The first thing you might notice on Sequoia Feinson’s latest album, So Long, is the warmth and directness of the songs and his arrangements. Opening track “Protegé” eases into your ears with a calm, midtempo groove, fingerpicking guitars meshing with electric piano and trumpet. The title refers to the model of car that’s being immortalized in song: “I drove an old Mazda my brother handed down / From the kindness of his being / I wish that car was still around.” Songs about cars are as old as the invention of the car itself, but Sequoia finds a way to attach his long-lost vehicle to memories of youth and make it seem fresh, relatable, and irresistible.
Sequoia currently resides in his hometown of Portland, Oregon, but So Long was produced…
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Kate Waters knows a thing or two about the healing power of music.
The Texas-based singer-songwriter is a trained music therapist, and her ability to create meaningful songs using an economy of words, but never of emotions, is clearly evident on her aptly titled sophomore release, Some Comfort. The self-produced album features eleven wonderful songs of emotionally charged songwriting that are rooted in resilience and hope, elevated by some splendid melodies and musicianship.
It’s a sturdy collection of songs written over a twenty-year period that, as Waters notes, traces her “journey through different loves, heartbreaks and hopes”. It certainly speaks to her skill as a songwriter and musician that the songs…
Moyo, Monoswezi’s fifth album, continues the group’s trajectory into a more intricately produced blend of global songs, anchored primarily by Nordic jazz and southern African roots music.
While Hope Masike’s voice and her mbira (thumb piano) still play a central role, there is a unitary feel to the album, alongside a variety of rhythmic approaches, with the bass and drums often distinctly out front. As contemplative as the album is, the vocal arrangements, not to mention Masike’s range, keep things dynamic.
The band’s take on Afrobeat, ‘Huya’, is a beautiful climax, both in the way that all elements coalesce around Masike’s soaring wail and in how it signals that the band can shift between the sensual and cerebral. It’s an especially…
Norma Winstone conjures an autumnal orchestral reverie on her 2026 archival recording A Timeless Place. Originally recorded for radio broadcast in 1990, the album finds the British jazz vocalist performing with Germany’s Rundfunkorchester Hannover des NDR (later known as the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra), led at the time by conductor/arranger/pianist Steve Gray. Gray has a particularly empathetic ear, and while his arrangements are often sumptuously realized, full of tropical flute, brass, and string flourishes, they serve to frame, rather than restrict, Winstone’s airy, night-time vocals. Here, she performs a mix of originals and standards, some of which were drawn from her own albums.
The most striking discovery is the opening…
When the Blood Brothers returned in 2024, Johnny Whitney was so energized by the run of shows that he never wanted it to end. He expected his bandmates to feel the same. They played to their largest crowds, including headlining the Best Friends Forever Festival. When it became clear that the Blood Brothers were not going to become an ongoing concern again, Whitney and fellow Blood Brother Cody Votolato began work on the songs that would become Evil Island’s debut. It is a welcome return that showcases evolution and growth for everyone involved, and it’s chaotic, unsettling fun.
From the opening track, “Melted Heart”, Terraform the Afterlife is a blast of Whitney’s screech and noisy, catchy guitars, so fans of his…
Formed in 2018, the Bristol quartet emerge some eight years later with their first full-length. The record succeeds three EPs released between 2021 to 2025, ranging from the fierce and raw, grungy and economical post-punk of their self-titled debut release to ‘Anything for You’, a five-track collection highlighting increasingly expansive production and instrumental depth.
Their previous EP hinted at the direction of their first LP proper and then some, as Baby You’re a Winner showcases a broader palette of influences, richer arrangements, textured production, and clever vocals which move between solo singing, harmonising, and group interplay. Bolstered by the addition of fourth member and lead guitarist Polly Jessett, Grandmas House also…
‘Normalization’ in Czechoslovakia in the 1970s and 1980s was paradoxical: rather than a return to normality, it in fact meant renewed state control over society, culture, and public life. It followed the Prague Spring of 1968, which had grown out of the political and cultural relaxation of the 1960s, where under Alexander Dubček, reforms aimed to create ‘socialism with a human face’ allowed greater freedom of expression and artistic experimentation. The Soviet Union considered these reforms too radical, however, and in August 1968 Warsaw Pact troops invaded Czechoslovakia, bringing the reform process to an end.
From 1969 onwards, the authorities restricted freedom of expression and cultural activity, and excluded politically undesirable figures…
Across three Ghosted records Oren Ambarchi, Johan Berthling and Andreas Werliin have expanded the possibilities of the guitar-bass-drums trio with slippery yet rigid, kosmische yet earthy music that challenges the idea time exists in neatly parcelled, indivisible increments.
For Serpentine they’re joined by multi-instrumentalist Christer Bothén, who contributed Donso n’goni to Ghosted I’s opening track. Bothén’s first instrument is the bass clarinet. In the 70s he studied the donso n’goni, a six-stringed ‘hunter’s harp’ from the Wassoulou region in Mali, eventually bringing him into Don Cherry’s orbit. He’s also versed in Gnawa, learning guinbri in Marrakesh. This worldliness ripples through Bothén’s 1984 record Trancedance,…
Stephen O’Malley’s name is synonymous with duration fascination. His performances with Sunn O))) seeming to stretch out indefinitely. The sprawling recordings he also makes with Äänipää, KTL, Khanate, and Æthenor, alongside recent collaborations with his partner Kali Malone, ask that listeners sit quietly as the music slowly unfolds over lengthy intervals.
Named after a thousand-year-old tree on the Swedish island of Fårö, Avaeken is no different. Clocking in at forty-two minutes and formed of long, sustained tones that ebb and fluctuate, this work was initially composed by O’Malley for the Belgian electric guitar quartet Zwerm. It then accompanied Wish You Were Here, a site-specific exhibition by multi-disciplinary…
Anthony Hopkins, it turns out, has been composing music all his life. Now, at the age of 88, the Welsh-born Hollywood actor makes his Decca debut, securing the services of LA Philharmonic’s outgoing music director Gustavo Dudamel to bring his music to life.
So, what does an Oscar winner sound like? Not surprisingly, there’s a significant cinematic influence, inspired by the music that caught the attention of a lad growing up in Margam, a suburb of Port Talbot. The opening ‘Fanfare and March’ is a catchy, Technicolor splash, like everything here harmonious and written from the heart. Ditto the Khachaturian-flavoured ‘Two Pieces for Orchestra’. Welsh roots are honoured too: ‘My Fatherland’, featuring six traditional tunes,…
Bassist Linda May Han Oh and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, two modern jazz powerhouses, have recorded one of 2026’s most delightful jazz surprises, the duet album Beneath Lifted Skies (Biophilia Records, 2026). Oh and Aldana are two of the music’s strongest contemporary players, potent in both overall skill as well as sound, and that intensity serves them well on the album. The atmosphere is robust without the forcefulness overwhelming the form.
The album consists mostly of standards that span the spectrum of mid-20th-century jazz music, along with a smattering of originals. All the factors involved here serve the songs well — the duo structure, the skill of the musicians, as well as Oh’s and Aldana’s unique perspectives…
Communication often has multiple angles: at the beginning of Is affect real?, the third song on Frances Chang’s new album, she sings “Sometimes I want to wear / A head of light blonde hair / I don’t care if that’s unfair / Or makes me ordinary”, and she’s being vulnerable while also putting up a defence against being judged. It’s an interesting mix of defiance and insecurity, and Been Thinking Bout Confession sees Chang delivering this kind of lyrical material over idiosyncratic, contemplative instrumentals.
The piano melodies that run through I can feel the waves are sweet and playful, contrasting nicely with the song’s rickety, distorted drum machine loop. Strings add some harmonic layers, sometimes lush, sometimes uneasy, and Chang’s…
Continuing Doctor Bird’s comprehensive anthology series of Lee “Scratch” Perry-produced singles, Jungle Lion tracks the innovator’s studio output from the beginning of 1973, just before he established his storied Black Ark Studios and created much of his most celebrated work. During this era, he was making tracks that still sometimes bore a resemblance to older rocksteady rhythms, but he was pushing reggae firmly into the future through his studio experimentation, as well as his work with deejays and toasters such as Dillinger and Charlie Ace. While there are a few more traditionally sung love songs, most of the tracks with vocals feature playful, reverb-heavy toasting and chatting. Perry growls heavily on the truly wild “Jungle Lion,” one of his…
Tokyo-based large ensemble Minyo Crusaders take elements from Japanese working-class folk songs known as min’yō, and hypercharge them with rhythm, energy, and celebratory excitement. The group has grown progressively into this hybrid of the traditional and the new over the course of several albums, combining Japanese melodies handed down over generations with Latin flare, cumbia sounds, and other global cross-pollinations. From Japan with Love finds Minyo Crusaders in a mode that’s both fiery and playful, with powerful percussion, electrified horn arrangements, and group playing that emphasizes fun. The album starts off with a bang, kicking into high gear with the salsa-flavored “Hokkai Bonuta.” There’s a clash of uncanny…
Cover bands abound within contemporary music circles, both on stage and in the studio. But a chosen artist’s interpretation of the songs and music of another rarely matches (and never exceeds) the authenticity of spirit displayed by Christian Parker and those kindred spirits with whom he has been collaborating in recent years on the esteemed canon of that iconic American band, The Byrds.
Over the course of four albums now — the most outstanding of which is Change Is Now: A Tribute to The Byrds (2024) — Parker and company have pored through the catalog of the group from the start in 1965 to the finish in 1973. In so doing, the collective has begun to delve into that body of work created by the late Gram Parsons,…
…the deluxe edition includes two previously unreleased demos from Coe’s earliest Nashville recording sessions with Shelby Singleton.
Though Texas Moon wasn’t released until 1977 on Shelby Singleton’s Plantation label, it was actually recorded in 1973, then sold to Columbia with David Allan Coe’s contract. Needless to say, the recording and production budgets were considerably smaller than they were at the latter label. Well-known for its notorious cover photo, the set’s real merit is that it displays Coe’s ability as an interpretive singer, though on a few tracks he tries too hard. He wrote only two of the set’s ten songs — one of which, “Mary Magdeline,” (sic) is considered a classic. Texas Moon is lean, almost raw. Highlights include Coe’s readings of…
Now well into his sixth decade, Michael McDermott keeps on producing records of quality from his home city of Chicago. The eagerly awaited Flowers from the Graveyard features eleven songs written by the artist and played by a well-honed band of collaborators that includes his wife, Heather Lynne Horton, and most of the team who played on his 2022 dual-release Lighthouse On the Shore and East Jesus.
The songs bear many of the hallmarks of a McDermott album and it bristles with opening chords that grab the attention and hold it until the very end. Choruses have an anthemic quality that sounds easy to create but probably isn’t and the overall sense is of a band hitting the open road with a couple of gas stops along…
…includes the original album tracks supplemented by rare B-sides, remixes, and a pair of previously unreleased instrumental tracks.
Maps & Atlases’ second EP, You and Me and the Mountain, found the band moving in a lighter direction than the mathematical frenzy of their first EP Trees, Swallows, Houses. Their first full-length sees them fully morphed into a sophisticated indie pop group. Perch Patchwork is a bold debut, filled with bombastic arrangements, twisting modal progressions, and percussive layers. The skill set is high, but it’s far less showy. Guitarists will still be enthralled by Dave Davidson’s and Erin Elders’ fingertapping, but acoustics take precedent, and moderately slow tempos maintain the album’s balladic feel.
As impressive as blues rocking guitarist Joanna Connor’s studio albums are, it’s onstage where she burns the brightest. Perhaps that’s why she has released a handful of live recordings after 1989’s debut, the first being Living on the Road (1993). But it has been sixteen years since 2019’s Live 24, and even though Connor’s most recent releases shepherded by longtime fans Joe Bonamassa (2021’s fiery 4801 South Indiana Avenue) and Mike Zito (the terrific Best of Me from 2023 [not a greatest hits collection]) have been impressive, they only hint at the power and exuberance she delivers for a typically blazing gig in a club full of blues lovers.
That’s the setup for Live on 11/11, recorded at a single show on the titular date in 2025 at…
John Williams’ place in the canon of film music, Hollywood history and American popular culture is well solidified. The 94-year-old composer just saw the release of Disclosure Day, his 30th soundtrack for director Steven Spielberg – a collaboration that’s yielded three Oscar-winning scores in JAWS, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial and Schindler’s List plus memorable themes to classic films like Close Encounters of the Third Kind, the Indiana Jones film series and Jurassic Park. Next year, his Oscar-winning work on 1977’s Star Wars – a musical odyssey that’s yielded a trio of film trilogies and multiple spin-off streaming shows and theme park attractions bearing more of his compositions – turns 50. Even with a diminished presence due to health issues that have…