CD and DVD reviews
On the whim of a galloping percussive groove, “Where I Stand,” Amanda Barrett’s first official single, comes to life in an explosion of distorted riffs and homespun harmonies. The drums take a second to warm to the rhythm of the strings, but it isn’t long before they’re clicking into place with the sterling fretwork from…
The sensuous sounds of a fleeting eastern wind come cascading from our stereo speakers in the first few bars of Aliché’s new single “Cleopatra,” and though unassuming and simplistic at the onset of the song, it doesn’t take very long for the melody that they’re producing to evolve into an all-out carnival of gripping grooves…
Fabp is grinding out hot, new tracks with his recent album titled ‘For Tha Crown’. Fabpz the Freelancer doesn’t know the word quit as this NYC artist/producer consistently churns out Fresh To Def recordings. This latest project by FabP is no exception as the relentless rapper looks to achieve hip-hop royalty with ‘For Tha Crown’.…
A celebration of true togetherness, Sarantos offers up a sage message on the joyous spirit of “Every Handshake Is Important”. For this particular piece Sarantos plays around quite a bit resulting in a freewheeling, funhouse take on songwriting. His vocals are heavily treated and manipulated, becoming pure elastic at times. Melodically nimble the way the…
The album Million Birds marks Six Mile Grove’s 20th year together as a band. It’s also the act’s seventh album to date, and it’s a fine one. It’s a release that asks the question, ‘Why aren’t these guys better known?’ Front man Brandon Sampson has a voice a little like Radney Foster’s. This Lyle, MN…
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/myluvnotes/ “She Ain’t Me” by My Luv Notes is the new single featuring Stephanie Hochman, an outstanding singer with a classic delivery. The concept of My Luv Notes seems to be more about the music than the product sales, but that’s not only an honest approach, it’s actually-putting the music first. But it’s also…
A thunderous, bass-heavy beat rains down on us from above in the opening bars of “All My Girls,” the new single from the one and only Taylen, but its thunderous march is only a taste of what’s about to come in the next few minutes of unmatched melodies. A grooving percussive track enters the picture,…
Recorded across a number of live shows performed at none other than Brooklyn’s very own Strange Stage, Book of Clouds’ Livre De Nuages Vol 1 is an ambient tour de force that is making some pretty spectacular waves within the scene this season. This improv project designed by Ian C. Bouras and Federico Balducci takes an almost…
The burgeoning bassline that greets us at the start of The Respectables’ The Power of Rock ‘N’ Roll comes crashing through the silence and wraps its heavy arms around us in a tender embrace that will extend into every song that follows it. The music video for this title track plays out more like a dream than…
With a quiet intimate quality, the Beekeepers explore a bright and sunny serenity with the pitch-perfect folk musings of “Roots Run Deep”. Rather brilliant they create a whole world to get lost in, one with such vivid color. The patience that persists throughout shows off their highly poetic lyricism. Existing out of time and place,…
The Gillum Bros are actually brothers, unlike, say, the fictitious sibling Ramones. They call Arcadia, California home, although they were born in Detroit, Michigan. An elixir is either a magical or medicinal potion, depending upon how you choose to use the term. In this case, it’s utilized – one surmises – to describe a romantic…
In the distance, there’s something calling…There’s something ringing…It might just be the sound of bells chiming or the chirping of birds gathering off in the distance. All in all, SOMETHING is happening and whether it is in the distance or right upon your face, you always seem to know its presence. Sometimes life takes us…
The glare of a brooding melody overwhelms us in the opening bars of “Never Ever,” the brand new single from Szandra Mayer, but it doesn’t stop the 12 year old singer and songwriter from riding the growing bassline all the way into center stage as we progress forward in the track. The rhythm is violent…
Bud Summers makes the guitar sing on the fiery blues of “Hard Summers”. Raw grit and soul appear throughout the album as Bud Summers documents a hard-lived life. Arrangements go for a flawless take with impressive chops on display over the course of the incredible journey. Production values allow the entirety of the album a…
URL: https://www.clevelandinternational.com/ Music has come so far since the disco beats and bellbottoms of the 70’s, but one thing that hasn’t changed a bit is Cleveland Rocks, the gilded compilation LP assembled by the once-defunct Cleveland International Records. Now back in business, the classic label is reissuing Cleveland Rocks as a tribute to late founder Steve Popovich, Sr.,…
Miss Olivia & Interlopers create a beautiful bluesy realm on the simply lovely “Leaving You Behind/Blacklisted EP”. Done with the greatest level of care the soulful vocals offer such passion. Sly grooves permeate the entirety of the two tracks while they explore the darker impulses via their thoughtful lyricism. Proving to be exemplary wordsmiths, they…
One of the Showcase performers at this year’s SXSW festival, Buenos Diaz demonstrates his incredible skillset in the all new single “Through The Clouds & The Rain It’s Paradise.” Right from the get-go, listeners are entranced by the brooding string play that guides the rhythm of the track along delicately, emitting an evocative reverberation in…
Moe Green’s Eye plays with heart and soul on the powerful “Who’ll Take Me Home”. Offering a poignant look at the downside of social media the glamour alongside the fading away, it all has a tremendous power to it. Lyricism focuses upon the loss of youth, of how youth is so fleeting, yet it has…
It’s been nearly six years since I reviewed two singles for World 5, “Maybe There’s A Way” and “Man Of Action”: https://skopemag.com/2013/09/18/world5-maybe-theres-a-way-man-of-action. I knew then how unique and talented this group of players were and so I knew I hadn’t heard the last of World 5. I’m ecstatic to hear that this band is back…
The strum of an electric guitar greets all who dare to enter Anti-Social, the all-new album from Austin’s own Derrick Davis, and its opening track “All I Need to Know.” In less than four minutes’ time, Davis wraps us in layer after layer of melodic muscle, until we’re smothered in a synthesized groove that is…
Thinkbendy embraces a vibrant colorful sound with the highly emotive “Change”. Best taken in as a whole Think Bendy embarks on an entire journey, featuring thoughtful lyricism and highly creative arrangements. Stylistically Thinkbendy brings together indie rock, a big band jazz sound, funk, all nicely framed by a slight nod towards the theatrical. Quite a…
Olga Solar’s “Tingle Fingers” is taken from the album Antilullaby. It vacillates between being soothing and jarring. It may just remind you of Kate Bush in her prime. The song’s instrumentation combines guitar and keyboard, and backs Solar’s expressive vocals. It’s a moody piece of music that sets course on a groove and then sticks…
BANDCAMP: https://timjgrant.bandcamp.com/ An anxious keyboard comes alive as we enter “Bullseye,” the first track in Tim J Grant’s brand new album Fluorescent Lamp Pop, and it will soon be joined by an ethereal vocal from the one and only Ina Bravo. This orchestral club anthem blends the electronic with the organic in a bulging show of…
Sisters are doing it for themselves is not just an old Eurythmics song. It’s also a description of Meghan & Caitlin, two sisters that have given us one angry breakup song. While they describe themselves as an acoustic outfit, “Mean” is actually a full-blown, big production rock song. The song begins, distinctly, with organ fills…
Bud Summers titles his album Hard Lessons, and the first teaching moment arrives with “Endless Fantasy.” The lyrics describe a woman far too caught up in the Hollywood scene. Summers drives the tune with a jazz chord rhythm as he describes this girl’s sad, desperate life. Summers’ sound can be jazzy, as with “Endless Fantasy,”…
I recently had the pleasure to reconvene with Amie Penwell once again when I interviewed her late last year: https://skopemag.com/2018/12/08/amie-penwell-shatters-glass-for-jimmy-rae. I learned even more about the California-based singer/songwriter/musician like how she had just completed a crystal clear copy of her latest album titled ‘Windows’. Penwell’s newest release is a thing of beauty, style and grace…
The new single from Canadian trio Little Coyote, “Witness”, builds on the same unique synthesis of folk, progressive and alternative rock influences distinguishing their 2017 debut album The Trouble with Teeth. The band is led by vocalist Teagan Johnson, a Yukon Territory native who relocated to the Toronto area at the tender age of nineteen…
Diamond Lake’s “Emergency” kicks off with an urgently strummed electric guitar. Next, drums kick in followed closely by a fluid bass part. When the vocals arrive, they’re scratchy and equally urgent – which is called for by the pressing lyric. The first band that comes to mind – and this is before the vocals even…
The Sharon Lia Band embraces a spirit of defiance on the passionate “Why Can’t We Pretend”. Resting at the heart and center of the entire song are Sharon Lia’s bluesy, soulful vocals. Lyrics have a romantic tenderness to them while the arrangement further emphasizes their power. Elements of pop, classical, and rock come together to…
David Alpha embraces a raw, gritty sound on the intense hard rock of “Chameleon Wheelhouse”. With a fully-lived in approach the songs have a classic 70s rock defiance to them. Volume needs to be blasted as they offer jagged edges of riffs, rushing through everything with a fiery passion. Stripping things down to the essentials…
Tom Browne delivers a perfectly lush piece of jazz pop on the soothing “Mi Amor Featuring Joyce San Mateo”. Full of life, the trumpet playing has an exceptional quality to it, opting for a vivid take. Vocals courtesy of Joyce San Mateo imbue the entirety of the track with a true sense of love. When…
Shallow Side give the blues a hard rock kick with the powerful “Saints & Sinners”. Truly gifted storytellers, they explore narratives of loss and redemption. Doing so in a way that feels so vivid everything about the album stuns. Volume deserves the highest possible setting for they go for an expansive, take no prisoners approach.…
Doc Fell & Co craft a rustic bit of Americana with the raw grit and soul of “Heaven, Hell or Oklahoma”. Things embrace an atmospheric tact for they refuse to rush a thing, nor should they: their workmanship abounds throughout the entirety of the journey. Lyrics have a cryptic storytelling quality to them ensuring that…
Clifford Lamb goes for a lively, lovely take on jazz with the urbane “Blues & Hues”. A kaleidoscopic variety of styles merge into this singular whole. Rap, folk, classical, blues, soundtracks, all underpinned by jazz’s magnanimous spirit, rolls by with a tasteful timeless air. Instrumentally vibrant, the piano works as the album backbone courtesy of…
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/thebandjonathan/ Some rock bands are more than content with following a popular trend or whatever direction their scene is currently going in, but in the case of more sophisticated groups like Jonathan, forging ahead on an uncharted path is the only conceivable option when it comes time to make a new record. In the…
During the chorus to “Million Miles Away,” Gary Douglas sings how he still believes the world can change for the better. He sees a light, but that light seems a million miles away. Hence, the song title. The vocal arrangement to this one includes the singing of “hallelujah,” which makes this song, about hard-fought hope,…
Tough On Fridays’ “Retrospect” is a tough girl, anthemic rock song. This group is tougher than The Go-Go’s, but not as hard rocking as The Runaways. The track begins with a thumping drum beat, which introduces a chugging electric guitar rhythm. It’s loud enough to be alternative rock, but not fast enough to be punk.…
Rev Peter Unger – ‘I Believe in Second Chances’ Rev Peter Unger embraces a pastoral sense of beauty on the spacious skies of “I Believe in Second Chances”. Throughout the piece Rev Peter Unger explores the oft-ignored benefits of faith. One of the greatest elements of faith rests within the idea of forgiveness for past…
Like most budding musical prodigies, Caleb Hanks, aka The Clerk, began exploring his artistic interests at an early age. Composing his own music from the age of 12, Hanks later served as front man and primary songwriter for electronic rock band Nova Echo before embarking on a solo career. The fifteen song collection Xander-Vi1 is…
Greensboro, North Carolina’s Run Home Jack will garner a lot of well deserved attention on the backs of their latest single, “F.Y.H.T.” (an abbreviation for “Find Your Happy Thought”, culled from their upcoming sophomore EP release Part II: I Tried. The band’s core members singer/guitarist Jersey Neese and drummer Harold Godwin are joined by guest…
