The sense of nostalgia in music is extremely specific, and Michellar of San Francisco manages to replicate it with The Star so easily. It is not much of an experience like listening to a song but rather an opening of an ancient photograph that you have forgotten, where the corners are warm and the memory is glowing. Produced on several […]
Pop/Review Rellyo Bambini – Cloned and Upgraded, Insert Soul Here
But what is authenticity anyway anymore, when all things in the world are duplicable, filtered, upgraded, endlessly recombinable? That is the question which, though faintly humming, is never absent in Cloned and Upgraded, Insert Soul Here by Rellyo Bambini. It is never given to the form of a thesis or a concept that you are expected to work out. Instead, […]
Metal/Review Baby and the Beats – The beat
There is something truly refreshing in the way Belgian trio, Baby and the Beats have created with The Beat; a song that is filled with the type of energised feeling that its title suggests. This is not a rhythmic piece of music, it is rhythm, it transfers me into the millions of natural and biological patterns that dictate our lives […]
Pop/Review Giuseppe Cucé – 21grammi
Not all albums play but breathe, and the 21grammi by Giuseppe Cuce sounds like it has been breathing, as the experience compressed and condensed into sound. Something made by Cuce of Catania sits in that indefinite, unstable place between confession and art, and it investigates the invisible burdens we all have to bear through loss and memory and the silent […]
ROCK/Review ENAVE – Skeletons
Some songs do not play, they explode, and ENAVEs Skeletons explodes like an orchestrated blast in the shut rooms of the soul. This is music to distract, not to ignore but to invite you to see all that you have closed behind closed doors and hope that silence would make them fade away. The song has a take hold of […]
ROCK/Review Ratlehole – Franz and Sissi: Back to Schönbrunn
What would become of the wonderful imperial couple of Austria when they appear in the modern Vienna and discover their palace full of tourists? Austrian project Ratlehole provides the answer to this question with the gloriously absurd theatrical metal, and the outcomes are as entertaining as they are surprising. The opening note of Franz and Sissi: Back to Schonbrunn are […]
ROCK/Review GLASS CABIN – emmylou
The Glass Cabin of Nashville have created something that is really substantial with emmylou, a third studio album that does not follow the route of easy consolation. This is Americana wrapped in black – bourbon-streaked, philosophical, and eager to crawl inside the moral gray areas that lurk beneath the disguise of romantic devastation. The voice of Jess Brown requires no […]
ROCK/Review Moon Construction Kit – Chemicals
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 […]