MUSIC REVIEWS

True grit has always been an important element in the creation of a solid country album, but for that matter, so has pastoral melodicism, with the best kinds coming from a songwriter who can sing as well as they could compose – taking that into account, Carlos Washington’s Steel Horse …

Cerebral and deftly menacing, the beat is at times even more defining than Mayne’s verses are in the new single “No Hook,” currently out everywhere that independent hip-hop is sold and streamed. Where past releases bearing the Mayne moniker have been riddled with grit on the percussive side of the …

A psychedelic-tinged melody fills the air around us as “Breathe In,” the first track in Gallery 47’s new LP East Street begins to play, a subdued but menacing guitar weaving together a harmony that will linger in our minds long after the music has ceased to play. This intriguing introduction to East Street indeed …

Every other month it seems some headline or some social media click bait is claiming “rock is dead.” Or so it seems. Folks that listen to anything mainstream will beg to differ – one such indie band that just might be the next heir to the rock throne is Little …

“Took a train to Brooklyn, but Harlem was on my mind,” David Yim croons in the opening lines of his solo endeavor Mount Hudson’s new single “Write a Book,” his words cascading across the gentle acoustic backdrop the music is generating. Yim’s confidence is contagious, so much so that the …

Creeping out of the silence with a hesitant sonic slither, “Circle of Sixes” is waiting for anyone brave enough to enter its groove-packed gateway into Darren Michael Boyd’s virgin instrumental LP Lifting the Curse, and in the next four minutes that follow, the track will set the stage for everything …

Brooklyn does it again. There truly must be something in that water in that town – another singer/songwriter has delivered a hit. Dave Yim, who performs under the name Mount Hudson, has released the just under-four-minute folk/pop rock song “Lakeside Water”. This song is  just a thrill. URL: https://www.mounthudson.com/ “Lakeside …

Chugging guitars come flanked with discordant bass and drum flurries in “IMO JSYK BTW.” A J Mascis-flavored fuzz finds its way into the mix of a walloping “That Song” much as the squeaky-clean aesthetics of a post-post-punk riff rock dominate the comprisal of “All In The Past.” Terry Ohms is …

When You Coming Home, the debut album from Ruark, doesn’t take very long to get us started with a righteous rhythm at all; in its opening title cut, we don’t have to wait for the wallop of gentle harmonies to come oozing out of the speakers at all – it …

A ghostly piano harmony follows every word Thomas Charlie Pedersen sings to us in the balladic “Green Plateau,” but as strong an impression as this song makes, it doesn’t dwarf the ensuing emotion we’ll soon embrace in the guitar-driven “The World is Not Your Oyster,” the tune that immediately follows …