There's a specific kind of bleak bartering that happens at 2 AM, and Rusty Reid’s single “Piece of the Action” builds a whole four-minute economy around it. This isn't a song about the sweeping grandeur of romance; it’s a clinical look at turning “dissatisfaction” into “a transaction of love.” The language is deliberate, almost like a contract being signed on a napkin under a...

Stephen H. Cumberbatch (also known professionally as C’batch) bridges the past and present on his latest instrumental release, "The Vault 1 (C’batch Smooth / Rough)". Operating out of White Plains, New York, where he runs the independent Stevette Music, Inc. with his wife Yvette, C'batch took a remarkably reflective approach here. By blowing the dust off unresolved concepts from his past *Unfinished Business* era,...