Bob Fish

Hiss Golden Messenger have stumbled upon a weird kind of alchemy; through their sense of magic, they are able to bind belief with reality in a way that lets you know there is only one choice: Jump for Joy.

As whimsy and reality converge, Stephen Steinbrink’s ‘Disappearing Coin’ is delightful and endearing, an album filled with playfulness and wonder… this coin should not disappear without a trace.

Finch and Blasucci seem to have a way of leaning into the sweet spots of each other’s work…while living in different cities, Mapache have found the musical moments that bind the two as a band. Swinging Stars continues to deliver sheer west coast magic.

Sam Blasucci’s ‘Off My Stars’ illustrates how to live in a world where contradictions can be celebrated, and music exists as a pathway to be traversed – where the focus is more on the song than style or technique.

The grace in the music and the subtle touches of shading bring the songs on Wren Hinds’s ‘Don’t Die in the Bundu’ to life, unfurling slowly like the waltz of time. He has found the elusive charms that charge this disc with timeless beauty.

Sam Burton’s ‘Dear Departed’ is a lush and lovely album that speaks to the heart and the soul. Recorded at Jonathan Wilson’s Topanga Canyon studio, they have created dreamscapes seemingly based on old masterpieces from the 70s.

As well as being a brilliant showcase of a new talent, over the course of six songs, Rosie Miles’ ‘Still Life’ captivates, revealing thoughts and feelings from a time when that was all we really had.

Kate Stables of This is the Kit seems almost to be a force of nature. She bends music to her will, creating and refining contexts almost at will. With Careful of Your Keepers she has created her own magic lantern, ever changeable, ever intriguing.

Jeffrey Silverstein is not your traditional cosmic cowboy, and Western Sky Music plays free and loose with conventional theories of country music. This is one album that will not be heading for the musty lower shelves of the record store.

Marvellous and mystifying, the aural landscape of The Far Sound is simply unlike anything ever experienced before, making music that goes in a most unexpected direction, creating a sonic timepiece where worlds meet.

With ‘In the Air’, Anna St. Louis has crafted a work that reaches beyond the moment, laying out messages that reverberate truth. She is a talent deserving to be heard.

As demonstrated on Garden Party, Ripley Johnson and the Rose City Band are explorers in the best sense of the term, harbingers of spring that take pathways all of their own.