Hot on the heels of her recent album announcement – Akousmatikous will be released on May 19 – Bay Area singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Salami Rose Joe Louis (aka Lindsay Olsen) shares new single ‘Dimcola Reprise’ and an accompanying music video directed by Sarah Simka Jaffe that combines their shared love of classic sci-fi, everyday adventure and laser wolves. Shot on luscious super 16mm film in the heart of the Bay Area, the escapist visual transcends time and space to tell the story of two Salamis who are galaxies apart and how the power of music can unite and save them from their anxieties and fears. Drawing from her studies in planetary sciences, Olsen creates a unique experience: exploring ideas of multiverses and climate change through the lens of a fictional post-apocalyptic keyboard-toting earthling with a flashlight, a can of cashews and a hopeful optimism. Her music traverses experimental pop, abstract beats and bedroom R&B connected by a sci-fi narrative. Describing her motivations behind new single ‘Dimcola Reprise’, Olsen explains: “In the game of capitalism, the ability to ‘roll with the punches’, be resilient, suppress emotions and bounce back quickly are championed. I was reflecting on the sort of internal monologue we give ourselves to get through tricky moments and work through feelings. On the dystopian planet of this story, I imagined this internal motivator voice was some kind of pre-programmed pep talk robot that was activated every time an earthling was having a negative emotion.” “Lindsay is a magical person I have been lucky to know since we were young, going on wild (occasionally, dangerous) adventures and dreaming up futures and stories we hoped to see in life and on screen,” explains Sarah Simka Jaffe (director). “Getting to realize this kind of sci-fi dream with her, and creating this film with the many incredible talents of our film community in the Bay Area, was an epic and deeply rewarding experience.”
Josienne Clarke has released ‘Anyone But Me,’ the final single from her new album Onliness (songs of solitude and singularity), out now via Corduroy Punk Records. Darkly urgent, with distorted guitars reframing its folk origins to create a whole new sound for Clarke, ‘Anyone But Me’ is a study in possessiveness. The song’s grim and ominous music video directed by Alec Bowman_Clarke is a fitting visual companion as it follows the end of a marriage. “Maybe I just watched too many Hitchcock films in lockdown, but when I was commissioned to make a video for this song, I knew exactly what I had to do” explains Bowman_Clarke. “Bob Gallagher, the maker of Josienne’s wonderful ‘Chicago’ video, was kind enough to grant me permission to use his character, and Chris Newman jumped at the chance to reprise his role. I’m very grateful to them both for helping bring this vision to life.”
Fresh off the Valentine’s Day release of her sophomore LP, Main Character, Glüme returns with a new visual for album cut ‘Brittany’ that sees the artist turning the rose-tinted fog of infatuation into a psychedelic acid trip with a twisted come down. Co-written with Sean Ono Lennon, the track swoons with a carousel of synths and lilting guitars as Glüme indulges in the bliss of newfound love, letting the world melt away in the process. “Brittany was about meeting someone who makes it seem like the whole world changes for you and opens up,” Glüme says of the track. “It’s a beautiful dream, and then the come-down when it turns out it was just a dream, after all.” Glüme goes on to explain her decision to focus on the dreamy lovestruck early stages of a relationship: “There’s already so much out there about leaving this kind of unstable relationship, about the dissolution, but it’s also a thing where you can feel alone, even gaslighted, when you remember just how intoxicating it is in the beginning.” The music video finds Glüme dramatizing this fantasy in a high-glam haze of eroticized suburban domesticity before descending into trippy madness. Directed by Manny Liotta, the visual features works from artist Kendalle Getty, who also appears in the video and provided her own home as the backdrop for Glüme’s love drunk spiral. From crystallized chairs to stacks of half-finished plates of food and a screaming manticore-inspired portrait that is truly the stuff of nightmare fuel, the video sees Glüme push the banal hedonism of her infatuation into the realm of an Ari Aster-esque psychological horror as she loses her sense of self in the process. Glüme finds a certain fascination in being blinded by love. “It’s this feeling like you’re not in your regular life anymore,” the artist says. “The colors are brighter, there’s beauty all around, the curtains are always billowing in the wind, and then when it’s gone, it can be hard to believe. We talked about it like getting hypnotized, abducted by aliens, or like going on an acid trip. And while neither [Manny] nor I have done any of that, we could relate based on this feeling of being charmed.” [via Paper]
The UK pop and R&B singer Jorja Smith released her debut album Lost & Found way back in 2018, and in 2021 she released an excellent EP called Be Right Back. Now, she’s launching a new era with the DAMEDAME*-produced ‘Try Me,’ an impressive mixture of smooth presence and jagged rhythm that ends by disappearing back into a soulful twilight. As on Smith’s incredible ‘Addicted,’ the bass and drums on this could almost be rock music, but the overall vibe is more like if radio-ready R&B was Bond-theme glamorous, or maybe Adele if she did not have to appeal to the lowest common denominator. Smith says ‘Try Me’ is about “putting yourself out there, in front of a world that has many opinions, as it only ever used to be me really being my own critic.” It’s paired with a video by Amber Grace Johnson; as Smith explains, “The dancer, Andrea Bou Othmane, embodies a bull which represents the world and its opinions out of my control.” [via Stereogum]
At the end of the month, Jessie Ware is releasing a new album with the emphatic title That! Feels Good!, her follow-up to 2020’s What’s Your Pleasure? We’ve heard two singles from it so far, ‘Free Yourself’ and ‘Pearls,’ and now the British singer has returned with a third, ‘Begin Again.’ “On a miserable afternoon during lockdown, James Ford zoomed Shungudzo and Danny Parker in Los Angeles,” Ware said, setting the scene in a statement. “They were just waking up, it was already dark in London. Frustrated yet completely focused, we set about writing in a new – and unnatural – way over the internet.” “Dreaming of human touch, escapes to Brazil, beach bodies, holiday romances, all of it!” Ware continued. “I absolutely adore this song and I’m so excited for you to hear it, to hear the beautiful production by James and horns by KOKOROKO, it’s the song that I knew I wanted to make as soon as I finished ‘Remember Where You Are.’” Watch a video directed by Charlie Di Placido below. [via Stereogum]
LA-based alternative/electro-pop band CANNONS have returned with their entrancing new single ‘Loving You.’ Marking the group’s first offering of new music since their 2022 album Fever Dream, ‘Loving You’ builds on CANNONS’ signature sound, alternating between flashes of gauzy introspection, glitter-drenched dancefloor ecstasy, and gritty sensuality. The track arrives alongside an Anastasia Delmark-directed official video. Shot in Los Angeles, the visual encapsulates the song’s themes of self-acceptance and freedom from inhibition. In speaking about ‘Loving You,’ CANNONS say: “One of the most beautiful things we have witnessed over the past year of touring consistently and meeting our fans is music’s ability to create a sense of belonging between individuals, a safe space, a family. ‘Loving You’ is our love song dedicated to every single one of you who has supported us during every step of this journey.”
Sarah Kinsley is excited to share a new single, her first as a newly signed artist to Verve Forecast/Decca Records UK. ‘Oh No Darling!’ is streaming now. Written and produced by Sarah from the confines of her New York apartment, everything that’s heard in this shimmering, ethereal pop track is performed solely by Sarah too; synths, midi drum programming, guitar, and strings. It’s a dramatic introduction to a brand-new era for the Columbia University graduate who has achieved so much in a short period of time, and her dexterity as a fast-rising, singular artist/producer shows no sign of abating. Sarah on ‘Oh No Darling!’: “’Oh No Darling!’ is a massive rush of chaos, unashamed irony, a distinct rejoice in the stupidity and silliness of youth. The track is enlivened by ambiguity: the impulse to leave, to run, to shut the door on childhood: to say, “I am new and I am not who I was before!”. And yet here I am questioning at every point: do we ever really know? Was the illusion ever really there? “’Oh No Darling!’ is my tumbling into the ‘second decade’: of feeling and falling, of being unsure and yet free.”
VOLK have shared the video for their song ‘Stand the Test’. “‘Stand the Test’ is the break-up song we all need right now; for your grief, your transformation, your perpetually evolving self,” explains the band’s Eleot Reich. “As the first single off our upcoming sophomore album, On the Other Hand, You Have Five Fingers, we wanted to lead with a song that is as danceable as it is emotive. Two of our favorite musicians, Christopher Tait and Matt Van from Electric Six, play synth and bass respectively on the track. While we don’t currently have plans to expand beyond our duo set-up live, we felt strongly that the record demanded other elements. This is a tune to crank and dance along to in your kitchen. It’s alright if you actually don’t stand the test. We are so much bigger than our results.” Director Patrick Pierson had this to say about the video: “You could say that the inspiration for this is a little bit Flash Gordan, Bill and Ted and the movie, Explorers. As it’s more of a ballad, I wanted to put the focus on the performance and the song itself with a few otherworldly elements thrown in to elevate that. Think of this as an intergalactic cantina floating through a colossal cosmos in the silence of space. Boldly going forever” [via The Big Takeover]
The Canadian alt-rock duo Miesha & The Spanks return to release their eagerly-awaited new album Unconditional Love In Hi-Fi, alongside the raucous new single ‘So Mad’. Unconditional Love In Hi-Fi marks one of their most explosive full-lengths to date. ‘So Mad’ is a single that drips with a feminine ire that turns toxicity into sheer freak-out fuel. The three minute song is full of energy and condenses the essence of their new release. “’So Mad’ is about the day to day of what women deal with – from losing the autonomy of our bodies as the United States slowly revokes laws surrounding abortion and birth control, to being able to safely walk home at night – and the expectation that we can’t be too angry about it, and to just… smile more,” the band says when asked about this song, which is likely to be a fan favourite. [via Metal Mag]
