CD and DVD reviews
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…
URL: https://thecaminosideproject.com/ Paul Farran takes listeners on a sonic journey around the globe in the latest album released under his Camino Side Project moniker, Of Movement & Music. On our adventure, we’ll become acquainted with the brooding acoustic string play that frames “Right Here,” “Silent Picture” and “Supermoon” in stately harmonies that seem to hang over…
Angeles plays old school raw rock n roll with the passionate “Pain”. Everything about the track opts for an unhinged, free-spirited quality, from the careening guitar riffs to the wild vocals. By letting all these elements work in unison Angeles at times recall the chaotic joy of bands like Van Halen and Guns n’ Roses.…
Addisyn Chafé’s “Burn In Me” is truly a slow burn track. Built upon a lumbering, yet simmering groove, Chafé sings this one somewhat like an old school torch singer. The arrangement is modern, but the approach is beautifully retro. It’s not a torch song, even though it features a fire theme, however. Rather, this is…
URL: https://www.moniqueangele.com/ A soothing piano melody swarms around us, entrancing all within earshot in a hypnotic radiance that is usually only present in dexterously arranged symphonies. Soon, it’s joined by a swanky vocal from Monique Angele, who carefully imprints her stylish serenade on the texture of the backing track. Her voice and the piano become…
Authentic, striking, and talented twenty-one years old, Houston-based singer Steff Neff is ready to take the world by storm. Neff’s music is strongly rooted in dark pop, with candy-coated pop melodies and emotive lyrics. A seasoned lyricist and sophisticated musician, Neff has signed with Strega Entertainment Group and is looking forward to her next move.…
Rhett Repko loves rock & roll, but he sings with a slightly effeminate voice, which leaves his attempts to rock out sound much closer to pop. Fronting this power trio, the songs on Songs of the Night are both melodic and memorable. Rock & roll is oftentimes about wishing and hoping. “Lotta Love,” is just…
URL: https://www.avsupersunshine.com/ Guttural grooves penetrate our speakers and bleed into a riff-rocking distorted guitar that wants to suffocate everything around it with its feverish resonance as we enter the rock mix of “Orange,” one of three mixes of the brand new single by the incomparable AV Super Sunshine. AV starts to sing with a smoky…
Back and better than ever, Michael Capshaw – perhaps better known as California hip-hop king Cap – is tearing down the wall between artist and audience in his all-new singles “Alcohol,” a hard rocking rollercoaster of a rap anthem; “Worth It,” a balladic hip-hop harmonizer that sees Cap getting in touch with his quieter side…
URL: https://francinehoney.com/ Glassy beats cascade from a patient drum kit, dotting the landscape that guides us into To Be Continued…, Francine Honey’s latest LP, and its introductory track “Snowflakes on My Eyelashes.” Honey is joined by Beth Nielsen Chapman here, and together they stoke a raging fire that will melodically burn and carry us into the…
C-Rod offers a hot take on the coldness of break-ups with “The Break-up Tape”. With a flawless flow the whole of the album has a carefully crafted quality. Every track offers yet another chapter in a greater story, one that explores the power of relationships. Arrangements go for a casual cool style to them, nicely…
Romy Conzen goes for a funky fresh sound with “AIAIO”. An absolute joy of a track the happiness and optimism positively shine through. By far the highlight are her highly energetic vocals that rest at the very heart of it all. Rushing through with an intense energy is the colossal riffing of Dar.Ra’s “Heart Shape…
The mastermind behind this new album is none other than the tenacious Fabp aka Fabpz The Freelancer with help from Pete Atkinson of X-Calade Promotionz. Together, this tag team has created body-slamming beats that are simply FIRE! ‘Beatz on Blaze Instrumentals’ offers listeners 14 highly original & fresh recordings that will blaze through your speakers.…
With a nimble gallop, a lightly overdriven guitar comes driving out of the silence in “Sawtell,” the first track in Scatter Swept’s inspired new collaboration Modern Remains. Its strings seem to sway like a pendulum warning us that time is running out, but their urgency is met with resistance in a bassline that is only…
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/kamrynmarieofficial/ Anyone who has ever wondered how it could be possible to translate an emotion as difficult to describe as eternal love into an intrepid melody that knows no boundaries would do well to give “Baby Girl,” the latest single from Kamryn Marie, a spin this February. In this ballad, Marie examines a scene…
A chiming melody emits its charming glow from a distant piano in the opening bars of “Teddy Bear,” the new single from songwriter Tommy Botz, and soon it’s joined by the enraptured crooning of a loving feminine vocal that wraps around us tightly but stops shy of smothering us in its warmth. The rhythm is…
Na Hoa goes for a blissful dreamy world with the beautiful “Leo Kama’aina”. Done with the greatest of ease, the languid pacing feels just right. From the elegant piano weaving in and out of the mix to graceful guitar, the whole thing simply stuns. A highly energetic, wild spirit defines Mark Lindsay’s “Rush On You”.…
The musical elements that first strike one while listening to Fred Argir’s album Still Alive for the first time are all the Neil Young-ish emotional guitar solos on it. Such primitive electric guitar string-bending is an enjoyable recurrent throughout Argir’s album, and a kind of connective glue from track to track. Stylistically, Still Alive relies…
URL: https://tomproctorandthealisters.com/ Raucous drums come roaring into focus as we enter “In Hollywood,” the new single from critically acclaimed singer/songwriter Tom Proctor, whom many indie country neophytes might sooner recognize from his equally-lauded career in cinema. The party is just getting started as the percussion finds itself joined by a hot, swinging guitar part that…
BANDCAMP: https://pezzettino.bandcamp.com/album/resin Resin – by Pezzettino (the recording name for Margaret Stutt), with all respect intended is a brilliant album of compositions you just won’t find every day. Strutt is an amazing artist with so many ways to describe her voice and musicianship it’s a story all its own. This is her 11th album, so…
This will be my fifth article for the Swedish sensations known as Gibrish dating back to 2014. About four months ago, I had the chance to review two singles for Gibrish and one of the songs was titled “Bara en krona (Just one crown)”. The reason I bring this up is because this previous track…
MoeDeLL plays with a painterly precision on the blissful beauty of “Porch”. Featuring a cinematic flourish, MoeDeLL proves to have a deft ear for melody. The arrangement neatly explores the importance of texture, of tone, and of the intermingling of multiple layers of sound. Highly unique in their approach not a moment feels wasted. Letting…
BANDCAMP: https://gotimeband.bandcamp.com/ Conveying raw emotions through visceral riffage and ripping vocals is what Go Time! do best, and they continue to affirm themselves as one of the last true blue rock bands to do so in their brand new album Midway. With nineteen different songs that each stand on their own as star-quality rock tracks, Midway is bursting…
CD BABY: https://store.cdbaby.com/cd/laban3 Steamy beats come slipping through a wall of bass punctuated by an evasive electric guitar in the first few bars of “Quién da Más,” the brand new single from Labán. Ever so slowly, they build enough strength to balance out the wallop of the low-end quake of the bassline, which recoils at…
After battling through health issues, WT keeps on trucking with axe in hand. This is an assembly of classic blues songs other than the same standard popular ones that everyone seems to want to play over and over again. They all tell a story, blues style. Walter handles the guitar and vocals along with Michael…
Moss Da Beast is coming out swingin’ on the hot, new single, “Professional”, with a little help from his friend Sizzle on the mic. Just like a hip-hop Boss, Moss Da Beast is puffin’ his chest out and sounding like a Rap Samurai slicin’ & dicin’ the competition. Moss is not playin’ around and keeping…
Olga Solar’s “Tulips” is a delightfully honest love song, of sorts. The song’s best bit is its wordless chorus of, “Da-da-dum.” Sola sings the song’s verses in a sort of talk-sing, slightly sardonic tone. She’s one smart cookie, it’s obvious right out of the gate. Although Solar’s voice has a slightly jazzy, quivery quality, some…
URL: www.caseyahern.com In these most trying of times, it’s nice to have a single or even a collection of songs that inspire feeling good about life again, even when it’s as shaky and unstable as we could’ve ever feared it to be. I recently found my own soundtrack of this nature in the brand new…
I’m hooked right out of the gates when I hit play on “Let’s Get Funky” by DEVI. This singer/songwriter/musician has created such a fun-spirited atmosphere with this new single. “Let’s Get Funky” was written and produced by DEVI and is featured on the album ‘Amazing’ and have to say I am a fan! DEVI has…
Echo-y piano introduces “Second Time” as a moody musical encounter. When Ferera Swan steps in, tears are falling down her cheeks. Swan, the emotive vocalist, is here asking the hard question: “How can you love someone you don’t even know?” It’s a sad, rather than angry, confrontational song. Swan’s has been let down not once,…
A synthesizer comes swinging down from the heavens with an untouchable confidence, carving out a stylish path on which pop singer Moli will lyrically strut in Hazey Eyes’ all new single “Hungover You,” which is out this January everywhere that indie music is available. The synths are ominous and powerful, but they’re contained by a…
Pristine chords materialize in slow-motion, conjuring a decadent piano melody in their wake. Their existence isn’t synthesized, yet it isn’t quite real – at least not until Ferera Swan starts to sing. In the first few bars of her debut single “Second Time,” listeners sift through a plethora of sonic tones layered on top of…
Empty Mirror explores the shadows on the dark loveliness of “The Mere”. Full of life, at times the sound recalls a unique gothic take on indie rock. Soulful the way that Empty Mirror’s considered arrangements draw from bands as diverse as the Decemberists and even a hint of Pavement helps to give the entire thing…
“I Don’t Feel It” is a single from the album Fred Argir’s album, Still Alive. Argir is a real do-it-yourselfer, as he plays every instrument on this loudly rocking single. The song jumps right out of the gate with rollicking, stoner electric guitar. Once Argir’s voice kicks in, it arrives with a weary, frustrated tone.…
Churning out the darkness comes a bright melody driven by the vocal of singer Iossa in the opening salvo of his collaboration with Wlady & T.N.Y., the brand new track “Beatrice,” and before long a gilded piano slithers through the silence like a serpent and beckons us towards a jungle of riveting tones. An implied…
You wouldn’t think this is a cover of the legendary Tom Petty/Stevie Nicks duet from the opening alone and when the full band comes in and a piercing lead guitar flourish overwhelms the senses. It soon settles into some recognizable riffing, recast in metal guitar, and Aven’s vocal contributions lead the way. She has a…
Sam Levin delves into a beautiful tenderness with the powerful folk electronics of “Bookmark”. Highly ornate, the polished delivery recalls the carefully considered gestures of Four Tet’s earliest works. Keeping things bright and airy, the lightness of the track draws a bit from Bossa Nova, jazz, and the gentleness of thoughtful pop. By far the…
Shadowfields’ “Awake” begins with a gypsy-like fiddle part, played over an echoing drum fill, before Heather Humphrey’s angelic vocals kick in. Humphry sings the song’s first verse, while Tom McKeown – the second half of the Shadowfields duo – sings the second verse. What results from this combination is a narration of a nightmarish vision.…
