With “Bel Esprit,” Canary Complex opens another ornate doorway into its imaginary world, where gothic romance, baroque grandeur and visual kei sensibilities meet in a haze of beauty and melancholy. The project of American musician and artist Canary Kasey draws inspiration from the dramatic aesthetics of Japanese visual kei. He…

Brian Asha’s “Mighty Man (Jack De Keyzer’s Rock’n’Roll Remix)” serves up a gritty blues-rock anthem with a distinctive personality. Bringing together two-time Juno Award-winning guitarist Jack De Keyzer and Grammy-winning producer Philip Larsen, Asha transforms his original 2013 electro-driven composition into something considerably rougher around the edges, blending old-school blues…

“Oh, Human Destiny,” the opening piece in Ukrainian violinist and composer Sergiy Bolotny’s triptych cycle Echoes on Ukrainian Themes is bound to unsettle you. Bolotny ventures into harsher, more uncomfortable territory, with a cold, mechanical soundscape that feels and profoundly human in its sorrow.  The strings arrive with a stripped-back,…

Forget delicate string arrangements and pretty classical flourishes; STRIONIC wants to make the strings feel like something you could physically collide with. The self-titled single, the fourth track from THE STRUCTURE I ~ Where the Light Falls ~, plunges into a dark, uncompromising soundscape where orchestral instrumentation becomes a source…

Time has a funny way of changing what matters most, and Reading indie-rock outfit The Race captures that shift beautifully on FAMILY, a four-track EP shaped by parenthood, ageing, friendship, faith, and the ties that keep us grounded. Having reunited in 2024 after a lengthy hiatus, the band returns with…

Zoe Roarz doesn’t seem interested in asking permission to make a racket, and thank goodness for that. The Kansas City-born, Los Angeles-area alt-rocker has built her sound around gritty guitars, head-banging grooves, and vocals that can switch from melodic cool to full-throated growls and howls. Her debut full-length album, What…

Romattic’s “Candy Smoking” serves up a deliciously twisted love song, wrapping toxic infatuation in a punchy alt-rock package that’s as addictive as the relationship it describes. The Norwegian project, formed by singer-songwriter Theodor Andreas Halmrast and producer Tommy Duong, blends different generations of rock influences, mixing nostalgic grit with a…

Adam Aultman’s “That Pressure” makes a compelling case for letting the music do the talking. The independent composer and multi-instrumentalist from Wood River, Illinois, builds a smooth yet mysterious atmosphere, drawing listeners into a soundscape that feels less like a conventional instrumental and more like a scene from a film…

Some musical discoveries are worth the wait, even if that wait stretches across three decades. Washington, DC’s The Generation proves just that with “Don’t Know About You,” one half of a long-overdue debut single that brings the band’s melodic, punky pop spirit back to life. Rooted in the city’s legendary…

There’s something deliciously hypnotic about “Float Over Here,” the opening song from Standing with a Ghost by Burton D’Agostini Procedure.  Built around clean, plucked guitar chords that shimmer through a hazy atmosphere, the track gradually pulls you into its moody embrace, with rumbling, hard-hitting beats adding a muscular pulse beneath…

What happens when humanity stares into the abyss and dares to ask what lies beyond? London-based artist Antoin Gibson tackles that unsettling question on The Rise and Fall of Eternity, a five-track conceptual EP that blends alternative pop, dark electronics, industrial textures, and introspective hip-hop into an existential odyssey. Rather…

With democracy wobbling, climate anxiety mounting, and political promises wearing thinner by the day, Forgotten Garden turn contemporary disillusionment into something surprisingly easy to get lost in. “Civilisation,” released on October 16, 2026, finds the Scottish-Portuguese indie duo confronting humanity’s troubling direction without sacrificing the melodic pull that makes their…