MUSIC REVIEWS

Strings of Atlas’ new (EP) How Far We’ve Come

Strings of Atlas’ new EP How Far We’ve Come With a guttural guitar’s venomously distorted melody to lead the way, “Gone Away,” the opening cut in Strings of Atlas’ new EP How Far We’ve Come, comes to life with a ferociousness that will only grow stronger with each passing moment this firestorm …

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Mike Rickard releases “Out Loud” LP

As velvety and accessible as it is driven by a stirring poetry, the vocal that Mike Rickard lays down in “Taste Your Smile,” one of the smoother cuts from his album Out Loud, is perhaps the most sterling component that this phenomenally captivating track has for us to behold, but while …

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Gordy Hunt’s Mood Swings LP

Though nestled against a backdrop as vibrant and vivacious as the bright lights of Vegas amidst the arid desert night, the vocal harmony in “Point of View,” one of the new songs on Gordy Hunt’s Mood Swings LP, is as much of a sonic centerpiece as listeners could have hoped for in …

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Luis Mojica releases How a Stranger is Made (LP)

Piano keys dance around us to a gentle but unsuspectingly eviscerating beat in “Invoked.” Drums crash into the instrumental entanglement fashioned as a foundational harmony in “Insane.” Luis Mojica circles us with a vibrant vocal like a shark sizing up its prey before going in for the kill in “De …

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Star Fish Prime (LP) by The Grunions

If ever there was a time to be transported to a world ripe with surf guitars, swanky sax and crisp drumming, this is it. The Grunions, a misfit group from Montreal, has it covered. Oddly named after a sardine-sized fish species, The Grunions worm their way around jazz, lounge music …

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Badgertrap’s new LP Man Shed Head Crisis (LP) 

Presented in a half-whisper in “Cat Food Fairy” while offered up in an Alex Dingley-style punkish croon in “How Long,” Badgertrap’s vocal in his new LP Man Shed Head Crisis is easily one of the record’s most fascinatingly hypnotic elements to behold, but as intriguing as it undeniably is, it’s but one …

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Thermal and a Quarter release “Leaders of Men” (single)

The sinewy understated groove of Thermal and a Quarter’s latest single “Leaders of Men” might prod some listeners to recall Dire Straits finest songwriting due to Bruce Lee Mani’s near deadpan vocal and Tony Das’ tight economical guitar work. The similarities end there however. Culled from their eighth studio album A …

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Mike Dekleva’s Psychedelia EP

With a swift kick in the drums and a heartily swinging guitar riff to lead the way, Mike Dekleva’s Psychedelia opens up with a title cut that is as entrancing as its name would suggest it to be, and inside of the song’s three minutes and change, we’re introduced to a funkier …

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Kingdom Illusion (LP) by Whiskerman

Though as powerful as the riffs beside it in “Fuck Yeah” and yet approachably melodic in the title track from Kingdom Illusion, the lead vocal in Whiskerman’s all-new album is hardly the conventional linchpin some would expect it to be in a record as ambitious as this one is, but it’s …

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Reach Out (LP) by Envisage Collective

In the aptly-titled “Envisage,” one of the eight songs available to us on the new album Reach Out from jazz collaborators Envisage Collective, melodies come slipping out of the darkness like shadows beneath the city lights, luring listeners into a haze of scattered harmonies that are dreamlike and lush (to put …

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