Bongo Boy Records Presents ‘Gar Francis Songbook, Vol. Two’
With “Gar Francis Songbook, Vol. Two,” Bongo Boy Records reaches into the archives of songwriter Gar Francis and finds much more than a collection of forgotten songs. Performed through their Sapphire Star project, the album is a lively celebration of classic American R&B, soul, garage rock and pop: music that looks backwards for inspiration without feeling entirely trapped there.
produced by Monique Grimme, the 12-track album is built around songs written and arranged by Francis, several of which had existed for years primarily as demos or unreleased material. The opening track, “Girls Will Be Girls,” establishes the album’s vintage character immediately. Its doo-wop and early-’60s soul influences are paired with bright brass and prominent vocal hooks, recalling the era when girl groups, Motown and rhythm-and-blues singles dominated radio.
Streaming link: https://linkmysong.com/87985
Yet Gar Francis Songbook, Vol. Two rarely settles for straightforward revivalism. The production gives these older songwriting instincts a cleaner contemporary frame, which is evident on “All I Wanna Do Is Ride.” The track leans toward rowdy, horn-driven rhythm and blues, but carries a modern sheen that sets it apart from classic Motown dance records. There is an uncomplicated pleasure running through these songs: big rhythms, memorable choruses and arrangements designed to move.
SONG TITLES
1. Girls Will Be Girls 3:24
2. Diddle Diddy Dee 3:06
3. All I Wanna Do Is Ride 4:10
4. Touching Me 4:10
5. The Beat Don’t Stop 3:22
6. Natural Thing 3:40
7. Bad Girl 3:21
8. What’s Good for You 4:21
9. Wait 2:54
10. Turn Your Love on Me 3:50
11. Move With It 3:10
12. Fight Your Way Back 3:37
One of its most interesting moments is “Natural Thing.” Here, the vintage foundation begins crossing more visibly into modern soul and pop. Saxophone accents sit alongside touches of rock guitar, giving the song a slightly broader musical vocabulary. The album also knows when to ease off the accelerator. “What’s Good for You” provides a more measured contrast to the louder R&B material, with the arrangement drawing on Hammond-organ textures and gospel-influenced harmonies. It’s a nice shift from the album’s devotion to high-energy retro soul.
Gar Francis Songbook, Vol. Two works because its attention remains on the songs. Beneath the production choices and the project’s archival concept are melodies, grooves and hooks written in a tradition where a song had to stand on its own. For listeners who still value strong hooks, classic R&B energy and songwriting shaped by the traditions of rock ‘n’ roll, there is plenty here to enjoy.
New Album By Gwen – ‘A Cure That Will Save the Both of Us’
There is something wonderfully restless about Gwen’s debut album, “A Cure That Will Save the Both of Us.” The Manhattan band has no interest in playing it safe and stretches their first full-length into an hour-long, deliberately cinematic experience where art-rock, electronic production and melodic songwriting constantly bleed into one another. The band describes the record as a journey through memories and through the different “cures” people convince themselves will save them.
The album opens with “The High,” an instrumental number with gentle washed-out guitars setting the atmosphere before the record moves deeper into its recollections.
STREAMING:
https://open.spotify.com/album/0f7Xu5dvzph8HJjjasFpYC?si=hrDx9eUjQzWBwuMyeChx2g
VIDEO FOR “CIGARETTE”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcaS-MK7ds4
VIDEO FOR “ATHENA”:
https://youtu.be/E-oim1_ztG4?si=JLW4rdjBnpKXL17L
“Keep Me Alive” arrives shortly afterwards as a counterweight, exploring themes of mental illness and medication. “Cigarette” follows with equal emotional weight, and an incredible vocal performance filled with anguish.
TRACKS
1. The High
2. Five Miles West
3. Keep Me Alive
4. Cigarette
5. Cryogenic Chamber
6. Interlude
7. Cross
8. Athena
9. Love Is Torture
10. Helmet Song Pt. I
11. Helmet Song Pt. II
12. The Low
But it is the album’s second half that most strongly establishes Gwen’s ambitions. The band explores a variety of rock styles on “Athena,” absolutely justifying the track’s runtime of nearly nine minutes. Nearly the entire spirit of the record is captured in this track as Gwen increasingly allows atmosphere, electronics and guitar noise to compete with conventional songcraft.
The album comes full circle, starting with “The High” and ending on “The Low,” which pulls the listener out of the dream and back toward a harsher reality. The existential dread of the lyrics is matched by the muted instrumentation as the band opts for a purely acoustic arrangement. Even without turning the album into a literal narrative, the movement from high to low suggests that whatever salvation Gwen is searching for across these songs is temporary.
The excess of A Cure That Will Save the Both of Us is where some listeners may struggle. But what Gwen has produced is an unusually assured statement of intent. The album is an entire world of emotion: nostalgic, unsettled, melodic one moment and engulfed in noise the next. Its fascination with imagined cures is all about documenting why people keep looking for a way to fix themselves. By the time “The Low” arrives and the dream breaks, Gwen has made that search feel messy, intimate and recognizably human.
ONLINE:
https://linktr.ee/GwenBand
https://www.instagram.com/gwenbandofficial
https://www.youtube.com/@gwenband?si=tgx9s_fb0HFwLfJe
https://gwenband.bandcamp.com/album/a-cure-that-will-save-the-both-of-us
Erik Hansen New Album ‘The Eternal Conflict’
Seattle rocker Erik Hansen makes an emphatic leap as a full-length storyteller with his debut album, “The Eternal Conflict.” a muscular, melody-driven collection, this record looks backward at rock’s golden eras without sounding trapped inside them. The twelve-track record brings together drummer Kip Rondorf, bassist Carl Larsson and guitarist Robbie Houston, surrounding Hansen with a band capable of matching the album’s shifts between classic hard rock, alternative grit and more reflective melodic passages.
“Far Away” announces the album’s intentions immediately. Its thick guitar attack, forceful rhythm section and catchy vocal hooks establish the album’s hard-rock foundation without wasting much time on atmosphere-building. The track races forward with the confidence of an opener designed for a live room, but Hansen pays equal attention to structure, using changes in dynamics, vocal harmonies and a late bridge to prevent the song from becoming a straightforward riff exercise.
STREAMING:
https://open.spotify.com/album/3jmfP38HEVjEfLYGjIpogl?si=_GATh91rR9iJXAimE-Bc_A
VIDEO FOR “PIECES OF YESTERDAY”:
https://youtu.be/WFgTqIfgUuM?si=Rz-k9vnY7Jsu6OPO
“Pieces of Yesterday” begins widening the record’s palette before “Celestial” takes it into darker territory. The latter is one of the clearest meeting points between Hansen’s classic-metal background and the shadowier side of Seattle rock, leaning into ominous tones that recall the likes of Black Sabbath and Soundgarden.
The most interesting moments arise when Hansen allows the record to become moodier. “Dreaming in the Dark” carries an atmospheric weight that contrasts nicely with the album’s more immediate rockers, while “Lost and Lonely” adds another layer of emotional unease. “Seasons” pushes still further into slow-burning alternative rock, as the second half of the album keeps repositioning its emotional center.
TRACKS
01. Far Away
02. Pieces of Yesterday
03. Celestial
04. Holding Out an On
05. Fight to Live
06. In Your Eyes
07. She Dances
08. Dreaming in the Dark
09. Lost and Lonely
10. More to Say
11. Seasons
12. Shine
By the time the pop-punk colors of “Shine” brings the record to its conclusion, The Eternal Conflict has travelled through several decades’ worth of rock language without losing its central identity. The title, The Eternal Conflict, feels increasingly appropriate: heaviness sits beside melody, optimism beside isolation, and polished classic-rock craft beside something rougher and more contemporary.
The Eternal Conflict is all about proving how much life remains inside the familiar building blocks of rock music. Heavy riffs, melodic vocals, restless dynamics and a seasoned band give Hansen’s debut LP both immediacy and staying power. Hard rock fans will find plenty of recognizable DNA here, but the album’s strongest moments belong to Hansen himself. For a first full-length statement, The Eternal Conflict sounds remarkably assured.
ONLINE:
https://www.erikhansenmusic.com
https://www.instagram.com/erikhansenmusic
http://youtube.com/@erikhansenmusic
https://www.facebook.com/erikhansenmusic
GIVETON GELIN Presents ‘ISLAND DREAMER: III OF III’ Street Date November 1, 2026
With Island Dreamer: III of III, Bahamian trumpeter and composer Giveton Gelin makes an ambitious statement about where he comes from, what he has inherited, and the kind of artist he intends to become. It is a record built around jazz, but its imagination stretches well beyond conventional jazz boundaries, drawing the Caribbean, personal memory, grief and resilience into the same musical narrative.
Born and raised in The Bahamas and later educated at Juilliard, Gelin has developed under the influence of musicians including Roy Hargrove and Wynton Marsalis while maintaining an explicit interest in tracing jazz back through its ancestry. The larger Island Dreamer project has been presented in The Bahamas as more than an album: the Central Bank of The Bahamas hosted an exhibition and world-premiere event incorporating photography, a songbook and Gelin’s work with young musicians through the Island Dreamer Academy.
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https://www.facebook.com/givetongelinquintet/
The record is heavily concerned with living heritage, with “Blue Hole,” for example, being inspired by the famous underwater sinkholes of The Bahamas. Gelin uses trumpet and layered percussion to translate the idea of descending below the water’s surface into music. The vibrant “Moun Lakay” derives its title from the Haitian Creole associated with home and homeland, fitting naturally beside the album’s broader exploration of Gelin’s Haitian-Bahamian roots.
The emotional center may be “I Solemnly Swear to Live,” featuring virtuoso pianist Jon Batiste on piano. The arrangement stripped down to trumpet and piano alone, and Gelin has explained the piece as a deeply personal vow to live intentionally. Gelin’s treatment of Rihanna’s “Take a Bow” is equally riveting, taking a globally recognizable pop song and folding it into his own Caribbean story.
The album closes with “Fighting Spirit Blues,” which at 8:12, is perhaps the album’s most thematically developed piece. The number sustains its energy throughout the entire runtime, proving to be one of the more challenging performances on the record, and ending on a strong note.
Island Dreamer: III of III is a powerful declaration of identity. Its real subject is continuity between generations, islands, genres, sorrow and survival. Gelin does not simply pay tribute to his roots; he asks what those roots can grow into. It’s an unusually personal kind of contemporary jazz project in which virtuosity matters, but the story behind the notes matters just as much.
MICHAEL MOSS Presents ‘Quantum Butterfly’ On November 1, 2026
Michael Moss has spent decades treating jazz less as a fixed language than as a point of departure. On Quantum Butterfly, Moss expands his scope to a 4-volume anthology that runs more than four hours and brings together Moss’s ROOTS to SHOOTS ensemble, standards associated with some of modern jazz’s most important figures, and a substantial excursion into electroacoustic music.
What makes Quantum Butterfly compelling is that it doesn’t attempt to smooth those different strands into a single aesthetic. Instead, Moss allows them to coexist. His roots in hard bop, free jazz, modern classical composition and music from outside the American jazz tradition all remain audible as distinct forces.
The first volume, “ROOTS to SHOOTS,” establishes the collection’s most immediately accessible side. Chick Corea’s “La Fiesta” begins from an exuberant samba pulse, while Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” brings another easygoing connection to jazz history. But even here Moss refuses to remain comfortably inside straight-ahead jazz. “Amitabha” pushes soprano saxophone against odd meters, percussion and increasingly free improvisation.
Volume 2, “Ensemble Bows for Strings, Piano and Reeds,” makes the collection considerably more abstract. The 19-minute “Abyss” places Moss among strings and piano in music whose reference points extend toward Stravinsky, Shostakovich and the Third Stream. The conceptual heart arrives on Volume 3, “Quantum Butterfly”. “Samson’s
Walk” begins in a comparatively traditional setting, with Moss’s tenor stealing the spotlight. Meanwhile, “Freedom Chant” brings Afro-Cuban rhythmic energy and increasingly liberated interplay.
The fourth disc brings Moss back toward the jazz lineage with another “ROOTS to SHOOTS” performance, recorded at Westbeth in September 2025. Here the repertoire includes Bill Evans’ “TTTT” alongside Moss’s “March On,” leaning heavily into the themes of improving upon past perfomances.
If Quantum Butterfly has a potential obstacle, it is that there is a great deal of music here. Moving from swinging post-bop to electronic composition and everything in between within four hours demands more attention than the average jazz release. But that scale ultimately works because Moss himself supplies the through-line. Whether surrounded by strings, electronics, vibraphone or a hard-swinging rhythm section, his music remains driven by curiosity rather than stylistic loyalty.
https://michaelmoss.bandcamp.com/
OSCAR ROSSIGNOLI Presents ‘MAR ADENTRO” November 27, 2026
Honduran-born, New Orleans-based pianist Oscar Rossignoli brings several strands of his musical life into unusually convincing alignment with his latest release, “Mar Adentro.” Classical discipline, Latin rhythms, and modern jazz improvisation all coexist here without sounding like ingredients that have been consciously assembled.
This album marks an important change of format for Rossignoli. After the solitary exploration of “Inertia” and the completely improvised “Levitations,” Rossignoli surrounds himself here with bassist Lex Warshawsky and drummer Peter Varnado. One of his priorities was for the studio album to preserve the responsiveness and unpredictability of the trio in performance, and Mar Adentro plays out as a genuine three-way conversation rather than piano accompanied by rhythm section.
The opening “Gitanerías,” by Cuban composer Ernesto Lecuona, immediately establishes the record’s breadth. Rossignoli begins alone, taking on the piece’s demanding classical language before Warshawsky and Varnado enter and redirect the music toward contemporary jazz.
That transition leads naturally into the title track, the album’s emotional centre. The origins of “Mar Adentro” stretch back to a night Rossignoli spent working aboard a cruise ship. Unable to sleep, he encountered a grand piano at around three in the morning and began improvising. He recorded what emerged on his phone and later developed portions of that spontaneous performance into the composition.
That sense of memory continues through “Puñadito de Arena,” Rossignoli’s interpretation of Belisario Romero’s Honduran folk song. Its image of holding onto a handful of sand as a remembrance of something lost gives the album one of its strongest links to Rossignoli’s homeland.
The album becomes more rhythmically restless with “Ebbs and Flows,” a piece built around alternation between a gentle pulse and swinging passages. Then comes
“Serpent,” the album’s longest and most ambitious piece at over ten minutes. Conceived around a confrontation with evil, it gives the trio space to build something closer to a narrative tone poem. Warshawsky’s bass becomes particularly ominous as the composition twists through darker territory, but the piece eventually dissolves into an unexpected calm.
As an album, Mar Adentro feels like both a culmination and a departure point. Rossignoli is looking backward at Honduras and more than a decade immersed in New Orleans, while simultaneously moving toward a more personal conception of the jazz piano trio. The sea inside him is crowded with influences, memories and contradictions. The achievement of this album is that he finally allows them to move together.
https://www.instagram.com/oscar.rossignoli/
https://www.facebook.com/rossignolimusic/
Alex Otey Presents ‘Abbey Road Impressions’
Few locations in popular music carry a cultural shadow as enormous as Abbey Road’s, but Alex Otey makes a bold move to explicitly draw inspiration from it with his latest album, “Abbey Road Impressions.” The risks of making this choice are obvious: an album explicitly inspired by the legendary London studios could easily become an exercise in nostalgia. But rather than attempting to recreate the Beatles, Otey treats Abbey Road as a starting point: a symbol of inspiration, memory and the enduring value of musicians actually playing together.
Released on August 1, 2026, the seven-track album emerged from a remarkably long gestation. Otey visited Abbey Road Studios in late 2019 while developing ideas for the project, only for his planned return to London to be disrupted by the pandemic. Work eventually resumed with assistance from Plaid Dog Recording in Boston, while the project finally came full circle when mastering was completed at Abbey Road in 2026.
The title track, “Abbey Road,” establishes the record’s central idea of inspiration. Instead of treating the studio merely as a landmark associated with famous records, Otey approaches it as a place where accumulated musical history can push another musician toward creating something of his own.
From there, each song represents another stage in a loose emotional journey. “World You Show Me” is an easygoing alt-rock number about stepping back long enough to notice both the beauty and complexity around us. “Yeah, We’re Going” shifts into motion with electric guitar solos and over-the-top vocal harmonies. Built around the idea of travel and anticipation, it brings some of the album’s most outgoing energy.
Musically, Abbey Road Impressions occupies a warm space between Americana, classic rock, blues and Otey’s jazz background. Acoustic piano is central, but the arrangements are hardly restrained. This is evident on the emotional center of the record: “Anna Lee.” Framed around love, tenderness and loss, the track introduces a more bittersweet dimension. The vocal textures take on a decidedly Beatles-like character as Otey’s broad musical vocabulary quietly expands the Americana framework.
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X: https://www.twitter.com/AlexOtey/
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Artist Website: https://alexotey.com/
The album finds its resolution in “This Very Day.” Representing appreciation and awareness of the present, the finale brings the record’s emotional arc full circle. There is a deliberate simplicity to the album’s structure, and every song essentially arrives with an identifiable emotional role.
Abbey Road Impressions is an album that looks backward just long enough to understand how to move forward. It is concise, unpretentious and refreshingly human; a record inspired by one of music’s most famous addresses, but ultimately concerned with the much more universal roads people travel every day.
Camille K New Pop Single “Paradise,” Out NOW!
Camille K’s new single “Paradise” is an unabashedly bright piece of romantic pop, built around a simple but effective idea: paradise is all about who you escape there with. Released September 15, the song is all about the intoxicating early stages of a relationship, when ordinary responsibilities briefly seem insignificant. It is light, playful and deliberately uncomplicated; a track interested in capturing a feeling rather than dissecting it.
That simplicity is easily the song’s greatest strength. “Paradise” leans hard into its romanticism without trying to hide behind irony or an elaborate concept. Instead, Camille commits fully to the fantasy of disappearing with someone special and finding a private world together. It is familiar territory for pop music, and the warmth and energy of the track makes it accessible for most audiences. However, the sincerity of the premise keeps this single from becoming completely generic.
Musically, the song is framed by bright contemporary pop production, an upbeat rhythm and melodic vocals. Rather than surrounding Camille with an overly dense arrangement, the production appears designed to preserve the breezy, almost weightless quality of the song. Her vocal performance is consequently central to its personality: light and melodic rather than overly theatrical, matching the relaxed escapism at the heart of the lyrics.
There is also a nice sense of continuity developing in Camille’s recent songwriting. Her previous single “Something to Say” dealt with the uncertainty of admitting that a friendship might have become something more. “Paradise” effectively explores the honeymoon-like stage that follows. The nervous anticipation has disappeared, replaced by excitement and the desire to shut out the rest of the world. That connection makes the two songs feel almost like consecutive chapters and it’s not hard to imagine them appearing side by side on an upcoming album.
What gives “Paradise” its appeal is its lack of cynicism. There is something refreshing about hearing a pop song simply enjoy the possibility of being happy with another person. The polished production gives it playlist-friendly immediacy, but Camille’s vocal presence keeps the song from feeling completely manufactured. It feels particularly suited to late-summer drives, spontaneous trips and that brief period in a new relationship when even escaping nowhere in particular sounds exciting. Camille K is an artist becoming increasingly comfortable turning small emotional moments into accessible pop narratives and “Paradise” might be one of her most effortlessly inviting examples yet.
For more on Camille K, follow her on social media:
FOLLOW CAMILLE K:
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UNLV Combos Present ‘Back Home’ by Joe Willams Combo & Latin Jazz Ensemble Out 11/1/2026
There is an easy trap for university jazz recordings, where technical proficiency becomes the entire point of their performance. “Back Home,” the new release from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Joe Williams Jazz Scholarship Combo and Latin Jazz Ensemble, avoids that mistake entirely. Across fourteen tracks, the musicians craft a unique identity as performers, giving the record much more personality than the words “student ensemble” might suggest.
The album is essentially divided into two complementary halves. The opening eight pieces belong to the Joe Williams Jazz Scholarship Combo under Dave Loeb, while the final six expand into the more rhythmically colorful world of Pepe Jiménez’s Latin Jazz Ensemble. It is an unusually composition-heavy program, with original pieces by Andrés Montero, Tristan Selzler, Jason Knuckles, Skyy Estanislao and Josh Alvarado forming much of its identity.
https://unlvjazz.bandcamp.com/album/back-home
https://www.unlv.edu/music/jazz-ensemble
The Joe Williams Combo side establishes that identity immediately. Jason Knuckles’ “Pops ’N’ Ricky,” built around the familiar language of “When You’re Smiling,” has the kind of buoyancy that makes a natural opener. The title track, “Back Home,” brings the record into warmer and more personal territory. Composed by drummer Andrés Montero with lyrics by vocalist Eva Yazdanpanah and a soulful sax solo by Skyy Estanislao, it’s one of the record’s most inviting moments.
Some of the strongest material comes when the combo stretches beyond straightforward swing. Skyy Estanislao’s “Epifanio De Los Santos Avenue” introduces a warmer melodic character, but “Sam Hose” may be an even better example of what this ensemble does well. Knuckles writes a memorable jazz waltz that creates room for both his tenor playing and Selzler’s more expansive, McCoy Tyner-influenced piano vocabulary before easing into a quieter conclusion. The demanding arrangements across the album are played to perfection, supporting the idea that this is already a group of nature soloists that are now developing their artistic personalities.
Then Back Home changes complexion. The Latin Jazz Ensemble adds trumpets, a larger reed section, additional percussion and, crucially, Nathan Bastidas’ charango, immediately broadening the album’s palette. Josh Alvarado’s “Latin Ruins” is built around an appealing riff-based foundation, while “Tierra Mestiza” is particularly intriguing because the charango gives it a folk-derived identity that prevents the Latin side of the album from becoming too generic.
The appeal of Back Home is that it captures a group of young musicians at the stage where formidable technique is beginning to turn into individual musical identity. The Joe Williams Combo provides sophistication and intimacy; the Latin Jazz Ensemble supplies much of the color and communal energy. Together, they make an impressively varied record whose best moments suggest that several of these names will be worth following well beyond UNLV.
Dave Miles Presents ‘Unbelievable’
Taking on Bob Dylan is never an easy assignment, given that they already carry so much personality in their original recordings. With his rendition of “Unbelievable,” Dave Miles makes the difficult choice of pulling the song far enough into his own musical world to justify returning to it. The result is a rockstar cover that goes beyond imitation without losing sight of the original that inspired it.
Originally released on Dylan’s 1990 album Under the Red Sky, “Unbelievable” is one of the record’s tougher, more direct rock songs. It drives forward on repetition while Dylan piles absurdities, frustrations and social observations on top of one another. Even within an album often regarded as one of Dylan’s lighter releases, the song has attracted its defenders for its relentless momentum and wonderfully strange lyricism.
It is also a natural song for Miles to tackle, as he approaches the song through the rock-oriented identity he has been developing across his recent releases. His
interpretation places the focus on the immediacy of the song, giving it even more attitude rather than an elaborate melodic structure.
The lyrics still remain the real attraction as Dylan’s writing moves between observations about money, society and human behaviour, repeatedly returning to the idea that what is happening around us has become almost impossible to believe. More than three decades after the song was written, that central idea has hardly become less relevant. If anything, hearing another artist revisit “Unbelievable” in 2026 gives its bewilderment a new context.
https://artists.downersclub.com/dave-miles
There is also something refreshing about Miles choosing this Dylan song. “Unbelievable” is not one of the other standards that have been covered thousands of times. It comes from a period of Dylan’s career that remains divisive, and the choice to cover it shows us that Miles is getting comfortable within a classic singer-songwriter and rock framework.
As a cover, “Unbelievable” succeeds because it does not need to compete with Dylan. Instead, it functions as a salute to the songwriting that influenced Miles while fitting naturally into the straightforward, classic-rock-minded sound he has been building. For modern audiences, it offers an opportunity to revisit an overlooked corner of Dylan’s catalogue.
https://www.facebook.com/davemilesartist/
Nost Enter Presents ‘Untitled’
Magdeburg-based indie performer Nost Enter draws us deep into an atmosphere of mystery and suspense with their debut EP, “Untitled” At a time when bedroom production is falling victim to expensive plug-ins, immaculate presets and obsessively polished mixes, this record heads in the opposite direction.
Nost Enter says the record was created using a computer keyboard and free VST plug-ins, and that modest setup is an important part of understanding what makes the project interesting. Each track is titled simplistically, but “Untitled Pt. 1” demonstrates an underlying complexity with echoing wind sounds that intensify and blend into percussion as the track progresses.
Bandcamp link: https://nostenter.bandcamp.com/album/untitled
“Untitled Pt. 2” takes a different direction as it feels less concerned with demonstrating what its creator owns than with seeing how much can be extracted from very little.
The synths create a shimmering atmosphere while a steady drum beat takes the lead. There is a handmade quality to the record that makes its electronic foundations feel personal. Instead of attempting to hide the circumstances under which it was produced, Nost Enter seems comfortable allowing them to become part of the aesthetic.
That approach naturally gives the EP some rough edges. “Untitled Pt. 3” explores the use of a steady drone that alternates with a pulsating ambient treble sound. There are moments where a more sophisticated production setup could probably have added greater depth, but those little imperfections give the EP a sense of character.
As “Untitled Pt. 4” comes to a close, it’s clear why Nost Enter chose that title for their record. Calling the project Untitled removes almost every piece of framing that might otherwise tell listeners what they are supposed to hear. The emphasis falls instead on texture, arrangement and experimentation, giving the EP that exploratory character of someone treating production software as an instrument of its own. t
For such an obscure release, Untitled feels like an intriguing introduction to Nost Enter. It captures an artist testing boundaries, figuring out which instincts are worth following and discovering how limitations can become a recognizable sound. We are yet to see a definitive statement from this artist, but Nost Enter stands as a reminder that personality can matter considerably more than the price of the tools used to create it.
Dusty Edinger Presents ‘Beginning to Break’
There is something particularly effective about a heartbreak song that refuses to sound defeated. On his new single “Beginning to Break,” Dusty Edinger takes the emotional exhaustion of watching a relationship deteriorate and sets it against a lively, guitar-driven rock arrangement.
The track wastes little time establishing its personality as the guitars arrive with purpose, built around a strong, memorable riff. The drums push the song forward with an almost restless momentum. The track feels active and urgent, as though the emotional collapse at its center has already gathered too much momentum to be stopped.
That contradiction between the upbeat tempo and downcast theme becomes the song’s greatest strength. The title tells you it’s all about that uncomfortable stage where cracks have become impossible to ignore, but some part of the relationship remains intact. The energetic instrumentation makes that uncertainty feel more immediate. Instead of looking back on heartbreak from a safe distance, you feel it happening in real time.
STREAMING:
https://open.spotify.com/track/1yEzOYKiHxeF44bq1dGaAL?si=f43c8bb5c23e4eb0
Edinger’s songwriting benefits from not overcomplicating that idea. His broader approach to lyrics has often involved mixing personal experience with enough ambiguity for listeners to find their own meaning in a song. “Beginning to Break” fits comfortably within that philosophy. Its emotional situation is recognizable without becoming so specific that the listener is kept at a distance.
If there is a limitation, it is also partly a consequence of the song’s accessibility. “Beginning to Break” does not appear interested in radically reinventing guitar-driven rock. Its pleasures are more traditional: a strong central riff, punchy rhythm section, memorable melodic construction and an emotional premise listeners can immediately understand. But that familiarity works because Edinger commits to it rather than dressing the song up unnecessarily.
With this single, Edinger recognizes that emotional breaking points are not always quiet moments of surrender; sometimes they arrive with frustration, adrenaline and the desperate urge to keep moving even when something important is falling apart behind you. Endinger reminds us that he’s an artist that knows his style and has perfected it.
ONLINE:
https://www.dustyedinger.com/
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https://www.youtube.com/@dustyedingermusic
Carla Marciano Presents “DAYDREAMING My Beloved Father GIOVANNI”
Born from grief and centered around inheritance, Carla Marciano’s “DAYDREAMING My Beloved Father GIOVANNI” is a compelling record that goes beyond simple feelings of loss. This is really an album about inheritance: the emotional habits, values, dreams and, above all, love of music that remain after somebody is gone.
Marciano created the record as a tribute to her late father Giovanni, the man she describes not only as a parent but as her first and “true music teacher.” As a child, she remembers him singing and playing guitar while she began playing recorder, experiences she credits with igniting her lifelong passion for music.
Marciano gives herself a suitably broad canvas on this album as it contains eight original compositions, with their own distinct styles. Marciano appears on alto and sopranino saxophones alongside her long-established collaborators Alessandro La Corte on keyboards, Aldo Vigorito on double bass and Gaetano Fasano on drums.
Marciano’s alto and sopranino act as the expressive center of music as the album opens with “Daydreaming;” a piece that starts out as dreamily as the name implies and intensifies as it progresses. The record moves into more ballad-like material with “Giovanni (Your Sweet Smile),” a tribute single that’s every bit as warm and mellow as its name implies.
Marciano shows her versatility with the improvisational spaces in works like “Flying” and the more expansive “Hypnagogic State,” which runs for nearly 12 minutes. A hypnagogic state exists between sleeping and waking, which fits beautifully with Marciano’s entire idea of “daydreaming”: the album repeatedly occupies that uncertain emotional territory in which somebody is physically absent yet remains vividly present in memory.
There is another small but meaningful touch in “We Stay at Home,” which incorporates a saxophone introduction based on Charles Trenet and Léo Chauliac’s “Que reste-t-il de nos amours?”, essentially, “What remains of our loves?” In the context of this album, that question could almost serve as its subtitle. Marciano’s answer is music.
Daydreaming feels less like music written for the dead and lands like music addressed to someone who remains present. Its subject is absence, certainly, but its language is gratitude. Marciano herself states she could not follow Giovanni into his profession as a doctor, but she did inherit his artistic spirit. DAYDREAMING My Beloved Father GIOVANNI turns that inheritance into perhaps the most personal statement of her career.
https://www.facebook.com/CarlaMarcianoMusic/
Kenneith Perrin New Single “Giving You All”
There is something refreshingly uncomplicated about the romance at the center of Kenneith Perrin’s new single, “Giving You All.” Rather than hiding affection behind irony or emotional detachment, Perrin embraces the kind of sweeping, wholehearted declaration that once formed the backbone of soul and R&B.
Released in June 2026, the single finds the Los Angeles artist drawing on the elegance of 1950s doo-wop and the polished grooves of early-1980s R&B, creating a love song that feels deliberately nostalgic without becoming trapped in the past. That meeting of eras is arguably the song’s defining strength, as “Giving You All” is built around smooth rhythm, warm instrumentation and prominent vocal harmonies.
Gal Bushy contributes guitar, keyboard bass and percussion, while Perrin handles both the lead and background vocals. The arrangement consequently gives his voice plenty of room to carry the song, with the stacked harmonies supplying the old-school vocal-group character that separates it from more conventional contemporary R&B.
Perrin’s vocal performance is where the record really comes alive. There is confidence in the way he delivers the song, but the subject demands vulnerability too. “Giving You All” is ultimately about taking the risk of giving someone your complete emotional commitment, and Perrin does not try to make that sentiment complicated. He leans into its sincerity, with vocal harmonies surrounding his lead and making the central declaration feel bigger and increasingly more assured as the track develops.
The production deserves credit for understanding what the song needs. At just over three minutes, the original version does not linger unnecessarily. Instead of piling audio engineering tricks onto the arrangement, it allows melody, groove and vocal interplay to do most of the work.
Perrin succeeds with “Giving You All” because it believes completely in the emotion it is selling. Perrin takes the warmth of classic vocal-group soul, folds it into an early-’80s R&B groove, and delivers the whole thing with the conviction of someone who sees sincerity as the more interesting artistic choice. For listeners who miss romantic R&B with genuine vocal warmth at its center, Kenneith Perrin has delivered something worth giving a little time to.
Kenneith Perrin New Single “Giving You All”
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Website: Kenneith Perrin
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Facebook: @kenneithperrinmusic
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Instagram: @kenneithperrin
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Twitter (X): @kenneithperrin
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TikTok: @officialkenneithperrin | @kenneithperrinfanclub
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YouTube: Kenneith Perrin KPN
Stream his music now on Spotify and all major platforms: Listen Here.
Ruby Greenberg Presents ‘The Light Behind’ Album
There is an unmistakable feeling of home running through Ruby Greenberg’s latest EP, “The Light Behind.” Across 5 tracks, she portrays home not as a physical place, but as something constructed from relationships, memories and eventually a sense of security within yourself. Against a warm acoustic-folk backdrop, Greenberg approaches those ideas with striking gentleness, lingering on ordinary moments until their significance begins to reveal itself.
Refusing to chase dramatic emotional payoffs is an aesthetic that suits Greenberg particularly well. The LA-based singer-songwriter spent close to a decade performing with various bands in New York before settling into Southern California’s folk scene. There is a sense of an artist finding the right surroundings for her voice here as she works with acoustic guitars, unhurried arrangements and melodies that allow the words to remain at the center.
TRACKS
1. I Carry You
2. Across the Sky
3. Pictures of Us
4. The House You Built
5. Trust Yourself
The album opens with “I Carry You,” a classic love song about a partner that you can always rely on. This sets the tone for the rest of the EP as it gives way to standout tracks like “Pictures of Us,” a lovely piece of acoustic folk built around the seemingly simple experience of moving into a new home. Greenberg uses that transition to talk about something much broader: the need to let parts of your old life go in order to create room for whatever comes next.
Even stronger is “The House You Built,” which explores the extraordinary comfort of finding one in another person. Specifically, it is about being in a friend’s house and experiencing the rare feeling of being completely safe there, able to relax without expectation or defense. The record closes with “Trust Yourself,” an uplifting track about self-confidence.
Greenberg is at her best when covers otherwise underexplored subjects in songwriting, as these moments showcase her skill for intimate storytelling and balancing nostalgia with optimism. Her voice is particularly effective across the EP because she does not oversell the sentiment. There is a soft, conversational quality to her delivery that makes every single feel like a memory being shared.
ONLINE:
https://www.rubygreenberg.com/
https://www.instagram.com/rubygreenb/
https://www.youtube.com/user/rubygreenberg
https://www.facebook.com/RubyGreenb
The Light Behind introduces Ruby Greenberg as a songwriter particularly skilled at discovering emotional weight in quiet moments. The arrangements leave room around her voice, the melodies favor warmth over instant hooks, and the writing is rooted in recognizable experiences rather than abstract declarations. This is a record of small illuminations that shows that simplicity can still yield great music.
Blind Uncle Harry Presents ‘Shambala Warrior’
Blind Uncle Harry takes an unexpectedly spiritual turn on his new single “Shambala Warrior.” His self-described brand of “hillbilly hippie shreddin’ folk rock” has traditionally mixed rough-edged Americana with satire, social commentary and an almost deliberately unvarnished performance style. But this time, Harry constructs a psychedelic folk meditation around compassion, enlightenment and the possibility of transformation.
Musically, the track expands Blind Uncle Harry’s folk-rock vocabulary considerably. The acoustic, roots-oriented foundations remain, but they are wrapped in Raga-like textures that give the arrangement a dreamy quality. The layered harmony vocals add a sense of scale that makes the song feel almost communal. There is a noticeable countercultural spirit running through it reminiscent of George Harrison’s work in the late-’60s.
STREAMING:
https://blinduncleharry.bandcamp.com/track/shambala-warrior-4
VIDEO:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygPJ4kZlNjw
The lyrics and concept are where the single becomes especially interesting. the Shambala Warrior is a mystical, prophetic figure associated with Tibetan Buddhist thought. It’s someone who has moved beyond ordinary existence but returns during a period of crisis to help humanity through compassion and love. According to Harry, the song is written in honor of a Bodhisattva-like figure in his life.
Blind Uncle Harry’s music has rarely depended upon pristine production or technical perfection. Much of its appeal comes from sounding spontaneous, human and slightly unruly. Shambala Warrior retains that character even while pushing into more atmospheric territory. The production therefore feels more interested in building a mood, and the instrumentation and psychedelic colors gather around the central rhythm rather than being arranged into something overly rigid.
Shambala Warrior is one of Blind Uncle Harry’s more intriguing stylistic detours. The folk foundations remain intact, but psychedelic textures, Eastern influences and expansive vocal harmonies give the track a different atmosphere from his more directly satirical material. It is messy, mystical and unmistakably Blind Uncle Harry: a countercultural folk song suggesting that perhaps the most radical response to a divided world is learning how to heal it.
ONLINE:
https://blinduncleharry.com/
https://blinduncleharry.bandcamp.com/
https://www.facebook.com/BlindUncleHarry/
Ruby & Sasha New Country-Folk Single “Red Light”
There is a point in a bad relationship when heartbreak gives way to clarity. Brooklyn-based duo Ruby & Sasha capture exactly this moment on their new single, “Red Light.” The warm, sharply written country-folk breakup song refuses to mourn what might have been, instead reflecting on the warning signs and the process of moving on.
Released on August 25, “Red Light” follows a narrator who has finally accepted that the man in front of her is simply inadequate. Instead of pleading for change or lingering over lost romance, Ruby & Sasha turn that realization into an exit sign. When you finally see the red light, it’s time to stop driving forward.
That simplicity is one of the song’s strongest qualities. “Red Light” deals with disappointment and carries vulnerability underneath the writing. However, the prevailing mood is knowing, slightly amused and increasingly self-assured. The humor gives the lyrics an extra sting because the subject Ruby & Sasha picked isn’t even evil or abusive. He’s just not worth the trouble.
Musically, the composition gives the song exactly the kind of environment its story needs. Acoustic guitars form the backbone, while a harmonica line steps in to fill out the arrangement. Those textures create an earthy, lived-in character rather than the overly polished sheen that can sometimes flatten contemporary country.
The vocals and melody are joined by bass and drums, while the pedal steel naturally pulls the track toward country. There’s a genre looseness here as Ruby & Sasha don’t opt into a single style of performance. The instruments function as colors around what remains fundamentally a singer-songwriter piece, and the production is only a means to serve that end.
The vocals on this track are particularly important because Ruby & Sasha’s chemistry is one of their defining qualities. The sisters having sung together since childhood, gives their music an intimacy that would be difficult to manufacture. But perhaps the most appealing thing about “Red Light” is its emotional perspective. Ruby & Sasha occupy the less frequently celebrated moment in between rage and regret: realizing you have already dealt with enough and deciding not to wait for one more disappointment.
For more on Ruby & Sasha, follow them on social media:
FOLLOW RUBY & SASHA:
Instagram | Spotify | TikTok
Ruby & Sasha understand that moving on does not always have to sound devastated. Sometimes the healthiest breakup song is the one that shrugs, laughs a little and finally walks out the door. With strong harmonies, an organic country-folk arrangement and enough lyrical bite to keep the sentiment from becoming sentimental, “Red Light” is yet another strong statement from these rising artists.
Mitch Marcus Presents ‘InAround’
With their latest album, “InAround,” the Mitch Marcus Quintet returns to a musical territory it has spent more than two decades making its own: a volatile meeting point between progressive jazz, post-bop, free improvisation and the harder textures of jazz-rock. Scheduled for release on September 18, the nine-track album reunites Marcus on tenor saxophone with Evan Francis on alto saxophone and flute, Jeff Miles on guitar, Peter Brendler on bass and Jerad Lippi on drums.
The most intriguing aspect of the InAround configuration is the conversation between Marcus’s tenor and Francis’s alto/flute. The two-saxophone design allows melodies to be stated in unison before fragmenting into separate voices, while Miles’s guitar then sits in an unusually flexible role: it can become another melodic voice, provide harmonic material underneath the horns or supply the rock-derived bite that takes the quintet’s work beyond orthodox acoustic post-bop.
The title piece opens the album, and “InAround” wastes no time setting the tone. With a runtime of nearly 11 minutes, every performer gets their shot at sharing the spotlight. True to its name, the piece moves inside, outside and around conventional jazz structures rather than simply abandoning them.
“4-7-11” is another standout track that adopts a more melodic approach than its predecessors. It moves through shifting rhythmic structures and abrupt changes of direction as Marcus treats instruments almost as characters. The tenor and alto can argue, agree, collide or finish each other’s sentences while bass and drums completely change the rhythmic landscape underneath it.
“Hope” emerges towards the album’s closing moments, providing a much-needed reprieve from the intensity, aggression and complexity of the earlier numbers. With its muted performance built around flute and percussion, this single acts as one of the album’s more reflective counterweights.
What makes InAround promising is the fact that very few groups occupy quite the same territory Mitch Marcus does. His melodies speak, the rhythmic changes create drama, and improvisation advances ideas rather than just decorating the composition. For those who like jazz restless, rhythmically adventurous, and willing to get messy, InAround looks like a substantial continuation of the jazz language Marcus has been refining since 1999.
https://www.mitchmarcusmusic.com
Kenny Foster Presents ‘Sideways Apocalypse’
Kenny Foster has a knack for crafting surprisingly inviting musical surroundings around uneasy ideas, and “Sideways Apocalypse” might be one of the clearest examples yet. The song explores the quiet experience of watching life become strange, unstable and increasingly difficult to make sense of.
Foster approaches the material with an understated indie-pop sensibility, allowing melody and his relaxed vocal delivery to carry much of the emotional weight. Rather than trying to overpower the listener, his voice has a conversational quality that makes the song feel personal. The song has an unusually soothing character despite being about the slow realization that things have been going wrong for quite some time.
STREAMING:
https://open.spotify.com/track/2v1MTiZSjSpJ94ur1bVxif?si=5d05bf7e9f8b4039
VIDEO:
https://youtu.be/Xqu87J9qQnw?si=yaS-YqDQsEiM1UlS
There is also a slightly warped quality to Foster’s songwriting that keeps the track from becoming conventional singer-songwriter fare. It’s melodic enough to be immediately approachable, but just strange enough around the edges to reflect the uncertainty contained in its title. The arrangement and melodic concept are supported by the track’s understated production. It rarely goes beyond balancing the mix, allowing the dreamy vocals to shine.
The cleverest aspect of the song may therefore be its refusal to make an apocalypse sound particularly apocalyptic. Disaster does not necessarily arrive with explosions and sirens; sometimes normal life simply becomes incrementally more surreal until dysfunction itself begins to feel normal. Even the official video reinforces that interpretation, depicting Foster moving through life as it glitches out around him.
ONLINE:
https://linktr.ee/kennyfoster
https://www.facebook.com/kenneth.n.forrester
https://www.instagram.com/kenneth.n.forrester/
It is another intriguing release from an artist who increasingly seems comfortable operating between indie pop, soft rock and more eccentric experimental songwriting. “Sideways Apocalypse” doesn’t need to scream that everything is falling apart. Foster’s more compelling idea is that perhaps the strangest apocalypse is the one people simply continue living through.
Sharon Katz Presents ‘Desert Air featuring Afrika Mamas’
Sharon Katz has spent much of her career making borders feel musically irrelevant. Her latest release, “Desert Air” continues that tradition, featuring South African rhythms alongside jazz, folk, rock and international influences. Recorded across Durban, Todos Santos and San Diego, the six-track release brings together South African musicians with collaborators from the United States and Mexico, giving the music a genuinely cross-continental character.
Katz’s guitar is joined by Qhubekani Mthethwa’s bass, Charles Boykie Mnomiya’s drums, Debbie Mari’s keyboards, George Mari’s flugelhorn and David Church’s saxophone, but the instrumentation is designed to complement rather than overwhelm. The songs favor warmth, groove and human interaction over sonic spectacle.
It is available on all favorite streaming services: https://sharonkatzthepeacetrain.hearnow.com/desert-air
“Oh Baby Baby” provides the project’s most immediate burst of energy. Its rolling rhythm and call-and-response interplay between Katz and Afrika Mamas give the song the communal quality that has always suited The Peace Train particularly well. Thematically, it’s a simple reminder to not to leave affection unspoken, and that simplicity works because the performance supplies the character.
“Someone to Love” moves into smoother territory as David Church’s saxophone and Debbie Mari’s keyboards push the song toward mellow Afro-jazz. Mnomiya’s drumming keeps the arrangement gently moving beneath Katz’s vocal, creating a sense of softness with plenty happening underneath.
The title track, “Desert Air,” provides the EP’s thematic center. Featuring Wendy Quick alongside Katz, it turns its attention toward the natural world and the need to preserve what the Earth provides. “Turn the Page” provides a fitting finish as it discusses leaving old patterns behind. Mthethwa’s bass provides the foundation while Katz brings in distorted guitar and George Mari adds flugelhorn, resulting in one of the EP’s more unusual instrumental combinations.
After a record built largely on breezy warmth, the rougher guitar textures toward the end send a simple message. Change requires the willingness to step outside familiar structures. If there is a weakness, it comes from the same quality that makes Desert Air so inviting. Its gentleness occasionally risks becoming too comfortable.
Desert Air isn’t trying to reinvent Sharon Katz & The Peace Train. It distils what the group already does particularly well: South African rhythmic foundations, warm ensemble playing, and socially conscious songwriting. Katz has built a record that’s deliberately human-scaled and played by musicians who recognize that conversation matters.
