Ian McLagan & the Bump Band - United States - VINYL LP

SRSQ s the solo project of Kennedy Ashlyn (vocalist/keyboardist of Them Are Us Too). Creative voids aren't filled, but rather holes left that push the edges of the present into new realms of consciousness. SRSQ's pulse began after the death of Kennedy's closest friend and musical collaborator Cash Askew, a casualty in the tragic Oakland Ghost Ship Fire of 2016. Driven by loss, SRSQ became the vehicle for Kennedy's transformative process, exploring nuance, nostalgia, reflection, and reconciliation, manifesting in the aural landscape of Unreality.Like the impulse it pulls from, each song evokes the complex duality of meditation-where simple intersects with infinite. Ambient synthesizers that approach harshness, relentless arpeggiations act together with Kennedy's vocals as a rich weapon, weaving cloudlike fables over orchestration that's familiar and foreign. Trance-like at times, yet always rooted in cadence and structure, the synesthesia of sound and feeling takes cues from the delicate miasma of Cocteau Twins and Dead Can Dance, using their example as the ground floor for building a new temple of frequency. Kennedy proves an adept architect of rhythm, using sequenced electronics as a deep backbeat that allows the harrowing beauty of her vocals to lead the journey.

Gracie Abrams returns with the deluxe version of her sophomore album, The Secret of Us (Deluxe)released via Interscope Records. This is Gracie's most expansive body of work both sonically and narratively. Building onto a massive year for Gracie, she adds 4 new songs including fan favorite 'That's So True'. Gracie's growth as a songwriter and vocalist is showcased in her most extroverted album yet, as she continues to work with longtime collaborator Aaron Dessner. A portion of these songs were also written with Gracie's best friend, Audrey Hobert. This album was written with the urgency with which you run home to detail every moment of a night to your friend, with her live experiences over the past year having deeply shaped the identity of this album. EXPLICIT

Sometime around 2024, Vorhex Angel emerged seemingly out of the ether no social media presence, no identities, simply their name popping up in Nashville or New Orleans on a flyer here and there. Those with enough curiosity to attend their live show could be met with any number of unexpected things to spike the senses elaborate stage dressing, strobe lights (alternatively, complete darkness), burning things, pre-performance ingestibles. The music at those functions matched the mystery. They were loud, unhinged, and visceral as all hell.