Fish And Scale has surfaced from the quiet margins with a massive new pop-rock ballad, dropping the cinematic single "Letter from Paulus" today. The German storyteller and independent folk artist operates with a peculiar mystical touch, one seemingly forged by a childhood near-death experience and years spent tucked away in silent retreats. https://open.spotify.com/track/1tfeCiQX5gSMwbMMdjCfWv?si=8a724fa2787f41b8 All that introspective isolation pours directly into this track. It begins terribly exposed....

The moment the jaunty guitar kicks in on John Smyths’ new single, "Now I'm Wiser", you feel a familiar, comfortable warmth. It’s the sound of a good chair in a bar where the floor is sticky with spilled truths. And then the story starts, a classic yarn of a hard-living past yielding to a peaceful present. Smyths, a Dutch ex-metalhead singing country out of...