Before listening to a single note of Suris’ new album, “Pertinax”, I spent a few minutes just looking at the word. Pertinax. It has the distinct ring of a Stoic philosopher’s last defiant utterance or maybe a type of beetle known for its unusually stubborn shell. What a curious flag to fly for a collection of songs in an age of fleeting distraction. But...

There is a specific kind of sweat you only generate in a dive bar after midnight, and DownTown Mystic seems intent on bottling that exact humidity with "Hard Enough (Remix)". It hits you immediately a sonic shove to the chest that feels like a double shot of something brown, burning, and absolutely necessary. Robert Allen, the engine behind the moniker, isn't interested in polishing...