A severe spatial misalignment and behavioral paralysis dictates the environment of Christopher Ardra’s “Running Backwards.” An audit of misdirected momentum charts an ecosystem where shapes no longer align and the circle that a square fits into is forgotten. Forward sight…
A persistent, cyclical adoration governs the domestic space TENDER construct in “Eleanor.” The title character operates as a slow drain on time, shifting from an idealized siren with pale blue eyes to an animalistic presence requiring mediation. Demands for attention…
little image has built a visual universe piece by piece, and “DEFCON + DOES IT GLOW FOR A CHANGE” is the piece that does not feature the band. The video follows a single character through a confrontation with another version…
Michael Oakley’s “Memory of You” is the bar’s hold on the singer, and the singer is alone, glass in hand. The jukebox is playing “In Your Eyes,” and the room the night has built around the singer is the song.…
Emiliano Heats’ “PRIVATE HEAT” treats the New York City soundscape as a personal instrument, and the track holds the city under a private name. The single opens an album the composer has been building since Venice, since Miami, since Apple…
Mick Eddy has lived in six countries and settled in a seventh, and Strange Weather is the debut album he has written and produced from a long-distance love. “Come Over” and “About You” are the first two singles, both shaped…
M & J’s “Kindness Is Back in Fashion” asks the listener to hug their son, hug their political enemy, and stop signalling virtue, in the voice of someone worn down by the world who has not lost the will to…
Maddie Regent’s “See Me” is a song about the moment a person has been seen, and the singer has already started running from the room. Regent has named the moment: leaving someone at a train station with her bag, the…
Cloudy June’s “jAGUAR” is a song about the moment a poster on a bedroom wall becomes a stand-in for salvation. The track is her third self-produced release, an acoustic guitar with old strings kept on, hard-hitting minimalistic drums underneath, a…
bimbette’s “LIKE A BITCH!” runs the slur as a job description, a synth-pop reclamation where the only thing louder than the synth solo is the singer’s refusal to be sorry. The Brooklyn bim-band opens with a fake accusation, “You make…