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Introduction In a significant ruling, the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a federal statute that bans individuals found guilty of domestic violence from owning firearms. The decision came from the case United States v. Rahimi, focusing on whether domestic abusers with restraining orders should legally have access to guns. Key Decision The Supreme Court’s ruling […]

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BABYMETAL spoke to NME at Download 2024 about collaborating with some of biggest names in metal and their evolution over the past decade.

READ MORE: Download Festival 2024 review: despite all odds, a promising step in a new direction

The trio – comprised of founding members Su-Metal and Moametal, and new addition Momometal – caught up with us backstage at the Donington Park festival, shortly before they took to the stage for a huge performance on Saturday (June 15).

It came on the heels of the band joining forces with Electric Callboy for the huge single ‘RATATATA’ last month – the latest of their many star-studded collaborations and their first track to make its way onto the US charts.

“It’s only been a month since we shot the music video, so, it doesn’t feel real,” Moametal told us about the massive response to the song in America. “I still can’t believe it, but I had so much fun making it. I’m so happy [with how it turned out] and so glad that many people have listened to it.”

The track arrived after the band welcomed new member Momometal into the line-up, following the departure of Yuimetal in 2018. Real name Momoko Okazaki, she joined having being a contestant on Girls Planet 999 and one of the band’s backup dancers since 2019.

“We’re having fun together every day, she’s amazing – as is Su-Metal,” said Moametal. “I’m so happy to be working with them and so happy to be here. We’re excited to keep on working with such a great team.”

Since joining, the band have gone on to collaborate with some of the biggest names in the metal world – including Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave icon Tom Morello. Creating the track ‘Metali’ together last year, the group told us what it was like to work with the guitarist on a song that they hoped would make to crowds form a circle pit at this summer’s festivals.

“When I heard the demo from Tom, I thought it was magical [because] I got sucked into his world. I still can’t believe that we worked on it with him,” explained Su-Metal, adding that the two had caught up backstage moments earlier. “We met him again lately and he just said ‘I’m a really big fan of BABYMETAL’, so I was just so happy to hear that.”

Praise from the metal world has also come from the likes of Bring Me The Horizon frontman Oli Sykes, who had teamed up with the trio numerous times already, including at their recent set at Sick New World. During the slot, they came together to deliver a blistering rendition of their 2020 collab with Sheffield, ‘Kingslayer’. “I was very happy to join them on stage again – when we headbanged together it was such a happy moment that I don’t even know how to put it into words,” Momometal explained.

Babymetal at Download Fest 2024. CREDIT: Todd Owyoung

Following their mammoth set at Download 2024, the group are set to play a huge co-headline show with Bad Omens on June 23, where they will head to France’s 11,000-capacity Zénith Toulouse Métropole. This will be followed by a series of headline shows across North America, kicking off in Florida towards the end of the year. While they were reluctant to share any details about what surprises may be installed for the tour  – telling us “only the fox God knows” for sure – the band did reiterate that they don’t want to deviate too far from their roots.

“You know what? We haven’t changed at all,” explained Su-Metal, looking back at the band’s evolution, 10 years after their debut album. “We have always been BABYMETAL, the way we are and we still have a long way to go. [Being here now is] all thanks to everyone who supported us, whether it’s our fans, the media, staff, or even other bands we’ve met before.”

BABYMETAL will perform with Bad Omens in France on June 23, before heading to the US for a run of headline shows later this year. Find remaining tickets to all their upcoming tour dates here.

The post BABYMETAL say they “haven’t changed at all” because of their success appeared first on NME.

Berlin-based record label Immaterial Earth prepare to release their debut extended player from label boss Prieste5s. In addition to appearances on Berlin-based labels MALöR and W133,

The post Premiere: Prieste5s – Concentric appeared first on Inverted Audio.

New York based ROREY is a rising, talented storyteller, musician and singer-songwriter. Her latest single “Sleepwalking” is the second off of her upcoming EP Dysphoria and follows the single release…

The post ROREY is “Sleepwalking” in new emotive and raw single appeared first on EARMILK.

Recent years have seen The Weeknd soar to incredible heights as an artist and entertainer. His massive success has earned him an honor that no other Canadian artist has ever achieved. Few artists have taken over the pop music space like The Weeknd has in recent years. While his early single, Can’t Feel My Face …

The Weeknd becomes first Canadian artist with 7 RIAA Certified Diamond singles

Layton Giordani is back, and this time he’s bringing pure nocturnal energy straight to the dancefloor.

With his new single, “Freaks At Night,” the techno tastemaker aptly captures the essence of those unforgettable nights out. With dark, modulated pluck synths that weave in and out of powerful techno kicks, Giordani’s latest is a DJ’s secret weapon for the late night hours.

The track’s distinct resonance on the vocal pause creates a moment of suspense as the echoes filter into the ether, leaving you hanging just long enough before the rhythm kicks back in. Giordani has been known to produce cinematic atmospheres with his music and “Freaks At Night” is a full-blown showcase.

To that end, “Freaks At Night” is just the latest triumph for Giordani, who is riding high off the recent success of his collaborative remix of “Last Night” alongside Anyma. With its similarly cinematic flair, that track has been an early favorite among DJs taking on the festival circuit this summer, given its ability to captivate audiences and bring a unique energy to any techno or house set.

“Freaks At Night” is out now via Adam Beyer’s Drumcode. Listen below and find the new single on streaming platforms here.

Follow Layton Giordani:

X: x.com/LaytonGiordani
Instagram: instagram.com/laytongiordani
TikTok: tiktok.com/@laytongiordaninyc
Facebook: LaytonGiordani
Spotify: tinyurl.com/55z76x2u

“Am I Greek? Fuck, I wish I was…sweetheart. Can I call you sweetheart?” Warren Ellis said early on in the intermission between songs. Such was the decompression needed in the comedown from the heady, wistful, life-destroying and equally life-affirming trance of Dirty Three’s instrumental melange.

Back on Enmore Theatre’s stage after some time: “Five…fuck, more than five years… remember COVID? It’s been some time.” And indeed, it has.

Off the back of the Melbourne/Naarm-based trio’s first release in over a decade – Love Changes Everything I and II – Ellis on keys and electrified (electrifying) violin returns with the “Ayatollah of rock and roll-ah”, Mick Turner on electric guitar and the indefatigable, avant-garde, mercurial (or whatever Ellis said, mimicking James Brown’s original hype man, Danny Ray) drummer Jim White.

This is the sort of show you can believe the hype over. Tinged with nostalgic and nascent tales – part embellished meandering fact and part absurd hilariously crafted fiction – Ellis performed as decrepit/intrepid sex god jester with his lengthy and yet energising monologues as a way to bring some levity to this profound sonic experience.

But the music. Ah, the music! That’s what we’re here for. It is overwhelming, nuanced and pensive at times, transportative and transcendent at others.

Indian Love Song, for instance, opened with the primal picking of the reclining Ellis, blending with the drive of Turner’s guitar, which hung under the increasingly exuberant flourishes of the violin and the dilation of White’s drums, which expanded like the pupils of one bursting through the doors of perception.

Next, Ellis’ shrieking strings rang out as he rose – almost an apotheosis – from reclining to the upright Jack jumping over the candlestick, one leg bent upwards as he energised White’s percussive turns.

All the while, White’s and Turner’s eyes fixed upon their frontman, who careened this way and that way in a frenzy, where he only came up for air when it was over. Here the ascetic, here the Baudelairean surfeit – here a “fucking rock and roll band”.

“Fuck, it’s Tony Mott,” Ellis said in the breaths between songs. “Tony was one of those guys where you thought you were ‘rock and roll’, and you showed up, and Tony was there, and you realised you’d never be as ‘rock and roll’ as Tony.”

The distinguished music photographer would no doubt be chuffed for the shoutout. Yet, such was Ellis’s shapeshifting talent to take us from the sublime to the ridiculous, from universal heights to primordial filth: “Christian, where’s my spit bucket?! Trust me, you don’t want me spitting on stage.”

The band’s chief roadie rushed out with the vigilance of a ball boy, supplying Ellis with a towel around his neck – “Got a white towel, Christian? Black’s a bit [morose].” – a bottle of water and his coveted spspittoonHe hocked a loogie visible from the bleachers. “I’ve got loooong COVID…”

“Sydney…We came to Sydney in the early nineties. Was anyone there then? Anyone remember? I think I do. We played a funeral parlour, and there was some kind of problem…In those days, I played a mop bucket, and the security chased me up the stairs and said, ‘You will never work this town again!’ I’d never been to Sydney and we were driving up in a ‘63 automobile and the gear stick came out…Everything I associate with Sydney is a box of longnecks and a bag of speed.”

His rambunctious yarns drew you in, feeling 2000 people feel like they were sitting across the pub from him. Pure class. And then, of course, the music.

Sea Above, Sky Below from 1998’s Ocean Songs – dedicated to Steve Albini, who produced the album in Chicago and gave Ellis words to live by: “Make sure you do what you came in here to do.” – yielding up a melancholic and tender instrumental meditation on – as Ellis described it – “falling into a hole…” 

“…And you go outside, and even the birds are telling you to fuck off. All you’ve been eating for the last three weeks is peanut butter, and you can’t buy anything but peanut butter because it’s the only thing that comes out in the same form it goes in.”

Giant antique stage lights beam down with their warm, steady light as Ellis moans into the f-hole on his violin to simulate that usual moan and wail of his strings in the studio version. Little bulbs flash and flicker about the stage like fireflies before the Enmore stage lights explode into white pulsating wonder. In the despairing depths of the song, some inkling of hope emerges that Ellis describes as “you climb[ing] out of the hole and see three little angels – cherubs – named Warren, Mick and Jim.”

I could go on…Really, I could talk about how Ellis compared his habits to Elvis: “You know the cocktail they had Elvis on. That was lightweight.”

I could mention his successful canvassing of the audience for a belt. Or his rendezvous with the Godfather of Soul at an airport.

Or his resistance to the advances of ‘Sweetheart’ asking him to come home with him: “What? Come back to your place? It’s not a good idea. They only let me out for rock concerts. Then they put me in a room and wind me up.”

Or his bizarre analogies about Thai heroin in the mail.

Or even his realisation – upon the millionth listen to Billy Joel’s You May Be Right, and the millionth time he says “crazy” – that this guy’s never been truly crazy.

Or the meandering and stupefying fantastical journey to slay the Piano Man himself at his Boston hotdog stand.

But these words cannot contain the experience.

California-based Sierra Leonean producer Thy Young, also known as Francis Tiffa Williams, released his debut album, Scent Of Amie, on June 14th, 2024, via Survival Records LLC. Alongside the album, he will unveil a music video for the focus track, ‘Enjoyment’. Before the album’s release, two singles were dropped. The first, ‘Luck’, received acclaim from EARMILK, while the second, ‘Cocoa (Coco)’ gained support from Music In Africa. Thy Young is renowned as one of Sierra Leone’s top producers, having worked with artists such as Kontri Boss, Dom B., and Swadu Natasha Beckley. He earned the title of Best Music Producer at the Sierra Leone National Entertainment Awards in 2020 and 2021. His influence extends globally, with his work featured on CNN Inside Africa. Drawing inspiration from US Hip-Hop icons like 2Pac and 50 Cent, as well as Sierra Leonean legends such as Jimmy B., Amie Kallon, and Steady Bongo, Thy Young’s music appeals to fans of Rema, Davido, and Obongjayar. With his solo project gaining momentum, Thy Young’s trajectory continues to rise without signs of slowing down.

Scent of Amie presents a dynamic blend of Afrobeat and electronic sounds, showcasing talents like Amie Kallon and Steady Bongo. The standout track, ‘Enjoyment’, features the infectious rhythm of the Gumbe drum, a West African treasure. With its lively bassline and spirited vocals, the song exudes joy and resilience, leaving listeners uplifted. Produced by Thy Young, the album marks a captivating debut, paying homage to the African diaspora with its lush and inspiring sound.

Thy Young revealed: “Scent Of Amie, a dedication to my late mother, pulsates with the vibrant rhythms of Afrobeats, enriched by traditional sounds, such as the Gumbe drum, creating a mesmerizing fusion of West Africa and contemporary sounds that captivate the souls of audiences. My album not only features new up-and-coming artists but also legendary musicians such as Amie Kallon, and Steady Bongo. I’m very proud of the cross generational aspect of this project.” 

Follow Thy Young:
Facebook – Soundcloud – TikTok – Youtube – Instagram – Spotify

The Truth Behind EMF’s 1990 Smash Hit ‘Unbelievable’

Peso Pluma isn’t letting an injury slow him down. The Mexican superstar, who is leading a new wave of corridos artists on both sides of the Mexico-U.S. border, suffered a foot fracture during his headlining performance at Governor’s Ball in New York City earlier this month. Peso Pluma powered through his set before undergoing surgery. With his fourth album Éxodo and an arena tour on the horizon, he is determined to keep pushing the Mexican folk song into the mainstream. 

“I hope people remember [us música Mexicana artists] for how hard we worked and how proud we have been to represent our country and our music all over the world,” he tells SPIN. “⁠It feels great to be accomplishing milestones for our music, you know? Making everyone proud of our roots feels amazing.”

More from Spin:

The Decemberists Draw From All Their Past Eras on Ninth LP

Thurston Moore Preps New Solo Album, ‘Flow Critical Lucidity’

The Truth Behind EMF’s 1990 Smash Hit ‘Unbelievable’

A year after releasing his breakthrough Génesis last June, Peso Pluma has taken música Mexicana and Mexican culture to new heights. He scored the genre’s first top 10 hit on the Billboard Hot 100 with Eslabon Armado on “Ella Baila Sola.” After peaking at No. 3 on the Billboard 200 chart, Génesis holds the record for the highest-charting música Mexicana album. The LP later earned Peso Pluma his first Grammy Award. In April, he brought the trap-infused corridos tumbados to the main stage of Coachella. Peso Pluma used the stage to address the controversy of corridos’ connection to narco culture, drugs, and gun violence. News reports flashing across the screens and a Morgan Freeman voiceover alluded to parallels between corridos and the gangster rap movement.

That corridos and rap connection comes full circle in Peso Pluma’s Éxodo album. A second disc is dedicated to hip-hop collaborations, including Cardi B in the knockout “Put Em In the Fridge” and Peso Pluma joining Rich the Kid for the swaggering “Gimme a Second.” He also dabbles in the reggaeton genre with Anitta in the alluring “Bellakeo” and Kenia Os in the sultry “Tommy & Pamela,” which references the nineties sex tape. The first disc boasts corridos tumbados that are more fiery and anthemic in sound. He regroups with Eslabon Armado and Junior H for the debaucherous “La Durango” where they indulge in Don Julio and “rosa pastel,” which is slang for pink cocaine. The party’s not stopping for Peso Pluma.

How would you describe this new era of Peso Pluma?

Peso Pluma: In this new era, my fans will get to see the other side. It’s darker, real, and raw. So often people only see the “good” side and on this album you also get to experience the other side of the coin.

In one of your new songs “Hollywood,” you appear to touch on the fame since blowing up with your last album. How have you adjusted to becoming a global pop star?

Everything has changed. I mean I can no longer do the normal things in life that I used to, or go out and hang out with my friends like we would back in the day. But I am very grateful for this journey and I wouldn’t change a thing.

What does it mean to you to represent música Mexicana and Mexican culture on a global level?

It is an honor to represent my country and to take Mexican music global. There is so much talent in Mexico and it was time that the world got to experience all of it. We have been working so hard, not just me, but everyone that came before me and everyone that I am collaborating with. I feel so privileged to be at the forefront of that movement. I am super honored to be here showing the world what Mexico has to offer.

Why do you think that millions of people are connecting with your corridos?

People are connecting with our music because it’s honest and portrays real life. Because the music is good and because it’s different and unique. We are taking a genre that has existed for many years and making it our own and in doing so, paving the way for other Mexican artists to get out there and present their music to the world.

You put corridos tumbados and música Mexicana on a global stage earlier this year at Coachella. Why was it important for you to make that statement with your performances about corridos’ connection to rap music?

When hip-hop first entered the scene, it was not widely accepted in a similar way that corridos has received controversy and it was important for me to show that there is nothing wrong with telling a story through music about the real life we lived. It took a while for hip-hop to become accepted just like our music did, but little by little people started to accept and understand its purpose. Both genres are so important to me because I grew up listening to them and they made me who I am today. 

I noticed the biblical references in the titles of your albums Génesis and now Éxodo, or “Exodus.” What’s the story behind how you named your albums?

Génesis was the beginning and Éxodo is the continuation of that. Éxodo marks a new era for me, we are preparing the next chapter, and laying the groundwork for what’s next for música Mexicana because this is only the beginning. ⁠I want to keep revolutionizing música Mexicana.

You and Eslabon Armado made history last year with “Ella Baila Sola.” How would you describe the experience of reuniting with the band and Junior H for “La Durango”?

It is always great when you can collaborate with fellow artists who are also your friends and that is one of the cool things about our genre, we are all working together, collaborating and joining forces for the same cause: Elevating our country and our music.

You also explore sierreño music in “Reloj” with Ivan Cornejo. How did you feel about working with a sierreño sad boy for this breakup song?

It was our first time working together and our voices fused really nicely together on this track. I love the way the song turned out. It is one of the tracks that has a special meaning to me.

Why did you decide to explore hip-hop and reggaeton collaborations on the second disc of Éxodo?

Our fans were expecting everything and we wanted to give them everything. If you want to listen to música Mexicana, we have that. If you want to listen to rap, we have that. Trap too. We wanted to give the fans everything they’ve been hearing from me for the past year. I want to keep trying new sounds and genres and keep pushing the boundaries.

One of the most interesting collaborations is with Mexican pop princess Kenia Os. How would you describe the experience of working with her on the reggaeton song “Tommy & Pamela”?

She is a star! Her voice is incredible and I am so glad she jumped on this song with me. I’m sure people will love this track. 

Last year, you launched your record label, Doble P Records, which includes your cousin and co-writer Tito Doble P and rising artists like Jasiel Nuñez. How do you feel about working on the business side of the industry as well through your label? 

It is great to be able to take care of your friends, to make sure they don’t get taken advantage of in the music industry and to be able to provide them a transparent and honest label which is not commonly found in this industry.

What do you see for the future of música Mexicana?

I see us staying here for a long time, expanding to even more countries. We are just getting started and there is still so much left for us to accomplish. 

To see our running list of the top 100 greatest rock stars of all time, click here.