By Deuce Looking to test yourself? Trying to find the next challenge to conquer without going out and committing random acts of nonsense seen on television, film, computer, and phone screens everywhere? Then throw on “Magic Master”, the latest offering from your man Ty Wood, and see how long you can go without moving to the music or, just plain

By Deuce Some artists maintain a social conviction in their work, and an accompanying sense of urgency, that simply supersedes that of others. Dancing, partying, and falling in and out of love are timeless topics, of course. But they leave a realm of unexplored subject matter, pertaining to pressing social conditions that oftentimes go unspoken, lost from what becomes popular

By Deuce There is much going on Little Blue Dot, the 12-cut magnum opus from The New Students. Songwriting, lead and background singing, and elaborate arrangements? You can get that anywhere, though they’re certainly on full display on this inspired effort. No, what’s really going on here is mandolins, fiddles, and banjos. Played live, that is, none of this synthesizer

By Deuce Listening to Veil Lifter, the latest full-length release from Post Death Soundtrack, is quite an experience. Much of the music is hypnotic, as in ponderously slow tempos and a lyrical proficiency that creeps upon you after listening to the respective cuts for a couple minutes. This trait of the album is counterbalanced with some moments of sheer brilliant

By Deuce There’s a pretty basic formula at play on Leave Before Dark, Raudiver’s LP that initially began making its rounds near the end of the summer. The duo finds the most corpulent drums it can get, hooks up a winning drum pattern, then proceeds to drown it out in keyboards, synths, and a smattering of vocals. To their credit,

By Deuce On occasion, one runs into an album that, from the opening notes of the first song, it becomes perfectly apparent that the piece is so good, so moving, that it’s almost hard to listen to the song—or the next, or the next—because of the distinct possibility that the one after that will be even better than what’s playing

By Deuce Run, the latest album from JNBG, dropped on November 1. Ten cuts long, it showcases the range of this quintet of players and vocalists which, all things considering, is quite considerable. Some of the album is fairly standard rock fare. We’re talking electric guitars that roar, tempos hovering somewhere near the 120 BPM mark, and bass gyrating in

By Deuce Before throwing on Crimson Legacy, the latest LP from Megan McDuffee, which just so happened to drop the same month as Halloween, it might behoove sensitive listeners to thoroughly peruse the promotional photos of the artist. We’re not talking about the artwork for the project, which is innocuous enough (although the title does contain the word crimson). But

By Deuce One would imagine, judging by the way the album sounds, that Danny Peck had all the time in the world to put together his Long Player, Where Hope Goes, Fear Follows. The man cranked out over an hour’s worth of music with just 10 tracks, only one of which, “In the Pine Trees”, is less than five minutes.

By Deuce So, you decide to cop the Anywhere EP from Pol Sembrano. After running through the four cut-affair, it becomes perfectly obvious that the track that stands out the most—that stands up, as it were, and speaks the loudest and clearest—is by far “Number (Single Mix)”. In so many ways, it showcases the best the singer/songwriter/producer/arranger/composer has to offer.

By Deuce Words, it certainly seems, are overrated. Sure, they can be used as a form of expression. But no means do they have a monopoly on that. Not when you can pick up, say, a bass guitar, an electric guitar, a pair of cue sticks, and have the sort of conversations that people in all day Zoom meetings can

By Deuce It’s a wonder what a good hook can do for a song, a beat, and/or the instrumentalism adorning the tracks. Any skeptics need look no further than “False Start”, one of the latest releases from your man Retrosaint. There’s just something about the way he pronounces those two words or, rather, phrases them, that sounds so right each

By Deuce “Brother, you’ve been on my mind/ Oh, brother, we’ve changed over time/ So, brother, I’m keeping my eyes on you,” Cee-Lo Green, “Glockapella” Cee-Lo Green …Is The Soul Machine, 2004. You may be forgiven for thinking that Oscar Flores and Thomas Flores are two of a kind. They are, after all, brothers. Approximately four years is just about

By Deuce “For Poesy alone can tell her dreams/With the fine spell of words alone can save/Imagination from the sable charm/And dumb enchantment.” John Keats, “The Fall of Hyperion – A Dream”. Were he so inclined, there’s no reason the young man, accustomed to the dips and hollows of the Louisville streets he claims as home, couldn’t have gotten it

By Deuce “If we live all our lives under lies, it becomes difficult to see anything if it does not have anything to do with these lies. If it is, for example, true or, say, honest. The idea that things of this nature continue to exist is not ever brought forward in our minds.” Amiri Baraka, formerly known as LeRoi

By Deuce Songwriting—lyrics, instrumentalism, progression and meaning—is alive and well on Laura Taubman’s The Gospel of Getting Free, a 10-track album that first touched down over the spring. The oeuvre has a deliciously refreshing lack of programming. The drums are live, the synths are minimalist, warm, and in the background. Taubman’s guitars, and those of the other musicians on this

By Deuce You’ve got to give it up to Christopher Sluka, front man, lead vocalist, and lead guitarist for the band Sluka. He certainly knows how to get in, give a good show, and get out of tune—all before hitting the three-minute marker. Just peruse “Sunset Screamer” to get a good, full dose of his tendency to do just that.

By Deuce There seems to be a little bit of everything on Moments of Sonder, a Long Player featuring the singing, production, and instrumentation of She’s Excited! You’ve got 11 cuts, seven featured artists, and no posse cuts (or those with more than one featured artist). One of the tunes, which just so happens to feature Liuyu Ivy Che, has

By Deuce Running through Montresor’s Autopoiesis, an 8-cut LP that first made its rounds with a  spring release, is like listening to a story. Only thing is, there’s no words, or narration, or verbal communication. But, the producer and musician more than makes up for that fact with his instrumentation. This tendency of the artist is epitomized on “Farmland”, which

By Deuce With the cast of characters on display on Reaching Out, the latest and most elated album from the James McGowan Ensemble, there’s very few things the collective cannot do. Now mind you, we’re talking about a horn section that’s four players deep, spanning everything from the trombone to the trumpet, soprano, and tenor saxophones. They’re used to spectacular

By Deuce There are not a lot of Long Players out there today, or any other day, for that matter, that sound too much like Ontogensis, NTHNL’s most recent album. One might easily have inferred so from the title of this opus or from the name of the artist (who also goes by Jacob Rudin. In fact, the most accessible

By Deuce Before running through her latest album, take a good, hard look at the artwork for Indiana Rich’s most recent Long Player. Notice how it invokes both black and white photography and color? And, that it’s a close-up of the artist and some serendipitous insect? Next, check the title of this opus. That would be Gemini and, for those