What's going on with Heartworms? After a first track in 2020, it was towards the end of 2022 that the British Jojo Orme picked up the pace and began releasing a few singles, followed by her first EP A Comforting Notion in 2023. A singular visual universe in black and white blending military aesthetics and expressionism, music that borrows from post-punk, industrial rock and pop, many nods to the 80s and 90s with the typical appetite of someone who didn't really live that period: the foundations are there, solid and intriguing. Her debut album, Glutton for Punishment, has just been released (review), and Heartworms was visiting France for the first time... and she're already selling out, like this evening in Paris at Petit Bain, a respectably-sized venue that was packed.
MAI MAI MAI
Before seeing this little phenomenon live on stage, the audience has to face Mai Mai Mai. It's worth noting the minimalist communication from organisers Super!. A few hours beforehand, we thought we were going to see the EBM/industrial project PC World. The surprise was twofold: not only was Mai Mai Mai announced at the last minute, but the Italian's universe is a very special one. Programming an ambient/noise solo artist before a rock band? It's an unusual operation, but the respectful audience is paying close attention to what Mai Mai Mai has to offer.
The set is built as a single track, without interruption. Little by little, the elements fall into place: percussions, dissonance, sampled lyrics and backing vocals... Mai Mai Mai is as much a musical project as a video one, and a screen supports the universe. We're plunged into a mysterious Mediterranean folklore, made up of obscure rituals that, tortured by images, take on the air of ghostly memories or hallucinatory nightmares. It's dark, thick, hypnotic, tribal and mystical, while Italy seems to be drawing closer to voodoo in psychedelic montages that mix religious iconography and ancient traditions, accompanied by the strings, rhythms and chants of this strange figure, an anonymous spectral cult leader and time traveller.
Mai Mai Mai introduces enough musicality into its creations to avoid the pitfall of a noise project that you don't understand, and the video adds a touch of spectacle to the performance that spares us the boredom of a set by a guy all alone behind his gear. The set-up is intelligent and immersive, and the fascinating universe works very well, even with an audience that we suspect has little experience of this kind of thing. The set ended to rapturous applause, and we didn't even notice that the clock was ticking.
HEARTWORMS
Heartworms, now a trio for live purpose, begin their concert in the same way as Glutton for Punishment, with the discreet sound design of In the Begnning serving to immerse us in the atmosphere, followed by the theatrical melancholy of Just to Ask a Dance, which collides with a martial rhythm. The energy of Jojo Orme, an expressive and warm frontwoman whose facial expressions convey all the torments of the music, immediately catches your attention. Behind her, guitarist Benji Taylor and drummer Gianluca de Gisi may take a back seat to give her space, but they're by no means insignificant. Admittedly, Taylor's untangled hair and raised drums are eye-catchers, but the presence of a ‘real’ line-up gives the music a new breadth, a nervousness that lends it an extra edge of aggression.
Heartworms mixes influences and refuses to be pigeon-holed. We're reminded of the coldness of Joy Division, which served as the soundtrack to the evening between concerts, mixed with the dramatic intensity of Siouxsie Sioux, the verve of PJ Harvey and the elegance of Nick Cave, the catchiness of Depeche Mode, the bite of Nine Inch Nails... and Tim Burton (Jojo Orme, with her coat and black hair, is strangely reminiscent of Wynona Ryder in Beetlejuice). The pop touches help to wash down even the most chaotic pills (our favourites: the dementia of Jacked, the sharpness of Retributions of an Awful Life).
Paradoxically, it's when the music suddenly stops that the concert reaches its climax. No sound is heard and, just as a fly could be heard flying, Jojo Orme strides across the stage, staring at his audience, her gaze intense and mad. In the background, those who can't see are worried: ‘what's going on? is something wrong?’. Silence, more terrifying than the clatter of instruments. Then the singer recites Beat Poem, verses spat out with a crescendo of rage, ending with a menacing cry: ‘we are the people that you buried in the floors’. Heartworms is theatrical and inhabited, taking our breath away before sweeping us away with her more pop melodies (Extraordinary Wings, a beautiful moment, or the climactic finale of Warplane) and her biting irony made up of confessions, doubts, sorrows and pacifist impulses. The performance is impeccable, both accurate and inhabited, and the singer's voice is a whirlwind of nuances that is particularly infectious.
As the concert draws to a close, we're keeping score: has the hype surrounding Heartworms been justified? Most certainly! While the young artist's first album was already exciting, the live show highlighted what we love best about this project: its visceral madness, its cathartic outbursts that mix dissonance with more reassuring pop tunes. Nostalgia is always best expressed by artists who didn't really live through the era in question, so we're delighted to see this 80s/90s tribute put through a more modern mill. Heartworms takes the dust off gothic icons, derring-doing clichés and taking them all in their stride, shaking them up with playful malice and feverish energy. Just a few weeks ago, we'd have said ‘you'll have to keep an eye on this band, we're predicting great things for them’. Well, the great things are here, and it's time to jump on the bandwagon if you've missed the early days, because Heartworms is growing up fast.
