With “Island Lantern Festival”, Tony Frissore manages to soundtrack a specific kind of mental vacation I didn’t realize I was overdue for taking. Ostensibly an instrumental nod to the Lunar New Year and the hopefulness of renewal, this piece operates less like a celebration and more like a gentle exhalation. https://open.spotify.com/album/3n43BcxSnavYKC0wt28GNu?si=E_50eQ_lQomyHT1RsD2Jrg It starts wet with the actual crash of ocean waves before slowly drifting inland. I...

There is a specific texture to the air in Chicago a kind of electric grit but listening to Joey P. unravel his latest project, "MISSING IN ACTION", feels surprisingly like peeling the protective film off a brand-new emotional state. Satisfying, smooth, but with a lingering static charge. This two-song release functions like a handwritten note tucked into a coat pocket, discovered months later when...