Nick Jonas : Gut Punch Review
By Steven Miller
In the genre-straddling landscape of instrumental post-metal, narrative form can often feel buried under atmospherics. But on Flickering Resonance, written and performed by guitarist Trevor Shelley de Brauw, guitarist Laurent Schroeder-Lebec, bassist Bryan Herweg, and drummer Larry Herweg, Pelican opts for something more deliberate: music built like architecture, with movement, pacing, and contrast engineered into each section.
Recorded by Sanford Parker, mixed by Scott Evans, and mastered by Matthew Barnhart, the album’s sonic clarity and dynamic control serve its compositional. This is not music that [...]
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
In naming their fifth studio release Lucius, the band (Jess Wolfe, Holly Laessig, Dan Molad, and Peter Lalish), invites us to listen and look inward, at them, and consequently, at ourselves. This self-titled album, released May 2, 2025, emerges like a handwritten letter sealed in wax, unfiltered and vulnerable, its sonic palette washed in sunlight and shadow. Recorded between Altamira Sound and Sounds Like a Fire in Los Angeles, it balances the intimacy of home recording with the glisten of professional touch, mirroring the album’s central theme: to be both raw and refined, honest and shaped.
Like striking a match in the dark, [...]
by Steven Miller
In Granada: Spanish Music for Violin and Piano, violinist Elsa Grether and pianist Ferenc Vizi offer a program of Spanish classical music. The compositions flow from folk roots to modernist aspirations with expressive convergence of heart and mind. What emerges is a curated conversation between eras, styles, and musical worlds. Grether and Vizi understand that this music sings from the soil, dances in salons, and meditates in moonlight.
Andaluza (Seguidida Española) by Joaquín Nin, Grether and Vizi establish their rhythmic sensitivity to the music’s folkloric [...]
by Shannon Smith
Ally Venable has carved a niche in the blues-rock genre with her electrifying guitar skills and commanding vocals. Her previous album, Real Gone, achieved significant acclaim, reaching #1 on the Billboard Blues Chart. With Money & Power, Venable collaborates with producer Tom Hambridge and features artists like Christone “Kingfish” Ingram and Shemekia Copeland, aiming to deliver a potent mix of musical prowess and social commentary. The album will be released on April 18, 2025 on Ruf Records.
“Money & Power” stands as a bold anthem of female empowerment. Venable describes it as a [...]
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 [...]
Colter Wall is a plains-bred and now based in Nashville-based folk singer. He is blessed with a rich baritone tone and a gift for writing songs that he frames with sparse acoustic instruments. Wall’s music is surprisingly non-commercial in its form and lyrical style.
Songs of the Plains is Wall’s sophomore record. With images of a mythic Canada, a western region of lonesome plains and weathered frontiersmen. The music comes across as honest and his approach to a bigger more complicated story through simple segments of songs is a testament to his evocative style. Wall has caught the ear of Americana luminaries who have stood [...]
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has been performing and studying Bach’s cello suites for almost six decades. The first piece he learned on the cello was from the suite and through his constant dedication and perseverance, Ma has developed a repertoire and connection with this music that is deeply personal. His tone is warm, beautiful and always projecting confidence in its intent.
