Digawolf: “High Arctic”

by Rupert Bottenberg

The game is on for Yellowknife electro-blues-rocker Digawolf, in the video for his new album’s title track.

While he works out of Yellowknife these days, electro-blues-rocker (and cartoonist!) Digawolf was born and bred in the community of Behchoko, capital of the Tlicho First Nation, in Canada’s Northwest Territories. His surroundings might be frosty but his songs have a smouldering heat, as well as sly wit and gritty beauty. They often draw on the wisdom his father passed down to him – but apparently, that never included that bit about discretion being the better part of valour.

“High Arctic” is the title track of Digawolf’s fifth record, the follow-up to the Juno-nominated Yellowknife. The video finds Digawolf, drummer David Dowe, and guitarist Greg Nasogaluak on their way to a gig when challenged to a game of street hockey. They figure their sheer size and old-school rules have the game already won. Pride goeth before a fall…

Ambient

Brian Eno: “Decline and Fall”

by Michel Rondeau

A video to whet the appetite for the forthcoming collection of Brian Eno’s best film music.

In anticipation of the release of his next album – an anthology of his best film soundtracks, scheduled for Friday – Brian Eno releases a first single and accompanying video, “Decline and Fall”, shot in Brazil by director Henrique Goldman.

The music for “Decline and Fall” was originally part of the soundtrack of the feature film O Nome da Morte, directed by Goldman in 2017, so some images from the movie can be found in the video, which takes the form of a meditation on the struggle between Man and Nature, water and fire, fiction and science, birth and death, making us aware of the fragility of the natural balance seriously compromised by our civilisation and its excesses.

Among other striking images are the climatic phenomenon, on a colossal scale, in which the trees of the Amazon rainforest continually expulse billions of gallons of water into the Earth’s atmosphere.

Brazilian by birth but now living in London, Goldman has been working in the film industry for the past two decades and has won numerous awards for his work.

Psych-Rock / Synth-Pop

Arriola: “Par mes paupières”

by Alain Brunet

How much fun is an amusement park, really? Arriola tries to answer with “Par mes paupières”.

A songwriter and a Doctor in philosophy, Arriola is currently one of the most interesting craftsmen in the French language in North America… but remains relatively confidential since his professional beginnings. His new video was filmed at an amusement park – it goes with the song “Par mes paupières”, which evokes a struggle somewhere deep inside oneself, in which an opponent must be dislodged. For this song at the crossroads of psychedelic rock and synth pop, Arriola hired sound engineer Pascal Shefteshy (Ariane Moffatt, Alex Nevsky, Alfa Rococo, Coeur de pirate, Peter Peter), who mixed the recording, and for the mastering, Matt Colton, from London, who also mastered the albums of Coldplay, Peter Gabriel, James Blake, Muse, and many others.

Africa / Hip Hop / Roots Reggae / West African Traditional

Nuits d’Afrique de Montréal: Dakka Dembélé and Nomadic Massive

by Rédaction PAN M 360

Boarding this Thursday at 8pm: fifth and final musical journey for the Nuits d’Afrique de Montréal’s Live African Nights series!

Montreal’s leading hip-hop group, Nomadic Massive, start the festivities. The Montreal group, expressing themselves in English, French, Creole, Spanish, and Arabic, celebrated its 15th anniversary last year and released the album Times. This collective, born from a whirlwind of influences and ideas, sums up the soul of the metropolis: a crossroads of cultures, a mix of languages, a fusion of colours and music. An explosive force!

The Ivorian reggaeman Dakka Dembélé performs the launch concert tonight for his first album, Petit bateau, on which he tackles, among other things, illegal immigration. He calls on African youth to refuse to get into makeshift boats at the risk of their lives. He presents his reggae with West African sounds and mixed influences, in the tradition of French and Mandingo reggae. Expect a performance of the entire album, plus three additional numbers from his repertoire. A cruise under the sun is in the offing!

Dark Pop / Darkwave / Synth-Pop

Black Nail Cabaret: “My Casual God”

by Geneviève Gendreau

The excellent Hungarian pop-noir duo Black Nail Cabaret offer a pastoral clip for the track “My Casual God”, from their most recent record, Gods Verging On Sanity, released last May.

As usual, the mix of the powerful, hushed voice of singer Emese Árvai-Illés and the dark music of Krisztián Árvai succeed in bewitching. This time, however, it is the aesthetic side of the band that surprises. The duo generally deliver flamboyant videos with crazy stories and eccentric costumes. With “My Casual God”, there’s instead a rural sobriety, in black and white, contrasting with everything they’ve produced visually before.

The charm operates once again, this time in a backwoods version, nevertheless marked by gravity.

Electro-Punk / Hip Hop

Sleaford Mods: “Mork n Mindy”

by Patrick Baillargeon

“Mork n Mindy” is the sound of central heating and the rest of the smells of Sunday dinner in a house in a residential area in 1982.

The duo Sleaford Mods have just announced the imminent release of its sixth studio album, Spare Ribs. The new single, “Mork n Mindy”, with Billy Nomates, underlines this announcement, enhanced by a brand new video. Directed by Ben Wheatley (whose latest production, Rebecca, is currently on Netflix and features the band’s Jason Williamson), it was filmed in Nottingham in a replica of the house where Jason grew up. According to the duo, “‘Mork n Mindy’ is the sound of central heating and the rest of the smells of Sunday dinner in a house in a residential area in 1982. Concrete, dusty garages, nicotine, where the beauty lies mostly in the small cracks in the shell of your imagination.” Spare Ribs, which also features the sulfurous Amy Taylor from Amyl and the Sniffers, will be released on January 15, 2021 on the Rough Trade label.

Gospel / Soul

The Staple Singers: “Respect Yourself”

by Rupert Bottenberg

A simple but effective animated video for the powerful, politically charged “Respect Yourself”, a massive hit in 1971 for the number-one family in gospel soul.

In their heyday at the turn of the ’70s, Roebuck “Pops” Staples and his children, including the mighty Mavis, were the number-one name in gospel soul, and they brought their music’s spiritual strength out of the church and into the streets. Come Go With Me: The Stax Collection, an exhaustive seven-disc overview of the their discography, is out November 13 on Craft Recordings. In the meantime (and right before the big American election), the label has shared a simple but effective animated video for the powerful, politically charged “Respect Yourself”, a massive hit in 1971. Juxtaposing images and slogans of protest from then and now, it shows how little necessary change has occurred – and reminds us that the socially aware soul music of the Stax label hasn’t lost its staying power either.

Disco / Electronic / Pop / Techno

Mirwais: “2016: My Generation”

by Yohann Goyat

Mirwais returns with a video in which all the codes of pop culture collide at 100 km/h

Twenty years after his iconic album Production, the French artist Mirwais finally returns. With the track “2016: My Generation”, he introduces his next album, The Retrofuture, to be released in early 2021. Mirwais collaborated with Ludovic Houplain (alias H5) for the production and direction of this exciting, futuristic, 10-minute short film, which he used for his music video. The two of them have presented it at several festivals and won various awards. It’s a journey back in time, in which all the codes of pop culture collide at 100 km/h: sex, the internet, politics, art, sport, the stock market, porn, a speech by Hitler and another by Trump… These are the last six minutes that Mirwais used to illustrate “2016: My Generation”, which is due to be released during the upcoming American elections.

Here is the trailer of 2016 : My Generation.

Electronic / Experimental / Contemporary / Industrial

Laibach: “Smrt za Smrt (REvisited)”

by Geneviève Gendreau

A new interpretation of a masterpiece of post-industrial music.

Laibach aren’t shy about any grandiloquent act, and return with a new interpretation of a classic of their repertoire, “Smrt za Smrt” (“death for death”, in Slovenian).

First released in 1984 on Rekapitulacija 1980-84, this piece has been modified at leisure by the band during their tours. This reinterpretation remains faithful to the original, but proves to be incredibly gripping, showing a musical maturity that was lacking in the original version. The clip, saturated with strong images, also contributes to this.

Dominoes, representing each of the faces of the damned (highly ironic effigies of the group’s 64 members and collaborators, past and present), collapse and shatter in a diabolical and perfectly symmetrical round. The image of an Earth under pressure freezes the blood. With this denunciation of an industrialized merry-go-round, a source of perdition, the group hits its target head on. Never grotesque, in spite of its emphatic character, it becomes the saviour of a bruised and decimated humanity.

A musical and visual masterpiece in the purest tradition of post-industrial music, directed by Jean “Valnoir” Simoulin and Metastazis.

Avant-Rock / Experimental / Contemporary / Post-Rock

SUUNS: “Fiction”

by Patrick Baillargeon

“Fiction” is altered by distorted voices and heavy, disturbing instrumentation, at a creeping pace.

SUUNS release their new EP, Fiction, on October 30. In the meantime, they’ve shared a video for the title track. The third extract from the six-song mini-album, “Fiction” is altered by distorted voices and heavy, disturbing instrumentation, at a creeping pace. The song was inspired by BJ Burton’s work with Low, and is about the passage of time, both fast and slow. The video, directed by Dr. Cool (Jordan Minkoff), is fully animated. Given the limited time and the impossibility of filming anything during Montreal’s lockdown, Minkoff asked the band to send him videos of their performances. He then coaxed the images out by rotoscoping them, and transforming them into something glowing and a bit science-fiction. Known for his colourful and wacky style, the videographer sheds some light into the darkness of SUUNS.

Hard Rock

FUZZ: “Mirror”

by Patrick Baillargeon

With hammering drums and powerful guitar riffs, there’s pure FUZZ to be found on the new single “Mirror”.

The Los Angeles trio of Ty Segall (drums, vocals), Charles Moothart (guitar, vocals), and Chad Ubovich (bass, vocals) release III this Friday, October 23, on the esteemed label In The Red Recordings, five years after the double album II. In the meantime, they present an excerpt, “Mirror”, after a hallucinatory stop-motion video for “Spit” and the single “Returning”. “Mirror” picks up the energy of the previous tracks, with pounding drums and powerful guitar riffs. It’s pure FUZZ. Here, the band uses III‘s ensemble approach of taking the essential ingredients of “guitar music” and “rock ’n’ roll power trio”, and putting them on the chopping block. The clip, directed by Joshua Erkman and shot with very limited means given the current restrictions, is a real freakfest, with some bodily oddities as a bonus.

Garage Rock / Lo-Fi

Quintron & Miss Pussycat: “Goblin Alert”

by Patrick Baillargeon

An ode to that special monster that frequents Quintron & Miss Pussycat concerts, soaking up the extravagance of their performances.

Quintron & Miss Pussycat are back with Goblin Alert, their new album just released on Goner Records. The Q&P experience is a barely controlled electronic chaos, an amalgam of “Swamp-Tech” rhythms, small explosions, incredible clothes, and puppet theatre. To mark the release of this 17th effort, the ineffable duo from Louisiana present a video for the album’s title track. “Goblin Alert” is an ode to that special monster that frequents Quintron & Miss Pussycat concerts and soaks up the extravagance of their performances. The freak in the pink beret, who smokes two cigarettes at a time and invents his own dances? The guy at the merchandise table who spills his drink in the t-shirt box, but knows the lyrics to every song? You get the picture. The video was shot by brilliant Louisiana filmmaker Drew Stubbs during Q&P’s last show before Armageddon arrived, on Shrove Monday at One Eyed Jacks in New Orleans’ French Quarter. If you look closely in the crowd, you might see Seth Rogan with glitter on his face trying to escape, and also the Jesus freaks who arrive by bus every year to protest the duo’s annual rituals. An unpretentious, fun little clip that will put a smile on your face.