by Steven Miller

Wayne Alpern’s Modern Music presents itself as twenty miniatures for solo piano (Steven Beck, the interpreter), and on its surface, one hears a blend of Baroque, Romantic lyricism, jazz-inflected harmonies, and classical dance forms. Upon listening more closely, one can hear how Alpern’s modernism lives in the structuring of rhythm, in the choice of intervallic motion, and in the way he scaffolds tradition to support stylistic inclusion without dissolving coherence.

In other words: Alpern is a polystylist at work; he is a craftsperson of interval and pulse, placing himself in a lineage of classical form but [...]

by Steven Miller

Wolfgang Van Halen’s The End, release date is October 24, 2025, via BMG, is a ten-track set that expands the world of Mammoth into focus with songwriting, tone, and an unshakable belief that great rock still lives and breathes through the hands of this determined musician.

Where many guitar-centric albums flaunt technique, The End builds its identity from compositional discipline. Wolfgang again performs every instrument, guitars, bass, drums, keys, vocals, and backing vocals. All recorded at 5150 Studios with longtime collaborator Michael “Elvis” Baskette. The production hits that elusive mark between clarity and warmth as each [...]

by Shannon Smith

Every songwriter creates stories in the hope of capturing love’s vocabulary without cliché. On The Art of Loving, Olivia Dean defines her heartfelt love stories. Each having soul, written from the inside out, melody and lyric arriving as one breath.

The record begins with “The Art of Loving (Intro),” where she uses multiple layers of her voice to set the thesis of intimacy as authorship. The transition to “Nice To Each Other” reframes courtesy as groove. Dean’s chorus hook is simple, cyclic, and affirming. Her vocal style has that soul that causes a revelation.

Her melodic instincts shine on “Lady Lady.” The [...]

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 Steven Miller

Mac Gollehon has always been a formidable force as a trumpet player. He’s a brass mercenary, a sound-weaver whose horn has burned through sessions with Bowie, Madonna, Grace Jones, Nile Rodgers, and Hector Lavoe. If there’s a sound that needs cutting through the mix, Gollehon is the guy they called. With Pistoleros, his latest with Nefarious Industries, he combines the pop dance gloss with the high energy of electric jazz. It dives headfirst into a sonic street fight: part Latin-jazz fever dream, part electronic shootout, part gangster flick. This is an album with a cinematic ride where every note [...]

by Steven Miller

There is a special feeling when a quartet listens as intently as Quartetto Noûs. Their new release, Ravel & Fauré: String Quartets, reflects these as they present two pillars of French chamber music. The eight pieces reveal them as a quartet that lets the music breathe through harmonic color, rhythmic interplay, and an ear for sonic balance.

Ravel’s 1903 String Quartet in F major is the youthful voice of a composer still in dialogue with Debussy and Fauré. Quartetto Noûs makes the music shimmer by leaning into the harmonic transparency of Ravel’s writing. The opening Allegro moderato floats, [...]