When reviewing a music release, I prefer delving straight into the meat (i.e. the music). But sometimes, the band’s story is so unique and/or inspiring that I feel compelled to share it. This is the case with a band I just discovered, Boy + Kite (pronounced boys plus kite), a band that started strong, opening… Read More Music Review: Boy + Kite – ‘Blueprint’ EP
While there is a certain joy in discovering edgy music that reimagines the rules, there is another type of joy in discovering music that is new and fresh but sounds deliciously familiar. Scott Krokoff’s latest EP, the adult contemporary Realizations and Declarations, Vol. 2, is a collection of familiar sounds that come off as new… Read More Music Review: Scott Krokoff – ‘Realizations and Declarations, Vol. 2’ EP
Louise Aubrie is a London-born musician who splits her time between her hometown and New York City. Her third album, Late 44, brings together indie post-punk roots with rock and pop melodies, the kind of which might remind listeners of other female-led punk bands from the United Kingdom. Tom Edwards (guitars), Boz Boorer (guitars), Joe… Read More Music Review: Louise Aubrie – ‘Late 44’
This six-song EP, titled Morphine, is the brainchild of Phoenix heavy psychedelic rock/metal group The Oxford Coma. Recorded live, Morphine is indeed psychedelic in its intensity and the auditory distortions that feature it. The three members of the band, Billy Tegethoff (guitar and lead vocals), James Williams (bass and vocals), and Anthony Chamberlain (drums), take… Read More Music Review: The Oxford Coma – ‘Morphine’ EP
Delta Deep is a project headed by Phil Collen of Def Leppard. Collen brought together Rob DeLeo (bassist for Stone Temple Pilots), Forrest Robinson (drummer for TLC and India Arie), and Debbi Blackwell-Cook (background vocals for Michael Bublé and Gregory Hines). Their self-titled album, released June 23, 2015, features special guests Paul Cook (drummer for… Read More Music Review: Delta Deep – ‘Delta Deep’
Monterey (California) band Direct Divide, makers of what they call “violin intensified rock”, are releasing next month their five-song EP Own Your Ocean. Members Razz (strings and vocals), Kevin Proctor (guitar, synth, and keyboards) and Valdemar Huguet (drums) have created an almost cinematic sounding set of tracks that will appeal to lovers of Muse and… Read More Music Review: Direct Divide – ‘Own Your Ocean’ EP
The nine tracks on Kings of the Brushwood Thicket’s debut album, The Lies You Leave Behind, more or less follow the laid-back style of “He Was a Man”, the release’s first single. They are all stripped down to an almost bare minimum without sacrificing the richness of the final sound. The album, released earlier this… Read More Music Review: Kings of the Brushwood Thicket – ‘The Lies You Leave Behind’
“Liberator”—that’s what the album’s title, Eleutherios, means in Greek. I’m not quite sure what Nic Nassuet had in mind with this title, but it could be that he is trying to both liberate himself from the restraints imposed by today’s music standards, while at the same time free himself from various demons and ghosts that… Read More Music Review: Nic Nassuet – ‘Eleutherios’
Electropop/indie/pop artist Mpathy (real name Mikael Hirsch), hailing from Boston, is also aptly enough, a scientist. He describes his songwriting process as similar to the way he plans his experiments. Songs first come swirling into his consciousness amidst a flurry of notes and sounds, forcing him to eventually develop a procedure through which he moves… Read More Music Review: Mpathy – ‘The Golden Boy’ EP
Swedish band Slim Loris is set to release its third studio album, Love and Fear, later this month. Band members Mattias Cederstam (vocals, bass), Robert Barrefelt (guitars), Leon Lindström (backing vocals, guitars), and Jonas Ellenberg (drums) manage to fuse together quite a hodgepodge of sounds on it: 1960s British invasion influence, melancholy, peppiness, pop flavours,… Read More Music Review: Slim Loris – ‘Love and Fear’