MUSIC REVIEWS

Mark D. Conklin’s  EP Starting Over opens with its title track and the lines “ I’ve spent half my life hanging on/and the other letting go”. You know immediately, coupled with the steady foot on the drum kit, the sinewy guitar and slide guitar, that this is going to be a winner. …

It’s been a decade since his last solo album, but don’t let the length of time fool you when it comes to guitarist Cary Park’s new record Cary Park 2 (StarPointe Records). The wait has been worth it – the first track released is “You Matter To Me”, a deeply …

“Cause it’s hot in the city / It’s so hot in the city / You know it’s hot in the city / And I just can’t stand the heat” croons a seductive Julie Amici in the song “Hot in the City,” one of the cornerstone tracks on her new album …

In his new single, “My Internet Lover,” multitalented artist Des Cox brings listeners an excerpt from his zany, ninety minute stage show in the form of a slow-rolling composition fit for listeners of all ages. As eclectic as his personality is, Cox’s “My Internet Lover” is definitely a pop-influenced number …

In his new album Passionate Presence, guitarist and songwriter Anthony Rufo delivers a supremely guitar-driven combination of rock, pop, blues and jazz tracks inside of a streamlined setlist fit for the spring season. Bursting at the seams with more color than a rainbow, Passionate Presence gushes with grooves in “We Can’t Connect” and …

At the age of 27, Sam Kempe, the multi-instrumentalist behind the moniker Pinewood, shows wisdom and experience in finding his audience. His four-song EP, All Things With Symmetry, is all things under the spell of this talented Georgian. Defining his own way, and taking the leap from band to solo artist, …

Strutting to a groove as sly as it is intriguingly exotic, Ivan Comar and Gabriele Saro’s collaborative single “Open Your Eyes” starts to fill the air around us with a supple harmony. The vocals are as soft as silk, the beat sturdy and formidable, and their interplay forms the backbone …

“Fight for love Every time You feel Deranged” is a note that Alex Alan of Airborn sneaks to listeners in the new release “Deranged”. The peculiar capitalization of certain words gives a natural emphasis and triggers uber focused sensibilities. It’s only when you discover that those same words spell out …

There aren’t many genres in the world that are as naturally abstract and surreal as ambient music is, and rarely has that felt as blissfully obvious as it does in Bitter Lake, the new record from Bloom’s Taxonomy. In this EP, the upstart British experimentalist kicks ambient melodicism up a notch …

Divinely conjoined to an adjacent instrumental wallop and the mighty melody it produces in any given scenario here, Marilyn Castillo’s vocal is the flash point of the most powerful of harmonies in Project Grand Slam’s East Side Sessions. Castillo, along with Alex Blade Silver on sax, is one of the newest …