10. Burs – Holding Patterns Holding Patterns by Burs Holding Patterns is a fantastically formed album by a band that knows how to find its natural rhythm. These songs psyche you out because Burs use traditional structures to hint at and often go to unique places; the melodies and moods makeContinue Reading
When Lisbon-based producer Marco Guerra began curating a Spotify playlist of largely- beatless experimental electronic music in December 2020, he never expected to take it a step further. In a progression as natural as the sounds he was collecting, he began assembling tracks from around the world away from theContinue Reading
Photo by Kadri Karmo Drew Charron – Anoetic progressive electronic “Anoetic” is the first single from Kentuckian sonic sorcerer Drew Charron’s sophomore album Archives. The track effortlessly mesmerizes the listener with its sustained synth leads and bouncing rhythm, marked by Charron’s ability as a drummer. Where similar artists rely onContinue Reading
Photo by Mike van den Berg Hania Rani – Spring neoclassical Polish pianist and composer Hania Rani has been asserting her presence as a leading figure in the neoclassical scene for the past few years. With her delicate playing style and compositions built around powerfully emotive themes, her music isContinue Reading
Photo by Barthelemy de Mazenod The Ocelots – Addlepated indie folk Wexford twins The Ocelots make indie folk music with impressions of cabaret and art pop on their recent single “Addlepated”. This amorous song of longing has a bittersweet chord progression, sincerely delicate vocal harmonies, wandering harmonica lines,Continue Reading
Photo by Taylor Deas-Melesh moshimoshi – Soon emo rock Finnish emo rockers moshimoshi return in stellar fashion with “Soon”, a nostalgic cut of guitar-driven, passionately sung, and frenetic energy that is as charming as it is energizing. The guitar work here is especially lovely, with interplaying riffs rhythmically supplementing theContinue Reading
Photo by Aishah Rahman Hope Whitelock – Kafkaesque indie rock Franz Kafka’s philosophical fiction is at once so surreal and hopeless that it was easier to coin the term “Kafkaesque” than to expect others to understand the mystically nightmarish quality of a given situation. Just imagine being turned into aContinue Reading
Photo by Julia Rekamie Joshua Burnside – Rough Edges folk One of Ireland’s, and specifically Northern Ireland’s, more endearing songsmiths, Joshua Burnside, has a new single out. This is cause for celebration. Burnside lingers on the more whimsical and exploratory side of guy-with-guitar folk and is as much a poetContinue Reading
Music and memory have an important connection. Not only does music help us conjure old memories, but it also helps create new ones. “Our memories play such a huge part of our identities, yet they are extremely unreliable,” writes Swedish artist Jakob Lindhagen in a text accompanying his new album “MemoryContinue Reading
Photo by Markus Spiske Sasha & The Bear – Wake Me Up pop As intrinsically annoying and intentionally attention-grabbing as pop music is, not even chin-stroking music academics can deny its redemptive power. On a song like “Wake Me Up” by Sasha & The Bear, one can get a simpleContinue Reading