Category: Music Reviews

Posted on: October 28, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Aussie Singer/Songwriter Shayne Cook Releases “ Epiphonetics” LP

Shayne Cook’s Epiphonetics is a welcome addition to a tumultuous year. Creativity continues thriving despite an ongoing pandemic claiming untold lives and this, if nothing else, confirms some aspect of mankind’s eternal optimism. The circles and cycles of life continue to spin, the world does not grind to a complete halt, and the human heart is subject to the same litany of travails, joys, lunacies, and peaks it experiences through its waking…

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

Smile While You’re Wasted by Singer/Songwriter Marc Miner

Smile While You’re Wasted is the new album from Austrian singer/songwriter Marc Miner. The personality-filled Miner and his backing band unleash a fiery, fun mix of country twang, rockabilly and folksy fun in 11 smattering tracks. Sure to get you boot scootin’ across the dance floor and raise your beer glass in the air, Miner taps into the merriment of music to ease the troubled soul of a listener on…

Posted on: October 24, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Omen by Twin Flames

Made up of flutes that resemble a whispering wind, strings that bring forth massive, groove-focused riffs, heavily surreal synth melodies that allude to a post-rock sensibility and soul-crushing poetry sourced from a Dylan-esqe folk influence, to describe Twin Flames’ new album Omen as anything other than a colorful cocktail of definitively Canadian sounds simply wouldn’t be doing it justice. In its lead single, “Battlefields,” and many of its other eleven songs, Omen introduces us…

Posted on: October 21, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Female Canadian Singer/Songwriter Releases Single

Sometimes the smallest things can have the biggest impact. Located on the historic tip of Lulu Island in British Columbia, the village of Steveston is a suburb of Richmond, Vancouver. Known for its scenic views and salmon, it’s also home to singer/songwriter, Jasmine Bharucha. The impressionable town is just one of the charms to Bharucha’s song “Fog Horn Blowing”. Joyful and having a catching chorus, “Fog Horn Blowing” rolls-in like…

Posted on: October 19, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Summer of Love is the first solo effort for Project Grand Slam’s Robert Miller

It’s hard to imagine, but the album Summer of Love is the first solo effort for Project Grand Slam’s Robert Miller. If you’ve been paying attention to the funk and jazz genre, then you know that Project Grand Slam is innovative and relentless entertaining. Miller, now at the helm of his own collection, never misses a beat and slides the listener into a comfortable sonic journey. Personal and in part,…

Posted on: October 14, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

FrankySelector Drops new Single/Video

If there’s one thing FrankySelector isn’t interested in right now, it’s contemporary synthetics as they apply to a hook, and if this wasn’t known to the world before, it will be once “She’s so Carefree” finds regular rotation somewhere on the dial this September. Celebrating the foundations of funk and pop music while planting its stylistic feet firmly in the experimental camp, “She’s so Carefree” is probably one of the…

Posted on: October 14, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Ray Lugar & the Collective Force “Paper Cha$e”

On Paper Cha$e, Ray Lugar & the Collective Force are able to blend together so many distinct approaches and styles that listeners cannot break themselves from the track This means that the guitar / drum dynamic builds off of the tradition of Rage Against The Machine, while there are nods to Danny Brown and Killer Mike in the furious, politicized lyrical content that bludgeons with each line. The amount of…

Posted on: October 14, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 1

Tom Keifer #keiferband “All Amped Up”

All Amped Up’s guitars build upon the momentum tradition of hard rock acts like Judas Priest and AC/DC’s. Keifer’s vocals sound as vibrant and intense as they did back in 1988. Hitting fans over their heads with the titular phrase, Keifer is given additional oomph through splashy drums and some seriously sick bass interlacing itself through the instrumentation. With each side of #keiferband playing through on high gear, it’s no…

Posted on: October 14, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Potter’s Daughter “We Could Be”

Potter’s Daughter’s new single We Could Be has a very laid-back sound that links together easy jazz and R&B with a bit of funk and soul. Dyanne’s vox here point toward a world that could be “so much better than this”. The video (attached below) for “We Could Be” shows a collaboration between individuals from all walks of life. It is this practice that Potter’s Daughter encapsulates in their performance.…

Posted on: October 14, 2020 Posted by: Aaron_George Comments: 0

Jaco takes you on a joyride through time and space on the new album – Dose

Jaco takes you on a joyride through time and space on the new album – Dose, with ten strong power pop tracks with just the right weight level to keep a positive light shining in 2020. The songs are light and fluffy but rocking and twangy, with Jake Waitzman being the man behind the moniker on the second Jaco album. A man of many means he turns out to be,…

Posted on: October 13, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

The Sun Harmonic – A Dream I’ve Had

A Dream I’ve Had takes its inspiration from 1970s rock (Air Supply, Cat Stevens) with more modern sensibilities. Thoughtful, engaging guitars and drums interact with emotive bass to make something truly tender. The insistence of the vocals and keys that occur as The Sun Harmonic move towards the song’s chorus is quite the sea change for song. As quickly as this intensity began, it immediately recedes to allow for some…

Posted on: October 13, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Antwan Jenkins Releases 2 Powerhouse Singles

What you believe is your business. For many believers, the business of believing isn’t a business at all, it’s faith. Put together with music, the inspiring words and conviction of one can indeed add conviction and confidence to many, many people. Antwan Jenkins, a Christian singer and songwriter from Indianapolis, has a spirited effort in both of his new songs “More Of You” and “Victory”. Will Jenkins convert you? Maybe.…

Posted on: October 13, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Savannah Nider drops New Single

Imagine the pressure of finding the song that will often define you and is your listeners’ first impression. If you’re a singer, and maybe you didn’t directly work on writing the song, you have to choose from a pile of songs that showcase your voice, your demeanor. In “We Are Us” country singer Savannah Nider, a newcomer to the national scene, not only choses a song that enriches the world,…

Posted on: October 13, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Pennan Brae “Crashland”

Crashland, Pennan Brae’s latest single, is able to keep a high energy and quick tempo. The song builds upon the album-rock of late Who and The Kinks while interspersing hints of 1990s alternative. Brae’s charismatic vocals sit upon the top of sizzling guitar work and splashy drums. The brief interlude which hits listeners at around the three-minute mark looks back a bit to Apple Records acts while whipping the guitar…

Posted on: October 13, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

“He’ll Make Everything Alright’ (SINGLE) by Richard Lynch

Richard Lynch comes across my desk with a lot of career behind him and in front of him as well to talk write home about. But the multi award winning, chart top 40 topping country singer/songwriter and host of The Traditionally Lynch TV and Radio shows needs no introduction. That is unless of course you either do not like country music, or you have been hiding under a rock according…

Posted on: October 13, 2020 Posted by: Kim Muncie Comments: 0

Lace’s new EP Liar’s Notebook

2020, in more ways than one, has felt like the year of the millennial soul revival movement reaching its climax after about a half-decade of inching towards the summit, and to understand what I’m talking about, I recommend picking up Lace’s new EP Liar’s Notebook this fall. Among some of the other elite debuts to have hit record store shelves in the past ten months, Liar’s Notebook is perhaps one of the most engaging…

Posted on: October 12, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

iHateJulian “I Ain’t Impressed”

I Ain’t Impressed has some sick flow from the onset. Coming in with a hard-hitting, head-bopping sort of lyrical content is a hard art to master, but iHateJulian is able to immediately draw listeners in during his newest track. The simply-stated backing beat rises at falls in the right places, building off of the tradition of Three 6 Mafia. The back and forth between IHJ, Starling, and Lee Cavalli ensure…

Posted on: October 12, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Crast “Swimming”

Crast brings back the early-oughts midwest emo style of Deep Elm acts with emotive vocals, tremendous instrumentation, and a wall of fuzz that wraps up the resulting composition into something sublimely compelling. Splashy and complex drums, angular guitars, and hints of influences as wide-strewn as Strike Anywhere and The Appleseed Cast ensure that fans will be tapping along to the song a few brief seconds after first turning it on.…

Posted on: October 11, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

MAAD “Get By”

Get By has MAAD call back to the 1990s. There is a sense of chill and airiness that permeates the single. Pulling double duty here, MAAD is able to give fans a fun set of vocals and an additional level of harmony. There’s a bit of Pharrell, a hint of Mya, and a whole dollop of MAAD’s own singular take on pop music. The chattering, horn-infused backing beat will undoubtedly…

Posted on: October 11, 2020 Posted by: Sargeant Comments: 0

Golden Days by Leo Sawikin

Golden Days is a thoughtful effort that showcases alluring vocals with atmospheric synths and guitar work. The resulting effort is able to touch upon a wide swath of alternative rock, spanning the gamut from Rufus Wainwright to Elton John. The harmonies brought here by Leo’s vox push the instrumentation to an entirely higher plateau. What results during this single is nothing less than fantastic; the skilled arrangements will stick around…