As much a conceptual exercise as familial playtime, Hush is an album about sonic intimacy.
Ahead of his much-anticipated How To Love album, UK folk-rock troubadour Withered Hand presents “Crippled Love”, along with a live acoustic set of this endearing song. This record – his first new music in nine years – will officially be released on April 28 via Reveal Records,
Bumpin Uglies spawned from an Annapolis, MD scene awash in musical history over a decade ago. They are rooted in East Coast ska, punk, and reggae, making their mark up and down the Eastern Seaboard. In the past ten years, Bumpin Uglies have worked to carve out their path by relentlessly touring, and releasing one album after another.
Drawing from the ranks of Warrior Soul and the City Kids for a tribute track to Eddie Van Helen, Meyer and friends created Trading Aces, knocking out enough songs for a debut LP in record time.
Chicago-based collective Evidence of a Struggle presents their debut single “Do’Oa”, a wonderful fusion of sounds that recall the works of Tortoise and 4AD artist Dif Juz all at once. This spring of creativity offers the first taste of the forthcoming eponymous album, scheduled for release on June 9.
Though best known as the guitarist for Sting for three decades, guitarist Dominic Miller has another, less bombastic side to him.
Rachael Blanche is a London based artist who splits her time between LA/Brisbane. She has, in recent years, teamed up with Stuart Stuart and they have been working together on her upcoming releases, her next single “Translator” is coming out on April 28th 2023.
UK indie pop artist Ruth Blake presents her new single “Not Your Angel”, rejecting the idea that our beauty lies only in our capacity to be angelic, beautiful and sweet. An antidote for that toxic ideology, Blake invites women to embrace their own fierceness.
The dapper and dynamic trio GoGo Penguin exists outside of any easy genre sticker.
“Stop This Climate Change” is a poetic and uplifting call to action fraught with cataclysmic imagery of fire, ice, flooding, and the desire for change. The lyric “We’ve got to stop this climate and change” refers to the climate of helplessness and denial that surrounds climate change. Vocalist/composer/lyricist/performer Betina Hershey wrote the song about interpersonal relationships with each other, but also with Mother Earth, because, collectively, the human race must stop denying climate change.
Like Minds, the latest album from saxophonist Wayne Escoffery, focuses on chemistry – particularly the chemistry between old friends and bandmates who’ve played together so often their interplay is beyond telepathic.
Trans-Atlantic alternative neo-folk collective Lusitanian Ghosts present “The Long Train”, engineered and mixed by Sebastian Muxfeldt (Elbow, Peter Doherty, Teenage Fanclub) at Clouds Hill Studios in Hamburg. This is the first single from the band’s forthcoming Lusitanian Ghosts III album, due out later this year via European Phonographic. The ‘Ghosts offer a brilliant taste of the sonic prism through which they present ancient sounds in the 21st Century.
Nordic prog rock outfit Pennies By The Pound present their new Nothingside album, released via the Lilith label. A collection of 10 tracks primarily in prog-rock territory, Nothingside is a concept album that takes the band’s music to a fantastic new realm beyond anything they’ve released before.
The founder of the great Outside In label, Nick Finzer has spent the last decade gracing the jazz racks with a plethora of interesting and exciting musicians.
Brazil-based sonic adventurers BIKE have released their new single ‘‘Filha Do Vento” (translation ‘Daughter of the Wind’) with its tense progress and syncopated rhythm. This is the second invigorating taster of their new album Arte Bruta scheduled for release on May 5 via Quadrado Mágico Records and Before Sunrise Records.
One thing that often gets overlooked by the punk and power pop heads that follow them is that the label also spotlights a style of blues- and roots-based rock & roll that’s fallen ever further out of fashion as the decades pass.
Swirling with R.E.M. —infused sparks, the powerful new single, “A Seat at the Table”, from NYC trio Big Bliss surges and uplifts musically while capturing the grim reality of daily gun violence in America.
Shifting away from the electronic or ambient sounds of previous releases, The Earthly Frames have found a real home with folk, and although it’s unlikely they’ll linger here for long, one can only hope it’s a sound they return to in the future.
NYC-based postpunk duo A Cloud of Ravens has released “Parable”, the final taster of their much anticipated Lost Hymns LP with a new video that is as foreboding as the lyrics. Recorded from spring to autumn 2021 and mastered by ACTORS’ Jason Corbett at his Jacknife Sound studio, this collection of 11 tracks will be released via Nexilis Records / Schubert Music Europe on April 28.
Both a brilliant bandleader and a consummate sideperson, saxophonist/composer Walter Smith III has been modestly making a mark in the jazz world for nearly twenty years.
Toronto-London based experimental group The Flowers Of Hell have announced that they will release their new album Keshakhtaran via UK cult label Space Age Recordings (home to Spacemen 3, as well as Spectrum, Chapterhouse, Acid Mothers Temple and The Telescopes). Ahead of this, they present “Foray Through Keshakhtaran”, the first taste of the trans-Atlantic group’s first studio album in six years.
As they gear up to release their new Heaving LP, Berlin-based Lucy Kruger & The Lost Boys has joined with Metropolis Records for North America distribution as a result of a partnership agreement with Europe-based Unique Records, a division of Schubert Music Europe, Uniquely merging moody art pop, dark folk and delightful ambient noise, the group, South Africa-born artist Lucy Kruger leads the way in creating music that is full of atmosphere and intensity.
Blending everything from punk to grunge to rock to doomy metal, Psycho Death Punk’s eponymous debut album could just be the shot in the arm that the harder end of the music spectrum has been waiting for.
Everyone involved hits their marks with practiced ease and long-running passion, showing not only adventurous spirits but a deep-rooted chemistry.
To follow up his debut album L.A. Source Codes, bassist and composer Will Lyle chose a different route than expected: he formed a band.
A few years ago, Sam King from Get Dead and his graffiti crew were giving tattoos and making flash art to raise money to help rapper Ceschi Ramos while he was incarcerated. After his release, the two met at the Gilman Street Project in Berkeley, CA. They began recording songs together and soon after enlisted “Fat Mike” from NOFX as the group’s producer, and co-writer, as well as contributing his skillful musicianship to the tracks. Together, they formed the ground-breaking musical collective Codefendants. Their debut album This Is Crime Wave is out now via Fat Wreck imprint Bottles to the Ground.
At the end of the day, Cosmic Flute Rides Again is a great pop record that manages to stay interesting and exciting throughout the entire duration without once growing tired or repetitive.
Future Thunder Void is by far the band’s most cohesive and accomplished collection of songs yet, and represents a perfectly crystallized distillation of their ethos.
American indie rock trio Quiz Show – involving members of legendary DC alternative rock band Shudder To Think, Guided By Voices and The Dambuilders – presents their eponymous debut album, released via Montclair, NJ -based Magic Door Record Label.
Drummer/keyboardist Peter Manheim has served admirably in the engine room of cross-genre artists like Resavoir and Tony Glausi, but finally steps out to showcase his own compositions.
UK-France duo The Noise Who Runs has released the single “Takes a Long Cold Look and Then The Kitchen Sink” – the impossible, illegitimate child of solo album-era Syd Barrett and immediately post- Talking Heads David Byrne. The Bandcamp edition also features the B-side “More Beautiful Perhaps (LHT REMIX)”, created by Left Handed Tendencies (LHT).
Trumpeter/composer/multi-disciplinarian Rob Mazurek assembled the first version of the Exploding Star Orchestra in 2005, and has used the shapeshifting ensemble as a vehicle for whatever musical flights of fancy he deems necessary ever since.
The result is a splendid mutation of avant-garde jazz and string quartet (duo?) sounds that nods to free jazz tradition, but comes off like no one’s vision but Laubrock’s own.
A revolving collective, masterminded by Dave Derby (The Dambuilders, Lloyd Cole), Gramercy Arms is inspired by the artistic heyday of ‘70s and ‘80s-era New York City. They make addictive indie pop – exquisite hook-laden melodies filled with lyrics that will have you floating back in time, remembering your favorite mistake.
A leading light in experimental jazz, trumpeter/composer Wadada Leo Smith assembled a brand new band for Fire Illuminations, the latest album in his nearly half-century career.
North Carolina indie pop outfit The Mystery Plan have released the single “Big Bliss”, previewing their forthcoming Haunted Organic Machines LP (their seventh full length album and 13th major release), to be released via American boutique label 10mm Omega Recordings.
Touted by Carlos Santana as “a work of supreme creativity”, Manhattan -based artist Nevaris has announced his forthcoming Reverberations LP, to be released this spring via celebrated boutique label M.O.D. Reloaded. Ahead of that, they present the lead track “Dub Sol”.
With two new releases, Bruce Licher and Independent Project Records continue their exploration of not only the deepest crevasses of their own archives, but the electronic, experimental underground of the American Southwest.
The New Day Bends Light is a good example of what makes the twenty-first century’s contemporary big band scene so exciting.
Just out March 10th, psych-shoegaze jangle merchants, Flyying Colours, have crafted a truly outstanding new LP. Their third album delivers 10 dreampop tunes with bite that will immerse and wash over you.
Future Strangers is the latest album from this SoCal guitar pop group, which means students of the style have a new batch of songs from John Andrew Frederick to emulate.
Splendor Never Dies is the debut release from Minneapolis -based December Friend, a new indie-rock project featuring songs written by Joel Leviton of Minneapolis band Circus of the West. December Friend was born out of the pandemic when Leviton reached out to friends Jeff Victor (Minneapolis -musician extraordinaire) and John Wlaysewski (of Brooklyn -based band Late Cambrian) asking if they wanted to collaborate on a new project.
The Scarlet Goodbye, labelled “the most unlikely mash-up in Minnesota music history”, is the creative combination of Daniel Murphy and Jeff Arundel. Their debut album, Hope’s Eternal is out now.
Liverpool’s The Room presents “Sleepless”, a song inspired by the modern-day phenomenon of internet addiction, social media and news junkies. Following lead track ‘The Drift”, this is the latest offering from their Restless Fate LP, the band’s first new recordings in 38 years.
Sloan sets up a background of electronically altered sounds and rhythm tracks, then brings in his buddies to add melodies and lyrics.
Alternative post-punk outfit The Bellwether Syndicate present “We All Rise” (with video filmed by Sidney Strong), the third single from their Vestige & Vigil album, which will be released in late April via Sett Records in North America and elsewhere via Nexilis Records / Schubert Music Europe. A tale of hope and struggle, of inner-courage and rage for what could be… A powerhouse of a track, the reflective tone of the verse climaxes in the screaming industrial chorus, stirring both the heart and mind.
As well-versed in classical music as in jazz, pianist/composer Billy Childs has a touch at the keyboard like few others.
Italian pianist Margherita Fava clearly has no interest in being flashy for flash’s sake.
Brazil-based sonic adventurers BIKE have announced that they will release their new album Arte Bruta on May 5 via Quadrado Mágico Records and Before Sunrise Records. Ahead of that, they preview “O Torto Santo”, the intriguing lead single from this psych-rock, post-Tropicalia, noise rock collection.
Australian bassist Christopher Hale befriended Korean master percussionist Minyoung Woo ten years ago, and the pair have been learning from each other ever since.
