Author: Kim Muncie

Posted on: April 2, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Dear Engineer (EP) by Chords of Eve

In their new extended play Dear Engineer, Chords of Eve blend together the surrealism of contemporary electronica and the self-awareness of vintage alternative rock in equal doses, and despite the acrylic nature of the textures their experimentations produce, the resulting tracklist we find in this record is unquestionably one of the more spellbinding that I’ve had the pleasure of reviewing this spring. Structured atop colorful grooves that play out with strong…

Posted on: April 2, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Mike Rickard offers up LP “Out Loud”

Against the backdrop of a haunting electric guitar’s gentle melody, Mike Rickard begins to unfurl a string of lyrics in “Six Queer Kids” that sounds less like the opening verses of a pop song and more like a narrative that is all too real and relatable in our modern world. Homelessness, isolation, depression and mortality are all on the table for the gay youth who serve as this stunning single’s…

Posted on: March 28, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Luis Mojica, How a Stranger Is Made

At once spellbinding in its decadent layering of string play and elegant keys yet wholly menacing in its underlying tone, it doesn’t take very long for “City Friends,” one of the eleven songs comprising the new album from Luis Mojica, How a Stranger Is Made, to enrapture most anyone who comes within earshot of its mightily evocative harmonies. As you’ll discover on your own when browsing through the tracklist of How a…

Posted on: March 27, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Diane Patterson releases new Single

“Somewhere There’s a Song Still Singing” reminds us in 2020 that traditional folk music still holds the power to leave listeners spellbound. It helps that Diane Patterson never treats the form too reverentially, like a butterfly trapped under glass, but instead injects her compositional skills with a level of melodic excellence certain to connect with both casual music fans and folk devotees. She has built a wide ranging discography over…

Posted on: March 17, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Tonne releases EP

Opening in a haze of new wave-reminiscent bass and drum surrealism, “The Great Game” doesn’t waste a second in wrapping its haunting hook around us beyond the point of escape, and not dissimilar to the other three songs it shares a tracklist with in the new record Bridey Murphy from Tonne, its flirtatiousness with alternative rock song structuring isn’t limited to cosmetic frills alone. In Bridey Murphy, noisy melodies and punkish lyrical themes…

Posted on: March 11, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Jonathan Emile is making his mark!

Indie reggae artist Jonathan Emile has been quietly building up quite the solid reputation in the last few years, cutting a handful of sleeper hits in the mid-2010s that included a collaboration with arguably the most important rapper of the last decade in Kendrick Lamar (2015’s “Heaven Help Dem”), and now in 2020, he’s back with some of his best content to see widespread release so far in Spaces-in-Between. Made-up of…

Posted on: March 9, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Oakland psychedelic rockers Whiskerman release Album

In their fourth studio album, titled Kingdom Illusion, Oakland psychedelic rockers Whiskerman offer up what is arguably their most progressive and involved effort yet while staying true to the aesthetical foundations that gave them their start, and while its eight songs – which collectively run about 44 minutes in total – don’t necessarily break the mold when it comes to modern psych concepts, they’re easily some of the most captivating indie…

Posted on: March 6, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 1

“Little Bit of Texas” by Carlos Washington’s Steel Horse Swing

To say that it isn’t easy to make an original country album that resonates with generations young and old in 2020 would be too great an understatement for any self-respecting music critic to make, but in the case of Carlos Washington’s Steel Horse Swing and their new album Little Bit of Texas, the process looks and sounds all too simple. It’s debatable whether or not we’ve ever seen an era quite…

Posted on: March 6, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

White Owl Red releases new LP

With a rollicking groove and a bouncy acoustic guitar harmony to lead the way, White Owl Red’s “Out of the Waters” comes swinging out of the shadows hard and clears a path for the trademark vocal of one Josef McManus in this cut off of his latest LP, Afterglow. In Afterglow, McManus’ White Owl Red project is sounding as warm and embracive as ever, and arguably putting down some of their most…

Posted on: March 2, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Kodacrome’s The Banff Sessions

Though it’s understated in some moments and beastly in others, there’s scarcely a juncture in the tracklist of Kodacrome’s The Banff Sessions where the piano play of one Elissa LeCoque isn’t the very heart and soul of every sonic hurricane the record has to offer us. In the haunting “Tender Exit,” it gets a run for its money courtesy of the ebb and flow of a string section that nearly washes away…