There is a distinct, almost tectonic rumble occurring now that Megapenny Music has dropped "Dance with Giants", a track that feels like the excavation of a lost city. Al Young, the mind behind the machinery, hasn’t produced music since the era when synthesizers were physically dangerous to move; forty years of silence broken not by a polite knock, but by a battering ram. https://open.spotify.com/track/34hGnDduq8Or3K24dcAn72?si=adc326c25a674847 Listening to...

Ava Valianti represents something increasingly rare in contemporary music: genuine precocity without artifice. This Massachusetts artist, who is only fifteen years old, handles general themes with a level of emotional depth that is shocking. She shows that youth can bring out the best in complicated human experiences, rather than hiding them. "Distant," her sixth single, functions as a sonic archaeology of friendship's dissolution. The track excavates layers...