Creative soundscapes and beats from Guadalajara, Mexico – Rubenzuque is a producer and artist whose focus is refreshingly, exclusively on the music and process of making audio that engages with and impacts listeners.
EPs
Promising stories of contemplation regarding influence, authority, and personal agency, Message Through Meadows is clearly songwriting-driven. The band are not flashy nor attention grabbing in their image or audio demeanour, they let the music speak honestly on each concept and feeling, and this is what lets these four songs feel so moving and emotionally memorable.
Long-time musician and artist Austyn Gillette creates a multi-layered indie-jazz aura with his latest project, blending saxophone, guitars, keys, riffs and rhythms, with a kind of Mac Demarco character and voice that’s distinct in both topic and tone.
Carefully walking the line between intimacy and vastness, Elaine Yu guides with moving piano melodies and subtle strings, rhythms and other classical instruments, throughout the evocative journey of the Timeless EP.
That quality is essential to the music that moves us, that stands the test of time – not a flashy outpouring of confidence or attention-grabbing performative flair, just a natural emotional charm and purpose to both the arrangement and delivery, and Full Circle has all bases covered on that front.
If you’re new to the name, and if folk-rock or Gothic, folk-punk and bluegrass musicianship and all-together-now songs are your jam – this EP is an absolute must, and Cesare Verdacchi & The Duke’s Winers are undoubtedly a band worth seeking out this summer.
There’s something about this group of lifelong musicians untied in their passion for evocative songwriting, their humility and heart, their timeless harmonies, melodies, and the sheer passion and modesty combined that intoxicates in a soft, subtle but striking way.
Blending style and substance with semalessly intelligent bars and a vocal fulidity and dynamic that’s intoxicating, Big O and Cashus King deliver one of the biggest albums of the year, with the sensatinoal iWater to Wine.
One of independent hip hop’s most authentic and moving voices returns this season with a stylistically modest yet conceptually and melodically majestic album.
Somewhere to lose yourself, an echoing garage-rock arena, drenching distortion in reverb and adding something like gentle diary-style vocals and an adlib outbursts to the songwriting. Dayfiction work with mood and momentum, as the tumbling drums and evocative drama of Spare introduces their latest EP on a poignant high.
Lush new vibes from Australian artist Monstrous bring a calming organic blend of subtle jazz, funk and dreamy trip hop. With intimate vocal depth and quiet reflections on life and the self, Underground is a catchy and distinct symphony of riffs and moments, and it softly contemplates then brightens throughout a smooth and satisfying post-five-minute mix.
A fine collection of songs, all impressively connected by concept and character, but also versatile enough to make this a nostalgic and hopeful project, from an independent songwriter and musician whose approach blends skill and substance to a compelling degree. Well worth escaping into this season.