The first couple of bars that we come in contact with inside of the new single and music video from Ilyah, “Habibi,” are admittedly a little jarring coming off of his last big release, “Miscommunication.” There’s a sharpness to the hue of the harmony we start off with that slowly …
Read More »Album Review: Project Grand Slam “East Side Sessions”
Alongside a brooding beat and a colorful harmony between keys and strings, a velvety voice welcomes us into the melodies of “Tessa” with open arms. One of the more brilliantly smooth tracks featured on the new album from Project Grand Slam, East Side Sessions, “Tessa” is a bold combination of pop …
Read More »Single Review: Lily Vakili Band “Facial Recognition Technology”
In a flustered expelling of pessimism in the form of a percussive eruption, Lily Vakili Band’s “Facial Recognition Technology” starts to play. It doesn’t take more than a few seconds for the track to explain in sonic terms just what Vakili has planned for us here; from the glow of …
Read More »Single Review: Walker’s Cay “Why Oh Why”
Opening with a hypnotic synth pad, ‘Why Oh Why’ by Walker’s Cay is immediately panoramic in its presentation. Featuring the band’s trademark guitar tones, the song’s introduction invites the listener to embark upon an epic journey. The sound develops over time, lifted by a psychedelic buzz and grinding rhythm section, …
Read More »Album Review: DJ Raw B – Uncorrupted
Back in the 90s, California-based Raw B catalyzed his career as co-host and DJ for the critically acclaimed underground rap-based show Beat Sauce. The show featured notable guest names in hip hop – everyone from Afrikka Bambatta and KRS-ONE to Jay Z and Eminem. As expected, his popularity as a …
Read More »Album Review: Ancient Whales “Vestiges of Tails Appear in All of Us”
With a dam-bursting eruption of percussion to start the fire in its opening song, the appropriately-titled “Stick and Poke,” Ancient Whales come screaming out of the silence ready to rock as hard as ever in their new album Vestiges of Tails Appear in All of Us. “Stick and Poke” was definitely …
Read More »Album Review: People Years “Animalism”
Whether guided by a chiming guitar’s psychedelic romance in “Recognizable Animal,” a slickly abrasive drum pattern in “You Don’t Do Nature” and “Your Locket,” an angsty guitar’s bluesy bellow in “Fear Culture” or a surreal blanket of grooves in “Roadkill,” People Years show a lot of promise through a slew …
Read More »Single Review: Reed Waddle “Too Bright to Fade Away/Bells of Brooklyn”
“It’s midnight on the avenue / I’ve never felt more alive / Makes no difference what I do / Am I livin’ to just survive?” sings a plaintive Reed Waddle in the opening lines of his new single “Bells of Brooklyn,” one of two songs he’s releasing this April ahead …
Read More »EP Review: M.A.T.T – Majestic
Matthew Sylvester is a rapper, songwriter, and producer from Cape Town, South Africa. Amidst rampant poverty and gang violence in his youth, music would provide Sylvester solace as well as the necessary creative drive. Such passion was born from observing his dad, who DJed using a primarily old school catalog …
Read More »Single Review: Sanya N’Kanta “Can’t Stop Thinking Bout You”
Blisteringly distorted by presented to us in such a disciplined fashion that abrasive noise never becomes an issue, the guitar parts contained within “Can’t Stop Thinking Bout You,” the debut single from Sanya N’Kanta, are undeniably the bread and butter of every cathartic moment the song has to offer. Aside …
Read More »Album Review: tētēma – Necroscape
Mike Patton and Anthony Pateras combined their skills with violinist Erkki Veltheim and drummer Will Guthrie and created a 13-track long album Necroscape. The sound of electro-acoustic rock blended with otherworld grooves, soul, and industrial noise will make you feel both thrilled and confused. Each song will let your imagination run wild and take you to many different places, …
Read More »Single Review: Shara Vallée “Tipsy”
Out of a shimmering cloud of toned melodicism that takes less than fifteen seconds to transform into a canvas of texture atop which Shara Vallée will paint us a picture with her brooding lead vocal, we find the opening bars of “Tipsy,” Vallee’s second official single and music video, ready …
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