Picks Of The Week

The Howl & The Hum, Human Contact 
After listening to Human Contact's opening track, Love You Like A Gun, I knew that I was listening to something special. While 'shape-shifting' (Atwood Magazine) through music genres, The Howl & The Hum's Human Contact 'presents a thrilling collection of profoundly honest short stories echoing past relationships, regrets, and anxieties that are seamlessly woven into the present realities of the digital world.' (The Line of Best Fit) 

DeadBlondeStars, DeadBlondeStars
I love Soundgarden. I love Alice In Chains. So along comes a band from Sheffield who sounds just like both of them. What's a boy to do? Listen of course....with a healthy dose of skepticism. After a week with DeadBlondeStars....I'm in. Great band, awesome rocking album.

Tré Burt, Caught It From The Rye

Listening to Caught It From The Rye, is like stepping back in time to the late sixties and early seventies when folk greats were at their prime. As Folk Alley writes, "today's generation of artists run their roots through a handful of heroes: Bob Dylan, Joni Mitchell, Townes Van Zandt, and John Prine, then on back further in time from there." And you can hear all of their influences in Burt's music. Armed with a guitar, his memorable voice, and thoughtful lyrics, Burt serves as a reminder of the power that can come from stripped things back to allow the listener to be truly present with the essence of an artist's art. 

ON ROTATION

Gravity Machine, Red

Where to begin? This is one of those albums that is hard to describe or define. The band Sights influences ranging from A Perfect Circle to William Orbit, via Peter Gabriel and Soundgarden. Also throw in Neil Pert, Radiohead, and My Bloody Valentine. It’s quite a range. I love sonic experimentation, but so often it just does not play out well. Not here.

Three years in the making, Multi-instrumentalist Naill Parker describes taking inspiration from Neil Pert’s “Ghost Rider” book which details the Rush drummer’s journey through grief. On the band’s website, Niall describes writing a large canon of material following the loss of his wife to cancer in 2016. “What started as an escape grew into a majestic set of songs detailing a transformative journey.“ On Red, Parker weaves heavy rock, progressive rock, electronica, and acoustics styles into a sonic grand tapestry that perfectly captures his journey.

Lila Iké, The ExPerience

From the moment I heard Lila Iké, I was hooked. Blending Reggae, R&B, and Hip Hop, Iké shines on her debut EP. As Respect Magazine wrote, "she breathes a delicate testimony of love, infatuation, and spiritual guidance which....gets under the skin, treading blissful and melancholy moods that are true to life's peaks and valleys." It all makes for one of the best albums that I have heard so far this year. 

ON ROTATION

Lots of great music. Not enough time to write about it all...but here's what's on rotation for me right now. 

Woods, Strange to Explain

Wood is back! Woods has delivered another outstanding album. As Pop Matters Wrote, "it's a superb album that mines the subconsciousness in search of answers to life's unsettling realities." The band does so with an expanded sound. One that has been evolving over the past few albums and comes into its own on Strange to Explain writes All Music, "fitting their songwriting more naturally than ever before."

ON ROTATION

Lots of great music. Not enough time to write about it all...but here's what's on rotation for me right now. 

David Haerle, Death Valley

   

Jason Isbell, The 400 Unit, Reunions