Megasound is the rock and roll progeny of three indie pop friends. Kerry Alexander has fronted Bad Bad Hats with Chris Hoge for more than a decade, and the duo have known Elana Carroll (aka Party Nails) even longer. While on tour together in 2018, Carroll joined Bad Bad Hats on stage for an encore performance. It was a cover of “Pretend to Be Nice”, hit single of comic book band Josie & the Pussycats, written by Fountains of Wayne’s Adam Schlesinger for the 2001 live action movie. This swirling musical cauldron produced a bubble of an idea: a new band. Elana on lead vocals, Kerry on guitar, Chris on drums. Songs inspired by early 2000s rock, the music of their collective youths. A fresh watch of Josie & the Pussycats sealed the deal. Megasound was officially born.
Latest Entries »
Edena Gardens unleash their most expansive work to date. Quintessence is structured in 4 parts as a Magnum Opus—the ancient alchemical process of transformation. But this is not a work of high fantasy. It is a seismic meditation. A study of deep time, weighted matter, and the crushing gravity of change.
Quintessence is massive. 79+ minutes of tethered magnitude, carved into six sprawling tracks. The trio pushes further down into the void, discovering new dimensions. Each piece allow the form to stretch. To break its own boundaries. Shifting terrains and unpredictable geometry. The core remains unhurried: A slow, relentless, unabridged crawl. This sort of alchemy demands patience, allowing every sonic mutation…
A new Digital Deluxe Edition of Woodcut, complete with demos of each track from the album, as well as two live acoustic tracks.
Big Big Train, the award-winning, progressive rock band, issue their 16th studio album. Woodcut is a landmark release for the international group, whose line-up draws together members from England, Scotland, Italy, the USA, Sweden and Norway, in that it marks their first ever full-length conceptual piece. “The story isn’t set in any particular timeframe, but it’s about The Artist, who is struggling with life,” founding member Gregory Spawton begins. “He takes a stroll and finds this piece of heartwood and creates something that he considers beautiful and different. Maybe it’s a dream or maybe it’s real life…
Roy Montgomery and Martha Skye Murphy extend their thing on Nebular, penning a suite of widescreen dreampop epics that harness all their separate strengths into a fizzing artmelt – tipped FFO Cocteau Twins & Harold Budd, Flying Saucer Attack, Jessamine and lovesliescrushing.
It didn’t take much for Montgomery and Murphy to connect. All Murphy did was include one of Mongomery’s songs on a mixtape and the conversations that followed led them to spot harmonies in their approaches to music: they both recorded to a Tascam multitrack recorder, for one. And if you’ve been following either artist, you’ll have noticed their collaborations bubbling up through the cracks in the last few years. Murphy appeared on Montgomery’s…
Avon’s lesser-hailed, glam ‘80s synth-pop and new wave movement is spotlighted in-depth via 20 songs compiled by studio engineer Dave Massey, who smartly portrays the breadth and quality of an ‘80s blindspot.
The Bristol & Bath Blitz Club Meets Art School Sound – 80’s Explosion traces the reverberating influence of Rusty Egan and co.’s new wave crucible, The Blitz Club, along the M4 leyline, where it met Avon art school kids advancing from punk and funk into a new decade. Egan’s signature DJ brew – e.g. Kraftwerk to Visage, Burundi Black to Bowie, Japan and Grace Jones – would spark myriad emulators who were also mirroring the chops of Duran Duran (sons of the Brum club scene an hour north) and the likes of Martyn Ware…
Multiple BMA winner, vocalist, songwriter, and song interpreter Janiva Magness has delivered her first comprehensive live album, 18 albums into her storied career, with Truth in the Room: The Clearmountain Sessions. The fact that she uses “Sessions” in the title suggests this is not your typical live date. You could call Magness a perfectionist. She wanted to be sure that she had the consummate engineer by calling on the legendary Bob Clearmountain. She recorded at Berkeley Street Studios (formerly Apogee Studios) to an intimate gathering of 150 invited friends and music industry guests. So, every possible element was in her favor. The terms had to be right. That being said, the album still has plenty of energy and emotional weight. Magness would…
Joyce & Tutty Moreno, the legendary architects of Brazilian sophisticated samba, have partnered with Adrian Younge to complete JID027 — a deeply emotional album born from tragedy. Set in motion by the endorsement of their late friend João Donato, the project became a tribute to him following his sudden passing. The result is a breathtaking collection of improvisation, poetry, and resilience.
Joyce Moreno is like the Joni Mitchell of Brazil, a singular, multi-talented paragon of feminine musical energy. Unapologetically independent, Joyce is a masterful guitar player, angelic vocalist and inspired composer who’s blazed her own musical trail since her start in the music business in the sixties as an outspoken…
Margaret Glaspy’s latest album, I Am Both, is a low-key masterwork of observational wisdom, lilting melodies, and sharp wit. She delivers her stinging lines with a conversational ease, wielding the authority of hard-won experience over ringing guitar licks that echo the guilelessness of her storytelling. Her intimacy compels us to immediately identify with the singer, even when she is singing about people other than herself.
…On songs such as the dreamy “Common Ground” and the more somber “Petty”, the singer bites off lyrics about mutual disappointments. She keeps the lyrics simple to show how basic and trivial spitefulness can be, and at the same time so complex and inflammatory: “I thought we were on the same page / Apparently not /…
An abandoned cathedral. A gruesome murder. A powerful supernatural entity living in the catacombs. It all comes to a head in downtown Los Angeles. What will happen and who will live to tell the tale? Such is the storyline of Cathedral, the thrilling new album and terrifying graphic novel from director and musician John Carpenter, based on a dream Carpenter had in 2024.
Cathedral has all the drama, dark atmosphere, and frenetic pacing of a classic heavy metal record. Especially designed as the soundtrack to the graphic novel, each track corresponds to a specific section of the book. The liner notes included with the album packaging feature prompts for each track, creating a fully interactive experience. Combined with the graphic novel,…
John Darnielle looks back with wry fondness on this 24th full-length album, revisiting obscure events and semi-famous people in his typically arch and literate way. Music figures prominently in this gallery of memories — he dedicates one song to the prog band Renaissance’s 1976 date at Carnegie Hall, another to a mythical opening slot for grungy Candlebox, still another to the speed metal band, Venom, “hollering cocaine.”
One of the best of these songs recounts the later days of Layne Staley, who doesn’t want this, any of this, now that he’s got it. As usual, Darnielle writes crisp, well-tailored third-person stories about other people, which clearly also reflect his own experiences.
This is a relatively subtle album, not exactly…
In The Hero with a Thousand Faces, American mythologist Joseph Campbell uses tales from antiquity to chart the “Hero’s Journey,” the cyclical sequence of departure, initiation, and return which serves as the basis for mythic narrative. While this may ring true in the world of fables, practically speaking, I’ve always found personal journeys to resemble curves rather than circles; soft arcs of change that bend imperceptibly, but eventually, toward resolution. Oakland recording artist sachi’s mirror appears to agree. On her debut album, Talking in a Different Way, she opens a portal to a celestial plane of orchestral, fourth-world trip-hop that embraces patience as a means of evocation and wandering as a way to move on.
Sachi’s mirror is the alias of Shaina Pan,…
What does it look like when the family business is music? In the case of The Family — a kind of “supergroup” made up of singer-songwriter Dylan LeBlanc and his father James LeBlanc, stepmother Angela Hacker, and stepbrother Bay Simpson — it’s a little messy. On the band’s first album, Delusions of Grandeur, they’re unpacking some of the baggage that splintered them apart and eventually brought them back together to FAME Studios in the LeBlancs’ native Muscle Shoals, Alabama in 2020 to record it. Released by Dylan LeBlanc’s brother-in-law’s Big Black Cow Records, Delusions of Grandeur is a true family affair, one that feels effortless in the ways it shines a light on each member’s individual artistry. LeBlanc’s woozy mysticism, his father’s easy grooves, Hacker’s…
Scarborough-based Phil Hooley is the founder of the alt-country band The Woolgatherers. Everything We’ll Never Need is his third solo album after Provenance (2023) and Songs from the Back Room (2021). He is on vocals and guitar, but has teamed up with a number of top Nashville session players. It is a slight surprise to learn that he is a Yorkshire lad, because this album very much has an American feel. It is laid-back americana with a very nice brew of country, soul, and blues that reminds you of Dave Alvin and Rodney Crowell.
Having said that, the first track, ‘Cowboy Dreaming’, has more than a whiff of the English band Dire Straits, with slide guitar picking to give it a country feel. It is a weird tale of a city-dweller going out to the Wild West to become…
In the mid ’60s, Chess Records released a series of The Real Folk Blues albums that compiled singles from the careers of some of its greatest artists. John Lee Hooker’s The Real Folk Blues differed from many of the other compilations as it featured newly-recorded sessions for the label. These legendary 1966 recordings capture the essence of his signature sound and approach to the blues. Standout tracks include “One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer,” “Stella Mae” and “I’m in the Mood.”
Bring home the sound of America’s greatest blues label in high fidelity with the Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series. These audiophile reissues of classic albums and compilations from the Chess discography are remastered from the original analog tapes and pressed…
Fondly referred to as “The Rockin’ Chair Album” due to the depiction of a rocking chair on its cover, Howlin’ Wolf by Howlin’ Wolf is rockin’ in more ways than one. This record captures the true sound of the electric blues with a compilation of singles previously released between 1957 and 1961. Featuring the talents of Chess mainstays including Willie Dixon, Hubert Sumlin, Sam Lay, and Jimmy Rogers, the album delivers a powerful sound. Standout tracks include “Little Red Rooster,” “Spoonful,” and “Back Door Man,” among others.
Bring home the sound of America’s greatest blues label in high fidelity with the Chess Records Acoustic Sounds Series. These audiophile reissues of classic albums and compilations from the Chess discography are remastered…
Multi-instrumentalist Adam Scrimshire delivers quietly expansive music on Bring Our Light to Every Corner. A blend of contemporary jazz with other genres like folk, R&B and soul, the project makes a lot of noise for only six tracks in 45 minutes. A cast of various guest musicians sweeps in and out of the album, allowing for a rich variety of sound. Though Scrimshire weaves in these diverse layers with skill, he still manages to keep the larger sonic atmosphere stable — which can be tricky for a musician of any level.
Digging into the artist’s discography reveals a healthy yearning to experiment. His 2024 release Music for Autumn Lovers delves into a stronger video game soundtrack style. A neo-folk attitude reigns there. Songs like “Willow” are all…
A sobriquet that could be applied to the pianist Bill Evans is “the poet of the jazz piano,” as he more than almost any other pianist combined technical mastery with emotional restraint, creating music that feels introspective rather than demonstrative. Every pianist who has ever fallen under Evans’ spell has eventually faced the same dilemma. One choice leads to imitation, while the other leads to finding your own voice, carrying Evans’ influence. Randy Ingram has wisely chosen the latter, and Sound Within: A Celebration of Bill Evans is all the more compelling because of it.
Across the nine tracks in this release, the featured songs are connected to Evans and resonate in meaningful ways, alongside original compositions by Ingram that reflect the pianist’s…
Latin America is a true musical universe – a fusion of countless influences, genres and references layered in endless ways. One undeniable representative of this universe is the Argentine trio Tremor (Leonardo Martinelli, Gerardo Farez and Camilo Carabajal), who first emerged nearly two decades ago on Buenos Aires’ alternative music scene. Now, with a refreshed line-up featuring new member Alex Musatov on violin and synthesizers, they return with Takuy. The word ‘Takuy’ comes from Quechua and carries two meanings: the first is “to mix or combine”, while the second is “to be, to exist, remain”. Both meanings perfectly reflect the spirit of the band. Drawing from electronic music, they blend Creole psychedelia with Argentine folk explorations, enriched by a wide…
Few artists treat genre with the same radical disregard for boundaries as Willow Smith, who has steadily emerged as a singular architect of modern sound by blending disparate styles with striking vocal agility. The sheer momentum of her recent output reveals an artist relentlessly chasing new sonic horizons. Arriving just five months after February’s petal rock black, her eighth solo studio album, The Thread, marks her second full-length project of 2026. This tireless work ethic has fueled a stunningly compressed evolutionary arc. She transitions from the distorted pop-punk rhythms of 2021’s lately i feel EVERYTHING to the intricate jazz-fusion of Empathogen. With The Thread, WILLOW shifts her sights toward the devotional by crafting an ambitious interrogation…
Music ebbs and flows, as MISSIO are only too aware. As a duo, Matthew Brue and David Butler have completed six records together, with Love & Heartbreak being the richest in form and purpose. This project, as an entity, is rich with references to mortality, degradation, and inner turmoil. In terms of it being a sonic experience, Love & Heartbreak is strikingly different from previous MISSIO records; a visceral rollercoaster burning with energy on all sides.
“I will make you beg for self-deprecation,” the singer shouts on “Self Deprecation”, sharp keyboards rattling behind the glass-cut vocal. The amorous affection in “You Are My Love” is alluded to in its melodic counterpoints, a Wagnerian backdrop. The term “tender” is…