Reviews

There’s nothing subtle about Fiori del Male—and frankly, that’s their strength. Emerging from Rome with decades of politically driven work behind them, the group has long treated music as a form of confrontation rather than escape. “Allarme rosso nel golfo persico,” originally written during the 1991 Gulf Crisis, resurfaces in…

There’s no neat little label that fits Storm Boy, and honestly, that’s the point. Hailing from Olympia’s DIY circuit, the four-piece, Chas Roberts, Jeremy Anderson, Charli Beaumont, and Kuba Bednarek, lean into chaos, collaboration, and that sweat-drenched live energy that turns shows into shared release. Their 2026 full-length Beast Machine…

There’s a lived-in, almost literary charm to Greg Roensch’s Down at the Polystereophonic Dive Bar, an album that feels less like a playlist and more like a place you wander into and stay awhile. A songwriter with roots in poetry and flash fiction, Roensch builds songs the way a storyteller…

There’s a certain stubborn authenticity driving MOMARZ’s The Theory—a project that leans into self-made production and rejects shortcuts in favor of hands-on craft. Built entirely through GarageBand and shaped by tools like the Yamaha P-125 and KORG microKEY, the upcoming 16-track release (due May 28) thrives on piano-rooted structures wrapped…

There’s something intriguingly unconventional about the way Lucian Lacewing approaches music, more like a sonic architect piecing together fragments of feeling. Hailing from Bristol, he makes his debut with “Land Of Enchantment,” a track that doesn’t follow a traditional path so much as it drifts, swirls, and slowly reveals itself.…

There’s something undeniably electric about a project that taps into rock history while still kicking dust into the present, and DownTown Mystic’s On E Street Remix EP does exactly that. Built around a rare collaboration with the legendary rhythm section of the E Street Band, this six-track release retools it…

There’s something devastating about Stephanie Westdal’s “On The Video” that lets betrayal sink in slowly, like a tide you didn’t notice rising. Rooted in the fragile intimacy of creative partnerships, the song draws from the unspoken pact between collaborators that says we’re in this together, only to unravel it when…

Following the buzz of her reimagining of David Bowie’s “I’m Afraid of Americans,” Kaylif pivots into a seven-track cycle with Call of the Yoni, which enters as a carefully staged rite. Drawing on Sufi philosophy, particularly Ibn Arabi, and weaving together oud, ney, rabab, chamber strings, and sparse electronics, she…

There’s something refreshingly no-frills about PJD, a one-man operation out of Birmingham who’s done the rounds as a session guitarist before deciding to go fully solo, handling everything from writing to production himself. That DIY spirit runs straight through “On New Horizons,” the debut single from A New Religion, a…

There’s a quietly magnetic sincerity running through Lucija Grabovac’s debut album Smile, that settles in slowly, like sunlight through Dalmatian trees. Emerging from Zadar, Croatia, and already balancing work with the a cappella group A.K.A. Crescendo and country trio No Ordinary, she steps into solo territory with a record. With…