Audio

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Québec City’s worry Shares Anthemic “Regret”

Through the release of their five-song debut EP, 2020’s after something and a handful of standalone singles, Québec City-based indie outfit worry — creative mastermind and frontman Kerry Samuels, backed by Gaspard Eden‘s Joey Proteau, Valence‘s Aubert Gendron Marsolais, Mid Divers‘ Xavier Beaulieu and l i l a‘s Marianne Porter — quickly developed a reputation for pairing lyrics inspired by Samuels’ experience and emotions with a hook-driven sound that’s heavy yet dreamy. The band describes their sound as “a noisy and emotional wave of sound capturing a warm feeling of nostalgia, like watching childhood home movies on a broken TV.”

The Québec City-based band has begun to build a profile locally and across the province, with the band making runs of the provincial club and festival circuit, including sold-out shows at L’Imperial Bell with July Talk and SOLIDS.

Building upon that growing profile, worry will be releasing their debut album, Positive Memory in the spring. The album’s second and latest single “Regret,” is one-part 90s grunge, one-part Brit-pop, one-part 2000s emo that showcases that band’s knack for pairing vulnerable, lived-in lyrics with rousingly anthemic, mosh pit friendly hooks and choruses. The band explains that “the song reflects on memory, death and the moment that linger long after they’re gone.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Jimmy Kirra Shares Upbeat Banger “Change”

Melbourne-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Jimmy Kirra, who started writing songs when he was 12. Since then his work has been rooted in the sounds of the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s rock and pop. Although […]

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: French Artist and Producer Monølo Lovingly re-interprets a Classic House Banger

Monølo is a French classically trained pianist and electronic music artist, who has built a career exploring the intersection of acoustic piano and contemporary techno. Throughout his career, his work has seen him crafting a sound where minimalism, rhythmic tension and club-focused energy — with an emphasis on live performance, organic recording method and a raw production aesthetic. The result is a distinct and modern take on techno that’s equally suited to deeply focused listening and the dance floor.

The French artist’s latest single “The Bells Tribute (Piano Techno Mix)” was originally conceived a free, solo piano reinterpretation of Jeff Mills‘ iconic 1996 track “The Bells.” The Monølo re-interpretation turns the original into a percussive and hypnotic tune that’s one-part techno with a decidedly industrial leaning. It’s a club banger but at its core, the song explores an uneasy yet irresistible tension between hypnotic repetition and interpretative freedom.

New Audio by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: The Wright Valley Trio Share Expansive and Bruising “Leben ist Schmerz”

Deriving their name from one of the most barren and foreboding locations on Earth, a huge, dry valley in Antartica, the Wiesbaden, Germany-based doom metal outfit The Wright Valley Trio — Dominque Fricker (vocals, guitar), Robert Krause (bass, synths)_ and Matthias Rodig (drums) — was founded back in 2013, but can actually trace their origins to working together in different projects over the years.

In their decade-plus history, the trio have released two albums, 2023’s Bitter Alter, a collaborative effort with Blackstaff; and 2021’s Der Wag, as well as three EPs 2017’s Shackleton, 2018’s Submarine Funeral and 2022’s Metal Doom. And through these releases, the German doom trio have developed a sound that seamlessly meshes elements of doom, sludge and post-black metal, anchored around extremely long songs that range from cultivated boredom to heavy riffs and massive walls of sound.

The German trio’s recently released album Leben ist Schmerz is a two-song album that the band explains tells the story of a life with bipolar disorder, exploring the extremes of that condition — and the struggles it brings. Clocking in at a little under 27.30, the album’s first single, album title track “Leben ist Schmerz” is an expansive, slow-burning and downright bruising bit of sludgy doom that captures the album’s central concept with a seemingly lived-in accuracy.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Plain Mister Smith Teams Up with Jordan Klassen on Lush and Shimmering “Dream To Be Free”

Vancouver-based Mark Jowett, the mastermind behind Plain Mister Smith is a Canadian indie scene veteran who has had stints in Moev and Cinderpop, as well as a stint playing cello with the Vancouver Philharmonic Orchestra.

With Plain Mister Smith, the enigmatic Canadian artist draws influence from an eclectic range of artists including The Beatles, Bryce Dessner, Matt Maltese, Led Zeppelin, The Zombies and 20th-century classical composers like Prokofiev, who subtly influences his string-driven arrangements. The result is a sound that seamlessly blends elements of indie pop, baroque folk and psychedelia.

The Vancouver-based artist’s new album is slated for an April release. “Dream To Be Free” feat. Jordan Klassen is a lush, gorgeous tune featuring twinkling keys, strummed guitar and the pair’s remarkably sonorous harmonies. While sonically reminding me a bit of Forever So-era Husky, the track as the Canadian artist explains is a reflection on a trip to Kyoto that took place during Daimonji, a festival where locals light giant bonfires to guide spirits back home.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Chat Pile’s Limited Edition “Masks”/”Sifting” 7-Inch Released on DSPS

Last year, acclaimed Oklahoma City-based noise rock outfit Chat Pile — Raygun Busch (vocals), Luther Manhole (guitar), Stin (bass) and Cap’n Ron (drums) — released the limited 7″ vinyl single “Masks”/”Stifling” through Sub Pop Records.

The limited edition vinyl quickly sold out. So, the legendary Seattle-based label just released the 7″ inch vinyl digitally on all the DSPs. Now, if you’re a physical media collector, don’t you fret. You still have a shot to grab the band’s tour-only version pressed on peach vinyl available at their live shows. They also have a collaborative logo T-shirt, too. Of course, that merch will be available while supplies last.

The A-side “Masks” is a bruising ripper that seemingly channels a synthesis of shoegaze, Bambara and Screaming Life/Fopp-era Soundgarden paired with an unhinged and punchy vocal turn from Raygun Busch. It’s a mosh pit friendly anthem meant to be played at eardrum shatteringly loud levels.

The B-side seems the Oklahoman noise rockers tackling Nirvana‘s, “Shifting” which appears on the legendary grunge trio’s 1989 effort Bleach. The Chat Pile cover manages to be simultaneously a lovingly straightforward take that’s also much more bruising and forceful than the original.

“Sub Pop is thrilled that Chat Pile graced us with these two massive songs, and we couldn’t be happier to add them to the list of greats who have released music for the label,” the label says.
 
“It’s a true dream to put out a single on Sub Pop, and our new song ‘Masks’ hopefully honors the spirit of the mythical, sometimes mystical, city of Seattle,” Chat Pile adds. “Thanks in part to the movie Hype, we have long been obsessed with Seattle, the American underground of the late ‘80s, and Sub Pop and their tools of world domination. Everything we learned about packaging Chat Pile, we learned from Sub Pop co-founders Jonathan Poneman and Bruce Pavitt.
 
“We wanted to cover a song from the early Sub Pop era, and something off Bleach seemed the obvious choice. Songs like ‘Paper Cuts,’ ‘Negative Creep,’ and especially ‘Sifting’ are fairly lateral to the type of sounds we make with Chat Pile. (Perhaps next time we’ll take on a TAD song!)
 
“To mark the occasion, we’ve also donated $3,000 to DREAM Action OK, a community-based organization that aims to empower our local immigrant community through advocacy and education to ensure justice for all immigrants. Learn more about DAOK here. 
 
“Thanks to Sub Pop for giving us the opportunity to put this single out – we hope you enjoy it. 
 
“And most importantly, FUCK ICE!”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: BLXCKFLAMINGO Tackles a Beloved Post-Punk Classic

BLXCKFLAMINGO is a Jersey City-based goth/darkwave duo, who over the course of the past year have released a handful of singles, which saw them quickly establish an urgent and intense sound featuring driving drum machines, thumping ass lines, ethereal shoegazer textures and pain-fueled riffs paired with an eerily cold and brooding baritone vocal.

The New Jersey-based duo begin 2026 with a goth/darkwave-tinged yet lovingly straightforward cover of Joy Division‘s 1980 signature tune, “Love Will Tear Us Apart” that maintains the song’s conflicted, heartache and remarkably catchy hook.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Moulod Shares Sparse, Hook-Driven “Socialites”

Moulod is an emerging Stockholm-born artist. And for the Swedish artist, his music typically begins with lyrics. He writes constantly, using his lyrics as a way to strip down experiencers and uncover what’s real. Only the rare songs that carry honesty are released, for him about 10% of anything he writes, with each carrying his raw vocal delivery at the center. His words are paired with productions that run the gamut from lo-fi, hip-hop, R&B, indie rock and blues — or whatever best carries the story and song forward.

The Swedish artist’s latest single “Socialites” feat. Rûn is a sparse tune that’s simultaneously menacing and sultry, warmly introspective yet chilly and evasive. And while showcasing an artist, who cab pair unflinchingly honest lyrics with sleek production and incredibly catchy hook.

At its core, “Socialites” feat. Rûn conveys the uneasy contrasts between one’s public image and private life, and the demands and sacrifices that public image requires.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Lowly Light Teams Up with Mishell Ivon on infectiously Hopeful “Impossible Possibility”

Matt Gorny is an award-winning, New York-based songwriter and producer, best known as Lowly Light. As a songwriter and producer, Gorny’s work has shown continual evolution, ranging from tunes like “Get Over Yourself,” “Prayin,’” “Candy Lied” and “Down the Coast,” which bounce between nu-disco, chilled out grooves and energetic indie pop, while also collaborating with an growing number of dance music artists, including Ultra Naté, Amanda Lepore, Luca Perra and others.

Gorny’s latest Lowly Light single, “Impossible Possibility” feat. Mishell Ivon is a bit of French touch-like house/nu-disco that’s a much-needed hope and joy bomb in our desperate, uneasy moment. We have to hold tightly onto hope because the regime wants us to feel as though all is completely lost.

As the New York-based songwriter and producer explains, “Impossible Possibility” is a song about holding onto hope, bravely diving for the brand new and reaching for what may be the one-in-a-million shot.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Atomsmasher Shares Breakneck “Cartoon Violence”

Led by siblings Ed Erenberg (vocals, guitar) and Brett Erenberg (keys), Atomsmasher formed in suburban New York and made its mark with their full-length debut, 1998’s Up & Atom, a cult favorite that saw the band mixing power pop hooks with restless experimentation, anchored around densely layered guitars, stacked harmonies and lyrics that balance absurdist humor with piercing observation. 2004’s All Around the World and 2014’s Each Day Is Better Than the Next saw the band expanding upon their reputation for eclectic yet cohesive rock, while weaving diverse influences from Julian Cope to Pixies into something completely their own.

Over the years, their work has received airplay on college radio and spots on television shows, helping the band amass a loyal following with the New York City Metropolitan Area’s live music circuit.

Last year’s Keep This Secret was the first Atmosmasher album in over a decade. The album sees the band crating material that showcased the band’s signature sound: tight arrangements with sly lyrical turns within songs that are forcefully immediate and catchy.

“Cartoon Violence,” the first single since Keep This Secret is a frenetic, breakneck ripper that’s one-part math rock, one-part Queens of the Stone Age-like stoner rock that showcases the band’s unerring knack for hookiness paired with a playful sense of menace.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Bronco Forte Shares Bruising “Obvious Alias”

Los Angeles-based stoner rock outfit Bronco Forte — Chris Klepac (vocals, guitar), All Hail the Yeti‘s Sako Inajaian (guitar), White Forest‘s Jen Glomboski (bass), and Batillus‘ and A Storm of Light‘s Geoff Summers (drums) — will be releasing their full-length debut, Lightning Scars on April 3, 2026.

After years of creative toil and preparation, the Los Angeles-based stoner rock quartet’s full-length debut sees the band stepping into the spotlight as a fully-formed heavy rock phenomenon with roots in the classic heavy music of the 1970s — but with a modern sensibility and sonic approach. Lightning Scars was tracked and mixed by engineer Kevin McCombs at The Steakhouse, the studio where Queens of The Stone Age recorded Era Vulgaris. The album was mastered by Nick Townsend, who cut the album to lacquer on his own personal lathe.

Thematically, Lightning Scars chronicle the uncertain lives of ordinary people of California and elsewhere, with the characters each song depicts desperately striving to maintain their integrity and sanity in the face of a rapidly-changing, increasingly dystopian hellscape.

And as a result, the album’s lyrics balance literary style and kitchen-sink realism. The album’s material is anchored around deep, dirty riffs, hard swinging grooves and song structures that are clever without being cluttered or overly complicated. And this is paired by a pop leaning sense of harmony.

Lightning Scars‘ second and latest single “Obvious Alias,” is anchored around the sort of bruising riffage that seemingly channels Queens of the Stone Age, Dirt-era Alice in Chains and Badmotorfinger-era Soundgarden while showcasing a band with an uncanny knack for pairing catchy, melodic-driven hooks, rousingly anthemic hooks and lived-in lyrics.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Crá Croí Returns with Brooding and Anthemic “Feeding The Fear”

Deriving their name from the Gaelic word for “heartache,” “vexation of spirit,” County Cork-based duo Crá Croí — RG (songwriting, production, mixing and mastering) and CD (vocals and visuals) — have employed a fiercely DIY ethos while establishing a sound that meshes elements of 1980s New Wave, post-punk and goth, featuring melancholic synths, dark melodies, angular guitars and sharp, hook-driven vocals. 

The Irish duo’s work explores themes of nihilism, love and destruction, dystopian collapsed and nuclear annihilation, often wrapped in irony and paired with post-apocalyptic metaphors. 

The Cork-based duo’s self-produced, 12-song, full-length debut, Tá brón ormis slated for release during the second half of 2026. Deriving its title from the Irish phrase for “sadness” or “sorrow is on me,” the duo’s debut effort will feature the previously released “Radiation Romance,” and “Fires At Dawn,” as well as their third and latest single, “Feeding The Fear.”

Sonically seeming to channel a synthesis of Chain of Flowers and Interpol, “Feeding The Fear,” showcases the Irish duo’s knack for crafting broodingly cinematic, hook-driven material. The duo explain “Feeding The Fear” explores themes of fear, endurance and rising through uncertainty, which seems remarkably prescient and fitting for our current moment.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Club 8 Shares Lush and Dreamy “Echoes Of Our Time”

Since the release of 2024’s A Year With Club 8, Stockholm-based JOVM mainstays Club 8 — Karolina Komstedt (vocals) and electronic music producer, artist and Labrador Records founder and label boss Johan Angergård — the duo spent last year releasing a single a month over the course of last year, including tunes like “ooo,” “None Of This Will Matter When You’re Dead,” “Staying Alive,” “Born The Wrong Time,” “Sneaky Feelings” and “Daydreams.” 

The duo begin 2026 with “Echoes Of Our Time,” a nostalgia-inducing bop that channels classic New Order and shimmering, 80s pop while showcasing the duo’s unerring knack for catchy hooks and rousingly anthemic choruses. The song touches upon some familiar and deeply universal themes — the heartache, despair and longing for a loved one, who you’re no longer involved with, the dreaminess of northern hemisphere winter and the longing to spend a wintry day in bed not doing much.

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: Silverdeer Shares Lush and Yearning “Open Mouth”

Los Angeles-based duo Silverdeer — longtime friends Halsey Bousquet (vocals) and Nika Fazeli — have been centered by a long-held warm, flirty and playful kinetic energy that they first established with their first project saturn 17.

Formed back in 2019, saturn 17 quickly gained attention with their breakout single “could this be love,” which amassed over 10 million streams. But by 2024, the duo found themselves facing unexacting challenges. Bouts of writer’s block and an overwhelming urge to explore new sounds and genres led to a creative hiatus.

Both Fazeli and Bosquet recognized that they were undergoing a personal and artistic metamorphosis that ultimately required a new name for their project that matched it. Over the past couple of years as Silverdeer, the duo have established a sound that melds the spirit of 90s alternative rock with lush, dream pop textures.

The duo’s latest effort, the Casey Lagos-produced House of Devotion is slated for a March 20, 2026 release. The forthcoming EP will feature the previously released “Montauk” and “Drift.”

“Meeting Casey was like finding the missing puzzle piece,” the Los Angeles duo say. “We had been trying for so long to explain our vision to people, and it was so refreshing to find someone who immediately understood it and had the tools and the creativity to push us where we wanted to go. He is such a supportive and sweet person too, we feel so safe being vulnerable and creative with him.” 

“House of Devotion is inspired by the beach house in Eternal Sunshine — a place meant to feel safe and intimate, but one that starts collapsing the moment you step inside,” the duo explain. “It’s built from memories, desire, and the fragile structures two people create together, and it begins to fall apart under the emotional weight of devotion.” And fittingly, the EP’s material explores themes of love, connection, nostalgia and longing. “House of Devotion invites you to reflect on connection — how we relate to people who have entered and exited our lives.”

The EP’s third and latest single, “Open Mouth” is a dreamy mix of dream pop, shoegaze and trip hop, anchored around the duo’s penchant for remarkably catchy, razor sharp hooks — and a palpable sense of yearning and barely controlled desire that feels youthful and explosive.

“‘Open Mouth’ is our most addicting song on the EP,” the duo shares. “It exists as a celebration of sexuality, a snapshot of desire and almost-caught moments.”

Single Review by William Ruben Helms

New Audio: SPDS Returns with Trance-inducing Banger “Like A Word I Never Knew”

With the release of 2024’s full-length debut, SDPS, Copenhagen-based acoustic techno/jazz punks Smag På Dig Selv (SPDS) — Oliver Lauridsen (tenor sax), Thorbjørn Øllgaard (baritone sax, bass sax, vocals) and Albert Holberg (drums) — firmly cemented their reputation as one of most boundary pushing groups in the contemporary Danish scene. With a sound that’s an explosive, party starting mixture of acoustic techno, punk energy, jazz and 90s EDM, the Danish trio have begun to make the round of the international festival and touring circuit, playing sets at Roskilde Festival, SXSW, The Great Escape, Eurosonic, Winter Jazzfest NYC and Capital One City Parks Foundation SummerStage. 

SPDS’s highly-anticipated sophomore album This Is Why We Lost is slated for a March 2026 through Stunt Records. The album will feature the previously released, TMI Tammi-produced “Let’s Go!,” “Vik’s Rawcore,” which sees the trio collaborating with vibraphonist Viktoria Søndergaard, and the album’s fourth and final, pre-release single “Like A Word I Never Knew.”

Arguably one of the darker songs on the album, “Like A Word I Never Knew,” is a trance-inducing and forcefully propulsive club banger paired with a modal-era Miles Davis-like introspective lyricism. Recorded during the final phase of album sessions, “Like A Word I Never Knew,” captures a moment of transition. As summer inevitably faded into yet another autumn and the band wrapped up their final shows of the season, they entered the studio with a noticeably calmer, more introspective energy. And the result is a track driven by focus, restraint and deep emotional weight.

For the band, the song reflects the core ambition behind the forthcoming album: to create music that can exist within a trance or club-orientated setting while still carrying a strong melodic and narrative arc.