New Tracks

Venn – “Surreal”

DC-based rockers Venn introduced themselves last year with a captivating cover of Slowdive’s “Alison” (below), serving as a tasteful preview of their stylistic leanings, that being shoegaze-y and textural rock. New track

Obscure Sound: Best Tracks of 2016

I’ve compiled our top 70 tracks of 2016, including both unsigned/independent acts and the more well-known from the year. It’s a great combination of highlights from the year’s greatest albums and single

New Dakotas – “Turn My Head Around”

New Dakotas by New Dakotas Based in the Boston Area, New Dakotas is a catchy power-pop act with members attending Tufts and Harvard. Their first release – a four-track self-titled EP –

Echo Texture – “Rayon”

Seattle-based group Echo Texture have a very apt name — as their sound adds textural depths to a vein of alternative-rock that values trickling post-punk verses and emotive blasts of emotion in

Christina Rubino – “Down to the Sea”

This past December, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter Christina Rubino’s “Godspeed and Guns” showed an artist capable of eclectic stylistic appeal and contemplative, philosophical themes. The track explored the concept of Jung’s “shadow self”, over

POKAL – “Great Expectations”

POKAL is the DIY-project of Sweden-based Norwegian Arne Barlindhaug Ellingsen, who shows off hook-y melodic pulsations and soundscape that merges past/future on new track “Great Expectations”. There’s an ’80s vibe, especially reminiscent

Pekoe Cat – “Test”

Pekoe Cat is a new act bursting at the seams with creative energy, on new track “Test” reminding strongly of early Ariel Pink with the creative lo-fi vocal production and melodic development,

New Albums

Pegasuses – ‘Sea of Joy’

Alt-folk husband and wife duo Pegasuses consume on their new album Sea of Joy, showcasing the Southampton-based act as expanding their intimate,

More

Annstiina – ‘field’ EP

field is a lushly inviting piano-led EP from Annstiina, an artist based in Järvenpää, Finland. Previously succeeding in the art pop realm,

More

Daniel Rodak – ‘Daniel Rodak’

Detroit-based songwriter Daniel Rodak presents his self-titled album as a stripped-back, self-produced statement rooted in folk and folk-rock tradition, recorded just outside

More