Take Jack Horton, a Portland-based singer-songwriter whose path to folk-Americana included stops at Japanese law school, Tokyo piano bars, corporate boardrooms, and government offices. His latest EP, "Imperfections," feels like finding someone's private journal set to music. And that someone happens to write really, really well. The five-song collection opens with "Set Me Free," a piano-driven confession that might surprise anyone expecting typical breakup bitterness. Horton...

Sometimes you put on headphones expecting a brief escape, but Watch Me Die Inside's new single "Infinity Fall II" actively hunts down your peace of mind. The anonymous entity behind the project, Aleph, builds what they call an "Autopsy" out of these heavy sonic fragments, and this addition is brutally terrifying. The track opens with a shockingly delicate, melancholic sequence. It tricks you. It...