In this edition, we cover songs that wrestle with existence, wrap truth in metaphor, and sit with you in your darkest moments. For the full playlist, click here.
Sssiv – “All The Time”
SSSIV2 carries the ethereal thread of their debut forward, unraveling it further into something hazier and more untethered.
“All The Time” is the clearest example. It’s built on deliberate fractures and improvisational breath where the song simply moves gently through the breeze.
Sara and Sasha’s vocals hover like transmissions from somewhere unreachable, melancholic and gauze-thin. Beneath them, the drums hold steady while the guitars lean slightly out of touch. The rest of the instruments are left alone to survive and somehow they do that beautifully.
Michael Vdelli and the Art of Dysfunction – “You and the Blues”
There’s something deeply warming about a band that chases a creative instinct all the way to its natural conclusion, not forcing perfection but stumbling into it gracefully along the way. “You and the Blues” clings to you like the last warm spoonful of a sticky date pudding, rich and indulgent making it almost impossible to forget.
Michael Vdelli and the Art of Dysfunction are exactly that kind of band. The vocals are refined without feeling polished to a sterile sheen. The lyrics don’t reach too hard and the instruments?
They move as one, instinctively in sync, like magic. Minimal processing keeps everything delightfully raw, without embellishments, so that the band’s collective energy bleeds through every note.
Then the track shifts gears entirely. Three unrelenting minutes of pure Metallica-grade force descend without warning, and suddenly the room disappears. It’s just you and the music.
The Joff Lowson Trio – “Little Door”
Joff Lowson Trio’s latest “Little Door” features an ambitious young girl Jenny and her simple dreams of making it big.
The trio have a way with observational storytelling reminding you of Jim Croce’s pieces that builds a well-rounded world around its characters and then steps back, leaving judgement and imagination entirely to the listener.
The music doesn’t try to outshine the words. It follows the lyrical tone of voice like a loyal companion, American folk roots giving you clean banjo, bass, and guitar that feel unhurried and uncluttered.
Jenny’s world feels lived in where the spaces breathe, the story finds its own footing, and the trio’s steady assurance carries it all through.
Lehmanski – “Riesen aus Wachs”
Lightweight rock with hard hitting lyrics has to be the hardest combination to beat. Lehmanski’s “Riesen aus Wachs” treads Y2K rock formulas with a newfound vigour while taking on THE philosophical question surrounding our existence. What are we made of and who made us? Lehmanski sees us as “Giants of Wax”, shrunk comfortably into whatever shape the universe decides for us.
The recording and mix are almost too good to ignore. Vocals tucked back just enough, drums and guitars upfront and bleeding into each other the way melted wax does, edges dissolving, shapes merging. You can’t quite tell where one ends and the other begins. A production choice that serves the lyrics beautifully.
Riot Son – “Slowly Without You”
Riot Son looks grief and heartache in the eye and embodies it wholly in “Slowly Without You,” forcing you to confront whatever you haven’t yet processed. This isn’t background music. It has the ability to find
you where you are.
The emotions have soaked into every corner of the track, bleeding through compressed vocals and instrumentation that carries a heaviness in its tone, gradually melding into one towards the end like bitter tea leaching in boiling water. The production doesn’t polish the pain away, it preserves it.
The melancholy here is powerful enough to pull you out of the present for a few minutes. And that’s exactly how you know he’s an artist worth your time.
Find our previous indie/rock reviews here.
