Erika Severyns

Yasmin Williams is a guitarist that does uniquely her own thing, free from tradition, geography, and time – Urban Driftwood demonstrates the true universality of musical language – she’s a storyteller that makes the audience lean in to listen.

At the start of her debut album ‘Hands’, Lotta St Joan promised truth, and she delivered, holding nothing back. It’s a melancholic trip through the grieving process of love lost.

Lael Neale’s ‘Acquainted with Night’ is steeped in Los Angeles nostalgia, sparse arrangements make for a smooth, unencumbered, effortless listen…beneath which there is an underlying tension that is strangely comforting.

On her debut EP ‘Here, Now’, Australian songstress Jessie Monk sounds like Joni Mitchell’s long-lost daughter, with her effortless dance between the higher and lower registers of her voice, witty lyrics, and guitar.

Yonder Boys debut album ‘Acid Folk’ breaks through the walls of genre, convention, and predictability, taking you on a wild ride which you don’t want to get off.

The record defies genre with roots in Indian classical music, electronic influences, and exploratory production techniques – it’s traditional yet experimental, meditative yet unsettling. Matthew James Noone’s compositions push and pull, bringing peace while challenging the mind.

While Sam Moss’ ‘Shapes’ sounds like a gentle, mellow record at first, it unfolds into an emotional avalanche, cleverly packaged into rhymes that roll off the tongue, an elaborately fingerpicked guitar, and vulnerable voice.