THE BLUE KNOTS BECOMING NOISE INDEPENDENT Danielle Stech-Homsy might not be a big fan of social media (many won’t blame her), but she is not exactly a newcomer. As Rio en Medio, she previously made a bit of a name for herself with music [...]
VARIOUS ARTISTS BROWN ACID: THE TWENTIETH TRIP RIDINGEASY RECORDS Even though the Grateful Dead might not fit within the hard rock, heavy psych, and proto-metal subgenres that is the subject matter of the Brown Acid compilation series, their now [...]
ABIGAIL HOPKINS STARDUST INDEPENDENT Surviving a traumatic event, a serious illness, leaves heavy marks on both body and soul and is often something that is really hard to describe in words, let alone in music. Yet, with her latest album [...]
BLUE FOUNDATION CLOSE TO THE KNIFE KØN RECORDS Danish band Blue Foundation are no newcomers, at least that cannot be said about the band’s frontman, singer, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Tobias Wilner, who favours that Mark E. Smith [...]
AVERY FRIEDMAN NEW THING AUDIO ANTIHERO Brooklyn seems to be a musical hotbed in recent years, with new, exciting artists cropping up by the day. Judging by New Thing, her debut album, you can add singer-songwriter Avery Friedman to that list. [...]
THE IMPOSSIBLE GERMANY THE IMPOSSIBLE GERMANY EP FORMER AIRFIELD Why do you name your band after a Wilco song? And why do you have a self-titled EP and it is not your debut? And after all, what just might be “Industrial Gospel”? [...]
SISTER RAY BELIEVER ROYAL MOUNTAIN RECORDS You don’t get to work with the likes of Mark Ribot if your previous work didn’t draw attention and you don’t express serious talent along the way. That is the case with Toronto’s [...]
PANCHIKO GINKGO NETTWERK MUSIC GROUP At some point, the prime prog rock sound has earned some not so positive connotations and quite a number of artists renowned for the sound started moving into more melody-oriented territory without forsaking [...]
THE WATERBOYS LIFE, DEATH AND DENNIS HOPPER SUN RECORDS From the moment Mike Scott and his The Waterboys appeared back in 1983 and through 16 albums so far, you immediately realized that you are listening to something quite special. From their [...]
MICHAEL GRIGONI & PAN AMERICAN NEW WORLD, LONELY RIDE KRANKY When something leaning to the left-field side, particularly when instrumental music is concerned, yet at the same time uniquely beautiful comes up, it is a good bet that it will [...]
DESTROYER DAN’S BOOGIE MERGE RECORDS After some 27 years and 20 or so albums, with at least half of those can easily now be classified as classics, and none as a flop, any new Destroyer album is bound to create suspicions of a possible [...]
LUCKY CLOUD FOREGROUND RUINATION RECORDS Behind Lucky Cloud is Chicago singer-songwriter Chet Zenor, and Foreground is his debut album. And as is usually the case, behind this quite simple description there is a not such a brief story behind it, [...]
DAWN BROTHERS CRY ALONE EXCELSIOR RECORDINGS How do you feel about a run through all that comprises roots rock – from classic rock to soul, R&B and Americana and what not, but comes from over the Atlantic, or to be more precise the [...]
JEFFREY LEWIS THE EVEN MORE FREEWHEELIN’ JEFFREY LEWIS BLANG RECORDS/DON GIOVANNI For somebody who was at one point lauded as a progenitor of anti-folk, Jeffrey Lewis seems to have no problem at following one of the key folk music [...]
NICO PAULO INTERVAL_O FORWARD MUSIC GROUP Canadian/Portuguese singer songwriter Nico Paulo has one of those mesmerizing voices that strikes within the first notes she starts singing. Yet, the St. John’s, NL-based songwriter works within a middle [...]
LUCY LIYOU EVERY VIDEO WITHOUT YOUR FACE, EVERY SOUND WITHOUT YOUR NAME ORANGE MILK Although the Bandcamp page for Los Angeles’ Korean/American artist Lucy Liyou lists a number of her releases, her album Every Video Without Your Face, [...]
JONI VOID EVERY LIFE IS A LIGHT CONSTELLATION RECORDS Constellation Records never go for something ordinary, so it is no surprise that they picked up on somebody who has no fear of experimenting, like Montreal’s Joni Void and their latest [...]
WEAVING WEBS GLAMOUR GOWNS When you consciously or subconsciously pick up inspiration from other artists the fact that you did that doesn’t matter – what does is whether you picked up the right things, used them in the right way and [...]
HANNAH FREY LUCKY GIRL INDEPENDENT Currently, you could add as many artists as possible daily to the Americana-tinged genre, most of them leaning towards roots/folk/singer-songwriter sound. But what about those that give their music that [...]
CAROLINE STRICKLAND MARTHA’S CALLING INDEPENDENT The thing is in the nuances and in the songwriting process. With some songwriters it is instinctive, often easy flowing and feels as if it comes out of nowhere. With others, like the [...]
THIN LEAR A SHADOW WALTZED ITSELF METROPOLITAN GROOVE MERCHANTS New Jersey’s Matt Longo lies behind the moniker Thin Lear and his debut album Wooden Cave from 2020 grew some strong praise, yet it took him about four years to come up with [...]
SEASONAL FALLS IMPROVISED SINKING INDEPENDENT Those following Spill Magazine might already be familiar with the Swiss duo of songwriter Roman Gabriel and vocalist Andrew Pelletier that operates as Seasonal Falls, as their album Happy Days (2024) [...]
WILL STRATTON POINTS OF ORIGIN RUINATION RECORDS/BELLA UNION Will Stratton has quite a bit of an album output – eight albums so far, but he can be counted among those artists that don’t just rush to release their music but takes his [...]
TOBACCO CITY HORSES SCISSOR TAIL RECORDS The term cosmic country has been flying around since the time it was coined by late Gram Parsons. And while quite a few artists have been given that label, not that many truly deserved to hold it when [...]