I remember when the doctor told my ex-wife and myself that our oldest daughter had a heart murmur. Panic overcame me in a flash. I told myself to slow down just as quickly, however, ask questions, find out what’s going on here. I remember the doctor saying that, among the treatment options, surgery is a consideration. My pulse fluttered imagining my baby girl asleep on an operating table and her…
Australia-born and Nashville-based multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter and producer Saint Rienannounces the release of new visuals for his latest hit single, the explorative “Medusa.” The music video is written, directed, and produced by Saint Rien, and features Ariah Janay, as Saint Rien’swife. The couple is captured at home, with Saint Rien sitting at the table using clippings to create hisdream girl by cutting and gluing the clippings of a face together. Representing…
Like a strong summer breeze, the strings that embrace us in the opening bars of “Temporary,” the first track in Timberline’s 2020 LP Florescence, glide through the air around us and impart a youthful lack of inhibition to anyone within reach of their melody. The vocal harmony isn’t quite as retrospective in tone as “Better Days” is, but I don’t know that “Temporary” could’ve set the pace for what comes next…
The drums are dashing forward as the bassline pulls everything in the master mix back, but as the different channels within “Summer Bliss, Feature Mist” are pulled in every direction, Gorazde’s melodic war starts to sound rather harmonious and justifiably filled with rage. In the new record The Fury of Lullabies, Gorazde take a look at the “notion of shadow archetypes and their assimilation into conscious reality,” as they put it…
Whether driving home a huge melody in “Way Far Back” or tying together the harmonies in the video for “Why Does It Happen,” the guitars that guide the lyrics in Wave 21’s Brace Yourself are indispensable. Although there’s a lot more to this record than the luster of its string section, there is certainly no downplaying the importance of the fretwork in Brace Yourself, and I think this makes it a bit superior to its…
Hailing from Miami, by way of Lima is the seminal alternative act, known as Mold!. Their new single, “I Can See The Ghost,” was my first exposure to the band. As a result, I can now say that Mold! Is the type of group you instantly want to hear more of and know more about. The Peru connection is attributed to the band’s founder, Carlo Barbacci. Barbacci cites his immigration…
“Hold up the colors you wear / You welcome me home, I won’t leave you alone / You are not alone” pleads a gentle voice on the other side of a vibrant string melody in “What Would I Know,” one of my favorite songs from the captivating String Ladders by The Color Forty Nine. At once imprisoned within the lyrics and impossible to escape in the adjacent flood of strings that accent…
In the last few years, rapper Tray Tray has done a good job of setting himself apart from the competition through a slick composing style more loyal to the traditions of hip-hop than it is to the passing fads of contemporary pop. His writing has gotten stronger with each LP he’s dropped, and now almost two years after his sophomore effort Born Legend II hit record store shelves, he offers up a…
With notes of hip-hop and a touch of ambient pop blended into the instrumental framework of the music, you know that Chesca is going to give us something really sexy in her song “Orange County Juice,” but if you think that’s where the seduction ends on her new album Feel the Breeze, you’re in for quite the surprise this summer. Feel the Breeze isn’t all flash ala “Orange County Juice” and the anthemic…
It’s generally thought that R&B is better off on the simpler side than it ever is an elaborate sonic construct, but RockLee is an artist who challenges this narrative with every song he releases. His new single, “It’s a Feeling,” neither tethers itself to the aesthetical foundations of melodic hip-hop nor shamelessly steals cues from the old school in R&B; it’s a delicate, instrumentally focused showcase of rhythm and harmony.…
There’s something to be said for a song’s ability to craft full words out of a certain level of ambiguity in its settings. Maybe I’ve been playing a little too much Cyberpunk 2077, but Aisles feels right at home in the dystopian genre. The opening guitar solo has the energy of a door being busted open, either by a swat team or by the collective that Aisles seemingly feels like…
Stunning us with its clandestine intricacies but saving a lot of its melodic warmth for a climactic chorus, the instrumental foundations of Wingman’s new single “Crash Land” are straight electronica more than they are hip-hop. Listen closely enough and you’ll start to feel the influence of atmospheric minimalism on this young man’s sound where it would seem such a lofty aesthetic would have no business in the first place, but…
With the last year firmly in the rearview, I think we’ve all gotten a little wistful thinking about the past. We all know from any age those sleepless nights where you ponder the past, what you could have done differently, or the pain you carry from it. Shine Eye Landing, the latest release from Billy Jeter really taps into these sentiments with an album that almost plays out like a…
See Your Shadow was inspired to name themselves so, due to the Birthday of frontman, Michael Coleman. He was born on Groundhog Day, so it seemed like a natural nod to the enduring Punxsutawney Phil. Originally formed in Ohio, See Your Shadow migrated to Phoenix and switched genres, in the process. Originally an Electronica band, Coleman embraced his inner cowboy, and turned the band, Country, to what so far seems…
Live at the Mattress Factory from act Little Wretches is one of the most complex and complicated listens I’ve had in a long time, and for those reasons, the album is all the better for it. It’s an album I don’t know if it’ll be for everyone. It’s almost deceptive in nature as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, covering topics from love, loss, lust, and anger, but all in deeply…
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…