Premiers
Album Premiere: Recalibration – Amana Melome’ (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Amana Melome’ describes Recalibration as an awakening, using the analogy of the humble caterpillar turning into the majestic butterfly, an album that captures an artist similarly blossoming...
Rock/Punk/Metal
Magnolia Soul – Cypress Key (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Some albums feel like just a collection of songs, nothing wrong with that, but often, having listened to what they have to offer, you...
Post Punk/Goth
Mohawk – Def Nettle (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
You know that you are in good company when, even on the first pass of the song, you pick up on one, perhaps two Smiths,...
Shoegaze/Dreampop
Life Will Catch You – Mahta (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Blending dream pop sonics into folktronic rhythms, Mahta’s latest single is a serene and seductive slice of music. But just like “I Don’t Mind,” my...
Indie
Father and State – Boxing Club (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The indie world is full of bands that can make a decent racket. It is less well populated with bands that make you think....
Pop/Power Pop
Dagger in the Sun – CS Hellmann (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Everything is built by standing on the shoulders of giants, to some degree. And if “Dagger in the Sun” at times echoes with the...
Folk/Country
Country Lives in Me – Brei Carter (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Sitting at that place where soulful deliveries meet country lilts, "Country Lives in Me" is an autobiographical love letter to the place that Brei...
Singer-Songwriter/Acoustica
Tremble – The Quiet North (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The ability to move so effortlessly between understatement and anthemics is just one of the traits that make "Tremble," the new single from The...
R&B/Soul
you’re golden – kies (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
It comes as no surprise that an artist who has travelled many countries and traversed a number of music scenes, from busking in the...
Reggae/Ska/Dub
Album Premiere: Lost Files – JaDon Blaxx (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If Dancehall arrived in the seventies as reggae's leaner, faster, more street-charged younger sibling, then Lost Files is a clear snapshot of where that...
Dance/EDM
Furtiva – FREZYA feat. LPSV (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
It is perhaps quite telling that the single's cover shows the image of a strawberry-shaped, golden hand grenade because "Furtiva" does sound like someone...
Hip-hop/Rap
Mind How You Go – PanthaDogg (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Hip-hop has come a long way from its birthplace in the South Bronx all those years ago. And while all genres move with the...
Jazz/Blues
Kover Kover – Web Web (reviewed by T. Bebador)
Let’s say, for argument's sake, that jazz God John Coltrane didn’t die in 1967 and that he was alive – admittedly one hundred years...
Classical/Instrumental
Double Helix – Eric Angelo Bessel (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
This latest double offering from Eric Angelo Bessel, “Double Helix” and “Upstate, “acts as the companion pieces to last year’s album Mirror at Night album, and is...
Avant Garde
Avoidance Moon – Zabus (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As I head into the opening titular track of the new and sixth Zabus album, Avoidance Moon, I get the strange sensation that I am listening to...
Interviews
New York City Boy: Talking to M. Spano about delivering Something...
With a new single, “Something Different,” just dropped, I sat down with M. Spano to find out about his roots, his style, and his...
Live
The Crack – En Heat (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
If, like me, you feel that mainstream music is all a bit safe, merely appealing to fads and fashions, comfort zones and marketing reports,...
Swindon
Rooks – M3G (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The word ethereal is used a lot in music. Too much, really. Not least by overly-verbose scribblers like me. But sometimes no other word will do....
News
‘Mariachi El Bronx IV’ out February 13 Marks Alter Ego of...
On February 13 LA trailblazers Mariachi El Bronx will release Mariachi El Bronx IV, their long-awaited new album, and first in over a decade. MEB is the alter...
Playlist
That Was The Music Week That Was – 080825
Another busy week at Dancing Towers, plenty of cool grassroots artists put under the pen, lots of great music mused over, and lots of...
Books
How Not To Write About Music – III: Starting the Week...
One of the joys of writing about new music is that it stops you from getting trapped in the past. Of course, bands like...
6 of the best
Brevity – MatAre (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
As the title track kicks off this small, but perfectly formed EP, I find myself thinking, “what might XTC have sounded like if they had embraced the...
Father and State – Boxing Club (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
The indie world is full of bands that can make a decent racket. It is less well populated with bands that make you think....
Welcome to our Demise – Dusty Edinger (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Well, that's how you do the "break-up song." Where others would be wallowing in self-pity or regret, here we find Dusty Edinger delivering the...
New York City Boy: Talking to M. Spano about delivering Something Different
With a new single, “Something Different,” just dropped, I sat down with M. Spano to find out about his roots, his style, and his...
Mind How You Go – PanthaDogg (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
Hip-hop has come a long way from its birthplace in the South Bronx all those years ago. And while all genres move with the...
Blue Side, Vol. 1 – Tobin Mueller & Tomás Martínez (reviewed by Dave Franklin)
We know that Tobin Mueller is someone adept at wandering all over the musical map, able to hop the genre fences of whatever sound...
