Well, Ricky Leroy Brown has gone and done it, presenting us with "SEXUAL MANUAL FOR EXPERTS," and I confess, the title alone sent my mind skittering off like a startled cat at a séance. This solo Madrileño, who conjures entire soundscapes from his own hands and instruments, is clearly still communing with the spirit of Prince, all slinky guitars and a rhythm section that...

When I first heard Liz Nash and her latest single, "Little Box House", my mind immediately wandered to the structural integrity of a hermit crab’s shell. There is something profoundly architectural about this track, yet soft like a blueprint drawn on a velvet napkin. Nash, hailing from Mount Dora, Florida, seems to have distilled the specific heavy humidity of a Southern downpour into a...