interview: Jvly38! - angels move forth like gods cavalry

The month of January is a boon for people who scan new music releases. Some people lament that there’s a “dry spell” in the beginning of the year, since many larger artists save their releases for the springtime. But real ones understand that January is key: the year feels full of potential, and you can eagerly dive into anything and everything new that releases. It’s thrilling to be able to keep up, if only for a few weeks. I can temporarily delude myself into thinking I’ll be able to keep that pace all year. But by March, my listening backlog already starts to feel impossible... 

Throughout the year, I feverishly sift through the new release charts on Album of the Year and Rate Your Music. Those sites definitely have their problems, but their yearly charts really are great for finding new stuff. And since not much releases in January, more esoteric gems float to the top of the “Best of [Genre]” charts. Within a few weeks, many of those albums will be buried by the algorithm and popularity weightings, but if you’re lucky, you can find a gem or two before that happens.

This is how I discovered Jvly38! and her album, angels move forth like gods cavalry. It was some of the first music I heard in 2025 (it released on New Year’s Day), and I could immediately tell it was going to be a highlight of the year. The tracklist is full of unexpected moments - a whispery experimental hip-hop track is intercut with jarring interjections of harsh noise, pleasant field recordings are punctuated with haunted swelling synths, and several left-field samples bridge together compositions in ways that make you appreciate just how versatile music can be. This is an album that invites you to completely immerse yourself in it, and its richness deserves your full undivided attention.

The only thing better than discovering a new artist is discovering that they have an extensive back catalog to explore, and lucky for me, Jvly!38 has been very prolific. Her discography features a dizzying array of genre experimentation - industrial, drone, folktronica, emo rap, and more. It's easy to see how much she's grown and built from each release - all culminating in the beautiful sprawl that is angels move forth.

I messaged July on Discord to ask her a few questions about the album, and she shed some light on her sample choices, production ethos, and experimentation. Read our (mostly unedited) chat below.

i was really struck by how many genres you pulled from on angels move forth… - ambient, hip-hop, industrial… so to start off, i wanted to ask: what musicians do you typically listen to? who are some of your influences?

music is so beautiful and versatile, so my taste is often pulled in many directions. i struggle to try and stay within one genre, as i constantly get fascinated with new music genres which i end up hyper-fixating on. 

recently, i’ve been listening to lots of jazz (bill dixon, nina simone, sun-ra), slacker rock (the microphones, lex walton, early waxahatchee), industrial (robert turman, ramleh, ensley spirit), and post-punk (this heat, talking heads, dog faced hermans). oh and also lots of sprain and trap music.

honestly i cannot quite describe my taste beyond me just falling in love with the amazing nature of music and how the traits of sound can be explored in such unique ways.

oh, you mentioning the microphones makes so much sense actually. i'm relistening to angels move forth while i talk to you, and some of it reminds me a bit of how the the glow pt. 2 feels. like the ambiance of it, if that makes sense?

i completely get that, the album was definitely inspired by the glow pt. 2 and its sequel record, mount eerie. the way phil [elverum] experimented with the album format to create such a varied yet consistent record was beautiful.

i wanted to know a little more about how the production on this album was handled - there are a lot of different collaborators, and i saw that you’ve collaborated with a lot of them before (like pty). how did you meet the artists you’ve worked with?

i was lucky enough to have been close with various people that just so happened to make music. pty i had met while in an instagram groupchat and had quickly grown very close to him, and since he has been hands down my closest collaborator. he’s produced so much released (and unreleased) stuff for me and has been one of the few people i’ve found that i can pass ideas with and manage to get such an incredible execution of such ideas. his work on angels was mostly for him listening to the album and providing me with any possible feedback to improve my art, and i’m greatly thankful for that. 

alongside him, i’d also like to shout out jasmine, miney and reverie, who i’ve also been pretty tight with for a while now, they are incredible musicians i also luckily became friends with due to groupchats.

can you tell me a little bit about the title / concept of the album? obviously there are angel motifs, and i can pick up on key emotions like loneliness, anxiety, loss, etc. but i’m curious to hear a little more about it from you directly.

i’ll try and give some light explanation as i’m personally not too keen on explaining the meaning of my art, but i see this record as a hopeful look towards the future despite all the shit life has been like lately. i’ve struggled a lot recently with depression, dysphoria and some really shitty relationships i’ve been in, and i wanted to make this record to give me some hope for the future.

i think we are often sucked down the deep holes of self-isolation birthing self-hatred and i just wanted to try and create something that just allowed me to try and get a second of peace. the motifs throughout are supposed to be symbols of hope. i use the motif of the moon throughout lots of my projects as a way to show what could lay ahead, as the moon throughout my life has felt like a constant reminder that there is hope and that peace can be found despite how bad shit’s gonna get.

one thing that really stood out to me here were all the samples of traditional folk music. i’m not sure what the origins of all of them are - i think “i can’t run away” features a Japanese ceremonial piece? what made you want to incorporate those?

i’ve been growing deeply interested with music outside of western civilisation and when i had found kagura (the genre these samples originate from), i fell in love with its sound and grew intrigued by the ceremonies these songs took place in. these songs were incredible pieces but felt so tied to the record. i didn’t know what i’d do for the record to make it cohesive when i was working on it, so when i started listening to kagura i thought to bring this sound into the world of the record. i struggle to explain beyond feeling a strong connection with the music that i have struggled to find from other music.

i’ve been having this a lot recently as i’ve been trying to listen to more music from countries outside of predominantly english speaking nations. the ways various different places view different elements of music is mindblowing, specifically with their own unique rhythmic styles, harmonies and instruments.

i might be kinda off-base but - are there samples of hymnals or choirs on this? there is a part on "tundra" that i was trying to figure out. is it sampling chants or is it a ton of vocal modulation or?

“tundra” is actually a beat i’m really proud of. for that song i had took this old pop song’s vocal accapella and layered it with choral choirs and manipulated vocal samples to create this one massive vaporwave-y sample flip.

alongside that the track was influenced by the cloud rap mixtape things aren’t that simple by oliver francis, which ive been listening to a lot recently as it has such an addictively nocturnal atmosphere.

i sort of viewed “and we flew past pylons…” as the album’s centerpiece.

i 100000% agree. “pylons” was made very much in the heat of the moment and was a complete breakdown of all my emotions, my frustrations and fears through my life, my relationships and my traumatic experiences. 

were the vocals one take?

not one take lmaoo but they were all recorded one after the other without overdubs. it was very straining on my voice, but by the end i felt a little bit of peace with myself.

i think that covers pretty much all of the questions i had prepared. is there anything else you’d want to share?

uhhh “arise” gets reprised like 3 times throughout the album and i find it really funny it hasn’t been mentioned once. it’s 1000000000% vapor secondary. everyone listen to “paprika” by glass structure and “i want you to kill me” by lex walton.

Support angels move forth like gods cavalry over on Bandcamp - it’s part of an album-a-month project from UK net label Isolated Rain. While you’re there, check out Jasmine Smoke’s WAR METAL and <3 m i n n i e <3's clonazepam blues.

Do you make music you think I'd like? Email it to me at jenn@discfive.com! And if you like what I’m trying to do around here, consider dropping me a tip on ko-fi :-)