a deeply personal yet universal touch. After all, with the coming of a new year, many of us look simultaneously back into the past remembering moments with loved ones no longer with us and into the future, hoping for long-lasting peace, love and understanding for all.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstay Sylvia Black Returns with “Long Gone Garden”

Los Angeles-based multifaceted producer, singer/songwriter, bassist, performer, restless performer and JOVM mainstay Sylvia Black has had a long-held reputation for being difficult to pin down. Since her first job singing and entertaining at a resort hotel in Northern Japan as teen, music has been her lifeline.

Throughout her career, Black has steadily gained momentum as a writer and producer, consistently creating music on her own terms, simultaneously cementing her place in the post-punk and goth-romantic renaissance, while being restlessly creative. Her lengthy credits reflect her eclectic tastes and wide-ranging abilities. She was the frontperson of the New York-based trio KUDU with Deantoni Parks (drums, production) and Nicci Kasper (keys, production) in the early 00s. Black also has writing and recording credits with Grammy Award-winning pop act Black Eyed Peas, Daphne Guinness and more. Her lengthy and impressive resume includes collaborations with legends like Tony Visconti, Lydia Lunch and Moby, as well as The Knocks, Armand Van Helden and French electro pop duo Telepopmusik. And last, but definitely not lease, her sultry rendition of ‘I Put A Spell On You” appeared on the hit Netflix series Chilling Adventures of Sabrina. 

As a bassist, Black has played with The Brand New Heavies‘ N’Dea Davenport, Living Colour‘s Muzz Skillings and with Maya Rudolph’s Prince cover band Princess.

The JOVM mainstay’s long-awaited new album, the 11-song Shadowtime is slated for a January 16, 2026 release. The album rsees Black continuing her long-held approach of songwriting from the bottom up. “I find a beat that I’m in love with and go forward,” Black says. “The bass provides the floor, but as a singer, I’m also coming in with the roof. If you can write a beautiful song with just those two elements, bass notes and the voice, that’s a job well done.”

Written, produced and performed primarily by the JOVM mainstay, the album was crafted with support from longtime mix engineer and creative foil Ruddy Lee Cullers. The album’s material will reportedly be a haunting exploration of nostalgia and futurism, that sees Black pushing her sound in new directions by weaving hypnotic rhythms, cinematic layers and raw, visceral emotion, while moving effortlessly from dance floor anthems to atmospheric meditations on love, loss and transcendence. “This album is about finding beauty in ruins,” Black says. “About letting the shadows speak through me. Returning to California brought out the memory and soul of my goth days gone by.” 

Shadowtime will feature the previously released “Talking in Tongues,” a brooding blend of goth, New Wave and shoegaze that seemed to nod at Suicide, The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and others, while being the perfect, atmospheric bed for Black’s sultry delivery. The album will also feature, its second and latest single, “Long Gone Gardens.”

Anchored around a forceful and commanding bass line and bursts of shimmering, reverb-soaked guitars and twinkling keys, “Lone Gone Gardens” seemingly nods at Siouxsie and the Banshees — for example, think of “Hong Kong Garden,” and “Happy House” — while channeling Black’s childhood bond with the natural world, amidst the fruits and flora grown by her grandmother. But the song also subtly evokes the Biblical garden of Eden: You can almost picture Adam and Eve at the tree of knowledge, and what happens right as they eat the fruit . . .

“The track is a reflection about a choice that seemingly lets you lose everything but puts you on a new path to find salvation again in another form,” the JOVM mainstay explains.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 99th Birthday, Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 99th anniversary of the birth of Willie Mae “Big Mama” Thornton.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Afghan Whigs Share Covers of Poliça and Still Corners

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JOVM mainstays The Afghan Whigs —  currently Greg Dulli (vocals, guitar), John Curley (bass), Patrick Keeler (drums), multi-instrumentalist Rick Nelson and the band’s newest member, Blind Melon’s Christopher Thorn (guitar) — released their ninth album, 2022’s How Do You Burn? to widespread critical acclaim from Rolling Stone, Pitchfork, Los Angeles Times, Spin, Stereogum, Billboard and others.

The acclaimed JOVM mainstays first bit of new material since How Do You Burn sees the band tackling two songs — Poliça‘s “Fake Like” and Still Corners “Downtown” — that seem tailor-made for the Whigs treatment. “Poliça’s “Fake Lake” strikes me as being a breezy synthesis of synth pop, Laurel Canyon and blue-eyed soul, featuring twinkling keys and a broodingly cinematic string arrangement serving as a lush bed for Channy Leaneagh’s yearning delivery. The Afghan Whigs pull out the blue-eyed soul-inspired element of the original and give it a swaggering and anthemic rock ballad vibe, while retaining the cinematic string section. The result is a song that emphasizes the smoldering lust and aching need at the heart of the song.

Now, as you may recall, the London-based duo Still Corners are among one of this site’s oldest mainstay acts. “Downtown,” which appears on 2016’s Dead Blue is an brooding and icy track, featuring shimmering, motiorik pulse and a gorgeous Greg Hughes Country/Western-meets-Johnny Marr styled guitar solo serving as a lush soundscape for Tessa Murray’s yearning vocal. The Afghan Whigs take turns the song into a brooding, piano-driven tune that’s a steady in tension and delayed release that would have fit perfectly on 2017’s In Spades.

“Both of these songs were born out of soundcheck jams. Each song holds a particular resonance for me and I really felt the lyrics, so they both flowed freely and felt good to sing,” the band’s Greg Dulli explains.

Both songs are available on all major DSP. And a limited 45 RPM single has been created and will be sold by Cincinnati’s Shake It Records.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Draag Shares Genre-Bending “Miracle Drug”

With the release of their full-length debut, 2023’s Dark Fire Heresy and last year’s Actually, the quiet is nice EP, Los Angeles-based shoegazers and JOVM mainstays Draag — Adrian Acosta (vocals, guitar), Jessica Huang (vocals, synths), Ray Montes (guitar), Nick Kelley (bass) and Nathan Najera (drums) — received nationally and elsewhere for boldly pushing the boundaries of shoegaze into new, wild directions. And adding to a growing profile, the JOVM mainstay outfit have toured with Wednesday, MSPAINT, Glitterer and are about to wrap up a run of dates with They Are Gutting A Body Of Water.

Building upon growing momentum, the Los Angeles-based JOVM mainstays will start the new year with the Miracle Drug EP, which is slated for a January 23, 2026 through Oakland-based tastemaker label, Smoking Room.

The EP’s first single, EP title track “Miracle Drug” is a mind-bending blend of shoegaze, post-punk and nu-metal that evokes the inner turmoil of someone, who’s suffering from something that they know others can’t see — or even really understand. But in the song’s dreamier moments, there’s a sense of awe and appreciation over the small things.

“Living with an autoimmune condition is an invisible daily fight. Some days you want a miracle drug to escape what feels like a prison in your body,” Draag’s Adrian Acosta says about the new single. “But you don’t take your health for granted. And you learn how to appreciate life and super simple moments deeply. I feel like it’s given me a sharp vision of what really matters.”

The accompanying video is heavily inspired by the aesthetic and feel 80s and 90s Public Access TV including footage of local performers in a shitty studio, the band performing the song in a studio, home footage of young kids in their first band, as well as a lengthy call-in segment with calls from deranged viewers.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 59th Birthday, Sinead O’Connor!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 59th anniversary of the birth of Sinead O’Connor.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Saint Avangeline’s Lovingly Cinematic and Ethereal Cover of Madonna’s “Frozen”

Saint Avangeline is a rising Atlanta-based artist, who over the course of two albums and a collection of singles has crafted a body of work that’s deeply rooted in her personal journey with mental health struggles, domestic and growing up queer in the South, while offering an unabashedly honest exploration of inner turmoil, rage, hope and resilience.  “Most songs are like a diary for me,” the Atlanta-based artist explains. “Exploring my mental health struggles. Trauma, intense feelings. Like sucking the poison out.”

Over the course of the past few years, she has amassed a rabid fan base, while amassing almost 80 million streams on Spotify, 2.3 million monthly Spotify listeners and almost 5.5 billion streams on TikTok. 

Earlier this year, the rising Atlanta-based artist shared “Limerence,” a slow-burning track that seemingly nodded at a cinematic, fever-dream-like take on Stevie Nicks and Kate Bush.

Saint Avangeline closes out 2025 with a meditative, ethereal and lovingly faithful take on Madonna‘s 1998’s hit “Frozen,” which also serves a reminder of how spellbinding and remarkably cinematic the original song is. The Saint Avangeline “Frozen” cover is accompanied by a cinematic visual, shot in the Mojave Desert, much like the original, that lovingly draws from and nods at the original.

“A classic from a legend! I think this is one of Madonna’s most gorgeous pieces, and I wanted to pay tribute to her and her monumental impact on the music industry,” Saint Avangeline says. “She has influenced so many artists of this generation, including myself. I had no idea that she would revisit this album only a few weeks after I recorded this! We shot the video in May 2025 in the Mojave Desert in the same location Madonna shot her original music video back in 1998!”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Howling Bells Shares 120 Minutes MTV-like “Chimera”

Since their beginnings, London-based, Aussie trio Howling Bells — siblings Juanita Stein (vocals, guitar) and Joel Stein (guitar) and Glenn Moule (drums) — have been a bit of anomaly: They relocated to the UK to pursue their dreams of making it. And then, they broke through a British indie scene of three and four dudes wearing skinny jeans wearing bands with their acclaimed, self-titled 2006 full-length debut.

Those dreams of making it big became real: They played an NME Tour and then in stadiums opening for a Coldplay, while winning acclaim from the UK music press.

Throughout their nearly two decade history, the band has gone through a series of lineup changes but some things have remained the same: the core trio’s deep, unbreakable bond and their hypnotic sound, influenced by Tom Waits, Sonic Youth, Nirvana, Fleetwood Mac and Björk.

Howling Bells’ fifth album, Strange Life is slated for a February 13, 2026 release through Nude Records. The long-awaited album is the band’s first album of new material in over 12 years and was recorded with their longtime friend and collaborator Ben Hillier at Agricultural Audio Studios. The new album is reportedly both a vibrant document of and an exploratory testament to the alchemical magic between its core members.

Strange Life‘s latest single, “Chimera” showcases Juanita Stein’s gorgeous and expressive vocal and the band’s knack for big, hooks and choruses paired with an arrangement anchored round chiming guitars, a supple bass line and hi-hat driven drum patterns. If you’re of the 120 Minutes-era MTV age, as I am, “Chimera” will remind you quite a bit of The Sundays and Heaven or Las Vegas-era Cocteau Twins.

“Chimera is a strange word. It means a few different and curious things; in this context, however, I’m using it to mean something of an absurd nature, unattainable, a fantasy,” Howling Bells’ Juanita Stein explains. “Such is the relationship we have with music at times. This song speaks to my experience as a musician, surviving the perpetual ups and downs of the game. But if you’re lucky enough, you have someone who can cut through the noise and help you realise that the fantasy is half the joy. That the longing is part of the journey and that our achievements along the way are deeply meaningful. At its core, ‘Chimera’ is a song about hope and relinquishing control.”

Fittingly, the accompanying video for “Chimera” also further emphasizes the 120 Minutes MTV vibe by featuring trippy, superimposed imagery of the band performing on top of a sunset, flowers and the sea, flowers and rain splattered windows and the like.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: SanikVibe shares Cinematic and Dance Floor Friendly “Speak Without Sound”

Created by an anonymous and enigmatic creative mastermind, SanikVibe is a narrative-driven recording project that sees its mysterious mastermind treating sound as storytelling.

Her work blends cinematic textures, electronic minimalism and introspective emotional pacing. And rather than sticking to one particular genre, each release is much like a book chapter — with a psychological or emotional moment translated into atmosphere, vibe, pulse and tone.

Released last month, Unseen Currents EP is a four-part story about what moves us — quietly and subconsciously. SanikVibe’s mysterious creative mastermind considers the EP not quite as Jung would consider ‘a journey through the unconscious” but more as a way to learn to “stop fighting your own tide.”

Unseen Currents EP‘s latest single “Speak Without Sound” is simultaneously a cinematic and dance floor friendly track that seemingly channels Tinlicker‘s most recent material, with the new single being a sleek and lush blend of electro pop, trip-hop and house anchored by stirringly emotional, pop star delivery.

“The song explores the moment when instinct speaks before language — the quiet shift in the body that happens a split second before thought,” SanikVibe explains. “Through pauses, breath and tension, it reflects how the pulse can reveal truth long before words do.”

It serves as the final chapter of the BodyTalk Trilogy, a conceptual arc shaped around somatic markers and the psychological space where instinct overtakes reason,” she continues.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Mute Swan Teams Up with Citrus Clouds on Cocteau Twins-like “Cocteau Swan”

With the release of their debut EP, 2016’s Ultraviolet and their full-length debut, 2021’s Only Ever, Tucson-based shoegaze/dream pop outfit Mute Swan — currently, Mike Barnett (guitar/vocals), Prabjit Virdee (bass, vocals), and Gilbert Flores (drums) — quickly established a swirling, densely layered take on psych rock that some critics and others have compared to Of Montreal and Soft Bulletin-era Flaming Lips. 

2021’s Only Ever was released to praise from The FADER, Merry-Go-Round Magazine and several others, as well as airplay on KEXP.

Earlier this year, the band signed to Hit The North Records/Wooden Tooth Records, who released “Hypnosis Tapes,” the first bit of new material from the band since their debut — and part of a batch of material that will be posthumously released after the tragic death of founding member Thomas Sloane. 

“Hypnosis Tapes” came on the heels of the Tucson-based outfit playing opening slots for Horse Jumper of Love, Wednesday, Tanukichanand Peel Dream Magazine, as well as a set at this year’s Levitation Festival.

Mute Swan closes out 2025 with “Cocteau Swan,” which features Citrus Clouds‘ Stacie Huttleson. Anchored around fluttering synths and swirling, reverb-soaked guitar textures paired with boom bap-inspired drum patterns, “Cocteau Swan” features Mute Swan’s Mike Barnett and Huttleson’s uncanny harmonies ethereally floating over the Cocteau Twins-inspired soundscape.
 
“This song is an homage to one of our favorite bands, Cocteau Twins,” Mute Swan’s Mike Barnett explains. “We were very lucky to have our friend Stacie Huttleston from Citrus Clouds sing the backing vocal part, which we recorded at their practice space in Phoenix.”

Directed by Mike Barnett, the accompanying video for “Cocteau Swan” sees the surviving band members paying a loving tribute to their dearly departed friend — by sharing pictures of their friend and the band while on tour, in the fullness and vitality of life.