At some time it becomes too much in itself, and the Chemicals, the last song of Moon Construction Kit that Lausanne-based artist Olivier Cornu created, appears to have reached that specific brink of breaking. It is not a song to listen when one is weak, rather, it is like being thrown into a room when all the feelings are screaming […]
ROCK/Review Filip Dahl – Learning to Breathe Again
The recovery process hardly comes with trumpets. It comes more frequently without noise, as air in lungs after a long submarine excursion – and Norwegian musician Filip Dahl knows it without need of explanation. Learning to Breath Again is wordless, and even the guitar has to be more articulate than the language that stutter in its attempt to convey things. […]
Pop/Review Jari Salmikivi – Chasing Stars
There are those songs where you get inspired seemingly within a second, as though you have just made a sudden leap into the air, and that is what “Chasing Stars” accomplishes at the very start. Jari Salmikivi has created something that is at the same time intimate and broad expansive as to look up at the night sky and realise […]
Pop/Review Michellar– Truth Over Lies featuring Frankie El
There are songs that come not as entertainment but like a conversation that we are so desperately in need to have but it is done on a channel of melody instead of verbal. Precisely the same is offered in Truth over Lies. The partnership between Michelle Bond, Michael Levine and Matthias Schmidt was the result of a creative retreat held […]
EDM/Review Allan Jamisen – Gotta Do
Some songs are phoenixes out of ashes and the fire that Allan Jamisen is burning in his song, Gotta Do, is the same fire. This song was written in a period of intense self-research, and it does not show signs of trauma – it exudes strength. It is what occurs when the darkness is fueled instead of hindrance. The intro […]
COUNTRY/Review Michellar – We both can fall featuring Gracie Lou
It has a courageous sincerity that runs through Michellar in her song, We Both Can Fall, and instantly identifies it. It is not a refined, idealised view of relationships, it is a crude, harsh view of the reality of struggling to keep love alive with life tugging you in opposite ways. The vulnerability of the vocals is the first thing […]
COUNTRY/Review Clinton Belcher – Stay With Me
Something about “Stay With Me” is so superbly daring, as the newest release by Clinton Belcher that is filling the gap between power ballad and modern Country Rock with a great deal of boldness. It is not a mere love song but a passionate utterance that starts with small confidences and goes all the way to stadiums. The first thing […]
Pop/Review Eylsia Nicolas– Hot Hot Christmas
Why does Christmas have to have snow and jumpers? Eylsia Nicolas has brought the ideal antidote to the old-time fare with the yuletide season with a brilliantly paced song, Hot Hot Christmas, which redefines the holidays with palm trees and warm skies. This song is exuding contagious energy since the first bars. The energetic use of instruments evokes a cheerful […]
Pop/Review TaniA Kyllikki – I Promise I’ll Wait For You
Something about I Promise I’ll Wait For You, the new single of British singer-songwriter TaniA Kyllikki, is deeply touching. It is not any other love song but a heartfelt statement that reaches directly to the soul, touching on the desire and the beauty of loving someone when you are apart by impossible distances. The first thing that catches your attention […]
ROCK/Review Audren – When Freedom Dies
Something truly intriguing about the newest work by Audren, When Freedom Dies, is the fact that it is captivating. This is not just a protest song – it is much more subtle and much more intimate and much more touching. The song begins with hypnotic and mysterious sound that instantly invites you in giving you a feeling of refuge. You […]
ROCK/Review Sean MacLeod – Cool Charisma
Sean MacLeod has created something quite special with his track “Cool Charisma,” one that is able to be simultaneously refreshingly contemporary and nostalgic. This new record is a clear indication that the former Cisco frontman has not lost his way in writing catchy pop tunes and this new release shows exactly why he has managed to forge a successful solo […]
Pop/Review Neodym – Insta
It is immediately striking, near disarmingly self-aware, about the new song by Polish electronic artist Neodym, the song titled INSTA. Many dance songs get you lost in the rhythm and forget the world momentarily, though this song does it in a more advanced manner. It gives you a reason to think when your entire body is in motion to do […]
ROCK/Review RISE – Lost for words
With a song that undergoes a complete change of heartbreak into heartbreak power, RISE have provided something truly refreshing with Lost For Words. This four-member ensemble has the correct formula on how to create melodic rock that strikes hard but is also accessible enough to catch on in an oversaturated rock scene. What catches your attention at the first look […]
Dream Pop/Review Junifer – Thoughts For The Night
It is rather quiet and breathtaking how the little things that build up until a house becomes a real home occur in small groupings, moments that you never really notice are building your life until you take a moment to look and see. That is what Junifer manages to capture so beautifully in Thoughts For The Night. It is tender […]
Pop/Review San Sebastian – Imaginary Lover
The outcome of the experience of San Sebastian in his Swedish Idol has produced something truly interesting. Imaginary Lover is a bold step by the Stockholm artist as it incorporates a modern contemporary electronic pop and unexpectedly insightful comment upon contemporary relationships, both natural and artificial. What at once impresses you is the voice of Sebastian tuneful and expressive and […]
COUNTRY/Review Ulrich Jannert – Wander Still
Something very comforting about “Wander Still” – almost as though you have found a compass exactly when you thought you are going in circles. Being the title song on the new album of Ulrich Jannert, it eschews precisely what he does so well, in turning the most existential questions of life into a song that is like the most beloved […]
Pop/Review MrGeorge – Light in your Eyes
There is a kind of song that does not just play in the background and instead it transports you to a different world altogether and that is what Light In your eyes by MrGeorge does. It is the type of synth-wave that makes one feel like they have entered a time capsule and everything is awakening with that warm, nostalgic […]
ROCK/Review Tom Minor – Bring Back the Good Ol’ Boys
Tom Minor has given us something wonderfully subversive with bring back the good ol boys – a song which actually dances and at the same time hits us upside down with its spot-on critique of our collective amnesia in the face of darker patterns in history. Protest music camouflaged as a singalong, and the better it is disguised the better. […]
Pop-Rock/Review HorthWorld – Fumes
Something truly refreshing about music that embodies the contradictions of life, its daily mundane and heartfelt nature, is the ability to do it with humour and heart, and that is what Andrew Horth achieves in his song “Fumes”. This is high-energy indie rock that is unashamedly optimistic, rather than cynical, but he is just a marvel of constantly chaotic reality […]
ROCK/Review Moon and Aries – Closer to You
This is the rare aspect of music that is both vintage and absolutely modern and Moon and Aries have done just that with Closer to You. It is the most cinematically ambitious project they have thus far completed, a noir-pop anthem which spurts with classiness and dramatic conflict. The vocal performance by the character of Jordana Moon is unbelievable at […]
Pop-Rock/Review Julia Kate – be nice princess
It is one thing to see a person that you had a connection with turn cold and Julia Kate has managed to nail that pain down in the song be nice princess. Here the Los Angeles singer-songwriter has presented something truly refreshing, a pop song, and one that is fun and angry at the same time, a production that knows […]