JL Stiles comes out of a blues-playing tradition, but he moves far afield of anything so straight-forward on House of Murmurs, a layered, connective album that can’t be anchored to any one specific genre. You May Also Like: Pink Floyd, “Alan’s Psychedelic Breakfast” from Atom Heart Mother (1970): One TrackRead More

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tCfLn1yaw4g&w=500&h=305] Intrepid guitarist Adam De Lucia seeks to create electronic accompaniment that sounds downright human – and he largely succeeds on Hypnotist. You May Also Like: John McLaughlin – Black Light (2015) Adam Hopkins – ‘Crickets’ (2018) Adam Steffeck – Aviator (2017)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZJbQ4z9WCo&w=500&h=315] Philadelphia-based Berklee graduate Jessi Teich is, in many ways, unlike any of the famous singers who have so clearly impacted her. You May Also Like: Marc Ribot + The Young Philadelphians – Live In Tokyo (2016) Bob Marley, “Is This Love” from Uprising Live! (2014)

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TJ06gKAv9OA&w=500&h=305] Las Vegas trombone player Nate Kimball plays with none of his native city’s glitzy clichés. In fact, Warrior’s Journey is a wonder of tensile, perfectly constructed, never-showy modern jazz. You May Also Like: Bobby Kimball – We’re Not in Kansas Anymore (2017) Bobby Kimball, former Toto frontman: SomethingRead More

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PhNXoeogHDo&w=500&h=305] Brilliantly off-kilter, completely unquantifiable, Xenat-Ra is, at any given moment, the best prog/free jazz/hip hop/metal band you’ve never heard of. You May Also Like: Projekt Gemineye – ‘Man of Science … Man of Dreams’ (2018) Tim Berne’s Science Friction – ‘Science Friction +size’ (2020) Walter Becker, “Medical ScienceRead More

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGtl-_qW1sQ&w=500&h=305] Blending elements of arena rock, prog and metal, Heroso confounds expectations in the very best of ways. The album opener, called “Act 1,” begins as a tensile, mainstream rocker, marked by a searching riff courtesy of Brian Rohr You May Also Like: Billy Sherwood served as a peacekeeperRead More

You might be tempted to peg Simon Sullivan, a Canadian singer-songwriter and harp player, as a bluesman. And there’s plenty of that to be found here. In the end, though, that would be selling the genre-busting Groovin’ short. You May Also Like: The Young Rascals – Groovin’ (1967): On SecondRead More

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zk10No6YZcA&w=500&h=305] The source material here speaks to the essential versatility of these two Georgia-based music industry vets. Blues Say Goodbye includes two blues tracks, a quartet of jazz standards, three smartly reworked rock songs and two originals. You May Also Like: Richard Turgeon, “Goodbye to Summer” (2020): One TrackRead More

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6TEcqDkTS0&w=500&h=305] This list is necessarily all over the map. Heck, in a lot of respects, there’s no map at all. You’ll find it in tatters down on the passenger-side floorboard. Delving into unsigned bands is like that. You May Also Like: David Sancious: The Albums That Shaped My CareerRead More

Rubix, an ever-shifting amalgam led by South African songwriter and producer Matt Rod, sounds like a different band on each of the EP’s four cuts — and that’s by design. You May Also Like: Rod Stewart, “Every Picture Tells a Story” (1971): One Track Mind The Crazy World of ArthurRead More