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…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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,…
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…
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.…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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.…
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…
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…
ON What You Think, Malcolm Kay is able to pop off with a fresh style while adopting some of rap’s best pieces from the better part of the last twenty years. This means that there are sirens that punctuate the backing instrumentation of the song, insistent drum hits, and a lyrical flow that has Kay deftly blend together rapid-fire bars with an ample amount of swagger. What You Think’s titular…
CodeX is an engrossing, epic sound that uses deliberate keys and percussive elements o keep listeners firmly on the edges of their seats. The different segments of Sonarpilot’s track are bolstered mightily through a visual component that blends geometry, ancient texts, and celestial bodies. There’s no way to easily categorize what the act does here; there are nods to 1970s electronic performers like Klaus Schulze and even hints of the…
Summertime in New York City is a timeless track that links together the inimitable R&B approach of Brian McKnight with the soulful, sizzling jazz of Koz. There is a complexity that is present during Koz’s latest effort that ensures that listeners will have to play back the song multiple times before being able to pick up each and every nuance that is contained within. Of particular note during “Summertime…” has…