Reviews

Don Eastland calls his sound “New Nostalgia,” and “Cafe Chronicles” is a fitting example of what that means. Released September 4, the indie synth-pop track takes the warmth of retro electronics and places it inside a story about wandering, belonging and discovering connection among strangers. It feels like a memory…

Tomek Zdyb steps into a new artistic era with “Don’t Look ‘Em In The Eyes,” turning the myth of Medusa into a sharp metaphor for idolization, manipulation and losing sight of your own worth. The Opole, Poland-based singer-songwriter has built his music around emotional honesty and stories about experiences that…

Aaron Thompson’s “Swing That Hammer” turns a civic message into something far more inviting than a political lecture. The Sacramento songwriter and multi-instrumentalist builds the track around a simple idea, use the tools you have, do the work and, when it is time, vote. The hammer becomes a metaphor for…

John Muka Band’s “Bus Stop” arrives from another era, but its questions feel strikingly current. Originally written in the early 2000s amid the fear and uncertainty surrounding 9/11, the Jacksonville indie-rock/Americana band’s latest single finds a new home in a world where people can communicate constantly and still feel strangely…

Estrada Music Project turns confinement into something strangely hypnotic with “Looking Out the Window,” the first glimpse of an upcoming full-length album. Written during a period of medical isolation, the song lingers in the peculiar headspace of having nowhere to go, watching ordinary life continue beyond the glass while time…

Miko X finds a hypnotic groove in “MOTION,” the second single from his forthcoming third album and a bass-heavy rap track built for swagger, repetition and relentless forward movement. Produced by Benji Prod., the track wraps its brash confidence around a surprisingly broad idea: whether life is going forward or…

C’batch turns one musical idea into another on “Our Little Pooh Pea (The Last Light) 4 – Cinematic,” an instrumental that feels like watching a familiar memory through a completely different lens. The White Plains composer, guitarist, and producer has taken a guitar solo originally performed over his composition “Round…

Loose Goose have turned frustration into fuel on Going Nowhere Fast, an album that sounds like four musicians finally deciding they have had enough of worrying about where they are supposed to be going. The Gold Coast alt-rock four-piece, Ryan Barwick, Max Humphrey, Wil Wood and Greg Pheasant, originally entered…

The Masquerade feels like a love letter to the darker corners of the internet-era music scene—the kind of songs you might once have stumbled across late at night and immediately felt belonged to you. Drawing from the emotional intensity of Evanescence, Paramore, Christina Perri, and Avril Lavigne, this five-track EP…

There is something wonderfully strange about music that feels less like it was recorded in a studio and more like it was discovered somewhere in the wilderness. Man From The Woods has built precisely that kind of atmosphere. The enigmatic English artist, best known for “Migration Song,” which found a…