The 2014 edition of Namasté Healing provides listeners with a wide array of compositions from an equal diverse collection of Real Music artists. This compilation contains tracks from Liquid Mind, Kevin Kern, Kenio Fuke, Haiku, and Bernward Koch (amongst others).
Days, the latest album from Sound Liberation, showcases considerable evolution of the band’s sound. Together,, the thirteen tracks on the album represent a cohesive and cogent thought, ensuring that listeners will be at the edges of their seats from beginning to end.
Before he was a lite-FM staple in the 90’s thanks to his Dirty Dancing soundtrack jem (sarcasm implied here) “Hungry Eyes,” Eric Carmen was a founding member of the influential and sadly underrated power pop band The Raspberries. The just-released 30-song collection Essential Eric Carmen serves as a perfect reminder of just how strong a pop songwriter Carmen was.
Pretentious album title aside, with Zonian Girls and the Echoes That Surround Us All, King of Prussia have managed to make a 20-song double album sounds amazingly conscience. The concept album, brimming with psychedelic Indie rock songs, is a result of frontman Brandon Hanick’s three years spent traversing Barcelona. He picked up some band members there and combined them with some from Athens, GA and got to work on…
In The Cold has a seventies pop-rock sound that will immediately draw listeners in and keep them focused through the first section of the band’s latest release. The front-forward aspect of the vocals are reminiscent of John Denver and Jackson Browne, while the instrumentation is influenced by acts as wide as America, The Eagles, and Creedence Clearwater Revival.
An Empire Has Fallen is the opening track on Empires, and it comes forth with some sludgy and dark metal. The act is able to create a narrative using only instruments, and the resulting composition is enough to keep listeners amped up through a six-minute block. The production allows each element of the band to shine, even as the resulting contributions combine into something much more expansive.
Feather and Dust is the new release from Beverly Girl, an act that looks back into the nineties to craft an inimitable style that works in 2014. On this album, the band creates 8 tracks that are fun, intricate, and will keep listeners tuning in for more.
Beat the Odds is a raw and intense collection of songs that capture Dave’s wide array of influences. This means that Take Me Away has a CSNY meets America type of groove, while Rock A Bye Baby has a late sixties / early seventies sound that is reminiscent of Alice Cooper or Brownsville Station.
White Women is an amazing retro-tinged album that is strong from beginning to end; Sexy Socialite is the perfect example of a track that will immediately fill dance floors, while Over Your Shoulder keeps things hopping despite having a much more contemplative arrangement.
The story behind Slinger could easily be transformed into a television show or movie. The band has been around for a number of years, far enough back in history that they committed their first recordings to a reel-to-reel. The act poured their hearts and souls into their work, and were able to garner considerable support in and around the Orange County (California) area.
Country Crazy is the latest single from Amy Rose, and it will immediately capture listeners’ attention with a strong instrumental side. When Rose’s vocals kick in, the track is given a full sound. Rose’s approach to country has hints of Carrie Underwood, Shania Twain, Gretchen Wilson, and possesses just enough pop to have tremendous crossover potential.
The band released High Water late last year, and can be seen live at Axum’s Level X Lounge in Washington, DC on 4/26 and Desmond’s Tavern in New York, NY on 5/31. Make sure to visit their social networking profiles to locate more information about the act, their releases, and their live shows. High Water is a raw and visceral title, but is recorded in such a fashion that each…
Go Some More is a timeless track that allows listeners of a wide swath to find something that they can appreciate. The driving arrangement is provide additional depth through a bouncing, driven set of vocals.
Low Life is dark and gritty rock that would shine as brightly in the seventies as it does now. The track has a number of bold and brash elements – vocals, drums, and guitars all vie for dominance – but the constituent elements are able to gel into something fun and hard-hitting. I particularly like Three State Famous’ ability to just stop the instrumental side of things and allow the…
Blue Muse begins with A Fiddle Player’s Love, a tender track that shows the intricate arrangements that are commonplace during the release. Tozer’s vocals link together Stevie Nicks with Reba McEntire, while the instrumentation will resound loudly in listeners’ ears long after the title ceases.
The band begins Fire Work with a tremendously interesting use of time signatures, meaning that the act has a sound that has equal parts of Tool, 311, Sublime, and Primus. The vocals are able to expand upon the work of bands like Coheed and Cambria and Fall Out Kid, along with hints of Incubus and Godsmack.
Sacred Earth has created one of the most cohesive meditative albums that we have heard this year. Each of the disc’s first five tracks range in length from eight to ten minutes, and provide a wide array of distinct influences along with considerable twists and turns over the course of the sixty-plus minute run time.
The Haiku Project is a musician that is looking to further the ambient genre into something that is tremendously effecting while still being approachable by the widest swath of listeners. The album begins with Atlantis, an eight-minute track that feels to be a fraction of that.
People don’t normally consider Canada to be a hotbed of extreme metal. When talking about the best black or death metal bands, Scandinavia is constantly mentioned, along with a few American bands, German bands and various regional scenes but the Canadian scene is often overlooked which is a shame because some of the bands to come out of the Great White North are some of the best bands metal has…
Prospect is a very emotion track that requires nothing more than Thorpe’s fantastic voice. The different harmonies that she achieves before the whistling begins is simply unparalleled in music, with comparisons being drawn to Sarah McLachlan or Paula Cole.