Tag: women who kick ass

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: MEMORIALS Share Mind-bending “Cut Glass Hammer”

Canterbury, UK-based MEMORIALS — Electrelane‘s Verity Susman (vocals) and Wire‘s Matthew Simms (guitar) — will be releasing their third album All Clouds Bring Not Rain on March 27, 2026 through Fire Recordings. The album will be released digitally, on CD and three limited citrus vinyl editions: Orange Vinyl, Lemon Vinyl (Indie Store Exclusive) and a Lime Vinyl Bundle, which will include four hand-stamped art prints in a signed wax-sealed envelope plus a sticker sheet (Fire Records and Bandcamp Exclusive).

Having spent the first half of last year composing the soundtrack to an acclaimed documentary about Kate Bush, which aired last fall, the duo spent the summer writing and recording All Clouds Bring Not Rain, before embarking on a Stateside tour with Stereolab.

The duo locked themselves away in a studio in a secluded barn deep in the southwestern French woods, where the immediate environment imbued the recording sessions with a sense of freedom and an album of beautiful, unusual material that’s both melodic, unconventional and remarkably ambitious.

Written, performed, recorded and mixed solely by the duo, the album reportedly sounds much like an unearthed classic that sees the pair twisting their influences into their own unmistakable sound that draws from a wide range of influences including folk, dub, post punk, experimental tape music, 60s soul, garage rock, 70s spiritual jazz and Canterbury prog among others.

“We are increasingly drawn to the way records used to be made, both the sound of the equipment used and the choices forced by that equipment; there wasn’t the option to tinker for ages, it was about capturing a moment in time and committing to that,” the duo say of the new album’s creative process. “It’s far more satisfying to record sounds that exist in a real space and so become unique to us: they aren’t the same as the samples readily available everywhere . . . we were actively turning away from the easy option at almost every opportunity!”

That attention to detail in their sound meant finding several other studios to get what they needed to create what they wanted the album’s material to sound like and to record with, including a harpsichord at 4AD‘s London-based studio and a vibraphone and vintage Leslie speaker at Stereolab’s Andy Ramsay’s Press Play Studio.

Susman’s distinctive, unadorned delivery, which sees her moving from tender to wild throughout is a focal point oft the album. Her vocal melodies provide the tunefulness and hooky earworms around which their songs’ more unorthodox elements are arranged, showcasing Matthews’ unique approach to recording and production.

All Clouds Bring Not Rain‘s first single “Cut Glass Hammer” is a woozy and hypnotic song built around two looping modular synth lines, a motorik groove paired with Susman’s dreamy delivery singing lyrics inspired by a trip the duo took to see the Yoko Ono retrospective Music of the Mind at London’s Tate Modern Gallery. The result is an anachronistic, mind-bending, psilocybin trip that sounds as though it could have been released in 1967 or a B-side on Pavo Pavo‘s 2016 effort, Young Narrator in the Breakers.

The fittingly trippy DIY accompanying video starts with patches being plugged into an analog, modular synth, the song’s titular hammer being used to keep musical time, old toys on spinning a record player and more.

Tour Dates
April 08 – Le Hasard Ludique, Paris, France 
April 09 – Le Tangram, Évreux, France 
April 10 – Variations Festival, Nantes, France, w/ Einstürzende Neubauten 
April 11 – Calm, Limoges, France 
April 12 – La Petite Populaire, La Réole, France 
April 14 – Le Consortium, Dijon, France 
April 15 – Le Grand Mix, Tourcoing, France, w/ Bibi Club 
April 22 – The Croft, Bristol, UK 
April 23 – Little Bully, Oxford, UK 
April 24 – Prince Albert, Brighton, UK 
April 26 – Heartbreakers, Southampton, UK 
April 29 – The Lexington, London, UK 
April 30 – Hyde Park Book Club, Leeds, UK 
May 01 – The Castle Hotel, Manchester, UK 
May 31 – Nachtasyl, Hamburg, Germany
June 01 – Kantine am Berghain, Berlin, Germany
June 02 – Noch Besser Leben, Leipzig, Germany
June 03 – Kohi, Karlsruhe, Germany
June 04 – Club Manufaktur, Schorndorf, Germany
June 05 – Bellevue Di Monaco, München, Germany
June 06 – Rotown, Rotterdam, Netherlands

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Kathy Sledge!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Kathy Sledge’s 67th birthday.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The X-Flowers Share a Rousingly Anthemic Ripper

The X-Flowers are a mysterious and emerging punk outfit, who, released their debut EP, the three-song First Bloom last year.

The punk outfit begin the new year with “Tilted,” a rousing, mosh pit friendly ripper that seemingly channels a synthesis of Joan Jett, 90s grunge and riot grrl-era punk.

singer/songwriters by William Ruben Helms

Albums of the Year 2025

JOVM turns 16 this year. And for first handful of years, my Best of List was an annual tradition until about 2014 or so. Between 2014 and 2020, it became sporadic and then it stopped. I haven’t done one of these in several years. There was a part of me that wondered if it really mattered much. And then life happened. 

So here we are in 2026. And with the year starting in earnest, let’s check out my best of 2025. 

  1. Big Fish Fyra liter stoft
  2. Tan Cologne Unknown Beyond
  3. Moondaddy Dove Tapes
  4. Sessa Pequena Vertigem de Amor
  5. Preservation Brass & Preservation Hall Jazz Band For Fat Man
  6. Silk Daisys S/T
  7. The Circling Sun Orbits
  8. Gabriel da Rosa Cacofonia
  9. Yoo Doo Right, Population II & Nolan Potter Yoo II avec Nolan Potter
  10. bat zoo The Upward Bird EP
  11. Public Circuit Modern Church
  12. L’Eclair Cloud Drifter
  13. Gloin All of your anger is actually shame (and I bet that makes you angry)
  14. CIVIC Chrome Dipped
  15. Population II Maintenant Jamais
  16. White Birches A New Reign
  17. Anish Kumar and Hagop Tchaparian Kino EP
  18. Friendship Commanders BEAR 
  19. The Besnard Lakes The Besnard Lakes are the Ghost Nation
  20. SHOLTO The Sirens
  21. S.C.A.B. Somebody In New York Loves You!
  22. Pierpont & Hegeleson Of Time
  23. RORO and snapir Colors Left
  24. St. Panther Strange World 
  25. Nation of Language Dance Called Memory
  26. Quad90 S/T
  27. Slumbering Sun Starmony
  28. Tunde Adebimpe Thee Black Boltz 
  29. Quad90 S/T
  30. Die Spitz Something To Consume
  31. debdepan LOVERS & OTHERS EP

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The Joy of Violent Movement is a completely independent and completely D.I.Y. media outlet. Over the course of this site’s 15+ year history, I’ve used my fiercely independent stance to cover music with an eclectic and global perspective that a lot of other publications just don’t have — and will likely never have. 

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Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 60th Birthday, Beth Gibbons!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Portishead frontperson Beth Gibbons’ 60th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 67th Birthday, Vanity!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 67th anniversary of the birth of Vanity.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 77th Birthday, Donna Summer!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 77th anniversary of the birth of Donna Summer.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 79th Birthday, Patti Smith!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Patti Smith’s 79th birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 71st Birthday, Annie Lennox!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Annie Lennox’s 71st birthday.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Aure Shares Meditative “L’orage”

Music has always been a vital form of expression for Paris-based Aure, who found her path as a professional musician after a career in architecture. The Paris-based artist specializes in a minimalist, stripped back folk sound inspired by the likes of Sibylle Baier, Jessica Pratt and Nico with multilingual lyrics.

Her debut EP, 2023’s a few notes was released to praise from Télérama, France Inter, RFI, Les inRocks, and more. She supported the album with touring across Europe, opening for Andy Shauf and Tom McRae.

Building upon a growing profile, Aure’s full-length debut, printemps is slated for a March 20, 2026 release through Belgian label MayWay Records. Informed by the poetic minimalism of artists like Atahulpa Yupanqui, Facundo Cabral, Lhasa, Jessica Pratt and Nico, the album sees the French artist drawing from a wide range of musical influences and languages, while allowing them to intertwine as different facets of her own identity. The album’s songs unfold in a visual world informed by the photography of Graciela Iturbidem and Katrien De Blower and Wim Wenders’ Wings of Desire.

Thematically, printemps is an album of thresholds, written in that liminal, in-between space where one chapter has just ended and another one is about to begin. And as a result, the album thematically evokes new beginnings, shifting bearings, turbulent crossings towards safer harbors.

printemps‘ third and latest single “L’orange,” which features arrangements by Aure and her collaborator Corentin Oliver is a meditative song built around a gorgeous arrangement of plucked and twinkling guitar and gently padded drumming serving as a lush bed for the Parisian artist’s hauntingly ethereal yet yearning delivery in French and English. Sonically, the track subtly recalls a synthesis of the psych folk of Nick Drake and of contemporaries like French-born, Montréal-based artist Lonny, evoking an impressionistic painting.

“Two people are looking for shelter, and the storm is still close. This song evokes a flight and tries to capture the fleeting moment of a break in the clouds – uncertain how long it will last, yet filled with a particular kind of grace. English and French answer each other throughout, leaving us unsure whether we’re hearing two voices or just one, inviting the other to join in their escape,” the French singer/songwriter explains.

The accompanying visualizer features the French singer/songwriter flying a kite on the beach, split in a way to look like a collage.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Anchorage’s dreamcat Shares Breezy “Heaven”

Anchorage-based indie electro pop duo dreamcat — couple Em Glaves and Colton Ciufo — can trace a portion of their origins back to when they were children: Glaves and Ciufo grew up in the same small town, and for them music has always been their escape.

The Alaskan duo specialize in homemade, heartfelt, positive indie synth pop that draws from M83, Chromeo and others. Last year, the pair gained recognition regionally by playing at two of Alaska’s biggest music festivals — Sundown Festival and Girdwood Forest Fair.

Over the past 12-18 months, the duo have built upon a growing profile across Alaska, with at the release of a handful of standalone singles and their debut EP joie de vivre earlier this year.

Glaves and Ciufro close out 2025 with “Heaven,” a breezy bit of synth pop that seemingly channels BRIJEAN, M83 and Oracular Spectacular-era MGMT while showcasing the duo’s ability to craft a remarkably catchy hook. But underneath the track’s breezy hookiness, the song, as the duo explain is about addiction.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Club 8 Returns with Nostalgia-Inducing “Daydreams”

Last year, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — released their 11th album, A Year With Club 8. Since then, the the duo have been busy, releasing a single or so a month over the course of the year, including the previously released “ooo,” “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead,” “Staying Alive,” “Born The Wrong Time,” and “Sneaky Feelings.”  

The Swedish JOVM mainstays’ latest single “Daydreams” continues a remarkable run of breezy, hook-driven and nostalgia-inducing material anchored around Komstedt’s ethereal and yearning vocal, expressive and shimmering bursts of guitars and a motorik groove. The song evokes a pleasant reverie — but with the bittersweet realization that it like all things won’t last forever.

Video by William Ruben Helms

Throwback: Happy 110th Birthday, Edith Piaf!

JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 110th anniversary of the birth of Edith Piaf.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: TV FACE Shares Furious “Happy New Year”

Earlier this year, Lancaster, UK-based noise rock trio TV FACE — Steve “sTeVe” McWade, (vocals, guitar), Brigit McWade (bass, vocals) and Dave “Steeny” Steen (drums) — released their sophomore album Wolf Rents Bark through Crackedankles Records.

The trio close out 2025 with Wolf Rents Bark landing at #7 on Louder Than War‘s Top 100 Albums of 2025 list — and with the album’s latest single “Happy New Year.” Unlike the holiday season standard “Auld Lang Syne,” which is can often be a mix of bittersweet and hopeful, “Happy New Year” is a furious and noisy ripper that expresses a sense of hope that becomes the disillusionment and frustration of someone who suspects that the new year will be more bullshit, more chaos, more delayed hopes and dreams and so on.

“Live, this track has been landing hard. ‘Happy New Year’ charts innocence slipping into disillusionment, with lyrics written under a self-imposed rule of just three syllables per line,” TV FACE explains. “It inspired Wolf Rents Bark, our album title for an age where politician-CEOs cosplay as ‘the guy next door,’ while extracting wealth at a pace. The band are releasing this festive protest song instead of creating more landfill Christmas-themed shit.”

Directed and edited by the band’s Steve McWade, the accompanying video for “Happy New Year” was filmed by the band and Punk Rock Greeny, and features three wolf-heading wearing humans, who correspond to the each of the band’s members at a New Year’s Eve party. On the TV, TV FACE performing the song. The band intended to do something simple, but then they didn’t.