DARUMAS, courtesy.

This week we have multinational bands in Darumas and Calva Louise, throwbacks in Bones Owens and Night Laser; Evangeline covering her father, and synth-driven pop by Willow Kayne.

Darumas, “Darumá” — Everything about this one is good. Darumas is a funk trio with a Latin influence and fantastic harmonies! The members are from Argentina, Cuba and Haiti via Chile, and it all absolutely comes through in the best way. And, if you were curious, even though “darumá” means dream in Spanish, the inspiration for the band’s name comes from the Japanese good luck dolls.

Bones Owens, “Get It On” — Owens’ description of the song includes mentions of country, ’90s alt-rock and AC/DC. And I can’t argue with that description. The vocals show his Nashville roots, the music definitely definitely pulls from my favorite decade and while it’s a bit of a stretch, I can definitely hear the the inspiration of the hard rockers in the central riff. It’s an excellent mix.

Willow Kayne, “Robot Lovers” — Is it just me or is this darkwave pop? It’s a pop song for sure, but rather than the usual pop backing music, it consists of low, minor key synths, which turns out to be pretty great. It’s her first release as an independent artist and, if this is an example of what she does without the input of label honchos, it’s a great sign for her future.

Calva Louise, “Under the Skin” — The first nearly two minutes of this video make up a sci-fi short film. I’m calling this one out specifically because it was written by frontwoman Jess Allanic, who also made the effects in Unreal Engine. That’s incredibly impressive! Calva Louise is also a multinational affair: Allanic is Venezuelan, bassist Alizon Taho is French and drummer Ben Parker is from New Zealand, while the band as a whole is based in England.

Night Laser, “Way to the Thrill” — In a column last summer, I made clear my love of neo-hair metal bands like Steel Panther and Wig Wam, and while I don’t know exactly what Night Laser considers itself to be, I see it as coming from that tradition. That’s a good thing because the band is excellent at it; it takes the best parts of the ’80s and brings them into the modern day by incorporating musical evolutions.

Evangeline, “I Wanna Be There” — When I first listened to this one, its structure reminded me of the early ’60s-inspired punk rock of the ’80s and I wondered if it was a cover, since the sound isn’t very ’80s punk at all. Turns out I was right, but in a very unusual way: the song was originally written by her father in the ’80s. It works really, really well.

Danny’s pick: It was a good week for songs that appeal to me specifically, with Night Laser and Calva Louise really appealing to my tastes. But more so, I’m a sucker for genre-blending creativity, so Darumas is my pick of the week.

Follow publisher Daniel J. Willis at @bayareadata.press on BlueSky.