Les Fradkin, the champion of artistic, orchestral, ‘60s/’70s-inspired rock and roll, returns with “Remote Control” – a track originally recorded in 1980, but recently updated due to its surprisingly timely messaging: a dystopian future filled with a distracting, perhaps controlling media. Does the latest Les Fradkin track measure up to the rest of his progressive, classic-and-classically-orchestrated rock? Let’s talk about it.Wait. Who does what?Les Fradkin tackles nearly everything you hear, including lead and background vocals, Mellotron, chamberlin, Starr Labs Ztar, nylon string guitar, ba ..read more

Pop, EDM, and metal outfit Nanoblu’s latest effort, Hero of the World, has one goal…Okay, more than one goal: to offer escape; to create happiness; to offer danceable, catchy messages of positivity, motivation, and inspiration. Hero of the World is here to help minimize stress and get you through that daily mountain of tough and touchy stuff. Ready to sing along, loudly, in the car, and thoroughly lose those mundane human blues? Let’s hit the highlights.What we’re digging (i.e., those aforementioned highlights)… One of the group’s personal favorites, “Limitless,” kicks off with spacey chimes ..read more

Hailing from New Zealand (by way of South Africa), Ash Hayward has been making music since picking up a guitar in high school. With one of his more recent releases, 2023’s Sideways, Hayward presents a mostly instrumental, multi-genre affair. Does Sideways, which, musically, is a bit of a side turn from Hayward’s usual output, live up to his overall brand of quietly pronounced quality? Let’s hit the highlights. Wait. Who does what? Hayward does it all.  Due to recurring back problems, Hayward was unable to pick up/play a guitar for this album. However, he turned to the use of samples as t ..read more

Zanilonia – the eclectic musical vehicle for multi-instrumentalist David Zee – returns with another interesting, ominous-sounding track inspired by the noirish work of Alfred Hitchcock – “MacGuffins of the Mind.” Wait, what’s a “MacGuffin? Coined by Alfred Hitchcock, and leaning on Wikipedia: “In fiction, a MacGuffin is an object, device, or event that is necessary to the plot and the motivation of the characters, but insignificant, unimportant, or irrelevant in itself.” So, the MacGuffin, although a source of conflict, is usually deeply irrelevant or a complete fabrication. And in Zanilonia’s ..read more

The latest release by Zanilonia sees the virtual ensemble try their hand at recreating an iconic theme tune from a 1960’s British TV show called Danger Man. The show starred Patrick McGoohan as secret agent John Drake and its theme song was written by British composer Edwin Astley. The music featured a zany, harpsichord melody that was characteristic of spy shows of the era. The mission of David Zee (band leader) was to modernize this theme, and Zanilonia’s version bears a strong electronica influence. Zanilonia recreates the dissonant harpsichord arpeggio that is the rhythmic basis of the pi ..read more

Who is Heartdestroyer? A rather eclectic artist who finds themselves “terminally online” as an almost permanent denizen of the internet; an experienced audio engineer (and musical experience designer) dancing between online personas and various genres in a quest to be consistently creative; and, of course, the creator/producer of “Hello Kitty Bitches,” the latest unrelenting single defining their persistently connected existence. Is “Hello Kitty Bitches” an honest anthem of life on the internet, complete with video game sound effects and vocals recorded through a gaming headset? Let’s talk ab ..read more

Okay, I figured it out – with a little research (like, 30-seconds worth), I determined Margarita Shamrakov is the incredibly talented composer, instrumental performer, and producer of her latest track, “You Left Me All Alone (Joan of Arc).” And Theo? He’s responsible for those whispery, breathy vocals. Got it. And with that out of the way, I can offer more enlightened feedback. Ready? I wasn’t sure what to expect – Margarita lists Pop, EDM, and Dance as some of her styles, so I was afraid we’d receive something mostly mechanical, perpetually repetitive, and bereft of the human heart. Well, I ..read more

From a very young age, singer/songwriter Katie Belle knew exactly what she wanted to do. Performing on stage for the first time in third grade led to 12-year-old Katie singing solos and entering competitions. Flashing forward past various bands, exciting solo excursions, and consistent artistic improvement, present day Katie Belle fulfills those childhood ambitions with her evolving brand of energetic, danceable, heartfelt pop. And with her latest track, “Symptoms,” Katie grows more capable – more confident – as an obviously on-the-rise superstar. Let’s talk about it. “Symptoms,” overall, is ..read more

The Surreal Funfair – the musical machinations of solo artist Sir Eel Van Vehr (aka, Sascha Beyer) – creates music for existential, and perhaps unnervingly realistic spaces (like the mechanical, rusting doomscapes exhaling whistling steam in your brain; like the laser-pointing analog synth notes implying Kraftwerk and a cyclic, preprogrammed life lived with eyes forever closed; and the broken cities where technological utopias once gleamed, now replaced with ashen dunes of curling steel, and the buried, once-pristine super-limbs of AI-guided automatons). In a Very Loud Environment, The Surrea ..read more

A sequel to last year’s “You Disarmed Your Robot Army,” and an accounting of one’s transition from faulty flesh to immortal robotics, “Meet the Metal Me” is an eclectic, space-synth-sounding story borrowing musical ideas and ominous plots from classic sci-fi series, The Outer Limits. Zanilonia, the project heralded by multi-instrumentalist David Zee (with a host of revolving guest artists), returns with another interesting tune steeped in comical (but a little sad) sci-fi. Is the present ready for such a projection of impartial posthumanism? It is, and here’s why: “Meet the Metal Me” is an el ..read more