JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Flavor Flav’s 67th birthday.
New Audio: Saltmother Shares Dreamy, Hopeful “Masske”
Amanda Appel is a Danish singer/songwriter, best known for being a member of the Danish Music Award-nominated vocal outfit ilinx. Since their formation back in 2020, iinx has been at the forefront of the Danish experimental scene, playing sets at Roskilde Festival, midsummer bonfire ceremonies, fashion shows during Copenhagen Fashion Week and niche classical music festivals across the country.
Appel is also the creative mastermind behind the solo recording project Saltmother. Appel’s Saltmother debut, 2022’s Heavy in Baby Blue EP was an adventurous batch of electronic music with songs that thematically touched on being young and in love, living in rental apartments and taking hormonal contraception.
The Danish artist’s forthcoming Saltmother debut album reportedly marks a shift towards a much darker, more organic sound, anchored around intimacy and filled with captivating and deeply human imperfections.
The album’s first single “Maaske” is a weird yet gorgeous song that features a seamless blend of doom metal, stoner rock, folk and choral music, complete with some stunning harmonies. The song is anchored around a universal sentiment: that the darkness of our moment — or of any moment, really — isn’t forever; that we can overcome darkness by the comfort of being and singing together; and that brighter days are just ahead.
New Audio: Indy Fontaine Teams Up With Charlie Cruz on Swooning “Tú Tienes Algo”
Indy Fontaine is a Cuban-born, Miami-based singer/songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer, who can trace the origins of her career to her early childhood: Singing alongside her uncle and his old guitar, she fell in love with music when she was three. By the time she turned six, she was enrolled full-time at a music school in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, where she trained to be professional vocalist and musician.
Fontaine went on to graduate at the top of her class from Havana‘s prestigious National School of Art. When she graduated, she already had over a decade of experience playing gigs all across her native Cuba, including music festivals, live radio and TV sessions, and more.
Fontaine then joined Sol y Sun, an act that has played sets across the international music festival circuit between the States and Cuba, as well as some of the most popular venues in Havana. The band was also frequently performed on national TV and radio shows.
The Cuban-born artist relocated to Miami, where she stepped out into the spotlight as solo artist. Her debut, 2024’s Moments of My Life ranged across a number of genres and styles, including Adult Contemporary, Easy Listening, Soft Rock, Indie Pop, Indie Rock and R&B — with songs written and sung in both English and Spanish.
The album featured “El Amor No Alcanza,” Fontaine’s subtly modern take on bolero, a Cuban genre that frequently focuses on affairs of the heart. Since then, Fontaine spent last year releasing a collection of highly successful singles including “Esta Navidad,” “Vacaciones,” “Mariposas En La Lluvia,” “Mejor Sin Ti,” “Que Te Vaya Bien,” and “Después De La Caída.”
Her latest single, the Andrés Castro and Guianko Gómez co-written and co-produced “Tú Tienes Algo,” sees her collaborating with salsa star Charlie Cruz. The new single is a swooning and euphoric declaration of passionate and complete surrender to love — even if it strikes you as being wildly inexplicable.
The song invites lovers to surrender with the same intensity they bring to the dance floor, to declare their love not just with words, but also with movement.
“‘Tú Tienes Algo’ is about that irresistible, mysterious attraction—and I say mysterious because you can’t explain what that other person has, but you know that when you’re with them, they shake your world,” Fontaine explains. “In the song, this person is asking the other to let themselves be loved because there’s resistance to fully surrendering, perhaps out of fear—that’s why they’re asking to surrender completely to love,” she says.
“This collaboration with Charlie is a dream come true,” said Fontaine. “It was a tremendous honor to share the studio and create music with an artist I deeply admire. To me, Charlie is a salsa icon who has kept the tradition alive in such an authentic way,” she adds.
Throwback: Happy 83rd Birthday, Sly Stone!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 83rd anniversary of Sly Stone’s birth.
Throwback: Happy 114th Birthday, Lightnin’ Hopkins!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates the 114th anniversary of the birth of Lightnin’ Hopkins.
New Audio: Yves von Wartburg Shares Swaggering “Feel My Bass”
Yves von Wartburg is Swiss producer and DJ, who spent the early part of his career contributing to multiple gold- and platinum-certified productions, which have achieved international chart success. That experience continues to shape his own approach to electronic music production.
Recording and performing under his own name, von Wartburg specializes on high-impact techno for club and festival settings. His first release on ISMUS, an imprint of Brussels-based label KNTXT, “Feel My Bass” is a swaggering, high-energy club and festival banger, featuring twitter and woofer rattling thump, glistening synth arpeggios, an in-your-face hip-hop-styled vocal sample and big hooks.
Perfect for clubs in Berlin and Ibiza, as well as festival stages, “Feel My Bass” reminds me of JOVM mainstays Boys Noize and LutchamaK, while showcasing a producer with a big, crowd-pleasing sound.
New Audio: Cardiff’s FORT Shares Expansive and Stormy “From Sullen Earth”
Over the course of their nine year history, Cardiff-based post rock quartet FORT — Ben Hooper, Matthew Moore, Gavin O’Driscoll and Craig Prosser — have developed an instrumental post rock sound inspired by Caspian, And So I Will Watch You From Afar, Mogwai, 65daysofstatic, sleepmakeswaves, This Will Destroy You and Russian Circles.
The band employs driving bass lines and soaring guitars to convey emotion, while taking the listener on a journey.
The Welsh quartet’s recently released full-length debut, A Token of Our Depreciation is also sadly, their last. The band’s members decided it was time for the band to call it a day and to move on from it separately. But as they explain, “we poured everything into this release and truly proud of what we have created.”
A Token of Our Depreciation single “From Sullen Earth” is an atmospheric and expansive song featuring a swirling shoegazer guitar-driven melody, thunderous . .. And Justice For All and Black Album-like drumming and some big, heavy metal-like riffage. Sonically bearing a resemblance to Mogwai and Collapse Under The Empire among others, “From Sullen Earth” is a bruising yet cinematic composition that conveys a deep sensitivity and beauty, much like watching a storm brewing on the horizon.
New Audio: Crá Croí Shares Breakneck “Lost In The Electric Blood”
Deriving their name from the Gaelic phrase for “heartache,” or “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 orm is slated for an October 30, 2026. Deriving its title from the Irish phrase for “sadness” or “sorrow is on me,” the duo’s debut will feature the previously released “Radiation Romance,” “Fires At Dawn,” and “Feeding The Fear,” as well as the album’s latest single, “Lost In The Electric Blood.”
“Lost In The Electric Blood” continues run of post-punk that seemingly draws from Interpol and post-punk atmospherics. Arguably one of the album’s most breakneck songs to date, the new single evokes a restless, uneasy energy.
Thematically, “Lost In The Electric Blood” explores identity and defiance in an overstimulated and fractured, dystopian world that feels much like our own. Capturing a sense of tension between chaos and calm awakening, the song at its core, is a defiant refusal to surrender to numbness. It’s a a bold declaration that even in a world that’s gone mad, there’s something still worth giving a shit about, and something worth fighting for.
Lyric Video: Gnaw Shares Bruising and Anthemic “Star”
Emerging Singaporean indie rock outfit Gnaw have quickly developed a sound that meshes elements of 90s alt rock, shoegaze and power pop mangled through digital processing and noise paired with lyrics that touch upon lingering memory and motion.
The Singaporean outfit’s debut single “Gnaw” is a bruising, hook-driven song that brings back memories of 120 Minutes-era MTV alt rock, complete with the classic grunge song structure — alternating quiet verses and loud choruses — but with an incredibly modern sensibility.
Throwback: Happy 101st Birthday, Roy Haynes!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates Roy Haynes’ 101st birthday.
Throwback: Happy 66th Birthday, Adam Clayton!
JOVM’s William Ruben Helms celebrates U2 bassist Adam Clayton’s 66th birthday.
New Video: Total Fucking Darkness Shares Deceptively Upbeat “Beaten to Write”
Electronic music outfit and JOVM mainstays Total Fucking Darkness features:
- Stars‘ Torquil Campbell
- Young Galaxy‘s Stephen Ramsey
- English studio genius and synth player Tom McFall, whose engineering credits include R.E.M., Bloc Party, Twin Shadow and Regina Spektor
Over the past year or so, the trio have released a handful of standalone singles, including four that I’ve written about, “Desolation Boys,” “Take It Easy,” “Give Me Everything You Own” and “Horizontal Rain.”
The trio’s latest single, “Beaten to Write” is a world weary tune paired with a deceptively bright, playful and hook-driven production that seemingly channels mid 80s New Order. Anchored around a relentless motorik pulse, the song is perfectly designed for getting your energy up for another day of drudgery at a soul-sucking day job. And its core, the song seems to suggest that as adults, we have to find ways to accept and deal with drudgery and bullshit, and then push past it — as much as possible.
Continuing the visual approach of its immediate predecessor, the accompanying visualizer/video for “Beaten to Write” features a masked man in a hoodie dancing and shadow boxing an abandoned factory space, with glitchy imagery projected around him.
New Audio: Alex Amen Shares Breezy “Cabin by the Sea”
Alex Amen is a rising, 26 year-old Texas-born, Los Angeles-based indie folk/country singer/songwriter. When he was 18, Amen relocated from Texas to California to study filmmaking. After one semester, he dropped out and moved onto the Dittman Family Commune, a commune with historic ties to the countercultural movements of the mid 1960s. While on the commute, he formed his first band in 2017. The band broke up shortly after, resulting in his relocating from Southern California to an island in Washington State’s Puget Sound.
Over the course of the next three years, Amen spent in relative isolation, taking up interests in mycology, mountaineering, poetry and wooden boat building. But as the years began to pass, he felt an increasing need to return to California to pursue music.
In January 2023, the Texan-born artist began self-production his debut EP, last year’s The Zorthian Tapes in a self-built studio at Altadena, CA’s historic Zorthian Ranch. He now resides in Los Angeles, releasing music among the city’s growing folk/Americana/country scene and playing shows across North America and elsewhere.
Just in the past year, he has toured with Folk Bitch Trio, a tour that included a stop at Baby’s All Right. He has also made the rounds of the international festival circuit, playing Pitchfork Festival London and Pitchfork Festival Paris, Newport Folk Festival, Iceland Airwaves, Austin City Limits and Outside Lands. And he participated in the Americana Music Association‘s annual Grammy Eve concert at the Troubadour to honor the legendary Neil Young.
The rising young singer/songwriter recently signed to ATO Records, who will be releasing his highly-anticipated debut album late this spring. He also announced that he signed to Rick Rubin’s American Songs/PULSE Music Publishing. Adding to a what may be a breakthrough year, he has a busy touring schedule that incudes a just started, month-long NYC residency across three boroughs, performances at Willie Nelson’s Luck Reunion at SXSW, Analog Reunion Festival and Green River Festival. (As always, tour dates below.)
In the meantime, “Cabin by the Sea,” his debut album’s first single is informed by his proclivity for nature and his time spent at the Dittman Family Commune and the Puget Sound. Featuring some gorgeous and expressive pedal steel from Tommy de Bourbon, strutting bass from Grammy-nominated Billy Mohler, Amen’s deftly plucked guitar, accompanied by his easy-going John Denver-like yet subtly Texan drawl singing lyrics describing a simple yet beautiful scene — a bluebird that he sees flying near his cabin. And naturally, he envies the birds ease, simplicity and freedom.
The result is a song that sounds a bit like a mix of classic Nashville-era country and Laurel Canyon-era folk while showcasing a songwriter that pairs poetry and songcraft with a breezy ease.