Listening to Afaq Art Production's new single "Bejamalen (With Beauty)" performed by Ziad Kamal feels a bit like stepping out of a chaotic, sun-baked street into the sudden, vaulted vastness of an ancient sanctuary. https://open.spotify.com/album/7GbecQZE3yVH6enRaALvLk?si=seoOwwjgS_SE3MsuPg-rxw Kamal is only twenty-four. He manages the rather fascinating trick of balancing his daily life as a Mechatronics engineer with a profound, academic mastery of Eastern Maqams, violin, and oud. Here,...

There is a specific, fleeting hue of orange that only seems to hit the underside of clouds in late October, and listening to Kazu Osumi and her new single "Times of Love" feels exactly like watching that color fade into gray. It is an acoustic embrace that somehow feels both incredibly heavy and lighter than air. https://open.spotify.com/track/2dUYxf7zEiLxRX8bTs3emW?si=39081e63a0b94c7c The track situates itself in an Alternative Pop-Rock landscape,...