There are so many internal wrestling fights that they would make experienced boxers wince. Gospel singer Gerren Lavey from Texas knows this better than most, and his new song "Soul War" is both an admission and a call to arms. Lavey, who used to go by the name J The Producer, has been making music for over twenty years and brings that knowledge to this very...

Seishin Takeno's "Echoes," a sonic postcard from Kanagawa. Nine instrumental pieces, I've been told. Not nine songs, mind you – more like nine shaded windows into a particular kind of quiet. This isn't music that yells; it leans in, like a friend confiding a secret you half-hear on a summer porch. Immediately, you're not so much listening as remembering. Or maybe anticipating. It feels...