Earl Patrick pivots sharply away from his usual indie-folk and guitar-driven comfort zones for his newest release, the wildly inventive album "Conditioned By Machines". The Portland, Oregon-based composer, singer-songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist has spent over two decades building a dense, eight-album catalog. Here, however, he entirely flips the script. Feeling that classical flute music too often prioritizes gesture over pure melody, he set out...

British singer-songwriter Daisy Howard brilliantly captures the dizzying, maddening loop of an addictive relationship on her abrasive new grunge-pop single, "On and On". Trading her background in polished YouTube covers for a semi-nomadic life currently rooted in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Howard pivots into deeply personal territory. She leans heavily into alternative rock dripping with dry humor and exhausted self-awareness. Instead of romantically weeping over...