“I’ve been tangled in this love affair somewhere in my mind / And when I see you, I’m at a loss – words I cannot find” we’re told by a soft, bittersweet vocal in the first couple of lines in 308 Ghost Train’s “Bleed Over Me.” As poetically endearing as these verses are, they’re just a limited preview of what’s about to come roaring out of the stereo in the…
Coming at us with a hot and heavy rhythm that could make just about anyone feel like dancing, there’s no debate as to whether or not the swing in Russ Still and the Moonshiners’ “Cancun” is the fieriest feature this hybrid single has to offer. Right out of the gate, there’s nothing in the mix to stop Still and his backing band from dishing out one magnetizing groove after another,…
A vocal, good or bad, is inevitably what defines a rap track more than anything else does, and this is especially true of a fierce number like Rich Lindo’s new single “Jungle.” Lindo doesn’t hide behind any sonic smokescreens in “Jungle;” he comes out swinging hard with a melodic intro that bleeds into the instrumentation rather seamlessly. His epic rapping doesn’t hit us until we get deeper into the track,…
In their scathing follow-up to 2016’s stunningly eclectic Uncaused, Cinemartyr deliver a violent yin to their rookie album’s yang that immediately left me spellbound and intrigued by their growth in the last four years. Titled Death of the First Person, Cinemartyr’s sophomore affair is hardly the typical sequel; from where I sit, it’s about as different from its predecessor as it gets without abandoning the core values of experimentalism that gave the…
Jim Lord’s latest single is a lullaby for the ages. Playing on the words from “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” and arrangement, Lord’s song “Little Star” has the artist gazing afar of the love of his life and what that person means to him. Humming his way to your heart, Lord’s simplistic approach of his voice and an acoustic guitar orbits above Earth. FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/JimLordSingerSongwriter/ Born in New Jersey, but based…
Brendan Staunton began his musical journey in the early 1990’s singing with the Celtic influenced rock band Dubh Chapter. The band produced an album produced by Steve Hillage entitled Silence, Cunning & Exile but broke up soon after. Staunton briefly sang with the ambient dance band Ultramarine appearing on their track “Weird Gear” before deciding to leave the music industry behind. A quarter century passed before Staunton re-established contact with his past…
In his latest single, the playful “Nothing to Lose,” pop singer/songwriter Johnnie Mikel is exploring a strain of vocal showmanship more indebted to the conservative stylings of a bygone era than it is anything in the grandiose-filled modern genre, but I wouldn’t call it a total throwback. Right out of the gate, this song has a bounciness that it expounds through much more than a fluid drumbeat; in all honesty,…
Armed with a chugging guitar riff and a slick rhythm straight out of the American pop/rock playbook, “Know What She Said” comes sliding out of the speakers as smoothly as a track can, emitting a sense of catharsis with every beat it unfurls. Les Nuby is pulling out the stops to make a big impression in this song, along with the nine others that join it in the new record Clouded, out everywhere…
Rolling out of the speakers with an angelic ease that is indebted as much to Hollywood glam as it is the bucolic balladry of an old school Nashville, the vocal harmony in Wild Fire’s “Rolling With the Stones” is reason enough to pick up this new track from the acclaimed crossover duo this summer. Blending country with strong pop aesthetics and a talent for conjuring up powerful hooks out of…
Subtle in size but shapely enough to create an ominous rhythm beneath the surface of its stealthy verses, “No Be Mouth,” the new single from JTK (and featuring Tunji), doesn’t hold back from laying heavy grooves on us inside of a rather minimalistic packaging this summer. Swaggering but uninfluenced by the arrogant attitudes that have poisoned some of hip-hop’s most promising young voices, JTK is an efficiency king in this…
