KIM MOBERG ALL THAT REALLY MATTERS INDEPENDENT You don’t essentially need to be an innovator that breaks boundaries to come up with good music that could reach quite a number of listeners. As a solo artist, you do need a hefty dose of [...]
VARIOUS ARTISTS CBGB – A NEW YORK CITY SOUNDTRACK 1975-1986 CHERRY RED RECORDS This is a music collector’s perfect combination—an extensive compilation (box set, effectively) on one of the best labels around that can handle such a [...]
T. GOLD LIFE IS A WONDER AND IT’S CRUEL SLEEPY CAT RECORDS No, this is not a somewhat melancholic, soul-inflected singer songwriter behind a name or a moniker of T. Gold, but a core duo of Saman Khoujinian and Gabe Anderson, supported by a [...]
DELANEY BAILEY CONCAVE AWAL These days the term singer songwriter has grown in its scope from just a solo artist with an acoustic instrument and introspective lyrics to a solo artist that basically has a mind of their own and goes anywhere where [...]
JULIANNA BARWICK & MARY LATTIMORE TRAGIC MAGIC INFINÉ RECORDS It seems to be the time for the successful combination of modern classical and other modern (or not so modern) musical forms, and Tragic Magic, a debut joint album by [...]
ALEV LENZ 4 IN A CYCLE OF THIRDS INDEPENDENT If you think it is a straightforward process to combine a song form with classical music compositional structure, you could be way off, with so many such experiments, remaining just that – [...]
MICHAEL PAUL BINZ LET ME BE BINZ RECORDS LLC Very often, the independent road in music has many more thorns than roses. You can come up with music that deserves to be heard, but reaching a wider audience needs time, patience and strong will. And [...]
THE CRIBS SELLING A VIBE PLAY IT AGAIN SAM Twenty years on the music scene as a band, you are bound to have both ups and downs, and Gary, Ryan and Ross Jarman, trio of brother collectivelly known as The Cribs, have certainly had quite a few of [...]
CLÉMENTINE MARCH POWDER KEG PRAH RECORDINGS Clémentine March is a French British singer and multi-instrumentalist based in London, and if a first thing that comes to your mind is a possible connection to Stereolab, formally there isn’t [...]
DIANE COLL STRANGELY IN TUNE INDEPENDENT So far, Atlanta-based singer songwriter Diane Coll has been making music under the motto “therapy through music.” Quite a few songwriters have a similar idea, for some it works, for others, not so [...]
JUSTFOLK BEST OF JUSTFOLK 2012-2025 INDEPENDENT You can be on the scene for a while, get a solid fan base, but not get the full recognition your music really deserves, particularly if you take the independent way and don’t care much about [...]
I’M WITH HER SONGS FROM THE STAGE: KANSAS CITY (HI RES) ROUNDER Sarah Jarosz, Aoife O’Donovan, and Sara Watkins made a name for themselves both as solo artists and as a trio that goes under the banner, I’m With Her. Their album Wild and [...]
NICK & JUNE NEW YEAR’S FACE INDEPENDENT It has been something like two years since we last heard from Berlin duo Nick & June. This time, they have gone to the United States to record an album, one that adds new touches to their [...]
KIRA METCALF LESSONS IN MAJESTIC HUMILIATION SYMPHONIC Has the singer-songwriter categorization, as a genre, lost its meaning? If you think of it solely in the sense of its origins (a solo artist with an acoustic instrument, such as an acoustic [...]
SINGER. MATTRESS. CAT. SUBTROPICAL PERSONALITY INDEPENDENT There’s one question that might be looming among the melody-oriented indie rock fans; is bedroom pop a dying breed, or are they going into a sort of merger? If you ask Australian [...]
NICOLA CONTE VIAGGIO BLUE NOTE/SCHEMA/FAR OUT RECORDINGS With compilations, particularly curated ones, there’s almost never a middle ground; they are either great or they are simply bad. To come up with a great one is a painstaking [...]
ÁRNÝ MARGRÉT I MISS YOU, I DO: THE SJÁUMST EDITION ONE LITTLE INDEPENDENT RECORDS Excellent artists from Iceland—or anywhere else that is not U.S. or U.K.—are no big surprise for decades now, so neither was the fact that Iceland’s Árný [...]
BURS SIGNIFICANCE, OTHERNESS BIRTHDAY CAKE RECORDS How do you transfer the harmony-laden sound of early ’70s exemplified in CSNY, combined with a glance of that sound from the ’90s (Kingsbury Manx anyone?), and then brought to [...]
SHOLTO THE SIRENS DEEPMATTER RECORDS BBC’s Gilles Peterson is considered one of the most discerning DJs and music producers around. So, when he endorses an artist, you need to prick up your ears, no matter what kind of sounds you favour. [...]
JOE’S TRUCK STOP THE MAGNOLIA SESSIONS ANTI-CORP When a record company, in this case it is Anti-Corp, has a long-running series, there is bound to be a flop here and there, particularly if that series is directed at live in the studio [...]
LIA KOHL VARIOUS SMALL WHISTLES AND A SONG DAUW What is the current place of conceptual art within experimental music? Not an easy question to answer as there is an ongoing debate as to whether such conceptual art is worth anybody’s time. [...]
THE CINDYS THE CINDYS BREAKFAST RECORDS/RUINATION RECORD CO. Bristol England made a name itself with quite a few bands, and particularly with the Sarah Records roster at its prime. What would the latter mean? Melody at the forefront, chiming [...]
DUKE & GOLDIE ROMANCE AND RAMBLIN’ INDEPENDENT Duke and Goldie are Vancouver’s Eric “The Duke” Duquette and Jena “Goldie” Gogo, who some might be familiar as longtime members of roots rockers Blue Sky Miners. As a duo, Duke and [...]
AMY JAY MNEMONICS INDEPENDENT For many listeners it might seem a somewhat easy thing to navigate the currently widening field of singer songwriter pop. All you have to do is come up with some good melodies, engage a stellar producer/arranger and [...]
