MUSIC REVIEWS

Senja Sargeant’s journey from Montreal to a growing global profile is a story about how music and talent still matter. Cynics and naysayers are abundant across the board in music as in life and it’s easy for us to fall into the trap of condemning outright anything new. Who can …

The work of Chris Cornelius is as inimitable as it is sprawling; from a lifelong love affair with music inspired by his own father’s career as a World War II Navy pilot/jazz keyboardist (who went on to perform on several tours after the war), Cornelius has a background most only …

If you listen to Joe Macre’s The Dream Is Free without reading any accompanying press about him, you may come away from an initial hearing envisioning Macre as a photogenic twenty-something singer/songwriter with a penchant for progressive music. It will startle such listeners to discover that Macre is, instead, a veteran musician …

Chicago-born Todd Christoffel wouldn’t have made a good Catholic choirboy. A love for mischief first sparked his musical imagination when the young boy began satirizing the lyrics of church hymns during Mass without other parishioners ever catching on. Those early flirtations with music weren’t all hijinks, however, as Christoffel remembers …

When an artist or band drops their debut, it’s the standard-setting release that essentially foreshadows what’s ahead in their career, and while there are a lot of boldly experimental elements to consider in the first official record from Heddlu, titled Cantref, there’s something very qualified about its creator’s drive, and, …

Melbourne, Australia’s Galliano Sommavilla’s love for creating music has helped sustain him throughout his life and enriches an already vibrant life with the ability for communicating with a mass audience. His new release Instrumental Music from the Heart is deeply connected with his Italian cultural roots as well as his wide array …

Poet and musician David Nigel Lloyd’s work has garnered a global audience without ever achieving mainstream prominence. It’s never been important. It’s the work, instead, that’s important. Lloyd’s obvious devotion to art and its possibilities are apparent throughout Of Service in Rosemary Lane’s ten tracks. It is never stated outright, but …

The level of detachment between pop singers and their material is honestly at an all-time high right now, at least from where I’m sitting as a professional music critic. Although pop isn’t completely devoid of connectivity between those who record and the messages they send, when we’re able to hear …

As its raw, dirty sizzle comes into focus for anyone within earshot of the speakers, the title track in The Empty Pockets’ new album Outside Spectrum makes it clear just how much heat we’re in for in this latest record from the acclaimed Americana quartet. The music has a blue-hued …

Like something stepping out of a time machine before our very ears, it doesn’t take long to recognize the sci-fi hue over the new single “Robot M 2052,” nor the creative influences Bobby and the Crew hold so personally in this performance. Although there’s something to be said for the …