“Dancing With Ghosts” is the teaser single from Jesse Beaman’s forthcoming album, “Mira.” The track starts out simply, with soft, reverbed synths and a steady four on the floor beat, building a dark stage for what’s to come. As instruments gradually come in, it feels like your eyes focusing, adjusting in the darkness. Shapes take form: snares roll subtly under bright, whirring pianos.

The track does not transform, it unfolds. The melody stays largely consistent, but it blooms and softens, heaves and contracts in a very organic way. Kinetic yet subtle, the instruments move with such understated synchronicity that — should you not be listening hard enough — you stand to miss the best parts. It is a sleek and seamless piece, ethereal and icy. It is music that feels “cool” without sacrificing self-awareness.

Self-awareness is essential here, as “Dancing With Ghosts” lends itself easily to introspection. It’s electronic but it’s distinctly human. While it opens with hard, precise drums and synths, the end of the song finds the aforementioned bright pianos fluttering, scattered and disembodied over a beat that crashed to a halt measures earlier.

The song is powerful, not only in its watertight production (handled by Interpol’s Brandon Curtis) and its composition, but in its mysterious emotional weight. Though the piece clocks in at less than four minutes, the phases of the song pass like seasons: at times it feels nostalgic and longing, at times vivacious. If Beaman’s music can take so many forms in under four minutes, the inquisitive listener will find themselves excited for what he’ll do in a full-length release.

- Tín Rodriguez

The local talent Primo the Alien cultivates a mysterious, dreamlike universe on her latest single “Sunrise,” along with some help from LA-based musician Shadowrunner, who produced the track and was behind its instrumentation. Her noted influences, such as Whitney Houston, Tina Turner and David Bowie, are all on display here, showcasing her powerful vocals establishing a theatrical, Bowie-esque presence. In addition to channeling some of these iconic artists, Primo and Shadowrunner incorporate modern synthwave sounds to create a nostalgic, dreamy and upbeat atmosphere that is fresh and unique.  

Despite being mainly influenced by older artists, Primo is also inspired by contemporary electronic-oriented artists like The Midnight -- leading to a very natural collaboration process between her and Shadowrunner.  If Primo’s thunderous and distinct vocals were to be isolated, one might not expect it to be paired with Shadowrunner’s electro, synthwave production. Yet they both make it work seamlessly.  “I tend to tailor the delivery, tone and stylistic choices to the song. For this, I was looking for something  sweet, innocent, and pure,” she says. “I think that that matched the production that Shadowrunner  brought.”

The lyrical content is rooted in loneliness and isolation. “I was thinking of the yearning that is when you can’t be with someone. Looking at our current situation with covid and just being apart and away from each other a lot of times is kind of what I was drawing on,” she says.

It’s a song about waiting to be with someone and the pain that comes with that, but there is undoubtedly a hopeful message -- that, even though you may have to wait to be with someone, you’re going to wait for that person no matter the barriers and limitations.

- Quinn Donoghue

Geoff Bradford gives Austin a fresh taste of relaxation and energy with his beautiful and dynamic, new EP “Texas Psychedelic.” The EP comes across as almost a look at musical history as it takes you through acoustic, jazzy and electric tracks, all the while featuring Bradford’s clear and distinctive, Ben Folds-esque vocals. The EP revolves around echoey and ethereal instruments — both physical and electronic — and slow tempos resonate with peace.

The EP is five heavily-varying tracks — Bradford experiments with dynamics, tempo and timbre throughout. Here, Bradford’s personality and creativity is on full display. Though the lyrics and vocals are largely the same, the changes in beat and instrumentation highlight moods ranging from bright and playful to relaxing.

When listening to “Texas Psychedelic” I find myself amazed by just how vibrant every part of the song is. While powerful guitar trills or riffs cascade in the background, there is still a consistent clarity that puts me at ease — at no point do I find myself overwhelmed.

Perfect for the reopening of “the old normal,” tracks truly are buoyant and delicate. It’s what the psychedelic experience is all about and “Texas Psychedelic” is an unorthodox, feel-good album that we very much need. 

- Eric Haney

Austin Meade lays down a feel-good, summer vibe in his latest video “Lying to Myself.” Meade seamlessly encompasses multiple genres and eras of music — think 80’s anthem rock, late 90’s alternative in the Everclear/Silverchair vein and modern Americana artists like Shakey Graves or The Avett Brothers in the vocals. That being said, the groove remains simple throughout the track, and the uplifting mood is accompanied perfectly by a comical video, featuring clown costumes, juggling and pissed off women. 

The guitar tones and straightforward drum beats a la Def Leppard or Whitesnake immediately solidify a stadium rock atmosphere. Yet Meade’s laid-back vocal style delivers a smooth contrast to the instrumental. On top of all of this, Meade adds his unique Americana twang to give the track a modern feel, despite some of the other vintage elements that are occurring. “Lying to Myself” exemplifies Meade’s ability to channel many different influences while maintaining a sound that is fresh and original. 

The silliness on display in the music video seems to only elevate the liveliness of the song. The video tells the story of a guy — presumably recently heartbroken — wandering around, attempting to pick up an attractive female. Throughout his escapade, he gets his foot stomped, a drink poured on his face and his groin area punched. One could simply interpret these events as a man pathetically trying to rebound from a lost love by mindlessly pursuing other women, but a deeper message may be present underneath this obvious analysis — the male actor is experiencing a loneliness that is relatable to anyone who has experienced a painful breakup. Towards the end of the video, the guy is on stage with the band and they’re dressed up in clown costumes, signifying that not taking life too seriously and enjoying things as much as possible are the only ways to move forward sometimes. 

Austin Meade’s “Lying to Myself” showcases his fluid songwriting and crisp vocals, all while reminding us that life is too short to dwell on the past. The Texas based musician possesses a mature sound that is uniquely his own, and we should all be excited to see what his future holds.

- Quinn Donoghue

Fetid Bowel Infestation is a one-man, electronic metal outfit whose new album, “Born Into Darkness,” provides a gruesome addition to the slam and brutal death metal lineage. Flying in the face of the cliché that metal is the modern equivalent to classical music, Fetid Bowel Infestation comes from the lineage of brutal death metal that crawled from the primordial ooze, saw the virtuosic sweep-picking, finger-tapping guitarists and mechanically precise percussionists and shuffled back into the water to embrace a more chugging, more odious take on the genre.

The band bears comparison to Devourment’s classic slam death metal, with the electronic elements reminding me of German cybergrind outfit Libido Airbag. At times a bit of Mortician’s more neanderthalic tendencies creep in, though mostly by virtue of the synthetic drumming. The music is uniformly dank and sludgy, giving the whole album the claustrophobic ambiance of a damp, muggy catacomb. All of this might sound negative, but words like “disgusting” and “gruesome” are high praise for an album like this.

“Bathing in the Blood of Angels” begins with an atmospheric soundscape that suddenly gives way and thrusts the listener into the album. Downtuned guitars laden with distortion (HM-2 perhaps?) form a dense sonic jungle, while unnaturally low gutturals drench track after track. Throughout the album — as on the track “Wrath of Cerberus” — the meticulousness of the drum programming shows, with tasty fills and varied beats cutting through the swampish music like a machete. At times the drums even reminded me of the cybergrind flourishes one would hear on Agoraphobic Nosebleed’s “Agorapocalypse'.'

The electronic instrumentation and animalistic vocals work together to create a sound that is both mechanical and bestial. This is most evident on “Ancient Corpse Exhumed,” which employs screeches as well as the grunts and low growls that one hears throughout the album; all this over a precise, double-kicked rhythm section. The effect is at times dizzying, and almost always feels like a caveman bashing your head with a leg-bone. All in all, if you’re a fan of slam and brutal death metal “Born Into Darkness” is a disgusting delight.

- Tín Rodriguez