Reaching out to the audience from a distant perch shrouded in melancholic harmonies and impatient rhythms the same, CLOUDLAND don’t try to hide their discontent with the mainstream rock model in their first album Where We Meet. The record’s title track creeps forth in a haunting ascent towards a dramatic drop-off straight to the introspective, riff-oriented mayhem I’ve been missing in alternative rock these last few years, but it isn’t the…
WHYYOUNGN’s “Hip-Hop Booty” is a track that will have fans’ head bopping after the single’s first track. The infectious wordplay is unmatched here, while the production is able to fill in the gaps in the rare moments when the lyrics aren’t filling up the song. WHYYOUNGN take up hints of Kendrick Lamar, Kid Cudi and the Pharcyde; one will have to spin Hip-Hop Booty quite a few times before they…
On Front Row, Jen Fodor is able to create a track that simultaneously exists in classic pop, dance and rock genres while possessing the vitality of current music. There are nods here to Mister Mister, Blondie, and even acts like Paramore in the track’s vocal-instrumental dynamic. There’s a tautness present to Front Row that ensures no wasted energy; The keys lift up the drums, while the driving beat provide a…
The back and forth that Jameel Mason and Bad Ash have on Klaws is fantastic. There’s a panoply of different styles that come forth during this single, with Mason whipping together hints of Drake and DJ Khaled while Bad Ash takes up the standards of mid-oughts performers like Princess and Diamond. The track’s backing beat is haunting and hard-hitting, ensuring that listeners are permanently tattooed with each drum beat. The…
If you’re someone with a novice level of experiencing electronic music, Elektragaaz and its new EP The Synaesthetic Picture Show Now Playing, Pt 2 is a perfect jumping-on point to see what the genre truly has to offer. Less the aggressive sounds of say Skrillex and more akin to the sounds of IDM (Intelligent Dance Music), it’s a style that’s made more for home listening than it is as a…
At once, both urgent and relaxed enough to establish her confidence in the song right from the start, a sexy rhythm embraces us wholeheartedly in GiGi Vega’s “4 The Birds” and refuses to let go of our hearts for the duration of the track’s three-minute running time. INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/gigivegamusic/?hl=en The righteous rhythm in “4 The Birds” isn’t completely percussion-driven; if you want to find the source of the real tempo-setter…
“Lucha” by AKACATS is the newest sultry and evocative single from the rising Chilean act, real name Catalina Rojas. Having been relatively quiet since the drop of her 2019 mixtape MELT (which is fantastic and highly recommended by the way), Rojas has been performing live and hard at work on this single as the lead into her upcoming studio debut Cupido. A lot of times with hip-hop acts of the…
Introspective songcraft rose in value last year, as the insularities of 2020 forced a collective look inwards for the first time in generations, and it’s in this spirit that Paul Rocha’s Apophenia feels like a truly iconic offering. In Apophenia’s ten songs, Rocha navigates narratives that feel like internal thoughts only realized when left alone with ourselves to rhapsodize and recall memories and visions once abandoned in youth. “Sister Silhouette,” “The Other Side,”…
When it comes to an album that truly challenges the most basic structuring around what an album can attempt to be, look no further than poet and Sasquatch enthusiast Marty Achatz’s collaboration with Streaking In Tongues’ in the new book-album-spoken poetry hybrid released under the name Slow Dancing With Bigfoot. Constructed of song titles as eccentric as “A Pig’s Orgasm Lasts 30 Minutes” and “Bigfoot Takes His Wife to Mount…
“To never quit, no matter how dark the tunnel is. To always let God have control of my life, and to never be too busy to appreciate the things that really matter.” Tod Lippy’s second LP Yearbook starts with plenty of ambitions, and it only makes sense due to the aptly-titled opening track, “Ambitions.” The lyrics might throw listeners off at first but upon learning that Lippy dug into his…
Bill Abernathy’s new EP release Who Are You, Who Am I? is the next chapter in Bill Abernathy’s musical journey. It is fair to say his relationship with music may be a bit bittersweet having stepped away for several years between his youth and late in the last decade, but gratitude is unspoken quality present throughout this EP’s four tracks. WEBSITE: https://www.billabernathy.com/ He pursued music with a passion during his youth but…
When starting up Willie and the Goodsouls’ self-titled release, I’ll admit I was pleasantly surprised. It’s a dangerous time to release something so unapologetically based in the genre of rock these days, and the artists that generally attempt such a feat sneak something abhorrently unexpected and mismatched from the rest of the album’s tone into the tracklisting to ensure success on the charts one way or another. As the eighth…
When you’re sixty-eight and retired, there’s no telling where the future might end up taking you. Retirement is meant for grand adventures and relaxation alike, but there’s no handbook of rules or recommendations to take under your wing — for some, they’ll rekindle an old hobby and hone in on it tenfold. Others will take up something new and use retirement as an excuse to fully branch out of their…
Numbers don’t lie, and judging from the digits Dici is rocking on streaming platforms around the internet, I think it would be safe to say that he’s catching fire like nobody else in 2021. His single “Five Rings” is a certifiable indie hit, but its glam-style melody skewed with unpolished hip-hop swagger isn’t the sole reason why. In the pop genre, there’s something we like to call the star element that you…
Pistols at Dawn don’t seem to care too much about becoming the pop/rock stereotype you’ve grown up with, and if that wasn’t more than obvious before the release of the video for their new single “Crown,” it’s going to be now that the song is attracting so much fanfare this spring season. Raining rock n’ roll lightning down upon anyone who happens to be listening, Pistols at Dawn force riff…
I think we often associate the feelings of paranoia in music in very simple ways. There’s a kind of skitchy stretchy and uncertain sound that permeates a track, but what would happen if you took those feelings, but combined them with the mellow tunes of someone like Toro Y Moi or the early days of Vampire Weekend or We Are Scientists? You end with the band Mold! and their new…
Let it be said that Trevor Drury cannot be pinned down as just one particular thing. With a deep-rooted appreciation for music before going into an acclaimed career as a model for the likes of Tom Ford all while songwriting and crafting on the side, Drury made his debut with the stripped back mood piece The Start and has now shown a new side of his multi-faceted talents with his latest single “Alice” from his…
I am taken with the vibrant new mix of horns, keyboards, guitar, and singing that longtime touring musician and vocalist Doug Kistner achieves with his latest single “Don’t Look Down”. It further elevates his profile as a solo artist following the satisfying success he achieved with its preceding singles “Only Road I Know” and “Since We Left Our Dreams”. This trio of tracks shares a similar pedigree, without question, but…
You can be forgiven if you believed that South American prog rockers Aisles were possibly finished in 2018. Longtime lead singer Sebastián Vergara departed the band in 2018. It is difficult to overestimate the effect such a departure has on a band; a band’s lead singer, for many listeners, is often the avenue people initially travel towards loving a band. Many associate a band’s work with the sound of that…
On Love Me Love, Rob Murat has created a sound that is quite unlike what is currently garnering airplay. While the framework is not unlike most current R&B, there’s a delicateness and care taken into each dynamic expressed on the effort. There are bits of 1990s new jack swing interspersed here with a haunting backing beat. The presence of Adina Thembi’s voice on Murat’s latest single adds considerable depth to…