Finding Good Music Under The Radar - Part Three

Social distancing, lockdown quarantine, all are words we knew were there, just didn’t have much chance to experience them directly. Now we do. But another term remains the same - new music that should not be missed. It seems that now, in these hard times is the additional chance to experience it. After all, we have more time to experience it and, of course, those piles of music we are not so familiar with have been getting bigger and bigger. Time to try and slim them down and pick some more good music that otherwise might go completely unnoticed.

geoff gordon - Sex and the City

I guess the lower case is there because it is actually a six-member band form Albany, N.Y. geoff gordon actually revolves around the two vocalists/songwriters, Shannon Straney and Dan LaFave and their sunny side of power pop might be exactly the perfect antidote to being locked out solely with your music with you. After all, they themselves say that “Neighbors,” one of the tracks here is  "A sunny slice of 90s power pop about realising that you were the idiot in the room the whole time. Power- pop, bedroom-pop, whatever you call it, geoff gordon come in, bounce around and leave in melody and style

Leya - Flood Dream

Marilu Donovan (harp/vocals) and Adam Markiewitz (vocals/violin) aka Leya lay in a number of other groups, but judging by Flood Dream, it might be hard to distinguish what is their main, and what is their side project. The album in no way sounds like a collection of songs you record to bide your time, but as a full-formed concept that is musically hard to define. The reason for that might lie in the fact that it serves as a soundtrack to a short (erotic) film and that Ley skim from dark melodies to musical experiments with ease, showing that crossing boundaries is easy if you know exactly what you are doing.

Mute Duo - Lapse in Passage

Yet another duo (Skyler Rowe - drums/percussion and Sam Wagster - pedal steel) that go the more experimental way. As one could guess from the lineup, Mute Duo are and instrumental combo, that for the uninitiated could spell tedium. But Rowe and Wagster actually create some serene, open space soundscapes that can at the same time be both soothing and menacing, leaving a lot of room to the imagination of the listener. You can call it post-rock or anything else you wish, but it certainly some of the best late-night music around at the moment.

Magic Waters - Pinky Swear EP

Magic Waters debut EP is another sparkling Nineties-inspired rock, this time around inspired by the likes of Pavement and Elliot Smith (particularly in his Heatmiser guise). Ryan Lee, the band’s mastermind comes up with three slices of almost perfectly constructed pop/rock that doesn’t mis a beat, with enough cool melodies and riffing guitars to make you ask for a full album as soon as possible.

Nick Storring - My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell

Toronto’s Nick Storring is not just you regular musician, but a composer, journalist and curator. On My Magic Dreams Have Lost Their Spell, he goes takes a seemingly strange route for somebody who has more to do with modern classical music than pop. With the album he pays tribute to music of Roberta Flack, and actually plays and records every single instrument himself, creating a lush, chamber music classical pop, I guess. And it all works perfectly.

FKAjazz - Lineage

Jazz is not exactly there by chance in FKAjazz aka Sami Zarif’s musical alter-ego. Although essentially a saxophone player, on Lineage Zarif shines most as a composer and a producer, trying and completely succeeding in trying to draw a line and connection between jazz and more current music genres like instrumental hip-hop. Excellent compositions, musicianship and production throughout, making some perfect backgrounds for all those that are bound to work at home.