ROCK/Review The Shrubs – Fall Behind

ROCK/Review The Shrubs – Fall Behind

I must say that Fall behind came as a great surprise to me. The Shrubs of Houston have made it feel like you have found a rare jewel in a dusty record store–you know it at once but you are very much surprised. It is something extraordinary that Miguel, Josh,...

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ROCK/Review Purbeck Temple – Emptiness In Paradise

ROCK/Review Purbeck Temple – Emptiness In Paradise

Something crude and so painfully stimulating about the “Emptiness In Paradise” by Purbeck Temple that catches your ear already with the first note. This is the weight in the voice of Paul Gill; it is gravelly and soaring, pained but persistent, which makes one believe every single word the man...

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Rock/Review The Bar Pilots – Box of Bows

Rock/Review The Bar Pilots – Box of Bows

The Bar Pilots have something brilliantly nostalgic about their Box of Bows that instantly transports you to the hazy days of the 90s with the alternative rock, but with a sharper and more modern touch. The instrumentals are moody, immediate, which is power pop with actual muscle in it, reminding...

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Pop-Rock/Review David DeSantis – The Light You Know

Pop-Rock/Review David DeSantis – The Light You Know

This is the contagiousness of the energy of David DeSantis in the opening of his song The Light You Know that grabs your attention at the very beginning. You can feel that guitar riff right at the beginning–catchy and self-assured–it echoes the vocals in the verse in this witty yet...

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Pop-Rock/Review Sean MacLeod – Romeo

Pop-Rock/Review Sean MacLeod – Romeo

The manner in which Sean MacLeod writes his songs is so wonderfully intimate, and this song, Romeo, is an excellent example of it. Based on his extensive musical background, those early days with the legendary Dublin-based Cisco, and his experience with the former producer of U2, Paul Barrett, MacLeod has...

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Dark Pop/Review Tralalas – Burns

Dark Pop/Review Tralalas – Burns

This is hypnotic about music that is not in a hurry and Danish dark-pop project TRALALAS knows that. The second single by Morten Alsinger, the songwriter of the upcoming debut album, is a three and a half minute meditation on how flexible emotions are, how loss and gain, friendship and...

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ROCK/Review Social Gravy – Fools

ROCK/Review Social Gravy – Fools

Some songs are time capsules. Other ones are warnings that continue to prove themselves true. The Fools by Social Gravy belongs to the latter category, initially written before a presidential election and later republished several years later due to the fact that, as the Los Angeles duo themselves says, the...

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ROCK/Review Bevin – You Don't Decide

ROCK/Review Bevin – You Don’t Decide

There is the protest songs and then there is the manifesto-in-music. The You Don’t Decide by Bevin squarely belongs to the second category, being a fearless statement of physical independence that does not demand permission or dilute its edges to make it popular with the general audience. It is all...

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ROCK/Review Purbeck Templ – The Agoraphobia Files

ROCK/Review Purbeck Templ – The Agoraphobia Files

There are those albums that are based on vanity. Others are lifelines. The Agoraphobia Files by Paul Gill under the pseudonym Purbeck Temple is unquestionably the latter, a thirteen-track testament in defense of patience that emerged out of trauma and was moulded by years of loneliness, recovery and unassailable resolution....

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ROCK/Review Daph Veil – Bloodsucker

ROCK/Review Daph Veil – Bloodsucker

At some point in all the unhealthy relationships, there comes a time when the mask becomes unveiled and you are exposed to all inside the costume. Released under her Daph Veil project, Paula Laubach describes that moment in her piece, Bloodsucker, doesn’t simply describe it, but instead soundtracks the whole...

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ROCK/Review The House Flies – Sweet Foxhound

ROCK/Review The House Flies – Sweet Foxhound

Music is magic, there is a certain type of restlessness and meditation that they have perfectly caught on The House Flies on Sweet Foxhound. It is not only the first single they have released since their popular Mannequin Deposit, but the shadows are darker and the lines even sharper. The...

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FOLK POP/Review Fiona Amaka – Honesty (Psalm 139)

FOLK POP/Review Fiona Amaka – Honesty (Psalm 139)

It is somehow disarming when a bluesy rock artist and an exploration of betrayal turns into a spiritual vulnerability and makes it sound this natural. The first Christian song written by Fiona Amaka, Honesty (Psalm 139), is an accomplishment in itself in terms of its authenticity and accessibility, and that...

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