Cheem
Few bands attempt to combine pop punk with J-rock and nu metal with boy-band hooks, but Cheem is all about delivering the unexpected. “As far as genre labels go, we call ourselves ‘nu pop,’” vocalist/guitarist Skye Holden says. “Like nu metal, we’re combining traditional rock elements with hip-hop and R&B. It’s just a little more on the melodic side. But people can call us whatever they want as long as they don’t talk shit about us on the internet.” Formed in Bridgeport, Connecticut, by Holden and guitarist Gabe Weitzman while they were still in high school, Cheem’s jumping-off point was Taking Back Sunday. “At the time, we were super into pop punk and an emo-tinged J-rock kind of sound,” Holden explains. “We wanted to play fast, have two vocalists, and do a lot of notes. It was a very narrow approach, despite the fact that we all have other influences and experiences.”
As of 2020, Cheem’s lineup also includes vocalist Sam Nazaretian, drummer Sean Thomas, and bassist Nate “Prince” Porter. That’s when their sound began to expand exponentially. “Fake Fans,” the lead single from their new EP, Fast Fashion, takes cues from ’80s funk, the discordant guitar slashings of Animals as Leaders, and Cheem’s own early experiences within the music industry. “On our last album, we talked explicitly about the industry,” Holden says of 2022’s Guilty Pleasure. “But this time, it’s using the industry as a metaphor for an interpersonal or romantic relationship.” Fast Fashion’s other single, “Charm Bracelet,” owes its origins to ’90s teen idols Justin Timberlake and Lance Bass. “I listened to NSYNC a lot growing up,” Holden offers. “They had two songs on their album Celebrity that had that UK garage beat, which I wanted to try but add heavy guitars. Lyrically, it’s about a relationship that’s fun but probably isn’t good for either person.” The more Cheem’s sound evolves, the happier they’ve become with it. “At one point, people were not getting what we were doing,” Holden says. “But it made us realize: If people aren’t going to get it anyway, we might as well do whatever we want. That ended up being the best thing for us.”
—J. Bennett
Another Taste
While disco’s reign in mainstream American popular culture was brief, the spirit of the music lives on. Rotterdam band Another Taste draws inspiration from disco/boogie gems from the late ‘70s and early ‘80s to craft their own fresh and colorful music. “We have been heavily influenced by late ’70s/early ’80s (post-)disco & private press culture,” says co-founder Bobby van Putten, who also runs the label Space Grapes. “Our goal as a band is to keep this tradition moving forward—keeping it imperfect and raw, paying homage to this era without being too much of a throwback-type thing at the same time.” From the uplifting vocal and piano interplay on “Turn Up” to “It Takes Time,” with its crunchy open drum break intro and cosmic synths, Another Taste is a feast of rich, danceable grooves. Album closer “Perfect Night” is a lush dancefloor anthem anchored by Bob Roche’s nimble bassline and the steady rhythms of drummer Teun van Zoggel. And like much of Another Taste, the tune would work just as well in a club in 1979 as it does in 2024.
—John Morrison
Discovery Zone
Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
Discovery Zone’s JJ Weihl got her start in the German dream pop act Fenster in the early ‘10s, and launched Discovery Zone as a solo project after that band dissolved. “At first, I didn’t really have a goal,” she says. “I just started going to my studio a lot and experimenting with different sounds and making some demos, which would eventually become my first record.” After spending most of her adult life in Berlin, Weihl moved back to her hometown of New York City. The overstimulation and hyper-connectivity that stem from American capitalism informs her latest full-length, Quantum Web, which was released last month via electronic institution RVNG Intl.
The spark for Quantum Web arrived after Weihl was commissioned to create a multimedia performance piece called Cybernetica that utilized her personal private data as source material. Quantum Web expands on this idea, examining the omnipresence of corporate advertising in the digital age. The instrumentation on the album is surprisingly colorful, built around burbling synths, dreamy electric guitars, and ‘80s-style drum machines. The end result brings to mind artfully nostalgic acts like Mr Twin Sister and Chairlift; it seems appropriate that Weihl cites both Suzanne Ciani and Madonna as key influences. While the record contains a number of misty ambient pieces, the most memorable moments on Quantum Web are the ones that contrast danceability and darkness. “I think the spectrum of dystopian themes packed into the accessible packaging of pop songs can create a sort of dissonant feeling that mirrors our troubled world, while at the same time attempting to change it,” Weihl says. Her music is thoughtful and playful but also deeply paranoid—a fittingly incongruous score for these strange times.
—Ted Davis
Early Moods
Vinyl Box Set, 7" Vinyl, Vinyl LP, Compact Disc (CD)
If time is a flat circle, then prophets and philosophers will howl in glee upon discovering Early Moods’s A Sinner’s Past, an album that ably connects rock’s past to its future. Having introduced themselves with a self-titled debut that merged their thrash background with a love for proto-metal, Early Moods sink deep into fuzz on their second LP. The new perspective arrived after “listening to a lot of ‘70s hard rock, like Wishbone Ash, Taste, and early Scorpions,” says guitarist and founder Eddie Andrade. The result is pure rock splendor. Sporting chugging grunge riffs, thunderous drumbeats, and vocals that soar toward the cosmos, A Sinner’s Past bridges Black Sabbath, Bathory, and Tina Bell’s Bam Bam.
The LP also shows that the band paid attention when studying at the altar of their heroes; the group recently unleashed their exhilarating live show opening for legends Candlemass, Pentagram, Coven, and Lucifer. But they aren’t one to forget their brutal beginnings—“Blood Offerings” boasts some wicked blackened death vocals. In fact, A Sinner’s Past bridges not just decades, but genres. “It’s pretty cool that we can get categorized into stoner/doom line-ups but also heavy metal bills,” says Andrade. On A Sinner’s Past, that versatility is on full display.
—Jason Brow
HJirok
Vinyl LP
“Hjirok” (Pronounced haji-rock) is the name of a fictional, feminine Yezidi character created by Kurdish-Iranian singer and artist Hani Mojtahedy and her creative partner Andy Toma (co-founder of Mouse on Mars). According to lore, the voice of Hjirok can be heard in the valleys of Geliyê Hjîrokê or, the Valley of Figs, a once fertile mountainous region 40 kilometers from Erbil. “This is the history of the [Yazidi] women who were sold into slavery,” says Mojtahedy. “I like to contemplate the experiences of these women through song. “In Iraq and in Iran, women and girls are married off young, and this always occupied me and broke my heart, so I was trying to reflect on this through my songs. I also wanted to use everything as a collage, so I was improvising.”
The duo’s debut strings together the memories of cities and characters Mojtahedy has encountered throughout her life. From her hometown Sanandaj to Halabja and Tehran, the album is Hani’s attempt to free herself, and other women, from the oppressive shackles rooted in the past. “I was always involved in singing, and the character of Hjirock reflects sufi rhythms,” explains Mojtahedy. “But tradition does not mean ‘folk,’ as there’s always something new. We have to create our future, and therefore we rearrange our music.”
Each track is a scene from Mojtahedy’s life, turning simple songs into rooms full of memories. “Each song is an installation. I didn’t plan to sing,” Mojtahedy says, “but wanted to use my voice as a rhythm.” Lyrically, Hani draws on a series of diverse texts, including works by Kurdish-Iraqi philosopher Abdulla Pashew (specifically in the track “Gorman”) and Jalal Malik Shah in the final song, “Tehran,” a nod to the Jin, Jiyan, Azadî (Woman, Life, Freedom) movement. She also recalls songs from her childhood that she learned from her grandfather and mother.
Toma’s innovative processing of field recordings, voices, and instruments that the two recorded during a trip to Kurdistan-Iraq in 2020 surrounds Hani’s melancholy vocals. “The sounds were then concocted in the studio, although it took a while to bring everything together, especially due to Covid,” Toma explains. “Hani was suffering from not being able to return to her culture, and so the recording became an emotional memory of home.” Omnipresent is the rhythmic accompaniment of the daf, the frame-drum particular to Kurdish music and the extemporized sounds of dub sound systems. It adds a new layer to Mojtahedy and Toma’s journey. “It is an ideology and a philosophy of young women to live without fear, to let themselves cry out and write themselves into history,” Mojtahedy says. “As Kurds, we don’t have our own passports, but we have the freedom to express our culture.”
