HEARTS ON FIRE return with album number two, the band formed by Honduras residents Jean Funes (guitarist, songwriter and producer) and Joel Mejia (drums) are joined again by the great Eric Ragno who makes an important contribution with his keyboard wizardry and former Yngwie/Ring Of Fire vocalist Mark Boals, stepping in for Rian frontman Richard Andermyr who helmed the debut.
My label released that debut, so you can call me bias when it comes to these guys, but it cannot be denied that Jean writes quality songs. This is another collection of anthemic in nature, warm and melodic mid-paced AOR numbers. Very familiar melodic rock to most, but undeniably catchy and consistent, where as many other albums become stale and predictable after a few songs.
I will say I prefer the more engaging vocals of Richard, but it has to be said that ‘metal’ man Mark turns in a surprisingly strong AOR performance here, fitting in with the band’s style and sound perfectly.
For those that know what to expect, but original and fresh enough to set itself apart from many competitors.
HEARTS ON FIRE return with album number two, the band formed by Honduras residents Jean Funes (guitarist, songwriter and producer) and Joel Mejia (drums) are joined again by the great Eric Ragno who makes an important contribution with his keyboard wizardry and former Yngwie/Ring Of Fire vocalist Mark Boals, stepping in for Rian frontman Richard Andermyr who helmed the debut.
My label released that debut, so you can call me bias when it comes to these guys, but it cannot be denied that Jean writes quality songs. This is another collection of anthemic in nature, warm and melodic mid-paced AOR numbers. Very familiar melodic rock to most, but undeniably catchy and consistent, where as many other albums become stale and predictable after a few songs.
I will say I prefer the more engaging vocals of Richard, but it has to be said that ‘metal’ man Mark turns in a surprisingly strong AOR performance here, fitting in with the band’s style and sound perfectly.
For those that know what to expect, but original and fresh enough to set itself apart from many competitors.
I know a girl called Jonny She’s a bullet, she’s a villainess In my silver dress, I’m the disasteress
Eddy Benz, an experimental artist out of New Orleans, has built his reputation the old-fashioned way: loud bars, crooked stages, and the sort of DIY disorder that leaves a room buzzing. His 2024 album Spectacle pushed that sensibility into the open; now Benz returns with a haunting lo-fi video for his cover of Rowland S. Howard’s (I Know) A Girl Called Jonny, and as with much of his work, the piece draws its strange electricity from cinema and literature.
The song Benz has chosen comes with its own curious pedigree. (I Know) A Girl Called Jonny was written by Howard in the mid-to-late 1990s while he was assembling the material that would become his first solo album, 1999’s Teenage Snuff Film. Howard had already carved out a formidable reputation through his work with The Birthday Party and later These Immortal Souls, but the years leading up to Teenage Snuff Film saw him step back from the band carousel long enough to shape a collection of songs that felt intensely personal.
(I Know) A Girl Called Jonny fits neatly into that record’s gallery of decadent figures and doomed attachments. Both Benz’s and Howard’s version unfold at a deliberate pace, guided by a tremolo guitar and a restrained rhythm section that leaves plenty of room for a worn, romantic voice. The proverbial Jonny drifts through the lyrics like a rumour whispered across a bar counter, surrounded by desire, addiction, and the faint scent of self-destruction. Howard’s fondness for decadent literature and bleak blues fatalism hangs over the piece, lending it the atmosphere of a noir vignette unfolding somewhere between romance and ruin.
Benz approaches the song with a kind of crooked reverence. Through the warped lo-fi lens of his video: grainy images, strange gestures, and a parade of performers who seem to have wandered in from another dream, Howard’s doomed heroine finds herself recast inside a different midnight theatre, Jonny still roaming the edges of the story while the lights stutter and the camera keeps rolling.
Directed by Matt Jones and produced by Benz with Louie Shades, the video carries a distinctly Lynchian air: uneasy, off-kilter, and slightly surreal, as though the camera itself has begun to question what it’s seeing. Spastic camera movements jerk across the frame, the images shot on an old DV camera and streaked with the grain of Super 8 film. Two cross-dressing performers take center stage with a sly theatrical presence, while Benz himself hangs back in the dim edge of the room playing bass, half-hidden, like the Great Oz himself.
Justin K. Broadrick, the vocalist and guitarist of industrial metal pioneers Godflesh, has announced that the band will no longer perform live. This follows a recent major surgery, which has left the musician feeling that he can no longer perform the vocal style Godflesh requires. He also confirmed that a new album, "Decay," will be released later … Read More/Discuss on Metal Underground.com
The “invisible hand” is one of the most enduring metaphors in modern philosophy and economics. Coined by the Scottish thinker Adam Smith, the phrase describes the unseen forces that guide markets and human behavior—an abstract power that shapes outcomes without revealing itself directly. For Los Angeles experimental outfit LOCH, that idea becomes something more symbolic: a meditation on perception, manipulation, and the strange systems that quietly govern our lives.
That philosophical idea takes on a tangible form in their live session for “The Invisible Hand”, filmed at Machinehouse Audio by Alex Blocher and styled by John Rojas’ Sound & Space. Here, the band occupies a haze-lit room that feels at once like a rehearsal space and a surreal museum tableau.
Bathed in opposing washes of amber red and cold blue light, the band performs in a semicircle on a patterned rug surrounded by classical busts, pedestals, and sculptural fragments. The setting evokes the uncanny quiet of a gallery after hours, where objects watch silently, and meaning hangs suspended in the air.
At the center stands vocalist Kristine Nevrose, initially concealed beneath a shimmering white veil that drapes over her head and shoulders like a ghostly shroud. As the music begins, she approaches the microphone slowly, lifting the fabric in deliberate gestures that blur the line between ritual and performance. Her voice emerges with hypnotic intensity—part invocation, part confrontation.
Around her, the band locks into a dense and ritualistic groove. Nathan Valle’s guitar cuts through the haze with angular urgency, Andrew Valle’s bass pulses steadily beneath dim sculptural lighting, and Oscar Ruvalcaba’s drums echo through the studio walls. Meanwhile, Martin Chapman recreates the track’s electronic textures through guitar effects rather than backing tracks, lending the performance a tactile and volatile energy.
The visual concept draws inspiration from The Belly of an Architect by filmmaker Peter Greenaway, whose fascination with classical imagery and spatial composition echoes throughout the set design. Marble figures and disembodied limbs appear beside amplifiers and drum kits, soft orange lamps glowing like watchful eyes.
Throughout the performance, Nevrose moves between concealment and revelation—veiled, unveiled, then draped again in flowing white fabric that spreads outward like wings as she gestures into the air. The camera drifts between statues, instruments, and performers, reinforcing the tension between human presence and sculptural stillness.
The result is a live video that feels both raw and ceremonial: a performance that captures the immediacy of a band playing together in a room while framing it with imagery that echoes the song’s themes of illusion, perception, and unseen influence.
Watch the live session for LOCH’s “The Invisible Hand” below:
LOCH is a band from Los Angeles, California, consisting of members Kristine Nevrose, Nathan Valle, Andrew Valle, Oscar Ruvalcaba, and Martin Chapman. The project began as an idea between brothers Nathan Valle and Andrew Valle, who first recorded music together in Whittier, California, using drum samples and electronics before expanding the lineup into a full band.
The group’s members come from a wide cross-section of Los Angeles underground scenes. Nevrose previously played in The Tissues, Flaamingos, and the hardcore outfit S.O.H., while drummer Oscar Ruvalcaba has worked with Flaamingos, Persona, La Ghost, and SoSoso, and currently also performs with the psych legends The Warlocks and In Covert. Bassist Andrew Valle has been involved with The Jancos, Shoebox Blue, and Radio Temple, and now plays with Mi Mellow Dia. Guitarist Nathan Valle previously performed in the live techno duo 138 and runs the techno label Counterpoint Ltd, while Martin Chapman fronts the band Folded Kite.
Their sound merges post-punk, industrial, avant-garde noise, krautrock, and psychedelic rock into something fluid and exploratory. Influences range from Public Image Ltd., The Pop Group, Gang of Four, Neu!, Throbbing Gristle, and Laurie Anderson to thinkers such as Carl Jung, Alan Watts, Bill Hicks, and bell hooks. Cinematic inspiration includes David Lynch, Andrei Tarkovsky, Wong Kar-Wai, Stanley Kubrick, and more.
For LOCH, the goal is simple: open canvas music with no rules.
The Invisible Hand is the title track from LOCH’s six-track release of the same name. Listen below and order the album here.
Last month, Metric and Broken Social Scene announced a tour together along with new albums. Metric shared “Victim Of Luck” from Romanticize The Dive, and today they’re back with another preview called “Time Is A Bomb.” “Say what you want about the wellness boom, I think it’s a natural response to the unrelenting awareness we…
Last night, St. Vincent played the 280-cap venue Little Saint in Healdsburg, California with her keyboardist Rachel Eckroth. Her setlist included a bunch of covers, including a solo take on Jeff Buckley’s 1994 track “Grace.”
