Zoe Nutt - Like You

URL: https://www.zoenutt.com/

One of the most beautiful qualities distinguishing Zoe Nutt’s first album from her peers is the effortless, organic feel permeating every song. The eleven tracks on Like You share an unity of sound and thematic purpose that never overreaches its strengths while continually pursuing lyrical, vocal, and melodic excellence. The songwriting is tightly constructed; Nutt and her fellow musicians are clearly cut from the cloth that believe in every note and turn serving the purpose of making the song greater as a whole. The instrumentation is deliberately limited as the performances and production alike concentrate on providing Nutt with a dramatic, yet never overwrought, forum for her voice and songwriting. Nothing here comes cheaper or unnecessarily gaudy. Instead, the songs on Like You have a delicate beauty that is, in turns, theatrical and quite sincere.

Jokatech – Standing Still Symphony

URL: https://jokatech.webs.com/  

This is the moment when talent wills out and the artists begins a slow separation from his more mediocre peers and starts to stand above the pack as a transformative writer and performer. Jokatech’s latest release Standing Still Symphony shows off two distinctly different faces for his growing audience. The approaches are, furthermore, rather divergent as well. He tackles the issue of balancing his vocal against the accompaniment differently on each track and shows artistic intent by doing so in a way unfamiliar to many genre fans. These conscious shifts in production and mix style can only come from artists with absolute clarity about their goals and an innate talent for manipulating sound in compelling ways.  

Stefano Dentone & Antonio Ghezzani - Teatro Staller

Stefano Dentone & Antonio Ghezzani - Teatro Staller (Roots Rebels Records, 2016) https://www.sdagmusic.com   Stefano Dentone & Antonio Ghezzani have an original, strange and great project! They are from Italy, but with an international attitude. Maybe because both have a musical education that saw them out from the borders of their Country… or maybe because they are really rock’n’roll musicians: people who don’t like to be locked in any type of border. Listening to their album “Teatro Staller”, I think it’s correct the second one.   The duo has a strange mixture in its roots. Antonio comes from Classical music and also experienced the popular music of the Mediterranean and the typical music of Italian songwriters. Stefano has a more rock education. He is the typical musician who trained himself on the road, playing in night clubs and roadhouses with various bands over the years. Together they are able to create a sound that goes back to the origins of the classic rock, but with an interesting component of musical crossover. The sound of their album “Teatro Staller” has a very strong derivation from roots music. Only three instruments: a voice, an acoustic guitar and an electric one. Recorded in a room, live, using simple equipment and minimal use of digital technology as possible. The music and the songs. They want to be protagonists, not the special effects which, however, is reduced to a minimum. The lyrics are in Italian and in English because, as I said, they don’t like borders.   Listening the nineteen songs of the tracklist, takes us into a universe of observation of the contemporary world, songs like “Basic Reality,” “Why Are We Here?”, “Human Crashes,” “I Don’t Know” or “Illusion” describe, with ruthless clarity, a reality of false and weak values. The songs with Italian lyrics have a very interesting bluesy sound that makes them pleasant to listen, even if you are not native speakers, but… if you take the trouble to use the Google translator, you can also appreciate the poetic content of uncommon value. You can find the lyrics from their official website. In the rest of the album are episodes of introspection as in “Losing Hopes”, “Castaway Blues” or “Times”, echoes and references to old western movies as in “Oklahoma” and a very remarkable blues ballad, titled “You’re Gone “. So this is a very simple project: two guitars and one voice. There are no tricks. You’ll spend one hour with an original and great rock’n’roll music!   9 out of ten stars   https://www.facebook.com/StefanoDentoneAntonioGhezzani   Michael Connolly

Seth Swirsky – Circles and Squares

URL: https://www.seth.com/

Seth Swirsky is a self-described “manic expressive,” an American pop music songwriter (including the Grammy-nominated “Tell It To My Heart”), an author, a recording artist, a filmmaker, a political writer and a noted baseball memorabilia collector. In 1980, at the age of 20, Seth Swirsky wrote the national jingle for Thomas’ English Muffins. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1982, Swirsky wrote the Grammy-nominated hit “Tell It To My Heart” with Ernie Gold for Taylor Dayne.

Cranky George – Nighttime

URL: https://www.crankygeorge.net/who.html 

Cranky George certainly isn’t an outfit of wide-eyed youngsters looking to make their mark on an increasingly fragmented music scene. Each of the five members are veteran players and writers with extensive CV’s reaching back to the late 1970’s. The band’s accordionist James Fearnley, in particular, is something of a legend considering his status as a founding member of The Pogues. His long service alongside vocalist Shane McGowan ended eventually and, along with Dermot and Kieran Mulroney, formed The Low and Sweet Orchestra who scored big with their sole long player Goodbye to All That. The band later dissolved, but Fearnley and the Mulroney Brothers continued on to form the first incarnation of Cranky George. Despite a welcomed EP debut and an assortment of live gigs, the trio was unable to capitalize on its success thanks to other existing commitments. This is no longer the case. The band has reconvened with new members and their debut as a five piece, Fat Lot of Good, is scheduled for an October 14th release. The first single, “Nighttime”, lays the groundwork for what is certain to be one of 2016’s best releases.  

Ian K

URL: https://www.ian-k.com

Ian K is a well-seasoned Canadian indie music artist that has played on some of the biggest stages to be found anywhere, and has had the good fortune to play alongside some of the big names in music in Canada, including members of Our Lady Peace, Platinum Blonde, Von Groove, and even Jake E. Lee’s Red Dragon Cartel.

He has even sang unreleased tracks with Slash and Velvet Revolver. In February of 2015 his first radio release “Linger” broke the National Radio Airplay Top 50 Rock chart as measured by Digital Radio Tracker. His latest is “Your Hero.” This is a solid track that reminds of everyone from 70s greats Black Sabbath to 80s metal acts like Riot and others. It’s just an influence in the sound, nothing more. But he seems to draw from the 70s and 80s well of hard rock. It’s just obvious that this is not some crooner or balladeer, he’s a wilder animal who is less confined but stays aware of the importance to balance things with a sing along vibe. Once you hear the first guitar notes you are hooked and not letting go until it’s over. The crisp and clean vocals keep you interested all the way, and the storyline gets better as it goes. This has a pulsating rhythm section that bites right through the guitar and vocals, with a perfectly even mix. It’s produced very well, but I have no background on any of those particulars, but nevertheless they deserve due credit. If only there was more like a whole album to chew on. The song deals with falling short of helping others who expect more than a man can possibly give. Plenty of rock artists can use a drink from his bottle of energy. It’s not going around in abundance anymore, as energy levels seem to be going further down, rather than up, in this day and age. Ian comes off both Heavy and comprehensive at the same time, it’s like closing your eyes and being back in the day. And for an artist out of Canada, he has a world class appeal. But where are all of the ears to find him anymore. That’s something I can’t stress enough. Independence is great, but wide circulation is even better. This is why I review music, to do a part in getting it to more people. I just wonder how often the industry is lurking and finding it, and taking it to heart. If it changes things for one artist I’ve done my job. It’s just so hard to get the word out no matter what. What Ian’s music is missing is nothing, so, the industry takes another loss if he never reaches the masses. Playing in Canada isn’t so bad though, it is a big country with some meccas to plunder. Perhaps the goal is to stay grounded there while he gets more recording done, because he doesn’t have much out there, although he’s no rookie either. He can really make you wonder where all the great players are, so, needless to say I am on board. All there is left to do is hope that readers follow the suggestion to seek this single out and stay on his trail for more. There is only so much to be said about one song, so the artist himself could use a lot of exposure along with it. This contains everything I long for so much in this disjointed music landscape full of Americana and other light hearted style of music going around.

The Retakes – Trash

FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/TheRetakes 

Passion means everything in punk music, but it’s only someone who doesn’t know much about good punk that would tell you intelligence and skills aren’t equally important. The second EP release from Minnesota based The Retakes conclusively proves that punk music with an equal measure of brains and brawns, or at least an ironic attitude, is still the standard bearer for the genre. The four songs on Trash vary slightly in approach, but they all rock out with convincing credibility and show just the right balance of physicality and restraint to make the deepest impact on their target audience. This release builds on the same themes and approaches they take on their first EP Girl, but there’s a nervy edge cutting deep into listeners and drawing blood. This is a release that reaffirms all of the genre’s traditional values, breathes new life into them, and brings new elements to bear propelling the material higher than ever before. 

Anomie Belle – Flux

URL: https://www.anomiebelle.com/

The full length debut from multi-discipline artist Anomie Belle, Flux, marks the emergence of an important singer/songwriter with a well-rounded approach to traditional forms. None of the twelve songs on Flux deviate so completely from songwriting norms that their effects are scarcely recognizable, but Belle never fails to overturn listener’s expectations and twist familiar structures to her own devices. The production emphasizes artistic effect over sonic clarity – some sounds are slightly fuzzed over, rendered indistinct, or else blurred a little, but atmosphere is heavily stressed. She pursues trip hop, lightly classical, electronica, and dance styles with a singleness of purpose, but she never fails to bring those differing elements together in an impressive wall of sound. Belle has been a creator since her early pre-teen years and the songwriting on Flux shows an astonishing completeness of vision due, in part, to that long apprenticeship she’s lodged.