Tag: world music

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Fort Myers, FL’s La Vibra Norteña Shares Aching “Adios Amor”

Fort Myers, FL-based Mexican music outfit La Vibra Norteña formed back in 2019. And since their formation, the band has specialized in norteño sax — or norteño with saxophone and accordion. Their debut single, last year’s “Mil Veces,” showcased their contagious energy while establishing a distinct take on norteño.

Building upon a growing profile within the regional Mexican music scene, the Fort Myers-based outfit released “Bachata Rosa” earlier this year. “Bachata Rosa” showcased their versatility and growth as musicians while showcasing material that paired emotional lyrics with captivating melodies.

La Vibra Norteña’s latest single “Adios Amor” is a gorgeous bit of norteño that pairs with traditional oompah oompah-like groove the genre is known for with a gorgeous melody and achingly earnest vocals in a heartfelt, bittersweet ballad. If you’re leaving your lover for a period of time — and maybe you’re a bit uncertain when you might reunite, this song will express the hurt and longing you may feel right now.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Super Plage Teams Up with Virginie B and Nectar Palace on a Disco-Tinged Cover of “Nos corps”

Jules Henry is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, electronic music producer and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed recording project Super Plage. 

Earlier this year, he released “Ton chien,” the first bit of new material since the release of Henry’s fourth Super Plage album, last year’s Magie à minuit. “Ton chien” is a flirty bop anchored around a breezy and summery production featuring glistening synths and skittering beats as a lush bed for Henry and Parsian artist Sainte Nicole to trade ethereal and dreamily delivers verses. It’s the sort of song that’s perfect for hanging out in the park — or the beach — with the pretty someone, who’s got your heart skipping beats.

Henry’s latest single, which sees him collaborating with longtime collaborator Virginie B and Nectar Palace on a cover and remaining of Jimmy Hunt‘s 2013 hit “Nos corps,” which amassed over three million streams — just on Spotify alone. While the original is disco-tinged yet atmospheric New Wave-like bop that reminds me a little bit of Blondie-meets-Soft to the Touch-era Jef Barbara, the Super Plage retains some of the original’s chill dance vibes but while pairing it with a propulsive Giorgio Moroder-meets-Robyn-like disco groove and some squiggling funk guitar.

Sonically seeming like a synthesis of Jef Barbara’s “Wild Boys,” 80s pop and disco, the Super Plage cover of “Nos corps” continues a run of summery, hook-driven feel good bops. Play this one in the club and dance your worries and cares away for a bit.

Directed by Virginie B, the accompanying video follows the collaborators on a road trip to the shore for frolicking and hanging out. Because what’s summer without a road trip, right?

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Montréal’s Wizaard Returns with Languid and Trippy “OMG (son style me désole)”

Montréal-based psych pop outfit Wizaard — currently, Marie Hèléne Coutu and Jean-Nicholas Doss — quickly became mainstays of the French Canadian city’s psych, Anglophone and bilingual music scenes with the release of their first two albums, 2016’s Starfish Buffet and 2019’s Supernatural Mystics while going through a series of lineup changes.

The Montréal-based outfit supported both of those albums with shows and tours with Choses Sauvages, Men I Trust, JOVM mainstays Le Couleur and  Elephant Stone, and American outfit Twin Peaks. Adding to a growing profile, the trio’s remix of Spaceface‘s “Timeshare” has amassed over one-million Spotify streams.

The trio’s third album will be released by Lisbon Lux Records, and the album will be the first album of material written and sung primarily in French. The album reportedly will be “a delicious cocktail of madness, eclecticism and groove,” the band explains. 

Earlier this year, I wrote about “DVD vidéo,” a song anchored around a languid and lysergic groove that brings Tame Impala, L’imperatrice and Pavo Pavo to mind, paired with dreamily coquettish vocals and boom bap-like beats, The result is a song that evokes a remarkably pleasant psilocybin-induced trip. 

The album’s latest single “OMG (son style me désole),” translates into English as “OMG (I’m sorry about his style),” and is anchored around twinkling synth arpeggios, a wobbling bass line and dusty gated reverberated beats and incredibly catchy hooks serving as a lush and dreamy bed for coquettish and ethereal vocals. The result is a song that reminds me a bit of a hook-driven synthesis of JOVM mainstays MUNYA, Kainalu, and Pavo Pavo

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: DVTR Shares Breakneck and Punchy “Les Olympiques”

Deriving their name as an acronym for the French phrase “D’où vient ton riz?” (Where does your rice come from?), Montréal-based duo and JOVM mainstays DVTR is a collaborative project featuring two of the city’s most highly accomplished […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

Formed back in 2016, the Austin-based outfit Superfónicos — Jaime Ospina (vocals, gaita, percussion), Nicolás Sanchez Castro (bass, melodica, vibes backing vocals), Nick Tozzo (Congas, tambor alegre, timbales, percussion), Daniel Sanchez (drums, percussion, backing vocals), Chris “Zumbi” Richards (trombone, bombardino), Evan Marley Hegarty (keys), Erick Bohoroquez (guitar, backing vocals), and Andreas Villegas (guitar, backing vocals) — have specialized in a sound that features elements of Colombian funk, cumbia and Afrobeat, informed by the fact that most of the band’s members have deep roots in Colombia.

While highlight the country’s Caribbean coastal sounds, it is also a celebration of the human spirit, telling stories of the displaced, folkloric tales form the countryside, and the reminder to let go and embrace experiences that are more connected to the earth and our ancestors.

The band has played Austin City Limits Festival twice — in 2018 and 2021. They’ve also shared stages with the likes of Ozomatli, Aterciopelados, Jungle Fire, Grupo Fantasma, Brownout, Meridian Brothers, Sudan Archives and Allah-Las.

2018’s Suelta EP was recorded with Black Pumas‘ founder Adrian Quesada, 2019’s Cumbealo EP was record with Spoon‘s Jim Eno, and their full-length debut, the recently released Renaceré was recorded with Grupo Fantasma’s, Caramelo Haze’s and Money Chicha‘s Beto Martinez.

Renaceré translates into English as “I will be reborn” and thematically, the album’s material touches upon rebirth resilience and the cyclical nature of life through the lens of their unique take on Colombian Roots fusion, which owes as much to Africa and the Americas, as it does to Colombia — and the bandmembers’ Colombian heritage. According to the band’s Jamie Ospina, “This record is a celebration of the resilience of the human spirit and life. We all went through hard times in the last 4 years but here we are; breathing, singing, dancing and what not.” Nicolás adds, “The cycle of life and the concept of rebirth play heavily into the theme of the record. Many ups and downs happened during this period, for the band and society as a whole, but ultimately we came out of the process stronger, like a blade forged in the flames.”

The album’s recording process spanned several years, beginning just before COVID-19 lockdowns and concluding earlier this year. Most of the album was recorded at Beto Martinez’s Lechehouse Music, where Martinez captured the sounds and textures of Colombia’s Caribbean Coast with gaita flue and tambor alegre. “We also use the Bombardino (Euphonium) on many tunes. It is commonly used in Colombian Cumbia arrangements but is not as common stateside,” the band says. Additional recording took place at Public Hi-Fi with Spoon’s Jim Eno and Electric Deluxe with Aaron Glemboski.

Renaceré latest single “La Verdad” is a lush and strutting bit of psychedelic cumbia anchored around buzzing and twinkilng keys, shuffling rhythms, expressive horn bursts paired with an incredibly catchy hook and chorus. The song’s narrator tells a tale about a juglar (a troubadour) searching for his lost love and losing his mind. Ultimately, the song — and its narrator — suggests that those who are deemed crazy often hold the truth.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: Two Cumbia-Inspired Bops from JOVM Mainstays Los Bitchos

Earlier this year, acclaimed London-based instrumental outfit and JOVM mainstays Los Bitchos — Australian-born, Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguayan-born Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Swedish-born, Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born Nic Crawshaw (drums) — announced that their highly-anticipated sophomore album, the Oli Barton-Wood-produced Talkie Talkie will be released through City Slang on August 30, 2024.

Deriving its name from a fictional club of the same name, Talkie Talkie is a late-night paradise, brimming with freedom and possibility; a place where partygoers can escape reality by getting caught in the groove and dancing it all away or daydream along to the invigorating soundscape. 

Recorded over a short but intense month-long series of sessions at London’s RAK Studios and Lightship 95, sonically, the album will transport the listener into a world where funk, disco, Latin and Turkish rhythms collide in a euphoric fusion fueled by adventurous experimentation and their endearingly puckish spirit. If 2022’s Let The Festivities Begin was the rowdy build up to the big night out with your homies, Talkie Talkie is the equivalent of rocking out to the groove on the dance floor. 

The album’s material is anchored in a vivid cinematic universe that takes inspiration from the band’s favorite aesthetic era — the ’80s. Think less self-serious men, gated reverb and more campy, hi-fi pop songwriting that glistens with moxie and verve. The quartet especially wanted to tap into the sonic innovation of the period, where analog and digital techniques collided to create polished texture and depth. 

The album will feature the previously released:

  • “La Bomba,” a hook-driven 80s Turkish psych pop-inspired bop anchored around a shuffling dance floor rhythm, a twangy and looping guitar line, a disco-influenced bass line, some video game-like beats paired with glistening synths and ecstatic shouts. 

  • “Don’t Change,” a breezy and blissful jam anchored around a languid and reverb-drenched Spanish-tinged, psych rock-inspired guitar line, stomping percussion, glistening and atmospheric synths and an arpeggiated, funky synth bass line. It’s the perfect soundtrack for frolicking at the beach, of dreaming of heading to the beach with your best pals — or for riding a ferry and dreaming that you were on a super expensive yacht drinking mimosas. 

Today, the acclaimed London-based outfit shares the dual single “Kiki, You Complete Me” and “1K!.” Both tracks see the band reveling in the shimmering guitar tones and shuffling guacharaca rhythms of cumbia — but in mischievously different directions: “Kiki, You Complete Me” has a clean, 80s studio polish-like sound and a cinematic quality that evokes the opening sequence of Nintendo video games like Castlevania, The Legend of Zelda or Blades of Steel — or of an incredibly cheesy but wildly entertaining action movie starring Carl Weathers, Bill Duke or someone like that, complete with a blazing guitar solo.

“This track feels like the opening sequence of a comic book series,” the JOVM mainstays say. “The tom sounds we went for are outrageous, like the ‘pows’ and ‘thwacks’ of a comic strip punctuating the music… think Batman meets Bitchos! Towards the end of the song we extended this chuggy, tension building section and brought out a guitar solo before ending on the comic/video game theme vibe refrain.”

Directed by Tom Brewins, the accompanying video for “Kiki, You Complete Me” follows the quartet as they go to an arcade, where they play a video game called Los BItchos Miami Drive, which features their 16 bit video game counterparts in a a car racing game that brings back memories of Pole Position.

“We’ve leaned into the 16 bit video game aesthetic for the video,” Los Bitchos explain. “Serra has always dreamed of writing music for video games.. We’ve started playing this song live at festivals this year and it’s definitely one of the songs we’re all most enjoying playing.”

“1K!’ is a shimmery, summery yet somewhat straightforward take on cumbia that evokes lazy-because-of-the-intense-heat summer afternoons and early evenings, anchored around a languid guitar line and stripped back, traditional-inspired percussion.

“This is a really shimmery, summer tune. There’s even a can of drink being opened at some point, you can feel the heat and carefree vibes,” the band says. “I imagine a gathering with friends, maybe a BBQ, some drinks, people popping by. The drums are quite stripped back for this track, more percussion led.”

Shot by Madeline Northway on grainy Super 8, the accompanying video for “1K!” captures the quartet’s endearingly puckish spirit and best gal pal vibes, as they head off to a local pool to hang out, drink a cold Coca Cola and bullshit, giggle and attempt to stay cool on a hot summer day.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: John Finbury and Bruna Black Team Up on Breezy and Expressive “Para Me Entender”

Andover, MA-based Grammy and Latin Grammy-nominated drummer, composer and JOVM mainstay John Finbury collaborated with rising São Paulo-based singer/songwriter Bruna Black on his latest album Vã Revelação, which was released earlier this year.

Vã Revelação presents a broad array of subgenres under the large umbrella of Brazilian jazz. So there are the beloved and classic bossa nova and samba tunes. But there are also Baião, Partido, Alto, Forró and Afoxê among other styles.

In the lead-up to the album’s release, I wrote about three previously released singles:

  • “Chão De Nuvem,” a soulful year breezy tune featuring an arrangement of fluttering accordion, a supple bass line, shuffling percussion. The song gorgeously — and effortlessly — meshes elements of samba, jazz fusion and pop while being a perfect vehicle for Bruna Black’s languorous yet soulful delivery. 

  • “Será,” a song built around a gorgeous arrangement of shimmering acoustic guitar by Chico Pinheiro, a supple and sinuous bass line from John Pattiucci that’s roomy enough for Black’s expressive vocal. Fittingly released at the end of last year, the song is a meditation on the passing of time, the choices and plans we make that work out and the ones that fail — with the understanding that all of it influences who we are, and who we will become. 

  • Album title track “Vã Revelação,” a breathtakingly gorgeous yet bittersweet tune, anchored around the classic shuffle and sway of bossa nova featuring shimmering, strummed guitar, a supple bass line, twinkling and expressive bursts of piano serving as a lush bed for Black’s stunning vocal turn. Much like its predecessors, “Vã Revelação” is meditative yet breezy, a blast of summer — but full of the recognition of the passing of time, and of regrets, hopes dashed and hopes to be had again. 

Vã Revelação‘s fourth and latest single “Para Me Entender” is a much jazzier take on Bossa nova than its predecessor, anchored around a loose, swinging arrangement that displays each musician’s chops with a self-assured swagger. But the true star of the affair is Bruna Black, who reveals herself as a stylistic chameleon, whose voice can shift in colors, registers and expression within the turn of a phrase.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: JOVM Mainstays KOKOKO! Shares Swaggering In-Your-Face “Motema Mabe”

The acclaimed Congolese collective and JOVM mainstays KOKOKO!’s highly-anticipated sophomore album BUTU is slated for a July 5, 2024 release through Transgressive Records. Their sophomore album sees the acclaimed Congolese JOVM mainstays continuing to pair a defiantly resistant punk-like energy, informed and inspired by the attitude and thought of a new generation of Congolese artists and young people with their neck-snapping, attention-grabbing block party alchemy — but pushed to new, global heights. 

Kinshasa’s after-dark buzz was one of the major inspirations behind BUTU, which means “the night” in Lingala, and the album dives deep into the heart of the chaotic, throbbing city, celebrating and championing the joyful and creative spirit of its inhabits. Continuing their ongoing collaboration with Belgian producer Xavier Thomas, a.k.a. Débruit, the forthcoming album sees the collective led by Makara Bianko channeling a more electronic-driven, upbeat sound while replicating the frenetic feel of their hometown’s dynamic nightlife: equipment is pushed to its limits through saturated and distorted speakers and the sonic push-and-pull of nighttime sounds. 

The band employs field recordings, recorded from the city’s nighttime sounds and “ready-made percussion” like detergent bottles, which they fed through distortion to get closer to their city’s nighttime sounds. “Compared to Fongola, this album is intentionally way more intense, because it’s quite upbeat and quite full-on,” Xavier Thomas says. The album’s material also pulls from much wider influences and span across West Africa and South Africa, influenced by Bianko’s global travel, which introduced him to new types of alternative electronic music and punk. 

Over the past couple of months, I’ve written about the following singles: 

“Mokili” a house music inspired banger featuring glistening synth arpeggios, relentlessly skittering hi-hats and tweeter and woofer rattling thump serving as a slickly produced bed for Bianko’s crooning and impassioned shouts. Continuing a remarkable run of club friendly material with an in-your-face punk attitude and ethos, “Mokili” captures the frenetic and sweaty energy of their hometown and its nightlife scene with an uncanny, novelistic realism. But along with that, the song is a forceful and joyous reminder that Africa is the present and the future. 

“’Mokili’ is about moving the world so much that it’s going to tip over sort of,” the acclaimed Congolese collective explains. “This track was a track we were used to trying live in a more improvised way, we never got the chance to record till recently where we added the right touch for the studio. It was the last addition to our album BUTU and became the first single, so it’s really fresh. It has obviously influences from Kinshasa but also Kwaito and 90’s dance music.”

“Salaka Bien,” a euphoric, trance-inducing banger anchored around percussion created on heavy ceramic pots and pans, glistening house music synth stabs and skittering beats that helps to emphasize Bianko’s punchy and swaggering delivery singing lyrics full of winking sexual innuendo. If this track doesn’t fire you up and get you moving, you’re probably dead — literally and figuratively. 

“It’s a bass line driven track, with a lot of influences, like punk funk meeting old house stabs with a trance feeling!” The acclaimed Congolese collective explain. “When we play it live there are moments of overwhelming feeling building till it explodes and people let go totally. Do it, do it good, do it till you break it”.

“Bazo Bango,” a track that derives its title from a Lingala phrase that translates to English as “they are scared,” a chant sung by crowds as a way to vent frustration, the collective explains. Anchored around a looping and propulsive electric bass line, skittering electronic beats, twinkling and percussive polyrhythm and bursts of woozy synth arpeggios pared with chanted call and response vocals, “Bazo Bango” is a euphoric, riotous banger that captures Kinshasa’s chaotic, throbbing and irresistible energy with a mischievous aplomb. 

BUTU‘s fourth and latest single “Motema Mabe” continues a run of swaggering, neck snapping bangers. Anchored around a woozy and punchily menacing production featuring a looping twinkling and plunked string sample, buzzing bass synths and skittering military-styled beats and percussive percussive synth oscillations paired with Makara Bianko’s equally punchy delivery, “Motema Mabe” is an in-your-face challenge to any and all comers — whether on the mic, the dance floor or your fly style.

“Motema Mabe is a track about someone imitating, appropriating someone else’s creations, style or charisma – which happens a lot in Kinshasa!” The acclaimed JOVM mainstays explain. “It’s about karma getting back at people who can’t be original and claim things that they haven’t created. Make them pay!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Super Plage Teams Up with Sainte Nicole on Breezy and Flirty “Ton chien”

Jules Henry is a Montréal-based singer/songwriter, electronic music producer and creative mastermind behind the acclaimed recording project Super Plage. 

“Ton chien,” is the first bit of new material since the release of Henry’s fourth Super Plage album, last year’s Magie à minuit. The new single, which features Parisian artist Sainte Nicole is a breezy and flirty bop centered around glistening synth arpeggios and skittering beats. The atmospheric and summery production serves as a lush bed for the two artist to trade dreamily ethereal delivered verses. It’s the sort of song that’s perfect for hanging out in the park with that pretty someone, who’s got your heart skipping beats.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: LohArano Shares a Punchy Math Rock-like Ripper

Over the past couple of years, the Antananarivo, Madagascar-based JOVM mainstays LohArano — Mahalia Ravoajanahary (vocals, guitar), Michael Raveloson (bass, vocals) and Natiana Randrianasoloson (drums, vocals) — have received attention nationally and internationally for a unique, boundary pushing sound that blends elements of popular and beloved Malagasy musical styles like like Tsapiky  and Salegy with heavy metal. 

The Malagasy JOVM mainstays latest EP, the recently released DEVL features six explosive songs that sees the band ranging sonically and stylistically from metal to pop punk. The EP’s latest single, EP title track “DEVL” is a punchy and frenetic System of a Down-meets-Cinemechanica-like ripper, anchored around down-tuned bass, scorching riffage, and off-kilter Math rock rhythms paired with Ravoajanahary’s punchy and defiant delivery. Much like their previously released work, “DEVL” continues a run of material that frankly and boldly comments on the sociopolitical concerns of their homeland with a sharp incisiveness — while telling the listener what’s its like to a rocker in a country where rock is still subversive.

The accompanying video features the band’s Ravoajanahary as the devil, tempting others to do drugs, drink, party — and to mosh the fuck out. I don’t know about you, but it seems like a helluva lot of fun to me. Can I join?

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: L’Imperatrice Share Intergalactic Visual for Soulful and Luxuriant “Any Way” feat. Maggie Rogers

Acclaimed Paris-based electro pop sextet and JOVM mainstays L’Impératrice  will be releasing their highly-anticipated, self-produced third full-length album Pulsar through microqlima records in just about 90 minutes. Pulsar is an album, where the band — founder Charles de Boisseguin (keys), Hagni Gown (keys), David Gaugué (bass), Achille Trocellier (guitar), Tom Daveau (drums) and Flore Benguigui (vocals) — made every decision while capturing the band’s spirit both onstage and off. 

Fittingly, the album reportedly radiates with the energy and wisdom of an outfit that has helmed countless dance parties around the world on the way to find itself and its sound. Throughout the album’s material, the Parisian JOVM mainstays move freely and authoritatively among the sounds they love, bridging hip-hop, kosmiche and modern pop with their most unabashed embraces of French Touch and international house of their growing catalog. Pulsar is also the first album of their catalog to feature guest vocalists, including acclaimed folk/pop artist Maggie Rogers and rapper/producer Erick the Architect among a list of others. 

The album sees the acclaimed pop outfit trying a new creative approach: They split into two teams of ever-interchanging members to explore new ideas, led by the band’s founder Charles de Boisseguin. It was a way of incorporating every voice into the songwriting process like never before, pulling from idiosyncratic upbringings and enthusiasm. They then passed tracks to lead vocalist Flore Benguigui, a longtime jazz singer, who would sometimes write two-dozen vocal melodies for a song, just to see which one fit best. It was an arduous and exciting process that saw the band go from writing through recording in about nine months. For L’Impératrice, this was the sort of self-determination they’d longed for and now found. 

Throughout the album’s material, the band’s Benguigui boldly sings of self-empowerment, shirking beauty standards, ageism and drag normalcy throughout the album’s material. These are apt messages for incandescent anthems of experience, of fully being yourself, instead of anyone else’s version of it. 

Pulsar’s fourth single, and the album’s second English language single “Any Way” is a gorgeous cinematic, Quiet Storm soul-meets-French touch bop featuring shimmering strings, a supple and sinuous bass line, some Nile Rodgers-like guitar, some glistening sapce age synths and twinkling Rhodes serving as a lush and dreamy bed for Maggie Rogers soulful and yearning delivery.

Rogers was a fan of L’Imperatrice before they contacted her, having seen the band’s incredible show Stateside several times. She arrived to the studio, listened to the track, took notes and nailed her version in a few hours and as many takes. At its core, the song is a luxurious and earnest love song about savoring the moment rather than fretting the future at least too much — again, and maybe for better and worse, the American way.

“The French way is that we are pretty slow people,” the band’s Charles de Boisseguin says smiling. “We really take time to make things good. But Maggie Rogers showed up and showed us her skills and the American way. it was a magical moment.” Rogers adds, “L’Impératrice has been one of my favorite bands for a few years now, so when we started talking about working together on some music, I jumped at the opportunity to travel to Paris and create with them. The song came together really naturally and effortlessly in one afternoon and I really think it represents this perfect hybrid of what we both do. I’m so happy it’s out in the world.” 

Directed by Zite and Léo, the accompanying video is an intergalactic-meets-terrestrial adventure seemingly inspired by Superman, E.T., Starman and the like, with the band playing aliens stranded after their spaceship crash lands on Earth. The aliens, who try to understand human life, get a local mechanic to assist them with repairing their spaceship. And while their spaceship is being repaired, the band calls home and watches a broadcast of Maggie Rogers singing, which fills them with longing for home — and fittingly inspires them to play alongside the broadcast.

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays PLOHO Share Politically Charged “Гештальт (Gestalt)”

Since their formation back in 2013, the Novosibirsk, Siberia, Russia-based post-punk trio and JOVM mainstays PLOHO — Victor Uzhakov (vocals, guitar), Andrei Smorgonsky (bass) and Igor Starshinov (synths) — have firmly established themselves as being at the forefront of a contemporary, new wave of Russian music. Inspired by Joy Division and late Soviet-era acts like Kino, the Siberian act’s cold and bleak sound evokes both the bitter cold of their homeland and that uncertain and uneasy period of the Soviet Union just before its inevitable collapse. 

The Russian post punk trio have released nine albums, several EPs and more than 10 standalone singles, which the band has supported with tour stops at over 40 European cities. They’ve also made stops across the major international festival circuit with stops at Боль in Russia, Kalabalik in Sweden, and Plartforma in Lithuania. And adding to a growing profile globally, the band’s music has been added to over 16,000 listener-made Spotify playlists, as well as seeing various adds on Apple Music to playlists like Inspired By and New Russian Alternative.

Ploho’s 10th album Почва is slated for an August 30, 2024 release through Artoffact Records. Почва will feature the previously released “Я буду жить для тебя,” and the album’s latest single “Гештальт.” “Гештальт,” is a brooding bit of post-punk anchored around eerily atmospheric synths, shimmering and reverb-soaked guitar, angular bass lines and industrial clatter serving as an icy bed for Uzakhov’s sonorous and dramatic baritone. While seemingly channeling 4AD Records heyday and Japanese Whispers-era The Cure, the new single continues a run of sociopolitically incisive material that comments on contemporary issues and concerns.

“‘Гештальт (Gestalt)’ is a song about the inevitable consequences of karma and the universe’s reaction to humanity’s actions,” the band explains. “We aimed to convey the simplicity of this phenomenon, illustrating how effortlessly things can disappear if the elements desire it. This is why the video was filmed in an anti-capitalist style, symbolizing the collapse of capitalism, the foundation of modern human society.”

Video by William Ruben Helms

New Video: JOVM Mainstays Los Bitchos Share Blissed Out Beach Bop “Don’t Change”

Acclaimed London-based instrumental outfit and JOVM mainstays Los Bitchos — Australian-born, Serra Petale (guitar); Uruguayan-born Agustina Ruiz (keytar); Swedish-born, Josefine Jonsson (bass) and London-born Nic Crawshaw (drums) — can trace their origins to meeting at various late-night parties and through mutual friends. Inspired by their individual members’ different upbringings and backgrounds, the acclaimed British outfit have firmly established a genre-blurring, retro-futuristic sound that playfully blends elements of Peruvian chica, Argentine cumbia, Turkish psych, surf rock, and the music each individual member grew up with: 

  • The Uruguayan-born Ruiz had a Latin-American music collection that the members of the band fell in love with

  • The Swedish-born Jonsson “brings a touch of out of control pop,” her bandmates often joke

  • Aussie-born Petale is deeply inspired by her mother’s 70s Anatolian rock records

  • And the London-born Crawshaw played in a number of local punk bands before joining Los Bitchos

“Coming from all these different places,” Los Bitchos’ Serra Petale says, “it means we’re not stuck in one genre and we can rip up the rulebook a bit when it comes to our influences.”

The JOVM mainstays’ Alex Kapranos-produced, critically applauded, full-length debut, 2022’s Let The Festivities Begin! was recorded at Gallery Studios, and saw the band cementing their reputation for crafting playful, lysergic yet party friendly grooves. 

The quartet capped off a breakthrough year with two Serra Petale and Javier Weyler-co-produced singles “Tip Tapp” and “Los Chrismos,” their first Christmas-themed composition. Fittingly, “Los Chrismos” is a celebratory party-starting romp built around a psych rock-inspired, dexterous and looping guitar line, atmospheric synths, cumbia rhythms paired with holiday appropriate cheers and shouts. Simply put, the song is a much-needed hope and joy bomb in desperate, uneasy time. 

Building upon a growing profile internationally, the London-based JOVM mainstays released 2023’s PAH! EP, a two-track effort that featured a mischievously, rowdy and downright boozy cover of The Champs‘ oft-covered “Tequila,” a song that has become a fan favorite during the band’s live shows and a reworking of King Gizzard and The Lizard Wizard‘s “Trapdoor.” 

Today, the London-based instrumental outfit announced that their highly anticipated sophomore album, the Oli Barton-Wood-produced Talkie Talkie is slated for an August 30, 2024 release through City Slang. Deriving its name from a fictional club of the same name, Talkie Talkie is a late-night paradise, brimming with freedom and possibility; a place where partygoers can escape reality by getting caught in the groove and dancing it all away or daydream along to the invigorating soundscape.

Recorded over a short but intense month-long series of sessions at London’s RAK Studios and Lightship 95, sonically, the album will transport the listener into a world where funk, disco, Latin and Turkish rhythms collide in a euphoric fusion fueled by adventurous experimentation and their endearingly puckish spirit. If 2022’s Let The Festivities Begin was the rowdy build up to the big night out with your homies, Talkie Talkie is the equivalent of rocking out to the groove on the dance floor.

The album’s material is anchored in a vivid cinematic universe that takes inspiration from the band’s favorite aesthetic era — the ’80s. Think less self-serious men, gated reverb and more campy, hi-fi pop songwriting that glistens with moxie and verve. The quartet especially wanted to tap into the sonic innovation of the period, where analog and digital techniques collided to create polished texture and depth.

The album will feature the previously released “La Bomba,” a hook-driven 80s Turkish psych pop-inspired bop anchored around a shuffling dance floor rhythm, a twangy and looping guitar line, a disco-influenced bass line, some video game-like beats paired with glistening synths and ecstatic shouts. “‘La Bomba’ is a burst of energy and power! It’s just such a fun song – we started playing it at festivals last summer and the energy felt so good!” The band says in press notes. 

“The beginning stabs are what came to me (Serra) first as I was cooking in my kitchen. There’s something quite heroic and powerful about the opening guitar tone and the stabs underneath them. The twangy guitar tone cuts through the chaotic landscape of claps, pumping disco bassline and dreamy swirling synth sounds. The disco era influence is quite evident in this song, and I think the bassline sets the tone perfectly for this. Structurally the song delivers straight into a chorus (as Nile Rodgers said, ‘why wait?’). We wanted to keep this as close to a classic pop structure as possible, everything straight to the point. 

“The cherries on top are the little ping pong drum sounds (think Ring My Bell, Anita Ward) – they just make the track go off and totally emulate the feelings of euphoria and pure energy running through it.”

Talkie Talkie’s second and latest single “Don’t Change” is a breezy and blissful jam anchored around a languid and reverb-drenched Spanish-tinged, psych rock-inspired guitar line, stomping percussion, glistening and atmospheric synths and an arpeggiated, funky synth bass line. It’s the perfect soundtrack for frolicking at the beach, of dreaming of heading to the beach with your best pals — or for riding a ferry and dreaming that you were on a super expensive yacht drinking mimosas.

Directed by Tom Mitchell, the accompanying video for “Don’t Change” is a deliriously fun joy bomb that captures the band — fittingly — frolicking in paradise while seemingly on vacation. Can I join y’all?

“‘Don’t Change’ is a pure bliss track; think holiday vibes with ice creams, beach balls, sunsets and margaritas,” the band says of the song and its accompanying video. “It’s feel-good, with sun soaked melodies, vibrant arpeggiator synth bass, and layers of percussion. We had such a fun time making the video, making up little dances and frolicking about in the sand and sea!”