By Shannon Smith
On Dreamer+, Sassy 009 confirms what attentive listeners have been sensing for a while now: this is an artist who no longer treats production as a backdrop, but as the primary narrative force. Across twelve tracks, she builds a unified sonic language where beats, synths, vocal processing, and transitions work together as a story of evolving forms. This album develops moments with intent.
What stands out immediately is cohesion. Dreamer+ flows with a confidence that comes from knowing exactly what sonic world it inhabits. Even as guest artists enter the frame, the album never splinters [...]
by Shannon Smith
Faithless’s return with Champion Sound in September 2025 is a late-career victory lap, reaffirming what makes their architecture of groove so enduring. Since Reverence and the global eruption of “Insomnia,” Faithless have walked a line between rave’s euphoria, hip-hop’s grit, and pop’s accessibility. With Maxi Jazz’s voice now woven into memory after his passing in 2022, Rollo Armstrong and Sister Bliss have crafted an album that respects the band’s lineage while reaching forward into the club and headphone spaces of 2025. It’s at once a dance record with teeth and a studio sculpture designed for deep [...]
by Shannon Smith
Mark Pritchard and Thom Yorke’s collaborative album, Tall Tales, arrives as a multi-layered sonic exploration, combining Yorke’s introspective lyricism and distinct vocal timbre with Pritchard’s electronic soundscapes. Known for their critical interrogations of modernity and technology, the pair navigate terrains through a unique auditory lens, merging unsettling textures and ambient beauty in equal measure.
From the outset, “A Fake in a Faker’s World” presents a sophisticated sound reminiscent of Radiohead, with the synthesizers building a claustrophobic atmosphere. [...]
by Shannon Smith
There are songs we play to fill a room. Others feel like they fill us. Gush begins in that second, sacred space as each performance but as presence. Even with only two tracks released, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith has offered a doorway to somewhere creative and engaging.
“Gush” arrives with its building of analog sounds, elements of electronica, and a touch of ethereal. The layers grow, gathering in the hollows of the mind, dance beats leaking over the body, not to announce the need to dance, but to remind us it is truly a necessity. The intertwining textures feel aquatic, like a tide rising from within, full of mystery and [...]
